Battle for Woodland Hall Geography

[cuthalion]

Spoilers here for Words of the Wise, so LMs only read on.

I'm a bit confused by the geography here, and the staging of the battle. Can anyone help?

I'm looking at the map in HoTW on p. 97. First off, with the river on the left of the picture, I'm assuming north is down? East to the left?

So where are the orcs coming from? Especially since the gate (near the (2) on the map, I assume) is meant to be unnoticed/unguarded. There seem to be cliffs on the northern side, but if they are holed up in the Mountains of Mirkwood, and the Dusky River is narrower above Woodland Hall, doesn't it make sense that they come from this direction? Are those cliffs just not as formidable as they seem?

Or maybe they have forded the river south somewhere? And that's why it's a surprise that the gate is taken?

Does all that sound reasonable? Details seem to be important in my game.

[Otaku-sempai]

Well, I have to agree with you about the orientation of the map. Up must be South, right is West, etc.

I hadn't given much thought, though, to the physical staging of the battle. The text is a bit ambiguous as the main gate features both an outer and inner gate. Because of the bluff, I would assume that the attack came from the south. The element of suprise is due to the general confusion involved in defending against a night-time attack. Perhaps you could include the additional element of having a mist or fog coming off of the river to obscure the movements of the attackers.

[Rich H]

Well, I have to agree with you about the orientation of the map. Up must be South, right is West, etc..

I agree with that although additional confusion is caused by the description of (7) on the map, "Woodland Road", which is referred to in the text as "... cutting a path through the forest to the north-west...". If the map's orientation is up being South then that would make (7) leading off in exactly the opposite direction as that described (ie, south-east). Maybe one could suggest it curves around to the north-west beyond the map but that seems a little silly and not something the woodmen would do, although the river does surely have to be on the east side of the town so I don't see what other choice there is beyond ignoring the description of (7).

[Rich H]

There's also a problem with the description and map of Rhosgobel; as far as I can tell...

1) The fourth side, facing west, of the Brown Hay is made of wooden stakes

2) The Great Hall is described as facing west, towards the Great River with its back facing towards the forest.

3) The wooden stakes and the entrance to the Great Hall are facing in opposite directions, yet if we take their descriptions above, they should be facing the same way as they are both facing west.

One would suspect that the wooden stakes (1, above) are really facing east and into the forest which would mean that everything else is fine; the entrance faces west along with the path leading out of Rhosgobel.

Easily remedied with a single change but thought it worth raising here.

[Falenthal]

Easily remedied with a single change .

Is this "single change" firing Jon as artist? Oh, you're cruel...

[MattG]

Probably descriptions and the art wasn't done at the same time and that's why the difference in details.
I have no problem with that. I always rely more on the maps to visualize the terrain. Having both, the map for me overrules the text. It is very easy to adjust it for LM so describing it as a problem is a little bit of an exaggeration, a confusion is a better word maybe. There is an old proverb saying that devil sleeps in the details So cuthalion you're the LM and rule as you wish whatever better suits your game.

[Rich H]

Easily remedied with a single change .

Is this "single change" firing Jon as artist? Oh, you're cruel...

There probably isn't anything that could happen that would ever make me want to see such a thing!

No, just changing the description of the facing fixes it. A simple one-word change.

And for the problem around the description of (7) with respect to the map I just make the road on the map the road to Woodman Town and the Woodland Road is just something that isn't on the map but is to the north-west as per the description.

Job done.

[cuthalion]

Well, I have to agree with you about the orientation of the map. Up must be South, right is West, etc.

I hadn't given much thought, though, to the physical staging of the battle. The text is a bit ambiguous as the main gate features both an outer and inner gate. Because of the bluff, I would assume that the attack came from the south. The element of suprise is due to the general confusion involved in defending against a night-time attack. Perhaps you could include the additional element of having a mist or fog coming off of the river to obscure the movements of the attackers.

This is helpful, thanks!

So cuthalion you're the LM and rule as you wish whatever better suits your game.

Fair enough---I think Otaku's interpretation helps, and adds a bit of drama, along similar lines to the way I was thinking. So I'll go with this.

Thanks all for the responses.

Rich, I think you're right about the Rhosgobel map too. Do we just assume that Cubicle7 will check here and address the problem if they think it's significant? Or is there a way of letting them know about errata?

[Rich H]

Rich, I think you're right about the Rhosgobel map too. Do we just assume that Cubicle7 will check here and address the problem if they think it's significant? Or is there a way of letting them know about errata?

You could email/PM Andrew regarding this but I'd only do that if you aren't happy with the solutions provided here and can't come up with one of your own that you're comfortable with as he's likely very busy on other, current, products. Personally, they are small fixes that work so just adopt them; I really can't see an issue with them and haven't come across one in my game yet where I'm using what I've suggested.