Musical Inspiration Challenge Part 8: The First Complication

Alan Parson’s “Where’s the Walrus.”

Alright, this is the point where I make a small comment, and then try to buy my brain time to think by copy/pasting the lyrics.

Only problem? This song has no freaking lyrics.

As I said back when I started this, and before I was betrayed by my iPod’s shuffle function, the First Complication represents those weird and incongruous elements that occur in adventurers. It’s there for stuff like wandering dragons, or everything happening in a thunderstorm, or the fun weird nonsense that doesn’t necessarily tie directly with the “aim” of an adventure.

So this is going to be where we get into really weird territory.

My first thought was ‘Sheesh, an instrumental?’ and I was considering just having a giant Walrus factor in. Then I got snarky about the title and was like ‘Ah, it should be a giant invisible walrus!’ Invisible walruses (walrusi?) presumably being a sufficient threat.

But this isn’t really about a given monster. It’s about a complication. Things that make life more complicated. Like having to compose an adventure segment using an instrumental titled after a freaking walrus.

And that’s when it hit me. Stop focusing on the title, and focus on the song. The instrumental (I have a link back in second post in this series) is a driving, kind of 80s song, that has a sense of movement to it. A regular focused driving tune.

And that’s what got me. Amidst the pirate treasure, and the Kate Bush inspired Hellknight, we’ve got a bigger and more annoying complication. The town is being over run, its being turned into a Stepford version of the Hellknight leader’s old memories. And..

It’s about to get wrecked by a terrible storm or wave coming in.

Seriously, that’s where this Walrus song led me to thinking. The party has to locate a part of the old treasure hoard where the Hellknights are held up, that supposedly has the power to stop the weather effect that’s crashing in. This also locks us in at a level below where the players can do that themselves.

The complication? Ah, this is where it gets ridiculous. The item is a magical walrus statue. So they have to ask ‘Where’s my walrus?’ Heh, heh…. I’m not crazy.

Now the song also has some oddities, snippets of dialogue just out of earshot, and some phone dial tones (which might help us thematically tie things back to Computer Eyes). So.. Tying in with the idea of gaslighting people, what if our Hellknight is looking for this item too? Scouring through her recently captured pirate stronghold, trying to find it. And our heroes want it. And the item itself has a mad protector, or guardian beast, who is desperately trying to keep it out of both of their hands. The guardian of course unaware that he’s dooming the nearby village by keeping it out of the players’ hands.

So our complication is that the heroes need to find this freaking walrus statue, which is guarded by a hidebound idiot of a guardian, AND the bad guys are hunting for it too. The bad guys don’t want their village eradicated anymore then the heroes do, after all.

Ah, that’s even better.

The heroes have to find out about this, by overhearing the villains! Will they attempt détente? Try to forge an alliance? Or try to make sure that the Hellknight doesn’t capture the item and secure their control over the township even more?

Complicated.

Working as intended.

Suck it, Walrus!