This Round Is Done!

We need to do a concept album. A set of songs telling the story of Caleb The Killer. The story will be in 8 chapters (assuming we don't get bored) with the first 4 done in Round 7, and the final 4 in Round 8.

Here's chapters 1-4 of the story, with an explanation of how this round will work after.

Chapter 1: A Train Station Coin Locker

Our hero is born into the land an ugly mutant and abandoned at a train station by his desperate parents, stuffed into a coin locker. A nun finds him, and takes him to be raised at an orphanage. He is given the name Caleb. He grows up an orphan, ugly, and not very smart, but he has a terrible gift the nuns try to hide from him.

Setup: Dorian or minor pentatonic in 3/4 time.

Chapter 2: A Killing Machine

Caleb is out buying food for the orphanage at the market when street thugs try to steal his money. He fights back even though the nuns told him to never raise his hand against another man. He also finds out the reason they told him this is because he is the perfect killing machine. His body is disfigured but strong as diamonds, making him a deadly force against the thugs.

The captain of the King's guards see Caleb take sword blows without so much as wincing and immediately asks him to become one of King Theo's royal guards. Caleb serves King Theo well for years, helping the King establish even more lands in far away battles.

Setup: Metal Aeolian, but timid, uncertain. Free time. That's right, no time.

Chapter 3: The King's Death Dealer In Love

He returns to the kingdom a decorated hero but he can't wash the stench of blood from his fists. His powerful body is even more contorted, as he discovered in his battles that it hardens further the more he fights.

His return home is more of a retirement than anything.

Even though he can't have her, he pines for the King's daughter, Princess Telem. He dreams of living in the palace as the family's guardian, so he can at least be near her.

Setup: Happy Ionian, rock, or jazzy with a bit of fatigue. 12/8 time.

Chapter 4: The Wizard Zed

The evil wizard Zed appears one day in the Royal court to steal princess Telem. Zed made a deal with King Theo that he failed to honor and Zed wants his payment back. The deal was King Theo's enemies would fall if Zed was given Telem as his own. King Theo refused so Zed decides to take her.

Caleb tries to fight Zed but loses ('cause Zed is such a badass) and she is taken anyway.

Setup: Black Metal phrygian, ridiculous over the top theatrics. 4/4 time.

How This Will Work

Alright, this is a challenge in creative interpretation. We've done a lot of musical stuff, but nothing that demanded interpreting something slightly odd ball. The key to this is take the above fairly ridiculous story and have fun with it.

However, there's four chapters, which is a bit much for most people, and we want everyone to play. So what we'll do is use the comments on this round to figure out what chapters we'll all do in order to get good coverage. Nothing set in stone, just get a discussion going of what people will work on so others can try to do things nobody else is doing yet.

There should be enough players that if everyone does 1 or 2 chapters then we can have a good competition with different interpretations of each chapter, and work out a pretty fun little "album".

For inspiration, even though it's an advertisement for Milk, you gotta go see Battle For Milkquarious It's a hilarious rock opera, and actually pretty damn brilliant.

I'm A Serious Musician With No Time For D&D Music

If the above idea of doing a weird concept album about a mutant in a magical land doesn't sound like fun to you, then just pick one of the "setups" from above and, like, do whatever it is serious musicians do.