["Blood Rain",
"living metallic grass",
"Rainbows that disintegrate all that they touch",
"Hats that float and move in mid-air as though someone were wearing them, occasionally flipping up to salute another passing hat or PC party.",
"Rivers that appear to be calm and shallow but rapidly become turbulent when someone steps in them.",
"A village of murderous animated objects (dolls, candlesticks, the buildings themselves)",
"Gargantuan House cats",
"Acidic rain",
"Nauseating rain",
"rocks that feel like soft sponges",
"swarm of skull-shaped locusts",
"continually shivering tree, as if in fear",
"fata morgana that always seems to come closer, like an advancing horde",
"Hordes of various mundane animals with extra limbs, heads, or tails.",
"Enchanting illusions of people who welcome you to their home and offer food and lodging... and then disappear, leaving you in the waste of the Mournland.",
"A vast creature that appears to be part of the landscape.",
"Rain of arrows",
"A forest of red-barked trees that bleed and shriek if anyone so much as touches them",
"A river of warm, salty water (tears) that, when in contact with a character, reminds that character of their greatest tragedy.",
"Reverse-Rain that forms from condensed dew on the ground that flies upward into the dead-gray mist",
"A canyon of rust",
"Rain with drops that wherever they hit an eye, with lids, of various races that fought in Cyre (but not warforged eyes) emerge. A being caught in this rain had better seek shelter immediately or die from the exposure.",
"Rain that are tears; warm and salty.",
"Rain that stays where ever it lands as if glued to the spot, building on top of one another, never soaking into the ground or cloth or what have you, evaporating normally.",
"The soft sounds of children at play at the edge of hearing slowly turning into screams of horror and agony. Keep this up for a few days in the Mournland even the most iron willed will start to lose their grip.",
"A field of strange limp straw.... hair growing from the ground.",
"The voice of a crying woman that seems to come from no discernible location. If weapons are drawn it gets louder.",
"A ring of ghostly children who are dancing around a beaten gallows where the still fresh corpse of a woman hangs, gently swaying in the breeze. The children are holding hands and chanting ring around the rosy in somber voices. The children appear to be very badly burned, but do not notice their wounds.",
"The apparition of a bard hunched over the corpse of a fallen woman, playing a mournful tune on a mandolin (If you are familiar with Blackmore's Night, the tune he is play is entitled Beyond the Sunset).",
"A single children's doll laying in a pool of blood. The sound of a crying child can be heard, but whenever a female character approaches the doll, the crying stops.",
"A small cluster of farm houses that appear deserted. Food still sits on the table, as if the family will return to their meal shortly. Upon the walls, written in blood, is a single word: Why?",
"A single weeping willow by the bank of a stream. The leaves continually drip moisture that is warm and salty. Beneath the tree is an unmarked cross.",
"A woman clutching two children. All three have been turned to stone, but the figure still weep.",
"A vast desert-like wasteland where the upper torsos of people stick out of the ground, their bodies having turned to glass and their arms clawing desperately toward the sky.",
"A large, monolithic obelisk jutting out of the ground. In the center of the great black rock is a huge (the size of a man's head) eye, its gaze darting back and forth from one person to another.",
"A gang of hunched over, naked elf-like shapes with no arms or faces. Maybe they have some other way of killing and eating their prey...",
"A hill of screaming skulls begging for their lives.",
"A scant few hundred feet from the edge of the Mournland, PCs hear a train whistle. Soon they see the hulk of a Lightning Rail Train, the last to depart Metrol on the day of Mourning. It's dead on the outside, laying on its side like an iron corpse, but the players can smell fire and burning flesh. One of the car's windows eternally thumps outward as if someone were beating on it from the inside, and screams and pleas issue forth from the car constantly. If you touch the car, though, you get sucked inside...",
"Buried beneath the glass plateau, a one-way portal to Xoriat. Walking glass-like aberrations and near invisible half-glass mindflayers wander the scintillating glass tunnels in search of good prey.",
"Deformed experimental warforged with black armor plates, and varying numbers of limbs. A dead grey glow illuminates their eye sockets and hatred towards their cruel master, the Lord of Blades is strong within them. (Much like Drider and Drow). These warforged often crawl, unable to make efficient use of more than two legs carry with them weapons made from torn up body parts from victims of the Cyre destruction event (nothing rots away naturally in the Mournland)",
"Entire civilizations of roach thralls and swarm shifters of the cockroach living within the \"animate\" bodies of the poor souls who lost their lives in the destruction of Cyre.",
"Living Gutwrench spells (BoVD)",
"Fog that peels the skin of the victim from the toes up, slowly. The victim does not realize it because the fog simultaneously replays happy memories from the victims own memory bank in the mist before him, leaving him dominated.",
"Flocks of pseudoravens and pseudoducks (Pseudo-creature template - BoVD) fly low confusing victims with their aberrational sight.",
"On certain terrain, the ground around where someone steps becomes alive with hands trying to escape from the earth, like zombies coming out of their graves. Upon closer inspection, all that is coming out of the ground is disembodied hands that fade when completely free of the ground.",
"Herds of gelatinous polyhedrons bounding across the plains, grazing the battlefields of fresh corpses that reform in their wake.",
"The animated corpse of a carcass crab. On closer inspection, the crab itself is inert, but the multitude of corpses adhering to its shell have become animated as various forms of undead, the whole mass shuffling through the Mournland in macabre co-operation.",
"A 5x5 ft circular \"hunting\" hole in the ground that moves about like a shadow, continually seeking to give the unwary a nasty fall... This situation often leads to the question: How do you kill a hole? You fill it in...",
"As the PC's walk along they realize the ground has gotten rubbery. and almost flesh like (+1 to tumble checks and MS checks) but you can't dig in the ground it can only be cut and a few min after the ground is cut it seems to heal",
"A 25' tall work of \"modern art\" made from corpses jammed together into a particular shape. Bodies can be pulled loose, but they soon reanimate and will fight PCs in order to rejoin their original place in the sculpture. No reason for this behavior is evident, and the sculpture serves no useful purpose. (Suggestions that it's some sort of undead dragonmark should be met by the DM with a polite but knowing chuckle.)",
"A still, with a fire burning underneath it and a bucket under the spout next to it overflowing with some sort of liquor. There are no signs of habitation or indication who the rig belongs to. And it's not a bad brew, if you can get past the faint red tinting and bitter iron taste...",
"A circle of well-preserved corpses sitting in relaxed, conversational poses around an eight-pipe hookah. The corpses do nothing and cannot be removed from those poses. The hookah is lit, and the smoke issuing from all eight pipes looks like an incredibly concentrated version of the fog currently covering the entire Mournland. (It's up to the DM what the effect of puffing on one of those pipes is, but I bet it ain't good.)
The scene of a traveling tinkerer 's cart, filled to the brim with ordinary supplies and tools. The dead but intact bodies of the tinkerer and his wife are sitting on top, still holding the reins - still attached to two dead horses.
Among the supplies stands a small painting, wrapped in cloth - the painting has changed, and will drain the blood of all whom touch it.
The bodies of two people lying sprawled, naked.Their clothes lie in the exact same position as their owners, a few feet away.",
"A strange thing that looks like a stick-figure form a distance turns out to be a collection of five pikes; two arms, two legs, and a torso in the middle. Each pike has multiple heads impaled on it. The thing walks and apparently wants to add to its collection.",
"A twisted abomination of what might have been a person stumbles around aimlessly. Gnashing, fanged mouths are where its eyes should be. A dozen worm-like tendrils, always flapping about, surround its circular, slobbering mouth. Its hands are also covered with worm-like tendrils in place of fingers. Below its waist is nothing but a flat flap of skin which convulses and pushes the horrid thing in random directions, jarring it about.",
"An expanse of land, black and chitinous like the back of a fly, with short, sparse black wiry/hairy grass. Occasionally the land whistles, as wind plays in the irregularly dotted spiracles. The stench of death in the air.",
"A village where all appears to be normal as the PCs approach (buildings in good condition, townsfolk walking around going about their business, children playing happily). If the PCs try to interact with the townsfolk, however, they are apparently ignored. True seeing or disbelieving an illusion shows the village for what it is: a ruined husk of what it might have been before the Mourning. Bodies are strewn everywhere, un-decomposed, having fallen where ever they were when the Mourning hit. Rubble is strewn through the streets, and the PCs who haven't realized the illusion may trip over debris that they don't see.",
"A village where everything is frozen exactly as it was 1 minute before the Mourning hit. People, undecayed, still stand in conversation. The blacksmith's hammer is raised to strike an object on the anvil. The tavern has patrons with mugs still raised to their lips, as well as barmaids holding trays of drinks and food. A group of children playing a game is in the village square, one of the children was jumping in the air, and remains almost a foot off the ground. Anything moved by the PCs will immediately disappear from their hand and reappear where it was.",
"A wind whips through, whispering to the PCs, causing them to relive their greatest failure or tragedy. ",
"Statues of fallen heroes are arranged in a \"gallery\". All statues are made of stone, and are completely life-like at the apparent point of death (huge rends appear in the flesh, all wounds seem to be open.) And all of the wounds are still oozing blood. (Possibly if the PCs touch the blood they are injured... Or healed....)",
"The PCs pass a graveyard next to a barren Cyran village. Since the village had limited medical services, the graves were fitted with bells that people in the coffins could pull in case they weren't really dead. All the bells are ringing. If the PCs dig up the coffins to free the people, they find the the coffins are empty, but have scratch marks on the inside a gaping whole in the bottom that leads to a large tunnel bored deep into the earth. However, one of the coffins still has an old man in it, who apparently died twenty years ago.",
"A long pink ribbon made of lace and fashioned for the hair of young girl floats along a breeze high above the adventurers heads. A second after the party takes note of it, it whips from the sky and begins to strangle the first person to speak.",
"As the party crest a ridge, they come upon a wonderful sight in the valley ahead - the dead mists above are pierced, and the valley is free of the Mournland's eternal twilight, bathed in the light of the sun. Within, the fields and houses of an idyllic farming village lie unsullied and still in use - the villagers are alive and healthy, and interact with the party if approached, though an air of sadness hangs over them, and the village seems underpopulated. When the party question them, they find the reason - these villagers were not spared the effects of the Mourning after all. If a villager leaves the valley by any means, they quickly decay to a rotted husk, even if taken directly to beyond the Mourning. And whilst they can grow their own food and even benefit from healing spells their priest casts, their food does not nourish outsiders, nor do healing spells cast within the valley affect visitors. The remaining villagers are resigned to passing the remainder of their lives here - few Mournland beasts venture into the valley, and there are enough crops to sustain them. Very few of them have tried for children, and there have been no pregnancies since the Mourning. The population still diminishes slowly as one or another villager finally succumbs to depression or desperation and attempts to leave the valley.",
"A battle field, covered in the corpses (perfectly preserved, as usual) of Thranish, Cyran, and Karrnathi soldiers lies ahead. However, upon arriving at the battle field, the PCs notice that each soldier's face is exactly like his own (or that of a loved one), frozen in an expression of horror, shock, or sadness.",
"A band of ghostly children march through a battle field (with the usual preserved corpses) searching for the bodies of their relatives. When a relative is found, one (or maybe a few) ghostly child (children) break from the parade with a soul wrenching wail and sinks into the earth next to the corpse. Where the child disappears, a black rose, with gaping holes in the leaves and petals, appears.",
"A pool of perfectly calm, clear, still water sits in the middle of a large, deserted plane. Any PC who looks into it sees his or her home town/city being sacked and burnt. Women the character knew are ravished, men the character knew are brutally tortured and killed, and children are clapped in irons and dragged screaming away from their homes. For every round the PC looks into the pool, a DC 15+(number of previous saves) Will save must be made. If the save is failed, the character is drawn into an elaborate illusion in which he is forced to live the horrors of the pool first hand. The PC's body is motionless and appears unconscious to the outside observer, and the PC's mind can only be freed by a Break Enchantment spell.",
"Dense fog encompasses the PCs, blinding them, and each one hears the others screaming in pain or crying for aid.",
"Over the course of the day, dark clouds gather in a strange red sky, and thunder begins to roll. Near dusk, it begins to rain charred body parts and dead livestock.",
"Moans and sounds of a struggle lead to what appears to be two soldiers from opposing factions of the Last War, fused together into a single crawling, deformed mass. The pair can do nothing but groan and occasionally fight eachother, both crying out when a punch or kick lands on their shared form.",
"On closer inspection a strange-looking rock formation proves to be the remains of a building, and the strange features are the petrified forms of people trying to claw their way out of the stone walls.",
"A strange puddle on the ground. If a character steps in it or disturbs it in any way, a tortured scream fills the air, and a face floats to the surface of the puddle.",
"An intact house, its sole inhabitant a madwoman suckling a dead baby.",
"The party crosses an empty field lightly coated with ash. On climbing a hill adjacent to the field, they look back to see that the ash outlines the shape of hundreds of human forms lying on the earth.",
"A small cluster of bodies lies on the ground. If they are approached, a giant swarm of flies and maggots burst from them, attacking anyone nearby.",
"A giant golem, composed entirely of debris from a city- pieces of houses, carts, pacing stones, old clothing, scrap metal and farm tools trudges through the wastes, adding pieces to itself from ruins that it encounters. A semi-animate corpse draped over one of its shoulders whispers orders in its ears, and shouts taunts and promises of horrible death at anyone who approaches.",
"Upon mounting the top of a large hill overlooking Eston, the party hears a rumble as a large boulder rolls up suddenly, threatening to crush them, but at the critical moment, the boulder stops and roll backward down the hill. Once at the bottom, the party sees a regal looking man, garbed in the smock and robe of House Cannith, straining against the boulder, trying to push it up the hill, and succeeding only to have it roll down again. When asked who he is, he identifies himself as the late patriarch of House Cannith. When asked why, he simply says one word: \"Torment\", and with that he begins his task anew. A bard could convince him to temporarily halt his labor with a DC 30 Perform (sing) check, rewarding the performer with a House Cannith Artifact of considerable power.",
"What appears to be a scrap of cloth caught in the branches of a dead tree is in fact an entire discarded human skin.",
"The party comes across what appears to be a damaged and broken down barn, from inside they hear the happy giggle of children. As the party approaches they find the children feasting upon the corpses of what appear to be their parents.",
"The party walks through a field of muddy terrain, each step causing the mud to grasp at their feet and a viscous red liquid to pool around their footprints.",
"The party walks through a field of muddy terrain each step causing the mud to grasp at their feet. If they look hard enough they notice that tiny child like hands are reaching out of the mud to pull at them. The hands are physically harmless, but the PCs won't be able to rest until they leave the area.",
"The PCs walk through a field of short wavy grass. In fact what first appears to be vegetation is a mas of needle sharp worms poking up from the ground. Walking across this terrain is like moving through a field of caltrops as the worms actively seek warm fleshy feet treading above them..",
"As the party camps out in the open the gray mists pull away to reveal a dark, yet starry night sky. One by one, each of the stars fall out of the sky until the entire night sky is pitch black (perhaps causing some kind of despair effect). The PCs must view this event until all of the stars have fled (they can not remove their eyes). Once all is black the PCs can look away again, but as soon as they glance at the sky the process starts over again.",
"In the distance, giant luminous ants are building some sort of structure out of what appear to be human bones. ",
"A veiled woman in a bloodstained dress is kneeling by a muddy stream. There is a basket beside her, and she appears to be doing her washing. However, as you move closer, you see that she is not cleaning clothes; her basket is filled with severed limbs and heads. (Spirit? Illusion? Meme? Undead? You decide, if the party is unwise enough to engage her in conversation.) ",
"If any member of the party fought for or against Cyre in the last war, have them find the corpse of an old friend or enemy, amid a slain patrol. It's not an illusion, or anything strange - just a reminder than many people died in Cyre, people who may have been your friends. Ditto for Cyran characters passing through their hometowns. ",
"There is a region in which ink becomes liquid and runs off of any paper or parchment it is on. Parties may find paintings that are nothing more than blank canvases in ornate frames. Spellbooks and scrolls are safe if they are kept closed; but anything opened or unrolled will quickly become blank paper. ",
"The party arrives at the scene of a skirmish - a village is being ransacked, or perhaps a Valenar band is fighting a Cyran patrol. At first the group appear to be illusions; all forms of attack pass through them. However, they will react intelligently to new arrivals, and their weapons *can* damage physical creatures. They are seemingly sentient, but every five minutes their memories reset - and they cannot pass beyond the boundaries of the battlefield. ",
"An old manor house, which contains two or three perfectly preserved but well-looted and -abused corpses of household staff lie approximately where they fell on the Day of Mourning. A large clock in one corner s stuck at 11:58 and ticks incessantly, its gears jammed by something but still trying to move. The portraits in the house radiate protective magic, and prevent further damage to the house or its contents. (It's the former home of a PC. Effects of unjamming that clock are left to the creative DM.)",
"A lightning rail station. The skeleton of a ticket vendor sits behind the barred booth, offering a ticket. The ticket can't be pulled loose, but tugging on it will unlock the gate, allowing entry. Inside, there is no dust, no trash, no corpses, no decay. The vendors' booths and stalls are perfectly clean and could be used tomorrow. But by the same token, no train would dare stop there...",
"A fine ink pen. It's intact, looks fancy, and writes smoothly but if the writer doesn't pay attention, he'll start auto-writing pleas for help, messages from beyond the grave, random usable spells... The pen inflicts no ill effects other than the auto-writing, but the spells are obscure and hard to identify so blithely casting them would be dangerous.",
"The party encounter a group of crazed Warforged followers of the Lord of Blades. Each could not handle their new found awareness and so have tried to emulate the other races by wearing their skin. Each warforged has a full tanned skin from a humanoid race affixed about them with leather thongs and ties. Most look hideous in their fleshy clothes, whilst others could appear ridiculous, such as a 7ft warforged wearing the stretched skin of a 3ft halfling!! They all intone \"We will embrace the flesh\" and set out to update their wardrobes by taking the skins of the party.",
"The party encounter an undead regimental band of skeletons and/or zombies. Each still wears it's tattered uniform and armour from the war and plays it's drum, flute or horn with gusto, all marching in eerie unison. The spooky marching tune has a Animate dead spell woven in it's sound, and all dead within 90ft of the band immediately rise and either join the band, or attack the nearest non undead. A great encounter for parties moving through old battlefields!",
"The party come across a pit at the edge of a battlefield that smells badly, due to it seeming to be a dumping ground and toilet for local monsters. At the edge of the stinking pit is a pile of old weapons, armor and equipment, amongst which something desirable glistens (Maybe a jewel, magic blade or staff). Upon approaching the pit, a large golem type creature bursts from the filth. It is made up almost completely of excrement and smells very bad indeed (Will saves to stop being nauseous). The golem pursues the group and all damage it does can cause disease (Fort saves) due to the makeup of it's hideous form.",
"The adventurers find themselves wandering near an old settlement on 9 Rhaan, the day of Boldrei's feast. Anyone with half a brain would know to AVOID the lights and music that pierce the dead-grey mist. Then again, they are adventurers... if they wander too far they find a lively, yet benign Cyran town of grotesque mutants in the midst of festival, honoring Boldrei for holding the community together in such hardship as the mourning. One problem, though. It is Boldrei's FEAST, and lacking any vegetation or animal life, the party members have become the guests of honor, if you catch my drift...",
"The adventurers espy a figure sitting at the top of a hill, his back against a rock. As they ascend the hill, the howl of the wind and the hopeless vista fades away, replaced by distant birdsong, an impossibly blue sky, healthy grass, bright flowers and what appear to be cows in the distance. All of this is an illusion, though it's incredibly well done. (High disbelief save.)
The figure is a very old gnome, leaning on the rock with his sleeping bag cushioning his back.Though he is long dead, his corpse is unrotted and he seems to have died smiling.
Attempts to raise him from the dead fail(the gnome looks old enough that his time may have fully run out) and
if his corpse is brought out of the Mournland it disappears on the night of the new moon, reappearing on the hill. The location is a relatively pleasant place to rest, though other Mournland unpleasantness still happen(IE: Rains of blood, wandering horrors)",
"A house Sivis message station, filled with ghosts whispering messages to still-living relatives in other parts of Khorvaire (Some of them are even in Cyre, and could be as close as the next town). A house Sivis heir might hear messages from outside Cyre if he uses the stones, perhaps prayers for the souls of relatives lost in the Mournland.",
"An ancient Dhakaani ruin, which has had it 's missing parts restored by ghostly outlines of former glories. Inside, faint snatches of millennia-old conversations flit through the air, with several whispers all at once in the main dining hall.",
"In the depths of an abandoned House Cannith facility, a Creation Forge is still operating, the dead hand of a perfectly-preserved Cannith Artificer at the controls, and a trio of powerful golems tasked with providing it with raw materials. But the forge ran out of raw materials long ago. Each day, it produces a fully-functioning warforged, who emerges into the sealed complex sentient and aware - and each day, the three golems, implacably following their instructions, find the only available source of suitable raw materials for the creation forge: The warforged himself. After a desperate chase through the complex, he is hunted down, dismembered, and fed into the hoppers of the creation forge - which forges him anew the next day, with all his memories intact.",
"No matter where the PCs travel, there is always a Sivis message stone (in the shape of a gnome) just at the edge of their vision. Traveling toward the stone won't bring it any closer.",
"As 99, but traveling toward the stone will bring it closer. Upon closer inspection the PCs not that the stone has the face of someone they once knew. The face is made of flesh, and touching it will cause the PC in question to relive some past moment that was shared with the person whose face is on the stone. After the moment is relieved the stone disappears forever.",
"As 100, but instead of forcing the character to relive some past moment, touching the stone places them into a Quori generated nightmare. There they must help the person they knew escape from some peril. The person may actually be trapped in Dal-Quor, or the whole experience might be a figment of the PC's imagination.",
"Horrible aberrant children play along, gathering pieces of the dead and putting it in a cauldron. Seeing the characters, they pursue them until they agree to buy some soap...",
"They see a city which looks normal, but is populated by shadows. Not the monster, but humanoid darkened areas cast as if it were mid-afternoon. The shadows move, play, and act normally. The shadows grow longer and longer till they begin to fade. Once faded, they become real shadows and attack.",
"They come to a farmhouse, which looks to be in good repair and smoke rises from the chimney. If they observe for a while, a pile of stray nearby suddenly lifts up and pierces the house, causing it to bleed and pained shrieking can be heard from within. The house then burns down.",
"Near the Glowing Chasm horrid aberrations hunt for living creatures. If caught, they will throw the captures creature into the chasm, mutating it into another aberration.",
"A Kender......nuff said.",
"As the PCs walk through one of the empty towns they see a small human child wandering about. The child is not a zombie or a ghost, illusion, or some other supernatural creature, just a normal child. But where did he/she come from and how are they here?",
"As the party is walking through the Field of Ruins there appears to be a person messing with one of the corpses. As they get closer they see its a hairless dwarf in bloody rags. He has a crazed look in his eyes and appears to be carving the flesh of one of the bodies skin off with a bloody dagger. They see there are a couple of them with their skin missing. The dwarf seems them and with blood around his lips \"Hey who you? If you be lookin' food this ones mine!! MINE!!!...(formless gibberish).....though you help me with this one...\" If party starts leaving he waves and yells goodbye hope to see you sometime or invites them to next dinner....",
"As the party walks on through the land they walk by what appears to be a hole in the ground of about 2 foot radius and too dark to see the bottom. A horrible shriek followed by some giggling.",
"Ahead, a field of arms, growing from the ground, waves in the warm breeze. As you get closer, the fingers occasionally move against the wind, almost as if they wish to touch you.",
"On the far side of a small lake, the petrified form of a druid, apparently one that was scrying the water, lies at the water's edge, his face peering into the depths while his oaken staff touches the water. Those who look over the stony druid's shoulder see a frightful and fierce battle between Breland and Karrnath. A DC 15 Knowledge(History) reveals that battle being fought in the pool is a recording of the final battle fought in the Last War, the same that created the field of ruins that lies elsewhere in the Mournland.",
"In the middle of the wasteland, a single mad figure can be seen. A young human male, his hair turned prematurely white and his eyes as black as night. His entire left side is covered in a thick layer of Mournland glass that is harder then adamantine. While this glass fuses him to the cursed ground, at the same time it sustains him and has allowed him to live a tortured existence for the past 4 years. Any PC that comes within 20 feet can see an infinite sea of stars within his blind eyes, the void beckoning to them. Treat this as a DC 15 Gaze attack; if the a PC fails then they immediately fall to the ground in a haze, their eyes slowing turning into the madman's own.
If the PCs can brave the initial danger, they find that the man is quite alive, but also invariably insane. Four solitary years in the Mournland as well as his own warped sense of space and time has shattered the poor soul's mind.He responds to any questions or even the sound of another humanoid voice with mad rantings about\"the horrible, gaping sky!\" and Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know.
The exact details are left to the DM, but given that this man could very well be one of the few exact eyewitnesses of the Mourning, the conversation should be suitably cryptic and disturbing. Make daddy Hellcow proud boys!",
"The PCs find a dungeon. For every 20 feet they move into the dungeon, they seem to age one year (Illusion, not physically). When the PCs look old enough to die, they simply continue as normal, but look as if their corpse is slowly rotting. Moving out of the dungeon makes the PCs look normal again.
This could spook the PCs,
if you say suddenly\"Your friends seem to be gone. In their place are horrible rotting corpses.\" It could also confuse them if they run into a scavenger group hunting for treasure.",
"A grand looking apple tree lies in the middle of a graveyard named Potter's Orchard. The apples from this tree are luscious and red, but are shaped to vaguely resemble a human face. An apple restores one who eats it as if from Hero's Feast, but the moment it's plucked the tree shivers and screams in pain. The apple, once bitten, replays in an instant the life of one who died and was buried in the graveyard, which may expose a few interesting plot hooks or serve as the end of a quest for information (...and the old sage said \"seek out Potter's Orchard and eat the apple of Crastus, fallen general of Cyre, there ye shall find what you seek...)",
"There is a gargantuan hole in the ground, lined with jagged black rocks. Air is periodically sucked in and blown out of the hole in a steady rhythm, and the ground stirs and rumbles. Almost like the ground is breathing...",
"An entire town has turned invisible, and is only revealed on dewy mornings when the clinging water silhouettes the buildings. The area is abandoned, save for the ghost of a young Cyran soldier who searched the mists for his invisible home until the day he died. If the party can lead him to his home while the dew exposes it, he may reward them generously.",
"A mutated living scrying effect cast to determine the cause of the Day of Mourning causes the area it encompasses to re-experience the devastation of the Day of Mourning. The area of effect is some miles in diameter, and any living thing within the effect must make a will save DC 25. Failure results in unconsciousness and a brief coma for one day, and the loss of 1d4 wisdom as the subject is wracked by nightmares of being caught in the Mourning itself.",
"Scorpions that have hands where their stingers should be. ",
"A pair of huge statues carved so that they depict two knights crossing swords in a duel. The statues never move, but the statues continually yell insults, curses, and battle-cries, at one another. The statues are linked to a Shavarath manifest zone, extending weapon-like spells, impeding emotion calming spells, and occasionally causing swarms of flying blades to appear.",
"In the distance, an explosion flashes followed by a boom. Then it happens again in the exact same fashion. And again. Moving closer, the party can hear screams that repeat eerily again and again in a steady rhythm. After moving forward about quarter mile they see in the midst an explosion that consumes all within, which turns out to be the source of the screams. However, as soon as the blast dissipates, the PCs feel wind suck inward as time reverses itself to the moment of the blast, causing the victims to revive and the blast to happen over and over again. The PCs may be able to rescue the people inside the blast radius using a well timed resilient sphere or similar spell, but any caught within the blast radius are disintegrated, and become part of the recurring explosion.",
"A twisted and burnt treant wanders the countryside, gathering corpses. It wears the dead as jewelry.",
"Same thing as before, but the dead have animated as ghouls and attempt to feed upon one another or any corpse the treant passes and does not pick up.",
"A living death knell/inflict light wounds spell has gone insane, if that is even possible, trying to feed on the long dead corpses lying about and attacks anything, including rocks and other inanimate objects.",
"I remember some time back on these boards, there was a thread about two opposing living spells duking it out for all eternity... this seems like a Mournland battle if there ever was one.",
"A normal house sits in a valley, and a man is doing chores inside. He seems quite sane and unaffected by the Mourning. He claims he was there and saw it all, but refuses to tell the PCs anything.",
"A dead woman in peasant's clothes lies in the road. She is young and there seems to be no reason for her to have died. In her pocket is a white rose.",
"In the middle of an abandoned building a powerful demon lies bound to a conjurer's circle. As an immortal creature, he was not affected by the Mourning, and in fact he may know its secret. But is the party willing to free him, a duke of hell, to get the answer? Would the Demon be truthful?",
"The body of a young child stumbles about, screaming. Its flesh is charred and peeling of the bone. The air around it crackles as if the corpse is on fire, but no fire can be seen and no heat can be felt.",
"A cadaver collector wanders by, on it are the bodies of the PC's family members, all crying out for help and reaching for the PC.",
"the players come across the wreckage of a Lyrandar Airship. The hull is burned in several places were the fire ring broke free and rested against the hull before breaking and releasing the bound fire elemental but other than that there is not much damage on the outside.
Investigating the ship the characters find the remains of a Morgrave University expedition that was investigating the Mournland.Things inside the Ship can only be called messy Items that were not tied down or secured are smashed all over the place embedded into walls, floors the only thing of interest is found the Expedition leaders desk.Inside a small 4 inch cube Cage made with Riedran Crysteel is a tiny Living spell of Faerie Fire and a paper note on the capture of 4 larger specimens in the hold.When they get to the hold they find the remains of the crew and 4 broken cages and a shimmering portal hanging the air with a view of the Towers of Sharn.
",
"In an abandoned house, an open journal sits on the table, the date the day of the Mourning. The entry speaks of a young woman's joy at going to visit her uncle in Sharn, who promises her an end to her wartime worries.",
"An old man/woman sitting upon a hill, overlooking a ruined town, silent tears running down his face. If pressed into conversation he will explain that he wanted to return to his home one last time before he died, even if his home doesn't really stand anymore.",
"An old home with a painting of several young men, obviously Cyran soldiers. All men look happy and are smiling. The house is filled with common things, and shows no signs of the mourning. It looks like someone could come in at any minute, but of course, no one lives there now...",
"A house filled with a folded wedding dress, looking ready to be worn. Around the room are scattered various accouterments that a woman would use to prepare for a wedding. A small painting of a handsome man sits on the table, and a dozen red roses still sit in a vase, untouched and still fresh.",
"A child's music box sits inside a house, still playing a merry tune that many young girls would love to see. It never seems to need winding and keeps playing for all time.",
"Upon the wind come the sounds of a funeral chant, voices filled with emotion and praise for a fallen Son of Cyre. It seems to be coming from an old village, barely fifteen houses and a small smithy. An open grave still lies in the small graveyard, along with a casket. No bodies can be seen anywhere.",
"A girl about 7 years old is playing in the road when the party approaches. She is horribly disfigured, emits a foul stench of brimstone, and sports a pair of cloven hooves for feet and a scorpion tail. She is excited to see the PC's and asks the PC with the highest CHA to come play with her. If they say they need to go, she offers to go with them. If they refuse, she looks depressed and asks if it's because she's ugly. She will follow the PC's if they leave. Any attempt to injure or attack the girl makes her wail \"Why does everybody hate me? I just want to be friends!\". The child begins to cry thick, black tears, which turn to black puddings upon hitting the ground and attack the party.",
"There is a vault, independent of any building. Engraved in every possible space is the word 'MINE'. And when I say every possible space, I mean every possible space: you might need a magnifying glass to see some of them. Inside, once you get past the nasty trap(s) and the cunning lock, there is a single treasure (to be determined by DM, but a small one is good. If you wish to be evil, make it worthless, but sentimental to someone) placed on a pedestal. The walls, floors, and ceilings, are in the same condition as the exterior. But wait, the worst is yet to come! If the treasure is ever removed, all the words immediately turn into working lips that scream incoherently MINE!!! (treat as a demoralization attempt with a +13 Intimidate modifier, 5 attempts against each character. Stack the effects of fear). It doesn't matter if the object it taken from the vault, or even away from the Mournland, the lips won't tire and will continue screaming MINE!!! forevermore.",
"The PC's shadows have been replaced with living images of the characters. However, as the characters walk, the shadow-images become filthy, as if they were being dragged through the muck or dirt that the characters are walking in/on. When a shadow's head goes down a hole, it begins to thrash and shake. When it does underwater, it begins to drown. Eventually the shadows figure out that the characters are responsible for their suffering and will silently beg the characters to stop moving. If the characters don't halt or don't notice, eventually they will notice as the shadows begin to hate them for their torment. And it gets worse. As the daylight changes, the shadows will lengthen or compress, depending on the light, but not without consequence: long shadows stretch as if they are being torn apart on the rack and compressed shadows are a bag of pulped bones and organs (their bodies were crushed in order to fit into that space). Eventually, the characters will be bound to an image of their savagely broken corpse. Maybe the next day the shadows will return to normal. Or maybe during the night the shadows will rise and take their revenge for the brutal deaths they suffered.",
"(similar idea) The characters come across a group of corpses - their own. ",
"The characters run across a group of mixed warforged who seem confused yet delighted to meet the characters. At least one of the warforged will declare that this is an impossible trick - another will declare that this is a great opportunity. The rest of the warforged are curious about the characters' homes, lives, daily activities, etc ... but will not approach or speak to a warforged PC, and will react with fear and shame if a warforged PC tries to interact with them. When the warforged and the PC's part ways, the PC's will overhear \"I told you this plain was haunted.\" \"Yeah, there hasn't been a fleshling alive on Eberron for over a thousand years.\"",
"In a certain Mournland vale, light is darkness. Literally. The sun is a black ball that obscures all its light touches. A light spell spreads darkness rather than light. A cave of absolute darkness is so bright that one cannot see unless they have torch, which by the logic of the area would spew darkness, to dim the intense light.",
"The characters stumble upon a dilapidated, broken-down looking village that shows the signs of war. Buildings have no roofs, there are burned-out hulks of buildings, etc. The townspeople have all apparently become ghosts, showing various ghastly wounds. However, things are reversed here; the ghosts are the solid beings, and the party is incorporeal. The ghosts also do not realize they are dead, and think the party is a group of roaming ghosts. And to top it off, there was a cleric passing through the town heading for the front lines on the Day of Mourning; his ability to turn undead works against the PCs.",
"A large cave looms up before the PCs. A deep bluish glow issues from its mouth, accompanied by a gust of stagnant wind, which rustles the PC's hair and pulls at their clothing. After a few second of standing before the cave, it suddenly dawns on anyone with long hair or wearing a loose garment that the wind is actually being sucked into the cave from the outside, and that it feels as though it is trying to pull them in as well.
(At this point, each PC makes a will save, of a DC appropriately difficult
for characters of the parties average level.To those who beat the save, the wind seems to recede, as does the blue glow.To those who fail, read the following.) *
The wind seems to pull in an almost urgent manner upon your clothing and hair.Then, the voices begin.At first, they are indistinguishable and hard to make out, but after a moment, the voices become dreadfully clear, and you recognize them, each and every one, to be a facsimile of your own.Some scream
for help, some weep
for forgiveness, some demand that you right a terrible wrong which you have not yet suffered.An irresistible urge to enter the cave overcomes you, and with the voices whispering seductively in your ears, you march towards the cavern entrance.*",
"Flying Aboleths... (hey, that'd be enough to ruin my day)",
"A city survived the mourning, and all it's citizens are safe. The only problem? It sank into a lake. And now all of the inhabitants, having grown gills as a result of the mourning, can't leave or they'll \"drown\" on dry ground.",
"a whirlwind of body parts is actually an elder air elemental gone insane, who now only lives only as a whirlwind, racing across the gray plains, carrying corpses that occasionally expel from his form, raining bodies for miles",
"An invisible stalker with a noose preys on travelers, roping their necks and hanging them from the nearest tree",
"The Characters have persistent nightmares about being trapped in a small, dark space. They believe they are unable to move and constantly cry out in their sleep. They never can get any good, wholesome sleep and act as if they got 4 hours ( or 2 for the elves) of sleep. Then, on the 13th night, the dreams stop. They wake up to find themselves in the dream, only they are really there. On the 13th day of this, they go back to the real world, their bodies having not eaten, slept, or drunk in 13 days. This continues and they become progressively more uptight and afraid. They eventually become claustrophobic and afraid of the dark. Eventually, they will die, as their bodies won't be able to sustain that level of fasting. No magic can ward this of.",
"when the Characters camp for the evening. While most of the players are still up a Woman’s voice calls out to them, “Have you seen my Little Girl?” She was wearing a brown dress with some little blue beads sewn into the shapes of lilies around the edge.
She went outside to see what the commotion was, I can’ t find her!!Please travelers, have you seen her ? If the players shine a light in the direction of the voice they barley make out the figure of a woman’ s Ghost dressed in peasant cloths.
It is up to the players
if they help her or
if they ignore her at no time does she approach the camp and stays away from any light source.
",
"the characters come across a small section of a larger battle field there is a shaft of sun light centered on a pair of figures holding each other. If the players approach this strange occurrence they see three figures in this manifestation the two hold each other in their last moments in this plane. Is an odd couple to be sure a warforged is cradling a female tiefling who is frozen in her last moments caressing the warforged face. Both have signs of heavy combat that took their lives. “Excuse me, would you go away!”
The voice is coming from behind the characters.The voice is coming from a male specter dress in combination of chain mail and leather.“All right shove off!Go away!You heard me GO!The specter is the traitor who betrayed his side because he was jealousy of Grey the Warforged.If the players don’ t move or begin to attack the specter he retreats as fast as he can.Cursing That Machine as he flees.If he is held or destroyed he escapes or reforms were his body lays were forever to be reminded that she loved another.
",
"The party encounters...another party, all of whom are wild eyed, disheveled, their hair turned prematurely white (or fallen out), and psychotically paranoid from the multitude of undead cannibalistic children that they've had to face time and time again during their foray into the Mournland. If the PC party so much as sneezes, the insane party wigs out and either goes catatonic or attacks the party in a blind rage.
Keep in mind, the party is still human.They can be reasoned with.A diplomacy check, calm emotion spell, or A restoration spell to cure their damaged Wisdom scores should do the trick and restore their sanity.If such a thing occurs, I would recommend rewarding the PCs with a juicy plot hook or have the newly - sane party inform the PCs of a danger down the road, allowing them to either circumvent the danger or help them overcome it.
",
"At a crossroads sits a rough stone and piled around it various gems, gold plates and other such items. A small hymn to the Silver Flame for protection is carved into the stone. At night the items glow with an eerie silver flame. If any items are taken, they weigh 100 pounds and cannot be dropped with remove curse.",
"A small halfling caravan is parked near a stream, all of the halflings looking malnourished and underfed. If the PC's offer to help guide them out, they are grateful and the eldest woman offers to tell their fortunes for free as thanks for the kind deeds. She asks each PC to draw five cards. Once all PCs who wish to have their fortunes told have drawn cards, tell them that they have just drawn five cards from a Deck of Many Things.",
"As the PCs explore a dungeon, they open a seemingly normal door. On the other side is a counterpart to the PCs, who have been locked in the room.
Belkar the halfling ranger meets Yikyik the kobold ranger, and so on.The other party, however, is better in every way.If Belkar has a + 2 shortsword, Yikyik has a + 3 shortsword.If Grog has 17 STR, Mrog has 18 STR.the opposing party attacks the PCs.After the PCs win somehow, the enemies corpses change to an older version of theirs.
Careful examination of the room reveals a very strong illusion spell, and a spell to do with time travel...
Treat the room as an eldritch machine.Possibly create an adventure leading to how the PCs got trapped in the first place.
",
"The PCs meet a man who sits in front of two shallow graves, marked with small wooden tomb\"stones\". If confronted, he asks one of the PCs to borrow a weapon for a second. If they refuse, he just sits silently and stares at the graves. If they do lend him a weapon, he performs suicide with it. His body quickly turns into some sort of semi-intelligent blood-ooze which quickly moves onto the graves and sinks into them, coloring the dirt red as it does so.
If the PCs are dumb enough to open the graves...well...that 's up to the DM. I'
d suggest something like two red - colored skeletons, one normal and one halfling - sized, attacking the PCs
while screaming insanely.
",
"A pool of water, no more than two feet by six feet. The water is dark but looks, smells, and tastes fresh. Lighting the pool (i.e. a torch held over it) reveals a young woman in a white gown, perfectly preserved and composed, as if freshly laid out. If someone drinks from the pool (water to cupped hand to mouth or directly only), a hand will reach out of the pool and gently caress that person's face. The woman's eyes will also open and follow that person around. That person gets a wish, but since she only communicates non-verbally, that person has no way of knowing until he says something, perhaps days or weeks later, that he may later regret.",
"A scantily-dressed living woman, tied between two stone pillars, quietly waiting for whatever end comes. If they approach, she'll beg that her end comes quickly. They could also find out from talking to her that she is the latest sacrifice intended to spare her village from the Mourning. Her village is nearby and indeed spared the effects of the fog. Everyone in that village is openly friendly, pretty much ape-something insane, and will quietly plan for the party's demise in any number of horrid ways, because they believe that killing outsiders and sacrificing their own numbers are the only ways that they can save their village. (The Mourning avoided the village for other reasons having nothing to do with the sacrifices. It'd take some investigating to figure out what, though.)",
"The gigantic unnatural creature that had been eating the sacrifices from #160 above.",
"The party enters a small roadside town. Nothing new here, the dead lie everywhere. But no mater what building they enter it is always the mortuary at the edge of town. Same views from the windows, and the back door always leads to a cemetery.
The only way out is thru the cemetery.And
if the party has not figured this out yet they will make several trips from the cemetery back to the town.
One room has a number of fresh(but empty) coffins with the PC 's names carved into it!
The PC 's will be unable to loot any of the buildings in the town.",
"A school house with a floor covered in writhing maggots. (they will not leave the room). Wading thru the maggots deals damage (not much, say two points a round). Fire spells can burn them away but they drop from the ceiling like rain a few moments later...",
"A looted sorcerer's tower. The treasure is not the sorcerer or his tower, but whatever the looters bear (the last group did not get out). A living spell calls this place home (it should be nasty enough to threaten the PC's).
The last group of adventurers wear the magic items / treasure
for the encounter, and will groan as the items are pulled off--making looting the dead a rather gruesome affair.One may verbalize...\"No that's mine!\" or \"I wanted to give that ring to my son.\" Or an accusation, \"Thief!\" One dead body near the exit calls after the party, \"Thieving Ba*****'s!\"",
"One of the bodies (from 164) is rather attached to his possessions. And the body keeps turning up wherever the party travels to in the Mournland.
If this is not played out right, it could be comical, so you may not choose to do this.
BUT, the PC with the looted item sees the same body lying amidst the dead at least once a day.Perhaps he is the only one to see it, and the other PCs may begin to question him.If he opens a book, he will see the word, \"Thief\" on every page (no one else will). Paintings will look at him disapprovingly and mouth the words, 'thieving Bas****!\"
Little things like that happen as long as the PC is in Cyre.Nothing bad will happen, but played right the PC should get a growing feeling of menace.Like when the party wakes up and EVERYONE sees the corpse lying just outside the party campsite!
The haunting stops when the party leaves the Mournland.But the PC just might willingly give up the item.Placing it back on the corpse ends the haunting--
for that PC.Now a new PC starts getting visitations...",
"The Lights of South Eston, a village located in Southern Cyre, was a major tourist draw. The entire village was surrounded by a forest enchanted by hundreds of permanent dancing lights. Since the Mourning, However, Will-o-the-wisps have invaded the forest, making it impossible to know whether you were surrounded by a benign glowing ball of magic or a hateful fey luring you to your death.
Strange things go on in South Eston these days as well.A monster of fearsome strength has moved in , and the Mourning has turned him invisible, however, when touched by rays from the light of South Eston, it becomes perfectly visible.The monster is working in concert with the will - o - the - wisps, having them draw prey to satisfy in unseen hunger.
",
"characters crossing an open field near an abandoned military camp when one of the players makes a search check with a DC 20 sees a Spell mine or sets off if failed (Firetrap cast 3rd level) the players have walked into a spell field {physical description it a small 4 inch soft brass disk with a spring loaded lid that springs open if the player steps on it setting off the Fire trap spell}",
"The players moving along the edge of the mourn lands will notice if they make a (Save vs. Will DC 30) a 4 foot high monolith made of Astral Driftmetal capped with a Khyber Shard covered in ancient Draconic runes. The monolith flickers in and out of the astral plane. If someone makes the will save they can view the monolith without forgetting it is there. Other wise they forget it is there and do their best to avoid the monolith or view it.",
"the players come across a small caravan outside the Mournland that is camped for the night. If the players investigate the find it very quiet in fact they walked into the area of a living silence spell the only problem is it's friends the Gibbering Mouthers that are hunting down the caravans populace.
The characters come to a lonely village.The only sound they hear are screams of lust and pain mingled together. It's coming from a single house, near the town square. When the characters investigate, they'll find a young man and woman, engaged in the act of loving.What the characters see will be too much
for them(DC 30 Will Save or panicked) : The flesh of the couple has been fused together, and worms and maggots are eating their ways through the bodies.But each second, the flesh heals, and the wounds the parasites cause close again.The couple is captivated in pleasure and torment,
for all eternity.
