365 Horror elements in your adventures [Archive] - Wizards Community

365 Horror elements in your adventures [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
DDdreamer
11-14-06, 05:33 AM Which horror elements have you put in your adventures?
Im making a horror adventure right now and need some ideas.

One of my horror elements:

1.A ghost that lives in a mirror and come out at night to hunt for souls.
Megido
11-14-06, 05:40 AM Ive always found that demons who murder a families child then shapechange into said child to torment them, tend to get under a few Pcs skin if done right.
DDdreamer
11-14-06, 05:43 AM Ive always found that demons who murder a families child then shapechange into said child to torment them, tend to get under a few Pcs skin if done right.

hmm interesting, might use that one. thx
crotalus8
11-14-06, 05:44 AM 3. Make their friends undead.
My party will fight along side a young priest of Pelor with a helmet that has Pelors visage as the face guard. He will die in the first major battle and they will watch him be burried. About 3 levels later they will see him working in the fields as a zombie, his head slightly tilted, the face of Pelor blankly staring at them. Hope it will have the effect I want.
King-bargh
11-14-06, 05:58 AM 4. The evil tatoo.

One of my players have a large, obscure tatoo on his chest. In his background he stated that his whole village was destroyed by an infiltrating demon of unknown kind, as the mark gets focused they will know who it is.

But there are many ways to use a mark laeft after an encounter.
Senevri
11-14-06, 07:45 AM 5. A city-based adventure. An afflicted lycanthrope. Make it someone PCs know. Let them know there's a lycanthrope in town - don't let them know who it is!
GhostOfJacK
11-14-06, 07:59 AM 6. Children - creepy 'Children of the Corn' children. My best encounter with children was in the attic of an innkeeper's inn they uncovered jars of preserved children in multiple forms of abominations (ie. 4 kids' body parts sewn together to make an 8 legged spider-like thing). All were dead until they found a chest and being greedy players, they opened it to find a dead girl. She had her tongue cut off, with eyes and mouth sewn shut. Then she came alive (very horrific when played properly), including the ones in the jars, and they she proceeded to write a symbol on the floor with her finger, etching it in to the wood before her nail broke back at the cutcile. She continued to write like that, and the PCs fled (turns out the inn keeper was a devil worshipper). I just mass attacked the PCs with every distrubing image from movie like The Ring and The Grudge.

7. Potentile perile for the players. I had an altar that was apparantly well used (same adventure as above). On the altar were two brass hands that could be used to cup a head as a person lay there. Once one of the PCs were brave enough to try an lay on it, they could see that from that angle, with their head on the hands, there was basically an arrow on the ceiling which pointed the way to a secret room which contained the adventure's treasure.
RobbyPants
11-14-06, 09:24 AM 8) Some type of home-brew revenant or ghost type thing out for revenge. It's completely un-killable (although it can be temporarily defeated), until the PCs solve why it's there. The longer they take trying to solve the mystery, the more they have to deal with an unkillable, unrelentless foe.
Deacon Liadon
11-14-06, 09:34 AM 9) A Shadow stalking the party through ruined underground passages. They occasionally see it outlined in the lantern light or reaching out in the torchlight.

It's fun to frighten the party.
Slightly_Unscrewed
11-14-06, 10:56 AM 10: Creepy bards. Like Grinner in the 1001 Mournland Horrors thead.

11: Living Darknes that chokes people.
12: Villians That are sexually obseesed with the undead.
sedai
11-15-06, 03:20 PM 13: i had my players locked up and tortured by the bbeg, i played the evil guy well.. at one moment i only had to touch a player to make him confess all the weak spots of the city he lives in (bbeg is conquering land) we gave each of the players very nasty wounds (eyes cut out, etc.) we did it so properly (or so it appeared) that 4 of the players had a greyish tint in their skinn at the end of the campaign, and one almost got sick because of the horror (not because of the gory stuff)..
CharlieRock
11-15-06, 03:23 PM 14.The appearance of a murder of crows in a tree within the village center portends doom. :evillaugh
Wayett
11-15-06, 04:39 PM 15. Have the PCs go into a village(normal village) then have a mist come out of all the buildings so the PCs can't see 5 ft. infront of them, then when the mist clears there are human bodies on the doors that stare at the PCs and laugh, scream, talk non-sense, try to wave, insult overs, etc. but they are all dead and nailed to wooden objects.

