Linking Theft of the Moon to other beginning adventures.

[Grands-Pas]

For my first campaign I'm interested in Zedturtle's really nice intro adventure "The Theft of the Moon". But at the same time I would have liked to run The Marsh Bell and or Don't Leave the Path to start the TfW story arc as well as grounding Esgaroth as a good base of operation.

My problem is that Theft is located on the West side of Mirkwood while Marsh Bell and the first adventures of TfW start on the East side, slowly making the transition towards the east. I want the fellowship's first journey through Mirkwood to be mysterious, memorable and driven by a purpose. I don't see how I can achieve the same effect if I start with Theft (with some adventurers possibly having already made the trek through to get to the festival) and then tell them to cross to get to Esgaroth and further adventuring opportunities.

Any ideas?

I've also seen mentions of another intro adventure concerning inviting the Eagle's Lord to festivities in Dale, but I could only find a copy on Scribd which requires an account.

[zedturtle]

The Grey Mountain Narrows are another option for folks coming from East to West and might be much more common than using the Elf Path. Just have Baldor being going back after a trading trip and that's Don't Leave the Path sorted. Or maybe do Kinstrife and Of Leaves before Don't Leave the Path.

Once you get them back to Lake-town, it's easy to do The Marsh Bell. Just make the troll at full health.

Just random thoughts, maybe more later.

[zedturtle]

Okay, let me expand on the above ideas a bit.

Anyone coming from the eastern side of Mirkwood could have taken the Grey Mountains Narrows (or much less likely, gone around Mirkwood to the south). That preserves the mystery of Mirkwood and is easy enough to explain... the Elves will tolerate Baldor and company on the Elf Path, but do not easily grant passage to unfamiliar mortals. You'll need to flip-flop certain things... the Castle of Spiders will need to be close to the western side of the Elf Path and The Thing in the Well will need to be almost uncomfortably close to the halls of the Elven-king. But I think it would work just fine.

Once Baldor and Brego get to Lake-town, the heroes have done their job. Since they'd have a bit more rep (having made it through Mirkwood and having things to brag about from the Vales and the journey), the idea that Gloin hires them in order to find the missing dwarves easier to explain. And, as previously mentioned, the troll can be full strength and the Marsh-dwellers are still innumerable foes that they will still need to flee from. It should work fine.

An alternative to Don't Leave the Path could be Words of the Wise, or perhaps both could be combined together.

[Winterwolf]

In my campaign (spoiler alert Kurt!) we are coming up to the end of Theft of the Moon as our first adventure - set in 2946. I would like to have used Don't Leave the Path and The Marsh Bell but as they started on the eastern side of Mirkwood, I have just left them alone. If the Company head over to Dale, Erebor or Laketown then I might use them.
We have a dwarf who (in his background) has chased goblins over Grey Mountain Narrows then was chased south himself to arrive near the Old Ford - I won't be letting him go back to Erebor for the EoY Fellowship phase. I want to keep Mirkwood mysterious as well.

The second, third, fourth and fifth adventures in Tales from Wilderland start on the western side of Mirkwood so I am likely to use some of them, or at least have them available depending on what the Company do.

For 2947 I am likely to use an amalgam of The Wizard's Man (from Darkening of Mirkwood) running into Words of the Wise - they meld rather well, but not everyone has them available. Words of the Wise moves into Mirkwood but guided by elves so I hope to keep the idea of venturing in unguided as a new experience.
The second or third adventures from TfW (Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit, Kinstrife and Dark Tidings) might work for you. If you use the latter, you might need to adapt the revisit to Stonyford depending on how you ran TotM.

[Finrod Felagund]

Can't you shift the location to East of Mirkwood? Create a small settlement south east of Esgaroth, make the protagonists Bardings instead of Beornings, and instead of using Viglundings as baddies, you could use some of the company of Sark the Bear Skinned.

This needs a bit of work as prep, but might be OK?