What is "home" for Dwarves of the Grey Mountains?

[Brocktoon]

What is considered to be the cultural home for Grey Mountains dwarves when it comes to Standing and trips to their cozy hearths?

Bearing in mind I maybe missed something, the text is clear that they essentially have no fixed home without a hold in the Grey Mountains. So my thought was Erebor. But the problem with that is twofold:

1) With a standard of living of Frugal, making their homes in Erebor would mean that they would constitute a clear underclass unable to fully share in one of the few Rich cultures in the game. Which may be true! But it also feels a little weird to me, given how much of the flavor text is dedicated to cross-cultural dwarven camaraderie.

2) On page 11, regarding entering and living in Erebor, it makes a distinction between dwarves of the Mountain and those not. Those not can move in (with Crafting 3, which all dwarves have, so that's weird but I can roll with it), but that means that there are dwarves who aren't using Erebor as a cultural homeland.

We're getting ready to do Darkening of Mirkwood and everyone has ties to Rhosgobel at my insistence, so there's a suggestion that the cultural home just be Rhosgobel, but the Grey Mountain dwarf (me, as we're playing troupe style) would be the only one who would be able to count the place as home, even though everyone is "settled" there.

Thoughts?

[Brocktoon]

One small follow-up: if it is just Erebor, does that mean that Standing applies to all dwarves in Erebor or just Grey Mountain dwarves (or Iron Hills, for that matter)?

[Otaku-sempai]

I would think that the home of a Dwarf of the Grey Mountains would be the actual halls or other dwelling in the Grey Mountains where he was raised. If, for example, Dwarves have reclaimed the Halls of Dain I and that is where your Dwarf now dwells when not adventuring then that is his home.

[Brocktoon]

I would think that the home of a Dwarf of the Grey Mountains would be the actual halls in the Grey Mountains where he was raised.

Maybe! The problem with that is that the holds are pretty explicitly all empty, with the few remaining dwarves hanging out in the foothills. It may be them, though there are some of the same problems with Standing and a diaspora culture.

[Falenthal]

What is considered to be the cultural home for Grey Mountains dwarves when it comes to Standing and trips to their cozy hearths?

Might require some work on the LMs behalf, but both in Darkening and Heart of the Wild it is said that Frár the Beardless is the de facto leader of the Grey Mountains dwarves refugees. And in the Questing Beast adventure the players find the main refuge (if I recall correctly) of this dwarves, under a tree in the Northern part of Mirkwood.

You could develop on that idea.

[Brocktoon]

Not a bad call at all. I think that my co-GM is going to be doing something with the Grey Mountain reclamation, as noted in a sidebar in TDoM. Could it just be that the home shifts from Erebor (where they're refugees) to a reclaimed hold when/if it happens?

I'm hesitant on the place in The Questing Beast. If I recall correctly, it's basically two dwarves under a tree stump, though I should probably double check.

[Falenthal]

I *think* the heroes speak to only two dwarves, but that it's implied that there're more of them down there.

On the other hand, if the GMDwarves don't have a home to spend their undertakings, that's a great motivation to get as mad as Frár and go for the retaking of Greydelve as soon as possible.

[Otaku-sempai]

What is considered to be the cultural home for Grey Mountains dwarves when it comes to Standing and trips to their cozy hearths?

Okay. Going back to The Heart of the Wild and what is written under the Grey Mountain Narrows, I would say that the default would be the "shacks or small tunnels dug under the tall hills around the West Gap, or in the heights extending out of Mirkwood." Rude dwellings to be sure, but still home. Definitely not at Erebor or the Iron Hills.

Might require some work on the LMs behalf, but both in Darkening and Heart of the Wild it is said that Frár the Beardless is the de facto leader of the Grey Mountains dwarves refugees. And in the Questing Beast adventure the players find the main refuge (if I recall correctly) of this dwarves, under a tree in the Northern part of Mirkwood.

That was just the dwelling place of the two Dwarf-brothers Polin and Pomin. And doubtless they would have been forced to relocate once the Wood-elves were made aware of their presence.

The Greydelve sounds like it might have been the last of the Dwarven halls in the Grey Mountains to fall. It could become the new home of the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains if they can reclaim it, eventually raising their Standard of Living.

[Brocktoon]

Got it, makes sense.

[zedturtle]

I actually like the idea that they don't have a home... when it comes to Year's End, they have to go back to a Sanctuary, or just tough it out where they are. Of course, once/if the Greydelve is recovered then that can serve as a home base.