Post
Whispers of the Void (Campaign)
Session notes for an Index Card RPG campaign.
SESSION 0
Our adventurers wake up dazed, disoriented, and smelling a strong sense of smoke in the air. Their mind feeling disoriented as though they were drugged. They have a faint remembrance of various screams and a mage administering potions to the prisoners.
They find themselves locked inside an underground prison cells with ramshackle wooden doors, stone walls, and thick wooden ceilings. Using some strength and ingenuity they bust down their doors by using the boards of their bed frame as leverage. As the ceiling blazes away they made their way to the upper floors.
Finding the other prisoners brutally murdered they find and secure makeshift weapons before leaving the burning house through an open window in the front of the house. Once outside they are confronted by a minor abomination that appears to be wearing the same clothing as the other prisoners. Quickly running away from the abomination they once more run back inside chancing the fires as they make their way out the back door of the house.
Leaving the house behind they stumble out into the woods. They quickly find themselves trying to avoid the various guards that appear to be looking for the prisoners. Unfortunately luck and the ability to be silent were not with them this night. After a tough fight with the guards, with Iliana laying on the ground suffering from a potentially fatal blow, the rest of the party turns their attention to the minor abomination that had followed them into the woods. Eleanora goes down after taking the brunt of a brutal attack, and Nicolette barely helps revive both Eleanora and Iliana from certain death. With some luck they finally prevail against the abomination.
They quickly find their own possessions and the possessions of the dead and escaped prisoners at the guards’ campsite. After a short rest and healing of their wounds they are contemplating traveling to nearby towns to find out more information of who captured them and for what nefarious purposes.
SESSION I
Stumbled their way through the Grey Hills Forest, found and hitched a ride into town with a nice Noble couple. Made sorta friends with them.
Talked to people at marketplace and bought 5 days of supplies (2 coin/per day/per person) for future adventures.
Talked to Town Guard Captain (Jonathon Briar), finally convinced him that kidnappings and muggings of travelers have been happening late at night. He’s going to start looking into what has been happening. He also mentioned that there is some other suspicious happenings going on. Perhaps they’re related to our kidnapping?
One of his Town Guards (Zackary) was sent out early this morning to look into some suspicious things happening at the old abandoned Temple outside of town. Was supposed to only take a couple hours, but has been gone most of the day.
Traveling to the abandoned Temple they found Town Guard Zackary severely hurt under and old tree, patched him up and stabilized him. While scouting the other side of the temple Iliana had a run in with two feral goblins riding wolves. The party grouped up and killed two of the goblins and one of the wolves.
Iliana attempted to feed and befriend the severely injured wolf. Was able to get it to back down and eat the food offered. While the wolf seems eager to eat, it’s still very wary of Iliana and somewhat hostile towards Eleanora and Nicolette.
While Iliana was feeding the wolf, Eleanora & Nicolette stumbled upon a nest of goblins living in the Temple. Nicolette takes the offensive and casts a wind spell from over the top of Eleanora’s shoulder causing a temple pew to fly up into the air and obliterate the goblin it smashes into. Eleanora bull-rushes the other goblin and takes it down with help from Nicolette. In one of the back rooms Nicolette found some romantic smut novels hidden amongst the religious books in the Temple’s library. Eleanora had to inform her what they were… much to Nicolette’s embarrassment.
Heard some shuffling noises from the other back room, Eleanora opened the door and promptly got out of the way as Nicolette lobbed a fireball directly into the faces of the hiding goblins. She found a small gemstone and a glass jar (with a weird label) of flies on the barbequed goblin corpses.
In the library room they found where several flagstones had been removed, leading to a hole that drops down to an ancient set of stairs. After discussing with the party and the town guard, they decide to follow the stairwell into the hidden depths of the Temple.
Nicolette - Loot Earned
- Nicolette looted a goblin crossbow.
Nicolette found a bundle of romantic smut novels.- Nicolette looted a small reddish brown gemstone
- Nicolette looted a Glass Jar of Flies with a weird unreadable label on it.
