A day shall come when I give a truly evil monologue... maybe even several... I'm rather jealous of Sorn, to be honest. Monologues rock. He's more fun than even Pigle-- I mean Hamlet.

----------------------

Okay... Here are things as I see them:

Sorn has Lin.

The party knows that Sorn has Lin.

We need time in between the party getting to Sorn and Lin without Lin's life ending abruptly.

Does Sorn necessarily know that a party is on its way? Is it possible that he could have some sort of bitter monologue about how servants are not to be trusted and the ransom note must not have even made it to Edoras and he ought to kill a servant to prove the point? You know... something lovely like that showing that Lin's got a bit more time to live because Sorn's going to send another note? Or something?

That gives the search party a window of opportunity in which to be unavoidably detained during which their writers won't have to worry about Lin suddenly dying in the mean time.

...

*thinking aloud*

Okay, so I guess Scyld could go to Edoras, if turning Lin in was his goal - I was under the impression that if he was 'taking Lin into his own hands' it would be to try and escape the law. But that would be a rather boring ending. And, insofar as Scyld doesn't even trust Linduial, I doubt he'd trust the law enough just to give himself up to it.

And Jenny brings up an excellent point about Osfrid and Muriel - what is going on there? Is there any way that they might try to get out with Lin and hold out for ransom as LMP suggested Scyld might do?

If Scyld won't try to get ransom, how about Sorn deciding to kill Linduial, Scyld getting wind of it, and Scyld sneaking off with Lin to save her from Sorn? Then you have your hiding part, and a new wrinkle in the entire story that could take --- whole days!!! --- to figure out, and then we can have all the fun of Sorn and the rescue party BOTH looking for the two runaways, and, and, and, well, it sounds fun to me! :D

And just when this is getting so interesting...
 

I'm going to be away until the 29th and without internet access. Basically, where Scyld and Haleth are at... Scyld is going to be snappish (he may leave Lin alone for a while, if you want to send him off, Jenny), but not in an altogether bad mood. He will still bring Linduial her meals... same quality food. ;) Haleth is going to be feeling like a complete fool for letting Osfrid and Muriel go and may come across as rather desperate. You all can use Haleth as much as you want... I still don't really have the feeling that he's my character. So have fun with him, don't hold up the good guys waiting for me.

I'm afraid Osfrid's much too cowardly to hold anybody for ransom. He's more suited to petty crimes like theft or robbery. Too great of a risk with Lin, you see...
Hmm... not to mention the unexpected loss of Gurth. Sorn would have his hands full for sure searching for both Gurth and Scyld/Lin, certainly with a band of mead-hallers on his tail. I can just see him snapping from all the pressure in a fit of rage... a classic Sorn moment... :smokin:

I like that idea, lmp...really sounds good.

Cool! :) Now, how are we going to make this happen ... especiallyl with Firefoot rather unavailable for the short duration? Perhaps, Jenny, you could take control of Scyld and Gurth in the absence of their writers?

I think Ang did a good job of getting Gurth out of the action. I'm not going to worry about him.


As for Scyld, I will write for him the bare-minimum-absolutely-necessary, and hopefully Firefoot can edit in her version of events with minimal mess later. However, I don't think we're quite to the point of such urgency yet.

Well yeah about Gurth. Duh. I can't wait for this month to be over so we can get Celuien back to her usual writing frequency. Ah, RL, that nasssty thing. ;)

So might Deren be freed from guard duty to join the chase?

Sure, I imagine he could. He is under Haleth and has only been stationed at the gate to see if he could find anything out. Now that they know who the kidnaper (probably) is, they won't need extra people down there at the gate and Deren can join the main force of rescuers. .. unless otherwise ordered by you or Haleth.

-- Folwren

Elempi ain't in Rohan. ;) :D But Eodwine couldn't order Deren either, he's under Haleth. But yeah. :)

Sorry for my lack of posting recently. I'm going home Friday night, so I'll be around more once Internet access is less of a hassle. :)

I won't be around much for the next month. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

What can be done to un-stall this rpg?

I should post. Really I should. But one post won't unstick it.

EDIT: I don't actually have time to do that now, but later this evening I should. :)

-- Folwren

I can post a save and bring Osfrid and Muriel back to Sorn's home.

