Feb 2022 chooseyourownadventure orchestral score electronic story fantasy
Just in case you don't know, I'm creating a "Choose Your Own Adventure" FAWM.
For this FAWM, I've decided to make a score to a film/story that hasn't been written. This is because YOU will decide where the story will go and how it will eventually end. After each song, I will give you options for your "Choose Your Own Adventure" story. Write your option in the comment section. I will wait about 8 hours or so, calculate the numbers, then create the next song that fits this option. After each song is posted, I start the process all over again until FAWM and the story is over.
I promise I won't leave you guys hanging, even though I'm dead tired and I have a lot of work to finish, too, and I just got a cat from the shelter today and I just want to play with her....Rushed a bit with the music, but I hope it's cool. Thank you for being on this journey with me.
You chose to A) Feign unconsciousness.
****************************
After a second of deliberation, you decide to stay put. You’re in no condition to fight, even if your hands weren’t bound behind your back. You’re tired and weak and your body is screaming in pain now. You let yourself rest. You figure that, if they wanted to kill you, they would have done it already. They want you alive.
The wagon continues traveling along the road for three more hours and you can feel the day growing darker. That means you must have been knocked out for most of the morning and afternoon. You want to stay awake and alert, but the gentle swaying of the wagon makes you drift off into slumberland.
You are awakened by someone splashing cold water on your face. You’re startled and disoriented and you gasp loudly as you open your eyes. There he is, Silas, looking at you.
Silas smiles cheerfully and says, “Wow, we thought we lost you there for a minute!” Hahaha, he said the same thing to you when you woke up after projectile vomiting on Mayor Hendrik’s face.
Silas continues talking. “You know, I thought I had overdone it! I didn’t know how much poison it took to weaken you, but not kill you. After that first time, I was worried you wouldn’t wake up in Caminoord. You were pretty sick and I watched you the whole time you were out. But then Nurse Lang fixed you up a little and I started putting smaller doses of poison in your water.”
Nurse Lang! Of course! That’s what she was yammering on about. “Sums god in fo ya,” you remember her saying. SOMEONE’S GOT IT IN FOR YOU. Raana had figured it out. You remember hearing her shout something about water. She tried to warn you, but it was too late. Kaleb, you idiot. The realization of all that had transpired shows in your face and you can’t hide all the emotions bubbling inside you now, ready to blow.
Silas notices and continues taunting you. “Oooh, I can tell you're mad now! Really mad. You should be. You fell for my lost puppy act, didn’t you? I mean, I kept handing you water and you just trusted me and you had no idea. Isn’t that funny?”
You grunt in reply. Goddammit. That sneaky son of a bitch! You want to grab him by the throat, crush him, and snap his vertebrae. But you can’t.
“Why?” you ask bluntly.
“Because you were an opportunity. I made a deal with the king. Well, I did it through letters back and forth and through the Commander of the army. I was the one who told him you might be in Tinmijn and I told the soldiers when they could come and arrest you. I figured you’d be out like everyone else during the Spring Festival, but, when they couldn’t find you I said that I’d try to bring you in. They wanted you captured alive and—”
“But they killed everyone…” you interrupt.
“I didn’t know they were going to try and kill EVERYONE!” replies Silas. “I was genuinely shocked when that happened. It was never my intention.” For a moment, Silas looks off into the distance, no doubt thinking about all the people he knew who were slaughtered.
“That’s because you’re an idiot!” you growl. “What did you think would happen? You think the king is going to stick to his deal? What did you promise him?”
“You, alive, and the Tinmijn master maps. I need them if I’m going to take over the mines for the king. That place is a complete labyrinth. You found some valuable veins, Kaleb,” explains Silas.
“And what did the king promise you?” you ask, disgusted.
“Money. Land. Tinmijn. A position. I spent my life doing hard labor. The family who raised me….they weren’t really my family. They didn’t love me. I was a farmhand, a slave! Then I became Mayor Adaline’s assistant. I spent five years doing everything she asked! I fetched her things and ran errands. I was her slave, too. Now, I’ll be the one in control. I get to call the shots. I might even get a title! What do you think? Duke Silas of Tinmijn? It kind of has a ring to it.”
“Eat shit, Duke Silas,” you reply, frowning.
Silas, of course, does not appreciate that comment and splashes water on your face again. “Oh, by the way, Kaleb, try not to drink that water! It’s full of poison….maybe.”
You groan as he walks away. You shake the water out of your eyes and hair. You can see you’re in the wagon, which is parked in the castle courtyard. It’s been twenty years and this place looks like it’s falling apart now. Clearly, the king hasn’t been taking care of it. It’s some time in the evening. Two soldiers lift you out of the wagon and drag you to the prison tower. You still don’t have the energy to fight back, so you preserve as much of it as possible in the event that you have to suddenly break free.
Surprisingly, when you get to your room in the prison tower, the guards escort you inside, remove the rope binding you, and make a speedy exit. You don’t understand and, as you rub your wrists, in pain from all the rope burn, she walks in.
“Delphine….” You’re stunned.
She looks a little older, but not by much. She’s still as beautiful as you remember. Even when you saw her burn to death, she was beautiful. Only, that wasn’t her.
Delphine embraces you and you kiss her, softly at first, then passionately. She holds onto you tightly, giving you a long hug, then lets you go.
