For Whom Does the Bell Toll?

[venger]

Hello
My campaign is currently in late spring, TA 2947 with a mixed group, an Elf, A Woodman, A Dwarf, and a Laketown Man.
So far in my campaign the chars have not directly encountered one of the great Lords of ME.
They have seen them, but always as part of large assemblies so never played through personal Encounter scenarios with them.
The thing is they have no Holdings yet, nor any great amount of Standing in those communities.

The Fellowship recently acquired a Kingly gift in the form of an extraordinary Bell. It is large enough for three men to stand inside it. Set about it's rim with runes, It has an enchanted Voice.
Legend has it that The Master Bell had an accompaniment of eight small bells of different styles and designs, and when the Master Bell is rung, it sets off sympathetic resonance in the smaller bells, even at great distances.

Legend also has it that when all eight smaller bells were in the same location their voices joined together in what was called "An Unearthly Choir", whose cacophony caused distress or confusion (the legends aren't clear) in enemies of the ringer of the Master Bell.
There is a whole backstory (LM stuff) with Legends presenting mixed truths about the true nature of the Master Bell.

Anyway...
The Fellowship, after a long, arduous campaign in blighted lands, have retrieved the Master Bell, and two of the "Choir" and they are considering to offer the Master Bell to one of the three great kings, Dain, Bard or Thranduil, and the two Choir Bells to the other two Kings.
Even with only two of the Choir, The Master Bell could serve as a great warning system in years to come. The other members of the Choir will make for some good adventure hooks too.

At this point they are favoring offering The Master Bell to King Dain.
I am assessing the difficulty involved with this Endeavor, seeking audience etc., getting around self-serving interests, etc.
I'm encouraging them to take several years and build up their holdings and standings before proceeding.

I'm more of a story-driven dungeoneer, and not great with political scenarios and I am curious if anyone has ideas to share, or have come up with something like personality profiles for these great kings other than what we know about from the books.
I don't regard the Movies as authentic resources. (A Scottish King Dain on a Boar?) I did like Thorin Oakenshield though.

So peculiarities, pet peeves, distinguishing traits, mottos or any other twists I can use to make for memorable Encounters.
Thanks

[Glorelendil]

Ask not. It tolls for thee.

[venger]

Thanks for the resounding reply

[Majestic]

FWIW, your bells reminded me of the Ainulindale, the beginning of the Silmarillion, and feel very Tolkienesque to me. They're some very nice items to add to the richness of a campaign, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about your game.

[Robin Smallburrow]

venger

I think we need a bit more info first before myself and others can give you some advice.

Why do the players want to give the bell to 'one of the three'? And who are the other 'not so great' kings? (If I was one of them I would feel slighted!) .

My recommendation in regards to the personalities of these three kings is to start with what has been officially produced, and also look on the forum here (and the old forum see Resources page) for anything on Bard etc.

Without knowing more specifics about the PC's motivations etc., what I can say about the political situation is that King Bard is anxious for as much assistance as he can get to help rebuild Dale, although less so as the years pass (see the Crossings of Celduin adventure from HoTW? as to how the PC's could meet King Bard). King Dain probably would not have as much use for such a system - in fact the bells would probably suit the Woodmen best on reflection (thick woods so hard to see but sound travels far). I am fairly sure this is better covered in official sources such as HoTW or DoM. A lot also depends on who made the bells -if they are elven then Thranduil would demand them (and expect them to be handed over!)


Robin S.

[venger]

Thanks for the replies,
Sure Majestic, I will share some details that I may without spoiling too much for my players. Its all good tho, I tend to leak like a seive at the game table anyway. heh
And good point Robin S., , my bad, I was trying to be brief.
This is a home brew campaign based on something I wrote as a young DM, introducing new players to AD&D, "The Bell Tower Adventure" using Middle Earth names and places for a setting.

I re-wrote it when we started playing MERP, and again for TOR. The rules have changed, the concept is the same.
Something new though, The Bell Tower adventure now takes place in a setting I call "The Valley of the Shadow", steeped in ME history
So, I plan on arranging the detailed notes in a sensable order and posting them in Rich H's Adventures large and small thread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a nutshell....

One day Gandalf arrives with a handful of parchments and scrolls. They are new, recently written and drawn notes. He says they are copied from documents in the Hall of Records in Erebor and just a smidgen of what was found.
He says the cataloger came upon some ancient records dating back to Fulla II, the dwarvish lord who founded Azanulinbar-dum. The ever curious Gandalf couldn't resist a peek at those ancient documents.
Diaries, maps, ledgers, scrolls, memoirs, quite a volume of works, and all still in dissarray since the antiquities section receives little attention as its not a great priority now, and the library is short staffed.
Gandalf finds these to be some "rather interesting" stories as he proceeds to reveal what he has learned so far, especially regarding what he calls "The Master Bell".

