Ahh, this MERP book is so good. I only got this one recently (thanks agartha_christie!) and it is full of awesome.

So, as I mentioned yesterday, one of the main historical periods explored in MERP is 1640 of the Third Age – 1400ish years before the Lord of the Rings. This facilitated MERP’s love affair with the Witch-King of Angmar, the first of the Nazgul, whose kingdom was then at its height. Angmar was well north of the Shire and was at constant war with the kingdoms born out of the fall of Arnor. By 1640, only Arthedain remains to resist.

Mount Gundabad is the northern most peak of the Misty Mountains, a kingdom of orcs allied with the Witch King and an important component of his military might. This book details the orcs, their politics and their mountain home in alarming detail. There are also three adventures, one of which looks dull, one fun and one terrifying. The last can even be played by a party allied with the Witch-King, an interesting prospect.

The cover art is a rare miss for me from Angus McBride. Everything about the Witch-King here looks paunchy and awkward, including his demon horse. Everything else looks quite good. I kind of wonder what was going on with McBride here.

The interior illustrations are so frickin’ good though. I don’t understand why Darrell Midgette didn’t get more RPG work over the years (his style reminds me a lot of Keith Henderson’s illustrations for E.R. Eddison’s novel The Worm Ouroboros, which I should post some day). I love his treatment of orcs. They have both variety and personality and stray from cliches that Tolkien orcs usually fall victim to. There’s even an elder orc! How often do you see one of them?