SHADOW OVER THE LAMP OF BALTHI – ADVENTURE

[Meneldor]

Hello!

This is my first post on the forum, but I am, for some time now, a loyal reader of all your discussions here on this forum. Thank you C7 for a great product and you super board for all of your suport and the fan created materials (especially Rich H.)!
Below is a very rough idea for the simple adventure I am planning with your help to write and later run for one of my TOR groups (I am running two PbP TOR campaigns). This my first attempt to create The One Ring fan material. Please forgive my rusty and broken English (it isn’t my first language), and a Tolkiensque ignorance.





SHADOW OVER THE LAMP OF BALTHI

… the Werewolf of Mirkwood was aware of the light of the lamp hanging in the great Hall of Balthi. Unable to locate it precisely, it perceived it as a maddeningly painful presence, as its flame burns with a light coming from a hateful past.

• When: The company may undertake this adventure at any time, but it is better suited as an episode for a somewhat experienced Fellowship (hopefully with some Shadow Weaknesses too ), set in late autumn after 2946 (but before 2951?).

• Where: Woodmen-town and the surrounding areas in a Woodmen territory.

• What: The winter is coming and a small settlement, lying in a clearing among the trees where the forest stream heads west, turning before the wood rises into low hills beyond its eastern shore. The hunters of Woodmen-town went for a Big Hunt leaving their homesteads in the protection of the remaining men and woman. The forces of Shadow in Mirkwood are cunning an attack on Woodman-town’s ancient great house to destroy or at least to discover the precise location of the Lamp of Balthri.
The Big Hunt is only the necessity to gather and bolster winter supplies but also a traditional way of coming of age for a Woodmen youth. All boys age 13 and up and the girls if they choose to do so pairs with the family’s grown member in a clan’s hunting parties to track and kill the game and in doing so to come of age in the ways of the Woodmen. The end of the Big Hunt is celebrated on November 1st as a First Day of Winter festival. Since 2941 it has also became a joined celebration of Necromancer’s forced departure from the Dol Guldur where the Woodman played a very important role of a scouts for the army of the Great Council.

• Why: There are several reasons why the companions should feel compelled to stay during the local festivities. First, it’s a great opportunity to spend a winter in Woodman-town. Secondly some of the Fellowship Woodmen Heroes might chose to take part of a big hunt as their family or clan’s youth guardians and patrons in the coming of age ritual. The unfolding events should quickly propel company into action. The defending of the Woodmen-town and its inhabitants in a fight with the forces of Shadow surely will compel the company into action. The importance of Lamp of Balthri might become known to them and introduced first handedly by the Radagast or the Council of the House of Woodmen-town.

• Who: As the heroes might discover during the adventure, the forces of Shadow gathered around the Werewolf of Mirkwood. Since the presence of the Lamp of Balthri is too painful for him for his direct involvement in the planning attack, he ancient wolf with the secret permission of the Necromancer who fled to Barad-dur, summoned The Hound of Sauron (assuming the beast was left in the Mirkwood by the Master). The cunning creature is to organize the main attacking force as well as spy in the area in the process. The Werewolf left his lair from under the mountains of the Wild Wood accompanied by the three Secret Shadows and a swarm of Big Bats where the shape shifting servants of Sauron in allegiance with the ancient beast conceal their presence understanding the will of their Master. The Hound of Sauron gathered around himself a pack of Wild Wolfs and Wargs commanded by the Warg Leader as well as a number of Orcs of the Mountains of Mirkwood.

• How: The Werewolf of Mirkwood is orchestering the plot from the distance and it’s very likely that the company will never be aware of his involvement in the scheme. He will be patrolling the area personally making sure that no word about the attack would leave the Woodmen-town on foot. If the Heroes would play the role of the messengers to Radagast in Rhosgobel or the House of the Woodland Hall, if unlucky, they could have a hazard encounter with the dreaded beast.

Some of the planned by the Beast events:

• As the large force of Woodmen are divided into smaller hunting parties, the a large pack of wargs are to attack a number of them in order to tie them in the forest and kill as many as they can in the process.
  
  In the meantime a large host of orcs pledged allegiance to the Hound of Sauron will storm the Woodmen-town.
  
