Eternal Resonance: Schumann's Dream

Edit: So to break the tie between Caesura and Feurig, I rolled 2d10, assigned each vote a die, and the highest (Caesura in this case) won.
Would've rerolled if they came up equal

[X] The east gate leads to the Caesura Moor, where you can see skytrains criss-crossing up above, the moor being littered with their old tracks.
[X] Keysword (keyboard-sword) and piano lid shield.

---

Heading to the moors gate also meant going back through town the way you'd come, which you didn't mind much since it was your first time here after all. Well, first time if this really wasn't Zwickau. Dream Zwickau might be the term.

You'd expect there to be a little unruliness the day leading up to a Festival, but you soon saw the residents of the town were quite neat and well-mannered. The pleasantness they exuded reminded you of some idealised painting of German villagers.

Passing through an idyllic riverside garden first, you came to a stone bridge lined with lampposts going over the River Flow, you presumed. While there, Cadence pointed out a pebble-strewn shore and said, "That's where I found you this morning, you would've been swept downstream from the Overture Mountains. I was gathering flowers for a festival float when I saw you all washed up".

Craning your head to look closer, it seemed like an ordinary enough riverbank, so you took it that whatever had summoned you there would've been further up those mountains. That is, if anything had summoned you at all beyond your own mind.

Approaching the gate, you were met by guards clad in full armour, if with a couple of C-holes for ventilation. They promptly asked "Halt! Who goes there! Do you know what lies beyond these walls?" and crossed their… Cellances? Lancellos? It didn't help you were already armed, if with a piano and baton.

"Gentleman, relax! It's me, Cadence the town Conductor. Don't worry about my new friend Miss Clara, she's new around here, so I was just helping her get her bearings," Cadence was quick to explain.

"Missus Clara, actually," you instinctively reminded him.


The guards slowly parted their lancellos, even if their faces were covered you could still feel them eyeing you. "Proceed," they stated in unison.

Though you were cleared, you still couldn't help but flinch. "High security for a country town, I have to say. I'd guess there's highway bandits around, right?" you figured.

Cadence had to grin at that. "Oh Clara, bandits would be a blessing," he said, not helping to ease your tension.




You walked out to a murky green expanse, kept in humid stillness by the grey clouds overhead, the occasional ray of sun shimmering like a mirage. The calling of birds and croaking of frogs gave these moors a music of their own and strewn throughout the swamp were the rusted train-tracks Cadence had told you about, with even some old, empty carriages around.

You only took a few steps before a sudden wind swept over you, caused by a whole train flying above you, headed south. "S-so that's the skytrain?" you mumbled, looking straight up.

"A skytrain," Cadence chimed in, "Heh, I'm guessing there are no stations in Germany."

"Well, w-we have stations of course, just… not for these," you remarked, nearly breathless.

Cadence cautioned you to stay on the stone road, if you didn't want your clothes to get all muddied before the Festival. As you walked along, he explained, "A lot of skytrain routes cross the moors, the logic is in case of a crash, it's better to have a soft, if sticky, landing. Plus, any route north of Hauptstimme would be… treacherous."

"Why, because of sky bandits?" it amused you to say, even if those may be a genuine threat in a world like this.

"No, because of witches and warlocks," Cadence said with a straight face, "They use their devil music to stir up whole tornadoes on the Pastorale Plains north of here. Guess they just don't like technology or something."

You just nodded at that, before Cadence had to suddenly grab and pull you back. Jolted to full attention, you saw what looked like a pile of metallic sludge covering the hills ahead of you, even seeping into the ponds nearby.

"We call that Liquid Noise," Cadence said, "Whole swathes of the land are covered in it. Long ago, we used it to fuel great machines called Instruments of War, and for our hubris, this waste that stains our world was what we got".

Per his words, you could spot several machine parts lying submerged in the Noise. "So, it's poisonous to the touch then?" you asked.

"Worse," Cadence said, and as if to prove his point, a crane that'd been hit by you guessed a skytrain, feel straight down into the Noise. What then emerged was a monster, a black-and-red bird with reeds for a beak and what looked like flutes or some other woodwind for legs.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwOZcsdhfY


The crane came right up and attacked you, delivering a spinning kick with each leg, the sound through the holes piping up at you. On instinct, you blocked the attack with your shield like the lid of an upright piano.

While you guarded yourself from the crane, Cadence had time to run and behind and strike with a four-hit combo from his baton. When you then slashed with your keysword from the front though, the noise-crane used its case-like wings to block your blows.

