Ravenloft: Prisoners of the Mist

Within the swirling Mist (IC) => Biographies => Topic started by: PlatointheCave on November 07, 2020, 09:26:13 PM

Title: The Conqueror's Songbook - Cantia Eviis
Post by: PlatointheCave on November 07, 2020, 09:26:13 PM
In a dog eared book of coded notes, a song is written. There is a jaunty musical score recorded alongside the song meant for a lute or violin.

Quote
Nothing Else to Be


Deep in the witchwood, where the free spirits play,

There came a Hunter searching for fresh prey.

The moon on his shoulders and fire in his eyes,

He howled and the witchwood was still.


You are hunter or prey.

By the night or the day.

There's nothing else to be!

Be prey or be free.



From the wood came a champion,

Wine soaked and deceitful!

"We make the world our prey, why don't you stay?"

The Hunter saw then the heart.

He vowed to play his part. Again he howled!


You are hunter or prey.

By the night or the day.

There's nothing else to be!

Be prey or be free.



Though he saw how others bowed,

He would not be cowed!

The heart sang its song and consumed the baying throngs.

But the Hunter saw the lie and so he did cry:


I am no slave to a tree.

I am hunter, not prey.

The heart burns this day.

For there are no chains on me.


I choose to be free.



I hope you won, hunter.

Farewell.

Title: Re: The Conqueror's Songbook - Cantia Eviis
Post by: PlatointheCave on November 08, 2020, 07:54:46 PM
There is a fast paced musical score recorded alongside the song meant for a lute or violin, as it draws to the end the pace slows, and the music grows somber.

Quote
Septimus' Crown


Deep in the dust amidst rust and decay,

Where all fear to go and only dead men stay.

Candles burn low, the wind is a whisper,

There's no light in this room, save alone on a throne.

One light, then two, the lord opens his eyes and cries:


INTERLOPERS!


No longer a gnome, now wreathed in shadow and bone!

The doors slam closed and he cackles:


NHEHEHEHEHE!

NHAHAHA!

You've come to my kingdom in search of riches!

There's some there in the corner, with other failed liches.

But listen well meat, take a seat!

I AM SEPTIMUS BLACKTALLOW!

Lord of all I survey, at least for today.

There's none better, you see,

Save the one that made me.


INTERLOPERS!


Put that bauble down, gather 'round!

I am master today and for me you shall play.

Focus if you can on my BRILLIANT plan.

I know it's hard for you to understand,

But my freedom is at hand!


INTERLOPERS!


My master comes now to an enormous disaster.

The cretin made me, but soon all shall see!

Lord Blacktallow does not bend the knee.

I will tear him apart and reclaim my own heart.


INTERLOPERS!


On this day I ascend, or find a glorious end.

Either way they will say: Septimus Blacktallow won that day!

Freedom or death, nothing else shall I claim.

It's time I put my maker to shame.


INTERLOPERS!


See how he burns! See how tides turn!

NHEHEHE!

NHAHA!

By earth and the stars!

By a gnome's burning heart!


Interlopers.


The battle is done.

I fear I have won.

It has cost all I am.

But this was the plan.


Inter-lopers...


This crown I have claimed.

From a master now shamed.

For a throne of bone...

My ashes drift through...


Alone.


He died on his feet. For himself, and no other.
Title: Re: The Conqueror's Songbook - Cantia Eviis
Post by: PlatointheCave on November 14, 2020, 08:17:36 PM
There is a jaunty sing-along tune written to accompany this song. A piano accompaniment has also been penned.

Quote
Xas Rivvil Rivvil


Half-creeptoks, rivvil and cornbluth, lend usstan your ear!

The common tongue is a xas and a half, so when I see a darthrithi stumbling into my lair. I say, hey!


Xas, rivvil, rivvil. Usstan creetok bella dos.


I got no time for the common tongue. No time for the drivel. There's flies to be caught, don't you understand rivvil?

So I say, hey!


Xas, rivvil, rivvil. Usstan creetok bella dos.


Deep in my chambers, I spit up my web. If a half-creeptock steps in one? Watch out. They're dead.

Some daafrithi stumbles in and this is what I say: hey!


Xas, rivvil, rivvil. Usstan creetok bella dos.



The House got me bent over a table. The coln bluths are bluthing and my slaves they are hooting. But some naus usstan creeptok has to get in my way!

So to them I say: hey!


Xas, rivvil, rivvil. Usstan creetok bella dos.


