Enough "hilarious/funny" moments - what DM/story scared the crap out of your group?

[SandDemon]

I've got a group of fairly new roleplayers and I want to instill into them a sense of fear, difficulty, unknown, etc. There is a tendency in groups for players to become the "blow my load at the encounter start" and move on.....and well, it's time to scare them D&D shouldn't be an easy playground!

So what tactics/techniques/etc do you use to have them second guessing their actions and freaking out?

Personally a few....

• Always use music
• Act out fear for them e.g. "you feel like the shadows sway but you double check to make sure"
• Give them limited resources like food/water/light
• Have a lot of surprises e.g. "You turn and....the staircase is gone!"

I need more ideas! I know I need to create a diabolical evil villan and I'm probably going to incorporate a lot of undead/demonic monsters - probably a few that they will be running away from.

Lend me the tears of your players and help me freak out my new group!

[SpamandEggs]

Once i placed my players in a parallel realm where they were swallowed by the land itself (it was some sorta malevolent spirit thing) it sealed them in this cave that looked and felt like the mouth of a huge beast, but there was only darkness down the throat and out the mouth. occasionally it would breathe.

they tried everything to get out, but would always end up in the same spot. they started fighting in panic a little bit (OOC) because they were really needed miles away to save some lives, but they mostly held it together and kept searching. they tried combinations of words that had been useful before, spot and listen and search checks like no tomorrow, and the bickering as to the way out grew worse and worse.

one by one, they admitted that i had stumped them, that they could not figure a way out of this cave, but there was always one (stubborn) player who wouldn't give up hope until about an hour in, and that was it. the solution was "to truly feel hopelessness, like you will never be free again".

once they felt it both OOC and IC, i let them out, and their characters had aged 10 years (due to the incredible willpower they had, being 20th level PC's). when they grasped what i had been doing to them (trying to make them feel entirely without hope in a frankly OP campaign) and that it had worked, they were quiet and contemplative for the rest of the night.

[WarKitty]

Oddly enough, some of my best moments have been having abnormal things acting completely normally. I'd let a rampant mutagen loose over the entire land. The party stumbles upon what clearly used to be a kitten, now sporting tentacles and horns. They gear up to fight as the kitten approaches...and promptly starts rubbing up against the fighter and meowing.

[LoneStarNorth]

As the party was exploring an icy fortress seemingly devoid of life...

DM (me): As you ascend the staircase, you hear the sound of a neck breaking.
Players: ...What?
DM: What?
Players: We heard the sound... of a NECK breaking?
DM: Of course not. There's nobody else there.

They didn't hear it about five more times while looking around the place. I think it started to unnerve them.

[NikitaDarkstar]

• Act out fear for them e.g. "you feel like the shadows sway but you double check to make sure"

Be careful with this one, you can get players, like me, who'll be EXTREMELY unhappy if you try to tell me how my character reacts. Describe the situation and feeling, but the second you describe my characters reaction (unless it failed a will save somewhere) you'll be looking for a new player.

That said, some of the creepier moments in the past for me has been the following:

A necromancer my character had a past with (as in said necromancer used to be my characters teacher...), by the time we reached his lair my character was utterly paranoid and I was casting detect spells on just about everything. If that failed, knowledge checks. Even tried spot and listen checks. Yes, on a wizard.
Pretty much said necromancer had been showing up just often enough to taunt us, throw stuff at us we weren't quite equipped to deal with, and generally manage to be just one step ahead of us, while being horribly immune to most things, including my characters spell selection. (Undead necromancer with Energy Immunity: Fire.... my character favored necromancy and fire themed spells.... it got frustrating.) But in short, it was just an accumulated thing that gradually got worse, pretty well done. :)

Another campaign I was playing a rogue type character. We were hunting a vampire lord. Well we tracked him to a city, which happened to be that settings corrupt party city #1 (think Las Vegas+Miami, but magic.), built in a huge underground cavern, complete with beach, lake/ocean and magic night sky... and it's ALWAYS night. Everything seemed normal enough for a while, we even decided to relax since we had been traveling all day and there was NO WAY the vampire could know we were coming, cause even we didn't know until early that morning. Yhea, guess how we reacted after a few (drugged) drinks when we realized pretty much the entire city was vampires?
We bring holy water now, lots and lots of holy water.

Generally normal looking and normal acting things in odd places. Necropolis? Throw in a couple of singing birds and watch people freak out.

Crypt? What do you mean you I don't find any traps?!

"Sleazy" npc's that really are just nice people who happens to have a bad charisma score so they just come off that way. Combine with honest sounding sorts that are complete thieves and scoundrels. At the very least it should make people roll "sense motive" more.

[hiryuu]

A fun trick I've used is rolling intimidate or bluff like normal, and then if the bluff was good enough, provide evidence. Or if the Intimidate was good enough, add a few feet and don't hold back with describing how much tougher the guy looks. His knife is probably magical, too, judging by the look of it in his hand. Once you know how your players react to certain stimuli, they think it was their idea to react that way.

Anyway! Here's mine, spoiler for length:

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So I'd been without gaming for a little while and I had a solo player. No big deal, I've had solo players before, and he was still good for it, so I had him made a d20 Modern character, ex-SEAL, did tours in Iraq, pretty standard stuff for that character archetype. Anyway. He got involved with some pretty bad stuff, a few civilians killed, a court martial, he got home and discovered his wife left him. He's free on the wind and takes the bus out to Arizona.

So he wakes up in a room, a rusty, blood-stained room in a small chair. There's a lot of stuff on the walls: charcoal and chalk drawings, blood, little symbols. This guy, dear as he was, noted everything down that he could until a man in a nice suit enters the room. The guy turns and pulls his pistol, and the guy asks “Are you sorry?”

After a brief exchange, the guy only manages to get questions out of the guy, like “Are you sorry?” and “Do you cry?” and eventually shoots him and the dead man bleeds orange. He escapes, finds some stairs to the surface, and discovers he's in a small town called “Irokis,” somewhere in upstate New York. The place is busted down, a shambles, there's a few burned buildings.

He explores a bit, discovers there are snake statues that whisper things, some of them right in the front of doorways that he can't move (he eventually resorts to busting the wall next to one so he can get into the house because the statues are even blocking the windows). The statues all say the same thing: “I am here because of what was once done. Are you sorry?” All the houses blocked by statues all have the same sort of scrawling that the room did.

I'm keeping track of starvation rules. By day two the guy's trying to steal from the stores just to get food. He leaves town a couple of times, of course, but he finds out that if he goes to sleep, he wakes back up in the “chair room.” No corpse of the suited man, but there is a statue there now, that same cemetery snake statue. It says the same thing when he gets up and starts repeating it. “I am here because of what was once done. Are you sorry?” He's at the point where he just about ignores them. This one has a deep voice. After a bit of trying to engage it in conversation, he leaves.

