DoM: Where is the treasure?

[uhu79]

After 12 sessions of prelude and initiation we will now start the real thing this sunday with "The Wizard's Man".

I am planning a little ahead and was musing about what my players might do and become and what their standing could be at a certain point in time etc.

And then I thought, where the hell will they get the needed treasure from? In the last 12 sessions I have handed out rewards for this and that (1 treasure here, 3 treasure there, a little goblin hoard and a small dwarven one). Nothing really big yet, just the Hobbit got lucky and owns 50 treasure - wealthy little bastard rolled a Gandalf.

But the campaign as such - and I am not planning to play much else besides the main campaign due to time (we play bi-weekly for 3 hours via Roll20 and Teamspeak) - does not offer a lot of reward and I couldn't find any hoards in the book. Also, Rivendell came later I know...

So what did all of you do? Did you introduce some side quests for treasure hunting? Did you hand out Standing +1 on regular basis as adventure rewards? Did you interweave some famous treasure into the campaign and if so, where? And what about the famous weapons and armor?

I know about the (optional) treasure under the old oak in the East Bight.
And I know about the barrow at the Black Tarn.

Happy to hear about your experiences!

[Falenthal]

I also didn't give them much treasure when we were running DoM. Treasure couldn't be used for many things before the last supplements have expanded on options. Right now, I would increase the Treasure points given in some adventures and include here and there a hoard. On the other hand, my own view is that Treasure might be more interesting if it wasn't something that is gained little by little over time (5 points in an adventure as a payment, 5 in the next one as the treasure in a goblin's den,...), but as something big and special the company comes across scarcely. Let's say that, in 6 adventures, they might find one 60* Treasure after an appropiate and difficult encounter. Should be more exciting than getting 10 points of Treasure after every adventure.

Regarding Standing, I prefered to use the house-ruled Renown option: Heroes have a Renown rating with each culture that is increased everytime they do an adventure that helps them. And decreases after every year as with Standing. In Rich's rules you'll find it more detailed.

[Finrod Felagund]

I think the secret is to refer to Heart of the Wild, where there are definitely some treasure sites listed i.e. City of the Eotheod.

Never played DoM, but I see no reason why a couple of adventures where some item need to be found (or the Adventurers are approached by a Merchants who has heard of this fabulous treasure site) can't be slipped into the overall scheme of things.

[Rich H]

I think this old post may also be of use to you:

So, with the magic rules in Rivendell I want to starting handing out magic items left and right (well, in an orderly fashion). So, what places in Mirkwood and surroundings (and the published books) would you say qualify for being a Hoard? I can think of a few, with suggestions of "hoard size" (number of asterisks):

- The Marshdwellers treasure chamber in the Marsh bell (*)
- The Goblin treasure hoard in Leaves and stewed hobbit (*)
- Valter the bloody's main camp (or maybe hidden in the forest?) in Kinstrife and dark tidings (*)
- Ghor the despoiler's personal stash in Darkness in the marshes (*)
- Lockmand's chest in Crossings of Celduin (* Gandalf counts as Sauron for this one since the treasure is cursed)
- Reanar's lair in Watch on the Heath (**)
- The secret vault in Zirakinbar in Watch on the heath (**)
- The Barrow in The Helm of peace in Darkening (*)
- The MIllfort in The staff of the roadwarden (* plus the staff itself)
- Tyulquin's lair in Saving the maiden (*)
- Treasure of the trolls in Paying the troll (* or maybe **)
- The Greydelve (*** or maybe severeral hoards with *-**)
- Treasure from the restless king's barrow in Nine in the hall (*)
- Elfsigil's and the outlaws' treasure in Wheels within wheels (*)
- The hoard of the forest dragon in Killing the forest dragon (***, with wondrous items being the ones listed)
- Treasure of castle Ormond and the vampire in The reach of the shadow (*-**)
- A number of places in Heart of the wild, like the Elftower (*), The Sorceress' tower (**) and Viglunds stash (*)...

Lots of possible places for finding items, but bear in mind that many of these hoards will be very difficult to find/claim. What do you say, is the amount and hoard levels reasonable? Of course, every treasure pile doesn't have to be a hoard.

If a group of players play through ToW and DoM they would probably amass one or two legendary weapons/armour pieces each, and a couple of wondrous items over the course of 30 years and with the assumption that the save up xp for items rolls and that they actually look for the treasure. To me that looks about right, but I could be wrong. Would appreciate feedback from a LM who has actually tested the hoard rules in play.

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