Running a successful Dungeons & Dragons game in the horror genre is primarily about tone and feel, about the way you design and run the adventure or the campaign. That said, a creative approach to the standard rules of D&D can help to reinforce the atmosphere of dread in your game. When you tell a player that dread seizes his character like a cold undead hand clenching his heart, that can be effective. When you back that up by telling him that the character is staggered for a round because of that sense of dread, the player starts to become as scared as the character.
The rules in this chapter are designed so that you can integrate them into a campaign as you see fit, with no heavy-handed impositions of fear penalties and the like. You don’t want your players to cry out, “Hey, I’ve fought vampires before and never been scared just by seeing one!” because you’ve just started using a new rule designed to encourage a sense of horror in your game. In a case like that, there needs to be some understanding between the players and the Dungeon Master, so the players have an accurate expectation of how the rules of the game are going to work for them and their characters.
On the other hand, you can easily incorporate taint mechanics into an ongoing campaign, with a reasonable explanation of why the PCs have never encountered it before. It might have arisen from an extraplanar invasion or a planar conjunction, materialized as the result of a horrific magical experiment gone terribly awry, or appeared as the manifestation of divine judgment on evildoers. Or the PCs might simply never have encountered it before. So too with the other new mechanics in this section.
At the heart of a successful horror adventure or campaign is a sense of dread. Dread is a complex emotion that includes fear of what is being faced as well as fear of what might lurk around the next corner, horror in response to appalling scenes or monsters, and a building sense of dismay at the increasing disintegration of all that one holds dear.
The key aspect of dread is that, in a well-designed adventure (or movie, novel, or ongoing campaign), it increases gradually over time. What might begin as a bit of anxiety upon approaching an ancient crypt grows over time to full-fledged panic in the face of the ancient lich-lord who dwells within. A mild frustration at a small wound becomes dismay when even clerical magic fails to heal it and increases to horror as the wound spreads, the limb withers, and eventually the body part transforms into a sentient undead thing—all while still affixed in its customary place.
The variety of conditions, with their rules effects (detailed in Conditions), can reinforce this sense of accumulating dread. One example of a condition that can model an increasing degree of dread is character fear in its various states—shaken, frightened, and panicked, along with the related cowering. However, once a character progresses beyond being shaken, she is effectively out of play, running from the source of her fear. So in addition to the well-defined fear conditions, the DM can use other conditions to model other incapacitating states of dread (see below) with the potential to increase as the ongoing revelations of the adventure take their toll on the PCs’ mental and physical fortitude.
Setting Saving Throw DCs: When determining the saving throw DC for a dread effect, consider the following factors: the level of the PCs, the severity of the situation, and the danger the PCs face. High-level PCs have better saving throws, so a good rule of thumb is to set the baseline DC at 10 + the average party level. Very horrific situations involving other PCs or NPCs the characters know well should increase the DC by +2 to +4. If the situation involves clear, imminent danger to the characters, increase the DC by another +2 to +4.
Characters who suddenly face scenes or creatures of utter horror might become dazed, stunned, or even paralyzed, usually just for a single round. Some situations might force characters to make a Will save, with a successful save indicating the character is only dazed, while a failed save indicates that the character is stunned. You can treat dazed, stunned, and paralyzed as a spectrum from least to most severe.
Examples: When Mialee is 12th level, her mentor reveals that he is secretly a lich and explains that he has been grooming Mialee to undergo the transformation to undeath herself. This is a signifi cantly horrifi c situation, but the mentor remains friendly—at least until Mialee rejects him. If she fails a DC 24 Will save, she is dazed for 1 round.
Eberk (a 9th-level cleric) enters a back room in a temple of Moradin expecting to find a friendly cleric and stumbles into a circle of half-fiends engaged in sacrificing a dwarf on Moradin’s altar. This is a dramatically horrific situation, and Eberk is in grave danger. If he makes a successful DC 25 Will save, he is only dazed for 1 round; if he fails, he is stunned for 1 round.
You could replace the effects of a devil’s fear aura with the following rule: A creature in the area must succeed on a Will save (DC as stated in the creature description) or become stunned. A stunned creature can repeat the saving throw each round on its turn to attempt to shake off the effects. This is a full-round action.
While shock describes the short-term effects of sudden exposure to horrific things, weariness results from prolonged exposure to horror. Characters might become fatigued after a particularly horrible encounter, and exhausted after a series of them. Characters can typically avoid weariness with successful Fortitude saves, although in some situations a Will save might be more appropriate. You can treat fatigued, exhausted, and staggered as a spectrum from least to most severe.
Examples: Vadania and Alhandra have been carefully making their way through extensive catacombs filled with animated skeletons. They enter a room where a charnel pit full of bones—an enormous undead mass grave—animates to attack them as a single creature. Coming at the end of a series of mildly horrific encounters, this encounter threatens their stability. Each of the 7th-level characters must succeed on a DC 19 Fortitude save or become fatigued.
After Lidda’s death and Jozan’s appearance at the head of a vampire legion, things keep getting worse for Tordek and Mialee. They find Regdar broken on a rack, the skin flayed from his body. They discover that Soveliss has been possessed and is slowly transforming into a half-fiend. And then Jozan casts dominate person on Tordek and turns him against Mialee. Though she subdues him, the cumulative experience is mentally and emotionally draining. Mialee (who is 9th level) must make a DC 27 Will save. If she succeeds she is only fatigued, but if she fails she becomes exhausted.
The presence of overwhelming evil, scenes of gore, or creatures of true vileness can make characters physically ill. Creatures such as ghasts and troglodytes have special attacks that can sicken characters, while the mingled stench and aura of evil surrounding a hezrou can nauseate characters. These situations typically allow a Fortitude save. You can treat sickened, nauseated, and disabled as a spectrum from least to most severe. Characters disabled from illness who take damage from performing standard actions don’t necessarily become dying as a result.
The crushing despair spell creates a condition identical to being sickened, so you can also use these conditions for characters who become overwhelmed with despair. In this case, the subject can attempt a Will save to avoid the effects.
Examples: Walking through a dark forest, Vadania feels something dripping from an overhanging branch onto her neck. She touches it, brings her fingers close to her face, and inhales the bitter tang of blood. Looking up into the tree, she sees dozens of corpses in various states of decay hanging among the branches. Right above her is a fresh corpse, still raining blood from where the sharp branches impaled it. Vadania is 13th level, and while this situation is grisly, the danger is not immediately apparent and no one close to her is involved. If she fails a DC 24 Fortitude save, she is sickened for 1d8 rounds.
After becoming separated from his partner in a tomb complex, Hennet (at 10th level) finally finds Tordek leaning against a wall. The dwarf doesn’t respond to Hennet’s voice, though, and finally Hennet grabs his shoulder and shakes him. Tordek’s armor collapses to the ground while a wave of foul-smelling slime splashes around it. Hennet must succeed on a DC 27 Fortitude save or become nauseated. Even if he succeeds, he is sickened for 1d6 rounds.
You could replace the effects of a mummy’s despair ability with the following rule: At the first sight of a mummy, the viewer must succeed on a DC 16 Will save or be overcome with despair for the duration of the encounter. The character is treated as sickened while this effect lasts.
Scenes of horror can transfix characters, commanding their complete attention and shutting out any other sensory information. Such situations are similar to those that cause shock, but affected characters might become fascinated or even confused.
Characters can usually avoid these conditions with a successful Will save. Sometimes, a successful Will save means a character is only fascinated, while a failed save indicates that a character becomes confused.
Example: Making her way through an apparently abandoned mansion, Ember cautiously cracks opens a door leading to the attic. The soft sound of tinkling music reaches her ears, and she throws the door open. Dozens of music boxes are playing. They rest on shelves, tables, nightstands—every available horizontal surface in the room. On top of each music box is a small glass dome containing a tiny humanoid figure dancing wildly—townspeople who have gone missing. Ember is 6th level, and the situation is more bizarre than truly horrific. If she fails a DC 16 Will save, she becomes fascinated for 1d6 rounds, simply staring in near-catatonic wonder at the tiny dancing figures.
