The Siren's Songbook

Member created stories, poems, & other creative work.
Peter_Abelard
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The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

Amaratha turns at the sound of the door, her welcoming voice ready with her usual greeting.

"Good day and well met! Welcome to the Jade Jug. Are you interested in staying with us? You'll not find finer rooms in the whole of the city."

The woman she greets is shorter than herself, hooded, her head down hiding her features. She's wearing black leathers Amaratha doesn't recognize, streaked in places with dried mud. She smells like decaying leaves and fresh air. The woman gently closes the door and turns to stand before Amaratha, lowering her hood as she does.

"You don't recognize me. It hasn't been that long, Amaratha."

"Sarenna? Gods...where have you been? I came by that Trading Company when I got your letter, looking for you. I was worried. It's been more than a tenday. You might have said why you were cancelling your performances this moon."

"It's hard to explain. I don't think I could tell the whole of it even if I tried. I needed some time to think things through. At the least I know I can't keep performing what I had before. Not anymore."

"Does this have to do with your last song? With that man that waited outside for you and wouldn't come in?"

Sarenna sniffed and smiled slightly.

"You knew he was there? Of course you did. You don't miss much, do you?"

"I missed you. They have too." Amaratha lifted her hand to the patrons filling the main hall. Several of them were watching the pair of women with curiousity on their faces.

"What are you doing here, Sarenna?" She glanced over her worn leathers again. "Your letter said you would be away all moon."

"I've changed my mind. I want to talk to them."

"Dressed like this?"

Sarenna cackled softly. "It won't matter, Amaratha."

"They enjoy the costumes and dresses you wear, you know."

Sarenna wrinkled her nose slightly and looked at the crowd. "I'm sure they do. I'm not doing this for them, Amaratha. This is for me."

Amaratha studied her friend's features for a span of seconds, but said nothing in reply.

"Will you let me perform?"

"Of course! Of course. Whatever you need, Sarenna. I'm glad you came back."

Sarenna nodded and squeezed Amaratha's hand, and slowly walked to the podium.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

Sarenna leaned one arm against the podium, and addressed the crowd in her clear soprano voice.

"Good men and women."

She paused a long moment and sighed. Many of the patrons were drunk already. Several were whispering to each other, and eyeing her and her leathers with what looked like mockery. Maybe this was a mistake. That all too familiar image pushed its way into her mind again. Her standing naked in the centre of a grassy meadow, ringed with trees. The glint of sunlight off the nocked arrowheads, resting on bows waiting to loose at her from behind the cover of the trees. She took a deep breath and pressed on.

"I have stood here many times before, and spoke to you, sang to you, played to you. I've sang of elven joy and grace, and of the cruelty and deception that beauty can hide. I've sang of complacency, and thoughtlessness, and its dangers. I've entreated you to stay awake. I've sang of bravery, and boldness, and how necessary they are. More now than ever, as the very air we breathe crackles and freezes with hatred."

More eyes were turned to her now. The room was silent, between her words. The filled tankards sat patiently on tables, waiting for her to finish. Good. Perhaps they would gain something lasting from what she said. But she knew the truth now. What she spoke wasn't for them. It never was.

"I sang to you last of a question. Of a place each of us carries with us. A place of safety, and joy, and solitude. A place that makes us whole, and wholly ourselves. For ourselves. And whether we should risk sharing it with another."

Sarenna's eyes drifted to her friend, her attention rapt, seeking as she always did to understand Sarenna's pain. The sadness she saw, but never spoke of. It wouldn't matter if Sarenna told her everything that had ever happened to her, told her everything that she had done. There would always be a space between them.

Sarenna looked at the door. She pictured Kal waiting outside. She imagined his eyes closed, listening to her song through the magic of her spell. 'That was beautiful.' he had said. She had moved him, she knew. Changed him even, or opened him to change, at least. But no matter how ardently they reached for each other, could their fingers ever really touch?

In her mind, she felt a cold seep in. She saw the shadows descend through the ceiling and envelop them both, smothering them, destroying them. She pressed her eyelids shut against the image, and carried on.

"I have sang to you. But not for you. What art I have and share has been for me. I don't tell you now to insult you. I tell you because I have to. Because it's the truth. And because we'll never find the path if we mislead ourselves."

