Necroscream
| Developed by Aia, the founder of the Cacophony Guild, along with the Dead Voice of the Elder God Jagrerox, Necroscream is an intense musical style that is known for its volume as much as its beat and vivid lyrics. |
| Composition | Master | You may compose songs expressing your own creativity. |
| Sustain | Master | The ability to maintain a song. |
| VileBlood | Master | Let dark music surge through the blood of allies. |
| UndeadBlues | Master +33% | Undead flesh can withstand physical punishment. |
| DiscordantChord | Master +66% | This painful chord shall crush the disharmonic soul. |
| TortureSong | Gifted | Bindings will cut into the flesh of your enemies. |
| DespairWeb | Gifted +33% | Entanglements will hold enemies longer. |
| Refrain | Gifted +66% | A musical structure that allows repetition of a stanza. |
| NecroBallad | Expert | Who will flourish under the ballads of the dead? |
| CarillonKnell | Expert +33% | The raging sound of Ashtorath harms plague victims. |
| SickeningPlague | Expert +66% | Plague your enemies with pox and hunger. |
| CaptiveAudience | Virtuoso | Both friends and enemies hear nothing but your songs. |
| SobbingDread | Virtuoso +33% | A dark despair so deep it is difficult to move. |
| EngineWords | Virtuoso +66% | A sound to inspire the citizens of Magnagora. |
| DemonSong | Fabled | Demons who hear will increase their speed. |
| QueensLament | Fabled +33% | Let the Laments of Nifilhema touch another. |
| WrathfulCanticle | Fabled +66% | The wrath of Ashtorath shall incite terrible violence. |
| Encore | Mythical | Play a rousing encore performance. |
| TaintedLove | Mythical +25% | Love for you can be a twisted and cruel gift--or not. |
| DarkMaster | Mythical +50% | All must obey the Voice of the Dark Master! |
| BlackDeath | Mythical +75% | This terrible tone will cause plagues to persist. |
| Threnody | Transcendent | Accompany enemies to the grave with the song of death. |
Composition
| Syntax: |
| COMPOSE NEW <song> COMPOSE LIST |
As your ability in your song specialization increases, you will be able to compose new songs. You can write your own song and sets it in stanzas. Each song can consist of up to 9 stanzas, and certain powers can also be invested in each stanza. Powers are divided into 3 types Low (L), Medium (M) and High (H). Low types can only invested in stanzas 1-3, medium in stanzas 4-6 and High in stanzas 7-9. Low stanzas generally have simple effects, medium stanzas have stronger effects, and high stanzas have very strong effects. Some song powers need to be targetted and others will create a passive effect that stays around you. As a general rule, you will not be able to stack passive effects.
When playing a custom song, it always begins in stanza 1, each time you play the song, it progresses to the next stanza until the song ends or you change to another song or a certain amount of time elapses, whichever comes first. Note that before the time elapses, you can take other actions so long as you continue your performance before the time elapses.
| Additional Notes: |
| Whenever you play a song, all the effects of the song (excluding targetted ones) up to whatever you've played are active as long as the song is playing, and each one will tick every ten seconds. You can't control when each effect ticks relative to the others. Thus, performing a song is more like raising defenses in advance than it is like attacking.
How long a song lasts from the last time it was played depends on your skill in Music and its specialization, and in Dramatics, plus on your intelligence and charisma, and can be extended with a Tempo enchantment. Most song effects will impact only allies or enemies, and then, only those who are not deaf and not captivated by another bard. Even you, yourself, won't be affected by your own song if you're deaf. Note that what is called a "stanza" here is really a single line, with a limit of 65 characters. If you don't imbue a power into a stanza, it won't cost mana or ego when it's played, so you can use unimbued songs for performances. Imbued stanzas will have a description when played that's impacted by the imbued power. Note that you can change the imbued power in a stanza in a song already in progress, and the change will take effect immediately. This does not consume equilibrium or balance. |
Sustain
| Syntax: |
| SUSTAIN |
This ability will allow you to slow the music you are playing to imperceptible levels, effectively freezing the music in place.
| Additional Notes: |
| The purpose of sustaining your song is to freeze it so it's inactive (none of the effects will impact anyone) but is no longer ticking down to its time running out. You can then reactivate it before you need it by playing a single stanza (or refraining, if you have the Refrain skill), which reactivates all the effects in all played stanzas instantly. |
VileBlood
| Stanza: Low (1-3) Targetable: No |
While the song plays, the dark strength of this music will flow through the blood of you and your allies, which can burn away ailments. Also, this song has a peculiar effect on the viscanti race, as vile blood coursing through their veins fleshes out their figures and gives them more confidence, affording viscanti +3 charisma buff.