To some degree, fear is part of every D&D game. The rules describe several character conditions related to fear—shaken, panicked, frightened, and cowering—and a number of spells, monsters, and items that can bestow these conditions on characters. The DM in a horror game should make use of these conditions, but sparingly.
Why sparingly? Because handing out a condition like frightened is not very effective at scaring a player. It’s actually more frustrating than it is frightening, because the character is effectively taken out of the action until the fear condition is removed. It can be amusing, it can certainly be deadly, but it is rarely horrific.
Instead of imposing fear-related character conditions, the DM in a horror game can use various techniques to encourage the players to roleplay the fear their characters are experiencing. Some particularly effective techniques are discussed in the first chapters of this book. One such technique is very basic: present the characters with an encounter that is clearly too difficult for them to overcome. In such a situation, the players will simply fear for their characters’ lives and roleplay the characters’ retreat with all possible haste from the encounter.
Using this technique requires care. Many D&D players are conditioned to expect that their characters will be able to handle anything they encounter. Despite the advice in the Dungeon Master’s Guide suggesting that some 5% of all the encounters in an adventure should be overpowering (EL 5 or more above the PCs’ average level), many D&D groups are unaccustomed to such encounters and expect that they will be able to overcome every encounter and never need to run away. If you plan to use overpoweringly difficult encounters, it’s a good idea to remind the players ahead of time that they might occasionally (or frequently!) encounter things too strong for them to defeat, and that there is no dishonor in running from a deadly encounter.
Whether they are shaken, frightened, or panicked, characters affected by most fear conditions take the same penalties: –2 on attack rolls (if they can attack at all), saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Once a character becomes frightened, however, her usefulness in an encounter is extraordinarily limited. In a campaign where fear becomes common, a variant frightened condition can be more appropriate.
A number of monster special abilities cause their targets to become paralyzed with fear, such as a mummy’s despair ability and a vargouille’s shriek. The DM can use existing character conditions to represent an extreme degree of fear.
With this optional rule for the frightened condition, a character who is frightened is not forced to flee from the source of her fear. Instead, this condition imposes a –4 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. A frightened creature subjected to another similar effect (but not the same spell or effect) becomes panicked instead. This optional rule allows fear to escalate more slowly and allows for more differentiation between the panicked and frightened conditions.
Fear breeds fear. A character who is shaken becomes more susceptible to fear effects: If another effect would make him shaken again, he becomes frightened instead. If an effect would make him frightened, he instead becomes panicked. Similarly, an already frightened character who is subjected to another fear effect becomes panicked.
As a general rule, multiple exposures to the same spell or effect do not trigger this escalation of fear. Thus, casting doom on a target twice does not make it frightened. However, casting doom and then cause fear will create a heightened state of fear: The target is panicked if it fails its save against cause fear, or frightened if it succeeds (assuming it already failed its save against the doom, of course). Similarly, a character fighting two dragons does not become frightened if the frightful presence of both dragons would make her shaken—the two dragons’ frightful presence abilities are considered the same effect.
The durations of the different fear effects are not relevant. If a creature subject to doom becomes panicked as a result of a cause fear spell, it is panicked for the full duration of cause fear, even if the doom spell’s duration expires before the cause fear spell’s duration does.
One effective way of using the fear-related character conditions in a horror game is through phobias.
Phobias occur in three degrees of severity: mild, moderate, and severe. Characters can be given mild phobias by the DM either as part of that character’s background or due to some strange event that character experiences. Any level of phobia might occur as a result of depravity (see The Taint of Evil). When a character with a mild phobia encounters the object of her phobia, she must make a successful Will save or become shaken. The DC of the save equals 12 + the CR of the challenge that is the object of the phobia. (Treat CRs of less than 1 as 0.)
A moderate phobia requires the character to succeed on a Will save (DC 14 + the CR of the challenge) or become frightened.
A severe phobia requires the character to succeed on a Will save (DC 16 + the CR of the challenge) or become panicked.
The normal rules for stacking fear effects apply to phobias as well. If a character becomes shaken from exposure to an object of her phobia, a second exposure to a different object while she is still shaken makes her frightened. An encounter with a group of creatures of the same kind counts as a single exposure, even if more creatures of the same kind appear in the middle of the encounter. However, if a character with a phobia about vermin is fighting a group of monstrous centipedes when a monstrous spider suddenly appears, this different type of vermin counts as a second exposure to a different object.
A player (or the DM in some cases) can choose any of the following creature types as the object of a character’s phobia: aberrations, animals, constructs, dragons, elementals and fey, giants and monstrous humanoids, magical beasts, oozes and vermin, outsiders, plants, or undead.
In addition, characters can have phobias regarding the following situations:
Cramped Quarters: This phobia can by activated by any situation that calls for an Escape Artist check, including grappling. It also applies whenever the character is paralyzed. The effective CR equals the CR of the creature grapplling the character, or 1 for every 5 points by which the DC of the Escape Artist check exceeds 10, or the saving throw DC of the paralysis effect –10. A character with this phobia can never initiate a grapple.
Darkness: This phobia applies whenever the character is in shadowy illumination or complete darkness. Darkvision does not negate this phobia, but low-light vision might make a character’s space brightly illuminated instead of shadowy. This phobia also applies when the character is blinded. The effective CR equals one-half the character’s level for shadowy illumination, or the character’s level for complete darkness or being blinded.
Fire: This phobia applies when the character is within the effect or area of a spell with the fire descriptor, when the character is targeted by such a spell, when the character encounters a creature with the fire subtype, and in any other situation when the character is at real risk from taking fire damage (such as being near lava, being targeted by alchemist’s fire, or fighting near a raging bonfire). The effective CR equals the actual CR of a fire subtype creature, or double the fire spell’s level, or 1 per 2d6 points of damage that could be dealt by contact with a nearby fire.
Heights: This phobia applies when the character is moving vertically (climbing, flying, falling, and so on), or near a sudden drop (clifftops, bridges, stairs, pit traps, and the like), or in any other situation where falling damage is possible. The effective CR equals 1 per 20 feet of height. The DM can apply modifiers to the Will save DC, particularly if the character is in a situation that applies modifiers to Climb or Balance check DCs. For example, if the character is crossing a chasm on a slippery ice bridge (+5 to Balance check DCs) or climbing a crumbling, moss-covered cliff (+5 to Climb check DCs), the Will save DC might also increase by 5.
Magic: This phobia applies whenever the character is targeted by a hostile spell or is within the area of a hostile spell. The effective CR equals double the spell’s level. All spells cast by the same creature during a single encounter count as a single exposure to the object of the character’s phobia.
Water: This phobia applies when the character is standing or swimming in water, on a boat, or facing a creature with the water subtype. The effective CR equals the actual CR of a water subtype creature, one-half the character’s level for still water, or the character’s level for fast-moving water.
A phobia can be removed from a character through the application of a heal, limited wish, miracle, or wish spell directed specifically at that phobia. If the phobia is only a mild phobia, a character can also overcome his fear by facing it directly. In order to do so, the character must succeed on his Will save against 10 consecutive exposures to the source of his fear.
One of the features that distinguishes a fantasy horror game from a more typical fantasy campaign is the idea, prominent in the horror genre, that evil is a corrupting force. Though a paladin might remain entirely virtuous in her actions and even her thoughts, long years of struggle against the forces of evil can erode her body and soul. True heroes refuse to allow the taint of evil to spread, warding it off through magic or penance. Sometimes, however, even well-intentioned characters end up embracing the taint within them, using it to increase their physical or mental power.