Near a tree, the characters find the corpse of a human girl.Next to the corpse, a slain horrid rat lies there.From the tree, the body of a human soldier hangs, softly swinging in the breeze.He holds a letter in his hand, reading\"Forgive me my daughter, that I couldn 't save you.\"
The characters come to a river that is flowing red with blood and they see some people in it.When they get closer, they see that the adults are bound,
while a young girl walks up and down before them.In front of each adult, she stays and slits their bellies open with a long knife, saying\"Please forgive me dad\", \"Please forgive me, mom\", \"Please forgive me, uncle\", whatever is appropriate. After she has maimed all of her family, she walks up and down again, this time pouring her tears on the wounds, which then heal. Then she continues to slit her relatives open again...
Each night, each character finds a single bone in his hand when waking up.On the bone is a single word inscribed : \"Help\" ** *
After a night of rest, suddenly each character is alone.Each character is incorporeal, and made improved invisible by the strange magic of the Mournland. **
*
The party discovers two wizards, one from Cyre, one from Breland, both separated from their troops and engaged in a magical duel.The whole scene is as
if frozen in time, with one wizard discharging a lightning bolt, and the other one trying to raise a lesser globe.Both casters have a macabre mirror image : instead of whole images, only parts of their bodies are mirrored;the skeleton is one image, as is the nervous system, the muscles, and the blood vessels, also the internal organs form a different image
for the spell.
",
"The scene is a moderately sized town, or perhaps a smaller part of a large town.
Everyone is dead, as you 'd expect. All the coins in the area have been changed. The head side no longer bears the traditional image (usually Galifar I) but instead the face of whoever last touched the coin. The expression matches that held at the moment of the Mourning.
The coins are of course no longer legal tender.If several are melted down, an audible scream can be heard coming from the metal.If only one or two are melted at the time, the screams are inaudible to all but the keenest ears.
A few places and faces :
A man lies fallen in the street next to a stall, the coins which fell from his hand all bear a horrified expression.
A changeling shopkeeper, slumped over his counter, has some coins under his hand.The face is that of a bored but handsome half - elf.
In a tavern, a man 's corpse at the bar carries coins in his purse. In the right light you can see his tipsy expression blush in the copper'
s shine.
The Cyrian Society
for Peace was collecting
for their charity on a street corner.The coins in the bucket show dozens of faces from around the town.
In the home of an explorer, there is a chest full of ancient coins from the Dhakaani empire.While the uppermost coins bear the face of the explorer(who was halfway through a haircut at the time) the deeper coins bear hobgoblin skulls.Some of them are broken and some of them show nothing more than specks of bone.
At an interrupted funeral, the casket is still lying open, and the old woman inside has a serene expression, which is matched by the gold coin on each of her eyes.
In a safe, the party finds a purse of platinum coins bearing the face of the person who hired them to go look at the town.All of the faces are laughing.Did he happen to hear a hilarious joke at that moment, or is something more sinister going on ?
Of course, this could be useful as a clue
if your players are looking
for someone who passed through here before the day of mourning.
",
"A roaming band of Warforged Scouts (6, cr 2) are scavenging a Warforged fighter unit that became inert. Taking thier heads, arms and even hacking apart the bodies of their fallen brethren, taking weapons, and armor, and anything of any value.
Have they gone mad ? or there something
else going on here ? Who is the cloaked figure in the distance the Scouts run to when they hear a whistle revealing the approaching party ? ",
"Along the river across from Loom Keep, the party see's a woman in pearlescent robes walk towards the last few trees living on the edge of the Mournland. She kneels before it, and brings it down with a single swipe of her Scythe. She brings her scythe down on the remaining 20 trees. The screams in the wind begging for help can be heard for the next 3 days, and 3 nights.
Is it the Trees wailing ? Or did the trees have a Fae bound to it, and those are the screams of the dying dryads.Who is the woman in the robes and why does she only come out during the height of the full moon ? ",
"Angwar Keep is under attack by a small army of Warforged (1 Human Artificer, 16 Warforged Fighters, 3 Warforged Scouts, 2 Warforged titans) across the river. Their siege engines hurling rocks, and fire are buffeting the walls. In the mist covered mornings the sounds of something being built can be heard. For 2 days and nights the onslaught continues unabated, until from the mists can a bridge be seen. Large enough for the titan's to cross and level the Keep. It will be less than a full day before the bridge is completed.
Can the Party defeat the Warforged ? What 's really going on? Is the bridge a diversion or the vanguard of a much larger force testing the resistance of the Keep'
s Tactical Position ? ",
"A young girl is to marry another man, but she is kidnapped from Vathirond by a jealous House Heir whom she'd previously rebuked his advances. During the flight with his personal soldiers, they cross into the Mournland. A day later, the Heir's horse rides alone back out, blood splayed with arrows in its barding.
Is the girl alive ? is the heir alive ? Is this an elaborate ruse by the party 's arch-nemesis to capture or kill them?
The Father and the House representative both(without knowing) hire the party to find the girl and the Heir.The captain of the guard however, offers an additional reward to leave the girl in the Mournland.Is the tracker that comes along with the party working
for the Father or the House ? Or is there something more sinister afoot ? ",
"A jeweled necklace is for sale by a traveling halfling merchant who skirted the Mournland, but doesn't speak nor read common. Engraved on the back are the Royal House of Cyre's family crest.
Who did it belong to ? Where did he get it ? Tracing his steps
for the last few weeks brings up more questions than it answers.Maybe someone sold it to him, maybe he killed someone
for it.Maybe the royal family member is still alive.
",
"Investigating the ruins of a Cyran village, the PCs find no trace of the normally ever-present undecaying corpses. The Mourning wiped the corpses from the face of the earth (or maybe a carcass crab collected them). Now, the restless spirits of the villagers crave bodies and sensations. They start hounding the PCs, trying to merge their incorporeal forms with the PCs' bodies and fooling themselves that they're incarnating. Apart from a cold tingle, and the creeping idea that an undead apparition is somehow moving inside you, following your every movement, this does no harm...or does it?",
"Two Colossal pseudo-natural jellyfish who fly through the air like they would through water find each other before the PC's eyes and begin mating. The female bears millions of eggs. (Just think about it)",
"An obsidian black unicorn lies near her mate: a nightmare. Both are watchers over a grove of trees which mysteriously flourish. They are quite mad and the trees need blood to flower...",
"In a sudden warp of life-energy, the PCs are losing vital fluids, suffering bruises that come out of nowhere, growing wrinkles, losing hair, all whilst they feel stabbing pains in the gut. Meanwhile, their gear is absorbing the lost life-energy: wooden arrows start to grow buds and leaves, leather items become bloody patches of skin that look like they've just been ripped off the animal.",
"Some of the PCs' gear loses corporeality overnight. (Of course, the party is attacked in the morning!) Once every couple of rounds, the afflicted items turn incorporeal (still visible as a dense patch of mist roughly shaped like the item) or back corporeal. Or maybe the items behave once every few rounds as if they've got the Ghost Touch ability?",
"The battlefield of one of the last confrontation in the Last war. Except that instead of the normal nations, three factions are engaged in eternal battle: The skeletons of the soldiers, their zombified flesh and their animated armor and weapons.",
"The PCs witness a battle between undead warriors (corporeal only, zombies & skeletons and such). They attack each other relentlessly, never pausing to even notice the PC's (unless they try to interfere, of course). When any of the combatants is too damaged to continue fighting, they slowly reassemble themselves from spare parts lying on the ground (not necessarily their own parts, or even the right parts for the location they're being placed). Any attempt to interfere in the battle will cause the undead to suddenly notice the offending PC; they will delightfully honor the PC's desire to participate. Treat the undead as having fast healing 5, and destroying them or turning them only causes them to ignore you for ten rounds. ",
"The PCs find some kind of reflective surface (mirror, pool of water, etc.) where images constantly appear. Apparently these images replay the last 60 seconds of life of every person who died in the Mourning (assuming that was a million and a half people, it would take two years and ten months to play them all). These images are neither illusory or divinatory in nature. It is entirely possible for the PCs to see images of people they knew. Whether or not the images are true is anyone's guess.",
"One random non-magical object that a random PC is carrying becomes magical (and intelligent). Its attributes and abilities may be determined randomly, or the DM may drop in any item he likes. It's a good bet that the item's desires and goals will be counter to the party's.",
"At some random point during a battle, all participants are healed of all hit point & ability damage (but not raised). Not just the PCs; everybody.",
"During a 24-hour period, all missile weapons halt in mid-air as soon as they leave the PC's hands (not including rays or other results from spells, such as magic missile). The next day, the PCs are all right again (or as all right as you can be in the Mournland).",
"During the next hour, a random PC knows the name and the name of the next of kin of every corpse he sees. The ability ends after the hour, but the affected PC's remembers all the information.",
"The PCs rest the night away. When they wake up one of them sees Death standing nearby. Every now and then he checks the time as if waiting for something. Only one PC can see and interact with him. Once a PC that cannot see him reaches a set amount of Hp he instantly kills them. Once the PC that sees him is alone he will bargain with him/her for the lives of his/her friends. Something horrible, like bring me the souls of the children. Once that is completed the PC wakes up screaming the morning that they first saw Death watching. Making the entire thing seem like a dream. For added creep factor you could have Death standing on a hill in the distance.",
"The PCs come across a plot of land with many trees surrounding a house. The in several areas, trees have been semi uprooted and twisted around each other on the ground in a spiral starburst pattern. The tops of the trees are mostly devoid of leaves. Around the house lies pieces of roof and contents of the house as if sucked or exploded out. The front door lies in the middle of the common room. In the kitchen, food is strewn everywhere and the very large oven appears to have been dragged 5 ft away from the wall and spun around backwards. The stove is heavy enough that 4 PCs would have difficulty moving it. On the opposite side of the wall the stove originally was located, is a den area. The roof looks to have been ripped off. Against the wall on the opposite side of where the stove was, stands an ornate cabinet holding 3 dozen glasses on 3 shelves. The cabinet doesn't have a single scratch on it. The glass doors are not cracked or damaged in any way. On the second shelf, one glass is half full of dirty looking water. The actual contents are up to you.
(This scene is actually my house from after Hurricane Andrew, only the stove was a fridge that got pulled off the wall and spun around(the cord was wrapped around the bottom).Still can 't figure out how water got int the glass....)",
"As long as the players remain in the Mournland, whenever the players think they're heading in one direction, the DM should secretly roll 1d8 (1=North 2=NE, etc) to determine the direction they are actually heading. If a character succeeds by 10 or more on a Survival check to keep from getting lost, the party can move in the correct direction that day. ",
"Mounts and beasts of burden are terrified in the Mournland, requiring characters to \"push\" them once each day. A successful check means the mount will behave normally for that day. If a character fails on his Handle Animal check, the animal bolts as fast as possible towards the nearest possible exit from the Mournland.
This one is a variation on #153",
"The PC's come across what appears in the distance to be a statue of two people embracing in a final, loving kiss. As they get a little closer, they realize that it is actually a statue of a Warforged and a female human. Finally, if they approach the statue, they see that it is in fact an real, living Warforged. He remains perfectly still holding the woman tightly, his \"lips\" pressed to hers in an eternal kiss. The woman was his love and was petrified in this final embrace as the cataclysm that befell the Mournland swept over them both. For some reason the Warforged was unaffected.
He has not moved a single inch since the tragedy occurred those many years ago, preferring to stay locked in the embrace of the woman who once loved him. He will not speak to anyone and will not willingly be separated from his true love. He is quite insane and cannot be reasoned with. If he is forced away from her or if she is disturbed, destroyed or attacked in any way, he will fly into a rage and attack the party mercilessly and to the death.",
"As the PCs make their way through the maddening terrain of the Mournland, those with large amounts of sheet metal being to notice an oddity. Every time they stop to stare at an unrotting corpse, the face of the departed begins to form in a place in their gear. Be it a shield, sword, piece of armor plate, or what have you.
No item is so horribly warped that it becomes unusable, but the more bodies they investigate, the more faces form upon their equipment.
Can you imagine the looks they'd get going anywhere? And what of a relative of one dead on the Day of Mourning who recognizes the face locked in an eternal scream in the center of the fighter's shield?
[EDIT] And if you have an intelligent item that can speak, imagine it now talking using the face imprinted upon its surface.",
"Amongst a set of soldiers, the party find one writing a letter. The letter is to a loved one, saying how relieved he is to have finally got out of the dump he'd been in over the last few months, and has finally been moved to Cyre. The letter is unfinished",
"The PCs find a traveling fair. Brightly colored cover the grounds, and happy music and the sound of laughter can be heard somewhat distantly, but there are no people or bodies anywhere. There are a hall of mirrors, rides (be imaginative on what carnival rides can be done in Eberron), some illusions on display, freak shows, houses of horrors, and unmanned food stalls whose food has since turned foul.",
"A shape roams the land, causing incredibly rapid plant growth in the area. Forests and bushes spring out of the ground almost like fountains. However, as soon as the shape moves on, these plants wither and crumble as quickly as they appeared.
***
Have anyone here read a certain Stephen King novel?
After all, what works better than finding *GASP* survivors, huddled in a house...moments after the PCs enter, a fog rolls in. It's thick enough to give them mere meters of sight at best. In the darkness beyond, beings like Living black tentacle spells, horrid monstrous spiders, pseudonatural mephits, horrid giant eagles and worse prowl... the fog refuses to lift, and these beings all navigate via smell...instead of hearing or vision.
A warforged can get away easily, if he washes and doesn't touch his teammates. but what about the humanoids?",
"On an otherwise empty plain, the party stumbles across a vast field of totally invisible bones. Only by touch can they identify the invisible items they keep bumping into as skeletons and bones. The DM ought to include oddly malformed bones and bones from nonhumanoid origin. Of course, a nasty DM will attach vengeful, vengeful ghosts to the bodies the PCs have disturbed and demand they reposition the corpses in the proper burial position. Could turn into a farce, so watch out for that. Use the ghosts to ensure the PCs don't leave Cyre with invisible bonecrafted weaponry.",
"The Glowing Chasm that dominates northern Cyre swallowed many towns when it erupted on the day of Mourning. Sometimes the towns reappear, beckoning to adventurers to explore or seek respite in them, unfortunately, the towns' reappearance is strictly illusory, a fact that becomes \"strikingly\" clear once an unwary adventurer, fooled by the mirage arcana, steps off an unseen cliff and into eternity.",
"All who touch the purple light of the chasm are driven insane with its arcane power, but this power manifests in different ways. Of late, animals and vermin that would otherwise never possess the strength of personality have developed warlock powers and have begun preying on travelers.",
"The party comes across a thorp entirely intact. The buildings are in great shape, the people are alive and glad for it. If any members of the party are from Cyre, it might remind them strongly of their hometown (or maybe it is!) When the party enters the thorp, they discover that healing works just fine. Then they learn that every resident who has tried to leave the thorp since the Day of Mourning died just past the last building of the thorp, that they are the first outsiders to make it to the thorp, and that for some reason all of the other denizens of the Mournland avoid the thorp altogether. The residents are happy to welcome the adventurers in, but they are very reluctant to let them try to leave, fearing for their safety (and hoping that they might serve to replenish their dwindled population.) When the party does leave, the Day of Mourning finally comes to the thorp: all the residents drop dead and their buildings instantly crumble (a fate that might be avoided if the party meets certain conditions set by the GM).",
"While traveling across the Mournland, the party comes to a HUGE city hidden in a deep valley. The place is just fantastic, with towers almost too tall to take in with one glance, large enough to house buildings inside, skybridges connecting them, and all kinds of other miraculous architecture. No city like it has ever existed in Cyre. It covers several square miles, and like other places in the Mournland it is populated only by the undisturbed dead.
The city is Sharn.",
"Known for their talent in breeding hunting dogs, the ir'Tamaress were a Cyran noble family held in high regards in their homeland. Before the Mourning they bred masterful hunting dogs for all the young nobles, during a time in which hunting was quite popular. Also a family versed in diplomacy, their close-knit country club hunting companions were able to pull many strings and call in a sizable amount of favors for their benefit, being noble-bred as they were.
Legend has it that on the night of the Mourning, the ir'Tamaress grand estate was sparred a physical destruction, though left in ruin nonetheless. According to the myth the Tamaress-bred hounds went utterly mad, driven insane by the Mourning. They proceeded to viciously attack and maul any they crossed paths with, until all that remained was the stain of death. To this day the supposed ir'Tamaress estate is home to a roving pack of yeth hounds, some fifty strong. Such a gathering of beasts has discouraged treasure hunters from attempting to plumb the depths of the estate for treasure, but a few of the yeth hounds have been killed, with a most disturbing and common occurrence accompanying these kills. As one of the yeth hounds dies, in its final spasms it convulses and vomits something up. It collapses to the ground, finally dead, as the regurgitated mass squirms, and then begins to cry. An infant's cry.
Closer inspection reveals it to be a human newborn baby. Both males and females have been found after killing these specific yeth hounds, and some have been brought out of the Mournland to be cared for by foster parents. It is unknown the exact significance of this phenomenon, but the children are getting older, and have so far remained quite healthy. In fact, a few may even be old enough to speak a few words...",
"the party is engulfed by the soil and is confronted by a giant baby with a poopie diaper and he's crying...",
"The party must cross the Mournland to reach a far away goal. Going around wasn't an option, so they equipped themselves and prepared themselves mentally for the worst. They cross the entire Mournland, seeing the well-known fields of unrotting corpses, the barren wastelands left behind, and crumbling towns.
Other than being an unpleasant place to look at, nothing bad happens.",
"The group of heroes descend on a battle field of wounded... the party mage can carry 14 of them with his spells, but the party has to leave one person behind....",
"a huge battle with two armies charging each other. When a solider is killed and he hits the ground, the body stays but a copy of him charges in again. So the armies are fighting on hundreds of copies of their own corpses.",
"a magnificent manor sitting in the middle of no where. As the party approaches they see that every thing, the walls, the roof, the things inside of the house, are made from still-bleeding flesh and bone.",
"A town where all of the clothes are animated going about their normal lives, taking, working, playing etc, and knit new children instead of giving birth",
"a creature covered with barbed tentacles, bleeding from dozens of wounds. To hurt the party the beast cuts it self. Killing it seriously injures a party member ( maybe kills him)",
"same as above but if party member dies, he resurrects the next day and transforms in to one of these beasts and begins to hunt his former friends.",
"a pile of loot. if the party tries to take something they are assaulted by winds screaming \" PUT THAT BACK!\"",
"The PCs find an abandoned lightning rail station with a working lightning rail, no stones are left around but the rail itself is intact. Inside, the ghosts of all the passengers that were supposed to use the lightning rail that day are patiently waiting for it to leave the station. Any member of House Orien who boards the Rail is asked when it will be leaving and what the hold-up is. If the PC's can get some conducting stones and move the Rail, all of the passengers will be more than happy to talk about what has happened for the last few years they have been waiting. Once the Rail leaves the Mournland, the PC's have a now-haunted but happy group of ghosts that ride around with them.
***
The party find a small girl, dirty, ragged and unhappy, but alive and well. She apparently has been subsisting off what knowledge her farmer parents taught her to forage; interestingly, the mutated, sparse vegetation and animals of the Mournland are purified by her touch, and she heals the small portions of the land as she goes (she can heal the PCs), however the corruption soon returns. The girl is frightened and lost, and the PCs are the only people shes seen in the years since the Mourning. If the PCs attempt to take her out of the Mournland however she sickens within a fortnight, at which point her gift starts to corrupt normal life into the horrors of the Mournland, she doesn't die for 3 months but becomes an invalid one month after being removed from the Mournland. Food and water turn grey, to ash or blood etc. and seem barely to keep her alive. The only way to heal her is to return her to the Mournland, where she must live; the only one who can survive there, condemned to a lonely life.",
"Once the PC’s reach the peak of a hill, cliff etc. a visible semi-transparent multi-colored dome surrounds a small village. In the center of the village is a 40ft tower (50ft total with a large pole), the dome seems to be centered at the peak of the tower and covers the majority of the village, the parts of the village that are not covered and appear to be rubble, while the rest seem to be persevered…(this is completely left open)",
"An obvious entrance to a cave has been barricaded. Deep (very deep) within the cave are survivors of the Mourning…It would appear that a small town has made their home here. The people seem to have a magical artifact the can create food and drink at will!",
"PC’s come to the ridge of what was once forest, the trees are now blackened and withered. Deep within the wasted forest blackened trees have been turned into living constructs, VERY much like the warforged. In fact a warforged has discovered them and has been teaching them…",
"PC’s discover a Temple of the Sovereign Host within the temple nine priest (one for each god) worshiping their Sovereign. The priest dare not exit the temple in fear that breaking the blessing that their gods have given them…",
"PC’s discover a small pond where the water is 100% clear. A white sand spreads about 15’ from the edge of the water in all directions (including underneath it). The pond radiates with magic and no evil creature can get within 15’ of the pond, however the protection does not prevent missile weapons from evil beings to enter. The water is pure and has the ability to heal wounds (1hp/1hr while touching the water or something like that) Buried under the sand (under the water), is a greater dragonshard attuned to House Jorasco (this should be extremely difficult to find and is NOT in the center).
Remember, just there are probably issues or something odd about all of these (except 224, but you can have a great encounter with evil critters to offset things) Maybe, some survivors are content with the way they are, maybe others want to leave but are afraid, or maybe some are willing to go but are being prevented by the leader of the survivors. Others could be some peoples could have deformities and where actually rescued after the Mourning etc.",
"The party feels the ground shake from immense footsteps...poom...poom...poom...getting closer. Little pools of water all about are vibrating with each heavy step...
A very large Warforged Titan comes out of the mist, and sees them. It's head is surrounded by sickening yellow-green flames, and the construct's features are overlain by the spectral visage of the fiend possessing the construct. The warped and distorted spectral body of the fiend seems to trail after every motion the warforged makes as the trapped and insane fiend screams, and the Titan heads for them...",
"As above, heavy footsteps, but this time, a half-fiend tyrannosaur looms out of the mists and gives a happy cry on seeing fresh meat. It looks impossibly gaunt, almost skeletal, but that doesn't change its hunger at all...
For even more fun, give it some elite barbarian halfling riders in a hookah, all with filed teeth and gibbering with laughter as they shoot bone-tipped arrows that wail in the air...",
"A swath of ground, blasted to sand in a cone, purest, unnerving white. Nothing grows there, and the mist seems to avoid the area entirely. It points a short distance away, where a viscous black smear bubbles and emits the Mournland mist, and each gasp of mist wails as it is pulled free of the corruption and rot and into the mist all about. Indeed, as the bubbles rip free of the tar-like filth, the oozing strands looks like malformed limbs trying in vain to hold onto the bubbles of screaming mist, as if clutching at pieces of their souls...",
"A crowd of people on their knees, heads back and mouths open, flesh blasted off petrified bones, arms spread wide, yet clothes immaculate. They are all facing due east. A priest of Dol Arrah leads this congregation who faced the doom coming for them.",
"Two lines of soldiers, swords buried point down in the glistening green grass. They wear the mark of Brellish and Cyran troops. Some of them are clasping hands as warriors, and all have resolute expressions on their perfectly preserved faces from where they lay.",
"The ground rumbles, and a stampede is coming! The ground seems to be open and there is no cover. A screaming horde of Dhakaani troops bursts out of the mist, screaming in terror as they whip mounts, throw away weapons and shields, and otherwise run howling for their lives. Just behind this whole legion of troops are others...humans, mostly, but a wild assortment of races in varying gear and nationality.
Sharp eyed party members will notice the goblins are all undead. If they can survive the stampede, being trampled, and being swung at by goblins frantic to get them out of the way, and the people behind them, too, they are fine. If any PC's are killed, one round later their corpse rises and runs screaming after the rest of the stampede, bound to try and flee the Mournland with the rest of the victims of the fleeing Dhakaani.",
"A living Animate Object spell, inexplicably given a radius. The PCs see what looks like a patch of water moving through the ground towards them. They can't outrun it. As the \"water\" draws near, each and every inanimate object animates and begins moving around in a listless, largely aimless fashion. This includes all of the PCs' gear. Clothing might struggle to get free of the PC, or might give the PC a hug. Weapons might pull free of their sheathes and flop around like fish. The \"water\" effect is caused by every individual particle of dirt for 5 feet down animating and squirming around. I'd treat this as being caught in a bog or swamp as far as movement goes. Once the PCs stop moving, the spell passes over them, continuing off into the distance.",
"An alternative to the above. A living Animate Object spell has gained sentience and moves from one object to another until it finds an object it likes, then stays there. Imagine the fun if it's favorite object is a PC's helmet, doubly so if it's impossible to dispel. The PC would have to reason with the spell, offering it alternative places to inhabit.",
"A salamander (or other suitable extra-planar creature) was summoned by a wizard on the Day of Mourning and was protected from the disaster by the Wizard's containment wards. The Wizard's wards broke down long ago, allowing the salamander to roam around as it pleases, but the salamander has no way to get back home. It offers a reward to the PCs if they can somehow get it out of this dead, dangerous, grim wasteland and back to its lovely firepits.",
"The party, marching along, looks back, and sees that what is behind them is a completely different scene! More over, if they all turn around to see, then when they turn back around, they see something completely different than where they were headed to! (DM decision whether this keeps happening every time they turn around, or whether its a single teleport like effect)",
"I just have to do this one... the players walk into a strange mist (even for the Mournland), when they emerge, they find the kingdom of Cyre COMPLETELY INTACT. One slight problem... Dorothy, Toto and company ain't in Kansas anymore...or Eberron for that matter. Welcome to the newest Dread Realm of RAVENLOFT!",
"Traveling along, a purple mist settles over the area, lit periodically by green lightning. Horribly, the PCs now have to make a fort save or be mutated themselves! Succeeding the fort save results in some damage, but no mutation (leaving the numbers out on purpose...size them to the party and the threat you want). Mutation won't give the PCs any bonuses, but will sure give them negatives on social interaction.",
"A demented and evil giant is putting on a macabre puppet show using human corpses",
"At the center of a never-ending blizzard, one that glows an eerie shade of purple, a woman of pale and frail beauty dances and sings to Cyran folk song. Those that see her become entranced by the song, and when they succumb to sleep their body is disintegrated into a fine violet dust that comprises the blizzard.",
"A man tills his fields in the middle of the Mournland. When asked why, he states plainly that his children need to be fed. He invites the party in for a meal, and offers to shelter them against the Mournland horrors as best he can for a night. Upon reaching his hut, however, the party finds that the man's family, unlike the man himself is dead. What's more, they've risen as ghosts, haunting their former home and driving their father mad with grief.",
"As with 239, but instead of the man's family rising as ghosts, their corpses instead sit, propped up, at the kitchen table by the man.",
"The PCs are going through a town.It, like most towns, appears unchanged.However, after a while the PCs hear a sound behind them.Those who turn around to see a large statue, or something similar, following them.It has a living animate object on it.Once it catches up with the PCs, it will attack until either all the PCs are dead or it's current \"body\" is destroyed.If that happens, the living spell jumps onto another convenient thus starting the whole process over again.The PCs either have to stop the spell from jumping to another object, destroy everything in town, kill the living spell, or simply leave as quickly as possible.It won't leave the borders of the town.",
"Okay, this is totally unoriginal but I feel it's fitting. As the day pass a fog/mist forms. A while later humanoid shapes can be seen coming in the direction of the party; Zombies. Zombies that want, \"Brains!\" Completely immune to Turning or control and with out an initiative penalty, Zombies, as many as the DM wants, formed from fallen soldiers roam the Mournland. They are in search of Brains to eat, the only thing that alleviates their awareness of their condition. They can respond to questioning but only say that they need to brains to no longer feel their suffering. The only way to truly put them down is to destroy the head. Otherwise if brought down to 0 hp they will heal, stand up and join their fellow zombies once more. If a Zombie is truly destroyed another New zombie soldier from some battlefield, somewhere in the Mournland, \"awakens\" and joins the band of zombies.",
"As the party enters the ruined metropolis of Metrol, they notice that every gate and door has been changed into the same single image. The gates themselves are wrought iron supported on two stone pillars. A frieze above depicts a fearsome infernal being tearing a solar apart. Wrought into the gate are the following words in Draconic: \"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.\" On doors, there is a depiction of the Traveler handing Prince Oargev ir'Wynarn (that dude in New Cyre) and Merrix d'Cannith a sealed envelope. Infernal writing encircles the image, warning viewers to \"Beware the gifts of the Traveler.\"",
"the Tarrasque wanders casually stepping over your camp in the night DC 5 listen check to notice.
***
the players come upon a school, blasted but still reasonably intact. Inside the burned and blasted corpses a la nuclear bomb of the 5 grade students and their teacher still sit at the tables. On the blackboard someone has wiped half of the calculating lectiure and written in a badly shaken hand:
\"And the lesson today is HOW TO DIE!\"",
"same as above with this added: a bloody piece of chalk lies on the floor in front of the blackboard and bloody footprints lead from one torn opening in the classroom across it to the blackboard and on through the room, out another blasted opening.
They could belong to the principle of the school or an surviving but maimed teacher or student who now roam the halls of the school. He is flayed but alive, and quite insane.",
"The PC's shadows seem to be cast in different directions from one another.",
"Upon waking each PC that was sleeping (not on watch) has dreams of being attacked by a beast and wakes to find claw marks around them. The camp however, was not disturbed.",
"Dwarves find that they cannot stand the taste of ale",
"One of the PC's hair begins to slowly change color over the course of a few days. This is permanent.",
"A lone Dirgesinger (See Libris Mortis) is found walking around near the open graveyards singing laments to the corpses. As long as the PC's are within ear shot of his songs, no undead seem to rise. Any time the PC's try to communicate with the Bard, he looks at them and weeps, but continues doing his thankless task.",
"Anytime a cleric tries to use a cure spell, his hands go numb and he cannot move them for 2 rounds.",
"The PC's witness about 60 corpses rise (20 Cyre, 40 Thrane) and proceed to battle each other. The Cyran soldiers continually call out to the PC's to fall in line and assist them. If the PC's help the Cyran soldiers they lay down to rest for good once the battle is over. If they do not, the Thraneites start advancing on the party.",
"A child's corpse is fused into a wall at this torso, the child slowly scratches and claws slowly at the building and tries to attack the party, however, it can't move from it's spot.",
"As soon as one of the PC's tries to sleep (pick the biggest *******) he hears his mother's voice shriek in agony and it startles him awake. No one else hears the sound and the PC cannot sleep for the remainder of that night.",
"as the PCs travel across the Mournland they can hear a soft \"scrape.....scrape....\" many times over that seems to travel with them, it is in fact the disembodied limbs of many Mourners crawling along powered by the effect of the Mourning and turned invisible by it following the PCs out of some fiendish desire to rend living flesh. They catch up to the PCs when they stop to sleep for the night.",
"While sleeping, each PC hears and feels everything that happens to its body. Bugs crawl over their face and into their mouth (maybe up the nose!), you hear a distant wolf howl at a moon that never sets. An ogre growls right next to the ear and its hot breath on the face. Maybe the din of some not-so-far-off battle. Despite the stimulus, the PCs cannot wake up, nor open their eyes until a full 8 hours have passed. They experience it all as a waking nightmare, although one that shouldn't affect them beyond creeping them out.",
"the party stumbles upon a circus tent with undead clowns, animals and attractions continuing to perform even after their deaths. ",
"the players see a large group of people heading deeper into the Mournland they seam to be refuges who are lost in reality they will roam this land forever as ghosts.",
"haunting pipe music seams to be coming from up ahead when the player approach the music it seams to drift farther away till it gets to a woman with white hair and ivory skin her face is covered by her hair she continues to play no matter what the players do if the move the hair away from her face she has no face.",
"The PCs lose time. They seem to be running out of supplies faster than they thought. Seem to be standing in the midst of battle while they were previously camping. They are not all losing time at once, some members can recall having detailed conversations with the ones that have lost time, which could have spanned any given amount of time, minutes, hours, days.",
"Similar to the one above. The PCs finally make it home after accomplishing the task they went to the Mournland for. They spend some time at home, recounting their events, talking with friends, having a decent meal, when they slowly realize that they aren't really home, they never made it home. Little things are different, like people not remembering them, or their favorite pub closing down for no reason, or people they know to be dead they share a casual conversation with. When the feeling of wrongness hits them, they immediately snap back to reality, not knowing how that happened. It doesn't have to happen while they sleep either, just suddenly, they are standing, in the Mournland, weeping, screaming... \"This can't be happening!\" Roll a sanity check!",
"Slow, droning music starts to play over the terrain, a dirge, slowly building... slowly making you sad, or angry, reminding you of how much you hate the other PCs... Why did you come here? It was all the wizard's idea, right? You hate the wizard, and his superiority complex. A well placed dagger in his neck should do the trick. (wizard is killed by the rogue) Music still plays... Why did you come here? It was all the paladin's idea, right? You hate the paladin and all his hypocrisy...",
"As the PCs enter the Mournland, they start to experience short spurts when they're short of breathe, which after a few days feels like choking feelings. This goes on for a week, fatiguing them, as it feels as they can never find enough air to breathe normally. After 7 days a random PC goes into a coughing fit and dislodges a bloody piece of dirt from his throat, that looks to have bits of his own lungs and aesophagus in it. He/She is unharmed but probably should be shaken up. A few days later the whole group experience the same thing, except the coughing causes full body tremors and spasm, racking them with pain. The same random PC from before starts to feel something moving underneath his/her skin on the left arm, and when examined a large, blood covered maggot bores out and leaves a horrible, gangrenous wound. The night of this incident all PCs will suddenly wake up to find them themselves buried just below the surface of the ground, struggling fruitlessly to free themselves from the earth, just as they can feel hundreds of the maggots come from all sides, biting and squirming into them. If they can't make strength checks in time to free themselves and their comrades, they're infested and slowly eaten alive over the course of a day.",
"The party comes across Orinsh, a village just inside of the Mournland. All the inhabitants of the village, despite being of myriad races, ages, and genders, acts in a singularly calm, serene manner eerily similar to one another. They are model neighbors, expert dancers, surprisingly good psions, and fond of headdresses.
The reason becomes clear after encountering the mayor: a Kalashtar Telepath of unsurpassed power named Ravqitar. He has been using mind seed in an effort to create as many Kalashtar as possible, starting with every man woman and child of Orinsh, and the PCs may be next...
EDIT:Just as a note of clarification, Ravqitar's efforts are entirely futile. Mind Seed can overwrite personalities, but it can't transfer the quori essence of the Kalashtar Soul. Rav is one of the few surviving members of his line, driven to madness by grief and fear for the survival of his race, and, unaware of the futility, sees this as a necessary evil to winning the war.",
"At night (or all the time when in the Mournland) the PC's skin etc. can be seen through, allowing their bones to be visible. Creepy when you look at your fellow party members and you see their skeletons. ",
"The party comes across a tree that has corpses hanging from all of it's branches! I call it, the Corpse Tree! All corpses can either have their mouths open as if screaming or if you want them to, they can be screaming! (then you can call it the Screaming Corpse Tree)
OR if you're feeling crazy, there can be dozens or more trees like that... maybe the screaming corpse tree forest! (if you're really feeling insane)",
"In Metrol, the shattered Jewel of Galifar...
A bard sits on a hill, bringing surreal calm to the the Mournland. Suddenly the place feels like a mundane twilit landscape, The party approaches, and he bids them hello cheerfully. He's preternaturally happy, and speaks thus:
\"The name's Grinner. Why am I so happy, you ask?\" He speaks gleefully as the party mounts a grand staircase outside of Vermishard palace \"I'm one of the lucky half of this city. Vermishard's mists stole my life the minute I breathed of them. The rest died like that\"
The party mounts the stairs, and the merry bard points down the lane, revealing a pile of bodies. Inspection reveals every one of them strangled each other to death... men, women, even children clasping each others' throats while locked in a wide-mouthed, teary eyed death grimace.
\"What are you fooling with that pile for, sir?\" The bard continues, walking through the pile as though it were air. \"I was pointing beyond it. Trust me, they got off lucky too. You wanna see people I really feel sorry for? Come right this way...\"
Frankly, I've tried and I can't think of a worthy follow-up to this, though I imagine someone else can. I welcome any effort",
"After cresting a hill, you come upon a tranquil pond in a sheltered hollow amid the hills. The area around the pond seems untouched by the effects of Mourning, for at least a few yards or to the tops of the surrounding hills.
A large willow tree shades one bank of the pond and cattails and rushes sway and rattle lightly in a cooling breeze. The occasional croak of a frog can be heard and somewhere, out of site, a splash of a jumping fish can be heard.
Even the gray mists overhead can be mistaken for normal clouds on a slightly overcast day, the sun seems to be actually shining through a little. Like most ponds, the water is slightly greenish with algae and the bottom of the pond cannot be seen.
Nothing will come to harm traveler who choose to camp here. The sense of peace and comfort will continue, so long as no one touches the water of the pond.
If anyone does touch the water, however, the entire pond shatters like a mirror struck by a hammer and collapses into the bowl of the pond. The bottom of the pond is parched and cracked like desert clay and littered enough bones to be the population of an entire village.
Soon after, the willow tree and the cattails and the rushes dry up and turn to dust. The unaffected land quickly succumbs to the effects of the Mourning and the hollow between these hills becomes like all the other; dead and blasted. The sense of peace departs at the shattering of the pond.
***
While the party is traveling through the Mournland, they come across a man who is building a large house. He notices them and begs them to help him finish the house because he has been working since the day of mourning. Every morning the house returns to its original state as if the man had done no work on it. if the party decides to help he is ecstatic and offers them food and shelter so they will be ready to start the next day. After they finish the next day, he grabs a parchment and runs into the house, telling the party to stay out. Moments later the building explodes and the Enlarged fireball cast from the scroll engulfs the house and the party. After the fireball passes, the party sees the house exactly as they found it the previous day with the corpse of the man man burning in the window.",
"The PC's see a man (or woman in the distance) as they approach describe one of the players (not the characters) as well as you can saying that he/she is shackled to a stone wall connected to ruins. If they try to draw his/her attention he/she will look up at the PC's and say \"I've been waiting for you now help me get out of here!\" he/she will then draw a dagger from his/her side and begin cutting his/her leg. Whether the PC's help or not he/she will disappear when they cut off his/her leg or leave him/her (metagamers may be more shocked as roleplayers but both will probably be disturbed)",
"The PC's find a ruined keep with no one inside but it is obvious that a battle took place there...",
"Any kind of evidence that earlier parties of adventurers has been here and failed to escape alive, such as an abandoned camp with scattered bodies. Make the faces of the dead terrified and the hair white. Or make the bodies mangled beyond recognition, though the terror works better for me
Footprints from a large group of people with horses, leading beyond the next hill and then suddenly disappearing.
An airship flying overhead and then crashing when it gets beyond sight, (they WILL hear it and see the smoke), and when they get there all passengers are dead or just gone.
A great thing could be to make several of these events all with a common theme in the deaths of the people, so that your players will be terrified of meeting the \"creature\" that does this.. and pretty sure they will too. The dangers of this is that it might create an anticlimax if they never meet the thing. This may be somewhat avoided by a lot of mysterious rolling of the dice when ever they camp, walk, or just look over their shoulder. They would then feel they just narrowly avoided the Thing.",
"The party come across a dead woman, who has a giant bulging glob of flesh coming from her stomach. A patch of this seems to sink inwards, repeatedly, until eventually it is released, appearing as a hole into her bloody flesh. Two pudgy fleshy hands rip the hole of skin apart, and an grotesquely obese infant, grown since the womb and surviving by eating his dead mother's flesh, begins to emerge towards the party.",
"The party finds group of another group of adventurers that ask to accompany them because \"There's safety in numbers\" the other group will talk about the beauty of the land before the Mourning and how their families died during it. After several days (or hours whichever you prefer) the PCs will find a graveyard and the other group will tell them to wait there as they do something. The other group will go into the graveyard and won't comeback. If the PCs go in to search for them they will find several graves marked with the other groups names.",
"When camping for the night in Mournland, the characters wake up to find out their clothing and armor bearing rips, tears and bloodstains like those made with weapons. ",
"The characters find a desolate and obviously ruined farmhouse. Upon further investigation they find the bodies of the family huddled in the cellar, preserved for eternity. ",
"A gruesome scene of a man pierced by an arrow from behind. Preserved inside a clear block of glass. The man's eyes turn to follow the characters around. His mouth is open in an eternal cry of pain and small droplets of blood still hang \"in air\" inside the glass.",
"A Woman crucified to a dead tree. When approached, the woman begs the character to help her down. If they do, she attacks like a ghoul. (the paralyzation effect on touch replaced by intense pain felt when hit by her)",
"Thick black sludge covers the ground. It is of very thick and oily consistency and it smells quite bad. If the characters sift trough the substance they find a pile of weapons and armor. All the non-metallic parts seem to have been dissolved, leaving only metal and minerals. The black substance is crude oil, resulting from the soldiers' bodies and the organic parts of their equipment.",
"A field of helmets. A field of military helmets from all countries covers the ground. Most of the helmets are cracked or pierced, bearing obvious marks of battle. The helmets are placed in neat rows and lines and the field covers quite a lot of ground.",
"The Party enters a destroyed house in a ruined village. Among the rubble are the bodies of the family, along with several valuable possessions. However, anything the PC's pick up melts into blood",
"While in Metrol the party sees the ashes of a parent huddling over two small children burned into the wall",
"Upon entering the Mournland, the PC's see a corpse just a foot away from the border, hand extended in a futile attempt to escape.",
"If one of the PC's is from Cyre, they enter their home town to find their mother's perfectly preserved corpse sprawled over a letter asking why the PC hasn't written her recently, and expressing worry that something has happened to him.",
"A variant of the previous one, the PC finds the corpse of the boy/girl next door slouched over a letter which tells how they are finally ready to tell the character they love him/her",
"They find corpses of Cyran, Brelish, and Darguun warriors all kneeling in a circle, heads bowed in silent prayer.",
"A Carcass Crab has the corpse of someone the PC's know attached to it",
"The PCs hear shouting from over a hill. \"Sound off! One, two, three...\" It sounds like a drill sergeant for an army. When they walk over the hill, they see a field covered in army boots. The boots are laid out as if their owners were standing in their ranks, at attention for the drill sergeant. The officer's ghostly voice whips across the still field. . .",
"As above, both the boots are marching in place.",
"A seemingly unaffected village is filled with people... Except only their eyes and clothes are visible.",
"As the PCs enter the Mournland each PC hears a Small female or Male child depending on gender, \"Mother (or Father), you came home!\" yet only each other is present.",
"Upon staying in the Mournland for two days, the PCs come upon a group containing two Karrnathi Skeletons and Two Karrnathi Zombies. Should the PCs go any closer the undead will not attack instead they will ask for the PCs help, should the PCs help the Undead they will crumble into dust. Should the PCs attack the Karrnathi Undead will let off a Scream before disappearing, 1d4 rounds later a Soldiers Journal should tell you how they died, upon opening the journal, it will disappear as well.",
"On the Darkest Night and when a full moon shines in the sky, Mournland will 'Rewind' it self before the event known as \"The Mourning\" this includes ghostly images of those who died. Should the PCs see such event they all must make a will save (DC 15) or go Mad, if they succeed they will see first hand what happen. Yet, that night they will lose all memory of such event, until next time.",
"1d4 days after traveling inside The Mournland you'll see a Pair of Halfling children and a Pair of Ghouls Playing and singing ring around the rosies. Should the PCs approch or attack, the group will disappear yet you can still hear \"Ring around the rosies, pocket full of posies, Ashes to Ashes, we all fall Down\" as long they stay in that area. Should they let the song go on the group will fall down, and 1d4 Skeletons will rise from the Middle, then attack the PCs.",
"a PC finds a near perfect replica of a town that they grew up in, however, the childhood friends appear to be puppets, with button eyes and skin sewn together like cloth. they try to get the PCs to play with them as if they were peers. If they stay long enough pair of puppet parents come to him the PCs \"home for dinner now\" were they try to keep them in the twisted version of the house, in which the PCs can never escape - the house twists and morphs into a never ending collection of more hallways. The mother and father puppets appear around each and every hallway trying to get the PCs to come eat with them so they can have there presents after dinner. The present is in the basement, were they force the PCs onto a table with unearthly strength and starts \"sewing\" them into puppets.
I got this creepy thing from a very creepy book called Coraline, and I'm afraid I just didn't do it justice.
You should read the book:
Coraline by Neil Gaiman.",
"The PCs find an abandoned house totally empty. If they spend more than 3 minutes there they start hearing a argument upstairs. When they reach the room upstairs, they find all the pictures and portraits have there faces cut out. on one wall, all of the faces are stuck to it with bloody pins, surrounded by flies. in the closet there are corpses of the people with there faces removed.
