The King's Matters
Nendumir
The Glintgears gather up some Beardlings and set off along the same route as before. They work their way along the Bruinen and out into Arnor, they follow paths through overgrown fields left to grow wild and find themselves at the plateau of Angmar. Nendumir leads his group up and old track up to Angmar choosing to bypass the open and more watched ways into that cold and dark land.
And for little good, they are three days from the edge and moving through some woods in western Angmar toward the volcano that Nendumir had previously identified when there is a howling to the east. The Engineers and Beardlings gather up amongst the trees and bare tools.
They stand firm as huge wolves come bursting into the woods bearing Urki upon their backs. These Urki are larger and better equipped than the Grobi that older Dawi had battled with over the first decade of Karak Drekfut. The expedition battles in the cold and the dark amongst old trees and though they bring down some of the Urki and their tools are well made for rending Umgak iron, the expedition must turn to flee.
Nendumir and the Engineers hold the line and send the Beardlings ahead to the place where they can descend the Plateau, haste will be the greater virtue now than stealth. The Engineers slowly retreat back through the woods battling with the Urki as they buy time for the Beardlings to make good ground. They leave the treeline at about the same time as the sun breaches the horizon and the Urki flinch against the light and prove a weaker foe in the light of day.
Both sides soon part and retreat but with concern that they may be hunted as they move north, Nendumir decides to end the expedition. They will need warriors at hand to cross Angmar in the future for the Urki and their wolves continue to plague the expedition at night having gained the scent. Not all the members of the expedition make it back down into Arnor and home to the Door.
Grazur
Elder Grazur has gone down into Imladris and commissioned copies of maps of varied detail, size and age. While the Noldor have been copying those that don't have spares the Elder has returned and reshaped an events hall from the Greatmantle Clan Residences into a Map Room. Shelves, frames, drawers all are now filled with maps that the Dawi can use to identify anything from the now lost location of Falas to a particular apothecary on the streets of Minas Anor.
The maps of most note are laid out on a central table that has been made perfectly smooth and has been measured out to fit the largest map on it with some room to spare. There are tools for precisely measuring distances on maps laid upon a bench on one side of the room. Elder Grazur shows you through his collection of more interesting maps.
The first is a map of the Dwarvish Realms of the First Age of the Sun. It details the locations of Nogrod and Belegost in the Ered Luin and the lesser halls that each claimed for their own that stretched north and south from them.
Then Khazad-Dum sits in roughly the centre of the Ered Hithui's southern segment, but the Realm of Durin's Folk has two other regional capitals. All the range north of High Pass is presided over from Gundabad and the Ered Mithrin are ruled from Silverplunge with many minor halls about them. You can see where the map has been updated more recently, Erebor the Lonely Mountain has been marked at the source of the Celduin to the east, Celegost the new home of the Line of Balin and Thundercleft as the home of the Line of Uri have been marked at the tips of the two eastern spurs of the Ered Mithrin. Further to the east, but a touch more southerly, were the Iron Hills where Durin's Folk seemed to have kept small halls for a long time.
Then there are the four eastern Great Halls of the Dwarves; Akgundim of the Line of Sindri which was now lost to Dragons along with Naragul of the Line of Thrar, and the surviving Great Halls of the East are Buzan of the Line of Thulin and Gabilzahar of the Line of Bavor. Each of these is a great distance away in the east, past the Celduin and the Sea of Rhun. But the Ered Luin seem a nearer place by far and the ruins of those folk might be reached with ease.
The Near Map of the Third Age shows some age but was designed to show the lands of the neighbours of Imladris. The city sits in the centre and the map goes down to the Gap and the River Isen in the south, marks the way west through Arnor to the Grey Havens of Lindon and shows the realm of Angmar in the north. Your own realm is not noted, but Lord Elrond warned Elder Grazur that this map was centuries out of date, Rhovanion and Arnor were both whole when the map was first laid out.
