Darkening of Mirkwood (LMs only; spoilers)

[Beran]

Hopefully that will keep the uninitiated out.

I am currently running the Wizard's Man from DoM in a PbP game and I really don't want to use the old troupe of Dagmar and her men attacking the PCs in the night (for a few reasons);
1) It is kind of a tired old tactic...I'm sure my players are expecting it.
2) Fight scenes take a long time to resolve in PbP and this one wouldn't really advance the story any.
3) I really don't want to take the chance of taking a PC out so close to the beginning of the game.

Has anyone come up with another way for her to re capture Beran? What would happen if she and her men showed up at Rhosgobel?

[Shane]

Hi,

It doesn't have to be a fight. A group of PCs with a decent Awe could scare them off. Or maybe Dagmar's mission is to get Beran back "without starting a fight" because Mogdred isn't willing to tip his hand yet, so ti is all about negotiation. And if the PCs start the fight, they obviously want one...

Shane

[Corvo]

Interesting, I was trying to avoid the same fight for my own reasons (keeping Mogdred more ambigous).

This is my idea:
Beran was sent to observe Fenbridge Castle and approached it from the west. Once discovered there are orcs he retreated north-west (the wargs were sniffing his old trail), and stumbled upon Amon Bauglir. Intrigued, he obtained shelter at the castle and started to observe the place, but he was discovered.

Once they met Dagmar, the encounter starts this way:
“That man”, she says, “is prisoner of my master”. If questioned, Dagmar identifies herself a follower of Mogdred, the Lord of Amon Bauglir. “That man was a guest at the Hill. He lied to us, saying he was a hunter. We caught him spying, and he fled into the woods. Give it to me”.
Dagmar isn't lying.

The catch is that Beran is indeed a spy, so Dagmar is fairly justified in her behaviour. This way I can have some serious clash without prejudicing future encounters: I would not resort to night-time attack, but to some intimidation or maybe not lethal combat

[Beran]

A good idea...wish I had thought to word the encounter exactly like that, I think I still can use it however. As the game is a PbP one I have only read a couple of adventure years forward, does Beran have any direct connection to any future events? Or, does he only show up in the first story?

[Corvo]

From a quick word-search in the pdf, Beran doesn't appear anymore

[Beran]

From a quick word-search in the pdf, Beran doesn't appear anymore

D'oh! I forgot you can word search a PDF. Thanks, man.

[Shane]

That's a very good approach to it Corvo, and I wish I had thought of that way of wording it when i ran it. When i ran it a fight ensued. Dagmar was down but not dead along with one other man, the other three dead. The PCs took Beran and rushed to Rhosgobel.

My follow-on from that will be that when Magdred turns up at the Folk Moot he will have Dagmar in tow, and at some point will denounce the PCs as murderers who prevented his people from carrying out their sworn duty. Unless the PCs lie about starting the fight (they did start the argument and escalated it to violence, while Dagmar and co weren't told the truth by Mogdred and were only told that he was a thief and needed to be caught) and earn dishonestly misdeed Shadow then they are kind of in the wrong. So that will add some interesting tension to the Folk Moot.

Regards,

Shane

[Corvo]

Well, thanks.
I was really impressed with the character of Mogdred and I wanted to preserve his ambiguity, a rare quality in rp games.
That man got the making of a villain, yet he hasn't chosen yet wich side to support. He's corrupted by the shadow, but if the free peoples alienate him they gain a mortal enemy, while if they ally with him he becomes a great (if dangerous) asset.

Chapeu to Ryder-Hanrahan and Nepitello for giving us our Mordred.
Now I only need to develop his relationship with his long-estranged father...

[PaulButler]

Now I only need to develop his relationship with his long-estranged father...

I have always assumed that Wolfbiter, the axe from the first scenario in TfW, actually belonged to Mogdred's father Ingomer Axebreaker...
it seems too obvious. The name "Axebreaker", the axe being in the possession of a former prisoner of Dol Guldur... I've been working up some material linking all of this for a while.

[Corvo]

Now I only need to develop his relationship with his long-estranged father...

I have always assumed that Wolfbiter, the axe from the first scenario in TfW, actually belonged to Mogdred's father Ingomer Axebreaker...
it seems too obvious. The name "Axebreaker", the axe being in the possession of a former prisoner of Dol Guldur... I've been working up some material linking all of this for a while.

I tied Wolfbiter to Mogdred and Geirbald kinslayer, and all three to the Werewolf: I wrote about it here viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1455.
Third post of the thread. Maybe you can find something useful to steal