The road goes ever on...Palantir Quest

 The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter I: A Long-Expected Party

The Lord of the Rings is a book of endings: the end of the time of Elves in Middle-earth; the end of the reign of the Stewards in Gondor; the end of King Theoden's line, and his life; the end of the tale of the Ringbearers; and, of course, the end of the great Shadow that had darkened the world for millennia, which also ended the third, and very troubled, age of Middle-earth.

Yet, it is also a book of beginnings. The Fourth Age dawns as the book ends. The age of Men begins. Mirkwood is reborn as Greenwood. Elves and Dwarves move into new homes. Throughout Middle-earth a Renaissance starts, with the Peoples of Middle-earth coming together to create a new society. Rebuilding of much that was destroyed is begun. That which was lost is recovered. There is much remembered sorrow, but much hope for the future.

I never felt the need for Tolkien to write more about the Fourth Age. The story, as written, is deeply satisfying, even if also deeply melancholy. His attempt to set a tale in this new Age was soon abandoned by him, and it's understandable why; after the towering achievement of The Lord of the Rings, everything else would have been anticlimactic, and risk undercutting the power of that epic.

However, the needs of a reader and the desires of a roleplaying gamer are two different things. The Fourth Age of Middle-earth is ripe with opportunity for glorious deeds. Many - though not all - roleplaying games are, at their hearts, very optimistic. Adventurers go out to tame the wilds, recover the lost, and rebuild the ruined. For such games, the Fourth Age is a nigh-perfect setting. 

Sauron is gone, but his legacy still lingers. Middle-earth is still a dangerous place. Ancient secrets stand ready to be brought to light. For the first time, Iron Crown Enterprises decided to explore this new Age with a tour-de-force adventure.

I said in the last post that I had finished with the setting sourcebooks for the Middle-earth Roleplaying game. One last book remains that fits within the parameters of this blog. This is not a book about a place, but rather a grand epic journey of exploration and adventure across the entire continent detailed in all those books I've discussed before. This is a search for some of the great treasures of Middle-earth, long thought lost. This is:

Not the most dynamic cover, but one that helps capture an evocative mood and personage of a long-forgotten age.

After years of publishing solid, meticulously-detailed books and adventures for their Middle-earth Roleplaying game, Iron Crown Enterprises began to slow the pace of their production. At least, it seemed that way to me. By the mid-1990s, I rarely saw new MERP books. Occasionally I did see revised and expanded versions of earlier material, ranging from Arnor, which covered the same region as Rangers of the North: the Kingdom of Arthedain, Lost Realm of Cardolan, Bree and the Barrow-downs, and Rhudaur (in the form of Hillmen of the Trollshaws), to Moria, to Mirkwood. There was even, finally, a book dedicated to the Shire itself. Unfortunately for me, though, I decided to pass up these bulked-up books, figuring at the time that I already had the originals, so why would I need these? Given the crazy prices I've seen some of them going for now, and the revised Moria book I did, luckily, find for cheap, I now regret not picking them up when I saw them back then. Regardless, it seemed to me that MERP was slowly fading away as a game; in fact, when I found Palantir Quest for sale as a brand-new product, I was surprised. I'd thought the game had finally given up the ghost before then.

Palantir Quest further surprised me for what it was. Though the bulk of the material ICE published for MERP was set in 1640 of the Third Age of Middle-earth, Palantir Quest finally broke new ground and set the adventure in the Fourth Age. While many of the books and adventures that existed by then had brief notes for the setting at other times, Palantir Quest was the first to be explicitly set after Sauron's fall and the end of the War of the Ring. This was something I'd waited a long time for.

One of the problems with setting a game in Middle-earth is the carefully plotted timeline Tolkien had established. One could ignore the timeline and allow the player characters to do what they wanted, even to the point of changing the entire course of the narrative of The Lord of the Rings. ICE attempted to head-off this potential problem (though some might not see it as a problem at all) by making the time setting for their game material more than 1400 years before Bilbo was born. That era was rife with adventuring possibilities, with little chance of knocking all of Tolkien's story off-track. The downside was that Middle-earth did not much resemble what most potential players would be familiar with going in. There was no Rohan, and there was still a king in Gondor, for two big examples. Still, there was a lot for adventurers to do...but it just never really appealed to me, to be frank.

I've detailed elsewhere how the Fourth Age of Middle-earth is full of gaming potential, without the baggage of books and movies detailing everything about it. The downside to that, of course, is that players, being what they are, and most likely Lord of the Rings fans to boot, will also likely miss being able to interact with some of the setting's most famous characters. Another complaint I've heard about the Fourth Age is that there is "nothing to do." The One Ring is gone, Sauron has fallen, and even his greatest servants have been vanquished. It's an understandable reaction, of course; who wouldn't want the chance to at least help overthrow Sauron? Conversely, many roleplaying game settings don't have such a narrative focus around which they revolve, making the Fourth Age of Middle-earth much more reminiscent of them. It's a wide-open time, with plenty still left to do, and an incredibly long and detailed backstory for it all.

