Quietly

A Village of 13 Cottages nestled within a remote forest clearing; 4 folk reside here; identical in every way, conversing in old tongues and archaic utterances.

The 4 live according to a precise schedule, in harmony with their neighbour, one day precisely as any other.

In the centre of the Village Green rises a Barrow; an ancient burial mound from which a low-rumbling chime signals the passing hour, and even changing the weather.

Little by little the Visitor shall find the Villagers appear more and more like them, as they strive to replace them in the world beyond, imprisoning the Adventurers forever within the straw-stuffed sacking of the many Scarecrows scattered about Quietly.

Use this section as a quick reference during play, or at the start of a Session to refresh your GM senses!

Sights

• Neat, perfectly symmetrical cottages adorned with flower-boxes and ringed in tidy shrubberies.

• Several scarecrows, neatly dressed.

• Paper birds, bees, and butterflies. Wood-cut animals.

• Tall, black poplar trees, neatly aligned and encircling the Village.

Sounds

• Delicate bubbling of a stream.

• Distant tinkling of tiny bells.

• An occasional accordion wheeze, and the knocking of sticks.

• A barely audible low-hum, along with an hourly chime. At first this chime is pleasant, but grows evermore unsettling.

Smells

• Freshly baked bread

• Freshly cut wheat and newly turned earth

• Honey and buttermilk

• Sweet wild flowers

The residents of Quietly appear perfectly aligned with the seasons, each of which is expressed within a single day, arriving and departing the Village most abruptly.

This turning of the great wheel provides all that the 4 might need. There is a time for picking apples, a time for milling grain, a time for harvesting honey, a time for slaughtering game.

One thing of note, however - all of this produce, and all of the livestock, are of either paper or wood; cut, crafted, and constructed as though quite real, but of a single dimension when viewed with precision.

There is no need for trade, barter, or exchange of any sort. Should the Party attempt such a thing, they will be met by vaguely bemused smiles.

No roads lead to Quietly; no path leads out. Only the occasional lost Traveller arrives.

The GM might, if they so wish, roll 1d4 to determine the manner of the Party's welcoming, or for how the Villager's behave each new day :

1 - The Villager's take no notice of the Party, whatsoever. It is as though they are not even there.

2 - One Villager, and one alone, appears to be aware of the Party's presence.

3 - The Villagers are most pleased and welcoming, and cannot do enough for the Party.

4 - Every Villager is greatly perturbed and afeared of the Party.

From time to time a Resident - having taken the form of a Visitor - ventures forth from Quietly.

To meet such a soul is to come face to face with the essence of disquiet and dissonance. Many are said to have lost their minds once the secrets of the Barrow have been whispered to them.

Others fall into an endless slumber from which none awaken, or fall into a frenzy, cutting out their tongues, dressing them in corn-stalks and animal fur before setting themselves ablaze.

Those left behind in Quietly continue in their agrarian bliss, awaiting the day when they, too, will wander the beyonds with the Barrow's word.

13 cottages, pristine and quaint, each appear to afford a great many comforts to the weary Traveller.

Open any beautifully painted, flower-wreath laden door, however, and one will find naught but a hollow shell.

There are no stairs to the cottage's second storey, the timbers of each floor have long been torn asunder, leaving only a dark pit of dirt and dust covered in snow.

Peering through the warped-glaze of each cottage window, one may catch sight of the reflections of the Villagers behind them, staring intently at whomsoever attempts to look within.

No matter how quickly the Adventurer turns to face them, however, the Villagers shall ne'er be caught regarding.

Between each cottage is either a meadow, a small parcel of land used for wheat, corn, or vegetables, or upon which is an enclosure housing a small number of (what appear, at first, to be) livestock.

The Barrow at the centre of Quietly emits a low-hum that governs all; its will, and message, guiding the 4 Villagers. They pursue the instruction of the hourly moaning chime without pause or hesitation.

The whispers of this ancient tumulus carve an unusual frequency, seemingly able to twist realities within the Village, or to shift the air and atmosphere.

(see the “Changes in the Weather” table below)

Watching over all are the Scarecrows - neatly attired, faces in the shadow of their wide-brimmed hats. Guardians of Quietly? Eyes of the Barrow? Who could say?

Bucolic, rustic, agrarian; life is endlessly simple, and endlessly pleasant.

Villagers tend to their tasks with a vague smile, ne'er breaking a sweat despite their labours, ne'er far from milk and honey and bread.

Here and there they may don bells, rosettes and ribbons and, raising sticks of ash-wood above their heads, begin a merry dance of thanksgiving that ends with setting alight a hobby-horse that their whirling has chased all about the Village.

A stillness then descends; the Villager - motionless - stand drenched in sweat, until at last the ashes of their fires fall upon them, and they are once more returned to their labours.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and is intended simply to stir the pot of your own imagination.

Use what follows as starting-points, or ignore them entirely in favour of your own Adventure Hooks!

1 - A patron or employer of the Party has spoken of an ancestor having once departed Quietly. They wish to be escorted there in order to explore their lineage.

2 - A Villager is convinced they have known a Party member for many years, and will not leave their side. Oddly, they are able to recount all manner of secrets and impossible things about the Adventurer.

3 - The Villagers, alike in every way, bear a striking resemblance to a long lost companion or relative of a Party member.

4 - The Barrow is littered with small boulders carrying many unusual signs and sigils upon them. The Party may have reason to believe they hold a message important, or even vital, to their current Quest, and yet the Villagers (politely) interrupt any attempt to inspect closer.

5 - One of the Villagers somehow manages to slip a note to one of the Party. Two words, and two words alone, are written upon this folded scrap of cloth : "HELP US"

6 - As they sleep, the Barrow speaks in the dreams of the Party, something deep within it begging to be awoken and freed from the earth.

