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Another suitable end would be that the Balrog is discovered/faced, but by that time all the heroes end up having a bout of Madness while at 4 Permanent Shadow....

I can think of loads of one-shot adventures in Moria, but as for a campaign, then assisting Balin is all I can think of anyway. As for the Balrog, maybe Saruman asks the Adventurers not to reveal it?

Finrod Felagund wrote:As for the Balrog, maybe Saruman asks the Adventurers not to reveal it?

Why?

I would prefer a 4th age reclaiming of Moria campaign. Then you don't have to worry about contradicting canon.

Glorelendil wrote:

Finrod Felagund wrote:As for the Balrog, maybe Saruman asks the Adventurers not to reveal it?

Why?

He want's to keep it "up his sleeve" as a way of ending Gandalf's meddling. I appreciate that's closer to the Jacksonian vision of events, but it's not impossible.

As a 2nd reason, he asks the Adventurers to explore the Undeeps to find some Ring lore. As part of keeping that secret, he doesn't them to reveal anything about his involvement with Moria.

Earendil wrote:To me, it seems that Balin must at some point become convinced that this danger has gone away. (Assuming he doesn't just think Dáin is just mental!) I think a good way to justify that is for a scouting party to go have a look round Moria and return saying they didn't see anything a bunch of seasoned Dwarves couldn't handle. It's possible, of course, that they still have the impression that reclaiming Moria is a bad idea, but can't offer any solid reasons for that. "I have a bad feeling about this" is clearly not enough to put Balin off when Dáin says it, so having the heroes say it too is perfectly plausible.

It's Gandalf's fault! Perhaps Gandalf shared with Balin that he had entered Moria searching for Thráin son of Thrór and that he had encountered no sign of Durin's Bane during that investigation. Such a conversation might go back as far as when the pair visited Bilbo at Bag End in 2949. We know that Aragorn had also once passed through Moria, but we have no details about that and Balin certainly would not have known about it.

Ever since I've been thinking about Moria I've sort of assumed that the Balrog figures into it, but reading the last few posts that's taken a new turn for me:

Since everybody knows there's a Balrog in Moria, he (she? it?) might be most effective narratively by not even showing up. That is, if everybody is just waiting and waiting and waiting with their breath held to turn the next corner and face a Balrog, then the Balrog has done his job without even getting off the couch.

Not quite sure how to make that work in practice, but it's conceivable. You'd need another big villain, but that could simply be the Balrog's chief lieutenant (and his heavies).

Glorelendil wrote:then the Balrog has done his job without even getting off the couch.

Not quite sure how to make that work in practice, but it's conceivable.

The Eye of Sauron rules can be transformed, when inside Moria, to the Eye of the Balrog. This are his domains, and maybe different zones/underground levels correspond to different thresholds. The consequences of a Revelation episode should be rethought, but they could be sensed as a consequence of the presence of the Balrog.

Rich H wrote:

Earendil wrote:*whoosh*

That, I believe, was the sound of a reference flying over my head. And me failing to catch it.

Silly reference to a Streetfighter bad guy. Sorry.

I knew it was Streetfighter (used to love that game back in the day), but I forgot about the character named Balrog! Nice!

As far as Oliphaunts, I believe that they're much smaller in Moria, just like the Goblins there tend to be smaller than their Orc cousins.

fjw70 wrote:I don't think there are any elephants in Moria.

Okay, so it's agreed. No elephants. If anybody asks how Gandalf died, we say it was a Balrog, right?