[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Troll-Hunt: In the Angle, there dwell a small, broad-footed folk called the Stoors, fishermen who dig their homes into the hills. They have long paid your ancestors tribute, but it has slowed in recent years. Recently, they have sent word that their lands are badly plagued by trolls out of the east. These Stoors are a little folk, knee-high to a Númenorean of full blood — they cannot face trolls alone. You will declare a troll-hunt, as your ancestors did, and ride the black hills in search of monsters. Such a show of strength may well prove your fitness for rule.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Pay Fealty to the King: All the Lords of Rhudaur are meant to travel to Sarnost and pay fealty to the king upon their ascension. In practice, it rarely happens, and he is certainly in no position to punish those who put off the task. However, you have a great victory to report — if you outpace the messengers and bring first news of the triumph at the Weather Hills to the king's ears, he may reward you as richly as he is able. It was your father's victory, after all, and the man who tells the King that he is now lord of Amon Sûl may be well loved for it.
[X] Troll-Hunt: In the Angle, there dwell a small, broad-footed folk called the Stoors, fishermen who dig their homes into the hills. They have long paid your ancestors tribute, but it has slowed in recent years. Recently, they have sent word that their lands are badly plagued by trolls out of the east. These Stoors are a little folk, knee-high to a Númenorean of full blood — they cannot face trolls alone. You will declare a troll-hunt, as your ancestors did, and ride the black hills in search of monsters. Such a show of strength may well prove your fitness for rule.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[] Challenge for the Seeing-Stone: Your father was the strongest of the four border lords who made alliance against Cardolan. As the new Master of the Angle and Lord of the Riverlands, all that was his rightfully falls to you, including the spoils of victory. And yet, the loot of the battle and the conquered lands will certainly be divided amongst the other three lords, who no doubt imagine you too weak and distant to stop them. Worse, you have even received word that many of your father's men deserted to their armies upon his death. To ignore such provocations would be to appear weak. You will ride west to the Weather Hills, to put forth your claim to the loot of the battle — including the seeing-stone of Amon Sûl, one of the greatest remaining treasures of the Elder Days.
[X] Challenge for the Seeing-Stone: Your father was the strongest of the four border lords who made alliance against Cardolan. As the new Master of the Angle and Lord of the Riverlands, all that was his rightfully falls to you, including the spoils of victory. And yet, the loot of the battle and the conquered lands will certainly be divided amongst the other three lords, who no doubt imagine you too weak and distant to stop them. Worse, you have even received word that many of your father's men deserted to their armies upon his death. To ignore such provocations would be to appear weak. You will ride west to the Weather Hills, to put forth your claim to the loot of the battle — including the seeing-stone of Amon Sûl, one of the greatest remaining treasures of the Elder Days.
Not the wisest of paths, but it might be the most interesting to watch our man as a warlord.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle. Thinking about which course of action benefits most from the options we chose previously.
In this case contesting the seeing stone, benefits from our being a chieftain with more troops, our elf stone and presumably our birthright (assuming that the allied lords respected our father). Obviously actually trying to control the seeing stone is a trap, however I'd suggest that there is play on trading our support to one of the other victors and posturing to regain some troops and get paid doing it.
Hunting trolls has the least to recommend it, we might impress the Stoors with our pretty necklace and having more bodies to throw against trolls won't make things worse. But I'd say neither is particularly suited to the circumstances.
I actually like the option to go to the King in terms of actual success, we've got our birthright, our stone, speaking Sindarin will be a real bonus here. Which means that whatever we decide to do there we'll probably do it well. On the other hand the way the Quest is set up makes me think that this is the hard path. Kingship is little valued, it is unclear whether our King will even see any of the spoils from the recent battle and the other nobles may take offence to us swiping the glory. There's a play where we're go strong loyalist and try to flip the script on the tone of the Quest, rising in power in the Kingdom as we raise the Kingdom up. I don't think this is the build to do it with.
