((OK, forget what I said at the bottom of my last message.))Her mind filled with images of battle, Iris dashed through the corridors of the palace, trying desperately to locate her friends. At one point she thought she saw Cole, but she lost him again. Then she heard him shout.
"Hank! Kimmy! Ninja-guy! Iris! Somebody! Get Zakiyah!"
Running in the direction of the calls, Iris soon found herself approaching a battle between her friends and some sort of demon, while a ghost led the Lorekeeper away.
*She's in a trance of some sort,* Iris realized. *What song would snap her out of it?* She began playing and singing an especially harsh version of "Mind Games" from the Jem cartoon.
It worked like a bucket of ice water in the face. Zak staggered back as if suddenly realizing what had happened. ((OOC--I know what you said, Zak, but this song has the force of the lute's magic behind it.)) Iris ran to them, stuffing her lute into her belt pouch with one hand and drawing a dagger with the other.
Fortunately, Iris didn't have to find out if her dagger would work against the ghost-thing. As Zak scrambled for her abandoned book and a safe place on the sidelines, the ghost hissed, "This is only a retreat," and vanished.
Both daggers drawn, Iris whirled and plunged into battle, a song echoing in her mind. "Aspen, Colorado on a Saturday night/Jessie wishes she were at home...."
((Zak, did I manipulate your character too much? I hope you don't mind.
((Everyone, just so you know, the song is "The Harder They Fall" from John Denver's Wildlife Concert album. When I first heard it, I was startled. America's country boy singing pure rock n' roll? Later on I discovered a sidebar in an RPG matching music with encounters, explaining that sometimes if the GM allows it a character can get a bonus for the first round of battle by listening to music to provide a burst of adrenalin, and decided this would work here. Iris is a Minstrel, so it suits her.))
