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STORYTELLING OUTLINE:

Part One: Journey, Journey - Granary, Mountains of Mirkwood (Swift travel, Lower TNs)
Part Two: Combat - Hobgoblin Raid (Weakened enemy; Full of hate)
Part Three: Encounter - Gandalf

TABLES USED: Lake-town Adventures

COMPANY CHALLENGE: Establish a revived bat population (-1 to the Fellowship pool because the situation is dire).

TOLKIENIAN THEME: The desecration and healing of the environment. As the bat population is dying off and the insect population increases, the crops, fruits, vegetables, and a large variety of wild plants are devoured. In turn, the Men of the Lake and others living in the region experience a shortage of food.

HEROIC DEVELOPMENT: A Loremaster can develop a common hero by setting up opportunities for him to show kindness toward the farmers or by placing his Fellowship focus in need of protection or healing. Someone with the Scholar calling may be asked to narrate the scenes of great discovery or moments with the guide or Gandalf the Grey. A hero with the Adventurous or Mountaineer trait might lead the rest of the company safely across a dangerous ravine or be the one to climb the final heights to reach the bat caves.

ADVENTURING PHASE:

Part One: Empty Granaries
The companions visit the granaries in the Merchants' District of Lake-town to witness the sudden shortfall of grain. The harvesters on the shores of the Long Lake are reporting that most of their crops have been destroyed by insects, normally eaten by the great cloud of bats that make seasonal visits from the Mountains of Mirkwood; but for some unknown reason, the bats have not come this year. It is suspected that a greater evil is at work in the Mountains, working to overrun the crops with pests and starve the people of Esgaroth. This weighs heavily on the entire population and even the companions are affected by it (the starting Fellowship pool rating is lowered by 1 point).

The player-heroes travel to the upper caves in the northern Mountains of Mirkwood to investigate the problem, using maps of known trails and routes given to them by the grain farmers. Perhaps one farmer joins them as a guide: a Man of the Lake possessing high Travel and Explore skills, as well as the Mirkwood-lore trait. He is a philosopher of sorts, interested in the study of nature. Due to his presence and the maps, the company is swifter and the journey is easier than expected.

Part Two: The Caves of Disease
Following a grueling climb, the companions enter a cave expecting to find roosting colonies of bats hanging from the ceiling, but instead the floor of the habitat is filled with the remains of thousands of them that appear to have died of disease during hibernation. A strange yellow fungus covers their eyes and wing membranes. The stench in the cave is horrendous and the player-heroes may have trouble staying inside long enough to explore further.

Going from cave to cave, they discover the same scene, but eventually they find a few colonies that are diseased and weakened, but not yet dead. In that chamber, they also discover a gruesome new horror: the half-eaten body of a tall Orc who's eyes and skin are infected with the same yellow fungus. It looks like his rump and legs were butchered with a cruel knife and large pieces of meat were taken off. Immediately after the discovery, drums can be heard coming up the mountainside toward the caves. Boom, boom, thump, boom! Night has fallen...

The company is raided by a band of weakened hobgoblins, ravaged by disease. The player-heroes must make their stand in the cave, or try to outrun their adversaries, but these are the Dark Mountains after all and at night they are likely to meet Wolves, Great Bats, or even Secret Shadows! It is a treacherous climb downward and many dangers can befall them (see The Heart of the Wild pages 85-89 for more information about the area). The hobgoblins have nothing to live for and are filled with hatred (give each +1 Hate point). A careful search of their pouches reveals a strange sticky substance, similar to pollen. It may be the source of the disease they suffer from and have passed on to the bats. It seems to be a recipe of their own making, for they are using it to lace their arrowheads and swords.

Part Three: A Wizard's Cure
The companions receive a joyous surprise, for they are visited by the Wizard Gandalf! This can be to rescue them from the hobgoblins if they need it, or it might be in the morning after surviving through the night. No matter when he appears, Gandalf has come to tell them the cure for the yellow fungus: a special garlic grown in the Shire. He happens to have several bags filled with it tied around his waist. But, this encounter will also determine whether he participates with them in establishing a healthy colony of bats that can leave the mountains to forage once again.

Encounter Evaluation
This encounter is based on Wisdom.

0-2 Gandalf gives them the bags of garlic and tells them he has other business to attend to. He then disappears. The player-heroes must figure out on their own how to administer the garlic to the bats effectively.
3-5 Gandalf offers to stay and grind the garlic with them and helps to spread it across the floors of the bat caves before departing. Each player-hero gains an extra Experience point for the time spent with the Grey Wizard.
6+ As above, and Gandalf escorts them back to the fields of the Long Lake to magically bolster some of the crops that have failed. During the journey, they are safe from all harm. In the end, each companion also regains an extra point of Hope.

The garlic must be ground into a powder and spread on the floor of the caves where the living bats dwell. If the player-heroes do this, the bats return to the fields of the Long Lake in time to save the remaining crops before harvest. Feeding the bats directly will not work and may even result in bites to the player-heroes who can catch the yellow fungus disease. If the garlic is left whole or in pieces, the bats can still be cured, but they will not forage as far as Esgaroth. It will take an additional year for their population to increase enough to reach it.

I played this one with a friend last night and I discovered something about the timing. Since the grain harvest would likely be in August, the adventure should begin in late summer or early autumn. Otherwise, if the story begins in springtime, it should be that the bats never came the previous year and the insects destroyed most of the crops before they could be harvested, leaving the Lakemen with a shortfall. Also, since the bats play a role in the pollination process, maybe other plants that would normally start growing in spring are also suffering.

Also, those hobgoblins are nasty fighters! Be careful not to overwhelm the companions with them. You might want to institute the same kind of rules for Gandalf showing up as Dominic used for Radagast showing up in Words of the Wise: when three Gandalf runes have been rolled by either side he appears. You can even make your own Magic of Gandalf table. That would help!

Another fun one! I like how different it is from what we've seen before, yet it still fits well in a Tolkienesque way (preserving nature).

It seems a lot (most?) of these Wild Adventures have had "full of Hate" for the adversaries; has that just been a coincidence so far?

Again, well done, james!

Majestic, thanks once again. A fella can always count on good encouragement from these forums!

Yes, I wanted to do something a little bit different with that Tolkienian theme; something that you don't often see in fantasy adventures. Things could be developed even further if the player-heroes were interested in how the yellow fungus was created and spread. I kind of figure that the hobgoblins have been creating poison to kill off the bats, but the poison mutated into yellow fungus when introduced to the bats, and now they are spreading it unknowingly to each colony and to other creatures, such as the Orcs and all who come in contact with it.

As far as the Full of Hate result for adversaries: we're just rolling a lot of 6's on the Combat table