There is a reason Dwarves don't take the Elf Path...

[venger]

ORINDUIL... The Chief of Elvish MisChief

I would like to share an NPC in my TOR campaign. He is based on an NPC from my MERP campaign and I asked for some help in re-making him for TOR.

Thanks to RichH for game mechanics and suggestions, and I ask his forgiveness for the rather hasty paraphrasing of his suggestions in this post. I am like the White Rabbit right now "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" with so much to do and a game session due next weekend.

I post now because I have deployed Oriduil in my campaign with much fun and enjoyment had by all, and I waited until I played him because I have members of my group that read the forum.

His name is Orinduil, a wood elf and kin to Thranduil.
He is somewhat wild at heart, nearly the same age as Thranduil, and has uncanny stealth, awareness and centuries of practice that he uses to employ his elvish mischief.

He has the elf lights virtue and an ability to talk to and control certain insects, especially fireflies.
He employs the fireflies to aid his vision in the pitch black of Mirkwood's nights.
He has a habit of frequenting the elf path, and most of his time is spent in the vicinity of Forest Gate where he dwells at a hidden elvish outpost I placed there.

He delights, in fact one can say has a passion for, mischief by way of tormenting dwarves. He never tires of his mischief and has become very creative over the years.
He is not particularly worried about those of his brethren who might be traveling with dwarves, so has no hesitation in accosting a fellowship without their consent or knowledge, even if he knows them. The messenger birds, Grey Swifts will bring him news of dwarves traveling the elf path and frankly he can't help himself, its like an obsession.

This will give him the same mechanical bonuses as the Dwarven Ravens so just use those and reskin the descriptive text as Grey Swifts. Maybe particularly aware PCs will spot them (Awareness TN 14) and make the, eventual, connection (Riddle TN 16).

He normally uses these favorite methods of mischief;
If a dwarf is on watch and for some reason has managed a fire or torch without attracting black moths, Using a trick he learned from Gandalf, he will create a abnormal colored elf light within the dwarf's fire.
he will change the color to odd, uncanny shades, purples, greens and blues which has the effect of unnerving the hapless dwarf(s).
He will try to do this when nobody else is looking, and if there are multiple dwarves in the group will always choose the same one, possibly bringing that dwarf's sanity into question. After all whoever heard such nonsense?
Sometimes he will also cause a fire to suddenly erupt and suddenly go normal, again startling the dwarf. Of if the dwarf is the one starting a campfire will create an elf light to suddenly ROAR unexpectedly singing the dwarf.

So, as it's unnerving the Dwarf perhaps this can be some low (TN 12) courage test. And as it continues the unnerving feeling will develop into Fear (TN 14) and, finally, an eventual Corruption Test (TN 14). Although this last bit may not be to your liking.

His second and most favored mischief is he will sneak into camp and position himself near his intended victim. Then throughout the night he will wait with infinite patience until the dwarf has fallen asleep and will use a long plumed peacock feather to tickle the ears, nose and mouth of the sleeping dwarf, making it feel like there are things crawling around on the dwarfs face, startling him awake. Since the dwarf would be the only one experiencing crawlies in the night, this might also bring his sanity into question by the others.

I'd play this out as the Dwarf not getting any rest. So, I'd make him roll a Feat Die plus his basic Body Score as a bonus vs a TN of 12. Failure and the PC is temporarily Weary until he catches up on his sleep.

Orinduil is rather kind hearted, and intends no physical harm, and should not incur Shadow, but One bit of mischief he reserves for particularly annoying dwarves is when they are asleep he will set their beard on fire just enough to singe it, then when the victim leaps up to pat it down will quickly snuff the fire, leaving the dwarf standing there with a pounding heart and smoking beard.. ROFL

Again, I'd just play this out for effect. No mechanics.

Another thing he likes to do if a dwarf is on watch is sneak around the camp to different locations and make a noise to keep the dwarf agitated. I don’t know how well this will play out with multiple elves a group’s fellowship, so he might not use this tactic.

Perhaps use Orinduil's Stealth vs. PC's Awareness.

These various mischiefs have basically the same effect, that of annoying dwarves, wrangling their nerves and causing them weariness from lack of sleep and driving them crazy. Imagine this taking place night after night and the toll it would take on anyone's psyche traveling through Mirkwood.

He will stalk their travel and alter these mischiefs from night to night, using his AWARENESS and RIDDLE to listen to the company while hidden, determine the party's moods and even skip nights in a row so it is always a surprise and nobody can ever get quite used to these harassments.

If it looks like he is putting the fellowship into real danger though, he will back off... just a little.
What he will take to doing then is following the fellowship along their tavels and at random intervals plink pebbles against the dwarve's helmet or head.

Thranduil does not discourage him, in fact he loves to hear Orinduil's tales which Orinduil has a knack for embellishing which never fails to get Thranduil roaring with laughter and delight during feasts.

Its my thought to have Orinduil's stealth so high that it would be very difficult for an elf to discover him, probably only on an extraordinary success if that's possible. Men, Hobbits and Dwarves might have little chance.
However, one giveaway that elvish mischief is afoot is that Orinduil is sometimes so amused by his own tricks that he cannot contain muffled giggles if he rolls an eye during his stealth check.

I like this.
It still needs the PCs to make an Awareness checks vs TN14 though to hear, with a great or higher success providing the PCs with a direction of the laughter as well.

