Race theDevilA high level MERP adventureBy Andy Warner

Race the Devil is an adventure for experi-enced, high level characters. It first ap-peared as 'Barad Cam - Tower of the Fist'on the City of Solis website.

This adventure forms part of the climax ofa lengthy campaign. It is set at the end ofsummer in TA 1990 or 1991, around anold Dwarven fortification on the banks ofthe river Bruinen, in the Angle of EnEgladil.

IntroductionSummer is rolling into Autumn, and theforests of En Egladil are shining gold andred where a few weeks before they wereverdant green. It's been a warm week,and the air is heavy and humid. The skiesare leaden, and the clouds roll in from thewest filled with the promise of thunder.Deep in the heart of the Angle, a race isbeing run. The spies of Angmar haveheard rumor of a mighty weapon hiddenamong the ruins of an old Dwarven set-tlement. This weapon is the hallowedblade RingRist - the Cold Cleaver. LordArkish of Eldanar has researched theblade, and believes it has power over therisen dead. He covets this blade and hassent his best war-band to recover it. Ifthe North is to survive the ravages of asecond Great War, the blade must befound before Arkish gets his hands on it.So it is that the Players are racingthrough ancient woods and glens to anuncertain destiny.

Some BackgroundEarly on in this adventure series, someclues were reveled that eventually lead tothis adventure. (see Snow and Subter-fuge). Hoegwar Hoegs-son, a talented spyin the pay of Angmar, found a map andfragments of a poem that hinted at sometreasure hidden in a dwarf hold some-where in Rhudaur, probably on the banksof the Mitheithel. Hoegwars hunch abouta great treasure was right, but he waswrong about the location. It's taken a fewyears for the information to come to theeyes of Lord Arkish, and a few moremonths for the mistakes made by Hoeg-war to be realised and corrected.

The History of Ring RistLong ago, before the sundering of MiddleEarth, there was a dwarven hold whereweaponsmiths perfected their arts. Overthe following Ages, through the catastro-phes and upheavals of Middle Earth, theDwarves grew wary and suspicious of thepowers of Darkness. With foresight, andthe guidance of Aule, they crafted somepowerful items of war. One of these was ablade forged from the living rock of MiddleEarth, which the smiths named RingRistin the tongue of Elves, which is ColdCleaver in the westron of men and hob-bits. It was made with magics and theblessings of the Dwarven lore-masters, abane to the dark undead that were eventhen prowling the land at the behest ofthe Dark Lord Sauron. Its creation wasrecorded by the Dwarves, as they love toboast of their great abilities. However,they are a secretive race and the annalswere written in the Cirith script, and inthe language of dwarves. At some stage,the annals were transcribed into Westron,though they were never written in anyscript save the runic Cirith.

The Annals of Grumbar Dains-sonGrumbar, son of Dain, son of Growlin theElder, Lore Master of Hammer-Delve

wrote a long and comprehensive historyof his clan and its achievements. Thishistory was recorded in the language ofthe Khazad, and written in their sacredRunic Script. It was chiseled on tablets ofstone and kept hidden in the great vaultsof Hammer Delve. Over time, the king-doms of the dwarves dwindled and manyleft their home in the hills and coombs toseek their kin in the Great Halls of KhazadDum and their ilk. So it was that HammerDelve became forgotten, a ghostly hallwhere the echoes of former glory are allthat remain of a once great place. It wasnot deserted over night, it was a long andslow decline. During that time, many cav-erns and grottos were sealed by thedwarves, hidden deep in the earth andprotected by elaborate traps and machi-nations only Dwarves could design.Among them was the Hall of Lore wherethe Annals of Grumbar, son of Dain, sonof Growlin, lay undisturbed and forgotten.Almost forgotten, I should say. For someof those ancient tablets were gathered upand removed from the Halls and taken tothe delves of Khazad Dum, where a fewfragments were transcribed and trans-lated. Among them was a poem that tellsof the forging of Ring Rist.

The PoemForged of Fire in ways of Light,where Dark shall never come,The One that cuts to deepest core,the Evil is Undone.From Rivers fast came quenching thirstto hiss and spit and boil,In Deepest Fires the Naugrim smithsworked in Endless toil.Ring Rist was forged that Eve of Deathto Rally and to Fight,That which had gone, has come again,a Dark and Evil Might.

A Blade so Bright and filled with Light,And forged of living Rock,A Blade that Glows where Coldness flows,To fight and Never stop

About the PoemThe sword was made by Dwarf smiths in aHallowed Temple Forge, fuelled by thelight of Elbereth which was chanelleddeep underground by the power of Aule.The place is sacred, it would be nigh onimpossible for the forces of Darkness toenter. Research can provide leads to lo-cations of this kind of temple.

