So what is everybody playing?

[Fellfrosch]

Slant, are we to assume that Tamar's player has taken over Kjartan?

[Spriggan]

ahh my weekly dose of Slant's game.  This stuff is like crack.

[Slant]

DINGDINGDING!!!  Give Fell a cigar, folks! Yeah, he wanted to play a character in the Gondor arm of the game.  He says he wanted to play Kjartan since he is a very different character than the more subversive types he usually plays and he had ideas for the character.  Honestly, knowing him the way that I do, I think that once Aragorn and Gandalf became part of the game story he began salavating at the thought of interacting with them.  At any rate, I told him that if he could come up with a back-story for Kjartan, he was free to play him.  He did, and so he is.  The possibility of Tamar returning (in one form or another) is not totally out of the picture, either.

I have to be honest: this game is draining to run.  It was okay at first, but once the characters started going in all different directions, I found that I had to pay a lot more attention to what was going on and how the character actions and stories played out in Game Time.  That is, if one group is traveling in one direction and it takes them two hours Real Time to go 20 miles, then I have to make sure another group isn't going in another direction 100 miles in the same amount of time.  Some creative leeway is acceptable, but I find myself having to watch it so that  things don't get too out of whack.  This is especially important when characters in one location have an effect on characters in another loction (like Ain-Ain in Gondor opening a portal to tempt Mordante in Angmar with the White Libram in an attempt to distract him from her friends).

In the end, though, it has been worth it.  I haven't ran a game as ambitious as this in years.

[Slant]

Session 17

Ain-Ain is studying the White Libram and finds two pages sealed together with powerful magic.  The only way to open them is to use Saruman's White Rending spell which is on the preceding page.  She knows if she utters the words out loud she might be corrupted by dark power the same as Saruman, but she is tempted to see what is on those sealed pages.  She seeks out Kjartan and tells him that if he thinks she is losing herself to the Shadow, he should not hesitate to strike her down.  Kjartan tells her that from what he has seen she is a good person with a strong will and he has faith in her to resist the power of black sorcery.  

Tark and Erinel arrive at the Grey Havens.  There are less than 100 elves still there.  Erinel is taught by an ancient elf how to prepare healing charms.  She sings for them and does a duet with an elf who learned her music in Valinor at the feet of Maiar.  Tark admits to Erniel that he is having great difficulty in remembering things about his living years and fears that in time he will become another mindless zombie.  He can no longer remember most of his childhood or his military career.  He remembers the name 'Atreya' but does not know where it comes from.  Sadly, Erinel tells Tark that Atreya is his wife.  Tark disappears into the woods to write out as much of his life as he can still remember and to write a final letter to his wife.

In Gondor, Kjartan asks the king to tell him about the war of the rings and his success at Helm's Deep.  As the king recounts the tales, he grows visibly more lively and much of his health appears to come back.  By the end of the evening he is displaying old sword moves and special attack formations to Kjartan.

Milo and Kogali travel through dire swamplands where Milo picks herbs to be made into poison for their blades.  Kogali tells Milo that now that they are away from all "civilized" laws, the two of them can revert to being the sort of people they originally were: ruthless and wild, unlike the rest of their more law-abiding companions.  They touch sword tips and agree "No mercy to our enemies."

Auric finds his way into Fornost and discovers everybody dead.  Hundreds of corpses are strapped to the walls and corridors of Fornost, head down and gutted from crotch to throat.  Auric comes across the sole living entity in Fornost; Jonaz the hunter, who is offering up the entire population to his dark master.  Jonaz chases Auric through the mazeline streets of Fornost. Every time Auric thinks he has evaded him, Jonaz appears behind him.  He rushes into the keep, but Jonaz keeps after him.  Exhausted, Auric realizes that Jonaz is herding him towards the throne room.  Auric collapses exhausted upon the throne as Jonaz pounces.  Unfortunataly for Jonaz, the alter upon which he hoped to offer up the nomad was once the ruling seat of the high kings of Arnor.  Jonaz is repulsed by the power of the throne for a moment, and in that moment Auric is able to drive a spear through his crazed foe.  Safe at least, Auric makes it to the armory and equips himself in iron and steel, taking a great yew bow and silver tipped arrows along with an elf blade.  He gathers as much food as he can reasonably take, and sets off once again to find Erinel and Tark.

Milo and Tark pass through the Trollshaws hoping to make it to Moria.  While camping, they are accosted by five brigands with weapons drawn.  They see how ragged and frightened their attackers are and how close they are to death.  They do not have the stomach to kill the bandits and instead share their meager food with them.  They spend the rest of the day teaching them to hunt for themselves.

