The following is some source material I developed for TOR. It includes an antagonist and a magical artifact that could be of use in your campaign:


An obscure Elvish legend tells of Ungladaneth the Spider Woman. A Maia who in the guise of a young Human woman wandered Middle Earth during the First Age. What exactly the purpose behind her presence in Middle Earth was is unknown.
What is known is that her travels at one time brought her dangerously close to the Ered Gorgoroth. The Maia was attacked by one of the spiders that dwelt there, the creature violated her. This horrifying experience broke her mind, that day Ungladaneth was born.
Some time after her ordeal the deranged Maia gave birth to a spider. Perungol; the Half Spider the Elves call him. Ungladaneth grew attached like a mother to the little monster. She is known to have ventured south with Perungol in order to raise the abomination in the seclusion of the wilderness.
This is where she disappears from Elvish lore. Ungladaneth and Perungol are assumed to not have survived beyond the First Age.

Unfortunately both mother and child did survive. For centuries the two lived in a cavern hidden beneath the deserts of Harad. Here they preyed on any beast or man foolish enough to go near their home, all were devoured by Perungol. Very few victims were any challenge to them. Ungladaneth was after all a potent sorceress and Perungol eventually grew into a great spider only second to the likes of Shelob.
In time Ungladaneth grew frustrated with her inability to communicate with her son. He showed signs of advanced intelligence but had no means to make his will known. This made Ungladaneth feel like an inadequate caretaker for Perungol, her sole focus in life. She wanted to know what he wanted, how she could serve him best.
Although talking to beasts of any kind was not in her power, Ungladaneth knew magics to do so did exist. She decided to leave Perungol for some time, only returning when she discovered the means to communicate with him. For the first time in centuries she left the deserts of Harad for a journey across Middle Earth.
Ungladaneth soon discovered much was happening in the Northwest of the continent. Sauron was declaring war on the Elves, in particular the Noldor kingdom of Eregion. She was intrigued by the rumored amazing skills of its resident Elven smiths and decided to see for herself.
While presiding in Eregion Ungladaneth managed to seduce a talented Noldo smith named Melannen. In time she was able to convince Melannen to assist her in the creation of the Spider Ring. A minor magical ring that would allow her to talk with great spiders like her own Perungol.
After a couple of years of research and experimentation their efforts bore a result, the Spider Ring was forged. It was a Mithril ring decorated with a spider web motif. Unfortunately its creation coincided with the fall of Eregion to the forces of Sauron.
Melannen and Ungladaneth were among the last to get out alive. As they made their way with the other refugees to the future Rivendell, their group was attacked by Trolls. The couple made use of the confusion to slip away into the wilderness with the Spider Ring.
They planned to make their home in the wild for the duration of the war waiting for more peaceful times. This plan was complicated by the fact that it soon became obvious that Ungladaneth was with child. A few months later she birthed a red-headed Elvish girl, Thiadvain they named her. Ungladaneth appeared to be a loving mother to the infant for some time. But after less than a year the deranged love she felt for her first child came back to her. Ungladaneth went south with the Spider Ring on her finger and left their child with Melannen. He would eventually arrive with his toddler at Rivendell, where they would make their home.

Ungladaneth made her way back to the deserts of Harad. As she greeted Perungol after her long absence, Ungladaneth heard him reply for the first time ever.
From then on mother and child had many conversations. She learnt that the spider had dreams of power, of being the king of a vast empire. He also wished that his kind would be given the proper respect, especially their progenitor, his grandmother Ungoliat.
In order to one day reach these goals Ungladaneth and Perungol put a plan in motion to spread their influence throughout Near Harad. They started a mystery cult named The Sisterhood, of which the first temple was built on top of their desert lair.
They recruited their members exclusively from the ranks of unmarried Haradrim noblewomen. The members of The Sisterhood learnt little or nothing about the history or true purpose of Ungladaneth and the Perungol, whom they referred to as High Priestess and The King. They were attracted by the promise of tutelage in the black arts. A service Ungladaneth provided in return for gold, regular human sacrifices to Perungol and the worship of both him and Ungoliat.
The members of The Sisterhood could be easily recognized by their clothing. Which consisted of a black garment that shrouded them entirely, including the entire face except for their eyes. The face veils were decorated with a spider web motif in silver thread.
During the Third Age women is such attire became an increasingly more common sight in many cities throughout Harad, as did the lone towers that served as temples to these cultists. Unknown to anyone but the Sisters themselves and the many who disappeared from the streets in the cities where they were active, in a dungeon under each such temple there lived a great arachnid. These had been lured from their homes in the wild by Ungladaneth with the promise of worship and sacrifice as part of cult rituals.
Ungladaneth had even attempted to invite the greatest of them all; Shelob, to make her home under their temple in Umbar. She declined the offer however.
Near the later years of the Third Age Ungladaneth's and Perungol's cult had spread its influence among much of the noble families of the Haradrim, Corsairs of Umbra and Black Númenóreans. The rise to power of the Maia and her arachnid child seemed inevitable. Things turned out differently however.