"I see, don't strike these… creatures from the front," you told yourself. Saying that against a human opponent would be giving your strategy away, but to a mutated monster, you took it there was little harm.

"Right, now allow me," Cadence said, as while you'd gotten the crane blocking from the front, he got it in a few more hits with his baton before suddenly pointing it straight up and saying, "Volley of horns, unleash your fire. Brass Battalion!"

Three waves of brass instruments materialised either side of him, first quick-firing trumpets, then spread-fire horns and sniping trombones, then lastly cannon-like tubas. With the crane monster recoiling and collapsing from the sonic barrage, the levitating brass then vanished as quickly as it had materialised.


"W-what was that?!" you exclaimed.

"We call those creatures Inner Demons," Cadence said, "Normally, when someone or something touches the Liquid Noise directly, it causes their sins and vices to manifest as a monstrous Inner Demons. But ingesting the Noise or being submerged it in as this poor crane was, will transform you outright into one of them. Ah, I suppose the harm to the local birds is the trade-off for all these trains flying overhead."

"…Good to know, but that isn't quite what I was asking," you told him, "I mean, those brass instruments, h-how did they appear, and where did they go?"

"Oh, those," Cadence had to laugh, before he explained, "we're told we all have a jewel in our hearts, and it creates a unique resonance we call a Signature, and I don't mean how you write your name. It was me calling that on my Signature that let those horns emerge forth from my soul."

"Er, that's a lot to take in," you muttered, hands on your temples. "Wait, so just anyone can do this? And are those 'Inner Demons' just Signatures called on by the Noise?"

"Ah, good as always to see you learn quickly," Cadence smiled, then said, "Actually Clara, you didn't handle yourself too badly for your first time against an Inner Demon."

"I… have experience," you told him, quickly adding, "Not against Demons, no, but I once had to navigate my way through a city-wide riot. It's, well, not dissimilar."

"Huh, Germany continues to sound more and more interesting," Cadence chuckled.

---

[Treasure found in the area: Floral Powder x2]

Heading further into the moor brought you to a whole railroad bridge sunken into the swamp. Cautiously making your way across it, you then came to a series of lakes, with what looked like city gates on the far shore.

"Huh, must've lost track of time, if we're this close to Hauptstimme," Cadence remarked and shook his head, "Best be heading back now, we want to be in Sortita before the Festival starts after all."
Score Piece! x1
As you were about to turn around, a young man's voice suddenly called out to you, "My Chiarina, fancy seeing you here." The voice was somewhat familiar to you, almost sounding like, though not quite, your husband when he was young.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS1JnoM32gk


Turning around again to hear who spoke, you saw the voice belonged to a man with scruffy brown hair covering his right eye, dressed in a black coat and white scarf, and holding a top hat. Most notably, his shadow seemed to fidget around on its own.

"D-Did you say 'Chiarina'?" you asked, approaching him, "T-that's the name Robert used for me in his pieces! How did you hear about that?"

"Hah, your husband named pieces from the same suite after us too!" the stranger laughed, which made you wonder who this 'us' was?

"Clara, you know this person?" Cadence asked.

The young man then glared at the conductor. "You stay out of this; we came forth only to speak with Chiarina!" he snapped.

He then put the top hat back on, and then started to melt away as his shadow rose, like he was trading places with said shadow in a way. "You do remember us, don't you Chiarina?" the 'young man' now said in a softer, less forceful voice, "It's me, Eusebius, and that was Florestan!"

Your legs began to shake, before you clutched your head and went, "No, no, that has to be a mistake! F-Florestan and Eusebius were fictional character Robert created, h-how can I be talking to fictional people?!"

Eusebius, Florestan, whoever, then beckoned out of Cadence's earshot, as he then said to you, tone of the voice still indicating Eusebius, "You see, Missus Chiarina, in a world that exists only in your husband's dream, wouldn't it make sense the characters he thought up would appear?"

You then said, "So, I was correct I saying this was a dream, but… not mine? This is all the creation of Robert's mind? T-then how did I get in here?!"

"Who knows," Eusebius said, as he took off his hat and reverted to Florestan, "We are but Mr. Schumann's representatives, not he himself, so even we only know so much.
Anyway, Chiarina, or Clara if you'd prefer, why not come visit us up in Leip- er, Haupstimme?" Florestan went on, "Actually the invite was Eusebius', but his nervousness got the better of him and asked me to extend it to you. We write for a music paper there, not the neatest of offices, but still."