I almost forgot about raiding. This seems like the sort of culture where a raid is the equivalent of a handshake, a way to size up a potential peer, except there's the risk of things going disastrously wrong if someone important dies. Problem is, there's not much in our build that advantages us here (being a chieftan will help I guess) and we have no information who's toes we'll be stepping on (apart from the fact dad was comfrotable stepping on them). I would expect a few raids for us to deal with anyway, as a sort of housewarming gift (sorry your dad's dead, we'll just have some of your cattle)
Which leaves internal politics. It just fits so well with our build. We have the blood for it, the elf stone which will really impress and is a symbol of legtimacy. Obviously being a chieftain is the thing which gives us the option in the first place however, going back to the description, the hill folk are loyal till your own death, they're money you can take to the bank. This move both plays to our strength and builds on it.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight.
It would be wise to get our house in order before traveling outside of it.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
we absolutely should help the hobbits out with their troll problem at some point in the future tho
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
we absolutely should help the hobbits out with their troll problem at some point in the future tho
We may not have the chance. The Stoors might follow the Hoarwell down into Cardolan if they are not helped swiftly. For whatever value of "swiftly."
EDIT: although, while we might not know what "swiftly" means with respect to the Stoors, we do know what it means with respect to the Byriaig. The next clanmoot is in a fortnight.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight.
[X] Pay Fealty to the King: All the Lords of Rhudaur are meant to travel to Sarnost and pay fealty to the king upon their ascension. In practice, it rarely happens, and he is certainly in no position to punish those who put off the task. However, you have a great victory to report — if you outpace the messengers and bring first news of the triumph at the Weather Hills to the king's ears, he may reward you as richly as he is able. It was your father's victory, after all, and the man who tells the King that he is now lord of Amon Sûl may be well loved for it.
I'd like to cash in the free prize ticket while it's still due.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight.
[X] Troll-Hunt: In the Angle, there dwell a small, broad-footed folk called the Stoors, fishermen who dig their homes into the hills. They have long paid your ancestors tribute, but it has slowed in recent years. Recently, they have sent word that their lands are badly plagued by trolls out of the east. These Stoors are a little folk, knee-high to a Númenorean of full blood — they cannot face trolls alone. You will declare a troll-hunt, as your ancestors did, and ride the black hills in search of monsters. Such a show of strength may well prove your fitness for rule.
I think with how dear old dad ruled and died, we're probably about to be overthrown or at best have to rule in some kind of cobbled together power sharing agreement with the other claimants that will collapse the moment someone gains an advantage.
The troll hunt will help us stand out among the claimants as having better qualifications and if things go south and we survive the overthrow but are on the run we can hide out among the fishermen who we just helped.
[X] Challenge for the Seeing-Stone: Your father was the strongest of the four border lords who made alliance against Cardolan. As the new Master of the Angle and Lord of the Riverlands, all that was his rightfully falls to you, including the spoils of victory. And yet, the loot of the battle and the conquered lands will certainly be divided amongst the other three lords, who no doubt imagine you too weak and distant to stop them. Worse, you have even received word that many of your father's men deserted to their armies upon his death. To ignore such provocations would be to appear weak. You will ride west to the Weather Hills, to put forth your claim to the loot of the battle — including the seeing-stone of Amon Sûl, one of the greatest remaining treasures of the Elder Days.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight
I'm not sure if voting is still open, but I haven't seen it called yet. Always get your own house in order, immediately. It's the number one rule for feudal succession. It's vital to assert control over our own domain. Sallying out for any reason just gives usurpers time to plot without us noticing.
[X] Assert Inheritance: With your father's death, the chieftaincy falls to you. But the Byriaig are not what they were. Many proud and strong men among them have long scorned the rule of Dol Sîriath, holding little loyalty to blood or oath. You have cousins and uncles who might seek to usurp your position in your absence. Perhaps you should assert your right to rule early, at the next clanmoot in a fortnight.
Your decision is quick. All else aside, you must assert yourself decisively over the clan, or all is lost. Within days of receiving word of your father's death, you set forth from Dol Sîriath for Amon Geld, the Hill of the High, ancient meeting-place of your clansmen at the confluence of the rivers. A few armsmen ride with you, but you yourself go unarmed to the Stone of Meeting, in keeping with ancient law.
By the time you arrive, the majority of the clan elders are already there, their many tents spread like a forest across the hillside. A few greet you with the deference and respect you deserve, but many more do not. Also present is your distant cousin Agraven — a tall lord with coal-black hair, with an oiled beard and thick furs. He wears his glory about his neck: many great torcs and chains of gold, which shine in the torchlight. Agraven is a warrior, a raider of great renown, and he and his family are in held high esteem among the clan chiefs. Of all your kinsmen, Agraven is the proudest, and the quickest to rash deeds.
