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Hi all. I used the article from Dragon 327 back in Feb 2005 and one of my bards in my home campaign got his hands on this unfinished symphony of Tvash-Prull. Now that the party has advanced to 14-15 level, he is on a quest to try to find more unfinished symphonies of Tvash-Prull and try to complete the symphony.
1) Did anyone use this in their home campaign, and if so, did you expand upon it? Can I get a copy of whatever you created?
2) Was there ever a follow-up article that included more info about Tvash-Prull or anymore of his compositions?
3) Anyone know if there has been some fan-created writings on the above?
4) Anyone have suggestions of spells from 3rd party publishers I might use to create other pieces of the unfinished symphony by Tvash-Prull?
Thanks in advance for any help or info.
Creative Director
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Hi all. I used the article from Dragon 327 back in Feb 2005 and one of my bards in my home campaign got his hands on this unfinished symphony of Tvash-Prull. Now that the party has advanced to 14-15 level, he is on a quest to try to find more unfinished symphonies of Tvash-Prull and try to complete the symphony.
1) Did anyone use this in their home campaign, and if so, did you expand upon it? Can I get a copy of whatever you created?
2) Was there ever a follow-up article that included more info about Tvash-Prull or anymore of his compositions?
3) Anyone know if there has been some fan-created writings on the above?
4) Anyone have suggestions of spells from 3rd party publishers I might use to create other pieces of the unfinished symphony by Tvash-Prull?
Thanks in advance for any help or info.
Cool!
Tvash-Prull was actually an NPC from my home-brew world... Had I a time machine, I probably would have held off using him in this article to keep him on hand for Golarion, but what's done is done! :)
In any case, there wasn't much more published about Tvash-Prull that I know of. I'd LOVE to see some more fan-created stuff though!
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James (or anyone else),
Any chance you have notes on other spells Tvash-Prull created? If I could get some ideas, I could actually do some write-ups. I plan on making this a long, several part quest over the life of the bard/cleric of Milil in my campaign.
I'd be more than happy to share history and descriptions of what I write-up if I could gather some spells. I've never been good at creating balanced spells. But, I do have a creative flair for coming up with histories and descriptions.
Anyone out there with a creative mind and good handle on 3.5 that come come up with some bard spells in line with the other 5 Tvash-Prull spells (found in Dragon 328 and in Champions of Ruin for Forgotten Realms)?
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With our next game on Tuesday, I came up with the following info that my bard/cleric of Milil will learn about Tvash-Prull:
Libretto of Tvash-Prull’s Symphony, Act 3:
This leather bound book is made of the softest leathers, most likely lamb skin. It is etched with the personal mark of Tavash-Prull, as well as another mark that is unidentified. From the prologue, the reader understands that it is the stanza of what appears to be Act 3 of Tvash-Prull’s Final Symphony. It does mention that there are at least seven other Acts that follow this one.
When a bard of renown uses Read Magic to decipher the script, he or she will find the following spells cleverly encoded into the work. The libretto was created with bardic spellcasters, specifically those specialized in oratory, in mind. Thus, the spells within are hidden and are only accessible to bards of proficient skill and ability.
[Pre-requisites to use these spells are Negotiator Feat and Perform (Oratory) rank 12].
As I mentioned, I am not very good at creating spells that are balanced. So, to offer up 5 new spells for my cleric/bard to use, I took the 5 "voice" spells from Mongoose Publishing's The Quintessential Bard: Silver Voice, Golden Voice, Iron Voice, Steel Voice and Mountain Voice. This will allow a way for him to obtain new spells, achieve a reward for pursuing his "life-long" quest, and is a neat way to build adventures around.
What I finally decided on was there would be 10 acts. Each act consisted of the following basic parts:
Libretto -- A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet;
Recitative -- (Italian: “recitativo”) is music which is telling a story quite quickly, as if it were being spoken. The word means: “to recite” i.e. to tell a story.
Aria -- An Aria means a song, usually a song in opera. It is an Italian word meaning “air” (i.e. a tune). The aria is a song for a solo singer, a setting of a lyric.
He, of course, has already found the Libretto from Act 3. The article that was in Dragon 328 I made into the Aria for Act 1. So, he has 28 more works to track down which allows me plenty of adventure ideas as a DM.
Once he collects all 30 works of Tavish-Prull, then he will be able to write the Overture himself. An overture is a piece of music for the orchestra to play at the beginning of an opera or ballet. The word comes from the French word for "opening" because it "opens" the show.
Overtures usually have tunes which are going to be heard during the opera or ballet. In this way it prepares the audience for what is to come.
Some ideas I had for future works include more spells out of the Quintessential Bard sourcebook. I also plan to incorporate parts of the Power Perfomance out of the Quintessential Bard II sourcebook. The Power Performance is broken up into styles: Songs of Inspiration, Dirges, Rhythm of the Heart, Songs of Despair, and Songs of the Wild. I figure to allow each style to cover two acts. Each act has 9 stages which allows me a wide latitude to incorporate these as rewards broken into either a Libretto, Recitative , or Aria.
