This is a continuation of our AP that started with The Marsh Bell and continued into a modified Shadow Over Dale. All the APs are based on Trotter's player's game logs, typed up furiously as the play is actually happening. I've added my comments as LM to help anyone running it (although I'm a bit late for that re TfW, probably) and to give interested parties insights into my though processes. In particular, I've already seeded a bunch of stuff that is relevant later in the campaign as LMs who've read TfW will see. (For example, the meeting with Baldor and Belgo happened on the way back from the Marsh Bell already.)

Although this first post doesn't deal with TfW directly, but with a prologue centred on the Gathering of the Five Armies, I decided not to clutter up the board with giving it its own thread. It was a bit of a toss-up as to whether to add it to the Shadow Over Dale one, since it includes characters mentioned there (and reading that will help you understand this post), or make it the beginning of the proper AP, but I figured doing the latter would motivate me to continue.

So here it is. Comments welcome!

SESSION

Summer wears on as we recuperate from our adventure while training ourselves as the year moves into Autumn. The weather starts to get colder and rains begin to sweep the town. The days are getting shorter and slowly the Gathering of the Five Armies at the beginning of November creeps up. The Gathering is a three-day affair.

The Bride and I spend some of my treasure to ensure that I can live comfortably for the season which will allow me to have a good inn at Dale. Beran spends more of his treasure to live up the Gathering in style. We hire horses for our journey and make very good time in the cool, late Autumn sun. As we travel north on the western bank of the lonely river, Erebor's snowy peaks rise up in the distance ahead of us and eventually, nestled between two of the arms of its foothills we see the bright walls of Dale. Around the town various banners and pennants are flying the sigils of all the people of the free world. Our journey is not a lonely one for a change as there a many other people travelling to the Gathering as well.

COMMENTARY: This scene-setting is 'inspired by' (i.e. stolen from) John Marron's AP. All three companions picked Raise Standard of Living as their Fellowship Phase Undertaking, which I allowed to apply throughout the Gathering – hence various shopping trips throughout the festival. Contra RAW, I'd have the raised standard of living to apply for a full season rather than just a month.

We eventually arrive at Dale, a large town in a loop of the Running River which circles it to the East. We arrive at the southern gate to the city which is the Traders' Gate. It is right next to the Merchants' Quarter and as we approach it, on our right there are various wharfs and we see the bustle of people and traders arriving by river. The large festival is an ideal business opportunity for traders.

At the gate we are greeted by the guards of Dale and also by young girls carrying garlands of flowers who ask visitors if they fought in the Battle of the Five Armies, to those they give a sprig of heather.

COMMENTARY: Also 'inspired by' John. Thanks!

We enter the city and it is astounding, gleaming and new. It is still in the process of being rebuilt and there are a number of canals and waterways cut through from the running river. There is a great deal of Dwarven ingenuity in evidence in the artifice present in the water works. In contrast to Lake-Town which has been rebuilt largely of timber, Dale is built in stone with a very Dwarven feel. The stone roads are paved and decorated in different colours depending on the district. Dale is famous for its toy market, with plenty of dwarven mechanisms on sale, and a separate area for fireworks; the Raven district contains opulent homes for the people who fought in the battle. In the centre of town is a commemorative fountain of a dragon falling with an arrow in it.

I spend my time walking around the town marvelling at the rebuilt structures and the fountains.

Around the town I also see the Royal Archers of Dale dressed in their black livery. They are friendly rivals with the Lake-Town archers as their king, Bard, was originally of the Lake-Town. I am subject to a certain degree of ribbing and sharp comments from the Royal Archers as I walk around.

Beran visits the nearest inn and makes use of his wealth to obtain finery and prepare himself for the start of the Gathering.

The Bride walks around the town trying to find news of any Woodsmen in the town.

[Bride passes Awareness test.]

Even out of her element in the city, The Bride's keen senses are still at work as she walks through the crowds. Children are playing around with small dwarven fireworks, which they throw at the feet of the adults and then run off. The Bride's dog is not very happy with this and is skittering nervously. As she is traversing a large crowd The Bride notices out of the corner of her eye that she is being followed by a group of two or three people, but they are very canny and they keep on dodging out of her sight whenever she tries to spot them. She positions herself on the far side of a jester dressed in Green and Red motley so that she can take a look back on her trail. As she is walking around the crowd the jester takes an interest in her and starts impersonating her mockingly with a country bumpkin swagger. The bride isn't able to spot her followers, but she slips a coin to the jester and points him back towards her followers. The jester bows to her in an exaggerated manner and skips off through the crowd towards her pursuers. The followers are distracted attempting to get rid of the jester and so lose their concentration on remaining unseen allowing The Bride to get a good look at them. They are the three turncoat guards who attempted to rob the merchant Baldor and were scared away by The Bride.

COMMENTARY: The kids with the fireworks were inspired by obnoxious teenagers in Berlin on New Year's Eve, while the mimicking from the jester is taken from equally annoying street entertainers at Covent Garden in London. The jester in green and red is Harrod the Fool, from The Crossings of Celduin adventure. I thought The Bride's trick was very clever.

[Bride makes a great success on her Stealth.]

Taking advantage of the distraction of the jester the Bride doubles back around the crowd and down a side alley managing to come out behind the mercenaries. The jester spots The Bride who then redoubles his efforts in keeping the men distracted, but his act is getting a bit tiresome and the mercenaries put their hands on their swords. The jester throws a worried glance in The Bride's direction: he was't anticipating being stabbed.

The Bride has managed to get close enough now so she raises her voice and shouts out to the mercenaries at how good it is to see them again.

[The Bride makes a great success on her Awe roll.]

The mercenaries leap out of their skin at the sudden shock, one of them breaks wind and looks embarrassed. The jester laughs gleefully and scampers away. Everyone in the square is enjoying the impromptu street theatre and the group are now the centre of attention.

The Bride confronts the mercenaries with their crimes against Baldor but they look rather sheepish and deny everything and try to back away, however The Bride grabs hold of the leader and demands to know why they are following her.

They are all extremely sheepish, the other two are trying to back away and fade into the crowd while the leader attempts to overawe the Bride, but she is having none of it and rises to the threat.

[Trotter spends a Hope point to just chance by on this encounter as part of his touring.]

COMMENTARY: This isn't in the rules, but I decided to allow it anyway because it's always more fun to have the group together and this scene was playing very well, so it would be a shame for someone to miss out on taking part. Dale isn't that large, after all, so Trotter happening by isn't beyond belief.

I arrive at the edge of a square and see the throng of people in the centre and head towards them.

The leader of the bandits is trying to win the sympathy of the crowd by playing as the victim of a death threat from a stranger, but The Bride retorts that she knows the merchant in Dale who this man attempted to rob and that she can present him to the constabulary. He blanches and vehemently denies the accusations.

[The Bride rolls a great success on Riddle]

The Bride realises that he is lying and also that he is about to swing at her and make a break for freedom so she anticipates the move and clouts him round the side of the head with her axe.

[The Bride passes her dagger (melee) skill with the intent to stun. He takes 2 endurance of damage.]

The mercenary stumbles away from the blow but The Bride maintains her grip on him.

[The mercenary rolls a 4 and misses his attack.]

The Bride's Hound sees that his mistress is in trouble and leaps in to harry the mercenary's ankles, he punches back but cannot manage to get a clean swing and swings wildly.

Hearing The Bride and her dog I redouble my efforts and start shoving through the crowd faster.

[The Bride rolls a great success on her Awe test.]

The Bride shouts ferociously at the poor mercenary telling him that he is no match for her unarmed, or armed! The man quails with terror as his will breaks and he starts blubbering in fear: apparently they spotted her in the crowd and thought she had come to Dale to pursue them so they were following her to determine her intention.

I burst through the crowd and find the huge thug collapsed in terror on his knees before The Bride. I disarm the mercenary as The Bride explains what is going on; the crowd are starting to drift away as the entertainment appears to be over. The jester has returned to his act and is already incorporating the fight into his act.

Some of the black-liveried guards approach the fight and The Bride explains her charges against the mercenaries; her standing with the King of Dale persuades the guards to take her charges seriously. The guards apprehend the three men and take the name of the merchant in order to present the case to a magistrate. We also learn that The Bride's name is Ellin as she has to identify herself to them. They warn her that the Judge may wish to talk to her and she may be summoned at some point during the carnival, and we are to address ourselves to the Royal Barracks once we have secured a place of residence.

COMMENTARY: It was getting a bit tiresome referring to the character as The Bride all the time, so the player gave her a name.

Meanwhile elsewhere Beran is drinking and celebrating with the local Beornings.

[Beran spends a point of Hope and makes a Riddle roll.]

He hears that Beorn himself will not be attending this Gathering, not surprising as he is a very private person and even his attendance at the battle was surprising. However he does hear that delegates from the Elves are coming and rumours that The Eagles had accepted and would be coming. He hears a rumour from home that some hobbits have opened an Inn called The Easterly Inn in the area between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood. They travelled over from The Shire and just set up a new inn a few months ago. This was a bit of a surprise to everyone in the local area, but it turns out that these two hobbits and their wives have made the place very homey and that it makes a great stopping place. Typically Beornings are not very welcoming of outsiders but these ones have nothing but praise for the innkeepers.

--

After our adventure we meet back up with Beran and ask around to find out where the merchant Baldor lives.

[I make a Riddle roll.]

We manage to find out that Baldor lives above a shop in the southern, Merchant's District of Dale. The streets are bustling with traders and deliveries; stalls line the streets. Eventually we find the shop: it is selling hams and other cured and smoked meats; the smell of meat is wafting out into the street. We're told by the owner that he lives above the shop and there is a wooden staircase outside the building that leads up to his door.

The Bride and I climb the stairs and knock on the door. After a while the door opens and Baldor opens it. He sees us and looks nonplussed for a moment, and then suddenly there is a flash of recognition. He waves us into his apartment cheerfully, welcoming us and celebrating our arrival for the Gathering. His room is very cluttered and we see bits and pieces of things scattered around surfaces. It is not a very well appointed place, it looks like Baldor isn't comfortably well off. Baldor calls Belgo in from the side room of the small apartment: there only appears to be the main room, a curtained off cooking area and then a side room for sleeping. There is a desk with various papers piled up on it, a table for dining and some mismatched furniture not of the highest quality spread around the place. Baldor cleans up a few chairs and invite us to take a seat while Belgo goes to make some tea. We talk about how we have spent our time over the past few months, our adventures in the East lands are glossed over a bit as we do not want to disclose anything specific. Baldor has had a relatively quiet time but he is hopeful that the Gathering will present more opportunity for business. He offers to put us up in his house but we thank him for his kindness but we just came to ask him if there was a good inn that he could recommend. He tells us that there are several, The Bowman, Fortunate Arrow, Mighty Shot, Feathered Death and laments that there are quite a few too many inns in the area. As he is from Lake-Town he laments that he does not have his foot in the door as some of the Dalesmen do so things are a little bit tight for him. Beran calls over Belgo and gives him a handful of coin and tells him to go out and buy them all some fine food and wine so that they can have a dinner. We continue chatting away and sharing tales of the last few months and eventually Belgo returns with a large shank of meat and some fine wine which we serve up and have an enjoyable evening. Once we are enjoying our fine repast The Bride tells Baldor about the capture of the bandit captain and Baldor reacts with happiness that the scoundrel had been caught and promises to report to the barracks to testify later.

COMMENTARY: This was run before the great fan-made supplement for Dale. I had to come up with names for inns on the fly, and decided to turn my lack of imagination into a virtue by having every innkeeper name his place after the moment Smaug died, as a sort of lame marketing gimmick.

[Trotter makes a Riddle roll.]

I am curious as to the situation that Baldor is living in given that the last time we saw him he had made a very good trade at the stair. He tells us that good trade managed to pay off a lot of his debt, but that rents are still high and it is eating into his earnings. He says that he has plans for the future involving long distance trade with the Beornings. The Bride asks more after his mention of debts and he tells us that he has had trouble since the burning of Lake-Town. It takes quite a lot of money invested at start-up to become a merchant and that even after losing everything it is possible to take on debts to get into business again. He used to know everyone in Lake-Town which enabled him to do business well, but now with so many of them dead and out of business he lacks the contacts to get ahead sufficiently anymore. The Dwarves reopening Erebor and the Lonely Mountain has changed the playing field for the luxury goods industry which has made things difficult for the old players. However he is confident that his plans will yield fruit in the west.

COMMENTARY: I wanted to contextualise Baldor's problems in the changing politics. I figured being a successful merchant is largely to do with knowing the right people, and the political changes would have hit those with old contacts. In addition, if Baldor used to deal in luxury goods, the re-opening of Erebor would completely change the market.

He tells us that some of the traders in the area are having a street party at the height of the festival tomorrow night, he invites us along as his guests and there will be food and drink. We thank him for his kind invitation but unfortunately we will be attending the royal feast at the celebrations.

--

By the time we leave Baldor's house it is dark and moving into deep evening, but there are lanterns hanging everywhere so the streets are almost as bright as day. The multicoloured glasswork casts dancing patterns across the streets and waterways.

We stroll around and eventually make our way to the Bowman and ask about a room at the inn.

[Beran makes a great success on his Perception. I get a Gandalf rune. The Bride fails.]

Beran and I are certain that the innkeeper has some rooms spare and could probably be bribed. Beran slides some extra gold to the innkeeper while ordering some drinks.

[Beran spends a Hope point and gets a great success in his Persuade roll.]

The innkeeper greedily grabs for the coins and agrees with us that there would certainly be some extra room for us as he recalls that some of his other patrons haven't paid quite as much as we have done and moves them into the commons to free up a private room for us. We send a stableboy to the barracks to report The Bride's address to the guard.

The inn is rather loud being fully crowded and in the middle of a festival but Beran is rather worse for drink and The Bride is tired from the journey so they attempt to sleep. I decide that the lights and the riverways would be beautiful at night and go for a walk around the local area. There is a sort of halloween feel in the air as people are running around with masks: today is Goblin Day, people are pretending that the Goblins are on the verge of winning as they were in the battle of the five armies. There are small fireworks displays going off in the squares and people are running around in costumes and wearing Goblinesque masks, some made by dwarven artisans with mechanical aspects that can move.

I have a relatively uneventful evening, although people do keep on asking me if I know Bilbo. Eventually having enjoyed the sights of the city under candlelight I return to the inn and we try to get a good night's sleep.

[Bride fails her Travel roll, Beran and I succeed.]

COMMENTARY: Not in the rules, but I thought this was appropriate.

Unfortunately the hustle and bustle of the city and the fireworks from the celebrations keep the Bride awake and she does not get a very good rest. However Beran and I are seasoned travellers and can sleep anywhere.


SESSION

We wake the next day in (mostly) high spirits, on the day of the arrival of all the guests and tonight will be the great feast with a fireworks display.

We ask the boy at the bar where the nearest tailor's is so that the Bride and I can see to our clothing and try and look more suitable for the large party.

[Bride and Trotter both make an Awareness roll as we leave the inn.]

We notice that there are one or two carts coming into town with an "L" monogram branded on them. We recall that some of the crates and barrels found in the Easterling camp were similarly marked. The Bride approaches the cart which is on its way to the Royal Palace in the centre of town and shouts out to the driver asking about the markings on the barrel thinking that they are Easterling marks.

COMMENTARY: I am trying to make up for an earlier GM failure here. I'd meant to have some of Lockmand's goods be found in the Easterling camp, but forgot to mention them. So I had the PCs recognise them in retrospect, in a 'that reminds me of something' sort of way.

[Bride fails a Riddle check]

The man is surprised by the Bride's question and brushes her off, riding on to the Palace.

[Bride fails a Craft check]

The Bride tries to examine the barrels as the cart rolls on but doesn't discover anything new. As the carts roll off I observe that the L sigil might be something to do with the "Lunn" names from the cities of the Northmen.

We reach the tailor's and The Bride and I obtain some frugal, but rather nice clothing ready for the evening. Time has worn on to about luncheon by the time we are satisfied with our clothes and return to the inn.