Alcarillo: Feel free to pester Sorn if you like. :)

I'll try to work a post up after Alc, but at the moment I don't know what much Sorn can do apart from his trusty monologues ;)

Yes, they are so VERY fun! *giggles*

- Tara

Hiya! I was trying to write a post to post up, but then I realized that I didn't have half enough the details that I need. Won't Haleth send some sort of message up to the Queen? Are they going to Meduseld to speak with her before they even gallop off? Aren't they going to get quite a handful of men to go? Where are they going from the Mead Hall - to the gates or to Meduseld?

Besides all those questions, I am sooo tired that in the past hour I've hardly written anything and none of it is good.

-- Folwren

My thought was for a company of men to start off immediately, to be followed by more later as they could be marshalled. Urgency. Thus, Haleth, I suppose, allows Eodwine, Garstan, Thornden and Deren, with a few others, start off right away, and takes care of marshalling more to follow after, at a probably slower pace. This means that perhaps the foremost company is at most a dozen, at least a half dozen, followed by perhaps 20, 40, or 60 more depending upon what is considered most appropriate. But that's just my thought.

Oh. Where are these dozen, or half dozen, men? Are they at the Mead Hall? Which, as was mentioned in some post, is the unnoficial headquarters for the search party people? I don't think it's too ridiculous to think that there would be a handful of men there. They could take whatever men there were there and go.

From what you just said, I take it Haleth will not be leaving immediately but will tell the queen what is happening and get together the big bunch of people?

I'm really, trully, honestly going to bed now, so you can answer at your leisure. I'll hopefully write something tomorrow.

-- Folwren

I figure the half dozen men are at the Mead Hall; they gotta stay somewhere, and I'm betting Meduseld can't hold them all.

And yes, I figure Haleth is going to report to the Queen and lead a follow-up party.

I'll wait to post until after you have, Foley.

Sorry I've been gone: a family emergency pulled me away for the past several days with no chance to post anything here. Can we try to get together some sort of summary of what's going on and where we plan to go? Firefoot, what say you to lmp's idea of how to use Scyld to lengthen our timeline to where it ought to be?

Yeah, I can work with it. Now... where's he going to go? Will think...

And I promise to post for Scyld and/or Haleth by this time tomorrow. I've been really horrible about RPG's since I got back from vacation - like I have no momentum left. :(

I'm in kind of the same fix, and I think all of us overestimated how much free time we'd have this summer. Oh well, let's try and buckle down now! We're just getting to the good parts; heck of a place to lose momentum.

Okay, post for Scyld is up. I want a few things cleared up before I do anything for Haleth, though.

First, Eodwine's party is going to get to Sorn's estate in a few hours in the morning; do they go and talk to Sorn? Assumably, he would deny charges, Eodwine and co. might retreat and wait for Haleth to show up so that they could make plans. It would be in this waiting time then that Sorn would have to decide to kill Linduial and Scyld would leave with her; this would not give Scyld and Lin much of a head start at all. (Obviously, they would have to not be seen by Eodwine's company...) The other possibility here is that Sorn decides to kill Lin sometime during this day, Scyld overhears/finds out, and they leave that night.

Or, does Eodwine not go and talk to Sorn but try to figure out what's going on while waiting for Haleth? Possibly, Sorn finds out they're there, decides to kill Lin, and at this point Scyld makes his escape, before the good guys even make contact with Sorn.

I could go either way, and I could see Haleth having either happening. What do the rest of you think?

Firefoot, 'search and seizure' laws don't come into play in 4th Age Rohan, I would wager. So Eodwine, as Eorl of Middel Emnet, will demand entrance to any and all parts of Sorn's holdings, to determine for himself whether Sorn is holding anyone hostage. If (as I expect) Sorn refuses him entry, Eodwine will choose between the limited force of 12 armed men versus Sorn's men, or Eodwine will wait until he is reinforced by Haleth, essentially besieging the place.

12 men is not enough to surround the place, so Scyld might conceivably escape with Linduial, but as you say it would not be much of a head start. Except that Haleth could be delayed until morning before starting out, for one reason or another, and Eodwine's men wait until Haleth arrives; that could be as many as twelve hours get-away time.