  During the orcish night attack on the settlement walls, the three Secret Shadows will secretly came to the Woodmen-town. Their objectives are to enter the ancient great house, which is packed at this time with many woman and children, and to spy on the secret location of the lamp of Balthri ( steal it or destroy it if possible).
  
  Before dawn if the attack isn’t successful, before the orcs will be resigned to retreat to the forest and the human hope of near victory will be in its peak, the swarm of bats will descend on the defenders the Secret Shadows among them. They will try to sabotage the weak points of the defenders be it a main gate, part of the wall as well as provide the shadow for the attackers.
  
  The fire in the holy place of the great house could be a source of dwindling hope of the defenders as well as it might divide their numbers in the rescue attempt of their beloved sanctuary, so the Secret Shadows will try to accomplish just that.

_______




Like I said in the beginning, English is my second language, so please forgive me my odd style, grammar errors, etc.. I tried my best to write in a foreign language. I would appreciate your thoughts and comments a lot.

The setting of the adventure before Darkening of Mirkwood to be coherent with the plots from the Tales of Wilderland should probably involve the Gibbert King character rather than Werewolf of Mirkwood in a secret blessing and help from the Sauron but again maybe it’s just my gut feeling. Before my group will meet Werewolf in the DofM I wanted to give it a try a bit earlier. Do you think this kind of plot would be possible?

Originally I planned the attack on Woodland-town using corrupted Shadow Men that used to be a Woodmen but fell under the influence of the Gibbert King. I am not sure if the Warewolf of Mirkood as a beast or the Hand of Sauron could manipulate the men hence for now I excluded them from the adventure. However, I think that the form of beautiful women of the Secret Shadows might have a chance to accomplish just that, (maybe even with the shadow weak hero) but again I would rather to listen to your suggestions before I incorporate that into the planned adventure.

The other thing I am uncertain of is if the Gibbert’s King magic could animate bodies of returning form the hunt small hunting party fallen in the ambush or at least control their will to make them open the gates/fight with the families. It would déjà vu for the company taking part in the adventure of “Those who tarry no longer” if the Heroes would recognize in returning Woodmen tactics of the Necromancer. I wonder what would be their conclusions and the further actions.

Some more Qs:

• 1. Could the motivation for a Gibbert King to destroy or get into the possession of the Lamp of Balthri be connected to the Werewolf of Mirkwood? Would the Dark Spirit of Dol Guldur try to make friends with the Beast or maybe try to destroy the rival? Would the magical blue light give him any source of power or maybe he would rather also like the Werewolf be looking to get rid of it? Would destroying the village and killing/enslaving the inhabitants be more important for the Gibbert King than the matter of the Lamp?
  
  2. Would the burning down of the ancient great house destroy the Lamp? I imagine that at least the ancient magical lamp, if not the holy building protected by the its or Radagast’s spells, would have some kind of an insurance against mechanical or due to natural hazards damage? It's been held in the depths of the Dol Guldur becouse it was precious to Sauron or maybe he couldn't destroy it?
  
  3. The other question is whether the Lamp of Balthri has the same effect on other foul creatures as on the Werewolf of Mirkwood? If so, the idea of Secret Shadows coming close to spy on its location seems silly. Did I understand the pain inflicted on the Werewolf of Mirkwood by the presence of the lamp of Balthri correctly? Can he come close or in physical touch with the relic without penalty to his actions? Or maybe the creature is just annoyed and tormented psychologically and the text should be taken by me metaphorically?
  
  4. I figured the Woodmen-town thanks to Radagast (quite often present in the area) might have some magical ways to inform him or the other houses about the assault. The rescue should come quickly in that event, especially from Woodland Hall being 40 miles north. If that is rather unlikely the Woodmen might have their own, non-magical alarm system, no? Be it fireworks (kind of magical too – but maybe some Gandalf’s ancient time resistant presents) that would start off the runner with a message (man or hound) from his tree post/den a few miles away or maybe just a raven or other bird like pigeon? (Assuming the Big Bats could intercept the bird leaving the village while under the siege).
  
