Thanks, Jim. When you first mentioned her, I found references to Elenwe in both Foster’s Complete Guide to Middle-Earth and the online Encyclopedia of Arda, but since she’d died, I assumed the same name was a coincidence. There’s obviously no rule that every single Elf must have a unique name. The second Elenwe might even have been named in honor of the first, or wouldn’t the timing of that work out?
Thoroncir refuses to believe that anyone could be lovelier than Gilraen, dammit.
And BTW, it’s cool to have a unicorn around!
P.S. For those who’d wondered about QtM joining the campaign, he declined when I asked him a few days ago.
The unicorn in Peter S. Beagle’s book looks like a horse only to the dull and ignorant - though her body is on the whole horse-like, she has a good deal of the deer about her too.
Since I never before heard of unicorns in Middle-Earth, I certainly shan’t assume I know a darn thing about them.
Although there is an obvious conclusion to draw about the rider (much as about Esme Weatherwax in Lords and Ladies).
That is much closer to my idea and I know Mr. Beagle is as big a fan as we are, though from even earlier. As to Esme, I don’t recall the exact conclusion, but I imagine it had to deal with intact Virginity? If so, that is an easy guess. She even looks virginal if there is such a thing as looking virginal.
In general, Elves do not reuse names and do not name children in honor of living or dead elves. Tolkien went on about this at length and it is what led him to the conclusion that Glorfindel was the 1st age elf in his new body and returned from Valinor.
I will try to mix in other creatures that are new to the canon of Middle Earth but reasonable. The Selkies are another example. You will not see Faeries flittering around as I specifically know how Tolkien felt about those. (He hated them) I have use the Hobbit as an excuse to have an abundance of smart animals and even talking animals. It does not fit as well with most of the LotR or Silmarillion. I also use his other stories and books for guidance.
I would fully expect Thoroncir to be much too thunderstruck by Gilraen to do notice Elenwë is more than just elven and wise.
I’d like to reiterate a quick point… although this is great fun, I still feel that NPCs do too much of the work and take most of the damage.
Riglo took 70 damage in the Vampire combat (and Hodwain took 24).
I appreciate the assistance of Renee (who we agreed rounded out the party), but I would prefer that we carry out the missions ourselves.
I kind of agree. I like Renee and don’t want to see her gone, but would like the opportunity to get grievously injured on the party’s behalf. (Not that I wan’t pleanty injured in that last fight). But it would be fun to see what we can do on our own.
I agree, Riglo will soon be gone and if you feel this way. Please ensure you don’t travel with Hodwain to Rhûn. You can still go there, but don’t go with him.
This meeting with Elenwë should be just a chance to meet her. I didn’t want to have Legolas here yet. I wasn’t planning any adventures with her. (Yet)
Please interact with her though in the game thread.
@Jim: Yes, Nanny Ogg helpfully explains to Mustrum Ridcully who was sweet on Esme Weatherwax sixty-plus years before - she could always run faster than him, and faster than any other man who ever chased her too. (Whereas Gytha Ogg in her youth always seemed to trip over something, even if she had to search for a while for something to trip over.)
Remember that a smart fox turns up in “Three is Company”, thinking it odd that three hobbits should be sleeping out of doors. (“He was right, but he never found out any more about it”.) Bearing in mind Treebeard’s account of the origins of the Ents (which doesn’t jibe exactly with “Of Aule and Yavanna”) I suppose it’s possible that Elves are to blame for this too - having from time to time taken the trouble to elevate a few animals to heightened consciousness and even verbalisation. And of course the giant spiders have some of Ungoliant’s blood running in them, and hence a wholly unnatural awareness (and the Eagles are directly Manwe’s servants, as any fule kno).
@the room in general: Agreed, although if Gil-Gandel had taken 70 points of damage in a round from anything at all he would even now be admiring the decor in the Halls of Mandos and wondering idly how the guys got on in Ered Lithui when the dust finally settled.
Somewhere in this thread, I think I mentioned the Fox in fact. It was around the time Moose showed up.
I do consider the chapter before the old forest to still be in the same mode as the Hobbit. It was still a Faerie Tale and morphed fully into an *Epic *by Weathertop. I think it was Bree that was the most serious turning point in tone with the taking on of Strider but after the songs.
I agree about the NPCs. The animals and other NPCs that are weaker than the party are lots of fun, but it can be a little disheartening to realize that you would basically be vampire kibble if it wasn’t for the assistance heaped onto you by vastly more experienced NPC companions. ^^
Just curious on this one. Riglo acted as a damage sponge but did little of the killing. Hodwain & Gwaelur took about the same damage and Hodwain was out of it quickly. The archers pin cushioned this monster as the melee experts took and dealt much damage. If Riglo or Hodwain had met the Vampire by itself, they would have died. I think the main thing the NPC’s did in this case was absorb a lot of damage. Even the Hobbits were in on the kill to a good amount.
