Campaign Notes: The Black Wind Howls (creatures, characters)

[Lara Redleaf]

For my campaign idea, I decided to take a Ringwraith and flesh out a backstory and personality. He also has some minions that I will post here as well. Big thanks to Kelly Pedersen for helping me to refine the idea.

Bâlor Balanar, the Black Wind
Bâlor is a Ringwraith, equaled in sorcery only by the Witch King and in cruelty by none save the Dark Lord. He speeds throughout Eriador sowing seeds of fear, hatred, and discord. Bâlor maintains his fastness in the ruins of Utumno, dredging the bones of evil things and fell weapons from the cursed earth.

Attribute Level: 7
Endurance: 70 • Hate: 20
Parry: 9 • Armor: 3d

Skills: Personality 5, Movement 4, Perception 5, Survival 2, Custom 5, Vocation 4

Weapon Skills: Staff 3, Claw 3, Morgul-knife 3

Special Abilities
All Ringwraith Special Abilities

Bewilder • Darker than the Darkness • Deadly Elusiveness • Dreadful Spells: Deathly Runes*, Dreadful Gaze*, Necromancy* • Reckless Hate • Visions of Torment • Wicked Cunning • Words of Power and Terror

Bâlor rarely chooses to do battle directly. When heroes confront him, he generally uses his spells to harry and torment them. If he sees an advantage he will stay to fight, but only in the darkness. Bâlor moves as a wraith does, a shadowy figure gliding about the battlefield. He will first summon a cloud of darkness to hinder his foes. As they struggle with Fear he will spend Hate to weaken them with Visions of Torment, and his Words of Power and Terror to negate Hope expenditures. He can also spend Hate to heal himself and reduce the Parry ratings of those foolish enough to engage him, or become far more difficult to harm as he slides from shadow to shadow. When pressed, he uses his Dreadful Spells of Necromancy to summon undead, who beset his foes while Bâlor flees.

*Deathly Runes: Like a shadow of his master, Bâlor can ensnare unwary Men and transform them into lesser wraiths under his command. Bâlor and his most trusted servants know this spell, with which they set up warrior societies. Those who join him gain training in woodcraft, poisons, ambushes, and other guerrilla warfare tactics, but this spell is given to the greatest among them. Their bodies are tattooed with mystic ichor that grants the bearer enhanced resistance to pain, preternatural senses, and an aura of dread that follows them into battle. Yet the tattoos are made of the same foul stuff as Morgul-blades, and by putting it in themselves, the people who join these warbands have doomed themselves to become lesser wraiths. This functions much like the wounds from a Morgul-knife, only it takes twice as long for the victim to succumb. Death in glorious battle or while performing some righteous act will free a victim from the curse.

*Dreadful Gaze: Bâlor can reveal his gaze to frighten a foe or slay the weak of spirit outright. Gazing into the eyeless void of his dead face can disorient and drain the heartiest of warriors, who feel as though a door has opened to reveal the grim visage of Morgoth himself. A hero who fails the Corruption test also becomes Weary for the rest of combat. If the hero should fail and roll an Eye, instead the character suffers an immediate Wound.

*Necromancy: Bâlor is skilled at raising undead things from the darkness. Depending on his location, he can summon different types of undead to attack his enemies. Near graveyards or battlegrounds, he summons 2 Bog Soldiers per failed Corruption test. In the dark woods he summons 1 Wood-wight per failed test. Anywhere else, or if it seems more appropriate, he summons 1 Fell Wraith per failed test. He can only do this once per hero in any given scene.

History
The Nazgûl hate the West, but some reserve a special malice for Eriador, home of Sauron's greatest enemies. Chief among these is the wraith who calls himself Bâlor (or Balanar), known to the Elves as Sûlmôrn, the Black Wind. He is mightiest of the Nazgûl after the Witch-King, a master of dark sorcery. Bâlor rides throughout Eriador and the North seeking shadows and sowing fear. Ambitious and keenly perceptive, Bâlor sees wisdom in pulling stones from foundations, setting whole realms to topple of their own accord. He seeks to raise up fell spirits and things long left buried in the ruins of Utumno. Bâlor is not the source of all evil, much as Sauron is not, but his evil influence taints the hearts and minds of his victims and deepens the shadows in their hearts.