Got usstan nose in the bluithri. Vendui on my breath. Lolithri makes me bow to crawling spider thralls. But then creeptoks, they come creeping. To them I am speaking. Hey!


Xas, rivvil, rivvil. Usstan creetok bella dos.



Been a popular one.
Title: Re: The Conqueror's Songbook - Cantia Eviis
Post by: PlatointheCave on February 12, 2021, 06:36:39 PM
The string accompaniment to this song is complete with breaks for a call and reply.

Quote
The Burgomaster's Favour


Come one, come all, hear what I've been told:

The Burgomaster's favour is more valuable than gold!

No price is too high, I don't care how many die.

For there is one empty cup that I care to hold:

The Burgomaster's favour is more valuable than gold!

I'll give up all I own, I'll set fire to my home.

All alliances will be sold. For as you well know:

The Burgomaster's favour is more valuable than gold!

I will be Tigan no more; only a slave to the law.

My life I have sold, but this is the truth to be told:

The Burgomaster's favour is more valuable than gold!



Recorded for posterity.
Title: Re: The Conqueror's Songbook - Cantia Eviis
Post by: PlatointheCave on February 21, 2021, 08:49:10 PM
The ballad follows a bright and mocking tone.

Quote
The Old Wolf


Deep in the Wolfwood, where only the daring go,

I heard whisper of a great tree, that only our Grandfathers know!

Though the path was winding, though the wolves did gather,

I set forth on an adventure, to find the truth of the matter!



For there's only one place you can hear,

All that Grandfather Wolf holds dear!

There's only one place you can see,

What the wolves do when they're wild and free!

There's only one place I care to be,

In the boughs of Grandfather Tree!



Over rivers and under trees, the path wound through history,

Dead Hawks in empty castles, dark men burned in scores,

All the enemies of the wolf had fallen into their maws!

But through it all I did finally see,

The stately figure of Grandfather Tree!

High I did climb, into his mighty branches,

Surely, I thought, I would find here my answers!

What secrets does Grandfather Wolf know?

After all his grand hunts, where next does he plan to go?



For there's only one place you can hear,

All that Grandfather Wolf holds dear!

There's only one place you can see,

What the wolves do when they're wild and free!

There's only one place I care to be,

In the boughs of Grandfather Tree!



Night fell fast as I clung to the branches,

from my secret place I did listen as the wolves gathered with their master.

I heard a voice, sickly sweet, howl out from beneath:

"Hear me now, my moon kissed brothers; I am a wolf like no other!"

"I am the great hunter you know as Grandfather."

"Hear me now as I make my decree: it is time to be done with the forest and the trees!"

"I'm tired of the prowling, no more being free! There's a whole world of man and it's all I care to see."

"I'm tired of the hunt, my schemes and my tricks, I'd rather howl for the humans that gave me a crown!"

There was a silence there after, then it was filled with laughter,

The Grandfather, once respected, was roundly rejected!



For there's only one place you can hear,

An Old Wolf's shuddering despair!

There's only one place you can see,

The last gasps of a has been!

There's only one place I care to be;

In the boughs of Grandfather Tree!



Desperately curious I peered down from my perch,

Scores of wolves gathered below around a gilt throne!

There sat our Grandfather, bloated and alone.

Fur once so majestic had grown thin and mangy,

Tail all twisted and teeth terribly mangled.

Like a man he did sit, oh what a sight to see!

I could hardly believe it was a wolf before me.

No, the truth was clear, even though I was not near!

The Grandfather was wolf no more,

He had become a Grandfather Boar!



For there's only one place you can hear,

An Old Wolf's end come near!

There's only one place you can see,

The death of a fat wolf's dignity!

There's only one place I care to be,

In the boughs of Grandfather Tree!



To the circle then came an outsider,

Her pelt dark and sleek, her yellow eyes the Grandfather's did meet!

"You were once a great beast that called no man master, but your time is now gone and you seed nought but disaster."

"With ash on the winds and fires on the rise, it's time, once great beast, that you opened your eyes:"

"Fat and feeble you've grown, so I claim these woods for my own."

"Grandfather Boar you are wolf no more."

"Only my prey. Dead if you choose to stay!"



For there's only one place you can hear,

Grandfather Wolf's dying whimpers!

There's only one place you can see,

What becomes of those that stop living free!

There's only one place I care to be,

Under the boughs of Grandfather Tree!



The Old Wolf was furious. It'd be funny, I think, if he hadn't wiped out the town afterwards.

Shame that the winner didn't stick around.