Please help me with my first ever campaign
I need some help creating a story for my players. I am a long time story teller, but first time LOTR story teller. I'm a huge fan, and would like to explore some fairly untouched areas of tolkiens story.
My Players are: A dwarf craftsman (smith) from the blue mountains, and exiled human warrior of rohan, and a Took craftsman (carpenter).
Year: 2845.
The plot of the game is as follows:
Obsessed with ring lore, Saruman the white hires the Dwarf smith as a mentor to teach him the art of metal work. While learning the craft (which will lead to the eventual creation of his own ring), he becomes somewhat of a "Friend" to the dwarf, secretly pumping him for information.
When he learns of Thrain's disappearance this year, he shows concern... in truth, he is afraid that Either thrain was capture and lost the ring... or, more probably, that Thrain entered Moria. Per the appendicies, few knew the fate of the dwarf rings, and many thought that the thrors ring was lost in moria... saruman would likely believe that Thrain went in after it. He might want to beat Thrain to it, or even believe that thrain failed the attempt and see his vanishing as proof that the ring was down there.
Acting concerned for the Dward, Saruman will have the Human PC join for a quest to search for Thrains fate, promising him his honor back if he succeeds. The Took will join, because, after all, a took wants to go, deep down inside ;).
Here is my problem... I eventually want my PC's to end up in Moria with Gandalf. But I don't want to send them there right away. I think for a new group, a new story teller, and a bunch of "first level" PCs, moria is a bit much to chew. So i'm not certain as to what to do first. I need some ideas for quests they can attempt prior to this step of the journey... but I want it to tie VERY strongly to the story. One of my biggest flaws as a DM is I'll come up with a great plot and a great quest... but then feel like its to much for the start of a new campaign... and throw "fluff" stories and quests at my players to get them ready for it. These trite quests are only there to get the group familiar with the system, their PC's, and get them to the power level that they are ready for my real story. This always fails, as it is clear that they are just "killing time" in the game. I want some intro quests that will tie to this story, and really make them feel like it built up naturally to this point. Not just sending them to collect random animal teeth for xp.