Characters can acquire taint by entering a place suffused with evil, by coming into contact with a horribly evil object, through the attacks of certain monsters, and by performing evil acts. This taint can manifest physically, in which case it is called corruption, or mentally, in which case it is called depravity. Both corruption and depravity are measured in points. Typically, characters acquire 1 to 3 points of corruption or depravity from exposure to evil. Prolonged exposure generally has the potential to bestow an additional 1 point of corruption or depravity for every 24 hours of exposure. The specific amounts of taint acquired from different circumstances are detailed elsewhere in this book—see Horror Environments later in this chapter, Dread Magic in Chapter 5, and specific monster descriptions in Chapter 6.
In most cases, a character can attempt a saving throw to resist the effects of taint. Corruption allows a Fortitude save, while depravity allows a Will save.
Any time a character acquires more points of corruption at one time than her current Constitution modifier, she must attempt another Fortitude save (DC 15 + points of corruption acquired). If this save is successful, she is sickened for 1d4 rounds; if she fails, she is nauseated for 1d4 rounds.
Similarly, any time a character acquires more points of depravity at one time than his current Wisdom modifier, he must attempt another Will save (DC 15 + points of depravity acquired). If this save is successful, he is dazed for 1d4 rounds; if he fails, he is stunned for 1d4 rounds.
Creatures with the Evil subtype and undead creatures are immune to any negative effects from taint. They automatically have effective corruption and depravity scores equal to one-half their Charisma score, +1 for undead or +2 for outsiders. They take no penalties due to these taint scores, but they can use them to qualify for feats or prestige classes.
Both corruption and depravity manifest in mild, moderate, and severe symptoms. The relationship between a character’s taint scores and her Constitution and Wisdom scores determines the severity of the physical and mental manifestations of her taint. A character with a high Constitution can acquire more corruption before displaying physical symptoms, while a character with a low Wisdom quickly manifests mental symptoms of her depravity.
To determine the severity of a character’s taint symptoms, first find his Constitution score in the leftmost column of the Taint Thresholds table, and read across until you find the column to the right that includes his current physical corruption score. The top of that column indicates the severity of his physical taint symptoms. Then repeat the process with his Wisdom score and her depravity score to determine the severity of her mental taint symptoms.
| Con or Wis Score | No Taint | Mild Taint | Moderate Taint | Severe Taint | Dead/ Insane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 0 | 1 | 2-5 | 6-13 | 14+ |
| 5-8 | 0 | 1-3 | 4-11 | 12-27 | 28+ |
| 9-12 | 0 | 1-5 | 6-17 | 18-41 | 42+ |
| 13-16 | 0 | 1-7 | 8-23 | 24-55 | 56+ |
| 17-20 | 0 | 1-9 | 10-29 | 30-69 | 70+ |
| 21-24 | 0 | 1-11 | 12-35 | 36-83 | 84+ |
| 25-28 | 0 | 1-13 | 14-41 | 42-97 | 98+ |
| 29-32 | 0 | 1-15 | 16-47 | 48-111 | 112+ |
| 33-36 | 0 | 1-17 | 18-53 | 54-125 | 126+ |
No Taint: A character with no taint manifests no symptoms.
Mild Taint: A character who gains her first point of taint crosses the threshold into mild taint and must receive a restoration, heal, or greater restoration spell and have her taint reduced to 0 within 24 hours or be permanently afflicted with mild taint. If a character retains mild taint after 24 hours, she manifests one minor physical or mental symptom from the descriptions below. A character with mild depravity and mild corruption manifests one physical symptom and one mental symptom. Once a character manifests a minor symptom, only a miracle or wish spell can remove the symptom and return the character’s taint to 0.
Moderate Taint: A character who gains enough taint to cross the threshold into moderate taint must receive a heal or greater restoration spell and have his taint reduced to mild taint level within 24 hours or be permanently afflicted with moderate taint. If a character retains moderate taint after 24 hours, he manifests one moderate physical or mental symptom from the descriptions below. A character with moderate depravity and moderate corruption manifests one physical symptom and one mental symptom. Once a character manifests a moderate symptom, only a miracle or wish spell can remove the symptom and return the character’s taint to mild. A character with moderate taint keeps the symptoms he gained from mild taint in addition to the new ones gained from moderate taint.
Severe Taint: A character who gains enough taint to cross the threshold into severe taint must receive a greater restoration spell and have her taint reduced to moderate taint level within 24 hours or be permanently afflicted with severe taint. If a character retains severe taint after 24 hours, she manifests one severe physical or mental symptom from the descriptions below. A character with severe depravity and severe corruption manifests one physical symptom and one mental symptom. Once a character manifests a severe symptom, only a miracle or wish spell can remove the symptom and return the character’s taint to moderate.
For example, Regdar has a Constitution of 14 and a Wisdom of 8. If he acquires 4 points of corruption and 4 points of depravity, he displays only mild physical symptoms (one mild physical symptom), but moderate mental symptoms (one mild mental symptom and one moderate mental symptom). When his corruption and depravity scores each reach 12, he has moderate corruption (and manifests a moderate physical symptom) and severe depravity (and manifests a severe mental symptom).
If a character’s corruption score ever exceeds the severe taint threshold, she dies, and 1d6 hours later she rises as a tainted minion—a hideous, evil creature under the control of the DM. The tainted minion template is described in Chapter 6.
If a character’s depravity score ever exceeds the severe taint threshold, he goes irretrievably mad. He gains the tainted raver template described in Chapter 6, and (if a player character) falls under the control of the DM.
To determine the exact nature of a character’s physical or mental taint symptoms, roll 1d10 and look up the result on the Corruption Effects table or the Depravity Effects table. If the character later gains more taint and crosses the threshold into a higher level (mild to moderate or moderate to severe), he gains the next symptom to the right on the table. For example, if Regdar’s mild level of corruption is expressed as the mild physical symptom “feet curl,” then if his corruption score rises to moderate, he will in addition manifest the symptom “joint pain.”
| d10 | Mild | Moderate | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dead eye | Lips shrink | Lich eyes |
| 2 | Ear scabs | Fingers and toes fuse | Shiveled flesh |
| 3 | Gums swell | Bones thicken | Great swollen growths |
| 4 | Feet curl | Joint pain | Spine twists |
| 5 | Lumps | Eruption of sores | Wrigglers |
| 6 | Odor of decay | Paralyzed face | Nose rots |
| 7 | Palsy | Uncontrollable seizures | Skull deformed |
| 8 | Skin seeps | Blood eruption | Internal corruption |
| 9 | Skin sloughs | Skin thickens | Skin lichen |
| 10 | Winded | Chronic illness | Lungs eaten away |
Corruption manifests as physical symptoms: muscular degeneration, illness, frailty, and the like.
Dead Eye: Your eyes begin to cloud over, obscuring your vision. In combat, every time you attack an opponent that has concealment, roll your miss chance twice. If either or both results indicate that you miss, your attack fails.
Ear Scabs: Your ears fill up with a crusty, scabrous substance. You take a –2 penalty on Listen checks.
Feet Curl: Your feet warp and curl inward. Your speed is reduced by 10 feet.
Gums Swell: Your gums swell, bleed, and rot. You have difficulty pronouncing words clearly. Whenever you cast a spell with a verbal component, you must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check or the spell fails to activate.
Lumps: Burning hot lumps rise up all over your body. You have a constant fever. Every time you try to run or charge you must make a DC 20 Fortitude Save or become fatigued.
Odor of Decay: You give off an unhealthy odor of decay. Animals find your smell repellent. You take a –2 penalty on Handle Animal, Ride, and wild empathy checks.
Palsy: Your muscles are prone to tics and quivering shakes. You take a –2 penalty on ranged attack rolls.
