Apparition in Eriador

[Hermes Serpent]

One of the hooks I dangled at the beginning of a new session of One ring starting out in Bree in teh bar of the Prancing Pony was:
"A Man starts talking of the stories he's heard recently of an old ruin some days travel to the east, maybe three days march, where a group of traders camped for the night in some old ruins close to the road thinking that would be safer. He laughs, “Safer, as if anywhere outside Bree is safe,” he comments. Continuing he relates a tale of an old warrior approaching the traders and asking about the Battle of Fornost and what result there was and when he spoke it was in a strange accent and with sibilant speech. He ends with, “And of course in the morning there was no sign of the old fellow and the traders wondered if they had imagined the whole thing”. He leaves, laughing at the expression on the Dwarves faces."

Now I had some idea of who the apparition might be and what he might be now when I wrote this up but now the company is actually setting out to travel towards Amon Sul to investigate this sighting I'm having some doubts about their ability to deal with the apparition (Amon Sul isn't the location of the ruins just a convenient direction for travel).

They dealt with a Marsh Ogre pretty easily this week when it only landed two blows out of four in the fight before an arrow caused the piercing wound that finished that creature off.

So suggestions please for the source of the apparition and how a low ranking company might deal with it that doesn't necessarily involve combat.

[nazgul_2000]

To me, this screams "Social Encounter!" Set it up like the more detailed encounters in Tales from Wilderland. Something like this . . .

The Lost Spirit of Fornost.

The spirit is of a man who died in battle against Angmar centuries ago, but because he was knocked unconscious before he was slain, his spirit has been prohibited from departing Middle-Earth until he learns what came of the battle. He's doomed to haunt the former battle ground until he learns what happened. Because he's a spirit, there are few brave enough to talk to him, but a party of adventurers might brave his spectral appearance long enough to learn what he wants . . .

As a former warrior, he favors Valour over Wisdom, so use that to set the tolerance. Add one for any Rangers or High Elves, as they will remind the spirit of the earlier age in which he lived.

The party can role Insight to discern the spirit's true purpose (TN 12). To answer his questions, they can use Lore (14), Battle (14), Song (16), or Riddle (16). Healing might even work (18), as a hero could discern what ails the wayward spirit. Inspire might work too - giving the spirit the courage to leave for good (14).

0-1: The spirit is still not allowed to leave Middle-earth. Disheartened, it floats into a barrow and turns to the shadow, inhabiting the corpse of a dead lord and maybe even doing battle with the party some day in the future.

2-3: The spirit receives no relief from the companions, but continues to haunt them at night while they sleep. Increase the TN's of their Fatigue Tests by one degree for the remainder of the adventuring phase (but only for so long as they remain in Eriador).

4-6: The spirit receives some relief from the parties' words. It still does not leave middle-earth, but it fades away a little bit more, and soon no travelers speak of it again.

6-9: Satisfied with the parties' explanation of the ancient battle, the spirit disappears forever, finally fulfilling the doom of man envisioned by Eru Illuvitar when he created the race of the second born. The party receive +2 on all travel rolls while in Eriador for the remainder of the adventuring phase.

10+: As above, only in addition, when the spirit is born away on the breeze, it leaves behind a gem-encrusted dagger of ancient Numenorian make. It is a magical treasure, a dagger with the raging quality against undead.

[Falenthal]

@nazgul_2000: Great idea!

Regarding who the spirit might be, maybe I find the idea of a soldier who fell unconscious a little weak, IMHO.
It doesn't have to be someone of renown among the Arnor or Gondorian forces, but maybe a watcher that, in his fear, failed to warn his army of some danger. This could be tough, as the chronicles of the Battle of Fornost talk about an overwhelming Free People's force, that crushed the angmarims once and again.

But maybe you could set his not-death at the Fall of Fornost (http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Fall_of_Fornost), not at the Battle of Fornost (http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Battle_of_Fornost), and he could have been responsible for the 500 Hobbit archers being ambushed or something and dying on the battlefield.

[Hermes Serpent]

Thanks guys, great food for thought there. The ruins would be on the old border of the thee kingdoms so probably a watchtower or border fort of some kind. The ruins themselves stand about a man's height above ground and there is a fire pit amongst them where travellers camp just off the main East-West road. I was thinking of the spirit being the leader of the troops in the tower still standing watch and hoping for relief. That's boosted by some of what you have written.

[Falenthal]

I guess Farman from Heart of the Wild is a good inspiration for this NPC, and losing 1 Shadow Point if the players manage to free him should be a nice reward.
That and/or recovering some Hope. But I see "freeing someone from his anguish" more related to losing Shadow than to recovering Hope.