this sounds like a job for Ætheldreám!

  great lets all make new characters and play in Gondor!

    

It may not seem like it from my erratic posting schedule, but I'm really excited for this phase of the campaign.  We're at a point now where things that we've been patiently setting up for years - the Viglunding/Beorning conflict, Mogdred and his growing kingdom, Caewin and his... troubles - are at last starting to pay off. 

I mean, this has really been true since the quest to redeem Duskwater, but I'm feeling it now because mutliple story arcs are coming to bear all at once. 

Little by little, the anger of the warriors and travellers of the East Bight begins to wane, their appetite for bloodshed slowly vanishing.  Now, as many look to Esgalwen and Gwaithlim, high and lordly among Men and Elves, as do to Caewin.  Hathycn is unsure, but may have heard a voice mutter "...more and more often...". 


The next person to speak can make an Inspire roll directed at the crowd and have it count against the successes for Caewin, with a bonus success thrown in for good measure if the roll succeeds. 

Tension still hangs in the air like a bared blade, and knuckles still tighten on the hafts of axe and spear as all eyes that can turn to Caewin.  But the lord of the Sunstead is still a picture of confusion, his mouth working as if trying and failing to speak.  At last, more perhaps in response to the gaze of the companions than their exact words, he mutters "We fought... our ancestors... fought these dark Easterlings... these bringers of the plague..." 

Then, all at once, his gaze brightens and sharpens, alighting upon the two Elves in his entourage.  "You would not know, you of endless years beneath the wood!  Never shall you feel the sorrow and terror of the pestilence, nor its hunger for innocent life!" 

As he speaks, so waxes Gwaithlim's certainty of what he sees: a fleeting, flickering thing of shadow twisting beneath the bright helm that, briefly afrighted by the boldness of the Foresthelm, now slinks back to shroud Caewin's eyes and mind once again.  Or was it so simple?  For, for the most fleeting moment, it seemes to his Elf-eyes that two such things jostled with each other for the better place. 

Forgotten toward the rear of the company, Luindîs unslings her harp and, as voices wax wrathful about her, strums a loud chord that fades immediately into the tune of a restful lay.  It may not calm them by itself, she thinks, but it may draw their attention away.


Tom, I like your idea about using Valour to defeat Corruption.  Unfortunately, a simple success won't get you much, nor for long, but with a bit of communication from Gwaithlim you'll have learned something valuable. 

Luindîs is going to attempt to calm/distract Caewin's people with a Song roll:

Looks like the roller has spotted that I'm using a long-term player character.   

Arbogast will drop a Hope to turn that into a success. 

for everybody.

"Stay your hands!" barks Arbogast with the voice of one accustomed to calling out commands across the field of battle, and jus tas accustomed to having those commands obeyed. 


He's going to be using Awe against Caewin's followers:

Gwaithlim will stand, literally, with the fellowship against these rash actions.  At the side of Esgalwen, he will lend his fair bearing and resoluteness to the pleas of logic and mercy.

  You betcha he's gonna stand and look pretty like a good elf, Fair Feature, towards the men of Caewin.

Awe -  1d12 : 10, total 10
Rolled 2d6 : 2, 5, total 7

Esgalwen heard the raising of voices and the kindling of fiery lust for battle, but this was without reason. None knew who these folk were and by no right did the Thegn of Sunstead have to order such an attack without cause.

The Dúnadan woman stood from the breakfast fire and looked at Ceawin, "Lord, you call to arms against people you do not know and who have yet done no harm, or given fear of causing harm? What wisdom is this? You are here on a peace-building journey, yet you make judgement and decree punishment before you know the situation? Ceawin - how is this a way to lead? How is this a way to inspire trust?"

She did not stand defiantly against the man of Sunstead, but looked at him with reason while speaking calmly. Her stature - that of the Númenórean blood - lent to her presence, as did her noble mien. Esgalwen would not see bloodshed without cause.

---

I will make a Persuade roll in an attempt to cool this Dude down, before we attack without cause. I know it only benefits my Inspire rolls, but I am calling into play her Noble Lineage, Fair, and Folk-lore traits- as well as her Blood of Númenor traits to lend to her authority and calm him down. She is being the pretty and reasonable woman that men will sometimes go, okay, sure...

TN 14 persuade 3d6

1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 3d6 : 1, 1, 5, total 7