This one is too gruesome to use in my campaign, but I figured some of you could use it ",
"The players find a sort of swamp giant. It has several humanoids that are obviously long dead and have parts of their bodies slit and sticks jammed into them. The giant puts on a \"puppet show\" with his gruesome makeshift puppets. If he is attacked the puppets will come alive and attack the PCs (spellstitched zombies with +10 against turning, they can be of any medium or smaller species and there are about 11 of them) if they are all killed the giant will begin fleeing or attacking (depending on the Level of the PCs)",
"After I night of nightmares the PC's wake up with blood-soaked bedrolls, clothing and whatever else you see is fair, maybe their waterskins are filled with blood.",
"Driven to find shelter by a supernaturally cold night, the party is drawn toward a small manor with a smoking chimney. Those that explore the basement find a still-burning furnace raging with a sinister green flame. The trapdoor of the furnace lies open, and sparks fly onto the fine Aundairan rug, threatening to set the rug on fire and burn down the house. Approaching the rug, the last thing an unwary explorer sees is a charred skeletal hand poking out of the furnace before the carpet rolls them up and tosses them inside. Even if they get out of the fire, the green flame burns their very soul and cannot be put out by mortal means...",
"A free standing ladder that disappears out of sight into the sky. DM decides where or if it goes anywhere.",
"A field of nooses growing from the ground. Something appears to fill the center part of the loop, but otherwise appears to be drawn tight as possible. If the PCs put something through the loop to see what's holding it open the loop tightens, the other nooses spring to life and try to entangle the PCs, and gravity reverses pulling anyone caught in the noose skyward. Otherwise loops are normal rope, and they can be broken/destroyed like any other rope. Once the loops entangling a person or items they're holding/using gravity goes back to normal.",
"A stack/inverted pyramid of coins disappears out of sight into the sky. All a PC needs to do to get a coin is remove it from the stack. The coins are normal, stay in PCs possession after removal from the stack, and the PCs can take as many as they want. However, DM or dice roll may decide that removing a coin destabilizes the stack and causes it to collapse on PCs. If PCs try to climb the coins DM decides where if anywhere they go.",
"A freestanding closed/open door is found. PCs may open/close it easily. DM decides affects of changing the doors positions. Perhaps a great unending wind/wall of water comes out of it, the PCs find themselves immediately locked behind the door in some room, the weirdness of the Mournland drains into the now opened door leaving normal barren land behind, or whatever the DM wishes. If PCs go through the door DM decides what if anything happens.",
"PCs see a long line of humanoid figures dancing. If they get close they see a Warforged Piper at the head of the line, notice that the dancers are various undead as well as other living adventurers (always near the line's end), and hear music at which point they must make a check to see if they're drawn into the line of dancers. If drawn in they can be knocked out by other PCs but cannot leave of their own will. All others in the line may also be knocked out of it. Undead attack without question. Other living adventures may or may not attack. All non-undead aside from the the Piper must continue to make checks until getting far enough away not to hear to the music. If the Piper is disturbed he may or may not be friendly at DM's discretion. If unfriendly treat him as a high or Epic level Bard and the undead attack party as well. If friendly perhaps he promises dancing and joy for all after death or during life for Warforged since the dancers only die form starvation. Maybe he wants to be guided out of the Mournland to bring his message to the world at large and if done could grant spells to followers.",
"A giant sphere of objects (weapons, clothes, food, chairs, etc) is seen traveling at varying speeds. It can make 90 degree turns instantly without losing speed and perform other bizarre maneuvers. Objects are cast off the sphere at random and other objects lying unattended fly to it at random. Any objects in the PCs possession that touch it are stuck, and the PC as well if they don't let go/take it off. Living and undead do not stick to the sphere, but it can crush them. If the PCs attempt to talk to it the sphere stops and talks with them, but it says nothing useful. Indeed it seems generally unaware of most everything. However, it is willing to talk for as long as they are, and it will ask for guidance outside of the Mournland. It mentions that it may be more aware/knowledgeable outside of the Mournland. In any event PCs cannot remove items from the sphere, and it cannot willing relinquish any item though it claims it would if it could. If led outside the Mournland it begins to make increasingly bizarre claims such as saying it is a god, is come to create a new afterlife, is come to heal the world, it come to end the world, etc. Where it has rolled the land becomes like the Mournland.",
"Every night, one of the PCs hears a sinister voice, cackling evilly. The voice is unidentifiable at first, but it eventually becomes apparent it is the player's own voice. From that night forward, the character must make a wisdom check (DC 10+ number of checks succeeded) or take one point of temporary Wisdom drain. this drain lasts until the PC leave the Mournland. Should the PC's Wisdom reach 0, the PC takes one step towards evil, and their wisdom returns to normal. When the character's alignment changes, the process starts over. Should the character reach evil before leaving the Mournland, it becomes permanent, and nothing short of a Wish spell, or a cursed item can change it back. The PC then becomes obsessed with slaughtering their old comrades, and, when successful, release the evil cackle that started it all.",
"The characters have survived their harrowing trip to the Mournland and have returned home. Then one evening the fog starts to rise from the manholes and creeping towards the characters. Is it just their imagination, or has the Mournland followed them home? (Insert glimpses of familiar horrors inside that fog for effect)",
"The party smells something terrible from miles away. Should they approach it, they find a band of filthy cannibals surrounded by a squalid camp full of half-eaten human corpses that are still disturbingly fresh. At the center of it all, a crystal statue lies. It's a Kalashtar who crystallized himself on the day of mourning, and now any who look upon him can't bear to leave...",
"one of the male characters has drawn the attention of a female ghost who is in love with him and will rush up and hug and kiss said victim.
If the character does not leave the Mournland soon he will soon be loved to death.",
"a wagon with undead oxen walks past the party on a path the back of the wagon has a mound of moldy hay with the sounds of a man and a woman talking about what they are going to do when they get to Vathirond.",
"the players notice a field of white snow? In reality it is a field of finger bones crawling toward then like inchworms.",
"the players see moonlight filtering through the brown mists illuminates an orchard of apple trees the apples have screaming faces on them.",
"the players come across a little wall made of skulls surrounding a little house made of bones.",
"a paper floats down from the mists on the paper is scrawled please leave this cursed land for it watches you as you stand on hollowed bones of those once dead, it waits and eats on those it finds, with in its meadow you do stand.",
"In the ruined city of Metrol the party finds a Warforged standing in the ruined town square. He is fused from the waste down with the podium that great announcements were made from. Approaching him the party can hear the presentation, strange alternate pronunciations in which Cyre has won the war. ",
"House Sivis has just received a missive from the city of Metrol, timed and Dated minutes before the Mourning. Its from House Cannith, and in the background of the sending the cries of terror can be heard as the mist rises...",
"The party finds the royal gardens in the middle of Metrol miraculously normal.In them stands a man seemingly unharmed and rigid as a statue. He turns slowly and as he does the last traces of normal life in Cyre vanish as the Blighter lets loose his destructive power.",
"When the PCs find themselves in a child's playroom in one of the Mournland's ghost towns, all of the doors and windows slam shut trapping them inside (locking as an arcane lock spell) and several of the toys come to life (as per animated objects) to ambush them.
When the toys spring to life, a milky white substance begins to pour from their eye sockets.
Also, you can throw this little puppy into one of the adventurer's packs when they aren't looking. Have it haunt them long after they leave the Mournland.",
"In the middle of the Mournland the characters find a large hole in the ground that appears to be a whirlpool formed from earth. Although it is a very slow process, it is still sucking the ground inside it. Where it goes, nobody knows.",
"The characters come across a Cyran prison camp. Originally housing prisoners of war, it is now filled with undead. Some of the undead are still wearing the uniforms of the characters unit...",
"The party enters a ruined village. Everything is burned and corpses litters the ground. In a square, burned children lie everywhere with marks of slashing weapons living gaping wounds in their small bodies. If a worshiper of the Silver Flame or the Sovereign host is in the party, the children rise and begin to weep. They advance slowly towards the character and hugs him/her in despair, calling their mom and asking the \"Nice woman\" or \"Benevolent man\" to help them.",
"Something looking like a cloud of mist approach the party. On closer inspection, the mist is in fact a distortion in reality in which they can see soldiers form Thrane and Aundair in deadly battle. As the mist move, so does the image and combatants shifts. If the players thread to close to the phenomenon, it jumps on them, sucking them into the middle of a battlefield from the Last War. (Idea on a Major Image Living Spell)",
"While taking a hike through the ashes, the party hears crying coming from within a farmhouse. If they inspect, they find a small girl huddled in the rafters of the barn. She begs the party to help her escape the Mournland, and introduces herself as Maslin ir'Wynarn. if the party does help her, than upon exiting the Mournland, she turns to ashes and is blown away on a breeze (DC 10 listen or so and the PC's just might hear a whispered \"Thank you\" trailing of into the wind) Her brooch, which bears the symbol of the ir'Wynarns, could be used as a plot hook (trying to inform relatives of hers, and possibly finding out that she was Queen Aurala's little sister or something)",
"All the corpses in a ruined town resemble the PCs.",
"The party stumbles across a lake that has turned into a perfect mirror. Apart from being a very slick and dangerous surface it doesn't show the players reflection, just their gear. ",
"on the banks of aforementioned lake a petrified fisherman stands, a mirror-sided trout hooked on his frozen line. ",
"There's a glassified shark fin poking out of the mirror lake...",
"Globes of light roam the Mournland, moving at tremendous speed. When they pass, you can hear a child giggling.",
"Rain that falls UP instead of down.",
"Mushroom patches with screaming faces patterned into the brown spots on the mushroom caps.",
"Armor that obviously used to belong to a paladin, inscribed with holy symbols and celestial writings, curled on the ground in a fetal position, completely empty.",
"The silhouette of an adult racing to shield the silhouette of a child, burned onto a wall.",
"All food the PCs have, from anywhere, screams in agony and begs for mercy in the voice of a terrified child when eaten. New screams issue forth with each successive chew, and the pleadings grow ever more desperate as the food item dwindles from consumption.",
"A wall made of little skulls, all of them too small to have been adults and with the wrong skeletal traits to have been a halfling or gnome...",
"A warforged, with its limbs burned down to stumps and its face cloven off, writhing on the ground in the middle of a small crater, completely oblivious to any outside stimuli. Anyone trying to establish telepathic contact is subjected to a phantasmal killer spell, CL 15",
"A single, perfect flower growing in the middle of a field of total devastation. Looking at the flower reveals a skull pattern on all of its petals and what appear to be the finger-bones of sentient creatures incorporated into its stem.",
"An enormous (Gargantuan-sized) humanoid shaped indentation in the ground with an inch of fresh blood inside. No footprints of any sort are visible around it.",
"The ground suddenly develops footprints and gets churned up as though an army of thousands were marching over it.",
"Water that the PCs brought with them bursts into flame when poured on the ground.
***
The characters comes to a lightning rail trail, (conductor stones and all) and as they make to pass through they hear the warning bell sound. A few seconds later they hear other sounds as the train nears: Screaming can be heard and the roaring of flames. As the characters watch, the burning train drives by with flames trailing from the windows and the screaming, burning forms of the passengers clawing at the windows. The shocked characters stand awhile looking after the train as it rushes on in the predetermined path, with the ringing everyday sound of the warning bell in their ears.
If the characters tries to stop the train or find the end station, they discover that the train simply stops when it reaches the border and starts driving the opposite way in its trails. The doors are stuck, melted shut.",
"removing a book from its place on a shelf causes the others to fly forth and pelt the offender ",
"the ghost of Felton, a hideous, giant earthworm with a gnome face haunts the upper tower",
"merely touching a book does 1d6 of fire damage as the flesh instantly loses all moisture and becomes cracked and leathery",
"Looking over the tower balcony on the top floor reveals several corpses lying at the base; suddenly the character feels a shove forward...",
"A pen writes in a book all by its own; no hand guides it. It's writing pleas for help...",
"ALTERNATE: the pen in 346 is describing a grisly murder",
"Dire Maggots infest the earth beneath the tower and attack any who tread near...
***
Have the players hear a terrible scream coming form a large and mostly intact house. If they go to investigate they hear the scream again followed by the giggle of a small girl. When they arrive in the kitchen, they see a 5 year old girl (actually a ghost) with a bloody white dress and on the table is a corpse that has been ripped to pieces and has been blood-eagled (had its rib cage split and its lungs wrapped over them) and is of indeterminable gender due to massive grafts and shredding. On the stove is a pot that has red steam floating over it. In the pot are eyes, fingers, and any other body part that the girl could fit in, all of which are being boiled on the blood of the corpse on the table. When the girl sees the party have her say \"Oooh, more play-mates! Let's play hide and seek.\" and then disappear. The door's and windows to the place lock and the party hears giggling at random moments and find mutilated corpses all over the house, some appear to have bite marks in them.",
"There is a intact house in the middle of the waste. The mortar smells fresh, the flower-beds are just planted and the paint on the window-shutters is still wet. It has been this way from the day of Mourning, as proven by the ever fresh corpses of a young man and a pregnant young woman. There's some fruit in the garden and the fields outside have just been planted. Somehow their home survives",
"A massive sword, still bloody and battered from an apparently recent battle lies in the ground next to a corpse of an ogre. The sword cries softly lamenting the deaths it has caused. It calls out the names of it's victims between sobs.",
"The PC's enter a small town that looks to be unaffected by the cataclysm. However the people that live there all have knives protruding from gaping wounds all over their bodies. They all have a knife sticking out of each eye. They seem to see the party and attempt to greet them cheerfully. They approach them smiling but as they open their mouths to greet them all that comes out is the shriek of a dying rabbit (or some other animal. But that is one of the most disturbing sounds I can think of.) If the PC enter the city hall they find the mayors office. Inside they find a creature that resembles a drider except that the upper body is human and it seems to have the affliction as the rest of the town. His arms and his eight legs, however, are long shards of black glass.",
"As the PC's cross a barren stretch of land they see an infant in the middle of the flat field, playing with some toys. It seems to be oblivious to the party. If any of the PC's attempt to touch it or pick it up, it lets loose a scream of pure anguish. Its flesh melts away and its toys burst into flame. It's tiny skeleton sprouts wings and flies away.",
"As the PC's enter a swamp, they hear an earthquake-like sound coming from the ground beneath them. As soon as the party looks down, a group of
disgusting, squirming, bloody tentacles (2 ft. diameter) rip out from the ground below! They push, crush, and finally impale the entire party within an elapsed time of 15 seconds...
Suddenly, the entire party awakens, without a big hole through their chests (from the impaling) and notices one of the tentacles lying on the ground next to each PC. Suddenly, 1 PC feels a nausea and vomits out a small, black ball which shapes into...
Level 1-5: Shadow
Level 5-10: 3 ghouls
Level 10-15: 10 owlbear skeletons
Level 20-30: Nightwalker
30+: Your choice (Must be undead, and over 150 HP overall)",
"There is a mysterious area in a dark, cold part of Mournwood where a small, wooden log lies. If your party enters this area for some reason, they will HAVE to stop by this house for some reason. As the party enters through the door, the PC's see a random humanoid of small or less size, crouched in a corner of the first floor of the house, holding either a crossbow or spear. In front of this humanoid is an icy-white girl about 10 years old. She is wearing a black robe, and is floating in the air, staring at the small creature curled up in the corner, who is paralyzed with fear.
Suddenly, the girl lifts up her hand, pointing it at the poor little thing in the corner of the cabin. Immediately, the creature squints it's eyes, then opens them. The creatures' eyes are instantly turned black, it's as if the creature's whole eye has become a pupil. The creature jumps up onto a table, either shooting itself in the face, or stabbing itself with a spear (depends which weapon you gave the thing.) A greenish-blue specter rises from the now-dead being and floats, disappearing into the floating ghost girl. She suddenly turns around.
The PC's can see her eyes, red, with a white pupil. She instantly screams and flies toward the party. List of possible actions and results...
Run: Nearest to ghost will be victim
Stab the ghost: The sword will instantly turn back on the owner, stabbing the PC's head, killing it instantly, regardless of HP.
Shoot the ghost: Arrow will stop, turn back, and kill the PC who shot it.
Cast magic on the ghost: Magic will be negated
Attempting negotiation: Oh, you know...
Trying to be a hero, and jumping towards the ghost: The \"hero\" will fly towards a pillar and is stabbed , instantly dying
Trying to distract the ghost: LOL : The \"distractor\" will meet me \"hero\" shown above
Holding up a lantern or torch (lit): The ghost will scream and disappear
Holding up a lantern of torch (unlit): Eek:
The victim of the ghost will have to make a will save (DC 35) or instantly kill itself. The idiot who tried to distract the ghost and the people who died will instantly remove the sword or arrow from their head and be recovered to full health after their bodies are dragged at least 100 ft. away from the house, or after the ghost disappears. The idiot who killed itself will have temp. Constitution penalty until the PC rests for at least 10 hours. If you checked carefully, where the ghost disappeared will be a memo stating...
She's dying, our precious Kirsty is dying. She is dying because of a disease in some meat, because of those chefs! Why? Why did it have to be our precious baby!? I hope, in death, this memo will explain to her why she died. So that she may not haunt this place, killing everything! Oh, why? I wish I could stop this from happening, but I can't. Oh, I pray that in death, she will live a peaceful afterlife. And I hope, IF she does haunt this place, someone can bring light to this place and send her to a happy afterlife. Please, someone help us. Help...
I'm going to have nightmares for weeks now!",
"The PCs find a tall disfigured skeleton that seems to be charred thoroughly. If touched it will groan and its fleshless rib cage will begin slowly moving up and down as if breathing but will not attack.",
"2 copper pieces are lying on the ground. If one is removed below it there is a glowing eye and a hand will reach up out of the ground and grab the offenders (the person who took the copper piece) neck and they will hear in a hoarse voice \"Give it back! I need that to pay the ferry man!\" If they do not give it back they PCs will be haunted with horrible nightmares and the next time they come to a river or stream there will be a tall, ragged looking humanoid with sunken eyes and cuts on her body. She will attack the PC who took the copper and try to drown them screeching that she is trapped on \"this side forever without the ferryman\". If they replace the copper with a more valuable piece the PC will be visited in a dream by a beautiful woman who gives them 3 uses of the speak with dead spell free.",
"The players enter an area where all sound bleeds away to dead silence, except for the voice of one of the party members; each player hears a different party member.",
"The players enter an area where all sound is time-shifted; they can see peoples' mouths moving and watch their movements, but voices and the sounds of armor clanking, weapons creaking, etc. don't reach them for 30 seconds.",
"As the players walk through a wooded area, they occasionally hear murmured voices from 20-30 feet away, in all directions. Investigating the sounds turns up nothing. Cyran players may hear familiar voices.",
"The players enter an area where words in spoken conversation are occasionally replaced with random words.",
"A gentle rain falls on the players, yet where it meets uncovered metal armor or unsheathed metal weapons, drops hit with the sound of a hammer falling.",
"The players enter an area where all color washes out of the light. Everything appears in shades of grey.",
"The players enter a misty vale that seems to refract light oddly; everything seems to be 5 feet away from where it actually is. Players bump into trees, trip over rocks, collide with each other, etc.",
"For Cyran players: every once in a while, one of the other players looks like a friend or family member you lost in the Mournland out of the corner of your eye.",
"Looking at the color red causes' players eyes to sting and burn. ",
"The hilt of your weapon, staff, or bow occasionally seems to squirm or wriggle in your grasp.",
"A gentle breeze blows past the party; every once in a while, it feels like the caress of a hand on the player's cheek.",
"The cleric prays for spells, but seems to only be granted Inflict spells. Puzzled, and slightly alarmed, the party proceeds to find a band of Silver Flame missionaries. The clerics are undead, but still believe they are living. They turn towards the characters and declare that the PC's are near death, but not to fear, for the clerics will cure them. The spells they cast are indeed Cure spells, but instead of not working, they are changed into Inflict spells. When the PC cleric casts an Inflict spell, it casts as a Cure spell and can heal party members and damage the undead clerics. Experimentation reveals that this zone is less than 100ft across, and though sinister, they can heal here.",
"The hungry party stops to rest and break opens their rations to the horrific smell of spoilage and decay. The food is actually fine, and is perfectly edible; but meat smells rancid, fruit smells rotten, and bread reeks of mold.",
"Along similar lines, the party finds any dried or cooked meat they brought with them has reverted to a raw state. Meat cannot be cooked -- even sitting directly in a fire, any meat stays wet and raw.",
"your party continually finds Riedra Monoliths in the Mournland.",
"An amalgam of spectral hand and shocking grasp; a bluish-grey ooze, being pulled along by scores of hands with jolts of electricity arcing to the ground, nearby metal objects, etc.",
"Arrowpudding: a spiky ooze, bubbling and hissing, with tiny jets of flame issuing out as it crawls. It can fire flaming arrows and Melf's acid arrows at nearby creatures",
"Holdooze: A dark grey ooze that hits creatures it touches with hold monster, knocks them prone, and smothers them.",
"Sphereblobs: Bouncing, rolling balls about 8 feet in diameter start bounding across a plain towards the party. If they hit a creature, they envelop him or her in an Otiluke's resilient sphere and won't let go...",
"A small house, seemingly unaffected by the Mournland. When they looks in the windows, all they see is their own reflection. (One-way Mirrors)
There is no door. If a wall is broken in, an orb of nothingness slowly floats towards them.",
"The house has a door. If the PCs enter, they see that they're in a small laboratory. Beakers and test tubes, and several machine parts lie around, as well as a flight of stairs going down. If they go down, they see several operation tables, each holding down a corpse with warforged parts grafted onto vital parts of their body. (Head, Stomach, etc.) An old man sits in front of one of the tables, scribbling over paper. If the PCs try to disturb him, he turns around just before they do, exclaiming in a raspy, psychotic voice. \"Done. This time it'll work for sure... Just come here and let me test it.\" The stairs collapse, and the man produces a rusty knife. (Make his ECL 5 levels higher than the Pc's Party Level.)",
"The PCs come upon a small brook that seems to appear out of nowhere and flows for a few hundred yards along a rocky, mossy bed, and then disappears into thin air, again. From a distance, the water looks clean, wholesome, and drinkable; but, when the PCs draw closer, they see that the deeper parts of the stream are filled with schools of animated fish skeletons. Anyone drinking the water will be affected as by an Inflict Light Wounds. Anyone bathing in the stream will be attacked by a swarm of piranha-like skeleton fish.",
"Dead warforged raise from the dead and start hailing PCs something like yes sir, Slash (name of warforged) reporting to duty, enemy broke through our last defense line... If PCs tries to make a verbal contact with him he ignores them and he continues with his battle reports.",
"Wind which whispers the names of soldiers who fought and fell for Cyre",
"Huge rocks from black and blood red stone so sharp that everyone just touching it gets 1d6 slashing damage and if a spell is cast at least 30 feet away from rock 1d4 ghosts are summoned from one rock and attack the Spellcaster",
"A monster that is feeding off of souls of those who died fighting in the battle creating the Mournland, producing a horde bent on leaving for the outside world and feeding on new souls because they are running out.",
"A gateway that defies the laws of Eberron that allows them you to move from plane to plane by go through it.",
"The party is walking along, and they notice the air around them turn bright red, tinting everything around the crimson. Then the lighting gets funny. Light shimmers and dapples in shafts and patterns similar to being underwater. Then a party member tries to speak. Nobody can hear him, but the bubbles are a dead giveaway for being underwater. Behind him, sinister fins loom a dire shark appears, swimming through a bloody sea that appeared out of nowhere.",
"The characters come to a small still pond, looking down into the water they see a pair of frantic teenagers hammering on the underside of the surface as if it is made of unbreakable glass.(you decide if it is or not).",
"The party comes to an area where the air is much cooler and they can see their breath but they might not like what they see.Instead of the usual transparent mist they exhale thick greasy black noxious smoke.",
"A small roadside shrine to the Silver Flame, it has an inscription: \"For those who have fallen a flame still burns\" around the base of the shrine there are a few items (sword, shield, helm, holy symbol, etc). If a character should take one of the items a silver flame appears about a foot above their head (continual flame spell) and defies any means to get rid of it (a blessing and a curse).",
"The party comes across the frantic journals of a Stavriel d'Phiarlan detailing an urgent message from Phiarlan HQ to get out of Cyre immediately, by any means necessary, dated just before the date of The Mourning. With the journals is a medallion of an unknown metal.
On it's own, this could be a lead in to see what House Phiarlan knew about the cause of the Mourning, if anything. Their heads of House all survived, despite the headquarters' base being in Cyre.
The journals do not need to be in the Mournland for the PCs to get them -- but they were found in the Mournland fairly close to the border. ",
"Near the edge of the Mournland, there is a hill marked by a particular apparition: a headless woman holding a flickering, blue-flamed torch. This is visible through the mists on some nights from the safe side of the boundary, when three or more moons are full.",
"Exploration of the surface of the hill produces another manuscript in Stavriel's handwriting, written in the polite dialect of Elven. It details the subterranean society of the inhabitants below the mound, who are seemingly ageless. The elf remarks that time flows differently underneath, and below the rich and decadent city of Tsath is the dark realm of N'kai. He wants to leave, although he has been treated well within the city for nearly forty years?
His last escape attempt was a failure, and the woman of Tsath he tried to escape with was beheaded and killed in the hideous Arena of Tsath. The manuscript details the passage into the mound, as well as explaining that the passage is protected by the dead and partially material. Stavriel mentions that he believes that he has mastered the art of shadow walking, having developed his dragonmark over the years he has spent in confinement.
The manuscript, sealed in a metallic tube, ends saying that he must go.",
"Inside the entrance to the mound is a narrow passageway with carvings on the walls. There are artifacts from Cyran history laid neatly in the passageway: some very old, and some fairly new. Ghostly hands pull and pluck at the characters' clothing and limbs in this passage. ",
"At the end of the passageway, silently padding forward on the stumps of severed legs is a naked dead thing with no arms, genitals, lower legs, or head. Its skin is white and scarred with gashes, and its chest is slender and hairless. It stands like a sentry, moving jerkily through the animation of the undead.
A huge and well-developed Greater dragonmark spreads across the scarred chest like a brand.",
"(Similar to Draconan's 386) Another area of cold air, where breath turns to fog. However, the exhaled breath takes on the form of a wailing ghost, crying out in anguish. The breath-vapor phantoms slowly dissolve and their cries fade slowing into the silence.",
"A gigantic flying spaghetti monster appears above the characters and pasta sauce rains from the sky. Wherever the sauce touches, a noodly appendage grows. Treat this like a Evard's black tentacles, but with a strength of 6. The saucy, noodly appendages are edible, and may have some sort of additional effect.
***
This should be somewhere in the center of the Mournland. The PCs come across a large building, somewhat weather worn but otherwise intact. Surrounding the building are walls, towers and other military defenses. Those with military training should easily identify it as a minor base though the defenses might be more than they would expect. within the building they find a cathedral like room. Those with religious knowledge will recognize various symbols and decorations around the room are connected to Syrania and Shavarath. The Cs will continually hear a very soft whispering but wont be able to make out what is being said. In the center is a strange metal/stone obelisk looking very out of place. Artificers and wizards will be able to work out this is an eldritch machine but they wont be sure what its use is. Closer inspection will reveal that it is hollow and through a hole in the side they will see and unearthly beautiful if somewhat androgynous humanoid strapped to a crucifix. The humanoid has what appears to be the bloody remains of wings on his/her back and feathers surround him/her on the floor. This close they can clearly hear that the whispers are numerous voices repeating \"I'm sorry.. Please Forgive me.. I didn't know...\" over and over again. There is no way for the PCs to contact this being as it seems unconscious.",
"If a party member is a native and the party enters his/her home town they find a dead young woman (could be sister, aunt, cousin, niece, old friend, even lover) cradling an infant. The weird part is that the infant is alive and well. If they take the child with them the party discovers that it never needs to be fed, have it's diaper changed, it never cries and it never grows and is immune to any effects of the Mournland. The baby giggles incessantly whenever something creepy or disturbing etc. happens. If taken out of the Mournland it starts functioning as a normal baby but still it never cries. It would grow up normally to be a perfectly functioning adult, kind and caring but with a dark sense of humor and still finds the morbid and creepifying to be funny. The cool part about this is that it could be the lost child of a party member.
For added weirdness, the child could be completely aware of what's going on. It's cooing sounding almost like speech.",
"The PC's find a dog that seems quite well for something in the Mournland, it has dirty matted hair and flees but otherwise it's fairly well feed if not a little hungry and is friendly towards the PC's it also has peculiar fur markings of a totally white head, black body, white legs, and black spots around its eyes and along it's spine. After sometime the PC's may find a cave with similar dogs and about 50 humanoid skeletons but the dog continues to follow them. If any of the PC's is knocked down to 0 hp or lower the dog grabs them with its jaw and drag's them off (Treat as a war dog with 35 Strength) trying to drag them back to the cave for food...",
"it begins to get very cold and snow begins to fall the only thing it is red with a hint of blood.",
"the party comes across a group of looters stripping bodies the only problem is their dead too.",
"the mists thicken into humanoid shapes coalesce into twisted parodies of people they know all crying out dark secrets about the after life.",
"As the PC's make camp, darkness descends. They can't quite put a finger on it but this darkness seems somewhat.... off. As the watch drags on, the patrolling character starts beginning to hear faint whispers on the wind. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a dark shape run past into the shadow. Stepping out further to inspect he almost feels as though someone were barely putting their hands on his shoulders, whispering words he can't make out. The barest feeling of a kiss on one check and a soft caress on the other and he sees, again out of the corner of his eye, a dark shape, as insubstantial as shadow, running past (towards the camp this time). He finds nothing there but his comrades, deep in sleep.
...But he hears the constant sussurus of soft and silent whispers that follow him into dreaming.",
"Your party comes across a town that looks like every other town left in Mournland, except that the lights are all on in the meetinghall. If the pc's look through the windows or door they see what looks like a dance going on. On closer inspection they see that all the people are quite dead, moving more as if jerked around than mobile themselves. Entering the building reveals a crazy wrinckled little old man playing a fiddle on the stage. He cackles loudly if the pcs try and talk to him offering someone for them to dance with. Once he offers corpses from chairs on the side of the room get up to dance with the players. They must save vs. Otto's Irresistable dance or join in. They can save as often as the DM likes, vs the DC appropriate till they escape the dance. Attacking the old man causes the whole building to colapse and the corpse to drop to the floor inert.",
"The characters discover footprints in the sand/dust/dirt. The footprints are moving and covering over themselves almost as if there was an invisible dancer caught perpetually up in the dance. (Alternatively, there can be more than one dancer.)
The dance is a Cyran tago, which most Cyrans would know; it was the national folk dance of Cyre. The only way to free the ghost of the dancer is to enter the dance as the dancer's partner and run through the entire series of steps in proper time. (Make a successful Perform: Dance check, DC 15 or 20)",
"A failed Perform: Dance check means that the PC's steps overlapped the dancer and gets locked into the dancer's routine, and it will take another PC to free the first one.
Another Mournland explorer, who is too exhausted to talk, can be encountered locked in the routine: if so, the dance needs to be performed correctly twice; first to free the explorer and the second to free the ghost.",
"The PCs encounter a cluster of puppies, all of different breeds, that greet them with wagging tails. They bark like normal puppies, play like normal puppies, and otherwise act like normal puppies, except for one thing: They all appear as if they had the pseudonatural template
Originally posted by nurgan_the_drunked:",
"The charcters come across some very wet ground. While walking, of the feels somehting hit the underside of his chin, and feels a bit of a dribble there. Another feels something hit the underside of his hand, and within a minutes the PCs find themselves in the middle of a torential rainstorm, except that the water rains upwards forming massive dark clouds in the clear sky.
***
A Pile of something (weapons/bones/goods-doesn't really matter), and above this Pile, flies a dozen severed birds heads, constantly bleeding and making faint noises not usually attributed to birds (like cats/sheep/whales).
A giants hand turned to stone, being used as a ants nest, or something similar?
A ordinary pool, full of ordinary fish and wildlife, but floating 2 foot of the ground, with no discernable way of keeping it their!",
"After a few night sin the mournland one of the elves in the party begins to have odd dreams at night. in them he relives the day that just went by but the light shed on his team is the light of diferent moons of the eberron world. Each morning the elf would awake with an odd tingle in his skin and as always shaken by the eery dream but right it off as nerves on edge form the mournland around them. The fourth night or so how ever the dream is diferent. The day is relived as always but the light is shed by a glowing orb he does not recognize. And furthermore as the day progresses in the dream something odd continues to occur. the elf begins to notice etching like markings in his own skin, blood red in apearance but only visible form time to time. Then as the dream nears its end everything the elf touches begins fading to dust, or wilting or dying if it be living.
When the elf awakes horrified by this odd occurance the markings on his/her skin are very evident in his/her waking form. they are a deep maroon tatoo across his/her whole body, and then a 13th moon joins the others in the sky over him/her and the horrific realization hits him/her about the same time a dark whispe rbegins in his/her head. He/she realizes that they have manifested the mark of death and the dark whispers in their head is the calling of the blood of vol to continue what she had started.
Upon realizing this the elf woudl scream and awaken his fellow party members. They rush to them to see what si the matter and find the elf curled into a fetl position rambling about the mark of death. but the elf has no markings and even he/she can no longer see it, or hear the eery voice. but every night they remain in the mournland the dream of the thirteenth moon and the horrid red tatoo returns and the elf awakes in the same manner. Just another horror of th mounrland? or some evil truth hidden in the elf's past? Dm's Choice
***
As the party travels through the Mournlands along a deserted road, they see a bedraggled farmer staggering towards them. The man looks up and sees the characters and starts to run towards them loudly shouting “Hey people Yayyy”. As he gets close to them they can see that he is unarmed and despite his ragged clothes unharmed. He moves close to a female or least armored pc and weeping with relief hugs them and says in a hollow whispery voice “I need a new moooommmmy”. With a sickening splitting sound a wet bloody little fetus climbs out of the farmers mouth and attempts to climb across and down into the characters throat (use a stirges stats sans flying).",
"In the PC's dreams, he envisions himself walking through a densely wooded forest. Mist fills the air and its white tendrils sway entrancingly in the half-light. The moon is full and a deep orange; its massive shape obscurred by dark, wispy clouds like a lover laying amid carelessly tousled sheets. Almost floating between the trees, so graceful and lithe are its movements, a darkly cloaked shape beckons with a pale, perfect finger.
The PC follows for a short while, catching glimpses of almost luminescent white from under the cloak as the mist slowly deepens. Coming to a halt in the shadow of an immense tree, the figure turns. A slender human woman stands before him, naked, her face hidden by the cowl drawn tight. So pale is she that she almost seems to glow, the tincture of night brightened by her seeming incandescence.
The mist comes from all around, flowing, ebbing, brimming and cascading over all, and yet.... And yet... In passing her it seems possessed of new life. The mist coils in new forms and contours, shapes new silhouettes and semblances as though even the frosty night air were beckoning you closer.
The barest of perfumes wafts through the night air, it's rich redolence a whisper, a promise, and an invitation all in one. The PC is drawn closer and the pale, flawless arms reach out, drawing the PC into a deep embrace.
There the dream ends.
The PC slowly stirs, dragged through ragged clouds of unconciousness as light winds silver traceries across his eyelids with one last sentence softly breathed through his ears: \"Wake... It is morning.\"
Opening his eyes to the chill air he finds himself in the midst of his and his comrades' camp. Everything lies in its place, the fire long doused and his fellows bedded down for the night.
It would be a beautiful morning had he not woken cradling a human skeleton in his arms, its soft curves so pale as to almost glow.",
"As the PC's walk along, anyone they're not looking directly at looks rotted and decayed. So as you're going, you keep catching glimspes of befouled corpses and zombies walking beside you.",
"As a bard starts playing (at any time), dozens of hands slide up from the ground (this isn't a violent action. More like you just slowly come aware of it) and start snapping in tune to the music.",
"Also for when the bard starts playing or singing have a voice sing the accompaniment, or a choir sing the whole thing along with him.",
"Anyone who travels with a flute-playing bard notices something strange that they haven't seen yet. When he puts his pipe to his lips and evokes its magic, the airhole at the end takes on the appearance of a singing face.
(Looks something like this: Dire Destiny )",
"Ooooor the pipe writhes and twists like a snake in his hands.",
"As the players travel through the Mournlands a very thick mist rolls in surounding them in moments. Vision is reduced to 5ft and the thick fog is cold, wet and slightly sticky, as the characters take in these conditions they start to make out faint outlines of people milling all around them.Then from behind one of the party members a thin breathy whisper softly pleads in their ear \"please oh.....uurrrhhhh... gods please.....no more .........stop......... stop.....hurts so much......stop......arrrgggg........ breathing us\".",
"You might want to speak to each player alone for this. As the PCs make there way through the mournland their tempers begin to grow thin. An ally may appear to be undead for an instant out of the corner of ones eye but a second glance sows nothing. They begin to notice their friends whispering conspiratorily and glancing at him/her. Sow the seeds of paranoia, maybe get them to think that Dopplegangers/Undead imposters/etc.
***
One of the Pc's sees a loved one being tortured horribly and calling to the PC to help them. The pc's comrades hear and see nothing. The pc may have to make a Will save not to rush to their loved one's aid (or may do so willingly) In his/her haste the pc won't see the ravine full of jagged rocks, pit of serpents, etc.
***
Or to really freak them out have the bait not be an illusion but the real deal. Someone kidnapped unbeknowst to them and kept invisible to ones comrades. Just think, getting home just to realize that you left them behind.
Three ideas. Not really scary, but interesting.",
"In a relatively rocky area, the Party comes across a deep pool under a cliff, which bears a carving of a young woman, her face calm, yet sad. As the party watches, tears form from her eyes and drop into the pool, keeping it refreshed. The water is perfectly drinkable, although anyone partaking is overcome with a feeling of melancholy and loss. Anyone who adds his or her own tears to the pool gains a +1 moral bonus on attack rolls and saving throws against fear effects for an hour.",
"As they're walking along, the party spots a dot in the sky, in the distance. As they near it, they realise it's an airship, hanging in the air about half a mile above the ground. No matter how strong the wind, it does not move. If the party can gain access to the ship (through flight or teleportation, for example), they find it completely deserted, objects dropped haphazardly, and half eaten meals in the galley. A DC 20 search check reveals a Fine Khyber Dragonshard wherever an object is out of place. If they make their way into the hold where the Dragonshard binding the Fire Elemental should be, they either find it cracked (as though \"Freedom\" Had been cast upon it), or they don't find it at all.",
"The party comes across a plain of dust, in reality extremely fine ash. As they travel through it, they find that the dust under their feet hardens to stone when their foot nears the ground. Attempting to dig with anything other than a pick is useless, as the grounds is too hard to break through normally. An optional encounter is a group of Swarm-shifting undead, formed from the ash... either Wights, or skeletons.",
"The wall of Dead-Grey Mist turns into a giant freezing fog spell. Everyone and everything slowly feels their body slow down, thier speech slur, and their senses dull until they are left in a horrible state of suspended animation, aware of every waking moment but unable to move. After about a minute, they find themselves suffocating after losing control of their lungs.",
"The party sees the wall of dead grey mist miles before they actually enter the Mournland. Looking ahead, they see the wall twist into a screaming face, perhaps a loved one, yelling at the party to turn back. A whispered plea arrives on a stale smelling breeze a few moments later, a crying sobbing beg that the party turn back or lose their lives among the horrors.",
"Right at the beginning of the “day”, pull one of the players aside (with everyone else watching). Run the encounters as planned, passing a note the player that you talked to telling him that his character is thirsty. The next morning, the PC wakes up screaming. When questioned, he remembers nothing of the previous day, just endless sessions of torture. Marks are still visible on his body, and he is severally dehydrated from loss of blood. In his pack, lying on top of the empty waterskin is a note…
“Thanks for the drink.”",
"As the group comes across the scene of a tremendous battle, one of the players (shield carrier) comes across his own shield. It is the spitting image of the shield he presently carries (down to the present signs of damage / use – nicks in the paint, loose rivets, etc…) only much older (the “new” shield shown signs of repairs not yet made on the original).
Flipping the shield over, the PC sees his own arm still caught in the wrap (including any scars / tattoos / dragonmarks). It has been burnt off at the elbow, and clenched in the dead fist is an unfinished letter in the PC’s own handwriting (although somewhat shakier then normal).
“Dearest Nathakra,
We have done all that we can, and my heart breaks to tell you that we have failed, my darling. We all followed the instruction you gave, but they didn’t work. Now all of the oil is consumed, and the hoards are closing in. It’s almost as through we walked right into a tra”
At that point, the letter stops.",
"After the party returns from the Mournlands, and has had time to heal and forget, they are involved with a minor bureaucrat in some little office. Everything is normal, until the Officials assistant introduces herself.
“Hello, my name is Nathakra.”
***
A small hamlet is found in the mournland, everyone is dead, of course, however thier bodies have been defiled in an odd and disturbing way. The eyes are gone, they don't look like they were torn out or cut out... they're just gone. Also everyone's faces from the young, to the old, even an infant are twisted into demented grins.
Later the eyes are found in a low depression outside of town, they are laid out in a strange pattern that look similar to a dragonmark... if this isn't just plain pants wettingly creepy enough, the eyes are all pointed one way (pick a character) and will follow that character should they move within sight of the 'symbol.'",
"Now for the horrifying and ludicris: The players come across a small group of what they think are halflings. That is until the group of them start gibbering in a strange language. If a fight breaks out these strange lil halflings use weapons that make a hoopack sound and keep pulling the strangest things out of their pockets. (Thats right the horror of horrors, kender have invaded Eberron)",
"If the party becomes lost in the mist, have them find a small pleasant village. Everything here is fine, the people are happy and healthy, the fields are green, the sky is blue. The only odd thing is the wall of mist around the town. Now the thing is people freak out if you wear any read, it attracts those from the mist. Anything red is destroyed and the people in the town try and make the players stay at almost any cost in fear of them angering those in the woods. (Loose the village inspiration)",
"On a last war battlefield, the bodies of the dead lie everywhere. A small white cloaked girl walks up to the body of a soldier. After she finishes the body rises up, a look of terror on its face.",
"Earlier in the game have the party meet and relate to another adventuring party (say in Sharn for instance) preferably the two parties will have friendly relations. Much later in the game while the party is in the mournland have them come across those NPCs, slaughtered in a horrible and brutal way... but not all of them are there. A little scouting around finds one survivor nearby, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. If asked about what happened he'll start muttering.
\"They were tainted, all of them, this place... it got inside them. It wants to spread you see? Eventually everywhere will be the Mournland. It's already started... everyone that comes and goes, every piece of salvage brought out carries with it the taint... and now... it's in you! Don't you see? The mist is supose to keep it IN! BUT WE TAKE IT OUT!\" At this point the lone survivor flips out and attacks the party. While undeniably mad, it's up to the DM to decide if this disturbed adventurer has any merit to his words.",
"The characters walk along and encounter a shantytown. Crates, canvas, and boxes form shelters of some sort. Rough utinsels and dishware litter the ground. People begin coming out of their shelters. Obvious wounds puncture their body. Some have limbs amputated, ohers carry malformed children, but one fact is undenyable. They are all undead. Dozens and dozens.
The lead one calls out to the Cleric (or Paladin, or other good-aligned character) and asks \"Hey brother, can ya spare a copper? I got kids to feed...\"",
"The people isn't undead but Mongrelmen. Humans, elves and other races mutated by the blast of magic that razed the rest of Cyre. Somehow these people was spared the brunt of the blast and \"merely\" mutated. Now they hesitate to venture out into the surrounding lands fearing - and probably rightly so - the reaction to the \"mutants\" and \"twisted beings\".",
"Randomly, in any location possible (within the Mournlands ), the PCs come across a number of statues made out of living, pulsating flesh, growing right out of the ground, walls, even the ceiling. And no, they're not any living, pulsating, flesh statues (is there even any such thing? ). The statues are blocky and rough, as if some mad sculptor began working, got bored, and decided to cast Clay to Flesh on it for good measure. The only exception is that the faces are in exacting, calculating, perfect detail. Still and unmoving, although the rest of the statue might roil and squirm, the faces won't even be jogged an inch. And each of those faces/figures are easily recognizable as a significant person in the PC's quest and lives.
However, the real rub of all this is that its a vital clue in the PC's journey, no matter how gruesome one it might be. The PCs will likely be protrayed in an unflattering way, displaying some hidden vice that they must overcome at a later date. They might recognize one particular statue: actually, it's a single statue with multiple faces they can all recognize, a sign that a certain someone with multiple identities is stalking them. Wither it is a changling or a Thunnai/Philiarn operative is up to the DM. A person they know to have saintly qualities might have a towering shapless figure they can't determine what is directly connected from the back. Quori possession? Touched by Xoriat? Maybe. The PC's patron could have the most pleasent expression on his face, but is holding something you can't determine behind him because it's too rough. Is it a sign that they'll be betrayed? Is the patron hiding his true motives because he is being stalked by the Emerald Claw? Who knows?
And the final touch will be a completely unfinished statue in the midst of the other statues that's clay, in contrast to the other fleshy things, representing the PC's ultimate (insert DM cackling here. :evillaugh) archnemisis. Might a vaugely lizardlike statue represent a dragon? A Draconlich? A Demon? The Devourer of Dreams? Vol who just got supercharged? Or maybe a huminoid statue can be anything from a dragon in huminoid form to Orlassk the Daelkyr Lord of Stone. Sora Kell herself? Arren d'Cannith with some mad plot to turn the entire world into the Mournlands for his Warforged children?
Be creative! Be dastardly! Be utterly mysticaly-counfounding and cruel!
But above all, be disturbing.
