Nightmare Fuel / Brony D&D

• Amber's first nightmare. Even if you're not arachnophobic, hearing that eerie music and the suspense before the reveal is terrifying. It's no wonder she breaks down crying when she wakes up.
• The Warden himself is creepy in general. The fact that he can torment them in their dreams would be bad enough for the sheer Paranoia Fuel it provides, but the fact that his dialogue makes him sound like an outright rapist half the time just makes it ten times worse.
  • And now it turns out he's an actual rapist. charming
• Simula is a cruel, manipulative, sociopath. She kills without a second thought, treats people like toys, and best of all, she's been studying the heroes.
  • Her Leitmotif doesn't help matters.
• During his nightmare, Kross completely drops the show off act, and starts ruthlessly and pitilessly slaughtering guards that are begging for their lives, all while conversing evenly in a casual monotone as if he's relaxing with a crossword puzzle. You wouldn't think a loudmouth, self-aggrandising, perpetually unlucky buffoon like Kross could ever be intimidating. You would be wrong. You would be very wrong indeed.
• The Night Twist is an enormous sentient and carnivorous tree in the Galgari jungle that can control people's minds, is virtually unkillable, and even if you DO kill it you will be plagued by nightmares for all eternity.
• By the time of Rose’s dream, The Warden has undergone some major Sanity Slippage as he’s in full on Giggling Villain territory. It’s easily one of his scariest Breaking Lectures to date.
• Ivan being planeshifted into the Elemental Plane of Shadow. While it becomes Hilarious in Hindsight, the first few minutes are horrifying.
• In Episode 54, Kross, Simula, Amber, Ivan, and Oin meet The Warden again, who has learned Assimilation Magic after reading Simula's notes. His victims? The eloped lovers from the previous episode, hideously fused into a two headed Gold and Red Dragon.
  • Many of the players screamed at Josh for reminding them of Fullmetal Alchemist with this.
• Arkoth Wormwood uses the party's second — and final — battle with Aymer to whisk Simula away while they're distracted, leaving only a note behind.
• During the battle with Wormwood in Episode 69, he one-shots Jalerom and then brings him back as an undead servant.
• At the end of Episode 69, the armies of the Abyssal Plane have been unleashed. Not only are we treated to the surviving party members being surrounded by six Balors, but after escaping, we get to see that the world is covered in demons and fire.
• So, Simula has been defeated and the army of demons has been vanquished, right? Cue a hand coming up from hell and dragging Jeminya down with it.
• The ENTIRE PREMISE of Season 3. Sure, they're on a mission to save Jeminya, but even so, who in their right mind would want to go to a place like THE NINE HELLS!!!
• Once they arrive on the first layer of Baator, Ravvas relays a story about life under the rule of Lolth's priestesses. Two young children no older than toddlers had stolen some bread for food, and the elder shared it with his younger brother. How did the priestess respond? By having the hand of the elder brother cut off for sharing, and then torturing the younger to an agonizing death.
• In order to gain the favor of the devils in charge of the first layer, the group has to go slay some demons. These demons include ANOTHER balor. You know, one of the creatures that killed Jeminya and traumatized Amber? The creatures that could only be defeated before by wishing it away and then banishing it to another plane? They have to actually KILL one this time.
• After defeating the demons, the party is rewarded with an audience with the Queen of Chromatic Dragons herself, Tiamat. Amber is warned to go back to her humanoid form, lest she provoke Tiamat's wrath. One can't help but wonder what Tiamat would have done if Amber had stayed as a dragon.
• Guess who broke free of Faerthurin's Sanctify The Wicked Spell? That's right, Simula broke free, and is implied to have broken free as early as the first layer of the Nine Hells.
• Dispater has asked the party to help him find a traitor among his court. Simula decides to frame Dispater's daughter, and the group have no choice but to go along with it. To do this, the process includes incinerating a guard and planting his ashes in the daughter's room, then planting a note in the daughter's diary.
• Dispater seems like a decent person who wants his guests to feel at home, but when the group presents evidence that his daughter is conspiring against him, he becomes a screaming maniac.
• On Layer 3, the group encounter a young tiefling who is implied to be Simula's child. This young Tiefling is looking for her caretaker. The caretaker's name? Arkoth. Needless to say, the group doesn't quite believe it at first.
• While searching for Arkoth, the group encounter a Purple Worm. To determine if it attacked and ate Arkoth, Rose decides to go into its stomach to check, nearly getting herself killed via digestion in the process.
• When Ravvas strikes down Suviel in one blow, he displays a terrifying lack of empathy.
• When Hana runs off and then completely vanishes while the party is exploring the sixth layer of hell. It gets worse when the party learns she's been captured by Baalzebul. Everyone is on the edge of a breakdown when they can't find her.
