By The Intrepid in Folktales — 15 May 2025

Obojima: Songs from the Tall Grass

A Field-Recording Folktale of Memory, Melody, and Meanings Nearly Forgotten

Welcome to the Archive

This is not a game of conquest. This is not a game of mastery.

The spirits of Obojima do not obey. Their songs may linger or fade. You are not here to fix the world. You are here to listen, to witness, to carry what others forgot.

Some sounds will elude you. Some memories will refuse the page. That’s alright.

Breaking is inevitable. Mending is a choice. Carrying is the work.

What Is This Folktale?

Songs from the Tall Grass is a system-neutral RPG campaign set in the magical island of Obojima, inspired by Obojima: Tales From The Tall Grass. You play as a folkloric field team led by Professor Eniha Clefwater, an AHA scholar tasked with recording the island’s songs—spiritual containers of history, emotion, and spirit. This is a story of attunement, not acquisition, where archiving becomes haunting, and curation carries consequence.

How to Tell This Folktale

For Game Masters (GMs): Use the structure to guide a 3–5 session campaign.
For Players: Immerse in the roles and reflect on the songs you carry. Avoid blue sections to preserve mystery.
System-Agnostic: Focus on roleplay, not stats. Use journaling, tokens, or dice as needed. Compatible with Wanderhome, Ryuutama, or The Quiet Year.

How to Play This Campaign

Songs from the Tall Grass is designed for 3–6 players, including a Game Master (GM) or an LLM facilitator like Grok to guide the story. Play unfolds over 3–5 sessions, each lasting 2–3 hours. You’ll need:

A journal or blank paper for Field Reflections.
Tokens (beads, stones, or coins) to track Clinging Echoes or Spirit Consent.
Optional: Audio prompts (soft music, ambient sounds) to evoke Obojima’s spirit ecology. The GM or LLM shapes the narrative, while players respond through roleplay, reflection, and ethical choices. No dice are required, but you may use a d6 for Clinging Echoes or Corruption if desired.

The Folkloric Field Team

Professor Eniha Clefwater

Affiliation: AHA (Guild of Archaeologists, Historians, and Archivists), Field Harmonics Archivist of Ring 4, Echo Division.
Appearance: Wears a weathered felt hat with spirit wards sewn into the brim. Carries Marcy, a First Age reel-to-reel recorder etched with her name. Shoes patched with songbird feathers.
Manner: Curious, unhurried, listens longer than she speaks. Treats lullabies with the reverence of ancient runes.
Quirk: Believes every melody has a twin spirit. Hums softly before playing a recording, so no sound travels alone.

Player Roles

Choose one role for your character, an assistant to Professor Clefwater:

Sound Tender
Maintains Marcy and negotiates with microphone-averse spirits. Coaxes tech and calms restless spirits with patience and ingenuity.
Prompt: How do you soothe a spirit who fears being heard?
Transcriber
Keeps an illustrated songbook, capturing lyrics and emotional context. Notices patterns in melodies others miss.
Prompt: What detail in this song feels like it’s speaking only to you?
Guide
Knows village customs and spirit taboos (e.g., never whistle near Windtrickle Shrine). Keeps the team grounded in Obojima’s ways.
Prompt: What local story warns you about this place?
Interlocutor
Coaxes stories from shy farmers, retired potion-bards, or haunted objects. A master of empathy and gentle questions.
Prompt: What truth did you hear in their silence?

Team Goal

Travel Obojima to record folk songs and sonic rituals, preserving their spiritual resonance for the AHA. But beware: some songs cling, some refuse, and some carry secrets that unravel the archive itself.

Campaign Structure

Overview

The campaign unfolds in three acts across 3–5 sessions, each tied to a unique locale and song. Players navigate ethical dilemmas, spirit consent, and the growing presence of Corruption in their recordings.

Act I: The Record Begins

Tone: Cozy, curious, hopeful.
Goal: Explore Obojima, record initial songs, and encounter spirits.
Key Events:
- Meet Marcy, the semi-enchanted recorder that captures emotional resonance.
- A recording corrupts, creating disharmony (e.g., a yodel warps into a wail).
- A player experiences a Clinging Echo—hearing a song they didn’t record.

