Patron - The Whisperer

[Epoch]

So I kinda came up with this one on the fly during a campaign I was running a while back. I had the idea for a while, but didn't have an oppurtunity to try it until my player (a Wizard) said that he wanted to summon a patron with "otherworldy knowlege". I asked who in particular he wished to summon, and he said "anyone, I don't care". He was basically just trying to fast track learning forbidden secrets of magic and such, so I decided to make things interesting. I instructed the player to place his hands face down on the table and keep his eyes forward, while another player dimmed the lights (bowchickawowwow). I said the following:

"You sit alone in a small room with no windows on a moonless night, a stub of a candle burning in the center of the table. Somehow, you know that this is what you must do, as if the knowlege of this ritual seeped into your mind from the ether. You keep your eyes fixed on the flame, the shadows in the room grow long as the candle begins to die." (At this point my helpers are slowling dimming the light further and further until the room is pitch black. God bless dimmer switches)
"At last the flame is extinguished, and the room is cast into darkness. You see nothing. You hear nothing. You cannot smell the smoke from the burnt out candle. You're not even sure you can feel the table beneath your hands anymore. The nothingness around you is absolute. That is when you hear the Voice:

Greetings...

(The player almost headbutted me when they jumped, because I snuck around behind their chair and whispered directly into their ear.)

"You feel an immense presence directly behind you, or rather... you feel an immence absense, like a black hole in a starless sky. Whatever It is, Its attention has been drawn to you. You can feel it, vast and infinite, pondering you. You can feel its breath rattling against the back of your neck, like an ancient wind on a dead planet.

Would you like to know a secret?"

Player: "Yes..?"

There will be no milk for sale at market tomorrow.

Player: "And?"

That is all.

Player: "Okay...thank you?"

You are welcome, my pet...

"It is gone. You are back in your room with your feet firmly on the ground, and the faint smell of smoke hanging in the air."

The following morning, when the PC's visited the village market, there was indeed no milk for sale at market. The dairy farmer and his daughter were not in the square, which was unusual. So they paid a visit to the dairy farm. When they arrived, they discovered that every cow in the pasture had be slaughtered, the field painted with their blood and strewn with entrails. They found the daughter in the barn, sobbing hysterically and babbling to herself. Her father was hanging from the rafters by a noose, a bloody knife still clutched in his hand.
Later, the Wizard discovered a new spell in his book that had never been there before. Stranger still, the spell was written in his own hand: Word of Command.

"Congratulations on your new Patron" I told him. The look of horror on his face was priceless.

I think the direction I want to go with the Whisperer is that It will happily share Its secrets with Its pets, but they always come at a price. The knowlege imparted will seem harmless, or contradictory, or even impossible (Think along the lines of the Witches prophecies from Macbeth). The greater the secret, the more dire the consequences, which may not become fully realized for days, weeks, or even months at a time, but they always come true, and at great cost to the foolish mortal who would treat with such a Being.

Your thoughts?

[Raven_Crowking]

This is very good stuff.

[GnomeBoy]

Perfect idea for a Patron!

[Fenris Ulfhamr]

This...is... GREAT! I love how player apathy/hubris/lack of imaginative becomes a teachable moment in dabbling frivolously in dangerous magic, haha. Opening doors to the supernatural should never be taken lightly! The level of sick in the Whisperer, and the way you presented it-you did that on the fly? Got any openings in your game? lol j/k

[Weisenwolf]

Excellent; player learns a lesson in why magic in DCC is Dangerous

[Blutimate]

Wow. This is pretty amazing.

I think the whisperer should take a few pages from "the doctor" in the first few seasons of the new Who, specifically in the episode Blink ("players" find a hidden message written in the past), the video that plays from the past, and and generally when the audience sees spray painted clues about the "Bad Wolf" all over. These seem to be right up the alley of the creepy Patron you have created.

Imagine "No Milk..." scrawled inconspicuously all over...

Chilling,
David