Dreadpass encounters?

[Zilfer]

Can someone say.... Banshee? Needless to say if I ran into that I'd never go back that way.... maybe play up the fact that people can hear crying off in the distance at night. xD

[Eddyspaghetti]

An Ooze or Pudding walking as a person? Several of them, walking as almost recognizable people and some natural animals, coming thru the pass towards the party. Blackened, or perhaps brightly colored creatures, red, yellow, green or some combination. Players expect what oozes act like, but if you change their form, that suddenly gets scary. Swords and arrows pass thru them, and fire may not do anything, depending on which you choose. Imagine cutting one in half, only to see the two halves reknit up, or worse, build up the missing half so you end with 2 foes (half HD each of course- but PCs don't know that). A players horse gets hit and the color washes over it, leaving saddle and shoes behind as it walks away.

[Hamiclar]

Im thinking more of mutans barbarians remants of Tergs which have inbred and raid the area periodically for food and slaves especially females. Another is the ice queen myth which I believe is spectre. The pass is cold covered by snow most of the year I think carpathians which would have possibly other nasties theres a creature that has no eyes which lives in mountains and peridically raid the surface that would be interesting especially if they had to go the underdark of Borovia.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Or maybe the pass itself is to be dreaded. As in, hostile genius locus. The loose scree shifts treacherously underfoot at the worst of times; the scraggly trees' branches clutch at packs and bridles; shadows thicken to mask ankle-trapping holes in the path. The very rocks hate trespassers, and will kill them if they can.

And there's no physical enemy to fight. Nothing for a blade to strike or a spell to smite, no undead to turn or pursuer to elude; just the characters' own nerve and will and painstaking caution, to keep them going. How do you defeat landscape?

[vipera aspis]

I could get behind that. The land itself is against you, and like the whole of the pass is cursed. Branches always snag. Fires are difficult to keep lit or die out without cause. Food and water spoils. The weather always shifts to the worst. Irons rust and wood warps in hours. NPC attitudes shift towards negative. The horses are uneasy and dogs snarl at the darkness. Everyone gets sick in a matter of hours. Everything sucks in the dread pass.

[Baron Zamedi]

I could see a scene where the pc's enter a cave seeking shelter and find the remains of an older adventuring party. In the middle of the night one (or more) of the bodies reanimates as an ancient dead, right when an electric storm and it's acompanying blizzard are brewing. Fighting ensues, but the foe is to powerful to defeat. Now the heroes have to brave the storm outside and get out of the dreadpass, all while being pursued by powerful undead in a tricky and dangerous terrain. And just maybe, if they are clever, they can find something along the way that can help them fight off their attacker (an old pick that got lost in the storm that made this older party take refuge in the cave in the first place, an old log that gives them some kind of clue, etc)

Alternatively, why not take a leaf from The Hobbit, and have them take shelter in the mountains just to be kidnapped in the middle of the night by malicious fey that take them deep INTO the mountain. If anything it will be unexpected right?

[Joël of the FoS]

Oh, interesting. The guy on watch sees a cavern where there was none (he thinks) when they set camp.

A trick of the place ala Rotifer? Or a mist place?

Joël