Bard songs

[Darth Credence]

I have my characters about to start a new quest that will involve a different group of adventurers, one of which is a bard. I am attempting to create some songs for this bard to sing that will also give a bit of information to the characters about the world in general. (I did a song before for one character's background, and everyone enjoyed it, so I'm hoping they will enjoy this).

Spoiler: The Grue

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Link to stat block, as I failed at trying to place it here.

Spoiler: The Song

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Duncan was an iron miner,
Had been all his life,
He dug into the dirt all day
To satisfy his wife.
He’d break his back with pick and axe
To bring ore up from the mine,
And go back home with paltry pay
To listen to her whine.
One day while he was digging,
He thought he struck it rich,
He found a seam of golden ore
That could satisfy…her itch
He kept on digging in the mine,
Alone without a crew,
Now she owns the mine alone,
He was eaten by a grue!

Hey! Don’t go alone into the night,
Stay out of dark holes, too.
‘Cause if you leave behind the light,
You’re likely to be eaten by a grue!

Sasha was a roving spirit
That settled in St. Ives.
She was friends to all the men in town,
Though not so much their wives.
Her fiery hair was known
By every woman in the town.
And drew from them a frozen stare,
A sidelong glance, or frown.
She took to walking late at night
When most had gone to bed.
The women warned her to take care
Or she’d lose her pretty head.
The ladies of the town did say,
When it turned out to be true.
‘If you wander in the dark alone,
You’ll be eaten by a grue.’

Be careful where you go at night,
And who goes there with you.
For if you stray far from the light,
You’re likely to be eaten by a grue!

The kid who roamed the street at night,
Stolen goods he did accrue.
But he stayed too late to make it home,
And was eaten by a grue!
The taxman went from town to town
The bills, he said, were due.
But he never made his way back home,
He was eaten by a grue!
So listen to my words dear friends,
Don’t let it next be you.
Stay in the light, both day and night,
Or else you will be eaten by a grue!

If anyone has any critiques on the song, like how to improve the meter or rhyme scheme, please let me know. Or critiques on the grue, for that matter (and yes, it is based on Zork.)

Or if anyone has written their own songs for gaming purposes and would like to share, I'd love to see them!

[Lord Torath]

Sasha was a roving spirit
That settled in St. Ives.
She was friends to all the men in town,
Though not so much their wives.

She was friends with all the men -
Not so much to their wives

Regarding the appearance of a grue, what would my mage - who has bat-style echolocation - 'see' when 'looking' at a grue? There are more senses than just vision, after all, many of which are not blocked by magical darkness.

Also, not being super familiar with the rule set you're using, can Detect Invisibilty/See Invisible reveal a grue?

[Darth Credence]

She was friends with all the men -
Not so much to their wives

Regarding the appearance of a grue, what would my mage - who has bat-style echolocation - 'see' when 'looking' at a grue? There are more senses than just vision, after all, many of which are not blocked by magical darkness.

Also, not being super familiar with the rule set you're using, can Detect Invisibilty/See Invisible reveal a grue?

Good questions that I hadn't thought of, and I need to have an answer for. For echolocation, I would consider it the same as blindsight, and treat it however blindsight usually perceives things. I've never really gotten deep into the descriptions when someone is using blindsight. If I'm running it, I'd probably say that it gives about the same amount of detail as an ultrasound, and the person examining it would get the same results as someone who felt it. See invisibility would not penetrate the darkness.
Truesight would show a creature that is covered in black fur, shaped like a chimpanzee, but with long fangs and sharp claws. I'll add a description like that to the stat block.

Thanks for having a look! And I'll have to try singing with your lyrics there to see if it flows better - can't do it where I'm at now, or my coworkers will start wondering what the heck is going on.

[Catullus64]

These are the songs of Gilgalion, my current PC, an Eladrin Bard/Rogue. Don't have a particularly good way to put musical notation in my posts, so you'll have to imagine the tunes for most of them. Imagine the more sentimental songs in a fine warbling tenor, but a baritone register for the more rough-and-tumble songs. They're meant to be accompanied by the harp.