He eventually wants to work toward the new Demi-god epic destiny presented by Wizards of the Coast found at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080428
Once he finishes collecting all 30 works of Tvash_prull's Symphony, he will be allowd to attempt to write the overture.If he is successful, it will be the final key for his ascension. Now, keep in mind, this is several years down the road. The party is currently 12-15 levels. I plan to take them into epic levels and allow them to achieve whatever epic destiny or goal they have. This is just the bards. I have a dwarf seeking info on what to do with the Fierce Axe (an artifact of dwarven legend), a wizard seeking to become the head of the University of Silverymoon, a halfling looking to become the best baker out there, etc.... So, I figure to intermingle all of their goals into the various adventures. But, that is another tale for another day.
Please feel free to provide any feedback or criticism you might have as this is all still a work in progress.
I'm confusing the movements of a symphony with the movements of a mass, but oh well.
I never got my hands on a copy, and I imagine it's probably 3.0, but I know Monte Cooke had a book called "The Book of Eldrich Might II: Songs and Souls of Power". I enjoyed the first one very much, and I imagine the second one would be just as good a resource. (The first one was to the second one as "Tome & Blood" was to "Song & Silence". I think I got that right.) Probably a good resource if it's around.
And this is a random brain splurge, but maybe one of the pieces is 'trapped' so to speak? Unless you've built Tvash-Prull into your campaign already there has to be a reason he's still relatively obscure.
Anyway, good luck with that, and let us know how it works out.
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And this is a random brain splurge, but maybe one of the pieces is 'trapped' so to speak? Unless you've built Tvash-Prull into your campaign already there has to be a reason he's still relatively obscure.
Because they have always been more concerned with dungeon delving, monster bashing, etc... I have quite a few new roleplayers in the group and they are starting to see urban adventures can be just as fun, if not more so, than a dungeon crawl. Through the few urban adventures I have run, they came across the first piece of his symphony from the Dragon Magazine. I put it out there to see if it would pique their interest. It did, so now I am having to fully develop Tvash-Prull, his symphony, and everything that happened to it. I didn't want to develop it before hand and put all the background into it, for them to sell the piece they found to a collector and go back to dungeon clearing.
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Time to revive the Works of Tvash-Prull into my game. In my Legacy of Fire campaign, I have a bard. He is spending a year of downtime between books 1 and 2 on helping to rebuild Kelmarane.
I decided to rework my original ideas from my Forgotten Realms game into the Legacy of Fire AP as a way to award my bard with some unique works, while helping to add new spells to his spellbook. I also decided to reduce the works from 10 acts to 6 or 7.
Any new thoughts on the works of Tvash-Prull would be most welcome.
Here is the write up I did for the Golarion-flavored works of Tvash-Prull:
Tvash-Prull is one of the more obscure figures in the history of Absalom, and its predecessor – The White Grotto, the premier bardic school in Absalom, and one of the most revered of the Inner Sea. The talented half-elf spent most of his youth in the Ivy Playhouse of Absalom, working odd jobs that ranged from janitor to carpenter to personal assistant for many of the Playhouse’s regular performers. So much was his ambition and desire to create the perfect musical piece,that he drew the attention of the first White Grotto Dean and served as his pupil, apprentice and assistant. As he worked, he absorbed a great deal of knowledge.
Disaster struck the Grotto during the Age of Blades in the year 2850 AR, when the Arclords of Nex, bitter from the loss of the Isle of Jalmeray to the Vudrani, unleashed the Conjured Siege upon Absalom. Little time was afforded to the arts of music and literature and the Grotto fell into grave disrepair from neglect.
It is sung in bardic myths that Tvash-Prull was forced out onto the streets only at the behest of the Siege, saving only half of his centuries-written “perfect” symphony. It is rumored he became an adventuring bard, finally retiring to the lair – and company – of an old Gold Dragon (the name long forgotten) somewhere in the Menador Mountains. It is also rumored he penned nearly 150 movements for many different types of compositions during his twilight years, to entertain his draconic companion.
However, as legends tell, he never composed a full symphony. He explained to admirers in his early years, that he didn’t have the patience or talent to focus on such a large undertaking. In truth, it is rumored among scholars of the White Grotto, that his deepest desire was to write a symphony that would be remembered for a millennia.
His theories are still a course of study today at the White Grotto. He theorized that by weaving unique spells he had researched into the fabric of a symphony’s music, the result would be one to rival the classics. He toiled for years in the company of his draconic ally, but unfortunately never got to hear the finished work. It is rumored that Tvash-Prull died of old age only minutes after finishing his life’s work.
This collection of music forms a mere portion of Tvash_prull’s symphony. It appears as a large portfolio that contains a dozen sheets of music for a full orchestra of instruments. The music is transcribed on to high-quality sheets of extremely thin, shedded, Gold Dragon Scales.