On Wednesday the 7th of March our local gaming club played our monthly session of Adventures in Middle Earth, this was to be the first time we were let loose in the Wilderlands and we were all excited to do so. After the last session I think we all felt that we hadn’t done that well against the wargs and so all had something to prove going forward!
Part 1 of the story can be found here.
The Story from this session:
Having barely passed Saruman’s test the group were not feeling practically pleased with themselves as the wargs had proved to be much tougher than expected, Saruman invited them back into Isengard to discuss some final details of the quest and provide them with some equipment to help the party out on their long journey.
Olaf was gifted a collection of books on languages that he could study to help him communicate with others they are likely to meet along the way.
Duilin was gifted a Ring, Though it was said to be for use of anyone in the party that felt the need of it, the was the Ring of the white hand, something Saruman had created himself. .
The last item given to the party was a cage containing a Crebain, this gift did not give the party much confidence as Saruman explained that the bird was a messenger bird trained to fly back to Isengard, the idea being that our quest was so important that if it looked like we were not going to make it then the last surviving member of the party was to release the bird and he would return to Isengard and Saruman would know we had failed.
The party rested for the night, Olaf was able to make some healing salve using some Athelas he had found in the stores that he believed would help them on their journey. The nights rest had helped the party to feel a little better and knowing that the first leg of the journey would take them to Lothlórien was actually somewhat of an exciting prospect to Olaf, to his knowledge no man of the lake had even been there before and so this would make for an excellent write up on his journal that he one day hoped to write into a book.
The Party set off bright and early, the road was not easy, they made their way North East around the borders of Fangorn Forest, The conditions were tough, the two hunters of the group Olaf and Ted Took had not been very successful in finding food for the group and so after travelling for 40 days the group were starting to feel the effects of the hunger and they all began to feel exhausted (They each gain one level of exhaustion.)
The date was now the 15th of February in the 2955 year of the 3rd age, the party had made it as far as the north side of Fangorn Forest on the borders of the Grey Meadows and Nain the Dwarf who was tasked as being a lookout went on a little ahead to look out and confirmed that the coast looked clear, The party made their way North following the river as they were heading to Lothlórien to rest and replenish their supplies.
They had not travelled far into the Grey Meadows before they were attacked by a raiding party of Orcs and Goblins. A large orc captain came running out of the forest towards them as a number of goblins sprang out of the reeds along the river and began to attack, caught completely off guard the party were attacked and though Duilin, Edrahil and Olaf were rendered unconscious during the fight the rest of the party were able to kill the orc captain and force the last remaining goblin to run away.
The party was then able to stabilise Olaf and using a healing salve found in Olaf’s pack Nain was able to wake Olaf and then in turn he tended to the wounds of Duilin and Edrahil and the group took some time to rest and eat some of the supplies, Olaf took a short amount of time to take some notes of the events in his journal before encouraging the group to look for herbs with him to help him replenish his stock that was looking very low. The Snow was thick on the ground and Olaf was not able to find any herbs but the group did find a lot of orc tracks, it was clear the orcs were in these parts in numbers and very active.
the party has barely regrouped before they heard an orc cry coming from the woods as a large number of orcs came running out of the treeline towards them, They were clearly outnumbered and in no position to fight, the party only had one option and that was to run, they would run in the rough direction they wanted to go but all the while they were perused by the orc’s poisoned arrows whistled past the party’s ears until they were able to get out of range of the arrows.
Duilin led the group towards a small ravine, by now they were even more exhausted as they continued to flee from the orcs that seemed to be ever-growing in numbers, as they passed though the ravine they were very fortunate that their movement through it caused a rock slide that blocked the way behind them and stopped the orcs in their tracks.
Though the party had managed to escape from the orcs it had taken its toll on the party and they were now even more exhausted (Each party member took another level of Exhaustion) they were now moving slowly and feeling very lost, they were not able to make very good sense of the map and were starting to feel very out of their depth.
Always moving though at a slow pace they came across a river and knowing they needed to be on the other side of the river the decided it was best to cross it now given that it was very narrow at the point they had found it and that it did not look deep. As they crossed the river Ted Took paused for a second as he began to notice some distinctive rock features and recognized the place from one of Bilbo Baggins stories that were at times told in the Southfarthing of the shire and more specifically in the local tavern – The Wonky Horse Shoe. Ted Took told the party the story about an elf named Nimrodel.
Below is a copy of the journal kept by Olaf to record his journey.
Saturday February 10th 2955 Diary of Olaf
part 3 can be found here:
