Creepiest D&D Content

[Doxkid]

I'm... having a REALLY hard time trying to tell what is it that you're trying to say here.

I only skim his posts for the same reason.
--
Solipsism:
For a few moments you awake from a hellish nightmare where everyone is trying to kill you. You are happy. You are back in reality.

Life is good.

Then...then you are back in that nightmare. Only now the nightmare is a few seconds later. A warrior that was across the room is already hacking into you. Another attacker just ran a blade across your throat and arrows jut out of your body.

The mage that cast the spell at you is laughing uproariously.

He knows you'll never escape from this hell quite like that ever again, even if you don't die in a few seconds. He knows you're desperately trying to wake up safe in bed, struggling to escape a nightmarish death that shouldn't be real.

[123456789blaaa]

<snip>

Fierna's mortal sin appears to be Sloth, or rather, lack of ambition. Since she's already got everything she actually wants.

But yes, the decadent rich-girl teenager interpretation holds some weight. But I'm not going to call someone evil for being that alone.

In the FC2 it's said that Glasya is encouraging Fernia to be more independant and ambitious (Belial is terrified that she might ursurp control). So her mortal sin might change.

As for your second point... i just assumed that since she's an archdevil of hell she does all the "standard" evil stuff that just isn't worth a mention since it's so common amongst devils.

[Elm11]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet.

Wendigos. (Warning, Creepy) Goddamnit those things are off the creepy chart. Aside from being dangerously close to a CR 17 ghoul, they're absolutely terrifying in picture, fluff and crunch. They look (as you can see) horrifying, and what they do is even worse.

These things, controlling weather, can make it foggy for days on end. They'll stalk you at the very edge of your view, so you can always just see that face behind some tree. They screech in the depth of the night, slowly driving you insane. As ways to die go, that's about as bad as they come.

Of course, they get a little comical when, instead of just turning into a Wendigo, you rocket off into the sky to do it. That just seems plain weird, so my campaign has been ignoring that for the purpose of a good monster.

Goddamn those things are creepy.

[Wyntonian]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet.

Wendigos. (Warning, Creepy) Goddamnit those things are off the creepy chart. Aside from being dangerously close to a CR 17 ghoul, they're absolutely terrifying in picture, fluff and crunch. They look (as you can see) horrifying, and what they do is even worse.

These things, controlling weather, can make it foggy for days on end. They'll stalk you at the very edge of your view, so you can always just see that face behind some tree. They screech in the depth of the night, slowly driving you insane. As ways to die go, that's about as bad as they come.

Of course, they get a little comical when, instead of just turning into a Wendigo, you rocket off into the sky to do it. That just seems plain weird, so my campaign has been ignoring that for the purpose of a good monster.

Goddamn those things are creepy.

That bit's from the original folklore. It's some pretty scary stuff.

Seriously, Slenderman has nothing on this.

[SgtCarnage92]

Seriously, Slenderman has nothing on this.

Am I the only one who doesn't find Slenderman really all that frightening? Old school folklore has things that still creep me out. I especially love old stories about the fae.

[Elm11]

That bit's from the original folklore. It's some pretty scary stuff.

Seriously, Slenderman has nothing on this.

Is it? Well, that's ONE way of explaining shooting stars, but I think I preferred 'Wishes come true!' to 'Horrific monster makes you eat someone's face off for its amusement!'

[Zeful]

Am I the only one who doesn't find Slenderman really all that frightening?

This is the internet, you're never the only one of anything.

But yeah, Slenderman: creepy, but overblown to the point that, like Cthulhu, has lost all of his prestige as a creature of fright.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Am I the only one who doesn't find Slenderman really all that frightening? Old school folklore has things that still creep me out. I especially love old stories about the fae.

I agree on in every way possible.

Some of the stuff from old Celtic, Irish, and Welsh folklore is chilling.

[Inglenook]

Slendy Off-Topic:

Spoiler

Show

I think Slendy is most frightening when divorced from the online "mythos" that has sprung up around him (e.g. Marble Hornets).

Back to the very basics: an abnormally tall, pale man in a suit, otherwise normal-looking when seen in person, but when photographed is revealed to have horrifying, featureless skin stretched over where his face should be. Oh, and he stalks/abducts/horribly murders children, and anyone who photographs him and realizes his "true form". Gives me the collywobbles.

