The player-characters in our campaign of The One Ring: Adventures Over the Edge of the Wild have changed a bit over time, as heroes in long-term games often do. We started with Kester, Falco, Gismund, and Caranthir, and at the hobbits’ encouragement those four founded the Old Road Trading Company to bring goods — especially pipeweed! — from the Shire to Rhovanion.
Today Gismund and Caranthir are joined by newer companions as Falco’s player is away at school and Kester’s player (that’s me) is running the game while our other Loremaster is taking night classes. Here’s a look at the companions and their present disposition.
Also online: A Tale of Years.
Beli of the Lonely Mountain
The dwarf warrior Beli traveled with the Old Road Trading Company in their 2948 journey across the Misty Mountains and back.
- Culture and Standing: Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, Standing 1.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 6 (8), Heart 3 (6), Wits 5 (6).
- Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 2, Endurance 31, Hope 13, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Battle, Craft, Search, Song, Travel; Mattock.
- Specialties: Fire-Making, Burglary, Tunnelling.
- Distinctive Features: Cunning, Suspicious.
- Rewards: Grievous and Keen Mattock.
- Virtues: Confidence.
- Calling: Treasure-Hunter.
Caranthir of the Woodland Realm
A very young elf at only 160 years of age, dark-haired Caranthir comes from a high house of Thranduil’s people. A minor lord or knight of Thranduil’s court, he fought in the Battle of the Five Armies and saw first-hand the value of alliance with the other Free Peoples. He has spent the last few years adventuring with friends from beyond the Elvenking’s lands, drawn by curiosity to see and learn things for himself that have been unknown to the wood-elves for long years in their isolation. Caranthir is often stern but his adventures with men and hobbits seem to have lightened his spirits in ways that the merriment of the wood-elves could not.
- Culture and Standing: Elf of Mirkwood, Standing 3.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (7), Heart 4 (6), Wits 6 (7).
- Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 26, Hope 14, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Athletics, Awareness, Battle, Inspire, Lore, Travel; Bow, Sword.
- Specialties: Elven-Lore, Fire-Making, Rhymes of Lore.
- Distinctive Features: Lordly, Quick of Hearing.
- Rewards: Keen and Grievous Sword (Galgos, “Lightning”), Mail Shirt of Cunning Make.
- Virtues: Confidence, Elvish Dreams, The Speakers.
- Calling: Scholar.
Falco Proudfoot
Falco and his brother Kester came from the Shire across the Misty Mountains and so to the Long Lake a few years after Bilbo Baggins’ return from his great adventure. The Proudfoot brothers were first cousins of Bilbo; their mother Ophelia and Bilbo’s mother Belladonna were sisters, daughters of the Old Took. Falco and Kester befriended Gismund of Dale and Caranthir the wood-elf and immediately set out to have as many adventures and get as rich as Bilbo himself. Falco was always the more rakish of the brothers, with light fingers and a lighter conscience.
- Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 1.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 2 (4), Heart 7 (8), Wits 5 (8).
- Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 3, Endurance 23, Hope 21, Shadow 2.
- Key Skills: Battle, Courtesy, Stealth, Travel; Shortsword.
- Specialties: Gardening, Storytelling, Burglary.
- Distinctive Features: Elusive, Robust, Small.
- Rewards: King’s Sword (“Stalk Chopper”), Cunning and Lucky Leather Corselet.
- Virtues: Confidence, Small Folk.
- Calling: Treasure-Hunter.
Frerin the Far-Traveled, Son of Farin
Always accompanied by his best friend, the raven named Hrafn — a wealthy prince among birds, with more treasure in its nest than most men see in a lifetime — Frerin the dwarf joined the company in their return from the Shire to Esgaroth, and then accompanied them on an expedition into Mirkwood and in a battle against hill-giants in Greenfields the next year.
- Culture and Standing: Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain, Standing 2.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 7 (8), Heart 2 (3), Wits 5 (7).
- Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 30, Hope 10, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Craft, Persuade, Search, Travel; Axe.
- Specialties: Folk-Lore, Smoking, Trading.
- Distinctive Features: Cautious, Cunning.
- Rewards: Fell, Grievous and Keen Axe (“Giant’s Bane”).
- Virtues: Confidence, Expertise in Persuade, Ravens of the Mountain.
- Calling: Wanderer.
Gismund of Dale, King’s Man
Gismund apprenticed with dwarves of the Lonely Mountain as a blacksmith before devoting himself full-time to adventuring and serving King Bard. Gismund comes from a large, still-growing family, with something around a dozen younger brothers and sisters. In the last year the king made Gismund marshal of Greenfields, a farming region in the Dale-lands. Gismund was very young for such trust but the kingdom is newly returned and he proved himself on dangerous errands for the king and the king’s allies.
