you could also try heroes of horror, i only flipped through this so someone else could
give you a better 'review' of HoH!
Almost all of my players are animal loving vegetarians though, so perhaps this wouldn't be quite as icky for your party!
Forcing your players to choose between killing cannibal children or leaving them to starve after dealing with there evil parents. And killing them couldbe construed evil acts which could also be fun.
I think that adding corpses outside of necromancy can have a nice creepy effect. If paired with undead, corpses tend to be more of the enemy, but if presented as recent victims, they have a nice effect.
Also just thought of this, but unwilling suicide bombers. Certain townsfolk have had explosive runes placed on them or maybe chemical devices implanted in them, possibly without their knowing. Give the players a few rounds of warning that they can kill the townsfolk in to diffuse the bomb, giving them the option to slay an innocent or deal with collateral damage.
In a typical campaign the heroes slay the demon prince and return all the kidnapped women to their homes safe and sound. But in a horror campaign, the women are all in various stages of pregnancy or nursing their demon spawned children. What do the PCs do? Do they kill the infants because their father was a demon? Do they abort the pregnancies? Do they slay the kidnapped and raped women to prevent demonic corruption from spreading?erdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
The world needs to feel a bit...off...every now and again. The barmaid never blinks. The dog's bark escapes it's mouth a half second too late (kind of like a bad sync on a youtube video or .avi file). Every morning one of the PCs is awoken to the sound of an infant screaming but nobody else hears it. Every week the color seems to seep a bit more from the surrounding countryside, leaving everything a flat grey tone.
Find ways to isolate a player. Nothing will scare a PC more than suddenly being cut off from his allies and resources. Claustrophobia, isolation, and helplessness are three keys to invoking dread.
Mechanically, you need to remove the paladin's immunity to fear. Playing in a horror campaing and being immune to fear is counterintuitive. Instead a +4 bonus to saving throws against fear effects is recommended.
Lastly, DON'T OVER DO IT! This last part can't be stressed enough. Lighten the mood every now and again and don't go overboard on the descriptions to the point that your players start getting uncomfortable. It may seem awesome to you to describe in gory detail the viscera splayed out across the tavern's common room, but if you see your players starting to squirm or look uncomfortable you need to tone it back a bit. Don't try to keep it all horror all the time, your players need time to recover their frayed nerves and emotional reserves so give them a happy ending occasionally or a session of sunshine, they'll thank you for it.
If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend seeing the movie Session 9. It's a horror movie that uses the sheer creepyness of an asbestos lined asylum as it's setting. There is very little gore but you feel the claustrophobia, the isolation, and the dread as madness envelops the characters. The taped psychiatric sessions (hence the name) really add to the day to day horror of the place. Yet the film doesn't over do it because between the horror we see scenes of the characters just bonding and talking over meals and it gives us a sense of hope for their safety and survival.
What first comes to mind is to make him disturb the slumber of some undead persona (lich or what have you, it can be a regular zombie if you wish) during one of his grave-robbing sessions, who was, perhaps, imprisoned or just got sick of being in such (undead) state so he went on vacation.
Anyway, if he makes some positive relationship with any particular doctor - take that away. Inform him somehow that he brought the undead persona to the doctor and that IT got pissed while doctor tried do dissect it. The doctor is now splattered all over the lab and the undead is looking for the bastard who dug him up.
He can even go serial killer route, and leave clues pointing towards the PC, like the strand of hair the town diviner discerns as being the PCs, or the muddy footprint he left at the grave, etc
make the player feel responsible for everything thats going on, and all the innocents being killed
1. Let's say that players start in a small town. There is a rich family in town. They had two children, but the "official" story says that their daughter died very young, form some disease and their son left their home and never came back (no one knows why). But, the truth is that the nobles are worshipers of the Dread Lords. A lot of people turns to worshiping Dread Lords, because they think that the Gods are either dead or unable to help them (they lost faith). Now, these nobles asked Dread Lords to grant them some wish (wealth, good health, power), but the lords were asking something in return. They wanted the daughter. The nobles were so corrupted, that they accepted and they gave their daughter to the Dread Lords. The girl was given to the Lords, they performed some kind of ritual (it could be anything from torture to ****) and after that, she gave birth to the swarm of terrible beasts. The Dread Lords left her after that (this is what they do - they just corrupt things and leave them). She now lives deep in the forest, with her children. The thing is, she still remembers her former life and she knows what her parents did to her. So she sends her beasts to kill her family.
I also mentioned they had a son. The boy found out what happened to his sister and the parents locked him in a cell deep beneath their castle. He is alive, but he went mad.
Nobles hire the PCs to protect their town from the beast attacks. You can do the rest.
2. Let's also assume that the Dread Lords could corrupt people that live near their woods. Because of this, there is a lot of children born with some deformities. They are either killed at the birth or left in the woods. Some of them survive and become the beasts that roam the forests. PCs could be charged with similar decision - should they kill the cursed child, or should they leave it at the forest.