16. Have hands come out for under stairs and attack the middle PC that walks up them.

17. Make all the portraits of people have eyes that move and follow PCs, but make it ppl in the portraits the PCs or people the PCs have seen die recently.

18. Have a well pull itself up as if by magic with a baby in it. This baby has a hole in its head pouring out blue/green blood w/yellow puss. When the PCs touch it or drop it laughes uncontrollably or asks some obseen question like "are you my mommy" or it tells knock knock jokes that It never finiishes because it explodes in a gorey display of blue blood.

Baby: Knock knock.
PC: Whos there?
Baby: Bread!
PC: Bread Wh...
Baby: (explodes getting lots of blood and brains on the PC's face)

That PC now stands at the back of the party and yelps when he spots a baby.

Hope this helps!
Phantem2
11-15-06, 05:05 PM PC's enter a lab room full of dead bodies with a continues dancing lights going in the form of red blinking lights. and i kept repeating :"blink... blink... blink..." scared the hell out of them, after they get into the room the bodies come to life of course and attack the PC's, afterwards the PC's almost forgot to look for treasure because they wanted to get out of the blinking light so badly.:D
Megido
11-16-06, 12:03 AM Some of these are pretty good. Im gonna steal some for my games. My players dont usually read these boards.
Clockwork_Apparition
11-16-06, 12:24 AM Great thread!

