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Re: (TFT) Gandalf Falls



All,
Balrogs don't fly. Else the whole idea of Gandalf holding the bridge against the Balrog would be silly - the Balrog could just fly around the bridge.

Balrogs are big and hot (at least *look* pretty hot!) Gandalf would have had to have cast Fireproofing (or had an item) on the way down, and during the battle. That would have sapped some fST.

If the pair hit water, Gandalf could have gotten lucky. He could have been on top of the Balrog, so the Balrog took most of the impact. Balrog flattening out would have protected Gandalf from some of the sudden deceleration as well, so he could have come out without too much damage. This is a highly subjective GM call, but Tolkien as a GM would probably have been willing to make it ... :-)

(On the other hand, one turn of Flight to ensure a soft landing would have been pretty good insurance. But he could have pulled the same trick off of Saruman's tower and didn't, so I sort of lean against that.)

Likely Gandalf was pretty fatigued by this time, but still managed to stab the Balrog repeatedly, chase him up the Endless stair, and fight at the summit. But he needed a big Telekinesis spell, Wizards Wrath -> Magic fist, or Trip to bump the Balrog off the summit. The second high-side face-plant (this time onto granite or lava or whatever) did in the poor Balrog.

(My personal favorite is Trip. Only 4 ST (for a figure with ST>30), and it's such a low-tech, simple, easy-to-overlook way to deal with a very powerful foe like the Balrog. Very like Gandalf; cf. the ventriloquism to cause the 3 big trolls to argue 'til sunrise in The Hobbit.)

But Gandalf was left with fST=2, clothes burned/shredded/whipped off, atop Caradhras, with no supplies and no way to make a fire. Either:

1) He died of exposure before he could get anywhere, was resurrected and sent back by the Valar, to make the Jesus Christ tie-in more explicit. Or,

2) He passed into the freezing-to-death dreamland, and dreamed he was dead and resurrected. The eagle found his frosty body before he actually died and carried it back for hypothermia treatment at Lorien.

(Note: or where-ever. Lorien is tough to work out timeline-wise. The Eagle would have beat the rest of the party there if it went direct, unless Gandalf really *did* spend a week or so mummifying on the mountain before resurrection.)

Makes sense?


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					- Mark
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