Welcome to the world's longest post. Happy reading!
While I was on holiday I read The Hobbit again in order to remind myself of the precise setting (ie Esgaroth). Some revelations follow
Before I embark on comments re. posts, I'd like to alter my suggestion for a starting location as the town of Dale and shift it to Lake Town (still a logging camp, but one attached to the latter and not the former). I realise now that Dale is in the very shadow of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, possibly a terraced town, one carved into the rock in much the same fashion as Minas Tirrith. The Lake of Esgaroth, otherwise known as the Long Lake, is a good half day's march south, so impractical for a logging camp of any substance.
Lake Town is much better suited to a logging interest as it's closer to the forest. Here's an earmarked passage from The Hobbit (set more than 1000 years hence from our period. Events of our game will be as legend to the folks who inhabit the location described here):
J R R Tolkien said:
...The sun had set when, turning with another sweep towards the East, the forest river rushed into the Long Lake. There it had a wide mouth with stony clifflike gates at either side whose feet were piled with shingles. The Long Lake! Bilbo had never imagined that any water that was not the sea could look so big. It was so wide that the opposite shores looke small and far, but it was so long that its northerly end, which pointed towards the Mountain, could not be seen at all. Only from the map did Bilbo know that away up there, where the stars of the Wain were already twinkling, the Running River came down into the lake from Dale and with the Forest River filled with deep waters what must have once been a great deep rocky valley. At the southern end the double waters poured out again over high waterfalls and ran away hurriedly to unknown lands. In the still evening air the noise of the falls could be heard like a distant roar.
Not far from the mouth of the Forest River was the strange town he heard the elves speak of in the king's cellars. It was not built on the shore, though there were a few huts and buildings there, but right out on the surface of the lake, protected from the swirld of the entering river by a promontory of rock which formed a calm bay. A great bridge made of wood ran out to where, on huge piles made of forest trees, was built a busy wooden town, not a town of elves but of Men who still dared to dwell here under the shadow of the distant dragon-mountain. They still throve on the trade that came up the great river from the South and was carted past the falls to their town; but in the great days of old, when Dale in the North was rich and prosperous, they had been wealthy and powerful and there had been fleets of boats on the waters, and some were filled with gold and some with warriors in armour and there had been wars and deeds which were now only a legend. The rotting piles of a greater town could still be seen along the shores when the waters sank in drought.
So, in our time, Lake Town could be fairly large and well inhabited, but on the verge of decline. Dire times in Mirkwood have choked the thriving trade mentioned above. The town of Dale is still fairly prosperous but also in decline and guards with great suspicion all its interests in Lake Town (armoured Dale warriors swagger hither and thither and probably a Dale bursar, controlling monetary interests and the soldiers).
The only likely trade at this time would be between the Elves and the Men of Dale and the Men of the Sea of Rhun respectively (with possible additional imports from villages and settlements on the shore of the River Running far to the south.
Imports from South Rhovanion and Rhun come on longships with flat decks capable of housing many barrels, casks and chests. Such ships would moor in a small port at the foot of the southern waterfall, rarely picking up, almost always depositing. There'd be some kind of wooden lift system, or maybe a long winding path/staircase for carrying payloads up to the shore of Esgaroth and the bridge into Lake Town.
Visits from the longships are becoming increasingly rare as Wainrider scouting parties suffocate settlements on the shore of the River Running or raid and steal from longships en-route. What goods do make it through would include exotic wines and spirits from the Dorwinian people of Rhun, textiles and food from farming communities. The scarcity of this latter import (caused by the pillaging and razing of long established farmsteads in the southeast) would probably be causing most concern for the Men of the Long Lake, though I'd assume there are a few local farms struggling to take up the shortfall, and the Elves will always trade food (game) for Dorwinian alcohol.
Standing sentinel over all this is the great and jagged tooth of the Lonely Mountain, Erebor, with its grey shadowed flanks and snow-capped peak. The dragon Smaug is yet to make Erebor his home, and the lower slopes are still well forested. Nor are the dwarfs of Durin's line in residence at this time. The mountain is just a mountain.
I don't know if I like the grand disaster idea suggested in Fred's original post, but certainly a decline in quality of life and the closure of the logging camp might give the group a reason to set out in search of alternative earnings.
Comments on Posts:
OK, here's what we seem to have developing so far. Kick me if I missed anything:
A logging camp on the shore of the Long Lake, or maybe part of the wooden pile comprising Lake Town (seems more likely as you'd have the added bonus of the town's defenses) or maybe nowhere near the Long Lake and instead somewhere on the shore of the river, marking an entirely new settlement which, we can assume, was wiped off the map by Smaug or Wainriders at the relevant point in Middle-Earth history. (thoughts?)
--Head Smith at the logging camp (taking care of horseshoes, blades, nails, camp repairs etal) is Fred_Binder's character, a dwarven smith ?? or a woodsman of crushed stature, oft mistaken for a dwarf ??
--Shayuri's character is a Sindar Elf under King Thranduil (scout/ranger- not sure about resident healer, I don't think the Elves would care so much for the health of the Men and he certainly wouldn't need the payment) and has been charged with keeping a watchful eye on activities in the logging camp. I daresay he also has a few other duties, like managing trade links and diplomacy with the lords of Lake Town.
