So what is everybody playing?

[Slant]

Session 10

Jonaz' caravan moves North towards Cairn Dum with it's entourage of Red Maw acolytes.  Milo shakes Kogali awake from a sound sleep to tell him that there is a storm coming and the prisoners might not survive i t.  Erinel reminds her fellow captives about what happened the last time the sky looked black and the sands were swirling.  A strange little figure rises from the ground in front of the caravan and the storm hits full force.  The sky grows loud as swarms of those eerie bat-things that the company encountered a month ago during their last major storm swoop out of the sky and attack the caravan.  Kogali discovers the pain in his leg is from his knife that has mysteriously found it's way back to be lodged indelicately inside his boot (Milo put it there while roughing him up the previous week).  Milo cuts their bonds and in the chaos they find their weapons.  The Red Maw acolytes are killed off in great numbers, both by the group and the bat-things.  When the acolytes' numbers dwindle, the creatures begin to turn on the company.  Tark shows up, clad in little more than rags, and attacks the bat-things.  As before they are puzzled as to why he is attacking them and they fly off in confusion.  

The odd figure that suddenly appeared is revealed to be a noegyth, or "Not-Dwarf," a stunted grotesque remnant of a dwarf splinter-race long lost to evil and believed to have died out.  The creature, mortally wounded in the fray, reveals himself to be a sorcerer of great skill who had studied under a powerful spellcaster who had long ago turned to black magic.  He says his old master was the one who now rules Angmar and is indeed the Witch King's apprentice.  He tells them that Mordante wants to turn all of Middle Earth into a necropolis, but does not know why, only that he has long studied the arts of death.  The last thing he tells them is that the remaining noegyths now serve Mordante and are scouring the Grey Mountains searching for the seven Dwarven Rings that were kept from Sauron's clutches by feeding them to dragons.  Erinel attempts to give him a healing draught, but he refuses to take it, instead asking only to be allowed to die in the arms of such a fair and kind-hearted creature.

The company cannot find Jonaz' body, but they do find Milo who was crushed by a cart in the battle and now lies near death.  Erinel DOES manage to heal HIM and once he is able to speak he explains his actions, saying that now that the Shire is no more he has no reason to live and doesn't care if the group kills him.  Tark explains his condition to the others, who seem to take it pretty much in stride (typical gamers).  Milo says he knew about Tark because when Tark was injured in Isengard and he ran to check on Tark he found no heartbeat, even though he rose from the rubble seconds later.

Ain-Ain continues her ride back to Gondor.  She feels ill and has difficulty eating.  As she camps one night she meets up with a grizzled old man who was once a Gondor soldier during the War of the Ring and claims to have saved Aragorn's life.  He is ill with a serious cough.  Ain-Ain looks after him.  He tells her that he is discouraged with the petty wars that are still being fought and that the days of man warring against his neighbor will soon end one way or the other.  "Maybe the dwarves have the right idea."  He asks to accompany her back to Minas Tirith.  That night Ain-Ain has the same nightmare she did before about an all-consuming shadow that leaves only death in it's wake.  She awakens trembling and vomiting.  They are attacked by cadaverous brigands who are maddened by the rage curse.  Ain-Ain causes their weapons to shatter and blinds them, sending them fleeing into the darkness.  The old soldier moans that he is too old to be useful as a warrior and tells Ain-Ain he would be useless to her.  She insists that he is still competent and asks him to accompany her.

Back in the North, Erinel tells her friends that there is a ranger who oft visited Rivendell who lived in this area.  She suggests they search him out to see if he has any advice or will help their cause.  They go to his home but find it ransacked with the three-day dead bodies of the ranger's wife and child cut nearly in half on the floor.

End of session

[Fellfrosch]

Ah, I see the beginnings of the Narrator Screen adventure. It's pretty good, though it would have to be included into a larger campaign like this to really make it work.

Why did Milo suddenly turn around and help the group? I thought he was waiting until they got to Angmar. And why did Jonaz' group get attacked by the undead--I thought he was in league with them?

