Laid low their towers and houses frail

[bunn]

Continued from...

In the cold winter evening, we came cautiously down the old road that runs across the marshy land of Raku.  Snow was lying on the ground and the wind cut fiercely.  The journey was long, but fortunately uneventful.  Here we are one evening, all huddled around a fire.

Comments

[ladyofastolat]

The pictures are all great, but I particularly like the picture around the fire.

Stupid frog! I tried to fit a reference to it into Gyula's epic poem, but it didn't seem to fit the idiom. It needs to be produced as a tie-in game - though perhaps with something else standing in for the live frogs. Green wet sponges? Green quoits decorated with frogs?

In the "record it in the LJ post or we'll forget it next year" vein, I'll add this. In the warg fight, Thrandin also gave such an awesome pep talk that he inspired Sirithglor to find the strength to utter a word of command telling the remaining wolves to flee (or stand immobile; I can't remember which.) When I asked if I could make a stirring speech that transferred my unused hero point to someone who'd used all theirs up, I never expected the GM to say yes. So I need it in writing, just so it gets remembered next year. :-D

[bunn]

Oh, drattit! I just knew that Angruin was going to leave out Sirithglor's achievements again. I was trying hard not to let him, but he's gone and done it anyway. He would.

The Single Transferrable Hero Point is an awfully useful idea, we definitely need to hang onto it.

[r_blackcat]

Aw, cliffhanger!
I like the night-and-fire picture most.
When you write "Rhest", how it's supposed to be pronounced? If I remember correctly my "philological studies" of 20 years ago, Tolkien meant his rh and hr as "r in whisper". Is this the case?
"It can't really be said we gave Nurclamac a swift death, since Thorofin put his eyes out" - (puzzled: ) why? I mean, for what purpose?

[philmophlegm]

GM here:

Yes, I think so. Like the Welsh 'rh' sound in, for example, Rhosllanerchrugog, which is near where I grew up. Tolkien uses the same sound in 'Rhovanion' and 'Rhun'.

[bunn]

I *think* that Nurclamac, being a bit tougher / brighter than the first orc we caught, was refusing to tell us anything, and Thorofin was persuading him. It was all a bit disturbing.

The cliffhanger is a bit of a big one because we got a bit scared of Sauron and decided not to go back to Rhest right away. But Sauron is definitely out there somewhere... eeek!

[ladyofastolat]

I think the eyes got put by chance as part of the battle. Thorofin made a very good hit, and rolled "head" on the dice that randomly determined which body part was hit. Technically this should probably have killed him, but we'd said we wanted him to keep him alive for questioning, so this was changed to something dreadful but not quite fatal.

I was playing the character who did the questioning (the dwarf, Thrandin) and by the time I arrived on the scene, the orc was already eyeless. This was unfortunate, since my normal approach was to say quite reasonably (I had awesome powers of persuasion), "look, you're doomed, anyway. Tell us everything you know, and we'll make sure your death is painless and swift." His existing battle wounds made this approach rather more challenging in his case.

[ylla]

I love the light in that first picture - it reminds me a bit of the people who say that they make sculptures by taking away all the bits that shouldn't be there.

[bunn]

I like making that sort of sculpture, too!

[lindahoyland]

Love the artwork.

[bunn]

Thanks!

[oonaseckar]

a hideous game they called Stupid Frog, which involved... well, shall we just say that it involved live frogs and an iron spike.
unnnnnnnnng... *horrid flashbacks to fainting in school biology lessons* Very good concise name for it though. Thorofin, Stupid Frog World Grand Master!

Your renditions of water and darkness are lovely, v. beautiful and clear.

Coracles make me think of Narnia and Reepicheep and The Voyage of the Dawntreader. And orc-coracles, say that ten times while knocking back a half of lager and black!

Honestly though, how is Big Black involved? Seriously, if Steve Albini is massing with the forces of evil... no, he did that a long time ago. has anyone ever seen him in the same room as Sauron? I'll sign up for the other side myself.

Thorofin does come across as a bit of a div. Is he meant to be?

[bunn]

:-ooo Steve Albini.

Chainmailmaiden who plays Thorofin has said that she thinks he might be just a little bit thick.

Angruin, however, feels a bit guilty about Thorofin, as Thorofin's family comes from the faction that didn't swear any particularly stupid oaths and got attacked and slaughtered by the faction that Angruin belonged to.

Angruin likes to give Thorofin lots of credit for his undeniable fighting prowess, and excuses any mistakes on the grounds that he is very young. (Thorofin's mistakes are nothing like as big as Angruin's...)