Horror element

[Choisai]

Alright, basically what I want to add to skyrim is a horror element. A real good Horror story is required

This is what I've made up so far. I'll do some experiments with the CK once it comes out.

 

The road to Morrowind is open. The road is extremely long and leads through many mountains, but after three days riding your horse on the road you end up in a forest and climate similar to that of Falkreath. You find a dead body, with a diary. It says the following:

 

'Day 1

we've left for the Castle with 40 men. It's time to end this evilness that's lurking from the east. We've even hired 5 mages from the Mages Guild from Cyrodill in order to help us. We've got more then enough power. Let's just see what we will encounter there.

 

Day 2

After half of a day walking, we've set up camp. We can see the bridge to the castle. On the walls of the bridge are some weird gargole-like stone creatures. They give me the creeps. We saw two dragons circling around the tower. Dragons!

We've heard tales about the Dragonborn killing dragons in Skyrim. The mages from the Guild have studied them and gave us excellent information. It turns out they are some sort of Lesser Dragons, as opposed to the Greater Dragons like the World-Eater Alduin. Though we have more then enough power to take them down, they still give me the creeps.'

 

etcetera etcetera. The expedition goes horribly wrong because the castle contains great evil within. My plan is to recreate the castle from Beauty and the Beast, or the castle from Amnesia the Dark Descent, or copy the hall of heroes from Sovngarde. I will turn the latter in a far more Gothic version.

 

What i want to add is dark halls. Really dark halls. Darker then you see in 'darker nights' and slightly darker then in Twilight Sepulcher. You will need a Torch or some sort of light. When you enter the castle, with the dragons being gone (they've disappeared) you enter in a great entry room. A large Victorian style curved stairs are in front of you, with at the top of it the painting of some noble man whose eyes will follow you as you enter.The second time you enter it will be another painting, with the same noble man but then hanged. There are few torches that lit the hall up and you've only got as much torches as you got with you (fortunately, my character has 94 torches). You can go left, right, use the two doors next of the stairs OR, if you go up the stairs, go left or right and i'll probably add some other doors too.

 

What I want to add is:

A really pitchblack hallway in which you encounter a survivor. he's catatonic and can only write stuff (is that even possible? if you can't write while being catatonic he had his tongue cut out by some evil there) A mage that throws a ball of light and you that an both sides of the long, long, long hallway and you see it's filled with coffins. As you step they fall open they reveal the Draugr/undead within.

 

Werewolves

 

Sometimes some werewolf howling, so not growling but real howling

 

A 'boss'. I want to create a monster similar to that of Beauty and the beast, but more horrific. Probably using a darker fur and more gore.

 

vampires

 

Zombies like in Oblivion

 

Newly designed monsters, variations on the werewolf but stronger and scarier.

 

Real dark areas.

 

So let me know what you think. Wether or not a 'horror castle' is suitable for Skyrim, style collisions (this is for an example the Romantic viewing of castle architecture in the Late Middle Ages that I want to use, as opposed to the Early Middle Ages architecture that's used in Skyrim) or something else.

What i personally would like to see is you very own horror tale. It has to be something like I have told here before with the spooky castle, the large expedition, few survivors, real horror. But i need more then that. Your every own horror tale will give me plenty of inspiration. Some tips about ambience, sound effects everything! the more you write the better it is! feel free to write your very own epic tale. make sure you do it in own post though, I don't want to read several stories that run through eachother.

write a lot!

[huntsman2310]

Wait. The Dragons aren't gone.

 

And the Mages guild was disbanded, their successors are the Synod.

[LusifurTheSchnozzle]

Sounds cool. I'd play, but I'm no modder. Best of luck.

[Jakisthe]

IIRC, the light system in the TES game just isn't capable of making true darkness. Most mods that try attempt to do so by cranking down the brightness of light emitting sources...so you'd get, say, a torch with a visibility range of 2 feet. This starts to get weird when you think to real life and realize that a single torch is more than enough to light up and entire cavern the size of Breezehome...and caves are otherwise completely lightless. To my understanding, to change this you'd have to fiddle with the reflection properties of every surface in the world...but I might be misremembering.

 

At any rate, in past TES games it's been difficult, all mods thus far have had the 2 ft torch axiom, and although we can't say without the CK, I'd say it'd require a large amount of work anyway.

