Endless Whispers: The Motorcar!

It's the only way to travel!
-The Wind in the Willows (1987)

Just where this clanking, backfiring, whirling contraption came from - none are sure.  Certainly it seems to be no artifice of the Wizard, yet it certainly bears no hallmarks of the low-tech Starlight Forest.  Perhaps, like the archeotech weapons of the Fire Priestesses, it is the spoor of far-flung other-
worlds.  Either way, next to his blushing bride, Mr. Frog loves his insane Motorcar the best!

Million-Colored Sun: It Begins...

Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams;
I crown me with the million-colored sun
Of secret worlds incredible, and take
Their trailing skies for vestment when I soar...-The Hashish Eater or, the Apocalypse of Evil, by Clark Ashton Smith

Beyond the borders of the dream-haunted Starlight Forest lies a realm lost in the mist of fable.  A hideous realm where boiling, black blood drives foul engines that move and stalk across a primeval landscape.  Beneath the blaze of a dream-borne sun, there is no escape save for the beautiful crystalline oblivion that awaits all mortals.

Nurgle Army for Sale!

More Nurgle than Nurgle!

-Nurgle (probably)

I've decided to sell my large, custom, crazy Nurgle Daemon Army!  They have served me well - but have been absent from the battlefield for too long.  They crave a new master - could it be you?!

Listing HERE!

Endless Whispers: FAQ

I almost do not exist now and I know it; God knows what lives in me in place of me.

-The Idiot, by Fydor Dostoyevsky

A short update and clarification to the rules of the Endless Whispers campaign.

Endless Whispers: Golems

Why was I not made of stone like thee?

-The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo

The ceaseless, sprawling, dark glades of the Starlight Forest are many-templed and peopled in lonely places by statues which are not statues: golems.  These silent watchers provide roosts for birds and shade for snails - until a magic user passes by.  Golems are drawn to magic as a moth is to flame - but unlike moths, they are made of a substance which does not burn.  And the stronger the inferno, the more the golem is energized.

Battle Report: ...and their Memory was a Bitter Tree, Pt. 1

Never stop the bleeding now,
Almost like your fight,
And there it went,
Almost like your life.

-That was just your Life, by Metallica

"They call it 'unnecessary expenditure of resources' but to me it is proof of my devotion, of my love.  I will have Elise as my bride.  She has been misled by those awful renegades from the loathsome abbey.  I'll get her back.  I'll prove myself to her.  She will be begging for me to take her back - you'll see.  They'll all see."
-Galen, the True King of the Starlight Forest

Endless Whispers, Locale: Sinister Cottage

There is no part of me that is not of the Gods.

-Aleister Crowley

What's that you say?  The Wizard is near?  What care I?  My powers flow from the purest source - the very godhead of ancient days.

Yes.  Yes.  I see.  How dare he defy me?  I will show him what true power is.  I call upon every spirit of the air and of the firmament - of storm and rushing fire!  May every spirit and scourge of the Wizard be made obedient unto me!  To ride the night winds with Nephrim-Ka; that I might rain upon the Wizard my destruction!  Such wrath I shall visit upon him that he will be annihilated across all realities!  In this place my will is law!

-Auntie Whispers

Endless Whispers, Locale: Fetid Pond

Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants.  The way it stops and starts.

-Edgar Allen Poe

This pond; its surface is dark and still - a black mirror.  Yet, it reflects nothing - save the hateful desires of my own heart.  What manner of monstrosity could dwell within its depths - other than I?

- Barnabas Hook, now called Fish-Head

Endless Whispers, Spotlight: Earth Elemental

I am stone and steel of your sleeping numbers;

I remember all you forget.

I will die as many times

as you make me over again.

-Carl Sandburg

Follow @DeskinRink

The Earth Elemental is another terrifying, living idol - animated by the arcane powers of the Wizard.  It exists only to serve its master, and to crush its enemies into the earth from whence it came.  The earth to which all things must return.

Endless Whispers, Locale: Ankor Sabat

Bring down the sun
Extinguish all the stars
Let me remain in splendor of thy light

-O Father O Satan O Sun, by Behemoth

Follow @DeskinRink

From that rent in time and space, there have come horrors innumerable.  Daemons, angels, demigods, nightmares and titans wreathed in atomic flame.  From another world beyond the rim of this reality comes Ardan St. Cygnus.  His wrath is a horrific thing, but he harbors a strange loyalty to the defenders of the Starlight Forest.  His hatred of the Wizard exists for reasons of his own - and of his own keeping.

