Introduction
The other night, I ran an AD&D 1E adventure for a couple of friends. The adventure, "Khazad Dum," was written by Lew Pulsipher and appeared in Issue #38 of White Dwarf. The adventure was meant as an introduction to AD&D and recreates the Fellowship of the Ring's trek through Moria.
The author made a few modifications to make the AD&D game fit in Middle-earth. Most notably, magic-users were mostly absent, magic being clerical in nature. Gandalf is therefore written up as a cleric rather than a magic-user. However, he is able to wield a sword and have access to a few spells and items normally available on to magic-users. Likewise, Aragorn is written up as a paladin-ranger, a class combination which the author states he does not normally allow.
Our group had a few house rules as well. I allowed maximum damage when a player rolled an unmodified 20 when attacking; I did not allow myself that when rolling the monsters' attacks. I was also very lenient about spells and their effects. My old group allowed instant kills on stunned opponents; I ruled that would work on orcs, but not on the Balrog.
Since there were only two players and nine characters, I allowed the Fellowship to be run by the players together, rather than splitting the characters between the players.
The Session (Sorry, no photos this time)
DM notes are in brackets.
The Fellowship went through a tunnel that ended in a large hall. They attempted to move across silently, but a group of five uruks heard them and charged from an adjacent room. Legolas wounded one with an arrow but failed to ring it down. Gimli charged the uruks. The next round saw some hand-to-hand combat. Legolas and Gimli were both wounded in the melee. Aragorn took down one orc, and Merry finished off another one with a backstab. The remaining uruks decided to retreat, but they were cut down as they fled. Of course, my players had the characters loot the bodies. They found 100 sp in all. Aragorn used his healing ability to heal Legolas and Gimli. [I allowed him to split his healing ability among several recipients.]
The Fellowship entered another room and encountered a troll. Frodo's mail shirt saved him from the troll's claws. The Fellowship took the beast down within 3 rounds and found a sack with 500 gp.
The party went down another passage that split into several tunnels. The Fellowship took the path leading to the north. Ignoring a couple of side passages, they went to the end of the passageway, which led to another great hall. Legolas was sent to scout ahead; his infravision let him see two wolf-like figures that stirred when he approached. [These were actually werewolves, but the players never learned that fact.]
The Fellowship retreated to one of the side passages, which led to a room with a gigantic bubble floating in midair. [The party wisely left the bubble alone; it would have exploded with enough force to kill most of the Hobbits had it been touched.] The Fellowship heard the werewolves outside. Gandalf cast a Wall of Fire with his ring. [One player asked if Gandalf could cast it in the midst of the wolves instead of in front of them. I agreed as long as someone made a successful to-hit roll, since the spell was not meant to be used offensively.] The attack succeeded, badly singeing the werewolves. They retreated back to their lair, and the Fellowship backtracked and took another route.
The Fellowship went through a narrow passageway that forced the Fellowship to walk in single file. Boromir guarded the rear, along with the loot. The passage led to a circular room. Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, and Sam had entered when they were surprised by four cave trolls (actually ogres). One badly mauled Sam, leaving him with only 2 hit points. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas were also wounded, but they could take more damage. In the next round, Sam retreated back to the passageway, and the others fought the cave trolls. Frodo's mithril shirt saved him from a nasty blow. The Fellowship dispatched three of the trolls; the last one escaped through a door behind him. Legolas shot at it but missed.
The rest of the Fellowship entered the room after the battle. They found 200 gp in the lair. Gandalf used a Cure Light Wounds spell to heal Sam. Pippin was sent to scout ahead to see where the troll went. He spotted an orc patrol that also noticed him. Pippin retreated back to the room and told the others orcs were coming. Gandalf cast a Glyph of Warding on the door, which exploded once the orcs opened it. None of the orcs survived. The Fellowship found 20 gp on each of them. [I made a mistake; the coins were supposed to be sp. But this is a one-shot adventure, so it hardly matters.]
The Fellowship made its way to a great chamber with several fire pits. A narrow bridge across a chasm was on the other side. The Balrog was waiting for them here. It had moved out of its lair and made its way to this chamber. Most of the Fellowship except for Gandalf, Sam, and Merry failed their saving throws vs fear (I used save vs paralyzation) and were paralyzed for one round. The Balrog attacked Sam and Merry, almost killing them. [I randomly rolled who the Balrog would attack; I should have made Frodo one of the targets.] The next round, Boromir blew his horn, stunning the Balrog for one minute. The Fellowship made a run for the bridge. Frodo, Sam, and Gimli had crossed the bridge when the Balrog recovered. Gandalf lent his sword, Glamdring, to Boromir (since the Balrog could only be hit by magic weapons) and cast Protection from Evil on Aragorn. The two warriors engaged the Balrog in melee combat, while Gandalf cast Spiritual Hammer. After several rounds, the Balrog was killed, its body falling down the chasm.
There was one more obstacle for the Fellowship. A patrol of orcs was between them and the exit. Legolas took down one orc with his bow, but the other orcs moved to attack. The players decided to end the encounter quickly. Another blast of Boromir's horn stunned the orcs as they charged, and the Fellowship made short work of them. Then they found the exit and left Moria.
Conclusions:
The most notable differences between the book and the adventure were:
Gandalf survived the encounter with the Balrog. Note that in AD&D, Aragorn and Boromir were more capable of taking on the Balrog than Gandalf.
The Fellowship never found the Tomb of Balin in the adventure. They did find a lot more coins, however. But they missed some magic items that may have come in handy.
Gollum should have been following the Fellowship through Moria. I forgot about him, so he never made an appearance.
Frodo and Pippin were the only characters who avoided injury. Sam almost died twice, and Merry was close to dying after the Balrog's attack. Boromir avoided injury until the fight with the Balrog.
takes a look at flexible roads made from long-lasting flexible resin.