SUMMER JULY THROUGH SEPTEMBER YEAR 2951 T.A.

I give you open forum to write up your characters' / the party's activities (undertakings) through the summer months of 2951. The journey home to Rhosgobel and the making of the helm will fall in this Fellowship phase.

THE PC'S MAY MAKE ONE FELLOWSHIP PHASE ACTIVITY - RORIN'S SHOULD BE ENTWINED WITH HIS MAKING OF THE HELM (maybe increase standing, or renown, or a business boon).

Each PC will earn the number of AP equal to what is checked off on their sheet plus 6

Each PC will earn 12 XP.

Also, I need Rorin and Arbogast to give me a roll of the Feat die for their Holdings:

• 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 increased.

  Well I guess that would depend on if the advice for flooding the caves is taken up and if any of our group is set in charge of it.  Grimbeorn just needs to return for the Yule-tide feast.

Hey Matt, I wasn't planning on having Mountain Hall's Orc issue a primary part of our story arc, but if you guys want to be part of it, I can change my plans.

 

Rorin is obviously a little pre-occupied with getting the helm figured out, but as long as it didn't take up too much time and isn't too risky, he wouldn't be opposed to helping eradicate some goblins.


  Holding roll



Also, for the undertakings, is there a unified list of the available options? They're so spread out across the books from what I've seen.

Esgalwen is all updated for this Fellowship Phase and last - I forgot to update her sheet last year.

Rorin's undertaking, as stated above, must be entwined with the building of the helm (sorry), so pick something that would have to do with standing, or your holding, etc.)

Your holding roll earns you enough money to sustain your current standard of living. Also, this is actually only performed at year-end, so we will have to remember that when December 2951 rolls past.

I am not sure about a list - I will see if I can help you out with some ideas.

I imagine that the list you are looking for will be in the adventurers companion when it comes out.

 

Oh, no worries, the restriction makes perfect sense, he'd be doing something like that anyways without a restriction.

And that sounds really useful for all kinds of stuff, I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Anyways, Rorin's undertaking will be to secure Mountain Hall as a supplier of metals for his forge. But I'm not sure what official undertaking fits that best. You mentioned a "business boon" which sounds perfect, but I don't have the book in front of me right now. I'll try to look it up when I get home tonight.

Also, added XP totals to my sheet, haven't spent them yet.

I will look, too, Steve. See what I can find and we'll compare notes.

Grimbeorn did what he could to lay low while recovering but news of the company and their exploits spread.  When he was up and about working out sore limbs and taking stock of the town, he couldn't help but take note of the stares and whispers; there were even those who called him The Bulwark or Troll's Folly.  No doubt this was spread in no small (pun intended) part due to the raucous and over-zealous storytelling by the Hobbit.  "His curse of gab will one day bite us off more than we can chew," thinks the Beorning.  "And yet, his keen eye and bow are largely as to why I am still alive."


  Athletics 2 ->  3 (9 AP, 0 AP remaining, Axes 3 -> 4 (10 XP, 6 XP remaining)

I was wondering what kind of undertaking would Grimbeorn be doing if say he spent his time discussing and negotiating with the folk regarding the tolls roads, the tolls themselves, services the Beornings provide, etc.

As Grimbeorn rests and heals in the Great House, the Men of Mountain Hall set to work smelting the ore for Rorin's forge.  Before Hartfast and the assembled elders of this branch of his people, Arbogast presents the brooches and lantern he has borne from the troll-hoard to his future kinsman. 

"Theodwin, son of Deorwin, I present to you the dowry of Arbodag, son of Scyldag, for his daughter Sunne." 


"These are fine and beautiful things," says the red-haired mountain man, closely examining the gems in the firelight.  "I thank you, and I thank your father," he finishes with a formal, if awkward, bow. 

Theodwin comes to find Arbogast the following day.  On his left hand he wears a gauntlet of thick leather and bears aloft a mottle-feathered falcon.  "Come, my brother-to-be.  Let me show you the land in which your sister will abide."

