Discussion thread - Perilous Journeys Shadow III

[Gordis]

About the bear -

I have NO problems with having any number of bears in the story - it is a common species in Rhudaur-Angmar, after all. There is also a bear on Broggha's banner and The Bear is his shaman's totem. The more - the merrier.

I've only pointed out that the bear in your post, Rian, behaved weirdly. It sneaked into a camp of humans and attacked a horse (or a woman) - unprovoked. Moreover, it happened in autumn, not in spring.

You see, the Eurasian Brown bear is not the same as the Grizzly bear in California. (I do believe you have Grizzlys, Rian). Grizzly's latin name is "Ursus arctos horribilis". Note this "horribilis" thing - it is really dangerous.

The Brown bear we have in Northern Europe and Asia is a big brute of an animal, but its diet is mostly vegetarian. The Brown bear is rather shy, cowardly even, unless it is a mother with cubs. Almost all the stories about people molested by bears involve silly humans trying to get to the cubs, or simply venturing near to them unnowingly. Another possibility is to meet a starving bear in spring - the one who was unable to hibernate for some reason. Then one can get killed.

In all the other cases a bear bolts if it spots a human (and the human normally bolts in the opposite direction ;D).

These are all the reasons why I spoke against the bear. I believe Earniel told the same. But if you want it - keep it, after all ME fauna could differ from Eurasian one. They may have had another dangerous species, now extinct.

Earniel: "I hadn't thought about any patrols. Although I do believe wolverines aren't averse of climbing trees to get prey. (Gah, I keep wanting to write the Dutch name of the animal instead of wolverine. Wolverine makes such a tame word. A name that means as much as 'devours-much' seems much more fitting for this animal."
If in ME "wolverine" = "warg", then they can't climb trees. See the Hobbit. . But they do sneak perfectly well.

Serenoli, nice post! Poor Hurgon, surrounded by madmen... ;D

Yes, if Elfhild wants, she can develop your "Helmir escaping" idea... I can always delete the place-holder and change the planned post. I have not yet invented it, anyway.

[Gordis]

Eh, Val, what an intriguing post in Shadow II !

I confess I imagined that the two old beggars Eryndil met on the road were ...

Gandalf the Gray and Radagast the Brown!

But it seems I was mistaken...

[Rian]

I thought it was Gandy, too - hey, the FOEADs have the WK, why can't we have Gandy?

Aye, poor Caelen - but she deserved the lecture, and she's now paying for her thoughtlessness, and will shortly pay more.

Earniel - cool name for a wolverine!

[Wilwarin]

I have finally posted Wilwarin's doings on the night of the bear act. Comments are welcome. I've put it in the end of the thread, but due to the date, it should be shifted in the final text to after Gimilbeth's bit in Angmar post #7 in Intrigues and Sorcery.

gordis said:

If in ME "wolverine" = "warg", then they can't climb trees. See the Hobbit. . But they do sneak perfectly well.

Hahah, nice one. Although the ME-wargs have always seemed more related to wolves than wolverines. The wargs in the Hobbit are pack-animals, whereas wolverines are solitary creatures. But it works either way.

[Rian]

I inserted a note in that post so we won't forget when the time comes

Nice to see W again - I liked how she was calmly setting up her room during the wild scene below - fun picture! And your wording how she herself was a barrier - also a nice picture.

Thank you, everyone, for the bear comments - they were helpful. If it's ok, I'll just leave it for now and edit it when the time comes for editing that chapter. I may not even put it in at all - like I said, I just had an itch for writing.

Val - as far as horses, I don't know - I never rode ours overnight in the wilderness. Our horses were highly-trained show horses. We'd ride them up in the mountains sometimes, but only for an afternoon. If we dismounted to walk around, we'd tie their reins to a handy tree or something like that (and actually, part of their training was to stay in place when their rider leaves them - we could literally drop the reins on the ground and walk away, called a "ground tie", and they'd stay in place because we trained them to do so). If I was forced to manage 17 horses in the wilderness overnight, actually, I think I'd tie them up by pairs to trees. 17 horses is a large herd, and horses are definitely herd animals, and if one of them spooked, the whole lot might break through the barriers and follow the one animal. I actually saw that happen once with my horse - he was in a small pasture by a fence and since he was new to the herd, they were picking on him a bit, and he just ran for the fence and busted it down and I watched in horror as the whole lot of them, about 10 or 12, followed right behind him. The stableboys had had this happen before, though, and they hopped on their little motorcycles and got ahead of them and herded them right back! So I think I would tie them by pairs to trees. But I don't really know if that's the best thing to do or not.

[Gordis]

rian said:

I thought it was Gandy, too - hey, the FOEADs have the WK, why can't we have Gandy?

You can have him, of course! Any takers?

Great post, Earniel! So nice to have you back again!

Rian..Caelen became "unpregnant"? A pity actually... ;D

Elfhild- I need your advice. Please, tell me, what Helmir plans to do in Brochenridge? Will he try to get to his parents? Or will he sit quietly with Hurgon?

[Caelen]

Nah, the pregnancy would have had to "show" soon enough, and it's harder to fake a later miscarriage. And I want her to be able to ride!

Well, here's my latest post - I was just drifting off to sleep last night, and my daughter came in and complained that she couldn't get to sleep. I took her back to her bed and settled her down, and then I couldn't get back to sleep! I was up for hours, and nothing worked - lying down, walking around, even getting a bowl of cereal! So I composed Caelen's dream post ... it's kind of in the style of Frodo's dreams ...

[Elfhild]

gordis said:

Elfhild- I need your advice. Please, tell me, what Helmir plans to do in Brochenridge? Will he try to get to his parents? Or will he sit quietly with Hurgon?

Gordis, I think Nauremir should try to see his parents, then make an attempt to escape. After all, who wants to be the pawn of the evil witch.

Now where would he go if he managed to escape. He could live with his parents in secret, or other relatives, maybe. I have often thought that the safest course for him would be to go to Gondor and start out a new life.

But there is the consideration of inheritance, etc. To run and hide would be to forfiet his inheritance. He could cause a public scandal and proclaim that he is not really dead, after all. However, if he did that, Broggha's men would kill him.

But if Broggha were, say, defeated or assassinated, there would not be so much of a threat and Nauremir could reclaim his title.

He could always try to assassinate Broggha, or run away to join the military.

Ideas?

I always thought of the wargs as being wolves, bigger than the average, but still wolves.

[Valandil]

Oooo... I see that "Eryndil" just filled in another Place-holder! ;D

[Rian]

*looks around*

Ah, part II, post 30 - very nice

You're always good with those court scenes!