The player is honestly starting to get a little creeped out and tells me so, but he has two friends he wants to bring in because apparently “you guys -have- to play this.” So he brings them by. Before they get their characters really done they watch a little and ex-SEAL guy makes his way into the good graces of the cut lady who runs the local bed and breakfast and is going to get a room in exchange for some handyman work. He goes through a few rather nice, calm days with nothing untoward happening. Well, you know, except for a few statues here and there, and there isn't much food. Still taking nonlethal, of course, but getting the DCs dropped here and there because he's eating sometimes (using D&D's nonlethal rules as opposed to d20 Modern's).

Things are actually going ok. Then he wakes up in his room with two other people. They get into some arguments, there are a few shots fired, but they do the Player Character thing and decide to team up to figure out what's going on. One is a cute blonde cop from New York City struggling with her sexual identity and coming up short and the other is a college student who's trying to figure out his major, since his dad wants him to go into business and he wants to get into a science career.

Science guy has all kinds of tests to run. They leave town, they hop a train, they drive to a nearby city, they always end up, now, back in the bed and breakfast and nobody remembers them leaving. They ask around about the statues and try to chip them. Nobody else can hear them, says “they've always been there” and they can certainly be pulverized. They come back the instant someone isn't looking at them.

By day 7 it starts to rain. Fatigue rolls on top of starvation rolls now. Day 9 they trade the cop's gun for food. They discover there's a woman on the north end of town who claims she can make elixirs that fend off the starvation, and they discover she has a sort of cult going , and is trading real food for drugs that just make you feel full. They decide to kill her. Science guy is killed in the ensuing fire, but wakes up the next day in the bed and breakfast room (with some more nonlethal damage). They're walking around with maybe 10% of their health left and Fatigued. At this point they're all trying to steal food.

Eventually SEALguy sends Science Guy off to get something for them to eat and maybe try to track down some animals or something. He's good at that. I run a side thing where Science Guy almost dies and even recovers some food. I mix in some dinner table conversation with the lady who runs the bed and breakfast and have her flirt with Blondiecop a little. They end up sleeping together and Science Guy comes back with more food. I manage to not have to make bed and breakfast lady react because she's with Blondiecop in her room and wants the other two to watch.

The three of them eat. I make some notes and attack the bed and breakfast with some kids wearing plastic Captain Kirk masks and get some numbers thrown around in the air involving some diseases to cover for the fact that I haven't adjusted the starvation Con check. Blondiecop is killed and wakes back up in the bed and breakfast room.

The players, down to around 5% of their health, go ballistic. They move out into town the next day and kill the convenience store clerk. They steal everything in his store and go back to the bed and breakfast. Next day, the convenience store is run down and covered with ARE YOU SORRY and snake statues. They break every snake statue they can find. They start stabbing people in the street. DO YOU CRY

ARE YOU SORRY

DO YOU CRY

It's everywhere. The only person spared from their wrath is bed and breakfast lady, who is getting more sexually aggressive the whole time. She's slept with all three and had them all watch. Never all three at once. Just one at a time, one a night.

The rain gets worse.

YOU NEVER CRY starts appearing in the signs. YOU DON'T CARE. SEALguy finds pictures of the people he killed in Iraq lying around. Blondiecop's parents come in on the bus and start hunting her down to talk to her and force her to fellate random men at gunpoint. She kills them a lot. Science Guy's dad is stalking all three of them with the ability to seemingly make people follow him just by showing them the inside of a briefcase.

They team up and kill him, mostly by luring him close to a big statue and pushing it over. They traded their guns and armor for food already. The statue breaks open and a giant snake that breathes poison gas emerges. They spend two days tracking it and killing it.

They find the dead kids from Iraq inside.

SEALguy has a breakdown. The player literally starts crying. Finds himself on an empty road, haggard, tired, and halfway between Colorado and Arizona. He hitches a ride. Nobody pays any attention to Science Guy and Blondiecop. He arrives in Arizona, and they spend a few days hanging around, paranoid about everything, and SEALguy is eventually jumped by cops and dragged off to an asylum.

He spends time in the asylum. Blondiecop and Science Guy are actually free to come and go. Nobody stops them. They never have to check in at security. They have trouble talking to him or interacting with things when he's taken his meds, you see. Eventually he figures this out and gets off his meds and plans a breakout. He does break out when Science Guy drives a car through the wall. They get about thirty miles before SEALguy is suddenly back in his room at the asylum and getting injected.

He starts taking his meds, I start focusing the game entirely on him.

Up until he's released and he meets this college kid and an ex-detective from New York and the three of them discover that the asylum is performing illegal anti-psychotic research and get SEALguy (and most of the other inmates) released by the courts and some licenses revoked.

That's not the end of the campaign. That's just where I started, mind you. The level 3-7 adventure.

[Grail]

Have the characters encounter a zombie in a graveyard. But this zombie is acting like a scared little girl. Cowering, swatting at things that aren't there, staggering backwards. Whilst this is happening, have the characters hear something so faint that they aren't sure they heard it. Mutterings, cursing, the whispering of strange magic on the wind.

A staircase that never ends, but is large and wide, with landings large enough for small settlements. Make the staircase like a city, with different landings at war with other landings. Rumours state that if you can find the top of the staircase (or the bottom), you will find a way out.

My favourites, have dragons not defined by the colour of their scales. But let the players/characters think they are. Gold dragons that are evil, pernicious and breath acid. Black dragons that are good, noble and breath fire. Dragons are dragons are dragons, they have the capacity for nobility, good, evil, capricious behaviour, and it comes to the individual dragon. the colour of their scales is just aesthetic.

[Silus]

First (and only thus far) game I ran ended up scaring 3/5 of the players that I DMed for. One of the not-scared people was just...well...stupid, and the other was Mormon with no horror movie watching background, so for him it came off as odd or, at worst, campy.

I dubbed the campaign "The Mad House". To get a feel of what it was like, take the following and blend them together:

1408
Shadelight from Fable 3 ("You are tainted. The stain shall never wash out. The sun will never shine upon you again. Tainted...broken little toys...")
A heaping helping of borrowed creepypasta
A dash of H.P. Lovecraft
And a sprinkle of improv

In a nutshell, the party entered a Genius Loci on Carceri that looked so very out of place that it should have set off every warning signal in their brains. And then the thing began playing with them.

[Krazzman]

I didn't do anything of this although I might will do it in the future. So far ich just messed with some snowholes (mini pit traps).

But in the past we often played with only 3 people. Meaning 2 PCs and the DM.

