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In a region known for hundreds of deep narrow canyons and a high magical energy, few have investigated it and come back alive. Some say there are monsters here… and they might be right.
Your players will probably not be trying to make too much noise, as there is a great echo here and they don’t want to alert the monsters.
As you preceed into the canyons, the walls are cooler than you would expect for being exposed to the sun… perhaps the nights here are really cold.
Your players hear an odd “ppppooockt-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t” noise(think: sound of tennis ball hitting wall) that seems to echo around the area. It is like something is bouncing off the rocks. The echo will occur for a while then go away.
If the players are around their campfire….they will hear dozens of pppooockt-t-t-t-t-t-t” noises, like three dozen handball games. It is terribly loud. If they scream at each other (or make a sudden loud noise) the sound will intensify in both volume and tempo.
Someone might feel something bounce off them. It feels like the vibration in your chest when you are standing next to a big drum being banged. Their sword or a metal item vibrates like a tuning fork… or they banged it against metal.
They will eventually go away… and the preternatural silence occurs (actually it is normal silence… but it seems so loud and so still after all that noise and vibration.
If they players travel deeper into the canyons (i.e. don’t get the hint), it will begin again. But this time louder and more dangerous. Now people will begin to pop ear drums. They will take damage from the vibration. Things that are crystal or glass or ceramic will break. If the players are not fairly quiet and beat a hasty retreat, they will soon die from ruptured ears, eyes, and black and blue marks all over their entire body.
Full Description
The Living Echos of the canyons are living sounds, much the way an elemental is living fire/ earth/ air/ water. They are somewhat intelligent pack animals (akin to wolves). They bounce around the canyons absorbing heat from the rocks (as food). Fires and the warm blooded bodies of animals are also “food”. In fact, fire will create a feeding frenzie.
Certain common sounds create “disharmony” / “discordance” in their bodies causing them a bit of discomfort. They will put up with this as the character bring new heat for their pack to absorb.
Additional Information
Silence spells are the equivalent of walls of flames to paper golems - that is to say, very deadily. Once they encounter this phenomena once, they will avoid it and the casters like the plague… though they may cause rockslides to indirectly attack said caster/ group.
Additional Ideas (1)
Wherever a colony of Unknown Death lives, nearby can soon be found a colony of Hush Moss, a steadily growing carpet of blue moss-like flora. Of special note is the growth of leaf-shaped structures on the surface of the moss itself.
Unlike normal plants, this one doesn't use photosynthesis to generate energy, thus the lack of a green coloration. Much as the Unknown Death consumes heat, this specialized plant consumes sound, making it a natural enemy of the living sounds.
While it can grow anywhere there is a sufficient quantity of sound, generally the only place with enough sound is near a colony of Unknown Death.
Inspired by Manfred's suggestion of a sound-consuming membrane. The natural enemy of these living sounds.
November 8, 2005, 19:41
pppooockt-t-t-t-t-t-t
November 12, 2005, 2:23
January 27, 2006, 9:40
Because the players/ people will be deafened and vibrated to death as the creatures bounce off them and absorb heat. Even if they didn't die from the vibration, they would die from the hypothermia.
A lot of things in this bizarre things codex seem to feed from heat.
All life requires energy of some kind. The primary source of energy for all life on Earth is the sun, which sends light and heat to Earth (which is normally captured by plants and micro flora, and travels up the food train.). Those animals not on the solar food chain deal the geo thermal vents, thus more light or heat.
What if they fed off of sound? Given enough sound you get heat. So, in a way, you do.
The players would all be muted or silenced?
Sound is actually vibration in the air. We just don't hear most of the vibrations (though we might feel them), as they are too soft or too low in the vibrational spectrum.
And the echoes would try to keep characters IN the valley, by making noises and vibrations worse if they try to exit. The echoes try to bring people in to make noises to feed them.
If they feed of sound/ vibration, they would make the world around them totally silent.
February 27, 2006, 17:41
February 27, 2006, 17:48
Thanks for the instant encounter for next session!!
May 7, 2006, 9:17
May 7, 2006, 13:15
May 7, 2006, 14:01
May 7, 2006, 15:54
May 8, 2006, 6:02
May 8, 2006, 8:01
June 10, 2006, 17:33
June 10, 2006, 18:42
November 6, 2006, 13:21
November 7, 2006, 12:54
November 6, 2006, 20:40
(thanks for finding this one again valadaar)
February 19, 2007, 11:03
March 17, 2008, 18:26
May 6, 2008, 12:11