A HORROR CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER 3
54
Alternatively, a curse or punishment might involve a limexample, see Oedipus Rex)—but the players should not be pushed into fatalism. Their efforts should sometimes pay ited number of nightmares rather than an ongoing plague. If off, and it should sometimes be possible to escape the doom the bestowing entity is powerful enough, the events of these laid out for them. nightmares might bleed over into reality—for example, the Another way to wrap up loose ends left by players making character might take actual wounds if he is injured in the unanticipated moves is to send the character a follow-up dream. If you prefer that dreams deal mental damage only, dream. They negotiate a peace treaty instead of drubbing a the character takes 1 point of Wisdom or Charisma damage nearby kingdom? Let one of them dream again of battlefield for every 10 points of damage dealt within the nightmare. If horrors, but this time after repeating the first few moments he reaches 0 in either, he begins to go mad (see above). of the earlier dream the warriors’ swords turn to crystal and Bestowing this sort of nightmare requires an extremely shatter to sand, while the arrow fletches sprout into white potent force, such as a deity or perhaps a caster with access geese that fly up and away into the clear sky. If a character to wish or miracle. received a dream of a shadow-infested swamp and a fatal ambush therein but the PCs take the knowledge to heart and Dreams as Messages bypasses the swamp altogether, send the character a dream of Not all dreams sent by gods or higher powers need be nightmares a mysterious entity that demands acknowledgement of the sent as punishment. Heroes of myth and fiction often receive warning it provided. instructions, or even calls for aid, from those they serve. And False Prophecies: A character who often receives prophetic of course dream and similar spells allow any reasonably powerdreams might become the target of malevolent entities—evil ful spellcaster to send a message to anyone with whom she is wizards, demons, dream creatures, even gods—who fear his familiar. The message might be blatant, or it might be cloaked in ability to glimpse the future. They might react by sending dreams cryptic symbolism. Of course, an enemy spellcaster or malevoof their own, dreams that appear to be prophetic but are in fact lent entity might send false messages, hoping to mislead the intended to lead the character into unanticipated danger. dreamer into taking some action he would not normally do. The DM should allow some possibility for the dreamer to detect the false dream. Perhaps all his prophetic dreams involve Situational Dreams or Nightmares the same character or image, which this one lacks; or perhaps Consider highlighting some aspect of the characters’ curthat image seems somehow flawed. For instance, a character’s rent circumstances by tying it into a character’s dreams or prophetic dreams might always involve some sense of his god’s nightmares. In this case, the dream is not itself a plot point presence, or they might always include his deceased lover but enhances the emotional impact of the coming events. For somewhere in them, as though she was showing him the way. instance, describing dreams of battle and violence the night In the false dream, that sense of presence is gone or the lover before the PCs anticipate a difficult struggle is thematically seems somehow different. The clues should not be obvious, appropriate. If the dreams contain enough imagery to suggest but they should be detectable by an observant player. that they might be prophetic (even if they were not intended to be predictive), they can go still further in readying the Torment and Retribution players for the welter of emotions soon to come. Nightmares serve very well as the punishment bestowed Specific locations can also trigger nightmares. An abanby a curse, as the sign of a god’s displeasure, or as a source doned mansion or darkened forest might be sufficient in of supernatural torment. Characters wake up screaming, their own right to cause night terrors. If the region is tainted, their worst fears yanked to the forefront of their minds and haunted, or otherwise a place of unnatural energies, those overlaid with even more horrible images inspired by the nightmares might not be entirely natural in origin. PCs source of the nightmares. could fi nd themselves experiencing other people’s fears and memories, or performing actions that even their darkA character who regularly suffers nightmares—not now and again, or even once or twice a week, but on a nightly basis—is est subconscious would never stoop to. A sufficiently vivid incapable of getting any real rest. Until she can find some way nightmare inspired by taint might actually cause madness or deal taint due to actions taken in the dream. Such dreams to lift the curse or appease the entity bestowing the nightmares, she cannot recover arcane spells. After a number of days equal are likely to return on a nightly basis until the heroes either to her Constitution modifier (minimum 1), the character is depart or succeed in cleansing the area of unnatural energies. fatigued constantly. After two weeks plus a number of days If they stay more than a few days without cleansing the area, equal to her Constitution modifier, the character is exhausted their constant nightmares can lead them to take the penalties constantly. For every day beyond this point that the character described under Torment and Retribution (see above). cannot escape the nightmares, she risks damage to her very sanity. After each additional night of nightmares, she must ADVENTURING IN make a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1 per night over two NIGHTMARE REALMS weeks) to avoid having her depravity score increase by 1. For Dreamscapes allow for more than exploring a character’s more on depravity, see Mental Symptoms on page 65. fears or showing the future. They’re viable locations for Escaping the nightmares might be as simple as finding a adventure as well. magical means of removing a curse, or as complex as making In some myths and cosmologies, the realm of dreams is an amends to the individual or deity who bestowed that curse actual place, a strange world visited by the sleeping minds of in the first place. You should not make it too hard to learn billions of dreamers across millions of worlds. In other setthe source of the nightmares, because actually escaping from tings, no unified realm of dreams exists; instead each dream them might itself take quite a bit of time. creates its own temporary reality, one that others can actually
