Help with some non-combat encounters in the Grey Wastes (planescape)

[Madeiner]

Hi there.
For my story, the PCs are stranded in the Grey Wastes (Planescape).
They got there via a passage on Charon's boat.
They previously arranged for a planar ship to come and rescue them, and while it is on its way, it will take a week or so to arrive.

The PC's memories will soon start to fade as they symbolically passed through the river Styx.
Also, they will gradually lose any will to leave the plane as per its planar effects; colors will fade, any joy will be lost.

I imagine the grey wastes to be an infinite spanning of rolling ashen hills and plains. There will be no one around but the PCs and their undead army. It should be a completely desolate place with little or no life forms, at least social ones.

What are some interesting non combat encounters i can throw in, to better illustrate the loneliness of the place? I'd like a couple encounters or interesting events to better set the mood of the place before the PCs are rescued, ideally things the happen as the days pass and hope fades.

[Micah Watt]

Have them come across a single hunched figure on an endless plane.

As they approach the figure is leached so grey as to be almost white.

The figure is gaunt to the point of being almost skeletal, and is in fact dead. Healers or those with a knowledge of anatomy or physiology can tell they died from starvation.

A quick search of the figure reveals water and iron rations in their pack.

They had food, they were just too apathetic to eat and died in due course.

[goto124]

The PC's memories will soon start to fade as they symbolically passed through the river Styx.

I'm not sure if one can play this out without the OOC part getting in the way.

"I go to visit Ironbird-"
"No, you don't remember Ironbird."
"What?"

[Madeiner]

Have them come across a single hunched figure on an endless plane.

As they approach the figure is leached so grey as to be almost white.

The figure is gaunt to the point of being almost skeletal, and is in fact dead. Healers or those with a knowledge of anatomy or physiology can tell they died from starvation.

A quick search of the figure reveals water and iron rations in their pack.

They had food, they were just too apathetic to eat and died in due course.

This is perfect, thanks :)

I'm not sure if one can play this out without the OOC part getting in the way.

"I go to visit Ironbird-"
"No, you don't remember Ironbird."
"What?"

Won't get in the way. In fact, i plan to make them revisit the place of ther first landing in the grey wastes right next to the river, where they fought a battle. I will describe the place as if it was the first time they saw it, only a lot of time seems to have passed. Hopefully they will recognize the place, and i will go "You are not sure, maybe you have seen this place before... a battle was fought here you believe... maybe a long time ago. You remember just a glimpse of what happened here."

[NichG]

You could have things where the PCs just sort of find themselves in the middle of an activity that vaguely makes sense, but they don't recall starting or even particularly 'wanting' to do. So you say 'description description grey expanse dead trees etc etc. You keep following the footprints in front of you, but they just seem to keep on going.' -> player goes 'huh? I wasn't following footsteps, was I?' -> 'You look up and realize something naggingly familiar, as you shake off the grey just a bit. You've been here before. These are your footprints.'

The idea being that the conscious part of the character is being subdued - more and more, everything they do is just their body going on automatic, like they're slowly drifting into a state of frontal lobotomy (a related real-life example of this is 'highway hypnosis'). And then, in their moments of lucidity, they notice it.

[Mr. Bitter]

Any scenes emphasizing futility or emptiness are probably good:

1. Abandoned farmsteads with wind-scoured fields and lines of graves behind them.

2. An entire city that crumbles to dust when touched. Maybe it "died" on the prime material plane and went here, as a sort of inhuman afterlife?

3. A plains ravaged by thousands of tornadoes, each carrying hundreds of petitioners whose wails of despair can barely be heard over the tornado winds. The winds are not real for non-outsiders. They'll kick up dirt but not move so much as a hair on a prime material berk's head.

4. A timeless religious cult worshipping a trapped monster, perhaps resembling something horrid from greek mythology. The cultists believe that if they can feed here enough sacrifices (mostly petitioners), the creature will return them to the prime material plane. They will desperately try to get the players to take them with when they leave.

5. A tremendous mountain chain (we're talking Rockies) composed completely of shackled petitioners, all struggling atop each other. The shackles are completely unbreakable. If you really want to go big, maybe have it include a volcano.

6. A pack of outsider wolves, whose bite inflicts a terrible fever. Those afflicted with the fever will gradually turn into the wolves, themselves.

7. Maybe have the undead start to be affected by the hopelessness. They sit down and won't get up, kind of like a downed steer.

edit:

8. A region dotted with lakes of cloudy water, each depicting a possible death for one of the onlookers.

[Douche]

Maybe, to induce real feelings of hopelessness in the players (instead of simply saying "you feel hopeless now") you can actually use game mechanics to create the feelings of hopelessness and futility.

Perhaps you could take away their progress... make them lose gear and/or levels as they spend more time in this plane. That would also hammer in the idea that there's no will to leave, since they're weak now. (but you should probably give it all back when they escape lol)

Or stress the futility by having them chase a figure in the distance and never get closer, no matter how fast they run after him. Or they could fight a beast and you tell them each of their attacks have no effect no matter how long they fight or what kind of damage they use.


Those are just my poorly thought out ideas, but if you could incorporate what you want them to feel into the game mechanics in addition to the environmental cues others have suggested, I think that'd really set it off.

[Eldan]

A giant warmachine walking on metal legs, almost a mile high. It merely walks by and ignores the players.

A starving priest, eating the pages of his holy book.

A group of people burried up to their waists in volcanic ash. One of them is still screaming. The rest have starved.

A bear trap. There's a skeleton in it.

A soldier in golden armour, now scuffed and dirty. When he sees the weapons in the player's hands, he breaks down crying "I've killed you all already, why won't you leave me alone!" and tries to kill himself.

This.

[Mr. Bitter]

A starving priest, eating the pages of his holy book.

Stealing this.

[Madeiner]

A lot more great suggestions here, thanks :)

The session happened already and i used the encounters that were posted earlier, and they were a success.
Seeing as they have been cursed by Charon, they will likely want to go back here and negotiate with him, so i will definately use the other suggestions in the future. They are all great and perfectly in theme, thanks!