Musical Inspiration Challenge: Part 9: The First Encounter

With Or Without You by U2

This begins a long march for me. The march of having to figure out 1.) Encounters inspired by music, and 2.) Encounters inspired by what is for the most part very soft music. In a way, I find the challenge somewhat welcoming, but pop music doesn’t especially lend itself to inspiring a fun time of sword slinging.

Still, let’s proceed as before. Onto the lyrics.

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And I'm waiting for you

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live

With or without you
And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give

And you give
And you give yourself away
My hands are tied

My body bruised, she's got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose
And you give yourself away

And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
With or without you

///

Well, a good sixty percent of that song is just Bono going ‘With or Without You,’ or ‘And you give yourself away’ but that’s typical for pop. Still, let’s unpack this.

I mean hell, I salvaged something useful from a freaking instrumental about Walruses, I’m not going to be stymied by this.

The song’s primary meaning is about a troublesome love affair (I think) with the whole crux being on the ‘I can’t live with you or without you,’ and so on. If we pull away the deeper meaning and work on just the superficial though, we can potentially get something out of this.

There’s a mention of a storm that makes it difficult to reach shore, this is obviously intended to be interpreted in a non-literal manner, but we’ve got a magic walrus statue to contend with, and a ramshackle pirate outpost. So let’s examine our current situation..

There’s a terrible storm inbound.

The party needs to find our magical Walrus statue.  

They need to get INTO the formerly pirate, now Hellknight infested compound.

We’ve previously established that there’s a jerk hiding down in town who used to be the boss of this place.

So let’s assume that the guy we were inspired to create from when we were looking at ‘Pirate song’ tells the party there’s  a sneaky way in, past the teeth of the defenses, but it requires moving along tough tidal areas, on a sheer unpleasant cliff face. Furthermore, the route was originally abandoned because..

Now see, the “because” is the important part. We need a creature here. And the song’s theme thankfully provides that. Sleight of hand, romance despite itself, touched with our salty air theme. A siren, or a nereid, or even a hag. Some creature that relies upon misdirection and charm, who lives down there in that clashing unpleasant brine filled craphole (that’s even more treacherous with the storm coming in).

So our party has to deal with an aquatic temptress and her enchanted minions, while contending against the weather, slippery conditions and potential risks of drowning.

Seems like a good first encounter set piece to me. Also, the chaotic tumult might help to serve as a good counterpoint as we move less pirate and more Hellknight, watching the destructive chaos of the storm contrast against the destructive order of the Hellknights.

Phew. Two more encounters to go.