[Arch-vile]

I ran a Mines of Moria scenario today with my Fellowship of the Ring customs. I ran something similar probably 5 years ago, but I never took pictures of it. There are 3 phases to the scenario: the watcher in the water, the battle at Balin's Tomb, and the Bridge of Khazad-Dum. There is no healing in between, but you have the opportunity to move your surviving characters to the next area without fear of attack.

I used 1 RotV, 1 SotM, 1 BttFF, and 1 FotA for the map, though I had plenty of tiles left over. Here's the map:

Spoiler Alert!

This is where everyone starts. The door of Durin is there, and there is a lot of water and swamp water nearby. I wonder what could be lurking within...


Once the Fellowship makes it past the door, they enter this open area in the mines. Just to the right of the trees is the entrance to Balin's Tomb.


Balin's Tomb! The Glyph of Kelda heals one wound from a hero in this scenario.


This shows the jump across the broken bridge, and also the Bridge of Khazad-Dum at the bottom. If a hero makes it onto the ladder at the end of the bridge, they have escaped the Mines of Moria! It sure seemed a lot bigger in the movies.

And here's the scenario in progress:

Spoiler Alert!

Phase 1: The Fellowship VS Venoc Warlord, 1x Venoc Vipers, and Scytale's Dxundark Prowler. You can open the door with a d20 roll of 15 or higher (a free action if you're adjacent), but the Fellowship decided just to kill everything instead. Boromir was the only casualty of this phase, but that proved to be a devastating first loss for the Fellowship.


Phase 2: The Fellowship VS 3x Spiders of Lolth, Estivara, Valirahc, and Torin to represent the cave troll. (I don't own any Gruts, so Spiders were a good substitute.) Estivara was brutal in this room, with her special bypassing Aragorn's King of Men power and her attack aura boosting the Spiders' attack. Estivara took down Aragorn by herself, and the Spiders took down Merry. Torin struck down Gimli. Everyone else was wounded from this room and the last room, so it wasn't looking good for the Fellowship.


Phase 3: The Fellowship VS Marro Warriors. To make it across the gap in the bridge, you had to roll a d20. On a roll of 2-20, you survived the jump. On a roll of 1, you fell to your death. Every character survived the jump, but the Marro Warriors finished off Legolas while he was away from Sam's protection.


Phase 3.5: As soon as the last Marro Warrior fell, the Balrog (Su-Bak-Na) appeared! The Fellowship could either race towards the exit or try and kill the Balrog. Originally they just raced across and all escaped, using Gandalf's Fly You Fools and You Shall Not Pass powers to great effect. I replayed this part to try and kill the Balrog instead, and everyone but Frodo ended up dying. Either way, it was a Fellowship victory.


You shall not pass!

Overall this was a really fun scenario. The multi-attackers of the Fellowship (Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn) are essential to victory. Gandalf has some great support powers and offers another strong ranged attack. Gimli and Aragorn are the tanks of the group, though Pippin also is fairly good as a blocker. Once the strongest members fall, you have to start relying on your Hobbits, which is fun. Frodo can be quite the powerhouse if you risk using the One Ring.