She watched them a moment. Many of them had dropped their eyes from her, retreating within. She recognized that. Some looked angry, staring hard at her, lashing out. She recognized that too. Some tankards were off their perches now, and headed toward the end, and the end of listening, and thought. Perhaps that was the most predictable response of all. Truth was jagged, and sharp, and its blade cut from deep inside. She knew that better than anyone.

"Music has its own power, and if mine has stirred you, and helped to awaken something in you that was cold and dead, then I am glad. I hope you will come and listen to my songs again. They will be songs for my journey. If they aid you in yours, then we will have served each other well by attending."

She drew her two swords from their scabbords and held them down and out from her. Kal's swords. So much of what united them, bound them together, had fused with this metal.

"This is Desire." She held the sword grip on her outstretched palm. "And this is Fate." The other. Stretched out, for all to see. Some looked, some chose not to. Some had stopped listening. It didn't matter. Their lives belonged to forces and weapons all their own. These were hers. It was the risking that mattered. The power it took to bend them to her will.

She lowered the swords, but gripped them tight as she sang.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
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Stormbringer
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Stormbringer »

:yeah: :wtg:
Current PC:
Former PC's
Saman Barb/Sorcerer
Kal Rogue/Ranger of Selune
Aiden Ketter Priest of Kelemvor
Kree (ubber not smart Barb)
Past PC: Jena Steel | Hamar Marrion (Marcus)and many other dead PC's
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

Sister Desire, Sister Fate

Hand to hand, these sisters two
They've claimed me as their own
The heat of one, the bite of one,
Have guided all I've known.

Our dance renewed, Desire leads,
And spins me round and round,
Unbalanced, falling, laughter calling,
'Reach and take what's found!'

Silent sister Fate steps in,
And moves the prize away
She scalds my skin, her sigil writ,
'You will wait another day.'

Life is a dance, I've heard it said
The Sister's Dance, I've known
But until I guide their hands in mine
My dance is not my own.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
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Mick
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Mick »

Nice! :D
Talk less. Listen more.

Current PCs: ?
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

The Temple of Luck Concerts: The Hope Rises Tour

She was on her familiar perch, back resting against the slender top of the tree trunk, her hands at rest on her favourite bough, the bark worn smooth from many nights spent just like this one. The wind down from the foothills was lighter tonight, and all around her the treetops swayed gently in time with her own, lulling her with their dance. She was counting points of light in Selune’s Tears when it landed at the end of her bough. A small bird, sparrow sized, but with long tendrils of bright orange feathers at its tail that flitted about in the breeze. It hopped once to turn to face her, its head jerking swiftly left and right to study this unexpected shadow atop the tree. Siren smiled but kept still, and spoke softly in elven.

“Warm winds and welcome, Feybird. I have not seen any like you before.”

The bird hopped forward another step, and warbled a breathtaking flood of notes, arpeggios one after another that filled Siren’s mind with thoughts of summer sunlight dancing on the surface of forest ponds, of the sound of the sea crashing the Sword Coast, of flocks of birds circling and diving, their wingbeats percussing a music all their own. It was overwhelming, and beautiful.

“Feybird,” She breathed out softly, “H..how did you fill my mind like…”

From the forest floor, she heard the snap of a twig. Too late, she thought. The feybird had heard it too, and in a single beat of wings lifted from the bough and vanished. Siren was already reaching for her bow and into her quiver, in one fluid movement turning to sight her prey and nocking an arrow. Four darker shadows standing near the base of her tree. She saw their eyes by Selune’s light as they looked up searching for her. She loosed her arrow, and quickly nocked a second. The first man already falling, the arrow lodged in his gurgling throat, she sent a second hurtling down. The other two had placed their hands on her tree, and were chanting.
“Too late”, she had time to think, “Not ready.” With an icy shot of fear down her spine, she felt her tree vanish into motes of dust blowing in the wind, and she was falling, mouth open, too afraid to scream.

