Successful horror session

[Kaww]

I had a GREAT horror session this weekend. We gamed for 26-30 hours (two sessions), which contributed to the atmosphere and to people being in character. I made one of my players cry and hyperventilate, one was snapping his fingers and at least two of remaining three were genuinely scarred. I had to go out of the room and calm down the girl (age 20+) that got really upset.

This is the party:

Spoiler

- Human, Ninja 12 with saint template, AC monster (AC 47) the only party member which was allowed to use Dragon Magazine to pump up his tier. Let's call him C.

- Human, Cleric 5, RSoP 5, Scion 2, with saint template - a Czila. She isn't interested in breaking the game, but keeping the party alive. Because of this she is allowed to play game breakers. Let's call her J.

- Dwarf, Warblade 8, Fighter 2, DSS 4 Badass fighter that just loves fighting for the sake of the fight. Let's call him L.

- Gnome, Beguiler 8, SCM 5 illusionist/prankster loves messing with the rest of the party. Let's call her V.

- Sun elf, Warmage 10, Elemental savant 3. A player that has a few moments of brilliance, the rest of the time he does and says some REALLY stupid (fun for me) things. Let's call him M.

As you may notice some of them died once or twice

Some basic campaign info:

Spoiler

Undead rise spontaneously. Because of this I allowed them to cast spells such as status on inanimate objects. I swear I didn't throw a single mimic at them, but objects are sometimes the targets of the spell... They think that they are after a madman trying to end the world. Now they are in polar regions and their asses are frozen there

This is one of the moments:

Spoiler

The party walks in an ancient, abandoned temple inside a hill. Beguiler made telepathic bonds...
They hear (AUDIO):
-First hiss: I smell something
-Second hiss: I can hear them there is four of them
-Third hiss: I heard five of them
There is no light, M has stones with light cast on them, V has arcane sight on. Whole room is reading powerful transmutation magic. The room is huge and they see nothing except some pillars. After a few minutes of walking they see a white dragon's head. It belongs to a really big dragon, they can all fit in it. At first they jump back, spread, listen and wait for the beast to attack. When the dragon doesn't move they come close to inspect it. It's gaping mouth reveals huge fangs, the tongue is sticking out. They ask if it's eyes are open (they are), and then they decide to cast status at it. Status: Not alive. Party: Oh crap, it's gonna rise, he wanted to catch us off guard. All of a sudden they hear a thought: 'YOU ARE FUN. YES THEY ARE'. Party: Forms a triangle with squishies in the middle. They wait for the thing to attack. Finally M touches the dragon with his sword and I tell him that the dragon didn't respond. Now to increase the paranoia I check out their stats, ask for saves and generally mess with them. Now, my mistake: While reading a sheet, planing the target for the encounter to follow I ask: 'So, did anybody touch the statue?' L starts laughing and I facepalm. It took full two minutes for the group to realize what just happened... I could have had more fun, when this happened, but I blew it with multitasking...

Until I ******up they were on the edges of their seats...

I just had a need to share, this was just about the least interesting/horror moment of the session. But it was the opening act. I will post more when I have time, the Dragon situation took them about an hour to solve...

[Hadrian_Emrys]

The flub sucks, but I like your style.

Are you really using my 'Badass' alternate class level rules in your game, or am I just misreading that description?

[Dark_Nohn]

Wish I had a group that would stay in game that well

[Kaww]

Further explanation:

Spoiler

The party found the Guardian of the temple - a six headed hydra with each head being a separate personality (A high level party was fused into a hydra to be in pain for all eternity (one of them is a bard) for a crime against reality 30.000 years ago). The Guardian told them that the item they were looking for is guarded by six dungeons that will test the heroes in all aspects. The statue was that of Tiamat. The Guardian's personalities were the ones that messed with the minds of PCs. The Guardian, standing at the front of the statue, told them that the entrance to the dungeons is through Tiamat, the true entrance is the one furthest away. Players naturally tested all the heads, I on the other hand naturally didn't have a head in mind and the heads were false entrances, trapped...

One other thing, for some reason C Used up a Wish to have a ninja clothes at will (200 charges) and a katana at will (also 200 charges)

One other moment:

Spoiler

Disclaimer: I stole two basic ideas from a thread started in this forum, worked it into something I needed. I am deeply grateful to it's OP and the person that suggested this to him.

