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Hope this is the right place to post this.

Everyone needs to check out DM of the Rings. www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/

Imagine running the entirety of Lord of the Rings as a D&D campaign. The creator is a DM himself and has spot on observations and great humor galore. The running comment threads are a hoot as well.

Highly recommended reading for roleplayers. David has made it required reading for our gaming group.

Cheers,

Steve

Here it is. As promised earlier today. Enjoy!

Pre-Campaign Session #3



2007 Campaign – Solo Session 3 Summary

Hugh and Soris leave for the temple to speak with their charge, who it seems has been healed of his wounds and poisoning. There they met a priest who told the adventurers to be careful and not to disturb his patient too much.

Hugh and Soris enter the chamber and encounter a grateful Fanigun, a diviner, late of Normidia. Fanigun tells them that he pursues a Harothi Saurian named Bael who killed his business partner and burned his business to the ground. Fanigun offers to pay them to accompany him to Drakkel.
They agreed to travel together but Hugh and Soris assured him no payment was necessary. The road is always safer when traveled in numbers.

The heroes take their leave of the tiring Fanigun with promises to return later to arrange their travels southward.

Hugh takes the opportunity to do a bit of scouting. He goes to the other tavern in the village which he is told is the seedy place in town. He goes in to find a pair of cloaked figures talking quietly. After a few minutes time, Soris goes in after him and grabs a seat separate from Hugh, back to the wall with his hood up, and orders a drink from the comely barmaid.

Hugh asks the barkeep if there have been any Saurians passing through the area lately.
The barkeep gestures to one of the two cloaked men. He says that Severus would know.
Hugh approaches the two and asks Severus if he has seen any Harothi Saurians in the region lately. They negotiate and for the sum of 7 silver pieces, Severus indicates that he did see a Saurian and a band of humanoids heading south some 2 days ago, 2 days ride to the south. Hugh pays him and leaves.

Soris finishes his brew and follows after.

After bathing and a meal Hugh and Soris sleep for the night. Hugh in his room, Soris (as is his style) on the floor under a table in the common room.

In the morning they pack up the wagon and head south. The priests at the Shrine of Sorrath give Hugh and Soris some herbs and bandages and instructions for the continued care of Fanigun, who is still weak, but recovering nicely.

After two days on the road, they reach the village of Farigan. It's a TINY little village. One small inn/tavern called The Six Feathers Inn. Hugh and Fanigun get rooms and put the horses and wagon in the stable. Soris sleeps under the wagon. Hugh asks the barkeep and the barkeeps assistant about Saurians. They tell him that they there was a disturbance at the Heinrich farm some 5 or 6 days ago. They give him directions.

The next morning, Hugh and Soris leave early with Fanigun and the wagon. They travel to the Heinrich farm where they meet the farming family. They get a detailed description of the saurian and his band. The humanoids raided the farm for food and then moved on. The saurian leader of the band matched Fanigun's description of Bael precisely.

Hugh, Soris and Fanigun head south along a minor dirt road that farmer Heinrich says will take them back to the main road south. The small road became rocky and treacherous. After three hours, the wagon became stuck. While they worked to free the wagon, a rider came galloping from the north. Hugh positioned himself between the rider and the wagon.

The rider pulls his hood off, revealing himself to be Severus.

"I have news... that concerns you. News worth 10 gold coins". After haggling for several minutes, Hugh and Severus settle on 7 gold coins. Severus informs Hugh and Soris that several orcs camped nearby. "One of them, a half orc archer, went into town asking about 2 men and a brightly colored wagon." Severus followed him discreetly and found that he went back to a camp where several other orcs were camped. "Upon hearing that you had passed through only 2 days before, they sped south in pursuit."

"The orcs are less than 2 days behind you and coming fast. They know where you are. The big one drives the other orcs relentlessly.

Hugh and Soris decide to find a good ambush position, fortify it and wait for the orcs to come. They chose a place where the road goes between two hills with steep sides on either side.

Soris led the wagon through the narrow valley south (leaving tracks) and then hid the wagon covering it with brush.

Fanigun sits up on the hill and, using some kind of divining spell, keeps track of the group of orcs which are closing from the north. Hugh and Soris spend the rest of that evening and the next morning digging a trench at the top of the hill and fortifying it with wooden stakes and using a technique Soris learned in the Vorrikan War Mage Academy, they sink smaller wooden spikes into the ground (such that if you step on one they would piece the sole of a boot). They put a couple of drops of the orcish poison (the poison they obtained from their first encounter with orcs about a week ago) on each of the spikes and stakes.


The spikes were put in a long path leading from the road up to the top of the west hill. This was the most logical place to try to walk up the hill as the ground was inclined, but grassy and even. They would have Fanigun cast an illusion on the spikes to make them appear like normal grass. Hugh and Soris hoped they would be able to draw the orcs up the hill at a run, causing many of them to cripple themselves on the poisoned spikes. That was the plan.

When they finally saw the orcs approach, Fanigun cast his illusion and the spikes vanished in the grass.