The youngest map is an atlas of the West. Here Arnor has been carved into pieces. There's Arthedain in the west that curls around the north and west edges of a place called the Shire. The Grey Havens sit on the west coast near the Ered Luin and Angmar is there in the north. To the east the Eotheod dwell on the east bank of the Anduin to the south of the Eryn Galen. The forest is split into three parts, the southmost region is abandoned while the centre is marked as the Realm of the Woodsmen and the north is the Woodland Realm.
The places you've not yet heard of stand further to the south. There's Laurelindorenan on the west bank of the Anduin and in the south Vale of the Anduin on that forest's northern border are the Gladden Fields. The south west is marked as Gondor and that realm is expansive. It covers both sides of the Ered Nimrais and both banks of the southern half of the Anduin. By sheer space covered you'd imagine that Gondor was a mighty realm. Then there is Mordor, ringed by a great range of mountains and blackened on the map, this land has very little detail written into the atlas but two places within its borders are marked with red ink. Oroduin and Barad-Dur, the former seems to be a volcano and the latter a great fortress.
Garin
The Noldor and the Ironploughs have worked together to alter the West Farms such that they can reap harvests of vegetables rather than grain. The diversity should protect the Farms from blight and the Dawi might enjoy a more varied diet. It should have been a simple affair, the grain harvested, and the vegetables planted and the Noldor giving a few useful tips on how to grow this new type of plant.
How it came so swiftly to this then you don't know. There are three Noldor in your Healing Hall and two Dawi are in a room across from them. Maenthel and her Farmers have put down their tools and she has gone back out the Door and to Imladris to speak with Lord Elrond. Elder Garin has done a lot of tugging at his beard and very little explaining, and you can't help but wonder if it might be the fault of the Dawi this time.
Eventually he manages to tell you his tale. The Ironploughs had discovered that the Noldor Farmers had insisted that they should not be asked to work within the mountain for they found such an environment abhorrent to their nature. The Ironploughs had taken offence at the insult to their home and one night while the Noldor were asleep in their camp there had been an attempt to steal some away to the Ironplough Clan Residences and see just how abhorrent they found the mountain.
Naturally the Noldor had taken up arms against the intrusion when Dawi had drawn a Noldor Farmer from her tent and there had been fight in the Valley. Word soon reaches you; Lord Elrond is at the Door.
Beyond the Valley
Decorated Market Hall, 305/160. Completed.
(1 Noldor Artisan + 1 Stonemason Die)
85+10+78+10+2 = 185
The stalls have been set into place in the Market Hall. They are stone structures of varying sizes with shelves and benches set to show wares. A ladder in each stall leads down into cellar storerooms beneath the Hall where merchants can keep their goods. The roofs of the stalls are intricately shaped to look like cloth despite the very uncloth-like stone used to make sturdy ceilings.
While the more functional work has been undertaken by the Shatterspears, the Noldor have gone about the Hall and taken the great stone walls for canvasses. Some have brought paints that bind deeply with the stone and the walls have been whitened like many of those that make up Imladris. Then over the white the Noldor have gone about and created scenes of great beauty, you could be mistaken for thinking that there were no walls around the Market Hall and instead it sat within an open square flanked by rolling hills and trees waving gently under a kindly wind.
Decorated Market Hall completed. +5 Silver per Turn, Market income is variable based on reputation with nearby merchants.
Fortified and Decorated Guest Residences, 222/190. Completed.
(1 Noldor Artisan)
37+10 = 47
While some of the Noldor are working in the Merchant Hall, others are just down the way and working on the Guest Residences behind the Door. Here they have worked to turn stone beds into something with the softness and strange give that allows non-Dawi to sleep more comfortably. They work statues of Umgi and Quendi from local histories and legends into marvellous stonework. The Noldor focus greatly on making a thing life-like you note where a Dawi statue might be more imposing or grand to reflect the weight of their deeds and life.
Fortified and Decorated Guest Residences completed.
Riding Grounds, 39/30. Completed.