The first three rooms were tests of their brute physical abilities. 2nd, 4th and 5th rooms were antimagic, or so my players thought...
1: A straight fight with a homebrew monster based on Crawling apocalypse (Sandstorm) with added templates.
2: A room with lava and lots of jump and balance checks, while fighting a tempest MM2.
3: A room full of statues and a single stone golem, huge MM.
*This was to lull my players to think that this is just a good old dungeoncrawl with pointless skill checks etc.*

The fourth room: Every player had a unique vision of the room, due to differences in spot and will saves. They all saw a room filed with traps - pitfalls covered with illusions. They first made a map of where each of them sees the traps. They used C to carry the rest over the pits, then he dropped M into a pit...

Four out of five of them saw a hole there including M. He fell 80ft, and took the appropriate dmg. Now he was stuck in a 10x10 hole, quarter HP lost. V saw him lying on the floor shouting for help.
V: Dude get up, and move along.
M: Help me!! I fell into the pit!
V: You're just lying on the floor.
She starts walking over to him and tries to grab him. C sees this and stops his friend on the edge of the pit.
C: Are you OK? You almost fell down after him!
V: Where did I almost fall down to? He's right there. She touches M.
Me: M you were touched by an invisible creature, you felt the attempt to grab, what do you do?
M runs away from the 'ghost' as far as he can, back against the wall. He shouts: Help there is someone here!!!
L puts two and two together and says that he will tie a rope around V, and let her go down the shaft. They do this. M sees V dangling above him. L, J and C saw V going down the shaft. V saw them throwing the rope at her feet after she walked into the 'pit'. She grabbed M and tried to lead him through a solid wall, which resulted in him slamming into a wall.
Next idea came from C: How about you give him a dagger? V gives M a dagger. C, L and J see the dagger fall into the pit, and they hear M scream: 'My arm!!!' M is glad to have an invisible dagger in his hands, and V sees M inspecting a common dagger like an idiot.
This is the moment our Saint Ninja has a revelation.
C: 'We have stumbled upon a gap in reality. If we make a single wrong move we might end up killing our alternative selves, thus killing ourselves for real in all dimensions'.
V OoG gets up from the chair, starts walking back and forth, staring at her feet, visibly upset.
V iG: We have to get him out of there! But the rope is too darn short!
C: Why don't we make a rope out of our clothes?
V: ?
C: Starts popping ninja suits out of thin air (12), tied them together and with the rope. Now the L and C pull M. They almost drop him into the negatives (6 hp remaining) until they succeeded and pulled him out. They dropped him three times avg height was 53ft. When they pulled him out a cheer went across the table, but a new problem arises here.

Me: Who is willing to move? Do you think you found all the traps there?
V, looking at her map: I'm gonna walk straight out!
M, J, L, C: NO!!
They decided to tie a rope around her waist and let her go first, with L holding the other end. After a few squares L, J and M see her drop. L didn't menage to maintain the hold of the rope, and she fell all the way down, but L managed to catch the rope, before it fell into the pit. V and C saw L, J and M shout after V, also they saw L throw the rope, and then jumping after it and catching it. L, J and M pull V out of the hole and see her heavenly bruised. V and C see V trying to get away and the three pulling her toward them selves. C & M ask them wtf?

L to others: I think she hit her head, she claims she is ok.
J examined her: She didn't break anything, but she did bump her head.
V p*****d off and shaking, I'm not sure whether in or out of game says: F*** this s***t I'm getting out of here!
She removes the rope and runs out of the room watching out for the traps that she notices.
V OoG is panting, wondering what's gonna happen with Ras (the gnome).
Me, OoG: V come with me, I take her two rooms away from the game room and ask: Do you look back?
V, breathing even more heavily: Yes?
Me: You see that there are no pits in the previous room.
V, now with tears in her eyes: I go and put my foot where the last pit was.
Me: Solid stone, you see others jumping/balancing, for no apparent reason while walking over the room. They don't see you.
V OoG: What the f*** was that room!?!
Me: Insanity?
V, now crying: YOU BASTARD!!!

To be continued, most likely tomorrow...

[jiriku]

Pure awesome. Hurt them more! Hurt them more! And then tell us about it.

