AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic - Content Challenge: Ballad of the Ghostly Kraken

As part of the upcoming addition of the Ghostly Kraken tavern, I thought it only fitting that there be a proper "house ballad" that is regularly sung / played there. To this end I will be taking submissions for what this ballad might be. I don't really have any particular form in mind, so use your imagination, though lets keep it to a few scores please, not pages and pages

The ballad that is chosen will find itself placed in the module atop the piano in the new tavern.

Happy writing!

Ooo, fun!

Submissions to be posted here? Or PM'd?

Dibs.

Ooo... Gonna give it a shot!

Liz wrote:

Ooo, fun!

Submissions to be posted here? Or PM'd?

Either is fine.

Submission:
---
"Ballad of the Ghostly Kraken" by Gobbledygook.

In a town by the water
There is an old tale,
Of a monster yet seen long ago.
It was the worry of Kings
And unspoken things,
A nightmare that all seemed to harken...
...'twas the Kraken!

The beast was a shrouded dark
Figure in water,
With tendrils of deadly promises.
It took ships by the dozen
Waters did roughen,
For the town all things seemed to darken...
...'twas the Kraken!

Brave men did set sail all armed
and feeling ready,
To shoot it with a score of harpoons.
But the monster did kill them
Ripping head from stem,
And threw them as food for the shark'en...
...'twas the Kraken!

A cunning bright plan was thought
Up by a sailor,
To join up the lightning to the sea.
So men went out to kill it
Perhaps just lure it,
And what died when the sky did sparken?
...'twas the Kraken!

The town is doing well and
Never forgotten,
Is the tale of the ghostly kraken.
Only the story remains
But words to stay sane,
Whispered from them as they embarken?
"...'twas the Kraken!"
---

Note: This is how it goes! -> http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ViIlMaG9Ww

This should be IC pretty please?

I gave myself a tongue hernia trying to make those last two lines of each section rhyme, Gobbledygook. Haha

Well, I'm not sure this is precisely what was asked for, but... hey, it's what came to me.

The Ballad of the Kraken’s Bride

Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of stars
swim with me beneath the sea
we’ll sup on kelp and caviar
how lovely it will surely be

to feel your blood run cold and thin
below the livid crushing waves
and skirl among the skeletons
and shells of ships in swaying graves

love, stroll the sea-mud shores with me
amid the squid and dead-eyed sharks
we’ll waltz among anemone
I’ll braid your hair in the blue and dark

we’ll twine together, shed your clothes
laze in the ooze and let it seep
into your mouth, between your toes
sinking through the silt you’ll sleep

and breathe your hearty fill of mud
and drowse and dream the deathless sea
forevermore beneath the flood
forevermore my love you’ll be.

To be sung slowly, elegaically, in minor key.

Gobbledygook dude I'm totally gonna learn this and sing it with my friends when I get drunk at the local pub. This is awesome.

A Lovely Day That Never Comes –Sunkin Sheep

o/’ The night is black as kraken’s ink,
You’ll get lost on your way back home,
Your harpoons will break on the rocks
You’ll swing from the ropes alone.

Your hair will fall off of your scalp
And your knife out of its sheathe,
Your blood will rust on your dry bones
You’ll eat with wooden teeth.

So, fill your glass up with the ocean
And swallow the fish out of the sea.
I’ll put sand inside your pockets
And you can sing along with me:
Tomorrow is black as kraken’s ink
~But who the hell needs a compass?~
It’s just a lovely day that never comes.

Your lovers are decomposing
And your friends will all go too
Just leave your nightmares at the door
And get lost with us in suit.

Time won’t stop to give you
The things that you seek.
Be glad you have what you do now
Cuz nothing is yours to keep.

Fill your glass up with the ocean
And swallow the fish out of the sea.
I’ll put some sand inside your pockets
And you can sing along with me:
Tomorrow is black as kraken’s ink
~But who the hell needs a compass?~
It’s just a lovely day that never comes.

Tomorrow is black as kraken’s ink
~But who the hell needs a compass?~
It’s just a lovely day that never comes.

It’s just a lovely day that never comes. o/'

Basic idea of the the ditty: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0CbAOX4KYs1
I screwed up on my own lyrics in the recording, but meh! Editing is for chumps!

I LOVE Gobbledys

I actually think all three so far are cool, I'd love to hear Tom Waits do Liz's and Sunkin Sheep's.

But Gobbledygooks' one... that tune is catchy as living hell. Neat lyrics to go with it, too, captured the spirit of a drunken shanty perfectly. 3 AM over here and I couldn't sit my arse still 'til I caught the chords and stitched this together to lull me to sleep:

http://www.2shared.com/audio/Xc4ueuLa/kraken.html

Too jolly for Tarkuul perhaps. But I've got me an Irish/Sea-shanty band with some mates, will see if I can get them to do it proper.

Wow, Ballad of the Ghostly Kraken really does get stuck in the head, doesn't it. I just found myself humming it while I was working on some stuff.

Liz wrote:

Well, I'm not sure this is precisely what was asked for, but... hey, it's what came to me.

The Ballad of the Kraken’s Bride

Love it!

Thanks for the feedback!

Baklava, that was awesome! Pretty close to what I composed as little fillers. I think I was originally thinking of a lute, flute and violin... But now I'm kinda thinking this would be awesome on the accordion.

I really loved Sunkin's. Very dark, and very cool!

Yeah, I'm totally pulling for Sunkin's too.

Submissions closed, thanks for those who posted

Check out the new tavern after the next update!

Content Challenge: Ballad of the Ghostly Kraken

Who is online