Historically, nursery rhymes have always been a bit creepy – there are plenty of times where fairly horrible events eventually became children’s songs, echoed thru the generations. The Carrion Crown campaign takes advantage of this, and uses a similar pattern to provide clues and context to the historical events of the story. Long before, there was a catastrophic fire at the Harrowstone Prison, which claimed the lives of the prison guards, the warden, and most of the prisoners. The cause of the fire was unknown, but at the time, several prolific prisoners were amongst the victims, murders and criminals who had a large impact on the regional population.
Over the last 50 years, those events then trickled down into the nursery rhymes, into a song the children sing while skipping rope – thus the Skipping Song.
This was recorded with the help of my friends, William and Savanah Manly, who were rather excited to be part of the storyline to create atmospheric prop. The mix was then a fairly basic jumbling of the voices. The feel I was going for was sort of a Children of the Corn vibe, I specifically asked them to try to be monotone in the words.
During the game, the group encountered the children while exploring the town of Ravengro, searching for clues regarding the ruins of the Harrowstone Prison.
Put her body on the bed. Take a knife and lop her head. Watch the blood come out the pipe. Feeds the stirge, so nice and ripe. Drops of red so sparkly bright. Splatters spell her name just right. With a hammer killed his wife. Now he wants to claim your life. Tricksy father tells a lie. Listen close or you will die.
