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There were at least two of them that they dropped in a single round. I think one of them before the Snow-Troll even moved. The others took about two to three rounds.

The Snow-Trolls were tough, though, for sure. Our toughest fighter - the "Troll-slaying" Dwarf - was Weary, Miserable, and Wounded when one of the Trolls connected with a blow; he was literally the closest to dying that any of our PCs has ever been.

But even without using Called Shots, our heroes did really well. The Woodsman's Hound made the Trolls Weary (except in one fight where it too was knocked out), and my players either wiped out all of their Endurance and Wounded them, or Wounded them twice (which often only had a chance on the roll of a Gandalf!).

Awesome! EDIT: Removed some stuff, because I didn't want it to seem like I was disbelieving Majestic.

On Saturday we finished Tales from Wilderland! Here's the recap of the final session:

N’Rae, who had followed her companions from Dale, joins them just before the recently-awakened Dragon Raenar arrives. Though the conversation is tense, the adventurers convince the Cold Drake that the Gibbet King intends to enslave him; Raenar reluctantly agrees to return and aid them in their assault on the fortress. Using information gleaned from the book, the heroes climb up the side of the mountain and enter the watchtower via a hidden side portal. They then easily dispatch two Orcs who had been melting gold in a furnace. They make their way up into the great hall, where many Orcs and a Cave Troll are waiting. After a lengthy fight, the weary explorers emerge victorious. They continue up into the Chamber of Winds, where they contest the Gibbet King and nine Uruk bodyguards, two of whom hold the Chain of Thangorodrim. Their undead adversary paralyzes Malaric with foul sorcery, as the others take out the Orcs wielding the Chain. Raenar shows up dramatically, ripping his way into the structure and drawing the Spirit’s attention. During a long, epic fight the company defeat most of the Uruks, but one by one they fall as well. Repeatedly the exhausted companions are buoyed by hopeful songs from Me’lereal and Malaric. Frain is slain as he valiantly protects the frozen Malaric, who at last overcomes the magic binding him. Falandor loops the Chain around the Gibbet King, trapping him inside of it, and it causes both the Spirit and the relic to implode! Only two Uruks successfully get away, including the one who killed Frain, Urzol. Raenar claims the watchtower, and the adventurers return home with Frain’s body. King Dain generously rewards the heroes and in Dale a feast is held in their honor.

Great stuff, as always.

It seems like the Watchtower always claims at least one.

Majestic wrote:Falandor loops the Chain around the Gibbet King, trapping him inside of it,

Tell my brother I'm proud of him

Great stories, Majestic! Do you plan to go on now with Darkening? Or is Raenar a die too wild to let him loose so close to civilization?

Thanks, guys!

I do plan on continuing with Darkening at this point. At some point it's possible we'll head over the mountains into the Ruins of the North, but I figure we've got years of great adventures still in Wilderland.

Due to the (valiant) death of Frain, his player made a new PC:

Ardorwyn: High Elf Scholar from Rivendell

Also, I realized when writing up Saturday's session, that I hadn't noted Falandor's first Bout of Madness. So add to the last entry (after the discussion of the ancient book):

One night Falandor attempts to take the book, but Frain protectively keeps it from him.

“The Staff of the Roadwarden”
Spring 2952

The Dwarf Bofri convinces the heroes to accompany him to attempt to find the Millfort, an ancient Dwarven keep along the Old Forest Road; his goal is to restore the path and reopen it to regular travel. N’Rae, Malaric, Falandor, Sigmund, Ardorwyn and Bofri spend over a month travelling from Dale to Woodmen-town, which is crowded with visitors for a trade fair. As they journey north to the Old Forest Road, they encounter River-maiden Sunshadow and former Woodman Geirbald Kinslayer, who tells them of a band of Orcs that strangely fled west instead of returning to the Mountains. They reach the Millfort, but find a gigantic spider sleeping atop it. They attack Tauler the Hunter and drive the monster away, chittering in pain. Inside the tower they find a chest containing treasure, including the Staff of the Roadwarden, which Bofri claims. They escort the Dwarf back to the Easterly Inn and begin the journey east across the forest. A few days in, Falandor becomes despondent and decides to go back. As his companions convince him to continue, they hear the growl of the nearby Werewolf of Mirkwood. The party eventually makes their way to the Halls of the Elvenking.

Great stuff! Can't wait to get to these adventures with my players!

A bit off topic, but I was wondering; if the players do real damage to one of the recurring villains of Darkening (like Tauler, for instance), should that be reflected the next time they meet? Like, if they manage to Wound Tauler, which is no mean feat, maybe next time he's encountered, his Hate score should be a little lower. Or something along those lines. I mean, logically, he'd be all healed up the next time they meet (it's not for several years, I believe), but I dunno, it seems appropriate to me, and it's a nice reward for doing well in previous encounters. I was considering the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur too, since the players will probably encounter him at least 2 or 3 times; some kind of reward for well, just not-dying, seems appropriate, but I don't know what exactly.

Yeah, I think if they ended up causing a Wound with one of the characters, I might tweak their stats slightly to reflect that. In this case, they dropped Tauler down to 0 Endurance, but they never did cause any Wounds. The archer was getting ready to hit him hard, though, and spent his last action doing Prepare Shot (had he got one more action he could have potentially got him).

I'm looking forward to having the Uruk who killed Frain (just one of the regular Uruks from Tales originally, named retroactively due to the fact that he ended up being lucky, avoiding Dragonfire as he escaped) boosted a bit when he next encounters the party.