(1 Warsmith Die)
47-5-5+2 = 39
Some of Clan Greatmantle has gone out through East Pass with a handful of Eotheod to design a Riding Grounds where the Huskarls can practice and any of the Eotheod who are brought back to the Karak can be trained in the ways of war from horseback. There's now a space in the Near Vale that has been set up with artificial hillocks, boulders and low walls where the riders can drill in combat. Hagrim has been taking his Huskarls through manoeuvres in the Riding Grounds to keep them all in good form.
Riding Grounds completed. +5 to Cavalry Combat Rolls.
Surface Hold
Establish an Orchard, 60/50. Completed.
(1 Noldor Farmer)
50+10 = 60
The Noldor have taken some time to plant saplings within the Valley. These trees would take several years to come to their full bloom if you were left to your own devices and yet over the course of the year you watch the orchard swell into tress of great height and fruits grow amidst the branches. There are side eyed looks amongst the Ironploughs as the Noldor seem to sing their trees into growing with long epics of song. A bard or two tries the same, stood out in a farm, but apparently the tale of how Grimnir slew Glammendriing does not inspire growth in even Dawi grain.
Orchard completed. -5 to Highest Farmer Die. +10 Fruit per year.
Huge Stables, 245/100. Completed.
(1 Noldor Farmer + 1 Stonemason Die + 1 Beardling Die)
68-5-5-5-5+10+98+85+4 = 245
With the Noldor to guide them and provide the designs used by the Noldor to erect the stables at Imladris, the Shatterspears have gone away into the Valley and raised up a huge structure with many ramps to allow for thousands of horses to be kept in lavish quarters befitting them. The Shatterspears have come to be quite fond of the horses of the Eotheod, unlike the horses of most Umgi they are proving to be reliable and predictable creatures.
Captain Hagrim has warned that the Royal Horses gifted by the King to his Huskarls are a higher sort of horse to those most Eotheod possess. All the same the structure sits across from where the Ironploughs have been working to erect the Housing for the Eotheod. Many of the Huskarls have been looking at the Stables in outright jealousy of late and indeed have been camping in the stables with their horses.
Huge Stables completed.
Huge, Fortified and Decorated Guest Housing, 28/190. 1x Nat 1.
(2 Farmer Dice)
23+1+4 = 28
The Ironploughs have done very little work on the Guest Housing. With the Huskarls often away and willing to camp in the Stables for the time being when they're back it hasn't been an immediate problem. King Gisilhari spends enough time in your company that a room in your Clan Residences hasn't discomforted him.
But there has been growing tension between the Ironploughs and the Noldor all year. The Dawi have never been especially well known for their skill as Farmers, and such Clans are sometimes looked down upon, with the arrival of the Noldor who are skilled in the field indeed the Ironploughs have been finding themselves offended by increasingly small things. A recent attempt at kidnapping has brought Lord Elrond to the Door.
West Peak
Huge, Fortified and Decorated Engineering Hall, 164/190..
(1 Engineer Die + 1 Beardling Die.)
15+15+4 = 34
Nendumir, the Glintgears and the Beardlings who went with them to Angmar return partway through the year. Work on the Engineering Hall is delayed as many of them must spend some time in the Healing Hall after their expedition. A few more rooms and workshops have managed to work their way down one side of the Hall.
Huge, Fortified and Decorated Upper Stairs, 104/140. 3/5 Levels Completed.
(1 Noldor Warsmith + 1 Warsmith Die + 2 Beardling Dice.)
21+10+9+10+48+6 = 104
Your Clan and their counterparts from amongst the Noldor have wielded a moderately sized workforce of Beardlings to ascend through the West Peak. While the Noldor are invited to work their own decorations into the Stairs and they may of course take part in hauling stone from the mountain, the Greatmantles have decided to wait until the Noldor are gone to lay the fortifications into the Receiving Halls of the West Peak. There the Noldor have decorated the Upper Stairs with scenes of the Karaz Ankor as described by the Greatmantles with a vividness to give you pause upon seeing it.
3 Levels of the West Peak Upper Stairs completed.
Sulphur Storehall, 225/100. Completed.
