Scarburg Meadhall Discussion Thread

[Firefoot]

Right you are, Lhuna. I did this shortly after spending a pretty grueling 7 hours of testing... my brain's pretty fried.

Quick question to anyone who remembers: Where is Linduial now? Some official position, I think? Mostly just for background...

[littlemanpoet]

And the plot thickens. .....

[Groin Redbeard]

Wow, you guys have sure been busy in my absence. I'm looking forward to reading your posts, and I'll get one in as soon as possible.

[Folwren]

Poor Saeryn. She has more on her plate than even she imagined.

Lommy, I stopped my post with Javan there so that you can decide what the boys do.

-- Foley

[Thinlómien]

Ooh this is so fun. I doubt I manage to post today, but you can count on me doing that tomorrow...

[Gwathagor]

If I think of improvements, I'll make them. But, for now, here is my thoroughly useless, do-nothing character. He might also be called a troublemaker, though he does actually create trouble. It just follows him.


NAME: Crabannan

AGE/GENDER/RACE/WHERE FROM: Man, not Eorling. Originally from Dale.

APPEARANCE: Tall, broad-shouldered, shaggy-headed, aquiline-nosed, lean-muscled, dark-eyed, dark-haired, high-browed, thin-bearded, black-cloaked, grey-clad.

BITS OF CHARACTER/HISTORY YOU FEEL MIGHT BE HELPFUL IN DEFINING THE CHARACTER: 38 years old. Carries longsword, shortsword, longbow, and a harp. Is taciturn and thoughtful, sometimes misinterpreted as grumpy because his brows are almost perpetually furrowed.

Crabannan's past is shady, and he does not talk about it much. He is originally from Dale, but has spent very little time there in the past two decades. Wanders a great deal. Has a knack for getting himself into bizarre and dangerous situations. Brawls and fights seem somehow to develop wherever he goes, and though he only occasionally instigates them, he nearly always enjoys them. Has fought under the banners of Dale, Gondor, Rohan, and Mirkwood, and was involved in most of the biggest battles of the War of the Ring.

Has served as bard to everyone from kings to tribal chieftains; if he has an official occupation (which he adamantly denies), it is this. He claims to have little skill with the harp, though. In addition, he has spent time in just about every other occupation under the sun, from soldier to hunter to smith to farmhand to lumberjack. Most recently, he was a kitchen-boy in an East Emnet settlement, but he lost that job a 6 months ago when he broke the head cook’s nose over a girl. The crooked eorl failed to see his point of view, and so he was told to leave.

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

LINKED ~*~ Pio

[littlemanpoet]

Harreld will have a reply post in place by the end of tomorrow.

I've been thinking about a trick for writing that some comments here and there have brought to my mind. Our posts have a combination of actions, speech, and thoughts. What's interesting is how a character's thoughts are used by other posters.

For example, Lhuna commented that Harreld is not going to make this any easier for Ginna. Part of this is that Harreld has guessed wrong as to what's on Ginna's mind. Lhuna has been writing for Ginna such that she too is guessing wrong about what's on Harreld's mind. What's the upshot? A very interesting character interplay with lots of potential for conflict and misunderstanding, which is what drives interesting story.

I've seen where characters guess exactly right what is on the mind of another character, and it's usually too lucky or too easy, and actually serves to short-circuit good story opportunities. So next time you write a post for your character, think about what makes your character tick, so you can have an idea what wrong guesses he or she might make. I think you'll find it fun.

Just a by the way: healthy interactions in real life are based on precisely the opposite, that is, NOT assuming what the other person is thinking, but asking.

[Kath]

I take it you mean 'me or Lhuna.' Really, I have no idea why Ginna and I are always being mistaken for each other.

Truth be told, I intended to write Kara or Ginna, so actually I got Kara confused with myself!

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by Kath

Truth be told, I intended to write Kara or Ginna, so actually I got Kara confused with myself!

Oh, that is even more funny! Elempi (and others, must mostly Elempi) does that quit frequently!

[Groin Redbeard]

I've just put up my post for the hunting party. Since Nerindal has been absent from the Downs for over five months I went ahead and wrote for Balvir, Matrim, and guard4. If I have over stepped my boundries by writing for them just let me know and I'll abreviate my post to just Erbrand.

[Gwathagor]

Posted. Crabannan broke up the fight.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I've seen where characters guess exactly right what is on the mind of another character, and it's usually too lucky or too easy, and actually serves to short-circuit good story opportunities. So next time you write a post for your character, think about what makes your character tick, so you can have an idea what wrong guesses he or she might make. I think you'll find it fun.

Oh yes, I was just giving Dan an uncanny powers of observation, being the Drûg that he is. But now that he's got used to Scarburg, he'll let his guard down, and thats when the fun can begin!