"Right. Er, I'll get there when I can," you told them, but then looked back at Cadence, "Though right now I've already got a booking, and should be heading back to Sortita."

But before you could, the train tracks behind you began rattling, and the three (four?) of you had to duck out of the way as a steam engine suddenly sped your way.

Getting back up fast, you saw the engine had been splattered with that Liquid Noise, which made you wonder if it too was an 'Inner Demon'? It was then joined by two carriages that pulled up either side, ghostly faces pressed up against their windows.
You had to think of a plan fast:

[ ] Run around behind that train and attack.
[ ] Bait the train by blocking, and have the others attack.
[ ] Focus on the carriages, they seem like the weaker 'foes'.
[ ] Run over to the lake, then dodge to trick this train into falling in.
[ ] Write-in

[X] Focus on the carriages, they seem like the weaker 'foes'.

---

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_PgzJdq9ZI&t=92s

You needed to remind yourself repeatedly that not only were you fighting a train, but that was okay or something because this was all a dream, and technically it was demon-ified train, wasn't it?

Since Cadence and Florestan- Eusebius- Florestan and Eusebius, seemed to have experience already in dealing with fiends such as these, your plan was you'd pick off the two smaller carriages while they focused on the more pressing threat.


Being train carriages though they moved fast, so fast that both swerved around to flank you from each side in no time, where you were nearly pressed together. However, both carriages being this close in vicinity to you gave you a head start in launching your own attack.

Remembering the 'incantation', you could call it, that Cadence had used on the demon before, you took a breath before calling out, "Swoop from on high, Glissando Storm!" You then delivered a sweeping run back and forth with your blade, its slash leaving an afterimage of a keyboard in its wake. The attack's range was wide enough that it struck both carriages, causing the pained souls within to shriek like banshees. The torment that may have been going through their souls right now was something you tried not to think about… though you had to briefly wonder whether banshees did exist in this world.


The two carriages revved up again, trying this time to run you over from their fronts. Before they did so, you were able to run to an especially marshy plot of ground, where one of the carriages got stuck as it tried to charge you. The other however wasn't so unlucky, as it sped in and struck you from behind, knocking you to the ground. Your collapsed self then felt the intense heat and rattling of pipes from under it, as it was parked over you and about to spin you into the swamp. Being cloaked in its shadow though, you gripped your sword and spoke out straight up at it, "Marvel at a true musician, Virtuoso Vice!" As the carriage sprang up to crush you, that gave you time to stand up and fire off seven shadowy strikes from your keysword, nearly juggling it in the air.

All the while, Eusebius was keeping the main Murder Express occupied from a distance, baiting it by… throwing his hat like a boomerang at it, which stranger still was dealing some actual dents to the locomotive. From what you'd seen, you took it that Eusebius briefly reverted To Florestan every time he took off his hat. The main train could pull off ranged attacks too though, from magically laying out tracks in front of it before charging, to spouting off red-hot coal from its trumpet funnel.


But Eusebius' distractions gave Cadence the opportunity to head around to the back of the engine and attack it at its weakest. Not only did you see him resummon the Brass Battalion between baton hits, but as the train's shadow fell on him, he then showed off another technique.

"Let the Earth tremble, Percussive Quake!" he said, and as he beat with his baton, a whole circle of mallets around the edge of the battlefield all beat down in unison, creating a shockwave that swept the whole plain, even finishing off that carriage stuck in the mud.

Both the carriage pierced in the sky and trapped in the ground vanished with one last series of wails, appearing to be pulled into the netherworld as they not merely broke down, but disintegrated. That still left the main train engine though, but Eusebius had… his own answer to that.

"Once more with feeling, Recurring Dream!" he stated, as his hat spun around him counterclockwise. For a few seconds the whole world rewound to Cadence's Percussive Quake, repeating the grand area-of-effect attack again, and pummelling the murderous engine till at last it broke apart, launching coal and cogs everywhere.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agVyYlbXVwk


[ ] Equip Detuned Piano (+2 Strength, -1 Sound, 2 Accessory Slots) on Clara?
[ ] Stick with Practice Piano as her Weapon
[ ] Look around for better weapon (Roll 4d3)
Score Piece x1!
You sighed with relief now that train… thing that'd attacked you was finally no more. Though Cadence had talked a great deal about 'Signatures', Eusebius having no less than a Technique which made time repeat itself was something beyond even that. You thought to ask him about that, figuring whatever connection they had to Robert was to do with it, but he, or rather Florestan since he'd taken his hat off, had turned to go.