  5. Do you think the dark magic of Gibbert King could (in case of the Bout of Madness) corrupt/manipulate a Hero with a certain shadow weakness to steal /reveal its location in Hall of Bathli? Should I interpret the blue lantern being suspended in chains under the roof in a plain sight or rather hidden far from it and displayed on a rare occasions?
  
  6. I was also thinking about Gibbert King or Werewolf of Mirkwood having a human spy in the Woodmen-town for a some time before the assault or maybe even a permanent resident living in the village for years since planted/corrupted by the Sauron just before his departure to Mordor. I guess given the circumstances the Woodmen are reluctant to accept newcomers into their clans but surely it wouldn’t be impossible. But I wonder how long it would take for a visiting Radagast/Gandalf/Saruman or any visiting elf to discover such a spy right away? Could there be a human/animal magically designed "sleeper". ?
  
  7. What size of the settlement would the village of Woodmen-town be? I imagined it the smallest of the forest towns, but if adventure is played close to the Darkening of Mirkwood, the population could swell with the returning home/relocating Woodmen. Anyway, the rough number of the able bodied people and hounds that could put up a fight would help me to divide them between the hunting party and home leftovers, run the battle, forest ambush, and set the number of adversaries. I think some other Woodmen and maybe even foreign traders would be coming for the festivities but since it’s the smallest of the three towns in the area, those other two would probably attract bigger numbers leaving a few visitors for Woodland-town that probably isn't as well suited to accomodate a big crowds for the winter.
  
  8. What would be the attractions for the First Day of Winter? (Can you think of any more suitable/better/Tolkien proper name for such festival/holiday for that culture or Northmen in general?)

I come up with a few possible things to do (again problem with the tolkiensque/culturally corrected names for the competitions/events):

• - Attack on Dol Guldur Feast
  - Coming of Age Ceremony Event(those who tracked and killed the game this year on their own – let’s say one clean shot)
  - Big Hunter Ceremony Event – the owner of the biggest/best hunted down game during Big Hunt
  - Hound Racing (maybe with children jockeys on their backs?)
  - Archery Tournament
  - Camouflage/Elusive Competition
  - Animal Sounds Imitation Competition
  - Festival of the Song
  - Herb Collection Contest
  - Meat Eating Contest
  - Balthi Terrain Race (with the flame)
  - Axe Throwing Tournament
  - Shield Race Competition (probably better suited for Bardings or Beornings)
  - Fairest of Them All Contest
  - Tree Climbing Competition

I would appreciate all your thoughts and help!

[Beleg]

My first thought is that I'm not completely clear on what the party would be doing. I feel like if they take part in the hunt, Woodmen-town would definitely fall, and if they don't take part, then it would still probably fall, just with the death of the party also. At least, that's the impression I'm getting from your description of the size of the army marshalled against the Woodmen.

Also, when are you setting this adventure with regards to Tales from Wilderland? I ask because that would have some bearing on whether or not the Gibbet King would be involved at all.

Besides that, it definitely sounds like a fun idea

[Mim]

If I read your post correctly, could you have the Gibbet King, Secret Shadows, or their servants attempt to capture the Lamp of Balthi during the "terrain race?" This would spare you the problems of the player-heroes' defense of the Woodmen village by taking them away from the village but still give them a heroic justification for their adventure. Just a quick thought

[Rich H]

This is my first post on the forum, but I am, for some time now, a loyal reader of all your discussions here on this forum. Thank you C7 for a great product and you super board for all of your suport and the fan created materials (especially Rich H.)!

Its a pleasure and thank you for the compliment. If you need any help editing this adventure and PDFing it then just let me know - I'm happy to go through proof reading it and then creating a PDF of it so it has the usual TOR style look.

A couple of questions about the adventure...

1) I'd personally set it after Dol Guldur is re-occupied as this adventure represents a very significant move on the part of the Servants of Sauron. It may be worth presenting the adventure as two options - one framing it pre-2951 and the other post-2951. Although that could be a lot of work for you!

2) I'm not sure what you want from the adventure. Do you want the PCs to defend the town with just young and old there with them? OR, do you want them out and about as part of a hunting party and then learn of the Lamp's theft? I ask this because depending on your priority, the adventure will pan out very differently. Perhaps both of these two options could be presented - again more work if you present both options!