Originally posted by zombiegleemax:
I haven't read this whole post, so if someone has done this then I am sorry.",
"As the players cross the endless plains of the mournland they see either a person standing with his arms behind his back and a look of pride on his face. Should they aproach he will laugh, then rapidly switch to crying and begin to thank them. He will hold out a dragon shard. However unlike normal this shard is without any internal color or power. When a player takes the shard from his hand a blast of white light, identical to a sunburst spell knocks all the players down. However no one can be killed from this effect. The player must then make a will save. If he fails the shard pulls free from his hands and becomes Living Imprisonment. If it imprisons any player the shard turns back into the person who the players originally saw. However the true power is worse if he succeeds on the save. All the players pass out and awake 3 days later. When the player with the shard awakens he hears a voice in the shard telling him about how to undo the mourning if he will only ask. Once he asks the shard fills his mind with the exact knowledge of how the mourning came to be and how it can be emulated. This knowledge drives him entirely insane. He immediatly begins to claw out his own eyes and tear at his own flesh. Once he has done enough damage to kill himself his body is turned into a 12 HD allip. The shard turns back into the person holding it and assumes the same position as before the players encounter it.",
"A grove of trees ahead in the mists has masses of hair instead of leaves growing on the branches. If investigated, severed heads appear to be growing hidden within the stands of hair, very dead, and dripping blood/smelling rotten/host to maggots/etc.",
"As the party travels across the mournlands they come to a fallow field with nothing but an old scare-crow on a cross as it’s last inhabitant. A farmer’s house stands at the edge of the field. The house is empty with nothing but a few pieces of furniture strewn about the place. That party moves on and make camp some place else that night. In the morning the scarecrow is found in the middle of their camp…and in the distance the party can hear the sounds of something big and mean coming their way. If they manage to defeat whatever creature the DM sent against them, the next day the same thing happens. If they destroy the scarecrow afterwards, the next day it’s back hole and sound, somehow attracting a monster towards the party. Only a Dispel Magic and Remove Curse cast at the same time, while it gets burned, will stop the scarecrow from appearing each day. And as it burns it screams out gibberish and madness.",
"The party comes upon an abandoned farmer’s house. Inside it’s empty except for a few pieces of furniture strewn about. Out the windows they can see a barren field with nothing but a lone scarecrow guarding it. The party decides to make camp in the abandoned farmer’s home for the night. Anyone on guard duty that night that looks out at the field will think he saw the scarecrow a little closer to the house then where it was before. But as he stares at the scarecrow nothing happens. Not every time, but every so often when the guard looks out he could swear that the scarecrow is closer than it was before, until it seems to be near the edge of the field. Finally the last time before he’s duty is up he looks and the scarecrow is gone…but suddenly there is a knock on the door.",
"The PCs find a region, possibly a city, possibly not, inside a massive invisibility sphere. They find themselves fading from view as they enter, and cannot dispel the effect. Even a See Invisiblity reveals nothing
Of course this is accompanied by an invisible monster attack, (after ominous sneaking noises from somewhere nearby in plain sight or the sound of a frenzied charge), or possibly a Cute Little Girl (tm o' doom), who could actually be virtually anything.
Any way, can I suggest people might also want to check out the \"creepy events thread\" in d20 horror. There's a lot of modern stuff there, but still some suitable weirdness for the mournlands.",
"\"By Dol Arrah's locks, man, move!\" Kessus and Averan kept running, sweat pouring down their faces. They'd been on the run for the last 4 hours, and their companions had fallen behind. They'd cast a glance behind them, every so often, to see if it was still giving chase. It was. \"Oh, sweet Sovereign Host, I swear I'll go to temple every day of the week if you can just get me out of this one,\" Averan muttered under his breath. Averan felt the call of paladinhood early in his life. He wanted to promote goodness, and purity. He wanted to save people. He did not want to be on the run from something so horrible that he'd have nightmares for the rest of his life even if he did escape. \"Shut up, fool! Move!\" Kessus screamed at him. Every time Averan looked behind him, it was still there. Always at the same pace, though surely it couldn't keep pace at this speed, given its form. \"I have to keep moving... have to keep moving... we have to do something besides run, Kessus.\" Averan looked to his side. Kessus wasn't there. \"Kessus?\" Nothing but low-lying mist surrounded him. Kessus was gone. \"Kessus!\" Averan became frantic. Go out into the mists to look for his companion, or keep moving, lest it catch up with him? A scream erupted from behind him. Averan could make out Kessus's form, on the ground, reaching his hand out to Averan. \"Averan... help.\" Kessus let out another scream, and Averan saw his friend of three years sucked back into the mist. Another scream, this one higher... higher than Averan thought Kessus's deep, gruff voice could go. This time, the scream trailed off into a gurgling, incoherent death rattle. Averan ran as hard as he could, tears of fear streaming down his face. The mist was getting thicker, and he was having trouble navigating over obstacles in his way. He cast another glance behind, though he knew he shouldn't have. It was right behind him. He felt his foot strike something hard, and he knew the sensation of falling. Averan tumbled down into a ditch, landing on his back. He tried to rise, and keep moving, but the pain in his lower leg was a good indicator that he wasn't going anywhere. He could feel it out there, giggling at him. He wished he could tell his children how much he loved them. He wished he could kiss his wife goodbye. Instead, he saw it creeping towards him, finally emerging from the mist. Averan tried to steel himself... tried to be brave. He watched as the little girl pulled herself out of the mists, stumps where her legs used to be trailing blood behind her. He was so paralyzed with fear that he couldn't move. She grinned at him, and then screamed. Her mouth opened wide, wider than any young child should have been able to do. Four long tentacles slinked out of her mouth, and gave an anticipatory wiggle. She closed her mouth, and the tentacles slid back into her mouth, giving her the appearance of a little girl again. She slowly pulled herself up his armor. She was cold. Finally, face to face with his death, Averan opened his eyes one last time. She gave him the grin of an innocent child... and held up a scalpel in her right hand.
\"Play with me.\"
Averan's screams lasted longer than any of his companions. For 3 days, his screams sounded throughout the surrounding area.
A recurring dream the PCs have when they actually manage to sleep. Their waking hours begin to be much worse than the night... when they start hearing giggling coming from behind them....",
"A wretching tearing sound echos across the land in the early morning just before the group sets out after camping for the night. After a relativly uneventful day the PC's find a body missing it's head with a trail of blood going north twards a patch of extremley thick fog. As they enter they see that the fog is covering trees... foul trees with rotten wood and hooked branches reachinig up mournfully twards the sky like an upside down weeping willow. Occasionaly a random PC will notice a tree seem to shrug or shake. After only 30 miniutes of travel through this forest the PC's find a large tree with 2 bodies beside it and 3 heads twisted in the branches as if the tree had tried to choke them...",
"The ground splits open in an bone chilling gasp revealing blackened teath and a hole with a radias of about 40 feet. A feted breeze passes in and out of this gap as it rises out of the ground knoking everyone around it away (Treat like a bull rush from a monster with 80 strenght) that only knocks the creature 10 feet away and dosn't move with the creature, It rises high into the air revealing a long snakelike body with blackened bones. (If the PC's attack it it has an AC of 47 and HD50 it's 80 feet long, It does not attack back) and flies off fading into nothingness.",
"The characters encounter a pit which smells strongly of rotten eggs. Eminating from the pit are sounds of lamentation and gnashing of teeth. Looking into the pit, it is surprisingly shallow and ordinary. If anyone jumps into the pit, sound stops. All sound. The characters are effected as if they are in a silence spell till the person climbs out of the pit. The problem is movement is now different. Every 10' traveled is only an inch. The pit is only 7' deep, but the character must completly climb out for the effect to end. Once out, sound starts again, teeth gnashing and all.",
"The characters feel different. It feels like tendrils are grappling at them all over. Especially at their heads. After a few minutes, they realize they are feeling, acutely, their own hair touching their skin. Releaved that this poses no threat, they continue. And then all their hair falls off and gathers up into a (Insert name of hairy creature that has an electrical attack. It was in the 1st Ed Field Folio.), which wanders off, seemingly oblivious to the characters. Then the Dwarf begins to cry...",
"A Dire black Unicorn is busily eating a human corpse. It is muttering to itself \"...eat them, gain their power...\" It will attack any Humans in the party, but excuses itself to any Elves or Orcs for the rudeness of having to eat their friend. (Remember that Orcs in Eberron are Druids...) Oh yeah, it breathes it's hit dice as a fiery breath weapon. Mercilessly ripped off from Legends from Darkwood. Very cool. Go out and buy it.",
"A spiral staircase, silvery in color, extends upwards from the ground. It alse extends downwards, but is made of a hard, cold, unintifiable black rock. No end can be seen in either direction. The beautiful sounds of a flute eminates from the upwards spirals. (Ripped off a song AND a book. Let's see if I can do better...)
***
The PCs are on an average scavenger hunt mission, but when they get to where XXXXX of Doom (tm) is, they find that it is missing with a note saying \"Hello and good day to you fine adventurers. If you want that which was once here, go 3 miles to the north and knock, then you will be shown the way to where the xxxxxx of Doom and myself are.\"
If the pc's follow the directions they arrive at a tree. If they knock on the tree a door opens, revealing a ladder straight down. at the bottom of the ladder is a room with a door on the other end and a gnomish skull, with the top of the skull cut off, on a pedistal. The second a person enters the room, the ladder flies up and vanishes, and the skull starts speaking.
\"A forest without any trees, a lake without any water, a city without any buildings. What am I?\"
The answer to the riddle is a map, of course. But if you look closely you notice that the skull doesn't ask that. The skull asks what am i. which is a talking skull. If they answer wrong, they get 3d6 of skull exploding goodness, with a reflex of dc 16 for half.
Next room.
Same room as before except a lever is infront of the skull, with the skull saying,
Push me.
If they pull the lever, they get 5d6 of skull shards. if the PUSH the lever, they get 3d6 of skull dust in the eye. both with a reflex dc of 16 for half. Then what are they supposed to do you ask? Push the skull.
final roomish thing.
There is a fork in the hallway. when they get to the end, they find the same room as before minus the lever. The Skull says \"WRONG SIDE (insert evil guy laugh here)\"
so what do you do?
if you go back to the other fork, you see and hear the exact same thing. if you go back AGAIN, you see and here the exact same thing, IF YOU GO BACK AGAIN... i think you can see where this is going.
what do you do? go around the pedastal and press the button on the RIGHT side.
if the pcs are still alive and they havent killed you yet, there is a gnome sitting on the floor, surrounded by a pile of brains. all of the brains are connected to his skull. He is quite insane and will complement the pc's on getting this far, then he'll start asking about how the pcs can live with only one brain.
If they ask where the xxxx of doom is, he points under a pile of brains. as soon as they touch the pile to get to the xxxxxx of doom, he yells and collapses and starts writhing in agony and beg them not to touch them.
and im stuck. i cant think of anything else.",
"The PCs encounter a small farm where an sickly, emaciated farmer tends crops that are obviously dead or blighted. He even throws feed to skeletal cows and chickens (animated, but harmless). Inside the farmhouse, the skeletons of the rest of his family (wife, 4 children) sit around the kitchen table where they died on the Day of the Mourning. No amount of persuading can convince the farmer that his farm is dead.
First of let me give a BIG to all of these. I was reading them at 11 in the morning and was still creeped out by them. I am about to begin an Eberon campaign with my friends and will be doing a large Mournland adventure using a large combination of these.
This is basically what I am thinking of:
It starts out with the players heading along the old tracks of the lightning rail. They are supposed to make there way into the mournland and then head south towards the field of ruins. They are going to retrieve a family symbol for a widow of one of the soldiers. After a day of travel they begin hearing sounds and a light coming from right ahead of them. If they head towards it then they reach a group of young girls in bloodstained gowns dancing around a person hanging from a tree. They are all singing in very eery voices, \"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies. Ashes, Ashes we all fall down.\" At this point I will make a Will check for all of the players secretly and mark the one who scored the lowest. If they interact with the girls nothing happens and the girls get back to the circle as quickly as the can.
That night the player who scored the lowest wakes up hearing the sound or hears it during his watch. He can make a willpower check (DC 25) to not follow the sound. If he does follow the sound then he sees the same girls dancing around another corpse. Upon furthur inspection the chartacer finds that the corpse is his own. At this point they make a Fort Check (DC 20) or vomit and pass out. If they fail the check then they wake up either in their bed or in the chair where they were keeping watch although they still smell of vomit.
As they continue on the player with this vision will see every once in a while, out of the corner of his eye a pale horse and a rider dressed all in black. However, before the can do anything to find out about this person the fog will swallow the figure up.....
I plan on doing more for this and will add the new parts as they come to me, but for now I have to make the adventures I'll be running for the month until then.",
"An old man sits in a library deep in old Cyre. The library's floor is covered in ink. The PCs find his emaciated form staring at a book. Peering over his shoulder, they see the book is blank, and the man weeps
\"Where have all the stories gone! Why has Art forsaken the land of her children? Where has she gone?\"
The old man mistakes a female party member for the incarnation of Art, and demands that she stay and help him rewrite the books, and reacts violently if she leaves.",
"The PCs, weary of travel through the dreadful Mournelands and much in need of rest climb to the top of a small bluff and look out over the barren landscape before them without much hope- but then, joy of joys, one of them spies the unmistakable shape of thatched rooves, all intact, complete with smoke wafting from the chimnies and birds nessting in the eves. Brightly clad people may be seen moving about in the streets below, and the PCs hasten twords the town. They reach the village just as dusk settles in- the walk from the bluff took a strangely long amount of time-, so when they arive, the town's inhabitants are already inside, with their windows shuttered and barred, but the happy sounds of families at dinner can be heard through the doors and windows. The PCs head twords the town square, hoping to find an inn in this unanticipated owasis, when their ears are asailed by the groan of wagon weels and the clang of a bell... and screams for aid, for pitty, for anything really. A wagon rolls into view, pulled by the shambling corpses of horses. Tied to the frame are the forms of a handful of emancipated but very much alive Cyrans. Driving and surrounding the wagon are about 20 walking human corpses. The air is punctured by a periodic cry of \"Bring out your living! Bring out your living!\" From the driver of the wagon. A few houses open at this, with families of zombies dragging the screaming, kicking forms of their now live-once-more relatives twords the wagon. One of the zombie children may be heard remarking through her tears of blood to her mother as a young boy is hauled twords the wagon by his zombie father -\"Why did Timmy have to come to life? It just isnt fair!\" When the zombies catch sight of the PCs, they will recoil with horror, and mobalize the town millitia to try to subue the dangerous live horrors which they precieve the PCs to be.",
"The PCs end up right near the edge of the Mournland (very close to their much anticipated exit) They take refuge in an abandoned church (surprised no ones come up with this yet), the stain glass windows are suspiciously in great condition while the rest of the interior and exterior is burnt and otherwise damaged. Inside they hear whispered prayers to some god. (Dms choice) At the far end behind the altar there is a set of badly burnt wooden stairs, the bottom half has broekn down so that the lowest part to grab onto it about 12 feet up. Should they stand directly under the steps and look up into the darkened hallway, they see a dark silhouette run into the side wall revealing a moonlit window. Screams of a young boy echo from the hall above the stairs \" HELP ME! PLEASE!, he's gone mad!!\" Should thy PCs investigate (by going up the stairs) there is only one door, which says \"Preists Quarters\" When the door is opened they see a grisly old man in bloody robes, there are several dismembered bodies of young boys wearing altar boy clothes. The old preist simply stares at the PCs, he attacks in a blind rage should the PCs make any sudden movements.
Should the brave PCs decide to spend the night downstairs in the main hall, they fall asleep easily to the sound of three young boys whispering their thanks, they will wake up fully healed and well rested. (remove any fatigue). this is ofcourse providing they have killed the old priest.",
"Near the end of the day when the party is getting ready to find a place to pitch camp they see the form of a man stumbling over the hill. Could it be another zombie, or mournspawned horror? This time no, and a successful spot check will reveal that info... if not this encounter could be comedically short (for the DM anyway)/ No this man (elf, dwarf, up to you really) is the last survivor of another expidition into the mournland. And this one *gasp* isn't insane! He's just hurt, and really really exhausted. When he sees the PCs he'll call out for help. \"Stop! Please stop, wait, help, please, I'm alive, for the love of the Host please wait!\" he'll call.
If the party is kind enough to stop for him, this ragged man looks severely dehydrated, is wounded (several stab wounds to his arms, sides and one leg) and is carrying little other than the armor on his back (that seems to have taken a lot of punishment) and the bloodied blade in his hand. His armor style seems to mark him of Aundarian stock. He's tired, very tired. \"My name is Tarn please you have to help me. I came here with some other adventurers... one of my, comrades she... she had family here she... wanted to say goodbye. But everything went to **** and now they're dead they're all dead! Please, I'm tired, I've been on my own for two days now, I'm lost, I can't tell which way I'm going in this thrice damned land. Please!\" Any sense motive check will let you know the man is telling the truth. If queried about how his party died he'll suggest they talk later, after they break camp... it's getting dark and they should find someplace less visible.
Once camp is set he'll start talking, sitting, and (if the party is brave enough to lite a fire in the Mournland) staring into the fire he'll start recounting what happened. \"There were five of us when we set out, we were making for the hamlet of Inas to the South, we never made it there.\" Have him recount the deaths of his party members, borrowing liberally from these fine suggestions on the boards. \"The little ones the children, you have to watch for them, this blasted land twisted everything good and pure... the children are the worst. Arden was the first, we heard the sounds of children playing... he wanted to investigate... they wanted to play all right... they went for the eyes...\"
Continue, feel free to foreshadow any encounters you plan on running with your party, throw in a lot of terrible events and narrow escapes for Tarn. \"Ilsa was hurt bad... she wouldn't have lasted long even if Takk hadn't lost it started screaming about how the land was getting inside us, tainting us. He killed her and turned on me... I-I... I did what I had to.\" When it finally comes time for his story to come to a close have him finish with \"I don't know why you're here, but if your smart you'll beat a straight path out of here... if not. I don't think I'll make it much farther on my own, if you'll have me I'll follow you to whatever insanity brought you here.\"
When this is all done, if you have casters in your group Tarn will ask if they have any spells that will make him sleep. As tired as he is he doesn't think he'll be able to sleep. Whether or not they cast a sleep spell on him eventually he falls into a fitful sleep.
The next morning when the party wakes up and tries to wake him they'll find he's dead. Not that he was dead when they found him, nor did anything come to kill him. A DC 15 heal check will reveal he died of seemingly natural causes, a check of 25 or more will show signs that his heart just stopped sometime durring the night... his body had been running on so much adreniline his poor heart just couldn't take it anymore.
It's the Mournlands. The PCs have probably lost someone already. It'd be a refresshing break.
Or, you can notify them three weeks later that the healing has been provided by the bent astral construct that the priest had been keeping at bay. In return for the service provided by the PCs, the \"thing\" healed them the only way it knew how, but the consumption and annihilation of the children’s souls that it had harvested. Frightfully inefficient, it took 1 or 2 children per hp healed. The PC now detect positive to Detect Evil (DM's option as to for how long).
For all gifts there is a price.
Here's my own contributions to the thread. Hope none if these have been done already.",
"Strange glowing lights drift across the sky above the PCs, seemingly in an aimless fashion and similar to fireflies. However, if a break in the clouds appears, the lights can be seen as ghostly airships, glowing with an unholy light, their crews forced to work for eternity.",
"Same as # 454, except the lights are actually strange luminescent creatures similar to jellyfish, squids or octopi.If a large enough fire or other light source is built, some will actually descend, making strange sounds akin to a whale 's song.",
"The terrain around the PCs follows them, such as a hill that follows behind like a stray dog.
Alright - I 'm going to expand on this latter, becouse right now I'
m up to my neck in homework, but this one doesn 't seem to have been done before, and It would make a great way for some DM to get his PCs involved in the Last War, should he feel so inclinded...",
"The PCs make camp at then end of another tiresome, horrific day, on the outskirts of a great battlefield. The evening progresses smoothly, and the PCs bed down, probably establishing a watchm. At exactly midnight, any PC still awake suddenly are overcome by unbearable fatuige (let them make saves to stay awake if they want, but it won't do any good), and join their sleeping comrades in the realm of dreams. Each sleeping PC expiriences a horribly realistic nightmare inwhich they find themselves back in their homes, gripping a letter in trembling hands which informs them....
(Insert PC 's Name Here),
You have been drafted by order of the Korth / Wroat / Flamekeep Movement into service in the reserve forces of Karrnath / Breland / Thrane, and are to report to the nearest recruiting station at sunrise one week hence.From their, you and your unit will move to the Cyran front, where futher orders await you. -
(Insert name of functionary / head of Office of War here).
The PCs awake in cold swet....in their own beds at home, a letter held crumpled in a trembling fist.They have been shunted backwards in time to the last few years of the War, and are to depart
for Cyre in one weeks time...with the dreadful knowledge that they are not only marching to battle, but marching twords the Day of Mourning.
",
"At the edge of the forest, a large black tree looms far above the others. Though in line with the forest's edge it appears that no other trees grow within 200 feet of this one. It must be over a hundred feet tall and you can see that its gnarled, claw-like branches have somethings hanging from them. About midway to the tree you can see that it looks like bodies hanging from the branches as well as a figure sitting at its base, surrounded by coils and coils of rope. Coming even closer reveals that each body in the tree is, in fact, a marionette and the sitting man is carving up another; he's almost done by the looks of it. The marionettes are the most realistic and lifelike puppets you have ever seen, every feature almost perfect and flawless in its design and each seems carved in the garb of a Cyran soldier.
He notices you and opens with a hello.If enquired as to who he is and what he 's doing he tells you that he was the Cyran military commander. Every soldier in the army was his to order into battle for the glory of Cyre, every last soldier was his responsibility. Completely and utterly his responsibility. He had promised them victory and promised that each of them would make it home safe. But with the Day of Mourning came their utter obliteration and defeat. He died like all the others that day, but consumed by guilt he seeks to honor their memory. Now he carves a marionette for each and every soldier who died on that day.
As he finishes his story, he also finishes his carving.Standing up, he takes the figure in one hand and a coil of rope in the other.Lifting them towards the tree, the nearest marionettes reach down from their hanging position and take up the new figure.Passing him up or over from puppet to puppet along the branches, they tie a noose and fit it around his neck and hang him from the tree as well.Then all as one they bow their wooden heads in a moment of silence and remembrance
for the fallen son of Cyre.
Thank you very much.
Perhaps another puppet themed one.....
",
"As the PCs walk past a house they see in the fenced yard alongside it a figure industriously working. As they approach closer they see that it is a large wooden puppet stitching together bloody human remains and attatching cord to its arms, head, and feet...
And I haven 't seen very many about Warforged in a while.",
"An immense field stretches some quarter of a mile (at least!) filled with crosses and headstones. On each one rests the head of a Warforged, its eyes still glowing.",
"The PCs come across a great battlefield. The bodies of Warforged, undead, human, etc, lie everywhere amidst broken swords and shields. Spears litter the ground and arrows protrude from corpses like vile porcupines. After a while of walking through (/past/around) the field they come across a strange sight. A Warforged cleric (you can tell by the shining armor plate figuring the holy symbol of _____) is slowly working his way across the field and laying each body out ceremoniously and delivering the last rites. Each body is laid out with its feet towards the west, so that the rising sun will shine upon its face. Arrows are plucked out, eyes are closed and hands crossed on the chest. As he delivers a benediction each corpse's face moves into a smile, never to move from that position again. (You can see the cleric's work stretching far behind him, all the bodies in neat rows and columns, each with its arms across its chest and a faint smile on its face.)",
"A marching batallion of Warforged armored in human skins (I imagine that's how they might view a human in full-plate)",
"The party comes across another adventurer (perhaps one they encountered earlier) who is desperately fighting for his life against. . .nothing. Although he continually acts as though in a pitched battle, urging the others to run, there is nothing there; no invisible creatures or any spells in effect. However, with a DC 15 spot check the party realizes that he his wounds are more numerous than they were a minute ago, and a 20 on the check allows them to witness one such wound being inflicted as though he had been hit by an invisible blade. If the party succesfully restrains the man he is immediately coup de graced in a brutal fashion. There is nothing they can do to help him.",
"A field of livestock. Most of them simply died where they stood, and could be mistaken for sleeping, except that their eyes are open. Some of them have been chewed up. (If they spend long enough watching, they may notice that the corpses regenerate.) Elsewhere in the field, there is an undead cow grazing... on another dead cow. That's what chewed up the other cattle. It now has sharp teeth for just that task.
(There is no real threat to the party here; the zombie cow is content to feed on its kind.But it should unnerve them.)
",
"What looks like a weeping willow tree, with several thick main branches, a single one and a group of four. In that configuration, it looks almost like a hand. The illusion is aided by the various furrows dug in the dirt in front of it, as if the hand were clutching at the ground. And the pile of bones and occasional warforged parts around its base.
(And yes, it will attack
if someone gets within range.)
",
"Tethered to a tree, they find an abandoned airship. The fire ring surrounding it appears stable, if low-powered. There are no provisions on board.
(If they think \"Hey, free airship!\", they're in for a surprise. The fire elemental bound to the ring is quite angry after being left alone for so long, and will behave unpredictably.)",
"A man, apparently alive and well, wanders the mist aimlessly. He appears thin and emaciated, but politely refuses food or water. Why? If they ask him, he tells them, \"Because earth elementals don't need to eat or drink.\"
(He 's human, just delusionally mad. If they could cure him, he might be of help to them in some way because while he was deluded, he was able to wander quite a bit of the land without injury, for some reason.)
(Or what
if inthe process of curing him, they inflict upon an earth elemental in human form the delusion that he 's human? GMs, have fun with this one!)",
"While exploring a city the party comes across a middle aged man walking through the ruins with a stick in front of him. The man is obviously blind, but what is an appearently alive blind man doing so far into the Mournland. If the party approches silently he'll hear them and try to get away, figuring they're zombies, or worse... if the party hails him or trys to talk to him he'll have an innitial attitude of unfriendly and be convinced they're ghosts or spirits. It'll take a high diplomacy check to convince the man that the party isn't just another trick of the mournland come to taunt him. He's a bitter, suspicious, short tempered old man, whose survived this long in the worst enviroment on Eberron.
The man isn 't insane... exactly, however he has come to some rather strange conclusions. Having been blind most of his life he really has no idea of the scope of whats happened. In all honesty the man believes that he is dead and he is in Dolurrh, and through cosmic injustice he'
s still blind on the other side.The strange fact of the matter is
for some reason the Mourning just did not kill him.He 's survived this long largely through luck and a really high listen check (which he'
s used to avoid the worse this land has brought to his ruined town) the real reason though is he wears a ring of sustinance, a gift from his father, and just never thought to take it off after the Mourning.
If asked about the Mourning or 'the day he died'
he 'll say he was sitting on his porched when he saw a flash of white... which is odd because he'
s been blind
for 30 years when an illness took his sight...after that all he could find was rubble and bodies.
It will take a lot
for the party to convince the man that he 's not dead (he really isn'
t) and that
if he comes with them they can take him someplace safe.(All diplomacy checks made with this man are at a - 10) as
for why the lack of healing hasn 't killed him... well he'
s been very lucky.If they can 't convince him he'
ll just assume they were crazed spirits of Dolurrh and go back to living and hiding amongst the ruins of his town. **
*
Among the ruins of some forgotten village lies a house Sivis listening post.Within, a palm - sized emerald shines brilliantly amidst the ashen corpses of those who fell in the Mourning and the wreckage of the building.During the investigation of the building, a hulking horror lumbers closer, and the stone begins to glow, vibrate, and emit a high - pitched chime.It lumbers into the distance, and the clamor from the stone fades.Could the stone have a connection to the horrors that allows it to detect them ? If so, how was that bond forged, and why ?
Oh, and
if anyone reading is wouldn 't mind clicking on the link in my sig and voting for Thondred'
s Trusty Wrench, I 'd appreciate it greatly.
For the first thing, just picture it : A city setting, like Eston or Metrol, or perhaps one of the larger communities caught in the Field of Ruins.And in there somewhere, a bath house.Some place that workers(or adventurers) go to cleanup after a hard day 's work.
But this is the Mournland, so assume that nobody 's getting clean in them now. There are five below, sorted approximately in shock value order.",
"A bath house. It looks appropriately run-down and disheveled. There are one or two dead bodies in there. In other words, Mournland typical. If they study it more carefully, though, they'll see no blood or stains on the floor, but the ceiling is discolored with them. That's because within that bathhouse, all liquids (including spilled blood and water from the taps) fall upwards instead of down. The effect ends outside the bathhouse and otherwise does them no harm, but should unnerve them for a little while.",
"A bath house, clean and inviting. There's a warm bath already drawn for them. And oh look! It's getting up out of the tub and advancing on them threateningly! It's a water elemental, and it's not happy to be trapped in the house.",
"A bath house. It's perfectly clean, well-lit, has fresh towels, and is warm and inviting. In one of the empty tubs, the top half of a corpse relaxes—everything below the chestline which would be touching the water is missing. The tub is perfectly clean, plain, white enamel. And if they watch long enough, unseen hands turn on the controls to fill the tub with hot water.
(And that 's because it'
s a strong acid that periodically empties out and refills.The top half of corpse should be sufficient warning that something is wrong.So should the vapors filling the room which,
if breathed, would probably cause a good bit of damage.)
",
"Another bath house, again quite clean and inviting. Maybe too inviting: the adventurers' favorite drinks and some light foods are served up on a tray near the entrance, the waters are clean and scented, and more significantly, healing works there. If they bathe, it will be quite relaxing but their clothing will be taken away to somewhere.
(You 've heard of invisible stalkers? This place is inhabited by invisible masseuses. They'
ll see to the adventurers ' every need in order to have someone to take care of. But they'
ll also do everything in their power to make sure that the adventurers never leave.)
",
"Another bath house, which appears to have been used repeatedly for slaughter. Dead adventurers and their equipment practically fill the tubs and their blood appears to have splashed irregularly onto the walls. Their equipment can be searched for valuables (and may contain some nifty stuff). Since kills don't rot, the tubs are filled with fresh liquidy blood as well as body parts and treasure, so scrolls and books will likely be useless.
Of more interest is a sigil carved into a large tile on one wall, surrounded by a mosaic that could be considered interesting and attractive under other circumstances.
Occasionally, as they regard the tubs filled with bloody treasure and body parts, there 's an almost inaudible >klak<. When they look to the source, they may notice that some tiles have changed color or reversed.
When they 're sufficiently off their guard, a large section of the tile, including that sigil tile, will come off the wall and assemble itself into a monster with slivered tiles for sharp teeth.
(I call this creation the Folding Beast, a golem - like construct of tiles.Stats should depend greatly on the level of the party fighting it.The sigil tile, even
if intwo or three pieces, would probably fetch obscene amounts of gold from most dragonmarked houses and even a few \"strangers\" of unknown origin. It could be the start of their next adventure, in fact.)",
"An entire forest has taken on the phusdo-natural templet, including the trees and ground (Getting back to the basics)",
"An old man is resting against a tree seeming to be arguing with himself. He is arguing to an unheard voice about wheter or not to leave (He is arguing the point to leave) the mournland. If the pc's come close he jumps up and the adventurers see another humaniod fused to his back.",
"A slightly run-down household. Upon entering, the first thing adventurers will notice is that there are several dead bodies frozen into strange poses around the room. After a few moments, a chair will walk in and sit down on a corpse bent into an approximate chair-shape. It will be mildly startled to see the humanoid adventuring party, and say \"Oh, my, more of you things again. Things just haven't been right around here since the Mourning. Horace? We've got more 'guests.'\"
Yes, the furniture is animate and sits on stiffly posed people.They 're perfectly content to talk and entertain the '
guests, ' provided that they don'
t mind sitting on dead bodies.And eating various paraffin resins(furniture polish, of course).
This is one of those precious few encounters in the Mournland that can actually be played
for a laugh.After a number of rough bouts with stuff that 's happened there, they might actually welcome a softball like this.
Of course,
if you think they 've had it easy, the furniture might decide to add some new pieces for their collection. Grandmama could probably use a new bed, for example.",
"\" You see before you what was once used as a prison before the day of mourning. Its walls are worn and windows battered by the weather. The figure you were chasing unfortunatly turns to see you, and darts into the slightly ajar main door.\"
The prison was once used to house prisoners of war, from obviously the last war.Occasionally you can ghosts of teh gaurds in their Cyran unifroms and others of the prisoners themselves in their cells, all malnourished and beaten.These shades are harmless.As the PCs delve deeper the eventually find who ever they were looking
for (this is used by mme, you can come up with what ever reason you want
for the PCs to enter the prison), he is lying on the ground in the middle of a circular room, the walls are covered in blood smeared manacles.Should they enter the room, the manacle will shoot out from the walls, to grapple both hands and feet, special ones will come around the moth to prevent the casting of spells.a ghost of a blood covered executioner carrying a huge lochaber axe(oddly sparkly clean), will then appear in the middle of the room, (wether the manacles have succeded grappling or not, the manacles get 4 rounds to do this and then stop should they fail, all succeded manacles will
continue to grapple.) The spirit o the man being chased by the pcs will also appear, the lochaber axe will then proceed to chop off his head and the spirit will disappear, the executioner will then attack once and only once the Pcs, (one attack each), wether he hits or misses, whe will then re apear inftron of the next PC, untill all ahve bin attack, the ones that are hitt, are not harmed except
for 2 d4wisdom damage.Once the executioner disapears the PCs will wake up outside the prison walls, all with a branding mark on their forearms, (the mark is one that is branded on Cyran prisoners)
",
"A old, dead woman lies in her bed deep inside the mournland. Her house is filled with paintings depicting a large, happy family with many children and a loving couple. What happened to them, that their mother should lie unburied?",
"A small portion of cyre (approximately 1 square foot) has been transformed into the surface of the sun; It glows for miles and the place surrounding it is abominably hot. The real horror come weeks after exposure, as the poor soul finds their skin rot and nose fall off due to overexposure.",
"An awful collection of enemies and friends.
The party comes across an abandoned inn / ballroom / drinking hall in a settlement they 're passing by.
If they enter, they see everyone they 've ever known, drinking, laughing and dancing by the light of the lanterns.
Everyone looks up and raises their glasses in a cheer as they enter.
For the rest of the night, everyone is the party 's friend. Dead fathers embrace their sons, friends living happily in Breland to this day are there and want to know how you'
re doing.Even the evil wizard the party slew last year is there, clapping them on the back and offering them encouragement in their present endeavour.
As the night wears on, it becomes increasingly clear that these people are not real.All the people radiate conjuration and illusion magic, and every person only knows what the party knows.The beggar who thanks the party cleric
for his kindness has no name.The rogue 's sister knows she took a secret to the grave, but doesn'
t know what it was.The Lord of Blades will dance the caravan with you, but can 't tell you why he stole a shipment of Khyber shards in Thrane this past Olarune.
The illusions will admit their nature
if pressed, but will ask the party not to hold it against them.
The night continues pleasantly, but at it 's height it stops suddenly.
One of the party says something completely and utterly harmless and everyone stops talking.The band stops, and you could hear a pin drop.The bartender sets down a glass and says one simple thing. <
br / > \"Leave.\"
If the party asks why or refuses, the barman becomes more insistant, with calls of agreement from the assembled.If the party refuses again, then everyone rushes at them.They don 't have the powers or skills of the real people, but they are as strong as normal soldiers (Treat as a warrior 2 with no racial features aside from size and speed) but they could easily overwhelm the party.",
"In a certain area of the Mournlands, all the party's equipment becomes intelligent. Treat them all as having a True Neutral alignment, who's purpose is to be used as commanded.
Stats Are:
Int: Owner 's x2
Wis: Owner 's x2
Cha: Owner 's x2
Ego: 0
And, should the PCs have any magical items, they will find that they are unmagical in this area.(Any Divination spell of 5 th level or higher reveals that the magic is simply being suppressed.)
Great time
for a fight with a carcass crab.
",
"The PCs meet themselves. As children (around the ages of 8-12). This is not an illusion, nor is it magic, meerly a bend in time. Their nature and alignment are the same as that of the PC when the PC was a child, and they are fascinated to meet their future selves, not to mention estatic about the fact that they someday will be a powerful wizard, or a mighty warrior. Of course, this means that anything done to the PC's child form happens to their future self. Should the PCs depart alive, they will see their child forms playing \"Adventurers\", and the experience will remain in their stock of childhood memories. (Meeting your future self is not something easily forgotten.)
This is a nice
break from the oppressing evil, and is also a way to get the PCs to drop their guard, right before dropping something much more dangerous on them.
",
"While wandering through the ruins of a Cyran town, suddenly the buildings start growing larger and larger, dwarfing the party. No, wait! The party has shrunk! Living Mass Reduce Person spell, now with Added Reducing Power! And oh noes! It looks like the only thing that survived the Mourning are the cats--now hideously deformed and corpsified! Just hope the mice are long dead in their mouse holes...",
"It is either dark and gloomy, or dark, rainy, and gloomy in the Mournland. But today a Living Reverse Gravity spell has decided to come out and play with the party! How high can they fly? Let's find out!",
"A Living Slow spell? Sounds like a minor inconvenience. Except when those zombies shuffle their way over the hill after being struck by the Living Haste spell.",
"Speaking of opposing Living Spells... The PCs are traversing a dangerous and rocky ledge overlooking a steep cliff somewhere in the Mournland. All of a sudden a fierce battle between a Living Darkness spell and a Living Light spell envelops them. Yay! Strobe lighting effects!",
"It's a blustery day in the Mournland. Not too worried, the PCs hunker down and press on towards their goal, almost there after days of traversing the dangerous and frightening Cyre countryside. But uh-oh! A Living Gaseous Form envelops the party! Hope everyone makes their save! Otherwise who knows where the mournful wind of Cyre will take them?",
"Who knew there were druids in Cyre? Well, a Living Tree Shape spell happens by and turns the party into trees! What a hoot!",
"An ordinary day in the Mournland? Inter-party banter is sure to get interesting when they come across a Living Zone of Truth spell!",
"A Living Earthquake might shake up your party a bit. Let's just hope they're not underground!",
"A living animate dead spell is wandering the land... (Don't comment on the rule mechanics of this becaus it's the mournlands anything can happen lol and I havn't read very much on living spells)",
"The PC's are in a forest which almost seem to have faces. They can hear something whispering tragedies which drove them to take their own lives , and that they, \"Thought the hurting would stop.\"",
"The PC's equipment feels wrong. Their clothes feel alternatively too tight and too loose, the grips of their swords doesn't fit the shapes of their hands and it feels as if they are wearing the equipment of someone else.",
"Every time a spell is cast, make a mark on a piece of paper. Let your players see you do this. It doesn't mean anything though. Or does it?",
"The players happen upon a deserted and desolate town, in the middle of which is a very large tree with many, many twisted branches. On each branch is a noose. The tree is surrounded by many filmy, indistinct figures who are chanting in some awful tongue. As the players watch, more figures appear. These ones shades of townspeople emerging from ruined buildings. Through each figure the background is visible and none of them acknowledge the PCs' existence . Entranced, they slowly walk towards the tree, and the PC's can hear them muttering that they are worthless, that they couldn't save them, that no one could ever love them. They continue muttering their littany of self-loathing until they reach the tree. At which point they reach up, grab a noose, and hang themselves. Their trance is broken once the noose is placed around their neck, and they struggle and gasp for air until they die. When they die, they become solid. Whenever a townsperson dies, the chanting figures become more and more distinct and solid. If a PC physically interacts with a townsperson(say, by touching or attacking them,) their trance is broken and they mull about in confusion for 1d4 rounds before succumbing again. They are far too many townspeople for the PCs to stop in this manner. If a PC physically interact with a chanter, they cease chanting for 1d4 rounds, dazed. If all chanters are neutralized, then the entire town breathes a sigh of relief and vanishes, leaving only the buildings, the tree, and the empty robes of the chanters. However, if the PCs allow the entire to hang themselves, the chanters begin to writhe, being reshaped into beings of horror (gaining the half-demon template). They then rise, their now solid eyes finally noticing the PCs, and they begin to advance...",
"The PC's come upon an abandoned house. Every 10 minutes, a man with burned skin, metal gauntlets (with spikes on the ened) and a hat comes out of the house, laughing. In 10 seconds, the man will look toward the PC's and walk up to each of them one-by-one, and stab them each 10 times in the face. Afterwards, the PC's will wake up, with 1/10 of their original hp (minimum 1.)
The process will go on every 10 minutes, and unless they are any beings to kill in the area, the man will go back inside.After returning inside, there will be muffled screams and shouts of laughter.If the PC 's attempt to resist and fight the monster, and win, it will disappear. After disappearing, 3 villagers will run out of the house, each with scars. They will seek help from the PC'
s.
However,
if the PC 's lose, each PC faces the default action of being reduced to 1/10 hp upon awakening. Even if the man reduced the PC'
s to under - 10 or - 1 to - 10 hp, the PC 's will awaken with only 1/10 of their hp. (minimum 1.)
Technically, the PC 's automaticlly fall asleep upon looking directly at the house. ",
"Anyone who steps into the town square hears the phantom fluttering of wings and the hoots of a flock of birds taking wing all around him, although there are no birds to be seen anywhere.",
"As one enters the dead grey mist that forms a barrier between the Mournland and the rest of Eberron, they hear the voice of their most trusted friend begging them to turn back",
"On particularly cold nights, packs of invisible wolves hunt the unwary. All that can be seen of them is steam form their breath rolling off an invisible snout and horrible, unblinking eyes that glow yellow, like twin stars.",
"A woman sits, emaciated and naked, against a tree, holding a small pouch of sand. The area surrounding her is a living weird spell.
If the party defeats the living spell and takes the pouch, the woman dies quickly, her metabolism destroyed by 4 years of inactivity.If they take the pouch of sand, which radiates overwhelming illusion magic, they can conjure either a major image or a phantasmal killer by throwing a bit of sand either at the area which will host the image or into the face of the victim, respectively(range increment 10 ft; range touch).There is a price
for harnassing the power of dreams, though, and every time the pouch is used the user must make a DC 20 Cha check or permently lose one point of Wisdom.Restoration cannot restore this loss, but Miracle or Wish can. **
*
There are large chunks of corpses massed together in a spherical shape floating in one place.Touching it rots the flesh. **
*
Tornados of blood cycle across the battered landscape in eccentric patterns. **
*
Three small children, dressed in makeshift army gear, are all stabbing a corpse of a Cyran soldier.If any PC tries to stop them, or otherwise interfere with what they 're doing, they start trying to stab the PCs. ** *
Lightning bolts flash in the distance, and a failed Will save(DC 20) causes the PC in question to see visions of loved ones being struck by the lightning. **
*
A mural of maddening, random artwork covers what is left of a wall of a fort. **
*
Mouths with sharp fangs cover the ground and snap at the legs of anyone who gets too close. **
*
A piece of paper blows by.If a PC grabs it, they see that it has a crude stick figure drawn on it in red \"ink.\" Written below in sloppy handwriting is, \"Your blood shall refill my pen next.\"",
"A massive patch of ground is taken up by a grove of.. bodies? It appears that humanoids of all shapes and sizes are growing up from the ground, feet first, slightly green, and seemingly dead. If you watch them for very long you can see that they're really moving veeery slooooowly. In a clearing in these strange woods the PC's see a treant methodically chopping, chopping, splitting the bodies and making a neat stack beside his chopping stump (the enormous feet of a giant).",
"As the PC's are walking through a body strewn battlefield, one of them trips and is smeared with gore. Much to his surprise, he's actually healed 15 points (or so) of damage (Imagine all your PC's smearing themselves with the blood and guts of the fallen. I don't know about you, but that's a little bit sickening. Would the party paladin join in or consider that an utterly evil and despicable act?)",
"A great dark hardwood rises above you. The massive trees (redwoods?) are twisted and intertwined with each other (emphasize the image of the trees are fighting each other). The trunks are black and the vegetation is dark green and wet. Huge gray vines twist around the trees pulling at branches and other vines. There are huge thorns everywhere on the vines. There is a creaking and moaning that is in the background at all times. A low but heavy mist (similar to the gray mist surrounding the mournlands) covers the floor of the great woods.
There are 3 women chained naked to a silver gate that leads to a path into the woods.As the party approaches the mist rolls out to obscure the sight of these women– but the rattle of the chains are still audible.If the party continues the figures become more visible, but the women retreat just out of clear sight.A low growling is coming from behind them, and gets stronger as the party draws near.
Eventually, when the gate is visible it appears to be short silver gate that extends 20 feet to each side of two huge black wood totem poles.Ghastly, figures showing anguish and suffering scroll up the poles.The chains are leading straight back down a mist - obscured path(the tension in the chains is noticeable).
The three women are actually 3 werecreatures– 1 werewolf(CE), 1 werebear(LG), 1 weretiger(N).If approached they attempt to grapple anyone(the party member whose alignment is closest to their own) they can reach and proceed to whisper in the ear of the player.The women are healed and sustained by the magic of the gate, so they will be very hard to kill.They will only speak to the 1 st person they successfully grapple.
The werewolf will tell the player that there is great power in the center of the great circles within the woods, and promises the player power or anything(including lifelong service) if they
continue and slay the seer in the center(freeing her).She will not release the player until an oath is taken.Any attempt to free themselves and the wolf will attempt to bite the player and transfer her disease.She will then promise to provide a cure
if the player does what she wishes.
The weretiger will tell the player that there are thirteen circles and thirteen gates in the woods(including the one they are chained to).She wants to be freed and tells the player that she knows of a powerful weapon inside the circles that can sunder the enchanted chains.If the player agrees she tells them the weapon is within the fifth circle and is an Ax that serves as the hips and spine of the guardian there.
The werebear whispers to the players that they should leave and never
return.She will relent and tell them that under the center of the final ring is a chamber that holds survives of the mourning.If the player agrees to free those people and lead them to safety, she will tell them that there might be an eldritch machine in that chamber that can reverse the mourning within the circles(maybe very appealing to former citizen of Crye).
