Recent sumptuous meals aside, the players face a long march through the mountains and blasted plains of Mordor with very little in the way of potable water or food available to them. (They're looking at a trip of 7-10 days to the Tower of Cirith Ungol and the pass out of Mordor.) They will likely end up foraging for scraps from the wreckage of Barad-wath, knowing as they do that the kitchens were conveniently located one level below the main feasting area. Keep in mind that aftershocks continue, and the structure is marginally stable at best. Conjure up images of splintered beams as thick as your body, Sauron-worshippers ground to irrelevant meat by falling shards of stone, and a smell sure to attract any surviving Orcs from miles around...

Use the Orc-hold 1st-floor map, ignoring the arrow-slit windows. A key follows:

• Room 1: Cold storage. Cuts of human-approved meats and perishables were stored here. All is smashed and ruined. 5 lbs. of meat may be salvaged for every 2 rounds of work, with a maximum of 30 lbs.; for every 4 rounds spent in this room, apply a 76-90 result from the Earth-spirit Attack Table (below) to simulate further collapse.
• Room 2: Slaughter/cooking area. The upper-right end of the room is engulfed in flames from collapsed timbers and cookfires gone wild. Feel free to inflict "C" fire crits on anyone foolish enough to get too close. 6 nicely-done lemon-tarragon roasted chickens may be salvaged from a tray beneath the body of a slave-server impaled through the upper back by a ceiling support rod.
• Room 3: Serving prep area. Now strewn with smashed crockery and utensils of little value, this room is remarkable only for its stairway down, out of which issues an ominous steam and distant shrieks. d10+10 rounds after the characters come to this room, a Troll will erupt from downstairs. It is insane, and will attack at full OB until well and truly dead.
• Room 4: Wine cellar. Collapsed as #1 above, with the same risks of entry. One bottle of average-quality wine may be salvaged every 2 rounds of searching, with a maximum of 6 bottles.

This is a twenty-year roleplaying GM speaking: Random encounters are for fools. "Can't you see I'm telling a story here!? Like I gotta let DICE tell me what to throw at these losers!?"

YOU decide when you wanna throw stuff at 'em, and YOU decide what you're gonna throw. For those times when a little gratuitous violence might just be appropriate, I have included the following encounter idea.

Mordor has been Sauron's idea of paradise for more than six thousand years, ever since the end of the First Age. For that long Mister No-Visine-For-ME! has been suppressing the actions of all the other Maiar in his realm, molding the very earth to his specifications. The Maiar spirits of life, and of air and water, were the first to fall; the spirits of earth and fire were not totally crushed, but rather, were molded to Sauron's use. Thus, the Ephel Duath became impossibly sharp and impassable; thus, Mount Doom became the hottest fire this side of Anor itself.

Well, Sauron is dead, and a collection of Earth and Fire Maiar have some SERIOUS kinks to work out of their backs. The proper roles of all will one day be established, but, until then, chaos will reign. The GM is encouraged to roll once per day for each table, Earth and Fire, with a basic 1% per company member chance of an attack. Feel free to hit 'em where they live if they're ticking you off.

• 01-50: Minor earthquake; all standing must make a Medium Movement/Maneuver roll to avoid falls.
• 51-75: Severe earthquake; all standing must make a Very Hard MM roll.
• 76-90: Rockslide; all in company are attacked at +50 OB on the 1-Handed Concussion table. Use only base DB plus shield, if any. Crits are Crush.
• 91-100: Eruption of boulders; as 76-90, but 1-4 attacks each at +75 OB.

• 01-50: Smoke and fumes; all make Poison RR vs. level 4 or suffer -15 to activity for 1-10 hours.
• 51-75: Toxic/caustic gas release; all make Poison RR vs level 8 or suffer -45 to activity for 1-100 hours.
• 76-90: Fireball; roll for each character on AT-8 (Ball Spells Attack Table), subtract base DB and apply damage and Fire crits.
• 91-100: Eruption of lava; roll for each character at +20 on AT-7 (Bolt Spells Attack Table), subtract base DB and apply damage and Fire crits.

