I created an adventure based on a song lyric. It was a fun adventure.
Laura Viers. Icebound Stream.
Watch, i can flash across the sky
A lightning bolt from up on high
And i can crash into myself
For PCs to discover
Show
The speaker in this lyric is identifying himself to readers. Kord, lord of storms, refers to himself for readers to understand the speaker.
Now a flower blooms in reverse
And a song takes back a verse
A photograph fades to white
For PCs to understand
Show
Now that the reader understands who is the speaker, he tells them the event takes place in the past. It is long ago. Also, it is a time which is not fully revealed; the vision of it is misty or foggy at best.
I can hold a thunderhead in my heart
And in my bed i can dream a winter's gale
And wake up drenched
A stormy pale, a stormy pale
For PCs to get hooked
Show
Kord holds a mournful depression in his heart; he awakes from dreams of the War of Winter. Mortals understand dreaming, though deities may not need sleep. He awakens in a cold sweat. The word gale is a play on the word Ghaele, and eladrin of great power over a domain. In this case, it is a stand-in to reference Khala, goddess of winter, formerly a powerful deity cast down after the War of Winter.
A battered heath on the shore
Will make her keep and wait for more
But underneath her icebound stream
The water pours, the water pours
For PCs to seek
Show
Kord sees that Khala's prison is on the natural plane. It is in a location with a stormy shore. This is where her prison holds her as a keep. She waits there for a chance to rise again in another winter war. However, underneath her glacial keep, a stream of run-off carries her whispers.
I can hold a thunderhead in my heart…
Once the PCs had most of the poem figured out, they needed to travel to the battered heath. This is not impossible, but will probably mean looking for clues of climate and weather related phenomena.
When they arrive at the stormy shore, they will find nearby settlements of a viking-like people. They have a common song among them which they claim is sung from the streams. As such, they adopted it for themselves and added some lyrics of their own. It will also lead the PCs to solving the adventure.
Laura Viers. Wandering Kind.
A strange July
a storm came down from the
North and pulled out the salt
and it tore out the leaves from the pear tree
my canopy
For PCs to realize
Show
Khala speaks of a prophecy regarding a powerful storm breaking up the seas surrounding her prison and tearing the canopy of the prison that holds her. If they have Kord's boon, they have the power with them to fulfill this prophecy.
In the twigs and the bugs of sow
I knew somehow i was free
I held a stone above my bones
i was shaking
For PCs to believe
Show
Khala is so certain of the prophecy, she knows it will make her free. She is overwhelmed by excitment at the prospect of being freed. The stone she mentions could be a ritual focus on some sort; I didn't specifically use it in my adventure.
In the blue stained glass church
you gathered up my heart
soldered together all the tiny, shattered parts
For PCs to act
Show
Kord himself cannot visit the natural plane, nor can he simply open a portal to pull her from the natural plane. He must send the PCs as proxies for him. When they reach the prison which holds Khala, given the title The Blue Stained Glass Church by Khala, they must speak words of love, compassion, and forgiveness as proxies for Kord. During the War of Winter, he eventually turned against Khala; the pain and heartache of that must be assauged before the imprisonment can be broken.
I said "All I can see in front of me
is the armpit of a crow"
you closed the wing
opened the door
and you ran into the summer yard
For PCs to worry
Show
Khala's domain of winter was overtaken by the Raven Queen. Pelor had called upon her to take up the domain as he battled for supremacy. Khala knows that RQ holds her bound also. She cannot defeat RQ, but the PCs as proxies of Kord may have power sufficient to remove her warden's grasp and free Khala. Yet, what might this do for the PCs relationship to RQ?
'Cause the sun's been known to shine on our wandering kind
yeah, the sun's been known to shine on our wandering kind
For PCs to have red herring
Show
This should not do much to fool them, but this is a section in which the locals have inserted their own lyrics to fit their song. It has nothing to do with the adventure except to give some flavor to the culture around them which the PCs might not interact closely with.
Clocking on her wooden board
the tattooed girl took up her swords
and plunged them down into the earth
a twinkling tide filled up her eyes
and poured out to the lawn
we made a raft out of the scraps of her skirt
and sailed 'til dawn
For PCs to enjoy mixed red herring
Show
The locals have inserted some of their own lyrics, yet this also rings true of Khala's whispers. At the end of the War of Winter, Melora was given free reign to the domain of nature and the sea. She is the tattooed girl with the two swords. She uses her swords as symbols of strength over nature and the seasons. She also controls the seas. Melora poured out the glacier which would become Khala's prison, the blue stained glass church.
Locals did not understand this imagery and instead took it to mean the seas for their sailing. They worship Melora as a matron to all sailors. So, part of this verse matters to PCs and part does not.
'Cause the sun's been known to shine on our wandering kind
yeah, the sun's been known to shine on our wandering kind (Repeat)
Our wandering kind (fade out)
Over the course of this adventure, the PCs msut confront the powers of the primal spirits which initially forced the gods to leave the natural plane and continue to bar their return. They must find permission to release Khala and also send her from the natural plane to the astral plane.
The PCs will be confronted with the power of Melora and Raven Queen as they attempt to release a deity which has been an enemy to both. The feelings af enmity are passed, but there is a need to ensure that Khala is not intent on starting a war again among the gods. In the case of my setting, I explained that RQ has the desire to give up the domain of winter in order to take up another domain in its place (the deities typically handle, at most, three domains); if Khala can be returned as the true heir to winter domain, she will be pleased. Melora would appreciate a goddess to participate in the seasonal changes with her; if Khala will honor the pacts of seasonal rotation made after the War of Winter, she will be welcomed.