",
"Mist swirls about strange looking plants. As the PCs near, they realize that they are hands groping about trying to find something to grab onto as if attempting to claw their way out of the ground.",
"The mist swirls about and forms faces that scream and cry out in pain that apeear and vanish rapidly. All in this area must make a will save (DC 20) or come under the affect of a fear spell.",
"What happens when a Raise Dead and Otto's Irresistable Dance living spells mix in the Mournlands? Why, a conga line of undead, of course! PC's will notice that those at the front are mere skeletons while those nearer to the back are zombies and other more fleshlier undead. In fact, they even see someone they met from another adventuring party near the end (having failed his Will save), stuck in the dancing line of death, crying out for help.",
"the PCs come upon a town in a X state (up to DM). however, the town graveyard is fully intact and buried there are people who died normally and were buried before the Day of Mourning.
In addition to this, the rest of the graveyard is filled with tombstones of the town 's dead from the Day of Mourning. All the graves are proper and in order as if there was ample time to properly bury them all. All the tombstones are complete with date of birth and death (the Day of Mourning), name, and an Epitath (spelling i know). If the PCs begin to read the Epitaths they realize that all the lines join together into some kind of story (or for more abstract/creative DMs, a poem) about whatever the DM wants. Topics of mine are ones expressing peace (and allow healing spells to function in the graveyard (maybe even a Hallow effect)), the party, a clue to what happened on that Mourning, part of the draconic prophecy, directions to somewhere, advice on how to face the Mournland, etc.... ** *
The wind that whispers forgotten legends of certain hero that fought
for Cyre and
if PCs listens too long they become obssessed(speling) So this Pc refuse to leave the place before hearing the whole legend and once he does that he gets a will save(DC 25) or be immidetly slain as phantasmal killer he sees an image of this hero corpse that has risen from the earth.
",
"the PCs come accross a dungeon/tomb/whatever, after a fairly easy dungeon crawl the PCs get to the bottom and find themselves trapped somehow (collapsed ceiling, Wall of Force living spell, w/e) and are uncerimoniously overrun by nearly unending, barely threatening opponents (or a single boss WAY too high a CR for them) and the DM gets a TPK....
except that the DM takes each player aside as he is killed.he proceeds to describe how the second the character dies he feels fully restored.when the character opens his eyes he sees a huge number of images soaring by, they can be of anything the DM wants(DMs feel free to play with it).after 3 d4 rounds of this kelydescope the character land on the ground(insert whatever place the DM wants) and find that though no party members are with him, he has all his gear and is exactly as
if restored to full health and put through a teleport spell.
back at the fighting there is still the PC 's body that dies. the PCs fight on and the same thing happens to those that die. once the entire party has been killed they find themselves back together at this new position. (feel free to add tracks of others who'
ve been killed and taken here,
if you decide the room drops everyone in the same spot.)
",
"The PCs come across a town surrounded by a stone wall perhaps 5 feet tall. The town seems to be in good condition besides it's lack of inhabitants. As the PCs walk around the wall they pass a stone archway. As they glance by it they see a completely different picture. The city appears ancient as though it had been standing there for centuries. People can be seen by looking through the archway but they are all ghostly and translucent, floating their way across the standing ruins. Should any PCs pass through, describe how it seems as though they age, how their armor dulls and tarnishes,dust settles and cobwebs seem to spin out of nothing. Their skin pales and hair goes white and lengthens as the skin on their face stretches and their eyes sink inward. However, once the PC steps back out they instantly appear normal again.",
"as the PCs walk on very solid ground through a fog have them make listen checks (DC20), any who succeed hear the luff of sails, creaking of planks/lines, and whispers of orders. the fog begins to lighten and lo there sails (without moving) a fleet of Cyran warships still operated by thier warforged crews. apparently the Mourning tore these ships from thier patrol of Kraken Bay and dropped them here, never to sail again. they appear to be in the midst of a storm as sails are constantly run up and down (maybe even a crewer \"falls overboard\" and is \"rescued\"). the captain appears to be shouting orders, only they come out as whispers. if the PCs board they first discover that the warforged treat them as a hostile boarding party, and secondly these warforged have rusted plates and dead (that treelike stuff that is in them, basically give the impression of undead warforged)",
"A river of blood flows through the air
like a scarlet ribbon in a young girl 's hair,
Like a sinister cloak above the ground floating,
Stay away from this river boys, it 's not for boating.
Include skeletal fish swimming through the current or jumping upstream.
",
"If a PC has a tattoo of any sort of animal, it animates and moves around his/her body. A bull will start snorting and stamping its hooves, eagles will fly around, and snakes will slither around arms and legs, etc (actually, I'm considering offering this in my campaign simply as a cool tattoo).",
"The PCs find an inn. It sits off to the side of a dead forsaken road and is surrounded by a large cemetary. If they venture inside (oh pleeeeease) they find a fairly normal scene. Patrons gathered around the bar or sitting at tables, engaged in chess games or darts and other such tavern amusements. However, each and every one of them is a karrnathi undead. They are entirely non-hostile, though, despite their usual demeanor. In fact, they're pretty friendly once you get past the \"Oh my goodness, I'm sorry, but does that hurt?\" PC: \"What?....\" Skeleton: \"Your skin condition, how it's all intact like that.... Guh...\" stuff.'",
"Passing a destroyed town the PCs hear laughter and running feet. Coming around the corner are a few small children, no older than six or seven. However like everyone else, they never escaped the Mourning. Their little undead legs run and their little undead fists clutch sticks as they play \"Adventurers and Monsters\" and ask the PCs to help them look for buried treasure. ** *
Don 't know if this has been done before but if it has sorry.The PCs are walking through the Mournlands, and they come across a town, abandoned as always.They decide to camp out for the night.Evereyone on watch and any warforge continuously hear mad cackling and barely knowledgeable speech singing the prayers of the Daelkyr.If they look out a window they see a huge beast patrolling the streets, it'
s head hung back, cackling and singing prayers to the Daelkyr.Anything suitable to your campaign with the pseudo - natural template.When they kill it the body continues to cackle but now it 's rambling contains things such as \"Host forgive me\" and \"Why couldn'
t I stop it\".Closer inspection of the corpse reveals it to have once been a cleric of the Sovereign Host.It is wearing holy robes and carries a holy symbol.In a satchel on it 's back is a journal, the last entry being just before the Day of Mourning.It says simply \"I can sense it coming, it is a force of evil and madness, I must warn the villagers!\"There is one last thing scrawled in the margin of the last page in a script that seems to be trailing off, \"I failed, I can feel the madness overtaking me, I hope that the Host can forgive me for I can not forgive myself.\" ",
"Walking through a valley the party realizes that they are caught between a rank and file formation of thousands of Karnathi undead and a few hundred Cyre cavalry. The Karnathi charge, trying to get to the party first, but the Cyre commander, swearing to save the innocent citizens caught in the middle, orders an all out charge against an overwhelming force.
The ground shakes, the undead soldiers scream as they approach at a full, never - tiring run, and the forces of Cyre raise a valiant battle cry“ For the Golden Bell!”as the two armies charge right on the pc’ s position.Just as they are about to collide with the party in the middle, both sides disappear into a cold, wet mist.Slowly, a single black square pillar appears just beside the party with the inscription <
br / > “The Battle of Breegan Hill,
The Brigade of the Golden Bell Charged a force of over 6, 000 troops Saving {
number of party
}
citizens of Cyre The Brigade was lost to the last man.”
",
"After falling asleep, one of the party seems to be floating over his own body, looking down on himself. He watches as out of the ground, a grisly pinkish tentacle works its way out of the ground beside his own head. Slowly, leaving a trail of slime, it begins to crawl across the person’s neck, which the watcher can feel. He can then both watch and feel as it beings to tighten, but he cannot awake nor can he fight it off. It very slowly, agonizingly tightens, cutting of more and more air. He sees his own face begin to blue and his legs begin to kick, but he cannot do a thing to help himself. His vision begins to spot, sparkle, and tunnel in. Finally, choking and gaging, darkness takes him.
He awakes, sitting bolt upright, gasping
for breath.He is alive, but his neck is sore and bruised, making breathing difficult(-1 Con
for 24 hours).The next time he lays down on the ground, he again sees himself from the same perspective, but this time a rotten hand bursts out of the ground and grabs his arm.Old, yellowed nails dig into his flesh, ripping away skin and muscle and stuffing the flesh into the hole in the ground.Once most of the upper arm is gone, the character wakes.A deep ache in his arm remains, but it is whole(-2 to Str
for 24 hours).
Continue with this until the character is terrified to sleep on the ground ever again.(Mouths open under his feat, mouths with wide, flat teeth that slowly begin to eat away his feet.Not with clean cuts like a shark, but with grinding and mashing like a cow would, causing dex damage).
Here’ s another, inspired by the poem in my sig… ",
"On a bitterly cold day in the Mournland, in the distance the party sees a burned out house, but smoke still rises from the chimney. When they get to the house, they find an iron stove in the corner, roaring fire inside. If they open the door to the furnace to add fuel or to investigate, they see a man, curled up in the flames, smile on his face. <
br / > “Sorry chap, but would you mind closing that door ? This is the first time I’ ve been warm in years.”
",
"An empty suit of masterwork fullplate sits on a stump by the side of the road seeming to sob, cradling the body of a handsome human warrior that looks as though it fits to the armor.",
"Hi, I'm Grinner the former bard of The Gulping Gator Inn. Now I'm just a bard. No Inn anymore, is there?
Yes..I survived the Mourning.I saw it all.The fog, the terror, the killing, dying, screaming, etc.It wasn 't pleasant I tell you.
Why I didn 't die? I'
m not sure.But I didn 't go unscathed. I think I may be immortal. The beasts and... things of the Mournland can'
t touch me.Only the living spells can harm me, and I always recover again.Maybe there is some kind of over spell somewhere in this raped corpse of a land, that can kill me.I don 't know.
I do know that I can 't leave. I have a purpose of some kind, vague to me though it is. I have this compulsion to go everywhere in this once beautiful land, and witness what have happened. The first time I see a place, I see the Mourning all over again, but centralized to the place in question. Like here.
He point behind him and retells the tale of the people who cut and starved to death, (#268).
I don't know who decides where I must go next, as there doesn't seem to be any plan to my coursing through the land of former Cyre..
His voice trails of for a moment, and his aura of joy fades and turns sad, while he remembers what once was.
Then he shakes his head and picks up his happy demeanor again.
But hey.. If you're going the same way as me, we can tag along for a bit? I have a lot of tales to tell, and I don't need to eat or sleep, so I can make myself usefull? Please?
Grinner actually IS immortal. In my campaign the Mourning was caused by a failed ritual held by 8 dragons, trying to prevent House Cannith, the war minister of Cyre, (or advisor, whatever), and a medusa sorceress sent from the daughters of Sora Kell, in creating warforged with dragonmarks, (or magebred humans, or some ther supersoldier or weapon).
The spell was to kill the three inplied and removed the memory and IDEA of the plan from everyone in Cyre. They had waited for that moment because they was sure everyone would be in Cyre. The advisor and medusa was on Metrol and the Patriarch of Cannith was in, (wassit called), the headquaters of Cannith. That is why the Mourning reputedly started both places.
Now the botched spell, (why it was botched is up toyou, (daelkyrs or lords of dust mingeling, a traitor in the midst of the dragons, fate, prophecy, you name it), covers all of Cyre, and Grinner has been infused with a certain portion of one of the 8 dragons. It seeks to protect it's vessel, and collect as much information about the Moruning as it can, then give that info to someone who can undo the mistake it and its fellow dragons made.
It's up to you if the rest of the dragon spirits are out there too, what they are doing, and where, (and how :-) ).",
"The ghost of Fedrew, a mean-spirited artificer keeps watch over the shop he tended in life, Fedrew's Bottlecharms. If the party rests in or near his shop, which lies in Kalazart, he transforms all potions they carry into Potions of Poison (FORT 14 1d10 Con/1d10 Con).",
"In a certain house, the doors rattle and thump as though someone where trying to escape, but when opened, nothing but an empty house lies beyond it.",
"A magic cyclone pulls everyone wearing red and all red objects toward it, but leaves anyone and anything else unaffected.",
"Anyone who reamains within Seaside, the city of sails, for more than a day, wretches in pain as their eyes fall out and are replaced by a hideous miniature mouth of razor sharp teeth (FORT DC 20 negates).",
"Those who enter Metrol without kneeling and saying a prayer at the city gates will be abandoned by a dear friend when they are needed the most.",
"As he/she walks through a city, the character with the Highest INT score will be followed by packs of black cats whom only he can see.",
"When the moon Eyre is full, a face appears on it and leers at the party from the heavens. Occasionally it mouths words, and a moment later an gust of unbearably cold air carries a short, raspy phrase \"Kill Yourself\" \"Die\" \"LEAVE!\" \"Are you afraid to go to sleep?\"",
"You could swear that shadow just moved on its own. Or did it? Do you dare tell your compatriots, who already think you're a little off? Would they believe you?",
"Nothing stirs. No animals, nor bugs, not even the wind.",
"The Party wizard is nearly torn limb from limb by a swarm of badgers, all of whom are former Familiars to the Wizards of Cyre.",
"Dawn never comes. Parties lacking a source of light or depending on the sun to keep track of time will have a hard time indeed. Especially when the Colony of Vampires whose territory they are skirting finds them...",
"The ghost of Fedrew, a mean-spirited artificer keeps watch over the shop he tended in life, Fedrew's Bottlecharms. If the party rests in or near his shop, which lies in Kalazart, he transforms all potions they carry into Potions of Poison (FORT 14 1d10 Con/1d10 Con).",
"In a certain house, the doors rattle and thump as though someone where trying to escape, but when opened, nothing but an empty house lies beyond it.",
"Those who enter Metrol without kneeling a saying prayer at the city gates will be abandoned by a dear friend when they are needed the most.",
"As he/she walks through a city, the character with the Highest INT score will be followed by packs of black cats whom only he can see.",
"When the moon Eyre is full, a face appears on it and leers at the party from the heavens. Occasionally it mouths words, and a moment later an gust of unbearably cold air carries a short, raspy phrase \"Kill Yourself\" \"Die\" \"LEAVE!\" \"Are you afraid to go to sleep?\"",
"You could swear that shadow just moved on its own. Or did it? Do you dare tale your compatriots, who already think you're a little off? Would they believe you?",
"The party is chased by a pack of dogs whose heads are on upside-down.",
"The party is haunted by a ghost who says everything backwards (siht ekil). If the party can make out what he's saying, he leads them his final resting place, a hall of mirrors. Unfortunately it's a lure, and now the party has to fight the ghost. Any who are rendered unconsious by the ghost are trapped inside a mirror, leaving the ghost to possess the body, and the party member to become a ghost.",
"Between the rafters and boards of an old barn crimson light spews forth with hellish intensity. Does the party dare venture forth and find out why? ",
"Voices issue from within a house, but some hear pleas for help while others hear sound of revelry and festival. Nobody hears exactly the same thing, but everyone hears something. What is really going on inside that house?",
"The PCs walk through an area where no one can understand the others. It almost seems that they're speaking another language, except that no such language exists.",
"Pick a commonly used word. Whenever a PC says it, instead his/her voice is changed somehow.
I used this last session in a non-mournlands adventure. My PCs were in a newly formed cavern that inexplicably appeared to be several centuries old. When reading the Infernal writing out loud, the devil's name \"Baal'sha'dros\" was said in a booming voice several octaves lower than the PC's own. I also had it echo around the chamber and called for listen checks for the PCs to hear whispers of \"Souls!,\" originating from a point some six inches directly behind their own heads.",
"A PC walks right into an invisible wall that isn't there a moment later. Be vivid. Describe how there's a deafening thud as he is rocked backwards and, clanking in his heavy armor, falls to the ground dazed.",
"You hear swirling sounds around you, dogs slobbering and slavering, panting loudly as though right behind you, voices whispering a word that whips by your ear, a burst of music that races into nothingness or the boistrous sounds of a busy city street.",
"A PC attracts her/his own dust devil. A miniature swirling tornado surrounds the PC as they walk along. Have it pick up things like leaves or even bones and small pieces of armor as they trudge along.",
"A PC sinks half an inch into the ground as she walks along, leaving footprints filled with blood trailing behind her.",
"When a PC draws his sword, blood bubbles out of the scabbard or runs off of the blade in a small stream.",
"The bard's instrument's strings seem to be now made of human hair, some with their own gray streaks.",
"If a PC coughs or sneezes, a cloud of ancient dust accompanied by the smell of an ancient crypt billows into the air.",
"The PCs' hair and fingernails grow longer as though a great amount of time has passed. Include wrinkles on their faces that fade a moment after they're looked at.",
"The handle of a PC's weapon leaves his hand covered in blood even if it hasn't been used, yet appears dry when inspected.",
"When walking through a completely clear field with no features within at least 20 feet, a PC keeps feeling as though he/she's walking through spiderwebs every few feet.",
"A PC wakes up completely covered in insects and/or spiders.",
"A door is made up completely of bugs or spiders and the PCs have to walk through it to get where they're going (into a house, through an arched gate, a dungeoun door, etc).",
"A female PC grows a full and heavy beard that begins to thin and fall off after an hour.",
"The group walks past a field of corn, only on top of the stalks is a slightly larger-than-normal eyeball. As the PCs walk by, the eyes follow them in a silence broken only by the stalks whispering in a wind that doesn't seem to touch anywhere else.",
"A PC begins to see things strangely. When he sees other PCs or other living creatures he can see them as though their skin were transparent, so that they view the corded muscles and winding, glistening intestines. He sees familiars this way as well as him/herself if she looks in a mirror. (With warforged, you can see the structure of the plant-like stuff that traces through their bodies.)
You could watch a changeling PC as they morph and see the anatomy shift around or appear and disappear.
Throw something really wierd in there and have perhaps an eyeball where it shouldn't be (bicep, stomach, etc) staring back. You could even make it appear that a female PC has some twisted, grotesque, hunched up child shape in her belly that holds your gaze unblinkingly.",
"In a flash of lightning, undead surround you for miles. Their twisted, leering, skull-like faces circle you completely and you don't know where your companions are. Their rotted limbs reach out for you as their broken bellies spill entrails to the ground, for them or those beside them to trip upon and stumble to the ground with a ripping, squelching noise. The reek of death creeps into your nostrils and you fight the urge to vomit, to retch until your stomach turns inside out, until your face turns red and bursts, until your eyes pop out of your skull and land in the pile of filth at your feet or you choke and die on your tongue and join the ranks of bulging, bloated corpses that surround you for ever and you'll never escape even when your flesh rots to nothing and you walk as a fly-covered skeleton and.... and in the next blink of an eye.... it's all gone. You stare up at the Mournlands' gray sky with your friends looking down at you worriedly and a drop of blood falls from the heavens and lands on each of your blinking eyelids.",
"The party comes upon a cart in the road. Its wheel's are turning, and a dead man sits in the buggy, but it does not move forward. Occasionally the party will hear a whip and a \"hyah!\", but see no movement.",
"The plants spurn the touch of a party member; grass and tree branches twist and bend away from him or her. Bushes split down the middle to avoid being stepped on, and in some cases actually uproot and get out the adveturer's path. If a druid speaks with plants to learn why, the foliage replies \"because we know what he/she did\".
Justifiably, the player will have no idea what the plants are talking about, but it'll make the party a bit more wary of him/her all the same.",
"After the previous vision, the character begins to see further images from the vision, until they are either driven mad by them, or attempt to communicate the vision to the other players. As soon as they do, blood begins to pour from their eyes, and as they wipe it away, they see the vision again, with one difference: The other pc's are in the forefront, as undead, and this time, the symptoms are real.",
"As the party emerges from a particularly thick mass of mist, they emerge into clear day, fresh grass, etc. They will soon encounter a town, and find that they have been placed approximately 3 days before the Mourning. What the PC's do is up to them, but at some point, a messenger should arrive with a general of Cyre. The messenger states that they have come to draw out and destroy a silver haired madman known only as \"Dead Light\". The next morning, the PC's should awaken, and find a silver haired warrior fighting the general of Cyre. After a few rounds, the warrior strikes down the general. He leans down, and plucks something from the general. As he rises, he sees the PC's, and holds a dead gray crystal aloft, and light fills it. As the crystal approaches a blinding state, he utters the words [i]\"It begins\"[/i], as the dead gray mist begins to rush forth to change the world.",
"Pick a PC who's carrying rope. At some point as they adventure through the Mournlands, their pack begins to twist and shake on the adventurer's back. Should they drop it and open it, the coil of rope bursts out and slithers away on the ground like a snake. You can treat it like a Constrictor (Monster Manual. Just a big snake) and have it attempt to choke a PC. As it slithers off, they can try to \"kill\" it. If they cut the rope in the middle or nearer the leading end, it violently thrashes on the ground for a while until it stops moving, whereupon it is normal rope again.",
"A PC's coil of rope turns into coiled intestine, somewhat squishy yet strangely strong. (Changes no stats)",
"The PCs are flying through the Mournlands on an airship. A few hours after passing through the mist with having encountered only the most minor of the Mournland's Horrors, they begin noticing more personal and pressing problems. The bound fire elemental begins screaming.... Still bent into its encircling arc you see hands of flame claw at the air and wide eyes staring out madly. A gaping mouth filled with tongues of fire screams its torment, shouting that it's burning, it's burning! ",
"The Elemental Ring around the ship sputters and twists, bending almost impossibly out of shape as though trying to escape its bound state. As you would expect, the ship begins to fall as the fire... changes.... A mere hundred feet from the ground the fire has left its original dancing form and shifted into large chunks of rock and dirt. As it hits the ground it slides smoothly into the earth, leaving any topside PCs behind on the desolate expanse of the Mournlands. Any PCs inside notice that the portholes go dark. The now-groundship keeps circling the landed PCs and surfacing randomly like a shark and dumps the other PCs as they come from below decks. Once all are gone it sinks into the ground and is never seen again (perhaps?...).",
"Every living being (which excludes undead, of course, and maybe Warforged) they meet in the Mournlands shares similar physical oddities. Nothing big, mind you - subtle things, the sort that wouldn't be worth a second look if it didn't keep appearing. Hair - scalp, legs, eyelashes - turns gradually lighter until it turns white, even on young individuals. Skin feels less elastic, loses some of its flush and colour. Twenty-year-olds develop small wrinkles at the corners of their eyes. The skin starts to pull back from fingernails, which take on a yellowish hue and crack more easily. Eyes become bloodshot or jaundiced. If you have the Taint rules in Unearthed Arcana or that latest horror supplement, try a few of the mildest physical symptoms in there.
If the PCs keep going into the Mournlands - it's the centrepiece of your campaign, say - they start to notice these in themselves.",
"The Mournlands taints things. Clerics will give alarmed looks to innocuous trinkets you bring back from the Mournlands, and can't say why. If you bring your horse in for stabling or drop your Mournlands expedition clothes off at the local cleaners-equivalent, the employees will look befuddled, then lean in and sniff the horse/clothing and comment, \"what the hell is that?\" And the PCs? Dogs stare at them as they go by. Small children back away on the street. A mother holding a baby walks past - the baby bursts into tears.
And nothing about the PCs turns each other off at all. They all feel normal and appear normal to one another. But maybe if they keep going back to the Mournlands, the civilized world starts to seem flat and unreal, like they're living in a play or a two-dimensional painting...",
"Along the roadside the PCs find an abandoned church. The once bright white walls have now faded to gray and no vegetation grows around it, as the dry, cracked earth clearly shows. A large tree grows in the front of it and everyone notices that each branch has its end snapped off. When they walk inside they find that everything is ruined. Wooden pews are snapped into splinters as are candle stands and everything but the stone alter, and skeletons litter the ground everywhere. But they are most definitely not right. Each and every single bone lies broken, snapped in two, splintered along the ground. It is impossible to tell how many there were because no skeleton is complete.
Almost unnoticed in the gray corner, a person in priest's robes (also turned gray) speaks up, \"Yeah, pretty unfair really. As soon as the mist rose and the horrors began stalking this land they all came to the church for aid. They prayed ceaselessly, asking te gods to protect them, to deliver them from this evil. I and the other priests tried to calm them down to soothe their nerves, for everyone was practically shaking, they were all on edge. Then I noticed that the tree's limbs had all snapped. It went quiet in the room, as though everyone were listening for something, and then someone cracked their knuckles in nervousness.
\"You know how it is, when someone hears someone else, they start doing it. Pretty soon everyone was cracking their knuckles. But it didn't stop there. They kept on snapping. Everyone's eyes went sort of out of focus, crazed-like, like they were almost possessed. They just kept on snapping until they'd broken every bone in their body. They all just lay there as the benches began snapping themselves, all twisted up, broken on the floor, staring up with that crazy look and trying to keep on breaking their bones...
\"You'd best leave, I wouldn't think this to be a grand place to hang around. You might catch something,\" and he smiles nervously, fidgeting with the sleeves of his robes.
Just as the PCs shut the door, they hear a soft click! that breaks the deadened silence, and a low moan of muted terror from the priest and more, and more, and more clicks that get louder and louder as they walk away from the church.
Then just wait for your PCs to start cracking their knuckles.
***
Walking through a flat, desert-like plain in the mournlands, the PC's find a small child maybe only five years old. The small boy is pale, thin, and seems to have not slept in many many days*weeks, months, years, what have you*. The boy sits in a fetal position rocking back and forth clutching an old teddy bear. Occasionaly he starts to nod off but immediately his eyes flash open and begins to scream, as if from a terrifying nightmare.
If a PC gets close*within 5 feet* the boy begins crying and asking for help*like a child waking in the middle of the night from a nightmare*. If a PC attempts to comfort the child, his/her attempts are ultimately futile. Simply casting a calm emotions spell calms the boy who then thanks the caster and hands them his teddy bear, and the boy fades away with a knowing smile on his face.
The teddy, if within five feet of a sleeping PC, will send visions to the PC of 1001 Mournland Horrors.
Is the teddy bear cursed with horrifying images, or does the bear give the bearer prophetic visions of whats to come?",
"As the PCs walk along the desolate landscape of the Mournlands, they attract the attention of a pack of puppies. Completely ordinary puppies that follow the PCs around. They need no form of sustenence, they're cute and cuddly, and follow the PCs with a cute loyalty that makes everyone go \"Awwwwwww!\"
However, once the PCs engage in combat, something strange happens. Each fiery blast of magic, each cut and chop inflicted on their enemies.... deals the same damage on one of the puppies. The mage casts fireball? A puppy yelps and disappears in an enferno of flame, it's one silky coat consumed by the fire and now ash on the wind. The paladin smites evil and drops a foe to cleave into another? Two puppies are slashed in half as though by his sword.
But. The puppies still follow, their mangled corpses dragging themselves along the ground with their silvery ghosts following above, no longer wagging their cute little tails, following as though dragged by some invisible collar, bound to the PCs by their unjust deaths.",
"A PC reaches down for a weapon (sword, dagger, mace, whatnot) to find a skeletal hand already gripping it.",
"Any wooden items a PC has appears to be now made of pale, gleaming bone.",
"A heavily armored PC begins to feel claustrophobic. His helm seems to be almost suffocating him, his breastplate is too tight, his arms and legs feel restricted. It's almost as though something inside his armor were forcefully holding him, choking him, forcing him to be still.",
"A PC's hair grows to the point that they have difficulty walking, like their own hair were purposefully tripping them when they tried to move, or grappling them to the ground.",
"A small pond of blood becomes apparent in the middle of the path. As the PCs go around it, or move closer to inspect it, a PC trips and falls in. As he tumbles towards the murky crimson pool, it almost seems like a face forms on the smooth surface, twisting its mouth into a fanged grin and reaching out with clawed fingers to pull the PC into its warm embrace. Only the PC who falls see this, the others just see him trip.",
"While investigating any graveyard, the PC who is farthest from any others suffers an accident. A gravestone catches her eye. For some reason she is drawn to it, though the letters are barely visible through the dust and spiderwebs that cover it. As her fingertips brush away the concealing dirt she reads.... her own name. The birthdate is correct, as is the name. The date died seems to read.... today. The ground opens up and she falls into the gravepit and into a coffin, the lid of which slams shut after her.
The other PCs will notice her shout and see her disappear. When they rush over they can open the coffin and drag her out with no problems.",
"As the pc's march through a wooded area they see what appear to be men draped in black robes all facing out of the woods standing amoungst the trees, they wave earily. Any ranged attack misses or passes harmlessly through and anyone who comes close realizes that it is only a bush. A spot check of 20 also reveals this. This little one is enough to make your pcs get worried about a ritual of evil mages. You can also use this one as a false peak for a scarier horror.",
"The characters find them selves weary and surrounded by a tunnel of blood red mists. Attempts to escape the mists are futile; that only results in the tunnel changing its shape. Divination and Transmutation magic fails while inside the tunnel and any cratures summoned appear as dessicated husks...their images appearing on the tunnels of mist as a deeper red in the animal's shape, constucuts summoned appear rusted to the point of total annihilation. After a few day's of this the party notices that their bodies are growing more and fatigued and pale (-1 to Con every day). The tunnel of mist is atcually an awakened Vampiric Mist (fused vampiric touch and acid fog) that has captered the characters and doesn't want to let them go...or can it be reasoned with.........",
"After the characters stumble from multiple days of hard work in the mournland anl leave the pale mists they find the mourning has covered the ENTIRE WORLD...or has it.....(this scared the $%it out of my players)",
"One of the PC's(who has distinctive Crye background of coruse) hears the sound of a female voice calling him to her the other PC's hear a soft moaning sound when they find its soruce of origin they finda female ghost (someone the \"victim\" knew)inviting them to dinner in their small humble shack. There is a mirror in the shack opposite a large dinner table covered with delicious foodstuff the food is safe to eat and warmDetect poison
ant the like reveal the food id edible and good eating.BUT every time the character takes a bite out of the food it appears that his mirror image has taken a bite out of itself. ",
"(This only works if a member of the party has a familiar. A Paladin's mount will work, too.) One of the party's animals becomes increasingly hostile. It refuses to scout ahead or leave the party, and, if it can speak, constantly demands to be held as close as possible to it's owner. This continues until they leave the Mournland.",
"Perhaps the animal was right. Every night, when the party awkakens, there is a skeleton of the type of animal that the disturbed one from # 585 is.(A horse skeleton
for the Paladin 's mount, a frog sleketon for a frog familiar, etc.) Every night, though, one of the bones of this new skeleton is missing, until, on the final night, only the skull remains. The next night, the animal dissapears without a trace. (Should the party leave before then, no adverse affects remain.)",
"If the animal dissapears, that day, they are attacked by a dire (insert animal type here). Should it be killed, the (paladin/wizard/sorcerer) loses XP as if it's familiar were killed.",
"A writhing mass of slopped intestines and entrails schlepps across the ground in a sort of roiling, wriggling movement. What's worse are the eyes that seem to boil to the surface and roll back down every now and then, eyes of every color and size.
And now, 589 in poetic verse:
What 's that in the shadows, beginning to move?
Or rather seep out, schlepp over and ooze ? ...
A mass of intestine once slopped but now roiling,
With, worse, glist 'ning eyes that surface as though boiling.",
"Going threw the mournlands they find a Lightening Rail that was obviously Hit at the time of the mourning, On baord is Troops from various nations that were obviously caught fighting. If the Pc's stay to loot at random intervals of an hour the Last Scene of the troops fighting and then stoping and being envolped by the grey mists repeats itself. The PC's take real fights and do real things in these flashes (althought they cannot save anyone but they might get some swag if smart <>
The Only thing consistant is a Stasis Box(or Eldirtch Machine) designed to Keep Super Power Magic(artifact or Epic Level things) from affecting everything
else seems to misfunctioning after 4 years of abondanment adn now WHATEVER was inside it is trying to get out(and attempting to use the PC 's to do it)",
"If the PCs camp includes a campfire, the wood they use to light it cires out in pain as it is lit, screaming as if it were being burned alive. A pained female face appears in the flames, begging them to stop her torment. The next morning, they come to a neraby town. In the town square there is a still-smoldering pyre with the charred skeleton of a human woman tied to a stake in the center. A small, hastily carved plaque nearby reads, \"As the grey mist advanced, we offered up this witch to the Sovreign Host. May the heathen's death spare us...\"",
"A PC wakes up in the morning and stretches. As he does so his armor and gear flies towards him and begins strapping itself on, as though invisible porters were arming him for battle.",
"The characters have been walking for quite some time, ahead they see and oasis of trees alone in the barren nothingness. As the get closer they hear faint sounds, something similar to coughing and it grows louder the closer the get. When the finally reach the grove from every tree is at least one hanged body, in many cases a tree contains a whole family. The coughing sound the hear is a extremely loud, and it is actually the sound of dozens of people choking. If the move into the forest as they pass it feels as if the bodies are slighly clinging to them, but when the look or turn around there is nothing there. At the center of the grove is a clear pool of water, when the characters look into the water they see a people trapped under the water, struggling to reach the surface before choking and drowing to sink to the bottom.",
"It is evening, approaching deep darkness. Just within the light of the fire hangs something in a tree that blows back and forth in the chill wind. Inspection reveals it to be a doll of humanoid shape, draped in ragged cloth. When the PC turns away and then looks back, it appears that there is another. Looking back again shows another, and another and another until after enough looks each limb is draped in lifeless hanging dolls, their limbs idly flapping in the ragged breeze.",
"A PC dreams of a small child crying and asking for help, calling for her mother, terrified. When the PC wakes up, they are cradling a doll. However, the doll has two sets of lips in place of eyes, and an eye where the mouth should be. It blinks as he stares.",
"The PCs meet a strange figure walking about the mournlands, seemingly naked but for a loincloth. From a distance all seems well, but close enough to see better they realize something is amiss. It almost looks like a pair of gloves dangle from his wrists, as do a pair of toed socks dangle from his ankles. The skin around his shoulders and ribs and all along the sides of his body down to his feet looks a little.... stretched. His face isn't right either, and he almost looks like he's wearing a mask. He acts friendly enough (or ignores them completely) and as he walks away, they see a long line of loose stitching revealing, in fact, that he's wearing a suit of someone else's skin.",
"The PCs find an abandoned farm house. it is largely intact, though ancient and decrepid. A figure can be seen through the window, though it appears to be quite dead. Upon entering the house, they find that the place is covered in dust and cobwebs and nothing seems out of place, just very old. Inexplicably, an air of sadness, lonliness, and longing seems to permeate the air. Inside, everyone feels sad and disheartened, missing loved ones not seen for far too long. The corpse viewable from the window appears to be that of a young woman, once brightly beautiful, now dead and unrotting as all of the corpses of the Mournlands. In her hands lies a letter that informs a Mr. Nickolai del'Therendar of his drafting into the Cyran army, unsmudged by the tears that constantly fall from her unliving eyes.",
"A procession of mourners walks the lonely Mournlands landscape, bearing a body on a body held on a stretcher above them. Black shrouds draping the mourners and pallbearers whip in a wind that affects only them. In a particulary powerful gust, they lose their shrouds but continue on. Now you see them uncovered, see their forms, vile and disgusting. It appears that each piece of the deceased mourns his passing. The pallbearers are humanoids composed of various humanly bits. The front pall bearer appears to be made entirely of brains, while the one next to him is made of loops and loops of slimey coiled intestine. Likewise, an walking ear-man, finger-man, and so forth all trail behind or help support the litter. (They ignore the PCs)
(okay, yeah this could be taken to an inappropriate level, but oh well, deal with it)
",
"A PC lights a torch and as he does so, the wood starts screaming and twisting in his hand unless he puts it out, whereupon it doesn't say anything more. If dropped, it writhes in pain until it burns out, ending in a gurgling scream.",
"A PC's bow (or any wooden item) shoots out (very small) roots, as well as limbs and leaves. As they are without sustenence or contact with dirt (unless it happens at night when they're on the ground) they quickly wither and die, turning brown and losing their leaves and the limbs and roots shrivel, but stay attached. ** *
As the PCs are traveling through the Mournland, they come across another town.In it, they find a statuary.It looks like simple stautes of common people, peasants, shopkeepers, etc, but then odd things will seem to happen.A pc will spy movement out of the corner of his eye, he 'll spy a statue of a loved one who he knows has never been anywhere near Cyre or the Mournalnd.They'
ll hear grinding stone and other creepy sounds.This could all be their imaginations or they could be animated objects.DM 's choice.",
"The party finds half an oblong crystal about 10 feet long buried in the ground as if launched from far away at high velocity. The crystal is screaming in pain and shouting curses in Quori.",
"The party finds a strange circle standing upright that appears to have been partially melted, Within the circle seem to be a crowd of ghosts, all slowly mutating into pseudonatural versions of their former sleves. If the party tries to talk to them, they can only call out curses against House Cannith.",
"A bird falls out of the air and hits the ground in front of the PC with a liquid crunch. Two steps later another bird splats into the ground.",
"A PC sees a colony of large insects (about a quarter the size of a tennis ball). They have human (elf, dwarf, etc) faces.",
"The PC's find a plane of dark obsidian glass within which they can see hundreds if not thousounds of souls struggling for their last breath, If they chip away this and peer threw it will reveal any and all undead in a 60 degree cone for an unlimited distance as whitish objects, Two large stars can be seen one to the north east (vol) and one far to the south (Xendrick)",
"The characters come upon a strange red boulder, if they inspect it it turns out to be made of clotted blood.",
"When the characters leave the Mournland, they find that time seems to have passed in reverse outside.",
"The next time one of the characters looks in the mirror their reflection appears to be a daelkyr",
"A field is filled with bodies, each one turned inside out, exposing their internal organs.",
"The characters wake up with the faces of people who died in the Mourning.",
"A cube of gray smoke appears in the air, if anything comes in contact with it, it is turned into dark crystal (hardness 10). Around the cloud are crystal statues of human body parts.",
"A large (about 40ft diameter) ring made of still living bodies stitched together slowly spins in the air over a deep canyon.",
"The characters find a ring of panes of glass set in the ground, each speaking and telling one person's recolection of the day or Mourning.",
"Approaching the grey mist, the elemental slows, and eventually stops mere meters from the mist. Out of the mist, Avoral and Erinyes land on the ship and start demanding cargo manifests, traveling papers, indentity papers, and anything else customs officials usually demand. After acertaining that the players aren't smuggling anything or anyone out of Cyre (they look at the PC's quizically if they ask about the Mournland), they will issue temporary traveling and identity papers to those players who don't have any, requesting that they procure official ones when they return to their place of residence.
Oooo...just thought of another.
",
"Approaching the grey mist, the PC's see what seems to be a...Toll Booth. If they try to ram the barricade or avoid it, the booth merely moves with them. (The grey mist will recede as well, preventing them from leaving until they pay the toll.) Inside the booth is, of course, a Toll Troll. You can make the toll anything you want, but something inane like \"happy thoughts\" or \"a few of your hairs please\" makes for a more memorable Toll.",
"Veins cover the ground, veins of all shapes and sizes and, in fact, colors. Red blood rushes through the cluster covering that rock over there while black Orc blood causes those entwinned with the trees to pulse. Watch your step don't-! Gross... I was going to say don't step on them or they might burst and make you slip... Now get that green crap off you before it congeals and clots...",
"Upon rounding a few rough hewn hills, the vegetation begins to get dense. So much to the fact that the ground can no longer be viewed. Beyond the apex of the hill, the characters will begin to notice a slightly different feeling to the terrain. If they explore the vegetation, they soon discover that there is no solid ground beneath. (insert item of choice: gaping abyss, fire-laden chasm, chasm filled with jagged rocks, an open maw, etc.)",
"The terrain takes on the appearance of marshlands. When suitable weight is applied in the soft mud, the resultant puddle is actually blood.",
"A field of flowers gently blow in the wind, however these aren't flowers and there is no wind. The \"flowers\" are actually small constructs made to look like flowers. They are drawn to body heat and the petals are sharp as blades. In addition to the cutting damage they may be able to inflict, they alternate with exuding a grease like substance that decreases footing and spraying (like pollen) a salt like substance into the air.",
"Upon awaking in the Mournland, the sky is it's usual drab grey overcast. There is an approaching cloud that is darker than most. The cloud issues forth a rain like substance in its wake. If the party waits to see what the effects are, insert one of the following freely: acidic - corrosive properties, a blood-like dye that won't wash of with regular means and draws all manner of carnivores to it, the droplets fall with the velocity of a thrown dart and can break the skin, the liquid like substance is metallic and has a cumulative effect similar to the Neo's mind trip after taking the pill, etc.",
"As the party crosses a seemingly docile plain, strong metallic rods that resemble large needles begin to sprout up randomly underfoot. Add a little moisture and uneven land and you have an unpleasant situation that set to get worse.",
"Two living fireball spells head towards the party, when all of a sudden they turn into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias. (works best for a party in an airship)",
"A warforged who's terminally depressed. Goes on about how inteligent he is (mind the size of a planet), and all they have him do is escort parties. (Doesn't mention who \"they\" are, although if you want to place Zaphod into your campaign, the mournland's the place to do it.) Always looks at things from a negative prespective.",
"A rain of naked beautiful women. (Read the book. It's in there.)",
"Mice. That talk.",
"The \"Total Prespective Vortex\". An Eldrich Machine that shows you your importance in the universe. Usually shatters the person by showing them how insignificantly unimportant they are. (DC13 will save. Must fail to survive, cannot fail on purpose.)",
"When moving through the woods (or in the dark. Really just anywhere the PCs have difficulty seeing) it sounds as though other creatures are running and smashing their way through very close.",
"Hundreds of people in a field hang at awkward angles and varying heights, as though they were hung by invisible ropes.",
"The dirt surrounding a cannibal's grave is infected with Ghoul Fever. Any who come near must save-vs.-disease. The grave is possessed by the spirit of its inhabitant and moves about, trying to swallow victims in its earthen maw.",
"The massive black thunderhead is actually a colossal wraith, or perhaps hundreds of smaller wraiths. Why do they gather, and where do they come from?",
"All who enter Queen Diani's bedroom turn into vampires.",
"The figures depicted in the mosaic move and stretch to watch you. You can hear the clinking of thousands of chips rearranging themselves to follow your movements.",
"The PCs make camp and wake to find a large gravestone in the middle of their campfire. The inscription reads (PCs names) died (date three days from now), the flesh torn from their bones in the furious maelstrom of the demon's fires.",
"The PCs wake to find a gravestone near their camp. The next day when they make camp, they find it near the next morning, and the next (and so forth).",
"While examining the schoolhouse of a small town, the PC's see a group of ghostly children playing with small dolls that are dressed and look just like the PC's, right down to their swords and staffs. If the PC's continue to watch they'll see the children work out scenes from earlier adventures, going so far as to shout out qoutes from what the PC's actually said and mimic the movements that the PC's made. ",
"As 646, only if the group watches for long enough they'll see another child walk up with a large wicked looking doll dressed in black spiked armor and wielding a massive (well, for the doll) scythe. As the new child sets his doll down and begins to play, the other children will begin screaming out things such as \"oh no, it's Sapletsedon, reaper of souls\". At this point the children will play as if the new doll were attacking the PC dolls. If the group continues to watch, this is where the real horror begins. The 'Sapletsedon' doll uses it's weapon to slash at the warriors back, only when it does, blood splatters all over the floor and the children as the dolls back rips open. This continues as the doll brutally slaughters and dismembers the other dolls who bleed and even leak out bits of entrails and other gore. When all the PC dolls have been destroyed the now bloody children rush off with their only remaining doll, laughing and giggling gleefully.",
"As 647, but if the PC's examine the dolls, they find that the blood is now just dried paint on the dolls, the entrails are bits of thread and so on. Should unsettle the PC's who should find themselves questioning what they saw, whether the dolls were really bleeding or not.",
"As 647, only the PC's will hear a deep demonic voice screaming out \"Sapletsedon\" from somewhere nearby, followed by crashing sounds as if something were charging in the groups direction.",
"As 646, only the children will reveal dark secrets about each character that will/should lead the others to distrust them, whether these are true or not is up to the DM.",
"after witnissing #644 and 3 days have passed the pcs see an enourmous swirling cloud of fire, red dust, and wind heading their way, should they brave the malestrom or ovide it, observing the prophetic gravestone?",
"The PCs walk through a blizzard of gray feathers that burst into (harmless) flame upon touching the ground.",
"The PCs walk over a field of dead birds that crunch and squish underfoot. (I would imagine minuses to move silently.)",
"Characters come upon a plane where as far as they can see humanoid heads sprout from the ground as if buried to the necks. The heads are alive. They scream, and plead and wail at the characters. Characters who knew people who were lost in the last war will see their faces among the crowd. What happens when you try to dig them out is up to you.",
"The Pcs find a celler door in the middle of a field. If they enter they find the place compleatly bare of people. If someone looks up or a DC 10 spot check they see that there are at least 10 people stuck to the ceiling with what looks like some kind of green goo, dead but preserved of course. If touched it is a DC 15 strength check to remove from the skin, although if it's another, slightly lower, strength check to remove from whatever you use and so on. If the PCs look around some more they find a huge cockroatch nest. Swarm, if possiable, of giant cockroaches.
I 'm not sure if that'
ll work but it 's worth a try...",
"A swirling tornado of ghosts and other such souls wonds its way across the mournlands nightmarish landscape. Anything in its path is not blown by the wind or affected in any way, but the souls trapped in its swirling mass grab and tug at whatever they touch. Shimmering ghosts of the unrotting dead are ripped from their bodies and trees shiver as though in fear at their touch.",
"The PC's come to a village, dead and empty. However, a near-constant wind releases a low moaning from the dead and broken buildings. Anyone who hears the moaning for more than a minute begins to hear desperate whispers from the inhabitants of the town. The voices are real, and a DC 20 Listen check allows a PC to decipher one plea per minute. However, this sound inspires insanity in the listeners (DC 15+1/hour spent listening past the second or lose 1 Wis).
