Silence in the Seedlight



Overview

An investigative horror adventure. Uncover a long-hidden faith, track strange disappearances, and learn why letting go of the self is the real danger.

This repository for Silence in the Seedlight is in production and often shifting. Incomplete details, missing pages and other discrepencies are possible.

 


History & World

Timelines, maps, and history.

Verdant Else

The call of the green.


Inhabitants

Those who reside within.

Encounters

Moments of conflict.


Bloomfallen

A playable class as a Sister of the Wiltless Halo


Items & Relics

Items, armor, charms and more.

Scriptures

Ephemera and documents of note.

Gallery

Overview


Key Elements

  •     + OSR

  •     + The Bloomfallen class

  •     + Cloth caster with strong charm, healing, and battlefield control

  •     + Investigative slow-burn progression

  •     + Designed for small-party play but supports additional NPC allies

  •     + NPC allies, if recruited, meaningfully changes gameplay

  •     + Events and encounters matter

  •     + Items, relics, and rituals are core to advancing the story

  •     + Soft skills matter: Demonology, Nature, Survival, Detection, Religion, Insight

  •     + Fear, temptation, and misinterpretation are functional mechanics

  •     + Clues surface through people, scripture, locations, dreams, and mechanics

  •     + Cloth and leather gear focus

  •     + Unique module-flavored items, charms, and trinkets discovered through play

  •     + Powerful in-lore endgame items that feel earned rather than dropped


The cult is a secretive group made up entirely of former religious women who have turned their backs on the faith they once served. They gain power through forbidden rituals linked to a corrupted form of nature magic. To advance in the cult, they take part in child sacrifice that must be carried out in a secluded pond or bog by three members working together. When the ritual is complete, a portal opens. This portal leads to a distant, silent planet that is covered in endless layers of vines, moss, and stone. The planet feels both alive and dead at the same time. Nothing lives there except the plant world itself. No animals. No oceans. No sounds other than wind in the leaves.Whenever a cult member travels to this planet, a copy of their body is sent, while the original stays behind in a kind of stasis. That copy slowly becomes absorbed into the plant life of the world, turning into a "lost soul". These lost souls may still speak in broken horror or strange peace. They are stuck in tree trunks and overgrown roots, with their features twisted into the wood. Speaking with them can give knowledge or power, but always with the risk of madness. The cult member who returns from a successful trip gains new abilities, but corruption grows in their body and mind. A seed appears inside their face and becomes larger every time they return. The more power they seek, the more their human form breaks open and becomes overgrown with plant-like growth that blooms outward from the skull.At the lowest levels of cult membership, a woman looks only slightly corrupted.Her halo begins to form, but only other cult members can see it. As she advances, the halo becomes visible to more people. The face then starts to split and bloom, with vines or petals growing from within. By the highest rank, her face is fully split apart, showing a glowing yellow seed inside her skull. She is no longer human in any meaningful sense and becomes an NPC or villain in the story.The playable version of this class works only in the early or middle stages of corruption. A player can use this class so long as the character is still functional enough to blend into society or hide what is happening to her. In these early stages, the character has strong charm abilities, minor corruption-based spells, and strange nature magic that other classes do not have access to. The more she uses her power, the stronger she becomes but the more she risks losing herself. Eventually, her body will bloom, her mind may break, and her role in the story will stop being playable. This class is built around the idea of a strong reward with a growing risk, where players can essentially jump in chunk of 3-4 levels ability and spell wise with high chance of corruption and laundry list of negative perks.

Halo

At the lowest levels of cult membership, a woman looks only slightly corrupted.Her halo begins to form, but only other cult members can see it. As she advances, the halo becomes visible to more people. The face then starts to split and bloom, with vines or petals growing from within. By the highest rank, her face is fully split apart, showing a glowing yellow seed inside her skull. She is no longer human in any meaningful sense and becomes an NPC or villain in the story.

History & World


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Verdant Else


“in the green below the green the place before breath the place after names the quiet holds the walker the walker softens the mind softens the seed remembers the face the flesh remembers the fear the fear feeds the root the root feeds the peace the peace keeps the body upright even when the thought has gone even when the voice has gone even when the eyes have gone the seedlight keeps the shape until the second bloom until the forgetting is complete until the forest has all”Attributed to Sister Galen of the Third Bloom, transcribed from the Reed-Veil Hymnal, date unknown

The Verdant Else is not a spirit realm or dream world. It is a real planet far beyond the known planes. It is covered in forests that never die and plants that never decay. There are no seasons, no animals, and no wind strong enough to change the growth. Everything is green. Everything grows. Nothing returns to soil.Visitors find themselves in endless layers of roots, vines, stone, and foliage. The sky is hidden. Paths shift. Landmarks repeat. Ruins of unknown origin appear in rare pockets, but their purpose cannot be understood. The structures resemble temples or houses yet offer no clues and no written language. Exploration feels familiar and wrong at the same time.Time behaves differently. A few minutes of stillness can feel like hours. Some travelers lose track of their own memories as they walk. Emotions become heavy and slow. The longer someone remains, the more the Else attempts to keep them. Thought fades. Their body begins to root. Their face begins to bloom.