• Episode 96 has the group fighting four large spiders after two of them turn Rose and two Erinyes to stone. This means that, once again, Amber's arachnophobia raises its head.
  • This does lead to a darkly funny moment when Amber tries to carry the two Erinyes and drops one, shattering it.
• The games of Lolth. Drow must endure or undertake horrible tasks or else be killed, cursed into insanity, or mutated into a horrifying monster. The reward for success? Having a metal spider burn itself into your skin until it is lodged permanently.
• The carnival on the seventh layer of hell has two attractions, one of which takes a person's limb and replaces it with something else and another one that strips the flesh from the person. While they end up giving them benefits, Amber loses a claw and has a new one grow in its place, and Faerthurin is nearly flayed alive.
• EVERYTHING about Baalzebul. From his grotesque slug-like appearance to the fact that he devours his devil minions if they fail to perform for him to his voice to the fact that he captured Hana and is willing to use her as a bargaining chip against Asmodeus. And not only does Episode 100 end with the party meeting him and angering him by demanding Hana back, but the episode ends just as Josh calls for initiative.
• Jalerom has just nearly convinced Baalzebul to let them take down Asmodeus and cure Baalzebul of his curse. It would have worked, too, had Mephistopheles not shown up and ruined everything, prompting Baalzebul to drop Hana into his mouth.
  • Needless to say, EVERYONE IS PISSED!
• While travelling through the tunnels under Cania, the group spots what they think is a giant spider, but it just turns out to be a statue. Doesn't stop poor Amber from nearly having a mental breakdown. Anyone who's arachnophobic can relate.
• Lolth. That is all.
• Not long after entering the final layer of hell, the group witnesses an elf get horribly devoured by a monster. It leaves a good chunk of the group terrified.
• Episode 113 ends with the group, while invisible, being right in the faces of some patrolling malebranches. It's an incredibly tense scene where one wrong move could lead to disaster.
• Hooray, the group has finally found Jeminya! Except she's been tortured to the point she can't even talk straight and is so malnourished she tries to take a bite out of Faerthurin.
• Just as everyone is about to leave, guess who shows up? One word: Asmodeus.
  • And just to show how he's not to be messed with, he easily turns Mephistopholes into a pile of ash and shows that he earlier beheaded his own daughter for colluding against him with the party.
• Season Four kicks off with Directian at war with Sabaton, along with the revelation that 12 years have passed since the party began their trip through the Nine Hells. And yes, that comes with all the implications you could imagine.
• A general that the party bumped into a few moments ago loses it and begins attacking an orphanage when he learns his son was killed in battle. He's so far gone that when he's given the option to surrender, he opts instead to cut off his own head with Jalerom's sword.
  • The fight at the orphanage results in the death of at least one child, and one of the surviving children confesses to being responsible for the death of the general's son.
• The image of Gatless Town in flames. And until they find her gravestone, Jalerom is freaking out looking for his mother.
• After saving a small child named Steve, Valil notices that there are no corpses in Gatless Town. A moment later, the reason why shows up. Folks, meet the Necronaut, a tower of corpses that assimilates other corpses into its own being.
• Who started the war between Directian and Sabaton? Why, none other than our good friend Ravvas. His excuse? Get the surface dwellers to destroy each other, which will in turn make conquering them that much easier for the drow.
  • And there are implications that he had this planned even before he went with the party to Baator, as a magical flashback shows him communicating with Asmodeus.
• Varina turns out to have been a Drow infiltrator who then starts to burn Sabaton, with the help of no less than FIVE BEHOLDERS!
• Durng the fight with Varina and the beholders, Fae gets kidnapped. Who did it? Why, no other than her dear old dad Aymer, who's back from the dead.
• The end of the most recent session ends with Aymer asking Fae one simple question:
  Aymer: How many lights do you see?
• Faerthurin's torture involves slowly and systematically getting her fingers cut off one by one at each joint before having her arms cut off at the shoulder. And then goes her feet.
• The brief reprieves in the physical torture are merely camouflaged mental torment; her conversations with Elvanna see her views on life being skewed, her memories being torn apart and questioned, and even her relationship with Jalerom being dissected, all while being disguised as friendly conversation and attempts to "help" Fae.
  • It is later revealed that the torments she has been experiencing are solely by Elvanna's hand. All visions of Aymer and Arkoth were mere illusions to tear apart her grasp on reality.
• It is implied that Elvanna may have utilized illusions of Faerthurin's friends in her torment, as Fae did not believe that they were who they appeared to be when they came to rescue her. Not even a kiss from Jalerom was enough to calm her.
• Just after saving Varaugh from the Fire Elves, what should pop out of the ground but the TARRASQUE!
  • And it starts marching towards Directian.
