Dance for your Life! 06/08
Sept 16, 2019 12:30:11 GMT
Ian (Menace), Igrainne (RETIRED), and 1 more like this
Post by Markas Virnala on Sept 16, 2019 12:30:11 GMT
"Soul Music"
16th Entry in the journal of Markas Virnala
Today was possibly the craziest day of my life.
I think it was proba
it was jus
It all began with a mee
I don't even know how to explain this, so I'll just recount it, step by step
A bunch of us gathered in the Town hall in Daring Heights about a job posting we had all seen, Ergin (from the games), Heret, Pieni and two new faces; Bliss, a female Teifling (seem to be a lot of Teiflings around lately?), and Zeenah, who was almost as flirty as Hoop can be!
We were talking to Aurellia about what she needed us to do when we suddenly started to hear this music playing from somewhere far away and then Aurellia started to dance to it! But she looked troubled and suddenly broke into song about how she didn’t want to dance? [1]. We sat and watched in confusion as she continued and started to do a little dance along with it before seeming to snap back to her senses, grabbing hold of the desk in front of here, her body still rhythmically moving from side to side…. It was about now we realised the rest of us had started to move to the music as well, that intoxicating tune that just seeped into us. Everyone had become infected by this tune as outside we could see everyone dancing in the streets and singing along to a song we've never heard before!
The music was unlike anything I've ever experienced! Sperren's music in the games was invigorating somehow but I could still control myself. This was different as every bit of myself just wanted to express myself: Dance, Sing, Jump and spin! That doesn’t sound right…. It was like wanting to, against my will, as if we had no choice!
As soon as we tried to do anything and ignore the music, things suddenly got very difficult. I tried to walk out after she asked us to look into the music and immediately fell on my face. After a couple more failed attempts, it quickly became apparent if we wanted to do anything we needed to be on time with the music so we started to dance and could at least move again but still needed to navigate our way around so….. We formed another Conga line!
Outside, EVERYONE was going through the same ordeal, dancing and singing through the streets but everyone looked terrified and the words they were singing where crying out that they didn’t want to be singing! It was awful…. But surprisingly really catchy!
As we congaed through the streets, we soon realised, much like in the Fey Wild, the conga line is an infectious dance as we soon had a long tail of people joining on behind us, right up until we turned down Butcher street, aptly named for the many butchers down there. They quickly broke off into their own line when we got there and turned back, the reason being the carnage that the music was playing on the street!
Bones and meat chunks seemed to be flying through the air. Ergin gave an inspiring speech as we went in and began trying to avoid being mangled by the flying meaty debris. Our line broke as the meat and bones almost seemed to veer in the air straight for us!
Bliss started to sing about moving your body in different ways and actually doing the moves along with it as she went [2]
I started performing Kata on time to the music, dodging and hitting things out of the way as I passed
Ergin had his shield and sword out and was signing about walking down butcher street [3], knocking hunks of meat out the air as he passed
Heret sang a calm and serene song, seeming to sense the chunks as they came and gracefully side stepping them
We eventually came out the other side of the street, miraculously unharmed and began looking for the which way the music was coming from, all the while still singing. [4/5]
As we stepped out though, a hooded figure stepped out in front of us, drawing knife, singing about how he's been waiting for us, but he soon stopped as from behind him a huge ripping sound comes from behind him as a tear in in the air just opens up! We could see through the hole all these shadows dancing and twisting as a bunch of skeletons climb out in a jittery kind of shuffle, quickly followed by a spectral woman floating behind them, she took one look at us a shrieks
The 8 skeletons struggled to stand as they tried to move out of time with the music and clattered around in a jittering dance as the ghostly woman seemed to be confused and was looking around at us all… The Bandit spun around to see the nightmare appearing behind him as Bliss charged forward and started hacking at a skeleton, Shouting Boom as she struck it [6]
The ghostly figure, in response to being here started to sing about the wounds on her body not healing [7] before unleashing another awful wail… then the next thing I knew, everything went black.
The next thing I remember was vaguely hearing Ergin crying out "another one bites the dust" [8] before what sounded like Pieni singing "I raise you up, so you can fight skeletons" [9]
Feeling some energy return to me and seeing Bliss, Heret and Zeenah all also struggling to their feet, I jumped up and charged in, hearing myself singing a song to a tune I've never heard before (I think it was "Here I go, Sword in hand, to cut down some skellies"?) [10]. As weird as it was, it actually seemed to be helping keep myself in time with the music around us and moving was easier so I decided not to fight it, especially as one of the skeletons crumbled to dust in front of me, just as a blast of energy flew past from Zeenah hitting the spectral thing at the back.
