FELLOWSHIP PHASE - Healing halls of the Beorning's

[tomcat]

Fellowship Phase... each PC is awarded:

Each PC will earn the number of AP equal to what is checked off on their sheet plus 5

Each PC will earn 6 XP

NO Holdings roll necessary right now. I am just leaving the following details for future FELLOWSHIPS to cut and paste.


• if the die roll result is equal to or less than the Holding's rating, you earned enough income to keep your PC's current standard of living.

• if the roll is greater than the rating, the PC gains his standard of living and treasure equal to the difference of the die roll and the rating.

• if the roll is , the PC earns his standard of living and the rating of the holding is reduced by 1 due to some good fortune.

• if the roll is , the holding suffers some disaster of misfortune. If the hero does not take action the next Fellowship Phase, the holding may be destroyed, or have its rating increase

[tomcat]

XP: 9 (Nothing)
AP: 14 -12 (Travel 3 -> 4) = 2

Matt, I updated your PC sheet 

Let me know if you had done it previously on the AP / XP totals and available balances.

Thanks

[tomcat]

Esgalwen upgrades...

Available - 6 XP and 16 AP

Increased Search and Athletics from 1 to 2 pips each [16 AP cost]

Increased Great Bow from 2 to 3 pips [6 XP cost]

No Hope earned because Bandy was hurt

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Thank you, no I didn't update the sheet.

[Eclecticon]

Okay, mechanical stuff:

From a total of 19 AP, I'm spending 12 to bump Travel up to 3, which seems logical given that it was the primary challenge we faced last adventure. 

I'm also going to go a bit into left field and bump Dagger up to 3, against the day when Arbogast has to fight off a troll with a piece of cutlery.  I think this reflects his growing resourcefulness and ability to improvise in battle (it covers brawling and improvised weapons) more than any formal training. 

Also, I've grabbed a Hope point out of the Fellowship pool.  If everyone else does the same, that leaves three left over (5 PCs, +1 for Bandy, +1 for Twice-baked honey cakes, and Esgalwen either can't or doesn't take them - not sure which, but it's a pattern).  I'll gladly take any that nobody else needs. 

EDIT:

[tomcat]

Yea, Esgalwen cannot draw from the Fellowship Pool, because she is a Dúnadan. She adds to the Pool, but cannot use any.

Her only way to restore used Hope points is by earning one for her Fellowship Focus - but if he is wounded, that negates that opportunity.

[Eclecticon]

I was wondering about an undertaking for a while.  Nothing much was grabbing me until I read about Befriending the Beasts (HotW, p 42).  Having a character who knows the language of the birds is just too mythic and cool to pass up! 

Narration to follow. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

  Grimbeorn sure could use as many as he can get too.

[Eclecticon]

Fair enough.  Shall we give one extra point each to Arbogast, Bandy and Grimbeorn, then?  Rorin could also use one, but adding the one that everyone gets to his current total puts him at 8/10, which is probably fine if he's going to be out of the story for a little while. 

(subject to any serious disagreement with this plan).

[tomcat]

 okay, so each active PC gets 2 Hope restored and Rorin gets 1.

Grimbeorn  
Bandy  
Rorin  

[Eclecticon]

Dusk follows dawn and around to dusk again as the companions rest and regain their strength.  To begin with, Arbogast passes his time in the mead hall of Beorn's steading, where the singing among Grimbeorn's folk is boisterous and the supply of mead appears never-ending.  But in time, the allure fades.  The speech is familiar, but it is of lands and folk little known to the Fire-watcher.  And the frequent slaps on the back and cries of 'a tale - a song!' grow wearisome.  If tales you want, he thinks, bitterly, then go forth and make some of your own.  There are battles enough to be fought in Middle-Earth for any who wish to join them. 

Nursing his hard feelings for his fellow Men, he takes to lingering in the oak thickets that grow beyond Beorn's hedge, seeking comfort in the familiarity of boughs overhead.  There, one day, he finds an older man tending a fire by a hide tent.  His hair and beard are long and grey, and he roasts a lump of meat on a makeshift spit.  Seeking to avoid further company, Arbogast turns away, but without looking in his direction, the older man calls out to him.  "Ho, wanderer!  Will you share some meat with me?"

Finding himself hungrier for meat than he anticipated (for such is the only thing lacking at the table of Beorn), Arbogast responds, "I will, an you deign to share your fire." 

"Of course," comes the reply.  Looking up as Arbogast approaches, the cook remarks, "you are a Woodman, by the look of you." 

"That I am.  Men know me as the Fire-watcher." 

"Iwgar is my name.  Men name me 'the Slow', for I choose to spend my time freely, refusing to be rushed in my business." 

He examines the meat on his spit, which Arbogast sees now is a heart, though of what manner of creature he cannot guess.  Its scent is enticing.  "Nearly done, I'd say." 

"Know you much of the Woodmen," Arbogast asks, after a decent interval. 

"Aye, more than many, for my mother was of your folk." 

"Indeed?  Whose daughter was she?" 

As the meat cooks, the two trade words, establishing the measure of their distant kinship.  This done, Iwgar takes the heart from the spit and splits it neatly into two portions.  Speaking as he chews, he says, "tales I have heard of the huntsmen of your folk.  It is said that they can read the land in the whispering of the leaves and the feel of the loam." 

"It is true, more or less, though perhaps less poetic than you have heard." 

"Can you read these woods, Fire-watcher?"  Iwgar's eyebrows rise in a friendly challenge. 

Arbogast sits, still and quiet, reading what he can over the smell and crackle of the nearby fire.  After some minutes, he answers, "these trees are green and vital, yet perhaps fifty paces east there is one that has died and now stands only by the branches of its brothers.  Its trunk has rotted near away, and some creature has taken up residence within." 

"Remarkable," Iwgar says, his eyes sparkling.  "Have you seen it?" 

"Never in my life," answers Arbogast, "but I know it to be there." 

"How come you to mark such things?" 

"By the sound of the wind blowing across a hollow trunk, bringing forth a tone like a great flute for those with the patience to hear it.  The creature I know by the way the birds call, and avoid roosting therein." 

"Why, then you have learned much of what I myself know!  For I knew of this from the way the birds speak of it as a place of temptation but also danger, and by the way the moles and foxes that dwell hereabouts warn me of the boar that dwells within." 

"The speech of birds, you say?" 

"Indeed.  Their language was taught to some of our people by the Elves of the wood, many generations ago.  Listen, Fire-watcher, for thou art kin to me, and there is much I can teach you..."

[Telcontar]

Ooc:damn I gotta up my game...

[Eclecticon]

USA!Matt, unless you're particularly eager to diddle yourself out of a benefit, we should establish Grimbeorn's undertaking last Fellowship phase before we go much further.  He's carrying a few Shadow points and his Travel is super high - might I suggest a Return to the Carrock?  It lets him use Travel instead of Song or Craft to Heal Corruption if he's staying at Beorn's House. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

  ok, I'll look into it

[Eclecticon]

No pressure, mate.  I just don't want to see you go without things you're entitled to!  You'll find the Return undertaking in Heart of the Wild, p 40.