This isn't really related to the adventure at hand, but shows a pretty spectacular moment in Middle-earth history.

Palantir Quest cuts right to the heart of the matter by centering around one of the great remaining mysteries of Middle-earth. The seeing-stones of the folk who founded Arnor and Gondor were powerful and coveted artifacts, desired by everyone from the kings of Gondor to the Dark Lord himself. Few in number in the first place, their numbers dwindled as the centuries went by, lost to war and betrayal. Yet they weren't truly lost; palantiri are nearly indestructible. One was taken to the Uttermost West by the Elves who left Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. Some may have been rendered unusable: the one in Minas Tirith would only show flames and Denethor's burning hands after that doom-haunted Steward of Gondor took it to his funeral pyre, though someone as strong-willed as Aragorn likely could have used it if he exerted himself greatly; while even if recovered, the one Sauron held at Barad-dur is likely too tainted by evil to ever be usable again by mortals. The Orthanc stone, used by Saruman, is the last known working palantir in Middle-earth, held and used by King Elessar (aka Aragorn) in Minas Tirith. However, three stones still remain unaccounted for, though still in Middle-earth. Locating and recovering them would be a great step in helping the Reunited Kingdom rebuild.

I would have thought they'd make the pedestal taller for the palantiri...

The three remaining palantiri were lost to the depths; the one in Osgiliath fell into the mighty Anduin River, while the other two, one that had been in the tower at Weathertop, the other from the long-ruined city of Annuminas, were lost together in a shipwreck in the far northern sea. These latter two are the focus of the titular quest of the book discussed here.

Polar bears?

Woolly oliphaunts?

Yes, please.

Palantir Quest is a true tour-de-force adventure. It ranges across Middle-earth, from Minas Tirith to the far north, and many familiar sites in-between. It even moves into territory only hinted at by Tolkien, including a hazardous sea-passage to an incredibly ancient ruin on the last bit of land remaining from the great continent of Numenor, which was drowned beneath the sea due to the hubris of its folk. If that last reminds you of Atlantis, it should; the tale of the Numenoreans, Aragorn's ancestors, is, indeed, Tolkien's take on the Atlantean legends. It's not an exaggeration to say that this quest is for lost artifacts of Atlantis, to help rebuild an ancient civilization that fell to its own folly and the anger of the gods.

This is what is called an "event-based" adventure, as opposed to a "site-based" adventure. However, many of the events take place in certain sites, so, in effect, this book is a pretty decent balance of the two. "Event-based" adventures have a negative connotation to some, since such adventures acquired the reputation of having things happen beyond the will or ability of the player's characters to change them. In effect, the players and their characters would become spectators to a story, not forging their own destiny. At their worst, these kinds of adventures are likened to amusement park rides through "haunted houses" or "jungles," where the riders are in no real danger, but also cannot truly interact with what's going on. They're also called "railroads," since they only go in one predetermined route (video games that are like this are said to be "on rails").  

Palantir Quest doesn't fall prey to much of these problems, though I'd suggest a careful reading of the book by the person who is going to run it for the other players. I suggest this so that the gamemaster (the person running the adventure) can grasp some of the possible side adventures, and add to them when and where appropriate. As an example of what I'm getting at, a brief interlude in the Barrow-downs could end up becoming a much more involved adventure of its own; also, the trek from Bree to Annuminas is glossed over, but the players, if they're like most gamers, will likely want to veer off the road or explore the wilderness. Thankfully, ICE's practices of old remain intact in Palantir Quest: there are detailed charts of random encounters possible for most of the regions passed through on the quest. I highly recommend their use, as, too, the climate tables. I'd also recommend the use of the regional sourcebooks in tandem with this book, as many of them contain information easily usable or adapted for the Fourth Age of Middle-earth.

The art is especially good in this book. While it doesn't contain the full-color Peter Fenlon maps of so many MERP books, it does have snippets of them, apparently reused from other books in the series. There are a number of other maps, of specific locations, that help detail the constituent adventures of the larger campaign, and which are pretty nice in themselves. I do have to mention the art of Kent Burles, which makes up much of the character and creature illustrations. I'm particularly enamored of his art, and it's too bad that I haven't seen more of it, either in other MERP books (besides in the expanded Moria sourcebook I mentioned and linked to above) or any other game books I've run across. Still, I greatly appreciate what there is.

