Blighted Places

[Hermes Serpent]

Working on an adventure session for this Sunday I noticed that there is a lack of real examples for Blighted Places despite them being likely to appear frequently when travelling in certain areas.

Has anyone got a list of some form covering example Blighted Places that they could share?

I currently have Giant Spider colonies, the scene of a murder (of the sister of a PC), the lair of the Werewolf of Mirkwood, Dol Guldur (of course), Barrows of the Northmen, Isildur's Field and Field of Heroes, Pale Rider Caves, Long Barrows, Amon Bauglir, Beacon Tower, and the Spider's Ring. None of my companies have gone near Mt Gundabad so I haven't thought too much about locales up there.

[Rich H]

... Could the part of the long lake where Smaug's bones rest also be Blighted?

Also, any location where a Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus concert has been held. But those aren't very appropriate to Middle Earth, I suppose.

[edwardp]

... Also, any location where a Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus concert has been held. But those aren't very appropriate to Middle Earth, I suppose.

Well done. That gave me a nice early morning chuckle... How about a scene of Dwarven twerking?

Back on topic. What about the site of The Battle of Five Armies? How long does it take to fully clear a battle field?

And isn't there a passage in ROTK where the Witch King fell, that place was always tainted?

[Hermes Serpent]

So the location of the demise of Smaug/remains of Smaug and the location of the Battle are possibilities. Perhaps the location of Thorin's demise would be more appropriate than the whole Battle site as that's got to be a sizeable area and not all of it would necessarily be tainted.

Possibly the Avar tombs in Northern Mirkwood and maybe Caras Amarth although I'm inclined not to include that on the basis that it isn't like Dol Guldur with generations of evil inhabiting it.

[Yusei]

Perhaps the location of Thorin's demise would be more appropriate than the whole Battle site.

Since it was a rather heroic death, I doubt it would corrupt the place. On the other hand, they probably had to build a mass grave somewhere, due to the amount of bodies.

[Rich H]

Perhaps the location of Thorin's demise would be more appropriate than the whole Battle site.

Since it was a rather heroic death, I doubt it would corrupt the place. On the other hand, they probably had to build a mass grave somewhere, due to the amount of bodies.

Probably burnt the goblin, wolves and bats on a large pyre - perhaps that area is blighted?

[Stormcrow]

Any sort of ruins are likely to be blighted. There may be ruins along the Forest Road and anywhere in the Desolation of Smaug. Old elvish ruins between Dol Guldur and the current halls of the Elvenking. The ruins in the Marsh-dweller adventure.

It depends, of course, on why the site was abandoned, who might have moved in, and what has been done to cleanse the area.

The area near the Watcher in the Water would probably also count as blighted. The Fellowship of the Ring feels uneasy enough there.

If an area is too small, it's not likely that the player-characters will be around long enough to need to make corruption tests.

[Heilemann]

There's a rule clarification on p21 in the Lake-town book, for those who haven't noticed:

The rules found on page 57 of the Loremaster’s Guide detail what happens when a company of adventurers enters an area qualifying as a blighted place. From the way the rules have been presented in that chapter, it seems that players are required to make Corruption tests every time they cross areas rated as Wild lands, Shadow lands and Dark lands, making for a rather unforgiving rule.

The original intent of the rule was that it is always left to the discretion of the Loremaster to determine whether a place must be considered blighted or not. The Blighted Lands table must be used when the Loremaster has decided that an area is indeed blighted, to determine the frequency of the required Corruption tests.

For example, the text for the Marsh-bell adventure applies the rule as intended, when on page 130, under the Entering Mirkwood paragraph, the bulleted text states that “The part of the Long Marshes that is inside Mirkwood qualifies as a blighted place.”

Under this interpretation, it is possible for an area found within a region classified as Wild, Shadow or even Dark not to require any Corruption tests to traverse.

As far as the accumulation of Shadow is concerned, the various region types as classified on the Loremaster’s map serve as guidelines for the Loremaster to decide whether the region currently traversed by company is blighted or not, with Free lands being rarely blighted, and Dark lands being mostly so.

When is an area blighted?

If the Loremaster isn’t sure and needs a hard and fast rule to determine if an area currently traversed by the company is blighted, he can roll the Feat die a number of times based on the region type:

Roll the Feat die once if the area is inside Free or Border lands, twice for Wild lands, three times for Shadow lands, and four times for Dark lands. If the Feat die produces a C result, the area is blighted, and the company is required to make Corruption tests as per the table on page 57 of the Loremaster’s Guide.

The Feat die could be rolled additional times if there are other reasons to consider the place to be unwholesome. For example, an area that has been inhabited for centuries by minions of the Dark Lord, or is currently infested by them; the soul of a village has been tainted by a terrible murder or act of treason, or the spirit of a place is being poisoned by dark sorcery, etc...

[Hermes Serpent]

This is pretty much an expansion of the posting made by Francesco in the old forum and hopefully it's one of those things that goes in to the new core ruleset.