***

She awoke with a start, jumping to her feet. The child sitting on the pew beside her screamed as she did, and called out for her mother.
“Mama…that man scared meee..” The child’s mother glared at her, holding her child close, comforting her. Even in her waking confusion, Sarenna wondered that was like, to be that child.
“Man…” She spoke quietly, but her voice rumbled out in a low growl. She looked down at her hands, her half-orc hands, and remembered. She rumbled a word of apology to the mother and walked out the front doors of the Temple of Luck to see what sort of crowd was gathering for her performance.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
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Wynna
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Wynna »

This is really good. Thank you so much for sharing.
Enjoy the game
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Stormbringer
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Stormbringer »

Awesome PA :wtg:
Current PC:
Former PC's
Saman Barb/Sorcerer
Kal Rogue/Ranger of Selune
Aiden Ketter Priest of Kelemvor
Kree (ubber not smart Barb)
Past PC: Jena Steel | Hamar Marrion (Marcus)and many other dead PC's
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

At the Inn of the Dripping Dagger

Peace between the pieces, Sarenna mused to herself, as the last few hands clapped out their thanks, and the music of scraping chairs, clinking tankards, and murmuring voices flowed in to fill the forbidden silence. Performing in a raucous tavern had about as many moments for reflection as battle did. She was glad to be lost in the graceful frenzy of it, honestly. She could do with a little less time to think.

Filiare’s rowdy room had been a joyous place tonight. Waterdhavians the city over were happily buzzing about like bees at the prospect of this hellish winter finally ending, and were eager as ever to share a little warmth. Add a little music and ale, and they were generous to a fault. Not long ago some of these same faces had shouted angry curses at her, as she stood in the Company doorway, oh so ready to flail their impotent rage at whomever fell into their view. They’re emptying their purses and their guilt, she thought, as she looked at her Performer’s Cradle filling with gold Dragons.

The death of Kringus meant the shroud of fear and hate laying over the city could melt away, flow away into the sewers with the filthy snow that had heralded its coming. This was a time of renewal and hope for many across the City of returning Splendour. But not for all. Not for those who had surrendered everything, for the chance to kill Kringus.

She set her woodland revel mask down, and tuned her lute. Kal will be sleeping now, she thought. At least she hope he would be. He was as much of a ruin as she was, since they’d returned from their Crossing. Worse, even. The demon had died, but not before it had unleashed the demons within them. They’d spent almost every hour this tenday trying to find their way forward; comforting each other, planning for what was to come, arguing. Mostly arguing. Howling at each other like their own demon horde had taken possession of their voices. Maybe they had.

Expectant faces across the tavern floor had turned to her now, waiting, smiling. Hoping for some of her now famous meadowlark songs maybe, to fill their hearts with sylvan dreams of swaying branches, gurgling streams. In her mind the swinging branch meant Kringus’ strike across her back, and the gurgling sound of streams were no streams at all. She knew what it meant to be a performer; how they expected the beautiful lie, for her life with all its pain to vanish and shimmer instead into a pure and moving moment…a flash of beauty and song that would live on in their memory.

They wanted a beacon.

She couldn’t bring herself to be the meadowlark, but maybe they would accept the gift she had sung for Kal. He had sworn those words to her so many times through this awful winter. You know I won’t lie. You are my beacon, my light. I wish you could see yourself as I do. Gods she hoped that could be true. Please let him be right.

She strummed a chord on her lute, and the hairs on every head within an ogre’s reach started to rise with the energy of it.

“This is a new song, I sang for someone very special to me,” she said. “It’s called Night’s Tears.”

Night’s Tears

Troubled days are many
Burdens will renew
Before you’re free of any
Seek the truth in view

Turn east to seek the truth now
The sun that brought your trial
The pain you now do rue on
It rises but a while

Look east to see the truth now
And fill your heart anew
Selune’s Grace is rising
Her light is meant for you

Your need she is assaying
Her Tears will comfort you
Hers and mine, for you, now
Hers and mine for you
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

A Prayer in the Glade

Kneeling by the ancient monolith in the Glade of the Dusk Circle, Sarenna and Kal pray to their two goddesses, Selune and Tymora, Sarenna’s ethereal soprano filling the glade as she sings:

The night is cold, and knows my name
It whispers in the dark
It seeks to chill the blood in me
And take away my spark

But even in my fear, I know
The stars are shining still
Amidst the black there's pow'r in tears
And in them I find my will

Keep my love, and save my heart
Our Ladies two, I pray
Protect the tale you know is true
And love us till its day

And love us till its day
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

Sarenna slides into her chair in her usual place at the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, her Stratus Caster set upon her crossed legs. The attention of Filiare's patrons is even more rapt than normal this night, at the sight of Sarenna's more willowy appearance, and the softly shifting wings of her avariel form nestled behind her.

"This is a song I wrote recently", she says in a hushed voice, "after a magical flight I made in the hills north of Rassalantar."