Gauge the effectiveness of company discipline, morale, and watchfulness as they make their way through the rough foothills of the Ephel Duath. If they look overconfident, or just plain stupid, ambush them with a band of Orc deserters. Everyone in the company will take an arrow at OB+35 with no DB applicable, then the Orcs will attack screaming in North Korean. Hit 'em with at least 150% of the company's numbers. Hit 'em while they're asleep, if they've been particularly lazy or you feel particularly cruel.

If the company has displayed competence and caution in crossing this treacherous terrain, have them come upon the Orcs in the open. Divide the Orc force into thirds, and have them notice and attack the company in three waves. By the third wave, their morale might well break...

(Note: Feel free to duplicate this encounter, perhaps in combination with the Orc-warren or Orc-hold maps, at any time during the game. Mordor after the Fall is full of marauding bands of Orcs and Trolls, some insane, a few just looking for a quick meal and a way out of Dodge.)

Put the company in the mood to explore an Orc-warren. Caustic black rain or perhaps a hot ash fall will work wonders. The warren will be unoccupied save for perhaps a foraging Troll if you're feeling whimsical. The real surprise doesn't come until the company has reached the deepest point in the warren, so lure them in with promises of hidden treasure, free food, or cheap long-distance service.

Successful Perception rolls will notice cooler-than-average temperatures and high humidity as the company reaches the passage leading to the Leader's Area. A faint blue-green phosphorescence will be seen as that cavern is entered. At this point have everyone make a Resistance Roll against Level 20 Essence. Most of 'em will fail and thus be happily entranced; pick the worst failure and have that character desperately need to explore the pool at the far end of the room, from which the phosphorescence comes.

That lucky character will see a staggeringly-beautiful female form under the water, clad in clinging silver and reaching out to be saved. Naturally, the charmed character will reach in and grab her hands...and thus will the "laughter of Uinen", the sound of fresh flowing water, be born unto Gorgoroth for the first time in more than six thousand years. This joyous event may not seem quite so joyous to the characters, who will have to escape the enthusiasm of Osse's wife, Maiar mistress of fresh flowing water...

The entrancement over all but the "rescuing" character will be broken as soon as giddy laughter washes over them, along with a few thousand gallons of water. The pool will become a fountain in an instant, and the entire cavern complex, except for the Guardroom closest to the entrance, will be submerged inside of 10 rounds. Characters will need to total 500 or better on Medium MM rolls to escape the flooding, and they have 10 rounds to get those successes. An "F" result wipes out 100 points from anyone's total! Characters who choose to swim and roll successfully will find themselves buffeted (take 2d10 concussion hits) but carried to safety, thrown clear at the warren's entrance as the Duathduin (S. "Shadow River") is born.

Oh, and one more thing: We haven't forgotten the entranced soul who freed the avatar of Uinen. Unable, indeed, unwilling to save themselves, they must be rescued by others. They will not resist being carried or dragged along, but they will act as an impediment, making helpers MM rolls Hard instead of Medium. If not rescued, years from now, the entranced character will show up at his or her home subtly changed, unable to sleep without the sound of falling water nearby...

This encounter should take place as the company gets fairly close to Cirith Ungol, or if they decide to move across the open plateau.

Successful Perception rolls will notice the stench at more than a half-mile: Sickly-sweet decay and worse, the poison fumes of Sauron's malice, carry far on the freshening breezes. As the company approaches, if they have the guts to approach at all, examination of the ground will reveal a very definite blast crater, as if something huge and white-hot smashed along the ground from northeast to southwest, ending in a wrecked heap that blasted itself nearly ten feet deep into volcanic rock.

Examination will prove difficult, as the fumes of the corrupt, foul thing are highly toxic. All those getting close enough to search the remains must make RRs vs. level 12 Poison every round or faint, losing 1-10 points of Constitution permanently due to respiratory burns and suffering -20 to activity for 1-100 hours. From a safe distance, a smashed helm that vaguely resembles a Mumak head can be seen: This is the empty armor of Indur Dawndeath, Nazgul of Sauron, and the shattered corpse of the Fell Beast he was riding even as the One Ring was destroyed and the unlife of all the Ringwraiths was snuffed out in flames.