The two Men go, half marching and half climbing, some way along the mountain trails, until they reach what the well-kept fire pit and cosy lean-to show to be a much-favoured spot of Theodwin's.  The mountain man looses his bird, and his whistle is answered by a screech that echoes between the snowy peaks.  Arbogast finds himself astonished by the sheer extent of the view.  Below them, Mirkwood spreads like a dark green sea across from the vales of Anduin, cast into patches of light and dark by the clouds drifting high above.  Beyond the forest looms a shape on the horizon that he can only suppose to be the Lonely Mountain, home until recent years of Rorin.  For a time, nothing but the wind disturbs the silence. 

"Your father's gifts are generous," begins Theodwin after a time. 

"My sister is precious to him," answers Arbogast with a shrug. 

"Justly so, I fancy.  And yet, I find myself puzzled." 

Arbogast spares him a glance, one eyebrow raised. 

"The lantern is hardly a gift of long tradition," Theodwin says.

"And yet, it is my father's gift to you."  Arbogast lets some time pass before continuing, and Theodwin does not interrupt.  "Perhaps my father intends for you to hang it above your bed, to cast light about your home and remind Sunne that she has not been forgotten among the trees." 

"Perhaps," says Theodwin, nodding carefully.  "Tell me, are the trees of Mirkwood truly as great and dark as I have heard tell?" 

"All that and more." 

"This I cannot imagine, for I would be lost without the endless sky above me," says Theodwin.  Above them, the falcon wheels, feeling the joy of wind beneath spread wings. 

Arbogast allows himself a slight smile.  "I believe that you and my sister will not see eye to eye on that score.  Until, perhaps, you bring her here." 



Back in mechanics-land, I'm going to spend 9 AP to bring Battle up to 3 and another 4 AP to buy a point of Courtesy.  All that hanging around Bandy is rubbing off.  I'll spend 6 XP to buy a third rank if Valour - I'll work his reward into another post. 

My question for Doug is whether dropping some Treasure on a dowry, plus helping organise the defence of Black Tarn Hall back at the start of the Adventuring phase is worth a bump in his Standing.  If it is, then I'll make that my undertaking.  If not, I'll do something else (possibly while loudly saying things along the lines of 'nice hall you've got there.  Shame if it burned down because I wasn't sufficiently motivated to fight off another raid...'). 

 
Rorin is spending 10XP to raise his Valor to 4 and add the Grievous quality to his hammer.
He is also spending all 24AP to raise both battle and insight skills to 3.

Rorin spent much of the next week speaking with the smiths and miners of Mountain Hall while trying to procure precisely the metals he desired for his craft. The gold that came from these mountains was not the purest he had seen, but it was quality gold, and was easily smelted in a valuable form. Of the other metals they had found, their copper was the most noteworthy, Rorin had never seen such pure and easily accessible copper in any mines, the stuff very nearly came out of the ground ready to be crafted!

As he gathered the materials he needed, Rorin also spent some time with the senior smiths in the settlement and added some bronze plated hand holds to his hammer and added a small steel spike on the bottom of the haft. He liked the new balance of the hammer better now and could tell that his swings would be more even so that he could bring the weapon to bare with greater strength now.

When he wasn't working with the many metals that Mountain hall had to offer, he started to get to know it's various taverns with his companions to taste manner of ales they each brewed.

So if we are planning on doing things are we still doing this Fellowship Phase?

If we are:
XP13 - 10 (Art of Disappearing) and you thought he was hard to find before...
AP 16 -4 Battle - 9 Lore (f)

I think all of these make sense in terms of what we just went through.

  Sheet updated (wow I haven't done that in a long time).

For the two weeks or so the companions were in Mountain-Hall the Hobbit developed a fast and close friendship with Beranald. Through most of the two weeks the two were inseparable as the Hobbit assisted him in his duties to better get to know the people of the hall and spent most of his free time with him as well. Through all the laughter that spilled from the doorwarden's home many thought that the two had set to drinking nightly, bit not so. Each day they were clear eyed and alert, though for sure a few ales had been consumed. Just as the carvings of Woodman-Hall had been informative to the Hobbit so too had been the stories that Beranald had shared with him. The Hobbit was well on his way on having a better understanding of the Woodman as a whole then perhaps the Woodmen themselves did.

