Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

[Frenchman]

***DISCLAIMER*** THIS THREAD CONTAINS POSSIBLY GRUESOME AND DISTURBING TOPICS AND IMAGERY!!!

 

 

 

Currently in my group us GMs (we each have characters and we're taking turns with a plot line) are trying to come up with a spooky series of adventures loosely modeled after 13 Ghosts. Basically theres this uber-necromancer or demon lord or something (I'm not really sure, I'm not GMing the conclusion) who is trying to collect 13 souls to open the gates of hell or somesuch thing which will totally screw up the world. These souls need to be freed/captured, and to do this they must be convinced to give up their soul (with our players, that probly means killing/destroying them, but we're going to try to have some of them come less reluctantly). So each of us GMs is going to GM the adventure with four of these 'ghosts' (so far, only one is actually a ghost, though most are tending to be undead), and while all the GMs will know some basic knowledge of the ghosts, its up to us to surprise eachother. We want to give each ghost a 'title' that will be somewhat obvious and hint at their powers/weaknesses or whatever.

The main point of these beings is not to challenge the players in combat, but to challenge their roleplaying abilities and, lets face it, to be downright creepy. Heres what we've got so far:

 

The Fallen Angel: A priest of our god of Knowledge became obsessed with anatomy. He dissected animals, monsters, and Orcs (in our world noone bats an eye no matter how bestial you are to an Orc). Eventually he progressed to human and demi-human cadavers. His findings caused a revolution in medicine and healing magic practices, but he became more and more obsessed with finding out more about the anatomy of different creatures. Eventually he had to magically ward his room so that his more depraved methods wouldn't be discovered, and then he began using once dead subjects, and eventually living ones. One day he summons a powerful angel, and since he is the priest of a good god and has a great reputation as a healer, he coerces the angel into his room and places into magical shackles which render it powerless. He then proceeds to dissect the angel alive. The angel (name suggestions appreciated) tries to escape to heaven, but all escape is blocked by the wards put up around the room. Looking around and seeing previous victims of the deranged priest (paladins, elves, dwarves, and other good creatures) he decides that heaven must have deemed him expendable for the furthering of this mans research, and has abandoned him. The angel turns to darker powers and thoughts, and his soul refuses to leave his body. Now he seeks only to do evil to the world.

 

The Torn Prince: A prince of a major royal family (to which two of our PCs belong) was captured by Orcs (long story, essentially this family has a major, unreasoning hatred of anything Orcish, and it is most definitly mutual). Hi is put into a cage and a magic ring is put on his finger, his fist then bound so that it cannot come off. The Orcs abuse the young prince in every fashion imaginable, but the most heinous is that they periodically tear or bite chunks of his flesh and eat it. The ring of regeneration which he wears prevents him from ever dying, and so he lives in this pitiful condition for an untold amount of time (years, at least). A group of adventurers, led by a member of this royal family, massacre the Orcs. Seeing the boy is virtually dead or believing that he is (doesn't really matter, this family is pretty arrogent and uncaring as a rule) they discard him and his cage, tossing it on top of the pile of rotting Orcs. Later, our party comes by the scene, and the magical ring is picked up on the caster's Loot-Dar. The poor boy's distant relative cuts the ring from his hand and leaves. After being horrendously abused and betrayed by his own blood, this child's soul refuses to leave, and now he hungers for the flesh of his royal kin. We were going to have him start hunting the party, and build him with tons of regeneration, and possibly healing or an aid body linked to his bite. Nasty Nasty Nasty.

 

The Faithful Defender: A loyal guard, he was defended the retreat of his lord, fighting against unimaginable odds. He was eventually overwhelmed, but he bought his lord enough time to escape. When his lord returned, he paused to look at his battered corpse, lying in a pool of blood and his dented and torn armor. His lord then continued on as before, ignoring his great sacrifice, and his body was burned in a mass pyre along with the bodies of his foes. His spirit now animates his blackened and torn armor, invincible but for the still beating and bleeding heart within it. This guy is most likely a pure combat monster, but being night invincible may cause the PCs to seek other routes. Convincing his lord to honor him with a proper funeral and the accolades of a hero would probly do it.

