Rings and Grudges (A LOTR/Warhammer Fantasy Crossover)

Edited by ImperialBriton
Interlude: A Dispute amongst your kin
Severity Roll of the situation: 17 (high roll would have seen this as something easier to deal with and not as long-lasting)

You were carried through the valley, sitting upon a small throne atop your Thanes shield. Your 'official' shieldbearers had been clamouring at the teeth for over a decade to fulfil their duty, and now with your broken leg, your pride finally relented and allowed another Dawi to bear you. You glowered atop the small throne, hating the constant swaying you had no control over. Beside you, your wife walked alongside the rest of the Valkyrinn, her battle az across her back. To continue your misery the sunburned your skin, making you shot poisonous glares at anything that moved, be that the birds chirping, your Throngs boots as they shook the earth, or the constant grumbling of your kin grumbling among one another. Finally, the firebeard ranger who looked strangely familiar was placed firmly in the centre of your group announced Nogrod was ahead, though your mood only continued to worsen as the sight of the crumbling hold gates came into vision. This was once a great hold, where watchtowers and walls once kept it safe. Kaz and his squad of rangers had not even seen a patrol protecting them, is this what you could expect of your cousins. Your thoughts were dark as you found what was apparently an ancient hold far more lacking its inhabitants far more disappointing than you would have liked. Though it explains so much about your fellow Thane and his rather fragile state for a dawi, always looking at things were never there and constantly worrying as he muttered to himself about things you could never hear.

As you drew closer to the gate you felt your temper slowly rising at the lack of even a greeting party outside the broken gates, which were little more than piled up rubble with a narrow path. Instead there stood only a single barely armoured guard, who blinked at you in disbelief as your throng approached the walls so dilapidated that they wouldn't even stop a minor Warband of grobi, the crenelation's broken in so many places that you doubted it would protect against arrow fire. You heard muttering from your kin a few of them remarking that they should take the slayers oath for letting such a thing come to pass, and you agreed with them.

Coming to a stop you had your Throne bearers lower you to the ground ignoring the protests of Idun and that of a few of her fellow Valkyrinn, you limped forward and glared at your rapidly approaching fellow Thane, the fool sweating profusely judging from the glisten of his brow, a balding elder at his side looking both resigned and disappointed. "Thror! Is this how you would greet your kin." Your cousins staring down at you from their wall.

Your rival Thane spluttered for a moment before snarling a crazed look in his eye, as the elder to his side looked to try and dispense wisdom only for it to be ignored his ears seeming to be filled with rocks. "It's how I greet those that would steal from me and mine, we've suffered enough, from you, the longbeards, the elgi, and the Shadow!" His eyes shooting to the firebeard in your group worriedly.

Your eyes narrowed as you looked at him, "And how in any way have my kin brought you suffering. The tale I was sworn by oath, was that they spotted nuggets of gold in the stream that flows from your hold. Then for even mentioning this, you forced your guards to attack my own. I know not what drives you to this madness, but I demand as right, for you to gather my kin from wherever you have dragged them and discuss this like proper dawi!" Your voice bellowed loudly, echoing deeply through the shattered ravine. Your hand came to rest on your az as you ignored the pain in your leg. "Last I heard it was you and yours who started this issue; Now where are my kin, and where is Balor he should have greeted me!"

The elder behind his thane quickly waved at some of the thanes-guard, who rushed off, while Thror blustered, desperate to avoid eye contact with you, his eyes widening at the sight of the Valkyrinn as he attempted to gather himself. "They are guests within my realm and have been given due rights." He said while not meeting your eyes his voice turning to a mumble as he spoke to himself his eyes gaining a misty look.

Though the whispered word of thieves and traitors had your beard itching as you made to speak you heard walking behind you and glanced over your shoulder, the young Firebeard broke from the throng, marching ahead of you concern in his eyes "Father how long have you counted our gold last night...." blinking you looked a little closer and could see the resemblance while letting out a hum finally having placed him.