Skin Seeps: Your skin seeps greasy, yellow ichor. You add a +2 circumstance bonus on Escape Artist checks and on grapple checks made to resist or escape a grapple or to escape a pin. You take –2 on your Climb and Sleight of Hand checks. Opponents add +2 to their attack roll when attempting to disarm you.
Skin Sloughs: The skin on your face peels off in long, papery strips, leaving unsightly red patches. You take a –2 penalty on Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Perform checks.
Winded: You are constantly short of breath and feel like you can’t get enough air. You are staggered during the third round and any subsequent rounds of any combat.
Blood Eruption: In moments of intense activity, blood gushes from your nostrils and ears. At the beginning of any combat encounter, you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be sickened for 4 rounds.
Bones Thicken: Your skeleton warps and thickens. Raise your Strength score by 2, and reduce your Dexterity score by 4.
Chronic Illness: You are plagued with a phlegm-laden, wracking cough. You also suffer occasional bouts of vomiting, often at specific times of day. You take a –3 penalty on Fortitude saves.
Eruption of Sores: Open, painful sores, some leaking blood or pus, erupt on your body. You take a –1 penalty on Strength- and Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks.
Fingers and Toes Fuse: Your fingers and toes web and fuse. You take a –2 penalty on your attack rolls. Whenever you cast a spell with a somatic component, you must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check or the spell fails to activate.
Joint Pain: Your joints, particularly your knees and elbows, sometimes flare up in sharp pain. You take a –3 penalty on Reflex saves.
Lips Shrink: Your lips pull back into a frozen rictus, exposing your teeth and gums at all times. You take a –2 penalty on Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks.
Paralyzed Face: Your facial muscles grow so feeble that you can no longer smile, frown, or show any emotion. Food dribbles from the corners of your mouth when you eat. Gain a +1 bonus on Bluff checks and take a –1 penalty on other Charisma-based ability checks or skill checks.
Skin Thickens: Your skin thickens, cracking and turning leathery. You gain +1 natural armor, and take a –2 penalty on Dexterity-based ability checks and skill checks.
Uncontrollable Seizures: You suffer from uncontrollable seizures that wrack your body with spasms. You take a –4 penalty on initiative rolls.
Great Swollen Growths: Great swollen growths appear on your body. You take a –2 penalty to your Armor Class.
Internal Corruption: Though your corruption is not visible to others, the inside of your body is a festering cesspool of corruption. Bloody pus pools in your body cavities, strange growths develop on your organs, or tiny limbs or heads bud beneath your skin. Reduce your Constitution score by 2.
Some prestige classes allow a character to take this symptom in place of any other one. This symptom allows you to hide your corruption because it is all internal. This symptom can even be taken to replace a mild or moderate symptom if desired. No extra bonus feat is granted if this symptom is taken to replace a mild symptom (see Taint and Bonus Feats).
Lich Eyes: Your eyes rot away, leaving eerie green flames in their empty sockets. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet, or add 30 feet to the range of your existing darkvision. You also gain light blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds you for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, you are dazzled as long as you remain in the affected area.
Lungs Eaten Away: Your lungs are eaten away from the inside, resulting in wet, labored, painful breathing. Your physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution) are each reduced by 1.
Nose Rots: The flesh of your nose rots away, leaving skull-like openings. Reduce your Charisma score by 2.
Shriveled Flesh: Your fl esh shrivels and clings to your bones, making you unnaturally gaunt. When you manifest this symptom, subtract your Hit Dice from your hit point total. Thereafter, subtract 1 from the number of hit points you gain at each level. This effect can reduce the number of hit points you gain to 0 (but not below).
Skin Lichen: A black, lichenous growth spreads across your skin, causing a constant itching that interferes with any physical activity. You take a –2 penalty on Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based ability checks and skill checks.
Skull Deformed: Your skull becomes enlarged, distorted, and deformed. Reduce both your Intelligence and Wisdom scores by 2. You also take a –3 penalty on Will saves.
Spine Twists: Your spine twists and your back hunches. Reduce your Dexterity score by 2.
Wrigglers: Parasitic worms protrude from your sores, sapping your strength. Reduce your Strength score by 2. You gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks and take a –4 penalty on other Charisma-based checks.
| d10 | Mild | Moderate | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aggressive | Treacherous | Murderous |
| 2 | Bestial | Deranged | Unbalanced |
| 3 | Compulsive | Hysterical | Unresponsive |
| 4 | Crazed | Jittery | Craven |
| 5 | Disoriented | Hallucinating | Paranoid |
| 6 | Mildly phobic | Moderately phobic | Severely phobic |
| 7 | Neglectful | Distracted | Enthralled |
| 8 | Opinionated | Solipsistic | Hubristic |
| 9 | Prophetic | Delusional | Apathetic |
| 10 | Sycophantic | Weak-Willed | Fatalistic |
Depravity manifests as mental symptoms: growing paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and other problems that could be described as madness. It is important to note that madness in fantastic horror is not an illness that afflicts good and evil alike: It is an expression or a result of evil gnawing away at the mind and soul.
Aggressive: You are easily angered and cannot hide your feelings. In combat, you try so hard to hurt your enemies that you neglect your own defense, and you take a –1 penalty to Armor Class.
Bestial: You take on a ferocious, wild demeanor. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Handle Animal, Ride, and wild empathy checks. You take a –1 penalty on other Charisma based ability checks and skill checks.
Compulsive: Pick a compulsive ritual to adopt. For example, you and your equipment are never clean enough. You can only break out of the compulsive pattern by eating bugs, which sometimes disagree with you. Once each day, make a DC 10 Fortitude save; if you fail, take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage.
Crazed: You can no longer easily cope with sudden changes in circumstance. If you are surprised at the outset of an encounter, for your first action you have an equal chance of charging the foe or running away.
Disoriented: You lose track of events. If you are surprised at the outset of an encounter, you are dazed for 1 round.
Mildly Phobic: You gain a mild phobia, which requires you to succeed on a Will save or become shaken whenever you encounter the object of your phobia. The DC of the save equals 12 + the CR of the challenge that is the object of the phobia. (Treat CRs of less than 1 as 0.) See Phobias for more information.
Neglectful: You disregard hygiene and cultural mores. You take a –2 penalty on Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks.
Opinionated: You are so wrapped up in commenting on everything you hear that you are often caught off-guard. You are always flat-footed in the first round of combat.
Prophetic: Your dark dreams torment you with strange visions of things that might occur in the future. You zealously proclaim a different prophecy each week, making sure everyone you meet knows what is about to transpire. Your DM determines what prophetic insight you envision each week (10% are actually accurate!). In addition, you take all the usual ill effects of continual nightmares (see Dreams and Nightmares, page 52).
Sycophantic: You fill the air with a torrent of unctuous flattery of your companions, opponents, or imaginary friends. You take a –2 penalty on Listen checks and Spot checks. Enemies gain a +2 bonus on Listen checks to hear you.
Delusional: You’re convinced that the world is an illusion and that you and your companions are being controlled by inhabitants of a distant, alien realm. You take a –2 penalty on Wisdom-based ability checks and skill checks.
Deranged: Your grasp upon reality becomes tenuous. You take a –2 penalty on Intelligence-based ability checks and skill checks.
Distracted: You pay more attention to the whispers in your mind than to your surroundings. You take a –2 penalty on skill checks.
Hallucinating: You see things that aren’t there, and often have trouble sorting reality from your imagination. You take a –6 penalty on initiative checks.
Hysterical: Everything you meet is hilarious. It takes a short time to perceive the humor; then a laughing jag overwhelms you. During the second round of a combat encounter, you can take only a single move action or standard action.
Jittery: You are easily startled and spooked. If you are hit while flat-footed, you become panicked.
Moderately Phobic: You gain a moderate phobia, which requires you to succeed on a Will save (DC 14 + the CR of the challenge) or become frightened whenever you encounter the object of your phobia. This symptom replaces your previous symptom of mild phobia. See Phobias for more information.