Some of the skeletons then began to lurch forward to me and Ergin while the Bandit finally came to his senses and made a run for it, as Bliss cries out that she's playing with Lightening [11], as a jolt of lightning flashes and drags the ghostly figure towards her where she takes a swipe at it before doing a strange walk away from it [12]. Heret climbed to his feet singing "I get knocked down, but I get up again"[13] before sliding across the street to the Banshee and running it through, killing the ghostly visage , disintegrating immediately!
Ergin charged into the remaining Skeletons claiming a 7 skeleton army couldn't hold him back [14], followed by Pieni singing about spooky skeletons [15] who both tearing into the remainder of the skeletons, while me (singing about my scimitar [16]) and Zeenah tackled the others. Finally, with one left, Bliss stepped forward and tells the skeleton to beg for mercy [17] as she finishes it off with her Rapier
With the wraith defeated, the rift shut and we were left in the deserted street, dancing to the pervading music, surround by bones and debris. A few of the others danced around the remains looking for loot before we pushed on, rounding another corner to see the Gilded Mirror, one of the Inns in Daring Heights set up by a Bard called Leocanto (apparently he used to be an adventurer as well). I've seen it before but this time there were beams of light shining up into the air, waving around, while a mass of dark energy swirling around the building and a strong blast of wind coming from inside with what sounded like two different songs playing against each other from within. As we tried to push closer, the winds just kept blowing us back until collectively we started to sing I, once again, have never heard before, about someone who killed someone else and was now on the run, like he was explaining it to his mother? [18]. In any case, as we started to sing, the waves of wind and energy from the building seemed to subside so we all leaned heavily into the feeling and finally reached the door, bursting into the Gilded Mirror, all crying out "MAMAAAAAAAA!".
---
The inside of the Mirror was a scene I think will stay with me forever. If I get the chance, I should really try to paint it… I'm sure Leocanto might be interested in having it…
The tables and chairs had been thrown to the sides of the room amid piles of litter, evidently blown away by the force that was keeping us out.
To the left, pinned up against the wall by the sheer force of the music blasting out from the stage was Leocanto, feet planted on the wall, leaning into the force holding him in place with grim determination on his face as he Furiously played a mandolin, faster than seemed possible in an intricate tune that countered the sound coming from the stage. He fingers bleeding, hands almost a blur, as we watched the Mandolin burst into fragments and without missing a beat, he tossed it to the side where it landed on a pile of already broken instruments, while with his other hand he pulled a flute out from… somewhere and began playing that with the same incredible speed.
To the right was the stage and Leo's opposition in this musical onslaught. Lit up like it was an elaborate show, a band seemed to dominate most of the stage, formed of a skeleton playing a drum kit using large bones as drum sticks, another skeleton playing a huge Mandolin it held upright in front of it, three more skeletons off to one side, swaying to the music and seeming to sing in a nightmarish accompaniment to the music while two Zombies were playing trumpets. But in the centre of the stage was a tall rotten looking thing… Half bone with flesh seeming to crawl over its body, almost like it was reforming into its old self. Dressed in a tight Crimson outfit with a high collared blue cape, holding a glittering golden Mandolin, singing into the head of it with a ferocious ability. On its head, a single thick stream of hair was starting to form like a huge Mohawk.
As we took in the scene, Leocanto spotted us and stops playing to quickly explain the being on the stage was the Necrodancer, someone he had betrayed but has come back. He had been holding him back but was so tired then suddenly collapsed to the floor, unconscious, leaving us to face off with the nightmarish performer.
Taking our cue, we turned and collectively stormed the stage, each still keeping in time with the intoxicating music. Bliss, Heret and I charge forward to attack. I didn’t catch what Bliss was saying but resulted in here pulling the Necrodancer closer to us in a flash of lightening. I could hear Heret asking them to turn around so he could slice it's face [19], while a song came to me… something along the lines of "get down to business to defeat dead things?" [20]. In retaliation, the Necrodancer loomed over us, intently staring us down while playing a crazy tune unbelievably fast, then suddenly the rhythm of the band changes and he looked to me... He started singing something and I immediately felt my limbs seize as I was paralysed again!
