In the Shadow of the Moon - A 4th Age campaign in Middle-earth

About the adventure

In the Shadow of the Moon A Fourth Age campaign, beginning in FA 218, using Free League Publishing's The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying 5E. Two hundred and eighteen years have passed since the fires of Mount Doom went cold. The War of the Ring, the great hinge of history upon which the fate of Middle-earth once turned, is no longer memory. It is legend. And legends, unlike memories, have no witnesses left to keep them honest. King Eldarion Telcontar sits upon his father's throne in the ninety-eighth year of his reign, long-lived beyond the reckoning of most Men, governing a Reunited Kingdom that is outwardly strong and inwardly beginning to fracture. Old alliances grow complicated. Old grievances, long buried beneath the ashes of the war, have begun to breathe again. And in the quiet places of Middle-earth, along roads grown suddenly silent, something patient has begun to move. Ancient tombs disturbed from within. Rangers vanishing along roads no one watches anymore. Strange lights seen in ruins beneath moonlit skies. Whispers of a name that most of the Wise have not yet heard, and would not believe, if they had. A new Council of the Wise has been called. Not because its members are the greatest heroes of the age, there are no heroes of that kind left. But because they are willing to walk toward the shadows while others look away. You are among those summoned to the second gathering two years after the first, which convenes in Rivendell, in the Hall of Fire, where Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond, still present in a world that has largely forgotten who they are, await those brave enough to hear what they know. What follows will not be a war. Not yet. It will be slower than that, and more corrosive: the unraveling of trust between peoples, the weaponization of old grief, the patient corruption of memory by a darkness that has studied every failure that came before it and learned. This is not Middle-earth at the height of its glory. It is Middle-earth, in the long twilight after triumph, beneath a gathering shadow. Some doors in Middle-earth were never meant to be opened again. Somewhere beneath a rising moon, one of them already has. WHAT TO EXPECT You should expect lore-faithful, roleplay-forward campaign rooted in the tone of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion Individual Session Zero meetings focused on who your character truly is, not only what they can do Travel, councils, diplomacy, ancient ruins, slow-burning mystery, and moments of sudden peril Moral complexity without easy answers, not every enemy is wholly evil, not every ally wholly trustworthy A grounded, low-magic atmosphere faithful to Tolkien's world Epic stakes approached through deeply personal stories Characters begin at 5th level No knowledge of Tolkien's legendarium or the rules system is required, only a willingness to step out upon the road and care about what you find there. The Fourth Age is waiting. Join us, won't you?