Creeptastic monster

[GrassyGnoll]

So I wanna unsettle the PCs in my group with an unorthodox encounter. I want them to be hired by a village to track down their missing children, par for the course so far. While they're packing up and shopping around for the road one of the kids stumbles back into town. The new priority is to nurse her back to health and find out where they've been taken. Over the course of the next few days a trickling of children will find their way to the village and busy the local physician and any chumps who've put ranks in Heal. By the time a sufficient number of tykes have made it home, whatever it is that's been growing inside them over the last few days will burst out. Problem is figuring out what? I remember seeing an aberration in Lords of Madness who had a similar schtick, but I'm looking for something mass producible by the local necromancer, disgruntled druid, etc. Homebrews are acceptable, hell encouraged, I wanna keep them on their toes.

[Smiley_]

Century worms come to mind, but I wouldn't suggest it seeing as they take, oh...I dunno... a century to mature. That and they are a challenge rating 19 or something.

Vermin are always good because let's face it, bugs are weird.

Perhaps you could hopmebrew a bug druid variant or something to go along with this.

Now, how big of a creature could you cram into a small child without them noticing it's presence. Diminutive sounds about right. As the thing increases in size, it deals 1d4 con damage a day as it eats the innards and grows larger. By the time con reaches 0, the host is dead and a small size bug (or two ro three) emerges! Imagine the horor as the braincase of a child collapses and out comes this mutant cockroach! Ok, maybe I am getting a bit too excited.

Heck! It doesn't even need to be more than a 1 or 2 HD monster. There would even be a chance that the PCs get nailed by these bugs and have to find a way to kill them without killing the host (cure disease which normally works on infestations really doesn't help in this case seeing as you could have three diminutive creatures inside you instead of a swarm).

Anyway, bugs have limitless potential!

[sonofzeal]

My vote's for Shoggoths Gibbering Mouthers. You could homebrew up a Small version, and potentially have them flow together to form a standard Medium, or Advanced (+4 HD) Large one. Be warned though - a Large Gibbering Mouther with the right feats (Ability Focus: Gibbering, or Improved Natural Attack: Bite) is a brutally dangerous enemy for its CR. The only time I've used one as DM nearly resulted in a TPK.

I also made one homebrew addition - the first Gibbering Mouthers were the result of twisted experiments in Divination magic, as an attempt to create a living bond to universal truth. The Wizards somehow thought that hearing raw unaltered truth would be a good thing. Needless to say the mortal mind was not meant for that, and the universe contains far darker and more disturbing things than the creators could have realized. Now, nothing is left of them except their immortal, ever-spawning creations. The Will save on the Gibbering ability is not to overcome the magical effect, it's to force yourself not to listen to the horrible truths pouring forth. Anyone can choose to listen deliberately in order to learn one true (and usually relevant) thing each time, but auto-fail their Will save and the duration of the confusion effect lasts for one extra round.

[RTGoodman]

I don't know anything about it (since I don't own the book), but Monster Manual 5 has the Mockery creature. However, this is the result of encountering one, so it seems exactly like what you want.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

[its_all_ogre]

what about an altered puppeteer from xph?
a form of dire puppeteer would be nasty, they are quite hard once you account for their psi-powers.

[Ascension]

I was about to recommend the Mockery Bug myself. MMV. CREEEEEEEEEPY. They're CR 9, though, with a CR 14 momma, so they might be a bit high-level for you. They are really disturbing, especially since they have a tendency to repeat nonsense phrases based on their host's daily routine while grinning stupidly... and scurrying around on centipede legs.

[TheThan]

how about monstrous spiders. or better yet spider eaters... yeah that'll freak them out, when a gigantic insect bursts from a child's chest, ala alien.

[GrassyGnoll]

I'm digging the centipede vibe, especially if they still have the children's faces. Any will saves, etc. I should be aware of before I gimp their HD (since they were spawned from children and all). A local gang of thugs could have their leader either possessed by or intimidated into working for the mommy.

Not to cut off any other ideas, I'm still open to other ideas.

[AslanCross]

I don't know anything about it (since I don't own the book), but Monster Manual 5 has the Mockery creature. However, this is the result of encountering one, so it seems exactly like what you want.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM5_Gallery/106319.jpg

I agree. If these weren't so high-level, they'd be perfect for your use. The children would be acting bizarre for the next few days as they recover, then all of a sudden their faces pop off and attack the villagers.

[Chronos]

Not directly on topic, but be prepared for the possibility that the players might not see the plan the same as you do. It's quite possible, for instance, that after the first child wanders home, they'll still go ahead with the into-the-wilderness plan to find out what's going on, leaving the child in the care of the villagers.

[GrassyGnoll]

Not directly on topic, but be prepared for the possibility that the players might not see the plan the same as you do. It's quite possible, for instance, that after the first child wanders home, they'll still go ahead with the into-the-wilderness plan to find out what's going on, leaving the child in the care of the villagers.

Good point.

Pick and choose
- Appeal to the healer in the group with the distraught parents of the child
- Let them go on their adventure, bringing in the fresh crop of "children" after defeating a few bandits who took a couple more hits than usual
- The child is the son of the blacksmith, who refuses to help the adventurers until the healer has done all she can for the lad
- Village is on the edge of a treacherous silt swamp (Dark Sun setting, by the way) and the party wants more in depth knowledge about the thugs' den before rushing off

[Baron Malkar]

If you have the Libris Mortis and dont mind throwing 5th level spells your partys way I would suggest the Mother Cyst feat and have Skulking Cyst's explode on the PC's via the Necrotic Burst spell.