• The party comes across Ravvas and Valil again, who this time are accompanied by a group of children. Ravvas orders the group to surrender, or he starts killing the kids. When the party doesn’t surrender fast enough, Ravvas does indeed kill a child.
• The party, disguised as drow, make their way to the drow capital. While there, they learn that Ravvas has made law that the drow mate with surface dwellers to keep the drow race alive, forcefully, if need be, and come across a part of town filled with thousands of prisoners who are more or less walking skeletons. Lovely.
• Faerthruin returns home at the behest of Elvana, who has Fae’s family at her mercy. Including Fae’s mother and her thought to be dead father, who is Elvana’s obedient pet.
• Jeminya mentions that when the balor killed her back in the labyrinth, she didn’t go to Baator — she instead went to the the Abyss.. Even Lunacorva, arguably the most evil player at the table, shudders at the thought.
• The very beginning of Episode 162 has Asmodeus show up to collect on the debt Amber owes him. And just what does he want her to do? Kill her father.
• The battle for Optimar sees the group going up against a giant horde of zombie dwarfs under Valil and Zalyn's control. Zombie dwarfs who begin climbing over a wall Faerthurin magically put up by climbinb over themselves like ants, not unlike something out of World War Z.
• In Episode 176, Jeminya goes off to meet with Ravvas personally and learns that he not only wants to subjugate the surface dwellers, but eventually he wants to go after the gods themselves. Jeminya puts it best, Ravvas is batshit insane.
• We learn in a backstory video that Ravvas had been involved with everything from the very beginning. In fact, he was the one who initially captured the party for Simula's arena.
• It's a small thing, but during the battle for Directian against Ravvas's forces, Ivan has a front row seat to a group of dead dwarfs exploding into a swarm of hellspawn.
• Simula gave up her godhood to Aymer, of all people.
• Asmodeus has found a way to overcome the Primeval Pact, intending for Ravvas to cast Karsus Avatar and then swoop in and steal the power boost for himself. Ravvas, being the smart boy that he is, was one step ahead of Big Red and choose NOT to use the traditional ingredients, leading Asmodeus to think he couldn't cast the ritual while instead using all the Alatastican prisoners gathered as substitutes, casting the spell before Asmodeus realises what is happening, but this requires him to die as the final step. So he has Jewel cast Power Word Kill on him to complete the spell, but considering the scream that Lunacorva gives, it is a VERY painful experience.
  • Oh, and said scream? Yeah, it permeates the air like the very wind itself, and even causes the sky to become darkened with storm clouds.
    • It gets EVEN BETTER THAN THAT. Ravvas is using this new power to destroy Fae's god, Corellen. It affects Faerthurin physically, making her look almost like she's having a heart attack.
  Josh: And that's the end of the chapter.

  • It gets even BETTER. Word of the player:
  Dark Wind: "So, with Ravvas screaming, and Josh having said something went 'wrong'.."
  The Lunacorva: "Actually. It all went horribly RIGHT. See, there was a bit of lore that we never got a chance to present onscreen. (We wanted to have Amarta share it). See, normally. It takes YEARS to become a God. You have to acclimate to the process slowly over time. If you try to take it in all at once... It can overload you. Being able to perceive so much around you, the full force of your domain… the sensory overload causes many to go insane. Those who aren't reduced to gibbering, comatose vegetables are forced to cling onto certain aspects of their personality to prevent their mind being shredded in the mental storm. But by clinging onto that aspect, it becomes amplified and all consuming. Pride mutates into narcisissm, a love of battle becomes bloodthirsty madness, A kind soul becomes a mad-man who would mind control all life so no-one can ever be hurt. And Ravvas... was not aware of this little detail. He has the power of a God. He got exactly what he wanted. And he's screaming under the force of it"
• The beginning of the finale starts with the aftermath of all of the above, with people in a panic and blaming each other for what just happened. And then there's Faerthurin, who is so incensed that she even considers killing Elvanna for what she did.
  • Fae's fury even manages to scare AMBER.
• Heironeous comes careening into the arena, looking like absolute crap, and confirms that not only has Ravvas destroyed Corellen, but also taken Lolth's powers as well as killing several other gods.
  • The fact is, the gods are no longer able to enforce the Primeval Pact.
  • Ravvas soon follows, accompanied by a picture with the caption God-King Ravvas.
• God-King Ravvas's first act? Murdering Sorn by ripping his insides out through his head and leaving him as nothing more than a hollow carcass.
  • To say nothing of how he kills Elvanna: Hitting her with a ray that causes her fingers to decay as blood pours from her mouth and eyes.
• The group returns to the arena to find:
  • Elvanna slowly rotting away.
  • Valil trying to put what's left of Sorn back together.
  • Jewel rocking in the corner in absolute shock.
  • And blood. Blood everywhere.