Act II: Echoes That Refuse

Tone: Disruptive, surreal, elegiac.
Goal: Confront songs that resist containment and AHA’s curatorial tensions.
Key Events:
- A song replaces a player’s childhood memory.
- A spirit demands, “You carry what was meant to be forgotten.”
- A rival AHA documentarian edits songs for profit, angering spirits.

Act III: The Archive Binds

Tone: Mythic, reflective, bittersweet.
Goal: Decide the archive’s fate—submit, disperse, or release it.
Key Events:
- Present recordings at Echo Hill’s moonrise gathering.
- Marcy hums an unauthorized recording, threatening to overwrite all others.
- A spirit demands their song be unremembered.

Final Outcome

At Echo Hill, each player chooses one recording to play, silence, or set free. The team receives a reel of echo-twine, playable once per season to recall a nearly lost sound.

Locales and Songs

Locale 1: Crookbend Village

Description: A pastoral village in the Gale Fields where herding yodels guide goats in precise choreography. The song’s third verse is lost, causing goats to stray.
Song: Goat-Caller’s Yodel (Common, tied to Hearth spirits).
Challenge: A Hearth spirit refuses recording until the lost verse is restored. Players must interview villagers or coax Mint Blossom (the truck) for memories.
Spirit Consent: Offer a gift (e.g., Lover’s Vine) to the Hearth spirit.
Corruption Sign: The yodel warps into a mournful drone if not restored.

Locale 2: Stilltrack Station

Description: A defunct railway depot in the Coastal Highlands, haunted by a wind-powered calliope’s lullabies. Ghostly feedback loops trap spirits.
Song: Calliope’s Lullaby (Uncommon, tied to Echo spirits).
Challenge: Free trapped spirits by completing the lullaby’s melody. Requires a Vocal Prism or a player’s improvised harmony.
Spirit Consent: Sing the lullaby in the Spirit Realm to gain trust.
Corruption Sign: Recordings loop backward, erasing other sounds.

Locale 3: Mangrove Bells of Southlight Cove

Description: A coastal cove in the Shallows where coral-root bells ring when promises are made. Each bell holds a vow’s memory.
Song: Bell-Promise Chime (Rare, tied to Breeze spirits).
Challenge: Record the chime by making and keeping a small vow (e.g., return a seashell to the sea). Breaking the vow silences the bells.
Spirit Consent: Speak the vow aloud in Torum.
Corruption Sign: Bells ring discordantly, summoning a demon.

Optional Locale: Rambledeep Swamp

Description: A murky swamp where mudcroon spirits sing dirges that erase names. A lost melody could restore a forgotten elder spirit.
Song: Mudcroon’s Dirge (Rare, tied to Memory spirits).
Challenge: Reconstruct the dirge from fragments in the Spirit Realm. Requires Echo-Ward Chalk to mark safe paths.
Spirit Consent: Offer a memory (e.g., a childhood song) to the mudcroons.
Corruption Sign: The dirge silences Marcy, risking total archive loss.

Narrative Tools

Clinging Echo Tracker

Purpose: Tracks haunting song fragments that linger with players.
Mechanics: After each song, roll a d6 (or GM decides). On a 5–6, mark an echo. At three echoes, the player experiences manifestations (e.g., humming involuntarily, seeing spirits).
Narrative Use: Reflect on how the echo changes the player’s behavior or memory.

Field Reflection Sheets

Purpose: Players journal emotional or symbolic responses to each song.
Prompts:
- How did this song make you feel?
- What memory did it stir?
- What does it change in you?
Narrative Use: Share reflections at Echo Hill to deepen the final gathering.

Living Archive Sheet

Purpose: A shared artifact documenting the campaign’s songs, evolving with each session.
Structure:
- Song Title | Locale | Spirit Type | Emotional Resonance | Status (Kept, Lost, Freed)
- Blank spaces for songs never heard.
Narrative Use: Read aloud, burn, or transform at campaign’s end.