When the Dwarves began delving too deeply into Moria, Bâlor knew their greed, that they would dig too deeply and awaken something best left undisturbed. He influenced the mithril demand such that the Dwarves delved ever deeper and awakened their own doom. For centuries he has thus haunted Eriador, never declaring himself openly but seeping through the land like a plague. Indeed he may have conjured the Great Plague of 1636 that devastated the enemies of the Dunlendings but did less hurt to his former kin. Bâlor's ambition differs from the Witch-King's; he desires not open rule over nations devoted to evil, but his vision ranges longer still. He would see all the nations of the Free Peoples destroyed from within before he rules over their ashes as a lord of the dead.

Once he was a Man, as were all Ringwraiths, though he long ago forgot his mortal name. He was a chieftain of the ancestors of the Dunlendings, and ever bore a grudge against the Númenóreans, who had began cutting down the forests of their home. He led his wild people to side with Sauron in the Second Age, when the Elves warred with Sauron. The Dark Lord seduced this grief-stricken chieftain with promises of power, revenge, the realization of his dreams of magic and great powers that operated in the shadows. Thus he was gifted one of the Nine Rings of Power, and so became ensnared willingly in Sauron's web. Even before he became a wraith he was gifted at seeing into the shadows, of kingdoms, of people's hearts. He knew how to gnaw at the foundations, spurring tribes and clans with existing grudges against his targets to murderous action. In a thousand little attacks he would wear his foes down, rip at their wounds, and so destroy them slowly but thoroughly.

In life he was a fanatical devotee of Morgoth. Sauron had inspired many cults to worship the greatest of the Vala, true lord of Arda, where wicked priests sacrificed victims in the name of Morgoth. Bâlor's fervor eclipsed that of his fellows, and as the warmth of life faded from him he grew ever more twisted in his devotion. He held a fascination with the mystical secrets of the Darkness and night, and so it sped his corruption by the Ring into a creature of death. As a Ringwraith he roamed far under the cover of night, and so came to the ruins of Utumno, first and greatest citadel of Morgoth. Dark things lurked in the depths of the ruins, things more ancient than Bâlor himself, and restless dead things left after the Siege of Utumno. Bâlor raised up these spirits and dark undead in the frozen wastes, and plunged into the evil shadows that infested Utumno's broken roots. He commands them as his minions, claiming that he hears Morgoth's voice lingering still, a quiet but terrible whisper echoing in the bones of his great fortress.

Bâlor is unfailingly loyal to the Lord of the Rings, as he was in life. Sauron is the intermediary between Men and the True Darkness that holds ultimate power over the world. Bâlor serves Sauron as his greatest instrument of corruption among the Nazgûl, sowing evil seeds and fomenting hatred across Eriador. Every drop of blood shed by the Free Peoples is one more victory for Bâlor, the Black Wind, who rides like a howling gale and brings ruin in his wake. In time he would raise up a force from Utumno and catch Eriador in a deadly pincer between his forces and those of Mordor. Only the greatest (and perhaps unlikeliest) of heroes can stop Bâlor the Black Wind before all is lost.

Plot Hooks
•The Company encounters a band of slain warriors with one survivor, a Dunlending. He beseeches the heroes for aid. He has rejected Bâlor's teachings and wishes to die a pure death, but the mystical runes branded into his flesh are transforming him into a wraith. The heroes must help him find a cause worthy of dying in battle to uphold, or else leave him to his damnation as a wraith of Sauron.

•A new and dangerous creature has begun to terrorize the lands as far south as Bree. They stalk like pale ghosts from the night and strike swiftly, silently, impossibly graceful and painfully beautiful. Morgoth did many foul things with his Elvish captives in the bowels of Utumno during the First Age. Some creatures, if let out into the world, may trouble it like the Orcs have, or prove worse still. A heroic Company must track these creatures into the frozen north and put an end to Bâlor's wicked plan to unleash an ancient evil.

