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April was a hard month for me personally so I was glad to have a game this past weekend to take my mind off unpleasant realities. I wanted to share where my group is in our Darkening of Mirkwood campaign. I hope you enjoy this peak into our game world.

It is the autumn of the year 2969. Earlier in the year, the players were unable to prevent the theft of the lamp. At the end of our last session, the company had a difficult choice to make: Free Woodmen prisoners held captive by Orcs in the ruins of the Black Tarn settlement, or go after the Nazgul who had taken the Lamp of Balthi in the previous session. They decided to free the prisoners...

So they rescued woodmen prisoners and learned that the Enemy planned to take the Lamp of Balthi to Mordor. The Company tracked their adversaries down to an old ruin in the South Undeeps and stole the lamp back, but not before they spied Captain Mormog (from Ruins of the North) giving a terrifying speech to a gathering of trolls about marching on the Men of the Wood.

A little backstory for what happened next: two members of the fellowship are the sons of deceased player-heroes and they desperately wish to speak with or see their dead fathers again. They recently heard rumors about a place called the Hills of Seeing and Hearing and thought, perhaps foolishly, that their wish could be fulfilled. With the Lamp retrieved, they convinced the company to travel south. Meanwhile, (Revelation Episode) Mormog discovered that the Lamp had been stolen from him and went out looking for the heroes with the Messenger of Mordor and a contingent of Orcs. At the Hill of Seeing, one of the players rolled an EYE and saw the Nazgul... and the Nazgul saw him. Terrified and with winter coming, the Company fled north with the lamp. But it's a long way across the Emyn Muil and the Brown Lands to the Lands of the Woodmen. Will they make it to safety before their enemies catch up with them?

beckett wrote: A little backstory for what happened next: two members of the fellowship are the sons of deceased player-heroes and they desperately wish to speak with or see their dead fathers again. They recently heard rumors about a place called the Hills of Seeing and Hearing and thought, perhaps foolishly, that their wish could be fulfilled.

Looks like fun for the players and for you as well after a non-fun month.

If they do well you could have the Gods send them a vision of their loved ones in the afterlife. You could use Tolkien's description of Frodo's last journey (delivered beautifully by Ian McKellen in RotK) "the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise". That is of course totally against canon, but what the hell!

In his earlier works, Tolkien also posited a path from mortal lands to the Undying ones, which could be accessed physically or through dreams. That's always struck me as having potential.

Feel free to ignore!

Finrod Felagund wrote: In his earlier works, Tolkien also posited a path from mortal lands to the Undying ones, which could be accessed physically or through dreams. That's always struck me as having potential.

Feel free to ignore!

This is interesting. Perhaps a dream-like way for these characters to say goodbye properly to their fathers. Their fathers were always away adventuring/defending the north and died far from their homes when the boys were still young.

I have a group that enjoys exploring, through the story of the game, the Gift/Doom of Men. One of our player-heroes succumbed to Shadow (Lure of Secrets) due to his obsessive desire to learn the unlearnable: how to undo the Doom of Men. This player-hero is now a Loremaster Character, an agent of the Enemy working behind the scenes against his former companions.

What other author writing in the 20's and 30's has considered dreams as a way to move between worlds? It seems to me that a number of authors investigated this concept around that period so I suspect that there is something cultural that affects or influences people into thinking that a pathway exists. I suspect that the huge numbers of grieving widows and mothers of the 20's and the pervasive influence of Spiritualism allowed these concepts free rein.

Hermes Serpent wrote:What other author writing in the 20's and 30's has considered dreams as a way to move between worlds? It seems to me that a number of authors investigated this concept around that period so I suspect that there is something cultural that affects or influences people into thinking that a pathway exists.

H.P. Lovecraft, since you brought it up. And arguably Edgar Rice Burroughs with John Carter of Mars. Probably a few others. There must have been something in the water.

I see my subtle nudge did not pass you by. Ia! Ia!

Hi Beckett

First of all your game sounds fab! Exploring "the doom of men" adds an extra dimension to it!

I have a feeling you're one of the TOR authors - if so much kudos to you. Its a body of work you can be thoroughly proud of!

I suspect that I'm teaching my gran to suck eggs, but I was thinking of the Olore Malle "the Path of Dreams" described by Tolkien in the Cottage of Lost Play (see The Book of Lost Tales Vol 1 - particularly page 27). When Tolkien moved away from creating a mythology for England the concept was lost, but if you look at Akallabeth in the Silmarillion he does say that routes into the Uttermost West were still believed to exist. In his early works the Elves were downright eerie and mortal men couldn't go to Elven lands without being affected ('shadow' but in a different way) - that was slightly lost by the time of LoTR but I've always wondered how C7 would handle Lothlorien and its effect on mortal PCs.

The Cottage of Lost Play was written in 1917 - I'm no literary historian but I guess Tolkien's influences were the Victorian fantasy writers.

Any updates on the campaign?

Southron Loremaster wrote:Any updates on the campaign?

Yes! Thank you for asking. I'll post an update soon, probably tomorrow.

beckett wrote:

Southron Loremaster wrote:Any updates on the campaign?

Yes! Thank you for asking. I'll post an update soon, probably tomorrow.

Looking forward to it.