The good part about this is..the DM in case of the following mishaps would drop the book of vile darkness if slain.

Issue 1:
get the paladin to lay all his weapons in a drawer (in this case it was a long cast away sun goddess talking to the paladin of pelor) then the mummy attacks you.
Throw a illusion of a garbling and brabbling monstrosity at the party, if they fight, let them for 2 or 3 rounds...then they see and hear the mothers and fathers, of the kids they all just slaughtered, calling for help.

Issue 2:
Mirror, your image get killed by someone that you can't see in that mirror. The first 2 days you see your image lying dead on the ground.
Fresh apples or something similar looking fresh are rotting superb fast after the first bite. Letting their second bite be puke worthy. This taste last for the next week.
The next time that player bites into an apple or similar: the gnash some teeth that were in there... human teeth.

Issue 3:
A small elven ivory pipe is bound to appear every day for the rest of your pc life in your backpack.
Your Mirrorimage kills itself.
Pictures in house change places/switch places/move etc.
PC's come over a mountainpass and see a tavern ahead. They loose LoS of it and when they reach it....BAM! Old ruin of a burnt down tavern... the same tavern that they saw... if they search it it seems this tavern burnt down years ago.

Issue 4:
One PC wakes up (or the one on watch or all, either case it's terryfiing) to the cries of a baby. If they look up they see that the moon is filling with red (like pouring a red drink into a ball) the more it is filled the more those cries mature going from baby, child, teen, woman, old woman. The additional thing is the more the pc listens the more he is able to realize that these cries are in pain. Just moments before the moon is filled...everything is over. Back to normal. White full moon, except for that creeping silence.
Next morning they see a few dead birds and other critters.

Issue 5:
Your Players have set up some guards for this night...haven't they? If not poor lads. Let them wake up at random locations in reach(but close to each other), the female players feel "weird" and have some human bitemarks, the male players wake up feeling relieved, stuffed and seem to have similar bitemarks.
If you want to take it to the next level:

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all females pc's are pregnant

I have to say I found the look on their faces hilarious. I managed to spook my players with a.... simple cabin.

Or better said I introduced them to my form of Taint. They were going from Rashemen to Thay in order to stop the spreading of a Wendigo and killing it before it grows to strong. Their first encounter were 2 Yetis, which they pretty much nailed. Then on Day two of their travel...they botched some survival rolls to get a resting place that is good against the freezing cold.
Well they are worn out, fatigued and come to this cabin. The Frost Elf Ranger is a bit suspicious as there could be hostile entities (thayans) nearby. The going to be Rageprophet and the witch go in and botch their perception checks to notice the interior. The Ranger saw what seemed to be Pictures of people. They seemed to all look into their direction... and my GF (the ranger) was pretty freaked out at that time...till they tried to put the pictures down. I told them they were built into the wall of this cabin. Now everyone was a bit spooked, the Rage Prophet tried to further take the pictures down, the ranger goes out and the witch tries to put something in front of those pictures. Outside the ranger sees that in fact the "pictures" are windows and tries to spook the witch out from the outside... with no real success since the ghostly picture staring at the witch is far more imminent than the ranger. After a bit of hassle they destroy one window only to see that the "picture" now only shows parts of the eyes... every shard. They ventured on for 2 hours and then they laid themselves to rest...
On day 3 they came to a scene of 2 Decapus (is the plural of this Decapi?) for the records they are bobbleheaded monstrosities with 10 Tentacles... the look on the witchs face was amazing...she mentioned something about Tentacles earlier that evening.

But the good thing is: The Rage Prophet is going to DM again next week so I have time to prepare more shocking things... I'm actually planning on using some stuff with reflections... let's see how they freak out with that.

Jeah... It's going to be evil again.

[SandDemon]

I particularly like the idea of using reflections....nothing like the bad guy showing up from behind when you think he's in front of you.

Part of being scared is making it necessary to group together and be part of something bigger. Anyone have some good ideas for skill challenges that'll scare a group?

I particularly like the Lord of the White Plains story arch (dungeon magazine..can't remember which) where they have a skill challenge of making their way through a ghoul infested town without being mobbed down. Or maybe traps that cause hopelessness from their impending doom (thinking Saw type riddles for a group).

[Hyena]

"you feel like the shadows sway but you double check to make sure"

Bad idea. Very, very bad, in fact.
Rule of DMing №1: Don't roleplay PCs. Players play their characters, not you.

[SandDemon]

Bad idea. Very, very bad, in fact.
Rule of DMing №1: Don't roleplay PCs. Players play their characters, not you.

So then what, how would you convey that the shadows seem like they sway but you can't say "feel" or "seem" since those are forced responses. It'd also get repetitive if I had to say "no, it's your mind playing tricks" if they double-check everything.

[Water_Bear]

So then what, how would you convey that the shadows seem like they sway but you can't say "feel" or "seem" since those are forced responses. It'd also get repetitive if I had to say "no, it's your mind playing tricks" if they double-check everything.

Basically you have to try to set up a world and then see how they interact with it. The problem with what you wrote is that you are dictating that the player double-checks to make sure, and thus take control away from them.

A better way to do it would be something like this

DM: "Blah Blah, ordinary room description ... <rolls Perception/Spot> ... You notice that the shadows seem to be swaying."

PC: "I double check to make sure. <rolls Perception/Spot> I got X."

DM: "Blah blah blah."

If you're worried they will check every nook and cranny... isn't that the exact kind of paranoid/anxious atmosphere you're aiming for? Slowly building tension because of changes in how tightly you conserve detail is a great way to use metagame elements to bring about emotional responses.

[Dimonite]

I filled a room with milk. One of the players drank some (of his own volition). Then they swam down in the milk...and discovered six drowned corpses. Then they went to a room coated with blood and filled with goblin corpses. I had one player roll a knowledge check, and he determined that all of the dead goblins were pregnant females. They were pretty freaked out.

[Slipperychicken]

Be careful with this one, you can get players, like me, who'll be EXTREMELY unhappy if you try to tell me how my character reacts. Describe the situation and feeling, but the second you describe my characters reaction (unless it failed a will save somewhere) you'll be looking for a new player.

THIS. If the player isn't directing his characters actions, why is he at the table?

Have the characters encounter a zombie in a graveyard. But this zombie is acting like a scared little girl. Cowering, swatting at things that aren't there, staggering backwards. Whilst this is happening, have the characters hear something so faint that they aren't sure they heard it. Mutterings, cursing, the whispering of strange magic on the wind.

I'd personally be scared because I'd imagine the Witch from Left4Dead, and think it would destroy my character with one hit.

[Belril Duskwalk]

Shadelight from Fable 3 ("You are tainted. The stain shall never wash out. The sun will never shine upon you again. Tainted...broken little toys...")