•The Bree-lands are come to the brink of war. A host of undead and things fouler than Orcs steal from the ruins of Fornost, striking in the night and claiming the lives of brave farmers and woodsmen. The Rangers of the North wage a shadow war with these monsters, led by a dark sorcerer of incredible power. Has the danger of the Ringwraiths returned? Open warfare with a dark army could break out if the heroes can't find a way to stem the tide and put the horrors of Fornost to rest.

[Finrod Felagund]

Hello Claire.

This sounds awesome - I can already see Utumno in my head! If you can be bothered, drop in every now and again and let us know how your campaign goes.

FF

[Falenthal]

The heroes must help him find a cause worthy of dying in battle to uphold,

I like this adventure hook. It fits the Darkening of Mirkwood theme really well (although I understand it wasn't thought for it): inevitable damnation, but the heroes can find a way to make it less horrible. I'll try to use it with one of the main soul-tortured NPCs, like Mogdred.

[Elmoth]

Really nice! Well done. I really like the backstory and the adventure hooks. A causer of strife. That is neat.

Cheers
Xavi

[Lara Redleaf]

Iarwain Rinheleg
Attribute Level: 11
Endurance: 120 • Hate: 18
Parry: 12 • Armor: 4d/3d*

Skills: Personality 1, Movement 3, Perception 5, Survival 5, Custom 1, Vocation 1

Weapon Skills: Bone Claw 3

Special Abilities
Denizen of the Dark
Dreadful Spells*
Fearsome
Fear of Fire
Foul Reek
Great Might
Great Size
Hate Sunlight
Hideous Toughness
Horrible Strength
Reckless Hate
Unnatural Vitality
Weak Spot
Wraith-like

*Icy Breath: The undead cold-drake can indeed breathe out an icy gale capable of chilling flesh and turning bone to ice. It may breathe on multiple heroes if gathered closely together, roughly affecting everyone engaged in close combat with the creature. The creature must spend 1 Hate point per target to activate this ability. Any hero that fails the Corruption test gains 2 Shadow points, suffers Endurance damage equal to Rinheleg's Attribute level, and becomes Weary as the frigid blast saps her strength. Killing Rinheleg or having a chance to warm up (as by a fire) will end this effect. If the hero fails the roll with an Eye of Sauron result, she suffers a Wound instead of Endurance loss, as ice shards pierce her body and her frostbitten bones threaten to crack.

Weapons
Bone Claw • Damage: Attribute Level • Edge: Eye (11) • Injury: 16 • Called Shot: Pierce

Rinheleg is a terrifying foe. He takes the form of a skeletal Dragon-like creature, with glistening bits of frozen flesh still clinging to his bones. An eerie light pulses in his eye sockets and radiates as a dark mist from him. He is so massive he towers over even Trolls, using his great size and strength to tear his foes asunder. In battle he rends with his vicious claws and shrugs off blows that would fell giants. Unlike in life, as an undead creature he can breathe out a deluge of killing cold, sapping the strength from limbs, even destroying soft flesh with ice shards. An undead creature, Rinheleg is impervious to normal weapons. Only the stoutest warriors can hope to stand before him.

History
Morgoth as the Dark Lord devised many instruments of war and domination. His cruelest creations were living monsters, some corrupted from the Maiar like Balrogs, others of more unknown origin, like the great Dragons. In the dawn of the First Age or perhaps earlier still he began to raise serpentine beasts, great worms and gigantic scaly horrors. Rinheleg was one of his earliest creations, an ancestor of the Dragons that later terrorized Middle-earth. Fierce, colder than a fish of the deep sea, Rinheleg sought to slake his great hunger on his master's enemies. He went to war against the Elves but an Elven hero with hair like flame wounded him gravely, and sent Rinheleg retreating into the northern wastes that grew ever colder from Morgoth's influence. There he remained, lost to snowy wastelands, and not even the Men of the Forodwaith knew whither he had gone. Perhaps he perished from his wounds, or from his broken pride, or simply vanished into the rime as his body failed him, attesting to Morgoth's imperfect creations.

Bâlor the Black Wind, among the mightiest of Nazgûl, came in the Third Age to the frozen north from the east. After the fall of Minas Ithil Bâlor went north, passing through the Withered Heath before coming at last to the Northern Waste. He journeyed for many weeks under the perpetual night that gripped the Northern Waste for much of the year. Drawn by dreams so dark their touch could chill the heart of the bravest Gondorian warrior, Bâlor passed south into the ruins of Carn Dûm, which even now smoked and reeked of battle and death. The presence evil things that lived there still only drove Bâlor to search further west.