I think the outline is really good though. I like the idea of using the Werewolf of Mirkwood. I've been foreshadowing it in some of my adventures (eg, large wolf-like paw prints in the mud beneath Mirkwood's trees) but I'm not sure how to use him - this adventure would therefore be perfect.

[Meneldor]

Lol, yes Mim I will think about it! Thanks.

Beleg, thanks for your questions. As you probably saw I have more questions for myself than answers from myself.
Yes you are right when it comes to the strength of the Shadow forces I presents in the outline. When I wrote down the first part of this adventure idea, I guess I imagined that settlement a lot bigger in my eyes. The questions about that came in the second part when I was pretty sure there are a few hundred inhabitants less there that I originally thought. That is it rather a village than a small town (I guess maybe I was confused by the name of it as well).
All I have is a reference to the attack on the Woodland Hall in original C7 adventure. In comparison to the “The Words of the Wise” the settlement is smaller in this adventure (per LMB) so one could argue that the enemy forces should be smaller than the warband attacking the northern settlement of Woodmen. Maybe even the defenders were in much stronger position in Woodland Hall even without the presence of the Elven reinforcements. The defenders of the WH had a few months to prepare themselves but here the heroes have just days. Btw my group didn’t play the “Word of the Wise”, the PbP game takes a lot of time in the game world and that's why I thought about coming up with this adventure instead.

If the Warewolf of Mirkwood is seriously bent on the Lamp destruction or possession, I don’t see the reason why he couldn't gather the formidable force. Yet I think you are right. I didn’t realize that the Great Bats are so strong opponents, since there should be hundreds of them, if not thousands, to create a fake cloud to cover the sun and provide the shadow for the orcs. In that case I will either cut them out from the army or look for some balancing solutions to give a defenders a fighting chance). Also, one could argue why the bats didn’t attack at night since they are Denizen of the Dark as well as creatures that Hate Sunlight. The more I think about it the more I feel I overdid it.

I thought of running that scenario a year after the “Who Tarry No Longer”. The company still have the Wold Biter to deliver to Woodmen.

The idea of Gibbert King’s involvement probably cuts the Werewolf of Mirkwood and the Hound of Sauron and the Vampires of the army as they appear to me foremost as servants of the Necromancer. In case of the Spirit invading the village he will have the orcs with some wargs and the man corrupted by his magic at his disposal. However I also, the same as Rich, I like the idea of Werewolf behind the attack much better.

I agree, without some other plots, circumstances this scenario is probably just a hack and slash encounter; yet another military exercise that could be the last for the heroes.

Rich, thanks for taking time to respond. I asked myself what would the Woodmen-town adversaries do, what would their moves and motivations be. After I set the enemies and the other NPCs moves into motion, it's totally up to heroes what they will do, how they will solve the problems and which solutions choose from the available to them options. They usually ambush me with their ideas anyway, so I try to anticipate their movements as vaguely and as roughly as I need to write out the outline. What I want to achive is just fun and maybe send tchem a curveball as it is a bold adventure. It make all go wrong with the wrong choices or the bad luck. I also wanted to make use of the creatures my group haven't got an occasion to meet so far. Also I have a feeling the Lamp of Balthi is maybe somewhat as important for the former Greenwood the Great as the One Ring is for the Sauron.

I plan to add to the scenario all the options available for the players, when I get a grip of what the Shadow can do and what cannot and especially what are the abilities of the Lamp against those creatures. I definitely want to balance the odds but in the same time I want my players to feel the heat.

Also it would help to know how the size of settlement relates to the number of inhabitants. It would be easier to come up with the size of the attacking army.

