Undead in the East Bight

[Majestic]

Of course, in lots of genre fiction, being the person who does know the difference between the various versions of spirits, specters and ghosts (not to mention full torso free-floating apparitions) can be the key to solving the adventure.

Who you gonna call?

[zedturtle]

1-800-IMLADRIS

[Summerhawk]

This all has me thinking. If your players failed to save Ceawin and later learned he was in thrall to the wights and could find no way to break the thralldom (or failed in the attempt), would killing him still be a misdeed? This is hypothetical in my case. I'm just curious what folk here think.

*edited for typos. Was working off my phone and autocorrect went a bit nuts.

[Terisonen]

Definitly, yes... Ceawin is a victim, so you should find a way to free him, not to kill him.

[Lifstan]

My players failed to save Ceawin from the curse in "The Helm of Peace".

The thing that bothers me with Ceawin's plot (same with the spy in Thranduil's Hall) is that the event "to help Ceawin" (in 2968, with the scenario "Nine in the Hall") is many years down the line in Darkenning... But after "The Helm of Peace" my players suspect that something is wrong with him. They will likely want to find a cure for Ceawin's curse and also find the spy in Thranduil's Hall (they are already trying). How did you handle that? Sometimes the time between the beginning of a plot and it's end take soooo many years in the passing of years... I fear it's kind of an issue...

[beckett]

My players failed to save Ceawin from the curse in "The Helm of Peace".

The thing that bothers me with Ceawin's plot (same with the spy in Thranduil's Hall) is that the event "to help Ceawin" (in 2968, with the scenario "Nine in the Hall") is many years down the line in Darkenning... But after "The Helm of Peace" my players suspect that something is wrong with him. They will likely want to find a cure for Ceawin's curse and also find the spy in Thranduil's Hall (they are already trying). How did you handle that? Sometimes the time between the beginning of a plot and it's end take soooo many years in the passing of years... I fear it's kind of an issue...

Move events around to suit your game and what interests your players. If your players are interested in the Ceawin plot, move up Nine in the Hall if that makes plot sense. Why hold it back just because the book lists it as happening later in the timeline? I haven't been following the events in Darkening as its written year-by-year... I'm going where my players lead me. We did the Thief of the Lamp in 2969, much later than in the book's timeline. It's now 2970 in our game and they retrieved the lamp, returned it to Woodmen-town and used it to defeat the Werewolf (in the book I think that happens in 2971). Our Ranger now has the Werewolf's spirit in her!

The Dwarf in the company now wants them to go to the Greydelve to help him find an heirloom of his family. So do what fits your game's story. Don't let the book's time-line shackle you into believing events have to happen at a certain time and in a certain way. That's my two cents, anyway. Hope it helps!

[Majestic]

I agree with beckett, go with what your players show interest in, even if it means moving stuff around.

[Lifstan]

I agree with beckett, go with what your players show interest in, even if it means moving stuff around.

Thanks for the advice beckett and Majestic. I guess my issue is that I want to stick too much to what is written in the book. But I'll consider moving things around. You're right!

[Majestic]

Since Darkening is so brilliantly written, try going with the spirit and intent of what's written, even if not the exact letter of it. One thing that I find so awesome is how it anticipates divergent stories, based on what the PCs do (so it will say "if Ceawin put on the helm, do X" and "If Ceawin didn't put on the helm, do Y").

But above all else, the following maxim is true in RPGs: No plan will ever survive the Player Characters!

[Summerhawk]

My players have continued to be concerned about Ceawin and the undead, but I think they don't feel they can do much about it. If they ever decide to head back to Sunstead, I have come up with a sketch of what's really going on.

I've decided that the Sorceress at the Demon's Tower is the root cause of the stirred up wights. She's basically hoping to terrorize the woodmen in the East Bight and then offer to solve their problem in exchange for their allegiance. She hopes to use them to help maintain her independence from Dol Guldur. It will be up to the players to discover what she's up to and convince the people of the East Bight to reject her. In the end, I think there is no way for the people of Sunstead to finally end the threat of the undead - though avoiding the barrows is obviously a good first step - but resistance in the face of a shadow you cannot permanently overcome is a consistent Tolkienian theme.