Need help - Eastern Old Forest Road (spoilers)

[spivo]

One of the ideas that I've had for years (i.e. long before TOR) was to have the players try to establish a settlement/fortification at the Eastern end of the Old Forest Road, have them take the long way round to start at the western end of the Road and then have the campaign be about clearing up the Road, fighting their way to the settlement at the end of the campaign, only to find it destroyed and abandoned. So sounds like great fun to me.

Curious, how did you persuade them to start from the west?

[Finrod Felagund]

I actually think the project has a good chance of succeeding if only because one can see the potential trade benefits. It could be a real trade entrepot to the South and that would be worth a fortune! That doesn't mean that it'll be easy though. You can make it tragic if you want to - personally I don't like sad games, particularly where players have actually done well, but YMMV.

It's not that I like tragic games, but one of the reasons why I like DoM so much is that this is the reason why Frodo 50 years later must succeed!
Sauron is not just some warmonger, like Saruman becomes, who wants power. He is hellbent on destroying everything!
If all people of Middle-Earth surrendered to him, he would STILL destroy everything. He is the discord in the great song.
And Mirkwood is the perfect image of this madness. Greenwood has become Mirkwood by his doing, and the people who try to make a living around are slowly (after 2951) being suffocated by it's corrupting power.

I am totally in love with the whole campaign concept, and that the characters need to invest in Mirkwood. The whole point in them investing time/feelings/hard work in Mirkwood, be it a farm/inn or whatever, is to better make the players understand what it is like for the Woodmen/Beornings etc. to fight the losing battle vs. evil.
Otherwise they'd just be passing adventures, who move on when all is lost.

Fair do's

In any case it sounds great, so let us know every now and then as to how it goes!

[spivo]

Will do

[Rich H]

The Old Forest Road has been an ongoing slow-buring subplot since I started my Darkening campaign. I first introduced it and the idea of reclaiming it back in the first adventure I ran, "To Journey's End and the Eagles' Eyrie", and since then its been discussed in the courts of Dale and the Lonely Mountain with Balin and the PCs leading an expeditionary force to scout and deal with the marsh dwellers/Mewlips found within the 'sunken city'. This did not go well but the dwarves haven't been deterred and I've just also introduced the expedition that are attempting an approach from the west of Mirkwood, as mentioned in the early years of the DoM campaign.

I really enjoy it as a plotline within the campaign as it gives the PC a long term and strategic goal to aim for; and if the if they players show no interest in such a thing you can provide yearly news with regard to the NPCs pursuing such things - having the world and events develop without PC involvement is great for verisimilitude so is worth considering even if the players don't run with it themselves.

[Halbarad]

A great idea and one you should most definitely run with. I toyed with something similar a few years ago but, unfortunately, the campaign never took off. The subsequent release of Heart of the Wild and Darkening of Mirkwood means that I would have required the Marsh Bell adventure to be set later than originally intended as there is nothing to support my proposed venture in either book(iirc).

Balin's rescue from the Marsh Dwellers prompts a sequence of events that begins with the 'liberation' of their treasure hoard. The Fellowship of the Candlebearers(my players) were to accompany Balin and a company of stout Dwarves back to the ruined settlement.

This success(and his growing dream of reclaiming Moria) fuels Balin's desire to reopen the Old Forest Road as the direct route back to the Anduin Vale. With the treasure of the Marsh Dwellers and his share of the treasure of Erebor, he is able to pay for the craftsmen and soldiers to forge their way along the road. A number of settlements and way stations are constructed along the road, but the task takes many years to complete as the forest seems to resist their passage.

Finally, with the Old Forest Road reopened, Balin approaches King Dain with his plan to recolonise Khazad Dum. The King believes it to be a fool's errand but, as the expedition will be self funded, he gives Balin permission to recruit a company for a private venture.
Balin's standing, success and wealth brings many flocking to join his expedition and in 2989TA the company departs Erebor. The settlements and forts on the Old Dwarf Road have suffered badly and their inhabitants abandon their posts to join Balin's company. In less than a year, the hard work is undone and the Old Forest Road becomes nearly impassable once more.

The Dwarves of Balin's company are now isolated from their kin and before long, will never be heard from again.....

Anyway.....if your character wants to build a new settlement, a similar story might be concocted to present a bunch of Dwarf Engineers who would be willing to aid him Rather than paying the Dwarves, they might see your player as the sort of fellow who would be capable of defending one of the way stations.

If he wants to consider rebuilding the ruins of the Marsh Dwellers, an idea might be to come up with an explanation of how this settlement became ruined and how the bell became cursed in the first place.

In Unfinished Tales:Cirion and Eorl, there is a line that states that Northmen were being driven up the River Running and into the Forest. In the Hobbit it mentions that Dale was built by Northmen who were migrating up the River Running. Tying both these together gives the possibility of the Marsh Dweller ruins being an abandoned settlement of these folk.
Why was it abandoned? Assuming that they did not build their homes on a marsh, the Northmen may have abandoned it because of the flooding. This might have happened because of the thaws following the Long Winter. Perhaps, however, it was abandoned long before any flooding occurred? The flooding might occur much later, after the Fell Winter? Either of these two events could have caused the rise in water which expanded the Long Marshes and flooded the original, lakeshore, settlement of Esgaroth at the same time.

If, however, the inhabitants left before the flooding, why did they do so? Perhaps they were under attack by the forces of the Necromancer? Perhaps they simply saw the potential for an easier life before the portals of Erebor?

[Otaku-sempai]

Draining the marshes on the east end of the Old Forest Road would be a major (and expensive) undertaking. I don't see that it would be practical without the support of King Dáin at least. I would advise the hero involved to also consult with Bofri son of Bofur, who is looking into the restoration of the Old Forest Road. The PC's immediate goal might be to establish a walled farmstead, perhaps in a more viable location where he has befriended the local leadership.

[Mablung]

Maybe the "Restoring the Old Forest Road" box - Darkening of Mirkwood, p. 30 - could be an inspiration; did you read it?

[Glorelendil]

It seems logical that Balin would work on opening the road as a precursor to taking back Moria, and thus I can't help but wonder if it's going to be part of the forthcoming (or is that just a myth we hold?) Moria campaign.

[zedturtle]

One of the ideas that I've had for years (i.e. long before TOR) was to have the players try to establish a settlement/fortification at the Eastern end of the Old Forest Road, have them take the long way round to start at the western end of the Road and then have the campaign be about clearing up the Road, fighting their way to the settlement at the end of the campaign, only to find it destroyed and abandoned. So sounds like great fun to me.

Curious, how did you persuade them to start from the west?

The beginning of the road is in much better shape and much easier to find that the nominal eastern end. Note that this was just a campaign idea; I never did implement it.

[Elmoth]

Halbarad's post is so great from a general ambience POV that I will mark it for future reference.

Well done.

And having said that, haivng the players be the managers of a small settlement (20-50 people) in the forest, one of a series of 10 such places or so, would be a great way to make them a great part of the grand plan and have them concerned with the bigger picture without putting the whole enterprise in their hands, and setting them as a link in the chain, but not the only link and not the holders of the whole chain. I tend to find this smaller scale adventures much more rewarding, and links with the whole feeling of DoM and TOR, where the heroes can be such a thing, heroes, but they are not the drivers of the universe.

Cheers,
Xavi