SESSION II
The entire party venture down the stairwell into the catacombs of the temple, finding ancient craftsmanship of the walls and stairs and tree roots slowly invading the place. This place is easily as old as the Temple built above it.
They stumble upon a group of goblins playing a game with bone dice. They attempted to converse with them, but none seemed to know any Common language. Finally one goblin steps forward speaking broken Common, and upon being questioned was blunt with his answers that goblins have been taking food, valuables, and harassing townsfolk every night.
Nicolette decided enough talking was being done and decided to fire off a Lightning Bolt into the mass of goblins, frying their leader pretty badly. With that a fight ensues, with our heroes taking hardly any damage while more goblins make their way to the massacre. They take hostage the last goblin who decided to surrender, choosing to hogtie and put him in a barrel.
As they push further down the hallway they encounter a Hobgoblin and some more goblins. Iliana and Eleanora band together to take down the Hobgoblin, Zackary the Guard takes on the goblins near the door, while Nicolette stands back and uses her magic to deliver the killing blow to the Hobgoblin.
Eleanora pulls back and tries to kill the goblin that the Guard is holding off, but is devestated by a critical blow from the goblin. As Eleanora lays on the ground bleeding out, Nicolette finishes off the goblin, as Iliana and the Guard attempt to stabilize Eleanora from dying from blood loss. After a couple of attempts they’re barely able to pull her back from the brink of death. Iliana and the guard pushes further into the room, discovering a couple of goblin shaman and a handful of goblin children and infants sobbing hysterically. The shamans seem to be butchering dead humans as both a sacrifice on their altar, along with feeding some to the goblin children. Finding this abhorrent Iliana and the Guard promptly rush into combat to cut down the goblin shamans.
As the ankle-biter goblins start chewing and clawing at Iliana’s legs, she successfully kills the shamans. Nicolette returns to the battle scene with some burlap bags, and with the help of Iliana they shove the goblin children screaming and sobbing into the bags. Making their way back to the first room, they break down some of the crates into makeshift playpens (wooden cages) for the goblin children, and feeding them some rice and jerky before continuing onto the rest of the catacombs.
In the next room they find a library with an old goblin tearing through books and obviously looking for something. After realizing he can speak Common, a short interrogation later they realize that he doesn’t seem to have a problem with attacking townsfolk or eating people so Iliana takes it upon herself to attack him without warning.
After a short vicious battle, they drag his corpse to the side so it won’t bleed as much on the books scattered on the ground. They notice a large set of stone doors inset into the eastern wall of the room, and decide to take a short rest from their injuries before continuing forward.
SESSION III
The party decides to loot the goblins and explore the underground temple before opening the large stone doors in the library.
Amongst the goblins they find 88 COINS, a battered USED SHIELD, and a goblin wearing “HIDE ARMOR” made from humans. Deciding they didn’t have a need for the shield they gave it to the Town Guard, before pocketing the COINS for themselves. Not wanting anything to do with the depravity of feral goblins they leave the “HIDE ARMOR” on the goblin.
As they search the humans that had been killed by the goblins they find a plain GOLDEN CHAIN NECKLACE on one of the young ladies and on one of the better dressed men they find a GOLD SIGNET RING, bearing the Insignia of House Ambrose of the Asturia Kingdom, on one of the bodies that appears to be wearing clothing befitting a noble. They gingerly wrap the Noble in a tarp and lay him to the side with his SIGNET RING, before pocketing the gold necklace.
Iliana hints heavily to Eleanora that the goblin stuffed in a barrel is a potential problem before leaving the main hall. Eleanora decides to “solve the problem” by sticking her sword into the barrel a few times to the sounds of painful squealing.
In the library room, Nicolette finds a book that details the ritual to cast REGENERATION. Happy to add one more spell to her arsenal she pockets the book.
