Zaister wrote:
I've let them know about all the abilities of the book, but not, of course, about the drawbacks and the curse. Now waiting on them to use it.
Hey so I know this is a super late reply lol but in case its helpful to you or future readers this is the gist of the 'stories' I included. The main 'story' took inspiration from HP Lovecraft's The White Ship. I had the PC drift off to sleep as he begins to read that section of the book. That section has the player living through 3 moments over the course of 3 separate dreams.
Setting: Some far off planet with people of some unknown race. The skyscape while alien to those of Golorian would also contain distance a Green Moon (Void Bracken). The PC inhabits the body and shared mind of an NPC that is not his character's, speaking a language never heard on Golorian yet is understood.
Dream 1) The Player is in a packed grande public city street surrounded by ornate buildings. The road is packed to witness a public execution of 'Shamans' (that have the appearance of Nhimbaloth Shamans) who are responsible for the ominous Green Moon's appearance and other bad events. I had an NPC acting as the Player's best friend provide a bit of exposition during the scene.
Dream 2) An unknown amount of time has passed. Humoring the friend from the first dream, the player is invited to a secret meeting\dinner. Initially innocuous, everyone at the dinner takes their seats and a Shaman appears to take the head of the table. The Shaman opens with a speech about:
'how much spiritual food will be revealed soon. We will take our exalted place as part of her, never feeling the fear of those greater than you for non is greater than The Empty Death. Many toil to thin the veil to attract her favor and her whisperers grow louder. Voidbracken approaches and the Dead Tide will soon arrive.'
After the speech, covered food is placed on the table which contain live bound creatures. I gave the player the choice to eat or abstain from this live food.
Dream 3)
Depending on if the player chose to eat or not I had them witness the consumption of the world's souls by Nhimbaloth from one of two perspectives.
If they abstained I would place them on a balcony overlooking a now swampy flat land with Void Bracken now large in the sky. A long way past the city walls a large group of people are seen encircling some ribbon of light. As the light appears shrieking within the city begins and grows to a cacophony as thousands of people run in panic as Wisps begin sucking the life from their physical husks. The player would eventually die to a wisp.
If they ate at the dinner the player found themselves in that group of people outside of the city walls. Part of a ritual circle they chant in unison creating a dimensional tear in the center of the circle. A river of blue light rippled with spirits is pulled up towards the lumbering swampy moon as the screams of the city can be heard at the ritual site.
At its peak the river turns muddy like an aquatic predator thrashing with its kill. The cultists in the circle then begin to turn into moss and expire.
Each morning when the player wakes and they examine the Whispering Reeds they find events to be similar but not identical to what they just dreamed about.
As an unrelated 'story' I described the ramblings of a desert hermit. He talked of how dunes and their innumerable grains go on eternally. They shit with the winds of time. It is this mad way of thinking that has made priests & priestesses delusional when they speak of an eternal soul that simply retakes shape. How blind they are to the ocean, how it gnaws and consumes the dunes and the land. The ocean give true rest a true empty death.