[RbtRvltin]

Just make it remove all torches from your inventory and have a "That spell can't be used here" notification for candle and magelight. Then have, around 200 feet up, large, swinging, dim chandeliers. :D

[Choisai]

IIRC, the light system in the TES game just isn't capable of making true darkness. Most mods that try attempt to do so by cranking down the brightness of light emitting sources...so you'd get, say, a torch with a visibility range of 2 feet. This starts to get weird when you think to real life and realize that a single torch is more than enough to light up and entire cavern the size of Breezehome...and caves are otherwise completely lightless. To my understanding, to change this you'd have to fiddle with the reflection properties of every surface in the world...but I might be misremembering.

 

At any rate, in past TES games it's been difficult, all mods thus far have had the 2 ft torch axiom, and although we can't say without the CK, I'd say it'd require a large amount of work anyway.

 

I've already tested some lighting and i've encountered the problems you're talking about here. Much more dark then the areas in the Twilight Sepulcher are hard to create. But these were actually the minimum amount of darkness i wanted to recreate. I'll first start with just some plain dark cave corridors and looking how to make these as spooky as possible. Just a hallway without light and some Draugr is not really that scary. I want what Amnesia has, but with more darkness. Not darkness as in evil, but darkness as in absence of light. some parts of the castle will be lighted like in Amnesia the Dark Descent, but I also want some crypts that are really really scary.

 

the Spiders, the Draugr, the Skeletons, the hagravens, they are all just not scary at all. The monsters from Amnesia are however really scary. Maybe due to the absence of not being able to fight back but also due to the fact that they are quite rare. At Amensia, i'm constantly looking carefully around every corner, there's that spooky ambience sound and music, it's all so scary! It would make it so much more of a thrill to play Skyrim if you're scared of it.

 

What actually came close to mindf*cking through being scary was the CUBE mod for Fallout 3

It's this giant cube with almost all chambers being a trap, and you have to find your way out of it. After you're outside of the cube, the adventure goes on but not as special, it turns into more action.

My first time playing it was quite nice. I seriously was at some points scared. Second time playing made me feel bored, but the first time was really nice. You were unable to attack anything and unable to leave first person view. So these are things i will certainly implant into my scary castle.

 

Being like:

 

Your horse refused to go even near the bridge and you had to walk to it. When you were halfway, you notice that your horse is running away. You continue. A dense fog appears (alduin's fog) and you go into first person view. as you walk over the long bridge the gargoyle like statues are giving you the creeps (how, i still have to figure out. Just some pig/demon figures are not really that scary).

 

As you walk you hear breathing. As you draw near the door the breathing get's louder.

When you're about 10 metres away from the door, the camera and player is no longer under control and you turn around as you hear a creature drawing near. The same sound as a werewolf running, I guess. you don't see anybody but turn around quickly towards the door and try to open it. The breathing turns more beastlike and the sound of the running get's louder.

 

The door is stuck and you try to open it with all your strength. You finally get it open and pull the large door towards you, step inside and close it behind you quick. it's completely silent. you look towards the door and listen carefully, but there's no sound. you hear footsteps and quickly turn around with your weapon drawn, but there's nobody. as you turn back to the door suddenly some creature appears (i'm hoping to create something scarecrow like if it's not to difficult with the CK. I Don't want to do a dremora or something like that. A werewolf too is just not scary enough). you are knocked uncounsious and the screen fades to black. You wake up in a small prisonlike chamber, stripped from your epquipment and find a note nearby, with some scary notifications about what you're going to meet.

 

Bla bla bla, unable to attack, you meet your first monster, you run to safety and hide and you see that your chaser looks around for you, turns around goes around the corner and disappears. Bla bla bla you end happily find your gear, defeat the boss, go home rich. Maybe I'll do afterwards a note from a courier that says he has a note for you from a guy dressed in black. It's a note about the castle. Don't know what, but just something that gives you the creeps. Doesn't matter if you're all the way up in the Blue palace in Solitude, it's still got to give you the creeps. But i'm lacking in inspiration about what it has to be.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Choisai

[Choisai]

Will you people also write some of your own horror stories here? I really need inspiration, so i'd love to read everything you have. It's gotta be something about this castle. Please, scare the sh*t out of me with your stories.

 

This is what I made up so far:

 

You get a note from someone, saying he's a friend of yours delivered by the courier. It turns out that a man called Vicente Valtieri (yup, Valtieri!) Valtieri wants you to investigate his family's castle, saying that it is under great danger by both locals from the nearby village and something unidentified. He tells that the villagers leader, Gram Bash Urog hired a professional mercenary-clan and mages from the Synod to investigate the castle. This was a caravan of a total of 45 men. The mercenaries were well prepared and so were the mages, but it's been over 3 months since they left for the castle. You are to meet with the Clan and find out what happened to the caravan, clear the castle from any evil or danger that lurks within and then meet Vicente himself to report. The clan you're to meet with is the Silent-Tongue clan from Orsinium. They are called Silent-Tongues because I'm not planning to do some voice recording. And because they don't speak to outsiders of the clan.