[Slant]

Yep, I decided to save myself a wee bit of work and stick in the scenario from the screen (since I actually paid for the bloody thing anyway).  Milo had been working for the Shadow out of fear that the Shire would be subjected to the rage plague and thus die and be reborn as walking dead (scarier for hobbits even more than humans).  He made a deal that if he were to bring the King's scouts to Jonaz, the Shire would remain untouched.  Once it became evident (through word of mouth and through the hasty erection of the mass hobbit graves they discovered) that Jonaz' master had lied and never intended to keep his word, Milo forswore his allegience, but played along as if he were still a creature of the Shadow.  He got Jonaz to take them towards Angmar rather than killing them all outright.  He then slipped Hogali a weapon under the guise of just smacking him around.

The bat things (actually referred to as "vampires" by Tolkien, but more akin to the strange leathery things seen in the first Beastmaster film than the standard Hollywood version of a vampire) are servants and assassins of the Shadow, especially black sorcerers.  They are carrying the plague throughout the land spiralling out from Cairn Dum under the orders of Mordante.  However the noegyth, also a black sorcerer who had studied under Mordante, was able to summon them to serve him for a brief amount of time.  The noegyth balked at the sheer overwhelming evil of his former master's desire and threw his lot in with the scouting party.  He knew his life was forfiet anyway once Mordante found out what the bat-things had been used for, so he decided to die rather than have to face Mordant's rage.

[Slant]

Session 11

The company leaves Margil's hut and finds themselves unde attack by black orcs and a hooded commander.  Arrows fly around them and Auric is struck a minor blow.  The orc pack disappears into the mist.  The party gives chase, even though Auric feels it is goijg to play out as an ambush.  They hunt them to a sepulcheral cave the hooded man is revealed to be none other than Margil, the legendary ranger hero trained by Aragorn himself in whose hut the dead woman and child were found.  Apparantly in the grip of the rage plague, Margil leads the orcs in an attack against the company.  Tark and Milo charge the cave, hoping to draw the fire of the bloodthirsty orcs.  While their attention is drawn, Tamar stands in the shadows with his heavy laquered bow and takes dead aim at Margil, shooting him right through the heart with such impact that his internal organs are splattered against the wall of the cave.  Margil, now seen as one of the walking dead, keeps on coming.  While the others exchange shots with the orcs, Kogali breaks formation and makes a suicide charge against Margil, breaking the undead's bones so it cannot fight effectively and then severing it's head with his dwarven knife.

They take Margil's body to be buried along with hiw family.  After the burial they search the hut and find a strange black mask made of heavy leather that is cut to fit snugly over the entire face and head.  Erinel recoils from the mask's hollow gaze.  Tamar decides it might be important and takes it along.

They continue through the moors.  As night approaches they hear strange slurping sounds.  Tark senses Very Bad Things.  They make a cold camp around a stone alter they find.  They are attacked by mewlips, cannibal creatures that emerge whole from puddles of water on the ground and who simply disappear if slain, only to rise again from a nearby puddle.  Already weary from their fight with the orcs, they know they have to end this fast.  Milo hits upon the idea of throwing torches into the puddles, which evaporates the water and causes the mewlips to disappear.  

Ain-Ain and Willem, traveling on the Great Road, find a pack of wolves tormenting a northern man clad in bearskins.  The man looks to be done for until Ain Ain casts a spell that causes them to face their worst fears.  They begin shrieking like men and break away from the northman to chase Ain-Ain and Willem.  They are pursued to the base of a cliff where they must turn and fight.  As they battle, the northman joins the fray with his huge axe.  The three of them level the wolves, who turn into human form when slain.  The northman is mortally wounded in the battle.  AIn-Ain is nearly at death's door from her sickness which has gotten progressively worse.  Unsure if the strain of casting another spell will kill her or not, she casts a spell of healing on the northman before her vision goes dark and she succumbs to the pain.  She awakes two days later, free of her illness.  The northman introduces himself as Kjartan and thanks her for her aid.  He says he will accompany them to Gondor to aid in any way he can.  Ain-Ain has no qualms about letting the tall, blonde young warrior accompany them.

Back in the moors, the company finally makes it to the border of Angmar.  Far in the distance thay can make out the indistinct outline of Cairn Dum.  Kogali utters the immortal line "I've got a bad feeling about this."

End of session

[Fellfrosch]

Are Willem and Kjartan PCs or NPCs?

[Entsuropi]

nice. although im damn confused as to where all these beasties came from : none of those were mentioned in hobbit/LoTR/silmarrion.

