Snow andSubterfugeA low level MERP adventureBy Andy Warner

Snow and Subterfuge is an introductoryadventure for low level characters.

It is set at the end of the winterof TA 1984, around the Last Innon the great East Road, in theregion of Rhudaur.

IntroductionThe year is 1984, in the ThirdAge of the Sun. It is earlyspring and the uplands and hillsof Rhudaur lie cloaked in afresh, unexpected fall of snow.As the days grow slowly longerand the winds loose theircutting edge, the first of themelt waters swell the Mitheithelas it flows past the Inn at theLast Bridge on the Great EastRoad. Soon, the road will bepassable with ease and tradewill pick up in the small hamletthat has grown up around thebridge, the Inn and the watchtower that guards them. Haldonthe innkeeper looks forward tothe coming months when hisbar will be packed with thirstydrinkers and the rooms host toweary travellers from far afield.The winter is a lean time for allthe folk of the North, and coin ishard to come by and even lesswillingly spent. The localfarmers, trappers and tradersare running up hefty slates theyhope they will be able to clear in

the short spell that passes for summer inthese high places, and the season forplanting and rearing is about to begin.

It is a crisp night, with a rising moonnearing full casting a silvery light acrossthe bleak land as Ulwarth the hill farmerpushes the door to the Inn open and iswelcomed by the warm glow of a roaringfire. But he has not come these five milesat this time of night just to warm hisbones, he could have stayed at home anddone that. Unstringing the bow he alwayscarries, and stowing the string safely un-der his cap, he approaches Haldon andcalls for a drink and his ear a while.

"I be a bit at unease tonight Halds, thingsis odd up at the farm, and I not be likin' itone bit". He takes a long draft of theslated ale, wipes his mustached mouthclear of creamy froth and continues, Hal-don nodding quietly all along.

"Bin seein' wolf tracks this last week, overthe far bank, by the old ruin," scratcheshis chin and shivers the cold from hisbones, "well wolf is what I'm thinkin'though I ain't bin able t' check for sure,what with the risin' of the flood, but I ain'theard much bayin' nor howlin', not muchmore 'n' usual anyhow, an' I ain't seen nopack runnin' neither, so I gets to wun-derin' whats goin' on".

Haldon nods, absent mindedly, thinking ofother things.

"So I gets to makin' a watch, me and thelad, and you never guess what!" He looksexpectantly at Haldon, who by this time isglancing round to see if the odd lookinggroup in the corner need more jugs of aleor a fill up of hot broth.

"Halds, .. Haldon!"

The barkeep is called to his senses andUlwarth continues.

"You'll never guess! We seen wolves allright, deep into the night, the lad haddropped off, bloody lousy watch keeper 'ealways was, but whats this I says to im,whats this?"

He has forgotten his ale by now and has aworried look on his weather worn face, adeep breath and he stutters the wordsout.

"They was bein' ride-ed, Haldon. Ride-edI says, by them goblins the Hillboys sayslive on up the Trollshaws an that."

He remembers his ale and downs the lot.

"So I come at once here, after I madesure the place was secure and the lad andthe wife safe inside, what with Grim anGrist to guard em. So anyway I thoughtI'd come an see if them travelers was stillhere, that lot in the corner," he tosses hishead back in the direction of the only oth-

ers in the Inn "see if they might help afarmer out an see what it is is goin on. Idon't like to mess wi' it meself Halds,what with me leg playin up these coldmonths, an', well, they seems handy sortseh?"

The PlotWhat starts out as a simple adventure tohelp an old farmer chase off a few Orcshas the potential to plunge the playersinto a dark world of conspiracy, plottingand political rivalry that may bring theNorth to the brink of war! The ruins arebeing used as a drop point for a spy fromthe North, and the messages he has leftlead to an adventure to find an ancientsword of power and might. At present,the Orcs are the main concern...

Ulwarth is a local hill farmer who liveswith his family in a small hill farm aboutfive miles North of the Bridge on the westbank of the Mitheithel. He farms sheep onthe sparse moorland, and grows what hecan in his farm garden to see himself andhis family through the cold months. Thesheep are his livelihood, so they are pas-tured close to the farmstead through thewinter months where he and his lad cankeep an eye on them, with the help ofGrim and Grist, the two huge wolf houndshe owns.