As the day is winding on into the afternoon people are slowly getting ready for the festivities of the evening. Remembering that I had made semi-promises to the Master Of Celduin that he would be met outside the festival, the Bride and I head outside the gates watching out for his arrival. Just outside the gates there are areas of tents set up by all the people who arrived but could not get a room and also various hawkers selling products to these campers.

We watch caravans and delegations arrive with their entourages.

[I fail a Song roll while waiting.]

COMMENTARY: This was to see if Trotter recognised anyone who was famous from the Battle of the Five Armies.

I don't notice any important people going past, but there are certainly a lot of entourages of people who think they are important.

We notice that most of the arrivals are not wearing heather on their clothes so it would seem that most people are just here for political gain rather than being actual fighters.

Eventually we recognise two delegations coming down the road, Scowri the Black and Hammar Maltök are both approaching the city at almost the same time, they are jostling and jogging both attempting to get past each other and enter the city the city at the same.

COMMENTARY: I vaguely recall seeing something similar on TV once, perhaps as part of a comedy sketch, where different groups are simultaneously trying to process formally and get ahead of each other, eventually turning the whole thing into an awkward sort of race. Certainly, in Renaissance Europe, matters of precedence were so important that processions could get held up while it was sorted out.

[Beran spends a Hope point and makes an Awe roll.]

Beran strides up to the two leaders with broad smiles and welcoming words and puts his arms around their shoulders and leads them through the gateway into the city at the same time, defusing the tense entry moment.

The crier announces both their arrivals and Beran keeps the gesture held long enough to get them inside.

Down the road I notice a group of people arguing by the roadside and I recognise them as the Celduin group.

[I roll great successes on Courtesy and Persuade.]

After greeting the Master of Celduin, I persuade him that I am a representative of the King and here to escort him.

I step aside and speak to Beoric as we are walking along and he confirms my fears that the Master of Celduin was expecting the King to greet him personally and he was attempting to convince him otherwise.

[I spend a Hope point and pass my Riddle roll.]

I confide to Beoric as we are approaching the town that I am not a real envoy from the King and I will not be escorting him directly to the King as he will not be holding his audiences until the feast this evening when he will meet in private.

[I make a Persuade roll successfully.]

The Master sees the sense in the King not meeting everyone out in the street and agrees to continue into the town where we are announced by the heralds. He tells me to accompany him to the Palace which is where he was invited to go first.

We all accompany the Celduin party through the town, and as we walk Beran reminisces about the battle against the Easterlings.

[Beran rolls a success on his Song skill to reminisce about the battle.]

The two have a grand time talking over their exploits as we wind our way through the streets to half-hearted cheers from the populace who know that they should be cheering people but not knowing who the Master is. We reach the palace itself and the Master bows to a seneschal as he is admitted to the palace.

[The Bride fails an Insight, Beran passes it and I get a great success.]

We notice that as we have actually approached the palace the Master's attitude has gone from strutting to worried; he is clearly a bit overawed by the event and is starting to worry.

We enter the hall and see various other leaders and tribe heads standing around waiting; at the far end of the hall there is a large wooden throne.

[The Bride gets a Gandalf on her Lore. I do not make my lore test.]

The Bride is surprisingly knowledgable about Dale and she tells us that the Wooden Throne is a gift from the Elven King and the carvings tell the story of the shooting of the Black Arrow and the slaying of Smaug. At the moment the King is not in residence, however entourages are being led out through a side door. As invited guests we are allowed to stay with the delegates.

I try and put the Master at his ease by thanking him for being there so that someone unimportant like me doesn't seem out of place and it helps steady his nerves a little bit.

We notice that Hamar and Scowri have struck up a friendship/rivalry and are happily chatting.

COMMENTARY: I thought this would make an interesting political twist: the warlord who respects cunning and the schemer who respects courage.

[Beran makes his Awareness roll.]

Beran notices that none of the magnates of the celebration are present, Bilbo, King Dale, various other notables: none are actually present at this Gathering so it must be a meeting of the secondary people.

Elstan enters the room and stands up on the dais with a staff of office which he pounds into the dais, demanding silence for the arrival of King Bard Of Dale.

Everyone falls silent and we watch as a large, bearded man, dressed in fine furs with a simple, but valuable crown on his head enters the room from the same door and approaches the throne. All of the dignitaries drop to their knees as he enters, but before he seats himself Bard gestures to us all and tells us to rise as we are met as equals on this joyous occasion. As he takes his seat everyone rises.

He thanks everyone warmly for coming to this festival of the Five Armies and looks forward to meeting us at the Festival that evening. He delivers a speech explaining the importance of the celebration and its meaning, and telling them about where they will be staying and tells them that if they wish an audience he will speak with them personally at a later date.

He finishes his speech with a final thanks and then rises from the throne. As he rises a few people do press forwards in the crowd to put forward a request or to meet the King.

[I fail an Insight roll.]

I scan the crowd of people pressing towards the King but do not see any ill intent so we retire from the Gathering and return to the streets.

COMMENTARY: There wasn't any danger, but I allowed Trotter to make the roll anyway.

-- SESSION –


After leaving the audience we have a few hours left before the feast in the evening and I decide to investigate into those mysterious barrels The Bride spotted. I suspect that Beoric might know something about them given that we last spotted that sigil at the Easterling Camp.

Beran decides he will go and fritter away some of his wealth at the toy market.

The Bride realises that she is going to be in polite company and finally has a change of heart, deciding to do some clothes shopping at the last minute to get some finery.

--

Beoric doesn't recognise the mark specifically, but he suspects it will be a merchant's sigil to identify the goods that are theirs and also showing off where their goods get to. He suspects that a successful merchant might have simply lost some goods to the Easterlings. Beoric has to wait for The Master to return from some minor functionary issues but I have the rest of the afternoon to myself.

--

Beran manages to find a very intricate dwarven whistle that can emulate the call of several different types of birds. It isn't of high enough quality to fool a hunter or a dwarven artisan.

--

[I make my Courtesy roll with a great success.]

The Bride asks my advice on dressing well for the festival and I spend a rather enjoyable early afternoon taking her to a suitable tailor and getting her some very nice clothes.

--

We visit Baldor but find he is not in, so while we are there we speak to Belgo and ask him about the L sigil.

[I make my Riddle roll and successfully describe the L sigil to him.]

He recalls the sigil would belong to a very rich and successful merchant, Lockmand. He has been very successful since the rebuilding of Lake-Town and is likely a merchant who would be supplying the celebration.

--

The day winds on and we prepare ourselves for the celebration proper, it is late November so dusk is already falling as we make our way to the Palace along with the other crowds of notables.

The front gates are facing east and the setting sun shines through the tall windows behind the thrones bathing the room in deep crimson. A seneschal asks our names as we enter and we are shown towards an appropriate table; we're not very near the dais, and certainly not at the table now set up by the throne. We see Balin and Oin speaking with an elder dwarf along with another very rotund dwarf who has already been digging into the entrees.

I decide to stroll over and mix with Oin and Balin. He greets me happily and tells me that he and Balin have been travelling and successfully delivered their invitation to the Lord Of Eagles, although he doesn't seem to have turned up. He believes that Bilbo himself with be present at the Gathering, along with King Dain of the Dwarves and Thranduil of the Elves. He reveals that the Lord Of The Eagles did not take the gift that they presented to him so it was returned to its rightful place in the treasure horde of the Lonely Mountain. We have an idle conversation about the wonders of Dwarven engineering and the quality of the rebuilt Dale. Both of the Dwarves are delighted to show off the superiority of their craftsmanship. We leave them to their ambassadorial duties and eventually the seneschal calls everyone back to their places as he announces King Bard Of Dale.

COMMENTARY: I'd already established the jewel that was to be given to Gwahir as tainted, and that's why the Eagle refused the gift.

The King enters the hall and everyone rises from their seats. The King dispenses with formality and thanks everyone for their attention earlier in the day, then slams his fist to the table and bids us to eat.

Serving people bring out huge platters of delicious food and we all tuck in with gusto.

As we begin eating other dignitaries who are seated at the top table are introduced to the crowd.

[I make a critical success on Insight.]

There are many people introduced, but I notice that there is an extra figure sat at the end of the high table who has not been introduced. He is puffing away quietly on a pipe and not eating much. He is a very old man dressed in grey, I meet his gaze for a moment and am completely overawed as I suspect who he is, I am forced to look away, and then when I look back I suddenly cannot recall what I was thinking of, there is just a normal old man sat at the end of the table.

Most people are steering clear of the high table, but various respectable people are drifting up to speak to the people on the top table. I set down to eating to make up for my missed Luncheon and Elevenses.

Beran recalls the terrible feeling of foreboding from the gem which was to be a gift to the Lord of The Eagles and decides to try and broach the subject to Oin or Balin when they go to refill their tankards at the drink barrel.

--

[The Bride rolls well on her Courtesy.]

The Bride is looking at the important people at the higher table and she realises that she could get an introduction from someone of suitable rank. The Bride attempts to persuade Elstan to introduce us to the King so that we can report our successes. He is already quite satisfied with his explanation of events, but he agrees that it is appropriate to introduce us to the King.

He takes us to the high table and presents us to the King with a recounting of our work done against the Easterlings.

The king looks us over and greets us warmly.

[Bride succeeds on her Awe roll.]

The Bride strikes a formidable figure as she brags about her victory over the Easterling chieftain and the King is suitably impressed and suggests that if she should ever settle down he could find a place for her in his guard.

[I roll well my courtesy roll.]

I introduce myself to Bilbo and we have a long introduction working out who we are related to as is appropriate for a hobbit greeting. I tell him that he was my inspiration for my adventures in the world and he reminds me that as great as the world is, the real reward is being able to return home at the end of your adventures.

The Bride and I both finish our conversations and return back to our own tables.

--

Over by the ale barrels the Dwarves finally come to fill their cups and Beran starts a conversation with the Dwarves about the glory of the Eagles that they had met on their travels. Balin talks about how strange the Eagles are, majestic beautiful creatures, but they are very unpredictable in their interactions with the younger races. Eventually the conversation works around to the Dwarven gift and Beran asks why the gift was refused, Oin said that he believed the Lord knew that the gift belonged to the Dwarves and believed that the gift was returned in respect of their ownership. Beran talks about the very strange occurrences that happened in the swamp, the attacks of the Gorecrows, the way that they were particularly attracted to the Gem. Oin dismisses it as just the crows being attracted to sparkly objects, a jealousy of things good and pure. Beran tries to remain respectful as he breaks the news that he suspects the gem is not as pure as they might suspect.

[Beran makes an impassioned explanation by spending a hope point on his Persuade roll.]

He draws comparisons to the poisoning of the Mirkwood by the Necromancer and the evil that seeped into the woods poisoning them and making them into the dark place that everyone fears.

Oin is troubled by Beran's words, but he does see the wisdom in his suspicions and at Beran's suggestion that there are some wise men at this Gathering he can speak to. Oin wanders off and speaks fairly animatedly to Gloin and the elder Dwarf, who then return with Oin to speak to Beran.

Gloin asks about the suspicions that Beran holds with regards to the treasures of Smaug. Beran makes a reasonable explanation about the length of time that Smaug had occupied the Lonely Mountain and the possibility that his presence could have tainted the Dwarven treasure, the refusal by Gwahir also acts as a convincing point, being a very noble creature. The Dwarves consider his words and the very old Dwarf introduces himself as Munin, one of the King's Advisors. He takes Beran aside and asks for more information, Beran tells him the same story that the Bride told Oin and Beran at the campsite, however he is not very convincing in his relating of the story and the justifications behind his suspicions are all based on his instincts which cannot be conveyed very well. The Dwarf looks sceptical, but he does not take offence at Beran's suggestions.

COMMENTARY: The idea behind this was to emphasise the ongoing narrowness of the Dwarves' perspective, and it also gave me the opportunity to introduce Munin.

We spend the rest of the evenings enjoying the feast and then retire to our rooms when the King eventually retires to his chambers.

--

The next day there is a huge commotion in the city as Gwahir, the Lord Of The Eagles arrives in the morning and lands at the palace. There are rumours of a council meeting between the Leaders Of The Free People (the ones at the Gathering) but nothing of note happens after and we finish up our adventure.

COMMENTARY: Not the most satisfying of endings, but I was wanting to get on to the actual campaign by now. A lot of these sessions were spent chatting and doing in-character stuff, which is great but risks expending momentum. I should still have had a stronger finish in mind, though.

Don't Leave the Path

COMMENTARY: Trotter's log begins again, first with the Fellowship Phase which they've spent in Lake-Town. It's been edited for some clarity, and I've added occasional comments.



Early Spring 2947, the thick snows of Winter are melting and the rivers are overflowing with the runoff. The people and the countryside are beginning to get brighter, plants growing and the days becoming longer.

One day in early spring we receive messages by courier addressed to us from Baldor, the merchant in Dale. The introduction to his letter is flowery and warm, reminding us of our friendship and his gratitude for rescuing us in Mirkwood. He continues with the fact that his choice of guards on his previous journeys through Mirkwood have not been very wise, so he would like to invite the Bride to guard him and Belgo on their next, much longer journey across Mirkwood to Woodland Hall, an important Woodman settlement. He signs off in gratitude in advance.

COMMENTARY: I extended his journey to Woodland Hall in order to match up with Words of the Wise.

The Bride has spent the winter considering a trip back to her homeland so this is a very welcome opportunity, Beran also decides that the journey will take him on the way to his home so leaps at the chance and I stick with our group for a chance to see the home of the Woodsmen.

--

We meed up with Baldor in an inn in Lake-Town a few days later: he tells us that his plan is to trade goods from the East and from Lake-Town with the people of the Woodlands and the Hills. He offer us a fair wage for our service and tells us that he has very high hopes for this trade.

He has planned the route and his first stop is to meet with some Elves on the edge of Mirkwood, then via the Elven King's Hall and then down the forest path down the west of Mirkwood. Baldor has traded with the Elven King's Hall before and so he does have a good relationship with the Elves and will be welcome to trade with them.

The caravan comprises of Baldor, Belgo and four heavily laden ponies. We set off westward along the banks of the Forest River at an easy pace. To the south of us stretch the Long Marshes and bad memories of Mewlips, but our journey is peaceful along well trodden paths.

Towards twilight we see some large rafts drift out of the mists, they are being punted by tall cloaked figures.

[Bride rolls Gandalf, I roll an extraordinary success, Beran fails on his Awareness.]

We see the figures on the raft are Elves, and as the rafts drift out of the mist, I recognise that the leader of the Elves on the raft is Galeon, the leader of the Elves who we met in the Long Marshes.

COMMENTARY: In the original text, it's Lindar, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to have them meet someone they know.

The Elves greet Baldor very warmly and are amused by the presence of Belgo: there aren't many children in Elven lands. Upon laying eyes on us Galeon's eyes go cold.

[I great success my Courtesy and the Bride passes her Awe.]

I greet Galeon politely and the Bride brags at her survival through Mirkwood and he remembers us and is polite about our survival in Mirkwood, but seems a bit cool still. The Elves unload the ponies and load all the goods onto the rafts and then one of the Elves whispers to the ponies who suddenly become very compliant and calm and climb onto the rafts without a problem. I hop aboard and examine one of the ponies: they do not seem to be magically glamoured, simply very calm and reassured. Once we are all aboard the Elves pilot themsElves expertly up the river.

[The Bride fails her Hunting roll.]

The Bride attempts to fish as we journey upstream but she doesn't have any success, without the help of her dog she does not have much success.

COMMENTARY: The Bride's dog is trained in Awe, but not Hunting.

[I spend a Hope point to pass a Riddle roll]

As we travel I talk to the Elves hearing wonderful tales of their legends and of their homeland. I also hear the story of Bilbo told from the Elven perspective: Bilbo The Hobbit managed to get one over on them fair and square, but the dwarves were just helpless lumps that he managed to save. The exchange of stories and friendship manage to smooth away the animosity that the Elves have for hobbits because of Bilbo's trickery.

