Creepy Effects

labors most of the time. Every now and again, though, a lull before the fi nal pounce is a perfectly valid technique for really hammering the terror home.

HORRIFIC IDEAS

While the use of descriptive details is an effective component of running a good horror encounter, at the end of the day what makes horror horrifi c is the idea. No matter how eerie the circumstances surrounding a given encounter, if the central idea isn’t scary or at least deeply thoughtprovoking, it will not give rise to an emotionally successful horror encounter. A horror encounter differs from most other encounters not in how it looks, but in what it has to say. If the concept that lies at the heart of an encounter seems to whisper something dark to the players and their characters, then that is a potentially worthwhile horror encounter. Finding out at the end of a taut whodunit that the one who killed the local constable was a child is not in and of itself horrifi c. Discovering that the child who killed the constable was one of the constable’s victims, returned from beyond the grave to put a grisly end to the twisted madman’s depredations is. Or at least it’s an idea with a solid foundation in horror. The execution of a solid idea is perhaps more important than the idea itself, but a lackluster idea can’t be saved by any amount of explication or fi nesse. One of the things that players fi nd truly frightening is when a DM uses the unexpected. Fear of the unknown is perhaps greater than any other fear, and that kind of wellspring shouldn’t be ignored. Coming at things from a different angle can make them fresh, and thus unexpected. Describing what would normally be secondary characteristics of a creature, object, or location, for example, is a surprisingly effective way to make people see it in a different light; that revelation can be a disturbing one for those who took it for granted. Focusing on the dreadful aspects of a creature, rather than its Challenge Rating or attack mode, is the cornerstone of making players afraid of it. It’s surprising, for example, how scary an encounter with a CR 1 fl ock of stirges can be, given the right treatment. Consider the following techniques for putting horror into a new context for the players.

The Unknown: Using a monster from an unfamiliar source is an effective way of getting under the skin of players and characters alike. Sometimes the impact of a particular creature or ability is diminished if the players already know what it does, or even just what it’s called. (The power of names and of naming is an entire subject of its own, although it clearly plays a role in how people react to things.) Using a monster that no player in the group can readily identify can foster a mood of uncertainty that is often the key to evoking horror.

The Unforgivable: One of the simplest but most effective ways of invoking horror is to bring it home to the protagonists. In most encounters, the PCs are the outside force; the heroes come to save someone else’s day. By making the circumstances personal to the players, a DM raises the stakes and introduces an unsettling element. If, after months of dealing with strangers and their problems, the PCs suddenly fi nd out that this time it’s a loved one, or at least a character they’ve often interacted with and actually like, you can bet the encounter will have a more direct impact on the players—precisely the goal in horror encounters.

The Unexpected: Even the most epic sagalike campaign is fairly episodic in nature. The PCs can make contact with NPCs who pop up on a regular basis, but simply by virtue of what they do—destroying evil and taking its stuff—there usually isn’t much room for recurring elements in the ongoing story. One of the most frightening things a DM can do is to introduce the notion of lasting consequences into the game. After the players have achieved their goals in a particular episode, reveal an unexpected and dark consequence of their characters’ actions. For example, if they succeeded in ending the reign of a murderous tyrant, they now learn that her daily sacrifi cial killings were keeping a powerful outsider placated. The ravenous outsider has now opened a portal from the Plane of Shadow, admitting packs of shadow mastiffs into the countryside to devastate the populace.

The Unthinkable: Present the PCs with a dilemma that doesn’t offer a simple, black-and-white solution but instead only shades of gray. Forcing a hero to choose between two evils almost always has an unsettling effect, opening the door to self-doubt and for more horrors to come.

CREEPY EFFECTS

The following are little incidents you can drop into your campaign at any point to unsettle the players and their characters. Don’t linger over any of these, and don’t let the PCs become so obsessed with one that it distracts them from the adventure at hand. That said, it’s good to have a general idea in mind of why a particular event occurred; it can be the fi rst hint of something sinister in the offi ng. If the player characters resort to asking for checks to investigate one of these incidents, don’t bend or break the rules. Instead, it’s better to think of these incidents (for the most part) as instantaneous events; their effects may linger, but whatever caused them remains elusive. For example, take the hostile birds described in one example. A character with wild empathy can soothe the crows with a few good rolls, and one with a high-level familiar or access to the speak with animals spell can ask the birds why they were so hostile, but the animals themselves do not know and can only report being fi lled with sudden emnity toward the PCs (or perhaps humanoids in general). The same or similar events might occur again and again, and all the PCs can do is learn to recognize settings where they might be vulnerable to that particular effect and avoid them as best they can.

• A wolf howls in the distance. • The torches/fi re/lanterns fl icker and almost die, despite the lack of any breeze. • A PC awakens to chewing noises beside her bed or bedroll, with no sign of what might have made them. • A PC fi nds blood on his clothes or blankets, with no obvious source. • A PC finds an old ivory pipe whether she keeps it or throws it away, she keeps finding it again and again in new places. • The PCs wake up one day without shadows their shadows return without explanation 24 hours later. • All background animal noises, such as insects churring or birds chirping, abruptly cease.