I'm avoiding spoilers in this overview. I know it's an almost-twenty-year-old book, but adventures for roleplaying games are, by their nature, evergreen. I'll quote some of the text from the back cover of the book to give an idea of what the quest is all about:

Strange portents in the great Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith give promise that one of the lost palantiri of the North has returned to the lands of Men. Can the adventurers find this legendary treasure and bring it to King Elessar? Rogues of the wilds, blizzards out of the Forodwaith, and the greed in Men's hearts all conspire against them.

Plus, the player's characters get to hobnob with Aragorn and impress him. That's cool in itself.

I really like this depiction of Aragorn, or King Elessar, all decked out in his royal armor.

Being given this quest should come after the player's characters have established a name for themselves. You could start the campaign out cold, with the players using new characters generated to be powerful enough to take care of themselves in a dangerous quest, but it would be way more satisfying for them to be given this quest after several accomplishments under their belts from earlier adventures. Successfully completing it not only results in some great rewards, but also in gaining the trust of the King of Gondor. Of course, such trust means even more quests assigned...there is the issue of the still-missing palantir, washed down mighty Anduin and, likely, into the sea. Who knows where it now rests, or if someone has already recovered it and holds it, ignorant of its power, far to the South? Plus, Aragorn and King Eomer of Rohan will be striking into the East and South to vanquish the armies of Sauron's erstwhile allies, and seasoned, trustworthy lieutenants are always needed...

These places aren't going to explore themselves, after all.

This adventure has a lot of potential for fun. It's a well-thought-out campaign, taking the characters into interesting places in Middle-earth, some they will almost certainly recognize, others merely hinted at in the books and movies. It illustrates really clearly how the Fourth Age of Middle-earth was an untapped reservoir of adventure possibilities, and how disappointing it is that this reservoir was only tapped to this much depth the one time.

In my last post, I noted that it was the last of my essays and reviews of Iron Crown Enterprise's regional sourcebooks for their Middle-earth Roleplaying game. This post is the last on this blog for any MERP books. This book was unique in being a whole complex series of linked adventures, a campaign, rather than detailing a region and including adventure ideas, or an adventure of lesser scope and impact. It might interest the non-gamer who wonders what might have happened after Sauron was defeated; game adventures like this aren't necessarily the best reads for those unacquainted with roleplaying games, but this one is clearly-written enough to be worth a page-through. As such, it seemed fitting to end this series of posts with this book.

So there you have it. A series of articles about MERP books, books that I spent a lot of time poring over long after many a witching hour. In fact, these books were some of the first things I thought of when I first started this Dark Dimension blog. It's satisfying to have taken a close look at all of them, and written about them for those interested. This isn't the end of Dark Dimension, just the end of a project I didn't think I'd have the patience to complete. Stick around, and I'll see what other obscure subjects I can explore that are best perused on the other side of Midnight.

Once and future kings: Rangers of the North - The Kingdom of Arthedain

 

Even as a kid reading The Lord of the Rings, it struck me as a bad idea for the Rangers to protect the Hobbits so closely that the Hobbits, in large part, ended up as a backwards, naive bunch who took their freedom and safety for granted. I'm sure that's what Tolkien was getting at. But it still bugged me.

The Shire itself is a bucolic place. Quiet, sedate, civilized...seems pretty boring. Nice place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there. Well, maybe you would, if you were a weary traveler and wanted a good place to eat and sleep, or go antiquing. You wouldn't vacation there if you were looking for something exotic and adventurous.

So it's not too surprising that Iron Crown Enterprises didn't create a Middle-earth Roleplaying sourcebook for the Shire until late. Before then, the Shire appeared in passing in a few supplements, often just a recognizable spot on one of the maps. This book, Rangers of the North: The Kingdom of Arthedain, was the closest thing to a true MERP sourcebook for the Shire until the publication of, naturally enough, The Shire in 1995. I don't have that book. Never even saw it. By that late in MERP's run, fewer and fewer of the books for it showed up in any book or game stores I frequented. Finding a copy now would involve luck and a good bit of money, judging by the hundreds of dollars I've seen it go for online.

Rangers of the North: The Kingdom of Arthedain details the entire region in which the Shire exists, and lays out the history of the area, focusing mainly on the origins of Arthedain. Arthedain was a kingdom that was once part of Arnor, the great northern kingdom of the Dunedain, who are Aragorn's people. Arnor was the counterpart and sister-kingdom of Gondor. Unlike Gondor, which remained relatively intact throughout its history, Arnor eventually broke up into three kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur. The latter two kingdoms eventually fell to the influence of Sauron - Rhudaur comes under the sway of the Witch-king and eventually is taken by his forces, while Cardolan survives for centuries until overrun by Angmar, the Witch-king's realm. Arthedain remains a bulwark, opposing Angmar for centuries more on its own, but even it, too, succumbs a thousand years before the time of The Hobbit. The survivors of Arthedain are few, and those not killed or who don't move elsewhere, including the royal line, scatter into the wild. There they live, becoming the Rangers, until Aragorn manages to claim the kingship of Gondor and resurrects Arnor, reclaiming the two kingdoms.