Those who spend too long become trapped in the trees. They do not rot or collapse. They stay upright and silent as part of the landscape. Some look peaceful. Others look frozen mid scream. All remain conscious for a time and can share fragments of memory with anyone who listens long enough.Most who return believe they never left their own plane. It feels like stepping into a secret garden or hidden pocket of the world rather than another planet.Returned travelers do not realize that a mirrored version of themselves remains behind, abandoned and slowly absorbed into the quiet forest. Every trip is a sacrifice of a self that does not come back.The Verdant Else is alive but not kind. It does not think in terms of good or evil. It grows. It takes. It holds. It replaces. A traveler who feels at peace there is already losing the ability to leave.

Encounters


Neophyte of the First Bloom
Newly recruited cultist with little corruption. Still familiar enough to pass as a normal townsfolk. Uses simple weapons and minor charm or plant tricks.
Thorn Acolyte
Devoted caster. Wields vine-based magic, can entangle, weaken, or drain vital force from enemies at mid-range. Magic user and adjacent to the cult members as they are either male or have not fallen from good.
Bloomed Sister
Fully initiated cultist with a partially blossomed face and a visible soul-seed pulse beneath the skin. Capable of both spell attacks and close-range corruption strikes.
Mother Bloom
Mid-boss guardian of the underground ritual site. Halo complete, face nearly gone. Commands seeds and vines, able to summon or heal corrupted minions mid-fight.
Thornbound Husk
Animated corpse overtaken by vines. Slow but relentless. Limbs lash unpredictably, and it bursts into thorns when slain.
Seedling Horror
Small, fast plant-creature born from corrupted earth. Strikes from shadows or from underneath roots. Weak alone but deadly in packs.
Vinewolf
Former wolf or dog overtaken by creeping growth. Moves unnaturally, attacks in silence, and regrows small wounds mid-combat through photosynthesis-like healing.
Mossed Sentinel
A standing tree or wooden statue animated by the cult. Immobile unless provoked. Uses crushing limbs or root traps to stop intruders.
Verdant Echo
Wandering spirit of a lost cultist, fused into the Else. Appears as a flickering humanoid shape covered in living vines. Whispers madness and drains mental defenses.
Seedmother
Final boss and leader of the cult. Fully bloomed, no face left, enormous exposed seed where the skull once was. Commands all lesser growths and can open a living gate to the Verdant Else mid-battle.
OtherBog Lurker
A huge amphibious creature, partially corrupted and serving as a guardian near the ritual pond.
Wicker Effigy
A burning or animate scarecrow figure, assembled by the cult and filled with teeth and seeds.
Bloomtouched Children
Optional horror encounter, children who've been partially taken by the Verdant Else. Not aggressive, but unsettling, tragic, and possibly important for narrative impact. (as part of rituals to send them to Verdant Else)

Inhabitants


Additional Party Members (Playable NPC)Eryndor
A guilt-ridden ranger who once hunted the cult and failed to save his lover, now guiding others through the bog in search of redemption.
Lydis
Lydis Marrow is a human warlock and ex-scholar whose spellbook was bound to a living seed after a vision of the Verdant Else, causing vines to grow from his arm. He wields a sentient flesh-blade and offers insight into seed magic and planar corruption, but his loyalty fades if the party embraces the Else instead of fighting it.
Sister Arvessa
A former cleric who tried and failed to cleanse her sister of the Bloom, now wandering with a broken faith and a single spell left to offer the deserving.

Bloomfallen


Cult Structure & Player ClassInduction
Exclusively female recruits from holy backgrounds or nature good aligned (e.g.,sister, priestess, nuns, paladins, druids).
Must renounce prior faith.Religious garb retained but defiled, exposed breasts, torn, bound in thorns - symbolic corruption.


Halo Visual Progression
Rank 1: No corruption visible. "Former nun gone rogue."
Rank 2: Dark thorn-like halo visible only to other cult members.
Rank 3: Full halo visible to magic-aware or those who sense evil.
Rank 4: Halo visible to everyone; form varies per viewer.
Rank 5: Halo's shape becomes fixed; same perception by all.
Face Bloom
Corruption causes internal plant growth -> face blooms open.
Masked with gauze/bandages.masks until Rank 4.
Rank 5: Full bloom, face gone, only jaw & glowing seed visible.
Power Acquisition & Ritual System
Core Ritual
Sacrifice children in a sacred bog ritual. (One of many ways, the method used by this cult sect)
Always involves 3 cultists (ritualist, sacrificer, binder).Performed in nature and in water: pond, bog, remote forest.Ritual Effects
Gain simple corruption and chance to change your alignment.
Rare chance on first ritual: pure insanity rejection from the Else.
Opens teleportation/portal to a distant corrupted nature planet.
Verdant Else (common name), The Call of the Green (colloquial), Virellith (Ancient Name)

Items



Halo


Halo Visual ProgressionRank 1: No corruption visible. "Former nun gone rogue."Rank 2: Dark thorn-like halo visible only to other cult members.Rank 3: Full halo visible to magic-aware or those who sense evil.Rank 4: Halo visible to everyone; form varies per viewer.Rank 5: Halo's shape becomes fixed; same perception by all.


RankEffectLevel
1No corruption visible. "Former nun gone rogue."2-6