When a letter sent by Saruman to Rivendell is taken on the road Gandalf fears that it is the work of Black Númenóreans and dispatches the fellowship to The Last Bridge to track the letter.

Following the trail of the attackers the fellowship comes to Fort Arlas, once a hillfolk camp but now a den of spiders. Can they survive the wrath of the mother of this clutch of spider eggs?

Session Log

Gandalf calls the fellowship to The Prancing Pony to meet Drustan, an agent of Saruman who had been carrying a letter to Rivendell when he was attacked around The Last Bridge. Fearing that the attackers, who captured the letter, may be Black Númenóreans and that the letter may contain information that will help them locate Rivendell, Gandalf sends the fellowship to retrieve the letter, bit apt before Boron can provoke the rather gruff Drustan.

As they fellowship travels East along The Great East Road they encounter a pale figure on the road, walking as if in a dream. They wisely give it the road and make their way around.

Around Weathertop the fellowship can feel eyes upon them, but travels on unmolested only to find hillmen traps along the road which slow their progress.

Finally reaching The Last Bridge, the elf eyes of Tarandis and Ithildir, along with the keen reasoning of Nob and craft-sense of Boron, shows the secret way under the bridge which the bandits used to escape. But their means and arrows do not seem to be those of the Black Númenóreans.

As they consider their options, Balder The Boatman paddled along and offered a ride up the river. After a loquacious ride Balder guides the fellowship to the house of Hildilid, a former adventurer who now hosts all those who would fight against the shadow. Despite a horrible first impression Hildilid allows them to stay the night.

The next morning the fellowship moves on to Fort Arlas, and ancient bastion long abandoned and now used by hillfolk as a camp. But at the fort instead of hillfolk they find a hastily abandoned camp. The Ithildir shares the ancient tale of Arlas: how in the time of the King a young Dúnadan named Damrod fought the one-eyed orc Gnarsh in a battle that took days before coming to final blows beneath the oldest willow tree in all of Erdiador called Arlas.

The ancient tree at the center of the camp, Arlas itself, had fallen over. Boron leaned over and in the flickering light of his lantern in the hot wind rising up from the pit saw countless spider eggs, but his Dwarven eyes also caught the glint of metal and Boron claimed The Dagger of Damrod from the jumble of remains trapped in the roots of Arlas.

The eggs were not unattended, and its spider defenders were quickly dispatched by arrow, spear, and sword. While the battle raged tiny spiders on thin strands of silk floated away in the breeze.

Assuming that the spiders were alerting their master Boron and Nob set to work destroying the spider nest and saving the only thing not yet consumed: a fine pig, still squealing.

Finally setting their trap just in time the fellowship sprang a surprise attack on Dolomedia, a granddaughter of Ungoliant and mother of this nest. Through their keen tactics and a favorable battlefield in the sunlight away from Dolomedia’s lair the fellowship dispatched the spider and set off to find the hillfolk who once lived here.