The farm lies in a sheltered spot, out ofthe worst of the weather on the banks ofthe Mitheithel where it is joined by atributary in a steep sided valley. Justacross the tributary is the ruin of an oldkeep. Not much is left these days, andUlwarths lad has whiled away his youthexploring it, fighting battles againstimaginary foes, saving Arthedain from theyolk of the Witch king, just like his fatherand his father before that.

Unbeknown to Ulwarth and his family, thekeep has long been used as a place to ex-change messages, and is used occasion-ally by agents of Angmar. They are wiseenough to keep their occasional visits se-

cret, and none have ever suspected thenocturnal goings on in that ancient place.The site (and others along the mainroutes) is checked for messages on amonthly basis by Orc scouts who relaythem back to Grouth, Lord of Pen Morva,a small town in the foothills of the Etten-moors, many miles to the north.

Recently, one of the spies of the North,Hoegwar Hoegs-son, has had cause toleave a message for his masters, and trueto form visited the keep a week or so ago.However, with the rising flood water, thepromontory the keep sits on has becomecut off, and the message collectors cannotget to it. These messengers are a coupleof Orcs from a scouting outpost based alittle to the north, who ride 2 large warwolves.

It was the tracks of these two wolves thatUlwarth saw in the fresh snow, and lastnight on the river bank he spotted thewolves and their Orc riders.

Now we all know that Orcs are ten apenny in the Misty Mountains, but outhere in the hills, quite close to civilizationand the threat of the local levy, they arenot at all common. Especially since theirnumbers were decimated in the GreatWar not even 10 years ago.

So as you can imagine, Ulwarth is quiteconcerned. Assuming the party (for that iswho the odd group in the Inn must be)agree to help old Ulwarth out, we may aswell continue.

A little more background informationHoegwar Hoegs-son is a rather nastycharacter. He comes from Hillman stock,but was brought up to the South in Thar-bad, where he learnt his trade. Its not atrade most would boast about, but toHoegwar, it is a trade and a hobby, for heis a spy, an thief and, darkest of all, anassassin in the pay of Groath, Lord of PenMorva, and ultimately to the powersbased in Angmars freezing waste.

Hoegwar goes about his business in theguise of a traveling trader, and, as amaster of disguise, few recall him in theplaces he has been. He collects informa-tion from all the border towns and vil-lages. He notes troop movements, garri-son strengths, political changes and pettysquabbles between lordlings and mer-chants alike. He visits farms and marketswhere he keeps his eye on the state ofthe crops and livestock, the levels of har-vest and of lambing, he hangs around theinns, taverns and brothels keeping an earout for gossip and news from afar. All thishe collates and sends back to his taskmasters, in exchange for all the coin heneeds and the promise of great powerand riches 'when the time comes to takeback the North'. He swaps information forcoin at a great many sites along the EastRoad, and the highways and byways ofRhudaur These locations are mainly oldruins, standing stones and other placesmostly ignored by normal folk. Hoegwarhas deposited the messages and hassince gone on his way along the greatEast Road towards the Shire where he willgather information about the events ofwinter. He may have passed the party,and he stayed in the Inn for one night.

The messages were left at the keep, in aconcealed hidey hole in the basement,protected in oiled wrappings. They detailrecent changes in the militia of Tharbad,highlighting the withdrawal of 50 Gon-dorian men at arms back to Minas Tireth,in the far South. There are details on thegrain supply and crop expectations atTharbad, and some political news andgossip too. None of this will make anysense to the party at the moment, butmay prove useful later in an extendedcampaign. Along with the papers is abone scroll tube, well secured and water-proofed, and sealed with wax. It hassome runes scrawled on it, but they arenot recognisable or translatable. They arein fact totally meaningless, but designedto make the orc messengers wary thatthey are 'cursed with magics and spell-

workings'. The tube contains a roughmap, a poem and a brief note.