[littlemanpoet]

Foley, I've put words in Javan's mouth. Please check and let me know if I need to change anything.

Gwath, seems your character can't help getting into scrapes of one kind or another.

[Gwathagor]

Crabapple? CRABAPPLE?!

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Crabapple? CRABAPPLE?!

That's Falco for you. Anything that sounds foreign to him he'll figure out a Shire way to say it.

[Gwathagor]

Ok, Falco, let's see what you've got.

EDIT: Crabannan has been behaving rather poorly, hasn't he? Not a good example for the young fellas...I promise he's not always like this, though. Give him a chance and he might even play his harp for you.

[Folwren]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Foley, I've put words in Javan's mouth. Please check and let me know if I need to change anything.

No, it looks alright, mostly. He's still rather heated, so if you want him to exagerate the other boys' transgressions even more, then he could, but that's not necessary.

-- Folwren

[Groin Redbeard]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Gwath, seems your character can't help getting into scrapes of one kind or another.

Like I said, it must be his destiny.

Crabannan has been behaving rather poorly, hasn't he? Not a good example for the young fellas...I promise he's not always like this, though. Give him a chance and he might even play his harp for you.

Save that harp playing for the evening when Erbrand gets back because, If I remember correctly, I think had Erbrand can play the fiddle! I'll check his biography.

EDIT: Yes he does play the fiddle!

Also, I quite agree with Thinlomien about all the Eo's in the new name list, I think that the origional sounded much better.

[Lhunardawen]

NAME: Randvér

AGE/GENDER/RACE/WHERE FROM: 45, male, Eorling from the north of the Middle Emnet

APPEARANCE: has blonde hair and hard, blue eyes, stands 6'1", of strong build but not bulky, looks slightly younger than he actually is

BITS OF CHARACTER/HISTORY YOU FEEL MIGHT BE HELPFUL IN DEFINING THE CHARACTER: A small lord and landowner, he is Ginna's father and a widower - his beautiful wife Ayessa had died shortly before the War of the Ring. He fought alongside Eodwine in the War and there gained the soon-to-be Eorl's friendship. He is stern of character, and became more so after his wife's death, holding on too tightly to his grief. There is a natural state of misunderstanding between him and Ginna, perhaps owing to the fact that his only child did not turn out to be the son he so wanted. He tried to bring up Ginna as he would a son, anyway, teaching her the use of a sword, but the beauty Ginna had inherited from her mother worked against his purpose. Out of frustration with what he discovered to be her daughter's, um, unladylike ways, he sent her to work for Eodwine, although deep in his heart he found it hard to let go of her.

~*~

I know he's technically my character, Elempi, but I'd appreciate your input, if you have any to offer.

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

POSTED ~*~ Pio

[littlemanpoet]

Seems like an interesting contrast, Lhuna, of beauty and unladylike. Is the beauty natural and the unladylikeness the result of being brought up like a son? So that it's actually Randvér's fault that his daughter is not a proper daughter and not a proper son either?

[Lhunardawen]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Seems like an interesting contrast, Lhuna, of beauty and unladylike. Is the beauty natural and the unladylikeness the result of being brought up like a son? So that it's actually Randvér's fault that his daughter is not a proper daughter and not a proper son either?

The beauty is natural, yes, and initially a source of pride (much more conspicuously for her mother than her father, of course). The unladylikeness is partly a result of improper rearing, and mostly of loneliness brought about by her mother's premature demise and her father being mostly absent and distant. (Remember the rumours Randvér heard? Surely that isn't how a lady of her status is supposed to act?)

As for your second question, why, you actually answered it best through Eodwine's observation back when he first met Ginna:

Eodwine did see, but he thought he saw more than Ginna's father did. The ire lay on both sides and wrongs would have to be admitted on both sides one day, but today was many days too early for such words. He liked the girl's spirit, and truth be told, saw that it told true that she was his daughter.

That Ginna is not wholly a daughter (so to speak), and lonely to boot, is Randvér's fault, but I would have expected Ginna to have learned enough from her mother not to 'retaliate' on Randvér the way she did.

[littlemanpoet]

Whoa! Now there's an unexpected twist! You realize, of course, Lhuna (of course you do ), that Harreld could infer at least three different implications out of her words: 1, that she likes his company, 2, that she wishes to spend time with him, and 3, that she's willing to be courted after all. "If you will have me" indeed!

I shall have to ponder Harreld's thoughts and reply before I post.

[littlemanpoet]

I've edited post # 133, taking it in a completely different direction: Rowenna has just discovered a corpse in one of the outbuildings, the meat curing shed.

