Middle-Earth Role Playing Campaign

Although the day was hot, Luinár, Rhôn, and Mîriel rode a short distance into the hills to search for plants, bringing along Bradlegar to keep watch and mind the horses. Two intense hours of searching turned up two doses of harfy, two very rare hoak-foer flowers, six dagmather stems, three belramba lichens, four more suranie cloves, and six more klagul nodules.

The day passed into evening. Dennenor awoke from his arunya induced sleep, looking and feeling better. But they decided to keep him out of the watches, saying the added rest could only help. In his stead, Luinár volunteered take the first watch with Mîriel, and Bauglir agreed to wake in the middle of the night and stay up with Araquenval.

They let the fire burn low. Luinár cast shadow on herself, then sat up with Mîriel, watching the dark hills to the south. But it was Mîriel, turning around on chance, who first noticed movement south of their camp. She tugged on the warning rope they had strung between them. Luinár looked back to see her sister looking intently in her direction.

For several minutes the two women stared south into the darkness, Mîriel catching several furtive movements out on the stones. Then came the sounds of cursing. This Luinár heard, and now she pulled on the rope to alert her sister. To her surprise she discovered Mîriel was right behind her. But before she could say anything, a large rock came crashing in, bouncing off Mîriel's shield.

"TROLLS!" she cried, then hurled a few curses of her own at the unseen enemy. Even as the others piled out of their tents, she retreated to a safer place north of the camp. More rocks flew in, striking Rhôn, Bradlegar, and Bauglir, but doing little damage. The people in the camp scattered to more secure positions. Bauglir disappeared.

Araquenval stooped down, picked up a handy stone, and cast a light spell on it. Handing the brilliantly shining rock to Rhôn, he instructed him to throw it toward the Trolls. Rhôn did so, then turned tail and hustled over to where Dennenor was hiding. Meanwhile Araquenval retreated with all the dignity he could muster, and once out of range cast the flying spell he had earlier inscribed on the rune paper.

"Where'd they all go?" asked one of the Trolls: where it had seen people just moments before, it now saw none. In reply, one of Bradlegar's arrows whizzed in and struck it. Its companions said nothing, for they were watching the glowing rock. But even this they quickly lost interest in, and they began looking around for their dinners. One spotted Rhôn running through the tents toward a boulder and lobbed a rock at him. It connected but did little damage.

Something caught the eye of another Troll. "Funny man fly!" it exclaimed, then tossed a stone at Araquenval. It missed badly. The other two, not seeing any tempting targets, advanced on the camp. One of the pair spotted Rhôn and with surprising speed intercepted the woodman and struck him once with its club. It struck, not hard, and Rhôn shrugged it off and hurried on. The Troll followed: a mistake, for Rhôn was headed to where Dennenor was hiding. Up jumped the Elf, swinging his great sword, breaking one of the Troll's legs. The creature tottered, trying to stay up. In came Rhôn's boomerang, whacking it in the side. The Troll lost its balance and came crashing down in front of Dennenor, who swiftly broke its other leg with another blow from his sword.

The second of the pair ran straight past Luinár, hidden in her shadow spell. Waiting for just the right moment, she thrust her sword high, catching the heedless Troll in the chest. Backwards it fell, the sword embedded in it.

Taking another jegga poisoned arrow from his quiver, Bradlegar shot the Troll he had hit earlier. Then Bauglir appeared beside it and blasted it with a firebolt. The creature screamed. Almost reflexively, it hit the mage with its club and sent him tumbling. Bauglir did not get up when he finally came to a halt.

Over to the first Troll Araquenval now flew, hitting it with a firebolt of his own. Desperately the lumbering creature tried to quench the flames that seemed to burning all about it. Taking advantage of the Troll's situation, Araquenval flew behind and struck it with another blast of fire. Advancing forward to a better position, Bradlegar caught with another arrow the same Troll he had twice previously hit. And Luinár, abandoning for the moment her stuck sword, advanced with a spear. Her jab caught the Troll's attention, and it struck back with its club. But this was no Olog with a great hammer: the wooden club merely bounced off her armour with a dull clank. Luinár laughed at the surprised Troll even as another of Bradlegar's arrows flew in. Again she stabbed with her spear, and Dennenor came running, and Rhôn's javelin caught the creature in the chest. The Troll collapsed. By some strange force the javelin dislodged itself and returned to Rhôn before the creature hit the ground.

One Troll was now standing, reeling about and roaring in pain as Araquenval caught it with yet another firebolt. Bradlegar struck it with an arrow. And yet again Araquenval cast his firebolt, and to the amazement of all the creature seemed to be consumed as if it were a tree caught in a wildfire.

The Troll with the two broken legs was almost pitiful: groaning, crying, and bleeding, it dragged itself about with its arms in an utterly futile attempt to make its way home. It made less than fifty yards before it collapsed and breathed its last.

While Luinár extracted her sword from the slain Troll, Mîriel went over to examine Bauglir. Although his helm was undented and his sea green cloak unblemished, he was quite unconscious. She cast a healing spell to take care of the bruising, then Dennenor and Luinár carried him to his tent.

Luinár talked to Rhôn next to assess his condition, and cast a couple of spells to help heal the battering he had taken. They were not too effective, so Mîriel completed the task with a regeneration spell.

Since they were close to the end of the first watch, they prepared for the second before retiring again. Bauglir had said earlier he would assist with the second watch, but asleep as he was in his tent he was in no condition to do so. Likewise Araquenval, exhausted from the strain of casting four firebolts and the light spell, said he would not take this watch. So Dennenor did, although he was tired and could still feel the lingering effects of his encounter with the ghost the night before. He was joined by Rhôn, who could see almost as well as Dennenor in the dark.

The watch was uneventful. Half way through the moon set, and near the end groans came from Bauglir's tent when he woke up. Araquenval came out of his Elf-rest and awakened Bradlegar. Together they kept the third watch, and it, too, was quiet.

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Guided Tour

Day 35: Stone Cold Troll Hold

Day 33: Flying Horses and a Restless Ghost

MERP Campaign #2: Index

MERP Campaign #3: Paul's MERP Campaign

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Based on events played to May 22, 1998. Accesses since September 30, 1998: