And a happy Bonfire Night to the hobbits! Mainly a Buckland celebration but I’m sure the rest of the Shirefolk won’t turn down the excuse for a bit of a burn-up and a hearty bite to eat, even if they haven’t the Horn of the Mark to blow.
But the Battle of Bywater was November 3, 3019, why would they celebrate it November 2nd? You got me on this one.
For the Game: How do you propose to find and catch the wargs.
Check Appendix D of LotR, final sentence. The Horn of the Mark was blown on the evening of November 2 when the hobbits arrived at Bywater, marking the outbreak of the uprising. The Battle followed on the next day when the Men returned with reinforcements and were ambushed, but the Buckland feast-day marked the blowing of the Horn, not the battle. (And it’s a feast-day in Buckland because of Merry, and because that is where the Horn became an heirloom, obviously, not because of where the historic event took place.)
Using our birds for reconnaissance, get close enough to be in their path, then set up the same trap as before. Last we heard, each separate group of wargs was headed our way. We just need to move closer to them so that they won’t smell the wargs we’ve already slain.
Of course Thoroncir is always ready for some lancework, but could ride Seafoam and need not borrow Gilraen’s horse.
I bow, I never knew that and even The Thain’s Bookis missing that entry.
These wargs won’t be following the same route so that is why the party will need to intercept. The Hawks should be able to find them again. Gilraen offered her horse as Kali is faster, fearless and has more HP as a descendant of Shadowfax.
Well, if you put it that way… 
Just in case you thought we had missed it.
Stinging indeed, very droll. 
I thought I should post this here rather than in the game thread - but I’m confused about the current combat plan. 
:eek:
(All numbers are posts in the game thread)
813 - we learn the layout of the Fort, with Trolls + Goblins in the Tower and a sealed House.
Gorbo suggest we shelter from the storm in an oak grove.
817 - the party is warned that many conventional attacks will fail v Trolls
819-824; 826-827; 831-832; 852; 854-856 - the use of decoys to lure Trolls out is agreed
834; 836; 838; 854 - triplines are added to the decoy plan
857 (865) - a Field HQ is suggested (complete with Plant Growth / Entangle defence) for the spellcasters and passengers
848 - 893 - the Fort is scouted
**901 - Suddenly Gilraen states that she, Gwaelur + Thronocir need to go into the Fort as soon as the door opens. She adds that the storm will be dangerous to the party before the Trolls can come out in murky sunlight.
Nobody agrees with this change of plan…
… but in 904 it is stated that Gwaelur will jog up the hill with Thoroncir and Gilraen (and that the party need to hold Curu back)**
So the net result is that Ghân is stuck outside (with just Curu for protection), with all the mounts and a succession of Call Lightning bolts that will never be used because the rest of the party are inside, fighting Trolls on their home ground.
Glee, I think for some reason that the players are not reading the thread this time. Deor is casting spells up in the tower when he never left the camp. I pointed out many times that the trolls would not leave the tower until it was dark enough.
Personally I think I dropped 3-4 hints that the party needs to get the horses up the hill and no one is acting on it.
We are about to send 3 scouts down to [del]die against[/del] fight two huge trolls with a few Goblins. This is nuts. It took over a week to get a poor plan devised. I thought I made it clear enough that the trolls would not be able to go outside until the storm was very bad. I hope I made it clear this is the type of storm that would injure or kill horses and possibly people. It will be at that point by 2pm. It will be an epic thunderbattle. Think of the storm that drove Gandalf Bilbo and the Dwarves into a cave in the Mountain Pass.
I wasn’t willing as GM to allow any more discussion and went with the pieces of what I think you will agree was a half-assed plan. You say no one agreed, but there were many posts were no one disagreed with the plan as I thought it was put together.
I’m doing what I can but we need more decisiveness and we need players to at least be aware of where their characters are. If they are not sure, ask for clarification like **RogueRacer **did. Post it in the thread, this thread or PM me. I promise I will get back to you.
As to this, you also have Deor and Gorbo and your canines. You have **Zero **reason to fear trolls attacking.
Ok, gathered from the thread I believe the situation is this.
Characters:
At the tower: Mulligan, Elfstan, Miron, Gil-Gandel, Gwaelur, Thoroncir, Gilraen.
At the backup hide: Ghan, Deor, Curu, Lorlianna, Gorbo
Creatures:
There are two dead trolls in the tower and one dead goblin outside. There are two trolls and five or so goblins unnaccounted for, believed in the area below the tower.
Weather:
There is a major force 10 storm going on forcing everyone to seek shelter.
Locale:
There is a tunnel from the basement leading outside with a collapsed entrance.
Part of the tower is on fire and needs putting out .
The stone house has been looked at but an entrance has not been found.
Current Believed Actions:
Gil-Gandel to get the party members at the hide to the tower under cover.
Mulligan, Elfstan and Miron to locate the remaining creatures BUT NOT TO ENGAGE.
Gwaelur to lead the dousing of the fire.
Have I missed or got anything wrong in this summary?
**CatInASuit **I think that sums it up perfectly. The only question left is how would Gwaelur attempt to put out the fire? The rain is already picking up though as are the winds.