- Culture and Standing: Barding, Standing 4.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 5 (7), Heart 7 (10), Wits 2 (3).
- Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 4, Endurance 32, Hope 19, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Awareness, Battle, Insight, Inspire, Persuade, Travel; Sword.
- Specialties: Old Lore, Smith-Craft.
- Distinctive Features: Adventurous, Generous, Afraid of Spiders, Elf-Friend.
- Rewards: Mail Hauberk of Doubly Cunning Make, Tower Shield.
- Virtues: King’s Man, Confidence (x2).
- Calling: Treasure-Hunter.
Kester Proudfoot
Kester prides himself on keeping his brother Falco out of too much trouble, for while he is good-hearted, generous and unfailingly courteous he is also undyingly loyal to his little brother. Always cheerful, Kester has composed countless songs of the companions’ travels to while away the long hours of exploring and hiking across the Wild. When the brothers returned to the Shire in 2348, Kester commissioned a fine new hobbit-hole for them to share and hired a household of local hobbits to build it and take care of it. He also made trading allies of his first cousin Bilbo Baggins, his first cousin Fortinbras Took the Thain, and the mayor in Michel Delving. He and Falco run the Old Road Trading Company out of their fine home and a warehouse in Esgaroth on the Long Lake.
- Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 4.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (6), Heart 6 (9), Wits 4 (5).
- Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 3, Endurance 22, Hope 18, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Awareness, Courtesy, Hunting, Persuade, Song, Stealth; Bow.
- Specialties: Folk-Lore, Smoking, Storytelling.
- Distinctive Features: Fair-Spoken, Reckless.
- Rewards: Fell and Keen Bow.
- Virtues: Fair Shot, Tough in the Fiber.
- Calling: Wanderer.
Theodore Took
A cousin of Kester and Falco Proudfoot and a sometimes hunting companion of Kester’s, Theodore Took often wandered and explored the bounds of the Shire even before Bilbo’s return from afar sparked his imagination. When Kester and Falco came home wealthy and well-traveled and then went east again, he couldn’t resist. Theodore obtained the blessing of the Thain and letters of introduction from Bilbo — who had become rather accustomed to writing them for adventurous hobbits — and persuaded dwarf traders from the Blue Mountains to let him accompany them to the Wild just as his cousins had done a few years before. When Theodore reached Esgaroth, his cousins put him in the care of their partners Gismund and Caranthir.
- Culture and Standing: Hobbit of the Shire, Standing 1.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 2 (4), Heart 7 (8), Wits 5 (8).
- Other Ratings: Valour 4, Wisdom 3, Endurance 23, Hope 19, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Awareness, Battle, Hunting, Courtesy, Riddle, Stealth; Dagger, Bow.
- Specialties: Folk-Lore, Herb-Lore, Smoking.
- Distinctive Features: Bold, Elusive, Elf-Friend.
- Rewards: Fell and Grievous Bow of the North Downs.
- Virtues: Art of Disappearing, Fair Shot.
- Calling: Wanderer.
The Red Stag
A woodman who abandoned his name and became a wandering warrior after orcs slew his family in their steading near Woodmen-town. He encountered Gismund of Dale, Caranthir of the Woodland Realm, and Theodore Took of the Shire in the Misty Mountains near the ancient ruins of Haycombe, where he helped Gismund recover from an orc-arrow’s poison and undertook a strange, dreaming adventure to help the companions protect the elf-maiden Irimë from an evil spirit.
- Culture and Standing: Woodman of Wilderland, Standing 1.
- Attributes (Favored): Body 4 (5), Heart 5 (8), Wits 5 (7).
- Other Ratings: Valour 3, Wisdom 4, Endurance 25, Hope 15, Shadow 0.
- Key Skills: Battle, Craft, Explore, Healing, Song, Stealth, Travel; Long-Hafted Axe.
- Specialties: Anduin-Lore, Leechcraft, Orc-Lore.
- Distinctive Features: Elf-Friend, Hardy, True-Hearted.
- Rewards: Keen Bearded Axe, Feathered Mail Shirt.
- Virtues: Fell-Handed, Herbal Remedies, Hunter’s Resolve, Staunching Song.
- Calling: Slayer.
Shareholders
These are the owners of the Old Road Trading Company. (Each share represented an investment of 400 silver pennies, or 20 points of Treasure.)
- Falco Proudfoot (5 shares).
- Gismund of Dale (4 shares).
- Bilbo Baggins (2 shares).
- Kester Proudfoot (2 shares).
- Beli of the Lonely Mountain (1 share).
- Caranthir of the Woodland Realm (1 share).
- Frerin the Far-Traveled, son of Farin, of the Lonely Mountain (1 share).