Darvan takes his hand and says,
"Thank you, my lord, but I must say you too fought well. Far better than most other Men I have met in the past." He pauses. "As for the investigation, I myself do not know much about that. If, however, you would be willing to come and meet one of my comrades, we can be enlightened together."
Right, ok, since this campaign started (even though none of the original players are still here, unless Rex comes back again) there have been several occasions where the Witch King has been suspiciously well informed, At the end of the seccond game, such machinations ended in disaster for Arthedain as Amon Los was destryoed whilst you guys were busy defending Baranar; a classic strategic feint from the Witch King but onew that required in-depth knowledge of Arthedain's happenings.
People keep putting this kind of thing down to the WK's freaky powers. Of course, that's an amazingly vague area. The Witch-King hasn't even been seen in centuries, some doubt it is even the same person every time, but the fact is that myth grows up about him more than legend. Arvedui is of the opinion that if the Witch-King could always see everything, then he would have conquered the world long ago.
The only other option is the normally unthinkable- a traitor on the High Council, one of the most senior Dundain.
The list stuck at the top of the page gives you the personalities based there. Lords Farael and Gorlim have been generally excluded form suspicion because they were away (with the players) at the time certain things were being discussed; they also would have been ambushing themselves. This leaves just about everyone else up for it. This part of the game is about finding out about the Lords, and working out who it is.
The King was entrusting this quest to outsiders as his own resources cannot be used without the Council knowing. At first entrusting the mission to those who helped resuce his daughter in the first part, he's now oved it on to the friends of the only one of those daughter rescuers left; the departure of Dexx has led to an assumption that his character was taken out the running. The fact that he was so taken out suggests that there is something to be found and he was close, because there can be little more likely than Vardalain;s sudden disappearance to prove the King's fears.
So the other risk now is that the traitor, knowing he is under suspciion, will bugger off. But there is a prize still to come. The destruction of Amon Los means that Arthedain needs an entirely new streategy; armies are being re-built and re-arranged, new commanders and new plans are needed. The mithril shipment from Gondor has arrived (an old plot element from the first game; that the Orcs knew it was coming was the first inkling of leaked info), and can be spent to revive Arthedain's military fortunes, but where?
If the traitor gets away with this information... well, it won't be good.
You guys have a lot to think about- motive, for a start. Men are greedy, and these things happen, but Dunadain Lords have much power and, even more so in these times, a touch of the Elf about them, and selling out to the Witch-King is a big deal. Still, Rhudaur went down through a lack of unity from its Lords, and a line of Dunlending rulers has sat in place there for centuries instead. Stranger things than this have happened. The Elves, especially, have little faith In Men, since the Rings... unpleasantness.
But also you need to think about methods and opportunity.
At the same time, several game plots are running through, The perennial issue of "Why arenlt the Elves helping?" has always been a big deal in this game. To re-cap why they aren't...
- Remember they don;t know what we as players do, that it is the Chief Nazgul and this is an early indication of Sauron's return. The Witch-King is known as an evil man- perhaps a Black Numenorean- ad that makes it Man's problem. There are precious few Elves left and this new Third Age is Man's Age, not theirs.
- There are four great Elvish nations. In the west, Cirdan of the Grey Havens has always been the least involved of all the Elvish leaders. He acts as a conduit for Elves to leave Middle-Earth, and spends his time building ships. (Cirdan is, in fact, so uninvolved that he voluntarily gave his ring away to Gandalf). The Grey Havens border Arthedain and it is not as if Cirdan doesn't care (ad he offers sanctuary), but war and so forth is just not his thing. If things REALLY went wrong, Cirdan would probbaly do something.
- Then we have Lorien HAH! Fat chance. Galadriel has no taste for Men and many human nations consider her actively evil. She's never going to help- she didn;t even turn up for the final battle against Sauron
- The Woodland Realm, where Legolas comes from, bordering the place what the Eotheod now dwell... fat chance there either, the Wood Elves don;t get on well with Man. Furthermore, they are afflicted themselves; their perfect Greenwood is infected by evil and becoming the Mirkwood. They have no time to worry about others.
- That leaves Elrond and Rivendell, and here is where the main issue is. Always the most involved of the Elves- and the ancestor of every single Dundain, and a direct relation to Arvedui- the main argument is "Why doesn;t Eivendell help?" Elrond has lost his faith in Man. It started when Isildur didn;t destroy the One Ring, but when Elrond saw Arnor tearing itself apart in civil war, he basically gave up on it.