3. If you are familiar with Warhammer FRP, you may know about Inanity points. You can do something similar here. Let's say that PC will become insane when he gets certain amount of Insanity points. During the course of the campaign, he sees or experiences terrible things (like the mentioned child killing). Everytime he witness something like that, he needs to roll some ability check or saving throw. Place him in situation where he has to kill honest folk, execute someone, eat corpses to stay alive, or have a look at one of the Dread Lords (those are the things that would drive the normal folk mad). If he fails, he gets insanity point. When he collects certain number of them, he gets some mental disorder. Then he has to roleplay that disorder.
4. Later during the campaign, let one of the PCs get married/have children. Dread Lords want revenge, so they slaughter his family before him, or make him do the deed, etc, etc.
Hope this helps.
The session starts off with the two characters both halflings one the graverobber aforementioned who was a dog riding ranger who focused on undead enemies and a rogue that focused mainly on more illicit dealings. The graverobber started the night by digging up a coffin and taking a ring it was buried with afterwards selling it to a local Doctor. For most of the night after that him and the rogue spent their time fighting and gambling on illegal pit fights out in the woods. Once that was out of the way the graverobber attempted and somehow succeded on seducing another halfling wench from the pit brawls. During that night an urgent message was delivered to the inn they were staying at from the Doctor asking for urgent help.
When they arrived at the old decrepit manor the inside was completely covered with dust as they went into the basement (the location of the Doctor's "operation room") they first went through a waiting area that showed scrapes in the dust indicating the furniture was meticuously put back into place after being thrown all over. The next room contained jars filled with various medicines and organs and was covered with a green slime with a repulsive odor. The next room contained the operating room. Inside there were candles lit all around ready to die on the slab in the center of the room the Doctor's body laid with his intestines ripped apart and hanging out and a hollowed out head with a candle inside of it hanging above the body near the ceiling. Throughout all of these rooms and the rest of the house there was an extremely strong fruity scent.
Going upstairs they heard something that sounded like a a creature chewing. Seeing candlelight from out underneath the doorway they entered a room filled with Jack-o-lanterns that had human eyes in the sockets and human teeth placed in the mouths, one of these contained a rat on the inside chewing on it. As they continued on they came to a door with and overpoweringly fruity scent coming from it and after some difficulty they open the door after seeing that it has been rusted shut. Inside they find and old study and see a layer of dust almost and inch thick on everything. On the desk near the window there sits a bowl of ordinary fresh fruit with no dust on it. They decide to search through the books and papers and what not in the study finding one reappearing name: Drugo The Nameless a famous necromancer and medical expert. Being called Drugo The Nameless for two reasons 1. His true name was unknown so he was given the title "Drugo" a Dwarven word meaning the cold death and 2. Because he used hordes of nameless undead.
This is as far as we got but we should continue sometime soon. Tell me what you think and give me any ideas you think might book for the rest of this adventure or the campaign. Thanks!
BUUUTTTT I think I've figured out a way that you can have some more fun with that character.
Get a girl that's truly interested in him, have some fun letting him think he's gonna get luicky with her, Hell let him "seduce" her or get her drunk or something.
Then when there in the bedroom, boom, something horrible happens.
You can go anyway you want to at this point. I've seen girls transform into werewolves or other lycanthrope creatures. There is a story about a goddess that poses as a prostitute so that she can absorb men during the act. Really the ceiling is up to you on this one, and skies the limit especially when dealing with cocky individuals IMO.
Also another fun thing to do with the group would be sleep deprevation. Admittedly if you could get the group to actually run off of sleep deprevation that would be amazing but as you probably can't (unless your some sort of mad genius and schemer of a level greater than my own [kidding of cours])
You could make the characters sleep deprived, hae them start seeing things an hearing things that aren't there. Have them attack illusions, or better yet have them attack a bunny they think is a dragon or soemthing, sleep deprivation can be very fun.
Your first session sounds like it went well and I would imagine that your players were creeped out by it. However I am really kind curious as to how the green slime, fruit, candles, jack-o-lanterns and everything could fit together. All very creepy, but at the same time it seems kind of random and could be seen as kind of gimmicky. I would decide on what Drugo is like as an individual, his motivations and preferences, to think about how he would leave things. Is he meticulous and clean? ritualistic? ruthless and barbaric? Some stuff to think about as you go along.
For the fruit and jack-o-lanterns maybe it is part of Drugo's growing madness. The only pure thing he can't corrupt and turn into an undead and so he has a love-hate relationship with fruit. Having a meticulous bowl of fruit shows his love for its purity, yet at the same time the jack-o-lanterns being the way they were show his hatred for life, beauty, and purity. Since he both loves and hates fruit it's all he will ever eat which accounts for the overpowering scent.
Very interesting and connects deeply to the inner workings of his mind though I doubt my players would understand let alone notce such a subtle thing
)The port city of Carathur is a fair sized port city. It's not a large merchant stop, more like a supply post on the edges of an Eastern Kingdom. Its a prosperous city, known, but only really in the region. Until now.
Rumors have been flying through the region about a town completely cut off- no one can really tell you why they stopped trades, stopped letting people through the gates, why communications have completely ceased. You are called on as the only adventurers in the region, charged with looking into the matter. Simply go and report back to the King, and he will pay you. But when is it that simple?