Characters who might deserve to notice such things will see the company entering an area ideal for an ambush: High, steep slopes on each side of the trail, many sudden turns limiting visibility, lots of cover on both sides. Any attempt to circumvent this area will reveal that the company is indeed being watched, as Orcs clad in chainmail are seen vacating scouting positions high on the slopes well ahead of the company. Base your next move on the company's reaction to this news:

• "Oh, boy! Orcs! Let's kill 'em!" Any aggressive moves by the company should be met with a force of strong Orcs equal to twice their number, attacking from surprise on familiar terrain. They will show mercy, and will take prisoners to be interrogated by their Boss.
• "Orcs! Run for your lives!" If the company flees or retreats more than half a day's march, they will find no trace of the Orcs when they again move north.
• "Let's just move along cautiously and see what they want." If the company shows confidence, the Orcs' Boss will display his rather unusual restraint and will negotiate rather than attack. After all, humans in the service of Sauron are often sorcerors and warlords, individuals not to be trifled with, and this Boss is a damnably intelligent representative of his species.

He is, of course, Shagrat, former captain of the guard of Cirith Ungol and the bearer of Frodo's possessions to the Barad-dur after that Hobbit's capture in the passages of Shelob's Lair. For his "loyalty" he was allowed to outfit himself in the armories of the Dark Lord, and he now bears black scale armor as light as air and a Numenorean bastard sword that glitters with deep red highlights. Near the fortress of Durthang when the Fall occurred, Shagrat turned south and began to implement his dream.

If negotiating, he will reveal his plans to move "South, then East to the far mountains with my lads. Gonna set up where there's no big Bosses, a bit o' swag for the boys, some nice 'ard iron to mine, and no Elf-men to bother wi' us." (Remember the Cockney accent that Tolkein used to simulate the "lower-class" Orc version of Westron.) He can summon fifty archers from the surrounding rocks with a raised hand, so the company knows he's serious, but he does NOT want to fight. Enlightened characters (or players) might see this as the beginning of a truly free Orcish race, one that might outgrow its aggressive tendencies in time.

Feel free to slaughter any member of the company who tries to get uppity with Shagrat. He is clearly negotiating from a position of strength. On the other hand, reward players for imaginative handling of the situation with offers to trade. Shagrat has food in abundance, having plundered the Orc-warrens of the Morkai on his way south, but he might appreciate knowing that a large source of fresh water lies in his path of march.

As the company approaches the base of Cirith Ungol and the much-less-spidery Cirith Morgul, two features become obvious: the Tower, which dominates this entrance to the mountain passes, and the small city of tents that blocks their way out of Mordor. Give the players a moment to contemplate their choices and then call for Essence RRs from all. Allow nothing to interrupt you as you say:

"You all hear a voice. No, not 'a' voice; you hear 'THE' voice. All that you have ever known of rightful authority and true justice is promised by its syllables; your hopes for the future, for all your deepest dreams and idle fantasies, are contained in its words. It speaks in whatever language you understand best, with whatever dialect you know and trust. It speaks directly to your soul, saying this:

"'Children of the fallen Sauron! Lose not your faith! Out of disaster has always come again the rise of our Dark Lord in glory. This I have seen with my own eyes, and this I forsee. Let us strive together to keep His way alive through the lies of the West; let us live to see Him reborn to new power! Trust my words, for I am His servant, His herald and ambassador. Come to me, children of the Dark Lord, for I am the Mouth of Sauron!'"

Now, go around the room asking for the players' RR totals. Anyone who fails vs. 50th level Essence by more than 50 will immediately move towards the tent city at best speed. Anyone failing by 01-50 will try to convince others of the truth of the message, and will leave for the tent city within 10d10 minutes. Those who succeed are unaffected by the Mouth's compulsion...but they'll probably go to the camp anyway.

Assume that anyone who flees on their own and tries to exit Mordor will be found and captured by the Mouth's troops, who number in the hundreds and are deployed to prevent any escape over the pass. Captured characters will be brought to the tent city and placed under the guard of characters who failed their compulsion rolls.

Special rules apply here for the "spy" characters, those who were never servants of Darkness. They are immune to the compulsion spell of the Mouth, but should find themselves in the Mouth's camp as if they were. After all, here is a powerful minion of Sauron still alive after the Fall, and something will have to be done about that...

