Far under the living earth, where time is not counted: Moria

The image on this older edition's cover is from Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings movie of 1978.

     ‘There is a way that we may attempt,’ said Gandalf. ‘I thought from the beginning, when I first considered this journey, that we should try it. But it is not a pleasant way, and I have not spoken of it to the Company before. Aragorn was against it, until the pass over the mountains had at least been tried.’

    ‘If it is a worse road than the Redhorn Gate, then it must be evil indeed,’ said Merry. ‘But you had better tell us about it, and let us know the worst at once.’

     ‘The road I speak of leads to the Mines of Moria,’ said Gandalf. Only Gimli lifted up his head; a smouldering fire was in his eyes. On all the others a dread fell at the mention of that name. Even to the hobbits it was a legend of vague fear.[…]

     ‘I too once passed the Dimrill Gate,’ said Aragorn quietly; ‘but though I also came out again, the memory is very evil. I do not wish to enter Moria a second time.’

-- The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter IV: A Journey in the Dark

     ‘Long I fell, and he fell with me. His fire was about me. I was burned. Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.’

     ‘Deep is the abyss that is spanned by Durin’s Bridge, and none has measured it,’ said Gimli.

     ‘Yet it has a bottom, beyond light and knowledge,’ said Gandalf. ‘Thither I came at last, to the uttermost foundations of stone. He was with me still. His fire was quenched, but now he was a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake.

     ‘We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin’s folk, Gimli son of Gloin. Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day.’ 

– The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter V: The White Rider

There is something alluring yet horrifying about the depths of the earth. Below us are hidden places, caverns and passages sitting silent in the dark, mysteries stretching down through the ages never to be delved. Some are delved into, though, as we dig and mine, looking for treasures, while others reach up and open onto the surface, tempting spelunkers and offering shelter for man and beast. Even the most innocuous cave opening evokes a hint of the unknown, haunting the imagination. Thus, it is no surprise that caves and dark passages and gaping underground chasms figure into so many myths and legends, from the bleak, hushed land of listless dead of Hades, to the underworld of Jules Verne.

Tolkien's Middle-earth has more than its share of underground passages. From King Thingol's Menegroth to Morgoth's Angband, from the Goblin-king's city to Thranduil's palace in Northern Mirkwood, Middle-earth's surface has been riddled with delvings. Even Middle-earth's most humble folk, the Hobbits, dig holes in the ground to live in. However, the mightiest delvings are dug by the people for whom the underworld is home, a people created beneath the mountains and not the sky. Seemingly part of the living rock itself, the Dwarves have spent much of their history carving great and vast halls and cities stretching beneath hills and mountains all over Middle-earth. Much of that history has also seen those deep dwellings invaded and wrested from the hands of the Dwarves, to fall to the forces of evil. The greatest of all such cities was Moria.

Called Khazad-dum by the Dwarves, Moria was, by the time of Bilbo and Frodo, a name that evoked dread even amongst the unworldly Hobbits. A vast, multilayered city under the Misty Mountains, Moria was once the pride of Dwarves everywhere. It fell to darkness, the Dwarves driven from their greatest stronghold. Centuries after the fall, Moria was a shadowy realm, its state unknown. Attempts to retake the city met with failure, with even Balin's initially successful colony falling silent after years of gradual rebuilding.

There is no doubt that Moria was one of the models for dungeons in roleplaying games. The lost underground city became a template for many adventures for games like Dungeons & Dragons. Eventually, Iron Crown Enterprise's Middle-earth Roleplaying game would complete the circle, detailing Moria itself for game use. The initial book would be greatly expanded years later, but both detail a massive adventure area, filled with detail.

Angus McBride's cover for the revised and expanded Moria book for MERP depicts the Fellowship's desperate battle near Balin's tomb..

Even later, Decipher, another game company, would create the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, for which a massive boxed set would be published that detailed another take on the Dwarven city.