Although maybe it's because he reminds me of Albert Fish.

[SgtCarnage92]

Slenderman: creepy, but overblown to the point that, like Cthulhu, has lost all of his prestige as a creature of fright.

I still find Cthulhu frightening, but only when I think of it as an entity separate from the "cult"-ure that made him an internet icon. Granted, I find many of the other stories within the "mythos" to be much creepier.

Some of the stuff from old Celtic, Irish, and Welsh folklore is chilling.

I am a strong supporter of bringing back faeries as credible horror monsters. It's been a dream of mine to run a PF game with this as a major part of the plot. Or maybe I'll check out Changeling...

Edit: Found to be in violation of the Redundancy clause of Redundancy...

[nyjastul69]

Flumphs are creepy. They're the only Lawful-Good monster in the 1st Ed. Fiend Folio. Why? Are they a secret agent of sorts? A single L-G beastie in a folio of fiends. Again...why? Oh, and of course their just all sorts of weird as well.

[Zeful]

I still find Cthulhu frightening, but only when I think of it as an entity separate from the "cult"-ure that made him an internet icon. Granted, I find many of the other stories within the "mythos" to be much creepier.

Cthulhu never really grabbed me due to my introduction to him at all was a parody that inspired more rage than fear, and the demystification of what Euclidean Geometry meant, that he's pretty much just a whipping boy to me.

[Zombimode]

Flumphs are creepy. They're the only Lawful-Good monster in the 1st Ed. Fiend Folio. Why? Are they a secret agent of sorts? A single L-G beastie in a folio of fiends. Again...why? Oh, and of course their just all sorts of weird as well.

What? Have you never heard of Blasto, the Hanar Specter?

[nyjastul69]

What? Have you never heard of Blasto, the Hanar Specter?

That flumph must have explored dungeon module S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Where else could it have gotten tech like that? It's also lacking the spikey bits, flumphs gotta have spikey bits. As a side note, their farts (it's actually a squirt, kinda squicky in a way) are toxic. Although, they are helpless when flipped over. I guess at that point they're a spikey, tentacled plate, but not quite as useful. I wonder if they come with matching flatware?

[Ammutseba]

I've got to be a bit to the left. I've read all eight pages, and no one has mentioned anything that specifically creeps me out. There were quite a few posts that were completely off topic, though.

Most of the creepy stuff in here (the on-topic stuff, that is) are the kinds of things that make me grin with excitement and want to learn more. Some other stuff just seems cute. The overtly morally dark grey to black sexual stuff makes me go "meh" and move on, though, because it was obvious that when a game dev team wanted to create things that would raise red flags, they would gun straight for the stuff with shock value. So on that one, it's probably just that I'm a little jaded.

But before this conversation rolled of the rails? Well...

I find Gnolls horrifying, not because I'm scared of Hyenas or anything, but because of how purely evil and morally disgusting my first DM portrayed them as. Plus the their cackling, which evokes pure terror.

Oh my gawd. Those things are soo cute! :3

Rakshasas also creep me out, because of the hand thing. Just imagine shaking their hands. . . *shudder*

Dude, that is awesome. I want to try that.

It kinda treads on the line for the OP's request, but the Tsochar from Lords of Madness creep me out to no end.

Hive mind leech/snake things that climb inside your body and force you to do their bidding or suffer horrible agony, and can also decide keeping you alive isn't worth the trouble so they just eat your brain and drive your body around like an old volvo.

*shudders*

Haha. That is so cool. I love the volvo analogy. I can totally see why these things are creepy to you, but they kind of remind me of those symbiotic fish that replace the tongues of that other species, except with nervous systems.

You mean puppeteers?
*image snipped*

Personally, I love those things. I played one in a short campaign several years back. I was Lawful Good but would go around using my dominate on the BBEGs in order to rehabilitate them and show them how to lead a good life. Quickly acquired quite the entourage and hilarity ensued!

Whoa. I want to try that now. Emissary of Barachiel style. Hehehe. Exalted leech.

Neogi usually get my vote for creepy factor. Particularly their reproduction cycle.

Also cute.

Intellect devourers. They kill you and move into your head while you sleep and then drive you around to mad orgies and stuff. They do this while BEING a giant brain with hands and feet.

