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Scene - Strings - Spooptober Day 19

They'd all been feeling it, ever since they arrived here. At first, they'd suspected it was the doing of the devil, that he was puppeteering them for his amusement, but several detect magic spells from Evelyn and Strix had concluded that that wasn't the case.

It had started small at first; a small whisper in their minds. Paultin had shrugged it off, just putting it down to his rival trying to mess with him. Evelyn had insisted it was her god Lathander while Strix insisted it was Strahd's doing. 

Diath had been taking notes, paying close attention to what his little voice said. It'd been little quips mostly, mutterings of jokes followed by the faint sound of raucous laughter. He noted mentions of the names 'Jared,' 'Chris,' 'Nate.' The name Chris was the most commonly uttered one, often said in anger or disbelief. Not only that but there were mentions of dice and rolling for attacks and damage. He didn't like this, not one bit. Occasionally he found he had large portions of time where reality itself seemed to stop around him, but they were quickly wiped from his mind. In those periods, names like 'Heidi,' 'Satch,' 'Jirard,' and, funnily enough, his own name, were spoken. He'd only managed to note those down once or twice, as reality often resumed when they were in the thick of trouble.

When he brought his findings up to the rest of the Waffle Crew, he was met with a stunned silence.

Strix shifted nervously, fiddling with her robe. "You mean I'm not the only one going crazy? Thank goodness."

Evelyn tried to be cheerful, but the worry was clear on her face. "Don't be silly Strix, we're not going crazy, this is just the great Lathander giving us guidance."

"How many times do I have to tell you; Lathander isn't the power here, Strahd is. Besides, why would Butthander want to give me visions of pigeons?"

Diath's eyes widened, "you've been getting actual vision?"

"Yeah, I keep seeing a crapton of birds and this super skinny dude. I think his name's Ross?"

"Now I'm scared, to even open my mouth, because there's something deep inside of me you don't know about."

Everyone looked at Paultin, he had his lute in his arms and was playing a rather intense melody. His blue eyes were closed and his brow was furrowed in concentration.

"And I wish, there was a way you could see, if I could show maybe I'd know if I'm a man or a beast."

"Paultin?" Evelyn was concerned, she'd never seen that expression on the bard's face before. It was as though he was deep in thought, but that it was causing him pain.

The melody switched to something faster, angrier;

"We're back, revamped, the madness never ends. We're not alone, this time we brought some friends."

The paladin recoiled as the bard sung this new song. The notes themselves seemed to be filled with a great evil, one the likes of which she'd never encountered.

The bard stopped abruptly, a hand tangling in his golden locks, his face contorted in near agony.

Diath darted forward, arms going around his friend, taking the lute from him.

"NO!" 

The rogue jumped back, releasing Paultin in his shock. 

Paultin grabbed for his lute and started playing again, hands a blur over the strings.

"A new world awaits for you, through night and day, it's yours to save. From Kokiri to your destiny."

The others could only watch in mixed amazement and horror as music poured from their bard, the tempo of his playing going from the relatively subdued verse to the frenzy of the intro for what they assumed was a chorus.

"In you I know we'll find, the hero of our time, an evil king has come to reign. All that you know, you'll be leaving it behind, look deep inside sure enough you'll find, the courage to win now you'd best be on your way, for you have a demon to slay."

The playing got faster with each chorus, more frantic. Now the party was scared; they could see the bard's fingers begin to bleed from the strings.

Strix grasped her staff tightly and swung at Paultin's instrument, knocking it away and knocking him out of his trance-like state.

He blinked a few times at her, eyes full of bewilderment, "Strix? Why did you-?"

"Okay Paultin what the hell was that?"

Paultin squinted at the teifling, his confusion only growing. "What was what?" 

Diath moved back over to Paultin's side, putting an arm around him again. "Paultin, buddy, we were talking about voices, ones we'd all been hearing, when suddenly you just started playing snippets of random songs?"

Understanding dawned on his face, "Oh, you guys talking about those voices just kinda reminded me of songs I'd heard from my own little voice. And the weird thing is it's not my rival's voice... at least I don't think it is."

Evelyn moved in now, reluctantly tearing strips off her cloak to bandage Paultin's fingers. "Paultin you're not gonna be able to play for a while I'm afraid, that little episode did a huge number on your hands."

He looked down at his injured fingers blankly. "Yeah, thanks." His gaze swept over his friends, he needed to ask this, it was something that had been bothering him. "Hey, um, along with those voices, have you guys felt like," a pause, how was he gonna word this without them thinking he was crazy? Well, crazier than usual. "have you felt like you were being controlled?"

All activity ceased and a collective shiver ran through the other three as they all averted their eyes.

It was Strix who spoke up first, "like strings attached to our joints, like we're dangling there like marionettes under some cruel puppetmaster's control."

Evelyn spoke next, "like we're being observed almost every second."

Diath continued the thought, arms wrapped around himself defensively. "like our pain and suffering in this cursed land is all a game for the amusement of beings from another plane. Yeah, we've all felt it. It's torture, knowing our actions aren't really our own. There are moments, though, times like this when the strings go slack and the thousands of eyes close."

Evelyn finished bandaging Paultin's fingers and went back to where she was sat before, taking out Juniper and setting the mouse on the ground. "Moments when the voices diminish to a whisper and our thoughts are finally ours again."

"We're gonna forget this, though, we always do. It'll be like this conversation never happened." Strix pointed out dully.

Diath had already taken out his notebook and began writing. "No," he mumbled as he wrote. "No, I'm not gonna forget this without a fight. Whoever's pulling my strings doesn't know about this book. They don't know I know they exist. I've been writing these things down ever since it started when we arrived here and once I figure out who's controlling me I'll be able to break free of their control."

Paultin rummaged in his pack and pulled out a few blank music sheets before remembering he couldn't write in this state and handing the sheets to Strix. "Here, before you forget."

The teifling accepted the papers with a nod and pulled a charcoal stick from her robes, scribbling frantically.

Minutes passed in near silence, the only sounds coming from Strix and Diath's writing. Paultin looked at Evelyn with concern; he'd never seen her so sullen. In fact, he didn't think such an expression was even physically possible for her.

He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but the words caught in his throat. He knew that Evelyn could feel it too; the eyes were back, they'd opened.

Strix and Diath stiffened, they felt it too.

The eyes had opened.

The strings went taut.

The memories of the conversation they'd just had were washed away like writing in the sand.

With the last ounce of control they had, the teifling and the rogue quickly stowed away their writing as that fake cheer filled their minds once more.

"Hello everybody and welcome back to Dice, Camera, Action."