I have an idea that will likely come up during the next game session. I introduced this group of players to the game via Words of the Wise, so they've been hanging around Woodland Hall and Rhosgobel (their 2 sanctuaries). I'd like to get them to Dale for the Council of the North and Gathering of Five Armies, and today I figured why not have them meet Gandalf, who is intent on scouting out the Old Forest Road?

My planned backstory is that Balin and Oin were rescued by Dwalin and Ori (since this group didn't play out The Marsh Bell), and then all 4 took the route north of Mirkwood to deliver the invitation to the Eagles (whom they met at the Carrock). They sent messages via the Ravens to Radagast, asking him to organize some assistance as they'd like to take the Old Forest Road back, and were (understandably) nervous about doing that alone. So Radagast sent word to Gandalf, since he needed to get to Dale for the Council of the North anyways, and seeing as he'd already banished the Necromancer from Dol Guldur he shouldn't be afraid of a measly little road through the dank depths of Mirkwood.

The company will be headed to Rhosgobel to seek Radagast's advice soon anyways, and there they will meet Gandalf and the 4 Dwarves, who will ask them to join this expedition. Gandalf will want the company to present a tale of their recent deeds at the Council of the North (no need to get into that for our purposes here, though).

So my question to you guys is what should I incorporate into this journey to make it interesting and memorable, and how can I use the Dwarves and Gandalf to my advantage? Has anyone here sent their players down the Old Forest Road, and what types of things did they run into? I should note that in light of the recent Blighted Lands clarification I'm not going to call for nearly as many Corruption tests as the table in the LMB would suggest; after all, the Shadow has temporarily receded (or at least been weakened) and they'll have Gandalf with them. Still, I don't want this to be a cakewalk, obviously.

So far this is what I'm think of (and it's admittedly not much):

-definitely need some old ruins along the way. Waypoints for the Dwarven traders of old, perhaps an old Elven village. These will offer the heroes a chance to accumulate some treasure points, and perhaps be the site of a minor combat with spiders or something.

-Enchanted stream, after a heavy rain. Because I'm curious what my players will do to get across. I'd like to have the waters carry singing voices, like the Nimrodel but spooky instead of pleasant.

-An extremely overgrown section where the trees "come alive" to create a maze-like environment. The group would be separated, and I can see this requiring a combination of Explore, Search, Hunting, Athletics, and Riddle.

-I'd love to have an undead-themed encounter, but I'm not sure how I want to go about it. Could try to mimic the Dead Marshes, or the Barrow Downs.

-The Dwarves will make stupid mistakes a few times, and require rescuing. Because you don't travel with some of Thorin's companions and NOT have that happen. Gandalf will obviously be helpful here, but he can't do everything, of course.

Any other thoughts? Comments on my existing ideas?

Well, first off, you can still run the Marsh Bell as a variant. Just have the party kind of blunder into the vicinity of the birds and/or ruins.

Way-stations make sense. I would suggest, when describing these s, you mix and match the structural integrity and inhabitants. So some way-stations are cracked foundations and a couple of rocks stacked atop one another; while the next is missing it's roof but otherwise intact. Maybe nothing lives in one, but in the next, at night, they notice some creature crawling through the rocks. Or perhaps a small group of orcs?

An enchanted stream seems unlikely as Gandalf, for the Hobbit, mentions nothing about it for the Old Road. Additionally, no major bodies of water are indicated on JRRT's map or TOR's. Obviously some water source must exist since otherwise Gandalf would suggest bringing cart(s) filled with water barrels rather than just waterskins. So a tiny rill, a spring, or wells.

Actually, you could mix three ideas here. One of the mostly ruined waystations has a deep well. The well, while structurally damaged, is functional with cold, potable water. It is obviously a perfect to spend the night. Start a fire, set some tents. As the players are nodding off for the night perhaps they hear the gentle, despairing cries of the ghost in the well. Perhaps someone who fell in and never escaped. Or, one half of a pair of lovers forced into the well as the other is killed or tormented. Hmm... maybe some Wood Elves (a family, brothers?) who fled the Necromancer's arrival years ago - but got caught here. Perhaps there is still a survivor in Thranduil's Halls who would be interested in hearing the player's story.

