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Another great writeup, Falenthal.

I've thought of doing The Questing Beast for my group, if for some reason a few of them can't make it one night (I'd have to have it happen a little later than the book, being as we are already in TA 2951).

Nice read as always, Farenthal!

What does the exiled dwarves' place look like in your campaign? Did the player heroes manage to just get in and speak with the dwarves or did the dwarves try to escape or fight time? I am closing in to this scene in my own campaign and haven't really decided on the dwarves' status. Do they have a big underground cave with rooms, tips for defense (and maybe even a tame basilisk) or is it just a small hollow?

Thanks to all for your kind words. I hope in a week I'll be able to relate how Kinstrife went, and specially the changes I made to turn Valter the Bloody into Viglund, and turn a bandit camp south from Beorn's House into a settlement north of the Forest Gate.

Dunkelbrink wrote: What does the exiled dwarves' place look like in your campaign? Did the player heroes manage to just get in and speak with the dwarves or did the dwarves try to escape or fight time? I am closing in to this scene in my own campaign and haven't really decided on the dwarves' status. Do they have a big underground cave with rooms, tips for defense (and maybe even a tame basilisk) or is it just a small hollow?

Thanks to all for your kind words. I hope in a week I'll be able to relate how Kinstrife went, and specially the changes I made to turn Valter the Bloody into Viglund, and turn a bandit camp south from Beorn's House into a settlement north of the Forest Gate.

As I had to improvise during the session everything that wasn't written in the adventure, I must say I didn't have an exact idea of their hideout's display. Luckily for me, my players just talked with the two dwarves that appeared from the tree, and negotiated with them in the forest itself. I just told them, when they managed to convince them of releasing Ruithiel, that one of the dwarves seemed to go down some stairs and a few minutes passed as he came back again with the elf. My players imagined that there was a full underground complex under the tree, full of exiled dwarves, but I never told them that. In fact, I imagine only a few dwarves (20 tops), old and skinny, living in not much better conditions than forest goblins. Mîm's hideout from The Silmarillion can be a good source of inspiration for the exiled dwarves place. I think this exiled dwarves are just one step back from becoming petty dwarves.

That's a really good idea, I love Mim's story in Children of Hurin. I might even have Ruithel filling Andróg's role, having fired an arrow at the Dwarves before they captured her (with her woodland bow she managed to fire once before the put a sack over her and took her down to their caves). So now one dwarf is severely wounded. Will the PCs manage to heal the dwarf and help Ruithel or will she be left to her own devices? The dwarves will obviously also want revenge for Frár's shaven beard. Did your players get into that? Since it was not Ruithel who did it maybe they want the true culprit Guilin and having him repent in some way. Maybe cut off his hair in public? I share your view of the exiled dwarves being a bunch of starved, half-mad guys.

Dunkelbrink wrote:The dwarves will obviously also want revenge for Frár's shaven beard. Did your players get into that?

Yes, I gave them enough clues so they could deduce that the dwarves had just identified the bow, not the elf: All elves look the same to a dwarf! (They even joked about there not being male elves, the same as there are no female dwarves ). So, the exiled dwarves recognized their mistake, but asked for revenge nonetheless.

But the players managed to negotiate a compensation, not revenge: the elves were interested in the dwarves leaving the forest, and the way to do that without bloodshed was helping them recover their ancestral home. So, Ruithiel agreed (with some Persuasion from the players) to talk to Thranduil about the dwarves' situation. In a future adventure, once Frár and our dwarven player have convinced Dáin to recover the Greydelve, the heroes will have a chance to go ask Thranduil for some elven support. How well they have performed in The Questing Beast, Words of the Wise and Those Who Tarry, will have its influence in the willingness of the Elvenking to help strangers.

2948 (late spring) Kinstrife and Dark Tidings

I thought this would be a very straight forward adventure, but my players holded a few surprises for me as LM.

First of all, the player with the dwarven character couldn't show up for the session, so we decided that he would stay for a time with the exiled dwarves they discovered in The Questing Beast, to discuss with Frár how to convince Dáin of retaking the Greydelve.