I've been meaning to base some enemies for a session or two on that myself. Add in a sprinkle of Fable 2 Banshees and voila, terror. Taunting, menacing, terrifying creatures. Probably throw in some references to some of their assorted misdeeds, just to add in to the effect.

[Lvl45DM!]

My DM terrified us all a couple weeks ago. Spoilered for length.

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We are playing an epic multi party campaign in 1st Ed. D&D. Our party has snuck into the city of the drow that borders the Abyssal plane. Its not pleasant since y'know, drow, but nothing too terrifying. Gladiator combats demon summoning, evil stuff but nothing that scared the players.
About 2 sessions in we figured something weird out. Everyone we had talked to in the city had gone missing. Magic shop guys, mind flayers, poisoners and even the city guard lieutenant. Gone without a trace.

We kinda freak out a little thinking we've been discovered but no action is taken against us. We eventually hit up the temple of Lolth and our half drow mage/cleric notices something odd about the spider statue in the centre. A few perception checks (old version of spot) later and the spider statue has gills. The high priest has gills. The drider guards have gills. We ask some of the temple goers about this but they havent noticed and are very upset by the revelation, and begin whispering amongst themselves. We sneak off to the high priests quarters and find sand. Lots of non-magical sand that radiates evil and chaos. We go to leave the temple planning to come back at night to interrogate the High Priest, but as we walk through the temple we see all the temple goers have, you guessed it. Gone. poof! 40 people taken without the sounds or signs of a struggle. 40 DROW taken. I don't know how things are in 3.5 but in 1st Ed drow were seriously badass, even their commoners had a bunch of spells to cast at will.

But despite the fact that we seriously weirded out we figure hey, now's a good time to interrogate the priest. Short fight happens, we string him up and begin questioning. He is immune to pain and mind affecting spells, which is creepy all on its own, and radiated enough chaos to stand out just next the Abyss. When we got close enough we saw that it wasnt just gills. His teeth and nails were pointy, his hair was a wig and his skin was tiny tiny black scales. Finally our cleric hits on the great idea of blessing him. She begins to commend his soul to the light of Heironeous and he flips out when she finishes the spell, the gills the teeth and claws and the scales all collapse into black goo and he dies. We speak with his soul and he guides us to the palace, to the throne of Lolth where the black goo came from.

We sneak into the palace, badass-style, and use a find the path spell to find the throne. It leads us to a white room with four doors and the one we came through. In the centre are two monstrous black puddings that double in size when burned or frozen. Imagine that for a moment, you come face to...goop with a 20 foot high lump of black acid thats hungry. You cast a fireball and it grows....you cast cone of cold and it GROWS! Brr.

Anyway we killed em and then decided to check behind the doors with a clairvoyance spell. Here's were it got terrifying. The mage who cast the spell when she looked behind the first door had to make a save vs magic. She passed but has a feeling of insanity before pressing on. Behind door number 1 was the docks of London. Not that any of us knew what London was (ingame). But it was the London of the 1920's or 30's. And it was a London of the 1920's or 30's that had seen an apocalypse. Everything was half submerged into swampy muck, great winged beasts circled the sky, and out of the ocean crawled fishmen that feed on the few living humans left.

We did not open that door. We look behind door number 2. Again she has to save vs insanity and makes it. On it we see a beach, picturesque really white sands, blue waves. Oh and a cage filled with the bodies of about 50 odd drow duergar orcs and humans. I say 'bodies' like they were dead but they werent. They had been....made one. Sewn together with magic. And they were alive. They were not happy about it. Now our lawful good mage actually can't bear this and she goes through the door while we all freak out and try to stop her. Fortuanetly there is not ill effects going through and we put the abomination out of its misery with a disintegrate spell. When we do this the ground shakes and we see, wayyyyyyyyyyyy off in the distance over the water, something begin to rise up. We run back through the door and shut it before its fully risen.

Now we still have our find the path spell going and its pointing to the third door. Once again we check behind it, make the save vs insanity. Behind this door is a forest.
Thats all. Just a forest. Needless to say we ran like scared bunnies. That was last session. Next one is this friday....

[SandDemon]

I absolutely love the idea of everyone they meet disappearing.....that right there is DM gold! Definitely keep us posted on what happens next...

Come on folks, more stories!

[Hopeless]

I read these and couldn't help but shake my head that the best I had ever thought up was having a version of gojira in the form of a massive red dragon that was actually a cursed human paladin of a goodly knightly order whose exiled himself from the rest of humanity so he could avoid wiping them out every time he goes "Dragon"!

And the plotline I am still hoping to run involves the PCs learning of his existance and actually go off to hunt him down unaware he's the good guy!

Still, have to make notes... how to scare a party with a perfectly normal forest... perhaps hallucinations where the monsters they see act like perfectly ordinary household animals...

[GeriSch]

hiryuu, i think you watched way too many David Lynch movies, but Jesus Christ, thats a nice mind**** adventure.

gr,
Geri

[Pokonic]

Still, have to make notes... how to scare a party with a perfectly normal forest... perhaps hallucinations where the monsters they see act like perfectly ordinary household animals...

And then have the one normal looking animal turn out to be a bear that looks like a deer.

Also, have fun with Inn's. One time the Pc's, in a rather high check, spotted a rotting floorbord. Ripping it off, they find a large tomb filled to the brim with fresh, mutilated bodies.

Have them wake up with massive, painless wounds that show mulitible rows of teeth when they wake up from camping. Give no explination why.

Have them stumble into a town in the later stages of a Orc raid. Have them kill off the Orc's as normal, but when they fight there leader he is swinging healing spells around and uses general "good"spells. Then the PC's explore the town, and they find that it was a horrible place to live (Cage's to put small children in on display on the road, Inn's kept vats of humanoid meat to serve to others, a town guard that used black magic, Dwarf beards,Elf ears, and little Halfling feet on chains for sale in the gift shops) and let them slowly figure out that they just killed a LG orcish band attempting to rid the world of this horrible place.
Also, here is a post copied from the HWTSYP thread.

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Well, I might sound unoriginal here, with all the hospitals and such, but here is another horror house:

Back-story: Giant complex devoted to healing attracted less-than noble people. Eventually remade as a madhouse. Fifty years after it and the community that surrounded it underwent a "mass lockdown", the house still runs itself. People can still come in. No one comes out.

First off, the PC's go inside this lovely place without much thought. They need to find records about a individual, one who was supposedly related to the main plotline. They walk inside the main lobby, and as it turns out it looks quite good for a place that’s supposedly abandoned. This is a setting where magic is vaguely spread out all over the place, so lights that are some how working in a supposedly haunted location did not surprise the players.

