(If any of my players are reading this now, stop. Yes, I'm talking about you Alejo...)







Spoiler space...









Say you have a Horror-infiltrated kaer. This particular Horror slowly kills most food sources in the kaer, and disguises itself as some kind of giant fruit tree the people end up depending on for survival.

• How would the Horror mark them? (just eat a fruit?)
• What could the Horror do to corrupt the kaer's inhabitants? (have them feed it with dissidents or dead bodies?)
• What would be the best way to creep the hell out of a group of players in this scenario?

I was thinking about making it a sealed or isolated kaer, until the players arrived and convinced them to open to the world. Perhaps the newly discovered kaer would send some gifts (including a cart of their unique fruits) to the players' kaer, as a token of friendship? Make them think this mission has been a complete success, until they realize something is very, very wrong.

Opinions? :devil:

I have to hit the sack now, but I'll be back to this-hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday.

Quote from: JongWK;280433How would the Horror mark them? (just eat a fruit?)

That seems logical. You could even drop some allegory in there about that other fruit-bearing tree that corrupts. Hell, it could even be the origin of the myth.

Quote from: JongWK;280433What could the Horror do to corrupt the kaer's inhabitants? (have them feed it with dissidents or dead bodies?)

Well, if I were an immortal being who fed on anguish - and you've no proof I'm not! - I'd be even more subtle about it. If you directly choke out all the other sources of food, forcing people to eat from you, and them mark them and make them feed you people, their anguish will surely be great, but what a feast it would be, indeed, if you never forced them to do anything, if you could spend centuries feasting on their knowledge that they made these choices themselves. If the Horror makes you do it, there's always some corner of your mind in which you can feel justified, but if you did this because you chose to, even that knowledge is robbed from you.

Food in any given kaer is dreadful, compared to what you knew on the surface. Lichen and mushrooms? But surely no fruit tree could grow so far underground...except this one. What if it were clear the tree was unnatural, but it was just too tempting to deny? And once they're hooked, begin to wilt until they feed you, you know, babies or whatever; not something they want to feed you, because in fact the sustenance isn't the bodies, it's their dread and anguish at having done something terrible just to eat some fruit.

An excellent example - far better than, say, the 800 Star Trek or Stargate episodes dealing with a being who feeds on emotions - is Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, in which the demon which feeds on anguish never forces anyone to do anything, but rather hints and whispers until they choose to do something they regret deeply.

Quote from: JongWK;280433What would be the best way to creep the hell out of a group of players in this scenario?

I got nothin'. I'll think about it.

I played in a D&D adventure where the locals were secure, happy and cheerful, eating from bountiful fruit trees. They'd send young villagers upstream, where they were taken away to join angels.

Then we found out their drinking water was causing delusions, and a malevolent creature was killing the young people and hanging their corpses on gnarled trees. That was the fruit the villagers ate.  

Something like that might work in a kaer. The inhabitants think they're eating wholesome fruit...

One thing I'd do is put a snake in the tree. Or give the tree an appendage that looks snakey, like a tongue.

Maybe the "fruit" is actually eggs, they have little worms in them. The worms grow inside people like symbiotes, and enable the Horror to mind control anyone who eats from it.

To really creep the players out, maybe they have a yearly harvest festival in the Kaer where nobody can ever seem to remember what happens, but someone always seems to end up dead (but again, the memory of that person is erased, and their personal effects usually "disappeared" along with them.

 What actually happens is the tree mind controls the village environs and en masse, they choose and sacrifice a single victim, by seizing a person and pushing them into the tree which opens up a bole or hollow area and devouring the victim whole. Then the villagers set about erasing all evidence the person ever existed, and finally have their memories erased by the horror, who is making ready for the next victim.

The PCs could stumble upon evidence of a villager that nobody remembers.

Since Engine's idea pretty closely mirrors my own, I'll answer what he didn't. First keep in mind that evoking a reaction from the players is different than evoking a reaction from the characters. Depending on how much time you have to devote to this, I'd have the discovery of the tree be accidental. Perhaps a part of the Kaer that's fallen into disuse, or is somehow or in someway not as clearly visible to everyone. This is helpful on several levels.

Next as people begin to eat from the tree, have reactions vary, but generally they all start as positive reactions. Soon the Kaer decides in order to maintain the tree they must control access. As people enjoy fruit close to the tree, and in a more private setting much more powerful reactions (Hallucinations) could occur.

I think having the tree be bio luminescent would help, so you can play with the lighting, and eventually as it's taint grows stronger having it spread out further, and choke out access to the room is a fun metaphor. You could then have a few people disappear-maybe one or two, or more of those who speak out against the tree? Maybe after a few members of the kaer lose their minds and attack the tree, the elders decide it needs a guard. (Who then eat from it's fruit much more often...)

From there it's like any invasion of the pod people movie as far as tone goes bud.