Endless Whispers, Battle Report: This is Halloween

Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn't you like to see something strange
Come with us and you will see,
This our town of Halloween

-This is Halloween, by Danny Elfman

Follow @DeskinRink

+++SYSTEM ONLINE+++
MALFUNCTION
MALFUNCTION
MALFUNCTION
---BIOFORM SCANNER REGISTERING ERRORS
---ACTIVATE CONFLICT PROTOCOLS
---SYSREJKhkhkk...  THIS IS HALLOWEEN...

+++REBOOT FROM START+++
  ---SYSTEM ERROR
  ---DATASTACKS CORRUPTED
+++SYSTEM HALT+++
---TERMINATE? (Y/N)

Endless Whispers: Battle Report, Starforest Assault Part 2

So wake up, sleepy one
It’s time to save your world
You’re where the wild things are
Toy soldiers off to war
-Where the Wild Things Are, by Metallica

Follow @DeskinRink

+++SYSTEM ONLINE+++
 GREETINGS, TECH-PRIEST MAGOS DELPHAN GONE

  ---SCAN 100% COMPLETE
  ---ALERT: ORGANIC BIOFORMS DETECTED
  ---ACTIVATE DEFENSE PROTOCOLS? (Y/N)

I HEAR AND OBEY

+++HAIL THE MACHINE GOD+++

Endless Whispers: Oogie Boogie

You'd better pay attention now
'Cause I'm the Boogie Man
And if you aren't shakin'
Then something's very wrong

'Cause this may be the last time now
That you hear the boogie song

-Oogie Boogie's Song, The Nightmare Before Christmas

Who can say just where he comes from?  And who can say just how he got here?  Either way - everyone had better be very afraid because he's the bogey man!  With a jolly laugh and a roll of his dice, Oogie Boogie has sauntered his way out of the Damned City to find his way through the Starlight Forest.  Unlike the other morose inhabitants, Oogie Boogie seems to be singularly unconcerned with the despair wrought by the Wizard and his terrible minions.

Endless Whispers: Battle Report, Starforest Assault Part 1

Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die.

-Exodus 10:28

With the escalating clash between the defenders of the Starlight Forest and The Wizard, both sides have taken to mustering larger forces so that they might strike a decisive blow against the other.  In deepest glades, four crystals of terrible power pulse with the sickly energies of a fallen city; a city whose name is spoken of only in hushed whispers.  And these whispers never cease.

Spotlight: The Beast of the Viridian Corsairs

No. There is only me, there is only my way, there is only the forest, and there is only surrender.

-Over the Garden Wall

In the name of the Old Gods, blood is spilled once more.  In the shoals of this crimson sacrifice come the monstrosities of ancient days; their hooves crack wide the earth, their roars dispel the day and call forth dark storms.

The Beast is but the first of many so-called "forest gods" to awaken from their slumber.  The ravages of the Wizard have called him and his wrath is vast beyond compare.  For the Beast is no kindly forest god, but an angry spirit of yore who demands agony and death - sacrifice beyond compare.  Sacrifice: flesh of maiden and bones of the enemy - the Viridian Corsairs are gleeful to provide.

Endless Whispers: Battle Report - Defend the Village

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in heaven.
-The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

+++SYSTEM START+++

GREETINGS, MAGOS DOMINUS

Activity by feral inhabitants of [realm] has increased by 54.5%

New Threat-Level Assessment: Beta Proximus

Recommendation: Cull native population

I hear and obey.

+++HAIL THE MACHINE GOD+++

Spotlight: Sadface, the Fellcrafted Chimeric

Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.

-Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

The Wizard lacks resources and thus is unable to craft the battle-automata and servitors typical of his kind.  But he has not let his sere circumstances deter him - setting upon the flesh of those he has captured, he has created terrible Chimerics: blasphemous meldings of human and animal DNA, augmented with cybernetics.  These pitiful creatures are forced to be obedient through mind-links; they live their life in constant agony, venting their terrible hatred on the world as though it were the creator which so twisted them.

Spotlight: Loamhedge Renegade Badger Paladin

I am that is, my sword shall wield for me.

-Redwall, by Brian Jacques

The Badgers of the Loamhedge Renegades are the largest and most ferocious of warriors.  Most of they remained with the Abbey after the schism, but a few recognized "loyalty" as something more personal than fighting for a pile of bricks and mortar.

