Middle-Earth Role Playing Campaign

While Rhôn set to work closing the latest gash in his leather helm, Mîriel entered Araquenval's tent and examined the wounds made by the Orc the previous night. The arpsusar had done its work well, for she found little evidence of damage.

Bauglir returned from inspecting the bodies of the Orcs they had killed the night before. "Those were Skuth-Rugrai all right," he reported. "Their garments are primarily black, to blend in with the night, and their weapons are crude."

"Let the crows have their way with them," came Mîriel's voice. She was nowhere to be seen, for the invisibility spell Araquenval had cast the night before on himself, Dennenor, Luinár, and her was still working.

"Perhaps they will feed on these bodies and leave us alone," Bradlegar added.

Breaking camp, they began their journey again, riding slowly on the deteriorating road. Rounding a bend, they nearly collided with an Orc riding a warg coming the other way. The warg stopped abruptly, toppling its rider off and sending it tumbling to the ground. Spear in hand, Luinár charged, suddenly becoming visible as she struck the warg on the leg. Dennenor, still invisible, drew his usriev and rode to where the Orc had fallen. "If you value your life, you will get up--slowly," he said in Orkish.

The Orc looked about, seeing only Luinár, still dressed in the plate armour of Durax's bodyguard. "Thank the Creator--backup from Angmar!" He was an Uruk, and, to the surprise of the party, spoke in Common. "Too many," he continued, casting a nervous glance behind him. "They're going to eat me! A horde approaches, chanting about treasure. Ride the other way! Take me with you!"

Bauglir rode up. "You are from Gundabad," he said.

"Yes. I am of the Cloven Spire."

Araquenval, though not visible, barked an order in Morbeth. "Report! State your name and rank, and your purpose here."

"Kûrsh, lieutenant of Gundabad," the Uruk replied. "I was on my way to deliver a message I carry with me to Broga, King in Rhudaur. But I met a great number of lesser Orcs coming this way and was forced to flee. Many come --ten or twenty lurg. Maybe we can stand together."

A shudder ran through the group. The Uruk had just said as many as two hundred Orcs were coming their way. "We could retreat and ambush," said Araquenval.

"Or hide by the river, and hope they pass us unawares," said Dennenor. "Araquenval, do you see anything there that may be of use to us?"

The Elf cast a discerning eye along the river that ran close by the road. Here the country was rough and stony, and quickly he saw a semi-circle of large boulders near the banks--a useful and defensible location. Turning their horses, they left the road and headed for the boulders. Once there, they dismounted and tied the horses nose to nose. To reduce the chance of the beasts giving away their location, Araquenval cast invisibility to hide them, and Bauglir cast sound mirage combined with a taste and smell mirage to dampen their noise and scent.

They surveyed their location. Four great boulders, each at least twelve feet high, formed a crude semicircle protected at the back by the stream running swiftly southward. On the north the first boulder stood several feet from the stream. The second was next to it, and between them was a space just wide enough for attackers to pass through. In front of this gap Luinár cast a trap spell, and Rhôn-Hari-Rhôn stood behind to take care of any intruders. Twenty feet to the south of the second rock was the third, while the fourth sat cheek by jowl just east of it. A lone spruce tree growing between the fourth boulder and the stream completed the semicircle.

Luinár boosted Bradlegar up to a natural shelf high on the third large boulder, from where he could fire arrows and duck back down to safety. Then she, Dennenor, and Kûrsh took up positions around the tree at the south end.

"Save for the large gap," said Araquenval, referring to the space between the second and third boulders, "this looks like a good fortification. Bauglir, do you know how to cast an earth wall?"

"Yes. I suspect you are suggesting we each create a wall and close the gap."

"Indeed, but we should wait until they are nearly upon us. I shall place my wall at the right of the gap, and you put yours to the left."

While they were setting up and distributing crossbows, from the distance came the low, throbbing sound of drums. As they waited the sounds came closer, and now they could hear chanting to the rhythm of drumbeats.

Go! Gold! Go! Treasure!
Go! Gold! Go! Treasure!

First into view came the bats, a thick cloud of them low above the Orcs. Then came several Orcs riding wolves, and behind them a great crowd of small unruly Orcs, dressed all in black.

One of the wolf-riders held high his spear, calling for a halt. He stooped low, examining the ground. Then he dismounted and called for the others to do the same. They held a brief conference, then remounted and left the trail, spreading out in a line and riding slowly and carefully toward the group hiding behind the boulders.

