I've been fairly quiet on the forums lately, but I wanted to throw up a post saying that I finished my campaign (I think this is my longest running campaign yet - ever?). I believe it totaled about 15 sessions or so.
The plot thus far began with a merchant (Pilgrim) who hired the players to find out why one of his companions had disappeared, and what happened to him. After some escapades in a village, they discovered that merchant's companion had been murdered, but that the murder had been made to look as though it had happened as part of a nearby battle (Cadfael anyone
). They deduced that a noble lord, Hirbeth, had something to do with it, and through their confrontations with him, they were informed that Hirbeth was in possession of something that the merchant's companion stole. The players had earlier recovered this artifact from the site of the battle. Hirbeth had sworn an oath to his king not to tell anyone, though, so off to the king the fellowship went.The king eventually told them of how, long long ago, one of his great ancestors had been forced into a binding pact by One of the Nine. In exchange for the ancestor's life, he and the Nazgul had their bloodlines bound to the well being of a key. For the king, it was a way to survive. For the Nazgul, it was a way to weather the storm that he knew would eventually come. Anyway, fast forward several thousand years, and it turns out that this Nazgul is terrorizing the countryside with the help of some soldiers he corrupted. Basically, the king tells he players he is too old to make a good decision here and asks the players to decide for him: destroy the key, killing the good king and wounding the Nazgul (causing him to lose all power for close to a century), or saving the king and keeping the Nazgul strong and alive.
The players eventually (after trying and failing several other options) decided to destroy the key (with the king's permission). This was also because of the pressure of a host of orcs bearing down on the kingdom, giving the Nazgul a perfect time to strike with his corrupted knights. The players began the ritual in an old abandoned tower while the battle raged on, and ended up confronting the Nazgul.
First, the sky blackened and thunder began to rumble. Then, the player on the top heard the sickening cry of the Nazgul's winged beast (I know, fell beasts weren't around until the War of the Ring, but it's way cooler than him riding there on a horse. Artistic license, OK?), who swooped down from the storm clouds but failed to pluck the hero off the top of the tower. The hero got off two amazingly lucky shots with a ballista mounted onto the top of the tower, and brought down the fell beast.
The Nazgul slowly descended into the tower as the player desparately tried to hold him off while Arendir the elfkind performed the finishing touches of the ritual. None actually managed to damage him, although they got pretty damaged by him. Some of them were thrown through doors, impaled, stabbed, slashed, and slammed against walls. Eventually, after terrifying Arendir, who was about to say the last line of the ritual, the second elf leapt in the way and finished the ritual, ending the Nazgul's life (temporarily). I think all the players were really psyched and said it was an amazing fight.
I ended the campaign and the session with the players attending the king's funeral. We all sang a modified version of the Death Song to Borimir. I'm not sure if we're welcome in the local shop again after that performance...
. Then I ended with the players (who were present) discussing what their characters were doing a month later. One of them, and elf, was hunting some Orc when (my intervention) he was stopped by Beorn the Skinchanger who told him that they needed to talk (setup for the next campaign, if we continue?). The next one, a master smith, was in the market square and saw a smithy for sale. The third one, a treasure hunter, was tied up in a cave, surrounded by Corsairs of Umbar. The last one, a roaming man of the wild, was cresting a hill, looking for the ancient wisemen who could help lift the curse of a spirit they encountered during their travels. I was actually really surprised and happy at the last one - I didn't expect any of the players to do much about it.Anyway, that was the session. TL;DR: the players killed (temporarily) a Nazgul, went to a funeral, said what their characters were doing in a month, and we had a fantastic time. Thanks for reading!
-TMG
