Trekking through Mirkwood - LM only

[Looping]

This is a little lengthier than I anticipated, but here goes.

My campaign is taking the company through Mirkwood via the Old Forest Road.

In the scenario, the heroes are being pursued by a party of Easterlings who are trying to recover something in the heroes' possession. Long story short, the only hope for the heroes is to distance their pursuers through the forest, which will be interesting in and of itself because we'll get to play the pursuit and forced march rules.

Besides the pursuit aspect, I want to establish Mirkwood as a very hostile territory. Since a crucial, later scenario will see the company return to the heart of the forest, I want to make this first trip memorable (or make the players they wish they could forget it! ). I want the prospect of traversing Mirkwood again to feel like a real drag, something the characters won't want to do lightly.

I have a few ideas for encounters and small episodes but I would like some input as to how to make the trek through the forest seem endless. I am looking for narrative and LM strategies to convey the sense of a very, very long trek although I don't want to go overboard and bore the players out of their minds.

Here is my plan right now; I appreciate any input.

(1) Narrative/GM strategies
- I am planning on being quite repetitive in my description of landscapes and the overall travel structure (get up, eat stale bread and hard cheese, walk all day in the dark, sleep poorly, repeat).
- I will also ask the players to describe their tasks and travel order often. Their responses should be the same so that should reinforce the repetitive nature of the voyage.
- Additionally, the succession of travel rolls, awareness tests, and pursuit tests will also play to my advantage.
- Kill some characters off? (the company has spare NPCs).
- What else would you do?

(2) The themes I am going to highlight are the following:
- No food and no water: The heroes are going hungry and thirsty and must past corruption tests not to eat the company's last provisions. They must find the old way stations along the forest road to refill theirs water skins (as a LM, I decided that every way station along the Forest Road had a well; some may have collapsed; some may be dry; some may be watched).
- No hope: the characters turn on one another for insignificant matters; they spend whole days not talking. Fellowship pool does not replenish.
- No light: Characters other than Dwarves and Mirkwood Elves are feeling depressed from not seeing the light and lose one point of hope every time they fail a travel roll beyond the second week (they will have the opportunity to recover those points once they exit the forest).
- No rest: The many dangers that lurk in the woods and the threat of the Easterlings catching up with the company should keep the players on their toes. The characters get little sleep and are plagued with nightmares. The characters are weary and may have to abandon some equipment to lighten their load.

(3) I am also going to have the players play through the following episodes:
- The company is ambushed by spiders or goblins at a well/watering hole.
- Spiders herd the characters by directing them to an undefendable place or separating them.
- Spiders pick out the scout of the company or stragglers (think Predator). The lookout disappears during his/her watch and the company must find them.
- Characters look for the Beacon tower or the Refuge to rest but cannot find those places. They get lost, or get injured in falls, etc.
- When the characters rest in the Beacon Tower they discover the truth behind the fall of the tower and don't get much rest.
Any other ideas?

Since it will take weeks for the characters to cross Mirkwood, I'd like to spend at least 6-8 hours of game time on the trek. Would you shoot for longer? How would you keep your player engaged all along?

The characters are all novice adventurers. Including NPC's there are 7 characters in the company.

Thanks, all.

[Yusei]

I will make a suggestion that may seem a bit extreme, but would establish Mirkwood as a dangerous place: kill half of the PCs. If they are novice adventurers, and they're not following the Elf-path, they should not come out of the forest unharmed. If they all survive the trek, why would they be scared when they come back with a lot more experience?

I'm usually reluctant to kill PCs, but it seems inevitable to me in that case. I'm only suggesting killing some of them because they seem to be new characters, and the players may not be too attached to them yet. It's a good time to show them that the world is a dangerous place. The only other option would be to show that the forest is so dangerous, they can't go that way. Maybe have the forest kill the pursuing Easterlings.

I'm sure that's not useful advice for you, as you probably have planned your campaign another way. I just want to warn you that Mirkwood will be a lot less scary if a bunch of novice adventurers can survive it. At the very least, they should lose something very important to them, and not some random NPC.

Note that Tolkien did just that with Moria: it would have been a bit silly to write everyone as being scared of entering Moria, if the whole fellowship had come out of it unharmed. They did not lose a hobbit there, they lost the most powerful guy they had!

