A new 4th Age Chronicle

Well, after running Vampire the Masquerade for a group of 10 players, I decided to take a break and run a nice easy game LotR, I must be mad. O well, so a decision was made by me to run an early 4th age chronicle well earlish. Now the question came to me what could I use as a plot hook to get the players into the game and give me a reasonable straight forward time to start with (lets put it this way, the last game I ran we started off just outside the Lonely Mountain and ended up in the Grey Havens, bloody players making me run all over the world.) So started thinking of ideas and possible plots and came up with

Prologue

King Elessar rides north to Annuminas in beginning of the summer of SR 1582, with his guard and court, with his wife Arwen and a number of his daughters. No one is sure why he travelling in this year as he wasn’t due to go to Arnor for a few more years. Many believe stories of new darkness falling across the north as something to do with it. Orcs gathering in the mountains and the dark forests of Arnor.

Their arrive in Annuminas in August after a slow ride across Gondor and across the eastern part of Arnor, from the gap of Rohan up to Rivendell to see Arwen's brothers and Celeborn. The city as grown though the early part of the 4th age into a bustling trade and market centre of Arnor. As well as one of the major admisation cities of the combined kingdom of Gondor and Arnor.

After a number of fitful nights Aragorn sends a small group of trusted men to the shire and to Samwise Gamgee in particular to recover a gift given to him many years ago the Star of the Dundain a ring made by Celebrimbor, in remembrance of Silmarils it was a small white jewel which produced a constant level of light around it. It had once been one of the items of the kings of Arnor, along with the Spectre of Annuminas, and Star of Elendil.

Chapter 1

So our story begins with the group of Elessar men setting out from Annimunas on September 20 towards Hobbition and Samwise’s home under the hill. It is a good 3 day’s travel from the Elessar city to Hobbition. By the time they get to Hobbition, Sam as already left on his last journey his son Frodo Gardener is now the master under the hill. So begins the chase across the shire and western Arnor past the tower hills to the grey havens, to discover that the gem is no longer in Sam’s possession that he had given it to the Mathom House in Michael Delving back in the Shire. He gives the party a note to the curator of the Mathom House allowing them to take the Ring out of it. Of cause the ring isn’t there and here starts the really adventure, the discovery that there as been a theft from the Mathom Hall, nevermind the fact that it was property of Samwise Gamgee, 7 times mayor of the shire given to him by King Elessar himself.

That is the very brief form. it will be expanded on over the next few days. But that is my starting point, what do you lot think. Workable, would Sam leave such an item in the Mathom Hall, before he left for the grey havens. The basic idea behind it going to be the ring is going to be an important item to unlock the secrets of the 3 kingdoms of Arnor and possible discovery of one of the lost Palantíri of the northern kingdom. (Well that's going to be legend which the group discover does it have any truth in it well everyone will have to wait and see).

Characters so far

Northern Man (maybe Dunedian) Woodsman, using the outdoorsman order (by I think Chris Chapman)
Silvan Elf Bard age about 60 from Mirkwood, totally obsessed by the War of the Rings the characters from it, Travelling around meeting as many as she can before they go away (die in other words)
Lady of Gondor, Noble, Elvish Blood runs true though this lass.
Dwarven Warrior, don't know much about this one yet, but good player using him so going to be interesting.
Northern Man Warrior, Middle Man, palace guard in Annimunas.
The Last player I don't know yet, but I am guessing an elf of some shape.

Large party so I can actually have them do something of Heroic Stuff and put them in some dam right dangerous situations, and I think the recovery of a Palantir could be extremely interesting. Ghosts of the past are going to show up though out this story. I am hoping to get one or two of the players to keep logs of everything that happens and if they do I will report them online somewhere along with my notes and maps along with plotlines I use.

Sam putting it in a museum is kinda "dodgy", but I don't think its that great of a stretch. I would see him leaving it with his family, more then anything else.

After looking in the place it was left at, perhaps you could have Frodo say, "Hey, it should be here in the cupboard...maybe Dad took it with him? He left but a few days ago, you could likely catch up to him before his departure..."

Now the group has to race to Sam, HOPING that the item is there...but when they catch up to our aged Sam, he tells them, "No, my Lords. Left it I did, back at Bag's End, in the cupboard with my son."

Now they have a mystery. Obviously there is no reason to suspect Master Gamgee.

Perhaps one of Sam's grandchildren (or children) took it because they like it. (One of the other children knows about it, but doesn't want to squeal on his brother/sister)

Meanwhile siad sibiling is in the woods, the item in his posession. He is showing it off to his friends ... one of which grabs it and runs, as kids are wont to do.