The players enter one of the basic sections of the building, and find out that the building is actually in a strange condition. While most of it is spotless, spots on the walls, ceiling, and floor look as if that, yes, this place has been undergoing the same wear and tear as any other abandoned building. Some pretty white spots on a otherwise grimy and water-damaged wall resembled hand prints from a small child. The bones of a strange creature (Like a cat, but "stretched out" as one PC with the right skills figured out) was laying on one of the grimy spots on the floor.

Eventually, after finding that these spots grow in size as the players go deeper into the complex, they find something interesting. To be exact, what is seemingly a human jawbone fused into the wall, in a position that would suggest a person with there chin up was standing there. The bone flawlessly merged into the clean, untouched spot, and attempts to remove it or the clean spot ended without success. Each and every one of the five video cameras the party brought did not work, seeing as they where out of battery somehow.

Eventually, as they go on in a quest for the "center" of the complex, they find that, rather than water-damaged and moldy, the damaged spots are taking on the look of something that was burnt. Some spots where still smoldering, with many having wisps of smoke coming out. One room that was wholly burnt caused the PC's to be forced to make several checks based on endurance to avoid taking in to much smoke. The one PC who failed that test got a nasty little trip in which the unnaturally clean walls where of bone and the blackened parts red and oozing foul ichor. She snapped out of it eventually.

They soon figure out that this place is bigger than it was outside, and that they should have long since made it to the center of the building. There attempts to find the map's for the floor plan fail, as each one that they find on the exits are burnt and smoking. They also find more body parts fused to the walls, including a rather fleshy arm, several finger bones, a leg, and what was seemingly the backside of a man. Now, most of the building has switched back to a unnatural clean.

As if to make up for the clean earlier, the building is almost entirely ruined in the next few hallways. It's condition now takes on the worst of the former two versions, with whole hallways consisting of warm, blackened tiles and warped wood almost entirely covered in warm, sooty water. The floor nearly falls under them a few times. The only piece of human they see is a single fleshy torso, without arms or legs that was erect in the center of the hallway. The PC's were relucent to go past it, but they eventually did.

Eventually, they manage to find a hallway with actual rooms. The first one they find is almost entirely normal-ish, besides one little thing: all objects are fused to the floor. Carts are somehow immovable, chair legs are few inches inside the floor, ect. All are immovable. Windows, as it turns out, are not immune to the test of time, as they find out as a PC, who was knocking into things attempting to make them move,punchs one and gets a arm full of glass. Looking outside, they find out that they are only up to the second floor on a fifteen floor building.

Eventually, they get to a place that might have been the lunch area. Mostly clean very few spots that seemed dirty. However, one of the PC's got a strongly high spot check, and got this interesting message:

"You find a strange crease in the floor."

Naturally, the PC pokes it, and subsequently opens suddenly to reveal a mouth. That screams.

That’s the point where the floor, walls, and ceiling deformed in horrible ways to show moving, screaming bodies, with arms, legs, and things not native to humanities body starting to flail in every direction. The walls themselves where pulsing from the movement going on inside, and the same aged spots from before quickly spread across every surface like water. To put it bluntly, the entire room was seemingly a horrific melding of deformed metal and flesh, and it hated the PC's. They quickly ran across the room, seeing that the door they came in through had sealed itself and became one with the pulsing room, and managed to take only a little bit of damage.

They quickly found that the building past that was still a pulsing horror, but not nearly as bad as the first room. However, things like chairs and desks became much like the fleshy abomination that they saw before, and they quickly learned that the difference between metal and flesh ended the moment they walked into the building.

After some encounters with some formerly stationary objects, they manage to actually get there way inside where the files where kept and got the files about the guy. Naturally, they wanted the heck out, and they found a exit near the room.

After nearly sliding on the wet stairs (that had a tongue-like consistency), they start to hear the same screaming as the horror room from before, but louder. After a few stretches of perfectly clean whiteness, they find a door that said "EXIT". The screaming only got worse as they got closer to it.

However, the phrase under that stated, in blood-red letters actually painted in still-wet blood "A MONUMET TO ALL YOUR SINS", misspelling intended. They walk into the room, and what they saw shocked them, which was surprising considering what they had gone through.

The room itself was massive. Rather than having the same "hospital white" scheme as the other parts of the building, this cylinder-shaped room was almost chrome like. Also, it was massive: it was hardly large in width, but the top was unseeable to them. They also figured out why, out of everything they saw, there was not a single head anywhere in the building. Or, for that matter, why the screaming stopped.

The entire room had heads coming out of the walls, with the whole thing jam-packed with heads each flawlessly sealed into the walls. Each one was looking at the PC's, without saying a word. The players, now slightly tired, where horrified, and on the PC's asked "Why".


At this, one of the heads gave a little chuckle. Soon, others began to laugh, and eventually every head was guffawing at the player's question. Soon, droplets of blood rained down from the unseeable ceiling and the entire structure was shaking slightly, a organic motion for something otherwise wholly metal. Without much more talk (Albeit one of the PC's nearly broke down), they walked outside, past the freakish doors.....to daylight. They actually had spent less than a hour in there, besides the fact that night had passed by since they where inside. The clincher was when one of the PC's looked at the building behind them. It was a normal exit, and the door had a message spray-painted on it.


THERE IS NO WHY, TRAVIS, THERE IS NO WHY

One of the players nearly broke down there (the player who asked the question's charecter was named Travis), while two others needed to use the bathroom. I feel...accomplished.

[SandDemon]

Killing LG Orcs, like it - not necessarily scary, but soul crushing.

More spooky stories!

[GM.Casper]

Modern mystery game.
The PCs were investigating gruesome attacks out in the country. They are driving a car during the night, when one of the PC’s spots something following the car alongside the road. He only sees and indistinct shape for a moment. Everyone now starts looking out the windows while the driver floors it. But then a minute later one of the tires pop. One of the players argue that they should just keep driving, but they decide that changing the tire would ultimately be faster. So they dial the car’s headlights to a maximum and establish an armed perimeter around the car, while the group’s mechanic rushes to replace the tire. He actually fails the first roll due to fear and working too fast – thus taking even more time to fix it, while the others nervously urge him to hurry up. Finally, the tire is replaced, they all quickly get back in and drive off. Sights of relief.

Then the monster suddenly jumps on the car’s roof and starts to tear into the metal.

[lsfreak]

My one real story is Far Realms-y. Simply make things that don't make sense. My PC's kinda knew what they were getting into, but it didn't really sink in until they got the first room of this abandoned library they were going to. It was a short hallway off the main corridor. The thing is, after 10 or 20 seconds of absentmindedly walking and talking, they realized they weren't any close to the room, but they weren't at the start of the hallways either - they were 10 or 20 second's walking distance into the hall. It wasn't scary, but at the same time, they immediately got more serious.