For most of these, I've only written a few stanzas or verses, since a full-length song would be kind of obnoxious to listen to mid-session.

If you spot any of the songs or poems from which I borrow certain phrases or structures... keep it to yourself.

Spoiler

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Song from the Gardens of Ivalien, first heard when Gilgalion met his companions.

I'll wreathe thy lily forehead
with crown of sage and broom,
and from thy new-sprung flow'r bed
I'll pluck the fairest bloom.
For when I am a-flying
across the Shadowed Sea,
I fain to still be sighing
for the flower plucked from thee.

Spoiler

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Traditional Soldier's March, Requested by Gilgalion's companion, Sir Lucius Alani

Pick up your pack and gird your back, the wars are kindled bright,
And we poor bastards, ever faster marching to the fight!
The goblin lords shall hear our swords a-ringing in the dell;
we won't come back until we've sacked their glistening citadels!

Spoiler

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Lament for Gilgalion's companion Ulfgar, lost in the mines beneath the Icepoint Mountains. It scans better in Elvish.

Oh, carry my song, deep waters cold
to West Orchard fields, on Irinen shore
home of many stout folk and great horse-taming men,
tell them, then, that Ulfgar, whom they loved
will walk no more under West Orchard shade
will drink no more from Irinen waters;
he is gone beneath the northern hills.
Like ripples in the river's swift-flowing stream
are the lives of mortal men.
No sooner seen but swept away
and carried to the sea.

Spoiler

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Season of Remembrance

Orchards and vineyards and clear crystal waters,
Unfold themselves under my wide and hungry eyes,
Why then do I think on ancient transgressions,
And stars long since burnt from the skies?

Opals and turquoise and sweet-burning amber
my halls overflowing with silver and gold,
Why then do I long for nights upon the mountain,
in lands that are empty and cold?

Love's smiles beckon me, with open-armed promise
Gardens of ecstasy fan my spirit's lust,
why then do I dream of ships sunk in the ocean,
and towers crumbled into dust?

Spoiler

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Song of the Tandrior Corsairs, sung on the Meltflow River expedition.

Fall quick to your oars and say your prayers
to whatever god is listening,
For beyond this next horizon,
there's steel and silver glistening!
We're a merciless, motherless band
of ro-ving reavers,
Necks for the noose and heads for the cleaver!

But as long as we've swords in fist,
and stars in our sky,
We'll have our will and drink our fill,
and all get rich before we die!

Spoiler

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Laire, Composed in memory of a woman before entering the perilous ruins of Deepglow.

I wandered under green-roofed sky,
'Midst towers of oak and summer-elm
Half-blinded in the forest I,
for missing voices listening.
When from this deep and shaded realm
I met Lairë's piercing eye
Like starlight sparkling in the whelm,
and on the sea-shore glistening.

Her arm was white and silver shone,
Her raiment light, her breathing sweet,
And in her hair a wind was blown
like frost in winter shivering.
Enchantment healed my weary feet,
that stumbled over root and stone,
My heart took up a dancing beat
And set my blood to quivering.

I bade her tell me where I stood,
and guide me on my weary path,
for I was long lost in this wood
and feared my hope was perishing;
Lairë answered with a laugh,
and vanished she into the wood,
And left me in the aftermath
that laughter's echo cherishing.

And though I may be doom'ed still
o'er rocky hill and dale to climb,
Lairë's eye shall spark my will
and make my burden sorrowless.
For she shall echo in my rhyme
until my soul has drunk its fill
through mists of unencountered time,
until the night is morrowless.

If Gilgalion survives the strange wonders of Deepglow, and lives to sing about it, I'll post more songs.

[Darth Credence]

Very nice, Catullus! I particularly like the Soldier's March, as I pretty easily pick up the rhythm and cadence for singing it.