The PC 's finally hear something over the whispers, a lilting violin melody that not only overshadows the whispering, but blocks it out and even seems to dull the moaning of the wind. In a small house they find the ghost of a bard playing his violin endlessly, producing a continuous countersong effect. He cannot leave the place of his death, but seems to be susceptible to the insanity of the whispers, his endless playing the only thing keeping the voices at bay. If the PC'
s are friendly, they can sleep in his house, gaining respite from the madness of the Mournlands.If they are hostile, the bard will turn his magic upon them.The whispers and moans give the ghost + 2 situation bonuses to his save DC 's of all mind-affecting effects.",
"The PC's come to the house of an accomplished painter who died in the Mourning. His house is filled with portraits. PC's may recognize some people from the surrounding village. But DC 25 Spot checks reveal that when a PC looks at a painting, and again later, it has changed slightly. They also come to the man's workroom, where the man's last works remain: half-finished works of the PCs themselves. Is the painter's ghost trying to continue his work? Is he painting the faces of the dead? If so, are the PC's in danger?",
"In a dead town, the PCs find a building with a red lantern burning above the front door. If they go inside, they discover it was a brothel. All the employees and patrons have fused together into undead monstrosities. Each is naked and has 4 usable arms with 4 legs twisted together. The head has a man's face on one side, and a woman's face on the other. Since it can see front and back, it cannot be flanked. What happens next is anybody's guess.... ",
"I borrowed this from an episode of Inyasha - A faceless fiend is wandering the Mournlands. Whenever he finds someone alive, he tries to steal their face. The fiend must first succeed on a grapple check, then make a touch attack that requires a fortitude save (DC15+strength modifier). Success results in 1d8 Charisma damage, failure means the PC's face has just been torn off and they are slain instantly by the death effect. If the PC passes their fortitude save, but Cha reaches 0, their face is still torn off. The PC begins to take 2 points of Constitution damage per round until a high DC heal check saves them. Until the PC has their face restored, Cha may never rise higher than 1, they are blind, and they cannot speak. :evillaugh",
"A long time after leaving the mournland and once the adventurers finally come back to their senses from the horror (or at least what's left of their senses) they are all resting in the wild for whatever reason. When they awake the world appears 2 demnsional for a few seconds before slowly changeing to the mournland again. (If you want to use the mournland spreading by people taking peices out make the bard with that knowledge the one I'm about to mention) they awak to see a bard limping twards them. When he aproaches he stops and smiles at the PCs \"You can leave the mournlands but its effects will never leave you\" he whispers as he continues walking away humming a traditional cryeian funeral hymn. He disaperares as the land becomes 2 demensional again and transforms back to its origional state.",
"A triumvirate of chain devils have set up a scriptorium in the dungeon beneath Broken Tower. The devils scour the Field of Ruins searching for the perfect pieces of humanoid flesh to be used as parchment for the recording of ancient and evil magics written in the blood of the dead. (This is way creepier if you imagine the Chain Devils to look like the Pinhead and the gang in _Hellraiser_.)",
"As the PCs stumble through the carnage that is the Field of Ruins, they discover a band of warforged skinning the dead. The warforged soldiers plan on wearing the skins in an upcoming raid on a Karrnathi outpost (+5 on Intimidate checks vs. creatures of flesh and blood).",
"A group of Warforged seem to be tracking the party. They check the trail every fre yards and get closer and closer to the group. With them is a huge group of metal dogs after them. Scary. I hope you can run fast...",
"A battlefield where humans and warforged clashed. All are dead and dismembered or almost completely disassembled except for one lone figure, a warforged which appears to have tried to put on a human skin. The skin is animated, and occasionally manages to remove a part from the warforged. As fast as the skin pulls them off, the warforged manages to get other parts from the ground around him to rebuild himself. There's no telling how long this conflict has been going on.",
"The party comes across a cave. The weather has turned pretty cold and nasty so hopefully they go in. Inside is a bunch of magical items and gold and stuff. If the party divides the stuff and takes it the next day it is gone. In its place is a shiny visible tattoo somewhere on them that says GREED.
Later someone asks to join them.He makes dinner and out of their rations makes supposedly a grand meal but it turns out to be only a small bowl of gruel.If anyone in the group complains then the next day somewhere
else on their body is the tattoo of GLUTTONY.
As you can see there is a pattern.Keep testing them and
if they figure out what is happening then hopefully things change but the whole time that they are in the Mournlands this happens.If they get all seven sins they get very rich but don 't enjoy it, have all the love they want but can'
t love it anymore, have lots of rich and wonderful foods but it turns to sand in their mouths, everything makes them angry, they 're sad more and more, boastful and taking credit for things the other party members have done, and things like that. Or you can have that happen after every sin...ooh. *Shrug* so yeah. Have fun!",
"The players walks through a plain that seems normal when they see a huge mansion. It seems in a good shape but, this mansion attract them (whatever you say they approach it). When they are just in front of it, the door slam wide open (with a BIG dust cloud). They are attract in. When they are in... they see womens and children hanging from the ceiling. There is a trace of blood rising the great stairs in the middle of the floor. There's also blood hand traces on each windows. There's something writed on the wall that says ''Don't cry''. Outside the night falls (even if it was the morning though) and children are approaching the house.
As they approach they can see that every children as something special...they had been hanged, drowned, cutted to death, breaked off the jaw, beated...etc.As they are near the windows they start to scream and hit them but, they won 't break down.
When they
finally stops they disappear.That 's when everybody hear it. From the basement, someone is digging. This doesn'
t stop until they decided to rest.When they
finally fall asleep they are immediatly wake by a door that had been slammed on the 2n d floor and they start hearing children crying agony and pain.Then, the basement 's door slams and something leaves it darkness...
As they are paralysed, womens and childrens hanging up the ceiling start to cry blood.The creature says ''
Don 't cry. I had make your tombs.'
'.",
"the PCs come across a black pond of perfectly still water. No matter how hard the wind blows the water remains perfectly still. the whole place just feels evil and reacts to Detect Evil. The ground three feet out from the edges of the pond is covered in rotted vegitation. Then they start seeing flashes of light that look like they might be spelling something but is really difficult to make out (DMs decision what the message is). The fog in the distance starts forming into a pair of evil, predatorial eyes. What happens when someone touches the water can be left to your imagination. (to be really evil you could have a PC be possed and touch it)
(inspired by an actual pond near where I live.All of this has happened at this pond, along with some other things that wouldn 't fit into a world that doesn'
t have flashlights or 35 mm cameras)
",
"The party comes to a house in a state of horid disrepair. Four floors, each identical to the last.
what could happen:
1 door won 't open for the biggest and strongest characters but the itty bitty halfling has no problem with it
2 all light sources are extinguished apoun entry 3 red eyes start peering out from dark corners, further investigation turns up nothing but some rather large dust bunnies(maybe they 're animated dust bunnies of doom with big sharp pointy teeth!)
4 males with a cha of 16 or higher hear a soft and seductive singing, all other party members hear screams 5 when leaving, no one can close the door but once they are a good distance away they hear it creak and clank shut by itself 6
if the players look back they see glowing red eyes from the highest window.the people who heard the singing see a beautiful ghost woman instead ",
"The Pcs awake wearing diffrent clothes than when they fell asleep.",
"It requires a will save to enter a forest...",
"A merchant wonders the land selling lanterns fueled by human fat.",
"The players awaken in a cave 2 miles from where they last camped, their travel logs show they have marked off 2 days and anything else that happen as if 2 days passed happens, but they have no recolection of these days...",
"A flock of dead birds flies in its V formation backwards, tails first. As they go, occasionally a rotting piece falls to the ground.",
"A long column of priests in torn and bloody black robes walks along in procession. They hold their flails sideways in front of them, the heads swinging and dispensing smoke, like holy censures. Deep though their cowls may be, you can still see their faces enough to realize that each and every one of them stares at the world through bloody, torn, and empty eye sockets.",
"An area that appears untouched by the mourning, shining sun, lots of flowers, a beautiful, pleasent looking area. Maybe the PC's can hear battlecries on the wind or faint sounds of screams of terror and panic that are barely audible. Something that hints another terror is on the horizon.",
"The PCs find a temple. None of the PCs see the same thing. One sees their old home church, another sees a rotting ruin. Another sees a grand and wonderful place. If they go inside they find a library. Inside the library are thousands upon thousands of books.If they read one they see that it is a strange story. If they continue reading they find that it is about their life. It tells everything. The day they were born and the feelings of their parents. The day they rode their first horse. The first time they killed someone and so on. When they leave the next time they fall asleep they dream their life from the beginning. The next day they dream more of it. This happens out of the mournlands as well. Make them feel bad about stealing that silver piece from mom and taking dad's horse from a ride around the farm.",
"Make the PCs tell you their worst fears. If one of them is claustrophobic, have him suddenly find himself in a tight box and unable to get out. All the other PCs see nothing except their party member panicking and trying to escape out of the thin air. If another is scared of bugs have him walked into a cloud of them. They swarm around his face and into his clothing. None of the other PCs see anything. If one is scared of heights, he is suddenly on a cliff. He turns the other way and again, he sees hundreds of feet down. Suddenly he realizes that he is on a single pillar of stone and the closest solid ground is a thousand feet away. What does he do? *Evil grin* Have fun!",
"Horrid Dire Tarrasque :D",
"laugh maniacly whenever the PCs do anything and grin constantly (this would scare the hell out of me)",
"Whenever the PCs say a certain word smile happily and make a tally on a piece of paper. Make it obvious that you're doing this. If they ask, look all inocent and ask, \"What tallys? Oh! These tallys. I'm sure you'll know soon enough.\" They mean nothing, of course but if you use a common word, example, 'like', they might now say it. When you hardly hear the word anymore change the word. Ooh. Creepy.",
"Everytime a dragonamrked character uses his mark in the Mournlands, some of the grey mist is sucked into his mark, dulling its color. Should enough mist be drawn into the mark, the powers of the mark become tricky to use and capricious--a Lyrandar heir trying to create a favorable wind might accidently trap himself inside a miniature, a Cannith heir trying to Repair his warforged ally might instead damage him, or a Vadalis heir trying to calm an animal might enrage it, for example.",
"Blood starts seeping out of the plating of any and all warforged the party encounters.",
"A Valenar elf can see the faces of his ancestors in his blade--and they are not happy.",
"All members of the party lose the ability to dream...except for Elves and Kalashtar, who gain it.",
"All members of the party have the exact same dreams, and are capable of interacting with each other within them.",
"While badly wounded, the party encounters a large bush, heavy with goodberries. However, after eating them, they discover the red liquid running down their mouth isn't goodberry juice, but blood.",
"While wandering alone in the Mournlands, one of the party members encounters a beautiful women. He is enchanted by her beauty, and quickly succumbs to her embrace. When he awakes, he finds nothing beside him but a set of bones, disturbingly reminiscient of his own mother's.",
"Party members begin vomiting out butterflies, multicolored frogs, and floating goldfish whenever they fail a Will save.",
"Any changelings in the party begin taking on eerily disturbing forms while asleep or unconscious.",
"The party is traveling along in the mournlands. They see a young man sitting on a large boulder, staring out into the distance. If they approach him he stares at them until they speak. When they do he gets to his feet and starts walking towards him. The boulder moves as if he is balancing and walking on it. It seems as though he is trying to crush them but a sense motive check of DC 20 will show that he is trying to get close to him. Any means of communication fail unless someone uses telepathy. He will tell the party that he is partially deaf and keeps trying to get close enough to hear people properly but the boulder stays under him. He keeps crushing the people and can't get off of the boulder. He requests that they find a very rare plant to heal him and stuffs. Good plot maker or side quest. He will reward them well if they bring it to them but of course he could be an evil person. *Shrug* Have fun.",
"Before the PC's enters the Morunland, ask them to record all the magic items they bring along, and give you a copy. When they leave again, ask them to record everything they found inside and bring out from the wasteland.. and give you a copy.
On both occasions, proceed to roll dice furiously,
while jotting down a lot of stuff, all the
while smiling grimly, and mumbling \"Oh Dear..oh dear oh dear oh dear.This isn 't good!\".
If they ask what is wrong, just smile brightly and tell them that all will be revealed in due time.
If you actually want to act on any of these metagaming threats, just find some nice curses to pepper the objects with. The magic of the Mournalnd isn't really that healthy: D ",
"While passing a partially ruined farmstead the PCs spot an old woman who looks as though she has fallen asleep sitting slumped on a stone bench by the road near the house. She is dressed in plain clothing of earthen tones except for a red and yellow checked headscarf which is drapped loosely over her head. She is of course dead and like the other bodies that they've seen recently the body is in fine condition. Her flesh is cool to the touch, dry and rigid with death. Regardless of whether she's touched or not as the players move near she slumps to her side on the stone bench, one arm falling to dangle so as to just be touching the ground. From her loosely clawed hand a lock of hair tied with a tiny red ribbon falls to the ground. Nothing else of note happens here.
When the PCs make camp or stop
for any amount of time after their next encounter, whoever is on watch hears a single dragging sound and then a thump from behind any nearby brush, mound, wreckage, etc.If they investigate they see the body of an old woman with a red and yellow checked headscarf drapped over her head where she lies face down in the mud / dust.Now, everytime the body is unobserved it changes position slightly without making any sound.Each time it moves it always ends up with a single glazed eye peering at the party from behind her headscarf.
If the PCs move camp or travel she always appears again, initially arriving with only a single drag and thump behind cover or otherwise out of sight.You could even have her appear amidst the sleeping party members
while the watch is looking out into the night / wastes
for approaching danger.
",
"The PCs encounter a village, filled with the Unrotting Dead of the Mournland, as usual. As they walk the deserted streets, the hear the shuffling and sliding of stone against stone coming from behind them. When they turn around to look for the source of the noise, the buildings on the street have all changed places. ",
"On an abandoned farm deep within what used to be the heartland of Cyre, the PCs find something truly shocking: the farmhouse has gained an intelligence and mobility all its own. Whether this is a benevolent being dedicated to sheltering those who come to it or a malign entity who seeks to draw in victims is entirely up to the DM. ",
"1 word: Pun-Pun, joking of course.
A meadow filled with small timid animals rests at the center of a withered dead forest.There 's nothing evil about the meadow to the pcs but the animals all seem extremly frightened and instantly burst into flames if forced out of the meadow. If anyone were to eat an animal from this meadow and then leave they would instantly become fatigued until they eat again.",
"A spire of writhering bones and half-rotted courpses rises from the scoarched land, anyone who approaches within a mile becomes inflicted with a charm spell (Will DC 30 is not mind effecting) that forces them to approach in a dazed stuppor. Once they have come within 10 feet 1d10 skeletons fall from the spire and attack. These Skeletons count as HD 50 undead for turning and will always deal a non-leathel blow to knock their opponent off concsious instead of killing. Once unconscios the skeletons will summon 1d10 more undead to drag the still living bodys back to the spire where undead hands reach out and lift the players up the side to a small recess where the players are absorbed into the tower. The spire contains 1d10*5 undead and is a HD100 Zombie for turning checks.",
"The adventurers are driven to madness by the feeling that invisible insects are crawling on them.",
"One of the PCs, or an NPC travelling with them, conceives while in the Mournlands. The child is born unnaturally quickly, and when it is delivered, it is stillborn...and zombified.",
"After getting out of the mournlands if the PC has a child at any time in their life they are awakened in the night by their little girl complaining of nightmares. The PC sits in bet with her for a little while, talking about why she shouldn't be afraid. The little girl turns to daddy and says, \"I dreamed I was in a strange place and there were monsters and scarey creatures everywhere.\" Creepy. Next night PC is awaken again. \"I had another nightmare. I dreamed I was camping and in the morning there was a tombstone that had my name saying that I died in the future. It was scarey.\" Ooh. Familar?",
"The PCs see a town that looks normal. People are walking around, life goes on as normal. They walk in and people ignore them as if having adventureres walk into the town was normal. The item shop is just down the street. The PCs walk in. A fussy old man at the counter looks up and says, \"Oh thank goodness. I've been waiting for you for ages. Hurry up, into the back.\" He leads them into the back room. It's a jumble of items. He looks around and says, \"You can have one hundred gold worth of stuff if as your payment and I need you to stack the rest up neatly.\" DC 20 will save not to go into the back room. If the PCs go, they find that the room goes back further than expected. After a few hours they start to get tired but they can't stop. They keep stacking boxes and cleaning floors. If a PC looks back at the doorway they see that the door has gone. There are no windows.
Note that one of the PCs has to make it.They argue with the rest of the group, knowing it 's a bad idea. When the others don'
t come out
for a few hours they should go back and argue with the store keeper.The keeper will give the PC a scroll with the counter spell on it to free the others.But only
if they will clean the shop.You can keep some of the stuff
if you 'd like...
This is just an idea to see how the PCs will react in certain situations and stuff.Make them be sure to act like their alignment should have them act.It 's just a group character study. *shrug*",
"While in the Mournlands, the PCs encounter a Renegade Mastermaker. He knocks them all unconscious, and takes them back to his lab. When they awake, all warforged PCs are missing a few bits...and the non-warforged have a few extra ones.",
"One day, while exploring the mournlands, the PCs come upon a field, ringed in a circle of \"Silver\" that cannot be removed from the ground, that has patches of green grass with a single yellow flower growing from the center. If the flower is plucked, the grass withers and the PCs see how a person died, through that person's eyes. If the PCs stay until dusk, then the patches of grass begin to animate as zombies that will chase and attack the PCs the entire night. The only safe haven is either beyond the edges of the field (as denoted by the ring of \"silver\") or a rock formation in the center, also surrounded by \"Silver\". In the morning, if the zombies are within sight, the PCs see them lie down and sprout green grass and a single yellow flower.",
"The PC finds an empty town that has flowers sprouting from many odd places. If PC picks any flowers that are growing in the Mournlands, the flower screams. Each scream is a different voice, sometimes in a different language.",
"The PCs shadows all extend in the wrong direction. Thier shadows all extend toward any light source. At noon their shadows are long and stretched and at dawn and dusk their shadows are short.",
"The PCs find a house that is built with various rooms upside down or sideways. Walkways suddenly turn up onto walls and down over precipices. If the PCs walk normally on these sections, they find that they can walk upon certain walls and ceilings as if they were floors.",
"(Variant of 705) The PCs enter a house that seems to be built upside down. Chandeliers hang from the floor and tables stay upon the ceiling. A man's hanged corpse hangs \"Up\" from the floor in one room and his family lies on the \"Ceiling\" in another. Within his hands is a suicide note, begging the gods forgiveness for his transgressions.)",
"The PCs are directed by a stranger (or clues) to a mansion that contains the laboratory of a once great wizard and a supposed easy exit from the mournlands. Within the lab, most items are mundane, there are few traps and it is generally safe to walk around. Outside of a plain wooden door that radiates no magic, there is a man raving about how he has \"Seen too much, the truth was not something we were meant to know.\" Listening too him also garners the information that part of the key to his portal to sharn lies within the room that drove him crazy.
If the PCs walk into the room and find a group of people clad in the strangest clothes they have ever seen, gathered around a table playing a game with dice and paper.There is one strangely clad person
for each PC plus one extra.When the PCs do anything within the room, the strangely clad people describe what they are doing, as
if narrating a character 's actions in a game. If the PCs examine the papers that the people are holding, they find that each paper corresponds to a member of the party, and the extra person has sheets that correspond to any NPCs or monsters recently encountered. If the PCs try to touch any of the people at the table, they find that they are solid, but take no heed of the PCs and any item touched is generally unaffected by a PCs touch. If a PC damages one of the sheets, then the character that corresponds to that sheet takes damage. Just touching a sheet causes the corresponding PC to feel a touch. While all this happens the strange people are still narrating the PCs actions. No magic will affect these strange people, not even dispel magic or Anti magic field. True seeing changes nothing about the room or the strange people when used. The \"Key\" to the portal lies in the center of the table and is completely ignored by the strange people. If the PCs leave the room and try to return, the doorway to the room stays. Ever after leaving questions in the character'
s minds about whether the word is real.;)
",
"The PCs enter a field that is normal, except for the constant sound of a heartbeat. If the PCs lay down to sleep the heartbeat sounds louder when they lay their heads down. If the PCs seek out the \"Source\" of the heartbeat, digging reveals flesh just below the surface. Within the field is a cave that turns out to be the maw of a great creature bound to the earth by the mourning. The PCs can proceed inside, finding the inner areas match the lungs/stomach of a living creature. There is a warforged and an old man living within this grisly \"cave\" The old man has been surviving by carving out pieces of flesh from the walls and is raving mad. The warforged guards the old man from the PCs. If approached in a friendly manner, the warforged explains that the old man created him so he guards the old man from hostile threats. Some of the old man's ravings and writings make sense if examined, they explain how the flesh cave is actually a duplicate of the old man, and the old man feels everything that happens inside.",
"An emaciated troll sits on the side of the road, eating his own flesh. He takes no notice of the PCs even if harmed, only muttering to himself about \"Ghosts and Haunts passing by\"",
"The PCs meet a seemingly sane man that offers each PC a statue of himself/herself. These statues are free and very finely made. Afterwards, the PCs finds a town in which everybody is holding and guarding a small statue of themself. If an statue is dropped or \"damaged\", the corresponding townsman is hurt and the statue remains intact. Make whole can restore a broken townsman (or PC.) but the restored townsman is panicked and runs from the party, traumatised.",
"A voice is heard yelling \"FORE\" and an eyeball strikes one of the PCs. A zombie with a golf club can be seen in the distance. If approached, it's found that he has removed the eyes from a nearby field of dead bodies. The bodies can be heard begging for mercy, asking for their eyes not to be the next pair struck. The zombie never pays attention to the party. Killing the zombie does nothing. Another body rises, finds it's eyes, and takes up the golf club.",
"As the PCs walk along they see that sheir shadows seem to be clawing to get out of the ground or attack the other PCs. If the shadows attack another PC's shadow that person instantly feels irritant with the other. If it continues then they might have a big fight but just keep in mind that it incourages PvP. After a few hours of the shadows acting normaly they begin to act up again. They run ahead and make the PCs fill ill as if they were missing an important part of themselves. One shadow starts to juggle. All at once the PC scoops up three balls and starts juggling. No perform check involved. It's excellent juggling but looking closer the PCs realize that the other is juggling eyeballs or brains...",
"When the PCs eat, food turns to something vile in their mouth. Or ash, or leaves them feeling thirstier even if they don't truly need it. Or it feels like spiderwebs.",
"A PC goes to pick up an item and their shirt sleeve flutters and flaps, almost as though pulling away in an effort to stop them from grabbing it....",
"The PCs each wake up in a shallowly dug square pit, perhaps 2 feet deep, with their hands crossed on their chests and a small bouquet of white lillies resting on their hands.",
"The PCs begin finding precious gems--veritable fortunes in rubies. Only problem is...the gems are in the character's stomach. Vomiting becomes frequent, and players find flecks of gemstone is their spew, but the vast majority come out in far less pleasent ways. They come through the digestive track (kidney stones with sharp edges, whee!), out of open wounds, through tear ducts, etc.",
"A warforged disovers that, when cut, he bleeds out real blood...or a organic discovers that, when cut, he doesn't.",
"The bond of blood linking master with homunculus is reversed...and the homunculi are eager to pay back for their slavery.",
"A warforged's ghulra takes on the shape of a different glyph, a rune from a language best not spoken.",
"PCs find parts of their bodies replaced with inorganic material...ice, rust, marble, etc.",
"A richety cabin rests on a cliff leaning over a lake, although the cabin is 3/4th the way off the cliff it does not fall and remains sturdy. Inside the cabin there is a fine rug and a masterwork oak table with some fine chairs. There is also a stuffed deer/moose/elk head mounted on a wall. There are also some cabnets with some old food. There are no traces of people and it appears the mourning was fairly kind to this site. Although if the PCs linger here they find at midnight the former inhabitants return... They arise from the lake, frail human undead with long bears and joyous smiles. They bring cups, jugs, and boxes full of cured meat... Similar to chiken but pinker and rubberier. The humans all gather together in the cabin and begin to revel in all of lifes er deaths glory. They feast on their food and offer the PCs some. They have stale bread and vintage wine of the highest quality. After several hours the undead begin to disperse and return to the lake. In the morning every PC that took part in the festivities is completly healed receives a +2 moral bonus all day but receives a temporary -2 to constitution all day as well (each day they spend in the cabin these bonuses/penalties stack)
Identifing the food shows the bread is made of ground giant bone, meat is elf, wine is dwarf blood, and the cups are obviously orc bone.Though you ate it before you knew what it was so why not have some more ",
"The PCs enter a ruined building with broken out windows, or holes in the roof and walls. In the center of the room, a bizarre construct is partially crafted. Coins are piled up, and parts of warforged can be identified laying around the room. On a table rest a number of severed warforged heads, the fibers of their necks splayed about. Fleshy PCs can enter the room safely and maybe even pick up the warforged heads on the table. If anyone tries to take anything from the room, or if a warforged enters, the Warforged Vargouilles immediately attack! The fibers that were simply attached to the heads form into wings and they fly at the offending PCs shrieking, biting, and kissing. They especially love to kiss warforged.",
"I recenly wrote up an encounter with Vargouilles myself, so allow me to continue the theme. The party comes across a cart on a road and see two individuals seated up at the front of the cart. The individual on the left is headless, though judging from his clothes, he was male. The human seated on the right is a woman. Her head is twisted 180 degrees so that her grimacing face greets the party as it approaches. The back of the wagon is covered with a tarp. Moving closer to the wagon, the party realizes that the corpses of the horses–whose tails whip and thrash as if the beasts were still living–and the couple, aside from the man’s missing head, appear perfectly intact, as if they were alive just moments ago.
There’ s nothing of value in the cart.If the PCs pull back the tarp, they discover the contents of a poor farmer’ s household— and two dead children, their faces blotted with blood and gore from where their eyes burst out of their heads.Some coils of hemp rope, chests of clothing, some cooking gear, oats, and food and water(spoiled
if it’ s eaten) are all that’ s on the cart.The family was heading toward the safety of Kalazart when the Mourning occurred.Have the party roll a Listen check to hear the flittering of wings in the air above them.Anyone who succeeds looks up to see a human head, its ears grown abnormally large and beating the air like wings, flying out of the gray gloom.A moist spinal - column trails behind it like a tail.It opens its distended mouth and emits a terrible shriek.The shriek muffles(Listen DC 20) the cracking sound made by the sudden detachment of the women’ s head from her body, spinal column and all.In the
case ofthis encounter, it’ s BETTER to fail your Listen check since all within 60 ft who can clearly see the creature and hear the shriek must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed with fear.Those failing their save are susceptible to the creature’ s kiss.The vargouille will be especially interested in attacking anyone who messes with the cart or the children....
",
"They enter into their houses. One finds his parents' skin without the bones or anything inside lying on the floor, faces masks of horror. Another finds their family dead with a message written on the wall in their own blood. Another's parents have their bodies filled with bugs. The rest of the village was trapped in the church and burned alive. *shrug* We had this happen in a campaign. I was the second one. So sad...",
"The PCs find gravestones engraved with their names, their dates of birth and their dying day listed as the day they entered the mournlands. (A variation on a theme.)",
"The first mirror the PCs look into makes them look like a corpse. And the corpse steps out of the mirror to attack them. When slain, (whether an easy task or a hard task), the corpse says: \"You fool, you'll be me in no time at all.\"",
"One (Or more) of the PCs family members have come back as zombies/vampires. (This is probably a repeat.)",
"Creatures the PCs fight bleed the wrong color and the blood burns/freezes/is acidic/electrifies the pcs when spilled. (Like the Legendary Animal ability.)",
"As the PCs walk through the Mournlands, they see a flying monstrosity, looking like a giant, floating mass of veins and blood. After a vicious battle, the examine its body...only to discover that they've killed nothing more than a cloud of balloons.",
"Despite a valant battle that seems to be going well the tide of a fight against undead suddenly turns. The undead begin hitting almost all criticals, making most saving throws, and hitting harder. If the pcs run the undead take chase. They are suprisingly fast. If the Pcs finally subcum to the onslaught their eyes come into focus shortly after. They are in a grassy feild surrounded with mists that swirl and prevent any attempts ot exit, there is no force created by these mists they simple do not allow existance past them. In the center of this feild is a large mound with an ancient willow tree. The willow tree has what looks like an old mans face grimicing on it though it nevers moves. Sitting under the tree is a small child reading a book. Whenever he finishes it he re-opens it to the front page which is totally diffrent than it was before.
Speaking to the boy results in him looking up at the pcs with dull lifeless eyes of gray mostly hidden by his gray hair. \"Humph, so the dreams turned troubled again did they ? The old man here 's been dreaming alot about that god forsaken land... Let's just pray he dosn 't wake up though shall we? Most of the mourners go on that way\" He points to a vortex like portal in the mists \"Though you people don't belong there yet, now get going those undead are gone.\" With that the PCs awaken back at their last campsite and time has set back as though they had never done anything that day... Was it a dream induced by the mournland... Or something more?",
"the players come across a field of crucified hellish critters. If they touch one of the bodies the whole field comes to life with vary bloody, very angry, very evil creatures",
"A track of bloody footprints - naturally childsized - cross the PC's path.
And you know what ? I just bet you that some PC 's would be brave enough *coughstupidcough* to follow them to either their start or end, so heres some ideas for wha they'
ll find :
Exlanation1: An open grave.The headstone is blank and dead flowers are littered all over the ground.At the bottom a casket stands.It looks like someone clawed their way out.The wooden lid is splintered and there is blood on the splinters around the hole in the lid.
If they follow to the end they could find one of two things.Depends on wether you want a fighting encounter or something
else :
1 A childsized ghoul with bloody hands and feet.The blood will stick to those she touches, and will permanently stain the skin a dull brownish red.Like dried blood.
2 A small child, age 9, huddeling in fear.Shes been successfully hiding in an hollow tree and eating from the dead corpses around her, drinking their blood in lack of water, to survive.There is nothing wrong with her.It appears she was mistankenly being buried alive, (she suffered from a paralysing fever), and just as the priest blessed her body in the grave, the mist rolled over the graveyard.Everyone died, but something protected her.The blessing of the priest ? Maybe the Keepers sees her as his own ? Maybe there is \"something\" under the casket that kept her safe?
And what will happend to her now ? The life of hiding, watching horrors pass by, and eating the dead can have been good
for her sanity.
Explanation2 : A field of Razorsharp grass.Looks like a party of adventurer was running from something, (flying horror of some kind), when they encountered this field.The only one able to ignore the pain when the grass slit through boots and feet was a(halfling or gnome) who kept running and survived the horror.If they follow to the end they will find her.Slowly bleeding to death from torn feet.She has been staggering around
for hours, trying to find someone, or something that will help her.
",
"\"The Old Research Facility\"
While traversing a deep wood in the Mournland, the PC 's stumble upon an old abandoned Asylum. It looks like this place was shut down well before the time of the war, maybe even hundreds of years before that, (depending on when you decide the shifters emerged). On the day of Mourning this place was already locked down. But seemingly also heavily guarded judging by the obscene amount of dead guards littering the surrounding woods and the walls of the facility.
Why would anyone guard a dilapidated madhouse like this ? And the outer battlements is built to keep people..not in ? !
If they enter they will discover a horrific secret.The asylum was never that.It was a facadé.A cover
for research of the worst kind.In here House Vadalis and House Cannith tinkered with humans and animals, trying to play god, (yeah..it had to come.The human race does this in real life, why not in Eberron ? ).These experiment predate the research on warforged, and as such it would seem that whatever emerged from the tinkering was discarded in favour of something more easily controlled.Like the wf.
They will find huge halls filled with cages marked with numbers.They will see old boxes locking in ledgers with secret materiel never meant to be rediscovored.They will find old logbooks detailing bloodcurdling and obscene experiments being done in the name of \"science\". Think Doctor Mengele here. Think old old asylums and Tzimiche scientists, (you who play V:tM).
In the coutyard they will discover rovs of unmarked graves.Hundres of them.If they dig they will find old crumbling skeletons of horrific creatures, half man and half animal.Twisted pathetic remains of children and adults.
In the end they will discover the journal of the proprietors.The two house scions who conducted these evil acts on behalf of the throne.And they will know that shifters never decended from werewolfs as their legends tell.They come from far more humiliating and horrific means.They are escaped experiments.Beastmen made
for war.Women and children twisted into beastial killing machines, then freed by either their own in a rebellion, or by some outer force, (you decide).
After the escape the place was shut down, never to be mentioned again.The shifters who escaped was thought deadm untill 50 years later when they started to emerge from the woods, telling proud tales of werewolf ancestors and how they escaped their evil heritage.The ones who knew never told the real tales.That would be too shamefull..for both sides.
Knowing this will probably inflame any shifters in the group.
You could do this with changelings too..and in the same facility.Chameleons could be the base
for changelings, or maybe they really bred with dopplegangers, summoned
for the same purpose, then allowed to eat their mates afterwards as a reward
for cooperation ? ",
"A pack of mindflayer zombies that eat only brains....that are already dead! ooh, scary.",
"A zombie that only wants to lick the living.",
"A small village populated entirely by dolls and marionettes, with disembodied voices coming from the air when they talk, but not exactly in sync with the motion of their mouths. If they see PCs, they rush them and try to \"help\" them, dragging them forcefully. The puppets are all horrified that such a terrible accident could have left the PCs without their strings.",
"They are travelling with any NPC introduced in the Mournlands when a storm rises up. In each flash of lightning (spot checks), the NPC's face is seen differently in horrifying ways. A hideous fanged monster with teeth so large that they skew all over the place (think Angler Fish), a smashed and mutilated face with glowing green pinpoints for eyes, etc. Of course, this is in a dark grey, rainy and windy atmosphere with the desolate wind howling through your armor as though the very world around you were screaming in terror.",
"A PC's helmet opens its faceplate to let out an agonized scream (imagine how the PC would freak out at that).",
"The PCs enter a cave/ruins while trying to escape a rain of blood that leeches their life away. Fort DC20 every round or take 1 Con damage (temporary).",
"In the cave/ruins, they find a large chamber filled with halfling-sized, fleshy, egg-shaped objects covered by a light mist. Through an open doorway across the room from them, they hear a horrible screeching noise. They are in fact eggs and hatch when the PCs approach within 10 feet (the top splits open in a shameless rippoff of the Alien movies). Out the hatching eggs come small monstrous spider like creatures with stinging tails in place of bite attacks. They sting the PCs until they are unconscious then wrap themselves around the PCs faces.
When the PCs wake up, the storm is passed, and they are very hungry.After an hour of gorging themselves, a dark chitinous monster explodes from the chest of whoever the face huggers got to.(shameless rippoff I know, but the Mournlands are perfect
for this) It grows rapidly and has the augmented stats of the player it emerged from.If the PCs manage to enter that room with the screeching, they see big - mama laying her eggs....and she kills them.
",
"On Hearts Day an old and tattered loveletter arrives for the PC. It's from an long lost love or female friend who lived in Cyre, and died in the Mourning. Somehow this letter has reached the recipient now. Years after it was sent. Or was is sent recently somehow?
This could be an incentive
for the players to actually GO to the Mournland.To discover
if the soul of a loved one is somehow trapped in the horrid wasteland, and is trying to reach the love she once knew.
",
"While passing through the mournlands the pcs meet a man in full plate body armour. He is quite healthy and kind. He is also very strong (2 levels higher than the PCs, all warrior) he decides to travel with the pcs and helps them through several generic fights with zombies. He seems normal until a battle with a particularly strong undead... The undead uses it's slam attack and knocks the strangers helmet off... Instead of a head blood comes gushering out of the plate body. The body falls limp and the armour seperates. Inside there is no body.. Only blood... Pints upon Pints of blood. The armour is stained inside.",
"One of the PCs falls ill. Any kind of healing will not work on them and they develop a bad chest cough, stuffy nose, headace, etc. After a while they become unable to keep traveling and must rest for 1d6 days. After that time they feel much better but while they are sleeping the illness off they have strange dreams of the other party members. One night they dream that the wizard had actually placed the illness on them. The next night it was the paladin. The fighter is just trying to have a smaller group and will continue to poison the rations. Perhaps the rouge is just trying to get their nice stuff. One party member is not in the dreams. When the PC wakes up he has an urge to tell the one that he did not dream about. When that PC hears it he sleeps and dreams that the PC that was sick is just trying to make him suspicious(sp?) and so on. He tells someone else. Pretty soon the party starts to fall apart. See what happens when they realize that. Should be fun, eh?",
"The party lights a campfire that shed bright green light and smells of brine. All candles, torches, and open flames cast green light only. This alien nature of the fire acts as a beacon for beholders.",
"A character engulfed by a living spell slowly transforms into one over the course of the next few days in an agonizing process in which one’s physical form loses cohesion and the ambient arcane energy mutates the character. How many of the Mournland’s living spells are innocent victims transformed by the curse?
A DM should make the spread of the curse gradual, so as to allow
for a cure to be found.Once the transformation is complete, though, only a miracle or wish can reverse it.
",
"The ghost of Queen Diani holds court in Metrol on her birthday, where she traditionally grants one boon to a worthy Cyran. Who dares to ask a favor from the Queen of Damned and to what dark purpose might she twist the words of the supplicant?",
"Unless the crew offers a humanoid sacrifice to the Devourer, Lake Arul's water boils when a ship crosses it, destroying any vessal smaller than galleon. Once the ship is destroyed, scalded hands belonging to those already taken by the Lake thrust up through the surface of the water and pull below any survivors clinging to a plank.",
"Smoke lit from a campfire in the Mournland turns to an inhaled poison (FORT DC 15 1d6 strength/Unconciousness for 1d12 hours). Think of the horrible things that could befall an entire party that succumbs to the sleeping smoke.",
"The PCs succumb to the smoke in PoeticJustice's #740) and when they awaken, they are all buried in the ground with only their heads still exposed. Now how will they get out of that? ",
"The PCs start a fire. It gets up and comes after them. ",
"In the center of the tank PC's breastplate is written in (Still wet) blood, as though traced by a finger, \"Apologize.\" It wipes off easily enough. During the next encounter, as he kills a creature, a spray of blood splashes on him. As they watch, the word traces itself in the middle of the blood on his chest. This happens over and over unless he apologizes after each kill.",
"PCs light a fire and it gets colder and darker around the fire.",
"PCs find an empty town that has shadows seemingly burned into the ground/walls. Whenever the PCs near a shadow listen checks let them hear sobbing/screams/maniacal laughter. If a PC dies somehow within the town, his shadow ends up burned into the ground as well.",
"Female PC wakes up pregnant. The next time she goes to sleep, she isn't pregnant anymore when she wakes up. Over the next few days, the PCs notice something watching them in the night. Then, the party is attacked by a monster that calls the female PC \"Mommy\" And begs her for protection/love.",
"Even if the PCs manage to heal their wounds while still in the mournland, the wounds stay upon their body. Upon leaving the mournland, the PCs must heal a number of hit points equal to the damage taken in the mournland for the wounds to disappear. (They don't have to be hurt again, they just have to \"Heal\" naturally or by magic to be rid of the wounds.)",
"The moon appears as an eye and the sun appears as a black void even though it still emits the normal light.",
"PCs meet a young girl who is seemingly unharmed by the mourning. She asks for help getting back to her town. When the PCs find the town, it seems to have been unaffected by the mourning as well. Odd thing is, the longer the PCs stay, the more they notice that no one goes into the chapel and the townsfolk steer the PCs away from the Chapel. If the party sneaks into the chapel, they find the bodies of all of the townsfolk in the pews, the preacher the only one there, hugging his own body ranting about how the gods have abandoned him and his flock. When the party tries to leave, the way is barred by the townsfolk, who are now up in arms, revealed as necrotic shadows of their former selves. And now the PCs have to find a way to leave the town. Or perhaps a way to destroy it.",
"Few monsters are found walking around and those that are found run pretty quickly. But shadowy tears appear in the air and the sky to release dark and foul monsters into the land. These monsters don't always attack the party, oftentimes they fly/run in other directions to unknown places. Sometimes they can be seem reentering a rift and leaving the world. The party members are injured or merely thrown back if they try to enter the rifts, but sometimes bodies are carried into the rifts.",
"A mysterious stranger forms out of a cloud of dust and ash and offers guidance to the party. If the party senses his motive, they find that he has an ulterior motive to guiding the party. That he wants to lead the party to safety is true. But the party has no way of knowing what kind of safety he offers.",
"A party member wakes up to find that he is literally just skin and bones. No flesh remains on his body. Other party members begin to suffer similar afflictions.",
"The PCs awake to find themselves covered in small and large cuts. They do not hurt or sting but continualy leak blood. It does not take a toll over all. They just get tired more often and the other PCs will probably tend to stay away from them. Another PC awakes to find one of their legs or arms missing. But not. If it is a leg they can still stand and do not need to hop around. It appears to just be invisible but and spells against invisibility do not work. You might even have one of the PCs that always wears a hat 'loose' his head. Someone looses a nose. Ears. Fingers. Everything except the nails and hair of their body. Have fun!",
"For one week all of the PC's food dissapears. It's actually still there but they can't see it. The water is 'gone' as well.",
"Half of the party compleately dissapears from the other half. The 'invisible' ones can all see each other and the visible ones can all see eachother but neither group can see the other. ",
"(I got this from the Sorcer's Nephew in the Narnia books.) They PCs enter a church that has lots and lots and lots of wax life size figures. The ones closest to the door are handsome and kind looking. They steadily get crueler but no less beautiful towards the back. The PCs can see a gong that stands at the back wall. On it is inscribed, in the player's racial language, \"Ring the gong and suffer the consiquences, or go mad wondering what would have happened.\" If the PCs ring the gong the last figure comes to life and follows them everywhere, always getting them into trouble, talking loudly when silence is needed, wandering away and getting lost and demanding they come and rescue her, hogging the rations but make sure they don't grow fat. Perhaps one of the PCs likes her. *shrug*
If they don 't ring the gong have them think about all of the statues all of the time. Conversations are short and broken, meals often missed, unconsentraited in battle. Stuff like that.",
"As the party nears a town the mist seems to fade away. The people of the town are prepairing a celebration to honor a Cyrian army unit returning from nearly a year of fighting. Everyone is happy and lively, working on making sure the party goes well. The party is invited to take part in the celebration, offers of free food and drink, a room in the inn, etc. Within half an hour of the party entering town a cry goes up from the bell tower in the chapel, the 524th Cyrian Regulars are in sight and will reach the edge of town soon. The entire town lines the main street, showering the returning unit with flowers and guiding them to the inn where a great feast has been laid out. In the inn the party will see a large table with two roast pigs, a few chickens and other foods, also there are at least 30 large kegs of ale (50 gallon kegs) one of which has been tapped, it's all server yourself and free to celebrate the return. As the party goes on most of the ale will be consumed, and all of the food, during this time a few young women cradling babies will be sitting to the side crying softly for thier lost men. Sometime near midnight people start passing out, a pair of fat men lie down on the tables that used to hold the pigs, and other patrons fall asleep in thier chairs, the party is told to use one of the rooms upstairs, most of the rooms are occupied but one large room is empty and waiting for the party.
When the party awakens the next morning everything is quiet and shrouded in gray mist.The room the party is in seems much colder then it was the night before, the windows are broken and the town seems to have been abandoned years ago
if viewed from the window.As the party decends the stairs they see the remains of yesterday 's feast. Kegs of ale the party drank from are partly filled with mouldy liquid, a fat man with pieces carved out where the roast pig was, babies with pieces missing where the chickens were during the feast. Dead bodies, not decayed, sitting in the places that other patrons had been sitting. Dust covers almost everything, disturbed only where the party members had been.
In addition,
if the party wants to buy something from a store when the town is alive,
let them.When they leave or awaken the items are decayed slightly, but possibly still usable, food is rotten of course, but ropes and arrows are fine, just a few years old.
If any member of the party was from Cyre, and had served in the military,
let this be thier home town.One of the grieving women could be the girlfriend of the party member, with his child, saddened that he was sent elsewhere and could not
return.One of the babies that was partly eaten could be that child.
If you use this, make that member of the party see the town as dead when they enter, watching his party members conversing with nothing, buying from dead shopkeepers, partying in the inn amidst the dead, eating the flesh of the dead, etc.The town 's folk do not see or hear this party member, and this party member watches quietly, maybe stating once or twice that everyone must be going nuts, or that they are about to eat a baby drumstick.
Should the party simply eat, buy supplies, and leave town the one who saw the bodies rather then living towns folk should mention that everyone was dead, and the party ate dead people, once the mists close about the party again.Going back will reveal dead shopkeepers with the party 's cash still in his outstreatched hand, partly eaten boddies, etc.",
"The party comes across an inert warforged showing some signs of damage, but is not dead. Should the party repair him, he will join the group sharing tales of what he saw as he fled the spreading mists of the day of mourning until they caught up with him, he remembers nothing after that. Each night he will stand guard, carving small wooden figures of people, often children, with faces twisted in pain and grief. Each night he will complete one figure, and spin a ghastly tale the next day of how the figure died while the party continues. During the day, after the tale is complete, the party will come across a body, looking exactly like the figure the warforged carved the previous night. Sometimes the body will be alone, sometimes with a group of other bodies that died a similar fashion. As the party approaches larger towns and cities, the warforged will begin carving complex piles of corpses, or even a scene such as corpses sitting at a feast, and will tell a tale of how it came to be. Again the party will find the pile of corpses or the scene once the warforged has completed the tale.