[Jastermereel]

The Tirbana quartet (Eyewing, Drowser, Slayer, Spawner) from MMV has a different Modus Operandi but could be tweaked a bit to fit and their CR is considerably lower than the Mockery duo.

[Pronounceable]

It doesn't have to be anything really. Some horrible monster is bursting out of little kids. It doesn't matter what crunch it has. It's the flavor that matters.

That said, the centipede with kid's face is good. Put some tentacles on it and there you go.

When in doubt, add tentacles.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Are you up for homebrewing an encounter? If so, I've found the best way to mess with players is to play mind games instead of trying to be overtly gross.

[Skullossus]

Having a monster bust out of a child can become more gruesome and terrifying based on how it comes out. If it bursts out of its eyes it's way creepier than just busting the kid in two. How about oozing out of the pores, mouth, eyes, nose and ears and forming a cohesive blob on the outside?

And if your PCs leave to find the kids (who will be found not inside the villain's lair anymore), they can bring them back to whatever is left of the village after the thing in the kid got loose. This can make them feel real terror, that their eagerness to adventure cost the lives of a whole village. Maybe one villager left over can tell the adventurers that something inside the first kid killed everyone. The children that are with the PCs are now ticking time bombs according to the Mayor or high priest, but the children insist that they feel fine and that they don't remember any gross bugs being put inside them. Moral dillemas! Yikes! And there's still at least one creature on the loose...

[Toliudar]

If you're appealing to the healer in the group to commit a few days to trying to heal them, it would also be reasonable to give that PC a chance of spotting the infestation of...whatever it is. The heal skill is nerfed enough without fiating a "you didn't notice this". Besides, the horror of having the things growing inside, without necessarily being able to do anything to extract them, doesn't lessen the horror that much.

[RyanM]

For maximum psychological effect, I'd have it be some kind of parasite which controls the childrens' bodies, so it's the kids themselves that attack, possibly while growing extra limbs or something like. Killing things that just burst out of kids is one thing, but killing kids themselves is another entirely.

Possibly some kinda intelligent undead? The kids have an incurable constitution disease, and some kind of magic thing that automatically reanimates them on death (possibly several days after death). Just homebrew a Small version of your favorite undead.

Uh, I forget what it is that distinguishes between zombies and skeletons. How about it's the skeleton only that's reanimated, so not only are the kids attacking (and slashing/piercing weapons are having absolutely no effect), they're also desperately trying to tear their own flesh off, to be more mobile. Treat the dead flesh as a form of heavy armor (mobility and armor checks) with a certain number of HP. Bladed weapons damage the "armor" only (slashing does full damage, piercing attacks only do 1d2-1 [0 to 1] regardless of actual attack damage), so no bonus AC against those. Crushing weapons affect the skeleton itself, but do not damage the "armor," and the to hit rolls are modified by the "armor."

Horrifying.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

You're getting there. I was thinking of something along the lines of having one of the children acting as if they had a tapeworm problem. They cannot seem to eat enough prior to passing out. Some time later, when no cure seems to be working, the PCs hear a woman's scream cut short and the child crying:

*scream*
"Mommy! Daddy!"
"I can't see!"
"I can't move!"
*sream*
"My hands hurt!"
"I'm scared! Help me!"
"Mommy!? DADDY!?"

When the PCs enter the room, they find the crying child wrist deep in her parents. There are sucking sounds coming from her hands as tears roll from her sightless, clouded eyes.

*scream*
"I'm scared! It hurts"

The child's hands pull free, and the child's palms split, revealing fanged mouths. There is motion in her wrists that looks like swallowing.

*scream*
"Make it stop!"
"Where are you Mommy!?"

The cloudy eyes look up towards the PCs, and the hand-mouths seem to grin.



The creature should be mechanically difficult to take down in addition to being heartbreaking when the child screams every time she takes damage. When they DO finally take the thing down, there is confusion among the people who heard all this going on. Perhaps the PCs are look upon in horror when they explain the details of the thing. Then, as the dialogue settles into a non-frantic pace, people start voicing that their kids are starting to act like they can't eat enough...

[Doomsy]

Mash up the Grell with the Tsochavors from Lords of Madness. So the host can still be ALIVE while being used as a carrying-case for the ravenous monster inside. And some villagers kept alive as incubators for the next generation, of course.

[Behold_the_Void]

What's your party's level and composition?

[GrassyGnoll]

Are you up for homebrewing an encounter? If so, I've found the best way to mess with players is to play mind games instead of trying to be overtly gross.

I was gonna wait until another campaign and have an oneiromancy/wraith pair of villains experiment on a small town.


What's your party's level and composition?

They're about level 5. They're a psion and gladiator. Our third has ran into some scheduling trouble and we're in a mad scramble for a replacement. I'll keep 'em busy with a mad druid and swordsage cohort blocking a road with liberal use of Gust of Wind and a minor artifact that can cast Control Wind (for the road, not combat). If I still need time to throw it all together I'll try to distract them with a thri-keen/elf skirmish.

[bibliophile]

In libris Mortis there's a spell the causes a persons organs to rip themselves out of their body, and become a carnivorous, oozing undead blob thing. You could make a similar effect, or better yet, combine it with Hadrian_Emrys idea above. A parisite that feeds in the manner discribed, untill it's strong enough to become a lethal organ blob that can squirt acid and strangle people with intestines and blood vessels.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Also, not mob related, but important for atmosphere. You know the classic stock horror scream from hollywood movies? Tape it, or upload it into a cellphone or MP3 or whathaveyou, and when the time for a sudden burst comes....


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


Guaranteed to whiten out the hair of your players.