The Great Quest - Discussion

I don't think it would be easy to interlink the plots, as my villain is rather far away, ensconced in a very guarded fortress with no reason to come out anytime soon. I think a continuation into one more RPG wouldn't be hard - the party finishing your ending sequence, they then need go looking for Mal, as it looks pretty certain he is going to wind up a prisoner.
As for Aetoo vs the Nightrider, it is true he was, in the end, losing in the battle. The only way he could kill the Nightrider was by effectively sacrificing himself, something he wasn't exactly planning on doing in the last battle.
You are right that I didn't have the Nightrider use his magic as much, which I could fix - it would probably have not made too much difference, as the Nightrider would have had about the same trouble hitting him, and his magic the same effect as if he simply hit Aetoo.

Also perhaps the method with which the Nightrider was done away with doesn't exactly fit in. The Nightrider appears to be a sort of void, a hole even darker than the sky and seeming to suck away life. You did that part excellently, but I don't think that he can exactly 'be filled' in that manner. People can't necessarily push their way into his body. He can be disipated, although that doesn't completely kill him, as in the death of the other Nightrider. Or he can be engulfed. Like if someone used magic so strong that it completely engulfed and destroyed him. And if he could be filled in that manner, one creature like that could not fill the void.

Obviously the shadow magic wouldn't work on him, only aid him, although that is a little bit off topic.

The idea was not so much him being filled, as that Aetoo and him were of opposite natures. Aetoo and all his kind respresent, effectively, "anti-magic". It is like what would happen if white matter and black matter combined - big explosion. Aetoo's substance was so incompatible with his that it destroyed him, although Aetoo's "essence", or soul, was also annihilated.

I suppose that normally that might work. But I should think that the Nightrider's magical essence would be greater, or more strong than your creature's anti-magical essence. He seems stronger to me than your creature in his being, and although your creatures' great leader might have creatures with a stronger anti-magic being, such as the b'rak, I don't think that Aetoo is strong enough in that way to completely do away with the Nightrider, although it may injure him.

It is true that the Nightrider's magical nature is probably more than the non-magical one of Aetoo... but recall when this is taking place. In the short term, the Nightrider has been rather weakened, has had his companion bested, and is very close to a powerful elven kingdom that would weaken him. And in the long term... the time of magic is fading. Most creatures in Middle Earth have lost much power. He is nowhere near as powerful as he would have been in past ages.

I don't recall this Nightrider being weakened, and Lothlorien is still two or three day's travel away. If he was in it, it would be a completely different story, or very near it. But the fact is, they aren't all that close, and such a slight difference wouldn't cause all that much trouble for the Nightrider. His companion having been defeated would make it a little more difficult for him personally, but also not enough to cause all that much trouble.

The fading of the age of magic is largely a matter of opinion. There weren't that many highly magical creatures in Middle Earth to begin with, but the ones that were there, such as Sauron, Galadriel and Gandalf, were moving quite the other way around in powers. They all seemed to me to be increasing rather than decreasing, particularly Gandalf and Sauron.

And even if it was fading, the Nightrider had been in Vardor's lair and protection for long enough that the passage of the ages had little effect on it. Sort of the protection that being in the land of Valinor might give. It isn't as strong as it was before, certainly, but it is still great enough to be quite capable of defeating Aetoo when those types of methods are used.

I've got a few questions about your plot:

Is it much more involved then has already been shown? Is there a goal which their leader has, other than the irradication of magic? Or maybe a reason for the irradication of magic?

I don't know about you, but I am more interested in ending this once and for all at the end of this RPG. These two have certainly been fun, but I'm more interested in making an all new RPG later on, instead of continuing this one again. Especially when it so obviously isn't over.

I think what we mainly need is a connected ending, and if your plot doesn't go extremely deep or intricite, I certainly have a good reason for the leader of your bad guy to come out himself. Or at least send all of his b'raks and main military power. It would be at the end, and it would be logical. As well as connected to my plot. And then perhaps Mal could escape, and maybe fight your leader himself. Or if one of your people dropped some hint as to his location and purpose, someone else could go there and rescue him.

The plot is not too much more involved than has been shown - the madman has been essentially collecting, well, Maia's and the like, and draining off their power and souls for various activities. He is essentially trying to remove all magic in middle-earth.
I think I may have a way to connect them, then, if you wish to really wrap this up. But I will have to see where your plot is going a bit more before doing so.
And, actually, I just thought of a little twist to my guy's plans that could very well work to tie this all together...

As for the Nightrider, I personally think Aetoo could have taken him. If you really, really don't think so, I will unwrite it... but it likely would have meant a very big change to what happened, as Aetoo wouldn't have just stood there to die if he couldn't hurt the Nightrider, and would have struck out against the Nrake's. And it would have taken him less than a minute to kill all of them. Which would severely change their capture of Anya.