Scarcely ten years passed ere Bâlor found the signs he sought along the ice-locked coast of the Forochel in the western arm of the Forodwaith. Ruins littered the Cape of Forochel, broken pieces of the realm Morgoth once ruled in the youth of the First Age. The ghosts of Beleriand still haunted these ruins, Bâlor saw, and so he came to find the source of the song in his endless dreams. Thus he found the ruins of Utumno, first and greatest of Morgoth's fortresses, though much of it lay beneath the icy waters of the Forochel. Hungry shadows and fell beasts laired in the crumbling roots of what had once been Utumno, called up by the presence of Sauron's servant. Many more Bâlor raised up with powerful necromancy, dredging up the bones of ancient weapons and foul creatures whose like had long since perished from the world. He knew at last the purpose of the dreams which guided him, and for many years he wove spells of darkness in that place, binding the wicked creatures of the night to his service.

The greater part of Utumno lay in ruin on the frozen sea floor, but still something called to Bâlor, a presence he felt through a few of the bones that jutted from the snowy shore. An evil spirit still clung to the bones lying beneath the waves like the bits of torn flesh that remained, preserved by ice-water from total decay. Bâlor sensed power here, and so he began a black ritual. Many weeks of chanting and sacrifice followed as he commanded the bones to rise up, to consume once more the warmth of living flesh. By his power did Rinheleg's dark spirit reanimate its bones and rise from the waters as an undead Dragon. Shadow and frigid vapors wreathed his bones and burned in his eyeless skull, and he set upon Bâlor with savage hunger.

"Who has awakened me from my slumber, when I sleep the sleep of the dead?" he roared, and sought to consume the Ringwraith. Bâlor eluded him and answered in turn, "Your spirit lingered, drowned in darkness, until the Black Wind brought it up from the depths to serve." Rinheleg attacked again, seeking to seize the little wraith in his skeletal grasp, but again Bâlor avoided him. At this Rinheleg roared, and with his voice issued a terrible torrent of ice and shadow. "I was a cold-drake, beholden to none save the Dark Lord himself!"

Bâlor answered, "I too serve the Dark Lord, who even now grows and takes shape in the East. By his Ring I am bound, and so are you also bound, ancestor of Dragons. Only to Mordor now do you owe allegiance, lest the Master reach out to shatter your bones once more. Hark! for my words will I utter only once: serve me as lord and guardian of this place, and I shall rebuild yet more. From ruin Utumno shall rise again, that we may catch this accursed land between ours and the fastness of Mordor. The Black Wind howls through your bones, and through me you shall come to new purpose. Obey, Iarwain Rinheleg, most ancient of Morgoth's children, for you are given new life through darkness! Obey, or I will cast it from you again!"

Rinheleg could no more resist the dark powers of Bâlor, which had given his malevolent spirit form through his own bones. He pledged his might to the cause of the Dark Lord, and haunted Utumno as once he had in life during Ages past. To Rinheleg Bâlor fed the weakest of the fell creatures of those ruins, and the strongest soon gathered to Rinheleg as his brood. They haunted the lands to the south, and aided Bâlor in restoring remnants of Utumno to sinister glory. Bâlor lairs there still, ever seeking the secrets of Morgoth's might. Rinheleg is the most fearsome presence in the ruins, guarding them with malice for the living matched only by his hatred for the Sun. Bâlor's captives from his forays south into Eriador live only long enough to meet Rinheleg, if they are most unfortunate. Bâlor knows that the only thing that forces obeisance in the ancient drake's spirit is their shared devotion to the glory of Morgoth and his greatest emissary, Sauron. With many artifacts once sunken but now brought back to trouble the world does Bâlor gird himself, but Rinheleg wears only his hatred and heartless cold as raiment.

Rinheleg even now guards the ruins of Utumno, sleepless and cruel beyond measure. His old bones must be destroyed and his spirit cast into the void if the north is to ever again know peace. Those pursuing Bâlor to his stronghold in the ruins will find their mettle tested by a creature of death from a forgotten Age, more ancient and powerful than all but the mightiest beings to walk Middle-earth.

