Shadow Over Rhudaur Planning Thread

[Witch-king of Angmar]

Gordis, wonderful post from Agannalo and Algierr! A Nazgul with vampire tendencies... that is the way I have always seen them and written them.

Now the post for Pizbur Ashuk and the spymaster's courier, Galuarth - I wrote that post yesterday but hadn't quite finished it. I was wanting to bring the orcs back into the story for the attempted kidnap of Gimilbeth. I had to do a little rewriting to make it fit in with yours. If you want any edits or modifications to fit the storyline, let me know and I'll take care of that.

[Serenoli]

Happy New Year and Eid Mubarak All!

Splendid new posts and characters, Gordis and Angmar. The 'Glorfindel' faker is SOOO much creepier than I expected... eugh! I hate vampires.... I'm enjoying these posts very much, though.

[Gordis]

I am glad you enjoyed my Agannalo, Angmar and Serenoli.

admin said:

Gordis, wonderful post from Agannalo and Algierr! A Nazgul with vampire tendencies... that is the way I have always seen them and written them.

I wouldn't say that all the Nine had to be vampires, but "they smell human blood desiring and hating it" - it is canon. So one ot two had to have some vampire characters, it seems. In some of them the desire for blood should be stronger, in some - weaker. Just like sun and water phobias.
My Agannalo is certainly a vampire. ;D

Angmar, great post. I liked both Galuarth and the pigeon-fancying orc.

Everything fits well together, IMO. But the question is: These orcs - they are under Belzagar's command, right? Not Broggha's? Does Broggha even know they are there?

It seems that Broggha and Belzagar will be now separately hunting for Gimilbeth, as both want to stop her going to Amon Sul: Belzagar has orders to kidnap her, while Brogga is not thrilled with the idea to have all the Arthedain army against him. Or will Belzagar try to organize the joint hunt?

Belzagar, being member of the Counsil, should know everything about Gimilbeth's journey - it was decided at the counsil meeting in his presence. I think he will have no trouble to learn the number of troops she has with her, her schedule etc.

Now with the last developments - a strong detachment (120 Dunedain) guarding Gimilbeth till Brochenridge - it would be wise to place the ambush somewhere further - near the Great Road, when Gimilbeth will have only 20 guards with her, I think. So the orcs should get orders to move further south.

As for Broggha, he will be using his Hillmen, won't he?

[Witch-king of Angmar]

gordis said:

I wouldn't say that all the Nine had to be vampires, but "they smell human blood desiring and hating it" - it is canon. So one ot two had to have some vampire characters, it seems. In some of them the desire for blood should be stronger, in some - weaker. Just like sun and water phobias.
My Agannalo is certainly a vampire. ;D

Gordis, I have written some of the Nazgulul as possessing this tendency to be vampiric, but not the Bram Stoker classic kind, ie, in other words, their victims won't become vampires in the Count Dracula style.

gordis said:

Angmar, great post. I liked both Galuarth and the pigeon-fancying orc.

Everyone has his or her own preference of food. I think it would be logical that orcs would be the same way. Pizbur Ashuk fancies pigeons.

gordis said:

Everything fits well together, IMO. But the question is: These orcs - they are under Belzagar's command, right? Not Broggha's? Does Broggha even know they are there?

Good. I'm glad it fits. The orcs are under the command of Belzagar, because he is the top Angmarian agent in Rhudaur. Belzagar is in turn under Lord Alassar in Carn Dum, who takes his orders from the Witch-king.

gordis said:

It seems that Broggha and Belzagar will be now separately hunting for Gimilbeth, as both want to stop her going to Amon Sul: Belzagar has orders to kidnap her, while Brogga is not thrilled with the idea to have all the Arthedain army against him. Or will Belzagar try to organize the joint hunt?

Not only Belzagar wants to kidnap her because he has orders from the North to do so, but he has personal reasons. In light of what the Princess has learned from the pigeon post, Belzagar sees her as a personal threat to him. Belzagar does not want anyone to think that he has anything to do with Broggha, so he would be using one of his agents to organize a joint hunt with Broggha.

This is going to require some planning. There are so many personal rivalries or hatreds between the bad guys that it would be surprising if they could organize anything together. Probably their greatest impetus to action would be their joint fear of the North.

gordis said:

Belzagar, being member of the Counsil, should know everything about Gimilbeth's journey - it was decided at the counsil meeting in his presence. I think he will have no trouble to learn the number of troops she has with her, her schedule etc.