[Kaww]

The best room was 6.
That's gonna get posted in two three days, tops...
After this weekend V and I said no DND at least two weeks. Me for physical reason, my throat is sore and mental reason is I'm still thinking about the previous sessions... V is still shaken OoG.

[Kaww]

Yet more facts:

Spoiler

For rooms 4 and 5 I had an assistant that did the one side of reality while I did the other. I'll call her S.

Room 4, ending:

Spoiler

After I was done talking with V L entered the room. I asked him did S want me to come back there, he said that ' The Dwarf has left the room.' He had a fairly easy map and he is Lawful, both OoG and IG, so I didn't doubt him. I told him that the room is empty, except for the equipment that they left behind and the party members that are still there.
V ran back into the room, L followed. C missed them by an inch while charging at the open door, and he receives the same explanation as L and V.
M and J fell into the pits. M lost what was remaining of his HP, J has fast healing 7. I tell C, V and L that they see M walking and then all of a sudden he just drops, for no reason whatsoever. They just carry him out of the room.
Now J is a tougher nut to crack. She is the most powerful party member, and is currently clawing at thin air, trying to climb out of an imaginary pit. C tries to lead her out, but she resists the attempt.
C has a bright, ninjalike, idea: 'Let's knock her out! It's the only way!'
L: 'Or we do it the easy way, since she's got high AC, DR and fast healing...'
L throws some rope at J and says: 'Wrap it around your waist and I'll pull you out.'
J fell into one more pit, they got her out the same way...

[Kaww]

You got it, more explanations:

Spoiler

As said above, some party members died, some came back as zombies. They don't like dieing, they like coming back without paying for it even less...

Room 5:

Spoiler

Me:'You enter a room filled with buzzing hives. You don't see any bees, but you do hear the buzz all the time. The hives emanate green clouds that reduce visibility to 20ft. You have greater line of sight to the sides. Where do you go?
M:' I'm not getting anywhere near the fiendish hives!'
Me: 'Ok, anybody else?'
L: 'I'm gonna go next to the left wall, through less dense clouds.'
Me: 'Ok, you get to the left wall of the room, the only way out now is through the dense cloud.'
L: 'I go back. Then I go along the right path.'
Me: 'After 20ft you see a dense cloud, but through it you see the path continue.'
L: 'I go through the cloud.'
I roll a d6, Me: 'You see the path going straight to the wall, and then it bends left'
L: 'I found the path, follow me!'
Party follows, I roll 4d6 Me: 'M, you think it would be very wise to run through the next cloud'
M: 'I run through the next cloud!'
I roll d6, Me: 'Ok, you see M running with his still broken leg, and then you see him fall.'
V: 'M get up, are you OK?'
Me: 'No response.'
L: 'I go through the cloud to carry him back.'
I roll d6, Me: 'You pick him up, and carry him over your shoulder, right?' L nods.
Me: 'Ok, M moves and tries to grapple you, *two d20 rolls* but he is no match. You hold him tight, but he delayed you in the cloud. *roll d6* You drop too.'
Me: 'V, C, J you see M getting up, and then L gets up as well. They are moving towards you, with great difficulty, drool running down their mouths.'
J: 'I try to turn them.'*Rolling the dice*
Me: 'You didn't make it, they are still advancing.' Party is freaked out now, especially M and L. They run through the least dense cloud and find an altar in thick green cloud, on a 10x10 ft square, 5ft elevated.
C: 'We climb the elevated ground, right?' V and J confirm.
I roll 3d6, Me: 'It says something along the lines of *SUCKER!*, C J is looking at you with a dull look, no spark of intelligence in them, and V dropped. L and M are advancing slowly, you see them coming towards you. *2d6* J dropped. What do you do?'
C: 'I take a deep breath and mentally prepare to see my ancestors.'

