Day 21 Prompt: Charity
Week 4 Prompt: Instinct
Weekday Prompt: Loving and Giving
A special day today. Charity is the prompt for Day 21 of the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge. Here is an idea that spans from Fantasy to Science Fiction. I hope that you enjoy it.
A popular spacer’s song heard in freeports, frontier taverns, and aboard merchant vessels throughout the sector. Every singer seems to know a slightly different version. Some musical historians point back to ballads spanning the ages. Was the Black Almoner a long lived individual? Was it a family tradition? Or did a new person wishing to help others take on the mantle of the Black Almoner when the previous one retired? Scholars, lawmen, corporations and governments disagree.
The Ballad of the Black Almoner (variant song 24,376 on record)
Verse I
When Promise was a docking ring,
And Far2Go a charted thing,
The governors took their share and more,
Till hunger walked from door to door.
A dark ship slipped through customs’ light,
No transponder shining bright,
The cargo gone before the dawn,
The poor awoke to find it drawn.
Chorus
Oh, raise a glass and pass it on,
To the Black Almoner gone and gone,
Steals from lords and leaves no name,
Yet every child recalls the same.
Take what is hoarded, give what’s due,
Leave before they thank you, too.
The stars are wide, the road is long,
And still the Black Almoner sails on.
Verse II
The merchants swore they’d caught him twice,
The admirals named a proper price,
A thousand warrants crossed the skies,
Yet none could claim the bounty prize.
One year old, the next year young,
With a deeper voice or different tongue,
No two reports were quite the same,
Yet all agreed upon the name.
Chorus
Oh, raise a glass and pass it on…
Verse III
A mining moon ran out of air,
No government was bothered there,
Yet life support arrived one night,
Packed neat and clean, secured just right.
The captain asked, “Who paid the fee?”
The answer read quite simply:
“A debt was owed. The debt is done.
Remember this when your turn comes.”
Chorus
Oh, raise a glass and pass it on…
Bridge
Was it one? Was it ten? Was it twenty more besides?
Was it blood or oath that kept the legend alive?
Some say ghost and some say king,
Some say neither of those things.
For every time the question’s asked,
Another takes the mantle, mask.
Final Verse
Now children point to passing stars,
And dream of mending others’ scars,
The old folk smile, the traders grin,
And wonder who now wears the skin.
For somewhere past the shipping lanes,
Beyond patrols and profit chains,
A dark ship rides the solar foam,
Making strangers feel at home.
Final Chorus
So raise a glass and pass it on,
To the Black Almoner gone and gone,
Steals from greed and answers need,
A pirate born of generous deed.
Take what is hoarded, give what’s due,
Leave before they thank you, too.
The stars are wide, the road is long,
And the Black Almoner sails on.
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