"Sorry I couldn't stay longer, Chiarina, much work to be done as member of a Musician's League, and you have your little Festival or whatever to get back to," he said, till his hat's shadow made him revert to Eusebius, who said, "B-but afterwards you're welcome to come to us in H-Haupstimme!"

"…Peculiar gentleman, is he not?" Cadence chuckled as you bid farewell to Eusebius. "Ah, just imagine what other sort we could've run into had we gone Feurigwald or Overture way."

"L-Let's just head back now, and quickly too. I don't know if it's what you'd call 'normal', but I am definitely not used to trains attacking me on their own," you said, glancing around out of caution.

---

You were fairly wounded after coming back from the moor, what with it being infested with those Inner Demons… Same is true for the rest of this world's landscape, I'm told, you thought.

Having harvested some Floral Powder from the marshes, you thought to use some of it to heal the damage done to you, since a good rest wasn't much of an option else you missed the Festival. However, passing by some strange floating, sparkling diary you saw upon re-entering Sortita, you found you didn't have to use that Floral Powder, as a magic quill attached to it somehow restored your injuries by… writing down the events that'd just transpired.

"Er, I suppose you can explain this too?" you asked.

"Oh, those? We call that a Dal Segno, it's basically a magical checkpoint that records what events have happened to you," Cadence said without missing a beat, "It is said that everyone sees them differently, depending on the object most precious to them, the object their heart returns to you could say. Diaries tend to be a common form they take."

Like Robert's and mine, you thought.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQpG_uy0Wok


Evening soon befell you, and all Sortita gathered in the Town Square for the Festival. This Festival appeared to be a Masquerade, with the townsfolk wearing everything from animal to musical to monster disguises. Therefore, you fit right in with a butterfly mask that'd appeared out of nowhere when you practiced Papillons here earlier.

One thing you took notice of were that the children of the town had been given little effigies on sticks to burn, uncomfortably human-shaped effigies at that. You tried to put your mind off it, telling yourself that plenty of small towns had strange customs dating far back like that.

Cadence in private handed you a special gown for your performance tonight, then once you were ready, led you out to an open-air stage where a grand piano had already been set up, with rows of other musicians taking their seats in the back. As you sat down and looked over the keys, a young boy only just of age, with sandy swept hair and clutching a trumpet, was led up and introduced to you.

"Clara Schumann, this is our Chosen One," Cadence said for him, "A promising young boy in town who has had the angels grace him with their presence, thus is fated to take the lead role in tonight's ceremony. Why don't you two say a few words, for our Chosen One has the right to get to know the musician who shall play his funeral hymn?"

You tensed as those words came out of nowhere. "H-Hold on, 'funeral hymn'?" you gasped.

"Ah, hello there, Miss," the young Chosen One mumbled as he greeted you, bowing his head low, as he took a shaking step towards you, "Er, e-everyone here says I'm the 'Chosen One', they keep telling me that, b-but my- my actual name is-

[ ] Harper
[ ] Gabriel
[ ] Apollo
[ ] Write-in

"Pleased to meet you," you said to him, if with some apprehension given what Cadence had just said.

"I-I mean, I am about to die, so…" the Chosen One said, his eyes glancing over to a group of townsfolk carrying over a stack of organ pipes with ropes around them, a bonfire being lit beneath, "So, I-I'm grateful to see that a nice lady like you will be performing for- for me being sacrificed…"

"Of course, dear Chosen One, all the best for your last night on Earth," Cadence smiled.

Wait, this boy- they were going to kill this boy? And Cadence knew all about this yet did nothing, said nothing? Worse, it sounded like they'd been raising this boy his whole life to be sacrificed… and somehow, it'd all gone over your head until it was too late.

Or was it too late? If what you'd been told was true, that this was your husband's dream, then you knew he wouldn't be anyone who'd want something as barbaric as this to happen. You had to do something, you wouldn't live with yourself if you just stood by and watched someone get killed like this. But first, you needed a distraction.
Score Piece x1!
[ ] Slam down the piano to distract everyone.
[ ] Deal a sudden blow to Cadence, catch him off guard.
[ ] Delay Cadence with words, demand to know what the point behind all this is.
[ ] Run over and pre-emptively snuff out that bonfire.
[ ] Write-in