[Beornsvagers Stay Out!] The Dangers of Angmar

[zedturtle]

So my heroes will be venturing into Angmar, on a secret mission. I know that they're going to face White Wolves (amped-up versions of wild wolves, aka regular wargs) and there will be a chance of Snow-trolls, not to mention the preplanned stuff once they reach their destination. Hill-men and goblins might also make an appearance...

So does anyone have any ideas for anything else interesting for them to run into? It can have official stats, or could need stats made up (I feel fairly comfortable with that part).

[Falenthal]

¿White Wolves and Snow-trolls?

Tauntauns, of course, and a probe droid.

Or a Maia of the Cold, the Lady of the Northern Lights called Aurora Borealis.

[zedturtle]

Tauntauns, of course, and a probe droid.

Now I'm thinking that there needs to be Lossoth under the command of the Shadow that ride giant white war mammoths (kin to the greats beats of Far Harad). My heroes will wish that they had brought more rope, and that they had mounts with which to run circles around the mammoths.

[Otaku-sempai]

The party could encounter a nature spirit or Ainur that takes the physical form of, essentially, a great Irish Elk. The spirit, if not in the thrall of evil, could be beneficial or could become an antagonist depending on how the encounter goes. I've named such Elk (as natural creatures) belegrasáras (great-horn deer).

I actually wrote up a pack of White Wolves that was led by a White Wolf/Warg hybrid:

Carchelek
Carchelek (Ice-fang) is the result of a mating between a Warg and a White Wolf. He resembles a huge White Wolf, but his fur is coarser and light grey instead of white. Consider him the equivalent of a Wolf Leader, substituting the Deadly Elusiveness special ability in place of Strike Fear. Carchelek leads a large wolf pack (if encountered, assume at least two White Wolves for each companion plus Carchelek). He considers all of the West Upper Vales to be his territory, but he is not beyond leading his pack into the West Lower Vales in search of mischief and murder. He is a thoroughly evil beast.

Attribute Level: 5
Endurance: 16
Hate: 3
Parry: 6
Armour: 3d
Skills: Personality, 2; Survival, 3; Movement, 3; Custom, 1; Perception, 2; Vocation, 1.
Weapon Skills: Bite, 3; Rend, 1.
Special Abilities: Deadly Elusiveness; Fear of Fire; Savage Assault.

[Havinor]

How about Lossoth tribes who live in fear of

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Cold-drakes

Is there a Cold Drake living in the wastes, Perhaps feeding off of weak or lost Lossoth? Or perhaps there are tribes enthralled by a Cold Drake and the tribe sees the fellowship as a potential sacrifice? 'If we feed these strangers to the beast, we don't have to lose our own people'.

Perhaps your White Wolves or snow trolls are slaves to it's cunning intelligence.....

Has the creature been around for thousands of years.... potential tasty hoard, or maybe it has taken over the ruins of an old fortress or dwarven hold from before the breaking of Beleriand.

[Otaku-sempai]

How about Lossoth tribes who live in fear of

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Cold-drakes

I have a Cold-drake inhabiting the extreme north of the Blue Mountains, up near the Ice Bay of Forochel. Her name is an Inuit word meaning 'Gatherer of the Dead'.

Aguta the Cold-drake
Aguta is a survivor of the Great Battle who fled into the Northern Waste and afterwards settled in the Northern Blue Mountains. Her senses led her to an ancient treasure chamber built by the High Elves of the West that she took as her lair. Aguta spends much of her time sleeping; she awakes once in a century or so to leave her hoard and eat her fill of any beasts or Men she can find and search, with little success, for more treasure. Her power is diminished but she is still a formidable foe. Aguta's range does not extend deep into Forlindon or far below the Greater Lune; the power of the land long inhabited by the High Elves repulses her and she much prefers the colder climate of Forochel. The Lossoth believe the Cold-drake to be a vengeful spirit and named her Aguta, which in their tongue means 'Gatherer of the Dead'. If Aguta should feel strong enough, she might try to loot the Halls of the Dwarves at the head of the Lesser Rune.

Cold-drake
Attribute Level: 10
Endurance: 120
Hate: 12
Parry: 12
Armour: 6d/1d*
Skills: Personality, 6; Survival, 3; Movement, 5; Custom, 5; Perception, 6; Vocation, 4
Weapon Skills: Bite: 5; Rend: 3
Special Abilities: Great Size, Thick Hide, Savage Assault, Foul Reek, Horrible Strength, Dreadful Spells**, Thing of Terror, *Weak Spot, Poison Blast

Weapons:
- Bite: Damage 10; Edge 8; Injury 18; Called Shot = Pierce
- Rend: Damage 7; Edge 9; Injury 20

**Dragon-spell: during combat reduce the dragon's Hate point score by one to force one companion who is within her baleful gaze to make a Corruption check against TN 16. If failed, the companion gains one Shadow point and cannot attack the dragon for a number of rounds equal to 10 minus his Wisdom rating. The dragon can spend several Hate points to affect an equal number of companions at the same time. If used during an encounter, companions put under the dragon-spell feel compelled to answer truthfully to questions for the duration of the encounter.

[Havinor]

Mate, that's such a good idea, I may steal it for my game!

[jamesrbrown]

Use the land as a source of corruption and fear. These can be pre-planned scenes and descriptions and not just random hazards. They could also be prepared to give the already required Corruption tests meaning. Use prolonged actions to build tension and Orientation tests to continue on in the right direction.

• Biting cold and snow
• Sudden darkness
• Shadows, sounds, and movements
• Avalanches and sink holes
• Old traps...and new!
• Frozen bodies, recognized and unrecognizable

Encounter Glorfindel or a ranger of high importance, or maybe even an adventuring group gripped with fear that can warn the player-heroes of impending danger or give them certain advantages depending on how well they interact with them.

For creatures, maybe mountain giants hurling chunks of ice!

Just rambling and brain-storming. Maybe something will give you inspiration.

[Falenthal]

Use a presence (that the heroes might even never encounter, but alway fear) as the Wendigo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo

They can find eaten corpses on a mountain pass. A settlement that seems to have some strange traditions that include leaving a tied living elk in the outskirts of their town, and force the fellowship to stay indoors and with the windows closed during the night.
Howls during their travels that come from a nearby forest... and that any hero with Enemy-lore (Wolves) doesn't recognize as belonging to any kind of wolf.

[zedturtle]

Okay, there's a lot of great stuff in here, and instead of multi-quoting and breaking things up into little response chunks (which I never realised that some folks didn't like... my apologies), I'm going to just going to say that everything is quite awesome... the heroes are still a few days (both in game terms and real-world terms) away from Angmar, but I'll let y'all know about all the stuff they run into... :: evil smile ::