The Fellowship take this as a lead and decide to investigate further.
The Fellowship visits the Librarian, a terribly busy dwarf, with one helper, and what with restoring damage done to the Library and all, the antiquities sections are in great disarray and not high in priority. In other words, It will take a long time.
The Fellowship offers spending time helping to organize a part of antiquites section and while doing so take the liberty of gleaning what they can of the Bell, and of particular importance the place where it resides... in The Valley of the Shadow.

They learn...
In SA 330, The 7th House of Barin while traveling East stopped for a few years somewhere near the Iron Hills in a secluded Valley. They tried to settle and build mansions but were plagued with misfortune and misery and by shadow so they abandoned the Valley.
TA927 Fulla II founded Azanulinbar-Dum. As their numbers grew, so did their need for resources, and during explorations, the Valley of Barin was re-discovered on the edge of the Withered Heath, with evidence of dwarvish works.

Though the lands were twisted and tortured, the Valley had an abundance of resources, iron, coal, pitch, peat, sulphur, wood, and enough clear land to start and support a colony. It was also infested with a nest of orc, and Fulla II ordered the nest destroyed, and the Valley marked for possibility and then abandoned.

Many years went by, dwarvish houses grew and expanded and The Valley once again came into dwarvish plans.
But when a troupe was sent to establish a colony, they were beaten to the punch, and all but destroyed by a small colony of warriors and hardy women from the east of Rhun, lead by Prince Darkas Tarr. They had taken over the Valley and already had a strong foothold there.

Fulla II stubbornly decreed these were dwarvish lands, and sent diplomats to discuss terms of surrendering the Valley, which met with disaster.
Over the next several years Fulla II deployed waves of troops to retake it.

And each wave suffered more and more horrible atrocities. Dwarvish diplomats reports over the years grew grim, that Prince Darkas Tarr, as well as much of his small colony, already a shady folk, had fallen into shadow. Eventually, diplomats became useless as madness took its toll.
The east men over the years had developed a increasing madness for atrocity and depravity that grew so grim, that it even chilled the hearts of dwarves, and they called him the Dark Prince.

Each wave of dwarves was defeated by a secret weapon of Darkas Tarr's, a Bell (described in my initial post) that summoned togehter Darkas Tarr's forces scattered across the valley, and he could never be surprised and dwarves always met hard resistance and the dissonance of the Choir. The Bell could never be found and silenced.
Eventually plans for the Valley were abandoned and it was forgotten, buried in the annals of dwarvish antiquity.

Today in The Valley of the Shadow
In the Valley, even today, those with The Speakers there is an eerie quiet. The Stones of the earth sing a lament of those ancient atrocities taken place on their gore stained faces, and they long for the day when the rains have eroded them into sand, so they may know the sorrow no more.
All animal and plant life from that time has cylcled through their generations, but the stones have always remained.

This shadow from the heart of the stones is fed into the soil. The trees, the plants, the weeds that thrive there in that soil, and all that feed upon those plants, and the things that feed upon those things, and rain leeches into the soil and shadow pollutes the waters and all that depend on it. And so the entire valley is blighted.
Darkas Tarr built a well defendable keep, with a small foundry and smelters and industry, but even so, eventually the colony failed, overcome by madness.

Today it is occupied by Gog and his host and there is the taint of industry again in the air.
Gog, an Orcish war chieftan who studied ancient war apparatus in the dark colleges of Gundabad and escaped death at the Battle of Five armies and found refuge here in the valley shadows with a large band of strong orc.
Discovering the ancient keep, and nearby resources, he has established a breeding pit, re-fired the foundry, smelters and forges and has restarted an economy here.

But the Valley is not berift of light. The Fellowship encounters one of the Faded Ones, Lord Eloran, a watcher who provides some occaisional guidance and lore.
Through Lord Eloran they come to learn that Gog has plans on Azanulinbar-dum, and aspires to threaten even Erebor itself. All Gog needs is a few dozen years to gather his full might...

Here is the twist, Gog is his own Orc, but is himself victim of a more sinister thing, a thing they call The Gorcrow Terror, or simply, Gorcrow.

