Wilderness, Weathertop, and Wild Things Discussion Thread

[piosenniel]

Please Note:

Tark refers to a man of Numenorean descent and was also used to refer to men from Gondor. It does not refer to Elves.

It is most likely a debased form (Black Speech) derived from the Westron or Common Speech word Tarkil (Man of Numenor), which in turn is probably a variation of the Quenyan word, Tarcil (Ship King)

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Alaksoron

Where in Tolkien's writings is your reference for the fact that Orc blood is like acid and can corrode metal?

[Kransha]

Thank you, pio. I knew that, but my mind is rather muddled at present. The whole Black Speech mini-dictionary is back on Page 2, if I remember correctly. Your knowledge of canon is far more immediate thank mine.

OK, to sum up, it appears that there are 3 orcs left. One nameless orc, Bubkur, and Kransha. Bubkur is in combat with Thoronmir, and is apparently wounded. The unnamed orcs is good to go down, so I'll let him be slain, though Kransha will be the one to resolve that the orcs must flee the field, probably because of the lack of troops and the heavy injuries done to the trolls.

Since I cannot actually post until circa 6 o'clock EST tonight, I'll put up a save now. You all have the details of the retreat, so post at your leisure in the wake of that save. Sadly, these past few days have borne an extremely chaotic chain of real life events for me, which has limited my surfeit of posts, but that ends tonight. Final notes: Meneltarmacil, your idea of building an unspoken enmity between Bubkur and your character is a good one. If it is manageable, I'll have Bubkur engage Menecar several more times before the battle at the Stone Trolls.

Is all this doable, coherent, comprehensible, and legible? I certainly hope so. I have to go take a couple of orc-brand aspirin before I fall over. As per my post above, the retreat save will be up between 6 and 7 o'clock tonight (Eastern time, by the way).

[Nuranar]

Both Envinyatar and I will be out of town this weekend. Kransha, carry on as you're doing.

Everyone's doing great, and I apologize for the abruptness of this. Wrap up the battle and then we'll move on!

Nuranar

[Kransha]

At long last, my save if filled:

The battle is over. The orcs have retreated. Of the original 8 orcs, 2 remain (Kransha & Bubkur) who have fled off of Weathertop and back to the main force. As far as casualties go, Thoronmir has got quite a wound in his shoulder, but not a debilitating one. If one wishes to study the medical implausibility of such a wound being non-debilitating, feel free, but by the time you find out the truth, I'll be long gone *insert villainous cackle here ala Bela Lugosi* Andas Loudwater almost got his quailing posterior skewered by an orc arrow, but has come out unscathed, thanks to an ill-timed command.

I did notice that, in the various battle posts, more orcs were killed than there actually are in the area, a curious fact. In my post, I mentioned the original 8 only, and excluded the couple of orcs who several people made up and killed, to keep consistency and contrinuity alive, even if only in spirit.

[Primrose Bolger]

Perhaps Orcs reproduce quickly under stress? (A previously undiscussed theory of Orc reproduction, I think)

I set us up to get the King's hired hands cut off from returning toward Bree and to get them herded eastward.

Will revise as needed.

--- Prim

[Esgallhugwen]

Alas! I cannot believe I missed the battle, oh well, theres always flashbacks. Thanks for moving my character along, I appreciate it ever so greatly
I will post more in the future.

Eternally,
Esgallhugwen

[Nuranar]

I have returned! A few notes:

Luinien's arm is NOT broken. The shoulder is very bruised and the shock/pain was what caused it to be useless during the battle. Sorry guys, but I'm going to need her more able-bodied for the time being. She can get a more serious wound later, perhaps. rutslegolas and Alaksoron, would you edit your posts that mention that?

Kransha, thanks for totalling out what has happened to your orcs. If you would, please point out the mysteriously spawned and summarily dispatched orcs to their writers. I'm confused enough as it is myself, and I'd like to keep the action at least moderately easy to understand!
And since I'm moderating the extent of my own character's injury, I'll not quibble with you about Thoronmir's. I might also point out that Fordim inflicted said wound, and it was all I could do to keep my she-Elf (who is no Amazon) from being flattened by the blow.

rutslegolas, you say that Aidwain's ankle is broken. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that even a sprain is all but impossible to walk on. Even for an Elf. Be as that may, I consider a broken bone to be a serious injury. If you would, please either change the extent of his injury or not have him walking around on it. Thanks!

Way to work ahead, Prim! Thanks for setting up the cut-'em-off-in-the-back aspect.

Alaksoron, thanks for spearheading the healing. Please respond to the PM's I sent you last week.

Esgallhugwen, no worries. It worked out fine, especially since Silrûth only came in at the end. You handled that flashback very nicely.