One of the songs he sang seemed to almost tire out a few of the others from what I could see, he didn’t seem intent on attacking us at this point more just responding to what we did. Luckily I wasn’t held in place too long as Zeenah ran forward, stopping between the Necrodancer and me singing "Let it go!" [21], blasting him with an eldritch Blast and freeing me again! AS I could move, I turned in time to see Ergin fire his crossbow at one of the band members and sing a line about sword proficiency [22] before changing into another tune, yelling for Leocanto to stand up [23]. The band seemed to pointing at Ergin and making fun of him but soon stopped when they saw the giant Snake Pieni had sung into life [24].
From behind the stage, a door burst open and a bunch of skeletons, followed by the huge skeleton of a minotaur shuffled out as the Necrodancer glides back to the stage, singing an ascending tune about owning the night [25] before blasting three fiery rays straight at Zeenah before, from nowhere there was a burst of smoke and he vanished from site. The band changed rhythm again playing a quiet tune. I could hear Bliss singing something very fast behind us but seeing no other option, Heret and I charged the hulking form of the Minotaur, unleashing a flurry of attacks [26] and broken off several bones. We were cut off by the giant snake Pieni summoned as it tried to constrict the minotaur [27} I glanced round to see there was actually a bunch of Heret & Bliss copies everywhere, Ergin charged the stage and starts attacking the drummer [28], leaving them in pretty bad shape, using one of its own limbs to continue playing, while Zeenah and Pieni where casting some sort of spell at the stage [29 - 30]. When I asked later they were trying to reveal the invisible Necrodancer but it didn't seem to work. Pieni seemed to vanish about now though?
A few moments later and smoke fills the room again and we hear bony feet stepping across the stage before a voice rings out "This has all been good, but why don't we take this down a little bit". The smoke billows out and in a flash the Necrodancer is back on stage, now wearing a blue sparkling outfit. He starts a new song [31] and a collective wave of fear strikes us, only Heret seemed to shrug it off but the Necrodancer didn't give him time to act before turning and mocking him. felt the urge to run with the others until I remembered the Seashell I had. Almost on instinct, I grabbed it and put it to my ear and managed to calm myself listening to the sound of waves, singing a cheery sort of song [32]. In that serene moment I could see the chaos slowly unfold around me….
The skeletons seemed to find their own rhythm and began assaulting the Heret squad….
The minotaur wrestling with the giant snake…
Ergin ducking down behind the drummer….
Bliss and Zeenah running and ducking behind tables…
Leocanto standing on shaking legs as he begins healing himself…
The moment was interrupted though as the Necrodancer just suddenly stopped playing. The band stopped and silence rang out through the Mirror…. And with it, the rest of us stopped too. We had been dancing to the tune for so long, it felt like it was a part of us and as the music stopped, we each froze as an excruciating pain gripped my chest and I could feel it had actually stopped too! Only Heret, again, seemed to shake it off as he suddenly gasped for air but the rest of us were frozen, feeling the world dim. The only consolation was the Necrodancer seemed to be suffering the same as us... The silence and agony stretched on for what seemed and age… Then suddenly, the band kicked in, he continued playing and the rest of us could feel the life kick back into us… but it was ROUGH. I suddenly felt exhausted, more than I've ever felt before…
The Heret Squad, taking the chance to close the gap on the Necrodancer as they collective draw swords against him, crying out that he can't dance to this music [33]. In response, he leaned down to Heret, still playing and said he would die in his arms, casting some sort of spell at them [34]. Across the bar, Zeenah looked angry and started Braiding her hair, singing to herself [35], while Ergin seemed to be going through a similar ordeal behind the drummer [36]. Bliss at least seemed to finally shake of the fear that gripped her and fired off a spell that blew the minotaur skeleton to pieces [37]. I managed to dodge out of the way of something the backup singers hurled at me when from the back of the bar we all heard Leocanto, sounding much stronger than before, say "Let's change things up a bit!". I looked just in time to see him clap and change shape into a Giant Ape before jumping clear across the room and slam both fists into the Necrodancer! But as he landed, smoke once again blasted the room…
Seconds later, the smoke dissipates once again…. And we see the Necrodancer, now walking back ONTO the stage from the other side wearing a bright yellow and Orange outfit with a flame design. As he struts on stage, he says "I really liked the song you played, especially the Thunderbolts and Lightening, very very frightening YEET!!!" Playing a loud chord, blasting Heret and Ergin off the stage. I charged forward (saying something about a fight song) [38] and unleashed another flurry of attacks on the Necrodancer, only for him to turn back to me, saying he liked the song I sang earlier and apparently finished it saying he'd make a Ram out of me [39]. The next thing I knew, I was suddenly much shorter and was walking around on all fours.... turns out he was being quite literal when he sang to me....