“How?” you ask. “I saw you die.”
“It was an illusion,” Delphine replies. “The king wanted you to believe I was dead. He wanted to punish you for defecting. And he wanted to keep me, to force me to use my magic for his own purposes. It was what he wanted from me all along. I had no choice.”
She holds you close and strokes your long, grey hair. It’s been a long time since any woman held you and you seem to melt against her. The loneliness, the aching pit inside you, it disappears. She continues her story.
“I couldn’t escape. My powers weren’t that strong at the time. You left after you thought I had died. And I had to stay here, locked up. At first, I refused to do any magic under threat of death. But then, I noticed my belly starting to grow and I realized that I was carrying your child. And to keep that child safe, at least until it was born, I began performing spells.”
You look at her, shocked again. “We had a child?” you ask.
“Yes, we did, dear one,” replies Delphine. “After he was born and weaned, I was forced to send him away. I didn’t want to, but I knew it was safer. You had escaped and no one could find you so that I could send you a message, telling you about him. The boy grew up with a different family, with a different name. His parents were told that his mother had died and his father was nowhere to be found so that he wouldn’t come looking for either of us. I just wanted him to have a normal life, away from all this.”
“To survive, I practiced small magic. Potions. Low level spells. But the king kept demanding more. I began using the dark forces to appease him. The darkness….it does things, changes you. It corrupted him and it made me stronger. Power has its price.”
You don’t know what that means, but it can’t be good. You search Delphine’s pale face for answers, anything that could indicate what she meant, but you find nothing. She is inscrutable and her eyes are ice cold.
“Let’s get out of here!” you suggest hurriedly. “I can get Mathias to help us escape. We can leave tonight and maybe we can find somewhere to live far away. We can start over, Delphine.”
She looks at you like you’re crazy. “Why would I want to leave now? This is my home. The king needs me. Isn’t that right, my pet?”
You didn’t notice him entering the room. The king moves quietly and slowly, walking up to the both of you. His skin looks like an old leather boot with a grey tint to it, and he’s almost skeletal, he’s so thin. You wonder how he is even still alive. He must be ancient. Impossible. He was old when you were still a soldier. His eyes are unfocused and blank, like he’s not even there. He doesn’t even seem to be looking at anything or anyone in particular.
“He needs me,” says Delphine again. “He lives because of me.” She makes a flourish with her hand and laughs. “He's still in there and I'm sure he can hear me, but he's buried all the way down inside. He's a spectator.”
“I don’t understand…” you say.
Delphine places her hands on each side of the king’s face and pats him on his cheeks.
“I keep him alive. I’ve kept him alive for many years when he should have died. He has outlived his son, his daughter, his wife…and he is still the king. Everyone follows his orders. But he is mine and he does what I say. I work on his behalf. As long as he lives, people must do what he says….what I say. Power has its price. But, oh, it’s so wonderful when you have it!” She flicks her finger in his face, but the king doesn’t respond in any way. She presses her thumbs on his eyeballs, but, still, no reaction.
You are horrified. You don’t know what to do. This isn’t the woman you remember. Maybe your memories are wrong. You can’t tell anymore. This person named Delphine, this person who is puppeting a corpse right in front of you, is a stranger.
Delphine’s eyes become huge. She stares at you and looks very excited. “We could do this together, do what we like! Do you want riches? Wealth? I can make that happen! Do you want the finest food, the best silks, jewels, gold? I can do that. We can conquer every city west of here until the horizon, make this kingdom an empire! I can make you the Commander of the army if you like, get rid of the old one by burning him alive. This is how we can start over. What do you say?”
Delphine offers her hand to you.
Do you:
A) Take her offer?
Or
B) Refuse her offer?
@leepat Mar 2022
ooh, a hint of Westworld at the 1 minute mark.. (that resolving half step in the back of the bus)
yeah, time takes it toll, no one is ever the same with the passage of years, though of course I like to believe that love has the necessary power to keep the pieces together that would otherwise fall apart.
I would have said A here in the hope of seeing how far Delphine would go...
@headfirstonly Mar 2022
"Kaleb, you idiot!" Yup. He really has been a bit slow, hasn't he?
This might be my favourite track of the saga so far. The arrangement is full of space but there's a real power to it. Those deep synth growls are the business, that's for sure.
@tamsnumber4 Mar 2022
Well...even fast tracks are great when you make them...
If I could have voted, I would have said B....she is insane and he isn't a puppet, get away from that scary witch...run Kaleb run LOL!
@dzdandcunfsd Mar 2022
I might of had to of chosen A here, just to save your own ass for a little bit longer :D
Really awesome piece of music here as well!
@dragondreams Mar 2022
Hell, Mel. The soundtrack is awesome. From the first brutal wake-up call, through the anger, the ecstasy, and the dawning horror.
B.
@pooka Feb 2022
Yeah... B) Refuse.
I'm not a fan of puppet masters. Maybe her original personality is deep inside her somewhere and you could bring it back out.
@ampersandman Feb 2022
Like all the previous tracks this soundtrack goes so well with reading that story. Such tension in the buildup, and the second part is just marvelous when the voice comes in. Masterful.
And of course taking the offer is not an option, I think you can say as a general rule that persons who puppet an undead king are not good company, so B) has my vote.