I finished running my group through The Marsh Bell, and we've decided to stick with TOR and make a campaign of it. The party is taking the Gathering of the Five Armies invitation to the eagles, and they are currently on the east side of Mirkwood, and will be taking the Old Forest Road.

I’m not aware of any source material on The Old Forest Road, nor have I seen much on the road in the Cubicle 7 books, so I’m looking for ideas. A couple of things to note about the way I’m portraying the region for our game:

The road has been impassible for many years because it was too deep into Mirkwood for safe travel. Since the slaying of Smaug and the banishment of the Necromancer, Mirkwood is not quite as dark and deadly as it once was. There is a trading outpost on the eastern end of the road, near the marshes, and there is now some travel down the road, but it’s always done with significant martial support. Most of the people travelling on the road or at the outpost are experienced warriors and hunters.

So, I’m looking for ideas for the journey through Mirkwood. This could include any sources for lore, or ideas for encounters, hazards, supernatural weirdness, etc…

I know this doesn't answer your question but I thought I would mention it in case you needed a backup option. I ran the Marsh Bell and then transitioned seamlessly into "Don't Leave the Path", the first adventure of Tales from Wilderland. Gloin was impressed by the competency of the fellowship and gave them the task of delivering the message.

I'm going to be drawing heavily from Tales for the campaign, but there isn't much in there to help me with the journey down Old Forest Road. Most of the content in Tales deals with the regions between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. I probably will borrow some of the stuff from "Don't Leave the Path". I'd like to include the purple/black butterflies in some capacity, and possibly the hermit too.

If you don't intend to run the adventure 'Don't leave the Path', then there a few things in there that would fit just as well on the Old Forest Road as on the Elf Path. The ruin, the old well and the big footprint spring instantly to mind.

Adding in a few forest dwelling goblins, subservient to the spiders is another possibility.

Your take on the Old Forest Road is quite similar to my thoughts on it as it would be a few years down the line. In 2946, I imagined there might be a stockaded settlement on the eastern end of the road. This would be a base for those who were trying to reopen the Old Forest Road rather than a trading post.

In my campaign, the rescue of Balin and the discovery of the Marsh Dwellers hoard led to a Dwarvish expedition to destroy the Dwellers and get the gold.

This having been successfully accomplished, Balin turned to his next plan. This was the reopening of the Old Forest Road to facilitate a direct route for his greatest ambition, the reclamation of Khazad Dum.

He believed that if both these ventures were successful, King Dain would not object if he requested a small company of Dwarfs to accompany him into Khazad Dum. That and the fact that he was independently capably of funding it all himself.

That sounds like it would have been a fun game.

You may have already seen it but if not I thought this thread might be useful:
http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?tr...&showtopic=3299

This is great Fictionaut! I really like this idea of an "old dwarf road". I'm thinking Balin and Oin will be enchanted with the idea as well.

I think that's a great idea Halbarad. Balin and Oin are spearheading dwarven interests to open up the road for trade/travel, and resettle Moria. This could set up all sorts of plot hooks down the road.

There has been some other discussion about the Old Forest Road and possible encounters while traversing the same in order to re-establish trade. I'm not sure if you saw any of these topics so I thought I would pass them along. While interesting, they might not be helpful to your campaign idea.

The following link references "old forest road" within the forums here. Note that this Google listing does not take into account how applicable the links are to your specific idea. Just that the topics specifically include the phrase "old forest road" within the messages.

Copy & paste the following, exactly as shown, into a Google Search field. Whether on Google.com itself or in the search box of your browser. There are a couple of pages of entries.

"old forest road" site:http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?trk=cubicle7&showforum=33

@Hoplitenomad

Yup, it would have been, but it never got beyond the end o the marsh bell and a session where Balin was recruiting warriors in Laketown.

It might make a good base for a Dwarf-centric campaign though.

If you haven't had a chance to work on your new settlement at the eastern end of the road, you may want to consider locating a copy of MERP's Brigands of Mirkwood. You can easily tweak it to ToR, & shift it from the Bight of Mirkwood northward to the road & your timeframe

The new settlement would be in the same place as the old one that the Marsh Dwellers are in? Have the Marsh Dwellers been eliminated as a threat, or are they still around? Haunting the night.