Quick facts
Race: Mind flayer (see Mind Flayers) · Home: A hidden abode beneath the Saline Coast · Status: Dead (killed by Sophie and Belle Pepper, C2 Session 66)
Merlin, from Disney’s The Sword in the Stone (1963).
The Whisper was a mind flayer who passed as a creepy old man in the Saline Coast Sewers. He spoke into Escher’s head, traded secrets with The FAM, and guided them through The Underdark before turning on them in North City.
Overview
The Whisper said he was the last of his kind. His people had been wiped out by the tyrant Frieza, the same tyrant responsible for destroying Ellery’s home planet, and he later accused Prince Vegeta of executing his race. He knew a great deal: secret identities, hidden tolls, the shape of the city’s conspiracies. He called himself a dear friend of Eldon Reed.
History
The voice (Sessions 21–23)
In Session 21, Escher received a telepathic message calling him “friend” and urging him to come forward. In Session 23, he admitted to the group that he had been hearing a voice, and that it belonged to the Whisper.
The deal (Sessions 25–28)
The party met him in the sewers in Session 25. He offered information on Tobias Blackwood’s conspiracy in exchange for help finding a powerful fate-changing artifact he believed was hidden in the Saline Coast. He proved his worth by naming Catman as Puss Wayne, confirmed that Blackwood was using Cedric Lightharbor as a puppet, and offered to someday help Nelda sever her bond with her cursed glaive. In Session 26, he contacted Escher to demand the artifact.
In Session 28, he told Ellery and Escher his story and offered to teach Ellery about her powers in exchange for her help against their common enemy, Frieza. She accepted.
Guide (Sessions 47–60)
The Whisper recommended Escher to the organization that hired him to kill a retired judge (Session 47). Ellery consulted him about getting to North City (Session 57), and after the deaths at the Valedriss estate the party found him at his hidden abode and said they were ready to go (Session 58). He led them into the Underdark, and showed Wilbur a plateau overlooking a glowing city of gnomes held against their will by their government, which the party later reached as Coghaven (Session 60).
Unmasked (Sessions 60–61)
At the Cackler Barrel in North City, the Whisper dropped his human illusion, revealing an imposing, purple-skinned mind flayer, and accused Vegeta of executing his race. Vegeta did not deny it. Bulma Briefs teleported everyone to a field outside the city before a brawl could start. There the Whisper demanded the party’s help in killing Vegeta, tried and failed to dominate Escher’s mind, and after taking a beating from Vegeta’s energy blasts, plane-shifted away.
Betrayal (Sessions 63–66)
In Session 63, he sent Nelda a psychic message saying he was deeply disappointed that she had gone back on their agreement, and took back his magical aid. The moans of the souls trapped in her glaive came flooding back.
In Session 64, he confronted Goku and Vegeta in North City’s warehouse district. He had kidnapped Goku’s son Gohan as leverage. He produced the crescent artifact Vegeta had given Ellery, which he had stolen from her bag, and shattered it in the sky with the command to “burst open and mix.” The light turned Ellery, Goku, Vegeta and Gohan into rampaging Ozaroo.
While the city fought the apes, he broke into Sophie’s quarters at CAGS and tried to get past the security dials of the Cacklers’ private collection. He nearly devoured Reese’s brain, which only Sophie’s protective ward prevented. Sophie trapped him in a wall of force, Belle Pepper counterspelled his escape, and the two of them cut him down with lightning and magic. He died on the floor, apologizing to someone named Quixiokotle (Session 66).
Legacy
The Whisper had gathered every one of the Star Orbs except the one Bulma had. The Cacklers opened his astral lockbox in Session 67 and found those six orbs, a ring of mind shielding, and a map tracking stars disappearing from the sky. With Bulma’s orb that made all seven, and after the Cell Games the Cacklers used them to wish back everyone Perfect Cell had killed and absorbed (C1.5 Chapter 03). In Session 72, the party learned that the old path he led them along had a toll, and that he had always known about it.
Relationships
- Escher: His first contact, whom he called “friend.”
- Ellery: Agreed to learn from him in exchange for helping against Frieza.
- Eldon Reed: His “dear friend.”
- Prince Vegeta: The Saiyan he blamed for his people’s execution.
Appears in
Session 21, Session 23, Session 25, Session 26, Session 28, Session 47, Session 57, Session 58, Session 59, Session 60, Session 61, Session 63, Session 64, Session 65, Session 66, Session 67, Session 72