It fitted the plot and the adventure could begin. First of all, I must say that my players didn't shine for being Sherlock Holme's types when they discoverd the boat with the two dead beornings. First thing they said was: "If they are great beornings, don't touch ANYTHING in the boat and let's carry it to Beorn. And DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!". Even when I told them that there were ropes inside the boat, they didn't want to investigate any further, so they didn't even suspect that there was a third person in the boat.

Luckily for me, the adventure says that Beorn goes to investigate during the night, so that he discoverd all about the escaped prisioner.

I made a slight change to the adventure, putting Stonyford north of the Anduin, in the frontier with the Viglunds' lands, and substituted Valter's bandits with the Viglund's town (in the eaves of Northern Mirkwood). Also, Oderic's motivations were expanded, as I made him be in love with Aestid (I think that was the name), Viglund's daughter. The night of the murder, Oderic was telling all that to Brunhilde when Rathfic came into the house and heard Oderic talking about "love" and "joining the Viglunds". That was enough to make him mad at Oderic, thinking he was planning to take Brunhilde with him to the Viglunds or something like that.

My players discovered all that when in Stonyford. Once again they showed me that they don't like to be private detectives when they dismissed even trying to talk to Helmgut, Brunhilde's father, by saying "Bah, he's a drunken man. I don't think he can tell us anymore than Brunhilde already did. Let's go chase this Oderic."

In the way to Viglund's Town I changed the encounter with the Woodmen from the original adventure with Shanker, from "Of Leaves...". As its been said in other threads before, this NPC has a charisma of its own.

And here came the mayhem for me...

I must admit I didn't have an exact plan of how to allow the players to capture Oderic, but I expected them to observe the situation before acting. I also had in mind that Aestid wanted to escape town by freeing the slaves, but that was just an idea for the future. The fact is, I told the heroes that they saw Oderic walking out of town with 6 soldiers around him. They looked fierce, like beorning warriors, and while they surrounded Oderic, he didn't look like a prisioner. I expected the heroes to follow them, look where they were going, something like that. But they just walked straight to them and, after some chatting, they demanded them handing over the boy in Beorn's name. Of course, the Viglunds attacked.
And the three companions where reduced to 0 Endurance.

What to do when all the company is unconsciouss in a fight that wasn't even epic or important. To be fair, I didn't want the characters to end up there. I'm not a LM that "likes" to kill characters. Sometimes I even make things too easy for them to avoid the risk of a sudden death in an unepic moment.

An idea sprang to my mind in a second: They woke up in a badly illuminated room, with some people around that took care of their wounds and bruises... and who were handcuffed. They looked like slaves, and they themselves where handcuffed. I used the fact that Viglunds are not killers, but slavers, and might prefer to have some warriors as thralls than as dead bodies.

And then, not coming up with a nice plan to escape, I introduced the fleeing of Aestid and Oderic as a deus ex machina moment, helping all slaves escape. The heroes talked to Oderic and convinced him that he couldn't run away forever, and that he should face Beorn's justice before even thinking of beginning a new live with Aestid.
The boy agreed and told them about the Viglund's plans to gather an army an attack Stonyford.

Oderic stayed in Viglund's Town to guide the army south through the Path of Serpents (see HotW) with the excuse of staying out of sight. That would allow the beornings to ambush the viglunds from above the ravine and in the exit mouth.

Aestid and the heroes lead the slaves first to the inside of Mirkwood, and then south, heading for Stonyford.
The beorning character decided to ride back to Beorn's House to inform him of the incoming attack, while the rest stayed in Stonyford to arrange the ambush in the Path of Serpents (far from town).

For the next session not only did the dwarf's player return (we played that he was staying at the Easterly Inn after talking with Frár, and heard the summoning of all available beornings and allies to Stonyford. He inmediatly suspected that his friends had something to do with it...), but also a new player joined the campaign.
He decided to play a Mirkwood elf Warden, with the Noble Blood background and the archer type (I'm finally going to test my Deadly Archery House Rule!).
Again, we had to come up with a motivation to explain why she (the player is a "he", the elf is a "she") was at the Battle at Stonyford. So I told him (he didn't know anything about the campaign, of course) that she was in the service of Ruithiel, the captain of the Elf-path, and that in a scouting routine in Northen Mirkwood she had followed a group of humans that seemed slaves of some sort. When exploring further, she saw a large group of fighters coming out of Viglund's Town and heading south along the Anduin. She decided to send some elven scouts to report to Ruithiel, while she and 4 more elves at his command followed the fighting force.