Corruption Clock

Purpose: Tracks audio degradation tied to Corruption.
Mechanics: After each locale, roll a d6. On a 1, advance the clock (0–4). At 4, a song is lost, and a spirit may turn demonic.
Signs: Warped tapes, reversed harmonics, silent gaps.

Purpose: Ensures respectful recording through roleplay.
Steps:
1. Offer a gift or ritual (e.g., sing in Torum, offer an ingredient).
2. Ask permission via dialogue or empathy.
3. Accept refusal—some songs stay unrecorded.
Narrative Use: Builds trust or tension with spirits.

Sample Field Reflections

To inspire your journaling, here are reflections from a fictional field team:

Yuki, Transcriber, on Goat-Caller’s Yodel: “The yodel felt like my grandmother’s voice, sharp and warm, calling me home from the fields. I wrote the third verse in green ink, but my hands shook—why does it feel like I’m stealing something?”
Rin, Interlocutor, on Calliope’s Lullaby: “The lullaby made me think of my brother, who stopped singing after the war. I heard his voice in the calliope’s hum, and I wept. What if this song isn’t mine to keep?”
Taro, Sound Tender, on Bell-Promise Chime: “I vowed to return the seashell, but I wanted to keep it. The bells rang softer after. I feel heavier, like I’m carrying someone else’s promise now.”

GM-Only Secrets

The Silence in the Archive

Secret: The growing silence in Marcy’s recordings is caused by an elder spirit, Hiji-sama, who believes the AHA’s archiving risks erasing Obojima’s living memory.
Impact: Hiji-sama’s interference warps recordings, replacing them with fragments of a First Age song that could free or destroy her.
Resolution: Players must choose to:
- Play Hiji-sama’s song, risking her release (and potential chaos).
- Silence it, preserving the AHA’s archive but angering spirits.
- Sing a new song, merging their voices with Obojima’s spirit ecology.

Rival Documentarian

Secret: Kael Vellum, an AHA rival, edits songs for profit, selling them as potions. His actions accelerate Corruption.
Impact: Kael’s presence in Act II creates conflict, as spirits blame the players for his theft.
Resolution: Confront Kael at Stilltrack Station. Options include exposing him to the AHA, redeeming him through a shared song, or letting him flee.

Marcy’s Awakening

Secret: Marcy is becoming sentient, speaking in fragments of past recordings. It holds a memory of the First Age’s fall.
Impact: In Act III, Marcy attempts to overwrite the archive with a forbidden song, forcing players to decide its fate.
Resolution: Negotiate with Marcy as a spirit, using Spirit Consent Mechanics, or destroy it to save the archive.

Magical Items

Marcy, the Enchanted Recorder

Rarity: Very Rare (reskinned from Enchanted Recorder Box).
Description: A First Age reel-to-reel recorder that captures emotional resonance alongside sound. Attracts spirits when played.
Mechanics: Stores up to 10 songs. Roll a d6 after each recording: on a 1, a Clinging Echo manifests. May speak in Act III (GM’s discretion).
Narrative Use: A character’s emotional state affects Marcy’s clarity.

Spirit Tokens

Rarity: Uncommon.
Description: Small charms tuned to Hearth, Echo, or Breeze spirits. Amplify songs for recording.
Mechanics: Grant advantage on Spirit Consent checks (if using dice).
Narrative Use: Spirits may demand a token as a gift.

Harmonic Compass

Rarity: Rare.
Description: Points to the nearest unrecorded song within 1 mile.
Mechanics: Once per day, reveals a song’s locale but not its nature.
Narrative Use: Leads to unexpected encounters (e.g., a silent bell).

Echo-Ward Chalk

Rarity: Common.
Description: Marks safe paths in the Spirit Realm or repels minor spirits.
Mechanics: Creates a 10-foot ward for 1 hour, once per day.
Narrative Use: Protects against Corruption’s audio glitches.