It sounds like as soon as the scouts see a Troll it is time to flee back?
BTW: The House had a door on the porch facing the tower between the two small trees.
I haven’t figured that out yet. I will post in the thread with some questions to get us moving in that direction.
For the record, I was more than willing to abandon the plan that I helped come up with in favor of the one that What Exit? proposed (via NPC) since I quite agreed that the original plan was beyond half assed. I just didn’t have any better ideas and people seemed to be going along with me.
The fires in the tower, they are oil fires right? So we need to smother them rather than drown them with water.
Also, why is Mirion going with the hobbits? When did we decide that?
Putting on firefighting hat: Actually at this point the oil is already burnt up and this is a simple Alpha Fire that water/cooling or smothering would put out. Gwaelur as a smith I will say you know that sometimes the easiest thing to do is remove the fuel (chop out the wood on fire and toss it out a window). The fire on the top floor is bad though. Large broken timbers and heavy curtains at least. You may need to just hope the storm puts that out.
As to Miron, I don’t know, I thought they were taking an elf along and Gil-Gandel was acting as the runner. He doesn’t need to go.
BTW: I found a mistake, Gilraen picked up magic gloves for healing. Her Spells shouls be doing +2 per die, I need to remember that in the future. She has nothing for fighting fires though.
Ok, good to know. Thanks.
For my part, I was confused over two things.
I was having a problem figuring out where the trolls were, which is why I finally asked for clarification. To me the ground floor is synonymous with the first floor. Whereas in the description we have a ground floor, a first floor, and a second floor (and a lot of basement). I think there was also a bit of a logical problem in the thread. For example:
So the troll on the ground floor isn’t Fred, it’s apparently Rub. Then (#915):
So a ballista-wielding troll comes flying down from the second floor and falls. Who was it? Rub was on the ground floor. Is it Fred or some unnamed troll?
In post (#916):
I think this should have been Rub.
Two posts later (#918):
So now it’s Rub with the ballista? I’m guessing their names got swapped.
Another bit of weirdness (#926):
How did a ooman hit Rub when he was up in the tower? Of course, trolls are really stupid, so maybe this one is easy to explain. 
Back to the strategy, the second thing I missed is that I was thinking that the trolls were going to come out as soon as the storm hit. That isn’t quite the case it seems. Instead the trolls can’t come out until the storm is too dangerous for us to be out in it.
I’m wondering now if I should have given in to an impulse to knock on the door of that house? If we could shelter in the house, we could turn Ghan loose on reducing the tower to rubble on the trolls’ heads.
Every Dwarf that ever played in Middle Earth would be appalled by the idea of bringing the tower down. Everyone knows that Troll Lair usually = TREASURE!
It looks a lot like I did screw up the names of the two trolls at some point. Fred was the Ground Floor Troll and Rub (Actually Rob but the Trolls speak terribly) was the 2nd floor ballista troll. I apologize for the added confusion. That part of the thread got twisted in my mind.
I was consistent in the naming of the floors but I fully understand the confusion. That use to get me too and I am glad you asked about it. For some reason a common method of naming floors is Ground, 1st, 2nd to 12th, 14th to NNth.
I thought Mulligan was pretending that Rub was talking about how much he hates humans and how one once hurt him. So that is what Fred (on the ground floor) understood too. By the way, Fred thought Rub took a major hit to the balls and was talking high pitched for that reason. He was actually laughing to himself about it.
I really really think I stressed the Trolls could not come out until it got very dark out and that the storm would take a bit to build to that level. Maybe I failed.
I can’t stress enough, if you are not sure of something, ask. Especially using the Setup thread and PMs if the question is out of character. I know I forget to type some things in especially when the plans get long or as shown I got the two Trolls mixed up in name.
I’m sure you were consistent. I was just mentioning that I was confused over it. I think every elevator I’ve ever rode says “G” or “L” (ground or lobby) and then goes straight to “2”. I use this to explain my confusion and will end this hijack here and now. 
Regarding the trolls coming out, yes, by the end it was clear that they wouldn’t. By then we were pretty far along in our planning of luring them out though. It’s good that you saved us from doing something unworkable. It just left several of us wondering why we were charging the tower. Anyway, enough said on this too.
Agreed. We missed some of your hints, O mighty DM, and also had no particularly brilliant plan for tackling four (!) trolls. The Fellowship of the Ring had a hard enough time with one, even on the defensive behind a barricade in Balin’s Tomb, and for us to go on the offensive against four in their own lair as a huge storm gathered was, um, a daunting prospect. I’m not complaining, I hasten to add! I don’t want every fight to be a walkover. What fun would that be? So going toe-to-stinky-toe with a troll or four wasn’t too scary for me, and I was willing to go forward with our half-assed plan. If, through NPCs, you want or need to give us an occasional nudge, I welcome it.
Thanks again for all of your hard work and good humor, What Exit? I’m still having a blast.
Agreed. Even with all the strangeness and miscommunications that have come up recently, this one is porbably my favorite of the adventures we have been on so far. Thanks for doing this.
Agreed! Thanks much!