Box lid of Decipher's Moria. The image quality is poor due to the box being too large for my scanner.

I will deal with Decipher's boxed set later.

In some ways, I consider the two editions of Moria to be the masterworks of Iron Crown Enterprise's Middle-earth Roleplaying game. Not only do they evoke the atmosphere of Moria as depicted by Tolkien, they also embody the quintessence of the roleplaying game dungeon adventure. Integrating the two isn't necessarily as easy as it might seem; published roleplaying game adventures are not often as massive or evocative as what Tolkien described. The design team at ICE came up with clever ways to bring to life a massive underground city in a limited amount of space. 

Stock areas and passages help flesh out a city the size of Moria without having to detail every meter of the place.

As with most of ICE's MERP sourcebook offerings, there is an overview of the climate, ecology, and history of Moria. This is pretty interesting, as it makes the books something of a primer on dungeon adventure design in general. Subterranean flora and fauna are discussed, with how they all interact given some attention. While giving thought to the logic of a given adventure environment is not a recent innovation, and wasn't even when these books were first published, the Moria books are some of the most prominent examples. Using them to depict a non-Middle-earth underground setting would be logical.

The history of Moria is also, largely, the history of the Dwarven people, too. So, as sourcebooks like those for Mirkwood and Thranduil's Halls detail a history of Elven folk and their culture, Moria can be used as a reference guide for Dwarves apart from Moria. The history of the Dwarves is fascinating and filled with setbacks. They persevered in the face of incredible adversity spread over several millennia, maintaining their pride and culture in the face of odds that caused the Elves to slip away into the Uttermost West. Yet the Dwarves never gave up, and continually sought to reclaim their cities and treasures.

The cleverness of the MERP books resides in how practical and modular they are. Examples of typical rooms and passages are given, which lends an efficient air to the material. Tools, machinery, and architecture are depicted and discussed. 

Blended together, all of this combines to give the impression of a bustling, thriving city, whether it is still living or if it is now a shadowed memory.

Both editions are handsome, useful books. The maps in both are, as might be expected from MERP products, outstanding. The illustrations are good in general; I'm especially taken with the art by Kent Burles in the newer edition. It reminds me a bit of the art of Stephen Fabian and George Barr, mostly due to the mood and feel it evokes.

This and the Under-deeps picture above are examples of Kent Burles' expressive art.

Liz Danforth also provides several outstanding illustrations. Both books show MERP at its best; the older from when it had just hit its stride, the newer later in the line's run, when it was about to run its course.

And not to mention the Balrog, here depicted outstandingly by Liz Danforth.

These two books are among my favorite game books.  They both cram a wealth of gaming material between their covers, creating a vivid portrait of a place and a people that would appeal even to a non-gamer.

Moria by Decipher

I won't spend a lot of time on this product, not because it doesn't deserve it, but because I'm not as familiar with it. This is a boxed set - the cover of which can be seen above, which has a still from Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring. The box contains two books and several maps.One book details Dwarven culture, in a somewhat different, but similar, way to the MERP books. The other covers Moria itself, choosing to do something similar to what was done by ICE by breaking the city down into reusable modular parts. As a whole, this boxed set is much more sparsely illustrated than the MERP books. The maps are nice, and also usable in multiple ways, fitting together almost any way the user of the boxed set would like. It's a good, solid product, but I do prefer the MERP version.

Moria is a vast underworld in any incarnation. Its influence on gaming, as noted, is profound, to the point that there are numerous Morias going by other names; many adventures for roleplaying games use it as a template, whether unconsciously or not. Every deeply-delved dungeon with winding passages and echoing chambers contains a bit of Moria in its shadowed recesses.

From the depths to the heights: Goblin-Gate and Eagle's Eyrie

The Misty Mountains rise up like a spine in Middle-earth, a barrier and dwelling-place for both good and evil. Mighty Eagles roost atop mountain peaks, lofting into the air to patrol the lands about for evil. Deep beneath the mountains, once the domain of the Dwarves, lurk servants and allies of the Shadow. And in one forgotten corner of a Goblin labyrinth, the greatest treasure and worst danger of Middle-earth lay hidden. This is the Goblin-Gate and Eagle's Eyrie.

