Rumors

Cthulhu_Wakes

Cthulhu_Wakes

Black Sun in a White World
Inspired by UA and a few threads on RPG.net, why not start a fun little rumors thread for you to throw in your game? Rumors around the bar or wherever that spawn into adventure seeds or just plain red herrings. Either way it's good times.


They say the people of the mountains deep inside Harborhead have been moving past their traditional borders and into the plains in greater numbers than ever recorded. Some say it's war coming down on the Realm's head. But I've seen the worried look on the dragonlord's faces. The tribes are runnin' scared, but runnin' from what?
 
You wanna know what I think? The war's already started, but the Dynasts are keeping it quiet. All assassinations and what-like, you know? A'course, they could be blowing each other to bits by now and they could still keep it quiet in this corner of the Isle.
 
Yea, I'm serious! You ever count those things? Nobody does. We've all lived here under them for so long, the Aerial Legion is like background scenery. They fly them all 'round in circles all day too, so it's hard to guess numbers. But I tell you son, there's fewer these last months, and I'm damned sure the number's goin' down still. Where they going? I dunno, but I say they're stashing them somewhere, maybe in case we're attacked, or may to attack..
 
Old Dan's full of shit. There's nothing in that goddamn lake, he's just drunk so much that the waves look like demons. Crazy old fool... *five minutes later* Wild stuff about Jim dying on the lake isn't it?
 
Jonas said he was tracking deer a few weeks back in the Iron Hills, came upon a massacre...said it looked like a whole Wyld Hunt had been slaughtered and left to rot. He didn't stick around for sunset to see what was left of their ghosts. Though he did say there was enough jade lyin' around to make a man a king ten times over...
 
I tell ya, I seen it! Big as a mountain, lofting amongst the clouds east a'ere. Just flyin' along. It was like something out myth...like a god's kingdom in the sky...so huge... Reminds me of the stories of Bagrash Koel...
 
Fleeting Ghost won't talk to any of us Silver Pact folk anymore.  Not quite sure why that is.  I mean, after a hundred years of telling the Crossroads "no" when they offered him the tattoos, he finally saw the light and got his caste fixed. Musta been wearing on him, all those taboos and care he was taking with his shifting. 'Course, the tattoos do look a little more jagged and rougher than you usually see... but they're different for every one of us, after all.
 
I dream, Holok. I dream...strange and wondrous things. Terrifying things...shapes and creatures moving at the edge of the world. I can see forever out into the Wyld. It's like the ocean really, if you can imagine. Something has been building out there since Balor died on the Fields of Fire. I can see a ripple beginning at his death somewhere in the oceans of chaos, and the great tsunami is coming.
 
"You know that meadow in the woods kid? Yeah, the pretty one, with the flowers. Stay away at night.  That's where the fair ones that live come out to play. And they loves to get new toys."


Not my best... how about;


"I lived, and bled, and fought for my nation for 20 summers.  I raised two kids, and made sure my wife had all the food and shelter she needed for them.  I spoiled them when I could.  And then they got me.


Fair folk.


One bad patrol can end a life, even for those still living.  I lived, and was taken, and when I clawed my way back to civilization, no one knew me anymore.  My wife remarried in my absence. My kids called another man daddy now.


And the worse part is...  I can still hear my kidnappers calling me, every night... "


No, that's less of a rumor and more of my character hook.  Odd that came out now, never really formalized that yet. Ok, we'll try;


"That old guy down the way, the one what makes all the really shiny swords.  You ever see what materials he uses? No? Me neither."
 
In Great Forks:


You notice the fair businesses seem more...quiet recently?  Not that their pleasure houses are turning anyone away or anything.  It just seems they're staying inside more.


throw in a "like they're worried about/know something" or keep it oblique.
 
Hey, have you heard?  Mnemon's gone bezerk.  She's all fire and brimstones the past few days.  Heard the latest Gateway champion turned out to be a Thief from Nexus and cheated his way to the top in order to grab her attention.  Then robbed her of some favorite trinkets and... not-so-sacred ones...  What!?  Don't believe me!?  Haven't you seen all the wanted posters across the isle proclaiming a 50 talent reward for the capture of the Red Scorpion Ringleader!?
 
(Yay! People are posting!)


They say the Realm's got some new kind of weapon, some kind of big ass airship. Seriously! Don't give me that damn look! They tested it out in Linowan recently, smacking down a gang of martial artists fighting against the Order. Big thing...not like those little Hslanti ships...no siree.
 
