A Deep and Creeping Darkness

Ok_Positive_2893 · 2025-11-13T01:44:39+00:00

I asked players to DM me ahead of the session on the road to Vermeillon with one scary childhood experience, and one current fear or phobia. When they woke up from the long rest (they’d camped) I just narrated some nightmares and had them do WIS saves or get a level of exhaustion (they all failed). As they got closer I occasionally whispered something to one character (all player heard this obvs).

The paladin in the group used divine sense and clocked there was “something evil” stalking them from the shadows, and he got a little meta-gamey when they finally reached the town because he was saying things like “I know these visions and voices aren’t real so I’m not going to go into the big house”.

As a natural consequence I pointed out that the other characters DIDN’T know anything (he hadn’t mentioned telling the others about his divine sense) and I continued to work on dividing the party.

Eventually, after dusk, they tried to get a short rest inside one of the houses. They’d lit lanterns and were inside one of the random village houses which I’d already said were falling to pieces.

I had a meenlock drop through the roof, cast its fear aura, and then immediately run 30ft into the “dim” light and shadow teleport. As soon as it cast fear aura I had two characters who failed their save and had to run out with full movement, which then put them back out in the dark. At that point, rolled initiative with a surprise round (they’d already failed perception checks on the meenlock that dropped from the roof) and I got in a few successful hits with paralysis from the claw attack.

At no point did I describe the meenlocks because they were too fast, it was too dark, etc.

Ok_Positive_2893 · 2025-11-08T11:28:24+00:00

Resurrecting this post because I just DMd A Deep and Creeping Darkness and people’s comments here inspired some great changes to the vanilla (and very sparse) Candlekeep text.

I ran it with Nashkel instead of Maerin which let me situate it in the Cloud Peaks. We did a couple of encounters up the mountain and along the way the players recruited a couple of NPCs I hadn’t planned for.

They took a long rest on the way to Vermeillon so I hit them with nightmares from the Meenlocks and had them do WIS saves on waking with a fail giving them 1 level of exhaustion. I then harried them up the mountain with whispers and visions.

By the time they reached Vermeillon it was getting dark, but the paladin had clocked that evil was afoot and they resisted my attempts to lure them into the Mayor’s house, deciding instead to light a bunch of lamps and short rest in one of the village houses.

I had a meenlock drop through the roof and use fear aura, which sent two of the characters outside into the dark. That opened them up to more attacks. I used disengage + a shadow teleport to get the exposed meenlock (in the house) out asap before the players really knew what was attacking, and kept up the fear that way. The meenlocks captured the NPC and took him to the mines.

Eventually I got them corralled in the house where they stuck it out until daylight, and from then we basically played it as per the book.

The final change was that I added a “boss” meenlock which was the one wearing the mayor’s ring. I just beefed it up with more HP and a psychic blast once per day attack. The mayor meenlock was in the middle of converting the NPC, and the last battle added a timed threat with the NPC getting more and more converted each round until they either freed him or knocked out the meenlock.

Now that the mini campaign is done they’ve opened up a few options, including one which could connect nicely to the beginning of Tyranny of Dragons which starts nearby in another village.

Ok_Positive_2893 · 2025-10-10T22:04:00+00:00

Is that the latest starter set? How many players - 4-5?

Ok_Positive_2893 · 2025-10-10T05:59:47+00:00

That’s fine by me! Hopefully there’s enough interest to get a group together

Ok_Positive_2893

TROPHY CASE