The orc group had eight individuals. There was the orcish leader, a big brute of an org that obvious had ogrish blood in him. There were three orc soldiers (one of them was a bit smaller than the others). There was a half orc archer. There was an orc shaman dressed in robes and bone jewelry with a skull tipped stave. And finally, there was another orc who had a large troll on a leash of sorts.

This group of orcs continued following the wagon tracks and were about to head along the road, between the two hills, without even noticing the players at the top of the hill. However, Soris got their attention with a well thrown rock that drew the orcs' attention to the start of the trapped grassy path. The orcish leader ordered the others to spread out. The half orc archer drew an arrow and searched for a target. The shaman began to cast a spell. The orc leader then barked out an order to the smaller orc soldier to investigate the top of the west hill where it seemed the rock had come from. As the young orc charged up the hill, he stepped on a spike, but kept his footing and continued up the hill, limping and cursing.

The leader and two of the orc soldiers charge up the hill.

Soris throws a rock intended for the org leader's head and misses! The rock however, continues its flight down the hill and scores on the archer! The archer curses in orcish at his unknown assailant.

Arrows and bolts of crackling black energy from the orcish archer and shaman slam into the dirt wall or else zip by overhead. The fortifications around the trench prove worth the effort. The archer tries again and snaps his bow string! He's out of the action for the time being.

The leader and the first orc soldier reach the top, deftly dodging the foot spikes. Apparently they could see them.

At this point, Fanigun summons an illusion of a hill giant. It came climbing up over the edge of the hill. Startled by the appearance of this new foe, all orcs turn their attention to it and begin to battle the illusion. Soris lets loose a magic missile taking the org leader in the back.

The troll, however, was mad with bloodlust and failed to notice the hill giant. The troll continued its run to the trench and made it to the spikes surrounding the trench edge. Soris let loose with a spell... a whitish ray of cold energy. The troll let out a thunderous roar. Shaken by the roar and in a hurry, Soris missed! The ray of cold shot high and was wasted. The troll raised its massive hammer and swung, narrowly missing Soris. The troll pulled the hammer free from the ground, dirt and grass showering off of the massive thing.

Hugh leaps forward and strikes with his long blade, but the thick skin of the troll turns the blade. The troll swings the hammer round and catches Hugh squarely in the chest. The air is driven from his lungs and Hugh is knocked back to the other end of the trench. Wrapped in overpowering bloodlust the troll comes ever forward, inching along whilst impaling itself upon the stakes our heroes placed earlier.

Soris pulls out one of the Normidian Stun Sticks, aims it at the troll and gives the handle a twist. It gives a satisfying click, begins to hum and the crystal blazes to life. A split second later the crystal unleashed a tremendous blast of energy. The beam struck the troll square in the chest. The dazzling energy beam was so bright that it blinded everyone and it was accompanied by a tremendous thundering boom that shook the ground.

Hugh, already on the ground on the far end of the trench, watched as the troll was catapulted backward, flying head over feet and disappeared out of sight down the hill.

Soris opened his eyes and found himself lying flat on his back in the middle of the trench. The end of the Stun Stick was splintered and smoldering. He scrambled to his feet and looked down the hill in the direction of where he had aimed. He saw the troll some 30 feet away lying prone. It was not moving. The weapon, it seemed, had been entirely successful.

Soris gives a hoot and surveys the hill. Fanigun it seems was not able to maintain the illusion through the blast. The org leader and his compainion advance upward toward the trench. Soris gives a battle cry and leaps from the trench. He takes a swing at the leader with his longsword, but his attack is repelled by the org's armor. The org takes a mighty swing at Soris and scores. Soris goes down in a heap, with a deep, deep wound in his side. All goes black.

Soris wakes later to find an exhausted Fanigun tending his wounds. Fanigun explains he used the last Normidian stun stick on the leader and his henchman. When they went down the shaman attacked him. Fanigun had no offensive spells to use, so he ripped a spell from Soris' spellbook and attacked the shaman with it. With that last insult, the shaman and the bow-less archer fled the battle. Fanigun tended to Hugh and stabilized Soris who was bleeding out. He then performed coup de gras on all the stunned enemies, including the Troll!

The three roll the bodies and come up with minimal booty. Hugh drags the bodies upwind and returns to the trench when two strangers approach from the north. One is human robed and on horseback. The other is vaguely ogre like, but from a distance seems to have a cheerful countenance.

Here ends Pre-campaign Session #3.

Hmmm...Seems like we're missing something. OH! Session #3 perhaps? 

It would be nice for folks to know how Hugh and Soris got from the old man recovering in the temple to Oliff and Aruzmathel finding them battered, but alive, on top of that hill. 

Some interesting things happened there. I'll post it later today when I get home from work. If I can find the file! 

Cheers

Oh yeah. It was short. Short as the short end of the short stick David whipped us with. At least we're still alive.

I would elaborate, but I'm afraid everyone will have to wait for the summary to be posted. I don't want my character killed in a horrible and yet interesting way just yet. I haven't rolled up my Rogue!

"We're waaaai-ting!!"

{To quote The Princess Bride.}