Wilderness, Weathertop, and Wild Things Discussion Thread

[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.

----------------------------

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!

[Nuranar]

"WOW!" <-- Nuranar after reading Kransha's post.


That was nothing short of phenomenal, Kransha. I read your game post first, and I was thinking, "How long will I need to study this to make sure I get the tactical situation straight, much less write about it more?!" Then I got to your discussion post. Boy, did you read my mind! Never was a manual more needed!

I won't presume to critique your linguistics. (Nor will I sic my linguistics friend - who IS a Barrow-Downer - on you. ) The results are fine with me, and the explanation both useful and entertaining. I appreciate you taking that extra effort, although I dare to imagine that it was no hardship.

And a thousand thank-yous for outlining the tactical situation. I hate it when I sketch out a post in my head, then realize I missed something that throws it all out.

No worries about the horses. They make such big targets, it would be the height of unreality for them all to be unscathed. I suggest that we lose at least 2 more horses. Some of us will be riding double on the retreat.

Meneltarmacil and Alaksoron, I suggest you rescue your characters.

Kransha, just how good is Kransha? (Man, does that sentence look stupid. Ahem!) If I recall correctly, he's lost opportunities to make a kill at least twice. But he's a very good marks-orc, correct? Again in the interests of realistic gaming, he ought to hit something this time. Now, if he kills Menecar... But that's another dynamic.

What I'm very clumsily trying to suggest is, How would it be if he wounds Tarondo? The baddies ought to know by now who's the leader, and even a fool of an uruk would know to go for the top man. And Kransha's no fool. Would it offend realism if I employed the Fairy of Fortunate Chance to keep Tarondo from being killed?

Thank goodness for automatic email updates!

I just saw Meneltarmacil's post. All right, it looks like both Bubkur and Menecar are dead, and Thoronmir's taken an arrow in the arm from Kransha (who is again trying to pick off Andas Loudewater). And one of the Stone Trolls has toppled over. Bubkur must have a lot of mass!

Kransha, my offer for Tarondo to take a hit still stands.

Now, Saurreg: Andas is already in the thick of it. If he was up to it, I was going to have him take on Kransha hand-to-hand. Then Menecar would rescue him/distract Kransha and get killed. Menecar's dead now, but someone else can rescue Andas, if you want him to fight Kransha. Your choice.

[Kransha]

Alright, more organization required.

Bubkur is dead, which is good. This makes the battle less confusing. Also, six orcs (including Bubs) are dead, two killed by Thoronmir, two crushed by the falling Stone Troll (who is, if you want to know, named Bert), and one killed by a kick from Luinien's horse. This leaves 19 orcs, including Kransha.

I need to know one thing. At present, everyone wants Kransha for something (no, I have not started speaking of myself in the third person). Here are points to know. Osric will be wounded by Kransha. Tarondo will is also to get wounded by a Kranshanian arrow. Andas may or may not engage Kransha as well

I suggest, all three, (Andas with some hesitation, perhaps) charge Kransha. He can take one down immediately, and then go hand to hand with the other two, He's the best the orcs have got, one of the Gundabad elite, and a better fighter than even Bazzog, the commander. He should, logically, be the hardest to killm though not quite as hard to kill as a troll. I have a full proposal, to accomodate the points above.
1. Kransha, after wounding Thoronmir, sees the 'leader' on the battlefield, AKA Tarondo, and shoots at him, but his vision is obscured by some commotion, and he only wounds him.
2. At this, Osric could charge and Andas with him.
3. The rest ought to be ad-libbed.

So, how's that scenario?

P.S. Despite all these engagements, I'm selfish enough to demand that Kransha remain alive. He deserves a "kewler" death, at a later date.

[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

[Saurreg]

Nuranar - Post edited.

Loudewater has recovered his faculties. And is now feeling kinda embarressed, sheepish and shy. He wonders what would imposing Tarando (whom the farmer thinks has a very stern mein) do to him.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

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.

*chuckle*

Now that you've gone and injured Arrald in return, I imagine that he will be gunning -- or, rather, clubbing for your pretty little elfie. . .