7.1 Heading East

Your task in Stonyford complete, you head out across the grassy plains to Woodland Hall as quickly as possible. It is about 50 miles east, and will take two or three days. If the report of Dwarves headed to the area are true, time may of the essence to prevent an unnecessary war. Hopefully word will reach Radagast or Beorn quickly.

Western Mirkwood is virtually uninhabited. The Woodmen township of Woodland Hall is located near the southern edge of the forest, and the woods surrounding it are more wholesome than most inside Mirkwood. Long ago, the Woodmen started to clear a wedge in the forest, to make it easier to travel to Woodland Hall. As the Shadow in Dol Guldur grows, the Woodmen speak of clearing more land in Western Mirkwood, or even of building a new town close to the Old Ford.

At the time when the Old Forest Road was crowded with travellers, several villages and large groups of farmsteads appeared in this area, as the traffic along the road brought Men to these parts. Most of them were Northmen, but some few came out of the Southlands, from as far as the realm of Gondor. These southerners brought with them the art of building in stone; while these Men have long disappeared from Wilderland, the ruins of their works remain, overgrown with ivy and broken by tree-roots.

Before the Battle of Five Armies, Orcs might also be encountered in Western Mirkwood along the Old Forest Road, but they fled after the battle at Erebor.

Plot points/Scenes

• The party is attacked by Mansbane, Hill Troll the first night out.

If necessary, Iwmud the Goatherd will appear to assist.

• Any party member with Dragon-Sickness as a Shadow Weakness or Greedy as a Distinctive Feature will want to look for the the Troll's lair for plunder, and will leave the party if necessary. Alternatively, the Loremaster can have the party find an item of value on the body of the Troll, such as an article of clothing with the name of Allatar on it, to convince the party to find the hoard.

• The hoard contains the axe of Nuri and his bones.

The Northmen of old laid their kings to rest in the Long Barrows. These mounds crowned in simbelmynë, the white Evermind flower, hold the honoured dead from the earliest days. It is said that the oldest mound is the tomb of a great lord who led his people out of the north to settle along the Anduin and was counted among the Wise.

Atop the barrows is a complicated arrangement of earthworks and standing stones. Those who can understand the movement of the heavens say that these stones form an astronomical calendar, and that the changes of the seasons and the turning of the years can be predicted by studying the stones and the shadows they cast upon the land. At times of turmoil, the stones may even be used to predict the future by those with the lore to read them.

Bones are scattered throughout Mansbane's den, as well as various coins, trinkets, and some weapons and armor. One axe in particular looks fairly recently added and looks to be of high craftsmanship - apparently the Troll left the axe where it fell.

East Anduin Vales

Open full size

A visitor to this part of the Vales of Anduin would be forgiven for thinking that this land is empty. The land rolls on for hundreds of miles beside the river, endless green valleys running down to the Great River. To the east is the ever-present shadow of the forest like a black stain on the horizon.

While few people live here, the land remembers them. There were kingdoms here, long ago, and armies watered the soil with their blood. The visitor must clamber over ruined stone walls, or perhaps make camp amid the barely-visible foundations of some old village. The tumbledown remains of ringforts crown every large hill from the Old Ford to the Undeeps and Elven paths run along the border of Mirkwood for many miles.

The Woodmen of Mirkwood live in this region — or at least their herds do. Their villages lie deep in the forest, but they keep herds of cattle and sheep in the open dales. Young men and women tend to the herds with the help of dogs, and run back to the shelter of the forest when threatened.

Hill Troll

Stats

AL	END	HAT	PRY	ARM
7	84	7	5+1	3d

Skills

Pers	Surv	Mov	Cust	Pcp	Voc
3	2	2	0	2	2

Wpn Skills	Abilities
Hvy Hammer 3	Great Size
Crush 2	Strike Fear
	Hideous Toughness

Great Size: Not knocked out at 0 END (becomes Weary)
Strike Fear: -1 HAT: Fear Test (Valor/Heart) TN 14
Hideous Toughness: -1 HAT to reduce damage by AL.

---

Weapon	DMG	EDG	INJ	Call
Hvy Hammer	8	Eye	14	Break Shield
Crush	AL	Eye	12	none

Parent Plot

7.0: Preventing a War