Wednesday, December 19, 2018

1d20 Haunted and Cursed Bathtubs

Before continuing my other planned Thawing Kingdom posts, I thought I'd take a break with some unrelated fun things. One is a secret, it'll show up soon. The other is this.

Baths and bathrooms are no stranger to the scene of ghosts, horror and high strangeness. Why is that? Well, because when you take a bath you're in the perfect state for something nasty to get you. You think you're very safe, but you're also naked and (usually) alone, so you're as vulnerable as you can arguably be. You are at the mercy of the tub, and its invisible but always present connection to the underworld (sewer). You can use this table for haunted house baths, for bath-related side quests, for baths you bought on ominous and misty bazaars/vaguely occult open air markets/DungeonBuy.realm, for spas and bathouses that have a stroke of bad luck or an off-limits room. You can probably think of more.

Art by Daryl Toh

1
Any water put inside tub turns to blood. When looked at from the corner of your eye or in mirror, naked person sitting in it with obvious and gory wound.
2
Plumbing turned into monstrous hungry intestines. Bathtub drain is a hagfish-like mouth.
3
When filled with water, person or spirit can be seen in the water’s reflection, trying to break out. Could be intentionally trapped evil spirit.
4
Antique porcelain tub. Overly ornate. Anyone who bathes in the tub, instead of going pruny, slowly turns to porcelain.
5
Pale giant head appears in tub. Long and wet black hair spills everywhere. Does not leave until fed a bowl of rice one grain at a time.
6
Rubbery boneless merman has squeezed itself into tap or drain. Will come out and try to eat anyone who tries to bathe. Leaves no traces of meal. Hides bones somewhere in the bathroom.
7
Roll 1d6. Instead of water, tap produces: 1-Leeches, 2-Eels, 3-Insects, 4-Fish Guts, 5-Worms, 6-Screams
8
Spirit/demon has appeared and does not want to leave the bath. Ugly, hairy, potent and foul stench.
9
Water suddenly turns scalding hot when bathing. Tries to boil you alive.
10
Water so perfect you don’t want to get out. Lulls your mind into hypnotic bliss. You don’t want to get out. You’ll never want to get out.
11
Countless bloodstained arms come. Try to pull you underwater and drown you in the tub. If they succeed your arms join them.
12
Tub grows large spider legs at night, runs amok.
13
Subtle poison in water. Every time you bathe you grow more affected. Possibly not cursed but just a death trap formerly owned by a psychopath.
14
Spirit/demon possesses the tub. Drain becomes a mouth. Sleazy and obnoxiously talkative.
15
Tub drains your blood as you bathe. Each bath you take makes you more anaemic.
16
Large water serpent lives in drain. Lets you bathe if you answer its riddle. Eats you otherwise.
17
One of two exactly identical tubs. When submerging in one completely, you surface in the other. Other tub always in strange location. Moves sometimes.
18
Oily black tar fills the tub. Something bloodthirsty and invisible comes out. Can only be perceived by the black foot- and handprints it leaves.
19
Bathtub is the only thing in the house that isn’t haunted.
20
Novelty puzzlebox-like temperature control. While bathing, bottom opens like trapdoor and dumps you into extradimensional Cenobite torture room. All tortures are bathroom-themed.

3 comments:

  1. If I rolled #12, I'd have it spewing spiders as well. This is wonderfully hideous.

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  2. Where are these people who feel safe when in the bath? I don't believe in them. During childhood I've had the irrational fear of witches in the bathroom and now I have the completely rational fear of something rising up from the drain and pulling me down into the sewers.

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