--Redclaw's character is Aerec, son of Shild, an Eotheod horsemaster born as his family were forced from the northern reaches of the Vale of Anduin. In the logging camp he manages the horses, though he uses the camp's resident shire horses and not his own magnificent steed (sired by his own father's horse, itself a true Vale pedigree I daresay). He probably works in return for use of the logging camp's stables and earns a meagre wage (if any. I'd actually suggest all workers, bar Shayuri's elf, work for rations, living quarters and access to tools/stables/that sort of thing since this is a community in decline and living near the fringe).
--With his mightily hewn arms and oaken legs, Renau1g's character, a large Rhovanian Man from the south, a refugee of the Wainrider oppression and on the run not only from the chariot riding barbarians of Rhun but from the terrors of his past, would be an ideal candidate for any donkey work around the logging camp. Given his stature, he'd make a good logger, but his penchant for alcohol makes him too unreliable for important work and he is thusly reduced to the tasks of general dogsbody and cook.
--Necro_Kinder's character may be an exiled or wandering knight of Gondor. I'm still fuzzy on this one and he needs a good background reason for being in Esgaroth, a long long way from Gondor. I suspect we may have our first casualty of Middle-Earth's strangle-hold restrictions. I did draw up an (I thought rather clever) idea involving the honour guard of a palantiri (based on my own extractions about palantiri from suggestions in Tolkien's work) which I emailed to you Necro_Kinder, but I guess it wasn't of interest?? Certainly there'd be no Gondor diplomats in Lake Town or Dale seeking alliance with Men whose Dundedain roots are questionable. Some interesting suggestions have been put forward though. Any of these interest you Necro_Kinder?
--Fenris has put forward an idea in an email. An idea in the process of evolution, and emailed so I guess secret for now.
Shayuri said:
What do you think the relations overall between men and elves of Mirkwood would be? Would the job of babysitting the loggers be regarded as something honorable, as a sort of embassy to another race, and perhaps entertaining? Or would it be viewed as a distasteful thing; a necessary evil and something most elves would see as being akin to jury duty.
At the risk of repeating in a round-about way what Fred already wrote, the Elves of Mirkwood are distrustful of Men and don't really like them very much. They have even less respect for dwarfs whom they are quick to judge based on previous history. Working so closely with Men would be considered a pretty awful job by the average Sindar, and yes, a necessary evil as the Elven king of Mirkwood, Thranduil, would surely rely on spies to keep abreast of activity in Esgaroth. But I think, as with Legolas in LotR (the son of Thranduil, after all!), an Elf who lives outside the influence of Mirkwood would be less inclined to prejudice and may even find the ways of Men amusing- in the same way a cat finds a ball of lint amusing
He'd still be somewhat distrustful of Dwarves, but Tolkien's Elves have a great capacity for magnamity and are, essentially, a race who love fun (at other peoples' expense), laughter (at the stature of dwarfs) and song (about the mishaps of Men and the clumsiness of dwarfs) above all else. And in the job of go-between at Lake Town I think a Mirkwood Elf would find plenty of opportunities for amusement
To put personality into context: Elves were abroad long before Men or Dwarves and are, essentially, the beloved of gods, placed on the Earth as things of beauty and cherished by their creators to such an extent that the creators invited them to share the hallowed halls of the Undying Lands. Some Elves stem from ancestry whose decisions were questionable, and some Elves view the other races with what looks, at face value, like prejudice, but this is merely the experience of memory. Because Elves are immortal, they have seen and experienced the things Men and Dwarfs hear only in their songs and stories. And Men and Dwarfs have done some seriously terrible things. Elves, on the other hand, are mischievious and territorial at their worst (ownership of land, and it seems, ownership of treasure), but have never strayed to outright evil. Corruption and betrayal is not in their hearts, but they remember it in the hearts of other races and, along with the perils of love, this has been the chief cause of great pain for Elves through the ages. Whether this is inspiration or not I don't know, but I think playing an Elven character in the world of Middle-Earth is a challenge and one you should enjoy making your own.
http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Elf - may be a good place to start.
Necro_Kinder said:
What are we doing for starting gold?
I already addressed this. Starting gold and any common sense possessions I'll look at based on the character. I mentioned before that your character would have access to his father's stables, a stud of the Eotheod and therefore a well bred horse of his own. I'd prefer this horse were stabled at the logging camp and it may be a good idea to write in why his father's stables are no longer at his disposal, nor indeed the original Eotheod stud, but that's very very optional. Alternatively, and this may make it easier, he could have access to the original stud, the sired horse he rides personally and some other lesser pedigree horses in his father's stables which would provide good steeds for the other PCs. It may prove awkward to have one player on horseback and the rest on foot. From this you can see, I have no problem with players starting out rich.
Redclaw said:
Well, going with the idea that his father is of the Eotheod, and his mother is a settled, civilized daughter of Dale, and that his father has been quietly encouraging his combat training and love of the open plains, I could easily see his mother insisting that he find something else to occupy his time, like a job. He would, of course, be spending his time dreaming of a return to his father's people, but his love and respect for his mother would push him to do his best as part of the logging team, for the time being.
Ah, and I had him down as an orphan for some reason.
[QUOTE="Binder_Fred] Binder Fred, who'se character is getting a dog. A big yellow lab, I think.[/QUOTE]
This sounds very familiar (get it?)