Endless Whispers: Magic

Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.

-The Book of the Law, by Aleister Crowley

Mages are allowed in the Endless Whispers Campaign, but they use a modified set of spells since, for example, Arcane Bolt is too powerful.  Wizards roll their spells randomly from the below table.

Spotlight: Viridian Corsair Hellions

Welcome to hell, little Saint
Mother Gaia in slaughter
Welcome to paradise, Soldier

-Planet Hell, by Nightwish

The Viridian Corsair Hellions aid their sisters by feeding off of their rage.  They channel this energy into their magical bows - called Silverflame Arcs.

Endless Whispers: THE WIZARD

The Devil, in the prosecution, and the execution of his wrath upon them, often gets a Liberty to make a Descent upon the Children of Men.

-On Witchcraft: Being the Wonders of the Invisible World, by Cotton Mather

What sins have I committed to deserve such wretched sorrow?  Mine eyes, burning with tears, beheld my beloved husband and twin sons cast into the hissing abyss below.  They returned days later.  Their eyes unfocused, their limbs limp, their heads scarred.  They recognized me never and not at all - they respond not even to the familiar tones of my voice.  Their utterances are not gone, however, they still speak when the overseers address them.  But now, they speaketh only a single phrase or verse.  It is etched into my memory, even as I dwindle within the intestinal walls of this nightmare palace.  I hear it in my dreams.  I pray to every god I know - the Eagle God and the Old Gods whose names are forbidden.  I pray that I will forget; but, I know in the depths of my heart, that I never will.  That phrase will echo with me, will define me until the end of my days.

Hark!  They come for me!  Please, I beg of thee - no!  And yet - and yet!  At last I will be together with my family.  Together with them in a fashion.  Forgive my weakness, O Eagle God.  Take me - take me, my master!  Render me unto the Wizard!  I am prepared to join my family.

The Wizard is lord!  I obey!

-Hannah Greensleeves, Peasant Laborer

Endless Whispers: Bayou Raiders Warband

See you sharpening the pins
So the holes will remind us
We're just the toys in the hands of another
And in time the needles turn from shine to rust

-Fixxxer, by Metallica

The old ways return with the strength and fury of black tides.  I can feel the All-father pulling my soul into his endless chasm; showing me its secret.

The Wizard has come.  Defiling our altars, upending our monuments, disgracing our ancestors.  I rarely experience what the other-kinds call "emotions," but there is something stirring deep within my bones.  I will slay him.  He will perish.  The Old Gods call me.  The All-father reaches out from his apocalypse abyss.  His hybrid-children roam free no longer - held tight as they are by the Wizard's corrupting influence.  But now the time comes to end the Wizard's reign - we rise.

-Dength Angth, High Guardian of the Tomes

Endless Whispers, Locale: Howling Mine

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

 -Socrates

This is the third location in a series of locations available for the players to explore in the Endless Whispers campaign.

Searching in, the inverted pyramid.  I can feel it.  The riches of ancient of days.  I feel it.  The riches glitter like endless, screaming labyrinths of blinding pulsars.  I must dig.  Dig!

-Thermite, Dwarf Prospector

Endless Whispers, Locale: The Warrens

An army marches on its stomach.

-Napoleon Bonaparte (attributed)

WARNING: SOME IMAGES NSFW (IF YOU'RE A PRUDE)

Welcome back!  This post details The Warrens - the second location available in the Endless Whispers Campaign.

The keenest of your warband have made mention of strange sounds coming from a series of low hills just outside the Village.  The villagers themselves are either reluctant to speak of the area or actively advise you to stay away.  You never were one for advice.

Endless Whispers, Locale: The Haunted Palace

In the greenest of our valleys

By good angels tenanted,

Once a fair and stately palace...

-The Haunted Palace, by Edgar Allen Poe

This is the first in a series of locations for the players to explore in the Endless Whispers campaign.

Your warband comes upon a sprawling collection of massive, white stones choking the forest.  After a time, you discover that this is in fact a titanic palace - destroyed by some incredible force.  In the center you find a dry well, upon which a young woman sits.

Endless Whispers: Viridian Corsair Warband

I am the beast that feeds the beast

I am the blood I am released

-Bleeding Me, by Metallica

Last night I tracked a mother bear to her den where she was suckling two blind, mewling cubs.  I put an arrow through her eye; the blood-mist in the air filled my nostrils, filled my soul.  I threw my weapons aside and fell upon the cubs with empty hands.  I throttled the first so hard the bones of its spine cut my flesh.  I ate the second whilst it still lived.  It screamed.  I didn't know they could.