Solipsistic: You believe that you are the only thing that matters in the universe. As a result, whenever you are struck in combat, you have to make a DC 20 Will save. If you fail the save, you take an additional 1 point of damage per die of damage received.
Treacherous: Any time the chance to make an attack of opportunity presents itself, whether against an opponent or an ally, make a DC 20 Will save. If you fail the save, you must make the attack of opportunity, even if the target is your closest ally. If presented with multiple targets, determine randomly which you attack.
Weak-Willed: The constant presence of demonic voices whispering in your ears has sapped your will. You take a –3 penalty on Will saves.
Apathetic: You withdraw into yourself, losing contact with the world. Reduce both your Charisma and Wisdom scores by 2.
Craven: You become a lily-livered coward. When casting, you must always cast defensively. When attacking, you must always fight defensively.
Enthralled: You are drawn to and fascinated by evil. You no longer have the will to strike it down. Whenever you fight an evil opponent, you always attack at –4 and any damage you do counts only as nonlethal damage.
Fatalistic: You become oppressed by negative, defeatist thinking and are convinced there’s little you can do to save yourself from a horrible fate. Take a –3 penalty on your saving throws.
Hubristic: You regard yourself as superior to all things, even the gods. Divine healing has no effect on you.
Murderous: You experience irresistible murderous urges. If an opportunity to deliver a coup de grace is available, you must take this action. You cannot distinguish between an ally and an opponent—if anyone is helpless, you must deliver the coup de grace.
Paranoid: You grow overly suspicious, even of your closest companions. In combat, you cannot avoid watching for signs of treachery. Whenever one of your allies engaged in combat makes an attack and fails to hit, you become suspicious that the ally is secretly a traitor to your party. You take a –1 penalty to any rolls you make during that turn, since some of your attention is focused on monitoring the suspected traitor’s activities. If more than one ally fails to hit, the penalty is cumulative.
Severely Phobic: You gain a severe phobia, which requires you to succeed on a Will save (DC 16 + the CR of the challenge) or become panicked whenever you encounter the object of your phobia. This symptom replaces your previous symptom of moderate phobia. See Phobias for more information.
Unbalanced: Your unstable mind makes you unpredictable, particularly in combat. You are automatically confused on your first turn in any combat and every other turn thereafter.
Unresponsive: Your senses are dulled and you lose the ability to discern the truth of the world around you. Reduce your Wisdom score by 2.
When a character reaches moderate taint, and again when he reaches severe taint, he gains a bonus feat. This can be any feat for which the character has the prerequisites.
Since taint is cumulative, a character with a feat whose prerequisite is a specific level of taint retains access to that feat even after she acquires enough taint to rise to the next taint level. For example, a sorcerer with the Corrupt Arcana feat, which has mild depravity as a prerequisite, still benefits from that feat if her depravity rises to moderate or even severe.
By contrast, falling below the specified taint level for a feat renders that feat inoperative. For example, a character with the Tainted Fury feat, which has moderate corruption as a prerequisite, cannot benefit from that feat if his taint falls to mild but regains access to the feat if his corruption later rises to moderate again.
There are natural substances that absorb taint and thus protect those who carry them. Some examples include a pure jade rod the size of a human finger, a sheet of vellum prepared from the skin of a month-old lamb, an intricately carved piece of lightning-struck oak, or a silk sash. The DM can create other examples appropriate to her campaign. Regardless of the shape or substance of the item, taint-absorbing items cost 100 gp each.
As the item absorbs taint, it darkens, softens, and gradually rots. During this time, it absorbs all taint to which the carrier is exposed, to a maximum of 7 points (enough to protect the carrier for a week of travel in a tainted area). Multiple items protect a character from more taint, but only to a point, as described in the Resisting Taint table. If a character carries multiple taint-absorbing items, they all decompose gradually at the same time, distributing the absorbed taint among every item carried. The presence of multiple items seems to amplify the taint even as the items absorb it, causing them to decompose more rapidly.
| Number of Items | Points Absorbed |
|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |
| 2 | 12 |
| 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 16 |
| 5 | 15 |
| 6 | 12 |
| 7 | 1 |
A character’s alignment can be affected by acquired taint. As a character acquires more corruption, and particularly as he acquires more and more depravity, he is increasingly inclined toward evil acts. The stench of evil clings to a character with at least moderate taint, causing him to register as evil to a detect evil spell. Any actual alignment change is up to the DM’s discretion, but as a rule of thumb characters with moderate taint are neutral at best, while characters with severe taint are usually evil.
Clerics of good deities risk divine displeasure if they acquire too much taint. Divine warnings might begin when a cleric acquires moderate levels of corruption or depravity, or perhaps even sooner. If a cleric of a good deity acquires severe levels of taint, she is considered to have grossly violated the deity’s code of conduct and loses all spells and class features until she atones and reduces her taint to at most moderate levels. (This restriction does not apply to clerics in Eberron, where the deities do not enforce alignment restrictions on their clerics.)
A paladin who acquires moderate levels of taint loses all paladin spells and abilities and cannot advance further as a paladin until she atones and reduces her taint to at most mild levels.
It is possible to remove taint from characters in several ways, including through the use of spells, the performance of good deeds, and cleansing in a sacred spring. Taint cannot be removed unless the tainted character wants to be cleansed. If an increase in taint causes a character’s corruption or depravity score to cross over into a higher taint level (for example, shifting from mild to moderate), neither taint score can be reduced to a lower taint level unless quickly treated (within 24 hours) or through use of an atonement, miracle, or wish spell (see below).
The following spells can reduce taint scores when cast outside tainted areas. No character can have a taint score reduced by any particular spell more than once per day, although different spells can reduce taint if cast on the same character in the same day.
Atonement: This spell can remove taint, but with limits. First, it always requires a quest. Second, the caster chooses a number up to his caster level when he casts the atonement, and the spell reduces the target’s corruption and depravity scores by that amount. This use of atonement, which costs the caster 500 XP, can reduce taint to a lower taint level.
Heal: This spell reduces a character’s corruption and depravity scores by 1 point per three caster levels. If used within 24 hours of the target’s acquiring enough taint to qualify as mild or moderate taint, heal can reduce taint below that threshold.
Miracle or Wish: These spells remove sufficient taint to place the target at the highest threshold of the next lower taint level, regardless of how much time has passed.
Remove Curse: This spell reduces the character’s depravity score by 1.
Remove Disease: This spell reduces the character’s corruption score by 1.
Restoration: This spell reduces the character’s corruption and depravity scores by 1 point per four caster levels. If used within 24 hours of the target’s acquiring enough taint to qualify as mild taint, it can reduce taint below that threshold.
Greater Restoration: This spell reduces the character’s corruption and depravity scores by a number of points equal to the caster level of the cleric casting greater restoration. If used within 24 hours of a taint threshold being crossed, it can reduce taint to below that threshold.
Simple good deeds are not enough to remove taint. A character wishing to reduce her depravity score through good deeds must undertake a specific ritual under the guidance of one of her deity’s clerics. The ritual prepares the character to undertake the deed.
Each deity’s faith has a list of ritual good deeds the faithful can perform to prove their dedication to the deity. For example, the faithful of St. Cuthbert can choose to put on garments sacred to their faith (and which identify their faith to anyone who sees them) and patrol a particular part of their home as part of the militia or city guard. Adventuring is never part of such a good deed, and a character who undertakes an adventure prior to completing her deed must begin again with the ritual (but see the alternate option below).
The good deed must be repeated every day for a week. On completion, the character’s depravity score is reduced by 1 point. The character can continue the deed for another week to continue losing depravity or can return to the temple to undertake the ritual again and begin a different deed.
Alternatively, good deeds might be quests undertaken on behalf of the deity. After the quest ends, the character’s depravity score is reduced by 1 point per week required to complete the quest.
