Idea for a fan created campaign

[Otaku-sempai]

The players already know they are working for the wrong guy (I assume lol).

That may be, but the White Wizard is presumably unaware that they are on to him (or he would be doing something about it).

[Wbweather]

The players already know they are working for the wrong guy (I assume lol).

That may be, but the White Wizard is presumably unaware that they are on to him (or he would be doing something about it).

So this makes me wonder how best to end the campaign.

Do we have the players slowly come to suspect Saruman and gradually start distrusting him or are they beguiled by him, thinking he is good all the way through and then have a huge revelation that he is the bad guy all along?

Once they find out, what do they do with the information? How should the campaign end?

Possibilities I see:
1. They are corrupted along with him and join him.
2. They are threatened or charmed into not telling anyone.
3. They promise never to tell anyone and live the rest of their lives knowing that he is bad and that he knows that they know he s bad
4. Saruman imprisons or kills them.
5. They escape from Saruman and live in fear of him coming after them
6. They try to let the White Council know - Saruman beats them to the White Council and turns opinions against them so that their warning is ignored

What other possibilities am I not thinking of?

[Blubbo Baggins]

I am reminded of the ending of the book, The Good Earth. Have you read it? It gives one the chills, because the whole book builds on the idea of the importance of ownership of land, and at the very end the old father is telling his grown sons to "never sell the land" and the last line is something like,
"And behind him they looked at one another and smiled."

So perhaps that was completely a non-sequitur. However, I think that if the heroes don't know much, but have enough suspicions they want to tell the White Council, they perhaps could do so, but Saruman has already inoculated them against the PCs. Or the PCs entrust an NPC with the information, an NPC who through the adventures has been trustworthy, and therefore the PCs have no reason to believe the NPC won't deliver the information. (Even if OOC the players might not). I'm not sure my response helps, but thought I'd try.

[poosticks7]

Can we make a distinction between player and character here.

If the campaign is done right, the characters may never know that they are working for someone evil. This is Saruman we are talking about, he can convince you about almost anything.

They may learn about his evil ways at the end... if you go with that option I say kill them or have them captured*. That would be the most Lore friendly answer and a tragic end that highlights the fall of the White Wizard.


Now the players themselves (assuming they have read or watched The Lord of the RIngs know that Saruman is a bad 'un... they are going to have to buy into the idea of their characters being unaware or the whole premise breaks down.

*I had this image of the characters being found at the end of the War of the Ring in a dungeon/prison in Orthanc after Saruman leaves... that could be a powerful image to end the campaign on.

[Elmoth]

The original campaign as listed implies that the characters need to get ideas that some things are not OK with Saruman. I fail to see why this is the case. They could be working for him willingly and not suspecting anything because there is nothign to suspect that they can possibly find. Searching for a dwarven ring? No problem. Negotiating with Roghan and dunlendings, no problem even if they do not like the dunlendings. They might even end up as servants of Galmond in Tengel's court, and training the young Eomer and Grima in combat for example. I do not see why this needs to be a "fall from grace" story even if the players know that they have been helping the bad guy and how. Saruman is a freaking powerful figure form him to be as sloppy as the original timeline of adventures seems to suggest. At least for me... A few indications that he is not using the most virtuous people around is OK, but making him so clearly evil seems too much for me.

I like the bell tolling and shifty people around bree or talking to Galmod that the players know are working for Saruman, but killing the northern dunlending leaders makes no sense at all in this story, for example. Players are important, but not THAT important. And not everything needs to end up with them being superheroes that save middle earth. most people weren't.

[Wbweather]

I suppose that the players don't necessarily need to find out that Saruman is bad, but they would be unknowingly assisting him and might become suspicious. One of the things that Saruman does is to cause distrust and strife between the Dunlandings and the Rohirrim and I think that killing the Dunlanding leaders is an interesting way to achieve this. I am open to other ideas for adventures and would love to have you share any ideas you have.

[Elmoth]

Direct unnecessary violence by PC or NPC by a direct order of Saruman is so naked evil that I would avoid that like the plague. better to have the PC bring a gift of horses to the dunlendings. Fantastic horses. The PC hacve no ciddea where they come from, but the NPC that gives them to the PC assures them that they have been brought in Rohan, for example. Later (like 2 or 3 adventures later) they discover that the horses of a certain location were stolen, or that a horse farm was raided and the people there killed (and the horses disappeared). They might add 2 and 2 together, or they might not, up to them. Stuff happens in the world all the time.

In the same area, we can have Rohirrims taunting dunlendings gouing to market, and abusing them a little. trample some of their goods and stuff like that that bullies can do at the entrance of a fair to a foreign people. And the Rohirrim doing that might be agents of Saruman as well or not. I prefer not. The PC might intervene or not, up to them.

It can be a slow build up not "go there, kill everybody and let the Valar sort theirs". Naked violence is an extremely easy recourse that maks the lines of good and evil too clearly. Grey is a much more convenient area for this kind of stoies, I would say. orcs = evil, kill them all (sin-free action!!!) and make for great tension relief scenes, but the miseries of the human race (and maiar) is always something worth exploring.