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Hey again

Sometimes maps can be a great source of inspiration for scenarios and campaigns, so I thought I'd share a part of my map on the area around Strayhold. I made it in Campaign Cartographer and then just converted it to more of a "player handout" kind of map with a sepia effect.

The original and bigger version is in color and has the option of showing hex grids to calculate journeys and such

If you have use for it, go ahead!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B83AeV ... sp=sharing

Some scenario ideas based on this area could be:
- Seek out the source of the orc raiding parties coming from this part of Mirkwood and find out why hunters disappear when venturing too deep into darkness. Is it just the dangers of the forest or are the rumors of a sorceress true?
- Many have been attacked by orcs when moving over the plains as well. How do they escape the light of the sun and how do they stay hidden from view? The hills are far between so they must have tunnels that they use. Can the characters find them and live to talk about it?
- Someone is serving the Enemy within Strayhold and has started to assassinate those who try to stop it. Can the characters find out who it is?
- Old conflicts and prejudice is a breeding ground for hate and corruption. The northmen, easterlings and gondorian men have a hard time accepting a shared rule even though a truce has reigned for many years. The influences of the Enemy have increased the tensions and the characters are forced to either make a choice for which side they are on or desperately strive to balance the forces out once again through diplomacy.
- The stories of Strayhold tell of an old prison and military outpost used first by the northmen and then by the invading easterlings. A place of dark deeds, slavetrade, torture and interrogation. No one has ever found the remains of this place out on the plains, but some say that it could hold surviving relics of the old days, trophies of war from centuries before. Can it be found? Will the ruins hold more than just death and dust?
- The ravine of Strayhold has many old buildings from when Gondor ruled these lands. Many have fallen into disrepair over the years, but they bare witness of the fact that Strayhold was once a fortress built from the very rock that surrounds it. Many tunnels and halls have been found and are used today, but there might be more, and in a place where bloody conflict might be waiting around the corner, its good to have the upper hand. Can they be found and what purpose could they serve? Has someone else already found them and is using them in secret?

Just some more ideas...

/Magus76

I just ran this 12 hours ago. on roll 20, This is about 90% of the way I narrated it, less some indecision by party members at who the Rider was at first.

Adventurers Travelling from Buhr Ailgra east of Mirkwood in SA 2953 Spring fail a travel roll, at the edge of mirkwood, as the guide rolls a Sauron.

I rule that the tiny village just east of the Bight about 1 mile on the classic Pete Fenlon map of Mirkwood (I use ICE Middle Earth Roleplaying Maps for my games) is burning in the darkness, an hour after sunset as the characters arrive at the edge of the cliffs, 3 miles east. An orc unit of 200 has come through and razed the town setting it alight after they captured and tied escaping woodmen victims to trees, tortured them and lit them on fire. Now the skeletal husks lie in forlorn piles, near ashy, blacked stumps and husks of gutted, burned trees, while smoke is yet curling up into the sky as the trees smoulder.

The heroes passing through all of this have to roll a corruption check or gain a point of Temporary Shadow.

Moments later the hobbit Lookout sent with a woodman scout to investigate all of this from the edge of the cliffs, rolls Gandalf, + 6t + 6t + 6t. So I put it to myself what is the absolute best thing that could happen here... They find treasure? they spot orcs? No, They spy a lone rider, in a grey cloak, on a grey horse, riding north, along the way from which they know the tracks of the orcs came. The hobbit and woodman scouts .are Elusive and small folk, and both have stealth 3, and roll 20 each with a tengwar both, so they hide in the early spring rushes and grass and among rocks as best they can, and draw weapons, thinking it is some type of .. they don't know what.

They observe as the rider stops at piles of bodies, and they see him riding out of town, toward where they are to make a camp. His eyes shining in grief, he dismounts, leaning against his horse, and patting it on the neck then unrolling a bedroll, and setting up to make a fire.

Atop the cliffs in the distance, the Dwarf leading the party on that expedition decides to slowly descend the cleft in the cliffs, and he trods up while the horse gingerly clip clops on the rocky ground of mixed scree and river wash rocks from above.

