It’s been a while since I last wrote about adventure ideas you can use in your D&D campaigns, and it seems fitting to write about horror adventures this time with Halloween just around the corner. Truly horrifying adventures are notoriously difficult to capture in Dungeons & Dragons, and I will admit upfront you’ll need to do some heavy lifting even with the adventures I pose below.
Horror is built upon two sensations: powerlessness and the uncanny. Our survival instincts tell us to fight an opponent or flee from it, and true horror comes when both options are taken from us. In a game of D&D, you create individuals who intentionally stand out from the rest and can use a greater array of abilities to accomplish their many tasks while adventuring. Stripping characters of these abilities for more than a few moments to create the sense of powerlessness fosters agitation rather than fear.
Uncanny threats, meanwhile, disarm us psychologically. It’s why many horror monsters have an unsettling number of limbs, orifices in strange places (mouths instead of eyes, anyone?), make uncharacteristic sounds (or simply have the gift of mimicry), or have features that conflict with what we would otherwise expect. Dungeons & Dragons can accomplish a feeling of the uncanny easier than powerlessness…once or twice. Once a horror has been experienced multiple times, the characters begin to rationalize what makes the horror work, normalizing it.
This isn’t to dissuade you from attempting horror in D&D, but you need to know this system is rarely going to deliver the terror you might expect. If you want that level of fright, I cannot recommend Call of Cthulhu or Dread enough. So, if you’re resolute on incorporating horror in D&D, let’s keep going!
To me, the indisputable king of horror was Edgar Allan Poe. From the Tell-Tale Heart to The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe evoked terror from paper the likes of which I have rarely felt from other great horror authors like Steven King. And, given the decidedly gothic nature of much of Poe’s work, I feel his subject matter fits better with D&D than other, more recent, works. So, in this post we’re going to see how to transform two incredible stories from Edgar Allan Poe into horrific adventures for your Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition games.
If a work contains particularly problematic material, a Content Warning will be made available below the work’s title.
The Black Cat
Year Published: 1845
Story Content Warning: Animal Cruelty; Domestic Violence; Alcohol Abuse
Recommended Party Size: 4 Characters of 1st-4th levels
The first night in town, the party is approached by a haggard and distraught individual claiming to pay the characters a small fortune for their protection. When asked, the client says they are being pursued by something lurking in the shadows, recalling a single ghastly eye staring at them from the dark. The client insists the party defend the client in their home. That same night, a huge, ghostly black cat strikes out at the client, going for their throat unless stopped. Before it is slain, the ghost disappears through the floor, into the cellar below. Reducing the ghost to 0 hit points does not kill it; it returns to the client’s cellar until the following night.
If the party insists on staying at the inn, the ghost cat flees through town. If the characters do not chase after the cat, it returns every night until followed back to the house. In the cellar, the characters discover nothing amiss, originally. The ghost cat appears again, and its actions depend on whether or not the client is with the party. If the client is there, the cat is thrown into a fury and attacks again until forcefully dispersed. If the client is not present, the cat appears, this time the size of a house cat, pawing at a nearby wall. Breaking down the wall reveals the corpses of the client’s partner (the party won’t know this at the time) and a black cat.
When confronted, you may have the client say they have no idea how the bodies got there. In truth, the client killed their partner and hid the body in the wall, not realizing the cat crawled inside the space before it was sealed. The cat’s rage persisted beyond death and will not be sated until the partner’s death is righted.
This adventure could serve as a grim diversion from your campaign’s main adventure, rewarding needed information (in the form of discovered texts or a grateful guard’s rumors), some extra spending money, or a favor from the local guards. I would definitely cut the source material’s use of domestic violence or descriptions of animal abuse; they would only serve to upset players and aren’t needed to capture the horror here. Even if players know how D&D ghosts work, making it a large cat and having it come back every night will already throw them off. Perhaps have the ghost’s arrival preceded by faint meows echoing through the halls, or lightning strikes reveal a cat-like shadow against the walls.
Masque of the Red Death
Year Published: 1850
Recommended Party Size: 4-5 Characters of 1st-4th level
There are actually a couple ways I could see this story handled. In the first, the adventurers are informed of a long-abandoned estate which has recently come back onto the market. A potential buyer, however, has heard rumors that the estate was once the site of a terrible massacre and hires the party to investigate. The family who owned the estate has died out, and local libraries only reference a terrible plague known as the Red Death has swept across the land ages ago.
Exploring the grounds, the characters pass through the iron gates of the castellated walls and see where heavy bars of steel have been pried away to open the gates. The courtyard is littered with skeletal remains and the remnants of reveler’s clothing. Inside the vista, each room is bathed in singularly-colored light from the stained glass windows. The bodies here, however, are more preserved with red streaks running down their faces, arms, and legs. Their celebratory clothing is well kept yet noticeably raked by claw marks.
The final room of the vista, bathed in black light, holds a single ebony-colored clock. As the party enters, the clock strikes twelve, and the vista’s inhabitants reanimate. The adventure quickly turns into a gauntlet of nightmares as plague-ridden undead harry the characters in their bid to escape. The final confrontation is against Baron Fortuna, the original owner of this estate, who risks bringing back the Red Death to the land if not put down.
I would make each room of the vista unique by adding unsettling sounds (like warped reveler’s music playing from an unknown source), miniature puzzles (a skill challenge, even?), and macabre displays as the inhabitants tried to flee from the plague-stricken Baron. This adventure could serve as the beginning to a plague apocalypse story, as the character unwittingly bring the Red Death back with them, or as the search for a refuge from an existing pestilence.
Alternatively, the characters could be guests of Baron Fortuna (either a reward for a previous quest or a character has the Noble background) invited to a masquerade party. In this case, allow the characters to explore the vista or the grounds for a bit, realizing the front gates have been welded shut. As the ebony clock strikes midnight, a plague-ridden zombie rips through the vista, infecting the other revelers and quickly turning into a Dawn of the Dead scenario.
Conclusion
Before starting either of these adventures, read the source materials (available here and elsewhere) to fully capture the terrifying spirit of Poe’s work. Use his diction, like describing the cat as an enraged phantasm, to evoke feelings of the eerie and unknown in your players. When attempting powerlessness, remember to be careful in how it’s executed. A round of paralysis (or restrained may work better) here or there is usually fine, while making creatures completely immune to mundane or magical damage will often lead to anger and disinterest.
There are so many more stories we can cover, but what do you think of these first two attempts? Would you consider using The Black Cat or Red Death as part of your campaigns, why or why not?
Until next time,
Matthew Wulf
Want to stay up to date with the latest happenings on Critical Hit Guru? Click the Follow button and type the email address you want to receive notifications for new posts!
I’m Dungeon Master’s Guild official! To view my currently-available products, search for Matthew Wulf or click here!
We’re now on Twitter and Facebook! Search for @CriticalHitGuru on Twitter and the Critical Hit Guru page on Facebook to chat, ask questions, or just stay in the loop.
Amethyst Wulf Games 