An important context here is that Elrond HAS helped. He has guarded the area around Rivendell. In the last story, he provided the cure for the Witch-King's plague at Baranar. he'll gladly shelter any traveller. And more to the point... he already helped. Centuries ago when Cardolan was about to fall, he formed an army and drove the Witch-King back to Rhudaur. He lost a lot of Elves doing it, and remember, they cannot be replaced, and all of them were meant to be slowly migrating out West, not dying in more wars of Man. As far as Elrond was concenred, this was a case of "YOU caused this mess, fighting each other instead of the Witch-King, and now MY people are dying again for you. This is the last damn time, y'hear?"... though probably worded differently. Now it is happening again, and the Elves are thinking "Is it going to be again and again and again until we are all dead, and Man contunues to destroy itself afterwards?"
No, Elrond is done with that, and worse, recently he has declined to defend the Last Bridge before Rivndell, on the grounds it is now too dangerous. The Dunlendings hold it now.
Try not to look at this from the perspective of the films, by which time Sauron's threat has been proven, and Gandalf has spent the last few centuries convincing everyone to work together. That work is just starting at this time period. Again, if Arthedain was aflame and everyone about to die, Elrond is not such a heartless bastard as to do nothing at all. But he's not motivated to lose any more Elves in fruitless battles to help out Man.
- A much better question is why isn't GONDOR helping- Man helping Man? Answer- politics. These countriies are a long way away, so their threats are not shared. Was Arnor helping Gondor against the Wainriders that nearly destroyed Gondor? Nope. They don;t want to die in a foreign war that is not theirs- sentiment that is often expressed in the real world, of course.
Meanwhile, Gondor and Arnor have not even spoken for centuries. The person who put them back in contact is Arvedui himself, the great diplomat, Unfortunately that was then followed by thr succession dispute- Arvedui had a good claim to the crown of Gondor, and re-uniting the Kingdoms as they were always meant to be, but Gondor rejected him because... well, they were being bloody minded. They made their best General King instead.
As it happens, that King is quite amiable to Arthedain, hence sending that Mithril shipment. But the Lords of Gondor are deeply divided.
It is important to remember that Orcs have raided the realms of Men since the year dot. Nothing is apparently unusual about the struggle to the North- one country at war with another. Ok, so some bigwig warlord has gathered both Dunlending and Orc forces. So what? As rfar as the world is concenred, it is Arthedain's war, not theirs, and these rumours of magical powers are just fanciful stories.
- What of the other major powers of the world? The Dwarves? Forget it, they are into making money and nothing else. The Riders of Rohan? Well, they are the Eotheod at this tiome, and considering that the main enemies here are Orcs and Dunlendings, they don't need an excuse. They would join the fight on general principles, and furthermoretheir new lands border Angmar on the far side of the mountains. But they are only just establishing themselves as a nation, having freed themselves from tyranny, and if they raised an army it would basically mean they raised their entire population. There are Northmen Kingdoms far to the east, but those in the Mirkwood have the same problem as the Wood Elves, and beyond that... too far away, they don't care.
- Parts of Cardolan still exist, but Cardolan has been shattered into dozens of mini0staes. However, as long-term players will know, Arvedui's big plan is to unify with Cardolan!
For those of you who do not know this... Arvedui's name means "The last King." He was named by a prophet named Malbeth who said he needed the name for he would indeed be the Last King of Arthedain. Arvedui himself takes this seriously, though not all do. He thinks Arthedain will no longer exist after him. Now, this could be because of destruction... but Arvedui's plan is for Arthedain to stop being Arthedain. He wants to re-found Arnor again, by unifying Arthedain with Cardolan. Perhaps the biggest main plot of the game- starting off at Baranar, which was the first step- is convincing these dozens to so unify with Arthedain. Not an easy task.
- And finally, there is the politics of the Lords and the realm. This is not petty stuff, it is important. Who likes whom, do they et on with you, and who is going to be doing what? Argentis has been looking into this plot- who will be commanding armies, and what is to be done with them? Every man on the Council has different ideas about what should be done with the Witch-King. Some want to protect Arthedain, some want to take the fight to Angmar.
Though the credibility has been stretched a bit, as either Outsiders trusted by the King (like Palidan and Argentis), friends of those outsiders, or notable representatives (like Menelacar), you guys are all npw trying to suss out the traitor.
Gorlim will give you whatever admin and info you need, but you have no official power, and will have to work this out the informal way.
Meanwhile... you can have fun in the Tournament, yay!