Small things like that can add up. A room where one half of it is timed differently than the other - in game terms, you get three rounds to every one. One room had shadows wrong, like someone else was carrying a torch through it, but no one was there. By the time they got near the boss, everything was broken-mirror: you could look over and see another PC as if they were in three different spots, and you couldn't tell which was which. The best part about this, though, is the missing mirror pieces: look at your friend from three different directions and see him, but look from a fourth and ogod it's right there.

For other ideas:
Just randomly, middle of something else happening, "What's your Spot modifier again?" and continue on as if nothing happened. Ask for Will saves, Wisdom checks, Sense Motives right after one of the other PC's says something. It puts them on edge because they know something's going on, but it's something that you're not describing. It means maybe they walked into something and are having to make saves, or something's stalking them that they can't see, or they haven't noticed yet that one of their companions is acting odd.

Nothing's happening. You're just asking for saves or stat checks to make your players metagame and slowly get more and more paranoid about what's going on.

Another thing to do is to subvert their expectations as a leadup. When the PC's are spending their first night in a small village, someone goes missing. A short hunt the next morning and the PC's come upon the mutilated body strung up a tree, and the villagers immediately become terrified. The PC's can't get the villagers to tell them anything - they remain in silent terror, and it keeps happening. They are helpless. Finally someone tells them what's going on: a demon from the forest. They search, but can't find anything, and it keeps happening. They search and search, all the village's histories and everything, but even with all the stories about the demon, they can't find it. It finally dawns on the PC's that it's one of the villagers: they've got a psychopath on their hands. That can be rather disturbing in itself, realizing humans are monsters too. But, as they're leaving, they come across one final villager, terrified the demon will get them. The PC's will calmly explain that it wasn't a demon that did it, that it was just another man. After a few long minutes, it looks like the poor villager is beginning to calm down.
Arms reach out of a mirror and drag them into it.

[Averis Vol]

Last session my pcs were clip clopping along the road and it started to rain again (it had been storming for weeks) and off in the distance they see bright lights like that of a mansion. So first of all half the party decided they would rather sleep in the rain soaked wagon while the others wanted to go stay at the mansion. So after an hour of OOC arguing (and another it IC) they finally decide to check the place out. They ride up in their wagon and are greeted by an elderly man flanked by a pair of guards.

Now for this guy I did my best deep southern plantation owner voice and most of them were allready wanting to gtfo. So he stables their animals and brings them inside to this eerily quiet mansion of his and they "rest a spell" by the fire. Like 10 minutes later an half elf sergeant with deep set and heavy bagged eyes comes out with a pitcher of wine an offers it to each.

Every person but the monk and barbarian declined it an when they both drank I told them they feel light headed for a moment but it passes, and by now they are on the edge of their seats thinking this nice old man is going to ruffy them and lock them in the cellar or something. But the night goes by pleasantly and he tells him where their rooms are and says "whatever you do, do not go into my study at the end of the hall."

So once again they start to freak out and the rogue and scout contemplate breaking in and breaking the one rule this incredibly nice, if awkward, host of theirs. But they don't and a serving wench comes up and brings them blankets, more wine etc etc. and says "mr. Crowley wishes you a good night."

At the drop of that name the barbarian and rogue stand up from he table simultaneously and say "nope, done." the other three are scratching their heads so the two explain who mr. Crowley is. After that they all sleep with their weapons for the night. So in the morning they wake up to a room call and find their weapons out of their grip and cleaned along with their armor sitting on the desk in their room. The monk makes an offhand comment about how they were right next to their collective jugulars and could have easily killed them if they wanted to.

Now they all go downstairs scared ****less and sitting at the end of the table I give them the exact description of the hat man for those of you who know who he is.

Sufficient to say, my whole group knows him.

So they tentatively finish breakfast and he gives them all shiny new magic gear and the rogue says that he owes him a debt and if he ever needs anything he only needed to ask. At this point the man gives a wolffish grin as he laughs and says that he will hold him to that.

So with new gear and more supplies he walks them to the edge of his property and waves them off while he whistles the song from kill bill. They watch him fade away into the distance an once they get about 200 ft out they blink and he's gone as th wind blows in.

In truth he was just an old plantation owner who liked to help the military.

But my pcs still think he's the hat man.

[Dr Bwaa]

I filled a room with milk. One of the players drank some (of his own volition). Then they swam down in the milk...and discovered six drowned corpses. Then they went to a room coated with blood and filled with goblin corpses. I had one player roll a knowledge check, and he determined that all of the dead goblins were pregnant females. They were pretty freaked out.

That is fantastic.

This sort of thing (also like the friendly aberrakitten) is the way to go, in my opinion. Don't show creepy things. People see creepy things all the time in movies. Let the PCs discover things that contradict their assumptions, or that simply hold the suggestion of atrocity. Letting your players' minds come up with the details can be much more effective nightmare fuel than spelling it out for them.

@Averis Vol:
What Hat Man are you referring to? Isn't he made of shadows or something, not an old dude?

[Averis Vol]

I mean the southern gentleman you meet at the crossroads who wants you to sign a contract with him. May not be the hat man but I know I've heard the name associated with him.

[Lord Tyger]

Two of my players the other day came across an old inn in the woods, and, since the party druid was off doing secret druid stuff, they were glad of the opportunity to sleep indoors and get a decent meal. The elderly innkeeper gave them bowls of stew, and offered them a place to sleep for the night, free of charge, but asked them to stay away from the room at the end of the hall, as his children were ill and needed their rest.

The room the party slept in had a portrait of two children that bore a family resemblance to the old man, but it was old and weathered- an appraise check put it at least a couple decades old.

A little bit on his guard, the wizard decided to sit up and keep watch, and caught the innkeeper sneaking into their room with a club. A scuffle ensued, and they subdued and bound the innkeeper. Questioning him, he convinced the rather naive oracle that he had thought he heard a burglar and had been coming to make sure they were safe, but the wizard was unwilling to untie him, and searched the rest of the inn. Nothing suspicious turned up, except that the larder was locked.

Finally, the two agreed to look in on the children, and make sure they were well enough to free their father after the wizard and oracle were well away. Knocking on the family room's door, they were answered by odd rasping sounds followed by odd, high pitched voices asking if they wished to play, and remarking that "Jam," (the oracle) had a tasty name.

Entering the room, and pulling the covers back from the bed, revealed a pair of goblins, dressed in the filthy, tattered remains of the clothing the children had been wearing in the painting. The fight was fairly straightforward, but afterwards there was the question of what to do with the old man and goblins, being as Jam was staunchly anti-killing (although he found himself quite tempted in this situation). They settled for locking them in the larder, and informing the authorities in the next town over.

