Re-visiting Tales From Wilderland (DoM and TfW spoilers)

[Elroval]

I followed the suggestion in the Those Who Tarry to use an action of the players to link with the eagles' rescue.

I had my Woodwoman player recieve an ancient horn from the Chief of Woodland hall as a reward for returning the shard of Wolfbiter. The horn was intricately carved with a scene of stags at bay upon a hill, surrounded by hounds (foreshadowing, if only symbolically, the first 'unwinnable' fight in Those Who Tarry - the heroes being the stags surrounded) In the background of the scene were mountains with eagles flying above.

When later the PCs were surrounded in that fight, sure enough the Woodwoman blew her horn. It sounded so loudly that it cracked and fell apart, yet gave her foes pause.

After the rescue, the Lord of the Eagles explained that he had heard a horn call on the wind and sent his eagles to investigate.

[Falenthal]

Wonderful, beautiful and subtle, Elroval.

A great resource, either for this or any other adventure, to turn a "railroad" scene into something player-driven.

[Majestic]

Yes, excellently done, Elroval!

[zedturtle]

Really nice.

[Elroval]

Thanks

[Jussi Marttila]

I ended up doing something completely different with Irimë after all:

She's now a meta-player character. A friend of mine plays her between sessions as someone who's almost ready to leave Middle-Earth, but she still has got some fight left in her. Of course, her being ancient as hell (on par with elfs like Elrond and Thranduil) she cannot act overtly, because either she'll make the big bads flee or gets ganged upon by orcs. So she's involved with Galadriel who's looking into what evil is driving the orcs from their caves and making bandits gather in the Anduin Vales.

This of course throws Those Who Tarry in a completely different direction: she's going to expose herself to danger once she finds out that the evil spirit is (since we're doing Darkness in the Marshes before TWT) to see if she can lure the Gibbet King into a straight up battle.

Also, the Sorceress of Mirkwood is coming out to play since she's interested in what the Gibbet King is doing, and Irimë loathes the Sorceress for being so banal.

[Jussi Marttila]

Last Sunday's game came and went with Darkness In The Marshes. The session opened with the Folk-moot at Rhosgobel, where the players for the first time saw Mogdred. The Beorning Valdor in the group was convinced that Mogdred has a dark plan going on for him and thinks his actions relate to the Sorceress and the Gibbet King. Ceawin the Generous and Amaltheoda of the Black Tarn got the support of the Folk-moot and now the Woodmen are getting stronger for the time being. Mogdred's claim at kinship was denied by the Folk-moot and Mogdred is now maybe an enemy of the Woodmen.

The fellowship met up with Radagast who gave a briefing about the situation with something stirring across the river. The High Elf in the group noticed that a shadowy figure was lurking in the corner of Radagast's cabin, namely Irimë, who had traveled to Rhosgobel to confer with Radagast and to see with her own eyes the mortals that Radagast was planning to use.

The underhandedness of Irimë's approach didn't sit well with the High Elf Thingol (has Fair as a Distinctive Feature) so he questioned her in front of everyone which made Irimë lose her temper for a bit, which led to the best exchange so far in the game:

Thingol: "Are there other things you did not tell us?"
Irimë: "I was at Thangorodrim when it was broken. I saw Eärendil become a star. YES, THERE ARE THINGS I HAVE NOT TOLD YOU."

Darkness in the Marshes played out mostly as expected. The treacherous guide got himself axed to death by the Beorning, the Hobbit Camelia infiltrated the Dwimmerhorn and saw the talking corpse, the Dalish man and the orc and more importantly, spotted the chain of Thangorodrim.

At this point the big bads in the campaign are:

- The Gibbet King, doing his thing with the Chain of Thangorodrim
- Valter the Bloody, the outlaw leader from Kin-Strife, who's in league with the GK. Not seen since the battle of the Old Ford, where the Beornings stopped his army. Probably going to show up in the Crossing of Celduin instead of the GK.
- The Sorceress, who's plans the High Elf in the group actually managed to guess. She wants the Chain for herself, because she could use it to enslave a Nazgûl, thus she could get a ring of her own.
- Mogdred is mainly a villain because the players think he is. At this point, he's just a petty tyrant with delusions of grandeur. The players don't know that Mogdred has no idea of who killed his warriors in The Wizard's Man and thus doesn't hold a grudge against them. He probably wouldn't hold a grudge even if he knew.

Next up, Beorn is going to summon the fellowship to confer with them. Irimë has been talking with Beorn too, and Irimë wants to make sure that there's no threat for now for the Northern parts of the Anduin vales. Which means an expedition into the land of the Viglundings (who actually are completely unaware of any plot, the GK has been nowhere near the North) and interesting diplomatic issues.

[Scrollreader]

:
Thingol: "Are there other things you did not tell us?"
Irimë: "I was at Thangorodrim when it was broken. I saw Eärendil become a star. YES, THERE ARE THINGS I HAVE NOT TOLD YOU."

So awesome. I've been using Irime from the beginning as well. As a direct descendant of Feanor (in my game, anyway) she was asked to repay a debt to Radagast and ended up reforging Wolfbiter for him. Pouring herself into making it is the reason she is seeking the Havens in Those Who Tarry. The Mirkwood elf for whom she is a sort of adopted mother is taking it hard ...And is now questioning Radagast a little bit. She's not directly opposing him, or anything, but she is not sure Irime's sacrifice is worth it ... And we're only halfway through Those Who Tarry

[Majestic]

I'm envious of you guys who used Irime so early. I think it's awesome that you're setting the stage up for later, and foreshadowing her importance so early on, before she becomes so integral to the plot.

[Elmoth]

*Xavi bookmarks and saves the thread as "how to improve TOR play a hundredfold the next time I have an occasion to run it".*