Adventures in Middle-Earth (Inactive)

Game Master Wandering Wastrel

Waiting on everyone apart from Bergur and Illyria.

I'm going to say this is not the kind of injury that can be treated with Bergur's shirt on. Is anyone leaning towards/away from any of the following options?

Option A: Only Harry gets the Bergur=Brigg reveal.

Option B: Let's get everyone in on this party!

Option C: Something in-between. One or two people other than Harry find out, (either from being treated at the same time or accidentally), but not the whole group.

Bergur: obviously entirely up to you. It you want to get everyone involved, one possible option is just to have him collapse from blood loss, forcing Harry to treat him where he is. When he discovers that Bergur is, in fact, of the female persuasion, he asks one of the women to help him, but would obviously have to explain why.

If you go for certain-individuals-only, keep in mind that the people who find out later might well take issue with being lied to by the rest of the group.

Illyria: great, if slightly disturbing post. Have a point of Inspiration.

I'm game for any of those. I have a pretty good idea of how Harry will react in any case.

Bergur, I'm fine with however you want to play it. This is a major part of your character arc, so it's all you :)

I like the idea of Bergur collapsing from blood loss, so let's do it :)

Work burned me at both ends today, I'm completely worn so I'm going to hold off my replies till tomorrow.

Also what ever makes you happy mate! Passing out from blood loss is fine!

I'm going to give this scene a bit longer to play out before moving us along. It's a balance between encouraging people to RP and keeping the game moving.

I was waiting a bit to see if Harry would have anything to say, but D.O. must be busy this week. I'm game to move on and let any other fallout, (including the promised explanation), happen along the road.

Also just realized I said 'his' men without context. I'm sure it's obvious, but I meant Gisalric's men.

I thought it was clear - no confusion here :)

Yeah I figured that was the only thing it could mean! But it is always good to clarify if you're worried.

Haven't heard from Decimus/Harry for a week now. We've still got 4 players and hopefully he'll come back so I'm just going to continue with him in the background.

Bergur is very quiet as he listens to Cedwin's tale, one hand constantly fiddling with the comb in his pocket. While it's something of a relief to hear evidence that Drusilla had left due to her own ambitions rather than fleeing a tyrant, much of the rest of the story worries him. Especially all the talk about the dark. Or, perhaps, the Shadow.

Strictly speaking it doesn't matter, but I'm not sure how much a Barding who isn't a scholar of lore would know about the Shadow at this stage. Same goes for Illyria, of course. But then you are travelling with a Ranger and a scholar so it's conceivable that one/both of them has educated you a little in such matters (you have to be talking about something on your Journeys, right?).

A Ranger who has dodge the Shadow her whole life because she was born to the House of Isildur.

You'd have to ask her about it though. She doesn't just start speaking of what little she does know.

Interesting you bring that up, I'm planing to have Illyria be sceptical of the Shadow until she encuounters it a bit more. She knows nothing of Sauron or rings or the history there. In her view, orcs and spiders and dragons are bad enough without imagininng some vast secret force behind them all.

And I totalluy get Morwen doesn't want to say much without being asked. Those who know don't speak and those who speak don't know :)

To be honest I hadn't really thought about it, but now that I have I am convinced Bergur probably has an idea of the Shadow's existence. There's even evidence!

Ahem. (Puts on blue suit.)

Exhibit A: Bergur possesses the power of Woeful Foresight. While that power is not specifically linked to the Shadow, it is reasonable to assume that the Shadow is responsible for many of his foreseen events. (Okay, okay, it's weak but I just realized I hadn't actually used that power this journey and it seemed to be a good segue. GM, I would like to use this ability before we get to Drusilla's new fort.)

Exhibit B: Bergur recently spent an entire winter in the company of one Harry Kettlegrass and Morwen of House Isildur, an event that occured directly after Morwen revealed her lineage. Bergur, a curious sort, no doubt would have asked someone about Morwen's claim. Probably Harry. Morwen's scary when she's mad. While I admit this evidence is circumstantial at best, the GM themself admitted that we would have had to be talking about something.

Finally, Exhibit C: A large feature of Bergur's 'Doomed to Die' background is the ability Dark Foreboding, which grants him a sort of sixth sense regarding the Shadow. "The Doomed to Die can usually tell, for example, whether an Orc band is an isolated raiding party or part of a larger force being driven by something more sinister, or whether a nearby ruin is steeped in Shadow." How could he have a sixth sense about the Shadow if he did not know It existed!?

