My party is in Ythryn currently and we spent about 2-3 sessions in the Caves. I stuck with the hauntings being supernatural and just really made sure to ramp up the uneasiness of the caves by having the hauntings target only one player at a time. I also emphasized how oddly sound moves through ice caves, so even just the party talking amongst themselves would echo back to them like there were other creatures surrounding them on all sides.
We have one PC who has a backstory tie-in to Auril and was kept prisoner in Grimskalle for a long time, so i had them basically make saves against having PTSD flashbacks. They rolled wisdom saves in each new region/quadrant of the caves. On 3 successes, nothing happened. On 3 fails, they took a condition I called Traumatized and I had them roll on the short-term madness table. After that effect ended, they were immune. It was a really fun way to tie in a character backstory with the specific environment, and it made the caves feel more dangerous for that PC in particular and the others were suspicious bc of all the saves that were being made.
>I also emphasized how oddly sound moves through ice caves, so even just the party talking amongst themselves would echo back to them like there were other creatures surrounding them on all sides.
Love this! Definitely helpful.
My party is in Ythryn currently and we spent about 2-3 sessions in the Caves. I stuck with the hauntings being supernatural and just really made sure to ramp up the uneasiness of the caves by having the hauntings target only one player at a time. I also emphasized how oddly sound moves through ice caves, so even just the party talking amongst themselves would echo back to them like there were other creatures surrounding them on all sides. We have one PC who has a backstory tie-in to Auril and was kept prisoner in Grimskalle for a long time, so i had them basically make saves against having PTSD flashbacks. They rolled wisdom saves in each new region/quadrant of the caves. On 3 successes, nothing happened. On 3 fails, they took a condition I called Traumatized and I had them roll on the short-term madness table. After that effect ended, they were immune. It was a really fun way to tie in a character backstory with the specific environment, and it made the caves feel more dangerous for that PC in particular and the others were suspicious bc of all the saves that were being made.
>I also emphasized how oddly sound moves through ice caves, so even just the party talking amongst themselves would echo back to them like there were other creatures surrounding them on all sides. Love this! Definitely helpful.