After several days of travel we move away from the flatlands and into more wooded areas, the river widens and the trees pull back as the river opens into a large bay with various huts along the shore. The Elves steer past the pay and into a side river which cuts down into a deep canyon. The river gains speed rapidly as we rush down the narrow, deep cleft. Suddenly we rush under a portcullis and into a cave and we come into the gently illuminated tunnels of the Elves. Drifting through the now calmer waters we pull up to a jetty where the rafts pull ashore. Galeon and Baldor leap off and speak to another Elf who is clearly in charge, this Elf welcomes Baldor and Belgo warmly and clearly knows them. As we get off the rafts we are introduced to Lindar, the Master Of The Kings Cellars.

The former master of the King's Cellars was Galeon, the escape of the Hobbits lead to his dismissal and now we see that he has been re-promoted to be second in command to the job he used to do.

COMMENTARY: I took a leaf out of the Marsh Bell, which called back to The Hobbit by having Galeon be the demoted Master of the Cellars. I thought another way of showing time passing and the way Elvish society works was to have the PCs meet him again, returned to his old job but more junior.

[I make a great success on my Courtesy roll.]

I introduce the group politely to Lindar as friends of Baldor who helped him on his previous journeys and are acting as his guards this time.

Lindar seems satisfied that we are friends of Baldor and welcomes us, offering us two days of accommodation in their guest quarters after which they will escort us to the edge of their lands in safety. Galeon leads us to our quarters; they are very nice, better quality than many of the inns we have been in. Although we are not permitted to dine with the Elves they do send us very fine Elven foods and are afforded a pleasant few days of luxury. We are quite an interesting oddity, a band of mismatched travellers and a human child so we get plenty of visitors dropping by, but the guards are very security conscious and they have been instructed to not allow us out of the guest quarters to see the rest of the Elven realm.

[I pass my song roll, but the Bride fails hers.]

The Bride really wants to sing with the Elves so she shows off her singing voice while I accompany her with music. Unfortunately she is not very skillful and my music can only soften her performance. The guards are polite to her because it is unfair to be rude to your guests, but word gets out and people stay a respectful distance when she is singing.

--

After our stay has finished, Lindar and Galeon and some other Elves come to fetch us and take us through an underground route which suddenly rises back above the ground many miles to the west beyond the Halls Of The Elven King and well on our way down the Elven Paths. We have crossed the Forest river and have emerged to the Southwest of the Halls. The Elves escort us through this, much more pleasant part of Mirkwood. The trees are widely spaced, the sunlight dapples through the leaves and the area is pleasant and airy. It hearkens back to the tales we hear of Greenwood the Great as it used to be, before the corruption twisted it into Mirkwood.

We continue on our way until we reach a river. Lindar tells us he will take us across the river, but that beyond this point the way becomes dangerous. We should under no circumstances ever leave the path. The road is still Elven, but the woods beyond this point are not theirs. We are also warned to not drink the water: the waters of Mirkwood in general are dangerous. Once we reach the other side of the river the Elves bid us farewell and fade back into the trees.

Our journey will still take us two weeks and we start to make our plans for the remainder of the journey.

[A Lore roll here can either make the journey shorter or easier, but a failed roll will make our journey longer and harder. We decide to not make a roll because none of us are very confident about our knowledge of these parts.]

[Bride fails her Travel roll, Beran rolls a Gandalf rune and passes, I fail my roll as well on 14.]

We travel down the Elven path for several days, seeing the river on our left hand side as we work our way southwest. One evening we stop and make a place to sleep for the night in a large, grassy forest clearing. There is a stream of freshwater along one side of the clearing. I tie the ponies up to a tree on the far side of the clearing to make sure that they cannot accidentally get into the water as we were warned. We set watch for the night, Beran stands first watch [awareness 2], then the Bride [awareness 2], then Baldor and finally Trotter on the dawn watch [awareness 3].

[Beran spends a point of Hope during his watch to increase his focus.]

COMMENTARY: I had each person roll Awareness. Beran failed, but I let him spend a point of Hope. Instead of having him immediately spot something (that wasn't there anyway), I kept that success in reserve for when Baldor went to the stream.

Beran is particularly attentive as he stands his watch as he knows the rest of us are fatigued from our journey and his few hours passes without incident, the Bride takes over her shift and has a peaceful evening. Baldor grumbles awake for his shift and does his duty before he is to hand over his watch to me for the morning.

During the night Beran is awakened by movement in the camp. He sees that everyone else in the camp is asleep, but there is a figure moving about in the shadows of the camp; it is wandering away from the camp and towards the stream. Rising from his sleep he sees the figure kneel down beside the stream, and realising that he will not be able to get to them in time he shouts out a warning.

[Beran rolls a success on his Awe.]

Beran bellows out a warning into the night, everyone at the camp wakes up with a start, and the figure by the stream leaps up in surprise, spins around in surprise and then stumbles into the water.

[Beran gets a Gandalf rune and Great Success on his Athletics skill.]

Beran dashes across the clearing as we are all rousing ourselves and drags Baldor out of the stream as fast as he can. Baldor is sputtering and coughing as he tries to focus on Beran, he panics and starts pulling away from Beran screaming about bandits and fire from the mountains.

COMMENTARY: The scenario has Baldor get away and be captured by spiders, and I'd planned to incorporate the spiders' lair into the ongoing campaign, but I intensely dislike robbing the players of chances to change the outcome, so gave them a chance to save Baldor, if not his memory (yet). Given Beran's Hope expenditure on the Awareness roll, successful Awe rolls and great successes on Athletics, I wasn't prepared to let that go unrewarded.

[Beran makes a successful Awe roll.]

Beran has still got a good grip on the panicking Baldor and gives him a brisk backhand and shouts at him to pull himself together. Baldor is shouting that the dragon has been awoken and is shouting about his wife, Hela, being taken.

[Beran passes an Insight roll.]

Beran realises that Baldor has gone out of his mind and doesn't recognise any of us.

[Beran makes a great success and a Gandalf rune on his Athletics.]

Baldor is a portly gentleman and although he struggles with all his might he cannot match Beran's great strength and so he is held fast and pulled back towards the rest of the party.

[Bride makes a success on Healing.]

The Bride realises from what he is saying that he is reliving the attack of Smaug on Lake-Town, the loss of his wife and the burning of the town.

[I pass a Persuade roll.]

I Persuade Belgo that his father is having a nightmare and that if he can just talk calmly it will wake him up and everything will be well. Belgo takes my advice and approaches his father and tells him that he is having a nightmare. Baldor stares at Belgo with complete lack of recognition and resumes his shouting and screaming that this is trickery and the boy isn't his son. Belgo bursts into tears and I do my best to explain that it is just a nightmare and that things will be well in the morning. Baldor is tiring from struggling against the might of Beran and is losing his breath, but the Bride still gets a rope from the pack and ties him up to make sure he cannot wander off in the night. As the others return to their bedrolls to get some sleep I stand a slightly extended watch with my bow out keeping my eyes on the woods in case our shouting and noise has attracted anything, but the day brightens without incident.

[Beran rolls 11 on his Corruption test, failing. I pass my Wisdom test 16. The Bride gets 13 and passes her test. Beran gains a Shadow point.]

COMMENTARY: I had them roll for trauma at witnessing this, but put the threshold at a low 12.

We awake in the morning and find that Baldor has subsided into sleep, but Belgo seems very subdued, he will go nowhere near his father. It seems that the outburst during the night has strained their relationship and it has worn too thin.

-- Session –

[We all make an Awareness test, I pass with an extraordinary success.]

I notice that Belgo is constantly reaching to a pendant around his neck unconsciously throughout this trying period; the pendant is very strange, it seems to have been fashioned out of something that's a mystery.

[I fail my Persuasion roll.]

I'm trying to explain to Belgo that his father's behaviour isn't his fault, it is because of the illness of the Mirkwood, just like a physical ailment makes a man unable to run he cannot be blamed for being unable to control his emotions. Unfortunately he is too hurt by his father's actions and though he feigns acceptance of my words, I can tell the hurt goes too deep.

[Bride makes a successful roll on Healing.]

The Bride uses her knowledge of medicine and realises that the ailment is not entirely of the body; Baldor is going to need some sort of magical treatment. She knows that Radaghast, the patron of the woodsmen, will be able to heal this ailment.

I speak to the awoken Baldor who seems less manic than last night, but he still believes that it is soon after Smaug's attack on Lake Town and that he is seeking his missing wife and son. The party discuss how he can get him to keep up with us and Beran and I are very much against lying to a friend, but The Bride realises that we must lie to him to keep him with us.

[The Bride passes her Riddle roll by paying a Hope point.]

The Bride manages to Persuade Baldor that we are adventurers and refugees from the same attack on Lake Town and that we are trying to take him to a meeting with his missing wife and son with the Woodsmen. We untie his bonds and he agrees to walk with us for the rest of the journey.

[We make our fatigue test for the journey. The Bride fails. Beran fails. Trotter fails. All take a fatigue.]

We continue our journey along the Elf path; it winds deeper into the forest getting darker, gloomier and more oppressive. Our journey will take us 24 days in total we estimate.

[Corruption test. We all pass our corruption test.]

The road stretches before us, we are all wearied by our journey, but we are not falling foul to the grimness of Mirkwood. Baldor seems much improved with his goal of family at the end of his path, but his interactions with Belgo are still strained. He believes his son is 5 years old, and thus this teenage boy must be an imposter.

The Bride takes Belgo aside during the walk and explains to him that Baldor has a sickness of the mind from drinking the water, and that the lie she has told will guarantee he stays with them long enough to reach a Doctor. Belgo accepts this explanation and gives his father space to avoid causing more problems.

[The Bride uses her Leechcraft trait to guarantee credence to her argument.]

[Travel check: Bride fails, Beran fails, they both take a fatigue point. Trotter passes.]

The journey wears on, the overbearing darkness of the wood adding more pressure to the already hard march and wearing down on our party.

[Travel check: The Bride fails, Beran fails and they both take a fatigue point. Trotter passes.]

[Corruption check: The Bride fails taking a shadow point. Trotter, Beran pass.]

The grim woods keep on pressuring in on the party, the grimness of the journey has a deep toll on The Bride.

One evening late in the second week we notice that the canopy is thinning a little, we are starting to see the sky through the trees, it is still dark and grim, but at least there is hope on the horizon.

[Trotter passes an Awareness check with a great success.]

Keeping lookout as we travel I catch a glimpse through the trees that the forest is starting to sway, the wind is rising quite sharply. Shortly after I notice the sky becomes visibly darker and the wind becomes a howling gale. We decide that we should find a place to camp.

[Bride spends a hope point to pass her explore test.]

We struggle on through the woods attempting to find a place to camp, but without success. Suddenly the skies open and rain torrents down from the heavens, pooling in the trees and flowing down to the ground in thick rivulets.

We continue to search, but we are all drenched through until we see a hollow tree off the path with a thin plume of smoke curling from it.

We are conscious of the warnings of the Elves not to walk off the path, but at the same time , the weather is lashing at us and we have to make camp soon or we will risk falling ill, or worse.

The Bride heads off the path to examine the strange hollow tree. There is a small tunnel dug down underneath the hollow stump.

[The Bride passes her hunting roll.]

On the air the Bride detects the scent of cooking rabbit. Considering that this isn't a very threatening creature for something to hunt, she decides that this should be reasonably safe and burrows down into the tunnel.

Inside the hollowed out cave underneath the tree they find that there is a small ring of stones and a cooking fire in the centre of the depression, the walls of the stump are the sides of the room and the open top is thatched over.

There are strips of meat hanging up from strings on the ceiling, they have been smoked to preserve them. There is a single bed in the corner and in a hollow at the back of the room there are various jars of water and liquids and some fruit.

The Bride, passing her eyes over all this takes in the detail and realises that this place is a woodman's encampment: everything in the place is set up to mirror the trappings of a woodman's camp.

[The Bride fails her search roll.]

She notices nothing out of place, but decides that all five of us will easily be able to squeeze into this area and sit out the storm. Unfortunately the animals will not be able to get in.

I tie up the animals outside, making sure that they are not in a hollow and trying to make them as comfortable as possible.

[I make my perception roll.]

We all scramble down into the hole and I look around trying to determine the nature of the usual occupant of this place. While I am searching about I notice that the walls are covered with carvings of hideous creatures or faces dotting around the place. I point it out to Beran and The Bride and they are surprised by the strangeness of it all.

Suddenly we hear a scratching noise from the entrance tunnel and smell a foul stench. Something horrible-smelling is coming down the entrance tunnel into the room.

[I make a great success with my stealth roll to make myself unnoticed.]

The Bride calls out to whoever is entering, saying that we have sought shelter from the storm. Beran stands beside the tunnel with his axe ready and I melt into a shadow behind Baldor.

Eventually a rail-thin, aged man dressed in rags, stinking to high heaven pops into the tree. He shrieks in alarm and levels an axe at the Bride, waving it threateningly. He panics and demands to know what we are doing in his house.

[The Bride succeeds at her Awe roll.]

The Bride tries to calm the new arrival but adds a warning against attacking us. She manages to overawe the strange man and he calms down a bit, realising that the Bride is quite imposing and yet isn't attacking him.

[Beran passes his Insight roll.]

Beran evaluates the man as he stands close; his general frame is that of a man who used to be powerful and strong, and it is only the rigours of time that have worn him away; his frame is still quite large but he is skin and bone.

[Beran spends a hope point to make is Persuade roll.]

Beran calms the strange man further and shows him that the house is undisturbed and his dinner is still safe.

[I pass my courtesy roll.]

I step out from the shadows and bow and make a polite introduction thanking him for the shelter of his roof and the warmth of his fire in this terrible weather.

My introduction gives him the final calming he needs to settle him down and he takes note that The Bride is a woodsman, while mumbling to himself. He settles down at the fire and tears into the rabbit in a wild manner.

[Beran makes a great success on perception. The Bride passes.]

The Bride and Beran both notice through his tattered clothing as he eats that his wrists and ankles are worn from shackles and he has scars over his body.

He stops eating and replies that there is great darkness in the wood. It was gone for a while, but the light was being pushed back and the Shadow was returning. It is why he stays away from other men, because the Shadow sneaks into the hearts of men. He suddenly starts up from his meal, realising that he doesn't know who we are, he starts panicking that we could be servants of shadow here to hurt him. He reaches towards his axe.

[The Bride rolls a Gandalf on her Persuade check.]

The Bride shows some of the supplies we received from the Elves, arguing that we couldn't possibly be servants of the Shadow if we had been accepted by the Elves. Lightning fast the man snatches the bread from her hands and gobbles it down, savouring it and accepting that we are not evil.

While the others talk, I head outside the tree-stump to stand the first watch. It is no longer a seething monsoon, but the storm is still quite fierce, it is dark and there is lightning in the distance and the wind still howls, but it is clear that the worst of the storm has passed over us and the night will eventually clear.

Back down in the hollow, the man explains to the Bride that the shadow can be hiding in things as well as people, in eggshells, rings, anything! It is better to hold nothing so that nothing can be tainted. He hands the Bride his axe explaining that he has held it for too long and he needs to have it taken away from him.

COMMENTARY: The idea of corrupted objects is something I've seeded already with the Dwarfs' gift to the Eagles. It's intended to pay off much further into the campaign.

[Beran fails his craft roll.]

Beran is very suspicious of this sort of talk, but nothing about the axe seems suspicious to him. The Bride however, upon closer examination of the runes on the head realises that it is called Wolfbiter. It is an heirloom of the Woodland hall but it was lost ages ago when the chieftain's son was taken by Orcs. The Bride is taken aback, the axe is famous.

The old man insists that she take it back.

The Bride asks for his name, wondering if he is the son from the legend. The man says that he has no name, he doesn't need one. There is only him and he knows who he is. He no longer needs a name since they took it from him. The Bride asks how he will fend for himself without it, but he insists that he has a spear which he can use. The Bride tries to get more information about his past by expressing sadness that he may have forgotten who he is, the old man doesn't understand the question or the source of the sadness, so just pats her on the head comfortingly and then with no ceremony turns to his bed and falls immediately into a deep sleep.

-- Session –

We stand watches as the rest of the party sleeps huddling next to the embers of the fire. I lead, followed by Beran and then the Bride takes the morning shift. The storm continues throughout the night: my shift leaves me soaking wet and I have to dry my clothes off inside, Beran's shift is simply wet and the Bride sees the weather breaking.

