Advices please (Gigi's players stay out...o vi ammazzo!)

[Gigi]

Hi guys,
nice to see that AtS has still activities in 2010!!! 

I'd need some info in order to keep running my campaign ( 6 12th-lvl PCs). First and foremost i'd need to know where to find informations and overwiev regarding the elven fortress that is very near to Althorin (S/E IIRC... i dunno its english name, i'm Italian... it sounds like "Claws of the River"). Who lives there before Year 100 LA? It is still active after Althorin destruction as stated in FoS? Why they didn't help Althorin?

Second and last question: in my campaign Aradil will talk to the PCs in order to reestablish the lost Fortress Wall. Her/mine idea was to rebuilt it not phisically/architecturally speaking, but creating a magical barrier that will touch each single Keep/Fort/City that was part of the Wall in the past...

So i was wondering about how this kind of barrier can stand before being destroyed by Iz's magic (1 month?), and the consequences of being able to divide Aryth in two, even for few weeks (of course bad thing for the Shadow).
Finally what the PCs must do for relighting the magical energies of each single city (maybe creating a charm each time in a different Nexus and find a secret place in each city that common all of them) and, if the mission goes well, what Elves and Dwarves could dare against the Shadows.

Many thx in advance,
G.

[kerux83]

Hi Gigi,
I'll try to answer to your latter question in my bad English: if you don't understand my words, I can repeat in Italian, because I'm too "del bel paese là dove 'l sì suona".
The duration of the wall, in my opinon, depends on its nature: a barrer of raw (green?!) magical energy will last for a very small time. On the contrary, if your (or Aradril's) wall can conceal its existence, its life will be longer.
I have in mind a courtain that confounds and dazes the enemy, composed of magical mists, wood where the goblin scouts get lost, trials that mislead those who follow them.
In this way, the discovery of the barrier in itself will take some time, maybe weeks or, with a certain bit of luck, months.
Also for its breaking, it will be very simple for the Shadow destroy it if the magical energies sprawl only from one fulcrum or the various points of the wall are linked to each other like a chain (in a "serial" way). Indeed, if the wall is a net of nexus, at the destruction of one of them the net could reorganize itself to fill the gap.
To understand the consequences of the (temporary) reconstruction of the wall, I think that you have to ask what is the purpouse of Aradril: in my opinion, the Witch Queen does not believe that the new barrier will last for a long time. She is well aware of the power of the Shadow. So what could be her aim? Why she invests this (great) amount of forces and time? I think she has some very precise aim and the courtain is designed to give her the time to realize it.
Maybe she have heard of an imminent attack coming from the north, and she thinks that the wall, in its brief life, will create a surprise effect, giving to the elven forces the opportunity to organize a counterstrike. Or maybe she has the need to stop the attacks of the Shadows in order to invest her energies (and those of her people) in some other business (such as the creation of an item to contact the gods, or the preparation of an expedition that will reach the lands beyond the ocean to find help, or I-dont-know-what). Maybe she wants the wall as a distraction to the Shadow forces, while her agents (the PCs?) will perform some hard and perilious task, saving a city of the Dwarves from destruction or attempting to eliminate one of the most powerful minion of the Dark God (but, again, why?).
I'll hope that my hints will help you.
Ivan