Wedding adventure ideas (DoM Spoilers)

[bluejay]

So I am running a new campaign largely set in the Vales of Anduin. One of the characters is a Beorning and is looking to marry a Beorning girl from one of the villages.

Given that the PC is a goodly, heroic character who has impressed the village, I'd like to take the time to turn his wedding into a fun adventure.

I was thinking of perhaps some kind of fairly unreasonable bridal gift being required (maybe not quite a Silmaril) but something a little dangerous to retrieve.

Alternatively I was thinking that perhaps the girl could have originally been betrothed to a young man who disappeared and now returns. There is a great character in Darkening of Mirkwood that fits the bill.

I'd love to hear all thoughts and ideas from the lovely people here though!

[Falenthal]

I made this Fellowship Undertaking some time ago for one of my players.
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=3758&hilit=marry+me

Maybe it can help.

[bluejay]

Thank you, some great stuff there that I can use. I think I'll also like to make it into an adventure for the group as well.

I'm now thinking I could turn it into a two parter. His first is a fairly reasonable gift to retrieve a certain flower from the northern vales. I want to run them up there anyway. It gives me a chance to introduce characters from that region.

Then once it looks like he returns as the hero, I'll run the entmoot and have the forgotten suitor return from the dead putting the bride-to-be in a terrible position. I love the idea of a personal vendetta between this character and the player's Beorning.

[Finrod Felagund]

There's the old standby trope of the bride being kidnapped by the Viglundings, and the PC and his archenemy are in competition to rescue her. There are a million variants on that theme such as the Brides Mother being kidnapped by Orcs etc.

You know your group and what they like, but it also seems to me that this is ripe for social comedy. You could throw a hundred niggling problems all at once at the poor groom:
- The Bride and Groom mothers fall out over the colour of the wedding dress.
- The ex- turns up and demands a trial to secure the bride - whoever secures the biggest fish from the Anduin wins her hand. Well known Beorning custom don't'cha know...
- The bride's uncle gets drunk and burns down a barn - unfortunately it is Beorn's and the bear ain't happy.
- Gandalf is coming with his fireworks - but unfortunately so are the Hobbits of the Easterly Inn and it's well known that those little b*ggers can't keep their hands off them...
- The caterers haven't arrived and the bride's dress (the mothers finally agreed on a vomit-yellow colour) is too large - help!
- Your cousin fancies the pretty bridesmaid but her rather larger sister keeps on getting in the way
- Where the hell is the best man?
- Don't use the words "one gross" in your speech!
- The Sackville-Beornings are attending. They are enemies of your fathers (they stole some of his fine Forks apparently) and are determined to ruin the wedding.
- The stag do has rather too much to drink and takes a little diversion to Dol Guldor, leading to the brides brother going missing...
- When told the expense of the wedding, the Groom's father break out into boils on a rather embarrassing part of his anatomy. Only a certain flower pressed against that part will cure them, but the apothecary is his enemy and refuses to sell. Looks like he will be standing throughout the ceremony...
- The bride decides to tests the grooms resolve and demands that Radagast absolutely must attend or the whole thing is off!

etc etc etc. This of course would need some careful handling, and as I say, may not be for your group.

Have fun!

FF

[cuthalion]

A more Tolkienian trope, especially for the world of men, would probably be that his wife is killed, either before or after (007 style) the wedding (maybe through the feud? or some kind of attack?), and he becomes thoroughly miserable. I guess I'm thinking you should play it our more Turin Turambar. Could be the beginning of a great adventure though.

[bluejay]

Yeah some excellent, excellent ideas there thank you.

Love the idea of a fishing contest. The character has fishing as a trait so that could be a nice softball to start off the festivities.

Kidnapping could work well. I want to involve the Easterly Inn and adding the Viglundings is an area for complications. Of course heading north to find a rare flower (or similar) could work both these elements in.

Don't want to give spoilers away for any of the published work but there's a great character to fill in for the competition ... with a vaguely legitimate grievance. Given his track record he could potentially try and kill the bride however I'd much rather leave that to fate. Don't want to force the player to have a miserable character but definitely will have her kidnapped with the chance that she could die. Classic trope would be to have the character choose between saving her and ... well something else.

Alternative would be saving her (and the village) from a mass poisoning at the wedding. Lots of options there.

Quite like the idea of Gandalf or Radagast being present. The betrothal party will be west of Woodland Hall in a small village. The actual wedding ceremony probably just a small solemn affair at the Carrock.

I have a few ideas for a best man's speech based on this Beorning PC's track record of winning battles with 1 or 2 Endurance left. "They say that he didn't actually kill Mansbane. The poor thing just died of exhaustion from pounding away on Erebulf's empty head". Kind of a running joke within the game so it should work well.

A genuine hunt for a stag to begin the festivities might work well. Good opportunity for things to go wrong. From misunderstandings with Elves to encounters with Viglundings, Spiders, Orcs or worse.

[Otaku-sempai]

Are you going to address parental concerns about the Beorning character retiring from adventuring in order to support his new bride? Perhaps that should be considered when determining the bride-price that the PC has to present to the girl's parents.

[bluejay]

I think at least variations of that should come up. Responsibility to his family and so on. In many ways it will tie in well with his character doing fewer adventures in the later years as he has to spend more time with his family and farmstead.

[zedturtle]

So I am running a new campaign largely set in the Vales of Anduin. One of the characters is a Beorning and is looking to marry a Beorning girl from one of the villages.

Given that the PC is a goodly, heroic character who has impressed the village, I'd like to take the time to turn his wedding into a fun adventure.

I was thinking of perhaps some kind of fairly unreasonable bridal gift being required (maybe not quite a Silmaril) but something a little dangerous to retrieve.

Alternatively I was thinking that perhaps the girl could have originally been betrothed to a young man who disappeared and now returns. There is a great character in Darkening of Mirkwood that fits the bill.

I'd love to hear all thoughts and ideas from the lovely people here though!

I'm a sucker for a happy ending, especially in regards to life-changing things like marriage, so I'm not too fond of the tragic options. Going to retrieve something special or securing someone to attend the wedding like Beorn or Radagast (which in turn might have requests of their own) sounds like fun.

[bluejay]

Kind of agree zedturtle. Plus if they get the fairytale wedding, wife and family then they have more to risk in future.