Re: (TFT) Gandalf Falls

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

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?


--
					- Mark
			210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
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