The Music of Dolmenwood: Dreg, Brackenwold and Orbswallow

Mostly from the bitter experience of trying to force my dodgy music tastes on players, I've found that ambient soundtracks work best for background gaming music. (Side note, my children once dared me to play the weirdest thing in my collection. They ran screaming from the house shouting 'stop it.... Stooooop itttttt') 

HOWEVER. 

I quite like the idea of adventures and places having a specific leitmotif to introduce its theme. If played each time a party visits It can be a useful foreshadowing that doesn't intrude too much. Music can then return to congenial ambience thereafter. Its also a sneaky chance to surreptitiously inflict my music on the party. 

These are what I've settled on for towns so far:

 

Dreg 

Villon Song by Stick in the Wheel 

Villon Song

Truth is I bloody love this song and am looking for pretty much any excuse to play it. I stumbled into 'Stick in the Wheel' only this year and and was riveted.  This song oozes menace and fey skullduggery by shiftless thieves. 

The entire song consists of underworld slang words from the 1880's but it's a rewrite of a poem from the 15th century thief, murderer and poet, Francois Villon. Slit eyed watchful peril is conveyed marvellously. It says.. PLAYERS BEWARE.  Any song that mentions Goblins and crime is clearly meant for Dolmenwood.

Lyrics here and for a discussion of the song see: Medieval Gangsta Rap

Castle Brackenwold 

Saltarello by Dead Can Dance, 

Saltarello

Brackenwold is the seat of power, both Church and State, so it needs gravitas and pomp. Here you are entering the High Seat - BE respectful OR ELSE. 

There are more gentle, medieval versions out there ( Medieval Salty ) But the Dead Can Dance rings like the clarion call of a church bell much more to my taste. 

Orbswallow 

Moss Mantra by Pamela Wyn Shannon 

Mossy Goodness

It's a hazydream liturgy of different moss names... How could this not be Orbswallow? The song has gotten harder to pickup as the original album it was on is no longer available ('Weirdlore: Notes from the Folk Underground'). It was up digitally free years ago but YouTube is one of the few remaining spots it can be found easily.