There are so many versions of horror, and all of them fit perfectly in the Dragonlance Setting. Let’s explore a few horror adventure seeds. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16960/time-of-the-dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Time Stamps
Transcript
Cold Open
Horror is ever present, and at times where you least expect it.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about horror adventure seeds for Dragonlance. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the long line of horror greats from novels to films. If I miss a genre element that you enjoy, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
With the coming Halloween season, I thought it would be fun to share some horror based adventure seeds that I believe fit in perfectly with Dragonlance. You see, Dragonlance is a high fantasy setting, but it is so much more than a war time setting. What’s great about horror is that it can be very large and impersonal, affecting whole nations or very small and intimate, only affecting one person. There are some baked-in horror tropes like Lord Soth and Nightlund, but when it comes to horror, I think taking the obvious road is just lazy. So today I will present a few ideas that exemplify various aspects and scales of horror that you can use a one-shot or fold seamlessly into your own campaigns. I may even present a setting or environment that you want to change to fit your campaign better, and that’s okay. Remember horror is best when it’s personal.
This first adventure seed is based on cosmic horror. In the Age of Starbirth, when Krynn was young, and the primordial forces had cooled on its surface, the gods were preparing to populate Krynn with its first people: the Elves, Ogres and Humans. But Krynn had been inhabited for millennia by the animals populated by the High God and among them were the Bakali. With the creation and corruption of the first Dragons, these Bakali began to form tribes, and worship the dragons. These venerable Wyrms taught the Bakali how to build, how to live in civilizations. But the gods grew angry and through the eons, the dragons were banished. In their absence from deep in the blackness of space, came the Mind Flayers. These intra-dimensional travelers moved from planet to planet, setting up hive-like swarms. They would create slaves from the races that inhabited the realms, and use them to feed, sucking their brains from their skulls, and to sacrifice to their patron mother, a being who is prophesied to come in fire to cleanse the land. This hive operated in secret in the unforgiving swaps of the Blackwater Glade on Taladas.
The native Bakali tribes were easily subjugated and used as both slaves and food for their cosmic masters. Then the Cataclysm came, and what had been the hopes of their prophecy fulfilled, instead those alien species were trapped, separated from their tribes and degenerated into the Yaggol, losing their psychic connection to their ancestors, and slowly dying out in this land torn asunder. But the Bakali needed to worship. They revered their masters and began mummifying their dead, maintaining the practice of feeding them by removing the brains of the sacrificial offerings. They even began practicing the consumption of brains themselves, and in these dark swamps, hunting parties would scour the land, terrifying local communities by abducting their men and women before they came of age, dragging them back to their ancient ziggurats, where they would conduct their horrific rites in honor of their long forgotten gods from beyond. Who knows, perhaps one day the prophecy will be fulfilled, and the beings from beyond will return.
This second adventure seed is much more intimate. It involves Jacinth Forrester, an old retired neighbor who has been homebound since Bethany, his wife’s passing. The children of Ravenscar in Solamnia have started telling stories about a ghost who appears to them, frightening them at night. They profess that it looks just like the late Bethany Forrester. Their parents thought it was nothing more than a convenient scary story to keep the children home, until they started going missing. The local marshal and town deputies have searched and cannot find any trace of them, but the ghost continues to terrorize the children. They called on old Jacinth, but he is clearly just a grieving old man, incapable of harming a fly. Upon hiring the adventurers to investigate, they find that the Ghost leaves and returns to the Forrester’s home every evening at dusk and dawn.
When they call on Jacinth, they learn nothing more than the marshall, but if they investigate the haunted house, they discover something much more insidious. Jacinth has been abducting the children and draining them of blood. The basement is filled with tunnels and those tunnels are filled with the empty husks that once were the towns sons and daughters. Etched in blood throughout these catacombs are spells and prayers to Chemosh the Lord of Death. And in the ritual chamber at the end of the catacombs is the mummified remains of Bethany, with the blood of the innocent seeping out of her soulless body. Jacinth has been trying to bring his one true love back, and in his utter sorrow, has turned to Chemosh. Bethanie’s ghost has been trying to thwart his plan, and stop his heinous acts of murder, by scaring the children away. Love and loss has a way of corrupting us, making us do things we would never consider possible. Jacinth wasn’t a bad man, just a man wracked by grief who was offered a chance at keeping his love alive.
The third adventure seed is a seaside tale. One that involved the Dargonesti and their ancient foe, Sagarassi, the sea witch. Industry has always been a potent form of building an economy, and on Saifhum, the shipbuilding trade is in full force. The downside of industry is the inevitable ecological disasters that seem to follow. The Northern Courrain ocean, and sea life has been poisoned for generations. The source of which is clear upon investigation, but stopping it is a different case entirely. There is a lighthouse on the north shore where during storms a young maiden can be found. She wails out a sorrowful lament with the crash of the Northern Courrain ocean acting as a symphony to her sorrow. Her tale is one of exile and revenge. Vale Quicksilver, the head of the Shipbuilders Guild has been seen roaming the shores at night in the storms. He claims she has promised him her heart, and has formed a coven of witches around her. When they have succeeded in decimating this land, she will grant them eternal life under the sea, and gift them immeasurable power.
The adventurers are approached by the Dargonesti, and asked to investigate the town, and put a stop to the ecological disaster. But it is easier said than done, as upon investigation, they discover the entire town is part of this coven, and they are very wary of outsiders. The whole town has cut itself off from the rest of the island, and they take care of interlopers by making them disappear. Their favorite method is to chain them up on low tide in a cave where the sea witch appears. There is never a body to be recovered. The townsfolk themselves seem to be manifesting physical deformities that echo their internal corruption, as scales and fins are growing, to allow them to live in the deep. This is a very Lovecraftian story that deals with a seemingly clear goal, which quickly descends to madness as the party becomes the hunted with nowhere to hide. Can the adventurers stop the coven before they begin to suffer the same environmental effects corrupting the townsfolk? Will the Sea Witch Sagarassi confront them herself? And can they escape madness even if they do stop the coven?
The key to horror is to slowly unveil the truth of the tale. Holding back until the very end so the party truly thinks they understand the black and white nature of the setup, before having the rug pulled out from beneath them. In the first seed it’s the fear of an extradimensional force and the primitive barbarism in preparation of it. In the second it’s the bait and switch of hunting a ghost to learn it was a force of good and it’s her widower is the evil one. In the last, an entire community is perpetrating an ecological disaster because they’ve been corrupted by a sea witch who is slowly turning them into monsters. None of them need to have a happy resolution, as horror doesn’t require one, but you should either use the fear, horror and madness rules, or craft your own in the game system you are playing to truly add depth to the adventures.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about these horror adventure seeds for Dragonlance. What do you think of the stories? Do you have any you would like to share with the community? And finally, do you enjoy adding seasonal horror to your campaigns? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
It is best to look ahead, not behind. What’s done is done. You cannot change it.
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