A War Of The Ents? Or the Palantir?

[warlic888]

Okay, here's my dilemma. I've come up with two fun ideas for campaigns, and I have no idea which I want to run. The first concerns the Ents of Mirkwood, The Sentinel Oak, and the Entwives, specifically, Witherfinger. The second concerns the missing Palantir, the Sorceress of Mirkwood, and the magic and spells inherent to Wilderland not present in the rest of Middle-Earth.

In the first campaign, the Company would be caught in the middle of conflict between Huorns in the Elfwood, lead by a solitary Ent, and Orcs sent from Isengard to kill Ents, as in Fangorn. This chief-Ent sends them on a visit to the Sentinel Oak, in the Elvenhalls, provided they can get in. This Ent is impoverished in its knowledge of the outside world, so sends the Company deeper into the Heart of the Forest to consult the first tree, plagued by Shelob's spawn. All the advice it can offer in its sleepiness is that they seek out the Entwives to wake the Ents of the wood. A journey to Witherfinger has the Company leading a small group of Entwives back to Mirkwood, where they find the guardians of the wood have been joined by travelling trees from Fangorn. A war between nature and Sauron's servants sees the Greenwood expand to Esgaroth and possibly beyond as the Entwives regrow the forest with the help of its now awakened Ents.

In the second, a Palantir is uncovered by a company consisting of an Elf, Dwarf, and Man. This causes controversy, as Thranduil, Radagast, Dain, and the Sorceress all want it for themselves. Cue lots of political intrigue and pseu-do wizards, resulting in the destruction of Minas Raug and a showdown of spells and wraith-slaying.

Which should I pursue, and if you have an idea to flesh out either, then please reply!
Many thanks

[Shane]

It looks to me, with how much more detail you have for it, that you subconsciously prefer the first one (and you should go with what grabs you). They both seem very awesome, tho. I would personally go with the second, just because the scope is at a level where the PCs can be more meaningful movers and shakers.

Shane

[Majestic]

The first one sounds more intriguing to me, though both are quite interesting and sound like fun!

[zedturtle]

I'm not sure what your level of fidelity to canon is, so be aware that I'm someone who's idea of a perfect campaign would be a group of heroes, operating during The War of the Ring, that dealt with threats that the Fellowship never saw. In other words, they'd deal with things that allowed the Fellowship to succeed, as we know it from the Red Book. But the whole 'twist' would be if the PC-heroes do fail, then the Quest will fail as well.

Anyways, now that the calibration is complete, I'm torn between the two ideas. I've often thought about a quest to recover one of the Palantiri, only to find that it is permanently linked to a single view and useless to do anything else with it. The rumour may be more important than the reality, in other words.

The Ent quest might be interesting. I'd try to keep it so that no word of Hobbits could come back to Fangorn. I think it's worth keeping that moment of surprise. I'm also leery of the resolution... not only is hard to fit into canon, but it goes against one of the essential truths of Middle Earth... you can fight against the dying of the light, but the fading will continue. A more bittersweet ending might involve the trees of Mirkwood waking up to fight against the Enemy, but they (and the Ent and the Entwife/wives) are consumed in the battle. For the heroes that witnessed it, it was an awesome and powerful spectacle, but (at the end of the adventure) it is over now, and Middle Earth will not see its like again for a long time.

[Shane]

Sorta-related:

I always thought the one way to do using a Palantir in-game was to give half-described fleeting image descriptions with a few core vivid elements that relate to the next adventure the LM has planned (so, "Orcs leading prisoners", "Spiders running free", "a ruined tower wreathed in Shadow", etc, but delivered more vaguely) then give the character a Palantir-visions trait that they can invoke when said elements come up for a bonus die in the appropriate sub-system... then at the end of the adventure the player makes a Corruption test with a TN based on how many times the trait was invoked to avoid some Shadow points to reflect the nature of the Palantir and the foresight it brings weighing on the character.

A second option is to allow a re-roll of a failed test at any appropriate point related to the visions but it costs a Shadow point to do it.

A less complicated way is for the LM to simply give some hints on the adventure to the player and ask for a Corruption test.

I'm interested if anyone has any better ideas - I am sure there is a the kernel of an idea in my ramblings, but I can't quite get it to work.

Regards,

Shane

[zedturtle]

I'd be leery of this idea... Palantíri don't lie and they don't see into the future (or the past). Using them was dangerous because of being caught by the Ithil-stone and being deluded by Sauron (presented imagery only beneficial to his designs).

[Glorelendil]

I dunno. I think I'd write an adventure where the heroes find a big round stone that gives them nightmares (and Shadow Points.)

If they want to conclude it's a Palantir, then I say that's what they get for metagaming.

[pridedog]

I have had ideals about the second but don't know how to go about it. I call it as I'm still writing it. But its called " in search of the seeing stones" . All I know it will have the big players in it. NPC of course. Dragons orcs goblins and what not. How many are missing anyways? I only know of two that have been found.

[Fenton Hardy]

I am working from memory here, but I think all but three of the palantiri are accounted for. Arvedui took the two stones from Amon Sul and Annuminas after the capture of Fornost and carried them to the Bay of Forochel. Both were reportedly lost at sea. The Osgiliath stone was lost in the Anduin when Sauron destroyed the city.

I have also taken initial steps to building an adventure around finding one of the palantir. In their current adventure, my PCs will acquire a horn carved by the Lossoth (although they will not know that) that depicts men dressed in southern clothing holding a precious, round object (the palantir) surrounded by Lossoth. Not being of the royal line and lacking sufficient wisdom, my PCs will not be able to use the palantir except to collect Shadow, but it may find its way to Gandalf or Elrond. As you note, that could have some interesting consequences. At any rate, I am having some trouble puzzling out the consequences of finding so powerful an object.

[Feanor]

From the lord of the rings wiki:

The Dúnedain placed the stones across large distances in order to communicate with one another. The stones were housed at these locations: Annúminas, Amon Sûl (Weathertop) and Elostirion (Tower Hills) in the north, and Osgiliath, Orthanc in Isengard, Minas Ithil, and Minas Anor in the south. There is a Master-stone which still resides in Tol Eressëa, in the Tower of Avallónë.

Four of the stones are known to have been lost. The chief stone of the north, at Amon Sûl, along with the stone from Annúminas, was lost with Arvedui in the cold northern seas. The chief stone of the south, in Osgiliath, was lost during the Kin-strife. The stone of Minas Ithil was captured by Sauron, and was very likely destroyed during the destruction of Barad-dûr.