EARLY SUMMER TO SPRING YEAR 2951 T.A.

Our second chapter end.

Here I give you open forum to write up your characters' / the party's activities (undertakings) through the summer and winter of 2949 and through the following year to the spring of 2951. It is not necessary that you are all together, but include the reasons why you come back to Rhosgobel to be part of the company. Enhance the relationships you all share and give us details as to why you are all becoming fast friends. I will include these posts in here in the roleplaying experience rewards of our next Adventure phase end. Be creative and add things to the story, whether about your home, wives, relations, whatever - anything you add I may use as story arcs. If you have a question whether you can add something, don't hesitate to PM me. You do not have to include but one post here each about your PC's, but feel free to work together to formulate the activities and flesh out Mirkwood.


The trade along the new routes continue to be harried by raiders and Amaleoda's crops and fishmongers are continuously robbed.

Orcs bearing a sigil of a Blood Moon begin to appear in the southern Anduin Vale.

THE PC'S MAY MAKE TWO FELLOWSHIP PHASES DUE TO THE TERM OF THIS PHASE (spanning most of two years).

Without wishing to appear mercenary, how many Experience and Advancement Points should we have to play around with?  I ask because it will affect how we phrase our posts. 

Rewards for our last Adventure Phase and the 2-year long break after it will be:

AP - each PC will get a number of AP equal to the buttons checked on your sheet plus 8 (so Arbogast has earned 15)

XP - each PC has earned 12 points

Cheers.  Full post to follow. 

Hey Paul, as usual if you would record here your experience and advancement buys.

Thanks!

Alright, I'm going to spend eight of those shiny APs on increasing Song from one to two.  I think I'll save the remaining seven, unless anyone thinks it's worth increasing a Common skill to one (Courtesy and Search both spring to mind, but I don't see a pressing need for either). 

I'll spend six XP to increase Wisdom to three, and bank the remaining four.  I'll take Herbal Remedies (TOR p.111) as my new Virtue. 

My first undertaking is to Remove Corruption (unsurprisingly). 

[size=8]DC 14 Song 2[/size]
This dice roll has been tampered with!
1d12 : 6, total 6
Rolled 2d6 : 6, 2, total 8

EDIT: Cross-posted again, Doug.  Sorry.

The return trip to Rhosgobel is hard, as if the Shadow-tainted land were loath to release those it might claim.  By an unspoken consensus, the fellowship travels not north to Tyrant's Hill, but west - following the afternoon sun until the green lands of the Anduin vales lie before them and the snow-capped Misty Mountains beyond.  Though the woods lie, full of silent threat, on their right-hand side, nothing troubles the fellowship as it makes its way back to the point where the trees imperceptibly change from twisted, lightless gloom wherin nations might vanish, to the refuge of the Woodmen, and the empty grasslands begin to ring with the calls of sheep and cattle, and the hails of their herders. 

It is a solemn, sorrowful occasion when they return to the table of Radaghast, under the boughs where they had made their plans such a seemingly long time ago.  The Brown Wizard thanks the heroes for the pains they have suffered, and bids them rest well, but not to forget the horrors they have seen. 

Arbogast turns his heels once more to Black Tarn Hall, where he finds that little has changed.  Amaleoda's folk, however, mark a change in the young man.  His long silences have taken on an air of unspoken menace and resentment, and he finds himself less and less in the company of his fellow Men and more frequently venturing out into the woods.  There he gathers the herbs and roots that he increasingly relies upon to stave off sleep, and wonders at the extent of the evil that he has set himself against. 

His attendance on Lindwine becomes a fitful thing - less frequent, but slowly growing more possessive.  Yet she is kin, albeit distant, to Amaleoda, and her clan will not hear of marriage to a poor man given to mysterious errands in the company of outlandish folk, even though he may serve Radaghast on occasion.  As the winter of 2949 progresses, he watches the woman dance on the frozen lake like a lunatic might watch over the stones of a river - passionately and uncaringly at the same time.  For her part, Lindwine makes it subtly clear that she will not wait for him forever. 

So it is that a day in March of 2050 finds him hip-deep in the water shortly after dawn, having spoken not two words together for close to a month.  His eyes glisten (perhaps from the light reflecting from the slight waves, perhaps not) and he stares, unseeing, as footsteps approach from the shore. 

"Arbogast," comes the voice of Lindwine, "why do you stand so?  And the water still so cold!" 

For a few moments, no other sound can be heard but the lapping of the water.  When the Woodman speaks, his voice is scratchy from disuse at first.  After a moment, though, it carries the lightness of a man speaking out of profound awe. 

"The horns of the morning
Are blowing, are shining,
The branches are bright
With the coldest dew;

The dawn on the tarn
Is the softest of singing,
The sky spreads its vans out
The sun hangs in view.

Here, where no love is,
All that was hopeless
And kept me from sleeping
Is frail and unsure;

For never so brilliant,
Neither so silent
Nor so unearthly,
Has Earth shone before."

His song is followed by the sound of footsteps in the water, then a hand on his shoulder.  "You are wrong, Arbogast."

"I am wrong?"

"You are wrong about this place.  For there is love here indeed." 

Without great hurry or fanfare, Lindwine takes Arbogast's hand.  "Your skin is cold.  This is no place for a fire-watcher.  You have not slept?  Then come to bed." 

At this, he turns to look at her.  "Your kin will not like you visiting my poor house." 

She gives an expressive, single-shouldered shrug.  "I am not my kin."

A couple of quick notes:
1.  Bandobras is free to continue living at the Black Tarn, I just didn't want to write for another PC.
2.  I've put a self-imposed requirement on Arbogast that he can't get married until his Standing is at least two.  Obviously helping this along is a priority. 
3. I'll leave my second undertaking until I know whether people want to do whole-fellowship things like opening a Sanctuary.

Well she is definitely worth getting up for in the morning, and heading out to hunt and gather!  I like your self-imposed requirement for marriage - that is a neat way to do that.

Nice roll on the Song skill - don't worry about the tamper. I hate that it does that when two posts collide.

So you restore 4 points of corruption, did you clear your sheet already?

It looks like I might need to increase the number of lines on the sheets for Rewards and Virtues, maybe for Traits, too, at some point.

Anyway, GREAT post!

  Rorin will spend 12 XP points to increase both Wisdom and Valour from 2 -> 3.
For his new Virtue he will take a Raven of the Mountian.
For his new Reward he will make his hammer a Keen weapon.
He will save all of his Advancement points.

His first undertaking will be to Remove Corruption.

CRAFT - DC 14 Remove Corruption



I will wait for the second undertaking until the party decides if we are doing anything collectively.

  That was a great success on the Craft roll so I can remove 4 Shadow points, Rorin had 3 so he is now at 0.
 

I will post a RP post in the next several days.

Bandy has a total of 15 experience, 12 from this session and 3 from a previous. He will spend 10 to increase his bow to 4 and 4 more to increase Valour to 2. he will add grievous to his bow, increasing the damage rating by 2.

Bandy has a total of 16 APs, inlcuding those left over from before. He will spend 12 to raise Song to 3 and bank the rest.

My first undertaking will be to remove corruption.




I'll post again with a narrative.

That's not good at all. Since we are in a sanctuary, I bleieve I get a second try.

Cripes! I feel a bout of madness coming on.

  Don't we have the Fellowship pool to divide up still?