The search - part 5

[tomcat]

Search for Ruithel

1) Each part will involve each PC needing to roll an Awareness test, Travel test, and an Explore test (TN by region of Upper Vales). If you add another test in to add to story, that is fine with me, but these three tests will drive the search.

2) Awareness tests will work two-fold. Each PC will roll against the TN and must succeed to provide any benefit, BUT the aggregate of everyone's rolls will also apply. I do this because I want more than one player throwing a Feat die - the more Feat die, the more opportunity for grand successes and potential threats.

3) The aggregate of the Awareness rolls must exceed 45+ score. This secures that the companions are on the right path towards Ruithel and thus move the party 1 step closer to her rescue. She is a number of steps away known only to me, of course.  

4) If a PC also achieves the area TN on the Awareness test, you will gain 1 additional step closer (2 steps for great success; 3 steps for extraordinary)

5) I am giving the companions a +14 to the Aggregate for the birds leading you.

6) An result has a negative effect by reducing the progression towards Ruithel by 2 steps and determines a hazard or encounter.

7) If the aggregate of the Awareness roll is less than 45, the company might be moving closer, but not necessarily on the right path. An encounter, hazard, or other narrative may occur.

8) Each group Awareness roll is considered a day's worth of searching and traveling. A Travel test is required against the TN of the region the PC's are within. A failed test will increase the PC's individual fatigue and an can produce a hazard.

9) Finally, an Explore test is needed for each PC, again with a TN based on the region. If successful, the PC has made themselves a comfortable camp to get solid rest each night.

10) If successful, END is restored at the normal rate (based on wounded or non-) and the PC loses 1 level of Fatigue for that night's sleep.

11) If failed, neither END or FATIGUE is restored.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

• moved a cumulative total of 6 steps towards the goal

• Arbogast, Bandy and Rorin gain a level of Fatigue (2 points)

• Arbogast gain the only comfort out of his rest and reduces his Fatigue by one level (2 points)

[tomcat]

Rolls for this search day...

ROLLS

TN 18 awareness by PC

Arbogast 2d 1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 6, total 9

Bandy 2d 1d12 : 8, total 8
Rolled 2d6 : 1, 4, total 5

Grimbeorn 3d 1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 3d6 : 6, 3, 6, total 15

Rorin 2d 1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 2, total 6

TN 18 travel by PC

Arbogast 2d 1d12 : 1, total 1
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10

Bandy 2d 1d12 : 1, total 1
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 6, total 12

Grimbeorn 3d 1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 3d6 : 3, 6, 4, total 13

Rorin 3d 1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 3d6 : 5, 3, 3, total 11

TN 18 explore by PC

Arbogast 3d 1d12 : 2, total 2
Rolled 3d6 : 1, 2, 1, total 4

Bandy 2d 1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 5, total 9

Grimbeorn 0d 1d12 : 8, total 8

Rorin 2d 1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 2d6 : 1, 6, total 7

[tomcat]

RESULTS:

Awareness

• Arbogast had a  great success; Grimbeorn had a 20 extraordinary success

• Birds 14 + Arbogast 21 + Grimbeorn 20 = 55 towards aggregate

• 1 step for aggregate, 2 steps for Arbogast, and 3 steps for Grimbeorn = 6 steps for this search (cumulative total is 12!)

Travel

• All the PC's fail the Travel test and thus have their Fatigue increase by 2  

Explore

• Everyone fails their Explore test, so no Fatigue is removed.

I will post more tomorrow...

As an FYI, you guys have achieved the number of steps to Ruithel and you did it in 5 days!

[Eclecticon]

Arbogast's Natural Watchfulness virtue turns his great success into an extraordinary one, though it sounds like it doesn't matter! 

EDIT: for the Awareness success.

[GandalfOfBorg]

  would Grimbeorn's Hardy or anduin-lore help with the Travel test since he was only off by 1?

[Telcontar]

The Halfling was soon wore out from the rapid pace of the big folk. While he had endured travels with them before he was never pressed to such speeds and haste before. He also felt that his skills had been mostly useless on this journey, where it was the wood lore and hunting skills of his companions that were prooving the most helpful. Now that they were clear of the river at least Bandy was no longer a physical weight for the Beorning to carry.

There were points on the journey where he deapaired for both Ruthiel and himself. He deeply questioned why he was in the Wilderland and what all these physical and emotional hurts were worth. In truth it was the helm badge crafted by Rorin that kept him going. As a symbol of friendship and loyalty it helped the Hobbit to realize there was something more than just the hurts and bruises of the body.

The land itself was also starting to reming him of the Shire. The rolling hills and small brooks they crossed reminded him of the North Farthing, perhaps as it even first appeared to the Hobbits when they had first settled the shire. So something in the land appealed to him as well. But during their trek, his pipe alone was a comfort to him.

[tomcat]

would Grimbeorn's Hardy or anduin-lore help with the Travel test since he was only off by 1?

Matt, i have to say no on this.

Normally, the traits aid in an auto-success with moderate tests TN 14. Sometimes, they can be called into play to do what you're asking, if the GM and other players do not see an abuse in the use.

But  in this instance, where this trek is also a resource management experience, I am saying the traits aren't available to be used. I am also padding my reasoning due to Grimbeorn's current status - WOUNDED and WEARY.

If there are disagreements to my ruling, please chime in - I am always open to opinions.

[GandalfOfBorg]

  that's fine, just thought I'd ask.