The blade was made to cut deep into thecore of Evil and Darkness and to undo themagics that created the Evil things it isused against.

The blade was quenched in a great tor-rent, originating from two rivers wherewhose confluence occurs at the Delve.They were the Mitheithel and Bruinen.

The Smiths worked for many months onthis blade, in a seemingly endless rota-tion.

It was imbued with powers to rally thehearts of those around it against Dark-ness, as well as powers against the Dark-ness.

The blade was forged because theDwarves realised the Darkness of Melkorhad come into the world again.

The blade was made of living rock, thevery flesh of Aule went into it. It is vol-canic Laen, and it flares bright and truewith a soul of its own. It glows powerfullyin the presence of Evil creatures such asWraiths, Wights and other undead, and itswill drives its weilders on to destroy theDarkness, providing them with magicalprotections against their foes.

All in all, it is a very powerful item andcould be the turning point of a campaign.Its probably too powerful to allow mere

Players to control it. (could it truely bethe blade that in a thousand years willslay the Witch King in the hands of aShield Maiden of Rohan?).

In MERP/RM terms, this is a holy weapon,+20, slaying verses undead. It has sev-eral spell-lists bound into it. it is made ofLaen, and glows strongly around undead,and also glows in the presence of crea-tures or people under the influence of theDark Lord Sauron (or his minions).

History of the SwordForged in a Hallowed Temple deep withinthe Hearth of Hammer-Delve, a Dwarvenhold in the hills near the confluence of theBruinen and Mitheithel. The blade waskept under heavy security, used as theweapon of office of the Delve Lord formany generations. It was never wieldedin anger, and slipped from use into legendand myth. When the last Kings of Ham-mer-Delve left for Khazad Dum, it hadlong been forgotten by almost everyone.It lay in a great crypt within the templeprotected by intricate traps, machinationsand, some say, Dwarf Magics. Any re-search would lead people to believe thatis where it still lies. But it is not so. Onedwarven Lore Master knew the old tales,knew the power of that weapon and knewit was not safe to keep it where it 'shouldbe'. He resolved to remove it to a pro-tected location and over the years he hada safe storage place purpose built outsidethe city. It was a simple tower, heavilyfortified and defended, with an under-ground crypt built to house the sword. Itwas protected by machinations and traps.He named this place Barad Cam, Tower ofthe Fist. It stands on the banks of theBruinen, upstream of the Hammer-Delve.It is now a ruin, forgotten even by thedescendants of the builders, but it stillholds its secret.

Hammer-Delve and the HallowedTempleadd stuff here

Barad Cam - Tower of the Fist

All that is left of Barad Cam is a small ru-ined keep standing on a rocky outcrop onthe banks of the river. Its walls are bro-ken and its tower has fallen leaving debrisand rubble clothed in ivy, creepers andvines. The ravages of time have almostcompleted the destruction men set out todo. Built to an old plan, the main entry tothe keep is up a ramp to the first floor,

some 15 feet above ground level. Stairs

lead down to the basement storage area(A), and up into the ruins of what werethe keeps upper levels (A1). The upperstair ends abruptly after about 20 ft, butcould be used to climb into a watchingplace with good vantage points. There areno rooms or real structure above the firstlevel and any activity is prone to accidentas the walls are now unsafe. There is agood view over the surrounding area,down to the river. The main level providessome protection from the elements, andis quite defensible though the rubble andovergrowth may hamper activity. There isnothing else of interest here.

The steps descend about 20 ft down tothe basement level and are easily clearedof debris. They lead into dark, dank fetidrooms within the thick keep walls, at alevel just a few feet below the level of theground outside. Even so, within the thick,windowless walls, the debris is damp andsmells of mold and decay. There arefour rooms that may have been used forstorage, though nothing remains to tellexactly what went on here. One room issmall and the remains of a heavy doorhint at its former use as prison cell orsomething similar. Careful investigationwill reveal a well crafted concealed door(B) in one of the walls, though its open-ing mechanism may prove to be illusive,the main parts having long since rustedaway. The door and stair behind are situ-ated within a buttress and are hinted atby the bulge in the outer wall, thoughovergrowth may make this feature diffi-cult to notice. The stairs lead down about30 ft into the sub subterranian rooms thatwere carved out of some existing cavernsin an age long passed.