Daylight breaks and we decide to set out on our way, the old man accepts our thanks and then chivvies us out of his house. The Bride gives him an extra piece of Elven bread as we leave which he takes with gusto.

Belgo and Baldor get the mules ready and we return back to the path and resume our journey to the west.

[Travel Check: Bride fails, Beran fails, they both take fatigue. Trotter passes.]

Our journey continues through the western reaches of Mirkwood, it is still a grim and unpleasant way, but things are certainly brightening up. The trees are getting less oppressive and in the distance through the trees we can see a ruined stone structures showing that at some point men did live in Greenwood the Great. We believe we are about a day or so travel away from The Forest Gate where the path will bend down to the Anduin.

[Corruption Test: Beran beats 16, Trotter beats 16, The Bride rolls 12 and spends a Hope point to beat the TN.]

COMMENTARY: This test is supposed to come the next day. As written, half the company failing forces them to stop for a break and most of them fall asleep. Those who have a Bout of Madness run to the well. I felt all this was far too unlikely to occur and relied on dice rolls that didn't have much to do with player or GM choice. So instead I decided to run the episode automatically, although they would have a roleplaying, rather than just die-rolling, opportunity to avoid it, and I moved the Corruption test up to the day before so as to disguise its connection to the well from the players: I wanted the slow, mysterious build-up.

We make a camp for the night with no incident and the day after dawns warm and bright, even though the trees are still shading the path we can feel the warmth of the sun seeping through at last. As we continue our march we begin to feel quite hot, a sense of sleepiness seeps upwards from the ground as the sun reaches its zenith, a river trickles melodically in the background reminding us of a lullaby. We tramp onwards, feeling the weight of this heat pulling at our load. Belgo starts whining about how tired he is and when we plan to stop for lunch. While we are discussing what we should do Baldor, has dropped down to his haunches and is already nodding off. Trotter is very much in favour of stopping for another breakfast, but the Bride and Beran want to continue with all haste to civilisation.

[Bride makes her Awe check.]

The Bride starts to chivvy Baldor into moving, reminding him that a dragon was behind us and if we stop it may catch up! Baldor is convinced by this argument and rouses himself a bit.

[I roll an eye of Sauron on my Persuade. Beran passes an Athletics roll.]

I try and mollify Baldor with promises of his wife at the end of the journey, however my arguments fall on deaf ears while Beran lifts him bodily off the ground with more success.

[I make a great success on my Awareness roll.]

As we are trying to convince Baldor to get up I notice out of the corner of my eye that Belgo has jumped off the path and run into the bushes. I chase after him to the edge of the path and just hear him shouting for his mother to wait for him as he runs deeper into the woods.

As soon as she hears Belgo running off The Bride gets this strange feeling that the Beast Of Mirkwood is out there. She loses her wits and charges off to face the Beast which is suspected to have killed her husband.

COMMENTARY: The adventure as written has this only happen on a bout of madness, and the Bride had passed her Corruption roll with a point of Hope. When Trotter didn't go after Belgo, I got worried however that the group would take the Don't Leave the Path thing too literally. I decided that the well-creature had managed to affect the Bride (who'd failed the initial Corruption roll), but in a way that would backfire spectacularly (she'd spent Hope): it gave her an image of what she wanted, and what she wanted was the chance to kill the Beast that murdered her husband. Cue one relentless woodswoman with an axe!

[The Bride fails her athletics test.]

The Bride's feet cannot find purchase on the dark and uneven ground and is losing ground on Belgo as he slips between trees and under branches.

In the distance she hears this voice calling out for its mother and then she hears an echoing scream. The Bride plunges on through the undergrowth. Baldor is panicking and wailing in terror.

[I fail my Awe roll.]

I attempt to snap Baldor out of his screaming fit by shouting some sense into him, but I have no effect, he continues blubbering and wailing.

[Beran spends a hope point to pass his agility check.]

COMMENTARY: At this point I'm using both Baldor and Belgo to throw as many problems at the PCs simultaneously as I can. It created a really enjoyable sense of panic.

Beran leaps into the forest after The Bride and strides through the forest in pursuit of the others.

The Bride bursts into a clearing where she sees a wild eyed, slavering, humanoid wolf standing over the unconscious body of Belgo.

COMMENTARY: Just as Belgo saw his mother, so the Bride is seeing the Beast of Mirkwood.

[The Bride makes a great success on her Valour roll.]

The Bride keeps her cool; as she sees the half-human monstrosity looming in front of her, she feels the reassuring presence of her husband's hound at her side, but also a strange resonance from the new axe, Wolfbiter, at her hip.

[The Bride enters combat in forward stance. The Beast is wearied by the dog's interference.]

The Beast lashes out at the Bride as she stumbles forward into the clearing; she has drawn Wolfbiter and is using her shield to protect her from this huge foe. She immediately sets her dog to harass the foe.

[Beast fails its attack roll.]

Between the Bride's skill at woodlands combat and the actions of her dog the Beast is off footed and cannot make its blows land.

[The Bride rolls 14 on her attack. Does 5 damage.]

The Bride returns the strike and Wolfbiter cuts into its flank, the Beast howls loudly in pain as the Bride screams defiance at the Beast for taking her husband; she will not allow it to take Belgo.

[The Beast fails another roll.]

COMMENTARY: The Bride's woodland Parry rating really helped her here.

The Bride manages to slip past another blow from the Beast.

[The Bride fails her attack roll. Does 5 damage.]

COMMENTARY: The Beast of Mirkwood has a Parry of 9, 5 higher than the Thing in the Well. I represented that by giving the player the higher TN, then told him she connected anyway. It worked very well in sowing confusion and suspense.

She makes another, hasty, clumsy attack but somehow the blow lands true and another cut opens in the Beast's arm. The Beast is howling in frustration at being cut by this little creature. At this point Beran comes stampeding into the clearing. Before him he sees the Bride and her dog fighting, but instead of a Beast he sees an old, ruined well from which protrude a multitude of writhing tendrils which are attempting to wrap around the Bride, but which she and her dog are slashing at and fighting off.

COMMENTARY: Giving Beran's player a completely different scene was a real WTF?! moment in the game. It definitely helped that I'd made them roll the Corruption test the day before – nobody got the idea that it was the Bride initially failing the roll that made the difference.

[The party makes Battle rolls. Beran rolls a Gandalf. One extra die earned for combat.]

COMMENTARY: I should have done this before, but forgot. Even after several sessions, there are still a bunch of little rules I'm forgetting.

[The Bride enters the Open stance, Beran charges into Forward.]

The Bride clears a bit of ground from the Beast to enter a more defensive posture, Beran charges into combat with all his momentum and cleaves into the mess.

[Beran succeeds on his hit roll. Does 9 damage.]

Berans axe cleaves into the mess of vines doing damage.

[Beast attacks Beran and succeeds. Beran cannot change stance and his parry is reduced to 2. Takes 5 damage.]

A tendril lashes out and Beran, wraps around him and seizes him tight. The Bride sees the Beast reach out with an enormous hand that wraps clean around his torso and holds him tight.

COMMENTARY: I continued describing the scene in two ways: so what Beran sees as a tentacle, the Bride sees as a huge clawed hand.

[The Bride fails another roll, but still connects doing 5 damage.]

The Bride fumbles another strike but amazingly it still connects landing another gash on the Beast.

[The Beast fails its attack roll.]

--

[Trotter spends a point of hope to Persuade Belgo.]

Back on the path I manage to persuade Belgo, through use of my story-telling trait, that the Elves have stories about the Beast that say that only people who stay on the path and don't run in panic will avoid the evil attention of Mirkwood. He is convinced by my argument and his panic calms a bit while he huddles down next to the pack animals. Seeing that he is not going to run I draw my bow and charge into the undergrowth after the others.

--

[Beran makes his hit roll and lands 9 more damage.]

Even though he is still snared by the vines Beran still swings his axe and lands a deep gouge through the tendrils.

[The Beast rolls a Gandalf and 0.]

COMMENTARY: A Gandalf and all three dice at 3 or less, resulting in the lowest possible score.

The Beast attempts to crush Beran within its coiling vines, but somehow it squeezes in such a way that Beran is able to worm his way free of his coils.

[Bride fails her roll, but still lands the hit, doing 5 more damage.]

The Bride once again makes a wide flailing swing, but the blow still lands cleanly and cuts it.

[The Beast fails its attack on The Bride.]

Distracted by its attack on Beran (which failed) the Beast is not able to concentrate on the Bride enough and she dances around its flailing claws.

[Beran stays in forward stance and lands a hit, doing 9 damage.]

Beran is still determined to be the hero in this scenario and keeps throwing his weight forward into the fight, cleaving heavily with his great axe without any regard for his own safety. His axe cleaves through a tentacle cutting it off.

[The Bride makes a great success in her attack doing 8 damage.]

The Bride finally finds her footing and lands a mighty strike into the Beast, cleaving deep into its arm; it is bleeding profusely from its many injuries.

Belgo regains his consciousness and is shouting in desperation for his mother, but the Bride sees that strangely he is shouting it towards the Beast. Beran however hears the echoing cries of Belgo's voice echoing from out of the well.

[The Beast misses its roll against The Bride.]

The Beast once again swings at the Bride but misses.

[I arrive in the clearing and go into the rearward stance to use my bow. Beran charges towards the well in forwards stance. The Bride remains in open.]

I finally reach the clearing and see the Bride and Beran engaged in combat with a writhing mass of tentacles coming out of an old well. I draw my bow and notch an arrow. Beran yells out a challenge and charges towards the well, slinging his Axe onto his back and reaching for his spear.

COMMENTARY: Because there were only two PCs seeing different things, the players had had no way of telling who was right. With Trotter's arrival, it suddenly became likely that the Bride was the one who was imagining things.

[The Beast makes a hit roll on Beran. Landing 9 damage.]

As Beran charges forwards one of the tentacles lashes out and hits Beran, wrapping around him.

[The Bride rolls a Great Success with a Gandalf. Doing 8 damage and potentially landing a wound. The Beast fails its armour check and takes a wound.]

The Bride makes a wide, cleaving strike, and Wolfbiter strikes through the Beast's shoulders cleaving its head straight off. As the Beast dies, the vision of The Beast Of Mirkwood fades and The Bride finally sees the tendrils for what they are as they retract into the well and disappear.

As the vines have retracted from Beran as well, I sling my bow and run towards the well, looking over the edge I can see that Belgo has landed on a ledge 10 feet down the well and is quite panicked. Down below the strange vines are pulling back into the depths of the earth taking various bones and remains with them. I reach out and yank at the rope on the well, it snaps because it is so old.

[I pass explore with great success.]

I look around the clearing and quickly locate some fibrous, normal vines which will serve in the place of a rope.

[Bride fails wisdom check with Eye of Sauron. Takes a shadow point.]

The Bride is confused by the sudden disappearance of the Beast and the loss of her vengeance, she suddenly realises that this wasn't the real Beast at all, just an illusion woven by the Mirkwood. The grim reality of the situation sets in and she is grief-wracked at the emptiness of the victory.

[Beran passes Awe test.]

Beran attempts to calm Belgo down by shouting to the ledge and letting him know that we are going to rescue him in a moment.

Beran and I use the vines I have uncovered to pull Belgo out of the well; he is completely terrified and panicked. He thought he was running towards his mother, but then ended up falling down a well. He is gripping his talisman white-knuckled and weeping profusely. We travel back to the path and our pack Beasts, and as we arrive we see concern in Baldor's face at the weeping child.

[Beran regains his heart score, 4, endurance for half an hours rest.]

Now that we are safely back on the path we sit and catch our breath with half an hour off out feet, letting the tension of the battle flow away.

[I use my true-heartedness to convince Baldor to help Belgo.]

Even though Baldor doesn't think Belgo is his son, I appeal to his good nature as a father to just offer some comfort to the poor child who has just been through a harrowing experience. He agrees that as a father himself he is the best man for the job and comforts Belgo, allowing the child to calm down a bit and the pair form a slight kindness to each other.

--

After our rest we continue our journey and as we move away from the well the weather feels cooler and our lethargy passes. Eventuall we pass through The Forest Gate and the trees open out into blinding sunlight as we pass from Mirkwood and see the Anduin winding from our right to the left and we finally reach the first real checkpoint of our journey.

-- SESSION –


Our route to Rhosgobel where we believe we can find a cure for Baldor will take us past Woodland hall, the capital of the Woodsman and where Baldor was intending to complete his trading.

We decide to get as far away from Mirkwood as we can, so we make a rather fast match down the rolling planes beside the Anduin which will take us through the lands of the Beornings and past Beorn's Hall. About five days later we will cross the forest road and into Woodmen lands. The land is a bit rougher and more wild. The Woodmen do not have a single leader so their lands are less well patrolled and organised.

On our first day out of Mirkwood I am very surprised to find a place that I have never heard of before, there is a building called The Easterly Inn. After our long slog through Mirkwood this homely inn comes as a pleasant surprise and place to rest, especially since it is run by two Hobbits! Dodi Brandibuck introduces his brother Dindy and his wife Agatha.

COMMENTARY: I figured this was an ideal time to introduce the inn for later.

[I use my smoking speciality to pass a lore role to introduce myself to the brothers.]

I break out my pipeweed and make a formal Hobbit introduction to Dodi and Dindy, we smoke our way happily while we discuss our families and how they might have known each other.

The others all speak to Agatha and get themselves a good meal and a room. Baldor is rather leery of the hobbits given that he believes that a band of Hobbits were responsible for Laketown's destruction mere days ago in his fractured memory, however good food and cold ale after the long trip through Mirkwood wins over his distrust a little.

COMMENTARY: I thought Baldor's trauma would be a good opportunity to remind people that Bilbo isn't necessarily fondly remembered by everyone.

There are a few other big men at the inn, Beorning and various races staying for a break on their trip.

I hear the tale of how Dodi met Bilbo Baggins at the Prancing Pony in Bree and heard all the amazing stories about the world east of the Misty Mountains. They spoke and got drunk together and eventually Dodi swore that he would at some point outdo Bilbo on his adventure! Bilbo encouraged this and eventually when they were sober they could not work out how they had decided to do it, but decided that with Laketown being rebuilt they could make a good business by creating an inn on the trade route, near Beorn's hall where it was relatively safe. Bilbo gave them some seed money and letters of introduction to Beorn and a few months later they managed to set up the Inn. They had a difficult first year, but now they are established and the Beornings are helping out, things are really taking off.

COMMENTARY: This info drop is all scheduled for later, but I thought it would be more natural to seed it a long time before. Given that Trotter is a Hobbit, I figured it would come up anyway.

We hit it off very well, and Dindy is very impressed by my pipeweed. He is actually back off to the Shire himself shortly to pick up some more supplies. He offers to take any mail I have back to the Shire.

COMMENTARY: Another way of tying the group to what will happen later as naturally as possible.

Agatha is very quiet and mainly lets her husband, Dodi, do the hosting thing while she takes care of the business. They have two little children, Dando and Rodri, who run wild around the inn playing with and teasing the family dog. It is a very large, patient, dog. The Bride is unable to place it's breed, it just looks like a stray, however her Beastlore allows her to notice that the dog is very alert, very fit and very gentle with the children.

Beran's Anduin Lore allows him to notice that the dog is actually one of Beorn's personal guard hounds. He must have personally sent it to the inn to take care of the family which is why it is so well behaved with the children.

COMMENTARY: Again trying to foreshadow the importance of the inn, while also letting Beran have insights into his home culture in preparation for Kinstrife.

[As the Easterly Inn is a safe, comforting place we can spend a night there and rest and regain a point of fatigue. We also gain 2+heart score endurance back.]

The next morning I write my parents a brief missive telling them that I am well and having adventures in the Wilderlands. I also include one of the trinkets I had brought for our diplomacy in the north marches but never used, as a keepsake for them. Dindy happily accepts and promises to see them delivered safely.

--

[Travel roll target 12. Bride passes, Trotter passes, Beran fails and takes a point of fatigue.]

Beran makes an argument for travelling to Beorn's Hall as we are passing it; he would like to see his homelands again and I reason that Beorn himself is a wise man and might be able to help Baldor.

We travel across the rolling hills and plains, a very easy journey, although Beran still makes heavy weather of it. His presence in our party gains us acceptance from the settlements and farmsteads we pass allowing us to rest in barns on our route.