No, he wouldn't. He would be sending men like Galuarth to carry dispatches to the orcs with any pertinent information that they would need.

gordis said:

Now with the last developments - a strong detachment (120 Dunedain) guarding Gimilbeth till Brochenridge - it would be wise to place the ambush somewhere further - near the Great Road, when Gimilbeth will have only 20 guards with her, I think. So the orcs should get orders to move further south.

Yes, the great road where there are only 20 guards would be the best place to hit.

gordis said:

As for Broggha, he will be using his Hillmen, won't he?

Yes, I think he would. Now it's going to be interesting if both Belzagar and Broggha's men are after Gimilibeth at the same time. That will require a lot of concentration in developing the story.

[Gordis]

So... What next? We are approaching Halloween = Sauron's Last night, according to Valandil.

Here is what Val posted on Dec 22:


Oh - one thing about October 30 - in thinking of the celebration of "The Fall" and "Sauron's Last Night". I think celebrations for the latter would still be somewhat covert among Sauron's true followers... but that certain aspects of them would be somewhat "sanitized" - or at least their meanings not widely known - and practiced at large by society as a whole.

In short - an actualization of (some) modern-day, conservative Christian's greatest fears about Halloween... that it "seems" innocent enough - but that it's really full of wicked imagery and draws people deeper into witchcraft, etc.

Just a thought... I don't think Sauron's followers could comfortably celebrate him with any pretense to being part of a Dunedain nation or society... but if that society were slowly slipping into the black arts, certain aspects of that celebration would have worked themselves into their culture.

Does that make sense? Does it sound agreeable?

Yes it does sound agreeable - but we do need your input, Val.

[Witch-king of Angmar]

gordis said:

So... What next? We are approaching Halloween = Sauron's Last night, according to Valandil.

Here is what Val posted on Dec 22:


Oh - one thing about October 30 - in thinking of the celebration of "The Fall" and "Sauron's Last Night". I think celebrations for the latter would still be somewhat covert among Sauron's true followers... but that certain aspects of them would be somewhat "sanitized" - or at least their meanings not widely known - and practiced at large by society as a whole.

In short - an actualization of (some) modern-day, conservative Christian's greatest fears about Halloween... that it "seems" innocent enough - but that it's really full of wicked imagery and draws people deeper into witchcraft, etc.

Just a thought... I don't think Sauron's followers could comfortably celebrate him with any pretense to being part of a Dunedain nation or society... but if that society were slowly slipping into the black arts, certain aspects of that celebration would have worked themselves into their culture.

Does that make sense? Does it sound agreeable?

Yes it does sound agreeable - but we do need your input, Val.

Yes, I think Val's imput is greatly needed here.

There are degrees of darkness, and the night just gets deeper.

[Rian]

serenoli said:

So, I suddenly came across something that I never thought much about before. Now I know the movie said something about dwarf-women having beards too, but I wanted to know if that is supported by canon.

Also, seeing as these dwarves are one of those Wandering dwarves, traders and nomads, driven from their old homes etc, they would no longer have a nice mountain to hide their womenfolk in. So it makes sense the women will be travelling right alongside. In which case, I have to figure out just how 'rare' Dwarf women are. But then, so many of these dwarves seem to have only one son, not an entire tribe, so there must be more dwarf-women than is suggested by the word 'rare'. Give me your opinions. ALL.

I've come across it in one of the HOME books - one of JRRT's bizarrer notions! I think you ought to use it, but make it funny, like they're constantly having to pluck the beards out or something (after all, even I, a human, have been known to have to pluck an occasional chin hair or two ... )

[Rian]

Very good posts, people!!! I'm not quite sure how to work in, but elves are always wandering around, so give me a few more weeks to unpack and hopefully I can give your guys some problems *heh heh*


Quick note, Gordis - I think in Agannalo's post, you mean squashing midges, not midgets?

Also Gor - do you have any ideas for avvys for Callon and Caelen? I have some ideas for re-introducing them. I'll have to look back and see how I described them, though - oy! it's been so long!!!

[Caelen]

Hi, this is Rian -

Gordis made me a wonderful avvy for Caelen from a picture I found - she looks like she cares more about riding horses than doing her hair, and the coloring is what I imagined.

Now I need one for Callon with similar coloring - I'll search between unpacking boxes

[Caelen]

(This is Rian speaking) - I'd like to run an idea by you people - I'd like to suggest that everyone use the personal text area in the user's profile to put a very brief description of the character, and then who owns it in parenthesis (see how I did it with Caelen). I think that would be very helpful. What do you guys think?