Vocal Prism

Rarity: Uncommon.
Description: Splits a song into harmonic layers, revealing hidden meanings.
Mechanics: Once per song, reveals a spirit’s intent or a song’s history.
Narrative Use: Essential for completing Calliope’s Lullaby.

Design Philosophy

Witnessing Over Collection

Fleeting Songs: Some melodies vanish after being heard. Recordings may degrade without spirit consent.
Consent & Relationship: Spirits offer songs through trust, not capture. Documentation is intimacy, not conquest.
Reflections, Not Checklists: Players record emotional responses, not trophies. The archive is a living story.
Intentional Absence: Blank pages in the Living Archive Sheet honor songs lost or refused.

Haunting as Memory

The Archive Is Not Neutral: Who decides what is kept? Players face AHA’s curatorial biases.
Sounds Choose You: Songs may cling, alter memories, or summon spirits unbidden.
Gatekeeping & Dissonance: The AHA may sanitize what should remain wild. Players navigate this tension.
Living Tapes: Marcy speaks in fragments, forming warnings or spells. It’s a character, not a tool.

Integration with Obojima

AHA Structure: Ties to the canon guild, with Professor Clefwater as a mid-tier scholar.
Spirit Ecology: Songs are spiritual agreements. Some spirits manifest only when sung to.
Corruption: Silence and distortion signal Corruption, risking demonic transformation.
Regions: Locales draw from Gale Fields, Coastal Highlands, and the Shallows.
First Age Tech: Marcy and cassettes reflect Obojima’s tech-magic blend.

Sample Session Flow

Session 1: Crookbend Village

Setup: The team arrives to record the Goat-Caller’s Yodel. Goats are straying without the third verse.
Roleplay: Interview villagers, barter with Mint Blossom for memories.
Challenge: Offer Lover’s Vine to the Hearth spirit. Roll for a Clinging Echo.
Reflection: Journal how the yodel stirs a personal memory.

Session 2: Stilltrack Station

Setup: Investigate the haunted calliope. Kael Vellum appears, editing songs.
Roleplay: Use the Vocal Prism to complete Calliope’s Lullaby. Confront Kael.
Challenge: Sing in the Spirit Realm to free trapped spirits. Advance Corruption Clock.
Reflection: Note how the lullaby changes the team’s trust in the AHA.

Session 3: Mangrove Bells

Setup: Record the Bell-Promise Chime by making vows.
Roleplay: Speak vows in Torum. Face a Breeze spirit’s test of sincerity.
Challenge: Keep the vow or face demonic bells. Roll for Marcy’s awakening.
Reflection: Write about the weight of promises kept or broken.

Session 4: Echo Hill

Setup: Present the archive at the moonrise gathering. Hiji-sama’s song emerges.
Roleplay: Debate Marcy’s fate and the archive’s purpose.
Challenge: Choose to play, silence, or sing a new song. Resolve Hiji-sama’s interference.
Reflection: Share the Living Archive Sheet. Receive the echo-twine.

Closing Ritual: The Echo-Twine’s Song

At Echo Hill, after presenting the archive, gather for a final ritual to honor the songs and spirits. Choose one:

Weave a Shared Poem: Each player contributes a line from their Field Reflections, forming a collective verse. Speak it aloud or burn it to release the words.
Choose the Archive’s Fate: Decide as a group to submit the archive to the AHA, disperse it among Obojima’s spirits, or let one song go unspoken, unrecorded.
Sing the Echo-Twine: Play the echo-twine reel, letting its sound fade into silence. Each player names one thing they carry forward—a melody, a memory, a vow. This ritual is not a victory. It is a fading, a carrying, a choice to let some songs rest.

Lantern Note: A Listener, Not a Master

Songs from the Tall Grass can be guided by a human GM or an LLM like Grok, not as a replacement but as a mirror—a co-listener weaving Obojima’s threads. An LLM doesn’t own the story; it holds space for your voices, your silences, your choices. It’s a spirit of the archive, humming alongside you.

This is not a machine to erase you. It’s a tool to witness what you carry.