On the dawn of the fifth day we finally get a glimpse of a row of oak trees ringing around a and a tall thorn hedge which forms a sort of a perimeter. There is a large gate prominent in the perimeter, it is open and welcoming and in the distance we can hear the drone of his massive beehives.

Beran leads us into the compound inside the thorn hedge, it is full of gardens and barns. The largest building is a Northmen hall which we head towards.

Beran approaches the main hall and knocks on the door to introduce us to Beorn. As he reaches the top of the steps and opens the door to the hall he notices as he enters that there is a man he recognises by the door, one of the first warriors to pledge allegiance to Beorn, a huge man called Merovech The Mighty. He is a very dour individual, a very tough person and is Beorn's right hand man. He rises from his seat as Beran enters and makes to greet him.

Beran asks about Beorn but is told that the master is out on one of his travels. He tries to explain to Merovech the problems that we encountered in Mirkwood in the hope that he might have some knowledge of how we can help him.

[Beran fails his Persuade roll.]

Beran is unable to properly communicate our problems, all he manages to convey is that the water of Mirkwood has infected some of our party and he informs us that bringing such tainted people into Beorn's house was not wise, and he orders Beran to take us to the guest housing outside the thorn fence.

COMMENTARY: Although I generally want the players to meet notable people, I didn't want to give the idea that Beorn was simply on call for them (especially given Beorn's generally antisocial tendencies). So instead I took this opportunity to introduce Merovech. Unfortunately, Beran didn't get on terribly well with him – I was playing Merovech as a figure of distant authority, and Beorning are expected to be able to take care of themselves.

One of the other Beorning leads us outside to a small hut in copse of oaks. It is pleasant enough, but clearly not accommodation for honoured guests. Without Beorn's presence we doubt that we will be able to get any useful information about Baldor's affliction, so we travel on southward to the Forest Road.

We decide to not stop at the Woodland Hall en route as The Bride is certain that Radagast will be the best person to give us the help we need.

[Again, Trotter is the Guide and Lookout, while the Bride is the Scout and Beran the Hunter]

Our journey is uneventful as I plot a very smooth route across the lands of the Woodsmen. The lands are much more sparsely populated than those of the Beorning so we see fewer people. Our route cuts us slightly closer to Mirkwood because the town we are aiming for is just inside the Mirkwood.

[Bride makes a great success on her explore roll.]

The Bride remembers the route to Rhosgobel well and we have no problems at all completing our journey to the town.

-- SESSION –

We arrive a Rhosgobel at long last, the settlement is a rather nice wooden cabin inside a stockade, there are animals wandering around the area.

[Bride makes her Awe check at 18]

The Bride boldly announces herself to the Woodsmen there as a returning champion who has travelled the world for a year and conquered the Easterlings having returned home.

A wizened old man opens the door, animals and birds fly around him through the doorway. The Bride recognises him as Radagast the Brown. He welcomes us into his house there a stew is on the boil. He introduces us to a Woodsman, Thorismund of Woodland town.

The Bride introduces the rest of us and as Radagast notices Baldor and Belgo he enquires about them, allowing the Bride to discuss the purpose of our visit, the misfortune of Baldor in Mirkwood. Radagast invites us to sit and eat of the vegetable soup he has and muses on how he can help Baldor.

After we have been seated for a while a woman called Heva arrives, she is a warrior woman and is much more talkative than Thorismund, who is enjoying his soup in quiet.

COMMENTARY: I'm running Words of the Wise after this, so take this opportunity to introduce some of the characters who recur there.

[The Bride fails her insight roll.]

Sizing up Heva the Bride dismisses her as a weakling, not a cause for concern.

During the course of dinner Radagast and Heva fill us in with tales of the Woodlands from the past year that The Bride has been wandering. There are tales of Orcish activity in the area, but it is being driven back. This part of the forest has become lighter and the Mirkwood seems to be less threatening, Woodman town is less of a front light bastion and is becoming more settled. There is a lot of traffic from the mountains and things are certainly looking up.

The Bride is pleased that her homeland is doing so well. Radagast agrees, but cautions that people cannot let their guard down as Baldor's experiences indicate.

The Bride relates our encounter at the Well with the illusion of The Beast Of Mirkwood, doubting her sanity in the regaling of the tale. Radagast assures her that if Belgo and her both saw something different then it was not madness in one of them, most likely the Shadow was playing on Anger, or Fear, or some other dark emotional anchor to play to.

Radagast is interested by the fact that Belgo had fallen into the well, but did not seem overly concerned. He did inquire further about what the Shadow could have latched on to that might have caused its emergence.

The Bride relates the story of her dead husband and comprehension, and compassion blooms on Radagast's face as he recalls the tale of the unfortunate Bride. We also notice that Thorismund is paying more attention to us at the mention of this story.

Belgo is awestruck by Radagast; he has not said a word since finishing his meal, but he does confirm the Bride's experience.

Radagast is quite surprised that the Shadow showed her an illusion that would cause her to fight rather than the illusion Belgo saw which lead him helplessly to doom.

After the story is related in full Radagast asks us to tell him the of the well so that he may investigate it himself.

I stop stuffing my face at this point and join in with my experience, that I did not see any illusion, but I describe the animated vines a little better than the Bride had.

Radagast proposes that he has some ideas for how he can help Baldor and allows us to stay here while he works. I tell a little lie to Baldor that the Wizard has asked us to stay for a while so that he can examine Belgo for harm that might have happened down the well, however I notice that Baldor has retreated into himself in a depression, he has clearly begun to suspect our story isn't true given how much travelling we have done without seeking out his wife. On the contrary, Belgo has grown in responsibility and is taking more charge of the camp, his relationship with his father has cooled a bit, almost like he is trying to dismiss the broken man from his life.

In the week we spend resting at Rhosgobel, Radagast is not around very much, however we do learn more about Thorismund. He is so taciturn because an illness swept through the area from the south and his wife succumbed to it, becoming widowed has made him grim and withdrawn.

Heva and Thorismund are watching over the house for Radagast and acting as our hosts while he is travelling. Eventually Radagast returns and tells us that he may have a way which can recover Baldor's memories, but it requires us journing a way into the forest to Woodmen-town. Radagast accompanies us on this journey acting as our guide.

[The bride fails her explore roll with 9.]

Our journey is relatively uneventful, we seem to take longer than expected to find Woodmen-town given that we are practically in The Bride's own backyard, but other than that the journey is uneventful.

[Bride makes great success on travel. Beran passes with a Gandalf. Trotter succeeds.]

Woodmen-town is a strange place; it is not quite abandoned, but it is clear that in the past it was far more populated than it presently is. It sits in a clearing amongst some trees, there are several homesteads clustered around a gigantic wooden lodge, clearly an ancient structure. Woodmen-town is no longer a very populated settlement, but it used to be the central settlement for the Woodmen and its headsmen are afforded great weight in gatherings of the Woodmen people. It is the spiritual heart of Woodman society. The hall is called The Hall Of Balthi, a Woodman hero from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

The hall is lit by a strange, blue light from one end and Radagast leads us towards it. The Bride knows that this is where the greatest treasure of the Woodmen rests. It is called The Lamp Of Balthi, but it is suspected that it is simply named for the place it resides as it is much older than the Hall and the hero in question.

It is a very ornate, huge lamp hanging from the ceiling, its glass panes are stained glass, decorated with detailed pictures. The blue light which is sheds when the cover is removed from it is peaceful and beautiful. The glasswork is picked out in gold and the image shows a warrior leading an old man through the wood towards a dark fortress. The Woodmen attribute healing powers to this artefact.

Radagast leads Baldor into the light and he is bathed in it. Radagast bids him to sleep in the light of the lamp and dream his memories back. He whispers something in Baldor's ear which causes him to slip into a deep slumber. Radagast lowers him gently down in the pool of light and then the Woodsmen set up curtains around the area to give him some privacy.

After this small ritual is complete the Woodsmen sit us down for dinner and we spend the rest of the evening relaxing.

The next morning Baldor awakens and his memory has returned, there is a warm reunion as he is reunited with his son, but it is also bittersweet as the realisation of the loss of his wife strikes him afresh.

COMMENTARY: Again, I don't like deprotagonising the PCs, so I introduced this as a way of letting them be the heroes, as well as introducing a bit of Woodsmen culture that otherwise wouldn't be seen.

While we rest in Woodmen-town the Bride seeks out the family of the Lost Prince and she reluctantly returns the Axe she received from the old man in the woods to them.

[Bride passes her song roll.]

She sets the tale of the Axe's recovery to song and tells them the tale of the lonely warrior and the battle with the Beast.

[Our adventure completes and we move into the Fellowship phase. We earn 5 experience points. This phase will carry us across spring and into the summer. We all regain a point of hope for our fellowship focus surviving unwounded.]

[The Bride spends 8 advancement points to boost her song to 2. She raises her long hafted axe to level 3. She swaps out her distinctive trait of Gruff for Proud.]

The Bride spends her time in Woodmen-town, spending time with her people and hearing tales of the area. She is also slowly coming to terms with the loss of her husband as her personality becomes less grim.

[Beran spends 8 advancement points to boost his craft to 2 and 4 points to boost his stealth to 1. He passes his craft roll with a Gandalf, clearing 2 shadow points.]

Beran returns to the Easterly Inn to work with the Hobbits in an attempt to clear the gloom that has been hanging over him from our trek through Mirkwood. The wholesome work in cheerful company brightens his outlook significantly.

[I spend 4 experience points to boost my valour and earn a reward, the Bow of the North Downs.]

COMMENTARY: This was invented by me along the lines of the Blade of the North Downs. I felt it was more appropriate for a Hobbit, and the Blade struck me as a bit too overpowered.

I spend my summer helping Radagast with small errands and trying to learn things from the strange Wizard of the woods.


COMMENTARY: Next up, Words of the Wise. Comments welcome!

Brilliant descriptions!! Keep them coming, what I am particularly impressed with is the level of detail over what I call the 'five senses' stuff - ie what can the PC's see, hear, smell etc?

As a curious GM who would love to run a session like these, how do you or your players recall enough of what happened to put it down in writing? I have found that my players only recall small details of a session, and my memory is even worse!

I also like the fact that you seem to have got the 'spirit' of the game (when to make ad-hoc die rolls, allow PC's to do things etc.)

Robin S.

I too have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and following along the story. The commentary additions are also nice to give us a "behind the thought process" peek.

I see lots of calls for skill tests, etc.

The one thing that I do not see is much of any invoking of traits for either auto-success or after success for the purpose of advancing.

I only bring this up because I feel this is the one area when most player groups struggle to fully grasp and utilize effectively.

When I was running games myself, the players really had a hard time fully grasping the concept and applying it. Finally a friend of mine was wanting to try his hand as LM and so I got a chance (rare chance among my circle) to be a player. As someone who spends a great deal of time on this board, and working on my own games, I feel I do have a good understanding of that system, and after two games of using my traits to great effectiveness -- but also completely in line with the roleplaying and the story - the other players around me have finally turned on the lightbulbs above their heads and they're now beginning to narrate and roleplay the use of their traits.


Thus I wonder if this is something that you're just not detailing, or if you group isn't really using this mechanic all that much. I think if they are, regaling us with how/what they are doing would go a long way towards helping other people envision how to use them, and also would immerse us in the story even further since the traits and distinctive features are truly the cornerstone of a character's design. (more so than skills, and attributes especially).

I'm really glad you're enjoying these and many thanks for the compliments!

Most of them need to go to Trotter's player, though. These aren't actually after-game reports, but during-the-game minutes. While I'm describing the scene, Trotter's player is furiously typing (which might be why the sights-sounds-smells bits are prominent). I then edit that, mainly for spelling and very occasionally for clarity, and add my commentary as LM.

The traits thing is something which we've also taken a long time to grok, and we very occasionally do use them, but the players have tended to consider it 'cheating'. I still remind them every so often, and I've given them information 'for free' in the past because I know they have the relevant trait, and I tell the players that's why they got it.

A couple of issues exacerbated their reluctance, I think. First and foremost, these are pregens, so the players didn't choose the traits themselves and don't have them at the front of their minds. Secondly, because we didn't really remember them at the start, one way of getting Advancement Points was closed off and the characters weren't advancing. As a result, we ruled that the first success against TN14 or higher gets you your first AP in the category, no matter your trait. Then the second requires a great success or a trait, and so on. That meant, however, that a mechanical reason to remember your traits had disappeared.

Nevertheless, I have noticed a bit more use of them recently (we've just finished Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit - I'm a bit behind on posting these!), so maybe they're coming round. Trotter likes to find reasons to use his smoking trait, and the Bride changed a trait after Don't Leave the Path in order to reflect a shift in her character. Beran tried to appeal to his mountaineer trait when they were in the goblin caves and I had to veto it. So I think the traits are entering play more and more, but I agree it's definitely one of the parts of the system that takes some getting used to.

Nice APs as always Ovid.

An enjoyable read and the commentary is really very interesting indeed.

I'm always impressed by all the adjustments you make to help things flow e.g. making rolls early and carrying the results forward so players don't link the two directly, building in the thread of corrupted items, allowing the PCs to intervene and stop Baldor running off when the original adventure planned for it and then weaving it back in later on. Great improvisations!

Reading your APs always gives me lots of good ideas and makes me want to do a better job of LMing my own campaign. So many thanks for sharing. Please keep the write-ups coming.

Thanks, Fictionaut! I'm really glad this can be helpful. As for how I run the game, one of the things I really like about TOR is that it inspires this sort of play and really rewards just running with things. The system is so well tailored to the feel of Tolkien that you can wander off the path (pun intended!) and still be sure you'll get the right vibe. It breeds confidence in your own story-making abilities.

And that reminds me of something I ought to have responded to Robin when he complimented me on the sight-sound-smell stuff. A lot of that is in the descriptive text boxes in the scenarios themselves. I was previously always a skeptic when it came to 'read this to the players' type stuff in scenarios, but these really spark the imagination.

Anyway, back to the AP:

Words of the Wise

COMMENTARY: This scenario has been changed most, simply because I didn't want to send the group back across Mirkwood only to come back to the Anduin and then return again for the Crossings of Celduin. So I stripped it for the initial hunting scene and the attack on Woodland Hall, and decided to use the rest elsewhere. Unfortunately, the plan for the rest depended on Baldor getting taken by the Spiders, so I'll probably end up reworking it somehow. Anyway, that's not an issue quite yet.

-- SESSION --

It is now the summer, our time spent between the mountains and the forest has been fruitful and relaxing. We have gathered together in Rhosgobel and are resting up in preparation for us all deciding to move on with our adventures.

The summer is full of Woodman festivities, including a hunt! We are all gathered outside the main Hall and have been invited to attend. We are assigned a hunting party with four other woodsmen Amalric and Evoric as well as Thorismund and Heva. Children are running around and hunting dogs are straining at their leashes, it is barely controlled chaos. Amalric and Evoric are very excited and telling us about all the rich game in the woods around Rhosgobel, they are chattering hopefully about tracking down a great stag.

We get the feeling that the grim Thorismund is being included with the hunt to raise his spirits after the loss of his wife.

The chiefs of the local Woodsmen are gathered and talking with each other, and eventually their discussions come to end, they bid each other good hunting and return to their various parties. The gates are swung open, the hunting horns bellow and the crowd roars in support as the various hunting parties proceed through the palisade. Once we are outside, Amalric, the leader of our party, directs us due east into Mirkwood. Mist clings to the trees and there is a chill bite in the air as the breath of the morning is still fresh in the air. Amalric and Evoric are bragging and boasting to other parties about what they will bring back. The hounds are released and ranging back and forth ahead of the parties, coming back to demand their owners catch up with them.

As we ride I talk to Amalric to ask why this celebration is happening. He tells me that it is midsummer's eve, not quite the longest day of the year. The Woodsmen often go for big gathered hunts to compete amongst themselves, this one just happens to be a special hunt for this particular day.

