A rumor of a monstrous person/creature living in a cave, where even the bravest and toughest of soldiers come running out, bloodied and bruised. 

The hero goes in, and it's very dark. Even with a lamp, the hero can barely make out what's a few feet ahead. As the hero continues walking, whispers are echoing throughout the walls. The further in the hero goes, the more whispers there are and the louder they seem to get, until it's like they're screaming inside the hero's head. 

There are also traps strewn around. Typical spike and boulder traps, but paired with the loud whispers, the hero is really put on edge. The hero is able to avoid them with relative ease.Gradually, the hero feels their heart rate spiking, their breathing more labored, and their vision seems to blur. The traps appear more frequently, and the hero is less able to avoid them like before.

The hero finally makes it to the end, where there's an empty throne. The hero walks up to the throne, when suddenly a loud spark is heard behind them. Before the hero has time to react, the entire room is up in flames, and the loud whispering turns into a banshee-like screaming. The hero, coughing and stumbling, barely manages to run out of the cave before passing out.

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What Happened

Secret tunnels around the cave that are hard to notice to an unobservant eye, even if it weren't so dark. Allows the rumored person/creature to move around the cave. 

The cave has a certain gas all through its tunnels, that make it harder to breathe and impairs judgement- effectively causing panic and paranoia. 

The whispers, caused by the person/creature, are the same volume until the screaming, but the paranoia causes it to seem louder and louder the longer a victim stays in the cave. By the time the person/creature is screaming, the paranoia makes it sound like the worst scream the victim has ever heard.

The throne room is just a trap room, obviously. There's oil and highly burnable materials strewn all around, so the person/creature lets off a spark and suddenly the victim is in a burn room. 

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The person/creature is actually quite small and weak, hence the cave. They use all these tricks to appear stronger and bigger than they actually are, so that they won't be targetted by those stronger than them. Like how some animals will group up or flare their feathers/wings/fur to appear bigger and deter predators.