Using Heart of the Wild in your campaigns ?

[Stormcrow]

All my chronicle is written based on the Vales of Gunbadad area

This is what I like to see: someone doing something that doesn't just ape The Hobbit and gives characters a sensible reason for being together. Good show!

[Murcushio]

My GM has been heavily utilizing Heart of the Wild, but one thing in particular stood out: he threw the Sorceress of Mirkwood at us. In our second session. She was just sitting there, right beside the Forest Road, big old pavilion and lots of fancy food, invited us to sit down and tarry awhile.

We were all god-damn petrified once we figured out exactly whose hospitality we had accepted. People were like "Oh, God. Oh, hell. Is this food poisoned? Will not eating it constitute a rejection of her hospitality and allow her to attack us? What does she want? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US." Especially once she started dicking with our heads and challenged us to a riddle contest.

Well. Most of us were petrified. The one player accepted a gift of a jeweled chalice from her (the table we were eating at was overflowing with them) which Radagast later had to forcibly take away from them, on account of it was glamored to make people want to hold onto it and had a tracer spell on it as well.

Our GM was pretty smug and has been dropping not-so-veiled hints that we're going to be seeing her again.

Sidebar: it is a travesty that the Sorceress was left out of Darkening of Mirkwood. You have someone who is enough of a magical badass that Sauron decided to take her under his wing and mentor her in the arcane arts, Princess Celestia style, and whose ambition is to steal a ring from a Nazgul and whom it is, strongly, implied has the chops to maybe succeed at that. And she apparently sits in her doing doing jack squat throughout a whole thirty-year epic campaign heavily involving the part of Mirkwood she lives in.

[aramis]

I use it. I've set my center of play near Beorn's house.

[Bomilkar]

Sidebar: it is a travesty that the Sorceress was left out of Darkening of Mirkwood. You have someone who is enough of a magical badass that Sauron decided to take her under his wing and mentor her in the arcane arts, Princess Celestia style, and whose ambition is to steal a ring from a Nazgul and whom it is, strongly, implied has the chops to maybe succeed at that. And she apparently sits in her doing doing jack squat throughout a whole thirty-year epic campaign heavily involving the part of Mirkwood she lives in.

So true. That's actually why I've decided to replace the central antagonist of "Tales from Wilderland" with the Sorceress. I'm running the TfW concurrently with "The Darkening of Mirkwood" campaign, so the Sorceress will be involved in the 'Darkening' but she will mostly follow her own plans. The way I see her, she might actually offer the fellowship some advice or even help - but woe to those who take that offer lightly.

Here she is, btw, at least asI envision her:

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If you are wondering about some aspects of her outward appearence - these are supposed to highlight her cultural origins. And while she might look a tad young, I would like to think that is part of her glamour.

[Corvo]

I'm wondering too how to use the Sorceress: I'm playing through the Darkening (year '51), and there are already a lot of going through. But I love ambiguous characters, like Mogdred. And while the sorceress is pretty clearly an enemy, she can be a rival of The Enemy (at least for a while).

My fellowship got a brush with the Kingfisher, but don't realized what they were about. Used the Sentinel Oak, and the village of Ash is a big question mark for them: they think there is a lot of potential, for good or ill...

In my campaign Ennalda (Beorn's Spear-Maiden) turned out to be a big character... or a huge thorn in the side, to be honest. She took an instant dislike at the Heroes, and opposed them at every meeting with Beorn (and that with Beorn was an already "difficult" relationship). It was their role in the Battle of The Old Ford that finally won the trust of the doughty mountain woman and the Skinchanger

[Murcushio]

The Sorceress has a lot of potential.

You mention her in nearly the same breath as you do Mogdred, Corvo, and I think that the Sorceress would definitely be wooing Mogdred and the Men of Tyrant's Hill, especially once she realizes the Nazgul are doing so as well. Mogdred would definitely know her of old, and she's much less intimidating than the Nazgul are in some ways; she's not some uncloaked revenant of terror and dismay, but a pretty lady who just happens to know some magic. A dude like Mogdred is going to be more open to proposals from her.

Given the location of Minas Raug, she would also probably be trying to get her hooks into Ceawin. If Ceawin has been possessed by that wood-wight, the Sorceress is probably the ultimate mover and shaker behind that whole affair. In fact, if the Sorceress can get the Men of Tyrant's Hill and Ceawin on-side, she's effectively created a kind of loose leaguer around Dol Gulder, which would allow her to dictate all sorts of interesting terms to the Nazgul, wouldn't it?

She's also useful as a kind of anti-Wizard. The Nazgul aren't dumb, but they tend to be pretty blunt instruments. They rely on fear and terror and the direct application of power to make things happen. They traditionally haven't stood up very well against the Wise.