Keeping track of things after that was a little difficult... Almost as soon as I became a Ram, the Necrodancer created a wall of fire before there was a bright flash and I was blinded. I could hear a lot of what was going on but had to ask the others to fill in the gaps....
Finally, with the fire gone and Heret amputating the Necrodancer's hand, I was returned to my normal self and able to see! Just in time for the speech he gave. By now he was looking beyond ragged, his skull was fractured, the flesh that was once crawling back onto his body was almost completely removed and a surge of magical energy in the form of flashes of red and blue lightening where streaming from his injuries. Seeing the end was coming, he created a dimensional rift, like the one we had seen earlier and made to go through and make his escape... but was cut short by Zeenah countering it as she cried "You ain't going no where baby!"
In frustration he whirled back to us as we all charged forward to finish him off. Ergin sang a rallying song [48] as Zeenah moved in doing a strange dance [49], before spinning and grabbing for him only for him to side step at the last minute. The giant constrictor lunged forward but missed as the Necrodancer was busy dodging Zeenah's attack. Pieni tried to transform the Necrodancer again but he resisted, just in time to see Bliss' assault [50]. As he moved out of the way of her attack, I saw my opportunity and managed to finally catch him, slashing him across the chest. As he recoiled, I followed up with a punch before spinning round and finishing him off, decapitating him with my Falchion and kicking his head across the room where it crashed into the wall!
---
With the Necrodancer defeated, the band collapsed and the music stopped. Suddenly, we all felt the intoxicating rhythm leave us and could finally relax. Leocanto thanked us again and explained he had crossed the Necrodancer before, only now he had come back from the dead, almost like a lich. He wasn't sure exactly how he had managed that of course but it didn’t sound very good… If he has done it before, it does make me wonder if we really did defeat him after all. From what Leo could tell, it was the dancing that had been enforced on everyone that was fuelling his regeneration. Nonetheless, I was glad the whole ordeal was over. The dance lessons I had growing up didn’t seem to help me much, ironically.
Between having a musical battle with Leocanto and his strange performance battle with us, the Necrodancer had actually managed to setup one of the back rooms as his own dressing room, where we found an assortment of outfits, some of which we had seen him in on stage, others looked brand new. I can't even imagine how he was able to change outfit in seconds the way he did…. Needless to say, we all took an outfit from the rack. Hoop seemed pretty keen on the gold sparkly one of course…. Back on the stage we found the instrument he had been playing. We had a bit of a discussion about what to do with it until Zeenah suggested we give it to Leocanto. He did hold him off alone until we arrived to be fair, which, was pretty remarkable now I think about it. He was a handful for a group of us!
We left Leocanto to rest and clean up the bar and headed back to Aurelia who was happy to have the situation resolved. She seemed particularly unnerved about being forced to dance. Whatever she was originally hiring us for seemed forgotten anyway but I'm sure another notice will be posted if it’s important. For the most part, everyone else in Daring seemed to be just getting back to life as normal and within a couple of hours, it was almost as if nothing had happened.
As for Hoop…. Not surprisingly, a day of singing, dancing, flashy suits and even flashier personalities was their idea of a great day!
16th Entry in the journal of Markas Virnala
Today was possibly the craziest day of my life.
it was jus
It all began with a mee
I don't even know how to explain this, so I'll just recount it, step by step
A bunch of us gathered in the Town hall in Daring Heights about a job posting we had all seen, Ergin (from the games), Heret, Pieni and two new faces; Bliss, a female Teifling (seem to be a lot of Teiflings around lately?), and Zeenah, who was almost as flirty as Hoop can be!