Considering that the Necromancer has just fled, maybe the party notices they're being watched for a couple days? Basically this is similar to the Fellowship and something is playing Gollum-like and following them. It could be nothing more than goblins, orcs or spiders. They're just being more tentative than normal since they feel insecure without strong leadership. With a lot of foreshadowing, this could create a heightened sense of tension through out the gaming session.

As to using Hourns or black-hearted Ents, I would not suggest it. Either creature would be equivalent to a greater giant. This exceeds anything a beginning party can handle - even with Gandalf's assistance. Or, I should say, without making it seem very deus ex machina.

Lastly, with the presence of the Dwarves, I would suggest repeating them blundering into spiders. Which should even cause the dwarves themselves to mention something about "fell for it again."

To be fair, Tolkien's maps don't contain much fine detail in terms of water features. There would certainly be dozens, if not hundreds, of stream crossings along the Old Forest Road assuming that ME topography and hydrology are equivalent to the real world. Granted many of them would be inconsequential to cross (ankle deep or so), but after a heavy rain even small streams like this can become deep and swift enough to be problematic.

This is a really interesting idea! I'm thinking an Elf would make the most sense, since there may be acquaintances of his still living. The players could find a very distinctive weapon, or a brooch with his family's coat of arms, and an Elf who sees the hero in such gear would certainly question where he obtained it.

Yes, spiders for sure. The company hasn't encountered any yet, and I'm planning on having one of Shelob's spawn (who has grown quite powerful, though obviously not as powerful as her sire) featured prominently sometime in the future. I want my players to really fear spiders, and this would be a great setting to introduce them into.

Certainly not Ents, but I don't see some more "tree-ish" Huorns as being a huge problem. What I have in mind is a phenomenon similar to what happened to the Hobbits in the Old Forest, where the thick, shifting vegetation steadily led them toward the Withywindle (and Old Man Willow). In this case, the role that the trees play is to separate travelers to make them more susceptible to Mirkwood's other various hazards, increasing their fear and panic by isolating them. After all, it's already established that travelers straying from the Elf-path lose their sense of direction, so my plan is to add a bit to that.

As for deus ex machina, I've been thinking about whether or not that might be a good thing if used once or twice. I want them to think twice about any future attempts to tackle the road solo (do-able, but VERY risky), and of course there are multiple incidents of Gandalf saving the day in TH and LotR. Indeed, it really highlighted the loss that Thorin's company took when Gandalf went off to pursue the Necromancer, and that of the Fellowship after Gandalf fell in Moria.

Hmm, I actually hadn't thought of essentially repeating any incident from The Hobbit, but it could be funny. Perhaps I could have Gandalf busy nearby fending off said spawn of Shelob, unseen by the heroes but ramping up their sense of fear (given that the foe is non-trivial even for Gandalf).

My apologies for not responding sooner - things have been distracting of late. Anyway, I'm glad that you found a few helpful ideas.

With regards to the trees, I completely mis-understood your intent. I was thinking of something more like the orc-killing Huorn Forest outside of Helm's Deep. (ok, not that quantity, but that degree of movement and fury). Humongous difference. Hopefully you understand now why I said they would be too tough!

As for the Waters of Mirkwood... Ultimately, I guess I personally took Beorn's warning about not drinking the water--as he advised Thorin & Co while traveling in Mirkwood--to heart. (Formerly attributed to Gandalf.)

Now I realize that Beorn is talking about the more northerly route, the elven path through the forest. The question becomes is this warning specific to the elven route? Or, does this problem affect the water source within the region? After all, it is much easier to taint the source and thereby affect everything that tries to make use of those waters. Directly by poisoning these life forms; indirectly, if--assuming something evades drinking the tainted waters--it must change it's activities to avoid eating anything that did. This would place a substantial amount of stress on every living creature in the area.

