Teeth of Mordor.pdf

Introduction

1.0 INTRODUCTION

One of the most fearsome gate complexes in all Middle-earth,

the Teeth of Mordor guard the main entry into Mordor. They were

constructed — along with Cirith Ungol, Durthang and Isenmouthe

— in the early years of the Third Age by Isildur and his successors

for the purpose of preventing evil creatures from making their way

back into the Black Land. When the Great Plague struck Gondor,

however, the Watch on Mordor was abandoned, and it was not long

before these "citadels were repopulated by the very creatures they

were designed to keep out.

Nearly two hundred feet tall, the Teeth were known individually

as Carchost (S. "Fang-fort") and Nairhost (S. "Fire-fort"). They,

along with the rampart between them, form theMorannon, closing

the narrow gap between the Mountains of Ash and the Mountains

of Shadow. The structure itself is fashioned of glassy slag, like

chiselled obsidian, which seems to erupt out of the tortured plain.

These huge black jaws wait to close on the foolish intruder.

Loop — a narrow opening in a wall for the discharge of missiles.

Machiocolation — a projecting gallery at the top of a wall or tower with

slots (murder holes) in the floor from which missiles can be dropped

or fired down against an enemy.

Moat — a defensive ditch.

Motte — a large defensive mound.

Parapet — a bank of earth or a wall over which a defender may fire.

Portcullis — a vertical, sliding grill with spiked tips that serves as a

barrier gate.

Splay — a sloping base of a wall or tower, which frustrates ramming by

deflecting strikes upwards.

Talus — a sloping wall, thicker (splayed) at its base.

Turret — a barti/,an.

1.3 ADAPTING THIS MODULE

This module is adaptable to most major FRP games. Statistics

are expressed on a closed or open-ended scale, using a 1 -100 base

and percentile dice (D100). No other dice are required.

1.31 HITS AND BONUSES

When converting percentile values to a I -20 system, a simple

rule is: for every +5 on a D100 scale you get a +1 on a one-twenty

(D20) or three to eighteen (D18) scale.

The concussion hit numbers listed in this module only represent

general pain and system shock. They cover bruises and small cuts

rather than wounds. Critical strike attacks and damage are used to

describe serious blows and wounds (respectively). Should you use

a FRP system that employs no critical strike results (e.g., TSR

Inc. 's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® game), simply double the

number of hits the PCs take or halve the hit values found in this

module.

1.32 CONVERSION CHART

If you play an FRP game other than MERP or Rolemaster and

you do not use a percentile system, use the following chart to

convert I-IOO numbers to figures suited to your game.

1.1 THE FORTRESSES SERIES

The Fortresses of Middle-earth series is intended to provide

Gamemasters (GMs) with extremely detailed overviews of indi-

vidual towers, castles, citadels, and other fortifications of particu-

lar note. Each module in the line documents the history, design,

layout, and garrison associated with the given site. A list of

suggested adventure themes follows the text.

Before reading the material on this fortress, take a look at the

two-page view located at the center of the booklet. It gives you a

clear picture of what the text is all about. Then turn to Section 1.2.

Like the rest of the Middle-earth Series, this module contains

game terminology and references based on ICE's Middle-earth

Role Playing (MERP) and Rolemaster (RM) fantasy role playing

(FRP) systems. If you need to adapt the material to another FRP

game, read Section 1.3.

1.2 TERMINOLOGY

Because of space considerations, we cannot reasonably discuss

all the peculiar terms found in this module. We can, however,

provide a sampling of the most commonly used terminology.

Bailey — an enclosed courtyard.

Barbican — an outwork containing a castle gateway.

Bartizan — a small tower suspended from a wall or tower to provide

flanking fire.

Battlement — the protected defensive position located atop a wall or

tower.

Crenelation — a notched battlement (parapet) resembling "spaced teeth"

with alternating openings (embrasures called crenels) and sections

providing cover (merlons).

Curtain — a straight section of defensive wall.

Dike — an artificial embankment such as a man-made earthen wall; also

an excavation.

Drawbridge — a bridge that can be raised and lowered.

Embrasure — a specially designed opening from which a defender fires

missiles, such as a crenel or a space hollowed in a thick wall which

provides access to a loop.

Hourd — an often temporary, overhanging timber galley projecting from

the top of a wall.

Keep — also called a Donjon, it is the independent, self-defensible, inner

stronghold of a castle or manor.