Ain-Ain, Kjartan, and a small force cross the mountains of Shadow and enter Mordor.  They come to the Easterling camps and meet with the Rhun war leader Tzefesh.  She disrobes and shows him her tattoos that mark her as the disciple of a very powerful Rhun witch.  Tzefesh treats her with utmost respect, having known her mistress for a long time.  She tells him that the charred lands of Mordor are not worth fighting over, cosidering that there is nothing left but ash, stone, and mad orcs.  She advises Tzefesh to give Mordor peacefully to the Harad in return for their agreement to fight at the side of Rhun against the Red Maw of Angmar who is the foe of all life.  She tells him that if they do this, Rhun will become far more powerful once the Harbinger is destroyed.  The war leader sends scouts to deliver a message to the Harad to meet upon the morning for treaty talks.

Alone in her tent, Ain-Ain reads the words of the White Rending and unseals the two pages.  She gains a corruption point for casting a sorcery spell, and four more for what she reads.

End of session

[Slant]

Lord of the Rings was cancelled this week, but will return next week at it's regular time.  In the meantime, I was given an advance copy of the new Marvel Superhero game and am in the process of reading it with the intention of running it following Lord of the Rings.  It's kinda cool.

[Slant]

Session 18

Ain-Ain and Tzefesh meet with the Harad war chieftan.  She tells him that they will give the Harad all of Mordor and all it contains without a fight if Harad allies itself with Rhun and Gondor to fight against Angmar.  She uses subtle magic to enhance the appeal of her words.  She mentions that everything that she says will be backed up by Prince Tamar, known throughout the Northern Lands as the Black Prince of Harad.  The chieftan laughs at her, revealing that Tamar was no prince, but only an actor sent to appease the foolish folk of Gondor into believing that Harad would comply to their wishes without a second thought.

Milo and Kogali reach Rivendell.  They stock up on waybread, food, water, weapons and warm clothing.  They share a few jokes about elf women of loose virtue that visited Milo's tavern in Bree.  For the first time in ages, the pair are clean, well fed, and rested.

Erinel goes alone into the Blue Mountains to find Kalouran.  She searches for days and comes upon a cave of strange predators that resemble lions, but with chitinous growths and eagle-like talons.  She is saved by arrows that fly from out of nowhere and dispatch the creatures without a sound.  She finds herself facing a tall albino elf woman sheathed entirely in black armor and carrying a powerful bow.  She does not give her name, but tells Erinel that she knows why she is here and that she must turn back.  She says Kalouran will never raise a weapon in anger ever again.  Erinel tells her that the need is great and explains about Mordante and the undead armies.  The white elf scoffs, saying that the undead can have all of Middle Earth if they want it: the elves will simply return to Aman and leave the lesser races to their fate.  Erinel shouts at her that Aman will not be safe.  No mortal may pass into the Undying Lands, but the walking dead are not mortal and may indeed be able to pass the ruins of Numenor and set foot upon the shores of the Undying Lands in vast numbers that would put even the armies of Numenor to shame (And Laura got an extra Leveling Up for figuring out a big part of the puzzle before anybody else did).  The white elf cannot ignore the truth in her words.  She says she will take her to Kalouran.

Milo and Kogali are on their way to Moria and are freezing their butts off on a wind-swept mountain road.  Kogali tries to urinate against the side of the mountain and it freezes solid in seconds leaving Kogali temporarily attatched to the mountain.  Milo laughs himself stupid.

In the Grey Havens, Tark is working with elf mages to help keep his memories focused.  The mage tells him that he needs a strong image of his past to anchor himself to.  Auric is impatient and wants to go look for Erinel to make sure she has not come to an awful end.  The ancient elf remarks that Erinel is many centuries his senior and wiser than he in survival, and that she does not nee him to be following around after her like a lovesick puppy.  Auric grows silent and angry but speaks no more of the need to go looking for her.

In Mordor, Gandalf berates Ain-Ain for learning Saruman's spells, and his most dangerous secret.  Ain-Ain accuses Galdalf, saying she suspects he knew what was in the book but was too afraid to reveal it.  She tells Gandalf what she read: the sealed pages are a nautical star chart showing the way from Middle Earth through the Enchanted Isles and to the Undying Lands.  The pages reveal that where the last of the isles meets the shoreline there is a mountain range known as the Pelori Mountains.  Deep beneath the range is an area of bleak, tainted land known as Avathar, where all of the shadows of the world had sprung from, including all that is twisted and evil in both Aman and Middle Earth.  Written in a spiral scrawl all along the outer margins of the two page chart is a spell of such terrible foulness that Ain-Ain had lost a part of her soul just from understanding the nature of the words: a spell that would summon forth the greatest of all evils back from the Void and into the deepest darkest shadows of the most evil land in creation.  Morgoth would re-form from the land of Avathar itself and be free to once again conquer all of Middle Earth.

End of Book II

[Entsuropi]

I weep at not being a player in your game.

And hey! I hope your description skills are up to describing the armies of the undying lands.