These guys were just silly. Good for some laughs, and noticing that when it comes to brains, WotC wasn't much more than a one-trick pony.

I only skim his posts for the same reason.
--
Solipsism:
For a few moments you awake from a hellish nightmare where everyone is trying to kill you. You are happy. You are back in reality.

Life is good.

Then...then you are back in that nightmare. Only now the nightmare is a few seconds later. A warrior that was across the room is already hacking into you. Another attacker just ran a blade across your throat and arrows jut out of your body.

The mage that cast the spell at you is laughing uproariously.

He knows you'll never escape from this hell quite like that ever again, even if you don't die in a few seconds. He knows you're desperately trying to wake up safe in bed, struggling to escape a nightmarish death that shouldn't be real.

This... is an awesome idea for an entire campaign. The whole story is a struggle between freedom and control, set in a large, inescapable city. Tier 3 and lesser classes only (tiers 5 and 6, may gestalt), no evil characters.

It starts in a back alley fight, in which the player characters are pitted in a fight to the death against some nameless lower-level thugs. Soon, it becomes apparent that the thugs are just the pawns of a larger problem at work, and it becomes the responsibility of the players, who are the only ones to see the problem for what it is, to do something about.

With time, different truths of the story emerge, but the complete picture is that the city and all of the events inside it are the incarnation of a small span of seconds in the real world. What's really going on is that the player characters are the personifications of the different facets of a single person's willpower, struggling against the effects of a solipsism spell.

Their existence will come to an end whether they succeed or fail in their struggles, but to fail also comes with the knowledge that their failure will lead to the eternal torment of another man, and though in a way, themselves, this fact is quite lesser to the knowledge that should they give up, they will be creating a helpless victim of everlasting torture.



That's not to say there aren't things in this game which do creep me out, but those things are also real things. Namely, squid. Nightmare fuel with techron, right there.

[willpell]

So her "Evil" seems to consist of,
1, She's an archdevil.
2, She likes to "have fun".
3, She likes fire.
4, She's obediant to her elders and superiors.
5, She wears skimpy clothes.
6, She's still learning responsibility appropriate to her position.
7, There's gossip about her.

Well in BOVD it says she's an "avid consumer of males"; that may well not be a metaphor.

I'ts like the archdevils of hell are in a teen oriented sitcom.

This is a fairly common trope for immortal gods and similar beings; the idea is that if you lived forever, much as teenagers always seem to believe they will, you'd be incredibly venal and petty by virtue of having all eternity to do nothing but plot and snipe and obsess over trivialities, having no sense of restraint or perspective because the world cannot force you to be humble or reasonable. It's not a trope I like, but it's used quite a bit.

As for other stuff that creeps me out about D&D, the illustration of Torog from the end of the Underdark book in 4e freaks me right the hell out.

Is it this? From all I can tell it's just a red cyclops; if it's actually a cyclops with no skin and covered in blood, that's be pretty bad, but I'd be surprised if there's not quite a few similarly nasty things out there.

[Kris Strife]

Is it this? From all I can tell it's just a red cyclops; if it's actually a cyclops with no skin and covered in blood, that's be pretty bad, but I'd be surprised if there's not quite a few similarly nasty things out there.

That is indeed a cyclops with no skin.

[Marlowe]

That's not to say there aren't things in this game which do creep me out, but those things are also real things. Namely, squid. Nightmare fuel with techron, right there.

You are advised not to visit the seafood section of a Korean supermarket anytime soon.

[The LOBster]

If we're gonna bring in PF monsters, then I might as well bring in one of my mythological favorites: The nuckelavee. Thing is, Paizo messed up when they described it as a "Nature's Vengeance" type thing. See, in mythology, nuckelavees aren't out for revenge against polluters. They're just cruel, monstrous, hateful fae that want to spread plagues and kill everything on land.

Is it this? From all I can tell it's just a red cyclops; if it's actually a cyclops with no skin and covered in blood, that's be pretty bad, but I'd be surprised if there's not quite a few similarly nasty things out there.

Nope. Torog's worse. Waaaaaaay worse.

Oh my gawd. Those things are soo cute! :3

I freaking love hyenas, but you can probably blame the ones in The Lion King for making me unable to take Gnolls seriously. Combine that with how hyenas make "mooOOOOO" noises all the time, and it's a monster I laugh with

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I am a strong supporter of bringing back faeries as credible horror monsters. It's been a dream of mine to run a PF game with this as a major part of the plot. Or maybe I'll check out Changeling...