I rest my case ;)

(More seriously, my thought is that he's gotten the impression there's a greater Evil behind the smaller ones, but he definitely doesn't know specifics. However I'm fine with whatever level of knowledge or lack thereof the GM deems reasonable.)

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers

That sounds reasonable, although now I have to go and look up your Woeful Foresight power again...

Morwen's scary when she's mad.

Morwen is scary, period.

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers

That sounds reasonable, although now I have to go and look up your Woeful Foresight power again...

Sorry, I should have listed it.

"Many citizens of ancient Dale found themselves blessed – or cursed – by a sort of foresight following Smaug’s destruction of the city. As a descendant of one of these bloodlines, you share this gift.

Sometimes, you feel a sense of foreboding that warns you of impending catastrophe and other gloomy events. But the future is always uncertain, and sometimes what you foresee never materialises.

Raise your Wisdom score by 1 point. Additionally, once every Adventuring phase, you may invoke your power of Woeful Foresight. When this happens, the Loremaster should give you a relevant piece of information regarding adverse events likely to occur during your current adventure.

If no such information is available – or the Loremaster prefers not to divulge it – once, before the current Adventuring phase is over, you may choose to automatically succeed at either an attack roll, a saving throw or an ability check (your foresight led to a sudden bout of insight or deeper understanding that helped you at a key moment).

Your foresight manifests in many forms: it can be a hazy vision, a recurring and enigmatic dream, or a cryptic message borne by a talking bird."

Bergur - ask and ye shall receive :)

Bergur, Son of Ragni wrote:

Morwen's scary when she's mad.

Morwen is scary, period.

Yeah, you and Illyria are certainly getting a reputation!

You say that like it's a bad thing GM! XD

Sorry for the radio silence. Catching up now!

That turned into a bit of a marathon - I honestly didn't expect it to take nine rolls for you to hit a DC 15 Survival check!

Also, these journey rules are amazing - worth the price of the books alone. I've never seen wilderness travel actually be fun to GM (and, hopefully to play as well)!

ME5E has some excellent stuff. I'm very glad I picked it up as a bundle!

@GM: What a journey!

Are those temporary or permanent shadow points?

Temporary. I'm evil, not sadistic.

Cheers!

That turned into a bit of a marathon - I honestly didn't expect it to take nine rolls for you to hit a DC 15 Survival check!

Also, these journey rules are amazing - worth the price of the books alone. I've never seen wilderness travel actually be fun to GM (and, hopefully to play as well)!

Reading your post, my heart actualy sank when we gained that exhautsion, and then in the next entry when we lost it was just such a relief.

I'm going to sit for and do a proper post tonight after work. There is just a lot and I don't want to miss anything important!

The 29th just isn't Harry's day! A pair of natural ones. D:

I may be coming down with a cold. Argh.

Okay so there was just so much to read was more what it was! I still didn't want to miss anything so I'm glad I waited! XD

Also that sucks about the cold...

Wait, did we heal thought the days? Because if not... Morwen is down to a -2...

Yes: you're travelling with a scholar who has a healing ability that recharges with every short rest. You've been on the road for days, and each day has at least one short rest, even on a Journey - unless I tell you otherwise.

There's been enough short rests for Harry to bring everyone back to full health.

Bergur, Morwen, Onar - go for it. If the spider's still alive when Harry checks in he can post then :)

Illyria pats him on the shoulder. Startled, he looses the arrow far too soon and nowhere near its intended target.

:O

Oh, sure, blame someone else for your dice rolls. Did Illyria also make you forget to use Inspiration for a reroll :P

No, that was actually a deliberate choice because I figure the spider is either already dead or close to it. But yes, I did take advantage of the opportunity to blame someone else for my poor roll :)

And I thought moving to PbP meant I'd heard the last of those "you jogged my arm! I want a reroll" arguments >.<

Ah not at all! We actually just make it worse because after an hour it is set in stone! XD

Waiting on Harry and Onar

Not quite sure what you want to do here. Stay where you are for a bit - and if so, how long - or move to explore the keep?

My vote would be for Harry to spend ten minutes patching up Morwen, then move on. Illyria's right that this doesn't seem to be a good place to stop for a short rest.

Yes, taht works for me.

OK, I will give others a chance to chip in before moving us along

Morwen would tell you she can still fight, but yeah I'd like my character patched up please! XD
At least before we do anything else.

Illyria, that postimages site you were using is great. Happily stealing it as a resource! :)

glad you like it

Sorry Ónar, forgot about you! having a ditzy weak all round :/

I'm sure it's OK. Dwarves are famously forgiving and don't hold grudges for long :)