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Why thank you Elmoth.

Great post, Halbarad!

And I agree with you, Elmoth. I think the key would be to get your players (and their characters) invested in the overall community of Wilderland, without having them tied down where they never wish to leave.

Cheers Majestic!

Have you considered the treasures of the marshdwellers as a possible incentive to the dwarves to help? That gold could pay for a lot of the necessary work of draining the swamps. Of course, the gold is likely tainted by shadow. That could cause some interesting complications. Rumors of ancient gold might draw some unsavory characters to the area.

It might be interesting to first drive the marshdwellers from the swamp and capture that gold, with the intent of using it to found a town. That would help explain why the marshdwellers eventually show up around the Black Tarn a few years later.

Rereading it, I think I was not clear enough in my own post.

I imagine the Old Forest Road to need a cpouple waystations along it. A waystation could look preetuy much like a fdortified small community, relying in the trade passing through it above all, providing services to the merchants and other travellers and some farming. Pretty much like small fortiffied outposts in a dangerous region, but one that the high spirits of the time think can survive if they suppoort each other and the communities keep pushing forward so the shadow gfoes back to where it belongs. Some people might even have the wishful thinking of turning Mirkwood into the Greenwood again. At least pushing the shadow and creepy atmosphere quite some distance south of the Old Forest Road.

I can imagine the characters being appointed (or volunteering) to take charge of one such waystations. This puts them in the middle of the forst road stuyff, but they do not need to be the final movers regarding the whole enterprise. Still, they will be a major actor there, and any developments dealing with the forest road will be a major thing for them. Balin could be the mover, for example, or king Bard (or both). The diverse communities will have a lot to say here as well, and the characters.

Cheers,
Xavi