 

The castle is located north of Tamriel on a large island with a climate similar to that of Falkreath. A ship is waiting for you in the port of Windhelm.

 

You wake up and see that you have arrived at a island, with a note that you were sleeping and that the rest of the sailors didn't want to wake you up. They left for the forest to hunt and restock for the way back. You and your horse Twilight Sparkle (or whatever you call your horse) head out and see not far from the port an Orc on a Carriage. There's a woodblock nearby with a note on it. It says the Orc is from the clan and is here to pick you up.

 

You might notice that i'm quite lazy and want to do as much as possible via notes.

 

You go for a nice ride with the carriage and you travel to a rendez vous point. There you and your horse have to wait for reinforcements from the Clan. An Orc gives you a note and suggests you take a nap in the meantime. You go to sleep at a bedroll and when you wake up the reinforcements have arrived. An Orc takes your horse and you have to sit in the back of the carriage with the other Orcs. Now you take a very long ride like the one in the beginning. It's a long ride, so I want to give the player a chance to look around and take a good look at the forest. There are Orcs on horses and Orcs walking with you. About 30 men in total. 10 archers, 10 swordsmen 5 mages and 4 officers and one important looking Orc in Daedric Armor armed with a enchanted Daedric Warhammer. They have all dragon-armor and have daedric bows and swords. Yup, these are bad-ass motherf*ckers. You're lucky they're on your side.

 

After about 15 minutes of riding the cart you see a sea. In the sea stands on a high rock, like winterhold college, a large castle. The castle is of much more Gothic architecture then what you see in Skyrim (it's gonna take a long time to create it). It's large and a dragon circles around one of the towers. as you draw near you see that the dragon is attacked by something from within the castle walls. A beam hits the dragon and it falls to the ground. You can't see what happens to it. You hear the roar of a dragon and it turns silent afterwards. You get out and the Orcs draw near to the large bridge of the Castle. It's a really long bridge. The Orcs take position and you are given a note by one of them. You are to go to the castle with a sentry team of six other Orcs and it's your task to determine whatever is inside. You get a tome of magelight and you have to shoot one up in the air in case it goes wrong. The rest of the Orcs set up camp and start building a Orc fortress (i'm gonna copy some Orc fortress for this). You are to return within 24 hours. If they haven't heard from you by then, they will call for more reinforcements and attack the castle.

 

You and your team draw your weapons and look carefully around. Halfway the bridge a dense fog turns up. You turn around and a arrow is being shot in the air (which means 'proceed'). As you head into the fog, you go into first person view and you no longer are able to control your character. You proceed carefully with your shield and weapon in your hand. Suddenly an Orc comes out of nowhere and attacks you and your team. He is quickly struck down. You can control your character again and you are to investigate his corpse. You find a journal. It's about the castle, but most of the pages are blank. All except for the last page.

It says:

 

'It took Urag, Bolor, Vafthrud, R'tar and even Yolorz. We are trying to escape. Soon our comrades will undertake a rescue mission to determine our fate. They walk right into the trap. How many more have to die?

 

It's the worms. They crawl inside your head and make you go crazy. Go around attacking others. The Nord Odan was the first one that was struck with madness. I'm only here now with Urag's brother Yamir, Gro-Bolog and the Argonian Tar-Jee. We can't get out. But we have to warn the others. We can't get out. We can hear it coming again. It's coming for us. May Malacath prese....

 

The journal ends there

You give it to one of your teammates. He runs back and disappears in the mist. After a while he get's back and gives you the note. It's from the leader of the convoy, the one in daedric armor. His name is (apparently) Yamarz Urag Gro Bomog, Duke of the Bomog County. He knows you are the Dragonborn and want you to lead the sentry team. He was the one that advised Sir Valtieri to hire you in the first place. Since they know your prowess in battle they want you and the team to act as 'commando's'. Being dropped behind enemy lines and perform high class missions. Your task is now slightly extended. You are to determine the fate of the previous convoy, save them if possible, identify the evil within and return to inform Yamarz with this data. You are not to engage the enemy. You are allowed to defend yourself, but it isn't a death or glory mission. They must know what they are dealing with.