I don't know what's happened to me since I escaped that accursed city.  The forest is hollow, cold and devoid of the joy it once brought me.  I feel as though my muscles will twist my ribcage into a blossom of gore, such is my constant unrest.  My teeth are daggers.  My soul breathes in air - but it exhales fire.

What have I become?  The poison of the city, the poison of the Wizard - I can feel them both driving me insane.  I kill - I eat - it's all that keeps the madness at bay.

-Nightingale, Blood Priestess

Endless Whispers: The Village

There are bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely.

-Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Wretched is he whose only memories consist of agonized struggle and purging flame.  I watched most of my family perish beneath the electrified claws of the Wizard.  There is not much left for me.  These strangers come; for good or ill, I know not which.  They make promises.  I heed them.  Why shouldn't I?  I could drink mead as though it were nepenthe - or I could I follow the strangers to the black gates of the Wizard's Tower.  Death awaits me either way.

-Mikhael Verse, Peddler

Endless Whispers: Loamhedge Renegades Warband

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you.

-Watership Down, by Richard Adams

Nothing would please me more than to see that damned abbey burned to the ground.  My brethren don't seem to share in my sentiment, but my blood calls for its destruction.

They expelled me.  No.  More than that - I've been excommunicated.  They tell me that I will walk no more in the light of the Sky-Father.  But I don't care.  Let him burn.  Let them all burn.

I feel the call of the Old Gods singing within my veins.  The Wolf calls on me to deal death to the enemies of my brothers.  And my enemies multiply with each passing day.  The Wizard thinks he will rule the forest - but the forest is still my home, even if the abbey is not.  I feel the Wolf, the Crow, the Serpent, the Hyena all within my heart.  They have crowded the Sky-Father out.  They have defeated him - even as I shall defeat the Wizard.

Eulalia!

-Threar Buckthorn, Loamhedge Renegade Abbot

Endless Whispers: Campaign Rules

Another day
Another eternity gone
And on the stairway to salvation
I walk alone among the falling stars
 -At the Left Hand ov God, by Behemoth

Welcome back!

Campaign rules available HERE.

Endless Whispers: It Begins...

But haply wandering, worlds and cycles hence,
Through unforeseen fantastic avatars,
I shall forget you in the future stars,

-The Last Oblivion, by Clark Ashton Smith

The city we call Mirrorsun, but which others know by other names, is aflame.  The servant of the Eagle-god strode through its gates with halo of gold flame encircling his head.  With hammer and prayer, he butchered all of my friends, my family, my brethren.  I fled to the hateful forest; filled with starlight and sorrow.  I remember the long nights spent weeping - beseeching hands uplifted.  But I found no solace in the heavens - only a great and awful emptiness.

But I was wrong.  Gloriously, horrifically wrong.  The Old Gods came.  Their servants bestrode the shattered land as colossi wreathed in constellations of dark stars.  The great torch of the Wolf filled us with strength beyond that of men.  The touch of the Crow withered our enemies.  The gaze of the Serpent befuddled their arcane powers.  The Laugh of the Hyena slowed their blows.

Mirrorsun has become a great altar to the glory of the Old Gods.  In the forest, I covered myself in ash and blood; I danced naked beneath the stars in ecstacy.  The beasts of the forest who assume the semblance of men have come forth.  The sylvan spirits, capricious and cruel, leap through the canopy once more.

Our joy has been short lived.  Another comes.  A creature of powers more than magical.  He builds a tower in the forest, seeking the stars.  The Wizard.

The Old Gods are with us.  We will defeat him.

-Sebastian Moore, Friar of Drumhead Village

Endless Whispers: Blue Whale Knight Warband

...happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes.

-The Necronomicon

Understand firstly that I am dead as a door-nail, else none of the rest shall make sense.  Just who I am is a mystery as vast as my empty grave: naught but nitre adorns my headstone.  My armor encases me, as claustrophobic as a coffin - but I am all the more grateful for it.

I cannot recall anything of my life before the moment I sat up in a freshly-emptied grave.  Someone, something, or some force removed the dirt entombing me - but whatever it was, it is gone now.  I recall only a dim sense of a feeling, an emotion which is as ghostly as I am: failure.

-Darius Frost, Blue Whale Knight-Commander