History NightmareFuel / BaldursGate

** In general, the first chapter or two, depending on the player's choice of where to go and what to do, is in a meta sense a terrifying prospect. It's not uncommon for players of the tabletop ''D&D'' games to skip to their characters being at least level 2 or 3 due to the immense difficulty a level 1 character faces, but this game shows why starting at level 1 is so terrifying in this kind of story. You have only the absolute most bare-bones, basic of training in your chosen class (multi-class characters have their backgrounds state that the lack of friends and companions meant you had to "play multiple parts yourself", which only furthers the implications of just how inexperienced you are at being in a group and working with others), and said training happened in relative isolation, where the most dangerous thing you had to fight that was "hostile" towards you was a rat. Now you're out in the wild, where wolves and bears can kill you easily with a lucky hit or two, gibberlings and xvarts can easily outnumber you, and just happening to wander the wrong direction could get you destroyed by another horrible thing without realizing the danger you're walking straight into. Basically....you better start getting some experience and fast if you hope to survive long...

** A case of {{Fridge Horror}}. Investigating the Seven Suns thoroughly has the player find Jhasso, who says the lead doppelganger merely took his likeness and kept him alive for info. That means doppelgangers do NOT have to kill those they mimic....[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse but then...where are your friends you're forced to kill fakes of....]]?

* Chapter 1 of the first game. You were just attacked by a large man in menacing armor who was demanding Gorion give you over to him, same armored man cut down Gorion, ''a powerful archmage'', with all the effort of a dealing with a goblin, and you're left on your own, realizing you can't go back home, and only your tag-along best friend is at your side in a wide-open, hostile world, with only the advice to seek out Khalid and Jaheira as your only lead. {{Adult Fear}} at its finest.

* The "Albert & His Dog" sidequest. A cute little boy comes up to you and askes you to find his dog, Rufie, who's missing? Aww, poor thing. Found the dog and Rufie turns out to be a wolf creature and not a regular dog? Um, okay, starting to get a sense of something being...a bit off here, but whatever....Return with Rufie and Albert transforms into an ogre mage (original)/nabassu or pit-fiend (EE) and thanks you for helping him before teleporting Rufie back to Hell? ''WTF''!?

* The "Albert & His Dog" sidequest. A cute little boy comes up to you and askes you to find his dog, Rufie, who's missing? Aww, poor thing. Found the dog and Rufie turns out to be a wolf creature and not a regular dog? Um, okay, starting to get a sense of something being...a bit off here, but whatever....Return with Rufie and Albert transforms into an ogre mage (original)/nabassu or pit-fiend (EE) and thanks you for helping him before teleporting Rufie back to Hell? ''WTF''!?!?!?
** It's actually in your best interest experience point-wise to kill Rufie and report back to Albert, who winds up pissed and tells you he'll never trust you again, and your journal makes mention of having made a VERY powerful enemy of the demon. While nothing comes of it, you can't help but wonder.....''who or what exactly did you just piss off!?!?!?''

---> "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE MEAT!"

* On top of being one of the most dangerous monsters in the game, Beholders are very scary looking. They're huge, flesh coloured heads with several eye stalks, massive mouths with razor sharp teeths and a huge central eye with a constant DeathGlare to boot.

* In ''BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'', Anomen asks Keldorn about one of the battles the older knight was in, clearly expecting a story about his legendary heroism. Keldorn instead tells him, dispassionately and in full detail, about how he and his unit were subjected to [[ColdBloodedTorture horrific atrocities]].

*** And, of course the fact that the doppelgangers all reference conversations you had the last time you met, in the game's prologue, implying that your friends had been killed and replaced by doppelgangers before the game even began.

* The dream sequences, in which [[BigBad Irenicus]] gives you increasingly dark and morbid {{Breaking Lecture}}s. It becomes even worse when you find out [[spoiler:the Irenicus that talks to you in your dreams isn't Irenicus at all. Its Bhaal himself, trying to goad you to TheDarkSide.]]

* Your second visit to Candlekeep in the first game [[spoiler:when everyone's been replaced by dopplegangers.]]
---> [[spoiler: "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE MEAT!"]]
** Even better, [[spoiler: even better, when you get to the end of the catacombs, Gorion shows up and tries to convince you that none of the dopplegangers were real, and instead you just murdered all of your old childhood friends in a bout of insanity. Of course, he turns out to be a doppleganger, too, but it can really mess with your head for a brief moment.]]
*** And, of course [[spoiler: the fact that the doppelgangers all reference conversations you had the last time you met, in the game's prologue, implying that your friends had been killed and replaced by doppelgangers before the game even began.]]

* The cries in [[spoiler: the Fear Test in hell]] in Shadows of Amn.

** The wraith is particularly brutal with Aerie. It will make her think that [[spoiler: her mother]] has been killed while searching for her and she will believe it for the rest of the game. Talk about trauma.

* [[spoiler:Yoshimo's description of the {{Geas}}, and [[FateWorseThanDeath what happens to those who try to break it]].]]

** To sum up: [[spoiler: First, Keldorn's unit was betrayed to the enemy and decimated in battle. Second, the enemy captured them and stripped everyone naked, living or dead. They then tied each living knight to one of their dead fellow soldiers, and left them all on the battlefield. As they they were ForcedToWatch their friends' bodies rot, some of them died of exposure or went insane. Keldorn escaped, saved everyone he could, and then sneaked into the enemy camp and killed everyone who had done this to them.]] It's a testament to his HeroicWillpower that he's ''still'' fighting after all of that.

* In comparisons to the games, the books' depiction of the spider-infested Cloakwood ruins were pretty damned horrifying.

* We all know that [[FanonDiscontinuity there was no novelization of the games.]] But if there had been, there's a possibility that the depiction of the spider-infested Cloakwood ruins might have been pretty damned horrifying. If such a novel existed, that is.

* The teaser to ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'' gives us a view of Baldur's Gate under siege, with dead Flaming Fist soldiers littering the streets. One survivor stumbles exhausted through an alley, preparing for a desperate last stand. Then suddenly he vomits blood, his teeth fall out, and a horrible transformation starts, culminating in four tentacles bursting out of his mouth. Seconds later, a newly born illithid rises into the air. And then a flash of lightning illuminates the clouds, and the sky is full of mind flayers. Then another flash reveals what can only be described as [[EldritchAbomination something big.]] Possibly [[https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ilsensine Ilsensine himself.]] (The [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bg3_logo.jpg logo]] seems to suggest it]].

* The teaser to Baldur's Gate III gives us a view of Baldur's Gate under siege, with dead Flaming Fist soldiers littering the streets. One survivor stumbles exhausted through an alley, preparing for a desperate last stand. Then suddenly he vomits blood, his teeth fall out, and a horrible transformation starts, culminating in four tentacles bursting out of his mouth. Seconds later, a newly born illithid rises into the air. And then a flash of lightning illuminates the clouds, and the sky is full of mind flayers. Then another flash reveals what can only be described as [[EldritchAbomination something big.]] Possibly [[https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ilsensine Ilsensine himself.]]

* The teaser to Baldur's Gate III gives us a view of Baldur's Gate under siege, with dead Flaming Fist soldiers littering the streets. One survivor stumbles exhausted through an alley, preparing for a desperate last stand. Then suddenly he vomits blood, his teeth fall out, and a horrible transformation starts, culminating in four tentacles bursting out of his mouth. Seconds later, a newly born illithid rises into the air. And then a flash of lightning illuminates the clouds, and the sky is full of mind flayers. Then another flash reveals what can only be described as [[EldritchAbomination something big.]]