Grimbeorn came to an abrupt pause along the trail.  For the most he's pushed through the pain of their travels, but this time it was a bit different.  Not only was he severely injured, he also worried about Esgalwen and leading the captives back south.  He had an inkling of what she's face along the road.  Though proficient with her blade and she has her own way with words, yet she also doesn't know and understand the people in these parts.  He chuckles, "I'm curious to find out if those young ones or if it will be Esgalwen who returns alive."

[tomcat]

Two days passed.

The companions marched ever westward, following Magrac as he himself kept pace with the songbirds of Mirkwood.

Bandy did not know how far behind them the river ford was, nor where Esgalwen and the children might now be. All he knew was his feet were sore and his legs ached. They were now entering the heart of the Vale of Gundabad and the land was changing. The hills rolled around them in never-ending rises and falls towards the mountains to the west. He likened it to the hills of the Shire, but that idea soon wore away. The clime was colder here and so the vegetation was tougher - more coarse - due to its need to survive the harsher weather. This in turn caused for painful burrs and thistles to jab his feet, or bare stone to rub his skin raw.

Once more he questioned his need to be on this journey. When he voiced these thoughts, his friend-Dwarf quickly rebuked him and cited the same accolades for Bandy's bow and magic jewel. "Both of which turned the tides, so I will hear no more of your uselessness, Master Bracegirdle!"

Arbogast and Grimbeorn listened to the two smaller companions chat, but seldom contributed. Grimbeorn seemed to be preserving his energy and strength, and even talking was an impotent use of his reserves. The Fire-watcher was quiet, too, but his was more brooding. He was truly bothered by all he had seen thus far in the lands north of Woodland Hall and the Old Forest Road. He had not anticipated that Men would sell their own kind off to the likes of orcs!

A cry broke the silence of the hills and the companions all hunkered down to lower their profiles to the horizon. When nothing showed itself, they moved quickly to the closest rise so that they could attain advantage of sight and see what, or who was around them.

And there it was...an orc gathering.

There was roughly twenty of them - orcs and goblins. Tall and broad ones, and short and spindly ones. A large portion of them were crowded around a campfire, as they ate of some meat and potted stew. There was another small group that was chasing after a woman of middling age to the south. It was she that was making the cry. Lastly, there was a final group of five, but there was a large orc among them. It appeared he was the leader as he roared out curses and insults to the others.

He then turned his attention to a post that was embedded deep in the ground and surrounded by large stones around its base. Atop the stones and tied to the post was an Elf-maiden. Her hair was long, but matted with filth. Her skin was fair, but marred by dirt, cut, and scrape. Her head hung down, but she was alive.

The leader yelled at her, "I'VE HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU! YOU'RE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW! IF YOU WEREN'T THE TREASURE YOU ARE, I WOULD'VE GUTTED YOU MESELF." Suddenly he quieted, "But they want you in Carn Dûm and I am going to see you get there alive. That doesn't mean I have to get you there in one piece, so quit what you're doing! You may talk the others into running when they can, but that will just get them killed. You can resist me all the way to Gundabad, but you're going there nonetheless. No one is coming for you!"

Beyond the fire, the companions could see a rough-built stockade that contained other folk that were bound.

[GandalfOfBorg]

Seeing the elf-maiden and others still alive brought Grimbeorn out of whatever malaise had befallen him.  He cared not for the odds against them but giving them a fight is what he was good at.

Upon seeing the woman running off to the left of them, he had an idea and they needed to be quick.  "We must take advantage of this distraction yonder.  If we engage those chasing the woman as soon as they are out of sight of the others, we may manage to eat away at their numbers," he whispered hastily.

[Eclecticon]

"Indeed," replies the Fire-watcher as the company begins to move.  "Remember also Argil's words - that they are, or at least were, in disarray, that their true leader may be dead, and that strife reigns between those who would replace him."

[Telcontar]

"We are of one mind, let us give the peace of death to this filth and vermin."

[tomcat]

Sliding down the back side of the hill from which they came, the companions girded themselves of weapons and then moved off in the direction that the woman had run. They kept the landscape between themselves and their enemy, moving quickly in pursuit.

There came another cry as the woman was caught, "NO! NO! NO!"

Then came a string of words from the woman that none of the Company understood. She spoke a language that was foreign to them all. Grimbeorn remembered her garb when he watcher her run - it was furs and skins. Surely she was one of the Hill-folk that lived in the Upper Vales on both sides of the Misty Mountains. The Beorning had little to no dealings with these people, but his father had and Grimbeorn remembered what he had been told.

They were a simple folk, animists and believers that their tribes were protected by a particular beast. Some were spirit-bound to the wolf; others to the mountain cats; some to the ram that lived along the cliffs; and so forth.

Now in their new position, they could see an orc had lashed her with a cruel whip and had her snagged. Hopping around her were four smaller goblins, with cruel looking blades and cudgels in their hands. The woman was tattooed and had remnants of smeared blue paint on her arms and face. Her nose bled and she was protecting her face from any new blows.

One last thought came to Grimbeorn of what his father had told him - the Hill-men of Gundabad were a hateful and wicked folk. Their forefathers had served the Witch-king in Angmar back when the North Kingdoms still existed. They had been all but annihilated when the Morgul-lord was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men. Why would the orcs be taking them, too, as potential slaves? Surely they would be considered allies.


I am opening the first round of combat, but feel free to continue any narrative/dialogue here if you wish.