They open the doors, and find some treasure chests filled with coins and gems. Further down the corridor they find a vast library with three chained sarcophaguses, one of which has severely rusted and frail chains sealing it, and a pedestal with a large book resting on it. Littered about the floor is several ancient skeletons in armor. As they entered the room, a whispered voice tried and failed to compel them to come in and open the sarcophagus.
They loot the ancient skeletons, and take a further look at the sarcophagus and book. They realize from the book that the ancient temple knights were slowly eradicating all “pagan” religions that was not of the Solarian religion. It goes on to state in the last pages that they had exterminated a coven of pagans and had captured three sisters who were leading the worship towards a pagan goddess. Unable to effectively end the life of these sisters, they decide to entomb and magically seal them into the sarcophaguses. The journal ends abruptly afterwards.
They once more hear the whispers from the center sarcophagus commanding then pleading to be let out, that it means no harm to those that would free them. Ultimately the party decides not to open it and free whatever is entombed inside. They have the guard bring the dead noble to the entrance of the dungeon, while they loot the treasure and grab the younger goblin infants to take with them. On the way out, Eleanora once again takes it upon herself to “solve problems” with the older goblin children who were acting feral and trying to bite and spit at her. The rest of the party notices that Eleanora didn’t bring any goblin children with her on her way out, but choose not to comment about them “missing”.
Iliana - Loot Earned
- Ancient Map of Asturia Kingdom
- Blank Spellbook
Nicolette - Loot Earned
- Holy Book of REGENERATION (WIS)
Eleanora - Loot Earned
- Gold Chain Necklace (Needs Appraised)
PARTY TREASURY
- 727 COINS
- 23 GEMS (Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds) (Needs Appraised)
- Gold Goblet (Needs Appraised)
- Plate Armor
- Two-Handed Sword
- Scimitar
- Set of Daggers
- Longbow
- Spellbook
MISCELLANEOUS
- 2x Goblin Toddlers
- 1x Goblin Infant
- 1x Dire Wolf
SESSION IV
The party returns to town, talks to the Captain of the Guard and after some discussion is able to secure a heftier reward for cleaning out the feral goblin den and town guard. They find out that there had been some suspicious people wandering around the Jolly Pig Tavern late at night.
They go shopping in the marketplace, and stumble upon an older shopkeeper who becomes absolutely enamored with the goblin children. After much discussion, they eventually surrender the goblin toddlers and infant into her care. They then stock up on supplies, buy a few new shiny things and make their way out of the marketplace.
The party finds out more information about House Ambrose, and about the dead noble that they found in the goblin den. They go talk to the House Marshewell family and inform them that the young noble that was on his way to talk to them had unfortunately met an untimely end.
At the local blacksmith, Iliana inquires about swords made for dual wielding, sold off some of their loot, and also learns that an experienced adventuring party is here in town and it could be useful to gain information or training from them.
Approaching the experienced adventuring party the next morning Eleanora and Iliana are able to get some training done. Iliana learns how to use her dexterity when attacking, and Eleanora learns how to better shield and protect her party members. All the while Nicolette escapes to the outskirts of the town to practice learning and penning her Fire Missile spell into her Astral Grimoire, so she doesn’t have to rely on using a separate scroll to cast the spell.
Iliana - Loot Earned
- 10 SUPPLIES
- Adventurer’s Pack
- Leather Duster Coat
- Potion of Healing (1D6)
Nicolette - Loot Earned
- 10 SUPPLIES
- Healer’s Kit (Expert)
- Potion of Healing (1D6)
Eleanora - Loot Earned
- 10 SUPPLIES
- Potion of Healing (1D6)
PARTY TREASURY
- 932 COINS
- 23 GEMS
- Gold Goblet
- Ancient Spellbook (Unidentified)
SESSION V
The party spends several hours training with the other adventurer party, increasing and learning new abilities. After a short round of besting the rogue adventurer who helped her train, Iliana and the others quickly rush off to the sound of a commotion happening in the town square.
