Following the defeat of the large pack of Wargs, the Elves and Dwarves continue North. Passing travelers and the people living on the scattered homesteads they come across talk of a rampaging Cave Troll. Picking up tracks of the beast, the two groups continue in their unspoken competition….

Having come across the Troll at the same time the Elves and Dwarves surround it and attack from two sides. The Dwarves seize the initiative and the Troll, sensing this, slowly advances towards the Dwarves.

The Dwarven archers fail to injure the beast but the Elves have more success. At first Cailon appears to fail to wound the Troll but in fact does (a reroll). With a mighty effort Randil manages to hit and wound the Troll as well.

The Elves seize the initiative and the Troll charges the Dwarves, heading straight for the Esgil the Vault Warden at the tip of their wedge. Not wanting to miss out on the kill the Galadhrim knights charge the Troll and trap it between both forces.

All three parties fight with great effort, at first it appeared the Elves had won but in fact due to the skill of the Troll it came down to a chancey thing between Rori and the Troll. Luck favored the Dwarf though and his axe felled the mighty beast!

Three cheers for Rori Trollsbane!

A very quick game, that to be honest could have gone very differently.

My wife started yet again with a large points value disadvantage. She had 9 rerolls and therefore 9 Bonus Influence at the end. She chose not to use Fingaerion’s Eldar Foresight to change the priority rolls because she got the priority she wanted. I was disappointed my archery and thrown axes all failed miserably.

Once the melee started we both forgot that we used the partially completed mounted version of Fingaerion to proxy a different Elf that had been promoted so thought the Elves had won the fight since all three sides had rolled a six… but once we realized our mistake we thought the Troll had won. I was fortunate to notice Rori had improved his fight value and equaled the Troll, so it came down to a fifty fifty chance on who won. Talk about sweaty palms when I rolled that die! I do not gamble money but the sense of elation I felt when I rolled success on that d6 gave me insight on how folks must feel in Las Vegas.

The Elf heroes Randil and Cailon both leveled. Iareth the Elf warrior leveled and was promoted to a Galadhrim Knight with shield. My wife spent 5 influence (due to our house rules) and got an Elf Sentinel!

Rori got a free roll on the hero leveling chart for killing the Troll and got the ability to act as a banner… a very tasty special ability backing up that of the Raven. Reroll one duel die in each fight. This is an amazingly powerful ability, especially when combined with multiple attacks.

Finnbar leveled and was recognized for promotion but since he is already an Iron Guard, instead he received D3 Influence due to one of our house rules, resulting in the Dwarves getting another 2 Influence.

Although the Dwarves won, my wife and I both left the game feeling we “won” in part because of the cooperative nature of how we played the scenario but also because we both had very positive post game results.