Fire and Ice

Part II - The Watcher of Carn

Dûm
A scenario for Middle Earth Role-playing

Copyright ©2001 Craig Pay

Edited for The Guild Companion by Joe Mandala, February 2001

Introduction
This scenario requires the Angmar
sourcebook. Locations
Events
[Editor's Note: All material Rumours
relating to the Angmar NPCs
sourcebook is from 2nd Edition PDF version
Angmar, 1995, and is copyright
Graham Staplehurst and Heike Kubasch.]
The events take place in the winter at the end of the year 3013 and follow
the events that took place in Fire and Ice Part I - The Horn of Nimraug.

History
The Great Northern Wars of 1975 signified not only the end of the Dunedain
Kingdom of Arthedain in Arnor, but also that of the Witch King's Realm of
Angmar. With the fall of the Angmar's capital at Carn Dûm came the
withdrawal of the Nine members of the dark cult of Mor-sereg (Q. "Black
Blood") away from ancient Angmar and South towards Mordor: all that is,
save one soul, Camthalion the immortal Avari who moved only a short
distance East to the town of Litash-Ishi-Durbaz.
A thousand years later and Sauron sent word to his loyal servants to search
for 'that which was lost', the One Ring. For the Nine nights after Camthalion
received the message he repeatedly dreamed of his ancient home, Carn
Dûm, and of a green lidless eye surrounded by blood soaked leaves. Taking
this as a sign, on the tenth day Camthalion gathered together eight of his
loyal followers to form a new Mor-sereg, his very own Cult of the Black
Blood and together they set out for Carn Dûm.
At Carn Dûm Camthalion and his followers immediately ran afoul of a small
resident tribe of Orcs. After many skirmishes Camthalion and the Orcs
come to an agreement, the Orcs would have the Back Door and lower
tunnels, while Camthalion and his Mor-sereg would have the upper caverns
and safe passage through the lower tunnels to the Inner Gate. Over the next
few years Camthalion gradually became Master of this Orcish tribe and they
in turn prospered and grew in size under their new Master's watchful eye.

3013, The present day

It is now several score years later and Camthalion, calling himself 'The
Watcher of Carn Dûm', has established his own spy network across
Northern Ardor and the Southern end of the Northern Wastes, his
desperation for quality 'employees' creating a mish-mash of all sorts of
different races from Lossoth to meandering spirits. Like Saruman,
Camthalion imagines finding the One Ring for himself and ruling Middle
Earth as Lord of the Rings!
Meanwhile Mûrazôr, the Witch King and Leader of the Nazgûl, receives a
'waking dream' in which he hears a voice telling him that an artefact once
lost has now been found, in the frozen lands to the North he once ruled.
Could this be the One Ring? A powerful local contact of his, Camthalion, has
reported nothing to him. However, Mûrazôr has been unsure of
Camthalion's loyalties for some time now, so decides to send in one of his
more loyal servants, Konihrabn, to spy on Camthalion.
So the three-way intrigue begins. Camthalion the Big-Bad-Guy and the
Mor-sereg cult, the PCs as the outnumbered Good-Guys and Konihrabn the
lone Dark Spy versus pretty much everyone else.

GM's introduction
The PCs are now chasing after Kylmyyskala (Lo. 'Cold Fish') who, having
stolen the smaller of the two palantíri (that of Amon Sûl) from Nimraug's
cave, is now riding as fast as she can on her White Warg towards her
master, The Watcher of Carn Dûm.
Along with her flies Dîndae the spirit wraith to act as both guide and
protector. Due to Dîndae's vulnerability to sunlight, and not to mention
Kylmyyskala's wish to stay as hidden as possible, they travel at night, the
Warg's keen eyes guiding them through the treacherous lands of Angmar.
Kylmyyskala suspects that she may be followed and wishes to get to Carn
Dûm as soon as possible. She believes her master, the Watcher, may be able
to use the palantír to reveal whether she is pursued and if so may even be
willing to help ambush her pursuers.
As they near Carn Dûm, Dîndae flies on ahead to announce Kylmyyskala's
presence to its master, the Watcher. Arriving at the main gate to Carn Dûm,
Kylmyyskala is welcomed by the Watchers' guards and escorted into the
fortress.
Granted an immediate audience with Camthalion, Kylmyyskala presents the
palantír to him. Immensely pleased with the gift, Camthalion immediately
grants Kylmyyskala a place within his newly formed Mor-sereg. As the cult
only ever has Nine members he has to eject one of the other members, a
Black Ranger named Farrenar who has not been performing his duties as
well as he should recently. Camthalion orders Dâgûlrog his Black Troll
bodyguard to beat the miscreant and eject him from the Middle Gate.
Camthalion then takes the palantír away to study.

The Journey
It is 250 miles East from Mulkan to Carn Dûm. With the freshly fallen snow
much of the terrain is treacherous and is considered Rough for movement
rates.
For Kylmyyskala and her Warg tirelessly travelling up to 16 hours every
night this journey takes only 7 days. The Warg travels at a Fast Ride rate
over Rough ground for a rate of 10 miles per 4-hour period for a total of 40
miles per day.
Travelling at a steady but more careful rate the PCs make the journey in 12
days. The PCs travel at Jog/Walk rate over Rough ground for a rate of 7
miles per 4-hour period, for 12 hours per day this gives a total of 21 miles
per day.
Thus, the PCs arrive in Carn Dûm 5 days after Kylmyyskala still yet safe
from the prying sight of the palantír whose powers still remain untapped by
Camthalion.

Player's introduction
Read the following introduction to the players...
It is 12 days since you watched Kylmyyskala, the Dark Lossoth
henkinimittäjä or 'spirit namer', flee into the snowy Wastes on her White
Warg with the stolen palantír hidden beneath her furred robes. Leaving the
village of Mulkan, you set out across the barren snowy landscape following
the Warg tracks, which head off in an Easterly direction. The tracks are easy
to follow in the freshly fallen snow, but each day you seem to get left further
and further behind the fast running Warg.
After a few days a red mountain becomes visible on the horizon to the East.
This is Carn Dûm, tip of the most Northern of the Misty Mountains, once
proud and mighty capital of Angmar, Kingdom of the Witch King!
And the tracks do indeed lead to the very front gate of Carn Dûm. As you
approach around the mountainside you get an excellent view of the ancient
fortress. The outer wall seems mainly intact with some evidence of recent
repair and three further walls step up the mountainside. The main gates
stand slightly open and you are greeted by two watchmen, who look you
over carefully. One then steps forward and holding out his hand says in
Westron...
"Alf a silver per man and another 'alf per 'orse. You'll find the Inn up the main street. Don't be goin'
in th' ruins 'specially after sundown."
If asked about bearing arms and armour within the watchman just grins
and says,
"You ain't in sunny Bree now. You just go ahead and do whatever takes yer fancy now. Hur hur."