[Slant]

Entropy, just you wait......

[Slant]

Session 19

Kogali and Milo reach Moria.  They find the vast bloated form of the Lurker in the Water slayed upon the beach, hacked up by countless blades.  A badly wounded but still sturdy dwarf meets them at the door and takes them to see Thain Durgin.

Ain-Ain speculates that Mordante may be headed Southwards in an effort to regain the White Libram.  Gandalf urges her to give him the libram so that she can go to Gondor and warn the king.  She refuses to relinquish it.  Kjartan votes to simply destroy the thing and be done with it.  Ain-Ain stops him, saying that despite the content the libram isn't an evil artifact, just a book.  Gandalf warns her that evil comes not from the written word, but from what is done with it.

Erinel finally meets with Kalouran, a Noldorian who has existed in Middle Earth since before the First Age of Man.  She sees the weight of countless centuries upon him.  Upon hearing her news, he nods grimly and says he will gather the remains of his forces to stand against the Harbinger.  His wife is livid with anger and forbids his involvement.

In the Grey Havens, Tark paints a small portrait of his wife as best he can from memory.  He seals it inside an elf scroll case and places it on a cord beneath his armor.  He composes a final letter to his family and an elf outrider takes it.

In Moria, Durgin tells Kogali and Milo that a great wolf some hundred feet long came up into Moria through the central shaft followed by thousands of beast goblins.  Durgin himself slew the wolf, but many dwarves were killed.  Following the attack, the shaft to the lower mines was sealed off once and for all.  Durgin displays the head of the wolf in his throne room, still somehow alive and snarling, it's great jaws dripping with blood.  Milo knows that this is a manifestation of Mordante as the Red Maw and urges Durgin to burn the head.  Kogali sadly reports that the Black Prince is dead, slain by Mordante on the steps of Caern Dum.  Thain Durgin tells them that in retaliation for slaying such a great Dwarven ally, Mordante and his ilk  will fall beneath the last Dwarven army in Middle Earth.

Ain-Ain and Kjartan ride to Gondor with the news that the Easterlings and Harad will fight against Angmar.  Gandalf sends a messenger falcon to his old friend Cirion in the Grey Havens informing him of what has transpired and that the Grey Havens should be on the alert.

The white elf stalks out of Kalouran's hall, visibly upset.  Kalouran tells Erinel that during the war against the Enemy in the Second Age, he had been tempted by the power of the Dark One and had slain his kin whom he had been led to believe had betrayed him.  For his act of treachery he had been cursed to die if ever he raised a weapon in anger again.  Repenting his actions, Kalouran had come to the mountains a thousand years ago to meditate and gain control of his terrible rage.  His wife and his forces had refused to be seperated from him and so had all joined him in his exile.  Kalouran tells her that the fate of the world is far more important than the life of a single person, and so he will ready his army even if it means his own death.

Erinel goes to find the white elf, who is hacking her chambers to bits with a broadsword in grief and anger.  Erinel begs her forgiveness; had she known of what would happen to her husband she would not have been so quick to ask his aid.  The white elf vehemently replies that it no longer matters.  Now that his mind has been set he will march to his own death.

End of session 19.

An entire session without a single combat.  Wow

[Entsuropi]

We should get one of the writers on the site to novelise slants lotr's game.

[Slant]

Session 20

Erinel returns to the Grey Havens with Lord Kalouran and 2000 Elf warriors.  Cirion, the smith of Forlindon and once one of Kalouran's greatest warriors, tells them that he has heard from Gandalf.  He fills them in on what was discovered in the White Libram and that Gandalf and the Human King request their aid in the looming war.  The elves are tasked with preventing Mordante and his legions from sailing out of the Grey Havens.

Tark volunteers to go by boat to Aman and warn the elves of Valinor about the situation in Middle Earth.  Cirion offers to go with him, but Tark refuses the help.  Kalouran gives Tark his official seal, telling him that although he still commands respect amongst the elves of Valinor, there will be many who will react unfavorably to it due to the dark deeds of his past.

On the way to Gondor, Kjartan trains with Haradin and Easterling soldiers, swapping weapons techniques.  Kjartan is easily the strongest and heartiest of the bunch.  Ain-Ain takes the White Libram and places it against her bare stomach, winding many layers of gauze over it.  When she clothes herself, the book is invisible to detection.

Milo and Kogali head off to Gondor with Durgin's dwarf emissaries, a "small host" of 1000 stout warriors given by the Thain to the king of humans as a gesture of his good faith and of his commitment to the war.

Out at sea, Tark finds peace for the first time in many months.  He contemplates throwing himself into the waters so that his last thoughts may be peaceful ones, but decides against it.  For the first time in two months he removes his helm and looks at his own face, and sees that it now resembles that of the walking corpse that he has become.