Background

2.0 BACKGROUND

"Upon the west ofMordor marched the gloomy range ofEphel

Duath, the Mountains of Shadow, and upon the north the broken

peaks and barren ridges ofEred Lithui, grey as ash. But as these

ranges approached one another, being indeed but parts of one great

wall about the mournful plains ofLithlad and ofGorgoroth, and

the bitter inland sea ofNurnen amidmost, they swung out long arms

northward;and between these arms there was a deep defile. This

was Cirith Gorgor, the Haunted Pass, the entrance to the land of

the Enemy. High cliffs lowered upon either side, and thrust'forward

from its mouth were two sheer hills, black-boned and bare. Upon

them stood the Teeth ofMordor, two towers strong and tall. In days

long past thev were built by the Men of Condor in their pride and

power, after the overthrow ofSauron and his flight, lest he should

seek to return to his old realm. But the strength of Gondor failed,

and men slept, and for long years the towers stood empty. The

Sauron returned. Now the watch towers, which had fallen into

decay, were repaired, and filled with arms, and garrisoned with

ceaseless vigilance. Stony-faced they were, with dark window-

holes staring north and east and west, and each window was full

of sleepless eyes.

Across the mouth of the pass, from cliff to cliff, the Dark Lord had

built a rampart of stone. In it there was a single gate of iron, and

upon its battlement sentinels paced unceasingly. Beneath the hills

on either side the rock was bored into a hundred caves and maggot-

holes; there a host of Ores lurked, ready at a signal to issue forth

like black ants going to war. None could pass the Teeth ofMordor

and not feel their bite, unless they were summoned by Sauron, or

knew the secret passwords thatwouldopen the Morannon, the black

gate of the land."

Ostoher, the seventh king of Gondor (r.T.A. 411-92), nearly

abandoned work on the remaining Mordor projects (Morannon and

Isenmouthe), recalling workers to rebuild Minas Anor (Minas

Tirith).

The construction was completed under the reign of Romendacil

I (r.T.A. 492-541) who, renowned as a builder, expanded upon the

original schemeandadded some refinementsofhisown. Romendacil,

perceiving the ongoing potential threat of the Easterlings, realized

that the Mordor fortresses were crucial to a strong presence in the

eastern areas. The two towers flanking the gate-wall, named

Carchost (S. "Fang-fort") and Narchost (S. "Fire-fort"), rose nearly

two hundred feet into the air, needle-sharp spires stabbing skyward.

Between them swung the long curve of the Morannon wall, closing

the Vale of Udun from the plains outside of Mordor. Windows in

the towers looked out across the wide plains, and vigilant guards

kept watch.

LotR II, p.308-309

When Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger, the long

siege of Mordor at last came to an end. The terrible war had cost

the new King of Gondor his brother Anarion and his father Elendil.

Gil-galad, the High King of the Elves had also fallen, and all of the

Free Peoples had suffered dearly. In the subsequent scourge of the

Black Land, Isildur determined that Mordor should never be a

gathering place for evil again, and a grand plan to seal off Mordor

from the surrounding lands began.

THK DUNKDAIN CITADEL

Before the end of the first year of the Third Age, the engineers

and architects of Gondor initiated the long labor to fulfill Isildur's

design. A watch was to be placed at each of the entries into Mordor,

both at the Pass of Cirith Ungol, and especially at Udun, the

northwest cornerof the realm. There they concentrated theirefforts,

constructing the barrier of the Isenmouthe to separate Udun from

the great Plain of Gorgoroth, the citadel of Durthang to overlook

the vale of Udun, and finally the Morannon: the mighty Towers of

the Teeth to close the pass into Mordor.

Unfortunately, Isildur did not live to see the work more than

barely begun. His plans were furthered by his designated heir,

Anarion's eldest son Meneldil, who reigned from T.A.2until 158.

Succeeding rulers continued todevote attention to the project, with

Durthang and Cirith Ungol completed under the reign of Anardil

(r.T.A. 324-411).

All went well with Isildur's plan, the fortresses being garrisoned

and acting as important bastions in the Gondorian campaigns to

secure the lands east of the Anduin, north of Mordor, south of

Mirkwood, and west of the sea of Rhun. These areas were under

Gondorian rule by the end of the eighth century T. A. All the while,

vigilant soldiers of the powerful Stone-land kept Mordor an empty

realm.

The Towers of the Teeth stood unchallenged for many centuries,

and indeed, while Gondor held a garrison there, they were never

threatened by military force. It was another foe, silent, insidious,

stealthy andunimpressedbythehighestwallsof stone. Sauron, from

his tower of sorcery in Mirkwood unleashed one of his most subtle

weapons: plague.

Background

THE PLAGUE YEARS

Its power was first felt in the winter of 1634, when the people of

Condor began to realize that far more people than usual were taken

by illnesses borne of the cold. Then, when the sick began to die and

the healthy grew ill, the worst fears of the Healers were realized:

a plague had come to this prosperous realm. Gondor retreated from

its eastern holdings, moving the capital from the depopulated

Osgiliath to Minas Anor. The watch on the Black Land faltered.