Springs sacred to a particular deity or cause are located in remote regions and can be reached only by long and dangerous travel. For each day a character spends resting and cleansing himself at a sacred spring, his corruption score is reduced by 1 point. A character using this method to reduce his corruption score can undertake no activities other than resting, eating, sleeping, meditation, and normal conversation.
The environment of a horror game is part of the story, not just a backdrop to the tale. Some locations are infused with the taint of evil. Some have other kinds of deleterious effects on any creatures that enter. Some are haunted, and others just evoke images of death and decay–graveyards, mausoleums, and other mortuary terrain. This section describes these environments for use in horror adventures.
Some locations are so suffused with evil that simply entering them exposes a character to corruption or depravity, and lingering there deals increasing taint. For example, an evil temple that has hosted hundreds of human sacrifices, a portal to an evil plane, the crypt-home of a powerful lich, or the site of a mass murder might all harbor some degree of taint. Entire planes of existence might also be suffused with taint.
Depending on the nature of the site, a tainted location can bestow either corruption or depravity upon characters who enter it. Sites strongly associated with the undead and with death often bestow corruption, while sites linked to evil outsiders and human evil more often bestow depravity. In general, initial exposure to such a tainted place increases a character’s taint score (either corruption or depravity) by 1 point. If the evil of the place is very great, it could increase the character’s taint score by 1d3 or even 1d4 points. Characters can attempt a saving throw (Fortitude to resist corruption, Will to resist depravity) to avoid this taint or reduce the size of the increase to their taint scores. The DC ranges from 20 for a typical site up to 25 or 30 for extremely malevolent locales.
For every 24 hours spent in a tainted place, a character must make another saving throw to avoid her appropriate taint score increasing by 1. The base DC is 10, +5 for every consecutive 24 hours of exposure.
Tainted locales have additional effects beyond increasing the taint of characters who enter them. Whenever a character casts a spell with the evil descriptor in a tainted area, she gains +1 effective caster level but must make a Will save (DC 15 + spell level) or have her depravity score increase by 1. Whenever a character casts a spell with the good descriptor or a spell from the healing subschool in a tainted area, she takes –1 effective caster level.
Any creature that dies in a tainted area animates in 1d4 hours as an undead creature, usually a zombie of the appropriate size. Burning a corpse protects it from this effect.
Cleansing Tainted Places: The hallow spell can remove taint from an area, but it takes time. The spell must remain intact for an entire year to remove the taint. If, during that time, an opposing character casts unhallow on some or all of the area, the effort is lost and must be reinstated by another casting of hallow. The hallow spell only affects a 40-foot-radius area, so large areas could require many clerics working simultaneously to completely cleanse them.
The effects described in this section are similar to terrain features. While terrain affects the physical capabilities of creatures within it, dread effects have an impact on abilities and characteristics in a magical or apparently magical way. For example, rather than granting cover or hindering movement, blood rock increases the threat range of attacks made in its area, and abyssal blackgrass restricts healing near it. Each of these effects is intended to encourage a horrific atmosphere by hampering or impeding characters without completely disabling them.
Patches of this thick black weed often spread through planar portals or through tiny seeds inadvertently carried in the clothing or gear of planar travelers. When it takes root on the Material Plane, abyssal blackgrass grows in a small clump about one foot across, although its roots spread in a 50-foot radius just under the surface of the ground.
Natural healing is impossible within 50 feet (in any direction) of a clump of abyssal blackgrass. Even magical healing is impaired, restoring only half the normal number of hit points.
Anyone who casts or is subject to a spell with the evil descriptor while within 50 feet of a clump of abyssal blackgrass must make a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + spell level) or increase his corruption score by 1.
Pulling up a clump of blackgrass does not kill it or negate its baleful effect, and the grass regrows in 1d4 days. Only digging up the entire root system—or destroying the plant with a blight or similar spell—can prevent it from regrowing.
In certain places, the very essence of war and violence suffuses the earth or stone. Found naturally in ancient battlefields and certain outer planes, blood rock can be extracted from such areas and used to infuse other locations with the same violent essence. Whether occurring naturally or transplanted, blood rock causes weapons to strike harder, claws to tear deeper, and blood to flow more freely.
An area of blood rock increases the lethality of any attack made by a creature standing in that area. Double the threat range of all attacks made within an area affected by blood rock. To gain this benefit, a creature must be touching the ground in the affected area. This increase in threat range does not stack with the increased threat range from the Improved Critical feat, the keen edge spell, or the keen weapon property.
Deliberately seeding an area with blood rock requires 5 pounds of blood rock for every 5-foot square to be affected. Simply carrying 5 pounds of blood rock around in your pockets is not enough to gain the benefits of its presence, although it might be enough to cause the character carrying it to gain taint. Blood rock must be placed in an area for a period of at least 48 hours before its presence permeates the area. Blood rock can be gathered and moved, although it then requires another 48 hours to take effect in its new location.
Tainted Blood Rock: Indistinguishable from normal blood rock except that it radiates a moderate aura of evil, tainted blood rock is suffused with hatred and evil as well as violence. A character who scores a critical hit while standing on tainted blood rock must make a successful DC 25 Fortitude save or have his corruption score increase by 1.
Often formed at the sites of great battles where water has come in to cover the wasted land, charnel bogs are both horrible and deadly. Pale grasses grow on desolate islands in the midst of these bogs, but no living animals inhabit charnel bogs.
Such an aura of evil pervades a charnel bog that certain magic is impeded within its borders. Characters attempting to cast a spell with the good or healing descriptor must attempt a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell level) or lose the spell. Turning checks made to turn undead take a –4 penalty within a charnel bog, and turning checks to rebuke undead gain a +4 profane bonus, as if an unhallow spell encompassed the bog.
Characters camping within a charnel bog find their sleep troubled by nightmares. They are unable to rest properly, and morning finds them fatigued and unable to regain arcane or divine spells with the good descriptor for the next 24 hours. They regain no hit points from their night spent in the bog.
Finally, characters whose travels take them on long treks through a charnel bog find it sapping their will and even robbing them of their desire to leave the place. They experience increasing apathy and despair, a dulling of their senses, and a growing feeling of paranoia. At the conclusion of every week spent in a charnel bog, any living creature must succeed on a Will saving throw (DC 10 + the number of consecutive weeks spent in the bog). Failure indicates that the character has lost all will to continue on her journey. She cannot leave the bog of her own volition and has no desire to do so. All memories of her previous life slowly fade into nothingness, and a limited wish, miracle, or wish spell is required to return the character to normal.
Other Hazards: Charnel bogs often manifest signs of a haunting (see below). Disease is also common in charnel bogs, including inhaled diseases such as cackle fever and mindfire. Also, some charnel bogs are suffused with taint, so that a character entering the bog must make a DC 25 Fortitude save. If he fails, his corruption score increases by 1d3. Even on a successful save, his corruption score increases by 1.
This stone is infused with raw negative energy. A living creature within 5 feet of a floor, wall, or statue formed of night stone takes 1d6 points of damage per round. A death ward spell protects a character from this damage.
Sometimes when undead are created they come into being without a physical form and are merely presences of malign evil. Haunting presences usually occur as the result of atrocious crimes. Tied to particular locations or objects, these beings might reveal their unquiet natures only indirectly, at least at first.
As a haunting presence, an undead is impossible to affect or even sense directly. A haunting presence is more fleeting than undead who appear as incorporeal ghosts or wraiths, or even those undead enterprising enough to range the Ethereal Plane. Each haunting presence is tied to an object or location and can only be dispelled by exorcism (see Exorcising a Haunting Presence, page 71) or the destruction of the object or location. Despite having no physicality, each haunting presence still possesses the identity of a specific kind of undead. For instance, one haunting presence might be similar to a vampire, while another is more like a wraith.
