Stay Below is an original song from the TrueDark Rising world. It reflects the era of Mordren -- the Keeper of Stone -- when shelter, permanence, advanced smithing, and the comfort of carved caverns were first offered to the Kinsfolk.
The song belongs to a time when the road had worn the people thin. Mordren offered what no other Keeper had -- warmth that did not move, stone that remembered every shape, beds that grew deep with sleep. Down was safe. Down was still. The chorus descends like the caverns themselves, pulling the listener inward: loose your pack and lose your will.
Yet beneath the comfort runs the unmistakable sound of a trap closing. Some must rest in beds so deep while others bow so all can sleep. Each must pay their given toll. The quiet verse admits what no one says aloud: no one is taken, no one is bound -- some just don't come back around. Like many songs born of Keeper encounters, Stay Below preserves both the gift and the cost. It remembers the shelter gained -- and the souls the mountain kept.
Like all songs of this world, it serves as memory. It is meant to be sung underground, and understood fully only in hindsight.