Hi folks,
I've just completed Don't Leave the Path, and my group have expressed interest in going back into Mirkwood and rescuing the Hermit. Given that the scenario was a bit linear (as you would expect from an introductory scenario) I'm really keen to let them have a crack at this, but also to put in some real decisions / dilemma's for them to argue over

The scenario gives us some basic information about The Hermit - he was a Woodmen hero that was captured and imprisoned in Dol Guldur until Gandalf forced the Necromancer out. During his imprisonment he went mad (his permanent Shadow score must look like a telephone number), and he's handed his shard of Woodbiter over to the fellowship who have duly handed it to the elders of Woodmen Hall. This clue should allow them to identify who the Hermit once was, and I'm thinking that he still has some relatives who would be keen to join the group in going back and rescuing him. So how to make it a little more complicated ?

Here's some ideas I have, and suggestions greatly appreciated


Is there any way back for him, can he handle life amongst his people again ? How can he get past the horrific treatment of his guards during his imprisonment at Dol Guldur ? I don't want the fellowship to travel to Dol Guldur itself - that's too big a piece for them to bite off at this stage. Maybe he has personified his fears into a malevolent spirit in the woods near his hovel ? Plenty of orcs and goblins would have fled when Gandalf did his thing at Dol Guldur - maybe some abominable creation of the necromancer lurks in the woods near to the Hermit, keeping the suffocating shadow alive around the Hermit ?


The relative from Woodmen Hall that accompanies the fellowship on their rescue mission may not want him to come back home. There may be something hidden in the Hermits memories that implicates the relative in a crime. Or maybe they don't want any other relatives to see what has become of their hero.


The shattering of Woodbiter may reflect the shattering of the Hermits mind - perhaps re-uniting the shards and re-forging the axe would help bring peace to him (this would also make the Dwarf in my fellowship really happy )


Some half formed ideas folks - any help in fleshing them out would be really really appreciated. I want to give the fellowship some choices to make, even moral dilemmas whilst retaining the Tolkien feel to the whole scenario.

What if he was an Elder or some type of leader among the Woodmen involved in either Words of the Wise or the other adventures in TfW?

They either love to have him back; or perhaps the one who stepped-up while he fled into Mirkwood suffers from some sort of corruption appropriate to your scenario & resents his return?

Just some quick thoughts...

Here's a storyline plot I am developing that may have some merit to your goals:

The PCs have just finished Don't Leave The Path and are about to meet Beorn at his hall.

NPC Beorning's mind is locked/shattered/fragmented (close to being catatonic really) much like Hermit for completely unrelated reasons. PCs need info from him, but need to get past his "shadow" that haunts his thoughts dreams.

Someone suggests if there was a way to remove his memory (even if temporarily) of whatever it was he saw that destroyed his pshche' perhaps they could learn from him the important details he has.

Ultimately this should lead the PCs down the path of using the stream near the spiders that stole Baldor's memories. But how to make this more precise - as that seemed to rob exactly 5 years; this is a different amount of time. Eventually they are steered towards Radaghast who has some knowledge on this magic. Radaghast indeed has a 'recipe' to make this more precise.

This then leads to another adventure of a) getting recipe ingredients, or Radaghast wrote the recipe down and it is elsewhere - needs to be retrieved, c) Radaghast can't remember all of it d) any combo of the above.


SO _ perhaps for your purposes:

a_) the Hermit needs to forget some of horrible things that happened
b_) Wolfbiter must be reforged (which could lead to it's own adventure for finding the right material or craftsman to do it or place to craft it in.
c_) the concoction of a more precise form of (Temporary) memory remover be researched/crafted, etc.
d_) Upon the Hermit quaffing the concoction, his "bad memories" fade significantly, just as Wolfbiter is presented to him, restoring hope and good memories of his old weapon in his hand once again.

Let me present an alternative viewpoint...

In my "To Journey's End and Eagles' Eyrie" adventure I had the hermit be the eldest son (Bargrim) of the previous clan leader, Baldred. Bregdan now leader of the Woodmen is Bargrim’s younger brother and took his place as clan leader upon their father’s death.