EDIT: I'm going to adjust my previous directive about time of day. Instead of a whole was of retrospective material in a whole bunch of posts, what I want us to do is put the time of day in the subject line of our posts. For example, in my next post in which Rowenna will tell Eodwine about the body, my subject will read like so: Late Morning, Same Day. Then within the post, you make some narrative comments as to what time of day it is by the end of your post.

[Groin Redbeard]

My goodness, where are all these dead people coming from? A cemetery couldn't have more dead people than Scarburg!

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

My goodness, where are all these dead people coming from? A cemetery couldn't have more dead people than Scarburg!

You make a good point. It would get ridiculous if we had too many dead bodies hiding here and there around the Scarburg lands. However, this particular one is not superfluous; it is something that is there because of a plot point needed by the Oeric/Firefoot/Dan group, which I was told about and therefore had Rowenna stumble upon. Another mystery. Of course, having a landholding reduced to ruins created the possibility for all these mysteries. It does make things a bit more interesting, and I expect little by little the mysteries will be revealed. Actually, I had no idea someone would pick up on the woman and child remains in the ruin and turn it into a piece of their own story, but that's the way these things go.

[Groin Redbeard]

Firefoot, that post of yours was truly funny, I can't wait to see more writing!

[littlemanpoet]

Now that the body is found, anyone who had a hand in deciding that there was one there, is there anything the rest of us should know about what we will find? A wound? A weapon? Anything else that people negotiating a corpse out of a shed would notice?

[Groin Redbeard]

Zipidee doo da, DW II is over! I guess this means we'll be reading some new posts in the thread!


Well LMP, it depends where you want to go with the storyline. Do we want to just say that Scarburg hall was burnt down by accident, or do we want to say that it was arson? If we do arson than we should definately have a wound and a weapon in the corps.

[Thinlómien]

I started my RPG replying projecy with the two other RPGs and now I can't post anymore... I'll post tomorrow or on Wednesady. Sorry to be this unreliable.

[Gwathagor]

Arson! I want arson! And murder! Lots of that, too!

[littlemanpoet]

Based on information I have received from those working on the plot points, the destruction of the former Scarburg hall is a matter of ill repute as is the death in the meat curing shed. More coming soon. Don't be squeamish.

[littlemanpoet]

I indicated that Lys was with Garstan also. His writer, however, has not been around in months; should we drop him?

[Thinlómien]

I don't really know about that Lys-thing... Only that it's not necessary that he's mentioned in our posts, he could be doing something else somewhere close.

Funny post Folwrey... I will write as soon as I can but that won't be until next week. If Nogrod's less busy and finally gets to read through this thread, he might continue writing Cnebba, too... We'll see how this goes.

[littlemanpoet]

Fun posts to read, Gwath, shaggydog, & Lhuna. Nothing needs to be changed in any of them, as far as I can see.

[littlemanpoet]

Has interest in this day tailed off? Let's move it to evening meal or later, over which various and folk can talk about the day's work completed.

[Gwathagor]

Evening meal sounds good. I could try to make a few friends over dinner.

[Folwren]

Well, no, not at all. Interest for this day has not worn off in the least, so far as I am concerned. But, if everyone else wishes it, I won't holler TOO loudly.

-- Foley

[Gwathagor]

Yeah, I could go either way myself.

[littlemanpoet]

Ooh! Dan has a dilemma on his hands, considering what Eodwine sent him to do.

Originally Posted by Folwren

Well, no, not at all. Interest for this day has not worn off in the least, so far as I am concerned. But, if everyone else wishes it, I won't holler TOO loudly.

Saeryn could stand to be featured before evening meal.

Lhuna, how would it be if Randvér's arrival were a month off? I'm hoping to skip time to early August with the next "official" Day.

I can write a post featuring Harreld's inner thoughts too.

Stigend and associates' ventures into finding wood needs a post too. Nogrod?

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Stigend and associates' ventures into finding wood needs a post too. Nogrod?

I'm Commiing!


Yes. It kind of frustrates to write this kind of apologies one after another but I believe this time it's for good.

I had my worst spring ever, really. Never had such amounts of work in my hands before during the late spring. It was just catastrophic.

When the vacations finally started I had my daughters with me at my place and we had the DW II which took a lot of time.

Then we went to have Midsummer Eve -celebrations which took what, four days...

After that (Monday) I have been writing a teacher's manual with my colleague to a textbook we made last year as the publisher presses on (they said the deadline should have been yesterday but we managed to push it forwards so that it is Monday-morning now).

So: exhausted, but also looking forwards to really getting a grip with this... and to start taking this on.

I hope I can read myself up to date on Monday the latest and then start really to get involved.

Sorry.

But there's the RL which sometimes intervenes annoyingly...