THE LORD OF THE RINGS
THE BALROG OF MORIA
Val CHA Cost Roll Notes 75* STR 20 24- 800 tons; 15d6 20 DEX 30 13- OCV: 7/DCV: 7 30 CON 40 15- 30* BODY 22 15- 18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13- 25 EGO 30 14- ECV: 9 60 PRE 50 21- PRE Attack: 12d6 4 COM -3 10- 20 PD 14 Total: 20 PD/12 PDr 15 ED 9 Total: 15 ED/12 EDr 4 SPD 10 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 22 REC 20 80 END 10 110* STUN 50 *Includes modifications for Growth Total Characteristics Cost: 310 Movement: Flight: 15"/30" Running: 6"/12" Swimming: 2"/4" Cost Powers & Skills Combat Training: 10 Combat Skill Levels: +2 with Hand-to-Hand Balrog Powers: 60 Great Size: Growth: 9 Levels, 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Always On (-1/2) +45 STR, +9 BODY, +9 STUN, -6 DCV, +6 PER, +4" reach, -9" KB 36 Claws: HKA: 3d6 (6d6 with STR), Reduced Penetration (-1/4), END 4 45 Fire Aura: RKA: 1d6, Damage Shield (+1/2), Armor Piercing (+1/2), 0 END (+1/2) 10 Fire Aura: Change Environment: Fire, 2" r, 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Linked to Damage Shield (-1/2) 15 Damage Reduction: Physical, 1/4, Resistant 15 Damage Reduction: Energy, 1/4, Resistant 12 Damage Resistance: 12 PD/ED 40 Immune to Fire: Desolidification, 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Only to Fire (-1/2), Cannot Move through Solid Objects (-1/2) 10 Flash Defense: Sight, 10 DEF 5 Lack of Weakness: (-5 to Roll) 30 Life Support: Full 5 Mental Defense: 10 DEF 10 Power Defense: 10 DEF 30 Regeneration: 3 BODY/Turn 37 Wings: 15" Flight, 1/2 END (+1/4), END 1 30 Darkness: Personal Immunity (+1/4), 1/2 END (+1/4), No Range (-1/2), END 2 5 IR Vision 13 Detect: Life, Ranged 15- Equipment: 25 Sword of Flame: HKA: 3d6+1, +2 OCV, OAF (-1), END 5 25 Whip of Udun: Entangle: 5d6 (DEF 5), OAF (-1), END 5 29 Whip of Udun: EB: 8d6, Penetrating (+1/2), 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Beam (-1/4), Linked to Entangle (-1/2), OAF (-1) Background Skills: 3 Talent: Ambidexterity 3 Talent: Bump Of Direction 7 Talent: Combat Sense 15- 28 Talent: Universal Translator 17- 80 Followers: Orc Army (4,000 x 100 point base) 6 AK: Moria 16- 644 Total Powers & Skills Cost 954 Total Character Cost 75+ Disadvantages 15 Berserk: When thwarted (11-, 11- 25 Distinctive Features: Balrog Psychological Limitation: 15 Hatred of Life (Common, Strong) 20 Supremely Confident (Common, Total) 20 Will Not Leave Moria (Very Common, Strong) 20 Reputation: Fire Demon (14-, Extreme) 10 Watched: Sauron (MoPow, NCI) 8- 754 Durin's Bane Bonus 954 Total Disadvantage Points
HISTORY
"Melkor built his strength, and slept not, but watched and laboured; and the evil things he had perverted walked abroad, and the dark and slumbering woods were haunted by monsters and shapes of dread. And in Utumno he gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendor, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-Earth in later days."—The Silmarillion, p. 47.
The Balrog has many names. Demon of Might, Spirit of Fire, Durin's Bane, Valaraukar, the Terror. It is all of these and more. It is the last of the great fire demons that once served Melkor alongside Sauron, and rivals The Lord of the Rings in evil and power, if not in guile and wit. It is an enormous fire demon, wreathed in terror, fire and darkness, and bears a whip and sword, both surrounded in flame.
The Balrog is a maia, like Gandalf or Sauron, but like Sauron, it has been seduced by the dark power of Melkor, and is now forever tied to its body of flame. It is ages older than the oldest elf, and more powerful than the greatest dragon, a relic of days when the Valar walked upon Arda. The Balrog fled from the fall of Thandorodrim and the downfall of Melkor at the end of the first age, and hid itself beneath the earth, where it slept for more than 5,400 years until Third Age 1931, when dwarves of Khazad-dum tunneled into its chamber and awakened it. It slew them all, including King Durin VI, and drove their remnants out. The dwarven kingdom has since become The Dark Realm, Moria, and infested with orcs.
The Balrog ruled this kingdom for more than one thousand years until the coming of the Fellowship of the Ring in 3019. The Balrog confronted the Fellowship on Durin's Bridge. Gandalf struggled with the Balrog while the Fellowship escaped through the Eastern Gates. The struggle of the two maiar broke the bridge, and they tumbled down the great chasm into the bowels of Arda, where they fought throughout Moria, from the uttermost root of stone, up the Endless Stair to Durin's Tower on the highest peak of Mount Celebdil, and there they slew each other. The Balrog's body broke the mountainside when it landed.
NOTES
1. The Balrog is unbelievably powerful, something not to be fought by mortal man. Gandalf is by his own admission the most dangerous thing in Middle Earth, other than Sauron. And the Balrog killed him. Luckily, death isn't a permanent state for a maia, at least not one on good terms with the Valar. In The Silmarillion, one elf-lord manages to take on a balrog, but he was one of the oldest and toughest beings in existence. And he died doing it.
2. There was a lot I agonized over putting in (Knowledge skills—sure he's got 'em, but you, my friend, are never going to see him use them. He really isn't big on the idea of guests.)
3. The Berserk disadvantage is not based on anything in the novels, just on my impression that a demon of fire and might would tend to be testy at being thwarted for the first time in 6,000 years.
4. The Watched disadvantage is also a guess, but can you really imagine that Sauron is not going to watch the one creature that could successfully give him a run for his money in the Dark Lord of Middle-Earth business?