Samuel "Sammy" Shortsong[]
Introduction[]
Sammy was The Company's Bard and back-up Rogue of sorts. A skilled musician with a baritone voice that belied his size, Sammy made magic with music mostly. Raised as a Peripat (see below), life was always an exciting challenge and before meeting the company, Sammy had already traveled a great deal of the Northlands with his clan's caravan.
While caravanning to the port-town of Eventide to perform for at a harvest fest for the locals in one of the few stable ports in the Northlands (it was located close enough to the Southlands by boat to maintain regular trade and thus could muster a small navy), Sammy's caravan was attacked by slavers. Luckily for Sammy and his clan, Rocco, Val, Ar-Raguel and several Sisters of Mercy were only hours behind on the same road heading to Eventide to deliver Olferb for the Harvest-fest. They found the recently ravaged caravan with Sammy hidden among the wreckage. Together, they were able to save most of Sammy's clam and caravan, and end the slavers.
With several of his clan gone, and their 'Immaculate Contraptions" destroyed (carts that were also stages, diners, theaters, etc. - triumphs in ingenuity and artifice), Sammy spent a week or so in Eventide performing at local taverns, and bonding with Rocco, Val, Ar-Raguel and a dwarf they met in Eventide, who was also there for the carnival and Olferb harvest-fest, named Dead Lee Hammernsickel.
In his years with the Company, Sammy acquired a unique six-string lute made of aluminium, a rare metal on Nin, but not on Aliaj, a continent half-way around the world, where the Company adventured for almost two years.
Life Before The Company[]
Halflings in the Southlands still live and farm on Shires. Not so in the Northlands. Years of Civil War have forced a people with no martial culture (no God of war), to find innovative ways to survive. Most halflings in the Northlands are "Peripats", communities that have chosen a nomadic way of life avoiding battles and relying on the generosity of the townspeople (or lack of town guards) they come upon in their meandering. Halfling Peripats however were often part of very well organized caravans. These villages on wheels were known to set up small carnivals offering an assortment of arts and vices to the war-weary, an opportunity for work-a-day farmers, smiths and merchants to take their minds off of their daily troubles (and perhaps for halflings to take a few coins from their purses). Acrobatics, clownery and games of chance were all common.
Sammy was born into and grew up in one of these caravans eventually developing musical skills with voice and lute that transcended into the magical. Combined with a natural dexterity and proclivity for sleight of hand, there were very few situations Sammy might find himself in that he couldn't sing or trick his way out of.
Sammy's Songs (not always short)[]
Sammy performs multiple original compositions throughout the novel. The author has attempted (poorly) to cover some of these for the reader (because, you see, Sammy is an imaginary character and as such is very difficult to record - plus he charges a fortune for a single session).
Readers with ears may want to avoid listening to the home recording, no-budget, low-fi caterwauling of the author. For the brave, I offer these massacred masterpieces...
"A Chalice to Piss in" by Sammy Shortsong as covered by the author (Performed by Sammy in Book I, Part One, Chapter Two).
"Dragon Ass" by Sammy Shortsong as covered by the author (Performed by Sammy in Book I, Part One, Chapter Three).
Line 148 of Verse 92 from, "Out of the Woods" (Elven Trad.)
"Could I ask you to join us on stage for a song or two of your own? In truth I have never learned the traditional rendition of Out of the Woods. As I understand it, to properly play the song requires no less than a dozen lutes and dulcimers, a choir of one hundred voices, not to mention a drum made from the thickest tree of a given year’s stormfall.”
“It is also 128 verses long Master Bard.” Eartha replied.
- Sammy & Eartha discussing the song at Billy's bar, "Erasmus B. Dragon's Tavern & Inn" (Book I, Part One, Chapter Six).