The group struck when the wolf-riders came within range of the crossbows, Dennenor and Luinár taking down two wolves, and Kûrsh killing one of the Orcs. Four charged toward the broad gap, then stopped short as the earth walls cast by the two mages abruptly materialized in front of them. One wolf, unable to stop, crashed headlong into it. Another ran into the trap spell Luinár had set up, then Rhôn, standing behind the trap, killed both wolf and rider.

Of the ten wolves and Orcs that attacked, only three wolves and one Orc survived the skirmish. Kûrsh killed four Orcs, Rhôn and Bradlegar two took apiece, and Dennenor one. Of the wolves, Luinár and Bradlegar slew two, Rhôn and Dennenor put away one each, and another perished colliding with the earth wall. Two wolves fled when their riders died, and the last retreated with its rider.

This Orc, the lone survivor of the initial attack, rode back toward the clustered horde. Halfway there, he stopped and beckoned them forward. Slowly, with much shouting and jabbering, the mob advanced on their position.

"The bats are supplying shade from the sun for the Orcs," called Bauglir. "Araquenval, you and I should do what we can to reduce that cover."

"We also have those mushrooms!" said Luinár. "We should take them when the fighting gets fierce. We'll be able to kill two Orcs for every one that tries to hit us!"

Dennenor and Luinár reloaded their crossbows and waited. It took nearly two minutes for the crowd to push and shove its way down from the road to the boulders. As soon as they were in range, Araquenval and Bauglir cast cold ball spells on the bats flying overhead. Eighty dropped out of the sky as soon as the blast hit them, while on the ground underneath a dozen Orcs perish from the frost. Swiftly the mages cast another pair of cold balls. Forty more bats tumbled to the ground, and as the battle progressed more and more of them succumbed to the chill and fell, progressively weakening the shade they provided, exposing the Orcs underneath to the sun.

Quickly the Orcs spread out, attacking on all fronts. Realizing there was an open gap behind her, Mîriel invoked the spell bound into a ring they had taken from Durax. A wall of water sprang up beside the first boulder, stretching across the narrow strip of land and into the river. Then she cast an air wall in front of the opening Rhôn was holding. Over the course of the battle, Rhôn held his position there at the gap, killing Orcs one by one as they struggled though the dense churning air in an ultimately futile attempt to enter the fortification.

Dennenor and Luinár fired their crossbows, and Kûrsh his bow, and together they killed three of the advancing Orcs. Then they took up their swords. Aided by the zulsendura mushrooms, they dispatched any and all attackers that stepped within range. Bradlegar too ate a zulsendura, then with amazing swiftness fired two arrows at a large leader in the back, felling him.

One agile Orc scaled the earth walls Araquenval and Bauglir had created. Seeing it, Mîriel cast an airwall atop the earth walls. Caught in the roiling air, the unfortunate Orc fell backwards and was trampled by the crowd below.

Araquenval dismissed the invisibility spell on the horses, mounted his own, and stood up in the saddle to gain a better view of the action. Several Orcs were assailing the water wall Mîriel had set up. Most were repelled, but one broke through and charged into the enclosure. He ran into Mîriel, whose invisibility spell broke as they collided. Bauglir raced to her aid, striking the Orc with Durax's sword of pain and invoking the shock bolt spell in the blade. Stunned, the Orc fell back, and Mîriel weakly attacked it with her own sword. Then she reached out and touched it, releasing a stunning spell.

By now many Orcs were hacking away at the earth walls with swords and axes. Araquenval prepared a spell, and the air about the digging Orcs became thick with mist. The Elf cried out in Orkish, "Poison!" Bewildered, the Orcs stopped their assault on the walls and looked about themselves, unable to sense any malevolence in the fog. Many began to beat themselves wildly with their hands, convinced one of their number was on fire.

The tide was turning in favour of the defenders. As bodies piled up in front of the line held by Luinár, Dennenor, and Kûrsh, as Bradlegar's arrows flew into the fray, and as more and more chilled bats fell out of the flock to the ground, the swarm of Orcs lost the little discipline they had and ran. But larger Orcs, holding their ground in the back lines, grabbed many of the fleeing and cast them back into the fight.

