Dol Guldur

[Daveyspawn]

Hi all, been visiting for a while but not posted before.
I'm planning a chronicle set in the Third Age a year or two before the Fellowship of The Ring begins. Wondering if you can give some help in some of the background to a few locations, in particular Dol Guldur. I want my party to go to Dol Guldur to look for the Dwarven ring of power that was taken by Sauron there. Anyone out there got any background info or maps of the surrounding area or better still floorplans of the place itself. I know ICE did a book on Dol Guldur with maps etc, but its long out of print and I can't get hold of a copy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Brandir]

The best source is probably Robert Foster's Complete Guide to Middle-earth. I am not a big fan of ICE's MERP and I think you would be disappointed wiith their Dol Guldor supplement.

[ReptileJK]

Hey Dave,
Never read the ICE Dol Guldor books, but ICE usually has pretty good introductory information on these places (taken mostly from Tolkien's work) which would give you a good idea about it in general. As far as the rest of the material in that supplement, ICE was (obviously) forced to make alot of material up, since Tolkien himself did not describe the interior of Dol Guldor in great detail. I'm sure they have very specific maps, etc. in that supplement which you may find very usefull (even if you don't use everything that ICE came up with, it may give you some ideas). If you're a person who doesn't like the fact that alot of this material wasn't written by Tolkien, however, the supplement may bother.

I've never had a problem with ICE, as I only used what I wanted from their supplements (even when I was running MERP way back when). I still use them today as a quick reference for certain things during Decipher LOTR adventures.

I wish I had the supplement so I could tell you what you want to know, but it's one of the MERP books that I don't have.

You could see if it's available on ebay, or maybe from a used book seller on Amazon.com

Reptile

[Daveyspawn]

Thanks for the help both of you, will look into getting both the MERP book and the Guide. Amazon.co.uk doing deal with Guide and an Atlas for discount price BTW.

[Feanorgil]

To re-open the subject and stiring the creative waters.
I have a distinct 3rd age craving to run a chronicle around Dol Guldur. There is a distinct option for an adventure involving elves from either Lorien or Thranduil's Realm. The "Quest for Erebor" in Unfinished Tales it talks of Thorin's father being imprisioned there and of Gandalf discovery of not only the captive dwarf, but that the Necromancer is Sauron himself. ( infact I will take it on ... its mine .. my precious LOL ; )

A 4th age Chronicle of interest to me is the artifacts and residual shadow and morgul effects of the ruins of Dol Guldur.

Also for the SBG for LOTR I was thinking of designing the scenario for when the white council attacks the tower and drives sauron away or when Galadriel /Celeborn with the Galadhrim raze the tower to the ground. Anybody have any comments /suggestions?

PS- I have been digging around the web for refernces (ICE/MERP etc.) about Dol Guldur. I think I am going to dgo it alone and follow the example/tone set by peter jackson and the WETA designs. Thus there be a similarity to the "form and function" of the tower to that of Barad-Dur. (ack I sound like the tour guide- note the sharp moulding and spikes at the cresting the highest point .. doesn't just say ... I am a bad bad man too you " ) I did like the fact that the Gate was named " mada something ...whatever" and who is "Vorzag"? Azog's lost relation no doubt, employment in moria must be tight.

Joking aside ... The Dol Guldur plans slash resource I hope to have in Hall of Fire ... will be rather WETA/Jacksonish. I have even found a piece of art by Radu Gacia that looks promising as a visual guide.

Wilson evil narrator laugh

[Evan van Eyk]

I do not want to spoil your fun, but what you describe is impossible. But lets start at the beginning.

Dol Guldur's role in the Third Age was important around 70 years before LOTR already. At that time ( timeframe of The Hobbit ) it actually was the HQ of Lord Sauron himself. From there he not only lead his strategy but also spread evil and especially was recreating Mordor. However no other than Gandalf entered the Tower in search for the last Dwarven ring - only to learn that it had already been taken by the Necromancer ( people did not know that this was Sauron then, although Gandalf feared as much ). So actually in The Hobbit the Tower is attack by the Wise and the Necromancer driven away ( actually he only leaves for Mordor ). The new head of the Tower is now the 2nd of the Nazgul and remains that until Dol Guldur is destroyed by Galadriel herself at the end of the Ring War. It is completely erased which causes Mirkwood to become green and friendly again.

So unless you want your party to encounter Sauron or the Nazgul, I strongly advise against sending them to Dol Guldur, especially since it is very much known where the Dwarven Rings are ( remember Gandalf in the Council of the Wise, where he explains why the Ring has to be the One Ring ).

Of course you can alter things as you want, just wanted to say what is official.

[Feanorgil]

My thoughts and constructs concerning Dol Guldur are not along the lines of hey lets crash the orc's woodman roast. but rather to peel it like an onion. To use a cliche I want to build a chronicle that like the Army says "crawl, walk, run" . Make Dol Guldur the Epicenter or gravity of the chronicle, but veil it and slowly as time goes by the hero's get closer and maybe they culminate in the final assault on Dol Guldur or contribute in some way to its fall ... gathering critical information for Celeborn(Intelligence Collection), or eliminating a key point of resistance in the build up to the main effort. Just enough to obtain a hypothetical footnote in the history of middle earth. Maybe that illuminates what I am after.

You do have to grant me this- Dol Guldur can create chapters in the chronicle in Mirkwood, along the anduin, even on the west bank of the anduin. the affect/effect of Dol Guldur could even stretch as far north as Carrock.

wilson

[Markraven]

I believe you can DL the module for Southern Mirkwood (Dol Guldur) at:

(Links removed by moderator. See message below.)

Hope that helps.

[Doug Burke]

Sorry, Markraven, but it's been a long-standing policy of these boards not to allow linking to sites where you can download copyrighted material (even if said material is out of print).

[Markraven]

Eh, no problem here, just trying to help.

[Feanorgil]

give my private email a try with your link.

[Feanorgil]

does anyone have any plans of the tower lying around?

[Feanorgil]

I noticed in the hall of fire a delightful artile on the Necromancer's tower that had a pretty neat map. Further the Games workshop has a new line coming in the future about the fall of the necromancer....UK site. With the new interest in Dol Guldur, which for me is inspiration to again contempate a project surrounding it.

Has anyone
1. know where the old ICE supplement for southern mirkwood and Dol Guldur is located on the web?

2. Does anyone know of any fan material on dol guldur that I may want to look at?

Pace
Fenorgil

[Feanorgil]

Geez the cob webs are huge in here!