AiME S1E1 Eaves of Mirkwood

"Eaves of Mirkwood" (1x01) is Fabled42's premiere of "Adventures in Middle Earth" campaign. The characters have just arrived at Wood-men Town, a small settlement south of Mirkwood, for various reasons. They quickly learn of their common interest in answering King Bard's proclamation and decide to set off together. With Oldhin as their guide, they choose the quickest path and risk traveling through the dark forests of Mirkwood...

Player Characters Present
Iorwyn, Berenor, Imrahil, Oldhin, Iston, Wren

Synopsis
The adventure takes place five years since the death of Smaug. Bard the Bowman is now Bard the King of Dale. He has sent out a request for aid with rebuilding Laketown, and our adventurers accept this call to adventure.

They start in the south of Mirkwood in a small town called Woodsmantown. They all meet there as they spend the night. Our characters are:

Berenor: A Dunedain treasure hunter  from the north. He travelled here with Wren.

Wren Bywater: A halfling warden from the shire who travelled with Berenor until now. She searches knowledge.

Imrahil: A Minas Tirith warden who came to make relations with the other human kingdoms.

Oldhin: A warrior elf from Mirkwood

Iston: A mysterious elf wanderer from Mirkwood, who travels in search of Knowledge.

Iorwyn: A woodmen Scholar who studied under Radagast the brown. She wants to go to Rivertown to to  use dragon parts to heal people.

They start the day by leaving the inn with their packed up supplies, ready for the journey to Laketown. On their way out, the elderly innkeeper offers them some biscuits for their travels. Thanking them for the patronage. Berenor thanks the woman, and hands her a 1sp, which the lady gladly accepts.

Outside they see an old shepherd arguing with a woman at a market stall. Oldhin asks what is happening and gets shouted at by the shepherd. Old man Odo lost his wife to the Mirkwood spiders and has hated outsiders ever since, claiming that they are the ones who bring danger to the otherwise calm town. Iston threatens that they might not help the next time evil wanders in if that is how he sees it. Odo walks away angrily.

The merchant apologizes for Odo, and offers some advice on what they could do in the town. She sells axes and axe supplies, but none of the players are interested.

The lady suggests that they buy supplies from Odo and go talk to Old Iva.

Imrahil decides to visit Odo, who is not pleased to see him. However his love for coin is bigger than his hate for strangers, and he happily sells him 3 pounds of dried mutton for 3sp.

Afterwards the group decides to leave on their adventure, forgetting to visit old Iva. They take the old forest road with Oldhin leading the way as he knows it best, Wren assisting with the food and Iston looking out for spiders. The first few days of their travels are uneventful and free of danger, and luckily spiders! On the second day, the group sees a company of gray clad elves slowly marching west, perhaps to the Grey Havens? This sad sight still lifts the spirits of the group, as they realize that even though the old world is ending, a new one is starting for them to explore.

On the fifth day of travel the players come across an opening in the woods, with a peaceful meadow. This is the first bit of sunlight they see in a while, so they happily explore it. Iorwyn recognizes the central tree as an ent and becomes super excited. The ancient creature wakes up and greets the players. He introduces himself as Walking Stick, and is very interested in the ‘recent’ news. He slept since the great war on Sauron, and has little knowledge of local towns..things have changed indeed. After their conversation, Walking Stick gives the players a sip of water from its entwash, which rejuvenates them and fills them with energy.

Irowyn asks if they could have some more of this water, but Walking Stick very clearly states that this water is only for the ents, and no one else may keep it. Berenor does not care, and stealthily fills a flask with the water when the ent is distracted.

Shortly after the group continues their travels, saying their goodbyes to Walking Stick.

Several days later, they come across some old abandoned ruins that suggest that a great city once stood here. The players find a large stone head that probably belonged to a king from times long forgotten. Around the head they find the paw prints of some strange creature, but cannot identify it. However, before they can spend too much time on the mystery, they hear a loud scream not far from where they are. At first they want to hide, fearing an ambush, but once they realize that it is the dwarven tongue, they rush in to help.

Three dwarves are surrounded by a band of goblins, clearly outnumbered to the point where they would surely die without help from the players. Fortunately, their tides quickly turn as the group rains down arrows onto the goblins and then slashes up what is left, quickly and efficiently ending the threat. The Dwarves are thankful for the help and introduce themselves as Oldhin, Bori and Har. They invite the players to their camp.

The players agree, but before they go, they loot the dead goblins for the arrows that they let loose upon them. They find more arrows that once belonged to the goblins, but feel that  these items are tainted by darkness. They decide to leave the goblin arrows, in fears of being corrupted by them. Irowyn heals the injured Berenor with her knowledge of herbs.