We were talking to Aurellia about what she needed us to do when we suddenly started to hear this music playing from somewhere far away and then Aurellia started to dance to it! But she looked troubled and suddenly broke into song about how she didn’t want to dance? [1]. We sat and watched in confusion as she continued and started to do a little dance along with it before seeming to snap back to her senses, grabbing hold of the desk in front of here, her body still rhythmically moving from side to side…. It was about now we realised the rest of us had started to move to the music as well, that intoxicating tune that just seeped into us. Everyone had become infected by this tune as outside we could see everyone dancing in the streets and singing along to a song we've never heard before!
The music was unlike anything I've ever experienced! Sperren's music in the games was invigorating somehow but I could still control myself. This was different as every bit of myself just wanted to express myself: Dance, Sing, Jump and spin! That doesn’t sound right…. It was like wanting to, against my will, as if we had no choice!
As soon as we tried to do anything and ignore the music, things suddenly got very difficult. I tried to walk out after she asked us to look into the music and immediately fell on my face. After a couple more failed attempts, it quickly became apparent if we wanted to do anything we needed to be on time with the music so we started to dance and could at least move again but still needed to navigate our way around so….. We formed another Conga line!
Outside, EVERYONE was going through the same ordeal, dancing and singing through the streets but everyone looked terrified and the words they were singing where crying out that they didn’t want to be singing! It was awful…. But surprisingly really catchy!
As we congaed through the streets, we soon realised, much like in the Fey Wild, the conga line is an infectious dance as we soon had a long tail of people joining on behind us, right up until we turned down Butcher street, aptly named for the many butchers down there. They quickly broke off into their own line when we got there and turned back, the reason being the carnage that the music was playing on the street!
Bones and meat chunks seemed to be flying through the air. Ergin gave an inspiring speech as we went in and began trying to avoid being mangled by the flying meaty debris. Our line broke as the meat and bones almost seemed to veer in the air straight for us!
Bliss started to sing about moving your body in different ways and actually doing the moves along with it as she went [2]
I started performing Kata on time to the music, dodging and hitting things out of the way as I passed
Ergin had his shield and sword out and was signing about walking down butcher street [3], knocking hunks of meat out the air as he passed
Heret sang a calm and serene song, seeming to sense the chunks as they came and gracefully side stepping them
We eventually came out the other side of the street, miraculously unharmed and began looking for the which way the music was coming from, all the while still singing. [4/5]
As we stepped out though, a hooded figure stepped out in front of us, drawing knife, singing about how he's been waiting for us, but he soon stopped as from behind him a huge ripping sound comes from behind him as a tear in in the air just opens up! We could see through the hole all these shadows dancing and twisting as a bunch of skeletons climb out in a jittery kind of shuffle, quickly followed by a spectral woman floating behind them, she took one look at us a shrieks
The 8 skeletons struggled to stand as they tried to move out of time with the music and clattered around in a jittering dance as the ghostly woman seemed to be confused and was looking around at us all… The Bandit spun around to see the nightmare appearing behind him as Bliss charged forward and started hacking at a skeleton, Shouting Boom as she struck it [6]
The ghostly figure, in response to being here started to sing about the wounds on her body not healing [7] before unleashing another awful wail… then the next thing I knew, everything went black.
The next thing I remember was vaguely hearing Ergin crying out "another one bites the dust" [8] before what sounded like Pieni singing "I raise you up, so you can fight skeletons" [9]
Feeling some energy return to me and seeing Bliss, Heret and Zeenah all also struggling to their feet, I jumped up and charged in, hearing myself singing a song to a tune I've never heard before (I think it was "Here I go, Sword in hand, to cut down some skellies"?) [10]. As weird as it was, it actually seemed to be helping keep myself in time with the music around us and moving was easier so I decided not to fight it, especially as one of the skeletons crumbled to dust in front of me, just as a blast of energy flew past from Zeenah hitting the spectral thing at the back.
Some of the skeletons then began to lurch forward to me and Ergin while the Bandit finally came to his senses and made a run for it, as Bliss cries out that she's playing with Lightening [11], as a jolt of lightning flashes and drags the ghostly figure towards her where she takes a swipe at it before doing a strange walk away from it [12]. Heret climbed to his feet singing "I get knocked down, but I get up again"[13] before sliding across the street to the Banshee and running it through, killing the ghostly visage , disintegrating immediately!