By 1640 the last citadel guarding Mordor was abandoned.

One by one the fortresses were closed, as the few remaining

soldiers were summoned to the shrinking borders of Gondor. The

Towers of the Teeth fell into disrepair and ruin.

The Teeth were — like all the other fortresses in Mordor—grim

and forbidding structures even while inhabited by Gondorian

forces. Under the Dog Lord's direction, the few reminders of a

brighter realm were removed: rooftop gardens were uprooted,

tapestries shredded and burned, and beautiful wall murals defaced

orcovered. Thedecaying walls were repaired andbuilteven higher.

Cruel, jagged battlements of black stone rose across the Cirith

Gorgor (S. "Haunted Pass"). All was done in secret, and Gondor,

concerned with internal matters, scarcely noticed the activity. Then

in T.A. 2000 the Nazgul, having made secure the perimeter of

Mordor, gathered their forces and swept down out of their fortress

of Cirith Ungol to assault the Tower of the Moon. Isildur's fair city

of Minas Ithil withstood the dark siege of the Nine for two years,

but in the end fell under the Shadow. The Witch-king took it for

hisownandit was renamed MinasMorgul,Tower of Black Sorcery.

THE PREPARATIONS FOR WAR

In 2941 Sauron returned to Mordor and preparations for the War

of the Ring redoubled. Deep within the Black Land, construction

began anew on theBarad-dur. The new Dark Tower was rebuilt upon

its old foundations (which were still intact, laid as they were with

the powerof the One Ring). The Dark Lord declared himself openly

as the Master of Endor in 2951 and consolidated his hold on all of

the Black Land. Within three years, all of Ithilien was abandoned,

and Orodruin burst into renewed volcanic activity. Mount Doom

belched forth a dark cloud to roof all of Mordor in sooty twilight.

As the final conflict approached, the Towers of the Teeth were

fully garrisoned, not only with Ores, Trolls and Men, but Dwar of

Waw's cruel war-hounds. The Morannon greeted armies from the

South and East, subject realms of Sauron whose who swelled his

already countless ranks. In the final battle of the War of the Ring,

the Free Peoples fought their hopeless assault against the Towers,

knowingfull well thatthey had nochanceof victory. Thedestruction

of the One Ring, however, triggered an earthquake which sent the

Towers of the Teeth sliding into ruin, crushing Sauron's forces as

they fled, directionless, back towards their dark warrens.

THE TEETH AFTER SAURON'S DOWNFAU.

Although the upper portions of the Towers of the Teeth were

ruined in the cataclysm which resulted from the destruction of the

One Ring, the lower structures of the Towers and the underground

caverns were not wholly destroyed. Many chambers and halls

survived, some buried beneath piles of rubble. Many dark creatures

lurked in theses warrens even for several years after the fall of the

Dark Lord.

Third Age 1600-1700

1 Arthedain, 2 Angmar, 3 No Man's Land (Rhudaur), 4 Cardolan, 5 Gon-

dor, 6 Harondor, 7 Umbar. Cardolan is no longer a viable kingdom, and

Harondor is contested by Gondor and the Corsairs of Umbar.

THE RINGWRAITHS ENTER MORDOR

In the same year of the closing of the Dunadanfortressesguarding

Mordor, the Dark Lord called his Nazgul back from their far-flung

territories. At Dol Guldur he gave them a new mission: to ready

Mordorforhisreturn. AllbuttheWitch-king(whowasintheprocess

of finishing his evil work in the North) and Khamul (who was to

remain in Dol Guldur as lord there) went first south to Nurnen to

begin their work. There, on the dark shores of that bitter sea they

began breeding foul creatures again: Ores, Trolls, and darker things

of the night. Scouts were sent north to spy out the Gondorian

fortresses, but all they found were abandoned and decaying castles.

Windows were blind and warning bells remained silent as Sauron's

forces entered once again.

Each of the Seven Nazgul chose homes in the Black land to

prepare and consolidate the repopulation. Hoarmurath of Dir took

Durthang for his own, while Adunaphel, Uvatha and Akhorahil

remained south in Num. Ren and Indur kept watch in Cirith Ungol

and laid plans for the fall of Minas Ithil.

It was Dwar of Waw who became master of the Towers of the

Teeth, and the howls of his unearthly hounds echoed through the

stone chambers for centuries to come. He led a contingent of Trolls

and Ores, as well as a group of his loyal mannish servants from the

East, to the empty fortress. There he began to' enhance' the defen ses

of the Morannon and mold the citadel to his own tastes.

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