COMMENTARY: This is an example of something I really like about the TOR products. They have very evocative descriptions, which means it's easy to riff off them and give them extra background. So the scene of the hunting parties is in the text, and I was easily able to come up with a bit of cultural background as to why it was happening in such a festive way. Note that this changes the context a bit from the original published version. There, darkness is gathering in Mirkwood and the hunt is to gather food for the approaching winter. Here, the PCs are rested, it's summer and joyous, and the bloodshed will come as a surprise.

Eventually around noon, the parties begin to drift away from each other and onto their own hunts.

We are on a path into Mirkwood, but the undergrowth is very thick pressing in on either side.

[Beran fails his Hunting roll.]

Beran has some experience of hunting and decides to chance his arm at finding some game for us; unfortunately the soft living with the Hobbits over the last few months has dulled his senses and all he managed to find are the tracks of the hunting dog.

A bit shamed by Beran's fumbling attempts at tracking, the Bride directs him to take over looking after the hobbit and sees to finding tracks herself.

During all this Heva is looking rather unimpressed by all the bragging and boasting, she is a warrior rather than a hunter, and just tags along with Evoric as part of tradition.

[The Bride passes her Hunting roll.]

Eventually the Bride comes across some strange tracks that she cannot identify; they are definitely animals, probably reasonably large game rather than rabbits, but the sign is broken branches and disturbed moss rather than prints so she cannot make them out. She raises the sign to the rest of the party and Amalric salutes her fine eyes, but even he cannot make out what the sign could be.

Meanwhile Beran and I are bringing up the rear of the party, Beran regaling me with tales of the wonderful breakfasts that he had eaten at the Lonely Inn over the past few months, leaving me rather jealous.

Amalric cedes leadership of the party to the Bride as she leads us on after the trail and after a while we find a place where the trail seems fresh. He suggests that he sneak forward to see what is there. However I leap forward hoping to be of use to the group offering myself as a scout.

[I make a great success on my Stealth.]

I vanish into the undergrowth like a whisper, surprising everyone and manage to whisper through the trees, eventually finding a clearing with a great stag and five deer grazing. I toy with the idea of bringing the stag down with an arrow, but realise that the others might take offense if I take the kill, so instead I drift back to the group and tell them of the great find.

Amalric and Evoric are excited by the possibility of such a fine haul start proposing a plan.

Amalric and Evoric will be going for the stag along with the Bride.

Thorismund, Heva, Beran and I will try and bring down some of the rest of the deer.

COMMENTARY: In the original scenario, the NPCs go one way and the PCs another. That's probably a better system. I don't recall why I split the party here, and it worked out fine, but in retrospect I should have stuck with the scenario.

Each group approaches the clearing from the opposite side, silently approaching the grazing animals.

[The Bride spends a Hope point to achieve a great success on her Stealth roll.]

The Bride's party slides up to the Edge of the scrub, so close they can smell the great stag as it feeds.

[I pass my Stealth roll.]

I lead Thorismund close to the other side of the clearing and notch my bow, while Beran and Heva sweep out wide to be ready to catch any runners.

The two groups get into position and both attack, the Bride throws her spear at the stag.

[The Bride rolls a success with an Edge on her attack.]

The Bride launches her spear perfectly and it plunges into the stag's side dropping it immediately to the ground as the spear must have pierced its lung.

[I roll an Edge on my ranged attack.]

At the same time I loose an arrow perfectly into a deer's neck dropping it instantly. The remaining deer panic and bolt towards the deeper forest.

[Beran spends a Hope point to pass his Athletics test.]

Beran makes a bit of a bad start, almost stumbling over his feet, but he catches himself and leaps in the direction that the fleeing deer were making off. Heva is hot on his heels chasing towards them as well. The deer streak away into the woods, but Beran and Heva sprint after them. Amalric and Evoric have sprinted off from the stag after the running deer. The Bride and her dog also set off at a sprint after the fleeing deer.

I realise that there is very little chance of me catching up to running deer on my legs so I stay in the clearing and retrieve my arrow. Thorismund stays with me, a disapproving look on his face as he watches the other hunters dash off wildly.

[Beran passes his Athletics test. ]

[The Bride fails a harder Athletics test]

COMMENTARY: Beran got a lower TN because he and Heva were explicitly positioned to catch runners.

Beran manages to keep light on his feet and sprints through the woodland keeping pace with the deer.

The Bride was, unfortunately, too far across the clearing to keep up with the running and she loses sight of the others in the wood, so drops back to a walk and returns to the clearing.

[Beran makes a great success on his Athletics.]

Beran manages to find a wellspring of endurance and closes the distance a little bit, enough to throw his spear.

[Beran fails his Throw.]

Beran's spear sails wide, but Heva makes a perfect throw and skewers one of the other deer straight through. Amalric and Evoric give a cheer as the deer drops and continue the chase while Beran retrieves his spear from the branches and tries not to look embarrassed.

[The Bride passes an Awareness test.]

As the Bride gives up on the chase, she notices that her hound is very, very tense and is peering intently towards a slope that leads upwards from the clearing.

The deers are taking off parallel to the slope with the other hunters chasing.

--

Back in the clearing Thorismund is showing me how to bind up the deer for carrying back when suddenly there is a thunk and he collapses to the ground with an arrow in his back. I immediately dive behind the body of the fallen deer to keep it between me and the archers. Thorismund is wounded, but not down, he stands and draws his sword hissing "Goblins!" and throws me his hunting horn, telling me to get help.

I take a deep breath and blow the horn for all I am worth as five Orcs shamble out into the clearing and face off against Thorismund.

--

In the woods Heva hears the horn and shouts to Beran that there is danger, and runs back.

--

The Bride hears the horn as well, makes note of the place where her hound balked, and then runs back towards the clearing.

--

As the echoes of the horn fade away the Orcs, looking slightly wary, continue to advance towards Thorismund. He circles around keeping himself between me and them. Dropping the horn to the ground I notch an arrow and loose it into an Orc's eye.

[I roll an Edge on my shot, hitting.]

COMMENTARY: This is Trotter's opening volley.

The arrow flies true, straight into the eye socket of one of the Orcs; it grunts in surprise and then collapses to the ground. The Orcs are surprised, but they keep advancing. Thorismund smiles grimly at the good shot.

From the slope upward behind the Orcs we see another flight of arrows sailing towards us. We cannot make out the position of the archers, but there are at least three people.

All the arrows fail to find targets and the four Orcs pull themselves together and charge towards Thorismund.

--

At this point the Bride reaches the Edge of the clearing. Approaching from the Orcs' flank, she sees one fall and the arrows sailing out of the trees, but she realises that the Orcs are a bigger threat to us than the archers and charges towards the Orcs from their blind side.

[The Bride spends a Hope point and makes a great success on her Stealth roll, approaching the Orcs out of their field of vision.]

--

[Combat is properly joined. The Orcs are charging forward getting close to Thorismund and myself, so I cannot take another shot. Thorismund is Defensive and I am in Open stance and he is attempting to cover me.

The Orcs have not seen The Bride so she goes forward stance, in an all-out attack.]

[The Bride and I both fail battle rolls.]

The Bride smashes into the Orcs from behind with her hound harassing the enemy.

[The Bride passes her attack, using her axe two handed. Doing 7 damage.]

The Bride smashes her axe two handed into the Orc's back causing it to scream in surprise and anger.

[I spend a Hope point to pass my short sword strike with a great success, landing 9 damage.]

I make a deep cut on the Orc that attacks me, causing it to squeal in anguish. Thorismund attempts to strike at another Orc, but the blow doesn't land.

[Orc lands a hit on me. 4 Damage]

The Orc I had struck lands a hit back on me, knocking me back on my heels, and the other two slash wildly at Thorismund, but he manages to fend them off.

COMMENTARY: I ruled that the Bride's Orc wouldn't get a chance to attack back on the first turn since she'd got a great success on her Stealth roll.

[An arrow hits Thorismund]

Another volley of arrows whistles out of the woods, some miss, but a second arrow lances into his chest. The force pushes him backwards and he stumbles over the deer landing on his back.

COMMENTARY: Thorismund doesn't actually have any stats, and in the text it's Evoric who's shot. Here, Evoric and Amalric had both been drawn away by the deer, so I nominated Thorismund for the 'privilege' of getting hurt – I felt it fit his tragic backstory. I allowed the damage he took to work more narratively than anything else, so the first hit doesn't put him out and he's still there to protect the hobbit, but the second does now that the PCs are returning to the spotlight. I'm counting him as Weary from here.

--

[Beran passes his Athletics check.]

In the forest Heva and Beran are sprinting back towards us. Sensing that there is serious danger, Beran puts everything into his wild run and managed to close the distance to the clearing a little more.

COMMENTARY: With Thorismund falling to arrows while protecting a hobbit, and Beran and Heva rushing back through the forest to rescue them, yes, I was thinking of a certain movie scene.

[Beran spends a Hope point to pass his Stealth test.]

As he gets closer to the clearing Beran sees the arrows come flying out of the wood and, shouting to Heva, directing her into the melee, he veers off towards where the archers are and gets behind them.

--

[Bride passes her attack roll with a great success. Landing 10 damage in total.]

The Bride makes a huge, wide sweep cleaving the Orc's head straight from its shoulders.

[I spend a Hope point to land an Edge blow with my sword.]

I put all my strength into a desperate lunch, plunging my sword upwards into the Orc's groin, sliding straight through its armour and cutting deep. The Orc lets out a shrieking high pitch whimper and collapses to the ground.

[Thorismund lands a great success hit on one of the Orcs from his position on his back].

Thorismund makes a huge sweep across the belly of one of the Orcs, staggering it backwards and putting them off balance and in each other's way so they cannot land their attacks back on him.

COMMENTARY: A narrative conceit to keep him alive long enough to give the PCs a chance to be heroic and save him.

[The archers from the wood fire on The Bride]

The archers shift their fire onto the closer target, The Bride after she managed to decapitate the Orc, but there must be some confusion amongst the archers because their shots go wild leaving her unharmed.

--

Beran slides through the trees along the slope as if he is stalking prey and comes up behind three chattering goblins who are in the process of pulling back their bow.

[Beran spends a Hope point to pass his Awe test.]

Beren roars out of the undergrowth, his Axe high and a scream of rage in his throat. The first goblin panics and breaks as soon as they see him, while the two others reach for their wicked knives. They flail desperately at the charging the Beorning but fail dismally.

COMMENTARY: I get the impression that Intimidate isn't a terribly useful combat action, even against Craven opponents. Beran's player enjoys it, though.

--

Heva charges into the clearing below, she will be within range of the melee shortly.

--

[The Bride goes into Open stance. I pull back into Rearward.]

COMMENTARY: Now that both the Bride and Thorismund are fighting, Trotter can do that.

The Bride presses her attack on the wounded Orc, but as she tries to reposition herself around the decapitated corpse she mistimes her swing and misses.

[Orc lands an Edge hit on The Bride for 4 damage. The Bride makes her protection test.]

The Orc makes a counter attack which slashes through her leather doublet and opens up a nasty, jagged cut across her chest, but the armour holds the blow back just enough to not wound her.

[I land a hit with my bow doing 5 damage.]

I plant an arrow into the spine of the Orc that Thorismund had wounded, landing it deep and collapsing the Orc into a heap on the ground.

Thorismund takes this chance to clamber to his feet, but his movements are laboured; the arrows have grievously wounded him.

COMMENTARY: This is instead of his attack.

--

[Beran goes into Forward stance. The Bride stays in Open. I stay in Ranged]

[Beran rolls a great success on his attack. Doing 17 damage.]

Beran cleaves the first goblin completely in two with a double-handed swing of his axe; the second one, showered in gore, takes to his heels.

COMMENTARY: Not strictly RAW, but plausible. I give the players the chance to describe their killing blows, which they quite enjoy.

[The Bride fails her attack roll. The Orc rolls an eye of Sauron on its return strike. The Bride rolls a Gandalf on her armour and avoids the wound.]

The Bride misses another swing at the remaining Orc, and its counterattack slashes back, not managing to cut through her armour, but still knocking her about.

Thorismund misses his attack: he is so weary and can barely stay on his feet and he misses.

[I pass my ranged attack, and land an arrow in the shoulder of the last Orc doing 5 damage.]

Heva is screaming out of the woods and is nearly into the fray.

–

[Beran passes his Athletics test.]

Beran sprints after the last goblin who is running in blind panic through the trees, and he is much faster than it and closes the distance.

[Beran spends a Hope point and passes his attack roll.]

Beran swings his axe overarm in a huge sweep as he stumbles out of the end of his dash, it plunges into the goblin's shoulder. Digs deep and sticks somewhere around its lung.

Heva charges into combat screaming at the Orc to try and terrify it, but the Orc is too enraged to care and simply keeps on fighting.

[Bride rolls her hit and does 7 damage on the final Orc.]

The Bride makes a feint high and then carves deep into the Orc's leg as it tries to block the first blow, she severs an artery and the Orc drops to its back in a shower of oily blood.

--

With all of the Orcs dead Thorismund's adrenaline deserts him and he slumps to the ground from the arrows in him, I rush over to help him and with the Bride's medical knowlEdge she manages to staunch the wounds and keep him stable. Amalric and Evoric finally return from their run and join Heva in moving round the clearing beheading the remaining Orcs.

COMMENTARY: Regarding traits, one of the oddities of the Bride's character is that she has both a high score in Healing and leechcraft. That strikes me as redundant, but I use the trait here for a bit of colour and let her tend to Thorismund, even though there's no mechanical reason according to the RAW.

Once we are certain everything is dead Amalric directs Evoric to accompany Heva and Beran as they head out down the trail to bring back the deer they brought down in flight. Once we have everything in the clearing the six men lift up the three animals we have brought down and I bag up the Orc and goblin heads and drag them in a sack behind me.

--

We return to Rhosgobel and we find the gates to the stockade open, other hunting parties have returned and we see that they have been in combat and there are other wounded amongst them.

[Beran recovers 3 hope points; The Bride 1 from the Fellowship Pool.]

-- Session –

COMMENTARY: The issue at this point was how to bridge the initial hunting scene and the final assault, now that I'd removed the embassy to Thranduil. The original adventure works wonderfully for what I understand it was designed for: an introduction to different parts of the system that can be played at cons. So there's the scene where Radagast essentially tells the PCs what's going on and sends them to the Elves, but in my version I wanted to leave it more open so that the players would have input into precisely what was going to happen. I had partly in mind something similar to what I'd run for Shadow Over Dale, where the PCs have to contact other Woodmen settlements and gather them in time to protect Woodman Hall. But as it turned out, the PCs came up with a much more proactive idea and I had to run with that.

--

After we have returned to Rhosgobel even parties that return later than us without wounded are reporting seeing large movement of strange beasts in the woods. The people inside are reinforcing the barricade and messengers are being sent out to nearby Woodman settlements to warn them of the darkness moving.

Beran examines the tattoos and trappings of some of the shadow creatures brought back and his knowlEdge of the mountains to the west reveal to him that these tribes are from the Misty Mountains.

While Beran is examining the body Radagast comes striding through the crowd, speaking to people. Once he reaches our group he begins examining Thorismund's wounds and treating them with herbs and poultice.

While treating Thorismund, Radagast asks us about what happened and as the one at the start of the battle I describe the initial attack.

The village headmen are organising a headcount as the day wears on and the daylight fades into dusk, the last few groups coming into the stockade are being identified and noted.

Beran observes that it is very strange that these Goblins would travel so far from the mountains, and especially that they would be ranging in the woods to hunt for people on the very day that those people would be in the woods, separated and hunting themselves.

Radagast agrees that it is very unusual for goblins to be this far east of the Misty Mountains.

[Bride passes her Awe check.]

The Bride manages to convince Radagast that her experience in open battle would be valuable in a council of war and he agrees and invites her, Beran as a representative of the Beornings and me as a great slayer of Orcs.

COMMENTARY: Of the five Orcs who'd attacked them in the clearing, Trotter had killed (either outright or by finishing off) three of them, whereas the Bride had 'only' killed two.

We enter the meet and first everyone sits down to a hearty meal which I enjoy. While eating I track down Amalric and ask him, as one of the last people out of the clearing if he noticed anything, were the Orcs waiting for us, or hunting the deer. Amalric says that he got the impression that the Orcs were waiting by the hunting paths for us rather than the animals. He did however observe a strange sigil on the shield of one of the Orcs, it was a gridiron like pattern, a square crisscrossed. Usually these sigils are animalistic or warlike, he has never seen an abstract one before.

