THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

[wildermods]

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.

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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.

Comments

[secondnature]

We both have a knack for getting "caught up in it." [Keith doesn't want him to think that he's somehow at fault for it. He isn't certain if that's what he means, but war is war: his mother was fighting a war, and he picked up after her.]

We do what we have to. We're starting with more people than my last war. I can say that much. [It sounds like they already have people who will help. It might not be a coalition, but it's—something. Anything, really.]

[greyerrant]

Sounds like you didn't have many comrades indeed then. Of late my own company was much reduced before I came here. A squad at most, where once I would command a company of soldiers in a greater legion.

[ He considers for a moment. ]

You were a soldier then? How did you fight? I was a member of the Legiones Astartes, more commonly known as Space Marines, though we hate the term ourselves.

[secondnature]

I'm a part of two teams. One is Voltron—a small task force made up of five different pilots that fly lions to protect the universe. The other is a rebel group that's an ally of Voltron—they're the Blade of Marmora. [None of this is going to make any sense, Keith realizes. He has a smaller group, and then a different smaller group. One he leads (now, he guesses?) and the other he's just a cog in the machine. They're different.]

We have the same goal. One Empire decided to subjugate most of the universe. It's up to us to finally put an end to it.

[greyerrant]

[ WHat's wrong with subjugating the universe? That was kind of his job, after all. He shrugs. ]

Interesting. It must make chain of command difficult, to be involved with two factions at once.

Wait... fly lions?

[secondnature]

[Keith sighs, realizing he might need to back it up. He hopes not—it might take a lot to explain space exploration and he's the last guy to pull off that particular exposition well.]

Mechanical lions. I don't know why they're shaped like that. Maybe they just wanted to be lions. [That makes it more complicated. Keith has been a part of this experience for so long that he doesn't catch that part.]

But they're ships. Special ships. The strongest in the universe. They're just ... shaped like lions.

[So, yeah.]

[greyerrant]

An odd shape for ships, certainly, but not outside my understanding. Our ships are more... like great rams in space. Long-sided and covered in broadside weapons.

[ Loken shrugs. ]

I must inform you that most technology won't work here. I miss my armor, blade, and bolter, but we make do with what we have.

[secondnature]

I figured that out already. The armor I had on me—it can still ... protect, but it can't do much else. [And, unfortunately, he's still missing its helmet. That was lost on the planet where Keith nearly said good-bye to living.]

Without anything like that, something tells me we're all gonna have to learn to ... improvise. Unless ... people are used to it. Already. [They could be.]

[greyerrant]

I've fought with my hands before, and other things besides. I'm mostly just annoyed that some of my better tools are gone.

[ He sighs. ]

We are on a very feral world indeed, if you are from a planet-spanning culture. I know the shock was frustrating for me.

[secondnature]

I grew up on a planet before I went out to space. I can handle the woods. That's fine. But everything I've heard about tells me I'd rather have working gear. [They could all do with something that would actually work. They're at a disadvantage almost purely because they have nothing to make up for their shortcomings.

(Like: having to work together.)]

I can adapt. Some stuff would just make it easier.

[greyerrant]

Agreed. A chainsword or a bolter would have made all the difference during the only battle I've been in, here. People slinging sorcery around, other beings that seemed almost immune to being struck down with blade or physical force... though I suspect tearing them bodily apart might have been enough. I hope we're able to procure... something soon. Even some knives or axes would go a long way towards giving us a chance against the Orcs and Daemons that apparently bar our way on the path to where we need to go.

[secondnature]

I have a knife. [It turns into a sword, but Keith hasn't had an opportunity to test it yet. He worries that it won't work the way it's meant to, and he's afraid of having that key to his heritage ripped away from him.

Denial will suit him for now.]

But it's one knife. It can help in a small pinch, but anything bigger and we're screwed.

[greyerrant]

You'd be surprised at what I've killed with a knife. [ Loken smiles, if only slightly. ]

[secondnature]

You aren't the only one. But if we're running instead of fighting, a knife won't cut it.

[And Keith has had it made clear to him that they run for a reason.]

[greyerrant]

You aren't wrong. Strategy is going to be all we've got, at least until we discover some better ways to fight back.