The Map:

The Note:I came across two dwarfs in Tharbad, whohad this map and part of a poem. After a fewdrinks (dwarfs being what they are!) I gatheredthey were looking for an old Dwarf holdwhere they believe some old artifacts are stillhidden. The map is poor. I could not get anymore coherent information even with a largedose of blackfish venom, dwarfs, as I said,being dwarfs. They did mutter about some'key' it relates to, but the blackfish dose finallywas too much even for dwarfs. I have trans-lated as much as I can, but I still guess at someof its meaning.

Your Servant

H

The PoemForged of Fire in ways of Light,where Dark shall never come,The One that cuts to deepest core,the Evil is Undone.

From Rivers fast came quenchingthirstto hiss and spit and boil,In Deepest Fires the Naugrim smithsworked in Endless toil.

The note is penned in contemporaryWestron and explains the other twoitems. All items have been drawn byHoegwar, and he has kept the originalshimself. The map shows an area of landwith a river and several towns and castlesmarked on it, but the names are confusedand thus not easily identifiable (Hoegwarhas made several mistakes. The river isthe Bruinen, not Mitheithel, and the placehe calls Iant Methed is not the Last Inn,but a ruin east of the bridge on the EastRoad, south of Minas Brethil). The poemis a fragment of a longer work (and isprovided in full in Cirith Runes, at the endof this adventure). It describes the forg-ing of a powerful sword by dwarvensmiths many, many years ago, as an an-swer to the dark evil that was devouringMiddle Earth. The map shows the locationof the place it was forged (The DwarvenHold of the Iron Fist, Angacam) and of itscurrent resting place (The Tower of theFist, Barad Cam). The note tells thatHoegwar came across them in Tharbadlast autumn, through some dealings witha couple of Dwarves, and may have somebearing on something referred to as 'TheKey'. He used blackfish venom to getmore information, but the dose killed oneof the dwarves. The other, DaggardDragon Slayer (well, thats what he callshimself) seemed dead too, but he sur-vived. He has vowed to find and killHoegwar himself. Daggard could help lo-

cate the places on the map if the partyever meet him.......

The Orcs are waiting for the floods tosubside so they can make their monthlymessage check. If the party wait morethan 3 days, the flood water will havesubsided enough to allow the orcs tocheck the ruin, locate the messages andretreat into the hills. They can be tracedback to a small outpost about 10 milesinto the hills, where they will hold up for afew nights before setting out again, trav-eling only at night.

Assuming the party retrieve the mes-sages, the orcs will shadow them a while.They will only attack if there is a reason-able chance of winning a fight, and eventhen, they will turn and run as soon asthings look bad for them. In either case,any surviving orcs will will report back toGrouth, telling how terrible foes stoleaway the latest messages. They will givedescriptions as best they can, and play upthe 'formidable skills' of the party.Grouths men will be on the lookout forthe party from this point, though not ac-tively seeking them out (Pen Morva is along way north, across difficult terrain).

The Journey to the farmThe adventure works best if (and as-sumes that) the party leave in good time,although notes are made to indicate otherpossible situations if they have beenslowed down. Taking the chance of an-other warming drink, Ulwarth relates thetale to the party, and asking for theirhelp. He will then urge them to start outnow as he doesn't want to wait untilmorning. If they will not leave, he givesdirections and sets out alone.

It is a fair distance, along a rough carttrack covered with freshly fallen snow.The only tracks of interest are those ofUlwarth himself. Apart from a few animaltracks, there are no signs of others on theroad tonight. The full moon and clear skymake stealth difficult, but also means the

party can see well. They can be fairly surethey are not being watched along theroad.

Ulwarth will relate the tale again on hisway home, and embellish bits as he seesfit! He is a sturdy character, and makesthe pace. He will not want to dally alongthe way, and is eager to get home. Hewill happily talk about life here, his familyand his farm. He doesn't know too muchabout other things, as the family do notleave the farm that often.

