Session 63

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SESSION 1: WHISPERS AT THE BORDER

🚪 Opening Scene: The Road to Torghal

As the players crest a wooded ridge on a damp, gray day, they see Torghal below. Nestled in the foothills, the village appears lifeless: no smoke rises from chimneys, no movement in the streets.

📍 AREA 1: The Village Boundary

Description:

The path winds into a circular clearing. Surrounding Torghal is a ring of still-burning torches—tall, wooden poles jammed into the ground every 30 feet, forming a perimeter.

  • The flames do not flicker or emit heat.
  • As players cross the line, all sound cuts off: boots on gravel, breath, armor creaking—gone.

Perception DC 13: You still feel the vibrations—steps, breath—but no sound.

Arcana or Religion DC 15: This is a field of anti-resonance. Not silence, but the nullification of all sound propagation.

📍 AREA 2: Elder Mareth’s House

Description:

A well-kept stone and timber cottage near the edge of the village. Modest, but with signs of order and devotion: herbs drying in the window, an altar to SelĂťne in the corner.

🧓 Elder Mareth

  • Race: Half-elf
  • Age: Late 70s
  • Class: Former cleric
  • Appearance: Wispy silver hair, deep purple robes, soft eyes. Always speaks slowly and respectfully.
  • Personality: Cautious, reflective, faithful to SelĂťne. Trusts quiet over action.
  • Secret: He performed a binding ritual 10 years ago to erase a tragedy (his grandson’s death). That ritual seeded the anomaly.

Dialogue Prompt:

“Words have weight here. If you must speak, speak gently.”

“The Whisper… it began with dreams. Then the clocks stopped. Then the silence came.”

📍 AREA 3: The Church of the Silver Moon

Description:

A small, domed temple with a broken sundial inside and shattered windows. The inner sanctum is decorated with tapestries depicting phases of the moon—all seem stuck in the new moon phase.

🧙 Brother Sevren

  • Race: Human
  • Class: Monk/Cleric (multiclass)
  • Appearance: Robed in white and silver; ritual scars circle his bald scalp.
  • Personality: Thoughtful, inquisitive, speaks in metaphors. Knows more than he lets on.
  • Quirk: Uses an ancient mirror shard to reflect time-bound anomalies.
  • Secret: Once part of the Wardens of Continuum, an order that monitored temporal events.

Dialogue Prompt:

“Time is not a line, but a wound. And Torghal is infected.”

“I’ve seen the past in mirrors. And now, the mirrors are lying to me.”

🧒 NPCs: Lissa & Tobin

  • Lissa (12): Mute, short curly hair, clutches a sketchbook. Draws events that have not yet occurred.
  • Tobin (14): Overprotective brother. Wears a toolbelt, knows the village well. Writes everything down in a leather journal.
  • Personality: Wary but desperate for help.

Key Clues (Tobin’s Journal):

  • “The sun blinked. Once.”
  • “Lissa saw Grandma… but she died last year.”
  • “Our mother hums in her sleep, but makes no sound. I hear her in my head.”

Insight DC 14: Tobin is hiding that he hears The Whisper every night.

🧩 Player Objectives (Session 1)

  • Map out the village and its affected areas.
  • Interview survivors (Elder Mareth, Lissa & Tobin, Brother Sevren).
  • Observe the silence effect.
  • Witness an unsettling dream (hinting at a larger entity).
  • Learn about the sealed well in the village center.

🕯️ SESSION 2: ECHOES IN THE STILLNESS

🌌 Scene 1: Dream or Time Loop

That night, players experience an hour-long loop or shared dream.

  • Wake up back in bed, even if they didn’t go to sleep.
  • The moon is always in the same place.
  • Villagers repeat the same actions—some out of order.

Insight DC 15: The loop is not perfect—something is watching them.

📍 AREA 4: The Village Square

Description:

A well at the center, surrounded by cobbled stone, now cracked. Faint runes glow when moonlight strikes the well.

  • Arcana DC 18: This is a time-seal, not a portal or summoning circle.
  • The well was sealed using a forgotten ritual.

📍 AREA 5: Haunted Homes

Some homes have villagers still inside—alive, but unmoving. They breathe, blink occasionally, but don’t respond.

  • Detect Magic: Chronomancy aura.
  • One woman’s hand twitches toward an invisible thread in mid-air (time loop fracture).

