I’m running tomb of annihilation. The players have tracked down the lair of a pair of Wights (twin brothers in life). The wights have been harrying and aiding in corrupting the soldiers at Camp Vengeance along with Nanny Pu’pu, the hag the players have been trying to track down.
I’m modelling one of them on Hannibal lector. The other I’m not sure about, but he has a flair for experimentation with his zombie creation skills.
The players are about to descend into the base of a ruined tower, the wights’ lair. They were using pass without trace and avoided detection by the carrion crawlers outside. One human player, the cleric, is unable to see and being guided blind by another character. Just at the end of our last session, they noticed one of the crawlers with its tentacles dangling above them. They will easily avoid it, but it freaked them out.
In any case, I want the lair to be a real horror show and I’m curious if folks have ideas. I don’t have much experience with horror. All I have so far is furniture made from partially animated body parts. Think a chair with the arms made from human firearms, hands still attached and squirming.
How about creating situations they can identify with in real life and dialing it up to an 11? Have the PCs wade through a room filled with muck. Not just mud. Muck that smells of urine and vomit with a disgustingly vile color. The muck has the same affect as Troglodyte stench. Then have them fight something that shoots special arrows that cause open wounds that won't close. Normal healing spells only heal hp, but the injured PC loses 3 hit points per minute regardless. (Make sure there's an item in the dungeon that lets them remove this condition or allow them to Remove Curse to get rid of it only after sacrificing a valuable scroll in a special brazier.)
One of the rooms will be a public bath. If they try to clean themselves by turning on the spigot, it seems to work, but the water quickly turns to blood (have them think this is their own blood). If this doesn't get them jumpy, have them be attacked by Water Weirds while cleaning themselves off. Instead of being clear, have the Water Weirds be the same color as the blood or the muck, whichever is more likely to get a disgusted reaction.
If you can, use their backstories to create monsters that resemble people from their pasts: parents, mentors, dead lovers, etc. Create magic room that separates the PCs from each other. Then they each meet a monster with an uncanny resemblence to someone they know or used to know. To defeat the monsters, they would need to kill monsters that look like their loved ones. Force Intelligence or Wisdom saves the first time a PC tries to attack these monsters in order to not suffer a penalty to their damage rolls. The monsters will speak with the voices of the people they knew and talk about how horrible it is to be hurt by people they care about.
Mirrors, dim lighting, and sounds or smells that don't have any easily discernible source. Mirrors can be funhouse/broken/distorted in any other way, but honestly even a normal mirror with odd shadows that aren't there when they turn back/no one else saw would work. Maybe better even. I say do things that will unnerve them and then anything you do that may not normally scare/startle anyone could be bigger fear factors. Not sure if that made sense, but hopefully that helps.
I think there is even a poison in the DM's Guide that does something similar to the wounds that can't be healed. I think it's more like the poison damage isn't healable and then they take poison damage each morning that they haven't been cured until a certain amount of Con saves have been successful, but any other damage can be healed. That is all super spooky though, good job.
Make them feel like they need to take a long rest, then when they go to sleep have one start to sleep walk. You could have the player think they have woken up and then they see things that they need to follow. You could play this to their backstories example a greedy pc could see a chest full of gold. You will then have a moment we're the players will wake not see one of their friends and have to find them in a horrible lair.
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The 6 most hated words in all of d&d history: make me a dex saving throw .
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I’m running tomb of annihilation. The players have tracked down the lair of a pair of Wights (twin brothers in life). The wights have been harrying and aiding in corrupting the soldiers at Camp Vengeance along with Nanny Pu’pu, the hag the players have been trying to track down.
I’m modelling one of them on Hannibal lector. The other I’m not sure about, but he has a flair for experimentation with his zombie creation skills.
The players are about to descend into the base of a ruined tower, the wights’ lair. They were using pass without trace and avoided detection by the carrion crawlers outside. One human player, the cleric, is unable to see and being guided blind by another character. Just at the end of our last session, they noticed one of the crawlers with its tentacles dangling above them. They will easily avoid it, but it freaked them out.
In any case, I want the lair to be a real horror show and I’m curious if folks have ideas. I don’t have much experience with horror. All I have so far is furniture made from partially animated body parts. Think a chair with the arms made from human firearms, hands still attached and squirming.
Give me your freakiest ideas, please.
How about creating situations they can identify with in real life and dialing it up to an 11? Have the PCs wade through a room filled with muck. Not just mud. Muck that smells of urine and vomit with a disgustingly vile color. The muck has the same affect as Troglodyte stench. Then have them fight something that shoots special arrows that cause open wounds that won't close. Normal healing spells only heal hp, but the injured PC loses 3 hit points per minute regardless. (Make sure there's an item in the dungeon that lets them remove this condition or allow them to Remove Curse to get rid of it only after sacrificing a valuable scroll in a special brazier.)
One of the rooms will be a public bath. If they try to clean themselves by turning on the spigot, it seems to work, but the water quickly turns to blood (have them think this is their own blood). If this doesn't get them jumpy, have them be attacked by Water Weirds while cleaning themselves off. Instead of being clear, have the Water Weirds be the same color as the blood or the muck, whichever is more likely to get a disgusted reaction.
If you can, use their backstories to create monsters that resemble people from their pasts: parents, mentors, dead lovers, etc. Create magic room that separates the PCs from each other. Then they each meet a monster with an uncanny resemblence to someone they know or used to know. To defeat the monsters, they would need to kill monsters that look like their loved ones. Force Intelligence or Wisdom saves the first time a PC tries to attack these monsters in order to not suffer a penalty to their damage rolls. The monsters will speak with the voices of the people they knew and talk about how horrible it is to be hurt by people they care about.
Mirrors, dim lighting, and sounds or smells that don't have any easily discernible source. Mirrors can be funhouse/broken/distorted in any other way, but honestly even a normal mirror with odd shadows that aren't there when they turn back/no one else saw would work. Maybe better even. I say do things that will unnerve them and then anything you do that may not normally scare/startle anyone could be bigger fear factors. Not sure if that made sense, but hopefully that helps.
I think there is even a poison in the DM's Guide that does something similar to the wounds that can't be healed. I think it's more like the poison damage isn't healable and then they take poison damage each morning that they haven't been cured until a certain amount of Con saves have been successful, but any other damage can be healed. That is all super spooky though, good job.
Make them feel like they need to take a long rest, then when they go to sleep have one start to sleep walk. You could have the player think they have woken up and then they see things that they need to follow. You could play this to their backstories example a greedy pc could see a chest full of gold. You will then have a moment we're the players will wake not see one of their friends and have to find them in a horrible lair.
The 6 most hated words in all of d&d history: make me a dex saving throw .