the ghost of needlehole
“…none know sorrow like a mother who’s lost an only child.”
RUMOUR
“An old ghost of a woman haunts the bridge
every year around the time of last days of
Winterfilth. Oh, the bounders chalk it up to old
tales to scare the young lads off who just want
to cause a little mischief. But what else would
cause the village bounders to close off the
bridge at night during the end of the month, and
at no other time of the year? Oh, they say it’s
for “Maintenance and Repairs” but that’s just
bog wash! Does it have to do with that old
legend, from the early days just before the
Great Plague, where a woman jumped into The
Water, sinking like a rock into the deep?”
OLD LORE
“In the early days of the Shire, a young hobbit
lad from the small village of Needlehole
ventured by raft down The Water towards
Bywater. In those days The Water flowed deep
and steady on its way southeastward towards
the Brandywine. His mother urged him to not
go, for the time was late in the year, and a deep
and dark chill filled the air. But Tookish blood
was in him, for she couldn’t quell his
adventurous spirt, and off he went, never have
arriving in Bywater, nor ever being seen again.”
Background
The Water flows from the North Moors into the
Shire, and as it slows down to split the
Westfarthing village of Needlehole, it reaches a
vale that’s as flat as a kitchen table, and
meanders into what seems like a thousand
rivulets. The vast, surrounding marshland
stretches for miles on end, the land muddy and
the water murky and dark like the deepest of
nights. Rarely does any respectable Hobbit have
reason to venture into this quagmire, save for a
few hardy folks from Needlehole, sporting
boots no less, who hunt for duck and dig for
ancient wood, hardened by the land, for
crafting some of the Shire’s finest pipes.
In the year 36 S.R. (or 1636 of the Third
Age), a young hobbit tween from Needlehole, a
one Posco North-tooks, built himself a rickety
raft to venture down The Water and visit his
distant cousins in Bywater. His mother bade him
not to go, but despite her best efforts could not
convince him to stay. She cursed at his North-
tookish side which he seemed to have more of
in his blood, and crying and waving, bid him
farewell. That was the last she or any of
Needlehole would see of young Posco. In her
sadness and despair, and Posco being her only
child, she jumped off the stone bridge in
Needlehole and drowned in The Water. Her
husband Erling, a pipe maker, recovered her
body and laid her to rest in the village
cemetery. Erling himself was never the same
again, losing both wife and son to some cruel
fate, and later that year, succumbing to the
Great Plague that ravaged the entirety of the
Shire. The people of Needlehole since tell of the
story and use it as a warning to children to
never venture on The Water lest the ghost of
Needlehole, the mother of the lost Posco,
mistake’s them for her son and carriers them
off the bridge and into the deep, dark waters of
The Water.
The ghost of Posco’s mother is quite
real, and she haunts the bridge of Needlehole
and The Water the same time every year, the
last day of Winterfilth, corresponding to the
time of her mourning of her son and her
eventual drowning. The Bounders close off the
bridge for the three full days at the end of
Winterfilth, saying the bridge is scheduled for
“Repair and Maintenance”, but no Hobbit from
Needlehole has seen, nor know of any who is
actually doing any repairs.
Rushock Bog is just that, a large mire of wet
mud, tall reeds and thousands upon thousands
of gnats and other pesky insects. By the fall,
hunters comb the water way mostly for duck,
while others with shovel in hand, dig for ancient
wood for Needlehole’s famously made
darkened “Bog Wood” pipes, prized by dwarves
from the Blue Mountains and beyond. Hidden
between the many reeds, the blankets of fog,
and the clouds of gnats, rests buried in years of