The cloaked figure at a point, stands and with a gnarly, twisted oaken staff placed squarely onto a flat rock, and grounded in the soil, Roars, "Declare thy Allegiance! Fried or FOE?!?!" as a peal of thunder cracks the evening sky and a shot of lightning streaks, flashing the clearing into brilliance, lighting up the scene, while the town yet burns it's last with embers going into the sky.

The hobbit scout previously hidden, yells into his mic, "FRIEND! FRIEND!, we BE FRIENDS!, OH FRIENDS! Do not kill us!"

The Grey rider removes a hood, and reveals a long beard, and the visage of Gandalf. A long conversation about the Heroes' plan to attack gol duldur went on from there. He did not tell them what to do, but he related [The sidebar of the gibbet king.] (To foreshadow if they go there, it will likely go bad for them.) they talked into the night, as the hobbits shared pipeweed, and all of their hearts were lightened, and the shadow of the day was removed. In the morn, Gandalf left, saying that the people were divided in their Quarrels, and he is to meet Tharanduil, muttering something must be done about these orcs ere long "They will attempt to take over all of the Mirkwood, and worse, now that Sauron has declared himself King of Middle Earth from Mordor. My friends I bid you, be wary when treading in sight of Dol Guldur, for the animals of the forest tell me that three Ringwraiths now dwell there."


[Two die rolls spurred those two scenes, plus I've been studying up on the history, and chronology.]

Then we went on more toward the main adventure, reinforcing Rhosgobel against orcs, and treasure hunting in some ruins in Mirkwood.

check out this thread I introduced a while back:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=71

Robin S.

BTW, can anyone tell me how to post a link to an earlier thread - everything I try doesnt work!

Robin S.

You probably need the full URL not just the viewtopic bit which comes at the end.

Magus76: I especially like your plot about those ruins in (under) Strayhold & who - or what - is using them (& why).

Etarnon: Reading your account about the burning of said town (& the Woodmen) gives me chills. Great intro!

Otaku-sempai wrote:Suggestion for an Eriador adventure (this is an idea that I previous brougt up in another thread):

A Dwarf-scholar from the Blue Mountains claims to have pin-pointed the site of Mount Dolmed which has been lost since the sinking of Beleriand. He claims that the Dwarf-city of Nogrod lies beneath the Gulf of Lune, but he knows the approximate location of the ruins of Belegost and wants to mount an expedition to explore them. He hopes to recover the great pearl Nimphelos, given to the Dwarves of Belegost by Thingol Greycloak in partial payment for the delving of the underground halls of Menegroth.

Studying maps of the First Age and the Third Age, I have realized that the site of Mount Dolmed would be further north than I originally thought, over 100 miles north of the Gulf of Lune. The old Dwarf mines that were used by Arvedui--the fifteenth and last King of Arthedain, after the Witch-king overran Arthedain and before Arvedui sought refuge with the Lossoth--might have been part of the ruins of either Belegost or Nogrod. Bilbo could have read about Arvendui and the mines during his stay in Rivendell in the spring of TA 2942 and then written to Balin, Gloin or one of the other Dwarves about it.

Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit contains an NPC, a tomb-robber called Shanker. Next Saturday, I'm running a small interlude that features him with some added backstory: he's a Man of Bree, originally, and recently came across a ruined Numenorean fortress that had a few barrows next to it. He was the first to find the barrows, so he found quite a few precious items that he sold in Bree later on.

This put the Rangers on his trail as they got word of someone pawning off Numenorean-made items in Bree. A young Ranger woman travels across the Misty Mountains to seek help from Beorn: they're worried about the fact that someone's robbing tombs and something might awaken in them. Since the Ranger doesn't know the lay of the land, Beorn asks the Company to escort her so they can find the ruined fort and the barrows near the Misty Mountains (I'm describing it as an old fort that guarded a pass that's now impassable)

Sure enough, they eventually get on the trail of Shanker and realize he's been taken by Barrow-Wights. If they risk life and limb to rescue him, they'll see the guy turn a new leaf: he goes to serve the Rangers and returns to Breeland.

Great idea for a story, Jussi Marttila!

Nice Shanker usage. I like this story seed.