Daazelbazan - City of the Anti-Hero Bards

"To rage in sound this valiant despair

Doom and gloom as each a splendid pair..."

Field Guide to the Shadowdrift

Hex #247

Daazelbazan is a walled city in an ash-gray landscape. Far from the legendary splendors of Celephais or the sandstone walls and brass towers of Piety, Daazelbazan is only gray stone and black smoke. A tight cluster of narrow streets, halls of drunkenness, alleys of murder and dens of corruption and perversions of every sort. It is also rumored that behind the facades of the pleasure palaces and houses of ill repute, one will find temples and sanctuaries devoted to monstrous deities of unspeakable aspect.

But the city became known for something else entirely; the strange music created by a small collective of bards and performers who had taken refuge in the derelict quarters of the city. It was rumored that the music was of an intensity and sound unlike anything heard outside of the city's walls. Some said it was used to summon demonic beings or to inspire extra-dimensional trances. Others said it was merely a reaction to  the oppressive surroundings.

Scrolls and books of Daazelbazan songs became highly sought-after and fetched high prices in lands far away. But the serious enthusiasts traveled to the forbidden city to learn from the originators of the sound. They learned to down-tune their lutes and citoles to a grim discord  They affixed their hurdy gurdies with extra strings to create unearthly drones. The strings of harps were cut and re-adjusted so to make a high-pitched scraping sounds. A psaltery was played with a metal chip very quickly, creating a sound like the clang of swords. Horns were fashioned from tree limbs harvested from haunted forests or from troll bones. Drums were made from similar ghostly trees and beast hides.

Alternate Bard Templates:


DOOMSKALD
Scribe and lyricist of grim lore. Can recite and chant accounts and sagas of the most baneful of histories. Will play a haunting and sorrowful melody which can cause feelings of crushing guilt, grief, and hopelessness.

DRONE WITCH
Can use a stringed instrument or horn to create an oppressive drone that can cause madness, energy drain and fear.

LUNGSMEN
Carry long pipes which are used for the ritualistic smoking of mystic herbs as well as for creating a loud meditative resonance that can produce a slow, soporific effect.

Other favorite Anti Hero Bards~