The Canon discarded, the Adventure set free

[DarkTraveller]

So from the start of my campaign (marsh bell, TFW, DOM) I accepted there was a point when canon might fall to the wayside (which was proven by the end of the first game when one of my player's expressed a wish to wind up with the party's heirs to eventually become the Fellowship of the Ring). Well last night we completed 'Those Who Tarry' and that time of the canon falling away happened a lot quicker than anyone expected.

Everything had started off fine with our party of a Noldor Slayer, Barding Slayer, Lakeman Wanderer, Dwarf Slayer, Dwarf Burglar, and Hobbit Burglar all taking up the cause of getting Irime to the appointed meeting place (though it was begrudgingly agreed by the Dwarf brothers) so that the party could hopefully travel to Rivendell with her. Fast forward a bit and they had failed in their quest to protect her, I won't go into spoiler territory but they failed horribly.

Still determined to make it to Rivendell and hoping to make up for their failure, they requested to aid in escorting her alongside the sons of Elrond and the newly arrived Dunedain Warden. Travelling back through the High Pass they wound up with 4 hazards across the two journey rolls and ended up scavenging for firewood in a copse of trees when a group of 16 Orc Soldiers attacked them. Things at this point took a turn for the worst when the Dwarves and the Lakeman became miserable on the first round of combat. The very next round of combat the Dwarf Slayer and the Lakeman both rolled Eyes with the Lakeman determining they were all doomed and going catatonic and the Dwarf deciding the reason they were in this mess was be cause of Irime and on the next turn he coup de graced her while the others were focused on the Orcs. This act got all the Elves focused on knocking out the Dwarf to be dealt with later, they didn't count on his Burglar brother breaking off the fight with the Orcs to battle anyone attacking his brother.

Four rounds and two more bouts of madness later the combat was over with the following results: Irime had been slain by the Dwarf Slayer who was in turn slain by an Orc after being knocked out by Elladan. The Noldor Slayer had been slain by an Orc after being knocked out by the Dwarf Slayer. The Lakeman Wanderer had been slain by an Orc. Elladan had been slain by the Dwarf Burglar after he slew his brother's killer. The Dwarf Burglar was slain by the Barding Slayer who suffered the final bout of madness when he killed off the final Orcs he had been battling in time to see Elladan slain by his companion.

It was a very unexpected turn for the adventure and the storyline as I'm now envisioning this might wind up pushing Elrond to be more like Thranduil in how he works with outsiders...at the very least I think Dwarves may have lost any sort of access to Imladris.

[Elmoth]

Mother of melkor! What a mess!

Ireme, a Noldor elf and (above all) Elladan dead by the hand of a dwarf from the Lonely Mountain? Well, let's say that Doriath rings a bell here. the outcome affects directly 2 of the 3 great rulers of the Noldor in Middle Earth, so the situation is dire. The holders of 2 of the 3 rings of power and members of the White Council, none the less.

More than "Thranduil style" I can see Elrond going "Smaug style". Dwarves are to be killed on sight by any Noldor in Eriador. I can see Elrohir becoming an active and extremely dangerous dwarf hunter in the near future. Shadow et al.

The second great ruler affected is galadriel. Considering that Galadriel is the grandmother of Elladan and Elrohir (Celebrian, their mother, is her daughter), I would consider Lorien to be out of bounds as well. The 2 great rulers might actively act to see the dwarves suffer. Balin is not likely to repopulate Moria at all under these circumstances, and orcs might be diverted to the lonely mountain by the Noldor if they can instead of just killed off.

Or not, but you can go all the way to declare dearves as "animals to be hunted" from now on by the Noldor.

And that is not to take in mind the attitude for the worse that Thranduil is likely to get. Probably the elven path is forbidden to dwarves from now on even if no open war is declared.

It will take A LOT of work by Gandalf and the "do gooders" to restore a semi-entente between 2 of the great races of Middle Earth.

I can see a much darker campaign developing. Nice.

[Finrod Felagund]

Hilarious! Actually made me laugh out loud!

[Blubbo Baggins]

Wow. I think this scene might have just doomed Middle Earth. Good job helping out Sauron guys! I enjoyed hearing about it.

[Mytholder]

Oh man.

Ok, Elrohir goes off dwarf-hunting on a crazed vengeance bender. Elrond decides that Middle-Earth is hopelessly corrupt, and heads for the Havens early. He leaves his Ring behind, though - who gets it? Glorfindel or Arwen? If it's Glorfindel, you might end up with a smaller version of the Last Alliance, with the elves plus Rangers marching south to Gondor to get involved in the war - hoping to stop Sauron before his power grows.

If it's Arwen, then... huh, she marries Aragorn early, and they both head south to Gondor in disguise. Vilya gives Minas Tirith more strength to endure, and Aragorn becomes the Batman of Osgilliath - but can Arwen stay hidden when Denethor starts looking for her?

[DarkTraveller]

Oh and I forgot to mention: This was April 2948, things were still relatively good in the world until this point lol

[Majestic]

Well, your campaign is certainly interesting now! I'll probably read this aloud to my group, just so they hear how differently things could end up going, based on PC actions and decisions.

[Southron]

Did this campaign continue?