Psst...  Hey!  Wanna buy a horse?  :twisted:


My fellow gamers will get that one...  That's a quote from one of my friend's characters.
 
I almost fear to know the story behind it. :P


Man, you've had some cocaine before? Yeah, you look the type...see this glowing shit in my hand? Friend...this is Celestial cocaine...
 
A piece of parchment is tacked to the tavern door in the middle of the night.  It reads simply,


The Unity Protects
 
I am intrigued by that one, I must say.


Man...I wouldn't walk down that road toward Kelvin's Cairn. I'm being mighty honest, stranger. Odd things walk down that path. That fog you see down in the valley never lifts, hasn't for years now. Oh heh heh...I wouldn't worry about the moans, the ghosts are the least of anyone's worries down that road...
 
That's great! Total "Sleepy Hollow" feel! Guess I'll try my hand at this game too.


Look stranger, you'd best just keep to your own business and move on through. See that woman over there? Yeah, the one that's crying. Her boy, see he couldn't keep to himself. Always had to know what was going on. That habit landed him in Thorns a few years back, right when the Dead claimed it. She ain't stopped crying since...Feel sorry for her do ya? That ain't even the worst part. They say, that every few months, one o' them Anathema visits her wearing the face of her boy....
 
Used this one to hook in an Eclipse pirate captain once:


You haven't heard of the Black Jade Raiders? You sail these oceans and you haven't heard of them?  Darlin', they're about as famed as the Lintha in these waters.  Prey on the Guild, take Realm ships when they can, generally make lives miserable all around.  And no one's ever been able to find 'em.  Stories say they got some magic island far in the west they port in, hide all their booty on. Every so often they open themselves up for new blood, some sort of race.  Every pirate worth his ship in these waters wants to be one.  Come to think of it... Been about fifty years.  B'lieve they're about due for another announcement...
 
Nice, and I love the one you did, Indigo :D


Dragons be praised? HA! Boy, do you know where the hell you are? You're in fucking Harborhead, in the thick of it. If the natives don't kill you when you aren't looking, the Ten Shades will. What's a Ten Shades? Well, remember this: don't blink. That's all I'm sayin'.
 
The first thing you need to know about this patch of Halta is that there's a ... weird zone a hunnert miles east of here. It ain't a shadowland, it ain't a Wyld zone.  It's somethin' else, you'll recognize it by the changes in the trees.  Somethin' I can't explain, you'll just know it.  The ata- and san-critters don't go there. The gods don't go there.  The bleedin' Fair Folk don't go there.  Were I you, I'd steer clear.
 
Can't claim credit for this one: my husband used it on my Chosen of Secrets.


God of a forgotten road leading to a mining town whose files in Yu-Shan are Sealed by the hand of Nara-o:


One of them came here, and they took my ending.  You'll take my secret, won't you?  I don't want you to take my secret... If only I could remember my secret.  I miss the children. I miss the horses dropping on my road.  They took my ending, and you'll take my secret.


Later conversation about that same town with a deathknight of her acquaintance:


Forty years ago, that mining outpost was wiped clean.  Everyone died in their sleep: women, children, the old and the hale.  This is the strange thing, Blind Moon... None of their ghosts appeared in the Underworld, not a one. Odd, don't you think?


Later discovery about that town:


... Everyone died in their sleep; their skeletons are still curled up under the blankets.  The repository is rich in raw gold. Funnily enough, I can't pray to the god of this town. My incense is snuffed out the instant I light it...


Still in the middle of this mystery in-game. :)
 
I almost fear to know the story behind it. :P
Click to expand...
The story behind the 'Wanna Buy a horse', is that one of my friends was playing a thief.  One of his elaborate plans, was to find someone interested in buying a horse (hence the quote).  After bartering with the person, he'd take their money and leave to get the horse, head down some back-alleys, and beat the hel out of himself.  After draggin himself through the mud, he'd hide the cash someplace safe, and then stagger back to the person looking like a train-wreck and tell them he was mugged by some bandits down the way.   :twisted:  Rinse, repeat.  An inside joke amongst our gaming group is now "Psst...  Wanna buy a horse???"


No shit, there I was out in the forest hunting.  And suddenly out of nowhere this shadow decended upon me.  At first I thought it was some horrid creature about to make a meal out of me.  But I looked up, and instead saw an island blocking the sun!  A FRAGGIN ISLAND!  It just floated through the air like one of those damned Hzlanti air-boats!  It even had what looked like a house on it!  What's that!?  No, of course I wasn't drinking that day!  Ok, so maybe a little...   --Bar erupts with laughter--
 
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