 

The BoneSmith: The son of a peasant, he took on his father's duty of tending graves at night, but during the day he pursued his passions. First, his passion was blacksmithing and the creation of armor, but soon passion boiled for the Blacksmith's daughter. Being an apprentice, tending the graveyard and digging graves, and attempting to woo a young lady takes it's toll on a person body and mind. Unable to keep up with it, he approaced a nearby wizard rightly suspected of dealing with dark necromancy. He made him a deal. If the necromancer would give him the ability to pursue both his jobs and win the girls heart, he would supply him with fresh corpses from the graveyard when he needed them. The necromancer agreed, and cast a spell granting him great stamina and a powerful charm among women. In return he delivered the necromancer the bodies of those who had just died. He had great success, quickly becoming a master armorsmith and winning his love's hand in marriage. But soon, this wasn't enough. The necromancer learned of his skill at fashioning armor, and convinced him to create a suit of mail out of the bones of the dead. He did this, but the armor didn't work. He couldn't get it to stay together, or the bones were too old and brittle. The necromancer used his magic to divine what the missing ingredient was. Love. He placed a powerful spell over the young man, and so the young man killed his new wife and fashioned a suit of armor from her bones. He was not caught, but instead when the girls butchered corpse was found, the necromancer was blamed. His new armor wasn't enough to protect him from the wrath of the entire town. Needless to say, the young man was driven over the brink. He fashioned yet another suit of armor out of the bones of his parents, and as his insanity grew, he gained powers over the bones with which he worked. Now he is two people. The broken and pitiful young man who spends his time in solitude or at the forge, and the homicidal terror who stalks the night, murdering those he comes across. The town is terrified, and they hire a party of adventurers to help...

 

The Broken Samurai: Just as a note, I should mention that while our campaign world has a pretty 'standard' western feel, there is a somewhat distant oriental culture from where ninjas and samurais come (and Casey's characters). Having been dishonoured by failing to protect the shogun to whom he had sworn alliegence, this samurai falls upon his family blade. But so cursed is he that his katana breaks upon his armor, and he cannot kill himself with it. Driven by grief and madness, he travels as far as he can from his past, a tortured soul. Personally I think this one needs to be developed a bit more, but all we've been able to come up with is that he tore out his eyes for coveting his lords wife or something.

 

We're trying to come up with at least 12 of these, and it's pretty darned difficult (so far, anyways) to come up with ones that are sufficiently interesting, tragic, and disturbing.

[Korvar]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

The Broken Samurai: Just as a note, I should mention that while our campaign world has a pretty 'standard' western feel, there is a somewhat distant oriental culture from where ninjas and samurais come (and Casey's characters). Having been dishonoured by failing to protect the shogun to whom he had sworn alliegence, this samurai falls upon his family blade. But so cursed is he that his katana breaks upon his armor, and he cannot kill himself with it. Driven by grief and madness, he travels as far as he can from his past, a tortured soul. Personally I think this one needs to be developed a bit more, but all we've been able to come up with is that he tore out his eyes for coveting his lords wife or something.

 

I think the two things that would make this character interesting is: He desires Death. Really, really wants to die. But he really, really can't.

 

He has dishonoured himself, and should commit Seppuku - the only way to get any sort of honour back. However, he has been cursed - he can only die in battle. If he tries to kill himself or simply allow himself to be killed, he will simply arise again, an incredibly painful and degrading experience. Unfortunately, his Samurai skills are so incredibly powerful, that even blind (assuming you're going with the eyes-torn-out scenario), nobody can touch him. And every encounter he has that fails to kill him, simply makes him stronger...

 

So he walks the land, centuries after he should have died from natural causes, trying to find someone to kill him. Sometimes he hires himself out to hopeless causes, hoping to be overwhelmed; sometimes he commits hideous acts, to lure adventurers to defeat the "monster" stalking the countryside.

 

For extra fun and frolics, his sword could capture the souls of those it kills, or at least some part of their essence, so he's constantly surrounded by reminders of the people he's uselessly killed in his quest for final death, taunting him with his dishonour and failure.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

You could go searching around the net for Ravenloft material. There's a lot of fan-made stuff that includes plenty of tragic characters turned monster.

 

http://www.kargatane.com is a pretty good place to start. Their links page should get you some more ideas.

[Archangel Gabri]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

...

 

These are kind of interesting. If you think of any really good ones, I'd like to see them.

feigned disinterest>

 

 

 

No, seriously. These are GREAT ideas. I'll be using some in my game, since my player characters are super-high-point epic characters and I need to make them afraid from time to time.

[Frenchman]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

Thanks Cap for the suggestion and website, I'll definitly be looking for Ravenloft stuff, after I finish perusing my old 2nd Ed. D&D Ravenloft books (can't believe I didn't think of that).

I really like Korvar's idea that the samurai can only be killed in an honorable combat where he tries his best, I'll be sure to use it. I also like the souls idea, I'm thinkin that they would protect him from magic, either as tons of defense with recoverable charges or ablative, or as missile deflection, only usable on magic (also with recoverable charges or ablative).

