Not At Home
In our last installment, Bilbo's burgling woke the dragon and incited him to smash the side of the mountain, trapping the party of adventurers just inside their secret entrance. In this chapter, they are left with no choice but to press onward into the heart of the mountain and explore the old halls with the threat of the dragon's return hanging over their heads.
While the chapter serves as a transition between more important events, I do find it interesting for once again evoking a kind of old school D&D atmosphere.With Smaug absent, the forlorn halls of the Lonely Mountain are indeed lonely and the party of adventurers must manage their light sources as they explore ruined chambers and stumble accross lost treasures.
It is interesting that Bilbo didn't have to worry about light on his first trips down into Smaug's chamber, as the dragon itself seemed to bathe the ruined hall in reddish light. As with many things, I failed to notice this on preivous readings. I wonder how Smaug will be portrayed in the Peter Jackson film.
The Arkenstone
While poking around in the dark, Bilbo comes across the Arkenstone. Never mind the ring, this is the true treasure of the story and other than inflaming the greed of those who see it, it has no magical powers whatsoever. It's sad to think that if this were a D&D adventure, the party would likely covet the jewel only for the price that it could fetch on the open market and how many upgrades to the party's magical gear could be purchased as a result. Reading The Hobbit and other tales of swords & sorcery make me long for a way to elevate the importance of "mundane" treasures.
Dwarven Greed
"The mere fleeting glimpses of treasure which they had caught as they went along had rekindled all the fire in their dwarvish hearts; and when the heart of a dwarf, even the most respectable, is wakened by gold and jewels, he grows suddenly bold, and he may become fierce."
Throughout this reread, I had been wondering about the pathetic nature of the dwarves and their eventual transformation into daughty warirors at the Battle of the Five Armies. I suspected that it had something to do with them being cut off from their homelands or ancestral treasure and the above quote seems to back me up on this. I really like this idea. It transforms a stereotypical dwarven greed into an almost physical dependency for gold and jewels. It makes me wonder how you would make use of this in D&D campaign. Would you give dwarves (and only dwarves) a pool of XP for hoarded treasure? If the character lost their wealth then they would operate at reduced effectiveness until it is restored.
A Few More Thoughts
- The dwarves made (or at least traded for) magical harps that were immune to normal decay and the rough handling of dragons. These may or may not be their only magical properties, but I love minor magic items like these.
- It is interesting that Bilbo's coat of mithril was made for an young elf prince. Yet after rereading the hobbit and having the other works by Tolkien fresh in mind, I have a hard time imaging elf children at all. Can you imagine a hobbit-sized elf wearing this armor?
- I would love to see a map of the Lonely Mountain. It would make a great dungeon.
7 comments:
Reading The Hobbit and other tales of swords & sorcery make me long for a way to elevate the importance of "mundane" treasures.
I think awarding XP based on the GP value of gems, jewels, art objects, etc. (rather than GP realized from the sale of said items) would do the trick. Or maybe NPCs get a bonus to their reaction rolls and/or morale checks when meeting a PC known to own many fine jewels and objets d'art?
Would you give dwarves (and only dwarves) a pool of XP for hoarded treasure?
Perhaps a bonus of +1 for every 10,000 GP (or whatever) hoarded? Or else treat a dwarf losing treasure like level drain: say a dwarf had a 10,000 GP hoard and lost it to a dragon raid; he's now 10,000 XP in the hole, almost certainly knocking him down a level or two until he gets the hoard back.
Dwarves as sort of treasure-addicts would be an interesting way to go--and I think we add some intresting setting wrinkles. You could have them experience a "withdrawal" when they don't have it.
The maps I did for ICE's Mirkwood module back in 1995 showing Erebor's dungeon levels and the ruins of Dale can be found here:
http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/2011/04/ice-merp-layouts-from-mirkwood-module.html
I also did a computer generated map of Dale as well but its not as nice as the hand drawn one so I didn't post it.
Dan
@Sirlarkins & Trey: I like the lost XP = level drain approach, assuming levels could be regained fully on recovery of the treasure. To balance this weakness, the dwarf would probably need an additional perk (depending on likely the situation of lost treasure would come up).
Or... and this goes along with sirlarkins, dwarves might get a free conversion of hoarded wealth to an equivalent enchantment bonus for attacks and defense.
@Dan: D'oh! I totally forgot to check your bog for the map. Thanks for reminding me!
I think Karen Wynn Fondstadt also did some maps of Erebor too in her book about places of Middle Earth. She did these books for a number of different worlds as well including the Land for Thomas Covenant series (White Gold Wielder etc.) among others. The ICE guys used her Middle Earth book as a reference frequently.
@Dan: I never owned the Karen Wynn Fondstadt book. It has been on my Amazon wish list for ages.
Post a Comment