By the time the influence of The Sisterhood was at its all time high, Sauron had already regained much of his former power in Harad. It was only a matter of time until he gave his servants the order to take out the competition. This finally happened in the year 2945 and it was swift and brutal. In but a few weeks time the Sisterhood temple in every Harad city was plundered and destroyed. The great spiders living in the dungeons beneath slain, the cultists themselves dying often gruesome deaths. Very few escaped, but those that did succeeded in giving a timely warning to Ungladaneth, at the original temple, hidden in the desert. The thoroughness of Sauron's minions made it clear that it would not stay hidden for long. The dozen surviving cultists helped their high priestess take Perungol north hidden in a covered wagon. Following trade caravans they eventually reached the city of Esgaroth where they decided to settle. Near the outskirts of Esgaroth on the lake shore they've had built a new temple tower.
Ungladaneth has a plan to win the confidence and unite the many spiders of Mirkwood. And finally use their support in another bid for power.

There is however one thing Ungladaneth still hasn't realized, even after thousands of years. The Spider Ring doesn't really work. Perhaps the Spider Ring wasn't yet entirely completed when Sauron drove them from Eregion or maybe forging such a ring simply went beyond Melannen's skills.
The fact is that although Perungol is an intelligent creature he has no greater ambitions than feeding himself. The voices Ungladaneth hears when conversing with Perungol or any other spider are all in her head.
The magic ring does whoever have a slight hypnotic effect on spiders. They will never attack the wearer unless provoked and can be much more easily swayed. Which explains how Ungladaneth was able to successfully transport several great spiders to her temples.


Personally I'd start an adventure using this source material with Melannen's daughter Thiadvain hiring the adventures. She had been kept completely in the dark about the past by her father. But recently he left Middle Earth and she was able to discover a few things in her father's papers. She now knows about the Spider Ring and how much he regretted forging it, fearing what would happen if it fell in the wrong hands. So Thiadvain makes it her goal to use her few remaining years in Middle Earth to retrieve this artifact.
Thiadvain believes he lost the ring during the Troll raid on the Eregion Elves fleeing to Rivendell. So the trail will at first lead to some Troll hoards on the slopes of the Misty Mountains. The adventurers can get some Ranger or Elvish help for this if they need it, and they probably will. Cause they will have to deal with more than just a couple of Trolls.
Rumors that an Elf of Rivendell is on the trail of some sort of lost magic ring has reached the ears of Mordor. To say that Sauron is intrigued by this news would be an understatement. A group of Mordor Orcs that was originally on its way to deal with Ungladaneth and the surviving members of The Sisterhood in Esgaroth is instead sent to monitor the adventurers and keep them from obtaining anything that Mordor would want.
The adventurers should during or after a confrontation with these Orcs be allowed to learn of both their current and original mission. This should lead them to Esgaroth, to the new temple of Ungladaneth and Perungol. And I'm not entirely sure myself how to continue from there. Suggestions are most welcome!

What do you think?


By the way some of you might think you don't need any special abilities to converse with giant spiders. However it appears that there is a consensus among Tolkien scholars that this ability was given to both Bilbo and Gollum through their use of The One Ring.

I have no idea how much of this would or wouldn't work as "canon" for the world of Middle-earth. That being said - reading it was a delight. AWESOME work, friend!

I have no ideas at this time on how to explore it further - but I will ruminate on it.

In the meantime - just rest assured that this story is very well thought out, and I enjoyed reading it. Thank you for sharing! Your players will definitely be thankful of such a grand story for them to enjoy.

Wow. That's extremely well thought out. One question though: Where is Perungol hiding in Esgaroth?

They already had a temple tower built on the shore of lake. The Sisterhood would have had enough wealth remaining to hire some Dwarves to take care of this. So Perungol would be residing in the dungeon beneath it.

Quite an interesting concept. I really like that you've considered the history and placed this into the existing timeline.

I'm glad you decided to place Perungol outside of Esgaroth as it is unlikely he would go unnoticed living inside the city. As you can see here Jon Hodgson (TOR Artist): Laketown Street Scene. And I think the docks inside the city require regular boat traffic underneath the city, so that is not an appropriate hiding place.