This happened simultaneously: M you see you lifeless, ghostly body on the floor next to you. There are no clouds in the room, but the hives persist. The wall which you didn't see has an altar in front of it. In the middle of the wall there's a portal made of light. You see L coming, picking up an empty shell, the body, and carrying it. Suddenly the body moves, and tries to grab L. What do you do?
M: 'I try to stop my body, try to regain control.'
Me: 'You fail at your attempt, you see L drop.'
M: 'I shout warnings, do they hear me? Do I see L?'
Me: 'No, and no. L is getting up as well, you are going towards the rest of the party.'
M: 'Can't watch this, I'm going through the portal.'
Me: 'L, you see the same picture M saw. Your bodies are after the rest of the party.'
L: 'I explore the room. Try to escape through the walls etc'
Me: 'Walls are still solid, hives are hollow, with huge amounts of unknown green liquid.'
L: 'Pfffff, figures...'
Me: 'The rest of the party is running away from your bodies'
L: 'Well, good luck to them, I don't care... I'm gonna stick to see the end of this show.'
When V fell, I described the room - Me: 'V what do you do?'
She was still shaken from the fourth room.
V: 'Don't know, we died, I check out the portal.'
Me: 'You notice runes similar to ones at the entrance of each room'
V: 'F*** it, I go in.'
C now dropped, I describe the room - Me:'What do you do?'
C: 'Can I use the higher ground to jump into the portal?'
Me: 'Sure, why not, you'll have to make a jump check...'
C: 'Hm, how high above the ground is the portal?'
Me: 'Ground level.'
C: 'Hmm, I explore the other rooms'
Me: 'The door to the room #4 are opened, everything is encased in a force field of some kind.'
C: 'Ok, I go into the portal.'
After a while of thinking L goes into the portal too.

Will be edited to finish later this evening...
EDIT: Wow, did I lie or what!

[Dzondo]

Originally Posted by jiriku

Pure awesome. Hurt them more! Hurt them more! And then tell us about it.

Yes, hurt us more.

Originally Posted by Kaww

You got it, more explanations:As said above, some party members died, some came back as zombies. They don't like dieing, they like coming back without paying for it even less...

But, don't kill us...

[vjbp]

heeey... I'm still 20! xD and the thought of alternate realities scares me as hell... loved it 'thou :)

[Kaww]

Explanation of room #5:

Spoiler

The hives were giving of a poison. Yeah that is an old gag, but still it worked. It was a contact poison, 15ft diameter centered on a hive which is it's point of origin. For it to work it was necessary to be near two hives, since gas from one hive didn't do anything. Poison did 1d6 dmg to mental stats. If exposed to three hives 2d6... The thing was the coma. While comatose the characters bodies were under control of the room, which wanted to knock out all within. The next room unlocked if all who entered the room #5 exited through the portal. If not, the ones in the coma died when the first person leaves the temple complex.

Room #6 should be out tomorrow. Does anybody read this except C and V?

[Otherworld Odd]

Well, I'm interested in what happens. >.>.


I'm a sucker for character death.

Edit: ^ Just because the DM's I play with are total softies and don't kill anyone. -.-.

[Zieu]

I'm pretty interested. I already subscribed to the thread so I don't miss any updates.

[zyborg]

Man, this is crazy! I can't wait.

[Kaww]

Some info:

Spoiler

The party rested in the room #3 after disabling the stone golem. Since all rooms were safe, except for the content I was expecting this to happen. On the other hand most rooms that allowed spells being cast could have been solved with a single spell, maybe two. #1 with hide from undead + detect undead. Room #3 with an illusion of an exactly the same room. (Major image) I award extra xp for intelligent solutions, this time my players offered none.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but to be on the safe side... V has a relic item that brings her back to life whenever she dies and it was the thing that made the hydra not attack them on sight. They came to the temple to collect the third piece of the set. They have the 2nd piece, they lost the 1st one they got...

Room #6:

Spoiler

Me: 'The party appears in an all white room. You were all teleported simultaneously. Room only has six levers, no door, no nothin'. Levers are fashioned as dragon heads. The colors match the colors of hydra's heads. You hear 30, in all languages you understand.*roll 5d20* C and V you hear slow mechanical sound of gears turning and notice spikes coming out of the ceiling.'
V: 'I cast telepathic bond.'
C: 'Ok, I pull the lever.'