• Random patterns—frost forming on a window, ripples in the water, dark clouds in the sky, spilled ale—form the symbol of an evil entity, the face of a dead loved one, or the like. • Every mirror a specifi c PC looks at suddenly cracks, always in the same pattern. • A storm brews up swiftly out of an empty, open sky. • Animals (even domestic or even-tempered ones) suddenly grow hostile at the PCs’ approach. Flocks of crows or other birds start to attack them horses kick, cats scratch, and dogs bite. Small creatures perch on nearby trees or ledges or in rat holes, glowering at the PCs as they wake up or pass by. • Spiders (or some other innocuous vermin) are attracted to a particular PC they act like overfond pets who nestle into his clothing, attempt to share his bed, bring him tiny gifts of food (web-wrapped living flies), and the like. • The PCs discover that perfectly preserved and fresh rations have rotted overnight. • A PC’s reflection in a mirror is out of sync with her actions, delayed by a split second as if it had to wait to see what she did before mimicking her. • A PC discovers a piece of the last monster or person he killed mixed in with his rations. • A portrait, statue, or mosaic seems to have changed slightly each time the PCs pass by it. • Footsteps echo through a house or hallway, with no apparent source. • A PC has a sudden premonition of doom for the peaceful village her group is currently passing through. • Somewhere in the distance, a baby cries. In a matter of minutes, the sound changes to a young child shrieking, then a young woman screaming, then an old woman choking, then silence. • A priest in the midst of an important religious ceremony suddenly becomes unable to speak his god’s name. • A PC hears a voice scream in the distance it sounds like her own. • A character eating a piece of fruit discovers that the seeds he spits out are in fact human teeth. • A PC encased in heavy armor feels the touch of something that feels like cold, wet, blind mice squirming between his armor and skin removing the armor reveals nothing amiss. • Curtains or furnishings move as though something brushed against them, yet nobody is in position to have done so and no breeze blows. • No nonmagical attempt at creating fi re—be it with fl int and steel, tindertwigs, or even rubbing sticks together—will ignite even the driest piece of wood or scrap of parchment. • A PC awakens and looks around everything around him seems two-dimensional and artificial for half a second before the world reverts to normal. • For a single long moment, a PC cannot remember her own name nor what she looks like. She is fi lled with a conviction that her real name, whatever it is, is quite different. • A character hears the soft giggling of a little girl, or distant music nobody else can hear it. • A PC’s holy symbol begins to weep blood or to bleed from nonexistent wounds. • The PCs awaken after camping or resting for a night one PC has bite wounds on her neck, arms, and legs, while another feels far too full to eat breakfast. • The smoke of a torch or campfi re coils around a specifi c individual as though embracing or entrapping him. • Screams, calls for help, or moans of ecstasy come from beneath the ground of a cemetery. • An item—perhaps a well-loved toy, or a parent’s favorite necklace—turns up in the bottom of a character’s backpack the character hasn’t seen this item since she was a child. • A PC feels suddenly nauseous and vomits mixed in with the half-digested food are recognizable humanoid parts. • The PCs awaken after camping one night to fi nd an extra horse, saddled and ready to go, tied with theirs it travels with the PCs if not prevented but is gone after they camp the next night. • A character begins to dream of his companions each dying horribly as the dreams progress night after night he realizes that he’s the one slaying them. • A character begins to hear a whispering voice that none of her companions can hear. Sometimes it repeats everything she says in mocking tones sometimes it warns her against treachery from other party members. • A PC’s horse abruptly turns carnivorous. Its personality has not changed it simply will no longer eat anything but meat, preferably raw. • Everyone in town stops what he or she is doing, stares intently at the passing party, and hisses softly. They then resume their normal business, continuing conversations broken off in mid-word. If questioned, the townsfolk have no memory of the incident. • A PC coming home, or returning to a safe refuge such as an ally’s home or a concealed cave, finds footprints leading into her room or area. Investigation reveals nobody present, but the footprints only go in, not out. • A character opens his canteen and fi nds it brimming with blood. • The sound of a whetstone sharpening a blade can be clearly heard not far off, yet neither the direction nor location can be determined. • A strange moss grows somewhere it shouldn’t, such as along the blade of a PC’s favorite weapon or on her tongue. • Something scuttles across the floor just behind the last PC in line when he turns, it’s gone. • Rats are either being driven away from a certain place or fl eeing on their own no one knows why. • The PCs see a vast sailing ship, shrouded in mist, crossing a landlocked meadow as it sails toward them, passes through them, and dissipates. • Each time a PC glances into a mirror, her peripheral vision picks up someone else’s refl ection when she turns for a second glance, she sees only herself. • Characters who make Knowledge (history) or (nature) checks realize that the wood of the floorboards in one particular room is ancient, far older than the rest of the house. • The PCs keep hearing what sounds like muffl ed sobbing, but there’s nobody around. • After entering a long-sealed tomb or abandoned house, the

PCs find a bowl full of fresh fruit. • The wind seems to whistle a nursery rhyme to one of the

PCs. • The PCs hear a door with a squeaky hinge when they reach it, it swings silently. • The PCs seem to age at an accelerated rate (about one year per day) while they stay in a certain area they revert to their normal age after leaving the area. • A small, elaborate, highly decorated door has been built into the corner of a closet pantry. • The eyes of a portrait on the wall track a specifi c PC. • The PCs stumble across an area so dark that light spells have no effect, but it does not radiate any magic. • A doorknocker, when touched, triggers a magic mouth full of bloody shark teeth. • A single window of a fine house has been boarded up for no discernible reason.