(During a 30-day visit to Inferno, circa 1998)
Backstory: I wandered into Inferno using the name, Melody, a traveling bard. Only to be told (over and over again) that there were no bards there. Nothing new to me, I was one anyway. A couple weeks into this windmill-tipping excursion, I sat in a Tavern. I had just introduced myself (as a bard) to the scoffing attitudes of what I can only assume were the strongest folks who lived there. In the middle of this rather sad (for me) encounter, a call came out that heroes were needed. I watched them prepare to take on the unexpected task. I waited in the tavern while they hunted down this fearsome creature, and sure enough, they returned. I pressed for details when they got back, hoping to de-rail the now really old lectures about how there were no bards. By the next day, I had finished this song based on my interviews with them. I then spent countless hours copying every line of it onto paper, no small task for an untrained not bard. Then I repeated the process to make a copy for each one of the heroic party. I attempted my best to deliver them, or have them delivered. And walked out of town. Never to be heard of again. (Sidenote: that world has long ago been lost, with barely a trace that it ever existed, anywhere. Nevertheless, the role-playing exchanges were superlative, even if they did not like mine…) Hmmmph! No bard, indeed!
Seven heroes went to slay,
A seven-headed beast.
Here’s how it started, I was there,
To witness some, at least.
One by one they gathered,
At the Tavern on the Lane,
Drawn by rumors whispered,
Of a Void-spawned bane.
A seven-headed creature,
Pallance gave the news,
Was in the Undercity’s depths,
Now, who would join the crew?
Niclas just said, ‘Show me’
Ender would if Nic was in.
Farrell was eager to see it dead,
And Kiara’s words were grim.
So Camden drew his blade,
Pallance stepped right into place,
Liam made ready for the fight,
As Kerani blessed the heroes’ chase.
‘Ready’ whispered Pallance,
And they all left the scene,
Following Ender down below,
Where last the beast was seen.
I can only imagine,
How they must have looked,
To the seven-headed Creature,
In some Undercity nook.
Blades a-flashing, dressed so dashing,
Looking like heroes of Old Lore,
When Kerani and I saw them,
As they slipped right out the door.
Seven heroes went to slay,
The seven-headed beast.
I prayed they would succeed that day,
And not become the creature’s feast.
Up above in the City’s streets,
The word began to spread,
When Raemyst heard Niclas had joined,
‘Oh, the poor, Void Beast,’ she said.
Down into the Undercity,
The Seven Heroes strode,
And found the fell Void creature,
Taking up its new abode.
Ender scared it with his helm,
But took a fearsome blow,
Luckily it hit his head –
How was his foe to know?
Kiara made her best shot,
Camden took a swipe or three,
Farrell got some good ones in,
Still the beast was fighting to get free.
Niclas stared it down,
Trying to distract one of its heads,
Then claimed the blow that knocked it out,
‘Timing is everything,’ it’s said.
Liam supervised the heroe’s plan,
That executed it’s last chord.
So when the creature was knocked cold,
It slipped and fell on Pallance’s sword!
I can only imagine
The last disbelief that overtook,
That seven-headed Creature,
In some Undercity nook.
Blades a-flashing, dressed so dashing,
Looking like heroes of Old Lore,
When Kerani and I saw them,
As they sauntered back through the door.
Seven heroes went to slay,
A seven-headed beast,
They all returned in triumph,
The creature lay deceased.
They gathered in a victory toast,
At the Safe Harbor’s bar,
Where one by one they told me,
Of the other person’s part.
Seven heroes went to slay
A seven-headed beast.
The City’s now the safer,
And tonight we’ll sleep in peace.
(copyright 1998, deb Christensen, all rights reserved, blah blah blah…)