The Harad/Easterling troops stop for the night on the way to Gondor.  Kjartan goes to Ain-Ain's tent and instructs her in the use of a sword in case she finds need of such a skill in the days to come.  His teachings become more intimate and he seduces her.  As she sleeps he steals the White Libram and takes it to Gandalf.

When Ain-Ain awakens, she is furious.  She discovers that Gandalf has already ridden on ahead to Gondor with the book.  Kjartan tells her that he did as she had instructed him and taken steps to keep her from being corrupted.  He tells her if she feels his death will sate her to run him through.  She draws the blade from his scabbard and swings, but at the last instant turns it so that he is struck by the flat of the blade.  She coldly tells him that she has spared his life since he is so clumsy in the sheets that it is unlikely that he will ever produce an heir, thus his line will end with him.

End of session 20, all role playing for a second week in a row!

[Entsuropi]

I see you have some pretty solid roleplayers in the group.

Out of interest, how did they go about the seduction? It is not something that has come up in any rpg i have played.

[Slant]

The seduction was played out well.  Kjartan was showing her how to hold her weapon and his hands were on hers as she was holding it with her back pressed against his body.  He started nuzzling her neck and when she didn't tell him to stop he moved his hands from the sword to her body.  She reciprocated and pulled him down to the floor.  We just kinda left the scene at that point rather than role-play all the sordid (sworded?) details.  

And while I am posting, let me just mention that I picked up Fell Beasts & Wondrous Magic the other day and was rather irked that a 96 page book was 25 bucks.  It is a very useful book, but that is still a lot of money for such a slim product.  But hell, it IS Lord of the Rings.

[Slant]

Session 21

Ain-Ain and Kjartan bring the foreigners to Gondor.  Gandalf tells them that the folk of Rohan are facing undead legions.  Aragorn goes to lead a troop into Rohan but Kjartan begs him not to, saying his life is far too important to risk on the battlefield.  The king knights Kjartan for his bravery in defending Gandalf and himself from the Harbinger and his oath to keep Ain-Ain from falling to corruption.  She grits her teeth at this, but keeps her mouth shut.  The king Says that Kjartan will represent him in battle against the invaders of Rohan.

In the Grey Havens, bloated corpses rise from the waters and climb upon the shore.  The death ship of Umbar sail into the harbor and rain volleys down upon the elves.  As the others battle along the shore, Auric drops into the water and skulks aboard the ship.  Deep in the hold he sets a fire that rages almost instantly.  He catches on fire but jumps from the ship as both it and the undead are consumed in the flames.  He makes it to the shore and grimly jokes how he should re-name himself "Rat" since this is now the second time that he has leapt from a ship going down in flames.

Kogali, Milo and the dwarves pass past Fangorn and see undead forces marching past.  They hide and pursue.

Tark hits the Mystic Islands.  His small boat is attacked by a kraken he is pulled overboard.  With no need to breathe, he cannot drown.  The kraken is confused and Tark proceeds to rip the creature's eyes out.  Flailing blindly the creature squirts a jet of ink around him, but Tark hangs on and shoves his blade through it's gills.  Torn and soaking, Tark slowly climbs back into his boat and doggedly continues his trip.

Cirion knows the undead will return in greater force.  He says that all the elves must now leave to Valinor if they are to have any chance.  Erinel tells him that she fears the Harbinger will use the elf ships to sail to the Undying Lands.  She pleads with the elves to remain true to their noble roots and their ancient purpose to protect humanity at the behest of Eru.  The elves, every single one, resolve to stay and fight.  Cirion ensures that the Red Maw will never sail on their ships.  He orders the ships of Forlindan burnt

Kjartan and Gandalf meet with Arakil, grandson of Eowyn, in the lowlands of Rohan.  The folk of Rohan are no longer the robust horsemen of two years ago, but now touched by the Rage Plague they are gaunt and sickly.  The air around them shimmers and Gandalf warns them that very powerful magic is in effect.  The veil of illusion is dropped and a vast silent army of unliving men and orcs stand sillouhetted on the horizon.  Standing at the forefront is an impossibly tall, gaunt figure clad in red robes that run with blood and missing his left arm.  Gondorians, Rohirrim, Easterlings and Haradim alike grimly draw their blades.

The battle is horrible.  Even when hacked to bits the undead continue to struggle and fight, spurred by the close proximity of the Red Maw.  Ain-Ain is attacked by a dozen severed heads and hands.  Pushed beyond her limit, she snaps and begins firing bolts of sorcery across the battlefield.  She summons vast shadows to protect her.  The more she uses black magic, the more that the Shadow claims her soul.  Mordante calls to her from across the valley.  She finds herself with a black dagger in her hand.  She turns to Gandalf, fighting beside her, and moves to thrust it into his heart.  

[Fellfrosch]

My my my. I wonder what would happen if I showed these campaign notes to the right people?