Ergin charged into the remaining Skeletons claiming a 7 skeleton army couldn't hold him back [14], followed by Pieni singing about spooky skeletons [15] who both tearing into the remainder of the skeletons, while me (singing about my scimitar [16]) and Zeenah tackled the others. Finally, with one left, Bliss stepped forward and tells the skeleton to beg for mercy [17] as she finishes it off with her Rapier
With the wraith defeated, the rift shut and we were left in the deserted street, dancing to the pervading music, surround by bones and debris. A few of the others danced around the remains looking for loot before we pushed on, rounding another corner to see the Gilded Mirror, one of the Inns in Daring Heights set up by a Bard called Leocanto (apparently he used to be an adventurer as well). I've seen it before but this time there were beams of light shining up into the air, waving around, while a mass of dark energy swirling around the building and a strong blast of wind coming from inside with what sounded like two different songs playing against each other from within. As we tried to push closer, the winds just kept blowing us back until collectively we started to sing I, once again, have never heard before, about someone who killed someone else and was now on the run, like he was explaining it to his mother? [18]. In any case, as we started to sing, the waves of wind and energy from the building seemed to subside so we all leaned heavily into the feeling and finally reached the door, bursting into the Gilded Mirror, all crying out "MAMAAAAAAAA!".
---
The inside of the Mirror was a scene I think will stay with me forever. If I get the chance, I should really try to paint it… I'm sure Leocanto might be interested in having it…
The tables and chairs had been thrown to the sides of the room amid piles of litter, evidently blown away by the force that was keeping us out.
To the left, pinned up against the wall by the sheer force of the music blasting out from the stage was Leocanto, feet planted on the wall, leaning into the force holding him in place with grim determination on his face as he Furiously played a mandolin, faster than seemed possible in an intricate tune that countered the sound coming from the stage. He fingers bleeding, hands almost a blur, as we watched the Mandolin burst into fragments and without missing a beat, he tossed it to the side where it landed on a pile of already broken instruments, while with his other hand he pulled a flute out from… somewhere and began playing that with the same incredible speed.
To the right was the stage and Leo's opposition in this musical onslaught. Lit up like it was an elaborate show, a band seemed to dominate most of the stage, formed of a skeleton playing a drum kit using large bones as drum sticks, another skeleton playing a huge Mandolin it held upright in front of it, three more skeletons off to one side, swaying to the music and seeming to sing in a nightmarish accompaniment to the music while two Zombies were playing trumpets. But in the centre of the stage was a tall rotten looking thing… Half bone with flesh seeming to crawl over its body, almost like it was reforming into its old self. Dressed in a tight Crimson outfit with a high collared blue cape, holding a glittering golden Mandolin, singing into the head of it with a ferocious ability. On its head, a single thick stream of hair was starting to form like a huge Mohawk.
As we took in the scene, Leocanto spotted us and stops playing to quickly explain the being on the stage was the Necrodancer, someone he had betrayed but has come back. He had been holding him back but was so tired then suddenly collapsed to the floor, unconscious, leaving us to face off with the nightmarish performer.
Taking our cue, we turned and collectively stormed the stage, each still keeping in time with the intoxicating music. Bliss, Heret and I charge forward to attack. I didn’t catch what Bliss was saying but resulted in here pulling the Necrodancer closer to us in a flash of lightening. I could hear Heret asking them to turn around so he could slice it's face [19], while a song came to me… something along the lines of "get down to business to defeat dead things?" [20]. In retaliation, the Necrodancer loomed over us, intently staring us down while playing a crazy tune unbelievably fast, then suddenly the rhythm of the band changes and he looked to me... He started singing something and I immediately felt my limbs seize as I was paralysed again!
One of the songs he sang seemed to almost tire out a few of the others from what I could see, he didn’t seem intent on attacking us at this point more just responding to what we did. Luckily I wasn’t held in place too long as Zeenah ran forward, stopping between the Necrodancer and me singing "Let it go!" [21], blasting him with an eldritch Blast and freeing me again! AS I could move, I turned in time to see Ergin fire his crossbow at one of the band members and sing a line about sword proficiency [22] before changing into another tune, yelling for Leocanto to stand up [23]. The band seemed to pointing at Ergin and making fun of him but soon stopped when they saw the giant Snake Pieni had sung into life [24].