Keep in mind that the Mountains of Mirkwood - the most likely water source - lies in the land between the two paths. So if they are the water source and that source is tainted, that means both paths are going to present a danger to characters.

On the map this would affect the following areas: The Mountains of Mirkwood, the northeast corner of Heart of Mirkwood, western and north-western Long Marshes, southeastern Northern Mirkwood - at least. Also, notice that the southern arm of the Mountains of Mirkwood appear to be the source for the Rhosgobel lake.

Alright, a bit of an update is in order. We finally got around to playing our next session, and the journey onto the Old Forest Road had just begun at the end of the session. I went in a bit of a different direction than I'd planned, really last minute (on the drive over, actually!). The company had recently been exploring some old ruins that a band of orcs are taking an active interest in, and they just discovered that it was connected with Akhorahil, a Black Numenorean who was given one of the Nine Rings and is now a Nazgul. Anyways, the more I thought about it the less I wanted Gandalf traveling with the company for very long, so at the very end of the session (3 days into Mirkwood) I had a Nazgul show up riding a giant spider (session summary available on my blog). The Dwarves and heroes were all stricken by the Black Breath, and Gandalf rushed off to pursue his quarry, leaving his companions to travel the Old Forest Road on their own.

Gandalf's presence just made everything too easy, and eliminated a lot of player challenge. What works fine in a book or movie is a lot less fun in an RPG, and I'm glad I had the last minute foresight to realize this. The 20 minutes or so of actual play time where the party traveled with Gandalf certainly confirmed that suspicion!

Anyways, more importantly, now that my players are deep into this adventure with their Dwarven companions I'd really like to write up some realistic stat blocks for the Dwarves, since they'll be featured very prominently during the next game session or two. So far I've come up with this.

I was really torn on how combat-savvy I wanted to make these guys. On the one hand, based on their adventures in The Hobbit there's a pretty big contrast between them and a more capable Dwarf like Gimli. On the other, they all fought in (and survived) the Battle of Five Armies, and in the future Balin, Ori, and Oin will all take up their dangerous mission to Moria. For Dwalin I'm largely going off of the pictures from the new Hobbit movie, in which he looks the most imposing and warrior-like. For armor I'm just assuming that they have the equivalent of a leather corslet under their hoods and cloaks.

For common skills I started out with the base set that Dwarves of Erebor get, and customized it to suit each Dwarf. Dwalin's more martial and physical capabilities are emphasized. Balin is well-established as a great lookout, but I also wanted to give him skills that explained how he was able to convince a company of Dwarves to re-colonize Moria (Inspire, Persuade, Insight). Finally, as an old and knowledgeable Dwarf I figured he should have a decent Lore score. Oin I don't remember much specifically about, so I just customized him in a somewhat random way. The picture of Ori from the new Hobbit movie is really evocative to me, and tells me that this guy can sneak around fairly well if he has to. He also just looks pretty polite so I gave him the best Courtesy score out of the Dwarves, and I also gave him some points in Lore since in FotR Gimli notes that he often wrote quickly, using the elvish characters. And all of these guys have a decent Awe score because I figure that they'd be pretty confident being part of the party that reclaimed Erebor from Smaug, and they're probably toting around some fine gear from his hoard.

Comments on these stat blocks would be MUCH appreciated. I'd really like them to be represented as true-to-source as possible.

EDIT: Also, I realize that these stat blocks are more complicated that the typical named LM character as laid out in the LMB, but as major characters I'd like them to have plenty of support. Also, I plan on giving each of my three players a different Dwarf to control during combat (and to roll common skills if they come into play, which will be very infrequently), with me controlling Balin. Obviously anything they attempt with the Dwarves will be subject to LM approval, but I figure having them make rolls will make my job easier and get them more involved with the portrayal of such recognizable characters.

THAT is a very wicked idea! I like it!!! Consider it "borrowed".

BTW, what stats are you using for your Nazgûl? I read in your blog the heroes were affected by the Black Breath ... I'd really like to see your stat block and Special Abilities.