Topographical map of the route Thorin & Co. took, which came to near-disaster.

What lies beneath the Misty Mountains cold.

The Misty Mountains were every bit as mysterious and dangerous as any other region of Middle-earth.  Wreathed in clouds and fog, they held many secrets. Home to Men, Orcs, Dwarves, Eagles, and Giants, the mountains themselves seemed to be imbued with an intelligence, a watching and capricious sentience. At times they seemed jealous of their passes and craggy roads, working against those who dared to pass through uninvited. Perhaps this was the work of malevolent spirits of the mountains, working according to their own whims or, perhaps, at the behest of the Dark Lord himself. Whatever the case may be, there was a looming menace to the mountains.

Another outstanding map by Peter Fenlon.

Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth Roleplaying (MERP) game line seemed at its best when it covered some of the most familiar locations in Middle-earth. This book is no exception, and is one of their better efforts. Weighing in at a slim 42 pages, it is dense with information, a lot of it worthwhile reading. As with all MERP books, it explores the geography, environment, flora, and fauna of the covered region, in this case the central Misty Mountains. Travel through and around the mountains is discussed, with all the attendant obstacles and encounters, from the weather to the cultures of the various beings that live there. The research and extrapolation done is reflected in how believable the area described is, taking Tolkien's descriptions and fleshing them out even beyond his own meticulous attention to details. It lends a dimensionality not often found in game books.

There is a wealth of adventure sites and ideas here. From the inaccessible nests of Great Eagles to the deepest Goblin hole, Goblin-Gate and Eagle's Eyrie covers it all. Besides retracing the steps of the heroes of The Hobbit, which can certainly be done using this book, there are plenty of other places to go and things to do. A trading town provides for both urban intrigue and a base of operations for adventurers.

A Northmen town for the players to have their characters trash.

I think I was most amused by a map for the Eagle's Eyrie, given its nearly-impossible-to-reach positioning, and its simplicity.

Players will always find a way to get to places like this, so I suppose it's best to be prepared.

Of course, the meat of this book is the layout and description of the underworld city of the Goblins. For once, it doesn't seem that this is a place stolen from the Dwarves, evidenced by the comparatively less orderly nature of the "city" - these are natural caverns, expanded upon, perhaps, but in a chaotic, almost random fashion.

Dark labyrinths sprawling with little rhyme and reason seem fitting as the dwelling-places for Goblins.

A history of the entire region is given, though it's more brief than that found in many of the other MERP books. Not a lot changes here throughout the Ages, so the book can be used, with a minimal amount of tweaking, to cover just about any given period of time in Middle-earth.

The Goblin-town is quite a place to explore, a classic dungeoncrawl if there ever was one. Yeah, I make it one word; consider it part of my own personal style guide. The place is full of danger - if you've read The Hobbit, you know what it's like: impenetrably dark and full of Goblins. And yes, Gollum himself can be found, though the likelihood changes depending on when the player characters decide to go spelunking, and even then it'll take a bit of luck. More than a bit, actually. Even if Gollum isn't there, there's still a lot to deal with.

And if he is there, then players can make things more complicated as history is changed. Middle-earth history, but still.

The book provides a few interesting adventures. One even has the player characters hired by a pretender to the Goblin throne to take out the current Great Goblin. It's an intriguing idea, and clever players might be able to have their characters play out the situation in such a way that the Goblins in Goblin-town are rendered paralyzed as a threat as they fight amongst themselves. It's certainly not an original concept, but the familiarity of the location and creatures involved to those who've read the book or seen the movie(s) may lend it an air of excitement and importance that other RPG adventures like it don't have.