As the party nears it 's goal, or the edge of the mournlands if leaving, the warforged will carve the scene of the party'
s camp on the last night before the event.In the morning one member of the party will awaken within the composite plating and head of the warforged, similar to wearing the skin of it.The rest of the warforged is no - where to be seen, but the party will find the carving of themselves, faces twisted in agony, with dark forms strangling them in the night.
",
"as the party sleep they have horrible nightmares; within these nightmares they see people dying in horrible ways, the very flesh being pealed from them and so on and so forth. every night the nightmare is different, and every day they come across evidence of it being true ( a ruined town full of the flayed corpses of its inhabitance or somthing similar). the images begin to get worse and worse as they near the centre of the mourland...",
"At night the Party hears whispers from thier past, forgotten voices, the voices of those they've betrayed or wronged calling out to them, they hear the voices of the damned whisper their fellow party members secrets to them in the long hours of the night, sometimes they feel the chill touch of somthing brushing against them. as each day wears on they get even more dispared and saddened by whisperes of the most horrible things they've witnessed, they also begin to get physicaly weakened by thier dispare .. as if somthings feeding off it ...",
"The Party finds a Large Town House, with a large Garden in full bloom filled with bright flowers and fresh fruit, and a hedge maze in back of the house past the rear reflecting Pool, with a platform in the middle with a dancing Gargoyle on it who upon noticing the party will Wave at them and Greet them to his home, he will then Fly across the the water toward them smile, and shake hands with each of the PC's. About this time his Wife should just be walking out of the Hedge maze, and she will walk over, He will introduce her (He is made of Dark Grey stone, She is a few Shades lighter and slightly smaller and in every way and it should be obvious shes Female... as far as Gargoyles go... anyway they are very nice and invite you inside (Ok, the Gargoyles are of Huge Size and the House is sized accordingly thus causeing S/M/L PC's to feel Very Small as in Tables will be very hard for Small or Medium PC's to use Beds will probbly sleep about 4 medium PC's and Stairs may be hard to climb if you are smaller than Large, Small PC's may need help with stairs or might need to make Climb checks) the house is well furnished and kept by a staff of Warforged Maids and Butler dressed apropriatly... Black and White all around Tuxs for the Butlers and Maid Uniforms for the Maids... the Female and Male Warfoged have Soft and Sharp angled features respectivly, any way the PC's are invited to spend as much time as they want there, there is more than enough food as neither the Warforged or Gargoyles eat, the Food itself is Fine, and very Tasty. The PC's decide to stay for a Week, all the time with strange things happening nothing serious, just things moving and odd things of that sort, The Master Gargoyle finnaly admits they have been having trouble lately and asks if the PC's whould kindly check something out for him, he takes you to the Hedge maze and leads you through it to a Gazeebo, inside there is a a Door Way/Portal, it leads to a Giant Jungle/Forest, He tells you that it leads to th Realm of the Fey, upon entering it they find them selves in a Glade with a Waterfall, and a Path way, a little ways along the path they come to a Large temple with a large crowd of Fey outside who notice the party and rush toward them begging for help they tell you that some kind of creature has made a home out of their Temple and they ask you if you could do something about it they also appolagise for Causeing trouble in the House outside, for some reason they couldn't interact with people out side of their realm (insert adventure/Temple type Dungeon, with a Monster with an appropriate CR for the Party, and rewards that are equal to your PC's from the Fey as thanks also some kind of welcome reward from the Gargoyle for helping out with his mystery troubles... while within the House Grounds this includes inside the Maze, Yard, Garden, Jungle, and inside the House it self no Mournlad Monsters approach or enter... the Jungle might still have Jungle creatures if the PC's wander off into the Jungle wich is not itself part of Ebberon, so the farther you wander the more likly you are to get lost, other than that, the House whould be a good place to rest and Heal up as Healing Magic works... at least it does in the Fey Jungle... not in the house....",
"A character inexplicably becomes trapped within his own shadow. His shadow is all that is left of him, and it stays fixed in the position he was in when he \"fell\" in to it. Divination and teleportation isn't capable of contacting him. However, soon they other characters encounter a dragonmarked half-elf, who bears a Mark that resembles both the Marks of Shadow and Passage. He tells them he can take them to their friend, and, should they accept, does. However, once they are all in their friend's shadow, the aberrant heir reveals his true motives...",
"The PC's come to the Hometown of one of their Party members, they go to the local Inn, but the PC who lived here leaves, because he needs to \"Check something out\" he goes to the house of the Girl he loved as a kid, but like the rest of the town its empty of people the town is unharmed and all of the houses are still furnished, but one thing of note is the painting of the family, except the Girl isn't in it, her room is undisturbed, anyway the rest of the party decides to stay in the Rooms at the Inn, while the character goes to his own home to sleep in his own bed....
...During the night, he is awakened by a Knock on the door of his room, he sits up, \"Yeah, come in\" the door open and a figure walks in, its too dark to see because of the Grey mists blocking the moon, the figure walks over to his bed, \"What, whats wrong, did something attack you guys at the.....\" the Clouds part and the Moonlight shows the Girl he loved just as she was, \"Long time no see (PC's childhood Nickname) its been a while, Huh?\" She walks over to the edge of the Bed, and he stands up and Hugs her, \"I missed you so much, all those years I thoguht... I always regreted that I never told you I loved you...\" she kisses him \"Don't worry, I always knew\"... They stay up late sitting together in the Den talking... He wakes up alone on the couch in the early morning glow just before Dawn, with the sound of her voice echoing in his mind \"...will you come to my house tommorow...\" he leaves, and notices her house is the only one with lights glowing through the window of her room on the second floor, he rushes into her house and up the stairs and opens her door... to find an empty room, filled with shimering dust motes and a sparkle of silver on the wall abover her bed, He finds a Silver necklace with a locket, on the inside is a picture of them standing together holding hands from when they where children, and he notices that there is a picture of him on the table next to her bed, with the words engraved around the framework \"I Love (PC's childhood nickname/Pc's name)\" and a next to it a Book that contains a love story, he opens to the book marked page, to find that there are smudges as if someone had been crying and their tears had fallen on the page, sometime later as he's leaveing her home he notices the painting from before except now the spot that looked empty is filled with the girl who has the most wonderful smile... The Party wakes up feeling Refreshed and comes downstairs to find the PC siting at the Bar downstairs with a a glass of wine, talking to thin air about old times, he stands up and puts two gold on the Bar.
As they come to the top of a Hill outside of town one of the PC 's, asks how the PC whos town it is can be so calm about leaving \"What do you mean?\" he asks in response. \"What do you mean, what do I me...\" upon looking back to point at the town the others turn back to see why he stoped so abrubtly... and the Village is gone, as if it was never there... <
br / > [Memory Charm] - Can 't be Removed,Can'
t be Damaged, +1 on attack and damage, +1 AC, +5 save vs.Fear, +to Spell DC, +1 on Fort, Ref, and Will saves.Not an actual Magic Item, its just a silver trinket with a heart shaped locket, that looks rather cheap.Upon closer examination it looks like its has thousands of tiny strands that sink into the skin of the owner, it dosn 't swing or sway as a normal locket whould, strange, though it looks worthless it probbly has some kind sentamental value to someone. [only useable by (PC above)]",
"An old man sits on a stump whittleing some poorly made bobbles and nic'nacks. As the PCs pass him he calls out their names. None of the adventurers have ever met this man yet he speaks to them as if they were childhood freinds. At one point he mentions something that no one should no about one of the PC's. For example he'll say \"Ho ho ho that was one fun night wasn't it? By the way did you ever return that coin you stole from your father?\" while as far as he knows that persons father never found out about the coin. After awhile of this discussion the pcs may eventually say something like: \"How do you know all this?\" the man will then become enraged and jump from his stump and yell \"So you've forgotten me just like you forgot x?\" (x is someone the person who enraged him feels guilty about, for example if he wasn't able to save his girlfreind from a serial killer it'll be her name) he will then demand they leave his \"house\" and never return.
From then on as they pass through the mournland they 'll catch short glimpses of the man out of the courner of their eye though when they try to investigate or look again they find no trace of him.
When they leave the mournlands and
return to a safe place someone they trust will approach them with a crubled old package and tell them that a strange old man came to them the day they left and gave them this.Inside the package is the object the man on the stump was whittleing when they met...Completed.
",
"As the PCs enter a town they see a man buried up to his neck. He screams and jerks about and finally falls silent as though stoned by invisible rocks thrown from unseen sources. All is quiet, but a swirling whirpool of soil forms and moves to suck in a PC (Ref DC 15). Once buried, he feels rocks (1d10 per round, 1d4 each) slam into his face.",
"The PCs cross a long hallway filled with windows. Through each they see a different scene. Vemishard burning, Mourners being slaughtered by Valenar, the last Lightning Rail racing against the mist. Some of the panes bear faces which curse, beg, or painfully scream at the PCs. ** *
Wood, grass, and peat screams when ignited.
",
"The fighter's arm begins to swell and ache. The net day it is hard to move and is covered in a coat of rust. ** *
If the party rogue has slain an enemy strictly through use of Sneak Attack, a Phantom resembling that enemy rises to challange him / her to a \"fair fight\" and won't take no for an answer. ** *
The Dwarves of Kalazart 's Kundarak enclave have been Polymorphed into Neogi. Since the rest of the town died, leaving their valuables unguarded, they'
ve been busy \"stocking up\", but are still greedy enough to attack the party for their gold should they decide to pass through.",
"The PCs awake with tattos on their arms the tattoes form a hummanoid shape when put together. If they are correctly together the figure quakes and seems to dance. One morning the PCs awaken to find their arms are all together and the figure is moving vilontly, they all have bloody gashes in their arms and the skin is folded out as if the attacks came from inside, the next day their arms are bleeding badly when they awaken and the tattos are gone.",
"Any ink, oil, potions, water, or other liquid the PCs are carrying takes on the properties of blood. It still works normally; oil burns, potions of enlarge person act as they're called, but the potion tastes of blood, the oil gives off the stench of burning bodies, and the ink stains the page a red that darkens to brown and leaves a residue that flakes off of the page when it dries.",
"The characters are chased through the woods to a frozen pond, but whatever chases them doesn't cross the icy edge. Halfway across, the ice begins to surge and thump, sending less dextrous characters the ground. Looking through the ice, they see the living dead enraged and beating ad clawing against the surface. Then dead, blue hands begin to punch through the ice. What's worse, the ice sheet itself is starting to disintegrate, and soon the party will be on a little ice floe...",
"Deep beneath the Cannith Citadel at Eston, a hideous half machine half-demon lies dormant. It is colossal, with the furred head of a Lion and steel cables for hair. An altar lies before it, and on the alter lies a Hammer of Thunderbolts. Does the Party dare...",
"Approaching the Dead-Grey Mist, the party sees it grow wispy hands that reach out and caress a character with high charisma and low hit points. A raspy voice of the opposite sex whispers mmmmmmmmm, so lovely, so frail, sleep in my fields and you will be beautiful until the end of time...",
"Evil characters find that things that would normally be painful--being stabbed, burnt, etc.--instead induce an orgasmic level of pleasure, while good characters find that normally enjoyable activities--eating good food, being healed--induce torturous pain.",
"The master-servant relationship between a mage and his familiar, a druid and his animal companion, or an artificer and his homunculus is reversed...and the new master is eager to get retribution for his long servitude.",
"Every thing a character eats turns to wet dirt in his mouth; everything he drinks turns to blood.",
"A druid begins to feel an insatiable craving to eat his animal companion.",
"Eerie, mournful voices come from all items the characters possess that utilize bound elementals.",
"The appearance of a character's dragonmark gradually changes into a deeply unsettling parody of what it once was.",
"Every time a character wakes up, he finds himself covered in a thick layer of dust.",
"A elf's skin tone becomes very dark over a long period of time, till his skin is black as a dark elf's. He may even become a dark elf.",
"Warforged ghosts, zombies, and other undead--all of which, technically, can't exist--attack the characters near a ruined forgehold.",
"A warforged discovers a strange docent component has been attached to him ever since he entered the Mournlands...and has been whispering terrible secrets to
him.
",
"A character finds that his favored weapon has become home to a colony of extremly minute constructs, which have changed the weapon to suit their own enigmatic purposes.",
"The characters catch fleeting glimpses of a thirteenth moon up in the sky...and unspeakable horrors descending from it.",
"The characters encounter a strange creature, eating its own heart. It is quickly aggravated, and soon attacks. After being killed, careful examination reveals its body is completely hollow and organless--as are the corpses of anyone killed by the creature.",
"A warforged discovers that he can see the memories of his creator after encounter the forgehold that created him. The memories concerning his own creation are deeply disturbing.",
"The characters encounter an inexplicably fertile area of land, filled with fresh fruit-bearing trees and hearty, harvest-ready crops. Those who eat them find that, after leaving the area, they are overcome with nausea. Along with the fruit and vegetables, they notice fetuses, fingers, and other body parts in their vomit.",
"Players come across a dead warforged, half the bodly melted into a pool of slag. The players notice, that where the metal melted away, There are human bones, and tufts of hair sticking out from a crack on the warforged head.",
"A party member wakes up hearing a voice identical to another party member describing in detail murdering the party and defiling their bodies. Said party member is asleep and their mouth is not moving.",
"Reflections look away.",
"Psionic powers with a visual component change the component from being shimmering ectoplasm to a thin layer of blood.",
"An illusionist cant shake the feeling, that when they're not looking directly at their silent/persistent image of a huminoid, that its staring right at them. The illusionist might even catch the illusion turning away.",
"Party discovers a dead mother and baby. Baby turns out to be not so dead, and a vampire which can run around and giggle.. and suckle.",
"When the party wakes after a nights sleep, one of the party members finds writing all over their body, even though they slep clothed. maybe too adult-",
"WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS SOME OF MY MOST DISTURBING WORK:
As the party crosses a field filled with several scarecrows and petrified corn the scarcrows begin to stir and groan.Thier mouths rip open and their libs twist and stretch.Four scarecrows and one scarecrow with extra long limbs stride over to the party and begin to fight.They are all meduim constructs(exept the one with elongated limbs which is large) and should be a good challenge
for the party.When the
finally fall the party realizes that the scarecrows have something inside them...They all contain flayed humans(or perhaps normal
if you perfer) the one with eloungated limbs has had its arms and legs stretched out by something and there are wood planks nailed to them to keep the limbs from breaking.Inside the farm house there is another flayed human with pants stuffed with hay...",
"Looking into a body of water, the PCs see large ripples and shadowy shapes, suggesting some large leviathan is dwelling in the water...and yet, the water is only a few inches deep.",
"A PC can see an eldritch aura around those fated to die soon--i.e., his fellow PCs. Looking into a mirror might not be a good idea... ",
"The PCs can see strange shapes in their campfires...are they omens, or have the PCs become the prey of a malevolent fire elemental?",
"PCs begin feeling a strong, almost sexual, attraction to strange objects...blood-soaked blades, warforged corpses, perhaps even bones.",
"The PCs' personalities begin to swap...while their minds and memories remain basically the same, they exchange their idiosyncracies and personality traits.",
"All of the PCs begin to smell like blood...and the strangest thing is, they enjoy it.",
"Strangely shaped airships can be seen through the fog, crewed by a host of abominations.",
"The draconic heritage of sorcerer PCs surfaces in the form of a malevolent, reptilian split personality with a lust for the blood of the lesser races.",
"A kalashtar gains access to memories of its quori spirit, which reveal horrid abominations commited by the being Dal Quor.",
"A house formed completely of dead (yet still twitching, writhing, and softly moaning) bodies, complete with second storey, staircases, shelves, beds, baths and all other furnishings. As disturbing as this house is, you'd better steer clear of the basement where the owner and builder of the house spends most of his time, constantly busy with his newest project.",
"PC dreams something very strange happens, but not to the party. Very important, that. The next morning, it happens. Strange enough as it is. That night he has another wierd dream that happens and another, and another. This goes on for a week or so until finally he dreams that he murders and defiles the entire party in their sleep on his watch. (or something similar.) The next night is his watch and somehow his weapon is sharpened. DC 10 will save not to start attacking the party members and I cn't remember what the save is to wake up but I'm sure that if the paladin has just hacked your arm off, you'd wake up. *shrug* Just guessing.",
"(In the footsteps of 819...) A party member has dreams about something they perceive as \"Definitly important\" it dosn't happen to them or even effect them though and during the first few nights they can't remember what happens when they wake up. After a few nights of this they begin to remember thier important dreams and it seems they are preminitions of past and future events (The king being murdered, the mournlands forming, ect...) on the 13th night of this happening they preminise of the party being killed. The next day the party has alot of close calls but never seems to die... Then near the end of the day the exact circumstances of the dream arise... Perhaps the entire party is sleeping and the gaurd is getting tired or maybe everyones hanging off a ledge by thier feet. This event dosn't kill the party but for the rest of thier stay in the mournlands the pc that had the dreams keeps having eeire preminitions of the next day that end with a pale man in black whispering \"Why didn't that kill you?\"",
"The PCs find that as they walk across a field their feet start sinking as though they are going down a sloping path. The only thing is that the groud stays level. They keep going deeper and deeper until only their heads are level with the ground including the gnome and half dragon. Everyone. Then it's a straight and easy path. If they walk for a little while longer a forest comes up. They start to walk in or get near but they are harassed by roots and perhaps a small underground stream gets their feet wet. It takes them perhaps an hour to get six feet. If only they could see where they're going. So what happens if they put their heads underground with the rest of their bodies?",
"A little child's burnt skeleton is holding half of a burned doll. It's partially buried. Next to it, in the dirt is the child's last words, \"HELP ME\". This writing then follows the PC's though the mournland.",
"A house sivis message station with it's roof caved in. Nothing odd, just a chance for the players to sift through some of the lives that will no longer exist. They find stuff like a package with a little toy lightning rail (non-functional) with a birthday card, a grain report from the north saying how it was finally getting on track, college tuition being paid by kundarak bank note, that sort of thing.",
"A rain of tar, which doesn't burn the PC's but eventually sets around them if they stay in one place for too long.",
"A whole town perfectly preserved except that there are no people. However, there are soot-stains that outline the people where they died, doing what they did in life. These soot stains move around as though they were alive, in twisted parody of the person's life. Make them people the PC's know.",
"A smiling child is drawn in the dust, perfect down to the last wrinkle on the dress. Beside it is a doll house. There is a doll inside, which is shrunken human with buttons sewn on it's eyes and it's mouth sewn shut.",
"You enter a bedroom, clearly an old woman's room. The old woman's diary is open on the desk, with the quill writing non-sensical poetry in it. \"the grapefuits rebelled, tolling in the distance. Summer's swell has crept though the hole in the fence.\" and similar. If the PC's close the journal or destroy the quill, they hear a dying gasp, and the quill falls to the floor. If they take the journal with them they can pinpoint what time the mourning happened, because the old lady was so precise when labeling her entries that she put the time she started. It's also clear that she's a slow writer. The penmanship gets shakier and shakier as the book gets closer to the present, but it is always dated metculously.",
"While their walking, the party spies what they think is a large rock off in the distance. If the go over and inspect it, it turns out to be a finger, accusing the sky for what happened to Cyre.",
"They come to an entire field of graves, but instead of grave markers, the person's favorite childhood toy looms over the buried body. In the distance you can hear children laughing. Over the next couple of days it turns into screams.",
"A living minor image spell haunts a graveyard, conjouring up images of the dead's past life. ",
"Warforged warriors pick through a battlefield, and scrounge for anything that can be used. Occaisonally they find someone they all knew, a good friend, and react accodingly.",
"On a rocky plateau, a warforged scabbles at the hard, stoney ground. His friend died in the Mourning and wanted be buried where he fell. The warforged has been digging his grave for two years though almost solid granite. He has little to no fingers left as they've been worn away by the rock. The warforged is still fairly sane and will ask for the party's help in burying his fallen comrade.",
"A normal, innocuous rose grows in the middle of a mass grave. It's partially uncovered and appears as though a skeletal hand has burst through the dirt trying to hold the flower. Next time the PC's pass this way have hand actually grasping the bloom.",
"An entire military camp is almost perfectly preserved, the soldiers frozen in rigor mortis doing normal camp life. Two are laughing at a joke. One is lighting his pipe with a match long burned out. You can see a healing burn mark on his thumb. The general is taking a bath, now evaporated and leaving him covered in a hard layer of dried soap. One of the sentries is knocked over and has his guts ripped out all over the ground. He seems to be smiling at a thought long since passed. The wound is half healed already.",
"A caravan of halflings, quite a powerful group of rouges; illusionists; and fighters, travels on a road across the mournland. If the group travels with them they have some nice conversations and become good freinds. After some time the group tells them that they must turn back for a few days travel but they'll catch back up with them and they'll all meet at the city at the end of this road. They hear the city was set up in the mournlands after the mourning so adventurers could seek sancuary from the horrors. After a few days of traveling alone on the trail the pcs find a large cliff and at the bottom of this cliff are 3 crashed and broken (not to mention totally dead) caravans exactly identicle to the caravan they had just spoke with...",
"Similar to 835, a large battle rages in a feild. Any attempts to speak with the fighters is futile. The warriors get confused by the attempt to speak and attack the pc. At the end of the day everyone in the feild is dead... The next day they rise and fight again.",
"The sky changes color, slowly turning black and yellow. Then shapes from the PC's nightmare and fantasies appear as an aurora borealis effect in the sky.",
"One of the PCs develops an imagionary friend. No one else can see them but the PC carrys on and talks to them, hearing replies, laughing at jokes, talking about the other party members, talking about their past and future.
Going with the invisible thing ",
"The Druid/Wizard or whatever finds that their familior is gone. Summoning them does nothing though they don't feel as though it is dead. The Wizard's raven sits in his regular place on his shoulder where all can see but the master. The Druid's wolf paces at their feet. Perhaps is tripped over. Everyone but the PC it belongs to can see it. Perhaps even the Halfling's dinosaur is invisible. If the creature dies a potion of greater invisibility appears. If someone drinks it they are invisible until they die or a level twenty or so spell is cast. ",
"The character finds a pair of gloves of greater invisibility. The more they use it it is a ten percent chance that they don't show back up. They, and all of their stuff, are invisible. FOREVER! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! Well, or until they get a spell to stop it. *shrug* Whatever. Oh, see invisibilty has a 50% chance of not working for both posts. It's a special kind of invisibility. It's a Morgan Invisibility. Heehee.",
"A small village of mutated villagers rests on a mournland hill. The inhabitants are all human though they're so viley deformed some don't even have the same racial traits. At dusk each day they all gather outside a ruined church. They bow and chant in a strange unearthly tounge. The door to the church is borded along with the window though you can see through cracks. Inside it is totally dark and silent exept for the sounds of the occasional crunching and a fleeting red glow. The mutants warn the PCs that the \"shining one\" that lives inside and controles the life and death of all in the village dosn't like visitors... And should they enter they'll realize the villagers where correct... They'll also realize why they're deformed.",
"The heroes are walking through a perfectly preserved village, with no villagers in sight. It looks as if they just left everything where it was, and left. Ask for spot checks, and then give the highest a note that says, \"You look to your right and through a window see a family sitting down to a feast. You can hear them laughing, eating, and one child is even talking loudly with his mouth full.\"
However, none of the rest of the party can see or hear them.The one player continues to see them and can interact with them(the family can see all of the party), but the rest of the party see only a house gutted by flame, food rotting on the table(which the one player might pick up to demonstrate is \"real\" food, and the party walks through the family as if they weren't there (which disturbs the family and they ask the player to tell his friends to stop that).",
"Any dragonmarked character feels a strong itch where his dragonmark is. When they look at it, it seems to have mutated into Elven/Dwarven/whatever language they understand and spells out a warning to beware of impending doom. It continues to work normally though. Once the warning is read, the dragonmark returns to normal. It does this twice more, giving the warnings \"Leave this place, lest you be mourned forevermore\" and \"The moorings have been broken. I cannot control it. I can only hope that I will be mourned.\"",
"Like 843, some pre-mourning Cannith heir communicates with the hero using their dragonmarks. They extol the greatness of their discovery, but when asked where they are, they say \"I'm at Whitehearth (I believe this is the Cannith facility?) with the rest of House Cannith, where else should I be?\" He also mentions \"the Last War should be over soon. House Cannith has developed a weapon that puts the Warforged to shame. Be sure to choose the right side when the time comes.\"",
"Find some reason for the PCs to be climbing something, perhaps to escape a previous horror or to reach some important place or object. While they do so, they feel a slight straining in their hands or arms. As they watch, their skin stretches and splits, pulling apart as though unable to take the strain. This in itself would be horrifying enough, not to mention the pain of having to later clean so much blood from your clothing. But. But.... Where the skin pulls apart they can see nothing, as though they were just an empty skin. No blood pours out, no muscle twitches, no bone gleams in the sudden exposure. Just empty air as though their skin was but an empty suit of armor. (PCs take no damage, just a bit of scare.)",
"Alternately, in the same situation, the PCs could instead bleed profusely. Again, no damage is taken, but nothing can stem the steady flow of their life's blood from the horrible wound. They are not weakened and take no penalties for this, unless you count leaving a constant, clear trail through the nightmare landscape of the Mournlands pointing directly to where they are....",
"The PCs are on their way through the mournlands. Nothing has happened for most of the day except for a few disturbing sights. Suddenly one of the PCs steps into a rabbit hole. His leg is broken and insanely painful. As the Cleric begins preparing their spell the wound suddenly heals. There is only a vague memory of the pain but the skin in unbroken, the bone is perfect and the muscles are fine. Everything works and not even a small limp is a reminder of what happened. Something like this happens throughout the rest of the day to each of the PCs.
The next day they find that sword wounds don 't hurt. I don'
t know about you but I would experiment with it.The PCs keep traveling and
finally stop.They see that they are standing on a hilltop.Below them are thousands upon thousands of undead.All of them are weilding bows or swords and wearing armor.None of them are really moving out of their places but just standing there, imapatient to be moving.The PCs really have to get to the otherside of this group but the undead army goes
for miles in either direction.What to do ?Will they go around or risk walking through with their new healing abilities ? ",
"a) when enlarge person is cast only part of the targets body grows, such as an arm, or foot, but it looks as though its swelling to the size rather than magically growing. Clothing tears, bones dislocate.
b) target enlarges per the spell, but also becomes grossly overweight.
",
"a) shrink person similarly only shrinks a single appendage- the flesh atrophies, withering the appendage, and also shrinking the appendage. bones break to accomodate the size.
b) target shrinks as the spell, but becomes mal - nourished and dangerously underweight.
",
"In a desolate valley, the PCs discover the remains of a once-lovely country mansion. It's mostly in ruins, now; its gardens overgrown with thorny black-leafed vines that move and writhe slowly as if in pain. From within, they hear the sounds of music.
Following the source of the music they eventually come upon the remains of what was once one of the grandest ballrooms in all of Cyre.The room is mostly dark as most of the magical light sources have failed or been damaged.The floor tiles are blackened and cracked and the fine darkwood paneling is rotted.Most of the chandeliers seem to be bent and twisted into new, disturbing shapes.
One end of the grand table is still brightly lit, and appears to be set with the remains of a huge meal.The food all looks perfectly edible; roasted chicken, fruit, cakes.Some of the food bears small child - sized bite marks, and there seems to be a faint trail of crumbs and left - overs leading off into the darker depths of the hall in the same direction as where the music is coming from.
Far away from the table, hidden in the darkness, the PCs will find the source of the music; a wind - up victrola with a golden horn and a dragonshard needle riding along the spiral groove of a golden disc.Sitting beside the victrola is a young girl, ten or twelve years old, wearing the tattered remnants of a fancy party dress.Her eyes are wide with fright and she reaches up periodically to wind the victrola.Her name is Eliesse.
If anyone tries to touch the victrola the little girl will start screaming in terror and raving something about, “They’ ll come down
if the music stops!”She will wildly resist any attempt to pull her away from the victrola by force.
If the PCs look up, they will see the source of her terror.Hanging unsupported in the air, fifteen feet above the ground, are six pairs of creatures that resemble blood - stained white robes that billow gently in a non - existent breeze.Though there is no indication of physical features beneath the robes, from the arms of each extend several lengths of blackened, spiked chain all ending in savage looking hooks, or claws, of shining steel.
Any time the music of the victrola begins to wind down, the bloody robe creatures begin to move.Their chain arms slither and rattle ominously and their hooked claws scrape together with a faint squeal of sharpened metal, as they begin“ dancing” in circles lower and lower.Rewinding the victrola will cause them to
return to their places above the darkened dance floor.
How long has the little girl been here in the dark winding the victrola ? How can the PCs get her out ? What will the bloody robe creatures do
if the music completely stops ? Are those splintered bones lying on the edges of the dance floor ?
**
*
:
As the players wonder through a dense wood the encounter a lion, panther, and she - wolf, whether the PCs are winning or loseing after a few rounds of combat the trio flee and a bard appears from behined a tree.He smiles and says \"Hello, it seems my companion hasn 't arrived yet so how about we take a little journy? You can call me vergil.\" As they follow the man they realize the world begins to shift around them until it takes on the resemblence of hell... Just to let you know if you didn't realize it this is based on the divine comedy.",
"Carnivorous Grass. The PCs come upon a small vale, still wooded and green and inviting. A few small fruit trees grow in a group along-side a small pond with some frogs and fish. The air feels \"clean,\" and the oppressive weight of the Mournland seems somewhat lifted, here.
If the PCs make camp, they can eat the fruit or
catch some fish...so far, everything is normal.
The nightmare begins when they eventually fall asleep on the carpet of nice soft grass.They will awaken in the morning pinned to the earth as the blades of grass have grown up into their flesh.The blades of grass will find any chink in armor, go between the rings of chainmail, or right through any form of leather seeking flesh or the organic parts of a warforged.The grass will drain 1 d2 Con per 12 hours as it feeds on the bodies of the pinned characters.
Getting up requires a Strength check or an Escape Artist check suitable
for the level of the PCs.
Although the intrusion of the blades of grass was painless, the extrication is agonizing.Any character successfully tearing free will take 1 d4 temporary Dex damage from the excruciating pain.
If any damage dealing area - of -effect spell is used on the grass, the entire vale will immediately wither and turn to dust, leaving behind a field of razor - sharp needles of obsidian where the grass had grown.
",
"The characters find a small chest or perhaps a leather satchel.From within they hear a constant scraping sound (as a dm I started scratching the underside of the table :devil.The scraping will continue until they open the chest and find..............nothing inside.A few minutes later the scraping starts up again but this time it is in one of the characters backpacks.
After finding out that the sound stays with them dispite their best efforts to get rid of it, the players will start to get used to the sound and move on.When they leave the Mournlands however, the character with the noise feels a voilent thrashing within his garments or backpack and the scratching stops....for now.A few days later a fresh zombie covered in long bloody claw marks and with a black and purple crushed throat staggers up to their camp and expires before them.A few moments later the scraping sound starts again, until it feels the need to bring them another present..Bwwaahhhahahahahh ",
"The PCs find themselves in a maze with no idea on how they got there (unless you want them to or they go into one willingly. Stupid PCs if this is so. You never go into mazes. lol.) If they turn back they find that the maze continues. They're pretty much in the center of it. Put monsters every once in a while, living spells, flesh eating grass, *thanks Sereno* and rains of blood. Essentially it's just the Mournlands but contained. After a few days of wandering around one of the PCs climbs the hedge. He finds it quite easy to do and the hedge is very sturdy. It is only a DC 10 climb check. When he gets to the top he sees that they are about fifty feet from the exit. If he climbs down and they continue they find that the maze does not end. If they climb the hedge again they find that it has shifted and they are now going the opposite direction.
To make it clear before that, that the headge is changing, make them see a table.A few hours later they see the same table.If I was the PC, I 'd do something to the table to be sure. As they go on, it is always the same table. If they leave a trail of sorts, the trail is destroyed. Setting fire to the hedges is probably a bad idea, seeing as they are essentially in the hedge. Have fun!
Creep out : There is one point where instead of seeing a hedge, the walls turn to clear crystal.It is quite thick and cannot be broken.A little
while of walking next to the crystal they figure out that they are walking past dead bodies.If they look at the bodies preserved in the crystal they see their loved ones or even themselves.All are charred, hacked, look as though they had been drowned or hanged and other such things.If they look
for a small
while a couple of the figures move.They, using their own blood of course, write 'help me', 'please', 'go back', and 'don'
t '. ** * :
A silent woodland stands before the pcs as they wander the mournland.The trees are all petrified and leafless, even they were not spared from the wretched effects of the mourning.There isn 't much of a choice than going through the wood so the pcs enter. The wood seems to be much bigger than it looks from the outside. As they become ever more lost they start to notice dead undergrowth and small trees shaking and rattling in non-existan breezes. After a few minuites of growing paranoia a random pc disapears when no ones looking... It keeps hapening... Until no ones left...
They all awaken to find themselves in a clearing glowing a soft green.The clearing is surronded by giant spider webs as strong as mithral.There is a giant spider with the uper body of a buitiful female elf.The spider woman speaks with a raspy - yet song like voice.She tells the PCs she always wanted \"Children\" of her own and she'll take good care of them... You can decide what happens after that.",
"You don't drink the water, it drinks you. After trekking through desert-dry hills for some time, the PCs finally come upon a small oasis the seems to have survived the Mourning, mostly. Some of the taller trees have a blasted and burned appearance near the tops. The smaller bushes on the outside edge of the oasis have somehow been transmuted into metal; bronze leaves rattle mournfully in the breeze. However, the closer the PCs move towards the bubbling spring the more normal the plants appear.
The water is clean and cold, appearing about six feet deep.The bottom of the spring appears to be solid stone and it looks perfectly normal except
for a dark - red ring, somewhat evenly - spaced around the central rocks from which the spring actually flows.
If anyone attempts to drink the water, however, it immediately comes to life and forms a ropy tendril from the drinker 's mouth down to the surface of the water. The tendril will penetrate the drinker'
s throat through their mouth, causing intense agony, and begin draining their blood into the spring.
The character will lose blood(as Con drain) at a rate of 1 d2 points per round.A successful Grapple or Escape Artist check(appropriate to the level of the PC) can help an affected PC escape the draining grasp.
As the water tendril drains it 's victim'
s blood, the entire spring will flush deep red and begin to swirl like a small whirlpool.Eventually, all of the drained blood will be drawn down to join the ring of dark red at the bottom of the spring.
Any creature completely drained of blood will
continue to be dissolved until nothing is left.
",
"The PC's have travelled deep into the Mournlands. One day the are moving through hill country and can see the spires of some city in the far off distance. The PC's crest a rise and look down upon the ruined metropolis. The walls are broken in numerous places and many of the once grand towers lie in ruins. As the PC's watch a strange procession moves out of the town and rides toward them.
There are a half dozen horsemen trotting from the city toward the party.As the horsemen come closer it is easy to see that they are not among the living.The skeletal knights ride horses of bone.Tattered flags billow in the wind and a lifeless light glowers from the skulls of the dead.The horsemen, however, do not attack the PCs.They ride close and stop. <
br / > \"Turn back!\" the leader calls out in a raspy voice. \"The way is shut.\"
If the PCs look closer they can discern Karrnathi markings upon the undead.Any character with knowledge of the Karrnathi military will be able to tell that these undead are not a product of the Mournland.They ARE Karrnathi undead soldiers.How long they have been in the Mournland, however, is anyone 's guess.
If the PC 's respond the skeletal leader only replies with, \"They way is shut. Turn back now.\" If the PCs refuse to comply or seem to be making battle prepartions the skeleton say, \"Turn back for your own sake! The living cannot face the perils within (enter city name of your choice here).\"
The skeleton is telling the truth though it might be hard to convince the PCs of that.On the day of the Mourning the Karrnathi skeletons regained,
for whatever reason, their own free will.Since that time they have served as Guardians
for whatever terrible horror now dwells inside the city.The Karrnathi are the city 's only inhabitants and intend to guard the city for eternity. Whatever unholy horror lurks in the ruined city is up to you, but its entirely possible there was something terrible imprisoned under Cyre and the Mourning awakened it. If the PC'
s destroy the Great Evil Thing 's(TM) warders then the PCs might be responsible for unleashing the Great Evil Thing(TM) upon the world.",
"As the PCs approach a small church on the outskirts of a deserted town they notice some children walking through the graveyard outfront and a priest watching over them. They seem very tired and will not speak of the mourning. If the PCs spend the night here in the mourning they realize they have been sent to the day before the mourning... The priest and children are here as well and are just as they were when they met (I.E. In the future) they must then spend the day before the mourning doing whatever they can... When the mourning happens they're sent back to thier respective time.",
"The PCs find God....but he doesn't appreciate being disturbed so he sicks his guard dog on them - the Tarrasque! ** *
Encounter: Death Giant(MM3 p54) Tactics: The death giant first uses it 's frightful keening ability and Unholy Blight spell to soften up the party. These effects are described in the introductory text. After the party is broken up, it throws a rock at whoever remains and charges into melee.
Treasure: Standard.Specific treasure to be determined by DM.EL: 16
As the party is traveling through the dead gray mists, Paladins will suddenly sense an overpowering evil aura directly behind the party.Read:
A grim dirge, wailed by a chorus of despairing voices from the gloom behind the party, pierces the dismal desolation of the dead gray mists like a dark omen.A cold, dark miasma of greasy mist rapidly forms around you.A deep, sinister chuckle joins the dirge that surrounds you.You can feel your life being drained away, as
if consumed by some greedy destroyer of souls.As the miasma fades, a dark opacity emerges from the mists, and a great rock slams into the dirt at your feet.(or hits someone)
A vague 15 or 20 foot tall humanoid shape seems to grow from the shadowy fog itself.The huge greataxe it carries in its clawed hands could easily split a man in half.It has dark gray skin that matches the dead gray colorlessness of the mists almost perfectly.It 's yellow eyes gleam with an unearthly light, and its form is wrapped with screaming faces that appear to materialize from the mist of their own volition then fade to nightmarish memory.",
"The PCs wake the next morning to find themselves in a small pit. They all have just enough room to stand and hold their hands out (like a ballerina) in front of them. No more. The pit is two hundred feet deep and quite sheer. It would take a DC thirty climb check to make it out, and as they climb they would rain dirt down on the rest of the party. After a few rounds the pit starts to fill quickly with dirt. They can make a tumble, escape artist, climb, or jump check to get away from the rising dirt but soon they will be covered to the waist. When they are paper comes up from the dirt before each of them. They are notes saying things like, \"Die.\", \"Come to us.\", \"Welcome to the underworld.\" and other such sayings. When the PCs get burried up to their chests the dirst stops rising. All is calm until on of the PCs feels a hand grabbing at their leg...",
"Trees made from lightning bolts. Each tree of a small grove looks is actually a flickering forked bolt of lightning extending up from the ground to a height of about 100 feet. The roar of the constant thunder splitting the air is enough to cause deafness unless an appropriate Fort save is made. Coming within 100 feet of the trees will result in a strike from a 10d6 bolt, Ref. save for 1/2, every round until the affected character moves away.",
"Insectile trees. The \"leaves\" of these tress are actually shiny greenish-black beetles, attached to the stems from the base of their abdomens. The antennae and legs of the beetles move constantly and some occasionally spread their hidden wings and attempt to fly, causing a rattling/buzzing sound that can be heard several hundred yards away. When approached too closely, the beetles will detach from the tree and form a flesh-eating swarm. Whether the swarm is successful or destroyed, it will not return to the tree which will immediately begin regrowing it's \"leaves\" as masses of wriggling white maggots at the ends of it's branches.",
"Blood trees. Each of these trees looks fairly normal except for the red coloration of both branch and leaf. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that each tree is actually formed completely of warm, liquid blood held in shape by some supernatural force. A soft pulsating sound, like a slow heartbeat, can be heard at the base of the trunk or just beneath the ground.",
"At some point in their journey through the Mournlands the PCs come upon a small, perfectly preserved cottage. The tiny house appears to be quite serene amidst the destroyed landscape of the Mournlands. The windows, however, are fogged to obscurity, and the door is securely shut. Nothing short of a wish will open it. Though smoke rises from the chimney the opening is too small to get down. Basically the house is impenetrable.
Nothing of importance happens around the house and the PCs will eventually move on.When they camp
for the night, however, one of the PCs on watch hears strange sounds like boards snapping over and over again.When the PCs arise they will find that, not far ahead of them, is the same small cottage.As the DM be sure to make it clear that the PCs are not trapped in a magical spell, but that the cottage has actually MOVED.
The PCs will, obviously, investigate further.As the DM you can spring the 'surprise'
on them now or subject them to a few more nights of the moving house.Basically at some point the windows of the house begin to glow with a strange light.Then the door crumples inward revealing row after row of razor sharp metal 'teeth'.The house has been given a cruel sentience by the Mournland and will attempt to devour anything it comes across.
In terms of rules I think the best way to reflect the house would be a giant animated object.The house moves about on 'legs'
born of splintered wood and its main attack is its gaping maw.Hands formed of boards and nails will reach out from the side to attempt to push PCs into the 'door mouth'.
While this isn 't that scary an encounter it could describe just how twisted the magical events of the Day of Mourning made things. If the PCs somehow get inside the house it is a twisted pocket dimension filled with the damned corpses of those the house has eaten. Basically a reverse zombie movie as the zombies are inside the house and the PCs have to get out!",
"A stand of trees made from bone. Obviously it's Autumn since the leaves are all on the ground, piles and piles of skin just waiting to be raked up.",
"A charging horde of, surprisingly, all races garbed in war gear rushes towards the PCs. Flowing Elven words are mixed among gutteral Orc blood oaths and rumbling Dwarven battle cries as halflings ride snarling mounts towards the party. Even a young dragon is among the small army, its golden scales shining resplendent in the dim light as it lets loose a blood- jellying roar. As the crushing wave of warriors descends on the PCs they die on their own swords. Lances snap and slip into the flesh of their wielders, swords cleave helms as warriors trip on rocks and mis-shot arrows pierce allies. So swiftly do they die among the PCs that the ground is churned to mud from the river of blood, and screams drown out all but the sound of each warrior meeting his doom on the end of his or his allies own weapons.
None of the PCs should get a chance to even touch an enemy.
",
"A circling, sky-blackening, foul, stinking, screeching flock of vultures has taken to flying in an ever spinning tornado in the air as close as 30 feet above the PCs heads.",
"The Eye in the Sky (snagged from China Meiville's 'Perdido Street Station'). During an otherwise uneventful evening, the dead-grey mists obscuring the sky part to reveal a single, impossibly huge, eye hanging several hundred feet in the air, peering straight down into the area in which the PCs are currently traveling. Though the eye, which seems to fill the entire sky, remains motionless and does not blink, the green-gold iris seems to swirl in a vaguely hypnotic manner. The eye remains in the sky for about an hour and then slowly vanishes, leaving only the mists behind.",
"The PCs enter into a cave. It is guarded by angel statues. The Angels have a look of peace upon their faces. They do appear as evil though if detect evil is cast. As soon as the PCs pass they block the way out. Fun stuffs. I hate statues. Along the way down the cave they keep seeing more and more statues. Each falls in behind the PCs, making very good move silently checks. I love freaking out the PCs by rolling random dice that mean nothing. If you do that a lot and then do it in the cave I doubt that the PCs will be quite as suspecious. ",
"The PCs find a hurt animal in their trail. It looks quite tame and has been mauled by some sort of creature, probably a zombie's sword or axe or something. It isn't hurt so bad that it can't move but when it sees the PCs it begs and whimpers. If they take it with them and heal it, when it's wounds are healed it turned into a druid.\"Thank you my friends. I was quite injured and I appreciate you taking care of me.For that I shall grant each of you a wish.\"
Make the PCs think very hard about their wishes and be specific because the Druid, though they have the power, has no intention of helping the PCs.He or she will twist whatever the PCs say.If they ask
for wings, they now have wings.They are useless and look more like feathered or scabby protrusions from their shoulder blades.If the PC asks
for lots of money they get about twenty copper.Equal to one gold piece.Just make them be specific.If the PCs argue then the Druid will simply say, \"You asked and I fulfilled your request. Enjoy what gifts you have.\" With a manical laugh he will dissapear. Later the next week the PCs find another hurt animal. This really is an animal. If they heal it it will become a faithful pet to the healer, perhaps even help fight in battle. If they don't then they're simply going one step closer to being evil. Aren't the mournlands so amazingly fun?",
"The PCs walk through a rainstorm. All of a sudden, the rain simply stops- in mid air. The PCs are now walking through motionless rain hanging in the air. ",
"Imagine someone trapped beneath the ice looking up at you and hammering at the ice to get you to help. Now, instead of ice, imagine that you can see someone below the ground similarly trapped. You can see them in the dirt just as if it were ice. ",
"A BBEG that the PCs have previously defeated and killed wanders into their camp at night. He takes no notice of offensive action taken against him. he sits down and starts to converse with the PCs. He still shows the wounds the PCs gave him. Who knows what he wants to talk about. I think that the more irrelevant the conversation, the more disturbing it will be. ",
"Each year, the day of Mourning pushes backward in time. At first, the day normal, but a year later it is celebrated one month prior to the past year. Historical records throughout Khorvaire all reflect this, even as the Dead-Grey mist swallows and encompasses more land. What is causing the Mournland to spread through time and space? Can the PCs stop it?",
"A twig breaks underfoot, and from far deeper within the woods comes a scream. And another, for each stick broken. (Failed move silently checks, anyone?) The PCs eventually come across a clearing wherein lies a group of people with twisted and snapped limbs, scattered about the ground. Like tinder.",
"An old disheveled man runs towards the PC's from a distance, they can see him coming. His clothes appear as if he was shipwrecked for ages, and his beard has sand in it. Before the PC's can do anything to help him, he runs up to them, falls on the ground, looks up at them and says, \"It's...\" and then promptly dies.",
"The PC's, either through rolling a small statue on a random treasure roll or whatever means the DM wishes, find a small, ivory statue. The DM should roll to determine which PC it looks like, but from that point on it will always be a perfect repleca of that PC. The creepy part is that it will even change its shape and/or stance to match the PC when no one is looking. It's movements can not be felt if holding it, but as soon as everyone looks away or even manages to blink at the same time the statue has moved. Furthermore, if the party tries to sell the statue it will reappear in its PC's possessions and they'll discover that they're short however much they sold it for.",
"The PCs all have the same dream (sort of) in which they find themselves in front of a mirror. A small hole is on their cheek so they pick at it. After a little while they end up taking all the skin off of their face. In the morning they wake up with the face of one of the party members. So pretty much, everyone looks like someone else. Warforged have human faces and someone in the part now has a face of metal. No, thay still have to breath. lol.",
"The PCs are just walking through, on their way to the quest or whatever. They find that they are slowly rising above the ground. They can still walk easily but it is as though they are walking on glass. Randomly though, the glass rises and falls as though it were broken. Areound these holes are bloody hand prints, maybe a finger or two. By one there is the body of a person, their body speared on the glass and their clothing torn as though people had climbed over them.",
"Whatever the PCs eat, it fills them with the first bite. After a few days, they start suffering from starvation. Whenever they try to eat more, they throw up and in the vomit are human fingers and toes or even arms and legs. This only lasts for a few days. ",
"The PCs pull out rations and find that the creature that was salted for travel food lives again. Only smaller. And missing a few limbs. A piece of beef jerkey is now an uncooked piece of cow that moves when touched and moos in agony.",
"The PCs are in a village. They are invited to dinner with the mayor who seems quite friendly. The village seems to be uneffected by the mist at all. When the food is served they recognize most of the food as human body parts. Spagettie is brains, vegetables are various muscles and meat is perfectly cooked flesh.",
"A fountain in the middle of a section of desert flows backwards with blood instead of water.",
"A boy and a girl sit next to each other playing with some toys in the middle of a field. In the distance, wild animals can be seen feeding on a kill. Screams can be heard in the distance, and they sound familiar to the PCs. If asked where their parents are, the children say \"They'll be along shortly\" If the PCs stay more than a day, the animals kill something in the distance again, and the familiar screams can be heard again.
