Harkening to Mirthwood: share your amusing experiences

[Tuska]

I was playing in a game of TOR last year and during which we were heading back from a forest in the Upper Marshes where we had discovered a lost tribe of Bardings who still lived in fear of the Dragon. We were on our way back with a prisoner who was wanted for a number of crimes in Dale when we noticed our prisoner seemed to be influencing our teenage Lake Town Treasure Hunter/Burglar with the promises of power if he released her.

Realising this the rest of the group got together and decided to keep her gagged and make sure Reed was never alone with her all except the Dwarf who had decided in his head the only way to save his focus and make sure he didn't pick up a Shadow point was wait till everyone was asleep and then drag her into the woods and throttle her.

Needless to say we were all like WTF! Since then we haven't let him forget this and it makes us all laugh, if a little nervously.

[zedturtle]

Needless to say we were all like WTF! Since then we haven't let him forget this and it makes us all laugh, if a little nervously.

Yeaaaaaah.... that does sound a little extreme.

In any case, welcome Tuska!

[SirGamingScotsman]

I have an instance of some amusingly bad dice rolls creating a great player driven adventure. The group I LM for were heading to the Vales of Gundabad to try and capture the Steed of the Moon for Thranduil, and a Hazard episode happened as they were travelling through the Rushdown Forest in the West Upper Vales. I use the Additional Hazards created by Rich H and it was the 'A Noble Beast' for the Hunter. So not only having triggered the Hazard the Huntsman, a Dunedain Ranger, proceeds to fail the rolls required to determine that his prey was more than it seemed, not even spending Hope could have made him pass. So, the player was a little bewildered that he successfully killed a deer even though it was a Hazard, and he triumphantly brought his prize back to the company who had recently run out of their provisions.

I had to think fast about what I wanted to happen, knowing that I wanted this to be a fairly important event. The Lookoutmen noticed a large stag following them, they decided to stop and let it approach, then it spoke to them. He was the 'King' of the Rushdown Forest, and the Huntsman had killed his mate the Queen. They were all shocked at this, and were trying to suggest ways in which they could repay the King for their misdeed, of course he had no interest in anything they had but told them a way they could satisfy a weregild.

They were taken to a grove in the Forest that contained many different types of trees, some not even native to this part of Wilderland. They buried the Queen, having to hear the wails and cries of other animals and the Queen's children. The King said he had heard of a unique tree growing somewhere nearby but didn't know where it was, he laid a Geas upon the Huntsman to bring him a cutting or sapling of this tree to be planted on the grave of the Queen and gave him a year to fulfill his quest or suffer some unknown dire consequence.

The tree in question are the two that grow at the Eagle's Falls, from the vague description given to them, the High Elf in the group succeeded in a Lore roll and recalled such trees having grown in Numenor and that the Eagles may have brought seeds with them before Numenor was lost. They decided to proceed with their current mission and then try to find the trees later.

They captured the Steed of the Moon and his herd, whilst narrowly avoiding a confrontation with Gorgol son of Bolg and a large band of orcs. They were bringing the horses back when they were informed by Amfosa the Trapper that someone called the Kingfisher Lord had heard about the incident and wanted to meet them and discuss finding the trees, and that they could find him living in his golden house on the shores of the Anduin.

(It is rather amusing to note that everyone in the group thought the Kingfisher Lord was a person, rather than an actual kingfisher, and thought that it should be easy enough to spot a gold house on the river). After spending a Fellowship Phase at Thranduil's halls, they went to meet the Kingfisher Lord, it took them a while to find him and their realisation on finding that he was a bird with a golden coloured nest was rather fun to see. He told them that he knew where the trees were and also that the area was seen as sacred by the Eagles, the group did pick up on the fact that the Kingfisher Lord did not like the Eagles. He said he would tell them where it was in return for a favour, he told them about his dealings with other animals in and around the Anduin and that he dealt with information, but that a lot of his informants were being killed by Basilisks. He told the group that some kind of 'brood mother' was nesting nearby and that if they could kill the beast and her young then he would tell all that he knew.

Having faced Basilisks before they knew of their poison, and decided to go to Rivendell to seek out the antidote that Elrond supposedly had before facing the brood mother. The Lord of the Eagles summoned the group as they were passing the Eyrie, he made no mention of their quest but was asking them about the orc activity in the Vales of Gundabad, telling them about the Eagles self-imposed mission of protecting the region from the Shadow, it was fun going through the Encounter with the group waiting to be found out and it never coming (I'm still undecided if the Eagles know about it or not). The rest of the Journey was fairly uneventful apart from running into a band of orcs, and a cave troll, that had been attacking traders going over the High Pass.

They have been given the antidote by Lindir, Elrond was away dealing with 'White Council business', and are having a short Fellowship Phase in Rivendell before heading back to the West Upper Vales. And their adventure continues in our next gaming session.

I love how things like this happen when the various systems in TOR produce these kinds of emergent gaming, if not for the unfortunate dice rolls the King of the Rushdown Forest wouldn't exist and the group may have never met the Kingfisher Lord.

[Majestic]

That sounds really awesome, SirGamingScotsman!

Nice use of many different elements from the various books!

[Otaku-sempai]

I was playing in a game of TOR last year and during which we were heading back from a forest in the Upper Marshes where we had discovered a lost tribe of Bardings who still lived in fear of the Dragon.

Your story was both funny and somewhat horrifying. I'm afraid to ask how much permanent Shadow that Dwarf has accrued.

But, Bardings? Surely the lost group from Old Dale wouldn't have called themselves that. They would have never even heard of Bard. Perhaps the folk of Dale in Girion's time were referred to as Dalemen, Dalefolk or Dalings.

[Majestic]

With AME coming out, I wonder how long 'til we see a Barding Bard.

[Otaku-sempai]

With AME coming out, I wonder how long 'til we see a Barding Bard.

There's already a Barding Bard--King Bard the First. But I know what you mean!

[Tuska]

I was playing in a game of TOR last year and during which we were heading back from a forest in the Upper Marshes where we had discovered a lost tribe of Bardings who still lived in fear of the Dragon.

Your story was both funny and somewhat horrifying. I'm afraid to ask how much permanent Shadow that Dwarf has accrued.

But, Bardings? Surely the lost group from Old Dale wouldn't have called themselves that. They would have never even heard of Bard. Perhaps the folk of Dale in Girion's time were referred to as Dalemen, Dalefolk or Dalings.

You're right they were probably called Dalefolk or Dalemen. I incorrectly labelled them as Bardings. They were completely sheltered and in thrall to a criminal from Esgaroth who of course knew all too well Smaug had been dead for years.

As to the dwarf unfortunately we are no longer playing that particular campaign as the LM preferred to run Firefly instead. So I have now taken up the mantle of LM and will include various instances of our previous party and maybe hint at what became of the dwarf.

[Elmoth]

"Bard the barding bard" sounds like a name one of my players could use for sure.

My players tend to make a mess of things approaching friendly steads in stealth and dressed in shadows while going to Dol Guldur, mount Gundabad and the like openly and trumpeting their presence. it still makes me wonder if they have messed somewhat their alliance priorities.