New to the game and have some questions.

[Theo]

1) A company needs to have a site path to have something to compare for Washed and Refreshed. MEDM: "A company moving to and/or from an Under-deeps site has no site path."

I would say that a company needs some number of regions in its site path. Mere site path (like that created by Forod) is not sufficient.

Forod creates a company site path of three unnamed wilderness regions. Or what would you say a site path consists of if not regions?

[Konrad Klar]

Or what would you say a site path consists of if not regions?

Region symbols.

[DuncanNeeds2Shave]

oh lord

[Theo]

Or what would you say a site path consists of if not regions?

Region symbols.

A site path is the sequence of regions between a site and its nearest Darkhaven. However, each region in the sequence is only indicated by its type, not by its name. ... Each Darkhaven site card has two site paths, but each of those two paths gives the sequence of regions between the Darkhaven and one of the two Darkhavens nearest to it.

So it seems to me that site paths give a sequence of unnamed regions based on their type symbol.

Do you normally believe that a site's site path used for starter movement means that the company's site path only ever has at most two regions, since only at most two can be named? Forod specifies regions the same way as a site's site path.

[Konrad Klar]

Do you normally believe that a site's site path used for starter movement means that the company's site path only ever has at most two regions, since only at most two can be named?

I believe that in starter movement a number of regions is equal to a normal number of region symbols as indicated by non-haven site card, or in starter moment between havens as given on haven card.

I.e. if company moves from Rivendell to Cameth Brin it moves through one region even if under effect of Hey! come merry dol! and has no region symbols in its site path.

CRF states that a company using a card like Belegaer cannot take a benefit from A Short Rest.
It also states that only companies "that actually have a site path" may draw extra card due to A Short Rest.

Because Belegaer creates a company's site path, I believe that by "that actually have a site path" ICE meant "that actually have regions in site path".

[Bandobras Took]

I think your definition of a region is incomplete.

From MELE:

Region: The geographic unit into which northwestern Middle-earth is broken down. Regions are represented in 2 ways: by name and by type. There are six different region types: Coastal Seas (c), Free-domains (f), Border-lands (b), Wilderness (w), Shadow-lands (s), and Dark-domains (d).

Bold mine.

I believe that this means that either way is valid for something to be considered a region. Otherwise, keying by region name could never work with the cards as written because no symbols are included.

Forod's site path includes three region symbols. I think that is sufficient to qualify them as regions, as it uses one of the ways mentioned, even if they are not represented in the other way (by name).

[Konrad Klar]

A fact that an X is not represented does not mean that the X does not exist.
If a company moving from Rivendell to Cameth Brin is under effect of Hey! come merry dol! it does not mean that the company does not move through Rhudaur *.
From the other hand if a company is moving from Rivendell to Cameth Brin and Withered Lands has been played on Rhudaur , it does not mean that the company moves through two regions type of .

*) it has impact on imprisoning attacks, redirecting effects like Chance of Being Lost, effects like Scorba Ahunt.

[Bandobras Took]

A fact that an X is not represented does not mean that the X does not exist.
If a company moving from Rivendell to Cameth Brin is under effect of Hey! come merry dol! it does not mean that the company does not move through Rhudaur *.

I agree, but that underscores my point. The lack of names in Forod does not mean that no regions are moved through, just that the regions are not identified by name.

From the other hand if a company is moving from Rivendell to Cameth Brin and Withered Lands has been played on Rhudaur , it does not mean that the company moves through two regions type of .

Why not? We treat one target X as two wildernesses until the end of the turn. It does not say to do it only for keying purposes. (Side note: holy crap, if this is the case, do we have a counter for A Short Rest?)

[Konrad Klar]

I agree, but that underscores my point. The lack of names in Forod does not mean that no regions are moved through, just that the regions are not identified by name.

But it also does not prove that any regions exist in site path created by Forod.

What I'm trying to say is that number of regions, region symbols, and regions by name in site path are three separate things.

[Theo]

CRF states that a company using a card like Belegaer cannot take a benefit from A Short Rest.
It also states that only companies "that actually have a site path" may draw extra card due to A Short Rest.

Incidentally, I looked back through the mailing list, and the second sentence of the A Short Rest entry was mysterious added between CRF 7 and 8, with no intermediate discussion that I could find. CRF 6 had a different second sentence mentioning Eagle Mounts. Given that as you noted "Belegaer creates a company's site path", I'm more inclined to view the Belegaer reference as either a mistake or (if the word of Ichabod is considered to be law) divorced from the first sentence and instead treated as an errata for A Short Rest specifically.

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Some of the fallout if region symbols in a site path do not constitute regions:

* Creatures with multiples of the same region symbol would not be keyable to special movement site paths. MELE: "If the creature’s card has two region symbols of the same type (i.e., a deep Wilderness creature), then the company must have moved through at least two regions of that same type."
* Ringwraiths could use (hypothetical) special movement with site paths containing Coastal Sea symbols. MELE: "A Ringwraith may not use a site path that contains Coastal Seas regions."

[Theo]

What I'm trying to say is that number of regions, region symbols, and regions by name in site path are three separate things.

I agree with this. But "each region in the sequence is only indicated by its type, not by its name" establishes a basis for the way that the number of regions is to be derived that I have no reason to change, other than that region movement rules explicitly change it for that case.

[Konrad Klar]

Some of the fallout if region symbols in a site path do not constitute regions:
[...]

Or this is rather a fallout of using interchangeably the terms "region"/"region symbol".

Someone could infer that because Cave-Drake may be played against company A moving from Rivendell to Cameth Brin if Withered Lands has been played on Rhudaur, there must be two regions in the site path.

Other outcome:
Company B that declared in organization phase movement through Rhudaur using region movement and used Waybreads/Crams to move through six regions suddenly has declared a region movement through seven regions.

[DuncanNeeds2Shave]

Lure of Expedience has an erratum that states (paraphrase): "can be revealed as an on-guard hazard to trigger a corruption check as a response to an item being played."

The rules state that corruption cards must be the first action in a chain of effects, indicating that corruption cards cannot be played as a response. Is Lure of expedience an exception to this rule, or is it assumed that when an on-guard hazard is played, it IS the first action in a chain of effects, just sort of on stand-by until it is revealed?

Either way, if Lure of Expedience can be revealed in such a way to trigger a corruption check, cannot also Despair of the Heart be revealed as an on-guard hazard to trigger a corruption check in response to a character being wounded by an automatic attack? If yes or no, why or why not?

[Konrad Klar]

A revealed on-guard card retroactively takes effect as though it were both declared
and resolved immediately prior to the chain of effects during which it was revealed.

This means that an On-Guard Card is not declared in response to action in response to which it was revealed.
If not the rule then no corruption card could be revealed as on guard and also that revealed permanent-events could not be targeted by actions like Marvels Told.

[DuncanNeeds2Shave]

Ok, so what about the Despair of the Heart scenario? Can Despair of the Heart be revealed as an on-guard card to trigger a corruption check if a character is wounded by an automatic attack? I ask because Lure of Expedience has an erratum to specify that it can be revealed in such a way, but Despair of the Heart has no such erratum.