I was surprised, I expected them at least to hear 29, but sure...
Me: 'Ok, everybody sees one more C pop into the room, C and V you notice the spikes went back inside the ceiling, you hear 30 again, roll initiative. C you roll twice.'
C, V, L, C, M, J.
Me: 'C you see yourself holding the lever and staring at you. What do you do?'
C: 'I ready action - if he comes close to me I attack him. Also I say: 'WTF?' '
Me: 'Ok, V?'
V: 'I cast arcane sight, what auras do I see?'
Me: ‘You see the whole room is magical, everyone is radiating conjuration magic.’
V: ’What about two Cs?’
Me: ’Strong conjuration.’
V: ’I focus on the one that didn’t pull the lever.’
Me: ‘Teleportation magic of some kind, L you?’
L: ’Stanced and waiting.’
Me: ‘C your turn.’
C is a bit shocked, not too much. C: 'I ready action so that if he comes too close I attack him. Also I take a 5ft step back and just look shocked.'
Me: 'M?'
M: 'Delay I don't know which one is the real one.'
J also delayed.

Me: '29, now all of you see the spikes slowly descending. C?'
C: 'I charge the impostor! I want to knock him down.' *rolls and misses*
V: 'I focus on the other C'
Me: *roll* 'A combination of two conjuration spells, one is teleport, the other one you can't name. Some sort of creation.'
V: 'Ok, I send a telepathic message C, that can hear me, raise your hand.'
C that charged raises his hand.
V all happy that she figured it out ended her turn.
L: 'I pull a lever.'
Another L appeared close to the spot where C appeared.
C2 attacked C1 and missed, M delayed, J cast Celestial Aspect (BoED) to gain the ability to dismiss summoned creatures after a successful headbutt.

Me: '30'
C1 tried to push C2 onto J and failed, V delayed, L1 was in position to do nothing levers blocked his path, so he just ran towards the rumble.
Me: 'Ok, what does L2 do?'
L: 'I charge, since I do have a clear path.'
Me: 'Ok, who do you charge?'
L: 'C1.'
Rest of the party: 'But he is the real one!'
L: 'Yeah, believe all you pointy hats say, right, I charge C1.'
Me: 'Ok, C2 has AoO' *he rolls and hits, and rolls decent damage* 'You hear a metal sound as the katana goes through the flesh and hits the bone.'
L rolls to hit C1 misses.
Me: 'Ok, due to shock you miss C1, you feel really weird seeing the metal shin through blood.'
M delayed, J headbutted L2 and dismissed him.

Me: '29, your only problem is two Cs and the spikes that are coming down.'
C1 attacks C2 and missed. *note C has AC>45 at ninja 13 and saint, L has highest attack ~25* L attacked C2 and also missed, same thing with C2 vs C1. M and V delayed. J decided to roll a 20 to hit and dismiss C2.

Me: '28, the spikes are slowly coming down.'
They made a few good deductions:
1) Clones don't have their buffs.
2) With the exception of M they are all ether good or lawful, so they wouldn't risk hurting the party if they thought there might be a chance they will not end up dismissed.

They made a plan as follows:
Every body, except V and J break the telepathic bond and start pulling levers. Then, while they don't know who is the fake one they grab the horns and the fake one is dismissed. It took them ~ 30 minutes to make the plan, but it was a good plan.

Counter was reset and both C and L did their part without error. Now our dear old Chaotic Neutral M. The Ms first both tried to dodge the horn as they touch it. The clone rolled 1 and touched the horn, the real one didn't. 2nd time both didn't touch it. now they did this while grappled by C and L.

Now J's turn came, she cast the spell on both C and L, to be on the safe side... Again nothing. Now all six should be pulled. All except V will be pulling. V is a controller since she can see who is the real thing. L and C dismiss the horns and now they have 8 clones and 5 real ones. Extra clones are all J's. Again the only thing that happened was that the counter was reset.

V: 'Ok, it has to be me that pulls the lever.'
She just pulled the nearest lever. That's when I smiled and the players thought 'C*** he's smilng.'