So, the elven warden and the heroes met at the battle in the Path of Serpents.

I got to use again my Battle Rules, and they proved again very helpful to make battles interesting. Its the second time I use them and I like how they work with nearly no rules interruption.

I made the leader not Viglund, but his son Viglar, and the goblin Saviga was with him. Saviga managed to escape, while Viglar was surrounded and killed by Beorn when he made his apperance after four round of battle. This way, Viglund can be still used as an NPC, who has lost a son and a daughter to the beornings.

The judgment at the Carrock went well for Oderic, and he was set free, with only the prohibition to live in Stonyford.
The elf went back to report to Ruithiel, and he was asked to attend to the Woodmen Folk-Moot next summer. Thranduil had been receiving news of orcs moving in the south, and the werewolf had awakened in the Mirkwood Mountains. He wants to be informed of what the men of Mirkwood are planning to do, so as to know how it might affect the Elven Kingdom.

For the next session we'll be playing the Folk-Moot with the minigame from Devil (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3272&hilit=mini+game), and also the reopening of the Old Forest Road by Bofri will be an issue to discuss.

After that, the players will have their Fellowship Phase, with a Year's End Phase (so, two Undertakings), until next spring in 2949 blooms with Darkness in the Marshes.

2948 The Folk-Moot (summer)

This week we played the Folk-Moot. I planned it as a sort of epilogue to the year. When I first read the Darkening campaign, it worried me that certain adventure hooks had to be developed to become full-fleshed adventures, and I don't have enough time for that. But with The Folk-Moot, or The Questing Beast, I've seen that once in a while it's also refreshing to play a vignette in the story that lasts just for a session.

To keep it short, I must say that this session was far better than what I expected: I thought the players would be a bit bored by a game without Travel or Combat, but they got really engaged in the discussions. There was lots of tension about some of the outcomes of the debates.

First, I have to recommend greatly two resources:
1) Devil's minigame (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3272&hilit=mini+game)
2) Reading William Morris' "House of the Wolfings", at least the chapter named "The Folk-Mote of the Markmen". Great image of how a Folk-Moot is conducted.

I played this adventure in two parts. The first one implied meeting old friends, like Bofri and Amaleolda. When talking with them about their interests in the Moot, the young folk of Ceawin approached them with gifts and introduced the plea of his Lord.

Then, the Moot itself began. Ingomer introduced the themes one by one, and everyone had the chance to speak, but only once. I made up the stats for Ingomer (Awe 4), Hartfast (At. Lvl 4, Awe 3, Insight 3) and Fridwald (At. Lvl 4, Persuade 3), the "lords" of each settlement. Radagast did only intervine once, and he didn't need to roll.
For every theme, first one of the lord spoke (for or against) and rolled the dice. Then a PC was allowed to speak. Then another NPC. And so on until a last roll was made, totally left to chance, representing the people's last opinion (see Devil's minigame).
I was surprised that my players took the debates very seriously, and they didn't all defend the same opinion. In fact, all debates were very disputed.

This was the resulting endings:
Amaleolda was accepted with a high rating.
Bofri's offer was accepted, but by a short amount. Probably I'll play this out by the Woodmen not wanting to help in the reopening of the east part of the Road, the one nearest to the Mountains of Mirkwood.
Ceawin and Mogdred were rejected.

Surprisingly again, the new player, who has an elven diplomat, decided to fetch Mogdred before he left and offered him to talk with the elves about making an alliance with the Elven king. I set the difficulty at 18... and she succeeded! We'll see how this goes, but it can be interesting to have Mogdred angry towards the Woodmen, but also in a nimble alliance with the Woodelves.

Next session (on Monday) will see the Fellowship Phase and Darkness in the Marshes in the 2949.
My plan right now is to play Secrets Buried in the end part of 2949, Those Who Tarry in 2950 (the last good year, with Irimë leaving because she sense that dark times are coming and she can't withstand it anymore), and 2951 will see the second Gathering of the Five Armies (first one was in 2946) with the Crossing of Celduin: The Shadow will appear in all its splendor!

