Spring 2948
Radagast asks the companions to travel west to investigate rumours of wolves entering the vales from the far north.
The fellowship arrive at Mountain Hall impressing the folk there, and their leader Hartfast, and gaining respect through their actions when aiding them against goblin attackers. They restock their supplies and scout further north into the foothills of the Misty Mountains where they encounter a pack a ferocious wargs attacking a goat-herd, his two children, and their dog. Also, two Beornings are present defending the goat-herd from the creatures. During the battle a huge vicious red furred wolf is seen upon a rise; the father of the children runs towards it and curses it unto death.
Afterwards the companions introduce themselves to Frael, the goat-herd along with his daughter, Ailla, and young son, Geim. They are also introduced to the family's hound, Brith; an impressive beast with a noble demeanour, who Brand suspected to be of a higher bearing than the wolfhounds usually found among the Woodmen. The Beornings, Grimbold and Malaric, had tracked the wargs south from their own lands for they had come down from the Redhorn Pass and into the Vale of Anduin. The company, along with the Beornings, offer to escort the goat-herd and his children to their village, Hitherd.
Grimbold is the new player-character...
Grimbold the Red
A Warden of Beorn, Grimbold is getting on in years and his one red hair is now more grey. Still a huge mountain of a man (his Body attribute is 7, favoured 9!) his friends and other villagers look to him even in middle age for protection and to right any wrongs in their lands.
LM Notes
Quite a nice straight forward brute of a player character! Grimbold's pretty much the kind of character I'd have generated if I was playing TOR as I really like Beornings. I boosted his Standing a little, to justify his background and renown amongst his own folk, and the player has also mentioned that he has a young wife and family - we're therefore play testing the Holding rules I've written in order to 'ground' Grimbold a little more in the lands of the Anduin.
During the journey they are ambushed by the Red Wolf, who uses his pack in a deceptive feint in order to attack the children of Frael. It is only after the battle that the companions suspect the real target of the attack to be, Brith, and Brand recalls the ancient tale of Huan, the legendary hound of old who defeated Drauglin father of werewolves, cowed Sauron and slew the greatest werewolf Carcharoth before succumbing to his wounds.
Arriving at Hitherd they are not greeted warmly. A dark cloud lies across the village, its folk downtrodden and fearful of their lives; it is apparent that the Red Wolf had been terrorising the village folk for some time and has slain all but one of their hounds as well as some of the village folk, including the wife of Frael, Frea. Witnessing this had driven the goat-herd mad with rage and Brogan fears for the safety of his late sister's children.
Rallying the villagers, the companions along with Grimbold the Beorning, fortify the defences and prepare to face the warg pack and their leader. That night, the pack approaches, among it are goblins riding the larger wargs; their leader makes fun of and torments the villagers but is quickly silenced by Brand with an arrow to the goblin’s throat.
The battle of Hitherd is bloody and many lives are lost including Frael; slain by one of his own folk, Mundovald, who had fallen into shadow and despair. With the gates of the village breached, Brand faces the great Red Wolf alone. His act of courage allowing his companions enough time to gather themselves and stand with him. Together they drive the Red Wolf away and victory is theirs but at great cost to the villagers and their home.
During the battle, the Red Wolf had grievously wounded Brith and the companions, now realising that he is the real target of the creature’s attention, decide to carry him from the village and travel east to the Woodmen; their they would look for aid and counsel.
Arriving at Woodland Hall, they meet with Ingomer and his aides. The old leader quickly cuts short their meeting when Brand speaks too freely of his suspicions of Brith’s heritage and the intentions of the Red Wolf. Sending them on their way south to Rhosgobel, Ingomer explained that some secrets should remain so. Leaving that night, the companions encounter Radagast in strange circumstances. The Brown Wizard is accompanied by the squirrel, Acweorna, and an old hound, Cwen, mother to Brith.
Their journey to Rhosgobel appears to last only a few hours, as they follow Radagast and Acweorna along a strange winding path. Resting there, they inform the old wizard of their encounters and of the Red Wolf. Awaking early the next morning they find Radagast preparing to leave. Deeply concerned by what they had said the previous night, he informs them that he would seek the advice of the head of his order, Saruman the White, and would return as soon as he could.
LM Notes
This was a pretty epic adventure that was originally going to be a directly translater set of French fan adventures (named Caran Gaur) that I was converting into English. However, this proved to be far more difficult than I first anticipated and I ended up taking the rough/basic outline of the plot and simply developing the detail to fit my campaign. I think this eventually worked out for the best and was a far more efficient use of my time.
I introduced the idea of Battle Maps in this adventure to help support more complex combat scenes but to also make them easier to manage. This first one was used when the player-characters and the goat-herd and his children were ambushed by the Wargs:
Also, there were a number of extended actions with regard to rebuilding and preparing Hitherd:
... for the eventual assault:
These 'maps' really helped bring to life the battles and extended tasks within the adventure and worked far better than I expected - for the players and also for myself when I was designing the different types of encounters. The end battle with the Red Wolf was truly epic!
EDIT: I've written up a supplementary document for these 'Battle Maps': https://www.dropbox.com/s/7r4ak3wjvb76g ... s.pdf?dl=0. Seems sensible to post here.