But the Sorceress... this is probably someone who can give Radagast and Saruman a run for their money in the realm of commanding weird magics. If the players have been leaning heavily on Radagast for aid and patronage, the Sorceress is a great way to undercut that.

[Dunkelbrink]

(some spoilers here)

I really like these ideas and I agree that the sorceress must play a role in the Darkening. I like the scene in your campaign Murcushio where she sits at the side of the road, almost like the Ice queen in Narnia, The witch and the wardrobe. The sorceress also wants a ring. In my campaign she has heard of Thranduil's ring (HotW page 76) and believes that it could be one of the three. Therefore she is the power behind Halbrecht at Thranduil's court. While searching Dol Guldur in the year 2950 the company can find an additional clue - the one about the sorceress and that the necromancer taught her magic. After meeting her earlier that year they might figure out a thing or two. With that said I also like the ideas of her wooing Mogdred and maybe turn out saved from evil (Mogdred is brother to one of the PCs in my campaign, but he doesn't know it yet.)

[Lugija]

(some spoilers here)
The sorceress also wants a ring. In my campaign she has heard of Thranduil's ring (HotW page 76) and believes that it could be one of the three. Therefore she is the power behind Halbrecht at Thranduil's court.

I agree that Thranduil's ring could be one of her targets. I think I said "wow" aloud when I read that the sorceress wants a ring and connected it to Thranduil. Every time I read that book I come up with another plot hook. It helps to skip quickly from one side of the book to another.
"The Greatest Goblin is likely interested if someone tells him about some weapon from the First Age... Some tales tell that under Greydelve there's some ancient First Age fortress... hmm..."

[Corvo]

The Sorceress has a lot of potential.

You mention her in nearly the same breath as you do Mogdred, Corvo, and I think that the Sorceress would definitely be wooing Mogdred and the Men of Tyrant's Hill, especially once she realizes the Nazgul are doing so as well. Mogdred would definitely know her of old, and she's much less intimidating than the Nazgul are in some ways; she's not some uncloaked revenant of terror and dismay, but a pretty lady who just happens to know some magic. A dude like Mogdred is going to be more open to proposals from her.

Given the location of Minas Raug, she would also probably be trying to get her hooks into Ceawin. If Ceawin has been possessed by that wood-wight, the Sorceress is probably the ultimate mover and shaker behind that whole affair. In fact, if the Sorceress can get the Men of Tyrant's Hill and Ceawin on-side, she's effectively created a kind of loose leaguer around Dol Gulder, which would allow her to dictate all sorts of interesting terms to the Nazgul, wouldn't it?

She's also useful as a kind of anti-Wizard. The Nazgul aren't dumb, but they tend to be pretty blunt instruments. They rely on fear and terror and the direct application of power to make things happen. They traditionally haven't stood up very well against the Wise.

But the Sorceress... this is probably someone who can give Radagast and Saruman a run for their money in the realm of commanding weird magics. If the players have been leaning heavily on Radagast for aid and patronage, the Sorceress is a great way to undercut that.

All interesting ideas. Especially the tempting of Mogdred.
By the way, in my campaign it was the Sorceress -disguised as old seer- who suggested to Ceawin to offer a gift to the Old Kings, giving the start to The Helm of Peace adventure (year '51 in DoM).
She's in control of the Wights near the East Bigh and she want to exert her power in Sunstead.
I haven't yet decided how she would react to the return of her Master, though

[Bomilkar]

I hadn't thought about making her the driving force behinde the East Bigh storyline - mostly because she is still trying to find out how to make the Chain of the Thangorodrim work in order to get one of those Dwarven Rings reputedly lost to dragonfire - but it seems like a good fit. I DO plan to use her as an instigator for the later developments concerning Dale. The interesting thing about the Sorceress is that often enough she finds herself at odds with the minions of her old master, but nevertheless her actions still contribute to the Darkening. Players who decide to consider her a lesser evil and focus on the more obvious servants of the Shadow might be in for a nasty surprise.

On a slightly tangential note, I like the fact that she is from Umbar. The idea of a sea-going culture informed by Black Numenorian, Haradrim, and Gondorian influences seems rather intrigueing to me - and will be completely alien to most people living in Wilderland. Take, for example, the squid-shaped tip of her staff in my painting, that Woodmen might perceive as a strange spider with jointless legs.

And to come back to Heart of the Wild in general: She is just one example of the many NPCs and places you can just grab and insert into your campaign. For example, I am currently running a modified Darkness in the Marshes and my players have already met Valdemar the Erringman and Arcyrias on the Trader's Isle. Both will probably accompany them to the Dwimmerhorn and react quite differently to the things they will find there.The nice thing is that you can use these characters again and again so that they will eventually become good friends or mortal enemies and might be seen one or the other side in the final battle to come. And the players will have been partly responsible for that.