The Dire Wolf that they had befriended earlier had come into town growling and searching around in the town square. The Town Guard were trying to corner the beast, when Iliana stepped in to handle the animal. After some convincing (and food!) the Dire Wolf follows her out of town. Spending most of the day with her new friend, she slowly begins the task of taming/training him. She’s able to train him enough to put a rope leash on him, and tie him up in the forest while she gets back to her group.
Back in town the Captain of the Guard is informing the rest group of the shady stranger that’s been skulking about town, and who had been seen interacting with the group that had been kidnapping non-locals. After waiting for Iliana to join the group, they decide to try to find and perhaps corner the man at the local tavern, The Jolly Pig. Knowing that Iliana and Eleanora might be recognizable, they send Nicolette in to do the investigating while they wait outside.
Nicolette chats up the barkeep and learns that he’s not been too happy with all the disappearances due to the reputation it’s starting to have on his tavern. She also learns that he has no love for the local Nobility (House Marshewell) nor for the newly crowned King (King Stewart Hightower), but that he did respect King Edwin Hightower. She hears some interesting stories of burned down cabins and other suspicious things in the Grey Hills Forest from a local hunter. Just as she’s getting ready to leave, a small halfling who looked like the man she was supposed to find, sauntered up to the bar. They chat for a bit, while he cracks some inappropriate jokes, before she leaves for the evening. The halfling decides to follow her outside a few minutes later, before recognizing her compatriots. Deciding the best course of action is to run as fast as he can down the path into town away from them.
With a well placed wind blast, Iliana stops him momentarily from running as they catch up to him. Before they can get much information out of him, he pulls his blades and lunges at them. Iliana quickly blocks his attacks, and batters him around with the blunt side of her blades, wanting to keep him alive. Nicolette simply hurls a fatal Arcane Missile into his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. Not wanting to give up on a potential lead, the party is able stabilize him just before he passes on.
After some intimidation and questioning, they finally start getting some answers to their questions.
- That the only reason he took the job was to make enough fast & easy coin to pay back a large debt for his family, and that he’ll accept any fate that befalls him. Even with heavy intimidation he refuses to give his name or family name.
- Supposedly the man who hired this local thug to kidnap people, was a young man named Jakob. The two were drinking buddies at the local Tavern.
- The man who had hired Jakob was a middle aged Mage by the name of Ephraim Warde. This mage Ephraim has a distinct smell of sulphur and rotten eggs to him, and had been known to travel to Sweetgrass and Port Alcaster occasionally.
- They learned that the captured halfling hadn’t seen his “work” buddies in about a week, but gladly gave what physical descriptions he could. Iliana deduced that they had already killed the majority of the group back in the forest.
Deciding that was all they were going to get out of him, the party goes back to the Marshewell family to “plead” the kidnappers case. Instead of a possible execution the Marshewell’s agree that hard labor in a prison camp would be the better option for the unnamed kidnapper.
Over the next few days, they check on the wolf. While further training was unsuccessful, they were all able to bond somewhat with the wolf. Iliana carves out three wolf statuettes for the goblin children, and spends some time with them. The party buys the fanciest pie they can find for the Marshewell family in appreciation for their hospitality.
They grab a day’s lodging and food at the Jolly Pig Tavern, and while there they chat up the local hunter from the other day, and hire him to help search the burned down cabin. He agrees to set aside a day or two, for the cost of 20 coins.
PARTY TREASURY
- 907 COINS
- 23 GEMS (Needs Appraised)
- Gold Goblet (Needs Appraised)
- Ancient Spellbook (Unidentified)
CAMPAIN ENDED 💀
Unfortunately due to changes in scheduling and real life commitments of everyone involved this campaign was put on haitus.
After some time has passed without being able to reschedule I’ve decided to officially consider this campaign ended. Perhaps one day in the future we can pick this back up with some of the previous players and new players.
Thank you all for understanding, and I can’t wait to roll some dice with you again soon! ⚔️
