Yes to number I A&B.
******************************************
As to II: I think
A2 is a good choice.
Quote:
|
Once again it is T and I's concern for the hobbit peoples (and perhaps their guilt about what happened in Gondolin), along with their Ulmo ties,that generates this.
|
Do you also want to give them a tie-in to Ancalimon and perhaps to Nienna, somehow? (We don't need to bring this in at the beginning of the story. Idril can hint at it to Child and the others in her vague, elven way.) There seems to be some background master plan to save Arda going on, which doesn't necessarily include all the Valar - not that the other Valar are opposed to it. They are just indifferent. I don't think Idril would be flummoxed by Pio as the candidate for the task. I think she would relish it - Eru knows she has spent many years trying to improve they wayward elf and set her on the right track.
******************************************
B2 of this section is preferable to me. It makes the entrance into the story after Mith's intro more realistic and saves any interventions from the West until later.
Now that I think about it - no, we don't need the ship to be an elven ship.
What about this idea: Child comes to the tavern to hire the ship to pursue the stories and clues concerning the lost hobbits. She's been told the man, Mithadan, might have a ship available for hire. She pours out her story to him before he has a chance to tell her he is just about to lose his ship due to an acumulation of poor previous voyages and debts of his coming due. Pio and Bird, their ears ever open for a promising deal, overhear what she is proposing, and propose to strike a deal with the hobbit and the man. For a share in the ship and a share in whatever profits this voyage might generate, they would be willing to pay the debt off. Mithadan can keep a share in the ship if he agrees to pay them back the price of his share from the generated profits. Surely Child and Rose can come up with a little money to put into the pot - all with the agreement that the elf and skin changer will eventually be paid the price of the others' shares of the ship. Pio can bring Veritas on board either later, or she can be sitting there with them, eavesdropping.
I think the original name of the ship should not be The Lonely Star - we should rechristen it (probably at a later date if we aren't dragging I & T into the beginning of the story - possibly when we find Kali and resolve to go on the quest). Mithadan can conveniently find the flag of Eärendil in his seaman's trunk, or something like that.(opening the possibility for another reinforcement of his ancestry). Khelek we can pick up at the library in Minas Anor as per the RPG.
What do you think? Might this sort of scenario be doable for us?
I cannot think how we might introduce the dragon . . . unless, she has been a travelling companion picked up by Bird and Pio on a previous adventure (Perhaps Idril sent her as part of the background plan?).
wouldn't that be interesting when the trio plus the wyrm come aboard Mithadan's ship for the first time!
********************************************
I see no reason we can't just make it year 10 of the Fourth Age. Anyone else see problems with this specific date?