Some of the illustrations for MERP books suggest a more simian look to Orcs, Goblins, and Trolls than I've seen in other sources.

This is a good, solid entry in the MERP line. This is from a period when ICE had hit its stride with MERP. The art, the maps, and the content all gel together into a whole that can provide for a lot of fun.

One last thought. It's always struck me that the Goblin army that sallied forth from Goblin-Gate had a helluva march from the Misty Mountains to Erebor. Even if they marched through Mirkwood, which I doubt, they still had a long march through hostile territory, and had to have a vulnerable supply-line. I suppose they could have pillaged and foraged along the way, but given how they managed to surprise the armies of the Free Peoples, you'd think their coming would have been noted much earlier had they been tearing up the lands they passed through. Plus, coordinating their attack to coincide with that of the Orcs from the Grey Mountains and Mount Gundabad is quite a feat in itself. Bolg, the Orc king in Gundabad, must have been an uncommon leader and military genius, and his death may have been more of a blow to the forces of evil in Northern Middle-earth than even the annihilation of the Orc and Wolf armies under his command at the Lonely Mountain.

Even more of a genius is Gandalf, whose machinations seem to have orchestrated, in one fell swoop, a whole slew of victories for the good folk of Middle-earth: the Ring was located and in the hands of one who would not use it in a way that drew Sauron's attention until much later; a huge force of Orcs and their brilliant leader were laid low that might otherwise have been a decisive factor in the coming war against Sauron (as it is, they had recovered enough by the time of the War of the Ring to tie down much of the armies in the North); Smaug, the greatest of Dragons still remaining in Middle-earth, was killed and his threat removed; and the Free Peoples of the North had found common ground and thawed the relations between them all, and began a tradition of working together. So in many ways, Goblin-Gate and Eagle's Eyrie was a pivotal place in Middle-earth history.

Mount Gundabad - a review of a sourcebook for a mighty orc fortress in Middle-earth

An underground Orc fortress within the northern Misty Mountains looms as a threat, housing hordes loyal to Sauron. Strategically located, it must be guarded against by all those who live in the upper Anduin vales, including the Elves in Mirkwood. The Orcs of that fortress are a hardy folk, and can even march as far as the Lonely Mountain if the temptation of battle and treasure is great enough. That fortress is Mount Gundabad.

The Middle-earth Roleplaying Game (MERP) by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) released a slew of products set in the most famous fantasy setting. Many of those products were adventure sites, famous and not-so-famous locations in Middle-earth where daring adventurers could face danger. Mount Gundabad is one of the not-so-famous locations.

Mount Gundabad is mentioned by Tolkien in the Appendices for The Lord of the Rings, with little revealed about it beyond it being an Orc fortress. Mount Gundabad also plays a pivotal role in The Hobbit as an army of Orcs forays out from it, leading a huge part of the Orcs of the Misty Mountains, enraged by the killing of the Great Goblin, and tempted by the horde of the recently-late Smaug, to clash with Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Eagles - as well as a lone, mighty bear - at the Battle of Five Armies at Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. ICE took the minimal information Tolkien provided and created a mountain Orc fortress that is a well-detailed dungeon crawl with surrounding lands crawling with Orc tribes and rugged Men. But mostly Orcs. Like this guy:

Hoop-tee-doo!

Mount Gundabad was a bastion for the Dark Lord in one form or another, working through his servants, throughout much of the Second and Third Ages. It was the capital of the Orcs of Angmar, and survived the fall of that evil land. ICE's version of it is a three-horned mountain which has been mined and worked to create a great multilevel underground orc city and fortress. The result is a megadungeon, in the parlance of fantasy roleplaying games (RPGs).

Nary a hooka-smoking caterpillar in sight

There are a number of non-player characters detailed, the movers and shakers of the orc kingdom. There is an overview of the history of Mount Gundabad, up to and into the early Fourth Age, and a rundown of Orc tribes. There are tables of random encounters, and a page that goes over the various types of fungi found in Mount Gundabad. This last was amusing, as it harkened back to early modules (adventures) for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), in which fungi often played various roles, from food to illumination to hazards.