Upon coming up to the city, anyone who can read tracks will immediately notice that the road to the city has been untouched for an extended period of time. The winds will carry a soft scent that grows slowly as the party comes nearer the city- that of putrid decay and demise.
The watchtower above seems to have had something large and bloody thrown up against the small roofing, then splat down along the outside ledge of the wall. It appears to have been drug down the length of the wall, towards the closed gates, then yanked back in. The outside of the city seems hardly touched.
Once you enter the city, the scene is horrific. These same kinds of ragdoll made smears and stains of blood are all over the walls of the city, the buildings, houses, leading down the dirt road. All the buildings have their doors swung wide, blood trails from in and around them joining to the main river that leads further in the port. There are signs of struggle and fights everywhere, debris as it seems people were forcefully removed from whereever they were. Did you hear something? No, it was your imagination.
As you walk down the dried crimson path, the walls behind you all read the same message: BRING ECKARD. These are not hand smears of rage in blood, but almost delicately painted with care and concern to the presentation.
But what of the smell you ask? Where could it be coming from? The end of the path leads you to where. One building, from what can be discerned from its shape, is a Temple. Pieces of corpses hang like patchwork from it- an arm here, a leg there, theres a torso with limp entrails, over theres a slaw jawed head of a poor woman. Each body has been stripped naked, and nailed over the building. The bodies seem to all be in various stages of decomposition. Only one part of the building has been left uncovered- the large wooden doors leading in. The top step is free of dust and debris, the door looks clean, even oddly polished. Though blood has dripped from the bodies, it seems to have been shifted from around the door, as if it were some sacred artifact.
Something drops behind you. You turn in time to see a head, or what used to be one, stop at your feet. It has no face- it's been torn off, the rotting brainan oozing mush as the skull holds it in like a bowl.
Infront of you is a little girl, completely drenched in water. She drips but no puddle at her bare feet.
She stares until she knows she has your attention. Her mouth opens, and a off timed chorus of voices all tell you, "Bring Eckard."
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The Baron was seen as a good man, until he had started to become confortable in the power he had. In his revelation that anything could be his, he demanded a widowed farmer to give up his eldest daughter to him, because she was beautiful and untouched. He had her arrested and brought to him. After defiling her, he demanded her younger sister. No one believed the farmer, chosing to still believe that the Baron was a good man.
The Farmer spoke out against the Baron, pleading, asking anyone to help. The guards seized him, killing him infront of his little girl. All the townspeople turned away as they drug the youngest daughter through the town screaming and begging for help and mercy.
A week went by in the town where everything was still and quiet.
In the middle of day, the girl stood in the town square, drenched, wet. She demanded the Baron, but no one listened. That day, she killed the baker that yelled for her to get out of his sight.
Everyday she appeared, she would kill increasingly more people until everyone had fled to the Temple of Pelor.
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Explaination:
It's through the blessings of Pelor himself and the sanctity of the Temple that she cannot enter. She will not accoust the party unless they challenge her first. Even if they swing at her, she will not attack unless they find a way to damage her as a ghost. She will try to reason with them.
If they reason with her, she will tell them what really happened, and that she 'knows' he is in the Temple. She will trust the adventurers, mentioning that she was raised that adventurers were heros, and she needed one.
If they choose to attack her, and she cannot reason with them, she will vanish, then appear on the church step highest that is bloodied, throwing corpse pieces at them until she is satisfied and vanishes.
The townspeople will eventually let the adventurers in once she has left, having overheard whatever had happened. There's only about sixty people left (they will notice mostly younger), all huddled, dirty, and starving in the Temple. They will beg for you to destroy the little girl, saying that she is a monster and a blight that even the monks could not combat. If asked about the Baron, they will inform you that he is not in the Temple, or someone would have thrown him out to her long ago.
One man will identify himself as a towns guard, and be willing to show you the way to Eckard's house. He'll explain that his wife was one of the dead, and he really has nothing left to live for. Upon taking the party to the house, the girl will reappear, angry, because the person you escorted is not Eckard. The guard will try to explain (though only barely through his fear) that Eckard was not in the church- the party will have to quickly agree or the girl will attack the guard. If attacked, the group will watch him be torn apart immediately.
If he survives, he will reiterate something he had offhandedly mentioned as they walked- the Baron had passages in his home that were attached to the walls of the city.
Its in the Barracks of the Guardhouse that Eckard had kept the Head Monk, making him divine and cast spells of protection, again blessed by Pelor himself. All around, them bodies of guardsmen are dead, rotting, or have been used by the Baron as food. It would be another good oppurtunity to provide a horror element on the players.
From here, the story can branch several ways. The group can kill Eckard, bring his head body to the Temple door; they can try to bring him to the Temple alive (where if he manages to get into the Temple, the townspeople will kill him); they can reason with Eckard and he will tell her where he drowned the girls body in his house so they may destroy it causing her to be removed from the town; or they can bring the Head Monk back to the Temple to devise a rite to rid the town of the girl (an option I would only suggest if you had a Cleric to help with the rite, or someone's character who worshipped Pelor.)