A Breath Above My Need

Last evening as the sun set,
I pressed up and left the ground
I broke free of all the leaden chains
That I had carried round

The weight of all the heartbreak
The ache of my defeat
I rose above on feathered wings
A breath above my need

Joy pulled the air within me
And gave it to the breeze
The Siren that I had been
Lay far below my feet

No longing for what had been
To bind the borne and free
I flew with larks to guide me
A breath above my need

Larks on the wing are singers
And these ones sang to me
They sang for me to join them
The chorus of the free

The song of the unburdened
of Summer eternally
A note above my octave
A breath beyond my means

I left them headed westward
Circled low their melody
Felt the ache of tired wingtips
Felt the dewgrass on my feet

I found my love on Beacon's Hill
Dusk's kisses soft my cheek
Stained with salt of tears I shed
For the breath above my need.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

The Night’s Wisdom

Innocents that fear the night
They fear the darkest part
Horrors fell must flee the light
For Midnight’s blackest heart

But I’ve beheld the demon’s might
And seen the wicked’s Art
Dusk’s mingling of the dark and light
Marks woe and sorrow’s start

The Wheel holds all, the wrong and right
And moves in every heart
When your turn comes in fading light
You’ll truly know your part.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

Stones

All those in the Life now
Bear the weight of the stones
There are stones that you borrow
And stones that you own

From the womb of our mothers
To the slab for our bones
We carry the weight now
The burden’s our own

Stones of remembrance
Stones to atone
Stone measure of muscle
And sinew and bone

Stones that we build on
Stones that are thrown
Stones to make fences
And walls of our own

All those in the Life now
Bear the weight of the stones
There are stones that you borrow
And stones that you own

From the womb of our mothers
To the slab for our bones
We carry the weight now
The burden’s our own

Stones that we pray by
Stones that we hone
Stones of betrothal
Of love that is grown

Stones that we polish
Stones that have shown
Reflections of grieving
When we’re all alone

All those in the Life now
Bear the weight of the stones
There are stones that you borrow
And stones that you own

From the womb of our mothers
To the slab for our bones
We carry the weight now
The burden’s our own

Stones cast in anger
Stones we have sown
In fields ripe with fury
With bitterness grown

Stones writ with oaths now
Stones raised and prone
Stones of our longing
That vengeance is done

All those in the Life now
Bear the weight of the stones
There are stones that you borrow
And stones that you own

From the womb of our mothers
To the slab for our bones
We carry the weight now
The burden’s our own
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

It was claimed that redcaps arose from the very earth, and were born from bloodlust itself. At a site in the Feywild or where that plane touched the Material Plane at a fey crossing, where a sentient creature had acted on a powerful need for bloodshed and killed another, the redcaps would appear where the blood watered the soil. The newborn resembled a small blood-stained mushroom with a red cap, just emerging from the dirt. When bathed in moonlight, it leapt from the ground, fully formed, armed, dressed with a bloody red cap, and already blood-crazed.
-The annals of Wikia the Mad

Redcap Hymn

Vengeance, wrath, jealousy, greed
Fanning within a murderous need

Take hold the hammer, grip fast the blade
Strike with the fury that hatred has made

Blood drawn from the spurned, blood spilled from the foes
Blood dripping from jugular, from veins does it flow

Red runs upon faces, pierced hearts, smashed bones
Moved by the rhythm of life’s final moans

O! The sweet music, of carnage unbound
Of Redcap baptism, as blood touches ground.

Poor human, so fragile, cry pity, know fear!
Your evil unending, Your misery lending
The Redcaps now here.
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
Peter_Abelard
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Re: The Siren's Songbook

Post by Peter_Abelard »

What The Devil Knows

The edge of the blade
The furious shout

The line in the sand
The truth that comes out

Conspicuous valor
The quietest greed

The shame of a longing
The blindness of need


The light that's within us
That defies the black

Draws eyes from the darkness
Eyes that peer back

Rise to the holy
Fight for the true

Love till you're breathless
Inspire anew

Run from your darkness
Claim that you're through

But you've known the devil
And the devil knows you
Character arcs are sharp, pointy little things. A little blood may spill!

Now Playing: Luva Si'nede, Olivus Angustian
Past Characters: Valyar Floshin, Sarenna Irithyl, Millicent Riverstone, Dev Revels, Catarina Helms, Fenris Estelmer, Arryn Temple, Penrose Hawke, Kara Ravensfell, Arana Belecthor
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