Chronicle Plot

[dustin]

Here is the basic plot to my first chronicle. Feel free to take it and run with it as you please. This is just the plot, the details are for your personal tastes.

The chronicle was set in the early 4th Age, about 15 years after the WOTR. The "Big Bad" was a shaman that had discovered one of the Lesser Rings. Actually it was only one-half of a two-ring set. Now, this set was called the Life Giver and had incredible powers of healing. On a successful Healing Test, it would restore all lost Health to the patient. With the One Ring destroyed however, these extraordinary powers had been lost, but this shaman held tight a firm belief that if he could find the other half and reunite the rings, he could resurrect Sauron or even Morgoth!

Now, not all of the power had vanished from the rings. They still held some healing power (+5 Healing), and Corruption, but also a side effect of being two-halves-of-a-whole was that each ring "called" to the other. So begins the hunt for the other half.

As a hook into the campaign, my PCs were in Bree during an orc raid. Esmerelda Baggins was a cousin to Frodo and an aspiring magician in Bree on an errand for her mother. Boborin "Bob" Shortstout was a Dwarf from the Blue Mountains on his way to Erebor and had stopped for a drink. Saelind and Silivrien Lightfoot (twin brother and sister)were two Elf Ranger trainees on a routine patrol, and had been tracking an orc party. And finally, Urr, a Man of Bree just minding his own business.
Later in the chronicle, another hero comes forward; Kerowyn, a Lossoth woman warrior who happens to have the other ring (it was an heirloom passed down from one generation to the next, mother to daughter). They come across her on the run, but she doesn't understand why everyone is after her. (She does, she just plays dumb until she knows that she can trust the rest.)

In short, the party split up to cover as much territory as possible and mobilize the Free Peoples to meet the growing threat of invasion from the East.

Now, the shaman is my no means without allies. He has managed to unite various orc and Easterling tribes under his banner and, to keep them under control, five very merciless Easterling Captains called Dragon Riders. One of them even sets up shop in Carn Dum.

After securing troops from Rohan, Gondor, and various other realms, everything finally culminated in a huge battle between Erebor and Mirkwood and a chase into the Iron Mountains were the shaman and the last of the Dragon Riders were killed.

What was particularly fun, was keeping everyone in the dark as to whether the two rings still had their full powers, or just a faded reflection of those powers. The fact that the shaman believed it was enough to put substantial fear into them. I loved it! They also realized that everytime their ring was used in a healing test, one of the Dragon Riders always seemed to be right around the corner!

Whether the rings still have their full power is, of course, up to the individual narrator, but letting the PCs think that it was possible provided sufficient terror and worry.

Please, feel free to use this basic synopsis in your next chronicle. I would love to know how it turns out.

dustin

[dustin]

I have seen that many of you have at least looked at this post, so I thought I might share some of the more memorable moments in the campaign in the hopes that someone will respond with more ideas for my next misadventure (Arthedain, 1974).

As stated above, my group split into two smaller groups. The one that went south toward Rohan and Gondor consisted of Urr, the Bree man, Silivrien, the female twin, and Esmerelda, the wanna-be hobbit magician. Their mission was to make contact with Eomer and Elesar and secure some troops to use against this upstart shaman. Not an easy task considering that Elesar, and by extention Eomer, was still fighting against tribes of Sothrons. So this group was largely left to their own devices.

Most of the combat encounters were either avoiding or fighting their way out of various ambushes, but in an effort to add some spice, I gave them a respite in a small village in the Anduin Valley(he,he,he).

Finding a small tavern in the village, they were all to happy to partake of the victuals offered. Too many days on the trail had wetted their appetites for something substantial. The hobbit, of course, was the most enthusiastic about a "real" meal. Greedily, she gobbled up everything that she could afford or barter for, and drank everything that she couldn't(exceptional role playing, by the way). And to top it off, a long, relaxing smoke on her pipe.

This is exactly what I had hoped she would do. In typical hobbit fashion, she orders not only the biggest mug of ale offered, but two of them! And gulps them both in no time at all (much like a Hurricane on Bourbon Street). This of course, gets her soused. As for the tobbacco, it was not quality Longbottom Leaf, but rather, something more akin to a drug. So now, she is drunk, and high. Oh, what fun.

It was at this point, that the village is raided by a party of Mountain Orcs and Uruk-Hai. Urr and Silivrien make a gallant stand in the bar, holding off all comers, but were soon chased out when the Uruks set fire to the roof. They begin to evacuate the tavern when it dawns on them that Esmerelda is missing. They find her behind the bar, with her head in a bucket of ice-cold water, trying deperately to sober up!

Feeling ashamed and embarrassed about her gluttony, Esmerelda tries to redeem herself. Unfortunately, she is only a magician apprentice and has a difficult time controlling most of her spells anyway. Now add the fact that she is drunk. Do the math, it is not very pretty! She becomes more of a nuisance than an asset. During an attempt to Kindle Fire, she sets Urr's cloak ablaze! Urr recovers and uses the cloak as a weapon to hold the orcs at bay while Silivrien stashes Esmerelda somewhere out of the way.