I'm also thinking of using The Watch on the Heath for the retaking of Greydelve in the near future.

Great stuff, as always, Falenthal!

I'm bummed my players didn't get a chance to play through this one, as it looks like it had lots of fun role-playing opportunities. Unfortunately, I didn't have Darkening when we were playing through that part of the timeline, and it didn't seem like something I could push until later.

2949 A Darkness in the Marshes (spring)

There were only 2 players, but we decided to go on with the adventure.

Additions for the first part (Rhosgoble to Anduin with Banna):
Taken from Heart of the Wild, Banna proposed the company that she could take them to some places where some information could be found: Stonehallow and Trader's Island.
I didn't have the time (nor the ideas) to design these two places in detail, but my ideas were:
1) The players could choose between elude all settlements to avoid arousing any suspicion
2) Stonehallow is a friendly settlement, were they have little to fear from spies, but where no useful information could be found.
3) Trader's Island is a neutral settlement, where they can get some useful information, but also they risk attracting some unwanted ears and getting misinformation mixed with true one. In Trader's Island I used the roll of the Undertaking to simulate gathering information in exchange for buying some trinkets. Rumors about the Hag from the island south were in the air, which could be true or false, but arouse some suspicion among the heroes about something wicked going on in the Gladden Fields.

I would like to develop both encounters a bit more, with the information they could get being more developed, as should be the risk of asking around. Also, spending extra time during the travel could have its consequences in what the company finds in Mountain Hall or the situation of the slaves in Dwimmerhorn, but I couldn't work on it.


After the battle at the Gladden Fields (where the Uruk almost killed our great beorning, if not for a lucky edge plus a protection failure by the uruk in the last round), the two heroes were really hurt (the beorning was wounded, weary and with just 6 Endurance points left). Also they had the prisioner with them (I changed it from Walar to Arciryas, from the Heart of the Wild. A nice link to the exotic southern lands and to Saruman, who is named also by Radagast in the introduction of the adventure).

They have decided to flee to Rhosgobel and inform Radagast before planning any kind of approach to the Dwimmerhorn. But their plan is to gather strenght in Rhosgobel and return to the Gladden Fields with some help (the missing players) to spy on it.
We had to stop the session there, just when they reached Rhosgobel without further dangers.

First I thought about playing the part about entering the Dwimmerhorn as usual, but then I thougt that I had Secrets Buried (entering Dol Guldur from Darkening) planned next. And I always had the idea that Dol Guldur should be a no-no, kept in mystery and fear, even when abandoned.
So I'm working right now in an adaptation from Secrets Buried to Dwimmerhorn:
The escape of a slave and the killing of a patrol has warned the leaders of Dwimmerhorn (Ghor and, in my case, a Nazgûl Unclad and Invisible). They've decided to retire the fortress.
Radagast himself will go with the heroes back to the Gladden Fields.
So, the characters will find an empty Dwimmerhorn, but will have to face its corruption as in Secrets Buried while searching for some information left in a hurry. They'll have to go to the Dark Temple and will find information important to my campaign (a mix between the conversation from Darkness, that of Secrets and something original to my campaign).
When leaving, The spirit of the Nazgûl will appear in the Sancta Sanctorum of the Temple laughing at the Wizard, tell them that they're already late to prevent the Darkness that's coming to their lands. After disappearing, Ghor and some bodyguards will appear to ambush them and secure their silence on what they've discovered. Ghor is a formidable opponent, and with a few Uruks by his side, only the help of Radagast and some luck should allow the heroes to overcome this menace. Entering the strongholds of the Enemy is not an easy matter.

I'm still not sure if I need the Chain of Thangorodrim in my campaign, but I'll make Ghor probably escape the battle and he'll be the one leading the attack in the Crossing of the Celduin in 2951: Sauron declares himself trying to hit the North by surprise during the celebrations of the Battle of Five Armies! What a blow to the morale of the Free People in Rhovanion if it succeeds!

But first, Those Who Tarry No Longer will play in 2950, setting a melancholic feeling to the campaign, as the last good days depart from the Wild.

I have edited the former post about Darkness in the Marshes, adding some colour that I used from HotW for the travel from Rhosgobel to the Anduin with Banna.

I'll never stop saying this: Heart of the Wild is THE supplement.