My group has 7 players including 2 Woodman, 2 Elves, Dwarf, Man of the Lake and one Barding. Since the Coming of Age Big Hunt is a Woodmen clans’ matter, I thought that the well played encounter would result in an open invitation for the Fellowship’s Woodmen to act as a patrons for young lads whose siblings already have taken family’s grown-up/s to pair with on the hunt. It will be up to PCs to receive it. If the whole company will desire to be part of the Big Hunt no one will be against it if they pass the social encounter with the village elders at the acceptable level. The most important part of that tradition is to let the young Woodmen prove their skills, so the grown-ups are rather guardians in the shadow of the young hunters. They will take part in the process once the aspiring youth will miss their targets or wound the game. At least it’s the vague, rough idea that probably needs to be better thought out. It would be clear to the Fellowship, especially the non-Woodmen heroes that for the most part they would be the observers. For the Barding, Man of the Lake and especially the Dwarf it will probably be enough to say: “I appreciate it but no, thanks”. Anyway I plan also to occupy them with some side plot so they don't feel bored in the village in the anticipation for the Holiday.

On the hunt some of the hunting parties will have a chance while tracking the game to discover suspicious tracks which well identified will tell a tale of recent enemy movements.
At some point it might be clear to them that weather to go back, uniting hunting parties into as big unit as they can or at least sending messenger with a word to the village isn’t a bad idea. Going back would be the best choice, but the decisions isn't only the PCs. They will have a chance to roleplay the arguments etc.

The amount of wargs should be roughly equal to the number of grown human party members plus a Warg Leader. The total amount of Woodmen’s Hounds is equal to the number of youth (one dog per every two Woodmen from the village). The hunters will always try to be within the horn sound moving thru the forest in a few larger groups.
I figured that if I assume the total number of Woodmen-town inhabitants to be 200, so there will be around 40 families from which 10 teenagers 13 to 15 years old will try to Come of Age that year. That will give the number of 20 hunters and 10 hounds plus maybe some number of the heroes from the company.
There would be 10 (+number of heroes) Wild Wolves + the Warg Leader.
It depends of the Woodmen decisions what will be the odds of the combat; whether they will be ambushed or not and if they will send in time a message back to the village.

The wargs are hoping not to let the hunters to unite and attack them separately and cut them from the direction of the Woodmen Hall. After all The Hunt isn’t taking place in the Hart of Mirkwood. It is happening on the territory of the Woodmen so the hunters are not going to cross the Dusky River.

Unbeknown to all (the Woodmen and the Shadow forces) there are travelling guests/migrants from Woodland Hall that are going toward the hunting parties. Those Woodmen, once the mists of the Necromancer’s disappeared a few years ago for good, come with the intention of settling back in Woodmen-town . They are dozen male Woodmen from 3 clans and even more families originally from the Woodmen-town that moved out to Woodland Hall in the time of reign of Necromancer. They are going to scout the options and making proper accommodations if necessary for the spring relocation of their families as well as enjoying the hospitality of the clans during the First Day of Winter Celebrations.

In the adventure they might end up being a backup for the delayed/ambushed hunters in the Forest. On the other hand, once their presence is discovered and their party ambushed by the wargs, the hunting party members with the Hounds might come to their rescue instead. In a worst case scenario that group of Woodmen may die and never get to their old and the future home. Same goes for the village hunters.

So that’s would be it regarding the Big Hunt party at this point.

Below are my rough ideas about the situation in the Woodmen-town.

If some or all of the company members will stay in the village, the attack will be happening around the same day as the fight in the forest, which is three days after the hunting parties depart the village. The Hound of Sauron is going to attack the Woodmen town ahead of the planned holiday as he knows that the closer to the 1st November there might be more visitors coming for the festivities and in doing so bolstering the defenses with more able bodied men and women. Absense of the hunting party also makes it easier for him.

If the hunters will send the messenger back to the Woodmen-town no later than by mid-day of the second day after their departure from the village, the council of the elders will decide on the course of the action during the moot. If all the hunters will come back safely, the Shadow attack on the Woodland-town will come nevertheless.
Regardless of the position of the hunting parties in a place and time, the number of the orcs will be equal the number of fighting defenders as if the hunting party has never returned. The defenders will be outnumbered but without a chance of making thru the night. Afterall the Lamp is the main ojective of the attackers, so if the Vampires will steal the relic, the Orcs might retreat, I didn't give much thought to that yet.

