And here's Part Two!
•Palantír of Minas Anor Artifact • Palantír
Mettle: +2
Bearer must be a unique
Man.
Each search card is twilight cost +1.
Fellowship: If bearer is Denethor, exert him to reveal a card at random from an opponent's hand. If the revealed card is a minion, place it on top of its owner's draw deck.
"...for the Stone of Minas Tirith was the palantir of Anárion, most close in accord with the one that Sauron possessed."The Palantir of Minas Tirith was used heavily by Denethor in the waning days of the Steward, a desperate defense against Sauron's mounting power across the River. Of course I originally intended this card to play
only on Denethor, but seeing as he doesn't show up in card-form until Set 5, I needed this to have some utility until we actually get to him. I've got a card slot reserved for each of the remaining
palantíri in Middle-earth at the time of the War of the Ring; if I do it right, they'll all react off of one another almost like a palantir-mini-game.
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Agent of Angrenost Ally •
Edoras • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Mettle: 4
To play, spot Gríma.
Shadow: Exert this ally and spot an unbound companion bearing X possessions to make that companion mettle -X until the regroup phase (limit -2).
"‘None are welcome here in days of war but our own folk... Who are you that come heedless over the plain thus strangely clad...?'"I'm going to do everything I can to make
Men playable, and I figure a good place to start is with some old-fashioned possession hate. Being a simple (and free!) ally, Agent of Angrenost requires only Grima to start being useful, digging into an unbound companion's mettle, possibly up to a -4 debuff.
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He's a Sneak Event • Maneuver
Spot Sméagol (or Gollum) and discard 2
cards from hand to exert a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may make a Ring-bound Hobbit mettle -3 until the regroup phase to prevent this.
"‘Sméagol has to take what's given him,' answered Gollum. ‘He was given that name by kind Master Samwise, the hobbit that knows so much.'"The
Morgul culture is only ponderously coming into tighter focus. With this card, I begin to see one of the culture's potential strengths: pitting Hobbits against Gollum, dishing out exertions - or worse - for no other reason than bringing
Slinker (or
Stinker!) along on such a perilous journey. I don't yet know what
will care about more: Ring-bearer wounds, or broken companions. Maybe both!
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(Not for the first time, my post is crashing when I try adding the limited-unique dot to this card. Very annoying! For now just pretend there's a four-point star in front of the card title, which limits it to "one per site" in this case.) Ghâsh! Condition • Site
Plays on an underground site.
While you can spot X
ruins, each companion at this site is mettle -X.
Shadow: Exert 2
minions and discard this condition to add
. If you can then spot
in the twilight pool, halt the fellowship.
"Right across the floor, close to the feet of two huge pillars a great fissure had opened. Out of it a fierce red light came, and now and again flames licked at the brink and curled about the base of the columns. Wisps of dark smoke wavered in the hot air."Ghash! is a long-term investment, trading
to play it in exchange for a potential twilight flood later that can even halt the fellowship. One of the issues with
is that it relies heavily on underground sites, which don't persist beyond Site 5[F] in any meaningful way. I wrote this card to help give the culture some teeth along the later [F] sites. It might do better at a cost of
.
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•Corsair Captain Minion • Man
Strength: 12
Vitality: 3
Mettle: 5
Corsair. Fierce.For each
dwelling you spot, each War-bound companion and
ally is mettle -1.
Skirmish: Exert a non-unique corsair to make Corsair Captain strength +1 and mettle +1.
"‘The Corsairs of Umbar are coming! So Belfalas is taken, and the Ethir, and Lebennin is gone...'"I haven't shown them yet, but the new corsair ships come in the form of
dwellings. The Captain here cares a lot about how many ships he's got, and can use his crew to gain unrestricted strength and mettle bonuses. AND he's fierce!
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•Horn of Helm, Legacy of Hammerhand Possession • Adventure Area
Plays on The Hornburg.
Skirmish: Exert a
ally here (or Gimli) to make a skirmishing Free Peoples character mettle +1 (and
damage +1 if that character bears a mount) until the regroup phase.
"Back from the Deep the echoes came, blast upon blast, as if on every cliff and hill a mighty herald stood. But on the walls men looked up, listening with wonder; for the echoes did not die."I'm really excited to reveal my plans for
in Set 3 & 4, with the new
Horn of Helm giving only the slightest glimpse into what's coming. It plays on... The Hornburg...? before offering a simple mettle bonus, tacking on a damage bonus if mounted. You'll have to stay tuned to see the rest of
's new look!
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(This card should also have a limited-unique dot in front of its name, which limits it to 1 copy per character.) Contest of Will Condition • Character
Search. To play, spot a
artifact. Bearer must be a Free Peoples character bearing a Palantír or Ring.
At the start of each Shadow phase, you may spot a
artifact and reveal a unique
character from hand to make bearer mettle -3 until the start of the regroup phase.
"And suddenly he felt the Eye. There was an eye in the Dark Tower that did not sleep. He knew that it had become aware of his gaze. A fierce eager will was there. It leaped towards him..."Pretty straightforward, and singlehandedly cancels the base +2 mettle bonus conferred by palantiri with just a bit of infrastructure work.
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•Sam, The Stout-hearted Companion • Hobbit
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
Mettle: 3
Ring-bound.Each time a
or
companion is assigned to a skirmish, Sam is mettle +1 until the regroup phase.
Response: If Frodo is killed, make Sam the
Ring-bearer (resistance 5)."‘"Don't you leave him!" they said to me. "Leave him!" I said. "I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon, and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they'll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with," I said.'"Each of Frodo's companions begins as an Ally in Set 1, but after that they'll be standard Companions doing standard Companiony things. Sam here is, I feel, an early echo of
Great Elf Warrior, gaining not strength but mettle, requiring others to be fighting for him to gain his bonuses. Expect a few extremely potent
mettle-based cards to combo with Sam.
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Piercing Event • Maneuver
Spell.Exert a Nazgûl to make a Free Peoples character mettle -2 until the regroup phase. You may take the next maneuver action.
"A long-drawn wail came down the wind, like the cry of some evil and lonely creature. It rose and fell, and ended on a high piercing note. Even as they sat and stood, as if suddenly frozen, it was answered by another cry, fainter and further off, but no less chilling to the blood. There was then a silence, broken only by the sound of the wind in the leaves."If anybody ever says including flavor text in your card design doesn't amount to anything, refer them to me for re-education. For the longest while Piercing had only that first line of text and no lore, gaining the
Baruk Khazad callback only once I'd gone lore-hunting and found myself wondering how cool it would be to give
players additional control over the maneuver phase. This might become "a thing" in the culture... it just feels so awesome and so right!
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I think it's about time to jump deeper into Dwellings. I have a lot already done behind the scenes, and now that all the cultures have some meat on their bones I feel much more comfortable working with the new card type. Give me a few days for revisions and hopefully I'll have something neat to share with you next time!