(2 Brewer Dice + 1 Noldor Artisan.)
60+70-5-5+91+10+4 = 225
The Bronzeplaits and some of the Noldor have gone across into West Peak. Across the West Peak Receiving Hall from the Engineering Hall, they have carved a space out from the mountain for the storing of Sulphur. The yellow crystal has been moved into the new dry and sealed space.
It isn't as big as some of the other Storehalls and the Bronzeplaits haven't decided to dedicate any time to seeing the structure particularly decorated or fortified. Perhaps because those who enter will soon want to leave anyway for the scent of the Sulphur and because so deep within the Karak there is little need to see it especially secured.
Sulphur Storehall completed.
The Underhold
Establish a Major Iron Ore Mine, 90/50. Completed.
(2 Miner Dice)
97-5-5-5-5+9+4 = 90
The Stonebeards have the scent of Iron and are very quick to delve into the Depths to claim it. They extend out from the prospective tunnels and weave their miner network around the near edge of the Ore before eagerly digging into the reddish rock. The Iron Ore Mine has been bringing out a great supply of Ore to be sent up to the Smelters.
Major Iron Ore Mine completed. +20 Iron Ore per turn. -5 to Highest Miner die.
The Prospectors
12
The Prospectors have gone about the Depths, rerunning some older tunnels and patching up where they catch the Surface Scent. But they have failed to identify any new Veins beneath North Peak.
Runelord Challenge
The Blood of Thungni, Failed.
Challenge Level: 30
8
Rhunrikki Gutfroy has gone about the Clans and inspected their Beardlings. Some of the most promising get taken up into the Runecrafting Hall but they are sent back out and tell only that the Rhunrikki had blindfolded them and struck some Runes and then sent them on their way with a grumble.
Perhaps the next generation of Beardlings will have some amongst them that bear out the Blood of Thungni, but none of this generation has the Blood of Thungni strongly enough to become Runesmiths.
Personal Challenge
King Gisilhari (Oaths, Debts and Grudges), Success.
Challenge Level: 30.
(King Gartrim)
61
You have offered King Gisilhari an Apprenticeship under you. He has accepted, a wiser Garazi than most although Hagrim may have persuaded him to accept your guidance. You have decided that the first thing the young King should learn is the importance of Oaths, Debts and Grudges. They are very similar things and so should be taught and understood together.
A Dawi is reliable. It is a quality the Dawi prize above others but that does not mean other folk do not view it the same way. A King, even more than other people, must prove that he is reliable. His people must be able to rely on him to make good by his word, to protect them and to do for them as they have rights to expect him to do. He must be known as reliable by his fellow Kings, so that they might trust in him to make good on promise and threat both as well.
You instruct Gisilhari in the differences between the three markers then in a King's reliability. Oaths of Kingship are common amongst many peoples, Gisilhari nods to this for the Eotheod have such oaths as well. When he is grown he will swear to rule justly and wisely and protect his people from harm. It is of grave import that a King should keep to his Oaths, a King who does not cannot be trusted and that way lies ruin. If the people cannot trust in their King, then will they not be turned to act against his guidance? And if other Kings cannot trust him, then his alliances will falter and in days when he has need he shall stand alone.
Debts are a subtler sort of Oath. They are not sworn, there are no witnesses nor grand words nor the clasping of arms. A Debt comes when a great service is done for the King. When an ally moves to battle in your name or when a blight comes upon your crops, and they feed your hungry. A Debt must be repaid, it is shameful to feast on the work of others for no fair price. And Debts that go unpaid will tarnish you in the minds of your fellow Kings. They will see that they have given, and that you do not give. Such unequal behaviour will inspire them to leave you to your own troubles, and again you will stand alone against the darkness.