UndeadBlues
| Stanza: Low (1-3) Targetable: No |
This interesting sound turns you and your allies into the undead, for the duration of the song. All undead (including liches) will have a slight resistance to physical and cold damage. Further, it allows influencing of undead.
DiscordantChord
| Syntax: |
| PLAY DISCORDANTCHORD <target> |
| Power: Variable (Any) Damage Type: 100% Magic |
The discordant chord is tuned to especially harm those ears which are already suffering the tonal ailments of a musician, doing greater damage the greater the number of these afflictions the victim has. The power cost is 2 power for each affliction the victim has from among: manabarbs, powerspikes, egovice, and an achromatic aura. If the hapless victim suffers all four of these tonal disorders, their suffering shall be grievous indeed - losing half their mana and ego in addition to immense pain.
If you have an octave active in the room, its magical ability to block the curing of auric ailments will prevent then from being consumed by the discordant chord. Additionally, it will increase the damage of your chord for no extra power cost.
TortureSong
| Stanza: Low (1-3) Targetable: No |
Those enemies who are bound by most physical cords will find that their flesh is cut into ribbons whenever they writhe free.
DespairWeb
| Stanza: Low (1-3) Targetable: No |
If an enemy is entangled while the song is played, it will take them longer than normal to writhe free.
Refrain
| Syntax: |
| PERFORM REFRAIN <song> [<target>] |
Instead of moving forward in the stanzas of a song, you can repeat the last stanza you performed as a refrain. You can refrain as many times as you desire.
| Additional Notes: |
| Refraining allows you to keep a song going without running out of stanzas to play, and also can be used to repeatedly use a targetted power. |
NecroBallad
| Stanza: Low (1-3) Targetable: No |
While the song plays, all undead (including those made undead by Undead Blues) will regenerate their health, mana, ego, willpower, and endurance.
CarillonKnell
| Stanza: Mid (4-6) Targetable: No |
When the knell of the Carillon of Screaming Hatreds is heard, your enemies who suffer from plague will be drained of health, mana, and ego. The amount of damage depends on the number of plague afflictions your victim suffers.
SickeningPlague
| Stanza: Mid (4-6) Targetable: No |
While the song plays, your enemies who hear it will cry out from dreaded disease as well as suffer from the deprivations of hunger.
CaptiveAudience
| Syntax: |
| CAPTIVATE AUDIENCE |
This will effect all allies and enemies in the room who can hear and are not already captivated by a bard. Those who are captivated will only pay attention to your songs and thus will only be affected (either negatively or positively) by your song effects. Blanknote or Blankchord will break the captivation.
SobbingDread
| Stanza: Mid (4-6) Targetable: No |
The dreadful sounds of this music will make enemies sob and be filled with despair, causing them to stumble when moving.
EngineWords
| Stanza: Mid (4-6) Targetable: No |
This rousing music will inspire the citizens of Magnagora to greater heights, causing the damage they do to be increased. This powerful sound was inspired by the lyrics of "Words of the Engine" by Aia, the first guildmistress and founder of the guild.
| Additional Notes: |
| Affects all Magnagorans, even if they're not your ally, even if they're enemied. |
DemonSong
| Stanza: Mid (4-6) Targetable: No |
Any demon who hears this song will go into a frenzy, attacking at a faster rate than normal.
QueensLament
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: Yes |
This song mimics the voice of Queen Nifilhema, and must be directed at a target. The victim will be bound and subject to unspeakable tortures.
WrathfulCanticle
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: No |
The Wrathful Canticles of Ashtorath inspire unending torment to your enemies, especially those afflicted with plague afflictions. It will cause them to be filled with new afflictions, the severity of which increases as the number of plague afflictions increases.
Encore
| Syntax: |
| ENCORE PERFORMANCE |
| Power: 5 (Any) |
By playing an encore performance, you will speed quickly through your song at a faster tempo - your recovery of equilibrium when playing songs will be halved.
TaintedLove
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: No |
If you stand upon tainted ground, those who love you will be strongly affected. If an ally, their equilibrium and balance recovery will be faster in your presence. If an enemy, the love will become twisted and they will find themselves to be slower in your presence.
DarkMaster
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: No |
When the sound of the Dark Master swells within you, you can use his voice to command others to do your bidding, i.e. COMMAND <target> <action>.
BlackDeath
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: No |
While this terrible tone plays, your enemies who are diseased by the ailments of the sickening plague will find it hard to cure these ailments as there is a chance that they will come back but moments later.
Threnody
| Stanza: High (7-9) Targetable: Yes |
Let the music of the threnody escort your enemies to the sweet oblivion of death. Once you start the killing note, you can do nothing that will disrupt the song.
| Additional Notes: |
| Any action disrupts the attack, which takes eight seconds and has two messages before the final (and fatal) third message. If the victim is gone or deaf at any of these messages the song will fail. |