wilderlogs | THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE
OOC POST
The group is told to take a week of rest in the Last Homely House as the injured and sick among them heal. The Elves promise them that at the end of that week, there will be a great Council, with representatives of several peoples in attendance.

Until then, they can wander the peaceful halls of Rivendell, which are filled with travelers from all over the Wilderlands who are making a rest stop while they travel through the lands of Middle-Earth.

The most notable part of Rivendell is the Hall of Fire, a great feast hall where people can eat, drink, and be merry. This is the great social hall of Rivendell, where the Elves and their visitors share news of lands far beyond, tell stories, or perform music. The music here almost sounds divine, especially when the Elves sing and play, but they're just as eager to hear songs from other lands, so if any of the squad decide to share, they'll be glad to listen.

Some of the hall's guests are a touch more lively than the others, like a party of dwarves staying at Rivendell. Their stories are a mite more adventurous and if you get in their good graces, they might be willing to share some of the beer they brought with them. Listening to their stories or their talk about their craftmanship is a way to get into their good graces.

The Elves love learning, so there are libraries the group is allowed to browse, though they mostly only contain tales of Middle-Earth (for now), though the Elves seem to be collecting what books about other lands they can. These libraries often have viewing stations with telescopes pointing at the sky. The Elves have been almost delighted by the changing skies, enjoying the challenge of trying to understand how the sky has been knitting itself together with the addition of new worlds.

There are also beautiful balconies here, overlooking the gorge and the waters below, and terraced gardens filled with flowers, bushes, and flowering trees. Their rooms are open to the outdoors and have beds that seem grown into the shape of bed-frames instead of carved. The bathrooms actually have running water. The Elves have figured out how to direct the clean running waters of the gorge in primitive indoor plumbing. Water for hot baths has to be heated first in brass cauldrons over coal braziers before getting dumped into the bath.

It's time for the squad to rest, eat, and regroup. If a great Council is going to be called involving them, it might be a good idea to make sure they go into it as a united front, lest decisions about their fate be made for them.

NOTES
✦ Joint log: Since this camp period won't be particularly long, everything will take place in a joint log. Players can post starters with prompts for others and tag into other players' prompts.

✦ Post in actionspam format. Plots and mod-run events in the game are meant to be in actionspam format to keep a brisk pace.

✦ Cursed Weapons/Powers: So they know about how they'll be treated: those with cursed weapons and dark powers will be tolerated by the Elves after entry. While they'll get the same general treatment, the Elves around them may at times seem uncomfortable. Those with cursed weapons will only be distrusted a little, as the weapons themselves will seem more suspicious than their bearers. Those with dark powers or some kind of dark nature (such as being a vampire, Necromancer mage, werewolf, etc.) will be treated with the greatest distrust.

✦ Fairy Swaps: The Elves may be slightly alarmed by the Brugh fairy swaps but get over it easily. However, if the character swapped in is one of the "dark" characters, the swap might be extra cause for alarm. (A potential prompt idea).

✦ Npcing: There will be two npc threads. The "Random Encounters" thread is for characters to have a totally random encounter with an npc. These npcs will be fellow travelers from lands beyond. While they can't give much information about the group's status as Chosen Ones (that will happen during the Council) they can provide info about events in the Wilderlands beyond that may come to affect the squad in their travels. The "Specific Requests" thread will be for more specific issues your character might want to discuss with the Elves. While they'll push any Chosen Ones discussion off to the Council, they're willing to discuss issues with the characters, like if they have questions about having received magic, about being bound to their weapons, etc. The Rivendell Elves have heard a lot of gossip from all over and can potentially provide info based on things they've heard.

✦ Clothes: The group will not yet be fully equipped for their travels (that will happen upon leaving) but everyone will at least be given new clothes since theirs are dirty and sometimes torn. Characters without appropriate travel footwear will also be given light and sturdy boots that will somehow be in their size without their size being asked. They'll also be given basic toiletries like scissors that can be used to cut hair and beards. There are no razors, however, because the Elves don't need to shave so they don't keep them on hand.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Mita, who's been staring blankly ahead during this mental conversation, blinks. She can only offer a series of snapshots from her memory, which is completely useless considering she came there from a different route. Hallways, more identical hallways. Wood on skin. Apology. Even her attempt to make a mental map failed in her initial rush to avoid the elves. The other must be close, then.]

[Eh, screw it. A breezy sense of I've got this suffuses the mental connection.