From behind the stage, a door burst open and a bunch of skeletons, followed by the huge skeleton of a minotaur shuffled out as the Necrodancer glides back to the stage, singing an ascending tune about owning the night [25] before blasting three fiery rays straight at Zeenah before, from nowhere there was a burst of smoke and he vanished from site. The band changed rhythm again playing a quiet tune. I could hear Bliss singing something very fast behind us but seeing no other option, Heret and I charged the hulking form of the Minotaur, unleashing a flurry of attacks [26] and broken off several bones. We were cut off by the giant snake Pieni summoned as it tried to constrict the minotaur [27} I glanced round to see there was actually a bunch of Heret & Bliss copies everywhere, Ergin charged the stage and starts attacking the drummer [28], leaving them in pretty bad shape, using one of its own limbs to continue playing, while Zeenah and Pieni where casting some sort of spell at the stage [29 - 30]. When I asked later they were trying to reveal the invisible Necrodancer but it didn't seem to work. Pieni seemed to vanish about now though?
A few moments later and smoke fills the room again and we hear bony feet stepping across the stage before a voice rings out "This has all been good, but why don't we take this down a little bit". The smoke billows out and in a flash the Necrodancer is back on stage, now wearing a blue sparkling outfit. He starts a new song [31] and a collective wave of fear strikes us, only Heret seemed to shrug it off but the Necrodancer didn't give him time to act before turning and mocking him. felt the urge to run with the others until I remembered the Seashell I had. Almost on instinct, I grabbed it and put it to my ear and managed to calm myself listening to the sound of waves, singing a cheery sort of song [32]. In that serene moment I could see the chaos slowly unfold around me….
The skeletons seemed to find their own rhythm and began assaulting the Heret squad….
The minotaur wrestling with the giant snake…
Ergin ducking down behind the drummer….
Bliss and Zeenah running and ducking behind tables…
Leocanto standing on shaking legs as he begins healing himself…
The moment was interrupted though as the Necrodancer just suddenly stopped playing. The band stopped and silence rang out through the Mirror…. And with it, the rest of us stopped too. We had been dancing to the tune for so long, it felt like it was a part of us and as the music stopped, we each froze as an excruciating pain gripped my chest and I could feel it had actually stopped too! Only Heret, again, seemed to shake it off as he suddenly gasped for air but the rest of us were frozen, feeling the world dim. The only consolation was the Necrodancer seemed to be suffering the same as us... The silence and agony stretched on for what seemed and age… Then suddenly, the band kicked in, he continued playing and the rest of us could feel the life kick back into us… but it was ROUGH. I suddenly felt exhausted, more than I've ever felt before…
The Heret Squad, taking the chance to close the gap on the Necrodancer as they collective draw swords against him, crying out that he can't dance to this music [33]. In response, he leaned down to Heret, still playing and said he would die in his arms, casting some sort of spell at them [34]. Across the bar, Zeenah looked angry and started Braiding her hair, singing to herself [35], while Ergin seemed to be going through a similar ordeal behind the drummer [36]. Bliss at least seemed to finally shake of the fear that gripped her and fired off a spell that blew the minotaur skeleton to pieces [37]. I managed to dodge out of the way of something the backup singers hurled at me when from the back of the bar we all heard Leocanto, sounding much stronger than before, say "Let's change things up a bit!". I looked just in time to see him clap and change shape into a Giant Ape before jumping clear across the room and slam both fists into the Necrodancer! But as he landed, smoke once again blasted the room…
Seconds later, the smoke dissipates once again…. And we see the Necrodancer, now walking back ONTO the stage from the other side wearing a bright yellow and Orange outfit with a flame design. As he struts on stage, he says "I really liked the song you played, especially the Thunderbolts and Lightening, very very frightening YEET!!!" Playing a loud chord, blasting Heret and Ergin off the stage. I charged forward (saying something about a fight song) [38] and unleashed another flurry of attacks on the Necrodancer, only for him to turn back to me, saying he liked the song I sang earlier and apparently finished it saying he'd make a Ram out of me [39]. The next thing I knew, I was suddenly much shorter and was walking around on all fours.... turns out he was being quite literal when he sang to me....
Keeping track of things after that was a little difficult... Almost as soon as I became a Ram, the Necrodancer created a wall of fire before there was a bright flash and I was blinded. I could hear a lot of what was going on but had to ask the others to fill in the gaps....