As all the kids are running about the heroes uncover the truth and race into the woods. However all they find at first the ruins of a broken hobbit child's body...at first its thought by the group to be Sam's grandchild...but he/she suddenly appears and identifty's child as the person who snatched the pretty thing away.

It would let you get some decent interaction with some hobbit kids, uplay the horror of whatever's taken the item (it did kill a child after all), and as a side effect--bring up the suspiscious nature of some of the hobbits, which may bring a slight tension to the air around Hobbiton.

Interesting stuff to be sure.

Not sure Markraven about the dead hobbit child, but then that is a personal taste.

As for the meuseum, doesn't seem out of place to me, but then I am the last person to be called a "purist" by any stretch.

In the end Grimbeorn I can't really comment since I am not all around sure where you are going with this. Can you expand the idea a bit more?

Right expansion. I running for a group of players with a very mix knowledge of lord of the rings, from my sister who is as knowledgable as myself (come on who else sits down and works out how much a maia, noldor, human, other elf arwen and her kids are, because we bored). So I playing to a lot of levels.

But basic start point is going to be King Elessar (Aragorn for those who don't know) is starting to get dreams, forewarns of a darkness from the north, and a prophecy that the star of the dundian (which he gave to Sam 60 plus years ago) is the key to a great prize.

The group itself is a very rag tag set of people. But the core is going to be the Dundain Noble and bodyguard (palace guard) as well as the Silvan elf. Arwen sends them off to recover the ring from Sam in Hobbition. days before he leaves for the grey havens, it is all but impossible for them to get to hobbition before he leaves. So they discover he as already left and race after him (if stopping to ask if he left the ring there I think i will use Markraven idea). After discovering the Sam doesn't have the ring, a hunt starts around the shire for it. A discovery is made that some of the half-orc / evil men that came with sharky set up a village south of the shire and a few of them have been causing some small problems with the bounders of the shire, nothing major the odd damage to the boundary, odd field burnt. One of them manage to slip into the centre of the shire and get they hands on the ring, if it was in mathom hall shouldn't be that hard to do. (Hobbits aren't that security minded) but sam's own home is another matter, I have to think of that. But basically what it leads to is the discovery that some evil power is growing within Arnor, and the stealing of the ring is just the start of it.

Hopeful the party will recover the ring while discovering what the men aren't doing these things for themselves but for some darker power. What that dark power is going to be I am not fully sure yet. Maybe some spirit left over from Morgoth time, hidden away in some dark place in the mountains only now rising. So the group as the chance to stop maybe another sauron before he becomes really powerful. but that is a way down the track. First job is going to be the ring, and the discovery of why it is important. My feelings are that it was made by the ring smiths of hollin for a human lord, while in itself it didn't have any real power like the rings of power, it did have some ability to heighten the ability of others around it. Once the ring is recovery, they going to have to hunt for information upon it, though old documents from the time of arnor and maybe earlier. A trip to rivendell might be in order for that because while most of the Noldor have left there is still a large library there, and I think a ruin castle of Arnor might be the final resting place of the infomation they need. A nice castle that happens to be a hide out for Orcs.

Right now it is all very rough because a long time back I discovery there is little point to planning anything in great detail because Players will screw up highly detail storylines a hell of a lot easier than looser designed ones. Over the next day or two my plans are to build a small hillman village with the odd half-orc in, somewhere out the way and un important. As well as decide on where the ring was before it got stolen, I quite like the idea of Markraven. Maybe a sorcerer of the hillman manage to inscroll a hobbit child to take it. Um that as possiblities, maybe not quite working right so the child can still remember small details almost dream like. um that get them on the right track. I will think of this and try and get something more fixed together and posted.

Another thing to think about is what if Sharky's "Wratih" is behind it all?

Perhaps with Sharkey's death such an evil spirit had been beyond the mortal death of Sharkey himself. And now, after 60 odd years the wraith has finally been able to gatehr enough strength to start to do somethings.

It would be drawn to places and things of power, perhaps even find a "ally or pawn" among the Sackville-Baggins family to twist and use their hatred and jealousy against the Shire.

Just an idea.

Whos ays a Hobbit can't be corrupted? :)

I use Broca Took from the core book as an agent of the shadow in my 4th age game, and eventually intend to introduce a guy like Burglekutt (from Willow) as well.

I subscribe to the idea that Hobbits are just as diverse as men :)

Love the ideas BTW, might even knab that ring idea as well :)