Haha, yeah I was just going to go the whole "black rider" route but it didn't make sense to me that a Nazgul would use a horse to get around in Mirkwood. When I thought "what could get around Mirkwood efficiently?" the image of the spider-mount popped into my head and I loved it. One of my player's eyes visibly widened when I described it, so mission accomplished I guess

As for the stat block, I actually didn't use one. This was partially because I literally decided to use the Nazgul on the drive over to the game, and so I had no time to really plan for it. However, I also didn't expect the players to actually fight the thing. So here's how I played the scene out mechanically:

A screeching wail is heard in the distance (as a side note I can actually do a decent impression of the Nazgul's scream, and did so at this point. It's loud, I wonder what the neighbors thought). The players had to make a Fear Test, which as luck would have it they all passed (though Lowthesis had to spend Hope to do so). I just had all of the Dwarves but Balin auto-fail, because I wanted Balin to struggle with the pony to give the players something to do as the Nazgul approaches (stop it from running away with all of their gear!). On a fail a hero would have been paralyzed with fear, unable to act and simply cowering behind Gandalf. Since this was the state that the Dwarves were in, the heroes had to use their skills to either "snap them out of it" or to physically drag them a bit further down the road.

Tension was built as I described another wail, getting closer. Close enough that the heroes could now hear a clicking noise approaching (the spider's joints). I had everything happen really fast. The Nazgul burst through the trees on its steed, immediately turning toward the company with a soft exhaling noise. They all had to roll a Corruption Test, though I altered it a bit from the table on page 57. On a success (which only Lowthesis managed) only 1 Shadow point is gained, and while the hero is frozen in place he still has the use of his wits (could still speak and understand what is going on). On a failure 2 Shadow points are gained, and the hero immediately collapses into a swoon.

After that Gandalf chased the Nazgul off with a shaft of light from his staff, told Lowthesis to stand guard, and that it would take the others a good few hours to recover, and then he was off.

I'm honestly not sure how I'll handle it in the future if (when) the heroes encounter a Nazgul again. I'm actually hoping that Darkening of Mirkwood solves that for me. Without a published solution, obviously there are some elements that I'd certainly preserve, such as any weapon that strikes the Nazgul being destroyed, paralyzing the arm that wielded it. That alone would make it a very difficult adversary to actually face off against. Their best hope would be to scare the thing off with fire (I'd probably have the presence of fire "disable" or at least weaken the effects of the Black Breath, so they'd only have to deal with the crippling Fear test). Perhaps fire is the only way to actually deplete the thing's endurance. Definitely not an enemy that can be defeated in the traditional sense, though.

Hi Alien,

I think that your Dwarf stat blocks are good. The only thing I might have adjusted are the Weapon skills. 2d is a regular starting adventurers skill, I would probably bump some of them up to 3d. These guys have survived the Quest of Erebor and the battle of the Five Armies.

Yes, this is probably the issue that I struggled with the most. On the one hand, these are fairly experienced Dwarves, veterans of at least one major conflict, and belong to a fairly martial culture. On the other hand, they have a track record of getting themselves into a lot of trouble, and most didn't even carry weapons during The Hobbit. There's also the issue of not wanting to overshadow the player heroes (the Barding, for one, went with 2 ranks in Greatbow and Sword (longsword?) each).

Since I was already on the fence, and that's one vote for 3d now, I'll very likely upgrade their weapon skills.

Alien,
In Moria, Balin sends Oin to see if escape can be made through the Hollin Gate. I would take this to mean that he would be best suited to avoiding Orcs whenever possible and maybe finding an alternative route, if necessary. I would give him high awareness, explore, stealth and travel.

Ori seems to write in the Book in the chamber of Balins Tomb. Perhaps he would be the Loremaster style character among them?

