Adventure's Companion Easter Egg!

[Blubbo Baggins]

pg 133

The Cragsmen of Balin’s Colony
Years Active: 2989-2994
First Meeting: Any

This company is only active for a relatively short window in
the Tale of Years. Its members can be recruited anywhere,
but the bulk of its task will be in the mountains near
Moria, with the purpose of harrying Orcs and their allies
while Balin’s folk seek to reclaim their ancient halls.
The Dwarves will not permit the company to engage in
the taking of Moria (indeed, that is a tale for another
supplement…)

[Otaku-sempai]

Yep! Others have spotted this too, including myself.

[Blubbo Baggins]

Yeah, my apologies if someone else posted it here, elsewhere and I just hadn't seen it...

[Otaku-sempai]

Not a problem as far as I'm concerned. I was just letting you know.

[Rich H]

pg 133

The Cragsmen of Balin’s Colony
Years Active: 2989-2994
First Meeting: Any

This company is only active for a relatively short window in
the Tale of Years. Its members can be recruited anywhere,
but the bulk of its task will be in the mountains near
Moria, with the purpose of harrying Orcs and their allies
while Balin’s folk seek to reclaim their ancient halls.
The Dwarves will not permit the company to engage in
the taking of Moria (indeed, that is a tale for another
supplement…)

There's an errata here. The text at the end should read as follows:

(indeed, that is a tale for a deluxe boxed set…)

Perhaps should be added to Stormcrow's errata thread...

[Jussi Marttila]

I was leafing through the old Decipher Moria supplement a while back, and I came to thinking that either in the Decipher game or MERP ever really got me interested in a Moria supplement. The reason for this is that both games had the wrong approach because they were essentially "this is Moria how Moria is laid out and here is what is in Moria" type books.

Neither MERP or Decipher's LotR game really went deep enough with the idea that Moria is a death trap so if someone's going into Moria, they're going to be really motivated to do so or are doing something with an idea that they can get in and out quickly before the Orcs notice them. So, what might there be in Moria that would be worth the risk?

I'm fairly confident in that C7 will do a good job with Moria. Though I'd like to see a book that details Bree and the Shire first.

[Stormcrow]

So, what might there be in Moria that would be worth the risk?

Mithril.

And the greatest dwarf-kingdom of old.

[Otaku-sempai]

So, what might there be in Moria that would be worth the risk?

Well, Gandalf was searching for Thrain (possibly long after already encountering him, unknowing, in the dungeons of the Necromancer). And Aragorn might have entered Moria searching for Gollum, though we don't know that for certain.

I'm fairly confident in that C7 will do a good job with Moria. Though I'd like to see a book that details Bree and the Shire first.

If we get a book that deals exclusively with The Shire and Bree-land then it might be formatted similarly to the Lake-town supplement. Having looked through the PDF for the Adventurer's Companion, I think it might even be a good idea to pair such a book with a revised Loremaster's Screen. In the mean time, I produced a home-brewed guide to The Shire and Bree-land in the House Rules forum and others have done the same. Please, make use of it if you would; I would love more feedback.

EDIT: It occurred to me that if Aragorn entered Moria before Balin's attempt to recolonize it then he couldn't have been searching for Gollum! So what could have been his purpose?

[Jussi Marttila]

Well, Gandalf was searching for Thrain (possibly long after already encountering him, unknowing, in the dungeons of the Necromancer). And Aragorn might have entered Moria searching for Gollum, though we don't know that for certain.

I myself was thinking about Saruman sending small parties of people into Moria for any scraps of Ring-lore that might have survived the fall of Eregion. A plausible idea.

[Otaku-sempai]

I myself was thinking about Saruman sending small parties of people into Moria for any scraps of Ring-lore that might have survived the fall of Eregion. A plausible idea.

True. I mentioned the others as the only incidents we know about when someone recently entered Moria prior to Balin's attempt to reclaim it--recent being a relative term. Though, come to think of it, Aragorn couldn't have been searching for Gollum at that time. His purpose must have been something else completely different!