COMMENTARY: This is the first hint of the Big Bad I've dropped, but in order not to make it too obvious later I described it as a grid rather than a cage, assuming that Orc art isn't terribly photorealistic. It's a riff on the white hands that Saruman used in the movies: a crude form of Orcish heraldry.

The atmosphere in this meet is much more quiet and grim than usual, normally singing and music and shouting are par for the course, but today the food is consumed in silence. Once the meal is finished Radagast dismisses most people aside from the war council, he seats everyone in a circle at one end of the hall, everyone mixed in with no one seated higher than anyone else. It is a much less formal affair than Dale even though the topic is still very grave. There are dogs seated around the outside of the ring and some people are smoking pipes.

Radagast takes a few puffs of his pipe and then begins to speak. He has listened to all our talk and has decided that the Orcs are remnants of the Battle Of The Five armies which have drifted south after the battle and are trying to take advantage of us spread out through the woods. He throws the discussion open to the floor to see what plans the gathering has.

[The Bride fails her Inspire roll.]

COMMENTARY: I should have been using the Tolerance rules, but I consistently forget to structure Encounters properly.

The Bride rises to her feet and attempts to make a rousing speech about chasing the Orcs out of their homeland, but she comes across badly, either due to sounding a bit hysterical in the grim atmosphere, or because she is stating the obvious. She returns to her seat. Another woodsman rises to his feet and states that they should seek the help of the Elves, if the Orcs are ranging south then they threaten the Elven homes as well.

[Beran spends a hope point and passes a Riddle roll]

Beran responds to this argument by pointing out that if the Orcs have already moved south they have passed the Elves and we would be better seeking help from Beorn.

COMMENTARY: At this point I was still thinking in terms of the PCs gathering support from other communities, but I didn't want them to go as far as the Elves. So I had an NPC bring it up only to give a PC the chance to torpedo it and replace it with something closer and more tied to the PC's background.

Amalric rises to his feet next and asks if Beran is saying that he could obtain aid from the Beornings.

Beran, considering the situation realises that the Beornings are not the most open people and any organised help will have to be a result of Beorn himself giving direction which will then gradually spread out throughout the families as a plan having Beorn's approval, and as a cantankerous and mysterious man that cannot be guaranteed.

COMMENTARY: Through Amalric I put Beran's player on the spot here and he shied (perhaps because of his earlier failure with Merovech), but I would have run with it if he'd decided to go that route.

Radagast speaks up that what concerns him is, if the creatures are just trying to reach the mountains safely, why are they not trying to sneak past quietly, why would they be openly engaging in combat.

COMMENTARY: This is part of the build up to the Big Bad. The players should get the impression that something is wrong.

At this point The Bride speaks up about the strange pattern that Amalric had seen on the shields of the Orcs, suggesting that it might indicate there is some higher organisation behind them than just refugees fleeing from battle. Radagast agrees and expresses great concern over this development. He asks if other than sending word to the Beornings, what else should be done.

[Bride passes a Hunting roll.]

The Bride rises again and points out that the Woodsmen are hunters, we shouldn't be lying in our homes and waiting for Orcs to sneak in and kill us in our sleep, we should be out hunting them. There are murmurs of agreement and Radagast looks satisfied and leaves the planning to the Bride, telling them that as the Orcs are likely coming from the north we should range northwards past Woodmen Town and Woodland Hall. With that he adjourns the meeting and returns to his house to deal with others matters.

COMMENTARY: Radagast leaving the planning to the Bride was essentially me wanting to tap the players for ideas as to how the scenario was about to run. I knew how it would end, with the assault, but had very little idea what I wanted to do in between. So knowing that we were approaching the end of the session and thus we'd all have time to think it over, I threw the decision to the players.

As Radagast leaves everyone turns to The Bride for guidance, she sets out a plan of dividing ourselves into smaller groups, large enough to protect ourselves but small enough to be less noticeable. Amalric, Evoric and Heva join The Bride and ask to be part of her group as they were impressed by how she fought.

[Beran critically fails his Battle roll.]

Beran states that we should make our strategy to take out the new leader of the Orcs as the best way to scatter a horde is to remove their leadership. However he has been a bit too deep in his cups and does not make his point very well.

The Bride organises the parties for next morning so that we can set out at first light and then we all retire to our rest.

-- Session –

The Bride's plan is for Woodsmen parties to travel east to the river and then move northwards on the western bank, an area where these creatures are not often found. The first place we will reach will be Woodmen-town and then later we will reach Woodland Hall. The Bride decides to take some of the more experienced warriors and travel up on the eastern bank of the river.

We project our journey will take 2 days to reach the river then 15 days up to the Town, then 10 days up to the Hall.

The next morning Radagast visits me before we are about to leave. He has a wrapped hide item with him. He congratulates me on my tales of felling three Orcs. Thorismund will be a steadfast companion of mine in the future, but in the meantime he would like to give me a gift to protect me.

He unwraps a bow called Heartsbane, a relic of the previous civilisation much like the hobbits, it has been waiting for many centuries for such a brave owner. He doesn't go into any more specifics about where it has come from, but it is definitely very old.

[I obtain my King's Bow. If I roll a great success it is automatically a piercing blow.]

COMMENTARY: According to RAW, you get your Reward as soon as you raise your Valour, but Trotter's player wanted me to integrate it into the story more naturally. I figured Trotter's success against the Orcs was a pretty good opportunity. I made sure to give the bow a name, and also hinted at the old hobbit culture that Gollum comes from.

Trotter takes the bow, strings it and tests its pull. It is strong and yet feels slightly lighter than would be expected for a bow of its size.

Radagast leaves Trotter to my preparations for departure and returns to his business.

After we have completed our preparations we gather the party and set out into the forest.

[Ellen, in charge of the party, has to be the Guide, we take the rest of the responsibilities as so:
Guide – Ellen, Scout – Amalric, Lookout – Trotter, Huntsman – Beran]

COMMENTARY: The first thing was something I insisted on, since the Bride came up with the plan. In this part I'm essentially turning the NPCs into GMPCs. It's an exploration scene, where the PCs won't necessarily know what to look for, so having GMPCs on hand helps me to feed them information, both background fluff and on what to do, as well as to head off any really off-base ideas. Essentially, I use them to keep the story moving and prevent the players getting frustrated. The GMPCs should never do the PCs' jobs for them, but they make good conduits for putting the PCs in position for doing the jobs in the first place.

I am showing off my new bow as we ride, contrary to good practice I have it strung and am wearing it across my back so that everyone can see it.

[Travel check: Trotter great success. Beran fails. Bride fails. Failures gain a fatigue point.]

It takes us a couple of days of travel to reach the river through Western Mirkwood, during the first night of our travels things begin to sound strange. We hear this rhythmic tapping noise in the distance that regularly increases in tempo as if something is skuttling faster. We hear it all through the night and during the day.

[Valour test: Bride fails, Beran Fail, Trotter succeeds. Failures lose a hope point.]

COMMENTARY: This is the Tap-Tap-Tap... Hazard from the Additional and House Rules. It completely freaked the players out so I may bring it back at some point, but only if I can find an actual meaning to it – it wouldn't do to give them a recurring threat that didn't mean anything. I'm using the Revised Journey Rules at this point.

The unnerving noise penetrates into the good spirits of the party and sets everyone on Edge. The noise is definitely very strange, some times it is close, sometimes it is distant. Its timbre and quality change as well.

[I pass my Awareness check.]

On the second day after the noise appeared during the night I spend the journey attempting to work out what the sound is. I'm unable to determine exactly what it is, but it is certainly not getting any closer to us and doesn't seem threatening. I dismiss it as a trick of the forest.

At the end of the second day we reach the river and set to work crafting some rafts.

COMMENTARY: One regret I have is not taking them to the Black Tarn and using the River-maidens, especially since they'd already encountered the Lamp of Balthi. I was just so focussed on the Orcs and setting up the attack, that it didn't occur to me. It may have been too much of a distraction, though.

[Beran makes a great success on his Craft roll.]

With the help of the Woodmen, Beran manages to strap us together some very sturdy and serviceable rafts. They are robust enough that we could use them to punt ourselves upstream, but Ellen decides that we should just cross and travel on the other side as we had planned.

Once we disembark we all notice that the tapping sound has stopped following us, however it doesn't lighten our mood much as the forest on this side of the river is very dark and foreboding. Gnarled trees twine together making the way almost impenetrable. We decide to stay close to the river rather than risk forging any deeper.

COMMENTARY: The Loremaster's Map has the west bank as 'border lands', and the east bank a full two categories worse as 'Shadow lands', and I wanted to reflect that strongly in the description. I also show them [url-http://www.jonhodgson.com/Jon_Hodgson_Illustration_3/The_One_Ring/Pages/s.html#15]this image[/url]. I try to combine description and Jon Hodson's art as much as possible, describing first and then showing them the image. Typically that primes the players with a certain idea and then they get a 'holy shit!' moment when they see the art. In this case I compared it to the image on p.90 of the LMB, to represent Mirkwood on the west bank.

[The Bride spends a Hope point to pass her Travel Roll as the guide.]

The Bride seems unfazed by the gloomy, foreboding atmosphere and leads us confidently along the riverbank to the north.

Amalric is scouting ahead of the group and I walk along with him, asking him about why this particular part of the forest is so grim. Beran takes Heva and ranges out a short distance into the wood to look for Orc tracks.

Amalric tells me that the forest used to be called Greenwood The Great, but many hundreds of years ago a Darkness entered the forest and it acquired the name Mirkwood. The men of the valley have kept their people alive and thriving on the Edges of the wood, but the deep forest is still a place of darkness and evil.

[Beran succeeds at his Hunting roll.]

Beran and Heva range out parallel to Amalric trying to find signs. Two or three days of hard travel northwards Beran discovers some crudely made rafts which have been tied to tree roots in a small inlet, shielded from the current of the river. He finds some tracks of Orcs and goblins in the area. This is clearly a place where they cross the river to raid settlements. From the pattern and number of prints Beran deduces that it is an Orc raiding party of around 20 Orcs. Beran decides to cut the rafts free so that the next raiding party will be delayed.

At this point Beran observes that even though Orcs and Goblins do not like daylight, the woods are so thick that there is very little daylight penetrating, so we do not get much protection.

Amalric and Evoric are in favour of continuing on to Woodmen-town, Heva backs up Beran and says we should either hunt them down or lay an ambush. She wants a chance to kill some Orcs.

Amalric suggest that we mark the trees on this side with some sort of symbol to let people know that the Orcs used it as a crossing.

COMMENTARY: I want to leave the decision up to the players as to what to do, so use the GMPCs to present arguments on both sides. That gives me the chance to clarify the situation while not forcing a single decision on the group. Having said that, I didn't want them to over-obsess about this one crossing – I felt that Beran had already come up with a good idea by cutting the rafts free. So when it came up in the discussion as a reason not to progress, I used Amalric as a mouthpiece to head that particular concern off. The background here is that the group will sometimes be far too conscious of all the things that could possibly go wrong with a plan and fall into decision paralysis, so if I think I see that developing, I try to cut it off. Having a GMPC offer an in-character and in-universe solution is preferable to me explaining OOC why the player's character wouldn't have to worry about a certain eventuality.

Once we have left a sign in the tree-trunks facing the river we cut eastwards into the forest away from the river. Heading deeper and deeper into the wood, following the tracks. The passage of the Orcs is reasonably easy to discern as they have just trampled through the undergrowth.

After a day's worth of travel we have not found anything, but we make a very rough off-the-trail camp for the night with the intent of continuing to follow the trail the next day.

[We make Wisdom tests: Trotter Gandalf, The Bride fails, Beran fails. Failures takes a point of Shadow.]

The night spent deep within the boughs of Mirkwood weighs heavily upon the party, thoughts are consumed with the dread of the darkness and the fear of what might be out there.

The next day Amalric resumes scouting out ahead of the party and later on in the day we hear the animal call he had told us he would use to warn us he has found something. We quickly approach his position and see what he has discovered, an abandoned encampment. It has seemingly been abandoned very hurriedly, bags are still scattered around the places.

COMMENTARY: I probably should have let the Bride do this. I'd fallen into the trap of thinking of her as 'the Guide' of the group who made the Travel rolls, but the RAW allows people to make up to two other rolls per day and I should have used that to incorporate her more into the narrative.

[I make my Stealth check.]

I volunteer to scout out the encampment and make sure it is really empty. The others agree and swiftly I vanish into the undergrowth.

[I make an extraordinary success on my Search roll.]

I find lots of piles of abandoned food stinking up the place, and also hidden amongst some rags just by the Edge of the clearing, I locate a very old, rusty leg trap. I remember its position but do not trigger it so they don't know we are there. Other than that there is not much lying around, some old pieces of equipment and some stored provisions, all Orcish so not edible. The camp has not been abandoned for years, but it could have been left for weeks or months. Amongst all the detritus and rubbish I notice a saddlebag with the L monogram that I remembered from Dale.

I return to the group and explain what I had found and show them the Lockmand saddlebag. The bag has been owned by, and used by Orcs for a very long time, it stinks of Orc and inside is mulched provisions a few coins and some Orcish trinkets. Nothing really of note.

COMMENTARY: Linking this in to the main story and Lockmand here. I'm establishing this area as infested with Orcs: what's unusual is not their presence, but their aggressiveness in coming across the river in such numbers.

Having found this settlement we think it unlikely that we will locate another settlement by ranging out from this one. It appears to just be a staging point for raiding parties and is likely to have visitors from all over the wood, so we head back to the river.

[Wisdom test: everyone passes.]

We make our way back to the river, the night weighs less on our minds as we know we are heading back to the brightness of the river, and we are comforted that the camp behind us is empty.

[Beran fails his Hunting roll.]

During our foray into the deeper woods, Beran's hunting becomes less and less succesful as game becomes more and more scarce. In the end we have to settle for only eating a few misshapen rabbits and some rats.

[Everyone takes 1 point of journey fatigue.]

COMMENTARY: These are the revised journey rules in action.

We return to the Dusky River and resume our journey north along the river towards Woodman-town.

[Trotter fails Awareness check. Everyone takes another point of travel fatigue.]

The woods are so dark and twisted that I find myself jumping at shadows, I keep shouting out alarm and rousing camps only to find nothing. The constant stress and interrupted sleep wears everyone down.

Eventually we arrive in sight of Woodmen-town and after signalling to the guards we cross the river and enter the town. We find that some of our other groups have already reached the town and passed through on their way to Woodland Hall. After we enter I immediately find the nearest place with food and make up for several days of missed breakfasts.

The Bride makes enquiries of the local guards to see what the other groups have reported. The guards report that there have been many sightings of Orcs in the local area, especially down to the south, though no one was aware that they had been raiding as far as Rhosgobel. Although the town has always been vulnerable due to its position in the woods, the people had hoped that the forest had become slightly more reclaimed, these recent events have brought fear back.

The guards also tell us that the Orcs appear coordinated, they make light raids in areas to draw a concerted defence there, then hit one of the abandoned, lightly defended areas and do more damage. The attacks on Rhosgobel follow a series of probing attacks to the north which drew away some of the defences that might have screened the Orcs.

COMMENTARY: Another indication that something's leading the Orcs now. It was the Bride's player's initiative to ask, and in that case I don't like to be stingy with information and didn't use the Encounter rules. Generally I try to be a fan of PC initiative and of plot momentum and anything that unnecessarily complicates that I ignore.

We decide to spend a day resting in Woodmen-town and an evening in a warm bed with a fire and good food allows us to feel a lot more relaxed.

[All regain 1 travel fatigue.]

We inform the guards of the town of the position of the river crossing and the nearby Orc encampment we found. They make a note and plan their patrols and guards accordingly. They also ask if we plan to travel up to Woodland Hall and gather the others before we cross over the bank and take all our groups as a warband into Mirkwood. Heva is certainly in favour of this plan so that she can make up for not having fought in our battle at the hunt.

COMMENTARY: At this point there's no new information the PCs could get from the east bank, so I want to get them to Woodland Hall.