It is logical that Aetoo would have attacked the Nightrider instead of the Nrakes. And I think he probably would have attempted to do what he did as well. But I think that the Nightrider probably would have already wounded and weakened him with his magical bolts of energy, as well as in the fight, and then when in the end he attempted to do what he did, the Nightrider would have overpowered Aetoo, although he himself would have been hurt badly by that type of conflict.

All right, well I also have a good idea of how to connect the plot strands at the end so long as your plot is as you just said it is, and it doesn't go any deeper. The reason is very logical, and if it happens I think that your villain might end up saving the day instead of being a big pain in the neck. But if it's going to work out, your guy will simply have to keep his men continue with the company.

Trying to apply logic in a world filled with dragons and elves, eh?
Ok, I don't like it (spent a lot of time and effort writing up that combat between the two!) but if you are dead set on it, I will go and let the Nightrider live... though that is going to completely mess with all I had ... erg, I will have to rewrite the entire post. Sigh, I will do it sometime tonight, then.
What I don't get, if Vardor has a creature immune to physical harm, is why he doesn't just, really fast, kill of all the eagles and take their stuff? I mean, why have any other minions at all, if he has something that is immune to anything save for the most powerful of magical weapons, and that could simply rip apart Balrogs and Dragons?

The Nightrider can't simply rip apart Balrogs and dragons. Certainly not Balrogs, and dragons would also be very difficult. As I see it, your creature's main two offensive abilities are partially his anti-magicness, and mainly his speed. As has been shown so far, they can move probably much faster than either Harnauro or the Nightriders. The Nightriders can move fast, but not so much as Aetoo. The Nightrider's two main offensive abilities are one: its highly odd and incomprehensible substance, and two its offensive energy weapons. The dragon's size and fire are large advantages for them in a battle, and Aetoo has neither, again, his speed being almost his only weapon. The Nightrider's substance makes use of that difficult to make a strong offensive with, and that was what forced your creature to rely on its anti-magicness to deal with the Nightrider. The Nightrider having a stronger magic substance than Aetoo has a anti-magic sustance means that your creature probably would be the one to perish in such a rub-a-war, although it could most likely take a lot out of the Nightrider, leaving it badly wounded and making it take a LONG time to recover.

Vardor could have had the Nightrider deal with the eagles in such a function, probably, but doing that would not get him what he wants. As you'll see in a soon-to-happen post, you'll see that such an attack would be useless, and possibly counterproductive.

I should say that the Nightrider is probably less vulnerable to physical harm than Harnauro, but around that. Arrows and swords have little effect on him, although they can take him apart with those weapons, but that would also require a great deal of effort.

In your post, all that will need to be changed is the ending of their duel, not the entirety of the duel or the other stuff around. That and the fact that Narsh appears to be dead but isn't, no one actually either seeing the blow fall but not having any proof as to his life, either.

OK. Still, speed was only a part of Aetoo's power - basically, he was a killing machine. He, quite literally, is strong enough to rip apart solid stone - he could probably demolish a mountain, given time. He could probably kill a thousand men in less than 10 minutes. In his natural shape, he *is* on a scale with a dragon - not quite as large or able to breath fire, but stronger and faster certainly. But the Nightriders are your creatures, so it is your call.
And what I meant by it causing me to revise a bit more is that, as the Nightrider isn't taken out in the first few minutes of the battle, that means the party is going to have troubles. But I will deal with that when I edit my post, which will be in a few hours, when I have some more time.

Acknowledged.

OK, I've edited my post, I'll leave you to realter your posts around mine. I guess all you need to do is transfer your part of the battle to after mine, and have them take off with Ayna and Narsh. I left off with the companions having troubles, as the broodlord now fought alone, Narsh and Elrov down, Gungar still unable to fight. That leaves Slythre, Harnauro, Faradin and Elrov, along with Seetoo. Ulrog is cowering somewhere, methinks. ~grin~
You should be able to weave your stuff in afterwords without trouble.

OK, my post is all set up. Narsh wasn't quite dead in my post before, but I lessened his injury as well.
In any case, all that is left to tie up is your first post - just remove the beginning of the fight, and put the rest at the start of your second post. Since your first post ends with the attack over, it doesn't really flow going before mine. ~grin~

Right, doing so now . . .

Neat post, although I'm not very sure about the last sentence. The castle fell? With all of the main characters in it?

I might be okay with that ending . . . sort of . . . but I first want to know if that is what you intended by having the post that way.

The castle is *starting* to fall. Hasn't hit the ground yet! So hopefully they may yet get out.
Whats the situation on the guys brawling in the void? I didn't decide whether or not the entrance would be sealed/drained/shut/whatever, since I didn't know whether you were doing anything else with that.

Yes, I'll wrap that up. I sort of thought it already was, but perhaps another post would make it clearer.

Good ending post. Faradin died closing the portal, but the rest of the post is quite good. So . . . shall we count this RPG as ended?