"And what of it!" Thror muttered snappishly, a sick lust you were all too familiar with filling his voice.

"Father I have spent weeks among these 'dwarfs', and journeyed to their halls more often than others and they speak true. I beg you to come to your senses, there need be no war fought here today, not least one we will surely lose…"

Your brows flared at some of the words that you understood before you realised your way to at least keep things civil within the clan. "Then I swear to you Thror, thane of Nogrod that neither I nor any of my kin will claim the gold that still flows in your vaults!" A grin grew across his haggard face. "But! I will have my kin freed this instant, and for you to get down from there and talk with me like a Dawi!"

The lad met your eyes as you talked to him. "Gold-sickness isn't it." The lad blinked at you with tears in his eyes. "Aye. It's cursed my line since the days of Naugladar the cursed; but with the discovery of Mithril..."

You patted him lightly on the shoulder. "Fear not lad, there's many a way to wean him from it. So long as he is willing to try." Thankfully your words seemed to brighten his mood while the elder moved towards you. Still, while it was good that there was going to be a reason for all this it would not stop more than half your clan demanding some form of Grudgement and compensation for what had happened though you doubted your cousins would accept quietly.

Glancing around you spotted Thror been escorted into the hold as he seemed to struggle with himself as he bounced between been content and anger at his own guards, shaking your head you turned to watch as the elder gave a few words to Thror's son before they turned to you. The elder meeting your eyes, "You'll have to forgive Thror for his actions but he has not been the same these last decades, still you are welcome to enter the hold I have had a few rooms restored for your use, though do watch your step." He said while glancing over your group worriedly.

You Grunted but accepted the way in, "Very well but there will be compensation for whoever was wronged, then and only then will my people let this lie I am not one for forgiveness." You Growled out as you were lead into a hold that looked ready to fall apart. Glancing around you spotted your cousins but few if any of them were working on restoring the hold rather some were more focused on less pressing matters that made you wonder, shaking your head you turned back to the elder, "Now tell me what caused this damned mess before I'm forced to declare a grudge against an ally, also what's your name elder?." You said though you felt your ears burn slightly at the slight against him.

The elder bowed his head slightly, "I'm Nar at your service, as for the whole issue it's a damned mess, seems a few of my group got uncomfortable and have loose ears, felt like you and yours would take away what little we had, damned shame as far as I could gather with Balor a few of your guards were ensuring the safety of the few here but wondered a little to close to some of our mines and spotted a few bits of gold in the stream, of course after they reported this Thror had a small bout of madness and muttered a few things that were overheard and sadly more than a few of my clan thaught that they would deliver a warning, sadly some words and accusations were said and your people took insult." He said while taking a deep breath his eyes darting sadly to his kin, "Things ended up devolving into a fight from there and in the chaos, one of the pillars were knocked out with a bit of falling rubble, thankfully no one was killed but more than a few were injured. Other than that one of yours was injured by a blade but he'll live, since then things have been tense and Thror's been slipping further than I would have liked." He said sounding drained.

Growling you shot a look to your wife before turning back to the elder, "very well we will see this matter settled by the time we depart, but first we should let our heads cool it will do us no good if we try now," your eyes darting to your wife as you grudgingly allowed your Throne bearers to lift you once again, as you delved further into something that was far from what you would even call a hold the dawi within seeming to only focus on their work barely even paying your clan any heed.

Looking around you saw half-collapsed halls used as makeshift smithies while others were used to grow with what little they could from barely held together growing halls, while the lack of even the most basic internal defences made your stomach curl the small chokepoint's and the less said about the state of the constantly used bridges the better along with the large amounts of wasted space that could have easily fitted multiple halls the better and all the while there was not even a minor shrine to even one of the Ancestor gods.

Entering your own room your fears were confirmed as you found even them to be merely converted hall that once looked to be a simple storeroom, thankfully it seemed even enough as you were set down and you ordered your Thronebearers to leave you for a moment, Idun marching into the room a scowl on her face as her hands twitched to her weapon and followed by a disgruntled looking Balor.

