After a Yule gathering in Bree Nob’s cousin Lucinda comes looking for help: her son Ham wandered off with Gandalf and hasn’t been seen since. Following the increasingly strange trail of Ham and Gandalf leads the fellowship to a crumbling Númenórean tower. Something is strange about Gandalf, though…

Session Log

Over Yule the fellowship takes their rest:

• Nob stays home in Bree gathering rumours of Amon Guruthos. While no one knows anything of the Hill of Fear, there is a troubling trend for dark dreams of a dark hill rising up in the North and crashing down like a wave. Also, Gandalf has apparently been about Bree without visiting Nob.
• Tarandis ponders the maps stored in The White Towers and finds a map that suggests Amon Guruthos is in the frozen wastes Northeast of Angmar.
• Ithildir travels to Forlond to research The Dagger of Damrod. The moon runes on it finally light and reveal that it was forged in Fornost Erain. Mayhaps there’s some sign of the smith’s name there.
• Together the fellowship composes The Lay of Queen Nimue.

After a long visit to Bree for Yule and stretching into spring 2969 the fellowship’s rest is disturbed by a knock at the door of Nob’s house. It’s his cousin, Lucinda Willow, asking Nob for help finding her son Hamfast. He wandered off with “the troublemaker Gandalf.” The rumor is Gandalf told Ham there was a treasure in Deadman’s Dike and that he (Gandalf) needed Ham’s help to claim it, which hardly makes sense—”Ham wouldn’t know which end of a sword to hold.”

Nob is able to find their trail headed North out of Bree, but soon it veers off East and eventually circles all the way down until they started covering their tracks East of Weathertop. Nob recognizes the lone and lonely settlement here as the House of Farrell, an old farmer who’s sons begrudgingly sell their produce in Bree. There’s smouldering ruins of one of the outbuildings within Farrell’s compound, but Nob is able to pick up the trail again and follow it to an old Númenórean tower with a campfire burning inside it.

The elf eyes of Tarandis and Ithildir spot someone in the tower keeping watch. The fellowship decides to approach boldly and openly. The lookout calls out to them from the tower, calling them thralls of dark powers and telling them to turn around. Nob recognizes him as Tam, a man of Bree who was kicked by a horse years ago. Tam calls for Gandalf, and sure enough Gandalf appears at the crack in the tower the lookouts use… but to those that know The Grey Wizard it is clearly not Gandalf, but someone wearing a disguise.

Ithildir attempts to persuade Tam that he’s been bamboozled, but he’s a true believer. While they argue Tarandis surveys the tower and spots signs of at least 6 people with “Gandalf.” When the fellowship begins to approach again Gandalf returns to the lookout and unleashes fireworks on them. It is to be a battle!

The flames of rockets nearly end the fellowship, but Nob kills “Gandalf” and soon the tide turns. With the bandits all dead or disarmed Taradis cows them into behaving. One of their number reveals that he heard “Gandalf” refer to himself as Osmer. Osmer, pretending to be Gandalf, had convinced them all that Farrell was a servant of darkness and they had been attempting to raid his house.

Before moving on Ithildir enters the tower to find Osmer’s treasure, which is far more than he expected. Stashed amongst the coins is Acharn, a helm of the elves.

But Acharn is not the only surprise within the tower: Ithildir also hears a scratching sound from within a coffin in the basement…