ICE's MERP books are usually easily adaptable to other game systems, and in the case of Mount Gundabad, it should fit comfortably into other fantasy RPGs, particularly D&D. Orc fortresses were staples of old-school RPG play, and Mount Gundabad should fit the bill for such an adventure site, regardless of what game is being played.

Some MERP books went fairly far afield in maintaining a Tolkienesque feel. That is, some stretched the notion of what might reasonably fit in Middle-earth. Mount Gundabad seems reasonable in that regard, based on what was shown in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books.

Mount Gundabad, as a military base, seems more well-organized than the Orc stronghold further south in the Misty Mountains, the one that Bilbo Baggins managed to find his way through. Despite the Great Goblin's demise being the trigger for the Orcs to sally forth to attack the Free Peoples at Erebor, Bolg, the leader at the time of the Orc army in Mount Gundabad, seemed to be a powerful leader of all Orcs in the Misty Mountains. How these different Orc populations, the ones in Mount Gundabad and the forces of the Great Goblin, are related to each other is hard to fathom. Perhaps Bolg and the Great Goblin were "kings" in their respective regions, and Bolg was simply outraged that a brother king of his folk would be killed almost out-of-hand. Whatever the case, Bolg's actions are quick and decisive, where the Great Goblin seemed to run a more casual kingdom.

There are a few adventure ideas provided, which are mostly infiltration-types, which makes sense. It's difficult to imagine an adventuring party - or fellowship - making a frontal assault on the place. The adventures provide an "in" to get the characters into Mount Gundabad, where they could find themselves wandering the place, lost, or just randomly wreaking havoc.

Massive-looking, right?

This will take a bit of preparation to use, even if one is using MERP. Copying the maps to avoid having to flip between them and the key is a good idea. I would also recommend copying the Master Beast and Master NPC tables at least, with the Master Encounters table also strongly recommended, and keeping them handy as the player characters move throughout Mount Gundabad. A lot of copying, I know, but I know from long experience that a bit of prep work like that will keep the game flowing, especially in as massive a complex as Mount Gundabad.

Saviga and the Ashdurbuk, the "royalty" of Mount Gundabad

I need to note the art in this book. It's some of the best I've seen in the Middle-earth Roleplaying line.  The Angus McBride cover, with what I'm guessing is the Mouth of Sauron riding out from Mount Gundabad, is one of my favorites of his. The interior art by Darrell Midgette is also dynamic and evocative, for once matching the kind of excitement usually generated by McBride's covers. I mean, look at these orcs!

 

These are some of the most bad-ass orcs I've ever seen! These guys are the stuff of a hero's nightmare. Not only are they scary-looking, but look at the smiles on the faces of Saviga and her best fella, the Ashdurbuk. That's some creepy stuff there.

The region around Mount Gundabad just looks like the kind of place suitable for Orcs...or Dwarves. Though this book mentions a small population of Dwarves living here sometime in the First Age of Middle-earth, a more definitive account of Mount Gundabad's history was revealed some years after this book was printed. In The Peoples of Middle-earth, it is revealed that Mount Gundabad is the site where Durin the Deathless, the first and greatest of Dwarves, was created, making the place a sacred site for the Dwarves. As with so many Dwarven great places, it inevitably fell to evil and became infested with Orcs. Rugged mountains and a cold northern climate make for a forbidding place to live, but Dwarves and Orcs tend to live underground, sheltered away beneath the living stone. Terrain, climate, and natural fortifications combine to make a formidable bastion, whether for the Free Peoples, or Sauron's minions.

Impeccable maps of the northern Misty Mountains by Peter Fenlon, with Mount Gundabad to the north and a bit to the west.

Overall, this is one of my favorite MERP books. It's a solid, old-school adventure site, which could provide an entire campaign's worth of game play.