Backstory:
"Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly" (one of my favorite sentences from "the fellowship of the ring"
.So who are these foes?
A long time ago, the muckross marshes were no marshes. They were a Lake, and in the middle of the lake there was a fortress of the men of the west, called Amon Dun (now another name should be used, since Amon Dun ist he name of another fortress in the rivendell sourcebook). From here, the crossroads near Bree were watched for many centuries. In the highest tower of the fortress there hung a bell of elven craftmanship, made of gold. This bell was magically connected/synchronized to several silver bells in the towers of the fortresses (this story-hook is a nice coincedence with the actual discussion in the thread "for whom does the bell ring") lining and defending the weatherhills. Whenever a silver bell was rung, the golden bell rung in resonance an the masters of the fortress knew that danger was at hand. When Amon Dun was destroyed by the forces of Angmar, the lake turned into a swamp, infected with the gosts of fallen warriors. The bell was cursed and dark creatures took over the possession of it (= the mewlips and others). Then it was forgotten.
Centuries later, a group of adventureres sits together in the prancing pony with some mugs of bear. The door opens, and a severyly wounded and unconscious dwarf is brought in by the guard of the east gate. He has mysterious bites and claw marks all over his body. He arrived at the gate recently and then broke down immediateley, after muttering: "My lads, they got my lads, help... aaarrgh" - says the terryfied guard. After a lot of excitement and some social encounters, fellowship finds out that:
- two weeks ago a group of dwarves arrived and rent a house in Bree.
- they were quite secretive, but some people found out that they were actually planning an expedition into the muckross marshes, to retrieve some treasue. People say that they were obviously mad.
- The landlord of the dwarves, Mrs. Honeytree, a deaf old and rich Hobbit-Lady allows the company (after a challenging social encounter) to search the dwarves house. They find hints and clues to the backstory: An old text and an old map concerning the history of Amon Dun.
Obviously, the fellowship had to start a rescue mission. From there on, the advebnture followed pretty much the path indicated in the corebook, of course with the altered backgrund story. Here are some alterations:
Instead of the lake men at the stair of girion I used a village of peat diggers (considered to be nearly mad by the Breelanders) to introduce the poem of the mewlips and the included warning of gallows-weed. Furthermore I had the swamp-troll encounter at the abandoned inn (he plundered the remains of the dwarves basecamp), which is in ruin in my game.
To make a long story short, we had a lot of fun playing the adventure. I prepared many social encounters regarding the background story and the events concerning the darwen expedition first, then the fellowsipp settled out on their mission and indeed successfully rescued the dwarves. But they were not able to get the bell back.
Actually I am working on a follow-up adventure:
In next year's sprig a group of Dunedain try to get the bell. They heared from it by the Dunedain player, who is part of the new mission. They have a hard fight with the mewlips and undead swamp-warriors and a creature who calls himself "lord of the swamp", a wight, and retreat to the abandoned inn. Most of them are weaary and severyly wounded, but they have retrieved the bell. The Dunedain player is sent to Bree to bring his fellowhip companions and they are asked to escort the bell to rivendell asap, since the Dunedain are not able to do this and need healing because of their wounds. The fellowship then has to travel west, and will be pursued by dark creatures (f. e. g. the wargs from the Den) which are aroused by the swamp-lord who uses the gorecrows as his messangers. he sees the bell as his possession. They have to take a secretive route, since the road will be watched by the enemie's spies. They may use weathertop to explore the region, meet allies like other rangers and so on. After yourneying the lone lands, they'll find out that the last bridge is watched by a horde of orcs and trolls and have to decide wether to circumvent them north (into the trollshaws!) or south (using a secret ford into the angle which the Dunedain-player nows - but bringing strangers there is forbidden by punishment of banishment...). They will be followed, and just in time reach a Dunedain secret watchtower (either one in the angle or in the trollshaws) to fight the orcs and trolls using the masscombat rules presented in this forum. Afterwards the Dunedain at the tower will provide an escort to guide them and the bell to rivendell, since the battle against the orcs, trolls and also late arriving Swamplord at the watchtower is supposed to be the climax of the adventure.
So much in brief. Any comments?
Greetings qwercus
don't you know the famos "bear-brew from bree"? 