 

Further ideas we've had include a dwarf who was trapped in a cave-in. The only survivor, he began to starve and was forced to eat his fallen comrades to survive. He essentially dies/goes nutso while being alone in the dark (cannibalism part under debate by us, but I like the Dying alone in the Dark theme). Also we're thinking of an elven banshee, a woman who was a jilted lover and comitted suicide. So far, it's a pretty standard TSR-esk banshee so we're trying to come up with some more ideas to make her different and compelling.

[Archangel Gabri]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

Let me ask you a thematic question.

 

Are you looking for beings who *want* to give up their soul and can't figure out how (like the Samurai), beings who revel in their existence and will have to be exterminated to release the soul, or some mixture of both? So far it looks like you have a mix.

I ask because in thinking about the Banshee I realized a basic bias on my part for the tragic "I want to die but I can't" story.

[Frenchman]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

I want both, some beings who don't want to give up their soul, some who do but can't, some who don't even realize they have a soul, whatever. All good ideas are welcome, and someone may have thought of something that would never occur to me. So far, we are trying to stay away from ones that need to be killed to give up their soul, since those will be the easiest to create and a lot of them will probly end up like that no matter what we do.

 

As for the banshee idea, that is one that one of my fellow GMs will be running (He is watching this thread, so go ahead and put up any ideas you have), but that won't stop me from brainstorming ideas for it with you guys. I like the idea of the banshee not being able to leave this world, not being able to die, for want of closure. Her love may have been unrequited, or perhaps he died before she could truly express her feelings. We were also thinking of making her an extremely beautiful woman who wasn't ever able to feel love, and so her life wasn't completed. Being so vain, she cannot go into the afterlife without having what everyone else had/has, so she roams on an eternal but futile quest to feel love.

[mangahunterd]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

The Mourner: The mourner was at one time a normal human female. When the balck death came to her villiage her five children and her husband perished while she felt no ill effects from the dread disease. She slowly watched her entire family perish while she could do nothing to help. As her last child perished her grief could no longer be contained. As she carried her last child to the fire that had been burning for weeks the people she passed started writhing in pain. Somehow she was projecting all her emotion on to those that she came near. Those that were affected soon began to die as they could not get over the extreme apathy and with each death her grief grew. Soon merely passing by another living soul caused them to collapse and scream in pain as her emotions were pressed upon them causing almost instant death. Fearing that the woman was possesed by a demon a stalwart band of villiagers barred her doors and burned her home to the ground. However it failed to stop her....

 

Not great but quick and off the cuff. It is something to work with at least.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

Here's a list of angel names, if you don't want to pick from a list, you can pick one that sounds simular.

 

http://www.steliart.com/angelology_angel_names_C.html

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

The Wizard Simulacrum: Wizards will often make simulacrums of people who will pay handsomely for a duplicate. Simulacrums basically last a year or two and then get sick and die. One wizard, however, discovered that he had fallen ill to a sickness not unlike the simulacrums have. While trying to find a cure, he found that someone had made a very convincing simulacrum of him and was putting around in *his* lab. Angry and bitter, he destroyed the fake wizard only to realize that it wasn't a simulacrum.

 

Obviously, he (the dead wizard) had been stupid enough to create a simulacrum of himself to help him in the lab unaware that he (the dying copy) would return to his lab to find a cure for his sickness. Now, stuck as a simulacrum he was fading away into nothingness. Quickly, he constructed a new body for himself using the body of the original and some forbidden necromancy.

 

Now, he roams the earth searching for a more permanent cure for his condition and will kill anyone who gets in the way.

[Frenchman]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

I love the idea of the mourner, we've been trying to come up with a way to make the banshee concept more detailed and interesting, and I suspect we'll go with that. It'll be interesting to see how the characters are going to deal with a creature they cannot get within earshot of. The simulacrum idea is neat too. After killing his 'original,' perhaps he goes on a killing spree. Or he may turn to undeath or a demonic pact as his salvation from mortality. Or he could build a golem to contain his spirit (scary, a spellcasting statue). This idea definitly has some potential, and I'll talk it over with my fellow GM's.

Whatever development is done on these guys past these boards I'll post up here, and I'll put their character sheets up as soon as the PCs are done with them.

Thanks a lot for all your help, guys.

[Kensei27]

Re: Help With Horror-filled High Fantasy Adventures

 

How about this...

 

The Corrupted Saint: Take the priest of knowledge from the Fallen Angel's story. He was once a wise and benevolent healer, adored and respected by all. But he succumbed to his desire for wisdom, and committed all of those heinous acts. There's a great chance for some inter-soul conflict here. What happens when the Angel and the Saint are a part of the same ritual?