The Haunting: Whenever an undead appears as a haunting presence, it haunts an unattended, mundane object or location. The DM, using the same decision-making process as for populating an area with a standard monster, chooses an unattended, mundane object or location as the subject of a haunting presence. The DM also determines the variety of undead (skeleton, zombie, wraith, or whatever) that serves as the source of the haunting presence. An undead can haunt a discrete object of at least Tiny size and no larger than Huge size. Items (both magical and mundane) currently in the possession of a character (often referred to as attended items) cannot be haunted. Unattended magic items receive a saving throw as if a spell were being cast upon the item (DC 10 + ½ the undead’s HD + the undead’s Cha modifier).
A haunting presence becomes a part of the object or location haunted. Haunting presences are always aware of what is going on around the object that they haunt. They can see and hear up to 60 feet away (but do not gain blindsight). A haunting presence cannot be turned, rebuked, or destroyed while the presence remains immaterial (but see Exorcising a Haunting Presence, below). Normal vulnerabilities of a particular kind of undead do not apply to the haunting presence of that undead. For instance, the haunting presence of a vampire haunting a fire poker is not destroyed if the poker is brought into sunlight.
Effects of a Haunting: A presence haunting an object can do so in a couple of ways. Undead of fewer than 5 Hit Dice can use only one form of haunting, but undead of 5 or more HD can make their presence known using either of two methods—impermanent home or poltergeist. Impermanent Home: An undead presence haunting an object or an area can sometimes become more than a presence, actually taking corporeal or incorporeal form a number of times per week equal to the undead’s Hit Dice (this includes haunting presences that manifest as incorporeal undead). The presence that takes form does so anywhere within the location it haunts, or in the closest empty space adjacent to the object it haunts. A presence that takes form can remain in its form for up to a number of minutes equal to its HD. An undead that takes form can choose at any time to return to its haunting presence status, but it must take a move action to do so. While in physical form, the undead can take any actions normal for an undead of its kind. It can attack, take damage, and even be destroyed. If it is destroyed, the haunting pres ence is also permanently eradicated, unless it is a ghost, lich, or some other sort of undead resistant to destruction. Most undead will attempt to return to their haunting presence status if threatened with such destruction. Poltergeist: If an object has parts that move (a wagon, a clock, or a crossbow are examples), a haunting presence can control the object’s movement. The object will move no faster than the undead itself could move in its normal form. Thus, a wagon can be made to roll out of a stable with no horse pulling it or steer toward a pedestrian on a street. A clock can slow or run backward. A crossbow can cock and fi re (but not aim or load itself). An undead with at least 10 HD and a Charisma score of 17 or higher can actually force an object with no moving parts to animate (see animated objects on page 13 of the Monster Manual), based on the object’s size. No undead, no matter how many Hit Dice or how high a Charisma score, can animate an object that has a higher Challenge Rating than its own. If a location instead of an object is haunted, the haunting presence can animate a number of objects equal to its HD at one time. Other Effects: No matter how the haunting presence makes itself felt, the haunting presence of a sentient undead can always choose to speak to nearby creatures, most often in a whispery or incoherent voice that seems to come from the air. However, haunting presences are usually not much for conversation. Characters might note at times that the object they have found or the location they inhabit has a strange air or an appearance that is somehow off (with a successful DC 15 Intelligence check). Exorcising a Haunting Presence: No matter how a haunting presence chooses to reveal itself, it is subject to being discovered and destroyed. Unfortunately, a cleric’s turning ability generally has no direct effect on haunting presences, other than to irritate them and focus their attention on the cleric. Something more is called for—an exorcist. Exorcism is a ritual, a spoken formula that calls upon one or more dei ties to drive out a haunting presence. Exorcism of a haunting presence is a two-step process—fi rst, forcing a presence to become physical; then, once the undead has revealed itself, destroying it. The haunting presence can be forced to reveal itself through the use of a special ritual, one that is generally known to anyone with ranks in Knowledge (religion). It must be performed by an exorcist who spends ten consecutive full round actions chanting the exorcising formula, at the end of which time the exorcist must make a DC 20 Knowledge (religion) check. If the exorcist’s concentration is interrupted, the ritual must begin again. If the ritual is successful, the haunting presence becomes physical and must remain so for 1 full round. The exorcist’s next action can be an attempt either to turn the revealed undead or to continue the ritual, with an additional DC 20 Knowledge (religion) check required at the end of each round. Each successful check forces the undead to remain in (corporeal or incorporeal) physical form for 1 additional round. Even undead of 5 or fewer HD that normally haunt only as poltergeists are forced to take form by the exorcism ritual, as well as haunting presences that have already used up all their chances to take form for the week. Undead that are forced to take form usually use their actions to attempt to slay the exorcist before they themselves are destroyed, so exorcists generally bring along companions who can physically attack the revealed undead. Haunted Sites Traditionally, haunting refers to the presence of a ghost or similar undead creature, as described above. However, there might be reasons other than the direct activity of a creature that earn a site the reputation of being haunted. Some pos sibilities include the manifestation of an evil essence, a lingering curse, or the psychic resonance of terrible events that occurred in that place. These manifestations have more in common with dungeon hazards such as green slime than they do with actual ghosts, presenting a hazard or series of hazards but no foe that can be defeated. Houses, castles, and cemeteries are common haunted sites—and houses or castles built atop catacombs or ancient cemeteries are particularly prone to haunting. Any place can become haunted, however: temples, farms, schools, shops and marketplaces, bridges, ships and caravans, and so on. The manifestations of hauntings fall into two broad cat egories: illusion effects and telekinetic effects. Illusion Effects: Phantom knocking, rattling chains, the stench of death fi lling the air—these are illusory manifesta tions. Generally, they are fi gments—equivalent to ghost sound, silent image, and related spells—that activate under certain circumstances or at specifi c times. The sound of a child crying might manifest whenever one character is alone in a certain room at night. The sound of rattling chains might seem to move up a staircase every night at midnight. Another common fi gment is the phantom reenactment of events that occurred on the site—often a traumatic event such as a murder or suicide. Characters who interact with a fi gment or other illusion effect can make Will saves to disbelieve the effect as if it were a comparable illusion spell. Sometimes these manifestations are phantasms rather than figments, meaning that only a single character can perceive them. Occasionally they are patterns, visible to all onlookers but carrying mind-affecting side effects. Most phantasms and pattern hauntings cause characters who witness them to become affected by fear—characters who fail a Will save might become shaken (DC 12), frightened (DC 15), or panicked (DC 18). Phantasmal odors might instead cause a character to become sickened (Fortitude DC 13 negates) or nauseated (Fortitude DC 18 reduces to sickened). In their most dangerous manifestations, these effects can duplicate the phantasmal killer (DC 16) or weird (DC 23) spells. Illusory manifestations can also be glamers. Torches might seem to dim or change color. A character’s refl ection in a mirror might seem to be doing something horrible, or it might look like someone else. A close friend might appear as a horrifi c monster. Occasionally, haunting effects that seem illusory are at least partially real, like shadow spells, and can cause real harm to characters. The sensation of fi ngertips brushing the skin might be a phantasm and the feeling of someone walking past might be a fi gment, but the sense of a sharp blow or a wound could be a shadow and deal real damage (generally 1d6, but sometimes more). Similarly, a feeling of unnatural chill in a room could be a harmless fi gment, but it could also be a shadow effect that deals 1d4 points of Strength or Dexterity damage or bestows a negative level. Telekinetic Effects: A haunting can duplicate any of the following spells: mage hand, open/close, telekinesis, arcane lock, or knock. Hauntings often manifest in objects moving around a room, doors and windows opening or closing at random, doors locking or unlocking on