The Radagast will be on his way to the Woodmen-town as he already knew about the enemy movements. Be it by a setting off his magical alarm, fireworks or any other known only to him way, the Wizard knows. The reinforcements from the south with the blessed by the Wizard movement are coming too. Radagast came to that knowledge of the planning assault when he was going about his business around the banks of the Dusky River approximately in the middle distance between the Woodmen-town and the Rhogosbel. Hopefully, with his Rabbits he can arrive to the besieged village before it’s too late. He can encounter the Werewolf of Mirkwood on his way or not. If a hero/heroes not strong enough to confront the Beat and tell about it will set south as a messenger for reinforcements, I will use a LM cheat save and he/they will be accompanied by the Wizard in the fight against the Werewolf.

So those would be the some of the rough movements of the Shadow and the NPCs. What the players can do it’s up to them. Those in the Woodmen-town will have the opportunity to spot and identify the Secret Shadows. If they will do so, they will have to convince the council of danger if they will figure out what is going on. The shape shifters will appear a night before the attack as a woman pretending to be visitors to the festivities among the other newcomers. I figured that guarding of the Lamp and standing against the Vampires will be their main objective. I don’t see a reason why they shouldn’t try to hunt some of them down in their spying and maybe even interrogate.

If the village will last, fully victorious or only partially (lost Lamp) the Festivities that year probably will not be merry as many defenders died, lost of furenals. The company will be treated as Heroes. Maybe the next adventure or some in the future would be the retrieval of the Lamp if it wasn't destroyed but stolen.

I wonder why the Warewolf of Mirkwood supposedly didn’t know the location of the Lamp? Is it a matter of magical concealment before the senses of the Shadow creatures by the Lamp itself or maybe Woodmen-town’s location and therefore the Balthi Hall’s resting place of the Lamp in the forest wasn’t known to the Beast until recently? Why Sauron never tried to retrieve it in the last 400 years? Or maybe we just know nothing about that?

Rich, I know that planning this adventure isn’t easy task and there is a lot of work ahead of me. I just feel that there is so many little but important details that I don’t know or don’t understand when it comes to planning a balanced and plausible adventure.

Anyway, it's great idea but probably it's best to wait and write "the after 2951" after C7 will present us with the DM suplement.

Rich, thank for you insight and offered help! I would gladly use it as my English and the ideas need a lot of work. So far I spend only two days on this Lamp including today In the meantime if you are interested I could PM you a Caran Gaurn adventure (two acts out of three) translated by me from French to English a few months ago. Maybe it would interest you. Maybe you could edit it and so on, if you see it's worth it.

Thanks much for the criticism and the food for thought!
I still have too many unanswered questions.

PS. I am sorry for another such a long post. It's always hard for me to stop when I am writing! I am sorry for all the errors and typos.

[Beleg]

Wow. That was a full on essay
I definitely believe you are right in thinking you should tone down the number of enemies, and I also agree with you and Rich that the Werewolf would make a far more interesting mastermind than the Gibbet King, given the events within Tales from Wilderland.
One thing that strikes me is this: if the aim of the Werewolf is to steal the lamp, why not do it subtly, with as little show of force as possible, in the hope that nobody even notices until it is too late. On the other hand, if the aim is to destroy the lamp, maybe there should be a large force assaulting Woodmen-Town, with the purpose of completely obliterating it. Just a thought

I'm struggling to separate everything out of your post due to its length, but these are the first things I can think of. If I remember anything else, I'll edit this post or something

P.S. One minor quibble, personal preference really: you mention Radagast's Rabbits. I assume you mean his rabbit-pulled sled shown in Peter Jackson's film. There's no mention of these in the books, and I find them utterly ridiculous. But hey, you may like them
Just thought I should point out they aren't 'technically' canon

[Rich H]

Rich, thank for you insight and offered help! I would gladly use it as my English and the ideas need a lot of work. So far I spend only two days on this Lamp including today In the meantime if you are interested I could PM you a Caran Gaurn adventure (two acts out of three) translated by me from French to English a few months ago. Maybe it would interest you. Maybe you could edit it and so on, if you see it's worth it.

Happy to help out with editing and writing it up for you. I'll PM you with my email address and I'll take a look through it when you send it me. You mention you've translated 2 out of 3 acts - is the 3rd one around at all? Would be horrid to leave it unfinished!