 

The Orcs of your team now follow you. As you walk towards the castle through the dense mist, you hear breathing. You cannot run here. You walk slowly further and the breathing is combined with footsteps. The sound of a large animal running. You turn around but can't see anything. You turn back and see something human standingin the mist. One Orc prepares his fire and Lightning spell, three others prepare their bow and the other 2 prepare their sword and shield and Daedric Greatsword. it engages in conversation with you but you can't see what it is. You ask him to identify himself and if he doesn't do that you will engage in combat. No answer

 

The Orcs fire their bows and spells, but no their seems no reaction. It turns away. You and your team quickly go after it and keep on firing. As the camera goes to first person view and is no longer under your control, you come near the door. You turn around and see that the Orcs have disappeared. You hear the breathing and footsteps again. You quickly look around for a way out but the only way is inside the castle. You quickly open the door and head on inside. Just in time because you heared a roar just before you entered. It is completely silent, no sound in the background, nothing. You hear footsteps. You turn around but you don't see anything. As you turn back you're knocked out by something. As you awaken in an office-room, you find a note.

 

It says this:

 

You made a mistake coming here. Deadra nor Aedra can see what happens here. But now you are here, you can't leave. Nobody can. Not before you have killed the beast. But the beast cannot be slain. It's different then what you're used to. It's here, it's there it's without form. It has eyes everywhere. It will come for you. It will kill you.

I pray you will be given a quick death. I can hear it clamming on the door. My blade melts now it draws near. My amulet of Mara turns into an amulet with a laughing skull. I'm scared.

It's coming.

 

(just for the record - I don't think this note is scary enough. Please reply with something scarier cause this just weak.)

 

You hear something knocking at the door. You hear a growl. You quickly look around but you can't see anything. You do see a desk however. You decide to hide beneath the desk. You hear the door going open and something walking into the room. It walks around but you can't see what it is. It walks to the other side of the room, where the desk is standing. It's standing behind the desk. you can see it's legs and feet. It has hooves and legs like a goat but it's bipedal. if it were to search just a little bit lower it would see you. '

 

(gonna be hell of a job to get a two legged goat to walk, but it's not impossible)

 

It doesn't search a bit lower. It continues it's search through the chamber and walks away from the desk. Not a single sound is made except for the sound of it's hooves. After a while the sound the hooves stop. You wait and look to your left and right, but you don't see anything. You decide to wait just a little bit longer. Still no sound. 'Is it still there?' you ask yourself. After a while you hear thunder. But still no hooves. then it walks again. You can hear the sound of the hooves getting fainter and you hear the door closing. The sound of the hooves get's fainter and fainter and when you don't hear it anymore, you lean a bit forward and look to you left and right. Nothing to see.

You crawl out of the desk and stand slowly up. You don't see anything or anyone.

 

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I'm pretty much out of inspiration right now. I'm planning to use the interiors from Windhelm Castle to recreate the castle. The stone and cold architecture is perfectly fit for that. It's not lightened however. You can't raise your fists and you cannot look in your inventory. You get quest message with how to walk and so on. You can't do anything. You can't fight, you can't use magic, you can't leave first person view. You can crouch but you can't enter your inventory. Basically, most of what you were able to do is now gone. you can still pick things up etcetera, store them in your inventory but you can't enter you inventory.

 

I hope you guys can give some inspiration and write your own horror story, it really would help me if you can give me tips and so on.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Choisai

[RbtRvltin]

sounds kinda like Mind of Madness...

[Choisai]

sounds kinda like Mind of Madness...

 

But Sheogorath isn't scary at all. It has absolutely no horror whatsoever

[Cyrotek]

I personally like more "subtile" horror. I dont need stuff that jumps into my face out of nowhere, thats a pretty cheap shock effect.

 

Just think about background sounds and what you can do with it. Also maybe some special creatures that act as "moving soundorigin". Dont know how exactly, but maybe like a invisible NPC that the PC cant touch, that got some custom AI. Like it keeps running behind the PC for a while (footstep sounds) or stuff like that.

 

Also, if you want monsters, maybe some that do stuff you dont expect. Easy ones like Monsters that are only moving if you dont look at them (hi Minecraft and hi ninjacat) or more complex ones that move only in the shadows (maybe just 2 eyes, you know).

 

Iam not entirely sure if stuff like partial invisible NPC are possible withhout bugging the game too much. You coud do stuff like "living" weapons or Armorparts with it. Alternatively you coud just create completely new creatures.

 

Another idea: Living Castle. But it woud need custom interiors that are altered more than once in the playthrough. Also stuff like doors that are gone if you turn around.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Cyrotek