Seeking Loremaster advice for climax of TFW (spoilers!)

[Jez]

"We know what awaits you, Raenar! Um.... nine iron men all holding hands, dragged the slaves across the sands, and when the slave all ran away, the weakest iron man was to blame. Who were these men?"

Well? Out with it!

[Hermes Serpent]

Giblet Blizzard gets eaten for taking too long to work out the answer to the riddle.

[Rich H]

Giblet Blizzard gets eaten for taking too long to work out the answer to the riddle.

I was thinking they were links in an iron chain. The one that broke being the one to blame as it was the weakest link.

Personally though, I'd just let my 'cleverer than me' character solve it!

[Hermes Serpent]

Help for LM playing the riddle game.
http://www.catb.org/esr/riddle-poems.html

http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/forms ... page3.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choice-Anglo-Sa ... pd_sim_b_5

and the source of many a great Anglo-Saxon riddle - The Exeter Book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earliest-Englis ... 0140445943

I've used this for almost as long as it's been available in print and a riddle from this came up in a Glorantha game a couple of weeks ago.

[Rich H]

Excellent stuff HS, thanks.

[Beleg]

Soo... looking at the Anglo-Saxon Prosody site... anybody know the answer to the last riddle? I have a hunch but I'm not sure I'm right..

Also gonna add this: http://strolen.com/netbooks/riddles2.txt

[DavetheLost]

Thank you for the resources for Riddles. The Riddle Game is a deep part of Middle Earth and everybody knows the ones from the Hobbit...

[farinal]

Okay FINALLY we are at the last stage of the last adventure. The company has seen the drake and they are at the entrance of the tower. I think they will all die though and here is why,

they will most likely not communicate with Raenar.
they are only 2.
they will be weary soon.
they don't know any secrets of the tower other than the "do not put out your gold" one.

How did your players fare in the last stage? Any wipes?

[PaulButler]

No wipes for me, but it was a near thing.
We had a bout of madness on the journey through the Waste, and by the time the Fellowship reached their destination, ALL FOUR players were miserable, including the one who had already had the bout.

The party did talk to the dragon, and miraculously performed very well. But they went in the front door of the tower and things went south after that.
A bout of madness from our Elf Warden in the middle of combat resulted in him deciding that he was gonna take down the Cave Troll if was the last thing he did. (It was.)
And our Woodman archer took a couple arrows to the chest and went down, but they managed to save him from dying.
All told, they defeated the Gibbit King with the help of Raenar, but with three bouts of madness and one character death.

[farinal]

That is interesting because one of my two players also is miserable now and can have a bout of madness anytime. It will be surely glorious to have him rage in the middle of combat in tower or even against Gibbet King or the DRAGON!

I fear they won't come out alive. What if the players turn tail and run back to the Lonely Mountain when they see the dragon? How big a damage can Raenar cause under Gibbet King's influence and unleashed on North?