How I designed Chapter 2 of the Palantir Campaign

This post presents an image export of my core mindmap for chapter 2 of our Palantir Campaign. I absolutely loved creating the adventure using the iPad version on MindJet (which is free).  During gameplay, I would collapse most nodes except these that I needed. 

Here is a link to a full size map. The graphics below is "a little" useless.

Zoom a lot on the full size image to read the labels... sorry about that.

Summary of Chapter 2: The Southron stones

After spending three months wintering in Tharbad, the company recruited a Northerling named Thannolf, and departed for the Ice-Bay of Forochel. They were working with a vision from the seeker spell which refers to a temple near a frozen shore.

They encountered a tribe of local hunters which explained to them that what they seeked was probably the Southron stones. These stones being sacred artifacts kept in a temple in a village called Mulkan. These stones have also attracted the attention of a Winter drake called Farathui, which was set on taking them away from the Lossoth people.  The chief of Talta offered a guide to take the company to meet with the other Lossoth elder. The company, seeking ivory to prepare for a ritual, stopped by a colony of giant walruses and engaged the beasts. The combat was difficult, but the company emerged alive with 20 tusks and 4000 lb of blubber on board.

The company made contact with Elder Taaso who filled them in on the complex situation in the North. It appeared that the stones themselves were used by the Lossoths to keep in check a powerful demon called Shapithui. Taking the stones from Mulkan was likely to be endangering the Lossoth nation. The company visited Mulkan and managed to confirm that the Southron stones were indeed the Palantirs of Arnor and Amon Sul. In the process, they sowed confusion in Mulkan and were expelled from the temple by Elder Tiani.

After a few days, the company managed to obtain the amulets to turn them into a Lossoth tribe. With this new asset, they decided to investigate the Imenstone. The Imenstone is an obsidian spire that is said to open the gate to the shadow world. Once they reached the temple, five of them ended with a shard of the stone on hand and turned into wraiths. They decide to capitalize on the opportunity and headed for the Palantirs in Mulkan. They were confronted by Elder Tiani, but dispatched him rapidly to the ground with their new wraiths powers. The skirmish was short lived as Shapithui roared into Mulkan with the intention to capture the Palantirs. The wraith company members attempted to kill the demon by driving Astor, the gondolin sword, into the frozen heart of the demon. The struggle spilled away from the village. Halin and Galdor, after intercepting Lossoths on their way to the Imenstone, joined the fray and engaged the demon. Its heart was shattered and Shapithui faded into the ground.

Halin and Galdor walked to the shore with Finbert as a wraith scouts. Finbert made contact with the Lossosth of Hlechui and dropped the shard, returning him to the land of the living in his birthday suit.  The wraiths took upon themselves to carry the Masterstone, which turned out to be rolling better than it flew. The wraiths hid the masterstone close to the Raven and proceeded to the Imenstone to recover their clothes and equipment. They had to fight a Lossoth wraith. All dropped the shard willingly but Kasper and Araliniel. Kasper was forced back by knocking the shard from his hand (almost severing the hand in the process), Araliniel instead flew away, never to be seen again.

The drake hatchling Farathu then found the Raven and started to thrash its rigging. He managed to get he company to hand over the stones and Astor (the gondolin sword). The company left Forochel empty handed, but alive and returned to Minas Tirith. The news that a drake was walking Middle-Earth caught the attention of King Elessar. The King asked the company to return to the North to find the drake and its hoard, find a way to kill the hatchling and recover the Palantirs.