Just finished Darkening of Mirkwood last night...

[mirkwoodfalcon]

...and it was absolutely awesome! Our group had a blast playing through it. After nearly two years of weekly sessions, we finished up with the Last March of the Wood-men, which was suitably epic and tragic. Thanks, Cubicle7, for the great campaign!!

[Falenthal]

You have no idea how much envy can fit in a human heart.

Congratulations, mirkwoodfalcon! 2 years of weekly sessions are a dream for me. Glad to know some people can do that.

[Glorelendil]

I've still never played more than the very beginning of DoM.

[Corvo]

Congratulations MirkwoodFalcon!

Tease us with some snippets: have been among the Heroes deaths or retirement? And bout of madness? Someone wielded a legendary weapon?

You have no idea how much envy can fit in a human heart.

Congratulations, mirkwoodfalcon! 2 years of weekly sessions are a dream for me. Glad to know some people can do that.

Same here: I'm at 2960... and we managed to play just two sessions between november and now ( ). I think we started at the beginning of 2013.

[mirkwoodfalcon]

Congratulations MirkwoodFalcon!

Tease us with some snippets: have been among the Heroes deaths or retirement? And bout of madness? Someone wielded a legendary weapon?

Thanks!

I'll give some details about our campaign below, but be warned! There are some spoilers you should avoid if you have not played the campaign through and wish to do so. I've done my best to hide all the bad ones with light text (highlight over it to read it if you really want to.).

The party consisted (primarily) of five members:

Ymir, the axe-wielding warrior and medical practitioner from a distant land. After marrying one among the Woodmen, he felt a calling to join the folk that live under the Western Eaves and was eventually elected the War-leader of the Woodmen.

Areth, a roguish elf archer who served as ambassador of the Woodland Realm. Late in the campaign, she acquired a Numenorean bow bound with spells for the bane of Mordor and used its power to banish the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur himself during the final assault on the black keep.

Ketilmund, an archer of Lake-town with a penchant for hunting trolls.

Gailvira, a young Beorning girl exiled from her home with a strange connection to animals, large and small. She trained everything from a hawk to a basilisk in her long journeys, amassing a "zoo" of sorts that stayed in the Western Eaves. Additionally, During the middle of the campaign, after a fight with the Werewolf of Mirkwood, her body became the vessel of its dying spirit and she was transformed into the new Werewolf!

Orwindor, a High Elf of Rivendell who studied the ancient craft of ring-making that once his ancestors in Eregion made. His exception skills in creating new things were put to good use when he led a group of men and elves in fashioning siege weapons to bring against Dol Guldur in 2976.

There were no retirements during the campaign, but a few players did swap out their characters. The player who roleplayed Gailvira was originally a Lonely Mountain dwarf, and at one point we had a Ranger of the North in our cast of characters.

In the final battle, Ymir and Areth fell to the might of Sarqin, the last unhappy child of Shelob, and her brood (the heroes had previously killed her two siblings.). These were the first, and only, player-deaths throughout the course of the campaign.

Orwindor's studies of ring-lore led to a number of complications, including a bout of madness or two. For it is perilous to study the craft of the Enemy, for good or for ill...


We played at a rate of one adventuring phase per in-game year (with plenty of stuff going on in the fellowship phases that followed!). Each adventure took us about two sessions, so we would churn through 2-2.5 adventures per real-life month. Occasionally, especially in the latter half of the campaign, we would tackle an entire adventure in a single session.

Our group began playing in the autumn of 2015. We started out by playing through the latter half of Tales from Wilderland, then jumped in Darkening as soon as that was finished. They all seem really excited to keep playing, even after finishing up this long campaign, so we're resuming with new characters and new stories next week! We'll likely begin Ruins of the North.

[Otaku-sempai]

Same here: I'm at 2960... and we managed to play just two sessions between november and now ( ). I think we started at the beginning of 2013.

Sooo. Your first session started about a decade and a half after the fall of Arthedain and Angmar; and your second session ended at 2960? That must be one heck of a campaign! And a world record for a Fellowship Phase of just under 950 years. Are everyone Elves?

[beckett]

Congratulations, Mirkwoodfalcon! Thanks for the sneak peak into your group's game. Sounds awesome. My group is nearing the end of DoM... We started playing twice a month, but now we're once a month. None of the original characters are around anymore, but some of their children will see the end of the campaign!

[Majestic]

Very impressive, mirkwoodfalcon!

We're in 2967 and still plugging along, though fairly slowly.

[zedturtle]

Congratulations! What a great achievement.

[poosticks7]

Same here: I'm at 2960... and we managed to play just two sessions between november and now ( ). I think we started at the beginning of 2013.

Sooo. Your first session started about a decade and a half after the fall of Arthedain and Angmar; and your second session ended at 2960? That must be one heck of a campaign! And a world record for a Fellowship Phase of just under 950 years. Are everyone Elves?

Was that a joke? I can't tell.