Khenal
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Peek: A Day in the Life of Slash
🕑 Added 2024-03-24 23:51:46 +0000 UTCAs Dawn breaks, Slash likes to make his way to the surface, specifically the manor yard. The early birds generally get a serene tune to help start their day, and to help choose a quest from the patio. The first week or so he started doing it, the delvers were nervous about him being there. Despite his gentle tunes, he has a pretty imposing visage. Nobody was silly enough to try him, thankfully.
Once the delvers start their delving proper, Slash usually heads to either the maze or joins the mining crews down to the limestone quarry. In the maze, he's found the Jaws theme works perfectly to indicate the rising tension of Tiny stalking the runners. He sometimes wonders why the Composer has a song about a hunting shark, but it works just as well with a hunting spider, so he's not going to complain.
At the quarry, he sticks to simpler songs with slow, impactful beats. Sixteen tons is a classic, but even that would get old all day, every day. He still gets regular requests for it from the delvers, and it mostly depends on his mood and if they've recently requested it for if he'll actually play. He just wishes he could teach them the lyrics.
As the day tends towards noon, Slash usually finds his way either to the tunnels or to the crypt complex, where he plays battle music. Usually he doesn't infuse any magic into his music for those, but occasionally denizens or delvers will need a little boost to either make things interesting, or to allow a dramatic victory against a difficult battle. For the tunnels, he generally sticks to the Composer's list, relishing in the rapid beats and challenging harmonies, the perfect things to make a fight feel that much more intense! For the Crypt, he usually uses some of the battle hymns of the Shield, to help bolster them. Sometimes he'll use a hymn from the Composer, usually to empower the undead.
He's caught a few of the Shield followers humming the tunes, and he again wishes he could teach them the lyrics. Maybe he should try actually putting some of the Composer's songs to paper? The more energetic ones really don't work as well on anything other than the axe, but he's confident at least a few could transition to acoustics.
He's not the only one interested in trying, either. When the sun tips towards setting, Slash often makes his way to the enclaves, to teach them how to make music. There's a good mixed chior shaping up, if he does say so himself. The ratkin are excellent in the mid ranges, while the spiderkin fill the ends in perfectly, both high and low. Instruments are a different matter.
The ratkin seem to prefer woodwinds, though they've also taken a strong liking to brass once Slash was able to get Teemo to explain the concept to them. They don't quite have the same energy as the axe, but it's more a different intensity than a lesser one. He looks forward to the day he can jam with the ratkin band. The spiderkin love stringed instruments, especially things like harps and lyres. They've been slow to adopt anything that requires a bow or has a neck, which has put a damper on his hopes of creating a multi-enclave orchestra. While they're not too enthusiastic about certain styles of stringed instruments, they are greatly interested in practically everything percussion.
Slash is confident that, if he can explain the concept of a piano to them, the spiderkin would do their utmost to make it a reality. He's uncertain if the instrument already exists or not. He hasn't seen one, but who would bring a piano into a dungeon? Who would talk about a piano in a dungeon? The more likely instrument to be introduced to the dungeon at large would be another axe.
There's a couple dwellers who seem to have lightning affinity and a desire to create music. He's noticed them following him around occasionally, watching and trying to learn. Slash is all for it, and as far as he can tell, the Composer has no desire to keep the axe a secret. While he doesn't know if the dwellers will be able to recreate the axe, they might not even need it. Thunder and lightning go hand in hand, and simply seeing him wielding electricity and sound together may be enough to guide them toward a fitting class.
He doesn't know if thunder bard is a class, but he likes the sound of it.
Comments
Herakilla
Thanks for the chapter!
Ethan Barrow
Bardic Thunder should be the first band name to come from this.
