Notes on The Northern Shadow Campaign

         These are some notes on the "Northern Shadow" campaign, played using Decipher's "The Lord of the Rings" Roleplaying Game. It is set in the region of Dale and Northern Rhovanion, during the early time period of the War of the Ring. Though not told of in the epic, these lands did not escape the notice of Sauron during the War of the Ring. Many subtle intrigues, foul treacheries and heroic deeds occurred prior to the Battle of Dale and Siege of Erebor. This is the chronicle of the deeds of one small group of heroes in their fight against the Shadow in the North.

Character Creation

         We had a single session devoted to character creation. Most of that was taken up by system concerns, since it amounted to learning Decipher's CODA system. We also needed to decide on links among the party, which was only partly solved. The PCs are:

• Ardan (Liz Henry)
  An Elf of the Woodland Realm, Ardan seeks more to life than singing songs under starlight. He prefers bawdy ballads in the firelight of a tavern. He seeks more excitement than what the timelessness of Elvendom can bring. Still, he's good in a pinch with a bow and longknife.
• Borri (Jim Chokey)
  Borri, son of Sigurd, is the younger brother of Snorri. He is a craftsman of many talents, though he is most skilled at stonework. For a Dwarf, Borri is garrulous and good-humored. This, combined with his gluttony and girth, leads others to think of him as a rather comic figure... a fact of which Borri is blissfully unaware.
• Gudrid (John Kim)
  Gudrid is a young cousin of Grimbeorn son of Beorn, who has learned the speech of animals and other old magic of her clan. She spent much of her youth exploring Mirkwood. Now in response to dark rumors, she is scouting eastward for her clan to hear of the doings of the Necromancer who left their region many decades ago, but whose evil touch they still have not forgotten or forgiven.
• Kell (Chris Wade, now NPC)
  Originating from Dorwinion and the Sea of Rhûn, Kell found port life dreary and lacking in opportunity, and became a wilderness explorer. Setting out to investigate rumors of other lands, he took a boat up the Running River to Esgaroth.
• Snorri (Laura Henry)
  Snorri, son of Sigurd, is the older brother of Borri. He is a metalsmith. His grasping and greedy nature is offset by his keen interest in the construction of those wonderfulmagical toys that the Dale market is so famous for.
• Thallin (Dennis Ruth)
  Thallin is a woodman from the lower Celduin valley. He is a scout on good terms with the elves of Mirkwood and the Beornings of the Anduin vale. He has a marked hatred of orcs, and will not let personal danger deter him from his quest to rid the world of this scourge.

Selected posts related to the game:

• The Forge: Horseplay gone too far? (May 19, 2003)

1. The Dragon's Gems

• Play begins on Saturday, September 1 of 3017 in the Barrel-Rider Inn of Esgaroth: i.e. Lake-Town, rebuilt in a new location several miles from the old Lake-Town that was destroyed by Smaug 76 years ago. The PCs are gathered around a table.
• A fisherman has his pocket picked by a local youth, then a high-pitched voice says "Who are you?" The fisherman grabs the purse and begins fighting with the youth, who then cuts his throat with a knife. The purse spills on the floor and the youth escapes out a window. The contents are priceless gems. Before passing out, the fisherman says "Dragon got me... warn friends".
• There is of course a madhouse as the gems are grabbed. Gudrid tends to the grievously wounded fisherman, staunching his bleeding neck. Some of the other PCs take gems, but they are all returned after then dragon's curse is mentioned and the guard arrives -- with the exception that the dwarf Snorri keeps one of the gems to himself.
• The guard soon arrive and the facts are soon sorted out. The fisherman's name is Silas, and the youth is also someone known to the town. However, he escaped by jumping in the lake and swimming under the town. After explaining things, Snorri follows the guards with the gems, while the others take Silas home to his wife, where we learn of his friends Fooster and Crant and their location.
• We question Fooster and Crant as they arrive back from fishing, but they deny any knowledge. Subsequently, we investigate the dwarf Freyr at the Barrel-Rider Inn -- theorizing that Silas must have come into the Inn to meet someone with the gems, and he seemed unusual. However, he does not leave the Inn and is questioned by the guard around 10PM.
• At this time (10 P.M.), we split up. Gudrid watches the homes of Fooster and Crant, joined by Kell. The others investigate another inn which Silas more commonly frequented. Fooster and Crant leave their homes secretly at night, so Gudrid and Kell follow them to the waterfront where they leave with a boat. With her magic, Gudrid sends a waterbird to tell the others what has happened.
• Stealing a boat, we follow Fooster and Crant at a distance. They go to the site of the old ruined Lake-Town, and dredge for the gems of Smaug with buckets. We continue to watch them for a while, until they then go to shore to sort through their findings. At that point, Bori and Kell return the two boats to Lake-Town while Ardan, Thallin, and Gudrid watch Fooster and Crant on shore. At session end, they hear the hoofbeats of a rider approaching.

2. The Dark Rider

• On shore, Fooster and Crant sort through their dredging and find a bunch of gems. A dark rider comes to them along the path. We stealthily approach to see what it is. The rider looks through their findings, then takes a single ring and rides off, whistling a signal to his confederates.
• At this point, a company of orcs rush down from the ridge to attack Fooster and Crant. We engage the orcs to defend them. In the darkness, Gudrid changed into a bear to aid in the fight but none of the others realized it was her. The result of the extended fight is that Fooster and Crant are wounded by orc arrows -- one of them (?) critically. However, his wounds are expertly treated by Gudrid and we send them back to town on their own recognizance. A few orcs are killed but most escape.
• We then set off to chase after the rider. Gudrid sends a nightingale to contact her raven ally, Corak, for aid.
• We chase on through the remainder of the night into morning, following the rider's tracks and also noting the tracks of some orcs. We pass through a village at mid-morning, where we hear from the residents that they heard a rider pass through in pre-dawn or so. Meanwhile, however, they are in uproar from hearing that a group of orcs have raided an outlying homestead.

3. Orcs in the Cottage

• At the village, we decide that the rider is too far gone for us to hope to catch him. We eat briefly in the tavern and talk to the child who escaped from the orcs' attack. We then decide to aid the villagers.
• After a mere half-hour of rest, we begin to travel the ~10 miles to the raided cottage. As we approach, we and the villagers circle around to the back of the cottage where there are no windows. However, the orcs inside call out that there is a woman inside with them whom they are holding hostage. At this point, Gudrid begins to negotiate with them as the others stealthily approach the cottage. Ardan leaps up onto the thatched roof in elf-like fashion, while the others attempt to sneak under the windows to the front door.
• The orcs immediately notice the approach, and one leans out the window to attack Borri as he is the first one to sneak past a window. At this, Ardan slices down through the thatch to rescue the woman in the corner, following the sound of her voice. Thallin then takes on the front door, with Borri soon joining him. A long fight ensues.
• The result is that Ardan rescues the woman, jumps out, then goes around to the opposite window and helps kill orcs escaping that way. Meanwhile, several villagers help light the thatch on fire while Bori and Thallin hold the front door. We mop up the remainder, then chase down and kill one who escaped.
• We question three who were knocked unconcious, discovering little new: they were hired by someone from Dol Guldur to deal with the fishermen. We then kill them and go back to the village to rest. Gudrid meets with a raven there and tells him of the situation: asking the ravens' help in tracking the rider who escaped.
• We sleep in the village and get up at dawn to head back to Laketown to retrieve our equipment and muster aid. Upon arriving there, a raven arrives with news that the rider headed to the old Mirkwood road. We then plan to follow him to where he goes, which we suspect is Dol Guldur.