💥 Combat Encounter: Temporal Echo

Appears: As players investigate too deeply or stay after midnight.

Stats: Use Wraith as base, modify:

  • Silencing Aura (10 ft): No verbal components.
  • Echo Pulse (Recharge 5–6): INT Save DC 15 or forget one spell, name, or skill temporarily.
  • Phasing: Bonus action teleport 30 ft.

Description:

A mirrored figure of a player (e.g., a warlock’s past self), distorted and whispering phrases from the PC’s past.

“You should’ve let me die. You didn’t.”

🧠 NPC Insight: Brother Sevren’s Theory

“The Whisper is not a person. It is a moment—a terror, or a loss—that refused to pass. It lives. And it remembers.”

🧩 Player Objectives (Session 2)

  • Survive the night’s temporal echo.
  • Discover the well’s seal is weakening.
  • Learn that three names are needed to unbind the seal (found via drawings, journal entries, and Mareth’s past).
  • Choose to descend into the well or perform a partial ritual.

🕳️ SESSION 3: THE CHAMBER BELOW

📍 AREA 6: The Sealed Crypt

Beneath the well is a spiraling stone staircase that descends into darkness. Arcane runes fade as they pass.

The Chamber:

  • Circular, 60 ft wide, with broken statues of forgotten gods of time.
  • In the center: a crystal sphere pulsing faintly—the Stilled Heart.

Inside the crystal: a frozen image of a child crying, while a shadow figure looms.

🧠 Lore Dump (via Sevren / Insight)

  • 10 years ago, Elder Mareth made a ritual bargain to remove a moment of tragedy (his grandson’s death by illness).
  • That moment could not be destroyed—only sealed.
  • It has grown into The Whisper, feeding on echoes of fear and memory.

⚔️ FINAL ENCOUNTER: The Stillborn God

  • CR 7 Legendary Creature
  • Appearance: A fusion of shadows, broken clocks, a child’s voice, and distorted faces of villagers.
  • Abilities:
    • Steal Voice (Legendary): One PC loses all verbal actions for 1 round.
    • Memory Crush: DC 16 INT Save or lose memory of a spell, loved one, or skill (1 minute).
    • Time Fracture: Teleport randomly.
    • Weak to Radiant Damage and names spoken aloud (resonance weakens it).

🎯 Resolution Choices

Option Result
Destroy the Stilled Heart Ends anomaly, but villagers wake confused. Some aged, others regressed. Mareth dies.
Seal it Properly (Ritual) Requires all three names, Selûne’s light, and Sevren's help. Villagers return slowly over days. The Whisper dissipates.
Take it With You The Whisper bonds to a PC. Time anomalies follow them—possible future arc.

🎭 Key NPC Recap

NPC Role Secrets
Elder Mareth Village elder Tried to erase grandson’s death
Brother Sevren Temporal scholar Once a Warden of Continuum
Lissa Mute child Sees future fragments
Tobin Watchful brother Hears the Whisper



📜 Journal Entries (for Lissa, Tobin, and Elder Mareth)

These are designed to be found in fragments, helping players piece together the mystery. You can hand them out physically or narrate them during the investigation.

🧒 Tobin’s Journal (written in child’s handwriting)

Page 3

"We heard the bell ring four times before lunch. After that… I think it rang again, but no one else heard it. Then it stopped ringing altogether."

Page 6

"Lissa said she saw Grandma in the window. She waved. Grandma died last winter."

Page 9

"The sun blinked. That’s the only way I can explain it. One moment it was there. Then it wasn’t. Then it was again. But it was a little higher than before."

Page 11

"Lissa drew a shadow today. It looked like me. But it had too many arms."

Page 15 (Final Entry)

"The Whisper told me I never existed. That I’m just a memory. But if I’m writing this… I must be real, right?"

🖼️ Lissa’s Drawings (Players can find these in her sketchbook)

You can describe or print the following as handouts/art prompts:

  1. A sundial with the shadow stuck at noon, no matter where the sun is in the sky.
  2. A shadowy figure towering over a crib, but its feet are in the ceiling.
  3. A spiral staircase into darkness, but drawn upside down—descending into the sky.
  4. A boy (Tobin) holding her hand, but in the reflection of a puddle, he’s gone.
  5. The word “HELP” drawn in hundreds of tiny tick marks resembling clock hands.