As they near the farmstead, the sheep inthe barn start to bleat nervously, and thehounds in the farmstead start to bark andgrowl. Both these occurrences are in re-sponse to the approach of the party. Acrack of light appears at one of the shut-tered windows, and movement can beseen inside. Assuming the party decide toscout around to see if anything is lurkingnearby, any elves among them may no-

tice a brief movement on the top of theridge across the river above the ruin (toofar for mere men to see at night, evenwith this moon). This is one of the Orcguards checking to see what has causedthe hounds to start barking. He is half amile away at least. If the party are easilyvisible, he will notice them. If they havetaken care to be sneaky, he may assumeit is Ulwarth and the boy that he can see,and think nothing more of it. Of course, ifhe sees a few people, he will tell hiscomrade, and they will be far more alert

and wary in checking the ruins. If theparty follow the next day, they will notsee the Orcs, and will not be seen, asthey will have bedded down for the day.

Around the farmA reconnoiter of the farmstead will showno signs of wolves or orcs at all. However,if the party cross the river in Ulwarths

small boat, it is a different story. If theboat is checked out, some debris, leaves,grass and dead bindweed will be found init, - nothing exceptional, except the bind-weed grows around the ruin, and not thisside of the river. Ulwarth will notice this,but he will get a suspicion that his sonused the boat recently, and not point itout. Later, he will rebuke the boy inhearing of the party, 'I told you boy, tisnot safe f'r yer ta go dallyin around on yerown, what wi' these wolves an thatabout!'. The boy will plead innocence, ashe hasnt used the boat, which should in-dicate someone else has..... (it wasHoegwar delivering his message to theruin). If the dogs are used to track thescent, they will be able to do so for a littleway, leading round the back of the farmand onto the track some way away, lead-ing south to the East Road and the LastInn. The scent is too old to follow withany real success.

The flood waterThe river level will drop over the next fewdays, allowing the orcs to check the ruinfor messages and replace the stores thereas needed. The longer the party wait, theeasier it is for the orcs to make their wayclear. The orcs can reach the ruin on the3rd night after Ulwarth meets the char-acters in the inn.

On the islandOn the far bank, there are several cluesto the recent use of the boat. It was tiedup to a bush which is now partly underwater, but it will be noticeable that someof the branches are broken off. (Remem-ber the water was lower when Hoegwarused the boat so beaching marks, foot-prints in the mud etc won't be visible).The bindweed around and inside the ruin

shows signs or disturbance, and some bitscan be found in the boat (from Hoegwarsboots or clothing). There are no wolfprints on the island itself. A Very Difficultperception roll will lead to the location ofthe wolf tracks at the water edge on thenorthern bank. Taking the boat over willenable the tracks to be followed.

Scouting the ruin will reveal someone hasbeen inside recently, but not spent muchtime there.

Good tracking will reveal that only oneperson has entered here, and wore nor-mal sized boots, thus probably not orcs. Aclose investigation of the entry where thebindweed grows will show it has beenpulled aside then replaced. There is apendant trapped within the weeds, pulledfrom Hoegwar as he forced his way in. Itis iron, and has a relief of a crude crownon it.

There is nothing of obvious interest insidethe ruin, however a very difficult percep-tion role will be needed to spot the secrethidey hole Hoegwar has deposited theinformation in. Is characters activelysearche in the basement area, the secretplace will be found with a difficult roll in-stead.

If the party are too late, they will findevidence that two orcs have been here.They will also be able to find a box ofsupplies in the hidey, replaced by theorcs. It is covered in runes and sigils andcontains a pouch of Arthedainian andGondorian coins to the value of 20 gold,two small vials containing a herb concen-trate to aid healing and a single vial of astrong toxin made from the venom of aswamp fish. In the right dose, the spies ofAngmar use this to help them glean in-formation from their captives... or to killthem.. The box is not trapped and therunes are not magical in any way.

Hoegwars actionsAlthough they cannot tell this, Hoegwarhas been to the tower, retrieved a box ofsupplies from the ruin and then left hismessages. If the orcs have retrieved themessages, they will have left another boxof supplies in the hidey.

The wolf trailThe tracks lead west along a game trailup the valley, and then up onto the moorsabove, but do remember fresh snow hasfallen, so they will not be obvious or easyto follow. From there, the party may beable to trace them two ways, dependingon their ability. They lead north all theway to the orc lair, several miles awaybut this will be extremely difficult - eventhe hounds will have problems as snowdrifts in the wind on the high moor. Theyalso lead east to a bluff overlooking theruin, from where the orcs are watchingthe flood water, waiting to resume theirquest.