Take another look at that post. I think they did less than seems to be realized. It was the party that killed the beast, not the NPCs.
But Riglo will be gone soon and the party has some control over being with Hodwain or not.
While I agree that I don’t want the NPCs to be a crutch, to me the NPCs seem to be a tuning tool and also a method to give us a friendly prod in a direction that keeps the campaign on the rails. Let’s face it, we literally spent weeks trying to decide what to do. Without some NPC prompting, we could have still been talking about it when the dark cloud descended on us. Also, I much prefer a few humanoid NPCs to a fully stocked talking zoo.
Regarding danger, I felt a bad roll could have killed any of the PCs in the last fight. Only What Exit knows if there was friendly GM interaction making Riglo take the worst of the damage. I really don’t care to or need to know. I think the success of his Middle Earth campaigns sort of speaks for itself. Huzzah!
As to Riglo, it was no roll. He deliberately and very bravely made an attack on the monster to save the rest of the party. He never expected quite what happened to him, but he drew the vampires assault. I believe Thoroncir would have done exactly the same thing. It is kind of a Dunedain thing I believe.
Hodwain was just the biggest target by far. He saw the vampire flitting right over the fighter to get to the lightly armored and lower hit points folk and grabbed without a lot of thought. If Hodwain did not do that, at least on of the archers would have been out of the battle early or a spell caster would be dead.
If the NPCs are being used to balance out the game in terms of power level and nudge us in the right direction, I have no problem with them being in the party. A lot of the decisions we should have had to make for ourselves to drive the story on, rather than waiting for an NPC to tell us what to do. I think part of the problem has been missing Malacandra and Glee as the main decision makers and so the impetus has not been quite there.
It has been good with Riglo and Hodwain in the party, but in terms of what they have done, it has been mainly to pass on a bit of info and wait for us to do something. Renee has been more proactive as a character, which is understandable. As for the fight, they gave us a couple of free hits, although consider the fight that Thoroncir and Gwaelur put up against Grillianch.
For future games, I don’t mind either way as to the number of NPCs. I’m just looking forward to them.
PS: RogueRacer, you’re just jealous you didn’t get a Wildcat
Eh. There’s some truth to the notion that we’re leaning on NPCs, but it’s not blatantly too much, just slightly. I think that the addition of both Hodwain and Riglo was what tipped the balance; either one would have been fine. And Renee is fine; I’ve got no objection there.
Actually, I’m enjoying the fully stocked talking zoo. Ghan’s a druid and we’ve got a pair of rangers in the party; assistance from nature seems natural. It might be good to have animals cycle in and out occasionally, though.
Somehow the Dwarves found a supply of Mithril* to help remake the gates of Minas Tirith. The value placed on your chain mail has to do more with quality of the smithing (and magic) than the 10 pounds or so of Mithril. That and the Shire was being greatly undervalued in my opinion. I would rate the Mithril value of the Mail at about 24,000 to 48,000 gold. It might be true that all of the valuable in the Shire did not add up to this, but the farm lands that produced such rich and abundant crops are worth far more than estimated and even more now that there is a North Kingdom again and an economy.
Now with the enchantments, maybe this armor is worth 200,000 gold. That might be fair to say. Obviously there could be no buyer found. Maybe my estimate is higher than the value of the Shire before Lotho began his trade with Saruman, but I doubt it. I think Gandalf might have been wrong on this one.
So in conclusion, I hold by by estimate of 2 ounces of Mithril being worth maybe 300-600 GP.
*
I suppose I should have mentioned that for purposes of the game, obviously the value set is perfectly in line and I wasn’t arguing for more phat lewt. There wouldn’t be much point in us looting something worth 100K gold.
As far as its value in the books, again, I know my Tolkien knowledge isn’t up to getting into a debate over it. I wouldn’t know where to find cites in the books. About all I can say is that my understanding is that it was exceedingly rare due to many factors including that it only came from one place and that dwarves horded it as did dragons and other evil creatures and beings. All this led me to concluding that even small things made of mithril were more or less priceless.
As someone else mentioned, it’s entirely possible that by FA63 it’s more common due to Moria possibly being reclaimed.
Actually Mithril only being found in Moria is somewhat open to debate and we have the glaring line that the new gates of Minas Tirith were “wrought of mithril and steel”. It is a tough call, but somewhere there is/was a goodly supply of Mithril available. For my version of the World, Moria has not yet been retaken, but it is being planned. Only Gwaelur of the party members would be aware of this. It is the goal of nealy even one of the Durin Folk.
But please, raise the questions, they are fun and I think a fun part of playing a D&D game in Middle Earth.
Out of curiousity, what is the debate there? I’m I misremembering that it was even called Moria-Silver at least once in the books?
Now that I think of it though, weren’t the helms of the Guards of the Citadel made with at least some mithril? Apparently Gondor had set in a good supply if it was as rare as I believed.