their own, and similar effects. When a character is subject to one of these effects, she receives a saving throw or other roll to resist it as if she were targeted by the spell being duplicated. Taint and Hauntings: A character who spends the night in a haunted location must make a DC 20 Will save or have his depravity score increase by 1. The saving throw DC might be higher in more severe cases of haunting (see Tainted Loca tions on page 68). Exorcising a Haunted Site: Just as in the case of a haunt ing presence, an exorcist can perform a ritual to cleanse a haunted site. If the exorcist successfully performs the ritual, which requires ten consecutive full-round actions and a DC 20 Knowledge (religion) check, the haunting energies coalesce into a form that renders them vulnerable to traditional methods of removing magical effects, such as dispel magic, remove curse, or break enchantment spells. The effective caster level of a haunted site is the minimum caster level required to cast the highest-level spell duplicated by the haunting. With a successful ritual, the haunting ener gies remain vulnerable for 1 full round, but the exorcist can continue the ritual, causing the haunting energies to remain vulnerable, by making additional Knowledge (religion) checks each round. See Exorcising a Haunting Presence on page 71 for more details of the exorcism process. MORTUARY TERRAIN The Dungeon Master’s Guide covers the basics of terrain, both in dungeons and in wilderness environments. A horror adventure might take characters to unusual terrain—in particular, places where the dead are buried. This section describes such locales, using the same format and terminology as in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Chapter 3: Adventures. Graveyards A far cry from the serene parks common in the modern world, graveyards in D&D range from quiet, spooky spots to dilapidated areas where putrescent liquids seep from the thin soil or rotting limbs protrude from overcrowded graves. The smell of death hangs thickly in the air. Most graveyards occupy the yard outside a place of wor ship, commonly a temple of Wee Jas. They appear in civilized lands rather than wilderness areas, usually occupying open fi elds. The table below describes in general terms how likely it is that a given square has a terrain element in it. Instead of rolling for each square, use the percentages in the table below to guide the maps you create. Graveyard Terrain Features —Age of Graveyard— New Moderate Ancient Gravestone 25% 50% 75%* Mausoleum 5% 10% 20%* Statue, memorial 10% 15% 20%* Tree, massive 1 1 1 Tree, typical 5% 5% 5% Vault 5% 10% 15% Wall 5% 5% 5%* *25% damaged in some way Gravestone: The older the cemetery, the more gravestones it will contain. The more neglected the cemetery, the more likely that some gravestones lean or have broken or fallen. A graveyard’s boundaries are typically fi xed when it is established, so fi tting in more graves over time means pack ing the gravestones tightly together, possibly with multiple burials in each plot. When you decide to place a gravestone in a square, don’t worry about the stone’s exact location within the square. It costs 2 squares of movement to move into a square with a gravestone in it. A creature standing in the same square as a gravestone gains a +2 bonus to Armor Class and a +1 bonus on Refl ex saves (these bonuses don’t stack with cover bonuses from other sources). A typical gravestone has hardness 8 and 45 hp. It is theoretically possible to perch atop a gravestone. A character can hop up to the top of a gravestone (see the Jump skill description on page 77 of the Player’s Handbook) with a DC 10 Jump check. Perching on top of a gravestone can give a character the attack bonus for attacking from higher ground. Remaining perched requires balancing on a surface about 3 inches wide (Balance DC 15), which might be sloped (+2 to the DC), obstructed if the stone is old and crumbling (+2 to +5 to the DC), or slippery with rain or moss (another +2 to +5 to the DC). See the Balance skill description on page 67 of the Player’s Handbook. Some gravestones are placed fl at on the ground rather than standing erect. These stones do not offer cover or affect movement in any way. A cenotaph resembles a gravestone but is a memorial marker for those who do not lie buried there (for example, someone whose body was not recovered). Statue, Memorial: Statues are fairly common as elaborate grave markers for those wealthy enough to afford them. As described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (page 64), a statue functions as a wide pillar, taking up a square and providing cover. A DC 15 Climb check allows a character to climb a statue. Tree: Many graveyards are kept clear of trees, but some have a scattering of trees and others might have a single massive tree growing inside their walls. (The “1” on the ta ble represents the fact that it is unusual for more than one massive tree to appear in a graveyard.) See page 87 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more information about trees as terrain elements. Wall: A graveyard is generally surrounded by a wall (sometimes called a lich wall). Walls are typically masonry, occasionally superior masonry, as described on page 59 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. They range in height from 4 feet to 8 feet tall. A lich-gate is a small, roofed entry hall to a graveyard. It contains a platform to support the coffi n while prayers are recited over the deceased. This platform, called a coffi n rest, a corpse rest, or a lich-stone, is about 4 feet high, 2 feet wide, and 8 feet long. It is usually built from the same masonry as the wall. Outside the walls of a graveyard can sometimes be found graves for suicides, criminals, foreigners, transients, or other people not deemed worthy to rest in the graveyard. Such an area is known as a potter’s fi eld. Undead are particularly common around these graves, which might not be conse crated in the same way as those within the graveyard. Mausoleum: A mausoleum is a small, freestanding build ing, usually built of stone, for the interment of a single body or a group of bodies, such as members of a family. Mausoleums range widely in size, from just large enough to hold a single corpse to relatively spacious buildings with separate rooms for each member or branch of a family. Mausoleums are very much like small dungeons, usually with superior masonry walls (sometimes reinforced with iron, and intended to last for eternity), fl agstone fl oors, and stone doors securely locked. Some mausoleums include a vault (see below). A charnel house is similar to a mausoleum but is used to hold the remains of a large number of people who can’t neces sarily be identifi ed. Sometimes individual corpses can’t even be distinguished from one another, but remains are grouped together—skulls on one shelf, long bones on another, and so on. Vault: A vault is an underground resting place, usually intended for the members of a single family. The entrance to a vault is often a secret door disguised as a gravestone that lies fl at on the ground (Search DC 25). A fl ight of stairs from the entrance leads down into the vault, which is otherwise like a mausoleum. A crypt is a vault that includes an altar. Such religious trappings often adorn the final resting places of saints (particularly martyrs), clerics, paladins, and other champions of a religion. Other Graveyard Terrain Elements: A mass grave is a single excavation in which multiple bodies are buried. They are used when large numbers of people die within a short time—too many for individual burial (such as victims of a massacre or battle)—and sometimes lie outside the graveyard walls. Charnel pits, by contrast, contain remains dug up and reburied, sometimes sorted like bones in a charnel house. A plague pit is a mass grave dug deep for the burial of plague victims. Mass graves and charnel pits sometimes give rise to large undead formed from multiple corpses, such as corpse gatherers (described in Monster Manual II). When such undead form in plague pits, they invariably transmit the plague with their attacks. Catacombs If graveyards are the wilderness terrain of horror campaigns, catacombs are the dungeons. A catacomb is essentially an underground cemetery. Some catacombs are established in natural caves, while others are specifically excavated for burials. Generally, graves are cut into the walls, then sealed with bricks or tiles; sometimes graves are also dug in the fl oors. Graves in a catacomb might consist of simple shelves holding ossuaries (small boxes designed to hold only the bones of a cremated corpse) rather than enclosed spaces large enough to hold a complete body. Walls: A catacomb built in natural caves has unworked stone walls—at least where graves have not yet been carved into those walls. Other catacombs have hewn stone or masonry walls. Graves carved into the walls and sealed shut are considered superior masonry walls. If shelves are cut into the catacomb walls, they make climbing much easier (Climb DC 10). Doors: Doors are uncommon in catacombs, usually placed only to guard particularly important graves or chambers. Doors inside catacombs are almost always made of stone. Chambers: A typical catacomb is a labyrinthine tangle of passages and small chambers excavated at different times over a long period. Vaults and crypts are common chambers in catacombs. Some chambers might hold a single stone sarcophagus. A temple can sometimes form part of a catacomb—distinguished from a crypt by the lack of graves within it.