By this time, it came as no surprise what they found in the larder, but it wasn't until they were on their way to the next town that they stopped to think about the stew...

[Antonok]

I've had this in my head for a while (lemme just say now, no comment), just never got around to DMing it. Its longer then this but I'm rather lazy so I'll just include the first part. Will also be nice to have this typed out for future reference.

WARNING: Does get quite gruesome so read at your own peril. You have been warned.
Thought I'd just go ahead and add that. But the gruesome detail is what makes it work so well...

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It all starts as your standard stop the big bad from activating the world ending macguffin.

When they get to the final room they see the standard baddy in front of a black orb. He launches into a speech about world domination and blah blah blah.

After a fight, the baddy hits the orb with a spell. The orb flashes a couple times then time seems to freeze and the PCs black out. (And the fun begins)



They wake up in a rather large room in a log cabin; theres a cozy fire in the fireplace and it has just a rather nice, cozy, lived in feeling. Curtains on the windows, staircase leading up, closed door leading to another room, presumably a kitchen from the smell of warm bread baking in an oven. This is obviously the living/main room but there doesn't seem to be a front door leading outside.

~Window~
Suddenly, one of the curtains moves. The PC that opens the curtain and looks out sees a bright, clear, cloudless day with a young mother and her young son outside playing. The PC gets a warm fuzzy feeling as he sees this happy giggling child run into his mothers open arms embracing her in a hug.

All of a sudden, as hes watching, he notices the childs eyes change to a blood red color as he grows fangs and claws and starts tearing into the mothers face and chest, throwing blood and guts all of the place covering the window as he hears the ear shattering screams of agony from the woman. After a startled moment the screams die out and the woman's dead corpse, chest ripped open and all organs ripped out, slams into the window staring at the PC with glazed eyes conveying the sheer horror and torment of her last horrifying moments as her child mercilessly ripped the life from her.

None of the PCs saw this, they only see pitch blackness outside the window.


~Door to Kitchen/Inside the Kitchen~

The door is cracked a bit but surprisingly difficult to push open.

Upon entering, they find the kitchen empty, but it seems to have been very recently used. Fresh vegetables on the counter, some recently chopped; a boiling pot of water on the stove; the oven on and something baking inside.

The only other door in this room seems to lead into a walk in cupboard.

Overall it looks more like a fully stocked culinary kitchen from the 1920s/30s rather than one that would be in a small household set in olden times. There is a rack of sharp assorted knives hanging above the island counter, a couple dishes in the sink. Cabinets are closed.

As the PCs are checking around, one of them hears a metallic jingle. Suddenly, the cabinets fly open, dishes start flying around the room crashing into one another, the noise hits a pitch close to that one a tornado; then as suddenly as it began it stops and the dishes fall crashing to floor. The PC then notices something strange, the knives hanging above the island weren't even disturbed during that.

They begin to sway, gently at first, but the rocking gets harder and harder until they're spinning in a circle. They fly off the hooks faster then your eyes can follow and impale a fellow PC into the wall.

You stare at your former comrade, blood bubbling from his mouth as he tries to speak but can only make the faintest gurgling sounds. He turns and stares at you, his eyes glazing over, staring at you with a look wondering why you didn't try to help as the life passes from body.

The room flashes white and the PC is standing there, everything back to the way it was when they first entered the kitchen.

{If one of the other PCs happen to investigate the stove}

The stove has a single large pot on one of the front burners covered by a lid. Opening the lid reveals a pot full of boiling stew. Your stomach rumbles as the fragrant smell of unknown meat stock and vegetables hits you.

You can't seem to open the oven door, though you peer inside the window and see a loaf of bread baking, but something just seems off.

As you stare at it a bit more, you see a slight movement in the loaf as if a bubble shifted.

You peer a bit harder and a shiver runs down your spine as you realize the fluttering was that of an eye blinking.

The loaf of bread rolls to the side and fully reveals itself to be the severed head of a man, eyes now wide open, staring directly at you, mouth twisted into a horrifyingly silent scream. The skin bubbled and bursting open from the extreme heat.

It quickly rolls to the oven door and smacks into it.

Once...

Twice...

You jump back as the oven door bursts open as the head makes a sickeningly dull thunk on the floor. It moans as the pot on the stove starts to rattle violently about and crashes to floor spilling thick, coagulated blood and 2 skeletal arms.

The blood boils violently as the still moaning head and skeletal arms begin to slowly move towards you...

The PC blacks out and the room is back to normal, him still staring into the oven window.


~Cupboard~

The PC that opens the cupboard door sees nothing unusual at first, just the standard dry goods.

As they begin to walk away, the PC that opened the door hears rattling. As he turns to look the door bursts open and a banshee made of flour comes screaming out the doorway and straight to the PC. As it reaches the PC it explodes into a cloud of dust making the PC cough and shut his eyes.

As he opens his eyes, the room is back to normal.

Upstairs: (Boy this is taking a while to type )

Spoiler

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As the PCs walk up the stairs, they turn into a straight hallway. There are 2 closed doors on both sides with one at the end of the hallway.

As they take the first step into the hallway, the lights suddenly turn off and they hear a baby crying somewhere in one of the rooms.


~Door 1: The playroom~


As the PCs enter the room, they see toys strewn about.

A large castle made of blocks in the center; stuffed animals neatly placed on the shelves lining the room; bright, cheerful wallpaper covering the walls; toy train tracks going around the room with a train merrily chugging its way along them; carousel music playing softly throughout the room.

As the PCs are searching around the room, the one who looked out the window hears a small child crying and notices the child in the corner.

As he approaches, the room gets darker with every step he takes.

When he gets up to the child, it curls into a ball and screams 'NO! GO AWAY!' over and over again.

The PC then hears demonic laughter echoing through the room, and finally realizes the lights have gone out and all sound in the room has stopped except for the quiet sobs from the boy.

Then the walls flicker red. And he hears a small evil laugh come from the direction of the child.

As he turns back to look, the boy is standing there, eyes glowing blood red, and sharp pointed teeth curled into a smile.

'I told you to go away.'

The boy raises his arms;

The train loudly whistles its horn...

The carousel music comes back on louder then before...

Images of the demon boy ripping his mother apart start flashing on the wall...

The blocks come to life and cover the PC dragging him to the center of the room and pinning him to the floor with enough force to prevent him from breathing.

His lungs burn as he struggles wildly against the crushing pressure trying to gasp one tiny breath, but to no avail.

As his consciousness fades, the last thing he sees is a pair of blood red eyes staring at him and a low evil laugh...

The PC comes to covered in a cold sweat.


~Door 2: The Den~

As the PCs enter, they discover a standard office den.