mud and muck, is an old, rickety raft, the old
twine and rope keeping it together long since
rotted away. No hunter or gatherer of wood has
ventured close near it, for an unnaturally dark
and shadowy feeling waves over any that walk
nearby. Besides that, no duck or other living
thing, save for the thick cloud of gnats, are ever
there. For good reason to, for just below the
surface of the dark and murky waters, lays a
Mewlip or Marsh-Dweller, ready to pull down
any passer-by who dares disturb its peace. This
Marsh-Dweller is none other than Posco North-
tooks, or rather the last remains of his body,
forever haunting the Rushock Bog until
someone can finally bring peace to his spirit.
Locations
Needlehole is on the northwest border of
where the Westfarthing and Northfarthing
meets and is split in two by The Water.
Southeast of Needlehole is Rushock Bog, where
one can either travel by watercraft down from
the boat launch near the stone bridge in
Needlehole or walk along the banks of The
Water. Either way, the trek to Rushock Bog
takes about half a day, a distance of about three
leagues as the crows fly.
No matter the time of day, and time of the year,
save for a handful of weeks during the depths of
winter, a dense blanket of fog rests throughout
the river vale, and thick clouds of gnats can be
seen and heard, waiting for any unexpected
Hobbit to feed on.
1. NEEDLEHOLE
A small village in Westfarthing, Needlehole is
made famous for its dark smoking pipes made
from old and seasoned wood dug out from the
muddy marshland of Rushock Bog. Not talked
about as much, is the duck hunters and wood
gatherers use of specially made leather, and
waterproof boots. These “Boggers” as they are
called, are similar to fishing waders, coming up
high on the thigh, and a wider than normal
Hobbit footprint, allowing for even the fattest
of hobbits to seemingly float on top of the
mucky ground, and wade through knee high
water without getting wet. The Company, upon
asking, can barter for a pair of boots each if
they have something of use that any hunter or
digger would care to take. A COURTESY roll, a
careful game of RIDDLES or even throwing out a
family name or distance cousin of renown, i.e.,
an AWE roll may help in procuring of said boots,
if even for borrowing for the day and returning
it back to its rightful owner. Along with the
boots, a “Gnat Mesh” is included. (Loremaster
note: Player-Heroes are to exchange one useful
item for the Boggers and Gnat Mesh, providing
the benefits as listed further on.)
The ghost (a fell-wraith to those outside the
Shire), Berylla North-tooks, haunts the stone
bridge crossing The Water bisecting Needlehole,
but only during the last three days of
Winterfilth. Corresponding to the time Berylla
bade farewell to Posco, and her brief time of
mourning and eventual death off the bridge and
drowning in The Water. From a distance, she is
mistaken as a much alive, crying and distraught
hobbit woman, but any who are led to console
her are in for trouble, as she mistakes the
youngest of the male hobbits (or the youngest
of any culture) in the company as her son
Posco, and amidst her cries of sorrow attempts
to grab and hug the target. But before that
happens, she asks, where is the necklace and Travelling through the bog without the aid of
pendant she gave him, and once realizing that specially made boots (yes boots!) from
this is not her son, she changes appearance to Needlehole, is almost impassable, where
that of a haunting Fell-Wraith and anyone not wearing them sink deep into the
tries to drag them into The Water mud and muck, seemingly being sucked down
to lay with her, never to with each and every step. And if that
let “him” go again. wasn’t bad enough, the constant
1 swarming and biting of gnats that
The only surround any who venture into
way to the bog drives even the
ease hardiest of Hobbits batty. If
her
the company ventures
into the bog
without the
aide of

