D&D5E - Horror - Once More 1.0
D&D5E - Horror - Once More 1.0
By the way, that cover art comes from Grinding Gear Games, and their
concept art for Path of Exile’s “War for the Atlas” expansion.
OTHER PC GUIDELINES
BACKSTORY
PC LEVEL CONSIDERATIONS
WHAT YOU TELL THE PLAYERS
WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON
Here’s a nice view of Anaris Keep. Alternately, it’s just an art asset that
I blatantly cribbed from InnoGames’ browser game Tribal Wars 2.
No, this is fine. Everything is going to be fine,
don’t worry about it. This friendly piece of
Path of Exile fanart comes from wacalac.
STARTING THE GAME ARCANE BALLISTA
LABORATORY #1 (7)
ABOUT RESTS
WITH THE GEM
You might want to think carefully about how you handle short
or long rests during the course of this adventure. It’s entirely
reasonable that the PCs will try to take a short or long rest
during their stay here. However, if they put it off for too long,
their rest is likely to be interrupted by one (or more) attacks. In
addition, the rests that the PCs complete will drastically affect
the number and difficulty of encounters that the PCs will be
able to survive over the course of this adventure: feel free to
balance things on the fly to account for this.
LABORATORY #2 (8) A NOTE ABOUT NOTES
These notes are designed to be handed out the players to
provide some direct quotations from the notes PCs are
perusing, and supplement the more general information
narrated by the DM. Rather than just handing them out as-is,
you’ll definitely want to take some time to tailor them do your
specific PCs. I’ve put various parts of the notes [in brackets] to
indicate places where you should substitute in their names,
with suggestions as for which class or type of character would
be appropriate for that note. I would also highly recommend
dropping some trivial notes here, along with some
“bombshells:” have the PCs’ past selves mention names that
the players don’t recognize, but are implied to be past
teammates, siblings, significant others, etc.
THE GEM OF SEEING
HANDLING RESEARCH
Here’s a gem of seeing. It’s literally just the picture of the gem of
seeing from the 5e “Dungeon Master’s Guide” (you know, the one
from Wizards of the Coast).
THE MEMORY AIRLOCK
ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰﻻ
֎֢
͍῭ⴟﻫ
ⱡ ⁞‾ﻻ
Ͳ͚ࢰ̐ ࣺ҈
؇אჱὧ ͇
͌ﬓ
RIFTLINGS
ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰﻻ
֎֢
֎ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰﻻ
Medium aberration, unaligned
Actions
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage and the ֎ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰ ﻻattaches
to the target. While attached, the ֎ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰ ﻻmoves with the
target, and the target’s speed is reduced by 10 feet.
The ֎ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰ ﻻcan detach itself by spending 5 feet of its
movement. In addition, a creature that uses its action and
succeeds on a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity
(Acrobatics) check can detach 1d3 ֎ꝸѦ̻↨┘ꝰﻻs from itself or a
willing creature within 5 feet.
GIANT FUCKOFF SPIDERS HARBINGER OF ؇אჱὧ‡ﬓ
͇͌
Large aberration, unaligned
Actions
THE HARBINGER Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.
؇אჱὧ ͇
͌ﬓ Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 13 (3d8) psychic
damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 19 Intelligence
saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Tendril Field (Recharge 6). Each creature of the harbinger’s
choice within 10 feet of it must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving
throw. On a failure the target takes 22 (5d8) pyschic damage
and is blinded and restrained by dark spectral tendrils. An
affected creature takes 22 (5d8) pyschic damage at the start of
each of the harbinger’s turns. The creature can repeat the
saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect
on itself on a success.
Legendary Actions
The harbinger of ؇אჱὧ‡ﬓ can take 3 legendary actions,
choosing from the options below. Only one legendary option
can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s
turn. The harbinger regains spent legendary actions at the start
of its turn.
Move. The harbinger moves up to its speed without provoking
attacks of opportunity.
Cantrip (Costs 2 Actions). The harbinger casts one cantrip.
Slam (Costs 2 Actions). The harbinger makes one slam attack.
Feed (Costs 3 Actions). Each creature restrained by the
harbinger’s Tendril Field takes 13 (3d8) psychic damage, and
the harbinger gains 6 temporary hit points.
COMBAT ENCOUNTERS ENCOUNTER #6: THE END
ENCOUNTER #1: JUST EYES adventure revolves around monsters who can remove victims
from living memory, wouldn’t it be cool if the monsters here
could simply erase parts of the PCs’ pasts? Here’s what I
recommend: every time a PC fails a saving throw against a
harbinger’s slam or the lonely’s Sorrowful Embrace, or just
takes damage from the harbinger’s Feed action, delete
something from their character sheet. Maybe a skill proficiency,
a known spell, or a ribbon class feature. Don’t announce this,
just quietly alter their character sheet. If the player tries to use a
removed ability, look at them with a confused look on your face
and say “[Feature]? No, [PC name] has never had [Feature],
what are you talking about?”
ENCOUNTER #3: ESCALATION
ENCOUNTER #4: MORE CREEP
ENCOUNTER #5: HARBINGER
THE SECOND BUNKER
EXITING THE BUNKER
GETTING THERE
Another piece of Path of Exile fanart, this
time from Alex Manis.
BORING STUFF