[Slant]

All of the creatures mentioned in the game were in Tolkien's writings at one point or another, even if only in passing.  I am using the "Characters From Tolkien" bestiary (David Day, 2001) as my guidebook.  

Willem and Kjartan are NPC's right now, although Kjartan might be used as a player character for somebody if a group member ends up dying (a strong possibility).  Willem, for reasons which should be clear in the imminent future, won't be able to make it as a player character.

[Fellfrosch]

In Ain-Ain's storyline right now the NPCs outnumber the PCs--how is this working for you? What steps are you taking to avoid railroading Ain-Ain into doing what the NPCs want? It's a tricky situation, and if you could shed some light on it I bet a lot of the GMs around here would be interested (at the very least, I am).

[Slant]

Quite simply I allow Heather (Ain-Ain) to be the proactive one.  Her two companions are there to allow her to keep role-playing with characters who aren't trying to kill her, and thus to be allowed to continue to develop her character in new ways (such as her recently discovered altruistic streak concerning her new friend Willem).  The two NPCs are personalities in their own right, but Ain-Ain is the thinker of the group as well as the most potent.  Willem appears to be an arthritic old wreck of a soldier and Kjartan is basically a big dumb barbarian type (although in my games NPC personalities tend to grow and develop as much as PCs over time), so they are actually defined by how Ain-Ain (the PC) interacts with them.  She comes up with the ideas.  If she makes a decision that I feel one of the NPCs would not agree to ("Willem, throw yourself in the path of that dragon for me!") then the NPC will certainly refuse and might even leave the group, but it is still Ain-Ain's decisions that are having the most significant effect on the group dynamic.

Oh, and did I mention that heather has a thing for tall, blonde, ripped, dumb guys?  

[Lord_of_Me]

.  I am using the "Characters From Tolkien" bestiary (David Day, 2001) as my guidebook.  

Yeah i love this book it's really good, but the map at the start is way off. The Atlas of middle earth would be useful for an RPG aswell

[Slant]

Alas, there was no Lord of the Rings today.  We had a huge downpour all day today and only four of us were able to make it.  Sooo, instead we played BARBARIAN!  What, you may ask, is BARBARIAN!  Well, BARBARIAN! is our beer & pretzels rpg where you play in the world of bad 80's sword & sorcery films.  The game itself is simple, free flowing, and very true to the source materiel.  Play is fast and frenetic: the game lasts no more than two hours, much like the standard S&S movie, and it is up to the players to help pace the action so that they accomplish what they need to in that time period.  

Tonight the sultry yet innocent Princess Katriana had to save her beloved, the brawny warrior Talon, from the wicked Grand Sorcerer who had betrayed her entire kingdom.  She was accompanied by the fiery barbarian woman who can telepathically link with all great cats and wear a rawhide bikini like no other, the annoying yet oddly charming thief with the dead eye for throwing knives, and the enigmatic man in black known simply as the Witch Hunter who has hunted the Grand Sorcerer through twenty-seven incarnations.  Fighting their way across The Land, the warrior princess and her companions find the Three Icons of Rule needed to overpower the Grand Sorcerer, then they infiltrate the Grand Sorcerer's desert fortress where the princess (in homage to a whole slew of similar movies) finds herself in the sorcerer's harem of (ahem) muscular, pretty, well-oiled young men who try to tempt her from her True Love Talon, yet she nobly refuses.  They battle legions of anonymous armored guards (who's armor doesn't offer any real protection), giant rubber snakes, and primative blue-screen special effects until they finally confront the sorcerer and stop his nefarious plans in the Nick of Time.  Talon is freed and the proncess finally has her night of True Love, only to leave Talon the next day for the life of a wandering sell-sword.  She sends the Annoying but Loyal thief to rule in her stead for no logical reason and rides off into the sunset with her sword at her side and her crimson hair flowing behind her.  Such is the stuff of BARBARIAN!

LotR to return next week.

[Slant]

Twelfth session


The company finally crosses into Angmar.  A feeling of helplessness engulfs them as they pass the border.  Only Tark is unaffected.  They see shapes in the mist and chase after them, only to find out that they are the tortured souls of slain hobbits, their eyes gouged out and eternally running with blood.  They beg the company to leave this foul land, lest they suffer a similar fate.  The company tries to chase after them, but they are eaten up in the mist.  Tamar plays around with the strange mask they found and puts it on.  He is shaken down to his soul as he feels the icy fingers of Death close in on him.  His companions combined pull the mask off him, telling him that they were certain he was dead when they found him laying there with the mask.