- Heret was knocked down a couple of times into unconsciousness but he said he could hear singing [40] wherever he went to... he managed to get back up and actually cut off the Necrodancers hand! [41]
- Ergin was gripped by the fear the Necrodancer had cast on us but managed to provide support to everyone still, healing through a couple of different songs he sang [42-43].
- Zeenah managed to shake off the fear and run to help Heret up, drinking a potion and feeding one to him [44-45].
- Pieni tried to transform the Necrodancer the same way he did to me but he blocked the spell. After that, Pieni dispelled the wall of fire around the stage the Necrodancer had created (this was one of the factors that had felled Heret).
- Bliss cried out "I am the God of Hellfire!" before breathing fire over the Necrodancer and lashing out with her sword and lightening again. In what I assume was her showing off, she made a point telling me how she walked up on stage through the fire wall [46]
- Leocanto, Still in ape form, continued to try to pummel the Necrodancer to an upbeat tune he was still able to sing [47]
- Between fending off the onslaught of attacks and still keeping the music going, the Necrodancer created the wall of fire around the stage then gave an agonised speech about his almost return from Death once Heret cut off his hand
- For my part.... life as a blind goat on a burning stage was quite stressful. I wasn't able to achieve much in that form and the almost immediate blindness made getting around a nightmare. I tried to make my way towards help but only ended up walking into the drum kit, followed by the bass player. I tried calling for help but no one was able to understand me.....
Finally, with the fire gone and Heret amputating the Necrodancer's hand, I was returned to my normal self and able to see! Just in time for the speech he gave. By now he was looking beyond ragged, his skull was fractured, the flesh that was once crawling back onto his body was almost completely removed and a surge of magical energy in the form of flashes of red and blue lightening where streaming from his injuries. Seeing the end was coming, he created a dimensional rift, like the one we had seen earlier and made to go through and make his escape... but was cut short by Zeenah countering it as she cried "You ain't going no where baby!"
In frustration he whirled back to us as we all charged forward to finish him off. Ergin sang a rallying song [48] as Zeenah moved in doing a strange dance [49], before spinning and grabbing for him only for him to side step at the last minute. The giant constrictor lunged forward but missed as the Necrodancer was busy dodging Zeenah's attack. Pieni tried to transform the Necrodancer again but he resisted, just in time to see Bliss' assault [50]. As he moved out of the way of her attack, I saw my opportunity and managed to finally catch him, slashing him across the chest. As he recoiled, I followed up with a punch before spinning round and finishing him off, decapitating him with my Falchion and kicking his head across the room where it crashed into the wall!
---
With the Necrodancer defeated, the band collapsed and the music stopped. Suddenly, we all felt the intoxicating rhythm leave us and could finally relax. Leocanto thanked us again and explained he had crossed the Necrodancer before, only now he had come back from the dead, almost like a lich. He wasn't sure exactly how he had managed that of course but it didn’t sound very good… If he has done it before, it does make me wonder if we really did defeat him after all. From what Leo could tell, it was the dancing that had been enforced on everyone that was fuelling his regeneration. Nonetheless, I was glad the whole ordeal was over. The dance lessons I had growing up didn’t seem to help me much, ironically.
Between having a musical battle with Leocanto and his strange performance battle with us, the Necrodancer had actually managed to setup one of the back rooms as his own dressing room, where we found an assortment of outfits, some of which we had seen him in on stage, others looked brand new. I can't even imagine how he was able to change outfit in seconds the way he did…. Needless to say, we all took an outfit from the rack. Hoop seemed pretty keen on the gold sparkly one of course…. Back on the stage we found the instrument he had been playing. We had a bit of a discussion about what to do with it until Zeenah suggested we give it to Leocanto. He did hold him off alone until we arrived to be fair, which, was pretty remarkable now I think about it. He was a handful for a group of us!
We left Leocanto to rest and clean up the bar and headed back to Aurelia who was happy to have the situation resolved. She seemed particularly unnerved about being forced to dance. Whatever she was originally hiring us for seemed forgotten anyway but I'm sure another notice will be posted if it’s important. For the most part, everyone else in Daring seemed to be just getting back to life as normal and within a couple of hours, it was almost as if nothing had happened.
As for Hoop…. Not surprisingly, a day of singing, dancing, flashy suits and even flashier personalities was their idea of a great day!