Rinheleg is a truly dangerous adversary, and the ruins of Utumno are full of other grave threats. Only experienced Companies should challenge him, and the Loremaster should feel free to strip away Special Abilities if they insist upon having their heroes face the monster early. Perhaps Bâlor has only recently raised Rinheleg from the dead, and the monster is yet to come into its full power. Most campaigns involving Rinheleg should feature the battle as a defining moment, and presumably only after the heroes have acquired powerful magical artefacts. Rangers of the North or High Elves of Rivendell are potent foes of the undead, and their assistance would be invaluable in destroying Rinheleg. Loremasters may wish to encourage players to bring companions along with the Company capable of aiding them in such a fierce battle.

As a final word of advice to Loremasters, try running some mock battles between starting-level adventurers and Rinheleg to get a feel for just how deadly he can be. Then try the same with more experienced versions of the heroes, perhaps bearing some Famous Weapons and Armor, to see the difference.

[Robin Smallburrow]

Interesting stuff! Is Rinheleg inhabited by the original spirit of Rinheleg (and if so how did the spirit stay and not go to The Void) or by another spirit? You should read the article on Necromancy, I think it was in a previous issue of Other Minds (all the Ringwraiths were considered masters of the art). Sauron's 'spirt' still remains in Middle-earth, but is now dissipated over the ruins of Barad-dur, unable to 'reform' again. Tolkien discussed spirits in Morgoth's Ring.

You should also check out ICE's The Northern Waste - I thought this was one of their best

Can't wait for your maps of the Ruins of Utumno!
Robin S.

[Lara Redleaf]

This sounds awesome - I can already see Utumno in my head! If you can be bothered, drop in every now and again and let us know how your campaign goes.

Thank you very much! And I will do exactly that. I intend to post all the major stuff here, since the campaign isn't starting up yet anyway. Going to create some artefacts and stuff, too.

I like this adventure hook. It fits the Darkening of Mirkwood theme really well (although I understand it wasn't thought for it): inevitable damnation, but the heroes can find a way to make it less horrible. I'll try to use it with one of the main soul-tortured NPCs, like Mogdred.

Thank you. I like the idea, too. Redemption and damnation are important themes in Middle-earth; maybe in helping to rid this warrior of the Shadow, the heroes can reduce their own Shadow.

Really nice! Well done. I really like the backstory and the adventure hooks. A causer of strife. That is neat.

Thank you! Yes, he's basically the "anti-Gandalf", if you will. He sees the value in sowing strife and discord, allowing things to crumble under their own weight. Attack a kingdom and it resists you with valor and skill at arms. Poison the kingdom and it destroys itself from within.

Interesting stuff!

Thank you!

Is Rinheleg inhabited by the original spirit of Rinheleg (and if so how did the spirit stay and not go to The Void) or by another spirit? You should read the article on Necromancy, I think it was in a previous issue of Other Minds (all the Ringwraiths were considered masters of the art). Sauron's 'spirt' still remains in Middle-earth, but is now dissipated over the ruins of Barad-dur, unable to 'reform' again. Tolkien discussed spirits in Morgoth's Ring.

Which issue? I've never read the magazine, but I have had it recommended to me before.

Yes, in Rinheleg's case it was his original spirit. I figured that he might leave a ghost, not unlike the wraiths and specters that trouble other parts of the world, and surely haunt ruins like those of Utumno. His ghost clung angrily to his bones, slumbering in the frigid waters. We don't necessarily see "Dragon ghosts" in other works, but in the case of Smaug, for example, even the site where his bones lay in the water seemed cursed, or regarded as such. In this case, Rinheleg was molded by Morgoth himself, and his dark power lies heavily upon the "prototype Dragon" spirit. Perhaps in death as a result, dying in the blackness of Utumno's ruin, Rinheleg became something akin to a demon, wholly consumed by the Hate of Morgoth.

Can't wait for your maps of the Ruins of Utumno!

If I knew of a decent map-making program (for free), I'd totally throw some together! I'm liking this idea as it unfolds and takes shape: legacies of Morgoth and ancient battles.