Neverending Nights

Featuring more music from the incredible Travis Richards who provided us tracks to use for the show. I want to continue show casing the music without any audio over it and having the music lowered. Some of the tracks he provided us were never used (often times because he provided different songs for the same ideas, so one of his other amazing tracks got used instead). I used this track several times – it is originally entitled “Untitled” – but it always run with me, the vibe it gave was something that was coming but unknown, like a Prophecy, so I cut it to the scene where a prophecy is given to our would be heroes.

Featuring more music from the incredible Travis Richards who provided us tracks to use for the show. I want to continue show casing the music without any audio over it and having the music lowered. Some of the tracks he provided us were never used (often times because he provided different songs for the same ideas, so one of his other amazing tracks got used instead). This one I used quite a bit in the background (I think it was mostly in towns) but the title track was called “Salvation”, so when I decided to splice it to make it a music video, I’d honor the title that Travis gave it and make it about the hero’s salvation.

Featuring more music from the incredible Travis Richards who provided us tracks to use for the show. I want to continue show casing the music without any audio over it and having the music lowered. Some of the tracks he provided us were never used (often times because he provided different songs for the same ideas, so one of his other amazing tracks got used instead). This one was one that matched the the scene where Peter and Grayson confront the Dragon of Silverlake… and Grayson’s fate is changed forever, and the memories Peter has of Grayson as a result.

So in my previous post about the game, where I was playing James, the bass player in a metal band called Steel Destiny, I did the fake cover of the San Diego Reader (using Savatage members as the members of Steel Destiny and photoshopped the picture of “James” I’d been using in the photo). You can see that post over here. Well in the fake interview I mentioned that the character James talks about how they came up with a song, on the spot, called “Category 7” on the spot. Well, I finally got around to creating those lyrics, because I needed a moment of creativity after how today’s work was.

The first verse is a knock against the fictional band I created for the game (per the GM’s request) called Spiral Tower. Prior to knowing what this band would be used for, I based it off an actual San Diego based band that I love called Psychotic Waltz. You can see more about how I create this band and the references to their song in this post here.

The second verse was a knock against the band Ghost (the real band), because that’s who the fictional band Spiral Tower was supposed to open up for – when things happened and they couldn’t make it – and no one believed Steel Destiny could hold their own because “no one had heard of them.”

So the lyrics were fun to write, because it’s an aggressive song in my head… anyway, here it is.

“Category Seven” – written by Sam Branor and James Aldrich

When your spiral towers have crumbled to the ground,
And the angels cry out, their voices like resounding thunder,
The halo bleeds them dry, the thorns pierce their skin,
As they bleed for mankind’s sins
Now those true to the steel will rise and claim their destiny
And the world will be laid at their feet, for all to see
When they rise to glory
All the world will know their story.

Their voices shall be the thunder
Their guitars shall be the shrill scream of the new angels
Those who do not accept, shall be swept under
Because they’re coming to raise some hell.

The category seven storm washes over the Earth
Metal Music shall now know Steel Destiny
Metal Music shall be awakened by their Rebirth
All the world shall see

We shall not be phantoms with no substance
We are crafted from true steel
We shall bring metal that’s not been seen before, or since,
You will hear our voice, the war drums, and the bass, and know we’re real.
We shall be the Alpha to the Omega, the start to the end,
We shall be the Earth, the Water, the Air, and the Fire,
And the music we bring shall ascend
For nothing will quench our desire.

Our voices shall be the thunder
Our guitars shall be the shrill scream of the new angels
Those who do not accept, shall be swept under
Because they’re coming to raise some hell.

The category seven storm shall rock the hell out of heaven
And our music will cleanse Hell of its sins
We won’t ever stop, we will keep coming back again and again
If you try to fight, you should know, you will never win.

This is our destiny
And it’s time for the world to see
We are forged of steel
We are real.

And naturally had to do a “single” cover for it.

In this, with it being the final game, and having used Savatage as the reference for the band photo – it seemed fitting to use the Savatage font for the title of the single – and the bonus that the word “Savatage” can be spelled with the word “Category Seven” (using the letter “a” twice) is bonus.

There was a time where Peter and Grayson encountered the “Ice Cube Monster” back in Episode 07: Things That Make You Go… Boom?

Well, Karen, who voiced Lady Lorraine, was telling me how her son (now a young man!) named Pierce, who voiced Conner the Chef – both of them appearing in Episode 16: Dessert City – has recently joined his friend D&D Campaign.

Well, here’s what she wrote:

Pierce has joined his friend’s new campaign and is super excited. Lol he also wants me to share his backstory with you because you and NEN is his inspiration for how he ended up in Barovia 

She sent me the back story – and I immediately asked if it was OK if I posted it here… because it’s tied to the aforementioned Ice Cube Monster. Here’s Pierce’s character back story:

For Alain’s final, last-ditch effort to prove a theory of theirs, they hire a team of adventurers and capture a Gelatinous Cube and test if the environment would change the effects it had. Rumors of similar creatures that froze their prey in their acidic body before devouring them spurred the thought behind this experiment. If they were to be believed, then these were the same creatures, just in separate climates. The question became, “Did they evolve separately, or did they adapt to store their prey for longer due to the sparse landscape? Does the allergy to salt really manifest in such a violent manner?” Alain set off with the first team of adventurers who decided they were bored, interested, or desperate enough to transport a live hostile monster from a dungeon in the south to the wilderness of the far cold north.

After months of grueling travel and keeping the damn cube alive, they made it and began the experiment. Going to sleep on the second day, a strange mist rolled over the camp, and Alain awoke in somewhere much much warmer than before.

What I love is – this isn’t the first time Pierce has brought up the Ice Cube Monster. He mentioned it last year too in a post I shared here.

Stuff like this makes my heart so happy. <3

• Tawmis