But the Uruk Captain sees where Esmereda had been stashed, and slips away from the main battle. He had orders from the shaman to capture this hobbit (he believed she was an all-powerful wizard and pupil of Gandalf). In the ensuing struggle, Esmerelda suffers a broken nose and is knocked unconscious by a powerful blow of the Uruk's fist.

Now, Urr and Silivrien must track the Uruk and rescue their companion, no matter how much trouble she causes.

Any comments or suggestions so far?

dustin

[Sarge]

Sounds like fun, Dustin. Don't you just love it when situations turn out so much like the original story, but with your own and your players' original inputs and imprints? And of course there's no guarantee that the story will resolve the same way the original did.

[dustin]

Originally posted by Sarge
Sounds like fun, Dustin. Don't you just love it when situations turn out so much like the original story, but with your own and your players' original inputs and imprints? And of course there's no guarantee that the story will resolve the same way the original did.

Honestly, my intention was not to repeat a situation from the books, it just sort of happened that way. My purpose for the scene was to teach the hobbit a lesson. Throughout the adventure, she became to reliant on her magical abilities, forsaking all other skills, in particular, her combat skills. It didn't matter how many weariness modifiers she took for casting multiple spells, she always resorted to magics--like lightning and fire spells whenever she was in combat. I had tried many things to break her of this habit, including nearly dropping a tree on Urr as he was about to deliver a blow to an Uruk Captain. He had to use his action to avoid the tree which allowed the captain to attack him instead. Urr not happy. In fact, it took her several sessions before she realized that she could start a small fire for Silivrien to light arrows instead of lighting each individual one.

Besides, "picking" on the hobbit was especially fun--she is my wife!

dustin

[dustin]

Here is another little "precious moment" from our last campaign.

It is set in the hills near old Fornost. Boborin had parted company with Kerowyn and Saelind to venture to the Dwarf halls in the Blue Mountains and would meet them later.

Kerowyn and Saelind proceeded without their Dwarf "tank" and happened onto a destroyed, abandoned village. As per their standard operating procedure, they decided to check out the village in hopes of finding a survivor.

They split up to do a house-to-house search. Carefully going from one house to another, they found nothing but death, destruction and mayhem. No survivors or nothing of note--until.....

Saelind, entering his third house, is surprised by a Hillman as he enters the kitchen. Knocked off balance by the barbarian's attack, Saelind stumbles back against a counter, and deperately grasping for anything at hand, counterattacks with a cast-iron FRYING PAN!!! With one devasting blow to the head, smashes the hillman's face, killing him instantly.

But this is, by no means, the end of the frying pan. Without dropping the pan, Saelind meets Kerowyn near the stable. Inside, they can hear someone, or something, inside. Something big. Deciding on a flanking attack, Kerowyn goes through the tack room on the side of the stable, while Saelind--and the frying pan--go through the front door.

Kerowyn spies a lone orc relaxing against a stall. The stable is dark, and she cannot make out what is in the stalls. Saelind decides to shed some light on the subject, and kicks in the front door and finds two, count 'em, two wargs!!

Attacking together, Kerowyn charges the unsuspecting orc with a spear, pinning him to the side of the stall, six inches off of the ground. A warg jumps for Saelind, who immediately hurls the frying pan, hitting it in the mouth. The blow stunned the warg enough to disrupt its charge, giving Saelind enough time to bring up his sword and drive it into the warg's heart.

The second warg, initially surprised, lunges toward the Elf. Avoiding a swipe of its claws, Saelind abandons his sword and reaches for a single arrow. With the luck of the Valar on his side, Saelind buries the arrow into the warg's eye and into its brain.

Realizing the noise caused by the ruckuss, Kerowyn and Saelind attempt to cover up what happened. They pry the orc off the wall and slash his face and body in the hope that his captain will think the wargs got hungry and killed him, then killed each other. Everything was perfect, except they forgot to retrieve the arrow. (It's all in the details)

Sounding the alarm, the confrontation resulted in a nasty street brawl. Kerowyn was holding her own in the sword play, but Saelind went mad. In the course of the battle, he never let go of the frying pan. He killed two more men, a couple of orcs, an Uruk-Hai warrior, then proceeded to beat an Uruk-Hai captain to death, spilling the contents of his skull into the dirt street, thus resulting in a +5 Intimidate.

Seeing their captain so viciously killed, three orcs who witnessed the attack, lost all heart and saved their own skins, only to be pursued by a psycho Elf, his frying pan, and Kerowyn's arrows.

Afterwards, the frying pan, dented and bloodied, was tucked safely in the saddle bags of the pack horse, to be bronzed at a later date.

dustin