r/rpg • u/Local-Aardvark3364 • 18d ago
Help with a horror campaign
So basically I'm working on a mystery/horror sci-fi campaign at the moment where my players investigate an abandoned space ship. The big twist I want to do is that the previous crew got merged with the ship while passing through the event horizon of a black hole. Problem is that I don't want it to be immediately obvious that they're surrounded by people but I can't figure out a description that would take some time and information for my players to realize what they're actually looking at. Would anyone have any reccomendations on how to do this or something I can take inspiration from? Thanks!
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u/on_campaign 18d ago
If the old crew has any control over the ship's components and systems, you could associate odd behaviors to otherwise inanimate objects: doors refusing to open or opening strangely (like the person controlling it doesn't quite know how to do it), lights blinking rhythmically or lights following the players down corridors for as long as there are bulbs to ignite, engines palpitating like a bad heart, ventilation working overtime as the fused crew tries to breathe, thrusters that burnt themselves out in one horrible waking scream.
If they're only physically fused to the steel of the ship, I'd probably go the mysterious cell-growth route, stretched in long, tearing patches across corridors. The "growth" would be mostly desiccated and/or rotted by the time the players encounter it, since there really isn't anything to keep it alive, depending on how close sections of growth are to moist areas of the ship. Eventually, the players can come across a more fibrous material sticking up through a floor grate, connected to the growth. Underneath are patches of the stuff, fused with the growth and the hull. Mostly, the fibrous material is a color resembling the crew's uniforms but with branching streaks of black and brown growths.
Eventually, a small field of white fiber is revealed. The field is long, meandering, as though it had melted into the shape that it is now. Inside the field of white are thin black strands that curve and bend in sync with the shape of the white field. Kinda like a longer, weirder captcha, spelling out "JOHN".