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Relics of the Third Age: A Lord of the Rings Quest

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[X] Take the Sword

Seems in character for Arphazêl. Hell a good burning from "Harmless Lord Sauron's" relics could be a good start to some character growth for her.
 
[X] Leave the Sword

Oof, the dice telling us to stick to talking. Not that that helps us much now.

I enjoy the parallels with the lord of the rings here. Especially the fall of the Balrog writ small. This thought also made me switch my vote, my first instinct was to use this weapon of the enemy against them. But then I considered what Gandalf would do and realised that taking the sword was emulating Boromir's way of thinking. It is in Arphazêl's character to do, but doomed by the themes of the source text. And I'm interested in seeing a character who cleaves to those themes.
 
[X] Take the Sword

Given the nature of this quests title and our characters alignment of morale neutral leaning decent. I think this is both our best bet and our first chance to kick things off.
 
[X] Leave the Sword.
Lets not ruin all our progress in making her question her youth and saurons rule by turning her into a discount nazgul.
 
[X] Take the Sword

It feels like a bad idea, but also an in character one
 
Servetus said:
[X] Leave the Sword

Plantlife that survives in Mordor is avoiding this thing. Take the hint.
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Nitpick: we're not in Mordor but in the Morgul Vale. Which is known for having "deadly flowers," so the point stands -- even the Bad Plants are giving us a bad omen.
 
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This has made me consider quest expectations. I'm newish to the forum so not sure if there's a specific culture but for this quest in particular is there any set expectation around danger?

Should we expect any option we choose to be deadly?
Should we expect potentially dangerous options be highlighted explicitly as such?
Is death or quest end generally off the table as a result of a single vote? What about a series of votes?
 
legomithras said:
This has made me consider quest expectations. I'm newish to the forum so not sure if there's a specific culture but for this quest in particular is there any set expectation around danger?

Should we expect any option we choose to be deadly?
Should we expect potentially dangerous options be highlighted explicitly as such?
Is death or quest end generally off the table as a result of a single vote? What about a series of votes?
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For a quest where death for any mistake is not part of the premise, this is largely up to the author. You usually don't get killed in a single update unless the results are completely obvious - unless, of course, you chose your own option over the author's. For example, if we voted here for the heroine to stab herself in the heart with a sword to gain power, I don't expect anything good to come of it.

Of course, this doesn't mean there won't be serious consequences - it's just very unlikely to result in an immediate end to the quest.
 
legomithras said:
This has made me consider quest expectations. I'm newish to the forum so not sure if there's a specific culture but for this quest in particular is there any set expectation around danger?

Should we expect any option we choose to be deadly?
Should we expect potentially dangerous options be highlighted explicitly as such?
Is death or quest end generally off the table as a result of a single vote? What about a series of votes?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm certainly not going to kill off our protagonist and end the quest in the story's first chapter.

Generally, I wouldn't say I like writing 'gotcha' choices or setting traps for my players. I want to create a fun story for everyone to participate in. Though I don't plan on killing her off, if Arphazel dies it will be something players see coming ahead of time, and I'll try to make it cool and narratively satisfying. I generally prefer creating fun narrative consequences and choices over just killing the character and ending the quest.

As far as the sword itself goes, it's definitely not a Game Over or anything of the sort. It's just going to make things interesting and fun.
 
Thus why I voted to grab the sword cx we need a weapon. Theres a baddy right there, obviously its time to apply this new mystery mousekatool to our new problem :D
 
On the other hand, the lack of immediate death means that we have a chance to fight off the enemy without a sword, and I don't want our heroine to, for example, catch a Morgul disease and slowly fade away over the next twenty years or something. That would certainly be an interesting narrative, but I would like a better fate for Arphazêl.
 
Eternal_0bserver said:
On the other hand, the lack of immediate death means that we have a chance to fight off the enemy without a sword, and I don't want our heroine to, for example, catch a Morgul disease and slowly fade away over the next twenty years or something. That would certainly be an interesting narrative, but I would like a better fate for Arphazêl.
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Consider also that a Morgûl-sword poses a moral hazard to us even if it doesn't work a fell magic on us directly. We might, for instance, wraithify our orcish opponent, and have to deal with the consequences of being a mistress of spiritual thralls.
 
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