If the leave the kids alone, nothing happens.If the PCs
try to move the kids or
try to take their toys away, the children become enraged.Refusing to leave.They end up escaping mysteriously even
if hauled away tied up.
If the PCs tried to move the kids,
try to take the toys, or
try to investigate the animal 's kill, the PCs end up fighting the animals. While fighting the animals, they recognise the screams as their own.
If the PCs defeat the animals, the \"Kill\" that they kept capturing, day after day, thanks the PCs for killing the little monsters. The fallen person that the animals kept killing resembles the children's father, or mother.
If the PCs
return to the children, the children are dead with the same wounds that killed the animals.Scrawled in blood on the ground is the sentence: \"Why did you ruin our fun?\"",
"A random PC feels sick and must make a fortitude save, if the pc makes the save, nothing happens for a day, until she (or a different PC) has to make the save again. If she fails the save, she starts to retch and throws up an undead baby that becomes a flesh golem, an advanced zombie, or a maggot golem.
If the sick PC attacks the monster, it cries and begs its parent to stop hurting it.
",
"An old woman runs towards the PC’s from a distance, they can clearly see her coming. As the old woman gets closer to the PC’s she grows younger and younger, by the time the approaching old woman gets to the PC’s she is a small child of 4. The child runs up to the nearest Female PC, wraps its arms around her waist and says ‘Mommy I’m sorry, can I come home now?” The child will then push its head into the female PC’s crotch and begin to “climb’ back into her body, as the child does this she begins to fade out until she completely vanishes. Nothing else happens… Until the next time the PC falls asleep, when she wakes up she’ll find her belly fully swollen as if she’s ready to give birth at any moment. Over the next 9 days her belly becomes smaller and smaller with each time she awakens from sleep, like a normal pregnancy in reverse. (but only if she goes to sleep, if she doesn’t sleep then she remains as she was till the next time she goes to sleep and then wakes up) Each day that the PC is pregnant “pregnant” at random times, faint childish giggles can be heard. On the final day when her belly goes back to normal the PC will hear a child’s faint & fading voice saying “Thank you for not having me mommy”.",
"All the PCs have a dream that they are on platforms and can't move for some reason. A dark-skinned man in red, hooded robes, his cheek ripped open, walks on thin air to each PC and puts his hand over their head. He then exclaims \"[insert latin-sounding adjective here that describes the PC] insanus!\" Then, a crowd of normal adventurers and crazy people of the Mournlands shout, \"DON'T TOUCH!\"
When the PCs wake up, all other adventurers or crazy people they meet won 't try to bother them, and if they try to talk to any sane people, they refuse to let the PCs come near them. They keep having this dream, and each time, more and more adventurers are with them on the platforms. Eventually, they meet all these adventurers and the man in the red, hooded robes.
Since I haven 't finished Cell, I don'
t know what happens next, but this is a good start that you can lead off of .
",
"The PCs are in a house. They see a large full body mirror. Above the mirror is a light with a string to turn it on with. The PC who stands in front of the mirror with the light on suddenly dissapears to the eyes of the others. Only when the light is turned off can they see the PC again. It works on everyone but the longer the light is on, the longer it takes for the PC to return from being invisible. Beware though, after some time, they will find themselves in a place of mirrors. If this happens, when the light is turned off, the PC will not return. Instead, their exact opposite will. Call them an evil twin but unless you can find some way to get them back into the mirror and the real PC out, who knows what kind of havok they could wreck. Shouting in places where monsters sleep, attacking at night. The list is endless...",
"A spectral form, covered in blood that wanders around, humming/whistling lullabies. Imagine walking across a battlefield in the Mournland, the grizzled remains of the never decomposing warriors screaming their silent agony at you and then all you can hear is the lullaby you were sung when you were a child... ",
"Large areas of mist, which when walked through show the person inside the mist as thought they had no skin. (Illusion)",
"How about this one:
You enter an almost completely demolished farmhouse, to find a woman stood, staring at you.The woman stands there
for a moment and then, with no sound at all, her head falls off and her body slumps to the floor, dead.The body then gets up, replaces it’ s head on its shoulders and stands there...a couple of seconds later the head falls off again...",
"Really disgusting one; a rain of tongues/ears/eyes/noses",
"A little spectral boy running around shouting “Mummy, where are you?”, in a distressed voice. When he sees travellers he asks “Are you my mummy?” (Somebody call The Doctor quick!)",
"In the ruined cities a have horde of dress maker’s manikins, who wander aimlessly, screaming.",
"A human bard, dressed in a jester’s outfit, who sits, giggling helplessly to himself while saying, “Not my fault they had to die, not my fault at all...” (The guy is an actual human, who while adventuring was driven mad by the Mournland and murdered his party).",
"In one of the cities, an unbroken shop window, with someone behind it, banging on the unbreakable glass, suffocating.",
"Flocks of small carrion birds that swarm those daring enought to disturb their plentiful feeding grounds, whispering the death curses of those who died in the Mourning as they try to peck out the characters' eyes.",
"A large arch guarding the Dragon's Market in Metrol is carved so that it resembles the yawning maw of a Red Dragon. The first mortal (no warforged!) to pass through it each day loses the ability to speak or write in any language but gains the ability to speak and write Draconic with perfect eloquence. This can be overcome through remove curse or similar magic.
Furthermore, by speaking aloud a question, perfectly uttered in the primal tongue of Eberron, the speaker may commune as per the spell with a caster level equal to his character level.Each use, however, drains a point of CON, which may never be regained by mortal means.This begs the question: just what is the nature of this bargain which trades life
for answers, and with whom is it made ? Also consider that the Commune triggers off of any question spoken in Draconic.The chatty may pale quickly...",
"As they characters are all sitting around the campfire, just talking, getting over the horrors of the day, setting the watch, cooking the meal and so on, one of the characters notices that another has shrunk slightly. It isn't a ton but it is noticable. If they point it out, everyone else notices as well and the character is probably getting scared. They sleep, or not, and the next morning they start walking. The character continues to shrink bit by bit until he is the size of a halfling. Just imagion what his armor check penalty is and how his stats are affected. Oh goody. The next day his hair color changes as do his eyes. He is now a halfling. Remove curse does not work. It is as if his character had been made as a halfling from the beginning. After about two days, a character notices that, once again, another character is shrinking/growing. Use just about any race to change them to. Don't make it take too long but long enough to make people be like, wtf? They know it is their traveling companion but...he's different. Heehee.",
"Here' one from Misse's thread that I like too much to let die entirely.
After an event involving divine energy(freak explosion, Demonic Possession, ect.) A character is covered in the black, scaly skin of a fiend and gains the half - fiend template but may only speak in rhyme.Should the victim speak normally, the skin rips off off its own volition, causing 10 d6 damage(Fort DC 20 Half) and flies onto another character nearby.Possibly another PC.A fiendish intelligence present in the hide informs the character of this.
Anyone who has ever worn the skin is affected by Holy Word, Holy Smite, Unholy Blight, Detect Evil, and other such spells as though the Moral Component of his Alignment were evil.This condition lingers until they gain the benefit of Wish, Miracle, bathe in a sacred spring of Holy Water located somewhere in Metrol, possibly in the lost Cathedral to the Host mentioned in ECS.Allow a Bardic Knowledge, Knowledge(Religion), or Knowledge(Local) to identify the cure.
",
"The PCs walk into a field of flowers. All the flowers are staring at them with eyeballs in their centers, smell of blood and are made of glass. Somehow they manage to be all around and under where the PCs are sleeping and walking walking and are found in packs or food or clothing, making sore spots like an almost dull piece of glass. Grabbing or touching the flowers deals 1d4 damage.",
"The PCs wake up and find themselves completely naked. Instead, they have leathery skin or something, or not. Your choice. If they joke about it, make them really think about how they would feel. Especialy meeting someone that was fully clothed. Or a town of very modest people. It might put a bit of a damer of intimidates or anything that might need them to be confident. Charisma doesn't mean how good you look. It's how your people skills are. If you can still talk well to people with no clothes, good for you. Other people though, might think you're crazy and not be as willing to help...",
"The PCs can fly but randomly in their flight they drop suddenly, almost hitting the ground and then managing to catch themselves again. After a while they have to cross something like crockadiles (I know the spelling sucks), lava, a field of glass, an ocean of blood, or something else fun. What'll happen if they're wings fail now?",
"Even wonder what it would be like to be able to have any power you wanted, just for a day? Well, now's the chance. One PC a day can do whatever they want (like the X-men for ideas).",
"The PCs awaken to find that their clothes have actually become their skins. All normal clothing, except for non-organic components, is now actually part of the character. Cutting into or trying to remove their \"clothing\" is just as painful as cutting into or trying to removetheir normal skins. Buttons and buttonholes, lacings and buckles are a constant source of pain, irritation and discomfort, causing 1d4 temporary Dex damage each day (which can be fully healed by getting a decent night's rest).",
"As the PCs walk through the mournland they begin to realize things start to appear more... Carbon based... Trees become giant flabs of skin , stone become hidieos tumor balls, resting in this organic landscape causes the Pcs to awaken naked, covered in slime, and one of their body parts becomes a non-organic material. For example they may awaken to find their arm has become stone. This effect disaperes the next day.",
"The PCs wake to find themselves growing new body parts; extra arms, legs, fingers, toes, eyes noses, ears and such. They also find that they, of course, make them more clumsey but cutting them away, though painful, works with no ill effect. Indeed, they heal rapidly and for the next few days they have something like fast healing five or so. It's pretty cool. After a while though, the arms and legs start growing faster and faster, more and more...",
"Suddenly practicly every feature of landscape cuts out as a giant ice and snow storm kicks up. The storm prevents escape though dosn't hurt too badly despite the probable lack of winter clothing the PCs have. After a short while the storm lets up and the PCs find themselves standing in front of an enourmous ice mountain, the cliff is neir sheere and there is only one entrance through a small cave just big enough for the biggest PC, the storm picks up even stronger this time, strong enough to soon kill the PCs.
Inside the cave near the entrance there is what appears to be a fossilized undergrowth.After a
while longer(or much sooner
if they travel deeper into the cave) They see an enourmous green mass approaching them.This is a collosal plant version of the Gelantionous cube, it appears to be made out of plantparts.
",
"The PCs all start having the same dream when they sleep: A dim red glow that slowly expands to encompass them completely and fills them with a feeling of warmth so comforting that they can barely remember ever feeling so secure. Their bodies feel weightless, almost like they're slowly tumbling in the midst of this glow.
During the dream, wordless murmuring can barely be heard from all around them.No words can be understood, but the sounds carry a definite impression of caring and compassion directed at each of them...the feeling the characters get while listening to the murmur could even be described as love.
Suddenly the murmuring changes in tone, becoming confused, then alarmed, and
finally panicked.Then, just as suddenly, all sounds stop.The characters still feel like they 're floating, but the red glow slowly fades to blackness, and the warmth is replaced by a suffocating chill. The PCs have trouble breathing, as though their breath is being drawn from their lungs and they can'
t pull it back, no matter how hard they
try.Anything they
try to do to escape fails, and all they can do is claw at the air as their lungs burn, trying in vain to get something, anything, into them...
Then, they wake up.Every time the PC has this dream, they awake curled up in the fetal position, gasping
for
air.There are no hindering effects to the PCs, but the dream repeats itself the next two nights.
The day after they have the dream
for the third time, the adventurers stumble upon a truly pitiful scene : A group of bodies; former Cyran soldiers escorting a large group of women.Most of the bodies are oriented in such a way that the PCs can figure out easily that the group was fleeing the site of a battle, probably from a large town or city.The most heart - wrenching aspect of the scene is that every one of the women was pregnant.
If the players don 't figure it out, allow them to make checks to realize that the dreams they were having were the last experiences of the unborn children as they slowly perished in their mothers'
wombs.
",
"Trekking across the barren, dead, nightmarish expanse of the Mournlands, a speck resolves on the horizon, the only discerning feature for miles. When close enough to tell, they see an abandoned farmstead surrounded by a wooden fence. It takes very little for them to see that the work was done by a master carpenter, everything joined perfectly with no excess, simple yet elegant scrollwork decorates doors and window frames, and many finished pieces stand in various places around the yard. The house appears long empty, yet a spiral of smoke trails from a shed behind.
As the PCs draw closer, they can hear the sound of sawing, the steady, rhythmic scrape, scrape, scrape.
The door is half open, enough to show half of the room, but not the person working.The sawing takes a slightly different tone, harsher somehow, more grinding, as the PCs peer in .Pushing the door open reveals the carpenter with his back towards the door, his piece hidden from view.So intent is he that he does not turn around
for some time.The sawing takes a final, wet, tearing sound and a liquid splat rings out in the silence.
His hand falls to the floor.
Turning around to stare at you, his blank eyes gaze dully towards you, the hacksaw in one hand, dripping blood slowly
while blood flows freely from the stump of his left hand.As you watch, the hand stands up on its fingers, slipping somewhat in the blood and reaches to tug at the man 's trouser leg. Bloody fingerprints, as well as cracked and dried blood on the saw and floor suggest that this has happened before.
As the man slowly turns to look at the hand, it crawls up his pants leg and over his shoulder, down his arm to the end where it settles itself like an old man sitting himself down in a comfortable chair.The flesh stretches to reattach, and there is a wet grinding sound as bone reknits itself.
Hollow eyed, the man returns his stare to you, turns around, and raises the saw again....
Scrape.
",
"Dismembered hands skitter about on their fingertips, moving in packs like rats or cockroaches.",
"A PC becomes unable to die, but is hypersensitive to pain. There is no threshold of negative HP at which the character dies, but every round they must Fort Save at a DC of 10+current damage or be nauseated with pain for the round.
Entire fields of horribly wounded soldiers lie scattered in the Mournlands.Severed heads beg move their lips in a breathless plea.At the center of one lies the Terrasque, at another, a Demon 's place built out the still living bodies of his vicitms. ** *: (Insipred by 914) As the PCs approach a collapsing shack they hear a small grinding sound followed by a wet thud, a moment of silence, and then more grinding.Inside they find an old man slowely sawing peices off bodies and putting them in a pile, he seems to be blind and deaf as he never notices the pcs.After he finishes several bodies he somehow picks out the best of each part and grafts them together and stuffs them with whatever he can find(Usually weeds in the field outside) and sits them around him.
",
"A ring of people, suspended in mid-air, held a foot above the ground by metal spikes emerging from the ground and piercing their bodies. Their skin is gone, revealing bloody muscle and bone, and their eyes are missing. As the breeze moves by them they shiver and twitch, despite the fact that they are dead.",
"After fighting some aberrations, the pcs manage to find a cave to rest in, which is obviously inhabitated. Later that evening, an old man comes in and says he is the inhabitant. He will engage the pcs in a conversation, tell them it is quite boring being alone here and inquire about the events of the day. As soon as the pcs come to their glorious monsterslaying, the man will become wide-eyed and move to the entrance of the cave. He will then ask \"Monsters? They looked like monsters to you?\" before sliding out into the darkness of night, never to be seen again.",
"One of the party members wakes up with an NPCs head attached to the back of his neck. The NPC can speak, cast spells, and is generally a great help to the party. But if asked, the last thing he remembers before finding himself attached to the PC, is his own head being chopped off. And if the PC in question ever leaves the mournland, the head falls off of the PC and dies.",
"As 920, but one PC ends up grafted onto a different PC. (Still capable of taking normal actions like spellcasting and attacking, but can't move unless the other PC moves.)",
"If a PC ever gets angry and yells at someone else in character, the anger manifests as burrowing worms that crawl out of the angry PC and attack the character that caused the anger.",
"When the PCs go to sleep for the night, every so often one of them wakes up in the morning in a shallow grave, partially covered in dirt.",
"One of the PCs keeps finding flowers by his/her head with love notes attached upon waking up in the morning. Eventually, the PCs find the person who was sending the love notes....",
"A woman standing completely still feels like stone when touched. She has a horrified look on her face. Her arm is exstended and pointing at something thatis no longer there. possibly whatever destroyed the mournland. She may be an adventurer who met a horrific monster. who knows what it could be?",
"An open field in which Scorching Ray spells are fired from the sky at random. These are not living spells but they have no apperant caster. the area in which the spells are fired has a 1 mile radius. each minute spent in the field roll a D20. on a 1-5 you get hit by a ray. A reflex save halves damage (DC 20).",
"A swirling cloud of smoke inside an old ruined house. The house undoubtedly belonged to a magic user of some sort. the smoke does nothing when just touched but when someone moves into it to be totally covered they are instantly teleported to Mabar (25%), Xoriat, (25%), or Dolurrh (50%). there is no return portal.",
"A failed fortitude (anything less than 20. Call this on the wizard or someone with bad Fort. They worry) produces a terrifying effect. The PC gives a throaty cough and a black, bloody, bedreggled feather lands on the ground with a small splat.
As the party stops and stares, the PC coughs again.And coughs, and coughs and coughs, his body wracked with tremors and with a sickening, retching cough, a dead black bird falls to the ground.After a moment the bird stirs, picks itself up and, ruffling bloody feathers, fixes the PC with a beady black eye devoid of any emotion save perhaps....menace ? ......
A drop of blood slowly leaks from the corner of the PCs staring mouth and falls to the ground.As it hits, the PC is knocked to the ground as an explosion of wings, feathers, claws, beaks and blood whirls into the air, streaming from his open mouth in a chittering, cackling, cawing storm.Wheeling through the air in a blood - drenched tornado, the Slaughter of Ravens attacks the PCs.(Swarm of crows)
Afterwards.
Call a Fortitude.
",
"Really bad hair day. The PCs come across a trail of thin threads heading off over a hillock. If they follow the threads, they will eventually find more of them, all running in the same direction, getting thicker and thicker. At the \"end\" of the trail of hair is a large \"hairball\" about three feet thick and five feet long.
If they prod the the pile of hair with a stick or a weapon they will discover something solid in the middle.Further investigation will reveal what appears to be a body, now shrunken and partially mumified by the heat and dry air of this section of the Mournland, and they will realize that all of the hair they 've discovered is part of this creature (person?).
Every inch of the creature(person ? ) is covered with hair, even in places where hair doesn 't normally grow like the palms of its hands and soles of its feet.
The dessicated figure is still clutching at a small knife, or maybe it 's a straight-razor, and appears to have died with an expression of acute pain upon it'
s face.
Shortly after coming across this horrible sight, or even
if they don 't bother to investigate, the PCs will begin growing their own hair at an incredible rate; inches an hour. And, adding to the horror, from places that don'
t normally grow hair at all, too.At first it will just be a nuisance, but eventually it will get so long as to start tripping over it, or getting caught on rocks and plants.
When they
try to shave off this new \"Mournland hair\", however, the true horror is revealed ... just trying to cut away the hair causes agonizing pain and deals subdual damage to the character equal to the damage of the weapon they try to use (1d4+strength for a dagger, for example).
Can the PCs survive the subdual damage to free themselves of the all - consuming hair ? Will it just keep growing and growing ?
I 'd recommend letting the PCs sweat it out and suffer for a while, but the effect should eventually end on it'
s own(perhaps a time limit, or the effect is localized to a specific area and ends
if /when they manage to leave).
Perhaps as a side - effect of this horrible experience, the PCs will feel pain and take subdual damage every time the get a haircut
for the rest of their lives!",
"A pack of dead, rotting animals (snakes, dogs, raccoons, etc) follows the PCs everywhere with flies buzzing through the air and the stench of the long dead carcasses following so thick as to be nearly tangible. They stop when the PCs stop, and at night they form a ring around the PCs camp, opening to admit the PCs when they leave.",
"Have all the PCs make a spot check at whatever time you want. Whoever gets the highest score sees a book laying on the ground in the middle of camp ( or trail or whatever). Note the order in which they touch the book.
The 1 st to touch will be refered to as the \"Master\"
The 2n d will be refered to as the \"Servant\"
The book is empty except
for a table of contents at the front.There are no page numbers in it, but where they should be there is a small green circle.Everything listed is a location ing the Mournland
when the Master put his finger on the green circle instanly all lights go out and it suddnely becomes as dark as possible.A thundering vioce come from nowhere and everywhere in the darkness and shouts whatever the Master selected.The lights slowly come back on.An old man stands in front of the Master.He tells information about the location selected.He is not conversational and does not answer questions he speaks in a monotonous voice and does not stop talking to a looking at the Master.when he is done talking about the place he will finish with \"The Servant must go there.\" Until the Servant reaches the location various monsters will attack the Master.Any monsters you want as frequently as you want.They will be determined to kill the Master and no others.Back to the book.The book now has info on whatever location was chosen.If the book is destroyed the Adventuerers are transpoted to a random part of the Mournland.any place that is farther away from the place that was chosen ",
"how about a blood angel? ya know the pcs walk into a town where the ground is covered with blood and then they hear all this giggling and begin to see blood angels forming in the muck. (think snowangels only steven kingized)",
"Perched atop a blasted hillside stands a small garden-like area roughly the size of a campsite. There is a single large oak tree, who's leaves are green and healthy. Beneath it's bows is a field of lush green grass, seemingly freshly mowed/clipped, yet there are wildflowers blooming sweetly dotted everywhere. There may even be a butterfly or two fluttering around from time to time. In any other location, it would be called pleasant. Here, it is idyllic, if not for the fact that there are charred skeletons and perpetually half decayed coprses strew around it, as if all had tried to claw their way up to the glade, and failed. Foul winds whip up small dust devils of dirt, dust, and dried portions of humanoid remains, but for some reason, the leaves of the tree never blow, the grass never rustles, and the dust devils seem to vanish at the boarder of the cracked gray ground and the brilliant green grass. Should the PCs enter this area, they look around and see the same kind of landscape spreading out as far as the eye can see, as if from some idealist painting of a Cyrian countryside, complete with crystal blue sky and cheerful sunshine. Once they step outside of the area, the true vision of the Mournlands return.
Despite all of this, there is absolutely nothing special about this location, other than it 's appearance. Healing is still impossible, and while monsters would enter the green area, there are none in sight.
Sometimes, the scariest thing of all is contrast, and the player 's own minds. Show them this seemingly inviting and wonderful spot, and watch them freak as they imagine what sort of horrible thing might happen to them should they enter it, or even worse, what it might have done to them while they were in it.",
"During the wee hours, the night is disturbed by the soft footfalls of dog approaching camp. Looking over toward the sound, the character on watch sees the parting of grass under pawlike indentation and the slight whine of a dog. The firelight casts the shadow of a phantom Labrador as he paws the ground, turns around twice, and plops down to fall asleep.
If the party has a means of communicating with animals, I 'd allow a few questions.",
"A strip of land about a mile ong that repeats itself every now and then. I mean, a certain part of it looks just like the part before it. This could spook the PCs into thinking that they have been caught in some kind of magic that keeps them from moving onward, but they are.
The Lord of Blades(himself)
",
"The PCs approach a sudden change in the landscape. Here the ground is blasted and totally devoid of any detail exept for dirt, it appears that the entire feild was light ablaze complete with a thin layer of ash. In the center of the field lays an cross, it fell sometime ago and a schoarched skeleton of a hummanoid with wings is crucified to it. Attempting to examine the skeleton causes it to turn to ash. It had on it's possession a minor magical item appropriate for an celestial creature.",
"Every time the Changeling changes form he literally sheds the last person's skin. Ripping out of it like a cocoon. If his teeth or eyes change color shape the old ones pop right out. Everything squirts a little blood when ripped or popped but not much. When he is finished he will be standing there with a pile of skin around him very freaked out.",
"The PCs come across a barking cat chasing a meowing dog. The dog runs up a tree for protection while the cat jumps around the trunk of the tree, barking at the dog. After a minute of this both the cat and the dog disappear into nothingness.",
"The PCs come across the remains of a very recent battle. The remains on the battlefield are themselves, however. Each PC sees his or her own remains, killed in some fashion opposite of their strength (i.e. spellcasters have been hacked, stabbed, or beaten to death, fighters and other melee types have been imploded, burned, frozen, disintegrated, etc). A raven, scavenging on of the bodies, looks up at the PCs and cawls \"the bringer of death hunts you.\"",
"A warforged Choas beast. \" And there arose a great wailing and gnashing of metal teeth, from the building before you erupts a sound much like metal tearing and bone breaking. Bursting out of the door is an awful creature of metal and wood, stone and bone, covered in flialing steel tentacles and wooden maws full of stone teeth. The nightmare crawls and shamples towards you, and as it gets closer you can see that it is pulling behind it the still living, tortured body of a human who screams in a most terrible voice, \"RUN!! Oh gods of forsaken lands RUN!!\"
Rather then turning victums into soft fleshy morphing living tissue it turns victums into half corrupted warforged.LIke,
if it got your arm a bit, but you still made it away, you might end up with a warforged left arm on your otherwise living body.
",
"There is an odd congregation of a zombie, a teenage vampire, and what looks like an ogre sized, well muscled, and green man standing around an odd collection of toy weaponry and armor just over the hill. They are discussing something, but the only word the PC's can make out is \"LARP\" (unless they head towards them). Speaking to the group reveals that they are \"LARPers\" and \"Goths\" but the PC's can't seem to figure out what those words mean. If asked for their names, the zombie is named Larry (and is sentient), the vampire is named Vilbert, and the massive green man is simply called \"The Sulk\". Attacking them causes them to weep and recite aweful poetry, but not fight back.",
"The PCs are traveling along. They come upon a library. Strangely the village around it has burned to the ground but buckets and such are lying around the library as though the people were trying despretly to save the library above all else. Inside there are shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books. All diffrently wrapped and each with titles of single names. If the PC reads one book they will find a life's worth of records. Starting from when the person was born to when they died, every thought or action or word they said. Feelings are described in great detail. If the PCs try to use the books to find out what happened in the mournlands they are unable to open the page that it happens on. The pages containing the happenings of the mournland are stuck together and nothing, no spells or tearing or anything will open those pages. When they look around there is a table with [number of party here] seats plus one. All have books in front of them. They find that each of their names is written on these books. If they read them they find that their book is being written even as they watch. If they try and take the book with them their hand starts burning. Looking down they see that their book is glowing red hot. If they continue after a few rounds the book catches on fire. As the book burns the PC feels great pain. If the book is totaly consumed, the PCs become souless. They no longer have thoughts or feelings. They are an empty shell.
You can have them meet a few people like that outside the library or around the town or something to help it along.*shrug * I dunno, I just wanted to get the thread moving again.
",
"The ground shakes and trembles. Of in the distance the PCs hear the sounds of a baby crying. The noise gets louder as though it is coming closer. A woman runs by. She is sobbing hystericaly and nothing can make her stop. A couple seconds later a gigantic toddler runs past throwing a tantrum. You see him catch up to the woman and pick her up. She struggles in his grip and then goes limp. The toddler cries, not knowing why mommy won't play with him. He dropps the woman. She doesn't move. Closer inspection reveals that the woman is dead. The Toddler watches the group curiously. He givs a baby grin and walks over to the PCs. Want to play?",
"The PCs continue on, trekking through the dull gray expanse of the Mournlands. As they crest a hill, the ground shakes and a great shuddering wailing cry fills the air, like that of a sobbing woman. The grass elongates, huge and tentacle-like and the PCs must roll or be Entangled. If they fail, nothing happens; the ground just holds them close, weeping for a lost loved one.",
"The PCs break fro camp, detailing guard, setting up tents and a fire. As soon as the fire is completed it shakes and shivers and bursts forth with seemingly more logs and twigs than were put in it. These burning apparitions race through the camp, yet catch nothing ablaze, and finally settle in a large ring around the camp as though warding something away. What lurks out in that darkness? Or is it the darkness itself?",
"As the PCs march along, stoic and steadfast through the Mournlands, the ground parts in front of them (with a rumbling and churning of earth and stone) in a channel 6 feet deep. Lining the edges on normal ground level are tombstones. The ground opens up in front of them regardless of where they step, including wherever they might dodge to. This could be interesting if anyone were to fall.....",
"For you rope trick fans
When the party goes into a rope trick to camp / rest / heal whatever and you 're getting sick of it. Pick one player at random, and have them make a spot check. They see something '
outside ' the rope trick. A little later have someone else make a spot check. They see a face and hands pressed against the rope trick'
s 'wall'
Still later someone
else sees the same face and hands against the wall, but now the wall is bowing in .Of course only one person sees this at a time...
I did this and the party started freaking, looking
for how something could get into the rope trick, complaining that 'that shouldn'
t happen ' and the like.",
"Low Key paranoia
When the party encounters a group off bodies, call
for spot checks.Tell players they thought they saw a twitch, or a chest rise and fall.Sit back and watch.If they get the clever idea of hauling the body into the rope trick to heal it,
let them get what they deserve.
",
"The PC's come upon a ruined temple with an intact graveyard. A DC10 Search of the graveyard will reveal a headstone for each player.
Inscribed on the headstone is the player 's full name, Their birthdate, which is two years to the day before their actual birthdate, and the day of their death, which is exactly three days after the birthdate on the headstone.
Somewhere near this graveyeard, the players lived and died two years before they were born.
",
"A PC is mauled quite ridiculously, and I do mean mauled. The most gruesome of his/her wounds, however, is where his head was torn completely free from his body. But, at least he's not letting it slow him down! The PC acts as though he had his total number of hitpoints before his \"death,\" and can walk around and act normally. His head won't stay on, however, without extra effort made to attach it (sewing or whatever would reasonably work). Should the PC keep his head separate, he gains immunity to flanking if his head is in a position to watch the fight. No creature will attack the severed head.
The head must be reattached before leaving the Mournlands or the PC will die upon leaving the mist.You can have the head reattach after a
while
if you are so inclined.
",
"A character doesn't pass out at -1 hp. Odd by it's self, until they get to -11 hp and realize that they aren't dead. They just keep going. They'll start to look a little disturbing at around -20, and at -30 it's going to be quite difficult to keep some of their limbs attached. It's funny until they realize that even though they can't make their severed hand move on its own, they can still feel it. Same for the leg that was cut off at -40. Eventually they should realize that if they don't do something about it soon, they'll be little more than a severed head that the rest of the party carries around, fully aware of every part of himself, but unable to make anything work. Sure they can move there eyes to look around, but they didn't know just how much they relied on moving there entire head to be aware of their surroundings (which will be quite hard to do, as they no longer have a neck that works), and they can move there lips and jaw, but without lungs or vocal cords, there's really no point.
When they start to feel fire ants eating that part of their leg that they lost a week ago in that field about a fifty miles away and realize that there 's nothing they can do about it but wish that one of the other members in the party will cast disintegrate their still living head will they will know why the gods bless mortals with a death at -10 hp.",
"The PCs walk through a field strewn with papers fluttering in the wind, blowing across the waving stalks of grass, ragged and torn. Cracked bindings and split covers lie cast about as though some ravenous creature had eviscerated a library. A large stack of books suddenly explodes into the air to their right as another flies through the air to their left. They race towards each other with pages flapping almost like manic chittering and you can practically hear their malicious intent as they race towards each other. (Use some swarms for the books' stats, it doesn't matter which. Something that won't hurt the PCs too badly.) As they meet with a snapping of covers and tearing of pages, both descend upon the PCs and engage in a three way combat where ink is spilled as often as blood.
What can I say ?
Ignorance is bliss.
",
"The PCs enter a windy little valley and come upon a horrific sight. At the center of the small valley is what appears to be a swirling wind, like a small tornado.
Carried within the churning, twisting column or air are countless parts of human bodies; hands, feet, forearms, thighs, torsos, heads.All of the parts appear to have been neatly, almost surgically, severed; though, the still visible blood around the edges hints that the separation was done
while the victims were still living.
As horrible as the\"body part tornado\" might appear at first, there is an even more terrible sight yet to see. Some of those severed hands are still clenching weapons. Some of the severed heads are looking around. Looking at the PCs with expressions of malice or longing. Some of them seem to scream \"Join us!\"
Slowly, splattering the ground beneath it in a constant shower of red, red blood, the tornado rumbles, twisting and churning, slowly towards the PCs....
",
"An alternate version of Dragonflames #949 -
The PCs find a graveyard and upon searching the graveyard they each locate a tombstone with their own name, their own date - of -birth, a phrase that is at least somewhat descriptive of them(\"Stalwart Paladin of the SF\" or \"Bold Warrior\" or \"Mighty Wizard\"), and a death date three days in the future....",
"The PCs fall asleep one night to awaken the next morning. But they are back at the begginning of the mist. None of the remember traveling further except one.",
"If the PCs notice it, their shadows make the normally dead, withered grass and flora become more vivid, alive and blooming. When their shadow moves from that spot, the grass reverts to its normal, pallid or dead state.",
"the party is approached by the ghostly form very young child. It is obviously that this is not a fight. Enter sob story (true story is detect lies is used). Kid is not evil either (no paladin pinging). She just wants the good guys to find her body and bury it outside of the mournlands. After we tracked down the girl’s body, she was killed by her father days before the mourning happened (father’s log). The problem is she does not remember things for long (think 50 first dates). Every so often the ghost appears and goes through a hysterical monolog. Screaming about kidnapping, or abuse, or just staring at one of us and crying as she floats along. Of course, if we dump the body the ghost stays with us and goes through the first encounter again and again.
Just as we approach the mists and the ghost stops making appearances.But we hear a voice coming towards us in the mists, it’ s the ghostly girl’ s voice.“Thank you so much
for helping me get my body out of this place.You are great heroes.I can’ t believe that anyone would kill a little girl like me in the first place..”
Of course a second voice answers her.“it is the duty of paladins to help innocents like you.”
Paladins stumble into us in the mist, crazy ghost girl screams“ Hey, that’ s my body.They must be the killers!Blah, blah, blah.Now we have to convince a bunch of SF paladins that we are innocent
while carrying a dead girl’ s body,
while not being able to see more than a few feet from us.
",
"The PCs come across an old house. Inside is a photographer talking about how no one shows up on his photos anymore. He wants to take a picture of the PCs. If they say no, he weeps and follows them, dragging his picture taking equipment with him. If they say yes, it shows each of them dead in some way. He looks at the pictures and says, \"Well, it's good to know I'll have some company.\"",
"Shamelessly ripped from the Dreamblade fiction:
A church lies silhouetted against the darkening sky and light shines forth from inside but...oddly, as though the walls were bare patchwork of stone.As the party approaches the size of the church becomes apparent and they see it
for what it truly is:
A massive cathedral, at least 5 storeys high complete with stained glass and a spire rising at least thirty feet above the roof of the building itself.The weathervane on top is difficult to distinguish in the fading evening sky...The light shines patchedly from inside because of the cathedral 's bulding materials; massive thorns grow from the ground, wrapping and warping around each other to form the walls, floors and ceiling of this dark cathedral.
What 's that sound? A whimper? Dear gods! The church is not uninhabited for there are people inside. However, each lays malevolently and utterly wrapped by the thorns, making movement agonizing at the least. Is that the mystical oracle the PCs were searching out up on the third storey there? What about the dark and twisted figure atop the weathervane? Is that the master of this place, dark, twisted and vile as the very walls?",
"A chill breeze blows in what at first appear to be a snowstorm, or perhaps ashes lifted from elsewhere in the Mournland; as it begins to fall around the party, however, it proves to be featherlight shreds of skin, the undersides still moist where it was torn away from the flesh.",
"As 961, but mixed in with the gruesome snow of skin are squalls of \"hail\" in the foirm of teeth, their bottoms bloody as if freshly torn from living jaws.",
"A small town where every living thing has been transformed into faintly purple-tinged crystal statues; those who can sense lifeforce will be certain that the statues harbor a kind of life, but the real horror is for any telepathic characters - each and every one of the statues contains the mind and soul of the creature it was before the Mourning, aware of the surroundings but frozen forever. Worse, unless a statue is utterly destroyed (by a Disintegrate spell, for example), any damage or breakage simply results in excrutiating pain to the trapped entity, which anyone with even a hint of psionic potential can feel.",
"A weird trick of the ground makes the PC's footsteps echo hollowly, as if they were walking atop an immense drum; after a short time, they begin to hear other footsteps echoing from behind them - however, if they look, nothing can be seen.",
"Mercury begins to drizzle from the skies, heavy drops of liquid metal impacting quite painfully on any unfortunate enough to be out in the open - to say nothing of the fumes and the potential poisoning of any wounds the liquid metal rolls across.",
"An immense magical seal is carved into the earth; at the center of it, a twitching mass of flesh squirms sluggishly, seemingly like a humanoid whose body parts have all been badly disorganized. It takes no notice of anyone, aside from squealing shrilly if injured and trying to squirm away rather unsuccessfully.",
"A statue of a half-elven man, sword drawn as if to strike some unseen foe;his face is set in a furious glare, looking deeper into the Mournlands. At first, it seems to be nothing more; but if the party lingers, they see thin trickles of smoke and flame rising from the corners of the statue's eyes, as if it were weeping fire at being denied the chance to strike whatever it confronted.",
"A pulsating sphere of colors; while essentially harmless, it seems to bend and distort the very geometry of existence around it, such that distances and angles seem off, and the inner ear feels constantly unbalanced. The effect is only noticable within 500 feet of the sphere, but anyone within this area is automatically considered shaken due to the unnerving effects of the bent universe. This is also a great time to unleash something like a rain of blood, as the droplets appear to jerks and refract through the air as they hit the broken and bent intersections of space around the sphere.",
"The ground underfoot trembles, and then explodes upward as a vast swarm of flying insects, bat, or ravens (DM's choice) erupt from underfoot, buffeting the entire party for several seconds before the entire swarm circles once overhead and vanishes off into the distance.",
"In an open, barren field, a solitary voice is singing a soft, lonely lament. It may or may not be a song with names; if it is, the voice just might be singing a lament for the characters.",
"A mass of insturments, drifting along above the ground as if held by musicians, playing a fugue.",
"The group encounters a blizzard frozen in time, thickly swirling flakes hovering in the air, unmelting. Characters can push through the snow, leaving tunnels in their shape behind them.",
"A rain of burning sulfur and phosphorous begins to fall like snowflakes made of fire.",
"It begins to rain, but each raindrop screams in a tiny voice, as if it were a living person falling to certain death. Best used as a light sprinkling rather than a full storm, so that the PCs hear individual screams approaching, zip by, and abruptly end.",
"The PCs are out on the plains. A wind blows fiercely past them. The PCs find themselves covered in blood. (They are considered covered in a Grease spell.) Then the blood coalesces, and from it rises crimson warriors. [I'd stat these as Karrnathi Undead, perhaps]",
"A warm breeze blows through the group, accompanied by the sound of feet running and the smell of a young woman's perfume. A moment later, a much stronger, foul-smelling wind blows through after the first, accompanied by the thunderous and uneven footsteps of a monster.",
"High-pitched whistling followed by the sounds of explosions, rapidly approaching the group, but nothing can be seen; the last explosion sounds as if it went off in the middle of the group, but nothing else occurs.",
"A small grove of trees, caught in a fierce windstorm that the party can't feel.",
"Sourceless, deranged laughter drifts across the party's path.",
"A river, filled with an abnormally thick pool of the mists, which seem to ripple and swirl like water. Who knows what might happen if you try fording this river?",
"A seemingly clear, clean river that flows out of a cave and over a small waterfall into a large hole in the ground. The water might be a potent acid, or perhaps liquid glass, or the source might be a living Fabricate spell, continually leeching the moisture from a whole battlefield of corpses to form the river. (And who would want to drink that, then?)",
"The mists from high overhead form a vortex, and head straight for the PC's.",
"A city made entirely of Obsidian sits in the plains. The citizens are made from marble, most are fleeing, but in the center of town are more. These statues are Karrnathi undead, only they are translucent red. They sit in orderly rows, all of them face towards the gruesome scene in the center. 10 people lay on the ground, above them are their children, only these children are like the undead surrounding them, the children were carving their parents to pieces...",
"On the glass plateau the PC's encounter a party of warforged. These warforged are covered in shards of the plain's glass and wield sabers of the same.",
"The ground liquifies. The PC's sink slowly, one notices a stick, when he grabs it the PC's are left half-buried in the dirt. The nearby river begins to flood, the ink black waters slowly rise towards them.",
"As the characters walk through the foreboding mists of the Mournlands a blue/purple smoke the color of a livid bruise starts to surround them. Slowly as they succumb to the smoke (constant fort saves as per smoke but no damage) they look at their flesh in horror as it starts to smolder with the same color smoke. Swiftly the meat on their bones dissolves and joins the billowing mass around them all that is left is bloody wet bones. Yet they discover that they are unharmed bar the fact that all skin, muscle and viscera are now invisible until they leave the Mournlands..............Of course now they run into the Thrane expedition.",
"The party encounters a Cleric of The Silver Flame. He sits in the middle of the Mournland. He keeps trying to resurrect a child that lies dead on the ground. If the party tries to interact with him in any way he attacks. In fact the moment he attacks his child resurrects.",
"The PC's encounter a dog roaming the plains. It comes up to the one with the highest charisma. It asks \"Where's Johnny?\" The PC's can follow the dogs direction to Metrol and retrieve the child's body. As soon as they hit the edge of the Mournland with it the child awakes and bites the PCs. Short story, brain switch.",
"The PC's all find themselves trapped in a cave. Water rushes through the bottom of the cave. In fact the water pushes everyone up towards the cieling at a fast rate. None of the PC's seem to notice the strange stench of blood, and only notice after they escape through the hole in the bottom of the cave, through which it was flowing.",
"Time stops. Literally, the PC's can move, but they can't interact with anything, and they feel no need to eat. Until they complete their objective time stops. This means that they can't fight monsters, but it also means they can't regain spells or open doors. They must figure out how to do their task without changing anything.",
"Time is too fast. Every monster is hasted and they find they are tired in half the time, of course magical effects are halved too. They need to do whatever they have to as fast as possible. Will they make it?",
"The PC's see Cyre as it was before the Mourning, in fact they don't' even percieve the mists. They go through and can attempt to find the reason for the day of the mourning, or they can try to free themselve from the disaster.",
"Living cures swarm the party. They make a concerted effort to carry one away and simply incapcitate the others.",
"A kalashtar lays on the ground crying. She rants about the pain, the massive amount of pain. If asked where it comes from she says the plane of dreams, as his spirit is tortured. She even warns them that theirs will be next/",
"Four shifters attack the party. Only these shifters have numerous warforged grafts and are variant saurian shifters. Perhaps the warforged in the Mournland were conducting experiments, perhaps the mourning did more than kill...",
"An airship lays on the ground. As the PC's approach the ship groans to life and attack the PC's, attempting to crush them.",
"A whirlwind of warforged and karrnathi parts attacks the PCS. The amalgamation cries for the blood of the flesh-beings and for construct, while fighting the PC's it fights itself.",
"The PC's enter Metrol, and find the old lightning rail station. The inside is presitine. The lighting rail still shocks with electricity. But despite that the place is filled with zombies. None attack the PCs, they file on and off with their luggage.",
"As 996, but with any elemental vessel.",
"A red glow looms over the horizon, and warped trolls come marching. They meet hordes of other abominations in battle. Will the PC's join for control of the Mournland?"
]