Thanks, that's some great insight! I've updated the stat blocks here. I gave Oin the stuff you suggested, moving Healing to Dwalin (he's a competent warrior, and also good at quickly treating battle wounds). I also increased the weapons of all the Dwarves to 3d, and applied a general reward to each (Dwalin and Oin get Grievous, Balin gets Keen, Ori gets Fell). I feel like that's appropriate for representing gear from Smaug's horde, while at the same time being just as easy to adjudicate in-game as without those rewards.

No problem Alien.

As a final input from me, you might reconsider Balin's Awareness level, given the nature of his death. The Orc assassin may just have got very lucky, but perhaps Balin's awareness may have been diminished by his advancing years?

Lol, fair point. Of course it could have just been bad luck; gazing into Kheled-zaram he would likely be completely unaware of an incoming ambush (Awareness TN of 18), and I'd like to think that he probably rolled an Eye on top of that. I would hate for one bout of bad luck (albeit a fatal one) tarnish Balin's reputation as lookout extraordinaire. I've always found the scene where Bilbo sneaks past him because he's wearing the Ring to be an important point in the story.

But yeah, could have been cataracts too

Ah yes, I had forgotten about the qualities of Mirrormere...lol

Still, thanks Alien as you have actually provided me with a term that was escaping me. 'Cataracts'.
Thinking about my own campaign on the River Running. I gave been considering a number of points on the river where settlements could be based due to the necessity of portage. I was thinking of a length of the river, dominated by a sequence of three small waterfalls with interposing rapids called 'The three Queens'. I believe that cataracts may be the term I'm looking for.

Nice, glad I could be of service, even if it was unintentional.

Based on your description, you may have been thinking of the word "cascades." Both words can be somewhat interchangeable with "waterfall," but cataracts are usually large, steep waterfalls whereas cascades are a series of usually small waterfalls.

I like the name "The Three Queens," perhaps I'll borrow it for my own campaign.

Cascades is probably more accurate. Thanks once more Alien.

My group couldn't get together last week, but yesterday I finally got to run this! I've posted a session summary here. They didn't quite get through everything that I had planned, but we still covered a lot of ground. Next week I'll run them through the tree maze, and then I'm planning on placing The Well in the Wood (from Tales from Wilderland) in as well. With everyone chock full of Shadow points I'm really hoping that one of the players gets the bout of madness that leads them to the well (in fact, I'll probably be flexible with the well's placement, waiting until that happens).

So far here is what I have planned out for that tree maze, though I expect some player improvisation to come into play as well. Comments and suggestions welcome!

Tree Maze (with TN 18 Corruption Test) on day 2 of leg. Possible actions (TN 12, Prolonged Action 3 successful rolls per hero). If any companions fail the company loses a day searching for them, and rolls another TN 18 Corruption Test.
Initial Awareness test to notice the trees moving, attempting to hem you in.
Round 1: Athletics to burst/weave through, Search to seek an opening, Riddle to determine the trees' intent (pattern of closure; separate companions then lead them off).
Round 2: Everyone separated, paths start to form, eerie music in the rustling leaves. Weapon to hack through (TN 20), Riddle to determine best path, Song or Lore to intuit direction of core tree spirit (and hopefully avoid!), Explore to retain sense of direction in chaos.
Round 3: Nearly out! Search or Explore to regain path, Search and Hunting to track down lost companions, Craft to make a crude horn, drum, or whistle to signal companions, Riddle to determine where the trees were trying to lead you (deeper into forest)

Or perhaps if someone gets a bout of madness in the maze, then the well is where the trees were trying to lead them to begin with. But I'd have to be careful to make sure all of the other companions were reunited before the combat actually occurred...

Having been repointed here from Old Forest Road..., Adventure Ideas? I realise I must have been short on time when I first read this topic.

I like the idea of one or more Enchanted Stream features for the Old Forest Road.
Gandalf may not have said anything about the Old Forest Road having problems with enchanted stream(s), but we should not necessarily expect that a Wizard would explain every detail of his reasoning, especially since he had already ruled out the Old Forest Road anyway.