[Rich H]

One thing that strikes me is this: if the aim of the Werewolf is to steal the lamp, why not do it subtly, with as little show of force as possible, in the hope that nobody even notices until it is too late. On the other hand, if the aim is to destroy the lamp, maybe there should be a large force assaulting Woodmen-Town, with the purpose of completely obliterating it. Just a thought

Reading through this, I'm reminded of the old ICE adventure the "Dark Mage of Rhudaur". The main part of that scenario was an attack on one of the beacon towers in Rhudaur by orcs, wicked men, and blood wights (I think). It was a highly enjoyable adventure and I'm sure some elements could be *cough* borrowed *cough* to use within this adventure.

I think I prefer some of the woodmen being left in the town as well as old and young folk. That would give PCs the opportunity to bolster/lead the defences with some fighting men at their disposal.

One idea would be to allow the PCs chance to discover the attacking force while participating in the hunts and race back to the town to defend it (with as many woodmen as they could muster along the way). That way you'd be able to construct the adventure using your ideas of the hunt AND siege, making for an epic scenario.

I prefer the idea that the werewolf wants to destroy the lamp but it's pure burning light would be anathema to him - so can he physically get near it? Does he need some proxy to do it for him perhaps? Maybe reaching through dreams he tries to coerce (corruption checks) one of the PCs to destroy it (or a woodman leader)?

I do really think this should be set after the re-occupation of Dol Guldur as this is a massive and determined assault by the Forces of Shadow on a significant stronghold of the Free Peoples.

[Beleg]

I do really think this should be set after the re-occupation of Dol Guldur as this is a massive and determined assault by the Forces of Shadow on a significant stronghold of the Free Peoples

Totally agree with this

[Meneldor]

Rich, Beleg great thoughts! I have now plenty to think about. Thanks. Also, I’ll try to put my hands on that MERP material! Maybe some interesting of ideas could be paraphrased.

Beleg, regarding rabbits - really good to know! I am glad it’s only the PJ’s creativity! Yes, they seem (same as the a bit looney Wizad) silly. Anyway, some sort of fast paced means for Wizard’s travelling thru Mirkwood would help. If it’s not drastically non – canon, maybe Radagast could have some ancient bloodline great bloodhound of Woodmen at his disposal big enough to carry him as a mount?

I believe you are both right about setting the events after 2951. Hopefully the Darkening of Mirkwood release announcement will be shouted from the rooftops pretty soon!

Some more ideas around the Lamp of Bathli:

The Wolf Biter could be fixed only in the “pitch black room” forge with the Lamp as the only source of illumination and/or with its ancient flame (if there is an actual flame inside) as the forge’s fire igniter. Maybe the healing powers of the Lamp could be the reasoning for resurrecting the Wolf Biter and giving it some new qualities in the process? The smith could be one of locals or company’s hero with a high level of craft and appropriate trait. The new weapon could change the name for “Werewolf Biter” after the Battle for the Lamp if it would inflict some damage to the Beast. Maybe glow blue in the presence of the wolves or werewolves.

The stealing of the Lamp could have a hidden Sauron’s agenda of luring the Woodmen away from their strongholds into the known Werewolf’s army lair for ambush. The settlements would be easier targets for the Shadow forces to get rid of the humans from the neighboring lands of Dol Guldur. The Woodmen could try to keep the war party deployment in secret from the Elves or try to ask them for help. They might also send a player’s company as scouts for the war party or a special task force to reclaim the lost Lamp silently.

The stealing of the Lamp could be a Shadow poisoned seed between the Woodmen and Elves. Assuming the Lamp was at some point of ancient history the rightful property of the elves lost in the abandoned Amon Lanc, now the King of the Elves could see the occasion of reclaiming lost the humans artifact given to them by the Gandalf as finders keeper. Assuming the Lamp is really all that important to everyone involved in Mirkwood’s affairs.


Btw, I’ve sent Rich the Caran Guar attempted translation materials. Maybe he will do some good with that interesting adventure published in French e-zine Marauder. The last act of the campaign is coming out in the next issue (hopefully a few weaks away).