I assume these are, left to right, an Arnorien warrior, an Arthedain knight, and a Ranger.

While Arthedain stood, it granted land to the Hobbits, who had migrated West as the forces of the Shadow became more and more common. That land was what became the Shire. After Arthedain fell, the Shire was the last densely-populated, civilized area left in what was once Arthedain, so it makes sense that the Rangers felt obligated to protect it.

Now, I told you all that to illustrate just how much history, culture, and territory this book covers. As with Rohan, the area changed hands many times between mortal hands, unlike Elven realms like Lorien, Rivendell, or the Elven Kingdom of Mirkwood. This book is 56 pages long, and includes the usual flora/fauna/weather overviews and charts of people, creatures, and plants the players in a game could encounter in the region, as well as the wearisome game infodump at the beginning, this time five pages worth. It's pretty densely-packed.

From the standpoint of a gamer, this book makes for a great "lost kingdom" sourcebook. In fact, several other MERP books complement it very nicely: Lost Realms of Cardolan is the neighboring region; Hillmen of the Trollshaws covers part of Rhudaur; Weathertop - the Tower of the Wind lies near the borders of all three of the erstwhile kingdoms of Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur; Rivendell is nestled just beyond what was once Rhudaur; Bree and the Barrow Downs borders the Shire; and Angmar is the northern realm of the Witch-king that directly caused the downfall of all the kingdoms.

I didn't like this book for a long, long time. Part of it is the art. Technically, it's not bad. It just isn't very dynamic, in my opinion, and also seems to miss the point of the book. Besides the maps - which are almost completely outstanding - and a few spot illustrations that are there for the sake of breaking up the layout, there are a half dozen or so actual illustrations showing characters and situations in the region. The main problem I have with them is that none of them show characters or places that are familiar. No Hobbits, wizards, or Rangers that I can readily point to and say "oh, that must be so-and-so." There are no exciting scenes from Middle-earth history, which is really odd, and almost seems like they went out of their way to avoid illustrating any of the numerous historical events that occurred in Arthedain. Heck, why not a picture of Marcho and Blanco, the Hobbits who founded the Shire, actually founding the Shire? Or pictures of Rangers roaming the wilds, protecting what remnants of fallen Arthedain still stand? Or a picture from the enormous battle involving Elves, Men, and the forces of Angmar that overran Arthedain? Instead, the images we get include a picture of Northmen paddling a canoe, a static shot of two Arctic-dwelling folk called Lossoth, and a picture of what I assume is the seer Malbeth being tempted by what he might see in a palantir. I still dislike the art. The cover is the closest thing to being a dynamic picture, and even it doesn't really capture the setting - why is a Dwarf there, when an Elf or a Hobbit would have better represented the population of the area? Like I said, there is talent in evidence here, but the art order must have been off-course.

The maps, though, are pretty nice.

Annuminas, the long-ruined capitol of the nearly-forgotten Kingdom of Arnor.

Fornost Erain, capital of Arthedain, long-ruined also, such that the Hobbits call it Deadman's Dike.

A portion of Arthedain; the northern part of the Shire and Bree can be seen along the bottom.

 Another reason I disliked the book is that I really wanted a sourcebook of the region as I knew it from the main narrative of The Lord of the Rings. This objection has faded over the years. Now, I enjoy it for how much context it gives. As with other sourcebooks for MERP, I think it would work really well as a lost kingdom for another setting by simply renaming everything. Or not. Maybe use it as an "alternate universe" Middle-earth. It would also be a good source for a Fourth Age setting, when Aragorn, now called king Elessar, is rebuilding both Gondor and Arnor. There's a lot of possibility in this book, especially as much of it was never directly shown by Tolkien.

A lot of these books have caused me to enter a kind of reverie as I've paged through them. This one has, also, but it doesn't evoke as much nostalgia as some. This one evokes thoughts of the future. The place is full of potential, rooted in deep history. As I sit and think, my thoughts turn towards my own life. And why not? This sourcebook draws on a great work of literature, and all great literature causes us to reflect upon our own existence. We search for the meaning within it by relating it to our own experiences, or explore how we might react in the place of the characters. Reading the timelines and history of the Rangers, I'm struck by how powerful a will Aragorn must have had. Patiently wandering the wild, no real hope of ever achieving his destiny, yet still he strove onward, never wavering from his goal. I wonder how I would face the kinds of obstacles he faced. It's interesting to recall that Aragorn never judged others harshly, and understood everyone had their own limits; witness his flexibility in sending to take the island of Cair Andros those whose courage failed them in the march to Mordor. Rather than force them beyond their limits, he found a goal within their limits. It is up to the individual to know their limits, and decide just where those limits of hope and courage and love are.