[Hermes Serpent]

I recommend reading through the section in Heart of the Wild regarding flavour in Mirkwood to get the type of phrasing for the travel descriptions and the depressing effect you want. It suggests talking of the gloom, silence, oppressive feeling, the black-furred creatures, lack of water and food the occasional scuttling noises and trees creaking in a non-existent wind. The company will appreciate the interruptions/combat as an alternative to you relating another boring, depressing walk in the woods.

To avoid surprises I've pre-calculated quite a few journeys in a similar manner to those in the core rules. Now I don't have to fudge how long a trip is going to take and can quickly provide the information to the company. Based on my one page scripts I know that travelling the Old Forest Road takes 25 days and the Beacon Tower is 13.5 days from the East (35 miles in Severe terrain/Wild Lands TN16 Travel tests + 55 miles in Daunting terrain/Dark Lands TN20 Travel test all at x3 distance due to terrain for 13.5 days and the appropriate 3/4/5 season related Travel tests) and 11.5 days from the West (70 miles in Daunting terrain/Dark Lands TN20 + 20 miles in the Hard terrain/Long Marsh TN18). With that framework in place I can set out my plan for the hazards (probably only two or three but well thought out ones designed to ratchet up the tension - a failed Athletics test (make it harder than TN14 due to the nature of the trail disappearing under tree roots and through brambles and thickets) can cause a hero to strain/sprain an ankle requiring help to keep moving or allowing the enemy to catch up a little. A failed Hunting roll can have the company thirsty and hungry and doubling Fatigue loss due to Travel roll failures (and at high TN's for travel in Wild Lands and Shadow Lands that is going to happen). A failed Awareness roll can cause an animal trap to be sprung, a deadfall perhaps or a pit again leading to loss of time allowing the enemy to catch up some more.

I wouldn't allow Dwarves and Elves to have any advantage over other races as the effect of the Shadow is more than lack of light and the Elves would find the loss of the light of the stars for days more enervating than just the darkness of the thick forest. Dwarves are going to feel the loss of the comforting stone surrounding them as they aren't underground.

Corruption tests are going to be required on a fairly frequent basis as you will have to test for a Blighted area twice a day in Dark Lands (20 days!) and weekly (1) in Wild Lands. I'd skip the odd one and just go for noon and evening Corruption tests while travelling in the Dark Lands - you should ask for the test just after a piece of descriptive fluff that ramps the tension up - describe the bats fluttering unerringly between the trees, silently then swooping down to feast on a luckless deer. You could of course set up appropriate Blighted areas and not bother with these rolls, a scene of orc viciousness for example or perhaps an old dwarven way station with the well befouled by corpses of a previous company only days old.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

[Yusei]

To avoid surprises I've pre-calculated quite a few journeys in a similar manner to those in the core rules.

It is also a good idea to prepare for bouts of madness, as at least a few of the PCs are likely to end up miserable at some point. If you're prepared, you can introduce elements early in the story that will be included in the bout of madness. For example, if a PC is a treasure hunter, he could hear stories of lost treasures hidden in the forest, and then if he has a bout of madnes, he could see hints of a treasure (a trail of coins?) leading him away from the party, in the depths of the forest.

[Rich H]

My "Journey's End..." adventure has the PCs trek across Mirkwood using the Men-i-Naugrim and was put together for starting PCs.

I don't disagree with making the journey extremely difficult and dangerous because it should be but I do think with the right preparation and support it is possible to make the trip, and with no character deaths.

Some points to consider:

1) The above adventure does provide support in the form of Balin as a very capable guide along with his two dwarven warriors as protection. The PCs also picked up Cram while in Laketown which was important to supplement their rations and what little they could forage during the journey. In addition, a Woodman patrol arrived to aid them (along with a returning PC) when they were about 2/3rds along the road. This avenue doesn't look possible from an OP perspective though considering the way he's set things up.

2) Starting PCs do have all their Hope and no Shadow Points accrued which makes their pool of, effectively, useable Hope greater than at most other times. This is an important consideration and when I ran "Journey's End..." was pretty critical to their success and survival. It's interesting to note that as a group the characters still have Shadow Points that relate to their journey along the Old Dwarf Road; the darkness of Mirkwood has indeed left its mark.