At the camp the group talks to the dwarves. They learn that Oldhin is a smith, Har is a carver and Bori does not have a profession but helps with many things. They hail from the Blue Mountains and have travelled all this way to sell their goods. Berenor wonders why they would travel so far for trade alone and the dwarves insist that it is true, but it is clear that they have some ulterior motives.

Oldhin the dwarf asks for news, and is told that the forces of evil are awakening and coming down the mountains near Minas Tirth. This worries them, but it is far enough to not be an immediate threat. The party then plays a smoking game. Oldhin the elf starts by producing a large smoke dragon that ‘attacks’ Oldhin. Iowyn then tries to top that by making an ent that moves and drinks. Wren and Imrahil fail miserably and just start coughing. Berenor does a slight of nose check and makes it look like Wren produced a large creature, restoring her reputation amongst the dwarves. The dwarves themselves are not good at this at all, and concede the victory to Oldhin, who made the most amazing dragon. Har rewards him with a hand carved whistle.

At that point the group hears a boar scream in the distance, and Bori, Wren and Iorwyn go to investigate, with Berenor shadowing them. They find the boar in a cage and decide to take it anyway, slicing its throat and roasting it above the fire. They hear a wolf like howl in the distance, but not much else.

At night the dwarves go to sleep and the players take shifts watching over the camp. All seems to go well, until they are ambushed by a large party of goblins that snuck up on them.

The battle is harder than the last, and Imrahil is taken down by a dagger to the stomach. Several others are also hurt, but they make it in the end. At this point Iorwyn realizes that she could have predicted the weather and possibly the presence of the goblins with her abilities. If only she had not gone to sleep.

Before they can catch their breath after the battle, a few guards come up and accuse the players and the dwarves of the theft of their boar. Bori admits it and shows remorse, the rest tries to pacify the guards, asking why the boar was in the cage in the first place. The guards state that it is not their place to say, but they can follow them to their town and talk to their leader.

The town can barely be called that, consisting out of only like 5 buildings with a handful of people living there. The largest house seems to be a meeting hall of sorts. Inside they are asked to relinquish their weapons and are granted an audience with Gunevira?, the leader of the town. She is angry for what the group has done, as the boar was not theirs.

Oldhin steps forward and tries to repair the damage that they have done, offering to ask his elven brothers to keep an eye on the town and aid when necessary.

Gunevira does not bite, stating that here they take care of each other and do not rely on outsiders. However, before they can continue this debate, a loud roaring voice is heard outside. It  announces that a boar will no longer do, and no he wants human flesh. Gunvira panics, explaining that the wolf named Gray Muzzle has been terrorizing them for a while now, he even took her child. At that moment the group hears a scream, as Gray muzzle tears into a woman. All but one guard flee for their lives when they see the warg and his two friends. The players, dwarves and the one guard attack the wolves, trying to stop them from killing anyone else

Oldhin fires the first arrow, Wren hides behind a mule and the rest runs at the beast. Shortly after Gunevira comes running out with a sword and tries to chop the wargs head off, however the warg is too strong and simple bites down on the blade and then jumps on top of her, intending to kill his enemy. Iston shoots an arrow into the mouth of one of the wargs and then gets compelled to flee by a dark feeling. The warg grabs his chance, and slashes deep into the back of the elf, killing him on the spot.

This enrages the group, who quickly dispose of the remaining wargs, freeing the town of their tormentors. Gunevira is overjoyed by this and can’t thank the group enough. The townsfolk return, and a great feast is held to celebrate the victory and to mourn the dead.

wolf bites it and then knocks her prone. Iston asks if it ever had elf and then shoots an arrow into its mouth. The group is sad because they lost their friend, and so is a little girl who turns out to be the daughter of the woman that was killed. Wryn comforts her.

Imrahil does not celebrate and instead smokes alone, thinking of his lost friend. Iorwyn joins him, lamenting that she has no way to cure death.

Later the dead are buried in a crypt and Gunevira offers to also take Iston and bury him as one of their own. If that is what he would have wanted of course. The party agrees, and Iston gets buried in the crypt. They lay his weapons in his hands, and coins on his eyes. The only thing that they take is his necklace, to return to his family after their travels.

The dwarves announce that they will leave now, heading west while the group plans to travel north. Hori gives each of them a magical pipe as a fare well gift.

The session ends with the group finally reaching the road that they had set out to find all those days ago in Woodsmantown. They meet a gray bearded figure there, it’s Gandalf.