Creatures seemingly made of little more than bone and gristle with the mark of the Red Maw seared upon their skulls attack the company in a feeding frenzy.  They fight back the creatures, who are hungry and thus frail from lack of blood and meat.  The last one to be slain laughs maniacally and tells them that the Master of Caern Dum sometimes walks Angmar alone, looking to snuff out the Living that he hates so much.

Kogali snaps, saying that he has had it with this madness and that they are all throwing their lives away when they SHOULD be getting as far away from Angmar as possible.  He turns to depart, but Auric holds him back.  Kogali and Auric fight.  Kogali knocks Auric senseless with the basket of his blade, sending teeth flying.  He then disappears into the mist.  He comes across the hobbit phantoms who just stare at him silently with their bloody, empty eye sockets.  Kogali comes to his senses and realizes anew why they have all come to Angmar.  He returns to the company and swears by his father's soul that he will remain true to the objective of their quest unto death, no matter how base and wicked he might seem on the surface.

As night falls, Angmar becomes pitch black.  They are forced to light a lantern.  No sooner do they create light when they are set upon by Black Orcs who ambush them with poison gas that renders them slow and afraid.  Tark remains immune.  He is thrown over a cliff where he (ahem) plays dead as the other group members are lost in a swirl of orcs.  They are taken to an ancient building located in a swampy vally.  The building is an old mausoleum where Erinel can sense the thousands of lost souls who spent their last terrified moments in this horrid place.  Cowering in fear from the howls of anguish that only she can hear, she throws herself into a corner and screams as loud as she can to drown out the sepulchral wailing.  Auric covers her with his cloak and speaks the names of the High Elves that he heard her speak many weeks ago to stave off accursed spirits into her ear.  The voices fade and Erinel slumps into a normal sleep.

Ain-Ain and her companions are pursued by creatures of cobweb and shadow as they ride towards Gondor.  They seem to be immune to magic.  When they are at last close enough to battle the humans, the creatures seem to be effected only by Kjartan's mighty blows.  Ain-Ain figures it out: the creatures may only be harmed by those that have no fear of them.  Ain-Ain laughs in ther faces and blasts them with her power, making them unravel.  The creatures fall back, but still pursue them.  When they finally see Gondor on the horizon, the creatures veer off and disappear.

In Angmar, the company recieves a visitor to their cell: Jonaz, who tells them that the Harbinger now knows of them and is eager to meet the foreign visitors to his realm.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

My new gaming group has been under a spell of disruption. We only plan to meet twice a month, but even that seems difficult, as two weeks ago one of us was sent to go shoot at Iraqis (reluctantly so, both his characters he recently made were simple merchants disinterested in any sort of "action," an interesting view into the psyche of the military gamer). Then, our other military member had to work because of the war. But anyway, we have had one session, where we decided on two games (alternating sessions) and made characters. Hopefully we'll find another player and be able to meet more often. But anyway.

The idea of our group was that none of us have a lot of time, but REALLY want to game. Also, the only two of us who want to referee also want to play, so we figured if we only had to prepare an adventure once a month, it'd be all right. Hopefully this works out despite our first session being postponed. *shakes fist at Bush for interrupting his gaming session with his petty war*

Game #1: Fulminata
Fulminata is set in an alternat history Ancient Rome where gunpowder was discovered pretty early on. My character is a centurian, kinda slow witted, but not stupid, and of good lineage and legendary speed and dexterity. He's pretty darn handy with a spear, in other words, but don't expect him to beat you at chess, which is why he only gets 100 men despite his birth. He is accompanied by a spy who has been assigned to his unit and a body guard. We had a merchant attached to the unit drafted to produce/find our fulminata (the gunpowder), but again, the player got shipped to Iraq, hopefully he's safe and we'll get another player. We find out what their adventures are in 2 weeks.

