An Unexpected Party news

Have you ever asked yourself why all the dwarves arrived on their own or in small groups at Bag End? Why didn't they all arrive together? Well, the first mission of the campaign will deal with that exact question and offer you a possible solution.

What could possibly go wrong when Gandalf planned to meet all 13 dwarves in the Shire? Or to be more specific... He had planned to meet them where the Bywater Road enters Hobbiton. The plan sounded foolproof. But now, Gandalf is the only one standing at the rendezvous point and the dwarves are nowhere to be seen. So Gandalf begins his search through Hobbiton, Bywater and around the shores of Bywater Pool, hoping that he will find the dwarves on his way. During that journey, he receives help by the Hobbits of the Shire, which are more than happy to talk with the strange Wizard. Even more, they will even notify him of any nearby dwarves if he bribes them with a bit of Pipeweed. And of course some Hobbits may have some special wishes and requests which might get Gandalf their favour, too.

In accordance with that, this mission isn't about slaying any foes. Instead, the goal of the mission is to find the dwarves, all of whom are lost and walking through the area around Bywater and Hobbiton.

What makes this mission special is that it introduces a completly new system. This system allows the player to interact with characters on the map in a special way.
Those interactable characters can be recognized by the large Question Mark above their heads. Right clicking on those question marks starts a conversation with the character and allows some special interactions with those. On this particular map there are 3 special interaction options:

• Chatter:Gandalfs chats with the Hobbit. This way, he might get some new or useful information or even a quest from the Hobbit.
• Ask about Dwarves: Gandalf asks the Hobbit if he has seen any dwarves recently. Any nearby dwarf will be marked.
• Give Pipeweed away: Gandalf gives the Hobbit some pipeweed as a present. The Hobbit will inform Gandalf immediately whenever there is a dwarf near the Hobbit.

Therefore, the strategy of the mission includes the usage of questions and pipeweed presents to find out where which dwarf is at the moment. And after locating them, to meet them and make them join Gandalf. Even though pipeweed might be extremly useful, there is only a limited amount of it, meaning the player has to use it well and not be careful about spending it. Nonetheless, there is some extra pipeweed hidden at different places all over the map. Additionally, if you have fullfilled the request of a Hobbit, you have gained their favour and won't need any pipeweed for them to report nearby dwarves. Fullfilling all the smaller and bigger requests of the Hobbits might be quite useful after all! And to avoid wasting any pipeweed, it might be advisable to have a nice chat with them before giving them any pipeweed. You might find that they have a request for Gandalf.

After finding all dwarves and bringing them to Bag End, the secondary part of the mission starts, which is much smaller and takes place at night.

And due to the darkness, the player doesn't have any access to the normal tools such as the minimap and has to find his way through Hobbiton just from his memory and the available roads.

We also want to thank kingfudgington, who offered us the map, which was used as the base for the creation of the mission.

We are looking forward to your feedback and hope that you will enjoy this slightly different mission map.

Your Edain Team