The conversation that followed left you drained and slightly confused it at least cleared a few things for you, though that still left you with the issues of settling the grudge after what had happened to your kin.

[] Write-in what you will do (Preferred option)
[] Side with your clan in this matter your clan was wronged (They will have to compensate your clan but it will be out of fear and significantly decrease your Relations with them but will improve your clans overall Appeasement of the various guilds.)
-Compensation options
--Demand Ore from them as that will settle the debt. (Gain 3 units of Mithril)
--Demand that they work within your clans mines so that it may prosper further
--Demand that they do something about their leadership so this does not happen again. (This will further drop your relations with them)
[] Side against your clan in this matter as you find it was your clan who wronged them (You will have to compensate them for what was done to their clan, this will anger many in your clan.)
-Compensation options
--Offer them aid with building at least a basic wall for their hold
--Offer them food and ale
--Offer to help repair their hold
[] Try and find a compromise as both of your clans have wronged one another (You will attempt to settle this as best you can after everything each clan has done but it will slightly decrease your relations with them and your guild Appeasement of various clans will drop. This will also decrease overall hold stability after what was done to your kin)
-Compensation options
-- You will offer to restore the hall that was damaged while the Nogrod dwarfs will give you a small amount of gold and copper from their vaults. (New Stewardship option which will need to be completed in 2 turns and cost a bit to see done (Will also use up 1 martial action for the necessary guard to be placed on supply caravans. while you receive 800 Gold and 5 units copper ore)
-- Offer a few dawi to patrol the forgotten areas of their hold for 4 years (2 Turns and will take 5 rangers,6 warriors and 4 Thunderers out of the Throng for them to be deployed.) While they are to pay you a tithe of ore for the duration of their stay. (Run the risk of running into forgotten threats while been paid for it.(Would further weaken your rangers actually dropping them below the threshold for a massive debuff))
[] Delay the restitution of the clan grudge for now until Thane Thror is sound of mind. (This will not settle the overall issue that has occurred and will continue to cause your hold issue while also suffering a moderate decrease in relations with Southern Nogrod Dwarfs while also causing an issue amongst your hold and will still be settled at a later date but with a lower cost.)
-Terms for it to be delayed (Select 2)
-[] For the honor of the 'perpetrators'. If a fight was had, then a fair one must finish it.
-[] Call for a council made up of the clans elders and Thror's heir to rule in regency until Thror is declared cured from dragon-sickness/gold-sickness.
--[] Thane Thror is taken for medical attention at Karak Lhune with a retinue of his heir and advisors choice
or
--[] Thane Thror receives medical attention within Nogrod by Cultists of Valaya. (not recommended, as he will be surrounded by what drove him to this)
-[] Call for a cultural collaboration between the two holds. Tomes in Khuzdul translated to Khazalid, and visa versa.
-[] Write-in

***

The Issue broken down and a little more clear

• A few of your clans warriors spotted some nice gold and decided to inform Thane Thror of it.
• Thror sadly suffering from gold-sickness had a bout of madness and a few of his clan took that as orders.
• This lead to Thror's warriors giving a few warnings but been Khazad and not dawi insulted them by calling them thief's and insulting their honour.
• Sadly this lead to a fight breaking out started by a few beardlings of your clan which ended up breaking a pillar.
• This of course caused more than a few injuries amongst Thror's clan while one of their guards injured one of your warriors rather badly.
• Thror pretty much threw your diplomatic party into the dungeons.

Any Actions directly involving Thror now suffer a -10 to all roll's due to his infliction, this will last until you either get a proper council in place or his son takes over his position.

So ya, your dice and luck really don't like you sometimes but how you go about sorting this out is up to you, also their some hints in the text as to some possible future options also really appreciate ImperialBriton help he has been a great help in improving this thing leaps and bounds. Also, your relations with other groups were put together with the characters of the hold.

2-hour Moratorium