A Desk sits to the left of the room, cluttered with papers. A small fireplace on the right hand side. Filled bookcases line the walls on the front and back walls.

As the PCs are rummaging around, the one who had the episode with the stove feels as though something behind him is staring at him.

As he turns around he sees the bloated corpse of a man hanging in front of the fireplace. A rope around his purple, discolored, elongated neck, as though hes been hanging there for a while.

The fire in the fireplace cackles and explodes, catching the corpse and floor on fire.

The flames spread quickly trapping the PC in the back of the room, as the rope breaks and drops the corpse to the floor.

As the PC watches, the man picks himself up and slowly starts walking towards the PC.

(If the PC pulls a weapon and attacks the man, flames spurt out of wound)

The flames spread rapidly, devouring everything, smoke fills the room gagging the PC and making his eyes water as the corpse gets ever closer.

As the PC struggles against the overbearing heat and increasing lack of oxygen, he notices the man standing in front of him.

The man reaches for the PC as the he loses consciousness, the last thing he feels is the extreme pain of being burnt alive...

PC comes to, room is normal.


~Door 3: The Master Bedroom~

The PCs enter a large bedroom. Ornately furnished with a large king sized bed in the center of the back wall. Two large dressers sit against the far sides of the walls. A small end table directly next to the bed on either side. One the right hand side of the room is a large full body mirror.

The PC that saw the flour banshee notices movement inside the mirror.

When he walks up to the mirror, he doesn't see anything out of the ordinary.

As he turns to walk away he sees a slender woman standing behind him in the reflection. He turns around but sees nothing.

When he turns around and faces the mirror again, his reflection is replaced by the woman, whos sweetly smiling and batting her eyes at the PC.

As he stares enthralled at the beauty of the woman, she raises er and and places a pistol to her temple, and pulls the trigger.

As the PC stares at the horror before him, he feels something heavy in his hand.

He looks down to see that hes holding a bloody pistol...

PC comes to, everything is normal.


~Door 4: The Nursery(if you can't tell by the name of the room... yea)~

As the PCs enter, they see a crib on the back side of the room, a mobile of knights and dragons hanging above it. A dresser sits against the wall across from the crib. Stuffed animals of all sizes are scattered across the room.

As the PCs look around, the one who saw his fellow adventurer impaled by the knives hears a small cooing noise coming from a pile of stuffed animals in the corner.

He sees a small child sitting among them happily chewing on the arm of a large teddy bear.

He stares as one of his comrades walks up to the child and picks him up.

The child starts crying and the PC notices the room has changed, the stuffed animals are ripped apart and covered in blood.

The mobile is now made of small human entrails.

The dresser has become an operating table covered in rusty utensils and dried blood.

The baby starts crying harder and starts to swell as the PC holding him tries ever harder to calm him down.

Suddenly the baby explodes knocking the PC down into a corner as blood and guts splatter everywhere and the severed head of the PC (or baby for extra gruesomeness) lands in his lap glazed eyes staring up at him)

PC comes to, everything is normal.


~Final Door: The Hall Closet~

The PCs get to the final door, which is locked. They hear children crying, screams of agony and terror, and moaning from the other side.

As they pick the lock on the door a faint scratching sound is heard on the other side.

As the last tumbler on the lock clicks into place, the scratching gets louder and louder...

All lights in the house go out as a bright light shines from the crack under the door.

Suddenly the door bursts open revealing a dark figure looming in the doorway, the crying and scream of terror louder then ever...

{Enter preffered Eldritch Horror boss fight here}

[Silus]

One of my goals, should I ever run another homebrew campaign again, is to incorporate the following:

Sentient location: Plenty scary when you're inside the monster, and the monster knows you are inside of it.

Shadows: Equal parts darkness and the actual D&D/Pathfinder monster. Maybe make the location a massive planar bleed into the Plane of Shadows.

Mirrors: 'Cause you can have so, SO much fun with them.

Children: Used properly, they can be more terrifying than a Tarrasque with ALL the templates.

With a dash of subtle creepyness.

Off the top of my head:

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The following is based off the song "Come Little Children" from the movie Hocus Pocus.

Firstly, ensure that one of the PCs has either children or a child their character cares about (cousin, stepchild, what have you). Bonus points if a player has kids IRL.

The PCs get to whatever town or city the aforementioned child live in. Give them time to resupply and meet up with old friends and contacts. Eventually, they'll hear a rumor about strange late night disappearances. Further investigation reveals that children have stared going missing from their beds.

So naturally, in true plot hook fashion, the PC's kid gets hauled away in the night. However, instead of burglars or the like breaking in and snatching the children up, they hear this playing softly on the night breeze:

Come Little Children
I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land
Of Enchantment
Come Little Children
The Time's Come To Play
Here In My Garden
Of Magic
Follow Sweet Children
I'll Show Thee The Way
Through All The Pain And
The Sorrows
Weep Not Poor Children
For Life Is This Way
Murdering Beauty And
Passions
Hush Now Dear Children
It Must Be This Way
To Weary Of Life And
Deceptions
Rest Now My Children
For Soon We'll Away
into The Calm And
The Quiet
Come Little Children
I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land
Of Enchantment
Come Little Children
The Time's Come To Play
Here In My Garden
Of Shadows

While the song plays, the lights in the street begin to wink out one by one. Windows and doors slowly blow open (locked or otherwise) and the "selected" children slowly sit up in their beds, eyes half open as if in a trance. They make their way downstairs and out the door. Instead of simply one or two children, it's dozens, much more than the rumors indicated. They trudge through the street in silence, following the haunting melody. If one were to look closely at the front of the procession, they may catch a glimpse of a shadowy lady in a white mask and form fitting clothes, her raven hair blowing in the wind and seeing to dissipate into the shadows.

The PCs follow the procession, though covertly or obviously does not matter, as anything they try cannot halt the children. They are led to the city park (or village green or other such area) where a shadowy portal opens in midair. Beyond looks like something out of a child's storybook (Ideally inspired by Alice in Wonderland with a bit of Labyrinth) comprised of shadows and mirrors (Rosebushes made of hard shadows with roses made of semi-liquid mirrors and other such impossible nonsense). The procession of children file through the portal with the shadowy woman entering last. If the PCs are not trying to be sneaky, perhaps the woman tilts her head to the side and, somehow, smiles through the full face mask.

The PC's objective is clear. Follow the woman into the demi-plane known as the Garden of Shadows, discover the plane's purpose, and rescue the children from horrors beyond your imagination.

Though I'd likely make most of the stuff up as I go along.

Edit: For the BBEG for the aforementioned scenario, I'm thinking a Dread Shadow Shae Bard with Ghost Touch weapons.