spirit
and she to
rest in peace
where she lay in
Needlehole
3
Cemetery, is to find
out what happened to 4
her son, bring back the
pendant and to tell her
haunting spirit where he rests.

2. RUSHOCK BOG
No matter the direction one travels to get to
the mire, the environment remains the same. A
dense blanket fog and thick, noisy clouds of
gnats fly about. The ground is wet, muddy and Needlehole’s proprietary “Boggers” and “Gnat
what is The Water is dark and murky. Travel Mesh”, all rolls made for combat or skills suffers
though the bog is difficult even at the driest of one success dice (-1d).
times in the deep of Summer, but more so
during the Spring, and the Fall months of the
year when the air cools and the rains fall.
3. HUNTERS IN THE MUCK
As the company makes the trek through and
deep into the bog, a scream can be heard
echoing about them. Proceeding further into
the depths of the bog, the screaming gets
louder, now accompanied by another yelling,
“Be quiet, or I’ll quiet you permanently!”. The
screams continue, and now the outline of what
appears to be a Hobbit, swinging something up
and down can be seen, either illuminated by
what is of the daylight through the dense fog, or
if at night, from a lone faint lantern shining light
from behind.
Two Duck Hunters have managed to find
themselves deep into the Bog lost and weary,
one, a Andwise Twofoot finding himself sucked
down in the bog up to his neck, the other his
hunting companion, a Hamson Burrows,
desperately trying to dig him out with an old
large, crooked tree branch, with little result to
show for digging efforts.
If the company doesn’t let on that they are near
and doesn’t attempt to stealthily make their
way towards the duo of Hobbits, Hamson will
be frightened, grab his bow, knock an arrow,
and start firing off in every direction, potentially
striking any in the Company.
Otherwise, Hamson, and especially Andwise will
be very thankful for the sight of more to aid
them in their misfortune, and none to soon as
Andwise falls deeper and deeper into the muck,
soon to be completely buried from head to toe.
A skill endeavour, Resistance 6, is required to
free Andwise, otherwise he falls deeper into the
bog, crying for help as he succumbs to the
enveloping muck and is lost to the swampy
depths. If this happens, Hamson breaks down
at the outcome, and is inconsolable, pushing
everyone away, cursing at Andwise and the
Company’s ineptitude, and running off
disappearing into the fog.
If Andwise is freed, he graciously thanks them
for the help, Hamson foregoes the same and
decides to blast his friend for being so careless
as to fall into the hole. If the company asks
questions about the bog, what they were doing
here, Andwise tells them that they were
finishing up a late season hunt and on their way
back to Needlehole to return with their spoils
when all of sudden they happened on an area,
“Thick with fog, dark and grey, with ‘Bugs as big
as my fist’ and a ‘deep, quiet heaviness’ in the
air, like something lurked unseen around
them”. Too frightened to venture further, they
bolted in the opposite direction, dropping their
ducks, and finding themselves here, Andwise
falling into a hole just moments before the
company found them.
4. THE ISLE
Deep within the middle of the bog, lies an
otherwise non-descript area of raised bog land,
similar to the other pieces of raised earth and
muck that comprises Rushock Bog. What
separates this from the rest is a thick, dense,
dark grey fog that blankets the area blocking
out even the brightest midday Sun, and
seemingly causing the air to stand still and
eerily quiet. Despite the large clouds of
otherwise normal sized gnats, their buzzing
even seems muted. A chilled darkness envelops
the area, and anyone stepping and entering the
raised “isle” must make a Shadow Test (Dread)
or gain 3 points of shadow, as the player
characters (especially if Hobbits) now
remember the stories told as young children of
the little black creatures with large, luminous
eyes crawling through the mud at night that
inhabitant Rushock Bog, or worse, remembering
the tales about Mewlips told to further frighten
even the oldest of Tweens!

Exploring the isle, they happen on a bundle of

old wooden planks and posts, mostly swallowed
up by the bog itself, but looking unnatural in its
appearance, very old, and the wood seasoned
from a thousand years of being left to the
elements. Further investigation leaves no doubt
as it appears to be material used to make some
sort of makeshift raft.

As the company digs to remove what is

presumably Posco’s river raft, they hear a
chilling gurgle and splashing of water from
behind them, and as they turn around, out of
the swamp rises a shambling hobbit sized
creature with large luminous eyes, rotted rags
for garments, and pale clammy rotting flesh like
that of a corpse left to rot in water. The
creature wears around its neck, covered in grim
and slimy vegetation, what looks to be a
silvered chain and an amethyst stoned pendant.

Schemes and Trouble

BERYLLA AND POSCO NORTH-TOOKS DUCK HUNTERS OF NEEDLEHOLE

The spirits of Berylla and Posco will
continue to haunt the stone bridge of
Needlehole and the isle of Rushock Bog
respectively forever, unless the pendant is
returned to the place where it was given,
the Stonebridge of Needlehole.
If Andwise Twofoot succumbs to the bog,
and Hamfast Burrows flees into the bog
away from the company, Hamfast starts to
spread rumours about the Company to
anyone who will listen. What these are, are
up to the Loremaster, but most likely
rumours of robbery, mischief and even
murder are spread throughout the Shire!

THE AMETHYST PENDANT OF BERYLLA

Originally given to the Needle-tooks family

by a dwarven merchant from the distant
Mountain of Erebor, in exchange for some
of Needlehole’s finely crafted Bog-wood
smoking pipes, the Amethyst gemstone
rests within a silvered ring, on a fine
silvered ring chain for wearing around the
neck.

Upon wearing the necklace, the wearers

charisma is bolstered, swaying people’s
emotions positively. In game terms, the
necklace is a Marvelous Artefact, with the
ENHEARTEN (+2d) blessing.