They are bedded down here in thick un-dergrowth on the lee of a rocky outcrop.They will be active only at night, and eventhen they prefer to stay warm and notventure into the cold. The large wolveswill sense any approach, especially if theparty approach up wind, which is in thedirection of the tracks. This allows theorcs time to organise themselves. Theywill assume it is Ulwarth unless they havespotted the party at night. If they areaware of the party involvement, they willtry and evade them, and resort to conflictas a last option. They are scouts andhence good at their craft, including am-bush and sneaky attacks. If they assumeit is Ulwarth, they will be confident andconfront the party head on, suddenly re-alising they are outnumbered. They willasses their chances, and act accordingly.They are not warriors, so will probablymount up on the wolves and ride offquickly. They can easily outrun the party,and head back to the lair. They will bring

a war party back to fight in a few nightstime. If they never return to the lair, theorcs will look for them and if they findthem dead, they will attack Ulwarthsfarm. This will be at least a week or twoaway though.

If the orcs are caught before they havebeen to the ruin, they have a small lockedreplacement supply box with them. Theorcs are delivering this to the ruin, asthey do every few months.

Orc LairThe orc lair is home to a few warriors,several riding wolves and a few scouts.The group will be lethargic and bored,happy to keep warm inside out of thesnow and biting wind of a Rhudaur winter.They will not have any guards posted,though the wolves will be first to raise

any alarm as the party approach. The lairis a small cave among boulders at thebase of a steep tor (rocky outcrop) on themoors. It will not be obvious to the eye,as the snows cover the signs of life suchas churned up ground, refuse piles andmidden pits. If battle ensues, the orcs willfight until it becomes obvious they cannotwin. One by one they will run or rideaway, trying to escape capture. Eventu-ally they will make their way back to PenMorva and report to Grouth. Orcs arecowardly at heart, so if the stronger lead-ers are dead or fled, other individualsmay surrender if terms look good. Al-though they will grovel and snivel andplead for mercy, they will also attempt toescape if possible. They don't know muchabout the plot and they cannot describeHoegwar (remember he is not the onlyspy using the drop off points round here).

Winding upThe adventure successfully concludeswhen the party are sure there is no dan-ger left to Ulwarth and his family. As-suming they are quick enough, they willfind the spy messages and realise the im-portance of the situation. If they arespotted by the orc scouts, but do not fol-low the orcs, they may be followed andattacked. If they chase or kill the scouts,then the rest of the orcs will be alerted toa problem. They will attack Ulwarths farmto try to keep their presence a secretthinking that dead men cannot talk. Theydon't consider the fact that a raid on thefarm will alert the local people to theirpresence. It may be some time beforeanyone finds out about an attack, due tothe isolated nature of the place, but besure that a levy would be raised and theorcs hunted down. If the orcs escape,then Grouth of Pen Morva will becomealerted to the parties involvement, andmay try to find them. This would take afew weeks as Pen Morva is a good dis-tance away from the Inn, in the Etten-moors north of Cameth Brin.

Ulwarth cannot give much to the party,but he will always be grateful and offerhospitality whenever they need it. Ifpushed, he will offer a small amount ofcoin (about 1 gold value) and a ring offhis own finger. It is a simple gold band,not worth much at all, and it would sad-den him to do this. He would graduallycome to resent the party too, if they tookit. He will be able to dine off of the tale ofthis adventure in the Inn for the next fewmonths, as everyone loves a story. Alas,this may alert Grouths men to the party ifthey visit the Inn and hear the tales.

Further adventuresThis adventure leads on to an entire cam-paign, culminating in the party standingagainst a mighty power in the North. Wewill publish more parts regularly, with in-terweaving storylines and plots. There is

an important adventure set later in thecampaign that has its beginnings here,with the crude map Hoegwar has drawn.

If you found this adventure useful, orhave any comments, please send yourfeedback to us - we really appreciate it.

The Dwarf Poem in full