The Watcher in the Water - LOTR/Hobbit storied battle report

Having survived the attack by the pack of wargs in the wilds of wilderland, the Fellowship must still pass the Misty Mountains to head eastwards, and on towards Mordor...

Now, having failed to scale their lofty summits and freezing conditions, they are beaten back... leaving them two choices, pass through the Gap of Rohan at the southern end of the Misty Mountains, or take the journey under the mountains, through Khazad Dum.

The gap of Rohan would take the ring far too close to Isengard, where the traitor Saruman and his growing orc and uruk-hai force dwell...

And so, with the encouragement of Gimli, Khazad Dum seems the best option. Also, Balin lead an expedition there years ago to reclaim the realm for the dwarves and re-open the mines... so a warm welcome should be waiting for them; "Malt beer, red meat off the bone..."

But Gandalf is not so sure, what else did the dwarves awaken in the depths of Khazad Dum?...

The Fellowship follow the cliff face, looking for the likely area of the doorway, the Doors of Durin... but dwarf doors are invisible, blending seamlessly into the rock face...

Not until the moon shines, does the doorway way become obvious, its outline gleaming, as the Ithildin reflects the moonlight...

"The Doors of Durin, speak Friend, and enter!" Gandalf however cannot remember the opening words... all the spells he knows are to no avail...

As they wait for Gandalf to open the doors, Pippin and Merry explore their surroundings, passing the time throwing stones in the pool... not realising what they may disturb in its depths...

"Do not disturb the water!" cautions Aragorn... then heads back to see how getting the doors open is going...

"Speak friend and enter"... its a riddle, muses Frodo... "Whats the Elvish word for Friend?"

"Mellon", states Gandalf, and with a great rumble, the huge doors open outwards, revealing the pitch dark gloom of the mines ahead...

And so our scenario starts...

Finally with the doors open... the way forward for the Fellowship, is clear...

When suddenly there is a cry from Frodo, and he is pulled from the doors, back to the edge of the dark pool, as a loathsome writhing tentacle grabs his foot.

 The Fellowship come rushing to his aid, Merry and Pippin both close enough to hack at the tentacle, with their short swords, as more tentacles break the surface of the water and rush towards them...The blows from the brave hobbits cause the tentacle to recoil briefly, dropping Frodo in the process!

Quickly before they are over whelmed, they turn tail and run for the Doors, before more writhing slimy tentacles can make a grab for them again...

Chased every step of the way, they sprint back for the Doors , watching their footing as they go...

...now would not be a good time to trip and fall...

With a cry from Gandalf, "Into the Mines!" , Gimli, Legolas and Gandalf dash into the gloom, as Aragorn and Boromir, flank the doors, seeing the hobbits safely in first...

...and in the nick of time they are safely inside, the crash of rock and stone behind them, signalling the doom of the doors, torn down by the writhing mass, the stone lintel collapsing under the assault....

Their way behind them blocked, they have but one choice, the long dark of Moria! A four day crossing to the other side...

-----o0o-----

A couple of staged shots, if the beast had hauled itself from the water...

-----o0o-----

Its actually a quirky little scenario. The Fellowship must get at least 5 of their number into the mines to win the fight. They start with 5 at the door, with Frodo captured by a tentacle at the pool edge and the hobbits near Frodo. 

By the letter of the scenario, you could just run the five Fellowship members into the mine, and technically win the game, leaving Frodo dangling in the air. A technical victory certainly but not terrible ethical!

So when Chris spotted this, I found it a little hard not pointing out that I had not just spent the last Gods know how many weeks making this thing, for the game to be over in 1 minute! I think he got the message ;-) ...

So off we went. The initial game, saw Pippin a little slow in his footwork, and having got Frodo out of the starting grasp of the tentacles was himself grabbed and pulled into the water, where he was crushed and drowned... (D3 Auto Str 8 hits will do that to you!). Not wanting to share Pippins fate, the rest of the Fellowship legged it and that was it....

We played it again, as above, and this time with a little more careful measuring, placement and fancy foot work, the Fellowship managed to evade the tentacles by the skin of their teeth, and made it to the mines...

... However, that was using the new Hobbit rules, which includes the Heroic action; Heroic march, which allows an extra 3" movement per hero affected so even the hobbits managed to out pace the tentacles, but it was close.

Without that new heroic action, things would have been very different... The Watchers tentacles at first glance don't seem all that bad, but you cant kill them only drive them off temporarily, and if they win a round of combat they instantly drag that hero back towards the pool and inflict D3 automatic str 8 hits on the hero, each round until released or killed.

I think if we had played this with the original One Ring SBG rules, there would have been a great many burps and bubbles of indigestion rising from the pool!

As it is, the newer Hobbit rules allowed us to play it cinematically pretty much matching the movie for frantic pace!

We'll have to try it again sometime with the Watcher model instead and see how that goes...