Grimbeorn's wounds were fast healing and the Hobbit did not neglect his old friends as he made new ones. He was often seen checking up on Grimbeorn or following after Arbogast trying to clarify some point of Woodmen lore or etiquette.

Esgalwen was the first to notice how dramatically Bandy had changed.

"Why Master Bracegirdle, your girdle has run a surplus of bracing!"

Bandy looked down at his belt and laughed patting his belly. As the others looked they noticed that the Hobbit, apparently unnoticed to them, been punching new holes in his belt ever tightening the grip around his waist. At this point the Hobbit appeared to have more belt past the buckle than he had around it.
 
"Keeping up with you folks is no easy matter for a Hobbit! You big folk stride here and there, up and down, why I even have twice as far to go to climb up the chair to even make it to the table!"

Bandy looked at himself with greater detail. His pants had been patched in many places, he could read a book through the thinness of his shirt, and his jacket had one button that was made of horn, and another a piece of twig he had found somewhere along the way. In fact the only article of clothing that wasn't practically falling off the Hobbit was his new hat and the smoking vest he only took out on occasion.

"I've gone to ramshackle, my good friends! At this rate I'll be taken for a Took!" The companions were not sure of the reference exactly, but they knew from his stories that a Took was some relation of his so many or other times removed.

"This must be remedied, and quickly!"

A few days later Bandy was again with his companions. He was late for supper, which a Hobbit was not apt to do by choice. With a great heave of the curtain the Hobbit entered the room and solicited a whistle from Esgalwen at the Hobbit.

"BEHOLD, BANDOBRAS BRACEGIRDDLE, walker of the woods!"

Though still wearing the same hat the Hobbit had completely outfitted himself in new clothes in the style of a Woodman. To the keen eyes of his companions they could see that he had recycled the buttons from his clothes and had attempted in places to give them 'shireness' as he described it, but for the most part the Hobbit now looked like a frontier woodsman.

"The folks at home will think me a bumkin now!"

In place of the threadbare pants the Hobbit now had leather shorts that were extended into leggings with pieces of leather, 'the better to ford streams and dry quickly' said the Hobbit.

His shirt was made of doeskin, and a cloak of rough but serviceable Mountain-Hall wool clothed his back. Somewhere, apparently, in the village Bandy had been able to modify a child's clothes and some odds and ends to make himself a new set of clothes.
"Where is the fur muffler Master Bracegirdle?" asked Rorin.

"You mind your forge mister, I have a wizard's hat to keep my noggin warm, now stop staring and let's eat."

When the time came to leave Mountain-Hall it was a bittersweet parting for the Hobbit. He had grown fond of old Beranald, so much so that he gave him one of the pipes that he had been working on from the briar he got from the troll hole. The pipe was craggy and weathered, but from the side it looked like the profile of an old man's face jutting from the side of mountain, and the Hobbit knew that all along the briar was meant as a pipe for his new friend. In return the old door warden presented the Hobbit with a new blade.

"Bandy, when a man comes of age among our folk he gets a knife. Well I don't expect I'll have a son at this point but I want you to take this blade. It's but a small knife for our folk, I used it for skinning foxes and the like as a lad when I received it from my farther long ago, but it will serve you well as a sword or dagger. It's an old blade and my father found it down below on some travel of his own. Take it in good health my friend."

There were no words that the Hobbit could offer for such a gift, other than to bow and say thank you.

"Well comrades, on what adventure are you taking me now?"

I just realised that I had four XP down on my sheet that I'd forgotten about.  Adding that to the six I had left over from this last adventure gives me just enough to bump Long Hafted Axe up to four. 

Mostly except for my total experience.  Doug, do you know how many have been awarded since the start of the game?  I've been very slack about keeping track.