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D&D Ideas — Creepy

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is the creepy, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of creepy the beetles, centipedes and other deep living creepy crawlies creep adventurers out during an encounter with an insectoid knight and the horrendous creature tormenting it. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Bring the party to the party from the week that was! Discuss the points and counterpoints of spellcasting, wield power from the deepest depths and create all the party favors you’ll need plus a new live chats and game play round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Our topic was creepy so here are 50 creepy things to throw into your 5E D&D game.

1. Spiders pour out of the eye sockets of a skull — more than could have fit in it.
2. Maggots pour out of the eye sockets of a skull — more than could have fit in it.
3. Flies pour out of the eye sockets of a skull — more than could have fit in it.
4. Moths pour out of the eye sockets of a skull — more than could have fit in it.
5. The walls pulse in and out as if breathing.
6. A statue or statues weep bloody tears.
7. A statue or statues weep tears.
8. A statue or statues move, but only in your peripheral vision.
9. A lit fireplace but instead of the sound of crackling fire coming from it you hear screams of pain.
10. The floor is carpeted with maggots. The stench is awful and you can hear them writhing around together.
11. Children giggling and calling out for their parents.
12. Dolls of each of you sitting on a table. Any current wounds are depicted on your doll.
13. Dolls of you sitting on a table but the gear is all mixed up between the adventuring party of dolls.
14. Dolls of each of you resting in small coffins on a table. They appear to be dead.
15. Dolls of you sitting on a table but the head has been ripped off and is sitting next to the body.
16. A fountain flowing with blood instead of water.
17. A fountain flowing with black ichor instead of water.
18. Mirrors reflecting monstrous versions of you.
19. Mirrors reflecting old and feeble versions of you.
20. Mirrors reflecting emaciated versions of you.
21. Mirrors reflecting a dead version of you.
22. Cobblestones hissing in pain when you step on them.
23. Cobblestones moaning in pleasure when you step on them.
24. Cobblestones with blood seeping up from beneath when you step on them.
25. You walk through invisible spiderwebs.
26. Trees weeping blood.
27. Trees weeping black ichor.
28. Trees move, but only in your peripheral vision.
29. Trees whose leaves rustling in the wind sound like giggling.
30. Trees whose leaves rustling in the wind sound like crying.
31. Trees whose leaves rustling in the wind sound like moans of pleasure.
32. Trees whose leaves rustling in the wind sound like moans of pain.
33. A large rock weeping tears.
34. A large rock weeping blood.
35. A large rock moves when you aren’t looking at it.
36. A large rock giggles when you touch it.
37. A door sighs when you open it.
38. A door says ouch when you close it.
39. A door says “yes” when you grasp the handle.
40. A door says “I beg your pardon” when you grasp the handle.
41. A statute of you. Any current wounds you have are sculpted on it.
42. A statute of you. But a monstrous version of you.
43. A statute of you. But it appears to be a dead version of you.
44. A statute of you. But the head rests in the crook of your elbow.
45. A statute of you. But it weeps tears of blood.
46. A statute of you. But it weeps tears.
47. You find a corpse. It’s you.
48. A delicious looking fruit full of maggots on the inside if you cut it open or bite into it.
49. A delicious looking fruit full of blood on the inside if you cut it open or bite into it.
50. A delicious looking fruit full of black ichor on the inside if you cut it open or bite into it.

From Ted’s Head

With Halloween just past this topic is still showing up as people are posting pics of their Halloween costumes. My family went as a stick figure family all done up front and back with glow sticks. It came out pretty well and was rather inexpensive. While visually not creepy, seeing a glowing stick figure walking around while the person wearing all black is unseen attached to it might just be creepy.

When we did the live chat over on the Nerdarchy Live we had some fun things for Nerdarchist Dave and I to talk about. He issued a challenge and I feel I as a monster designer I would be remiss if I did not take him up on it. I love mimics and he asked for the Wagon Mimic. You hear that mini companies? Now I need a Wagon Mimic mini. Without further ado let’s get into the Wagon Mimic.

Wagon Mimic

Huge monstrosity, typically neutral

Armor Class 14 (Natural Armor)

Hit Points 100 (10d12 + 30)

Speed 30 ft.

