Musical Inspiration Challenge 2! Part 11 -. The Final Battle.

Freeze (Part IV of Fear) by Rush

Rush is a common thing in my lists, and as progressive rockers they have themes and stuff all over the place. Freeze occupies a fun little place. See its part 4 of a trilogy of songs, based on Fear.

Rush indicated that they had never intended for Fear to be an actual trilogy, but on three albums they worked their way back on other songs based around it.

The other songs in the series are the Enemy Within, Witch Hunt, and The Weapon. The idea behind the trilogy was that of a man’s ‘theater of fear’ where he was attempting to posit his philosophy that mankind’s driving emotion was not love, but fear. Each of the songs, as evidenced in an interview with Neil Peart represents how fear affects us differently whether it be how fear works within us (The Enemy Within), how it’s used against us (The Weapon) or how it functions with society (Witch Hunt). Freeze came out eighteen years after the first part though. What its meant to represent, I’m not one hundred percent sure about.

Anyway, our lyrics..

 (from songlyrics.com)

The city crouches, steaming
In the early morning half light
The sun is still a rumor
And the night is still a threat
Slipping through the dark streets
And the echoes and the shadows
Something stirs behind me
And my palms begin to sweat

Sometimes I freeze...until the light comes
Sometimes I fly...into the night
Sometimes I fight...against the darkness
Sometimes I'm wrong...sometimes I'm right

Coiled for the spring
Or caught like a creature in the headlights
Into a desperate panic
Or a tempest of blind fury
Like a cornered beast
Or a conquering hero

The menace threatens, closing
And I'm frozen in the shadows
I'm not prepared to run away
And I'm not prepared to fight

I can't stand to reason
Or surrender to a reflex
I will trust my instincts
Or surrender to my fright

Sometimes we freeze...until the light comes
Sometimes we're wrong...and sometimes we're right
Sometimes we fight...against the darkness
Sometimes we fly...into the night

Blood running cold
Mind going down into a dark night
Of a desperate panic
Or a tempest of blind fury
Like a cornered beast
Or a conquering hero

Sometimes I freeze
Sometimes I fight
Sometimes I fly
Into the night

We’re not doing song exegesis here, but it seems to be about the choice of how to react to fear. Whether you give in, surrender, fly or fight. Based on this, our primary foe’s final encounter should be one to revolve around fear.

Fear is usually a bad mechanic in D&D style games. Compelling emotions out of players is difficult, and they rankle when their characters are forced to feel things they don’t. Still, strange imagery, illusions, and the ‘trappings of fear’ can make for a fun or compelling encounter.

I’d probably make this encounter occur in some dark underground treatment center. A forgotten hospital wing or something similar, and allow for the encounter to range across a wider area to convince the heroes to spread out.

Our final throw down with our bad guy should occur at the darkest part of the old folks home / deathcamp/ asylum, and should involve him attempting to use the fears of the party (and any awakened elderly heroes) against them.

With his own fear, the fear that ultimately there is a judgment, ultimately being brought to bear against him.