The Fellowship encountered Gorcrow several times, avoiding hostility, and Gorcrow even offers aid, however with each encounter those who were weak in Wisdom fall further into shadow.
So this blight was and is driven, kept and cultured, by an agent of Melkor, a Greater Secret Shadow known only as "Gorcrow", for it has forgotten its own name.

It has dwelt in this Valley thousands of years, since the end of the first age.
but it dwells in fear, blinded by elves during the War of Wrath, aided in his escape by a flock of gorcrows and made their way to this Valley.
Here he remained in the company of gorcrows and taken their shape, that of a hideous giant winged gorcrow-like horror for so long, that he has forgotten how to shape change.

He has even forgotten his true name... and only the wisest and oldest elves could even recall it... San-do-Zahn.
He has learned to see through the eyes of his spies, minions and companions, occaisionally his flying army, the gorcrows. Hundreds of them, and he commands them all. They are his.

Gorcrow is a Thing of Terror, but cowers in the dark and does his shadowcrafts only when certain of a gain or victory. (Shadowcrafting means sly manipulation, using surgical strikes of terror, black politics, subterfuge, spying out and using a victims fears/weaknesses against him, creating strife between rivals, stuff like that.), always in an effort to keep potential threats at bay.

Through the centuries he has allowed the powerful of the current denizens to always believe they were the ones in charge while he shaped shadow all across the valley, ensnaring them.

It is this that plagued the House of Barin early in the second age.
It is this that turned Prince Darkas Tarr and his people to Shadow and Madness.
It is this that has always tormented the Valley of the Shadow's denizens, and it is this who shadowcrafts what is taking place there now.

However, Gorcrow seems like a weak threat compared to Gog's growing army and technologies.

So there we are.
In a nutshell... sorta

[Majestic]

Very nicely developed backstory, vengar!

[Robin Smallburrow]

Great backstory Venger, but still doesn't answer my questions. Are the Bells then corrupted? (which is implied from the story). Then certainly Thranduil and probably Dain as well wouldn't touch the Bells and may even toss into prison the PCS for giving them 'Shadow-cursed items'.

Robin S.

[venger]

Thanks very much! I'm glad you like my backstory. I work hard on them and makes me feel good to hear I'm doing well with it. I try hard to stay in the spirit of TOR, and Tolkien.

ROBIN S.

Are the Bells then corrupted? (which is implied from the story). Then certainly Thranduil and probably Dain as well wouldn't touch the Bells and may even toss into prison the PCS for giving them 'Shadow-cursed items'.

Well, That's the million dollar question Robin S. And thanks very much for the feedback! Just the kind of thing I am looking for.

I can't publicly give this answer, I have players that read the forum. And The Fellowship are on their way back towards Lake Town with the Bells on a cart in tow, still somewhat north and east of Azanulinbar-Dum so the Bells are still in play.

I can only say that Darkas Tarr and his people did not start out from their homelands as Shadowfolk. So it can be surmised the Lore(s) used to craft the Bells were not Shadow lore. The Bells were cast several years after they entered the Valley, and they did so under the veil of Shadow although they didn't know the cause of it, and Gorcrow wasn't involved in the making.

Additionally, they were a strong people and resisted Shadow for a long time (lower TN). The Bells were cast before the Shadow became darkest (higher TN) during the atrocities of the Dwarf wars.

However it's assumed the Bell(s) have remained in the Valley of the Shadow for centuries. In fact, the Bell Tower (a whole stand alone adventure in itself) became a Barrow after Darkas Tarr and his hoard were buried in a "Barrow" (Catacombs) beneath it.

Darkas Tarr, as encountered by the Fellowship, was a Barrow Wight, (or rather, something akin to one) and after several days of struggle managed to scatter his hoard and diminish him to the point they could recover the Master Bell. The two Choir were recovered elswhere in the Valley during the lead up to the Bell Tower adventure.

There is no evidence of taint or curse on the Bells, which doesn't really confirm anything, and it has been hidden, and not been rung in a thousand years so nobody knows what will happen when it is used. (except me).

Additionally, Six of the Choir remain unaccounted for. Legend has it the Choir sounded in response to the Master Bell "at great distances", and Gandalf implied there may be no practical limit.

So, Who knows where, who, or what may be in possession of them (if any at all).
(does my best Dr. Evil with-pinky laugh)

[Majestic]

Great stuff. I just got done reading "The Watch on the Heath" in Tales from Wilderland, and there's a cool musical room in the final tower, with massive chambers that resonate with the wind. It reminds me some of what you're doing with your bells.