Mordor Mischief 16: in which Gryfflet is not even slightly tempted to kiss the cook
10Gryfflet has been waiting on the approach to Torech Ungol so is happy to be briefly distracted by consideration of his progress through the Hobbit Allegiance Quests. This accomplished his review of his current list of tasks is also brief so he sets off up the hill to rendezvous with Atli Spider-bane who has some sage advice. Accordingly Gryfflet takes a cautious approach which enables him to glean some useful news from a dying Orc. He considers this and his overall progress before plunging into the Tower and thereby dons the armour of the Silent One. Heartened by the immediately discovery of another of the Pages he is collecting he scouts the courtyard before returning to Atli for further instructions which include searching the Tower for more information. The disguised Gryfflet makes contact with Captain Róglarg, currently in charge of the Tower, who sports a most interesting hairstyle not to mention an intriguing breastplate. He has a plethora of tasks for the Silent One which Gryfflet is ready to undertake. This takes him inside the Tower, around the surrounding courtyard, and briefly outside to clear the road. He burns dead Orcs, awakens lazy ones, clears webs and debris, and engages in some lethal sparring while killing surprisingly few of the spiderlings that infest the Tower and collecting the occasional Page. He also manages to sabotage some of the weaponry under the guise of sharpening it, and finds an intriguing message addressed to Ugrukhôr, Captain of the Pit. At the very top of the Tower he discovers a mysterious stranger but since all his current tasks are complete he reports back to Captain Róglarg who sends him to the cook for a meal break. Said cook, who has been studiously ignoring us hitherto, has indeed cooked us a repulsive repast which we manage to keep down with an effort. He in turn requests our aid in finally confronting some of the infesting spiderlings after which Róglarg sends us out in search of the Elf-warrior who is believed to have caused all the trouble in the Tower. Free at last to leave the Tower, Gryfflet reports to Atli who is satisfied with our help: next stop Talath Úrui…once we are done here in Lhingris! First however Gryfflet has some more Pages to discover while scouting as requested by Róglarg, who is not surprised by our lack of success and sends us to report to the mysterious stranger who is an emissary of the Pale Herald: his instructions are to sacrifice enough Orcs to Shelob to keep her satisfied, a message which he anticipates will not be received with joy. Róglarg nonetheless complies, sending Gryfflet to recruit victims before leading them, and us, to Shelob's Lair. It takes some time and effort but she finally deigns to notice them and snatches up the sacrifices. Gryfflet and Róglarg flee but the latter reveals that he has been aware of the former's true identity all along and abandons him to a grisly fate from which Legolas rescues him in the nick of time. He has been monitoring the situation while we were busy and he is worried about recent tremors opening up Shelob's tunnels, but there is no time left in this session to investigate so we leave that until next time.
"What a beautiful sky in Mordor this evening!"
"Well…I'd like to say that you're going to be dearly missed, but I'm not sure it's true!"
"No, it's just a helmet! You're bald under that, you can't hide it!"
"I forgot my dang hat!"
"Gryfflet's had enough of debris!"
"The word 'obscenicon' is my word of the day!"
Lore discussed this week mainly concerned Shelob and her history; we touched upon Orcish obscenity and how it was translated in the book, and briefly speculated on why Orcs might use some words taken from Elvish despite their distaste.