Now hammers and axes were flying over the boulders and earth walls, lobbed by the attackers on the other side. Most missed those within, but Luinár and Bauglir were struck glancing blows. Then Bradlegar's voice called over the noise of battle. "More Orcs are coming down the road! They're bringing with them a large and strange machine!"

Hearing this, Araquenval seized the reigns of Luinár's and Araquenval's horses, leading them over to where their owners were staring down a line of Orcs that had taken up a position ten feet in front of them. The pair jumped into the saddles, leaped over the accumulated Orc bodies in front of them, charging the line. Luinár killed an Orc on the way by, then rode around to enter the main battle from behind. Dennenor stopped short of the line, struck one of their number as his horse trampled another, then the entire line, including the larger Orcs behind, turned and fled.

Bauglir and Mîriel, ignoring the now incapacitated Orc inside, also mounted up. Bauglir led Bradlegar's pony over to where her master was still firing arrows into the battlefield. "We're getting out of here," he called to the Hobbit, then helped him down from his perch and on to Sara.

Outside, the Orcs in the fog renewed their efforts to dig through the earth walls while all about them their companions scattered in all directions. Too late to help, a dozen reinforcements arrived on the scene with a great siege weapon, recklessly rolling it down the slope to the battlefield.

"Let's move!" cried Dennenor. Two Orcs burst through the water wall and ran toward Rhôn. The wildman abandoned his position and the seven Orc bodies that had piled up in the gap, leaped to his horse, and rode the far side where the others were riding through the fleeing throng. Dennenor led the group along a clear path up to the war machine, slashing at Orcs as they rode past. Seeing the massive horses and the warriors riding them, the Orcs tending the machine leaped off and bolted with the others. Luinár rode up, and reaching over to a banner hanging on the siege weapon, tore it off.

They retreated to the road and began riding south. Bradlegar looked back to see the remaining Orcs already removing armour and weapons from their fallen.

Kûrsh followed them for a short distance before halting. "I'm going home," he said, pointing north. "My home's that way--I'm not going south again."

"Wait," said Araquenval. "I have a note for you that I would like you to deliver ... I want you to take a message ...."

"What sort of message?" asked the Orc, suddenly skeptical.

"Are you questioning me?" Araquenval retorted.

Kûrsh paused. "I don't like the look in your eye right now. I've got a skin --I want to live! See you around." And before the others could react, he kicked his wolf into a gallop and fled northward.

"Remember," called Araquenval behind him, "we know your name!"

"He's not worth the trouble," said Mîriel. "We have a more pressing problem right now--getting as far away from here as we can. We should ride hard until nightfall, then stop for a couple of hours. The Elves should be able to rest up, and I have something that will help the humans get a full night's sleep in about two hours."

"Who will be on watch?" asked Bradlegar.

"We'll work something out. But we can't afford to stop for a whole night when we're this close to an Orc-hold."

"What is it that you have to help the humans rest?" asked Dennenor.

"Arunya. I just have to brew it up and we can drink it. We'll sleep for a couple of hours, but it will feel like we've had a full night's worth."

"Then give a couple to the Elves as well," said Bauglir. "They need but three hours rest a night. Have Araquenval rest for an hour while Dennenor keeps watch. Then Dennenor can take the arunya Araquenval can watch."

"It will work," said Araquenval. "But rather than discuss this further, we should ride while the sun is yet with us."

They picked up the pace again, riding west for a time around a spur of the mountains, then south once more. Ahead of them, off to the right, a sinister column of smoke rose into the sky.

They made twenty miles by the time the sun sank low to the horizon. Before the evening deepened too far, Luinár stopped and cast a spell to locate a safe place to stay, then led the group half a mile off the road to a shallow ravine. She pointed to an opening at the far end beneath the roots of an enormous tree. Mîriel, who earlier had cast a nature's awareness spell, checked the cave and perceived nothing inside. Rhôn walked down the ravine, entered the cave, and returned a minute later.

"Cave is home for a bear," he reported. "Bear not there now, gone maybe a week. Cave large enough for us but not horses."

"Enough for us to rest in," said Mîriel. "As soon as we've gathered wood for a fire, I'll prepare the arunya."

Rhôn, Luinár, and Bradlegar found Mîriel some wood. She lit a fire, boiled a pot of water, and brewed seven of the roots. The resulting liquid she portioned out to all save Dennenor, who left the cave to stand watch on the ground above. The others quickly fell into a heavy sleep.

