Aww Shucks.
Thanks guys. Sorry for the chaos.
Just for note RogueRacer:
English buildings have Ground, 1st, 2nd etc.
American buildings have Ground 2nd, 3rd etc.
As for mimicking the 2nd Floor troll, Gandalf was exactly what Mulligan had in mind and was trying to get the troll to open the door to let the others in, as well as hide the fact that the troll was incapacitated/dead.
And What Exit? - The game is excellent. 
Actually many buildings in the NYC and New England areas follow the English/European convention. My Brother’s apartment building is a good example in New Jersey. Rule of thumb is if both Ground Floor and 1st floor is mentioned, assume the English convention is being used.
Mulligan could not imitate the actual sound of the Troll’s voice like Gandalf did but the ground floor Troll thought the high pitched voice was related to the fall down the stairs. It was well played and that and your oiling of the stairs was rewarded.
Thank you.
So currently the whole party minus Elfstan is on the first floor. Elfstan is on the Ground floor and there are things coming up from the basement as well as some goblins heading up to the first floor?
No, sorry. Gil-Gandel and et al have not returned yet. I screwed that up. Elfstan is in the basement watching the open stone door. Miron, Mulligan and Gilraen are filling the Cauldron on the ground floor and Gwaelur and Thoroncir are working on the 1st floor.
Ok, good. Good to know that Gil-Gandel et al haven’t made it back yet either.
I’m still puzzled why we are bringing the mounts into a smouldering Tower, where two Trolls and some goblins are roaming about. Where are they going to stay? Why won’t the smoke and fire panic them?
Gorbo did suggest the Fort as shelter, but that was before we discovered there were Trolls in the Tower and that the House was sealed.
He added we could take shelter from the storm in an grove.
The DM said that the Trolls would not come out until the storm hit, but I assumed that Ghân could not cast Call Lightning until the storm arrived. So when I first cast the spell, I assumed Trolls could attack at any time.
I agree that we spent a long time struggling to make a plan.
Nevertheless the plan changed purely because of a post by Gilraen (who of course Thoroncir will automatically follow) making firm statements about the weather and who should go to the door.
Glee, you can cast **Call Lightning **as long as it is cloudy out. Check the spell.
I am not saying the horses should be brought into the tower, but they need to at least be up the hill if you want to use either the tower or to try the mysterious house.
Talking of putting out fires, this is one reason for loading Pyrotechnics - while this isn’t perhaps the primary use of the spell, it does extinguish its fire source.
Interesting. Affect Normal Fire (1st level Mage or 2nd level Druid) is also very handy for these cases. I’m not sure I let **Glee **know he could take the spell though. Hopefully he sees this post. It is a great spell for a Bard to carry when you get to that point.
The door of the house may be sealed, but I picked up a scroll in Minas Tirith with a couple Knocks on it, and we can spare one for this if necessary.
Perfect! Should work if no one can figure it out. Of course with this group, you might well figure it out without the knock. You have nearly every race represented, A Mage, A Bard, A Sage in Training and a very old Noldorian Smith and a very high born Dúnadan. Too bad you don’t have a fire quenching spell but the house might be safer anyway.
I’d rather keep it as a last resort- may as well save the scroll.
**Moria and the Trolls: **
The Fellowship did not fight a Cave-Troll in the Chamber. The movie has seriously damaged that scene in even the minds of serious Tolkien fans. I know I had this exchange with Skald the Rhymer and Terrifel recently.
Trying not to quote to much, here are the pertinent parts of the battle showing that all the Troll did was push open the door and flee after a single strike to the foot by **Frodo **with Sting. Boromir’s sword did little. It was a Huge Orc Chieftain that got Frodo and was fought by Samwise and killed by Aragorn with a great stroke of Andúril.
Huh. I thought the movie was true to the book in that respect. Obviously Thoroncir heard it wrong in some Linhir dockside dive. 
If you are remembering the movie, assume it was wrong in some small or large detail. That is my rule of thumb.
This is why I couldn’t enjoy the movie. Every little change threw me out and I knew that not only did the Cave-Troll look stupid it should not have been there.
Andúril blew my mind and so much else that led to the emofication of Stern, Brave, Noble, Sacrificing Aragorn. Though oddly the one that might have hurt the most was losing Glorfindel to expand Arwen’s role in the hands of the extremely pretty but can’t act for crap Liv Tyler. I knew they were going to skip over Tom and I was prepared for it but the loss of Glorfindel was painful.
I also hated the marginalization of Éomer and lessening of Faramir. I will stop now or I will go on for another gross of complaints.
Honestly I don’t know how **QtM **, who knows the books even better than I do, could take all the changes so well. Intellectually I realize the Jackson pulled off a miracle, but emotionally he drove me nuts.
For all of PJ’s departures from the text (and they were many), I loved the movies and probably always will. I have my complaints and quibbles, too (and they are many!), but overall the movies were a tremendously powerful, well-acted, visually-stunning evocation of Tolkien’s masterpiece, IMHO.
I agree on the acting with two notable exceptions. Arwen and Elrond. The rest were good to great. The visualization of Middle Earth was incredible though the wargs and trolls were tragically wrong. Again for me it was really all the small details the kept me from enjoying the movies the way I wish I could.
One thing that I have to give PJ credit for is giving Boromir some depth for me. I’m sure Sean Bean deserves a lot of credit too. In the book, Boromir was little more than a caricature to me. With very few lines, the movie somehow made his fall more understanding and thus more tragic. Maybe it was just that I cared about the movie Boromir and never did about the book Boromir?
Good point. But his death scene just goes on too loooooooooong. All those arrows, and he’s still talking? Ah, but it is redeemed by “I would have followed you, my brother… my captain… my king.”