📓 Elder Mareth’s Journal

Entry 48 (10 years ago)

"The fever took him in three nights. I prayed. I begged. SelĂťne did not answer. I performed the rite instead. It worked. I cannot tell anyone."

Entry 51

"The boy lives again, but he is not the same. He does not speak. He does not age. I fear I have stolen him from time itself."

Entry 112 (recent)

"The dreams are not mine. They belong to another—to that moment I buried. It knocks now, like a child at the door."

🔣 Runes Around the Well

📍 Description:

The stone ring around the well is carved with ancient runes of Chronomancy and Divine Binding. Most are weathered, but three symbols glow under moonlight.

Each rune corresponds to a Name, required to unseal the chamber below:

  • Name of the Lost — “Aeson” (Mareth’s grandson)
  • Name of the Witness — “Lissa” (the one who saw the shadow)
  • Name of the Seal-Bearer — “Mareth” (the one who made the pact)

🔎 Arcana DC 18 / Religion DC 17:

The runes form an incantation:

“Let silence seal that which time cannot forget. Let three names give voice to the still.”

If all three names are spoken aloud within the circle at midnight, the seal opens.

💀 Boss Stat Block: The Stillborn God

A fractured moment given form — a blend of divine error, psychic residue, and human grief.

Medium aberration, Neutral Evil

CR 7

HP: 168 (16d10 + 64)

AC: 17 (Temporal Armor)

Speed: 40 ft

🧠 Abilities

  • STR 14 (+2)
  • DEX 16 (+3)
  • CON 18 (+4)
  • INT 15 (+2)
  • WIS 16 (+3)
  • CHA 20 (+5)

🛡️ Saving Throws:

  • INT +6, WIS +7, CHA +9
  • Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened, Deafened
  • Damage Resistances: Psychic, Necrotic, Thunder
  • Damage Vulnerabilities: Radiant, Name-Based Attacks (see Trait)

📦 Traits

🌀 Silence Aura (30 ft)

Creatures within range cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components unless they pass a DC 16 Charisma saving throw at the start of their turn. Magical silence suppresses this aura for 1 round.

🧠 Fragmented Memory

When a creature hits the Stillborn God with a spell or weapon, it must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or lose access to a spell, class feature, or memory for 1 minute (DM’s choice). Lost memories return after rest or Greater Restoration.

📣 Name Break (Legendary Trait)

If a player speaks the full true name of a person involved in the seal (Aeson, Mareth, or Lissa), the Stillborn God loses resistance to all damage for 1 round and cannot use Legendary Actions that round.

🎲 Actions

🖤 Mind Shatter (Recharge 5–6)

60-ft cone. DC 16 INT Save. On fail, 4d10 psychic damage and target forgets one known spell or the name of an ally (DM's choice). Forgotten info returns after short rest.

🕯️ Tear Through Time (Melee, +8 to hit)

30 ft reach. 3 targets. 2d8 + 5 force damage and victim is teleported 10 ft in random direction.

🌀 Collapse

The Stillborn God slams the ground. All creatures within 20 ft must make a DC 15 DEX save or fall prone and lose their next reaction.

⚔️ Legendary Actions (3/round)

  • Steal Voice (1 action): One target in Silence Aura must succeed DC 15 CON save or be silenced (as Silence spell) for 1 minute.
  • Phase Flicker (1 action): Teleport 30 ft.
  • Temporal Fracture (2 actions): Target rerolls its initiative. If lower, they act last next round.

💀 Death Effect

When reduced to 0 HP, the Stillborn God lets out a final psychic scream. All PCs must make a DC 16 WIS saving throw or relive a memory of deep grief, causing one level of exhaustion unless they roleplay through it meaningfully (DM’s discretion).

🧠 Loot / Rewards

  • Stilled Heart Fragment (Wondrous Item, Rare): Once per long rest, allows the wielder to "pause" time for 6 seconds (1 round) as Time Stop, but only for one action (not a full turn). After 3 uses, the item crumbles.
  • Echo-Touched Mirror (Unique): Reflects events that happened in the room up to 1 hour ago. Reflections cannot be interacted with.
  • Sevren’s Favor: PCs who seal the crypt gain the attention of the Order of Continuum (optional future quest hook).


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