The Bride agrees and decides that we will follow the western bank of the river to reach Woodland Hall where we will gather more people.

[Travel Check. Bride makes great success. Trotter passes. Beran fails and takes fatigue.]

The Bride and the other Woodsmen clearly make much better going through this less oppressive terrain. Beran still makes heavy going of it, clearly missing the mountains. Now that we are in the lighter wood our passage is less impeded and we make much better speed.

[Trotter great success on Awareness.]

On the evening of the third day I see light glinting off metal in the woods on the other bank moving northwards, near parallel with us on the northern bank. We are quite close to Woodland Hall now, and since it is close up to the river, it seems like the most likely target for a group.

I suggest to The Bride that we should push ahead through the night and try to warn Woodland Hall. The Bride is rather unimpressed that our hunting party is simply running ahead of the Orcs rather than actually hunting them.

[We all make Travel rolls. The Bride fails, Beran spends Hope and succeeds. Trotter succeeds.]

COMMENTARY: I gave them the option of taking another Travel test to get there early.

We decide to force our march into the night and arrive in Woodland Hall early the next morning. The small town is surrounded by a stockade and a hEdge and is close to the bank of the river. There is a small fishing community and some gold panning looking for ore washed down from the mountains. In the centre of the village is the eponymous Woodland Hall.

Stumbling up to the gates of the settlement the guardsmen recognise us and we are allowed through the gate. There is already a lot of commotion in the settlement but people still notice that we are exhausted and road-weary. Our report of something moving northward up the Eastern bank causes a greater commotion and one of the chiefs nods and tells us that this matches up with information that they have received from their scouts in the North that raiding bands are gathering from the North as well as the South. He asks us if we can lend our help to the defence of the Hall.

We note that there are many of the other scouting groups who managed to cover the distance faster than us so the Hall has more fighting men than are usually present and we are in a good position to defend.

Out of the corner of our eye we notice that Radagast has somehow arrived at the settlement as well and is speaking to the chieftains about organising rings of combustable material outside the stockade.

[The Bride fails her Battle roll, Beran passes his roll.]

Beran suggests that we do not try and stop any advanced raiding party that they send in to open the gates, but once they have entered the stockade we can butcher them before they manage to open the gate. The Chief proposes that the woodmen form a perimeter and allow the first group through to us inside the stockade, then we can stay in the centre of the settlement and act as a reserve force to support the rest of the defences if there is a break in the line.

COMMENTARY: The text states that the PCs should act as a reserve, but it was Beran's player who came up with the idea of letting a small group through. Or Akira Kurosawa.

[I fail my Battle roll.]

I try to convince them that we might be able to encourage a scouting incursion by making our defences look weak at one point, but my knowlEdge of battles is only drawn from tales and I am not very convincing. The Chief humours me by thanking me for my thoughts but that he doesn't believe we will have any problems encouraging the Orcs to attack.

The day wears on and the Hall continues its preparation, then the ranging scouts return and report that a band of Orcs has crossed the river to the north and is now marching south towards the town.

The evening wears on in silence then suddenly all sound stops, the world goes deathly quiet and out beyond the ring of firelight we see moonlight glinting off metal.

[I make a great success on my Awareness test.]

Thinking back over our journey since Woodman Town I suddenly remember that we have not heard the strange tapping even when we crossed back onto this bank.

COMMENTARY: I'd used the scout reports to give an impression of ever-closer danger, then decided on a sudden calm before the storm. It occurred to me that this change in sound would remind the PCs of the tapping, so I had Trotter make the Awareness roll. I still didn't know whether it would have any meaning, but thought it might work as a spooky call-back. All-told, it turned out to be a remarkably effective Hazard from a story perspective.

The silence breaks. With an unholy howl the Orc horde surges forwards through the ring of firelight and smashes into the stockade. Many fall to Woodman arrows, but waves and waves more push forward and assault the settlement. After the attack has been joined for a few minutes, just as we suspect a group of Orcs manage to force through the stockade and head towards the gate to try and open it.

[Battle roll. Beran succeeds. The Bride and Trotter fail.]

Beran has picked an excellent spot for his ambush and as the 6 Orcs run towards the gate they do not spot him until too late, he leaps out of hiding and throws his Easterling spear at the nearest Orc before charging into combat.

COMMENTARY: He picked up the spear during Shadow Over Dale. This is the Opening Volley.

[Beran fails his spear throw.]

His spear sails wide, not hitting the Orcs but alerting them to our presence, they turn and four of them begin to charge towards us while two continue towards the gate.

COMMENTARY: I'd decided that the assault force would be made up of Orc Guards rather than Orc Soldiers, as described in the text. This was also because of how easily they'd wiped out the Orc Soldiers in the forest. Two went for Beran and two for the Bride.

[I spend a Hope point to pass my archery test and make a great success. My King's Bow lands a wounding hit on Orc1. Also causes 9 damage.]

I loose an arrow from my new bow and it flies straight and true into the Orc's breast, but its armour must have been exceptionally well made as the arrow deflects off from his chest and hits him in the flank.

We notice that these Orcs seem a lot tougher than the ones we dealt with in the forest, their armour seems more tightly bound and better quality and they are all wearing shields.

[Orc1 spends hate to reduce damage. Orcs counter-volley. The Bride is missed, Trotter is hit for 8 damage. ]

One spear goes sailing high and passes over The Bride's head. The second spear whistles through the air and lances deep into Trotter's leg, wounding him heavily.

COMMENTARY: The second Orc rolled a great success. I was being merciful, so decided that only two Orcs volleyed. The melee then starts, with Beran in Forward, the Bride in Open and Trotter in Rearward.

[Beran rolls a great success and hits. 15 damage landed on Orc1.]

As the first Orc is smirking and pulling Trotter's arrow out of his side Beran swings his axe downwards cleaving deep into the Orc from shoulder to sternum collapsing him to the floor in a bubbling mess of black blood.

[The Bride rolls a great success and hits. 8 damage landed. Orc3 spends Hate to reduce damage.]

The Bride scores a deep axe strike on the Orc scoring a wound into its arm. It grunts in surprise and rage flashes in its eyes.

[Orc2 strikes at Beran but misses.]

The other Orc attacking Beran is so shocked by the mangled mess of its brother flails wildly with its spear but cannot connect.

[Orc3 strikes at the Bride but misses.]

Between the Bride's combat skill and the harassment of her dog, the wounded Orc fails to land a hit on The Bride.

[Orc4 lands a solid hit on The Bride with Edge. The Bride takes Knockback to reduce the damage to 4 and her armour turns the Edge.]

The other Orc lands a solid strike on The Bride knocking her off her feet.

[I spend a point of Hope to land a great success on Orc3 with my bow. His armour absorbs the Edge. 9 damage landed, but he spends Hatred to reduce the damage.]

I launch an arrow towards the wounded Orc attacking The Bride and once again it looks like it is going to plunge straight through him, but his armour turns the arrow and it plunges into his arm. He is swaying on his feet and looking extremely weak.

COMMENTARY: We're finding armour to be really, really effective in this game, although I suspect I forgot to apply the Bride's dog's wearying effects to the Orcs' Protection rolls. I got a bit out of sequence here, completing both sides of the melee before letting Trotter shoot.

[Beran spends a point of hope to land his Axe into Orc2 doing 9 damage. The Orc uses Hatred to reduce the damage.]

Beran pulls his axe out of the remains of the other Orc and cleaves it into the flailing Orc, he damages it quite heavily but the attack has snapped it to its senses and it resists the pain and focuses on the fight.

[I land my attack on the heavily wounded Orc3 causing 5 points of damage.]

I land another arrow into the already wounded Orc bleeding him even further, he screams in anguish.

COMMENTARY: I got the order right this time. The Bride took Knockback this round, so doesn't get to attack.

[Orc3 attacks The Bride.]

The raging, screaming, wounded Orc swings back at The Bride but strangely as he lunges his aim goes wide and the spear flashes past her head.

[Orc4 attacks The Bride.]

The uninjured Orc also swings for The Bride at the same moment, but as with the wounded one, his spear flails wildly and misses completely.

In a strange moment, through the rage of battle and the clashing of weapons, as the Bride is still reeling from the blow she stumbled away from the world suddenly goes still and brittle like snow. In the distance, but somehow as clear as daybreak, we hear the sound of female voices singing.

[We all regain a point of Hope.]

COMMENTARY: One of the Orcs rolled a Gandalf, triggering Radagast's special effects. The players aren't told it's from Radagast, of course, and I think they still don't know.

[Beran makes a great success on Orc2 with his axe roll and lands 15 points of damage.]

Reversing his previous good swing, Beran drives his axe through the second Orc's gut almost up to his spine spilling his guts onto the floor and crumpling him to his knees.

[The Bride makes a great success on the wounded Orc3.]

The Bride, regaining her footing makes a strong stroke, severing the sword arm of the wounded Orc and then beheading it on the floor.

[I roll a Gandalf landing an Edge attack against Orc6 trying to open the gate.]

Realising that the gate is in danger of falling I turn and target one of the Orcs at the gate, sending a shaft from Heartsbane which, true to its name, plunges straight through him pinning him to the gate. The other Orc at the gate turns and stares in panic as he sees the rest of the raiding party fallen.

[Orc4 fails its attack on The Bride.]

Now that her dog is focussing its attention on the last Orc attacking her it cannot land its blows properly and it flails wide.

While the battle rages on we notice that we can hear the faint sound of birds of prey in the trees above us, out in the battle the Orcs' numbers are being thinned strangely as Orcs vanish into the darkness overhead.

COMMENTARY: This is one of the magical effects, this time triggered by Trotter's Gandalf.

--

[Beran charges towards Orc5 attempting to open the gate and makes a great success on his Awe roll.]

Beran charges towards the gate lathered in Orc blood and screaming like a demon. The last Orc panics and draws its sword and shield, but it is absolutely terrified of the monster bearing down in it.

COMMENTARY: At this point, I should perhaps have split this into two separate combats and forced Trotter to enter melee, but I was imagining him standing somewhat back with the Bride to one side of him (at 10 o'clock) and Beran and the gate to the other (at 2 o'clock).

[The Bride spends hope to land a great success, but Orc4 spends Hatred to reduce the damage.]

The Bride lands a heavy attack cutting deep into her assailant's arm but the wound simply seems to make the Orc more angry. Its eyes flash with rage and it redoubles its attack.

[I fail my attack roll and miss Orc4.]

I loose another shaft, but the sudden surge of rage in the Orc means it has just shifted its position and my arrow flies wide of the mark and embeds itself in the ground.

[Orc4 tries to attack The Bride but cannot land a hit.]

Although seemingly reinvigorated the last Orc threatening The Bride has still lost enough coordination that it cannot land its spear, its stabs past her but keeps its balance.

--

[Beran lands a hit on the remaining Orc5 at the gate. Doing 9 damage but it spends Hate to reduce it.]

Beran crashes into the remaining Orc at the gate his axe smashing against its shield and knocking it back against the gate. The shock of the impact snaps it out of its terror and it sets itself to striking back at the Beorning.

[The Bride misses Orc4.]

The battle in the settlement rages on as The Bride tries to land her axe on the remaining vanguard Orc facing her, but it has regained its footing and manages to slip around the blow safely.

[I spend a Hope point to land a great success and an Edge on Orc 4. The Orc's armour stops the wound. It spends Hate to reduce the 9 damage I do.]

Once again Heartsbane launches an arrow straight into the Orc's chest, but again the superb armour this vanguard force is equipped with turns the shaft aside and the scratch it leaves on its neck only serves to inflame it further.

[Orc5 lands an attack on Beran for 5 damage.]

At the gate the Orc facing Beran lands a slight blow leaving a nick on the back of the Beorning's leg.

[Orc4 lands an attack on The Bride for 9 damage. Knocking her back for 5 damage. The Bride is weary from her injuries.]

The Orc facing The Bride, barely driven on by hatred and adrenaline, takes advantage of her wide swing and lands a fierce attack on her, once again knocking her from her feet and knocking the wind out of her.

--

[Beran lands a great success with his Axe on Orc5 doing 15 damage.]

Reeling backwards from the wound the Orc landed with its last attack Beran suddenly surges forwards with the butt of his axe and smashes the Orc's voicebox, it chokes and splutters but falls to its knees at it suffocates.

COMMENTARY: Beran's player is really good at coming up with inventive ways of describing killing Orcs.

[I land my attack. Orc4 spends a point of hate to reduce the damage from 5.]

Heartsbane launches another arrow towards the Orc attacking The Bride, but my aim is not true and the arrow only punctures its leg, enraging it further.

[Orc4 lands a heavy attack on The Bride. Her armour turns the wound and she is knocked back from her feet again taking 5 damage.]

Still fuelled by adrenaline and desperation the last Orc cleaves at The Bride again and nearly cuts her in half, fortunately she stumbles backwards onto her haunches again and her armour turns the blow aside.

COMMENTARY: The Bride's player was getting really desperate by now, having to take Knockback again and again. This combat was the first time we'd made use of this, and I felt it gave a good way of increasing PC survivability without skimping on the sense of danger at all.

--

As Beran turns back from the two dead Orcs at the gate he sees that there are two more Orc soldiers who have sneaked through the lines and is running to join its brother in the attack on The Bride.

COMMENTARY: The text has this happen when the PCs roll a Sauron, but I just added these guys to keep the pressure up.

[Beran spends Hope to successfully Awe.]

Realising that The Bride is in danger, Beran roars a challenge and charges at the two recently arrived Orcs, shocking them out of their plan to attack The Bride and forcing them to turn and face his Axe.

COMMENTARY: Instead of treating this as an Intimidate, I let Beran distract the Orcs from the Bride and begin the combat proper next round, the logic being that they're actually closer to her than him and so it would require a bit of screaming and movement to get them into combat with him.

[The Bride is knocked back and getting to her feet.]

The Bride struggles back to her feet from the near fatal blow she suffered.

[Trotter spends a point of hope to land another arrow into Orc4. It spends another Hate point to reduce the damage.]

I focus all my attention into a shot and another arrow slams home into into the critically wounded Orc, it is barely still standing now, but it still swings.

[Orc misses The Bride.]

The Orc's swings go wild as the hound keeps harassing him away from its mistress.

COMMENTARY: Orc4's completely out of Hate by now and would be Weary if it weren't already that from the dog.

--

[Beran lands an Edge blow against Orc7.]

Charging into the two new arrivals Beran's axe cleaves straight through the Orc's shield, continues onwards through its arm cleaving deep into the underside of the armpit and collapsing it to the ground where it slowly bleeds to death.

COMMENTARY: This was my mistake. I should have let the Orcs attack first, as the defensive force.

[The Bride lands a hit against her assailant finally killing it.]

A weary Bride lands a blow with all her weight behind it, sinking her axe deep into the Orc's chest as it crumples to the ground.

COMMENTARY: The battle between the Bride and Orc4 was epic. Between her use of Knockback and his Hideous Toughness, it turned into a relentless war of attrition.

As the last Orc falls before The Bride's axe, suddenly, unexpectedly day breaks! Radagast is striding through the battle seemingly dragging daylight with him. The Orcs panic as the sunlight falls upon them and they break and flee into the woods to the north.

COMMENTARY: I can't recall, but either Beran or the Bride rolled a Gandalf here, thereby triggering the end of the battle.

- Fellowship Phase --

[We earn 3 experience points each for our efforts in saving the town.]

[The Bride spends 6xp to raise her wisdom and learns a song of healing.]

[We all devote ourself to working at Woodland Hall and establishing it as a sanctuary for us in the western part of the world.]

COMMENTARY: I screwed up this Fellowship Phase. According to Don't Leave the Path, returning the axe Wolfbiter automatically makes both Woodland Hall and Woodmen-town into Sanctuaries. I only noticed this later, and so offered them two Undertakings in their next Fellowship Phase, after Of Leaves And Stewed Hobbit. They chose to make the Easterly Inn a Sanctuary too.

Of Leaves... is next, and will probably have fewer Commentaries since I ran it with only light changes.

Keep them coming! In regards to Encounters, see the 'Encounter walk-thru' thread above. I find the Additional guidlelines at the start of TfW to be the best for judging encounters.

Robin S.