An elf with Mirkwood lore might realize elvish mischief is at play, but with no evidence of it will not be able to prevent it. Also eventually, the appearance of fireflies might be a warning sign of impending mischief, and Orinduil knows this and if he suspects the company is aware of it may have fireflies appear but then do absolutely nothing at all just to try and throw them off.

PCs realise this after 3 encounters AND if they succeed at a Riddle test of TN 16.

But if a light source is employed by the fellowship, he will not use the fireflies at all.
Orinduil is crafty and clever and will hide and observe the group while they make camp to see if they try to set up traps for him, and with such high AWARENESS would have a great chance of avoiding them, or maybe even using them to his advantage.

If an elf PC does discover Orinduil with an extraordinary success, I would tell the player privately, describing the situation and let the PC decide to role play along, or report it to the fellowship, or have a private chat with Orinduil to try to convince him to leave the poor dwarf alone, whatever the player wishes to try, short of trying to skewer Orinduil LOL.

Persuade roll on the PCs behalf, TN 16 - Orinduil is not easily swayed when enjoying himself!

Orinduil has a sense of humor, and If a particular dwarf has been entertaining enough for him, for a calling card when he is done with them he will weave a little headdress of pretty flowers and stealthily place it on the dwarf's head for when he wakes up, probably much to the chagrin and annoyance of any self respecting dwarf. Of course in the morning Orinduil will be nearby in stealth to enjoy this if he can.

One last thing, as I mentioned Orinduil is not cruel, so if the hapless dwarf gets into real trouble by running off in a bout of madness and encounters something nasty, he will do what he can to secretly help the fellowship yet not giving himself away by leaving breadcrumbs or whatever so they can save the dwarf. After all, he doesn't want to lose his sport!

He is relentless, and will rarely leave off and will dog the fellowship through the entire trip unless some better game is afoot, (like a whole group of dwarves) or is called into action elsewhere, or if he is convinced the dwarve's health is of some import to the quest of the fellowship.

So, these are his stats

ORINDUIL
Attribute Level 8
Common Skills
Awareness 4, Riddle 4, Stealth 4
Distinctive features (CRAFTY and CLEVER) along with MERRY.


I am not sure though, given the travel rules how to employ this elf night after night.

RichH suggests the followng;

I'd run it as an extended Hazard encounter. Above I've listed numerous tests along with some of Orinduil's attributes. I think you could even run it as an actual part of the adventure, slipping him in halfway through a journey through Mirkwood. I don't see the harm in that. Perhaps even while Orinduil is 'shadowing' them they suffer no further hazards or maybe only when they roll an 'eye' on one of their fatigue tests will Orinduil play one of his tricks.


So there is Orinduil, I hope you have as much fun with him as we have!!
Thanks again RichH

[Angelalex242]

Give him a stealth score of 6 and have him roll normally, maybe he even has the 'fading' elf virtue to make his stealth rolls really obscene (and a guy like this might not want to go to Valinor, cause there's no dwarves to torment there, and except Gimli, there never will be), but every rank of standing an elf PC has reduces the TN to find him by 2. Mostly because elves with high standing have met this guy before and know his schtick, so they know what to look for. Nice thing about Eldar...when you live forever, you are almost assured of meeting pretty much every other elf around. And because he tells stories to the king, the higher standing the elf has, the more likely he is to have been around when those stories were told (probably laughing right along with the king, at that!)

[poosticks7]

What a great character. I will be sure to use him next time my part goes back through Mirkwood (If we can get the game going again, 2 of my players decided to have a pesky baby )

[Rich H]

Great to see this posted Venger! I'll respond to your PM when I have a bit more time.

[Rich H]

Give him a stealth score of 6 and have him roll normally, maybe he even has the 'fading' elf virtue to make his stealth rolls really obscene.

We thought about this but it was something we dismissed as we wanted to maintain some chance of spotting the elven trickster and for the extended Encounter to not just be about opposed Stealth rolls as thar would quickly lead to PCs burning their Hope. The Encounter is more to do with the fun and relatively harmless mischief he causes rather than engaging in (impossible) Stealth/Awareness rolls.

Your Standing idea is okay though.

[venger]

Mostly because elves with high standing have met this guy before and know his schtick, so they know what to look for. Nice thing about Eldar...when you live forever, you are almost assured of meeting pretty much every other elf around. And because he tells stories to the king, the higher standing the elf has, the more likely he is to have been around when those stories were told (probably laughing right along with the king, at that!)

Angelalex242

Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:52 pm

Yes indeed, I agree, in fact, an elf in our fellowship is 135 years old, And I had to think hard how justify not revealing Orinduil to him during the encounter since I told him he had been to Thranduils Hall on a number of occasions during character generation.
I decided that since this elf had Wild at Heart, he spent most of his time in the woods. What gave me justification though.... this particular player is excessively distracted by elf maidens and wasn't paying attention

[Elmoth]

Normal. Any male of the secondborn would be extremely distracted by elf maidens.

[Angelalex242]

To be perfectly fair, even the noble and wise King Elessar couldn't resist that delicious elven booty. And hence we got Queen Arwen.

[venger]

The admiration of Beauty is a Universal theme... the ardor that exists between men and women is undeniable.

Hmm passion, played with good taste might make for some interesting role play, except that I would feel strange roleplaying an impassioned lady Elf Maiden lol