Less than an hour later, Araquenval came out of his meditation and relieved Dennenor, who entered the den, drank his cup of arunya, and entered his meditative trance. An hour after that, everyone awakened, refreshed and ready to travel again.

Quickly they packed up the makeshift camp, mounted up, and began their ride again. The sun had set, so they were travelling at night. Rhôn, able to see in the dark, took the lead with Luinár while Dennenor rode in the back to guard against Orcs coming from behind. The Elves could still see the column of smoke they had watched the entire ride from the battle at the river, but now it was less in front of them and more to the right.

Progress was slow in the dark, but steady. Many hours they plodded along, relying on Rhôn and Araquenval to show the way. In the back, Dennenor kept a constant watch behind, relying on his horse to follow the others. More than once a horse stumbled on the uneven ground that passed for a road, but fortunately there were no major mishaps. At one point Araquenval spotted a wolf pack on the road ahead of them, but the wolves vanished into the trees as the group drew near.

Now the road began to climb, although the stream it followed still flowed downhill beside them on the left. Ahead, Rhôn and the Elves could see the silhouette of a narrow pass bounded on either side by tall cliffs and hear the noise of water as the stream cascaded down falls just beyond.

"There is a cleft or a pass of some sort ahead," Araquenval announced.

"It is known as the Last Gap," said Bauglir. "Although we left Angmar proper two days ago, its influence extends out to here, but no further."

Dennenor, up to now watching behind him, turned around to see where they were. In doing so, he caught a brief glimmer of light up the cliff on the right. He quickly called a stop.

"The Gap is watched," he announced. "I just saw some light up there."

"It makes sense that such a strategic place would be," said Mîriel. "Perhaps it is guarded as well."

"I shall check," said Araquenval. He concentrated, then rose gently off his horse, hovered briefly, and suddenly vanished.

Araquenval wrapped his cloak about him, trying to keep out the cold as he swiftly flew to where Dennenor had pointed out the flash of light. Two minutes later he had reached it and was hovering overhead. Looking down, he saw Orcs watching from a ledge built hundred feet up the cliff, well hidden from any traveller upon the road below. More Orcs were coming on to the ledge: from the level of activity, Araquenval surmised the group had been spotted.

Thinking quickly, he prepared and cast a light spell. The entire ledge was abruptly illuminated. The Orcs stood still for a stunned moment, then began running madly about, looking for the source of the glare. The low fire that had been burning was swiftly stamped out, but the light persisted. In the confusion one unlucky watcher ran the wrong direction and plummeted off the ledge to rocks far below. Then the air about them began to sparkle with a multitude of tiny twinkling lights. The Orcs screamed as Araquenval's stun cloud began to take its toll.

Seeing the ledge ahead of them suddenly light up, the group back on the road spurred their horses to a trot. "That Elf's not going to have all the fun!" cried Bauglir, suddenly ascending from his horse and vanishing a few moments later.

The remainder of the group rode as swiftly as they dared in the darkness, for they had nearly a mile to cover before reaching the Gap. Araquenval rejoined them, adroitly flying in and landing on his horse. Five minutes after setting out, they heard Bauglir's voice close by. "There is an entrenchment on the other side of the pass, and they are waiting! We will have to do something about that."

"At our level?" asked Mîriel.

"Yes."

"Then we'll take care of them as we ride past!"

They continued their ride, hearing no more from Bauglir. Two minutes later a ledge on the other side of the Last Gap suddenly flared in a great fireball. Even from this distance they could hear the screams of Orcs as the flames engulfed them. On they rode, up the last portion of the trail, bursting through the Gap to the other side, swords and bows at the ready. But they were not needed, for the Orcs that were hiding there earlier had fled. Horns and drums echoed all around the peaks.

They heard Bauglir's voice from the road ahead of them. "Smooth sailing ahead! Let's get out of here!"

"Will the Orcs follow us past the Gap?" asked Bradlegar.

"They may follow us," replied Bauglir. "Catching us would be another matter!"

They rode on. From the Last Gap the road dropped steeply to the Ettenmoors, a great, flat, stretch of land populated by fens, bogs, and little else. Soon, in the east, a glimmer of light appeared: they had ridden most of the night. A new day was coming, the first they would free from the dangers of Angmar.

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Day 24: The Ettenmoors

Day 22: A Bad Day for Corlagon

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Based on events played to February 27, 1998. Accesses since September 30, 1998: