FELLOWSHIP PHASE - The Road East And West

[Eclecticon]

And that's it - well done on a completely successful adventure! 

Mechanical rewards first
Every PC receives eight EP and as many AP as are marked off on your sheets (Matt, I never marked one off for Laeral's successful Awe roll, so make sure to add one).

Everyone except Esgalwen recovers a point of Hope from the Fellowship pool (unless you're at maximum Hope already, in which case don't bogart the Hope!). 

Other stuff
The next adventure won't start until May 2957, so there's plenty of scope for any narration you'd like.  I want to kick things off again at Beorn's House, so if you could come up with a reason to be there you'd be helping me out. 

The Road
The last thing we had to do to finish off the Road was spread the word that it's open for business.  Lake-Town during the Council is an ideal place to do that.  After that, everyone gets a Holding at rating 9, which will reduce by one every year as traffic picks up and trade routes are established. 

[Eclecticon]

And, it being a year-end Fellowship Phase, everyone gets two Undertakings as is now traditional. 

[Eclecticon]

I won't get time to write a proper narration before it'll be time for me to leave, but important developments for end of the year are:
1. The Council of the North doesn't come to any important conclusions about the rise of Mordor etc, but local issues like the dispute over the Bardings' taking of trees get aired, and ties between the Free Peoples are strengthened, even though all agree that further meetings should not be risked.

2. Saruman the White visits Radaghast in Rhosgobel, and probably calls on Bandobras on his way.

3. The winter is another terrible one, with wolves prowling outside the gates of Woodmen-Town, Beorn's House, and many isolated steadings.

[GandalfOfBorg]

  The legend of Esgalwen must surely grow if not causing her to be knighted for her actions in single-handedly disposing of that great snake creature and facing off against a Nazgul and surviving -- no mean feats are these.

[tomcat]

She did have her moment to shine, at last! The dice were rolling during that encounter. I fear that I might have gotten my full year's allotment from the Dice gods in one shot. 

[Telcontar]

  as someone who is keenly interested in standing..... what was in the chest?

[Eclecticon]

A perspicacious question indeed, and one I was kicking myself for not answering before I left.

The chest contains silver coins and the odd piece of jewellery, with a total value of 50 Treasure.  I'll warn you in advance, though, that it's coin largely looted from old barrows, and handed out by agents of the Shadow to make men commit treason, among other things, so anyone who seeks to claim some will have to make a Corruption test or gain two Shadow points.

EDIT: Arbogast is also interested in the chest, for much the same reason.

[Telcontar]

I'll roll those here for the sake of narrative to come. I like to spread my epic failure rolls across multiple threads.

Corruption test for Black Breath:

Rolled 1d12 : 4, total 4

Rolled 4d6 : 1, 2, 6, 4, total 13

Corruption test for claiming the gold:

Rolled 1d12 : 7, total 7

Rolled 4d6 : 5, 6, 5, 5, total 21

[Telcontar]

  sometimes all that glitters is gold.

Not sure what the Black Breath TN was.

[Telcontar]

Paul,
Did we house rule standing advancement? I remember talking about it but forgot the outcome.

[Eclecticon]

We've effectively house ruled it a little - e.g. you don't have to pay all the money at once. You can also get Standing from other sources (mostly winning battles for your culture). 

I don't recall anything beyond that.  Does anyone have a different recollection?

[Telcontar]

  i feel like Hathcyns standing should be higher than 1.

Among the Beornings anyway:

He burned down Viglunds Hall
Banner bearer at Stone Ford
Avenged the wedding at the Carrock
Has a herd holding
Now has a road holding

Known among the forest road gangs
Leadership role among the exslaves who decided to remain in Beorns lands.
Speaks in council and is know to have the ear of Grimbeorn.

As well as things he did as part of the company that are perhaps less influential among his own folk.

[Eclecticon]

You're right - and I seem to recall it rose to two after he carried Beorn's standard at the battle of Stánford. 

Thinking about it, that may have just raised his Standing from zero to one.  OKAY!  New house rule - Standing starts at one.  Even beginning characters still have some ties to their community, though their adventurous ways meant that they may not be viewed as entirely reliable or trustworthy. 

[Eclecticon]

I'll kick things off, shall I?

Arbogast finishes up the adventure with 12 AP and 22 (!) XP.  He'll spend four AP to buy his first dot in Lore, six XP to raise his Spear skill to three and 16 XP to raise his Wisdom to five.  His remaining eight AP go into the bank.

For his new Virtue, he'll take A Hunter's Resolve (TOR p 111). 

In a display of ardent nerdery, I've crunched the numbers and worked out that it'll take Arbogast and his family 21 days to get from Esgaroth to Black Tarn Hall even if they're riding horses along the Forest Road - not quickly enough to be home by Yule.  Then I looked at the actual rules and realised that they don't have to be home by a particular date - just spend the year-end Fellowship phase there.  Facepalms all 'round. 

His first Undertaking will be to spread the word that the Road is finished and is ready for use by all and sundry.  His second will be to spend the last 10 Treasure he needs (having spent a bunch of previous loot on pro-social things over the course of the campaign to date - see his character sheet for a full accounting) to increase his Standing to four. 

Some rolls:
Corruption roll for claiming a share of the strongbox loot

1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 4d6 : 2, 4, 3, 1, total 10

Holding roll

1d12 : 5, total 5

Yearly events roll for the vicissitudes of life

1d12 : 1, total 1

[Eclecticon]

Narrative to follow tomorrow sometime.  For now, I need to sleep.