Story
The plot involves "a sardonic and opportunistic musician and adventurer, driven by carnal rather than noble pursuits. The Bard (who is never identified by a specific name nor addressed by anything other than "The Bard,") is not interested in saving the world, his humble motivations are strictly 'coin and cleavage.'" His quest is narrated by a mocking, biased man who cannot stand him (Narration is provided by Tony Jay.)
The Bard (voiced by Cary Elwes), ends up being recruited by a cult to help free a princess named Caleigh. As a result of this, the Bard finds himself being attacked by an assortment of fanatics from a Druid-like cult, sent to dispatch him by a being called Fionnaoch. (Many of the names and characters are influenced by Celtic mythology and the stories of the Orkney Islands.) On the way to complete his quest, the not so valiant anti-hero will have to overcome the truly terrifying challenges of three monstrous guardians, break-dancing corpses, spontaneously melodious goblins and a giant, fire-breathing rat.
Eventually, its revealed that the Bard is just another in a long line of "Chosen Ones," many of whom he finds dead along his path. Caleigh is revealed to actually be a demon tempting people to come free her for years on the assumption that eventually someone would succeed. If the Bard frees Caleigh, she gives him all his hearts desires while destroying the world. If he slays Caleigh, The Bard returns to the road in search of the next bar maid. Alternatively, he can refuse to fight either the Druid Leader or Caleigh, allowing the undead to overrun the world, a situation he is content with as they make good bar buddies.
Read more about this topic: The Bard's Tale (2004 video game)
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
She swore, in faith ‘twas strange, ‘twas passing strange;
‘Twas pitiful, ‘twas wondrous pitiful.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I know not whether the remark is to our honour or otherwise, that lessons of wisdom have never such power over us, as when they are wrought into the heart, through the ground-work of a story which engages the passions: Is it that we are like iron, and must first be heated before we can be wrought upon?”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“From the beginning, the placement of [Clarence] Thomas on the high court was seen as a political end justifying almost any means. The full story of his confirmation raises questions not only about who lied and why, but, more important, about what happens when politics becomes total war and the truth—and those who tell it—are merely unfortunate sacrifices on the way to winning.”
—Jane Mayer, U.S. journalist, and Jill Abramson b. 1954, U.S. journalist. Strange Justice, p. 8, Houghton Mifflin (1994)