Corruption in Southern Mirkwood

[zedturtle]

So my big group (9 heroes) is on the way between Amon Bauglir and Fenbridge Castle. According to the official material, the journey takes ten days. If we consider the whole of the land Blighted, that means twenty Corruption Tests. That's a lot of die rolling. Is there any official or unofficial other ways to handle this?

[Falenthal]

Not really any good in-game advise here.

Maybe you can make them roll before the adventure begins, and just narrate the result when the moment comes during the play.

On the other hand, and that's just a personal opinion, I don't think the trekk from Tyrant's Hill to Fernbridge Castle should be considered Blighted Land. I'd limit Blighted Land to the surroundings of Dol Guldur. I understand a BL not just as a very shadowy and difficult terrain (that's what Shadow and Dark Lands are), but as a place full of malice and even some dark sorcery. So, as I get it, Dol Guldur qualifies, of course, as BL. But Tyrant's Hill of Fernbrigde Castle don't. Also Goblin Town and the High Pass, as difficult and full of enemies as they might be, don't qualifiy as BL: they are VERY dangerous, but not "blighted".

Again, this is my interpretation of that rule. Blighted Places are very subjective, as many other things in this game.

[Glorelendil]

So my big group (9 heroes) is on the way between Amon Bauglir and Fenbridge Castle. According to the official material, the journey takes ten days. If we consider the whole of the land Blighted, that means twenty Corruption Tests. That's a lot of die rolling. Is there any official or unofficial other ways to handle this?

According to the rules on pages 223-224, not every part of a Wild/Dark/Shadow lands is necessarily blighted, and it leaves it up to the LM to decide which areas are. If using the rules for randomly determining blighted areas, then over the course of those 10 days you would check for Blight twenty times, and only make Corruption checks when passing through a Blighted area. You could either do the twenty blight checks, or just figure it's about a 30% chance and conclude that it's 6 Corruption checks.

The other question is: what's the TN? Is it 20 because it's Shadow Lands, or does Shadow Lands just increase the frequency with the TN staying at 14? Increasing frequency and TN seems harsh.

[zedturtle]

But in theory, each of those Blight checks involve rolling four Feat dice right? (Referencing the same table). That's a lot more dice.

Or, as you said (and as I did) condense the rolls down, sort of a reversal of the extended contest rules. It'd be nice to have some sort of guidance on whether we are really supposed to roll 80+ times for a ten day Journey.

[Falenthal]

I don't understand the rule (and the rationale behind it) the same as you two.
I'll expose how I use it:

1) We're talking about blighted places, not entire regions. That is, we can find a tomb that is blighted, or a place where a dark ritual took place ages ago, or a glade in the wood that's home to a twisted spirit,... But I wouldn't consider an entire region blighted (unless it's Gorgoroth or the very surroundings of Dol Guldur, maybe).
This quote is key to me:

The Blighted Lands
table below shows the frequency of tests needed when
travelling through a blighted place found in the different
types of regions.

The Blighted Place is inside a region, but it's not the region itself.

2) The optional rule of rolling the Feat die X times depending on the region the group is crossing is used to evaluate if a certain place in that region is blighted, but not the entire region. A dark place (a battling ground, for example) inside a Dark Land is more probably blighted than one in a Free Land.
So, if you think that Fernbridge Castel could be blighted, you'd have to look in the map inside which kind of region the castle is located (Dark Land). After that, you'd roll the Feat die X times (4 for Dark Lands) and, if an Eye comes out in one of those roll, the Fernbridge Castle is considered blighted: Everyday the characters spend in the Castle, they must roll two Corruption tests (or one each midday). But once they leave the Castle, they'd stop doing Corruption checks.

3) If you want to consider the whole Southern Mirkwood potentially blighted, I'd suggest this:
for each day they have to stay inside the region (the journey you calculated takes 10 days), you roll the Feat die 4 times: only on those days the Feat die shows an Eye, do they traverse a blighted zone and suffer two Corruption tests. Of course, that's still a lot of rolling. Like I said before, I'd make the rolls to see what days are blighted before the adventure for the travel. On the other hand, you could divide those checks for blight in hexagons, not days, considereing each hexagon a place that could be blighted.