A lot of the 'problem' of the Old Forest Road is attributed to running too close to the Mountains of Mirkwood, and something I once read -- probably ICE material -- attributed the enchantment of the stream encountered by Thorin's Company to its origin in those Mountains. This seems fair. (But it admittedly jars a little with Bombur's having reported dreaming of the feasting of the Woodland King and his folk).

Tthe effect of the Enchanted Stream upon Bombur is consistent with a recurring theme in Tolkien's work -- and drawing upon those and playing them up is always worthwhile.
Compare Faramir's warning not to drink the water that flows out of the Morgul Vale; and obviously such are the twisted, corrupted dark counterparts of the lovely water features like Nimrodel and the Withywindle that supports River-woman and her lovely daughter, Goldberry.
Whilst the 'fairy-tale' tone of TH casts Bombur as having been thrust into an "enchanted sleep", if you think of it as a catatonic state due to the total oppression of the victim's mind (or fëa), it suddenly becomes a counterpart of the Black Breath or something like the effect of the gaze of Glaurung, which strike me as manifestations of really concentrated Mordo.

(If only we knew what The Darkening of Mirkwood or Heart of Mirkwood had in store for us...)

I even like the idea of having more than one Enchanted Stream feature -- though subsequent ones would have a different 'story-function'. They might let the Player-Heroes feel good about themselves for being able to negotiate them successfully based on their (presumed, eventual) success with the first one. Or they might make for a dramatic complication to, e.g. if one were to be found across the Player-Heroes' path when they were already fleeing before pursuing goblins and did not have the time to negotiate the stream methodically or with the painstaking care they'd been able to use the first time...

And on a separate note, I like the idea that Player-Heroes -- or any infrequent travellers -- may make it through, but they rouse something that comes after them and they only get away by fleeing at top speed. Nice parallels can be had here with the doom-doom-doom and the rousing of Durin's Bane in Moria, if the Lore-master can pull it off.
And of course the result of this is that whilst they make it through, they learn that the route is beset by a peril that means the Old Forest Road can't possibly be opened to regular traffic. (Until someone comes back at higher level and sorts it out, and/or undertakes a whole adventure around neutralising that threat.)

Cheers,
--Os.

Osric,
I've been operating under the idea that the Enchanted River was a part of the Elven defenses of the Elven Path and/or Woodland Hall. Which would support Bombur's positive dreams; an evil source should have sent nightmares to my way of thinking. Enchanted sleep has always been a Faerie Tale motif, thus my association of it with the Elves and not to the Mountains of Mirkwood or the Necromancer. Wiki doesn't help or hinder this idea, but that was what I was thinking.

I am aware of the MERP reference you cite as the source of the Enchanted River. While I've never really read the whole thing through, that situation always struck me as an anachronism. I did not care for the , the setting, the fortification, the NPC... pretty much all of it. It was original, and I might use it elsewhere, but somehow it just struck me as inherently wrong as written. I reacted to it like any Bearer of the Three did when Frodo offered them the One Ruling Ring: Eye-struck, tempted, blanch in fright/disgust and turn away.


Although I'm not sure I ever stated it as such, my objection to the idea of another enchanted river, was more about re-using the same motif so closely to the original example. I mean, used repeatedly I see this as Willy Wonka's Chocolate River being expanded into Strawberry, Vanilla, Pistachio, Blueberry Cream, Raspberry Truffle, (dear lord I'm making myself hungry!) and other flavored rivers all emanating from the same source. Tolkien wasn't Roald Dahl or Monty Hall. Which is where I see this heading if over-used anywhere in Middle-earth, but more specifically if done within the same immediate area.


As for the streams of the Morgul Vale, I always assumed they were fouled by the simplest expedient: the dumping of waste. Besides the issue of biological effluvia, there is Mordor's mining, smelting and manufacturing practices to consider. Mordor is contemptuous of nature in all it's forms and would practice irresponsible waste management that would ultimately poison the surrounding terrain, including leaching contaminants into the water supply. Without conscientious efforts to prevent contamination, the area could become the chemical equivalent of a "radioactive" . Simply standing in the area would slowly injure people due to chemical interaction, gaseous discharge, tainted foodstuffs (plants and game), etc.