Game #2: I'm running a game of 3rd Ed. D&D, using a campaign model I borrowed from EUOL, so people like 42 and Fell will recognize this one.
Every 1000 years there is a contest of the three main gods: Ryderin (the nature/chaos/forceful god), Irecus (Judicious but caring, cunning but good), and The Dark One (I renamed him). The first god to win two contests (fought, of course, by champions) gets permanent possession of the world. The Dark One was the victor of contest one, and thus dominates the next 1000 years, the end of which is approaching: this means the elves (followers of Ryderin, mostly) are nearly wiped out (except the drow, who follow the Dark One) and the gnomes are an enslaved and degraded race. There are no more halflings, and orcs, ogres, and demons are common enough in cities (guess who they serve). Most people don't believe in magic (aside from the drow and demons, who are given use of it by the Dark One), and many don't even believe in Ryderin or Irecus -- those who do practice in secret for other worship is punishable by death.
Enter our heroes (unnamed, as yet). A Drow who lost his position of honor due to court politics. He naturally wants revenge, but it hasn't hurt his faith any as this sort of thing is supposed to happen, just a result of normal intrigue. He has some magic at his command, but he's not going to tell the people he's recruiting to help him (all of which are below his station, as no one else can be compelled to do it).
The first guy he has to help him appears to be mostly ogre. About as sharp as a sack of wet mice, he pretty much does anything he's told. Big brute. Yeah, that's about it. (although we'll learn more about him later -- and yes, if you know about Zhom, he is very much modeled on him, the player rolled 4s for Intelligence and Wisdom, just like I had when I made Zhom, so I thought I'd give him the option, he took it).
Then there's the brute's buddy. The brains of the outfit, and on the make, he's a con artist dwarf. He managed to avoid any real work assignments mostly by hiding. He sees the value in keeping a big, strong brute around to defend him when things get hairy. He smells a chance for some coin, and helping the drow out certainly beats another night in the sewers. Though he's about to find out what the Drow really wants.
Again, we really hope we find another player, but action doesn't start for a month.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I thought that I, too, would give a little update on the games I'm playing.  I'm in more games now than I've ever been, but since each is biweekly I still manage to somehow have time for a life.

Hackmaster--We're still playing Little Keep on the Borderlands, though I think we're about to leave Hell's Throat for better climes.  Recently, my old character, Grub the Half-Ogre Barbarian,  was retired (by my choice) and for an exit I had him turned evil and he signed up with some local humanoid warlords using his inside info about the keep to barter with.  He eventually ended up leading an attack on the Keep with a horde of local foes.  The forces of the keep were able to repel them...barely, but not before Grub came into contact with his old group.  Note: Grub is a fighting machine.  When he was just about to slay Portia the Halfling Thief, his old travelling companion, she appealed to the good still in him and though some outstanding roleplaying was able to redeem him.  Now we have some cleaning up to do around the area, but I imagine we'll depart son.

Demon: The Fallen:  We were only just run through our preludes.  The game is set in St. Louis and we started the game as mortals.  By the end of the session we were full fledged demons though.  Not much to report as this game is just beginning.

Vampire: Masquerade/Dark Ages:  Again, we were only just run through our preludes.  This is a 1000 year game, starting in 989 and lasting until present day.  The game is currently set in Milan and our ST did an excellent job of weaving everyone's preludes together and bonding us so we'll keep in close touch over the centuries.  There looks to be a lot of political intrigue in this one, which makes me happy

[Entsuropi]

Idea for LOTR campaign.

At the end (ok, close to the end) of the Silmarion, it says that Morgoth, Saurons boss, is locked out of middle earth by one of the silmarions that is placed on Belegariaths ship.
Imagine the following scenario.
The death, after a looong reign, of King Strider Aragorn Elessil results in a big release of emotion - grief specifically. Since the Silmarions were the center of so much Grief, they cannot take the strain and crack. Since two were lost (in the earth & the sea), the only one that matters is the one on the ship. So, Morgoth gets back to middle earth.
Back in the undying lands, the sudden disappearance of the sky silmarion, which appears as a star, causes much comment. Elves being elves, they decide to have a good yap about it, while the king of the gods ponders if this was part of the creators plan. A group of elves who were born after the end of the 2nd age and who have never been to middle earth proper decide to take matters into their own hands and return to middle earth. So now you have a group of elves back in middle earth who have never met humans before. The only elf that either the new Gondorian king or his people have met is Arwen, who is hardly a standard elf due to her choices(mortality etc). Lots of fun roleplaying potential there. And somewhere, out in the wilderness, you have Morgoth, who was a god who took down the greatest of the elf lords in single combat, busy going for the whole empire of evil thing.
Cue Epic storyline.

Comments anyone?