The Mouth has assembled the following forces here:

• 550 footmen, with a variety of common arms but very short on armor and shields;
• 200 cavalry, mostly Variag warriors with a few Easterlings and Southrons, better-armed than the infantry but still short on armor and shields;
• 375 or so noncombatants, mostly Variag and Nurniag women, a mixture of servants, camp followers, priestesses, and slaves.

The Mouth will welcome the characters to his personal pavilion, a huge tent divided into smaller rooms outfitted with comfortable furnishings, fine wines, fresh fruit, and cool, dry air. He will offer positions of leadership to various characters based on profession and ethnicity (Variag warrior-type=Cavalry commander, fallen Dunedain scout=Spymaster, etc.) and he will treat them all with dignity...but none more than Elwen, should she be present. (Do your best to have her included.) In Elwen, The Mouth sees an immortal lover with whom to share the long wait for Sauron's return. He knows that it has taken the Big Kahuna as much as a thousand years to reincarnate his ugly black butt after a whompin' by the West, so The Mouth plans to use the other characters, and his whole little community, to set himself (and Elwen) up someplace safe until Sauron rises again. If Elwen is not present as a character, make her an NPC who appears at this point in time. She can galvanize the "West-friendly" characters into action, and her death at the Mouth's hands in the final encounter can add true emotion to the scene.

In my experience, the players have spent a lot of time role-playing things here in the tent city. Let them indulge themselves as authority figures, perhaps organizing their little conspiracies against the Mouth, perhaps becoming truly loyal to him. After a few game-days of this, call for Perception rolls casually during a time when all the characters are together, perhaps for dinner with The Mouth. Anyone who succeeds should be told that they've had a sudden, and suspicious, revelation concerning The Mouth:

Consider all the things he managed to "salvage from the wreck of Cirith Gorgor", as he puts it. The pavilions, the supplies of Dorwinion's best vintages, crate after crate of fresh foodstuffs, the silk and satin everything: How could one fortress yield a ready-made stash of supplies seemingly designed for the comfort of The Mouth? The inescapable conclusion is that The Mouth was harboring thoughts at least disloyal, and at most traitorous, to the Will of Sauron. (Truth be told, he has seen his master fall before, and he is nothing if not prepared for any eventuality.)

This suspicion, when disseminated among the company, will have the effect of dispelling The Mouth's compulsion on all the characters. If anyone chooses to spread their theories among the camp, roll dice, add the character's Presence or Public Speaking bonus, and use the following table:

• Below -25: "Hmmm. Tell me more. Who else is involved with this?" Listener will seem to agree, but seeks out The Mouth at the earliest opportunity to betray the character(s).
• -25 to 04: "So what? Ya gotta be ready for anything, pal." Listener is unimpressed.
• 05 to 90: "Hey, I think you're right. But what can we do about it?" Listener's faith is shaken; no further effect.
• 91 to 110: "Hey, you're right!" Listener's faith is shattered; they will do nothing to aid The Mouth, and will desert at their first chance.
• Natural 100: "I was thinking the same thing. I'm open to suggestions." Listener is a subcommander, and can bring d10+10 soldiers to the company's side.
• 111 to 175: "Smoke and fire! You're right! What do we do?" Listener is impressed, and can be counted on for a single act of sabotage or violence as long as the risks aren't too great.
• 176+: "I was thinking the same thing." Listener has transferred loyalty to the character's side, and will take considerable risks to escape the camp or harm The Mouth.

The characters won't get much time to spread the word about The Mouth, because he announces plans at dinner that very night to march on the Tower of Cirith Ungol at first light. The camp has reached the manpower it needs to make the journey East, he declares, and, with the arms and armor siezed from the tower, "we will have the strength to resist those of both West and East who see fit to oppose us." He seems elated, bordering on the maniacal, and he will dismiss the characters, Elwen included, early to prepare their troops.

(In truth, The Mouth has made mental contact with a Fell Beast, perhaps the last of the breed tamed by Sauron, which has returned to its nest high in the Tower of Cirith Ungol after the death of its brethren. The huge riding-drake sits masterless at the highest level of the Tower, and The Mouth sees it as his best chance to flee Mordor with his "closest advisor" Elwen, leaving all the rest of his army and followers to the depredations of Gondor and her allies. Besides, the wine is running short and the fresh food supplies are nearly gone.)