Stuffing her book under her belt, Revan stands directly below the balcony, taking a moment to gauge the distance. Doable, even here, after a glance around to make sure no one's watching...she jumps. With an assist from the Force, she gets high enough to catch the edge of the balcony, and then it's no problem at all to pull herself up the rest of the way.]

Hello. [Says the human woman in elf clothes who's now sitting on the railing, radiating smugness physically and psychically.]

[Mita backs away sharpish when she sees the hands suddenly appear on the edge of the balcony, raising her own hand in readyness. Although for what, she's not entirely sure. There's a little flash of surprise as she lowers her hand. A psychic connection isn't necessary to see that - it might have been easier to hide in that case to be honest. It's clear on her face.]

Hello. [Mita straightens up, wiping it away and raising her chin.]

[Revan, who hasn't had the benefit of a mental picture, glances Mita up and down, eyes catching almost unnoticeably on the spot where her arm should be. Amputated limbs are normal where Revan's from--so normal there's a name for the specific technique of lopping 'em off with a lightsaber--but it's weird to see a missing arm that hasn't been replaced with a prosthetic. The merest flicker of surprise (entirely untainted by disgust or contempt) flashes across her mind, but largely her mental presence reflects her physical one--friendly curiosity laced with self-satisfaction.]

I'm Revan. Welcome to Rivendell.

[Without fully realizing she's doing it, Revan turns on the charm as she hops off the railing, her smile bright enough to read by.]

[Mita isn't easily capable of charm. Too stiff in her manners, too proud, too secretly insecure. She's hardly a social imbecile, but being resigned to the fact that most would hate her despite any charm she could muster up makes it a skill hardly-practiced and barely-used.]

[Which is why Revan's smile hits her hard. It's not often a smile like that is turned her way. Mita is - is suspicious that her mental presence matches her physical one so perfectly, but she is ever paranoid.]

I am Mita Ashyn. It - erm, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Even in a place such as this.

[The little erm comes from her noticing how close she is. Mita takes a little step back to make room for Revan, otherwise they would be very comfortably close on this balcony.]

[If Revan wanted to, she could lie without so much as a ripple in her aura, but right now she's perfectly sincere. Everything's fine!

And yes, maybe she didn't fully think through the personal space implications of Operation Balcony, but Mita's cute and Revan is celibate, not dead, so she's not going to regard this result as a mark against her planning abilities.

She looks around the portion of Rivendell visible from the balcony, taking in the graceful buildings, lush gardens, and general aura of serenity, and then looks back at Mita, curiosity shading into puzzlement.]

"A place like this?"

[Maybe Mita's more into Rendili Industrial architecture.]

[The instinctive hatred runs deep, a vein that stretches all the way down into her soul. Her expression turns sour, disgusted.]

Its inhabitants cannot be trusted, and neither can their generosity. I don't know what these Eldar have in mind, but this place is better off left in ashes.

[Revan blinks at the disgust that washes over her from Mita, so blatant and shameless that she's taken aback. There are certainly racists where she's from, but most clothe their hatred in more civilized garb, at least until they've sounded out their audience. The closest she's ever seen to this is the contempt Czerka Corporation representatives have for the natives of Tatooine and Kashyyyk, and that does not put Mita in illustrious company.]

I've sensed no duplicity from the elves, and this place is strong in the light side...can't you feel it?

[Of course, she hadn't picked up any duplicity from the Jedi Council either, the Enclave at Dantooine is every bit as peaceful, and neither had stopped the Jedi Council from tearing apart her mind and then lying to her face about it.

Still, those were unique circumstances, unlikely to be duplicated here.]

Of course you would sense no duplicity. They are masters of the psychic arts. They would enslave you to their will sooner than call humans equals. But the light side... What I felt - what you felt - is that what you call it?

[Her confused words say no. Her fingers twitch as if she's unsure of what they want to do, but she desperately wants to know more about that peaceful sense of being, the warm immanence. She can feel no such thing here, and she feels blind as a blunt, stumbling her way through fields of invisible senses she has no idea of.]

The light side of the Force, yes.

[Revan happily seizes on a discussion of the Force rather than one about racism, or the even more uncomfortable concomitant one about her own resistance to mental manipulation.]

What you feel when you step outside your own desires.

[It's almost a question. Has Mita ever felt that? The Force moves in everyone, or should, but whatever that psychic touch was that Mita echoed to her felt nothing like it.]

In all my scryings, I have never felt this. I have never read of it, either. And what do you mean when I step outside my own desires?

[Mita's face grows a little hot, even a little offended. Of course she's stepped outside her own desires before, what does that even mean?]

THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

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