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Tarondo will be pulling the group together for some decision-making or something as soon as I get the post written. Kransha, I'm going to assume that Bâzzog sends some of his people out back to the west, either acting on the trolls' suggestion or anticipating them. If this is a problem, let me know.

Good work, everyone! Carry on!

Nuranar

[Kransha]

Oy, my RPG post requires a manual to understand..

The title of my post is the impromptu name I thought up for the battle: The Battle of Teryggond. Teryggond is Sindarin; Teryg (Troll Pl.) + gond (stone, i.e. Gondor). So, Teryggond technically means "Stone Trolls," and the skirmish can be considered, "The Battle of the Stone Trolls." I can only hope that the title is accurate linquistically. If someone/anyone would prefer it not be in Sindarin, I'll oblige, but the name translated into Elvish has a very eloquent nature, in my most humble opinion, thus my use of it. The wee little skirmish can just as easily be called "The Battle of the Stone Trolls" by non-Elvish speakers, and "Dagor Teryggond" by the Elves of the company. But, I digress...a lot.

~WARNING~ The next paragraph is increasingly boring, but may be interesting to linguists
Other linguistic points: More use of Black Speech.
My post contains two linguistic oddities: Thrakul and Gimbata.
Fear not, canon police, there is method in my madness: Thrakal means "Bring them." Tolkien does not explicitly say this, but it can deduced. In the Ring Verse, which we all most probably have heard, the phrase "thrakataluk" means "to bring them all." I took the liberty of removing the -ataluk suffix, because that denotes that the verb "bring" also entails "them all." Thrakat would mean "to bring" so removing -at from thrak- might, logically, create another connotation of the same verb. Though this is not exactly canon, I sort of assumed that I could make the verb into a second person version of itself by removing that suffix, and adding the new prefix -al, which means "all" (thrakat-al-uk). A similar principle follows with the word Gimbata, which means, via my translation "Find him," from the Ring Verse "gimbatul." Gimbatul means "bring them all," so I again removed the -atul suffix and added *gulp* a word I sort of...made up...Yes, Tolkien never gave us the Black Speech word for "he" so I fabricated it...But it's just two letters. Can it pass, oh mighty mods?

I also put the word tark-dug in there, which is basic, meaning "Ranger-Filth" (remember pio's definition of tark).

Ok, now for the actual battle!

-The battle has begun: all combatants are in play
-Most of the 23 nameless orcs are armed with an array of random weaponry, but take note that there are two with spears, and three are still using their bows.
-Thoronmir's horse is dead. I hope this isn't dreadfully inconvenient, but I didn't want to make my archers out to be totally inept. Plus, this way, Thoronmir can directly engage Bubkur, who is currently gallumphing towards him.
-Osric got tackled off of his horse by a big orc. This orc is free to be killed, and is no threat, he just got lucky. All of the 23 orcs on the field, besides Bubkur and Kransha, can be killed at any time, but if the good guys are going to flee, I suggest they flee from something (which means, don't kill everyone gratuitously, you'll get your chances in due time...but you don't have to be frugel).
-Kransha is scoping out the field for a mark. Beware!

[Meneltarmacil]

Actually, Bubkur's rivalry should be with Thoronmir, not Menecar, since Thoronmir was the one fighting him earlier. Just thought I'd point that out.

Oh, and at the Stone Trolls I was planning on (with Kransha's approval, naturally) killing off Bubkur after a huge battle, then taking the poisoned arrow from Kransha and being incapacitated for the rest of the game.

[Nuranar]

We are encamped in some rocks a little way from Weathertop, on its east side north of the road. Silrûth is scouting for enemies westward along the road; Menecar has gone to the east.

Esgallhugwen, if you want you can get up a post about what Silrûth discovers - there will orcs/trolls scattered about or readying an ambush.

Or Kransha, you can take the lead in deciding how the baddies will make their presence known. If they want to herd the KEM toward the Trollshaws instead of just squishing them, it'll take some doing.

Saurreg, I wasn't sure how you would develop Loudewater's mental state in your save, so Tarondo did not address him in my post. But this is the logical place to have him join us, so I will need to edit that in later. Please don't carry your post past the arrival at the new camping spot, and please put up a note on the discussion so I know when you've edited it in.

Oh! rutslegolas, if you decide Aidwain is still mobile (see my note above about his broken ankle), you may want to have him go look for the missing horses. I'm thinking that although they've bolted for now, they're extremely well trained and probably haven't gone far. We will need to find them again before we move on, anyway.

Envinyatar, are you back yet? I assume you'll want Veryadan to regain consciousness sometime. I'd prefer that before we leave, if possible, although it doesn't matter before or after the scouts return.

I think that's everything, for now... Carry on!

Nuranar