Or you could go with Scyld learning that Sorn is ready to kill Linduial and he makes off with her before Eodwine ever gets there.

I think I like this way better. Scyld isn't going to leave until he has something "concrete" - i.e., he knows that Sorn's killing Lin has been a possibility for a while, and even with Sorn's recent rampage, he doesn't really know if he is closer to killing her now than before.

I took down my save because I just realized that I don't really need it, and it was taking me too long to fill in anyway. Will post by this weekend. :)

Thanks for posting, Celuien. Seems we have ourselves some suspense! :) I had been thinking that Sorn would send somebody out, but I kinda like what you've written. Eodwine will of course say "no, you shan't go alone, not on my honor! I've made a vow and I intend to keep it! So I'm going with you!" And we get to have the opportunity for Garstan to ironically save Eodwine's life instead of vice versa. But what are you thinking of leading up to, Celuien? Anybody else want to weigh in?

That's where I was hoping the post would lead. I've been puzzling over how Garstan was going to get in the way of the attack on Eodwine, and this seemed like a reasonable place to set something up. :)

I'm sure that Sorn will still send someone out (or come himself?). Maybe they'll meet halfway...

Okay, so Sorn sends someone out who stops half way, and Garstan and Eodwine meet him there, and they talk, and the terms are finally learned in detail (?), and as the "stooge" starts walking away, arrows start flying (because Sorn's nuts) and Garstan takes one meant for Eodwine, then they "skidaddle". Sound good? Who wants to post up either this or something else first? I'm not sure how many henchmen Sorn has. Maybe this could be - um - Alcarillo's character (whose name I forget)?

Sounds good. One minor point:
So someone with a dagger instead of the arrows?

Hmmm, that could be tricky. Someone would have to get close enough. It would have to be Sorn himself, who in his madness of hate and rage and envy at the new Eorl, would not be able to resist the temptation to have a go at him "here and now". So he would have to have a hiding place very close to the meeting spot, which would be suspicious to at least one of the two of Garstan and Eodwine, right? Garstan, no doubt, since one of Eodwine's character flaws (oft forgotten except when it comes in handy) is to slightly oblivious of his surroundings, so focused on the "thing before his eyes". That should work. A wall? A shack? A postern? ????

It is tricky. I think it could work if Sorn, enraged at being caught and mistrustful of whoever was sent to greet the party, went out and hid to eavesdrop.

Tara - what do you think?

Save filled. Sorry it took so long. My weekend was a bit nuts.

Hi all,

Sorry I'm weighing in here late. I do think it would be plausible that Sorn try something like that. It's sneaky enough for him, and obviously insane enough.

In this case, it would mean Sorn is eavesdropping, and someone is the 'stooge' doing the talking, correct? Who would that be?

In the even of this outburst, what would become of Sorn? I have a feeling Sorn may not survive this story, but to fall at this point may be too soon? Anyone can feel free to give their thoughts on this.

I can imagine him hiding amongst bushes, or a secret alternate exit from the cellars leading around (though my geography is poor and perhaps that stretches way too far). But these are just my initial thoughts.

I think it's a good idea! I just need to work out the finer points of getting Sorn where he needs to be.

I'll start working on a post, however I do need that volunteer to be Sorn's representative.

Suggestions on all things are welcome :)

- Tara

The 'volunteer' is probably Scyld or Osfrid. Where are Osfrid and his writer, by the by? We misses them....

I'd agree that this is too soon for Sorn's demise, if he is doomed not to survive...we have to let him get away to cause more mischief. :p :)

Actually, Firefoot raised a point earlier about Sorn and Linduial:
So, is this encounter with Eodwine and company enough to push Sorn over the edge to decide it's time to kill Lin? And to trigger Scyld's escape with her?

Apparently, Alcarillo hasn't logged in since the 17th...

I don't think it would be entirely likely that Scyld would be the messenger - wouldn't a jailor be all the more necessary now that there's a rescue party? And I'm not sure Sorn would trust him with it anyway.

As for Osfrid - he would be a good choice, if it doesn't matter whether they recognize him or not.

That is pretty much what I've been trying to arrange for.

I suppose someone ought to PM Alcarillo, and if there's no response within a couple days, then someone could write Osfrid for Alc, and Alc can change whatever he wants later on. Thoughts?