The Hidden Levels

The steps are trapped (t) about half waydown using a common Dwarven tech-nique. One step is simply an inch or sohigher than the rest. Whilst this does notin itself harm anyone passing, and will

probably not be noticed on a descent, itworks brilliantly to trip those not aware ofits presence climbing the stair, especiallyin flight or panic (Note, this really workswell and is a technique used in some ofthe Medieval castles of England - e.g.Penhew Castle in South Wales) The pas-sages and rooms are very damp here,with water lying in shallow pools in someplaces. There is a pungent smell thatcan becomes nauseating nearer theblocked passage (C) from the Troll lairbelow. There is a room (z) behind a pairof large, heavy brass bound oak doors,which have warped and split with time.The brass fittings are corroded but holdfirm. With continued effort you should al-low access. The room has a similar pair ofdoors opposite, a low stone plinth on onewall, the use of which is unclear and anintriguing set of four brass levers pro-truding from brass lined slots in the oppo-site wall. Any attempt to move these isfutile as they have corroded long ago.They once controlled the opening of thesluices and portcullis below and the ac-cess to the secret compartments in thecatacombs.

The doors lead to a rubble filled passage

with steps descending (C). There are afew more pools of cold still water hereand the dirt is wet rather than damp. Theother area is interesting as it houses twostatues of dwarven warriors. One is

Durin the Deathless (y) and the otherAngcam of Barad Cam (x). They areabout twice life-size and are adorned inreal armour and clasp real weapons,though all are corroded and seized withthe exception of the sword Angcam iswielding, which although it appears use-less and tarnished, is in fact a well madeweapon that has withstood all that timecould throw at it, being made of superiorhigh steel (+15). It is about the size ofa normal hand and a half (bastard)sword, and could be used as such. Thesetwo statues are Dwarven Automatonsplaced to guard the real treasure hiddennearby. A careful eye might spot an oilysheen in places around the base of thestatues, especially around some of thejoints and the small plinths they stand on.Angcam faces a wall where an inscrip-tion in old Cirith runes can be made outwhilst Durin faces the open corridor.

The alcove concealed behind the runicfacade contains the treasure of BaradCam, the named blade 'Ring Rist' (seebelow). It sits upon a beautiful crystalstand and shines and glints dimly, with itsown beautiful light. (If the troll is within30 ft, it will glow slightly with a paleblue, baleful light, getting brighter as thetroll gets closer). Access to the alcove canbe gained by manipulation of the carvedrunes. Some can be pressed in, and ifdone in the correct order, the alcove willbe revealed. The word OPEN needs to bespelled out, one letter from each verse.Of course, any failed attempt to retrievethe blade causes the Automatons to grindinto life with terrible rending, scrapingand grating noises that themselves shouldbe enough to scare the daylights out ofany Hobbit in the party. They are slowand cumbersome after so many years inthis damp place, but they still work,swinging their weapons in great sweepingarcs. Ancient Dwarven magics and me-chanics power them still and they will fol-low thieves as far as they can, until theirpower runs out. (Remember any escapeup the trapped stair may slow the party

enough for an attack or two). The secretcompartment (s) in a side room con-tains vials of oil, remnants of rags, a setof tools all corroded into one messy lumpand a 'service manual' detailing theworkings of the automatons. This con-cealed compartment may be located bythe dribble of oil that has escaped andmarked the stonework in that area. Themanual is all but useless, but carefulinvestigation will reveal how to disablethe things, and should also hint that thereis magic involved. If disabling is carriedout, Durins statue will be totally useless,but Angcams will still retain some functionand will start to move, grating andsquealing as metal and stone are forcedagainst each other until mechanisms failand the thing goes still.

The blocked passage at (C) can beopened with a few hours work, but thereis risk of further collapse, which may in-jure the party, or trap some of them un-

less precautions are taken. The doors canbe used as pit props, or wood from thethickets outside may be used. It leads tothe lower levels that served as riversideaccess to the keep via a great valve (O),sealed and concealed in a small cavern inthe rock face below the keep. The wholeplace is inundated when when the riverrises in the spring and winter floods, andwater has reached as high as the perviouslevel (hence the puddles and generaldampness) this year. With the weatherwarming, and storms to the north, thethreat is not over yet, and a flash floodcould cause problems if the party are notcareful, especially if they do not shoreup the damaged stairs properly and be-come trapped. The area has a defensiveportcullis, which is in place and keeps thecurrent occupants (a large and fearsometroll) from entering the keep itself. Thetroll will be resident here several days amonth when prowling this part of his ter-ritory. If the party are not capable oftaking on a troll, then don't have it athome. The place stinks of carrion and islittered with bones, carcasses and thefetid trappings of a troll lair. He hassmashed open the concealed door leadingto the four rooms and uses the area aslatrine and larder. Anyone entering thisarea will be prone to disease and, if theyhave open wounds, they may becomeinfected. The other concealed room canbe located because the flow of water fromthe room through cracks and gaps as thefloods subsided has left tell tale patternsin the slimy mud. It contains the rem-nants of an armoury mostly useless andcorroded, but with the possibility of someitems of superior or magical quality, tosuit the level of your campaign.

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