CAST: Meneldil Vánthondar the Ent

DESCRIPTION:

Meneldil is smallish brownish ent with a straggly black beard, and a vaguely easterlingish air about him. He usually appears to be wearing spectacles. Meneldil is not the ent's real name; he initially put off revealing his true name, because he said it was too long and too difficult to pronounce. However, he appears to actually believe that knowledge of his true name (which begins Tikki Tikki Tembo Nosa Rembo Tavi Tch-tch-tch) gives others complete power over him.

Meneldil grew up in the East in a small treeherding village. He is very vague about his reasons for coming to the land where he presently dwells, but has hinted that it has something to do with the mysterious Akh'ad-e-mik Ka'hmites. He is actually on a secret mission to initiate the Great Proletarian Revolution, though nobody else knows this.
He claims to be a fighter; however the Easterling idea of fighting is to make long speeches about abstract topics, until all but one of the fighters have dropped from sheer boredom / exhaustion. He appears to have not completely understood that that sort of thing doesn't work here. Though he is quite intelligent, he seems to have left a good bit of his instincts behind on the other side of the Rift. He has to frequently be reminded that a discourse on paraboloid trajectories is not the best reaction to a spear that is heading straight for him, and that ducking may be a better idea. He has been known, when faced with an army of hostile soldiers, to begin lecturing the swordsmen on how the lead in their scabbards causes cancer, and telling the archers to boycott the arrow-manufacturers because their workers are subject to inhuman conditions in the East.
However, he does wield a mean shortstaff, and has excellent knowledge of combat theory (again something to do with the mysterious Akh'ad-e-mik Ka'hmites). He also has some mysterious powers with his voice - he can transfix anyone into unmoving horror by uttering the magic words "Milord, the plaintiffs are ready to present their case", and can reduce the strongest opponent to quivering jelly by saying "I will now commence my cross-examination".
Meneldil goes into a wild rage when he sees anything made of wood. His own staffs are made of a most peculiar shiny substance which is a little heavier than lead. He first appeared riding a Mûmak (called "Spot"), which he says is his pet, and which mysteriously appears when he whistles. The Mûmak usually accompanies him everywhere, and is much better at sensing danger than he is.

Even by Entish standards, Meneldil is laid-back, and takes his time to do things. He is quite fascinated by how 'hasty' everyone here seems to be, and he's slowly beginning to learn to think in minutes instead of months.

HISTORY:

Meneldil discovered a wounded Sunset Dragon in his forest and took him back to his cave, where he found out from him just what has been going on in the world at large. The news of the terrible eastern army forced Meneldil to make a shockingly hasty decision to accompany Sunset on his journey back to the Castle. On the way they encountered Laurie, a lumberjack with an unfortunate habit of breaking into song at the drop of a hat. It is not yet known whether these songs were responsible for the mysterious disappearance of both Sunset and Spot, but Meneldil continued on to report the news to a contingent of Hyeronian soldiers. Unfortunately, their entire fort was built of wood. Even more unfortunately, irate short-sighted Ents aren't very good at keeping their balance. Laurie 'saved' the day by proclaiming that he had captured the 'tree-monster', and they encountered a prisoner by the name of Hurghak, an Orc affiliated with Leila's Black and Red revolutionaries. En route to Castle Hare things looked set to get a bit unpleasant with the soldiers, but Spot saved the day and the unlikely trio entered the Great Hall, where Laurie's singing almost literally brought the house down. The party is recovering from the surprise revelation that Laurie is actually Rabbyt's long-lost... sister???

ATTRIBUTES:

SKILLS:

DESCRIPTORS:

• Socialist
• Can summon his pet Mûmak when necessary
• Strong sense of right and wrong
• Difficult to anger, but when he does get angry...
• Flammable
• Almost invulnerable to conventional weaponry
• No actual combat experience
• Largely in a world of his own
• Has accumulated large quantities of trivia
• Cautious, belt-and-braces approach to life

WEAPONS:

• A longstaff that looks like a walking stick, but is actually a deadly weapon in his hands

EQUIPMENT:

• A dog-eared copy of Fater Lal on the Great Proletarian Jehad
• A shortstaff with a strange handle that amplifies his voice
• A memorandum-book (plus stylus)
• Pockets filled with odds and ends