My players actually convinced Baldred that Bargrim (the hermit) was lost and should be left alone and I quite liked that idea - it being full of loss and sadness and I felt very in keeping with the themes of Tolkien's work.

I'm not sure the hermit should be saved in any way further than he already has been - he has escaped but the Shadow still haunts him and he is broken from the experience. Some things can't, and shouldn't, be put right.

Great point, Rich. And I agree with your final point that not all is fixable.

To which I then say:

If it were my group, I would go with the adventure ideas I had with TRYING to fix, erase memory temporarily, recraft and present Wolfbiter, and see him "cured" but the haunting memory returns and the Hermit returns to his lost soul way.

Why? because it's still a chance to add a lot of cool adventures and stories for the PCs to enjoy. AND the ending is more crushing that they thought they fixed him and didn't. More dramatic. More dark. (Shadow creeping in....)

Or perhaps the Hermit's bad memories return, now he has two sets of memories conflicting in his mind, driving him insane, and he takes the doomed hero way out - throws himself needlessly against the enemy and dies tragically but memorably. So they cured him enough for him to attempt some measure of honorable death while seeking revenge.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I totally agree that there should be no lasting peace for the poor old Hermit, that much Shadow should never allow him a way back - it would just undermine its impact. However I really like the idea of a temporary reprieve, maybe enough to earn him a glorious death.

I don't want to shoe horn my players into the solution, I'd rather they came up wit as much as possible themselves. I'm thinking one of the Elders at Woodman Hall could give them some suggestions, and let them work it out from there. I'd love for them to use some of the waters from Mirkwood, perhaps immersing the Hermit into it while he is holding on to a reforged Woodbiter as a spiritual anchor would do the trick - but I'm sure they can come up with something similar.

Once that's done, I may do his glorious death off-stage as he charges into the woods - only for his body to be brought back with the shattered corpse of one of the Necromancers surviving creations by an Ent or similar ?

There's a question - would there be Ents in Mirkwood, or were they solely resident in Fangorn ?

Ive just done a little reading, and whilst they're only mentioned really in Fangorn I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to have one over in Mirkwood - but maybe a Huorn would be a better fit in Mirkwood.

I put one in Mirkwood for one of my adventures. Check out page 12 of this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7954177...%27%20Eyrie.pdf

... Stats done if you want to use or tweak them. They are pretty much reskinned from the tentacled thing in the well from 'Don't Leave the Path'.

@Rich, I thought you'd want to know that I love your adventure & use your Huorn stats for my own rendition of Old Man Willow. He's probably too weak for Old Man Willow, but if I ever run him I'll emphasize his subtle & scheming corruption anyhu, so it's a win-win. Thanks for writing & posting all that you do for us.

Thanks Mim, that's nice of you to say so and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Although it took a long while to write-up in full it has been totally worth the effort due to the enjoyment/usefullness others have gotten out of it.

My experiences of GMing show that gamers -- assuming my few groups over the years are representative -- really don't respond well to negatives. Letting them engage with trying to save the hermit when you know they're setting themselves up for a failure is likely to lead to them learning too dark a lesson to make any sort of positive contribution to your game, even if that should be the authentic situation regarding the way the Shadow works. Best to avoid it or deflect them for it than let them choose their own course only to fail. Especially: don't take them down this road unless they're taking the initiative and deliberately seeking to do it.

I think the glorious death outcome would be ideal.
And I think it'd be really cool for that to be a glorious death to somehow save the Player-hero(es) -- which would allow them to respect his memory, and 'get closure', but still feel some angst about the whole situation.

Cheers,
--Os.

@ Rich H I love your advenute. The fight at Amon Naugrim, the meeting with the hermit and the battle with the Huorn was a great fun. My Heros went straight from the Huorn to Gwaihir but they will go back to the Woodmen after they have "licked their wounds" at Beorns place.

I made a band of bandit who had terrorized wanderers on the western side of Andúin and they manage to bring them all back alive to Beorn, which made him really happy (which isn't the easiest thing to do haha....

...well my players had a great time and where really happy afterwards. So thank you Rich H!



/Khamul