Rowley's Roar

Captain Edwina “Roaring” Rowley is a pirate from The Book of Newts, a series of novels by Owen Tyme.

Rowley’s Roar covers her journey from the very beginning, until some time after her death.

Twinkle and Spin tells her tale of a freak accident that claimed the life of the man she loved, when a meteorite struck him in the head.

Within The Book of Newts, Rowley is a witch that uses a glass guitar enhanced with mythril parts, which allows her to project an amplified version of her music directly into the skulls of other magical creatures, including witches. She uses that both to stun and kill.

Mythril Guitar (also known as Outcast) covers the construction of her axe, which she named ‘Myth Guitar’.

The Offer (Can’t refuse) covers the tale of running from the head of The Order of Newts, Matron Talbot, who wanted Rowley dead in a very personal way, simply because Rowley used mythril to make a guitar.

In that track, Rowley also met the leader of the pirate, known as the Dead Queen, an undead witch of great power, who took a liking to Rowley and offered a job as a pirate, not that Rowley had much choice.

Glass House is about Rowley’s battleship and its true purpose: killing the Dead Queen. It also somewhat details how the ship’s death ray works.

Ripe for the Taking covers Rowley’s battle with the Blackwell sisters, the protagonists of the series, in which Rowley tastes the bitterness of defeat and is forced to call her boss.

The Book of Newts (the track, not the series) details a conversation between Rowley and the Queen, about the book the series is named after, as well as the defeat of the Blackwell sisters at the hands of the Queen. Rowley had imagined the book to be full of powerful magic spells, which she hoped to use to kill the Queen, only to be told the book is full of science, not magic.

Biding Time is an instrumental piece covering the time in which the Blackwell sisters are held prisoner aboard the Dead Queen’s ship, while Rowley’s ship is repaired.

Mouse With a Gonne details the result of the Queen releasing the youngest of the Blackwell sisters, as a form of sport, leaving her with just enough resources to follow, but not get to safety. That forced Amelia Blackwell to attack the Queen’s massive, mountain-sized star ship.

The Queen underestimated that young witch, who successfully attacked the Queen’s bridge, parking her little ship inside it, followed by driving an armored war wagon around the interior, to rescue her sisters.

Snake in the Grass is about Captain Sophie Shade, a so-called pirate that works for every side at once, because she’s a spy planted among the pirates by The Order of Newts. In truth, her only loyalty is to the money she earns from everyone.

Blood in the Water details the aftermath of Amelia rescuing her sisters, because the Queen’s pride is wounded and the shark-like pirates she promoted as her lieutenants smell the blood in the water, seeking to put her down, once and for all, because they’ve always hated her.

Cherry Bombard is about Captain Sakura Grim, the leader of the Pirate Hunters, as well as her ship, Cherry Rush, which was designed specifically for ramming attacks. It uses a unique spell known as the Cherry Bombard, which serves a dual purpose as both a protective shield and an explosive charge, because it’s sticky and designed to crack like an onion’s skin, on impact.

In Nothing to Mourn, Rowley shares her frustration about the aftermath of the final battle with the Queen. Most of the pirates were offered amnesty for their past actions, but Rowley was specifically excluded, simply because Sakura Grim hates her so much. Since Rowley never wanted to be a pirate, she’s quite upset. In the end, she decides to fly to Cakana, the old harvest moon that used to feed the entire star system, which is incidentally the same moon the Blackwell sisters grew up on.

In The Tiger Witch, Rowley has a lot of bitter feelings for the Blackwells, because they agreed to put in a good word for her, then reneged on the deal, instead listening to Sakura.

She relates meeting an old enemy of the Blackwell sisters in Cakana orbit. Together, they decide to kill the Blackwells, but Rowley soon realizes the insanity of the crazed witch, comparing them to a tiger that she’s forced to ride.

Rowley takes the brunt of the wrath of the Blackwells and her ship is destroyed. For her final act, she decides to use Myth Guitar to kill the tiger-witch, strumming her heart out in her final moments as she’s sucked into space.

Waiting in the Void is a bittersweet song that relates what happened next, in which Rowley is surprised she can still think, even though her body froze solid. In an amusing twist of fate, she managed to retain her grip on Myth Guitar.

The song is essentially a prayer to Nuva, the setting’s Goddess of Death, because Rowley seeks an end to her suffering, because she’s going mad from the lonely isolation of outer space.

Rowley eventually reasons she’s become a zombie and the song closes as she sees a mountain-sized star ship fly up from the surface of Cakana, which comes straight at her.

Lyrics by Owen Tyme.
Music generated with ACE-Step.
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