I'm a bit unclear with regards to Ungladeneth though. If I'm understanding your intent, she is not evil so much as permanently insane. With her insanity being a warped form of maternal instinct to provide for and protect her offspring. Only her actions with Melannen strike me as evil. The other actions can be thought of as being an outgrowth of her insanity. Maybe I'm missing something?

Morally she is in a lot of ways similar to Gollum. Certainly leaning towards evil, but this wasn't a choice, she was a victim of circumstance.
If you look purely at her actions however she clearly is evil. Ungladeneth would have a much higher body count to her name than Gollum, even if you include the occasional strangled Orc. She and or her spider cult have been sacrificing people for thousands of years.

Thanks, malkavian87, that's good inspiration.

I was wondering whether a Maia shouldn't inherently have the power to communicate with living creatures (ósanwë-style). But if she came to strongly identify with her adopted physical body she might have lost some of her Maia powers. Or the torments that broke her mind, as perpetrated on that body, could certainly be deemed to have done so -- whilst leaving her enough other powers to still found a black magic cult. So that wasn't a problem.

And the Spider Ring doesn't work! Genius! What a fantastic twist! I just hope you can find a way to build a central plot event around the PCs' discovering the twist.

Too many Maiar, a Maia adopting the form of a mannish woman, a (seeming) mannish woman consummating a romantic relationship with an elf without the commitment of marriage, might be unpopular with the purists. But that needn't stop you in your own game.

If I have a concern it's in how long the trail has had to go cold since Melannen last saw Thiadvain's mother, and whom he must have presumed would have died mere decades later. Tracking the movements of the Spider Ring, or even going in search of it, would seem really unlikely to succeed, unless powerful 'divination' magic is to play a central part in it.
But keeping one pointy ear open for rumours of spidery goings-on would be entirely reasonable. And on hearing of something, deciding to set forth to investigate just in case it might be due to the Spider Ring -- that seems perfectly reasonable.

Placing it in Esgaroth seems unnecessary, though. It's traditional in TOR for anything interesting to happen at the far end of a hex-spanning Journey phase.

Good work! Do keep sharing any further developments with us here.
Cheers,
--Os.

Thiadvain is only acting on a hunch that it might be found in the Troll hoards of a certain area, the general area of where the refugees were raided by Trolls. Thanks to the Mordor Orcs this gamble could point them in the right direction.

Well done, malkavian87!

I really liked this idea and the original post, it was a great read and a fantastic twist! I loved it! I wondered if you added anything to do story or had the chance to play it with your group?

I originally designed these ideas in the hopes of using them in a game with some friends. Unfortunately later it turned out we wouldn't be able to play TOR together anytime soon. But that doesn't stop my imagination from working. I posted this here in the hope that someone would find some use in my ideas.

I was inspired with this and the other thread about lesser rings lately and my players finished Marsh Bell and returned to Esgaroth. Balin had taken some treasures from the Treasure Room of the dungeon and he and one of my players get into a friendly drinking contest which my player won and Balin gave him a ring he found in the treasure he took from the dungeon. I described it as just like the one ring, a plain ring without any inscriptions and it's silver, only have a small green emerald jewel on it. My player currently wearing it. I may make it a somewhat incomplete ring of power and he would discover it by accident. Like it's power is talking to animals but only works on rats for example and he could heard some chatter when in wilderness and in camp one night and discovers it was two rats talking about a bug or something lol. any ideas?

I hadn't seen your reply until now. How did it work out with that less ring?

Actually I had forgot about this! I just asked my player what the hell was that silver ring written on his sheet. Now I remember! LOL. I will use it this Friday and tell you the results.

I think I will change the "rats" to birds. Ravens at first to give the player some hints about the powers of the ring. I will make him roll shadow tests everytime he hears a bird talking or tries to talk with one. It will be very easy at first with 10 TN. This is because Sauron was present during the forging of this ring but the ring was just a "practice" for the elves during their learning of the ring-craft. It was a failed practice craft. It is easy because Sauron didn't really cared for it or put anything very evil into the ring but his presence and his goal behind teaching elves the ring-craft is enough for the ring to get tainted by shadow. With time if the player uses it and starts to get better at using it I'll make the shadow tests harder, step by step.

Another reason for the shadow taint is that Sauron had controlling Eagles in mind and was experimenting on this idea secretly.

I changed to birds because I have a plan to link this with the Eagles saving the party in Tales from Wilderland. The name of the ring is Ring of Rámar (Q:Wings)