Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Rise of the Gold Attack.

The Gold Attack of the Emerald unit began to respond to the call of the drums on the morning of April 7th, 15th year of the 4th Age (FA). Farin, son of Balin was named by the King as Attack-Lord of the Gold.  Farin engaged the growing Gold Attack members both professionally and socially. Farin just can't help but to party, maybe a bit more that he'd care to admit. However, there is nothing undwarvenlike to it. Getting a fine group of 343 dwarves to share war stories and brotherhood turned out to be for Farin a date with his Destiny. Farin, first of all, asserted his leadership over the growing posse with flying colors (rolled 9 vs Leadership-14). Asking the average dwarf of the Gold who was the coolest member of the royal family (other than the King), and you'll get a resounding "Farin".  Farin spent quite a bit of time brainstorming over ales. Each dwarf present was allowed to contribute to the discussion in a relaxed atmosphere Farin described his recollection of Khazad-dum. Plans are drawn, laughter echos in the halls as the members of the Gold were plotting their march to the heart of the mountain.


There was more to all this than brotherhood. Farin was a devout dwarf and insisted on having regular collective chants. Dwarves of the Gold learned to chant together, picked up on each other's intonations and strengths. A sense of harmony was being built. Farin identified the cream of the war-chanter and assigned them to each of his Lot-herd (Leader of each 7 Lots). The best chanter was to remain with him, unattached to any of the Lots.  A strong competitive undertone was given to most activities in the Gold. Many Lots were vying for recognition and fabricating elaborate banners integrating Farin's lineage heraldic symbols to other symbols such as the King and the unit's emblem.

On the following day, Farin organized a sparring contest and promise the standard-bearer title to the top 8 dwarves (7 Lots, 1 for the Attack). The contest extended into another day, then a third. All 8 standards were entrusted to valiant warriors. Each Lot got reshuffled to ensure a good leadership for each one of them.  Farin kept a close record of it all in a small leather bound field book.

The Gold ended the week mostly mobilized and aching for exercises.

Technically, the Gold Attack is considered at 91% strength, troop quality and equipment are considered as posted and the morale of the Unit is upgraded to "Good" (Leadership-14, -2 difficult rolled a 8). The Gold unit is tunnel-combat capable, but has no training to speak of in open-sky environment. 

Here is a walkthrough of Farin's recollection of Khazad-dum.



No comments:

Post a Comment