Edit: Found to be in violation of the Redundancy clause of Redundancy...

*High fives.*

I've been studying fae lore for years, and some of that stuff is downright horrific, in a subtle and truly scary way.

You REALLY should check out Changeling: the Lost, as it is a very well done fae roleplaying game that emphasizes the aspects of the folklore I find scariest and most fascinating.

Changeling: the Dreaming is a whole different beast. Think of a mixture of Peter Pan, Jim Henson's Labyrinth, and Neverwhere.

[willpell]

You REALLY should check out Changeling: the Lost, as it is a very well done fae roleplaying game that emphasizes the aspects of the folklore I find scariest and most fascinating.

+1 to this. CTL is my 2nd-favorite RPG of all time (D&D isn't even in the top 5, for reference, though it is good about triggering my tendency to obsess and so I spend a disproportionate amount of my time on it). They do a great job of creating a complex set of conflicts and taking advantage of how huge and tangled the body of lore is.

Changeling: the Dreaming is a whole different beast. Think of a mixture of Peter Pan, Jim Henson's Labyrinth, and Neverwhere.

CTD is an interesting premise but was horribly bungled. You basically have to have a Peter Pan complex to enjoy it the way they wrote it. They literally have evil accountants that try to bore you to soul-death. It was not White Wolf's finest hour, though there's definitely potential (specifically the potential to hit the Neverwhere end of the spectrum; Labyrinth is more like Lost, really) if you're patient enough to dig for it. I used to be, but wasn't the last time I tried.

Torog seems rather offensive to all five of the sense.

I am now intensely curious as to how the referenced painting tastes.....

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I am now intensely curious as to how the referenced painting tastes.....

If you start off by fighting kobolds in a cellar and then go on an epic odessy that takes you to the deepest pits of the Underdark where you have a final climatic duel with Torog, you may be able to run your tongue against his still-cooling corpse. However, in doing so, you may absorb his divine essence and become the new god of torture, digging an even deeper Underdark in your death throes.

[willpell]

Yes, but Lobster didn't say that Torog freaked him out, he said the illustration in a particular book did. So I was running with the idea that it was the physical picture which both he and Noedig were talking about.

[SgtCarnage92]

*High fives.*

I've been studying fae lore for years, and some of that stuff is downright horrific, in a subtle and truly scary way.

You REALLY should check out Changeling: the Lost, as it is a very well done fae roleplaying game that emphasizes the aspects of the folklore I find scariest and most fascinating.

*returns high five with enthusiasm*

What's a good source for more information on fey? I've done some basic net searches but I would love to delve into the lore more.

I had a friend who was going to start a C:TL game awhile ago and it never got off the ground due to scheduling.

[willpell]

I had a friend who was going to start a C:TL game awhile ago and it never got off the ground due to scheduling.

Time makes *****es of us all, doth it nae?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

*returns high five with enthusiasm*

What's a good source for more information on fey? I've done some basic net searches but I would love to delve into the lore more.

I had a friend who was going to start a C:TL game awhile ago and it never got off the ground due to scheduling.

Well, I was lucky enough to be partially raised by a mythology and literature scholar, who told me much. You can also learn more on Wikipedia, and even TvTropes. The best resource, however, is Grimm's Faerie Tales.

Perhaps I could run a Changeling: the Lost Skype or PBP game, and folklore enthusiasts such as yourself could join.

[Eldan]

I am now intensely curious as to how the referenced painting tastes.....

I have eaten several D&D books. Curiously, the worst tasting picture was that of the Archmage in the 3.0 DMG.

[lotusblossom13]

Mind altering spells have always creeped me out. The idea that someone could make you do something horrific with the right command or choice of words is terrifying. Also, spells like mind rape are really horrific because you could never be certain that you were truly yourself.

[Sutremaine]

Nope. Torog's worse. Waaaaaaay worse.

Is it the picture where his waist is bent backwards?

[Marlowe]

Missed this, but can't leave it alone.

Well in BOVD it says she's an "avid consumer of males"; that may well not be a metaphor.

Leaving aside that nobody with any grasp of the history of English literature would take it literally, Outsiders don't eat.