As for the TN of each Corruption test, what the book says is this:

When a character enters or lingers in an area that has
been infused with malice by the darkness and has become
blighted, he must make a Corruption test. If the test is
failed, the character gains one point of Shadow.

Ususally, when no TN is indicated, the proposed tests are by default at TN14.
Personally, I'd use the TN of the region, though. But I think the RAW only asks for TN14.

[Dunkelbrink]

I agree with Farenthal on this one, and the important distinction between blighted places and areas. If you want some guidance, the scenario Secret buried from DoM states that the last three days of travel to Dol Guldur, through the fens around Fenbridge Keep requires a corruption test each. The other days of travel, from Tyrant's Hill and south to the fens, do not, at least not according to the scenario. That's how I been playing it too. I think the corruption checks are more effective when used often i really dark areas and scarcely in other areas/regions.

[zedturtle]

I agree with Farenthal on this one, and the important distinction between blighted places and areas. If you want some guidance, the scenario Secret buried from DoM states that the last three days of travel to Dol Guldur, through the fens around Fenbridge Keep requires a corruption test each. The other days of travel, from Tyrant's Hill and south to the fens, do not, at least not according to the scenario. That's how I been playing it too. I think the corruption checks are more effective when used often i really dark areas and scarcely in other areas/regions.

Hmm. I tend to agree with this idea... I wonder why it's once a day, instead of twice a day (like it should be, according to the chart)?

In any case, it seems like I've exposed them to too much Shadow and now I need to figure out a better way to handle it.

[Falenthal]

I wonder why it's once a day, instead of twice a day (like it should be, according to the chart)?

As some people pointed out a time ago, you can consider Dark Lands as Shadow Lands before Sauron's revelation in 2951. The surroundings of Dol Guldur are dangerous, but not as dangerous they'll become once its inhabited again.

Regarding your players, I guess your concern is that you've been using the rules as blighted regions, not places, right?
And now it can be weird to consider Southern Mirkwood as Corruption-lighter than other areas they've been.
I can't come up with any in-game idea that might righten it. I'd just tell them that you'll use the rule in a different way.
If your concern is about them having too many Shadow Points, open up for them at the end of this adventure some special Undertakings to regain Hope/lose Shadow Points. At the end of Secrets Buried, I think that Radagast allows them to take Heal Corruption at Rhosgobel and lose double Shadow Points (or roll the Feat die twice, can't remember). Surely Radagast will be interested in fresh info about the Necromancer's tower and its surroundings. And he'll help anyway he can anyone who brings him that info.
Also, there's the Visit the Kingstone Undertaking (HotW p.60) related to Rhosgobel, where the heroes can recover three Hope points. Radagast might be willing to take them there after having sniffed around Dol Guldur.

[Rich H]

Hmm. I tend to agree with this idea... I wonder why it's once a day, instead of twice a day (like it should be, according to the chart)?

Because Darkening of Mirkwood wasn't using the table in the revised rules. Or... they'd adopted my house rules that Dark Lands are rated as Shadow Lands (and Shadow Lands as Wild Lands) until 2951 when Sauron declares in Mordor.

[Rich H]

That table on page 223 is open to a lot of interpretation though, I can see how people have been using it differently.

Personally I could easily read it as Zed originally did and roll 80 times during a 10 day journey to determine whether each place being travelled through is blighted or not; the only thing stopping me would be the idea of rolling 80 times, so my conclusion would be that the table can't mean that!

The paragraph following the table sheds more light on this as the 'frequency' column is how many times a PC must make an actual corruption test when travelling through a blighted area so that column doesn't seem to determine whether an area is blighted just how many corruption tests should be rolled if it is blighted.

The first two columns, 'Traversed Region' and 'Area is Blighted on an [EYE]' are for a Loremaster to determine whether a current area is blighted or not.

So, there's not really anything in the table to determine how many blighted places there are in a region; the table just give rules on what to do to determine (a) if a region is blighted and the LM wishes to test for it at their discretion and (b) how many times a corruption test is needed if the area is in fact blighted.

Least that's how I read it.