3) With the coming of the Darkening of Mirkwood, Wilderland does deteriorate and becomes noticeably more dangerous to travel under the eaves of the forest. I'm not sure if the following is in the rules (don't have the books to hand) or was something suggested by a poster here but I use it anyway for my campaign:

Shadow Lands and Dark Lands
Shadow lands are treated in all respects as Wild lands until 2947. Dark lands are treated as Wild lands until 2947, then Shadow lands until 2951.

I like how this allows for a marked deterioration at those dates and supports the idea that the Shadow has been lifted before those years. It still doesn't make travelling Mirkwood easy but I do think it adds an interesting and noticeable element pre and post the Shadow returning.

Even with all the above to support them, my players knew their characters had been through the mill. In fact, they avoided the Dwarf Road on their way back and returned by the Elf Path; which was just a fraught with danger in many ways. One player (having no real knowledge of The Hobbit or LotR) commented about how merchants and other travellers traverse Mirkwood across either route, to which my other players responded that they don't, generally avoiding the area or circumventing it.

[Heilemann]

I would add that it also depends on when they're traveling. In 2946, the forest is a lot less dark than it'll be in the following years. I forget now where it's written, and what the exact effects are, but it's something to the effect of both dark and shadow lands counting as wild lands until 2947. I'd probably have shadow land count as dark until 2948 at least as well.

Also I can get out my calculations, but Hermes Serpent I think one of us must be off (and I think it's you ). Going along the Men-i-Naugrim takes some 44 days, give or take. 33 days from the east to cross over the mountains, and then 11 days from there to the Anduin Vale. I'll dig out my calcs.

I'll write some more on my experience with it later.

[Hermes Serpent]

When I plotted out the route through Mirkwood via the old Forest Road I started at the Celduin and went west.
1 hex (10miles) light brown Hard (x2) terrain.
Roughly 11 hexes (110 miles) reddish brown Daunting (x3) Terrain.
Roughly 5 hexes (50 miles) brown Severe terrain on a road (x3) and x5 off-road.
This totals roughly 500 miles or 25 days march - no Mountains involved (unless the company get really lost and reach the Mountains of Mirkwood).

As the company could go in many directions when leaving or entering the road through Mirkwood I plotted the road section through Mirkwood and have separate sections covering from the edge of Mirkwood north to Esgaroth (as per the core rules) and north to the Old Ford and also to Beorn's House. Other bits include south to Woodland Hall and Rhosgobel.

[Rich H]

I forget now where it's written, and what the exact effects are, but it's something to the effect of both dark and shadow lands counting as wild lands until 2947. I'd probably have shadow land count as dark until 2948 at least as well.

Reading previous posts may help!

Shadow Lands and Dark Lands
Shadow lands are treated in all respects as Wild lands until 2947. Dark lands are treated as Wild lands until 2947, then Shadow lands until 2951.

[Mordagnir]

I will make a suggestion that may seem a bit extreme, but would establish Mirkwood as a dangerous place: kill half of the PCs. If they are novice adventurers, and they're not following the Elf-path, they should not come out of the forest unharmed. If they all survive the trek, why would they be scared when they come back with a lot more experience?

Fantastic observation, Yusei.

To add to that, I'd say that killing NPCs is only useful if you have a chance to develop them. If they have only one or two dimensions, they are just part of the background for the players. For there to be drama, the players have to care about them. In a relatively recent experience, I tried to build tension by having some bad things happen to a Loremaster character. Because he wasn't well-developed, the players couldn't have cared less; luckily, they are good enough role-players that they made the player heroes care, but it was a lost opportunity for us, as a gaming table.

[Heilemann]

Reading previous posts may help!

Shadow Lands and Dark Lands
Shadow lands are treated in all respects as Wild lands until 2947. Dark lands are treated as Wild lands until 2947, then Shadow lands until 2951.

There we go. Where's that from? It's one of those things that makes it almost mandatory to take the company through Mirkwood as early as possible so as to establish how it changes over the years.

My company got exceptionally lucky; they have Balin as a guide of course (we're running To Journey's End, about to fight at Amon Naugrim). One of them has gained significant fatigue, a factor the effects of which you shouldn't underestimate when it comes to feeling the pressure of Mirkwood. Stack up some fatigue and the next skirmish might turn out quite different.