Promptly at dawn, The Mouth musters his troops with a true sense of military organization, sending skirmishers up the valley of the Morgai and cavalry scouts up the main Cirith Morgul road. The infantry he sets to two tasks: Most will go to set up roadblocks and escort the baggage train, while 50 picked men (the character's choice, of course) will forage in the Tower itself. The Tower is to the north of the main road, reachable by a winding, steeply climbing path exposed to fire from all south-facing levels of the fortification.

The Mouth will want to go into Cirith Ungol with as small a party as possible, since he is planning to betray them and flee with Elwen aboard the Fell Beast and he doesn't fancy fighting too many opponents. He is confident of the characters' loyalty, unless one or more have been betrayed earlier, and he will ask them to escort him inside in any event. He counts on the loyalty of the remaining few, and of Elwen above all, to keep the unbelievers at bay until he can make good his escape.

If the game is going quickly, or the players are not taking proper precautions, be sure to throw a few Giant Spiders at them in the Tower. After all, Shelob has been gravely injured, and her malice and pain have stirred up her brood into mindless rage. If there is no time for this kind of fun, assume that the Undergate, against which Sam Gamgee knocked himself unconscious at the end of Book IV, is still closed, and the spiders are safely locked away.

Ah, yes...the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Now, I can't exactly give each and every GM out there a precise map of the place, can I? Sure, you could pull out your handy copy of THE TOWER OF CIRITH UNGOL & SHELOB'S LAIR by ICE, copyright 1984, but heck, you probably haven't got one, after all these years and all.

Anyway, here's what you need to know about the Tower. (Be sure to redirect any player who gets too curious about unlisted rooms by any means necessary, including roof collapses, absence of floors, fires, or spaces filled entirely with slightly-vibrating, inch-thick spider-webs.)

• Big-arse steel gates lying ajar, long hallway going straight in with open doors to left and right, lots of Orc-bodies decomposing and generally smelling better than they did alive. Very dim.
• 150' in, there's spiral stairs to the right going up and down. Up is clockwise. Many more Orc-bodies.
• Six levels up is The Mouth's destination, the large triangular roof of the main building and a round tower just large enough to hold the spiral stairway. Against the sheer cliff-wall that rises a further 300 feet behind the Tower, a shallow cave has been excavated. From this cave, the Fell Beast will waddle forth ominously.

(Note to self: This may well be the first time that the words "waddle forth ominously" have appeared together in a sentence in the English language.)

The last set encounter of the game is rather free-form. Past player groups have...
...waited for The Mouth to try to calm the Fell Beast with spells, then clobbered him;
...gotten lucky with an arrow, killing the Fell Beast (and its rider in the fall) just after The Mouth tried to fly away;
...done nothing, and stood slack-jawed as The Mouth laughed and laughed and faded away into the East.

In any event, try to keep the players from The Mouth's throat until the Fell Beast is in sight, thus increasing the chances for true chaos and gamemaster delight. Keep them hungry for whatever special thing they think The Mouth is going upstairs for, be it magic or treasure or whatever. It'll be so much more fun when even the loyalists realize that they're to be left in the lurch.

The ending of this adventure may lead in several directions. The surviving characters, regardless of the survival of The Mouth of Sauron, have a relatively clear path through to Ithilien. The horror of Minas Morgul is lessened with the downfall of the Nine, and the foul grasses of Morgul Vale were set aflame by the passing Host of the West some two weeks before. There will be patrols of Gondorian and Rohirric horse sweeping the countryside for pockets of resistance, but any company that sticks to the hills of South Ithilien should come through unmolested.

This ending can lead to many new beginnings. The reign of Elessar is at hand: characters loyal to the West, even those whose loyalties are of a more recent vintage, may turn north and witness the homage Aragorn pays to the Ringbearers at the Field of Cormallen fourteen days after the fall of Sauron. With peace will come diplomacy, and soon, trade will flow South and East again. Yes, wars will be fought, but without the corrupting influence of the Lord of the Rings, men will find much less to fight over, and far more areas of commonality than many would expect. Adventure of a more honest kind awaits persons of all temperament in the Fourth Age of Middle Earth!