So basically, Green Peace would be involved in protesting

As you mean it, yes. Of course, I think GreenPeace might be too timid for the kind of effort this would require to make a permanent policy change in Mordor.

Yeah, I did note this in my own post. The only counter-arguments would be
1. that Bombur's dreams should be disregarded as an overly fairy-tale'ish feature of TH
-- which I wouldn't like to say, as it defies the Riddle of interpretation!
2. that there was nothing mystical about Bombur's dreams, just the workings of his own subconscious knowledge and hopes
-- but they're too accurate for that to be the case.

So having a review of the evidence...

• We know that "Bombur slept on with a smile on his fat face, as if he no longer cared for all the troubles that vexed them."
  
• And sure enough, they're encountering Faerie in the form of a white hart and the sounds of the elven hunt the moment they've crossed the stream (even if the hart isn't restricted to the Faerie side of the stream itself). A stream as a border of an elven realm has precedent.
  
• Bombur's memory-loss on awakening is both Faerie'ish and a logical choice of enchanted effect if the stream is a defence of sorts.
  
• "I was having such beautiful dreams. I dreamed I was walking in a forest rather like this one, only lit with torches on the trees and lamps swinging from the branches and fires burning on the ground; and there was a great feast going on, going on for ever. A woodland king was there with a crown of leaves, and there was a merry singing, and I could not count or describe the things there were to eat and drink."
  This is so specific. I'm thinking 'Near Death Experience', with Bombur's enchantment-befuddled fëa wandering around the forest as his hröa lay inert!

Also
"And it is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this Earth; –Ainulindalë, Silm.
and
"Water all his [Morgoth’s] servants shunned, and to the sea none would willingly go nigh, save in dire need." – 14 Of Beleriand and its Realms, Silm.
and even explicitly
"and the power of Ulmo that ran in Sirion protected them [the Gondolindrim]." - 15 Of the Noldor in Beleriand, Silm.

But the creatures of the darkness don't just shy away from water, they take their revenge upon it (from a safe distance).

Quite so. I don't argue with any of that. But I would interpret the following Morgoth's Ring quote as going beyond such biological and chemical contamination, and to mean that particular watercourses could be contaminated with the Shadow, the stuff of Morgoth.
"Water is represented as being almost entirely free of Morgoth. (This, of course, does not mean that any particular sea, stream, river, well, or even vessel of water could not be poisoned or defiled – as all things could.)" – Morgoth's Ring, HoMe 10

Ulmo himself told Cirdan: "The Evil of the North has defiled the springs of Sirion, and my power withdraws from the fingers of the flowing waters." - 21 Of Turin Turambar, Silm.

I gladly concede that the Enchanted Stream of TH is Faerie and elvish in nature. But I still fancy the idea of Shadow-gripped watercourses south of the Mountains of Mirkwood contributing to the dangers of the Old Forest Road -- even if I'm turning 180 and suggesting they make a satisfying counterpoint to the Enchanted Stream.

Cheers,
--Os.

"Ulmo himself told Cirdan: "The Evil of the North has defiled the springs of Sirion, and my power withdraws from the fingers of the flowing waters." - 21 Of Turin Turambar, Silm."

Just chiming in to say that I found this piece very evocative. An adventure in the making: a shadow spread through the river, only the heroes understand they have to reach the spring to put a stop to this malaise of the soul.
Osric, thank you for the erudite escapade trough Tolkien's opus.

You know, the rest of that post not withstanding, this was the point that actually felt like I just got 'bulls-eyed'. As a counterpoint it makes eminent sense and was an aspect that I had not considered in any of the postings here about another enchanted river.

Sometimes I learn so much more from disputes on sundry points of interest that its rather scary. Elaudin, Halbarad, Tolwen and yourself find interesting aspects of Tolkiens work to reveal or shed additional clarity upon.