Grudges are a Debt to your people. When they suffer, they must be repaid. A King is required to enact vengeance upon those who have wronged his people. A wrong that is not righted is a mark of weakness against you and yours. If you allow Grudges to go unstruck, then you open yourself to more Grudges. You open yourself to thieves and cheaters and the raiding of your people. If your people see Grudges go unresolved they cannot trust in you to protect them and when you have a need of them to stand the line and hold firm and do battle against the darkness, they will know that they shall go unavenged and shall be left to fade shamefully from memory. And they shall abandon you to your rightful fate.
Gisilhari seems to be paying serious attention and as the year progresses you find him being careful with the promises he makes and diligent in resolving them.
A Feast for the Hold, Success.
Challenge Level: 30.
(Queen Daungrumm)
35
The Eotheod and the Noldor have been welcomed to Karak Drekfut and a great feast has started the year off with a fair enough start. Your guests have enjoyed Daungrumm's feast with Huskarls singing old Rohirric epics in the corner then Noldor singing high laments and of course the bards from the Clans have led the feasters in many a loud and rowdy song.
The Lorekeepers
Carpenters, 3/5 turns completed.
65
The Lorekeepers have taken the Carpenters down into the Hall of Remembrance and continued their course in carpentry. They've been working on raising up trellises and the wooden frames of buildings. In theory it is faster to raise up buildings in this way but it is also faster for these buildings to come back down.
The Throng
Guard Kazad Urbaz
The Deadeye has been stood at duty over the Door. A host of Noldor from Imladris have ridden east through the High Pass led by Glorfindel and Captain Hadirion of Eryn Galen. They do not stop at the Door and the Deadeye counts perhaps three hundred Noldor all armed and armoured in a shining silver.
With the Market Hall open for business there have been merchants arriving in the High Pass and following the carven signs to the Door. They pay their stall fees and trade with one another, some of the Dawi and Noldor have been visiting the stalls but there's a limited demand with few large population centres nearby to use Kazad Urbaz's market.
Gather Lumber beyond West Pass
Elder Urtain and the West Throng descend the steep slopes of West Pass and begin to harvest Wood from the woods at the base of the mountains. They load up lumber onto sleds to be taken up to the Karak and the Elder goes on a scout of the woods. He finds no Trolls, they seem to have all moved on to some other land.
+11 Wood
Range Beyond East Pass
The Eotheod and East Throng have gone out in search of survivors from amongst Fram's Folk. The Near Vale is bare, but Captain Hagrim explains that this is to be expected. The majority of the Eotheod will have fled east towards the Anduin and taken ferries into the Eryn Galen. The wooden halls and towns of the Eotheod are made from wood traded with the Woodsmen and so there are larger barges that can take the people and their horses across the great river.
It was a safe choice, if predictable and the Urki may have moved to the river swiftly after taking Framsburg. They will not have crossed the river in pursuit however, the Urki are not fool enough to intrude on the Woodland Realm. But some may have moved south, the most southern towns of the Eotheod may still stand inhabited. So East Throng goes north with the Huskarls across streams and bridges and comes upon the closest town of the Eotheod to Karak Drekfut.
There are great burns in the wooden walls and some internal damage, but the Urki have not managed to enter the town. There's a small host that weighs its options and moves away north to reunite with the greater force of the Urki and Hagrim guides East Throng into the town. It is overladen with the dispossessed who line the streets and sleep amongst mud and muck. Many of these follow with the Huskarls to join the Eotheod presence in Drekfut Ankor. They are most grateful for this respite though the townsfolk intend to remain behind their tall wooden walls for the time being.
+1 Eotheod Die. Eotheod Die can be used on any task but have a -15 penalty.
Guard North Pass
The Greatbeard and North Throng have been standing in watch over North Pass. There's little happening this year and the Throng mostly spends their time keeping Ironploughs and Noldor Farmers from coming to blows. It is the Greatbeard who hauls those injured in the madness to the Healing Hall. But then out of the north comes a group of Goatherds guiding Eotheod to the walls. They are frozen, they are injured, and they have tried to escape the Urki into the high mountains. To say that they are worse for wear is to understate matters. After a few months in the Healing Halls, this group of Eotheod are eager to repay the Dawi for their rescue.
+1 Eotheod Die.
