New Ambience: The Undercroft
Added 2024-10-09 16:40:15 +0000 UTCGreetings Patrons,
Unlike the word in its current usage, the original, medieval undercrofts, were subterranean. This is obviously the better and more correct way to describe a stone floored, vaulted ceilinged, dimly lit collection of rooms beneath a castle. I don't even want to discuss modern undercrofts as I think they have more in common with car ports and parking garages.
Now this one, is cool and dark, but lit by gently burning braziers. It's a forgotten room. Barrels full of who-knows-what are stacked in corners. Large objects are covered with tarpaulins, gray from decades of dust and rot. Rats and mice skitter about and collect in corners. In the distance, the walls whisper and pass on the sounds of the castle above. Amplified, distorted, reverberated.
Musically this is very subdued. Muted flautando string swells outlined by strummed harp create a pulsing, textured bed for woodwinds, brass, strings and voice. It's very atmospheric, so it would work well in a variety of situations. I think it would make a good downtime/resting track as well as pre/post battle track.
As this is in Patreon sneak-peek mode, I've included the mixed-version, as well as ambience-only and music-only versions of the track at the bottom of this post. Additionally, I created 2 'with drips' versions which take the undercroft out of the safe, warm castle vibe into more of a dungeon. I hope you find these additions useful.
Thank you all, as always, for your continuing support.
Best,
Tim
Comments
And the question that inquiring players should hopefully ask ... "If the room's forgotten, who's been lighting and fuelling the braziers?" Even smarter players will realise that whoever it is obviously has some kind of vision that requires, or is improved by, light. (I didn't even know that 'undercroft' had been redefined, so thanks for that vocabulary update - come for the music, stay for dictionary corner!)
Simon 'Landmine'
2024-10-10 11:46:51 +0000 UTC