7 - The entire Village is naught but a dream of the Barrow's long dead inhabitant. One by one, the Party begin to realise that they, too, are asleep, and trapped within this same dream.

8 - The Barrow houses the soul of an ancient, slumbering God, desperately trying to awaken. The Villagers are aspects of its consciousness, slowly infecting the outside world with the God's arcane dreams. The Party must either awaken the sleeping deity, or put an end to its dreaming, forever.

9 - The Scarecrows, should their faces be examined, are revealed to be deceased individuals either killed by, or close to, the Party members. Any friendly NPCs brought along to Quietly by the Party are soon among the Scarecrows, throats cut and eyes gouged out.

10 - The Villagers are ghosts; cursed spirits whose bodies litter Quietly in the form of Scarecrows. They wish only to be peacefully at rest, and to be free of their torment.

ROLL 1d20 for a QUIETLY TRINKET

1 - A small corn-doll, several tin bells stitched into a red ribbon bound tightly about its middle.

2 - A long poplar-wood stick, carved with simple animals depictions.

3 - A long, seemingly endless red thread that, whilst asleep, has been threaded through the skin between thumb and fore-finger. Both ends can be traced back to the stitching of a Scarecrow's mouth.

4 - A dead raven, tightly bound and stuffed into a pouch of leaf and fur.

5 - A small pewter pot. Tipping it upon its end causes a gentle chime to ring out from somewhere within, echoing unusually all about you.

6 - A small sackful of wheat-chaff. Tossing handfuls upon the floor might reveal footprints as yet unseen.

7 - A small, intricately illustrated book of incomprehensible riddles.

8 - A twisted wooden pitchfork, its handle wrapped tightly with pigeon feathers.

9 - A small leather-bound prayer book, its pages blank.

10 - Small cloth finger puppets, each in the likeness of the Party members.

11 - A nest of duck-eggs, fashioned from paper, but warm and with something moving within.

12 - A pair of dowsing rods fashioned from the wood of an Ash tree.

13 - A papier-mâché mask, quite grotesque, with horns decorated with bright cloth ribbons and tin-bells.

14 - A pouch of runes; when cast, their message proclaims only "be gone".

15 - A chalk figurine, its four limbs lashed with corn-stalks.

16 - A small wooden box, covered in vicious scratches, and full of earth-worms.

17 - A felt owl, its eyes ablaze with glistening coins, and unusual repeating-motif stitched into its feathery-patterning.

18 - A thick bundle of stinging nettles wrapped about a bull's heart.

19 - A small casket containing everything needed for the craft of wood cutting.

20 - A horse's skull, decorated with ribbons and paper flowers, affixed to a long hazel branch.

ROLL 1d10 FOR A QUIETLY ENCOUNTER

1 - During the Party's stay, the Barrow shifts position on the Village Green between dawns, its stoney entrance facing a different cottage doorway each time. As the day progresses, the corresponding Villager gains a compulsion to brutally slay another of their kin, thereafter offering the tongue of the dead to the Barrow.

2 - During the night, the many wooden creatures of Quietly come to life, encircling the Party; are they a threat? Or do they wish to appeal for aid?

3 - Here and there it is as though everything in the Village is "paused". Villagers become like waxworks.

4 - Several chimes ring out from the Barrow, culminating in a high crescendo that sends the Villagers into a frenzy.

5 - A festival, of sorts, begins. Ribbons and buntings tied to a wooden stake plunged into the top of the burial mound shimmer with vibrant colour. Music plays as the sky fills with dark shadows.

6 - Someone emerges from the Barrow; a King? a Queen? They wander with calm serenity from cottage to cottage, setting each ablaze with the merest of touches.

7 - A chill mist descends, revealing unusual messages upon the Cottage window-glaze.

8 - A live fox is spied upon the Barrow, a flailing hare between its jaws. The Villagers are thrown into a wild panic.

9 - During the night, desperate knockings upon the doors and windows of the 13 Cottages are heard.

10 - Just before dawn each morning, a ghostly burial procession is seen making their way towards, and into, the Barrow, bearing a body trussed up in deathly-shrouds.

Whenever the burial barrow groans and chimes, the winds may shift, the sky may brighten, or darken.

Roll 1d10 on the table below for what weather may come :

1 - Water is leeched from the sodden ground, and rain falls; up towards the blackening sky, along with anything not bound or tied to the earth.

2 - A bitter frost crackles across the earth, clambering onto every surface, biting at the skin, freezing the breath in your lungs.

3 - Paper flowers erupt into blossom and bloom, as the deep, expanding warmth of the sun rolls into the skies directly above. Soon, all is aflame.

4 - A damp, mouldy air arrives, draping all in a mildewy-condensation that reeks of earthworms and rot. That which was dead is now alive.

5 - A brightness sparkles low upon the earth, glistening crystals of dew catch the light, and upon the air a heady scent of roses and honeysuckle brings strange waking dreams.

6 - A sudden wind blows, howling into a gale that threatens to tear the cottages asunder. Soon the air is filled with blades.

7 - The skies grey, and hail-stones as large as toads pelt the Village. As each melts, they reveal strange tar-like creatures that hunger.

8 - A gentle snow begins to fall, coating all in softness and white. Deeper, deeper, deeper it goes, until all is buried in darkness.

9 - A thick, blinding fog creeps and rolls into Quietly, and everything in the Village seems out of place, and far removed.

10 - Thirteen rainbows arc across the sky, intersecting in shimmering resplendence as a warm, gentle rain falls. Dreams and wishes become real.