Me: 'V you didn't dismiss the arcane sight right? Give me you spell list for a sec. Roll two initiatives, everybody else roll initiative. The clone's was 35, V's was ~8'
Me: 'Ok, my move. V casts mass suggestion and points the finger at V:'She is the impostor! Kill her!' *4d20 for a will save, decent DC too. L - 30+, C - 25+, J - 30+, M - 15* Only M failed, what's your initiative?'
M: '10'
Nobody knew which is the fake one, so they chilled, until M.
M: 'Well, ok, aghm, sorry, but I have to do this, I cast disintegrate.'
Me: 'Touch AC, attack bonus?'
V: '15'
M: '14'
Me: 'Ok, roll it.' *rolls* A cheer, screams and happy laughter. The bastard rolled a nat 1, and to top it of it wasn't even a critical fail, he saved on the fumble roll!
V touched the horn and remained in the room as a move action. As a standard one she cast Greater dispel and she did it, she rolled both the DC and the Dispel check. *Now as I'm typing this I realize how much dumb luck they had. C, V and J since I know you will read this I'm gonna make a shot at killing you this weekend, and you better be prepared. I apologize to you, other readers, I'm just scaring my players.* They tried every possible combination of lever pulling. Every one failed. Then M asked V to cast Spider's Climb on him, he went up the wall and touched the illusory spikes. Counter hit 0 and then a humble wooden chest appeared in the middle of the room. No lock, no trap, nothing, just a wooden box.

The ending of this room will be written after sunday. Since I don't know what happens now...

EDIT: I accidentally pressed 'POST' instead of "PREVIEW". Idiot...

[Ruinix]

awesome dungeon and DMing style ^^

i look up for follow updates

[Dr Bwaa]

Judging by your view count I'd say a fair number of people are following this. I'm certainly enjoying it.

[Dzondo]

Originally Posted by Kaww

C, V and J since I know you will read this I'm gonna make a shot at killing you this weekend, and you better be prepared.

I'm preparded to...

...run away.

Just kidinng. I died because I didn't want to run.


PS. Why am I first on the list? You want to kill me again, you bastard...

[Ragitsu]

biggrin.jpeg

[koscum]

M here. Finally found the thread (well, I only found out about it today). We continued the session today. No more horror, but we had a rough encounter. Can't wait for next Mindf*** session .

Anyway, dungeon ending:
I wanted to make a "Pinocchio" and send him to "our" fort and mine to recruit personnel and run it. I had everything planned out, but it all failed when V took the Orb. All of us were teleported outside the temple, except my clone . He was such a good clone..... well, wanted to go back to good anyway*. Spent some time acting all sad and stuff, but quickly switched to planning a new way to make good use of a fort and a mine (good use == good profit.... mostly).

Well, somebody has to come up with stupid ideas... How else could you have a valid reference to see which ones are smart ? Also, Nat1's my specialty and I fail at Nat20 (0 20s out of 87 rolls ); just ask about my recent initiative/Hit/SR combo.


* = no more Hell for me, thank you very much + helping people who don't r*** you and throw you out in the hallway naked is nice.


-----

Originally Posted by vjbp

heeey... I'm still 20! xD and the thought of alternate realities scares me as hell... loved it 'thou :)

Alternate realities FTW!!!


-----
@C: Don't worry, I'll make sure to die before the rest of ya. Keep me alive to stay alive; made it happed today

[Kaww]

This is my last post in this thread... If you need any explanations just read what koscum wrote above ^ ...

Sorry if you wanted more, since there was...

EDIT: I was talked into this. If you want updates send me a PM...

[koscum]

Originally Posted by Kaww

This is my last post in this thread... If you need any explanations just read what koscum wrote above ^ ...

Sorry if you wanted more, since there was...

EDIT: I was talked into this. If you want updates send me a PM...

MOAR!!!
MOAR!!!
MOAR!!!

[vjbp]

thank goodness I've read this just today, not earlier... I really reeeeally loved it, but I would be all messed up.. again...

yeah, we did have dumb luck. on the plus side, at least we're dumb thus amusing

@M yes, yes indeed

[Beelzebub1111]

You know, I expected room 6 to be a time travel paradox...Because that's just how clever I am.

[Kaww]

Originally Posted by Beelzebub1111

You know, I expected room 6 to be a time travel paradox...Because that's just how clever I am.

I'm much meaner than that.

M tried to exit with the mechanical clone. Original M was imprisoned in Carceri, the clone continued adventuring. It took them three sessions to figure it out. Now he is a living construct with a wish to free it's creator.

Also thread necro...

[Combat Reflexes]

Originally Posted by Kaww

I'm much meaner than that.

M tried to exit with the mechanical clone. Original M was imprisoned in Carceri, the clone continued adventuring. It took them three sessions to figure it out. Now he is a living construct with a wish to free it's creator.

Also thread necro...

Doesn't matter. This is a horror story of all times

[The Glyphstone]

Great Modthulhu:Thread necromancy is indeed horrifying. Locked.