20. You ever hear of the bot fly? Have the PC's get attacked by some insectoid-type critter. A few hours/days/weeks after the fight, have the PC's hit by the beast start to get sick (you can treat it just like a disease with a fort save & incubation period). You could impose nauseated status or simple penalty. A little while later, the PC notices some horrific tube-like growth on the area injured. The growth is actually a breathing tube for a larva. Eventually, the PC's are going to have to decide how to remove the thing (which could seriously harm the wounded PC(s)).
DDdreamer
11-16-06, 07:41 AM Whoa lots of nice ideas, i might stal that blinking light thing it was good stuff!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
DDdreamer 11-14-06, 05:33 AM	Which horror elements have you put in your adventures? Im making a horror adventure right now and need some ideas. One of my horror elements: 1.A ghost that lives in a mirror and come out at night to hunt for souls.
Megido 11-14-06, 05:40 AM	Ive always found that demons who murder a families child then shapechange into said child to torment them, tend to get under a few Pcs skin if done right.
DDdreamer 11-14-06, 05:43 AM	Ive always found that demons who murder a families child then shapechange into said child to torment them, tend to get under a few Pcs skin if done right. hmm interesting, might use that one. thx
crotalus8 11-14-06, 05:44 AM	3. Make their friends undead. My party will fight along side a young priest of Pelor with a helmet that has Pelors visage as the face guard. He will die in the first major battle and they will watch him be burried. About 3 levels later they will see him working in the fields as a zombie, his head slightly tilted, the face of Pelor blankly staring at them. Hope it will have the effect I want.
King-bargh 11-14-06, 05:58 AM	4. The evil tatoo. One of my players have a large, obscure tatoo on his chest. In his background he stated that his whole village was destroyed by an infiltrating demon of unknown kind, as the mark gets focused they will know who it is. But there are many ways to use a mark laeft after an encounter.
Senevri 11-14-06, 07:45 AM	5. A city-based adventure. An afflicted lycanthrope. Make it someone PCs know. Let them know there's a lycanthrope in town - don't let them know who it is!
GhostOfJacK 11-14-06, 07:59 AM	6. Children - creepy 'Children of the Corn' children. My best encounter with children was in the attic of an innkeeper's inn they uncovered jars of preserved children in multiple forms of abominations (ie. 4 kids' body parts sewn together to make an 8 legged spider-like thing). All were dead until they found a chest and being greedy players, they opened it to find a dead girl. She had her tongue cut off, with eyes and mouth sewn shut. Then she came alive (very horrific when played properly), including the ones in the jars, and they she proceeded to write a symbol on the floor with her finger, etching it in to the wood before her nail broke back at the cutcile. She continued to write like that, and the PCs fled (turns out the inn keeper was a devil worshipper). I just mass attacked the PCs with every distrubing image from movie like The Ring and The Grudge. 7. Potentile perile for the players. I had an altar that was apparantly well used (same adventure as above). On the altar were two brass hands that could be used to cup a head as a person lay there. Once one of the PCs were brave enough to try an lay on it, they could see that from that angle, with their head on the hands, there was basically an arrow on the ceiling which pointed the way to a secret room which contained the adventure's treasure.
RobbyPants 11-14-06, 09:24 AM	8) Some type of home-brew revenant or ghost type thing out for revenge. It's completely un-killable (although it can be temporarily defeated), until the PCs solve why it's there. The longer they take trying to solve the mystery, the more they have to deal with an unkillable, unrelentless foe.
Deacon Liadon 11-14-06, 09:34 AM	9) A Shadow stalking the party through ruined underground passages. They occasionally see it outlined in the lantern light or reaching out in the torchlight. It's fun to frighten the party.
Slightly_Unscrewed 11-14-06, 10:56 AM	10: Creepy bards. Like Grinner in the 1001 Mournland Horrors thead. 11: Living Darknes that chokes people. 12: Villians That are sexually obseesed with the undead.
sedai 11-15-06, 03:20 PM	13: i had my players locked up and tortured by the bbeg, i played the evil guy well.. at one moment i only had to touch a player to make him confess all the weak spots of the city he lives in (bbeg is conquering land) we gave each of the players very nasty wounds (eyes cut out, etc.) we did it so properly (or so it appeared) that 4 of the players had a greyish tint in their skinn at the end of the campaign, and one almost got sick because of the horror (not because of the gory stuff)..
CharlieRock 11-15-06, 03:23 PM	14.The appearance of a murder of crows in a tree within the village center portends doom. :evillaugh
Wayett 11-15-06, 04:39 PM	15. Have the PCs go into a village(normal village) then have a mist come out of all the buildings so the PCs can't see 5 ft. infront of them, then when the mist clears there are human bodies on the doors that stare at the PCs and laugh, scream, talk non-sense, try to wave, insult overs, etc. but they are all dead and nailed to wooden objects. 16. Have hands come out for under stairs and attack the middle PC that walks up them. 17. Make all the portraits of people have eyes that move and follow PCs, but make it ppl in the portraits the PCs or people the PCs have seen die recently. 18. Have a well pull itself up as if by magic with a baby in it. This baby has a hole in its head pouring out blue/green blood w/yellow puss. When the PCs touch it or drop it laughes uncontrollably or asks some obseen question like "are you my mommy" or it tells knock knock jokes that It never finiishes because it explodes in a gorey display of blue blood. Baby: Knock knock. PC: Whos there? Baby: Bread! PC: Bread Wh... Baby: (explodes getting lots of blood and brains on the PC's face) That PC now stands at the back of the party and yelps when he spots a baby. Hope this helps!
Phantem2 11-15-06, 05:05 PM	PC's enter a lab room full of dead bodies with a continues dancing lights going in the form of red blinking lights. and i kept repeating :"blink... blink... blink..." scared the hell out of them, after they get into the room the bodies come to life of course and attack the PC's, afterwards the PC's almost forgot to look for treasure because they wanted to get out of the blinking light so badly.:D
Megido 11-16-06, 12:03 AM	Some of these are pretty good. Im gonna steal some for my games. My players dont usually read these boards.
Clockwork_Apparition 11-16-06, 12:24 AM	Great thread! 20. You ever hear of the bot fly? Have the PC's get attacked by some insectoid-type critter. A few hours/days/weeks after the fight, have the PC's hit by the beast start to get sick (you can treat it just like a disease with a fort save & incubation period). You could impose nauseated status or simple penalty. A little while later, the PC notices some horrific tube-like growth on the area injured. The growth is actually a breathing tube for a larva. Eventually, the PC's are going to have to decide how to remove the thing (which could seriously harm the wounded PC(s)).
DDdreamer 11-16-06, 07:41 AM	Whoa lots of nice ideas, i might stal that blinking light thing it was good stuff!