• STR: 21 (+5)
• DEX: 12 (+1)
• CON: 17 (+3)
• INT: 10 (+0)
• WIS: 16 (+3)
• CHA: 10 (+0)

Saving Throws CON +6, WIS +6

Skills Persuasion +3, Stealth +6

Condition Immunities Prone

Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 13

Languages Common

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

False Appearance (Wagon Form Only). If the mimic is motionless at the start of combat, it has advantage on its initiative roll.

Actions

Multiattack. The mimic makes one Bite attack and two Pseudopod attacks.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) acid damage.

Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the mimic adheres to the target. A creature adhered to the mimic is also grappled by it (escape DC 16). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained. Ability checks made to escape this grapple have disadvantage.

Rolling Charge (Recharge 5-6). The Wagon Mimic moves its speed in a straight line. All creatures within the path the creature moves must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 16 (2d10 +5) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) acid damage and are knocked prone. If you succeed on the save you take half damage and are not knocked prone. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Shapechanger. The mimic transforms into a wagon or back into its true, amorphous form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

If the Wagon Mimic is not enough mimic you can find more mimic related stuff over at Nerdarchy the Website like this post about why adventurers ought to fear the mighty morphing mimic monster or this one asking if shapechangers are taking over your campaign setting right under your nose. And adventurers enjoy gambling may regret hitting the jackpot at the Pool of Bliss where mimic slot machines are more than happy to part fools from their gold pieces.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Usually whenever the D&D discussion touches on creepy stuff my thoughts turn to giant insects. I’ve mentioned it many times and Nerdarchists Dave and Ted even invoked me during the live chat when they talked about how in real life a regular ol’ centipede is gross and creepy so the giant versions we encounter in 5E D&D up the creepy factor by orders of magnitude. We even have a monstrosity version of these many-legged creepy crawlies in the form of the classic carrion crawler monster.

But for this editorial I’ll share an experience from my own games. In fact this tale comes from the campaign that evolved into our Tuesday night games at Nerdarchy Live.

The go-to starting town in my campaign setting features a relatively close connection to the Feywild (what I call the Dreaming World) and players very often gravitate towards this aspect of the world. I don’t go out of my way to highlight this connection so what can I say? Players dig this sort of stuff I suppose.

In our Nerdarchy Team campaign the characters grew interested in the predicament of a reclusive wizard who isolated themselves inside their lighthouse abode because of the creepy yeth hound plaguing him. The party agreed to do something about this and set out towards the deep forest. Their excursion led them to an encounter with Thessaly Threefaces, a dusk hag who rides an animated four-poster bed with opaque drapes and viewers can only see a shape inside with two eyes burning like hot coals.

Thessaly acted as a quest giver for the party, instructing them the steps they’d need to take in order to get to the bottom of their yeth hound problem. I developed Thessaly because I wanted a hag lurking about the fringes of the Waking World and Dreaming World and looking through the variety of hags the dusk hag jumped right out. They share a strong connection with dreams and prophecies, which fit perfectly. These wonderful additions to the hag family found in Eberron: Rising from the Last War include a terrific section on Dusk Hag Prophecies and I used this to structure the whole multitiered adventure.

Unfortunately a problem arose somewhere along the way. The players decided they no longer trusted her and starting making plans to take her out! Despite no threatening gestures or words after several interactions and indeed Thessaly providing assistance to the party their attitudes changed.

What happened?

I think for good or ill I must have portrayed Thessaly as too creepy. Her three faces (a child, a middle aged woman and an old crone) probably contributed. Each time they encountered her the veiled face they saw was different so perhaps they thought her menace was escalating. Maybe they concluded the quests she sent them on carried nefarious undertones. It might even have been a touch of meta-thinking on the players part because they know hags are generally deceptive and evil.

Whatever the reason my takeaway from the experience was to tread carefully when it comes to creepy stuff. From a DM perspective you know your own intentions and those of the entities in the setting but the players and their characters can never be quite certain. What felt like a blunder on my part may have simply been the players acting pre-emptively heroic from their point of view. (The nature of heroism as reactive rather than active is a discussion for another time!)

At any rate the campaign fizzled out before the party confronted Thessaly Threefaces again. The wizard remains haunted by the yeth hound and the dusk hag still crashes and thumps through the deep forest on her four-poster bed dreaming dark dreams waiting for the next party of adventurers to show off how creepy she can be.

*Featured image — An insectoid cave dweller is tormented by an imaginary beast and this figment can be battled and bested to win the insect’s loyalty along with 54 other dynamic Out of the Box encounters ready to drop right into your Fifth Edition games. Check it out here.

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