You set up your tent on the slope of the hill and raise your father's banner above it. For the entire afternoon, you receive many visitors, clansmen and elders who come to kiss the ring and offer the hands of their daughters in marriage. Many chiefs, you note, pay a visit his tent.
That night, at the clansmoot, all the great elders of the clan are gathered upon the bare head of the hill, in the same spot where their ancestors have met and broken bread for over an age. Each man may speak his piece in turn before the weathered stone, and not threat of war nor hate of foe may take this right from him. The rightful lord of the land, by tradition since the days of Emildil, speaks last, and so you listen in silence as the elders speak.
By and large, their concerns, as yours, orbit around your dead father. This claim to that plot of land, that old right to be renewed, that daughter stolen, that oath broken. The issues are heard by all, discussed, and resolved by consensus. The moon wicks across the sky as the debates continue, until at last, in the black hours of the night, only two men around the stone have not spoken.
Yourself, and Agraven.
You watch him across the fire. All eyes are upon the both of you. If he intends to put forth his claim, to challenge you for leadership of the clan, it will be here and now. He must cast a rock upon the stone and make the challenge, call you to stand against him in single combat for the right to rule. All men of the clan have this right, to be sure — but for the last hundred years, none have ever challenged the eldest son of the last Lord of Dol Sîriath.
After what seems like an eternity, Agraven strides forth into the center of the circle. He speaks a little of his family, of their pride, of the father-history of his clan. He gives a eulogy for your father, whom he praises in high words. Your father, he says, was a battler and a warrior and a great captain of men, a terror to behold. He will be sorely missed.
Having said all this, he turns to face you, stoops down, and takes a knee. You are his lord, he calls out aloud, from this day to your last.
Slowly, shufflingly, the other clan chiefs follow suit. There is an odd tension in the air. None are more surprised than yourself. You had expected the challenge, the call to single combat, the test of your strength…but perhaps, after all, this is the test. Challenge you here, and he might lose, and lose his claim with it. Defeated, he would lose all support. But now…if you prove yourself weak, then Agraven, his claim undiminished and already loved by the elders, might find himself proclaimed clan chief without a blow struck.
You must act to corral his strength before that day arrives. Here and now, at the stone of meeting, while all are gathered and submitting themselves to you, may be the best chance you will ever have.
What do you do?
[] Win Loyalties: You will make a grand speech to rival Agraven's, promising wealth and lands for those who follow you into battle. The clan elders are easily swayed by displays of wealth, and by promises of such.
[] Take Hostages: You will take a measured and decisive tone, demanding that the elders give proofs of the loyalty they have just sworn — a son, from every great man atop the hill, who will remain at Dol Sîriath until they are full-grown. The greatest of these hostages will certainly be Agraven's son, Dorhael.
[] Divide: More than a few of the clansmen who rode to Weathertop with your father left no heirs for their lands and wealth. You distribute these spoils among the great families of the clan just so — a hill claimed by one family is inherited now by their rivals, one brother is given gold while his brother is given nothing, Agraven is awarded prime riverland while his neighbors must content themselves with rocks. Hopefully, these giftings will sow internal divisions among the clan, driving the elders against one another.
[] Cooperate: It was often the principle of old Arnor that a man should keep his enemies closer than his friends. Before the assembled clan elders, you proclaim Agraven your new war-master, chief captain of your armies: an honor he cannot refuse. This honor on their favored candidate will woo the elders who back him, while the man himself, now leading your raids and fighting your wars, will find himself hard pressed to scheme behind your back.
[] Union: You call up Agraven and bow before him, humbly requesting his daughter's hand in marriage. In one blow, you make an offer publicly which he cannot refuse, honor him beyond all words, and bind him to you as the sword to the hilt. The kin-bonds are iron, even in these days of strife and sorrow. Agraven would not dare challenge his own son-in-law while his daughter still lived…but you may only have one wife, and should so strong an alliance truly be spent upon one who is not even your equal?
[] Nothing: Let him plot. Nothing will come of it. Your presence here has already done all it needed to, and once you have strengthened yourself elsewhere, you may easily put these upstart elders in their place.
