Mordor Mischief 2: in which Gryfflet joins the Fellowship of the Travelling Pants
7Gryfflet has been waiting patiently since our last session so he is more than ready to set out across Mordor on the trail of the missing Captain Lachir. He mostly resists the temptation of evil architecture until a question from the peanut gallery distracts us and he ends up overshooting the intended destination, but he is soon back on the trail. Deftly avoiding a Hidden Threat he fixes flags and finds treasure until he encounters a look-out placed by Lachir outside the Forges of Anglach. Gryfflet is excited to observe that the Forges appear to be original local architecture, and even more so when he finds a ram like the mighty Grond still under construction, but manages to keep mostly on track as he searches for the Captain. He discovers a small strange stone and decides to keep an eye out for more but then he bumps into Lachir who has been driving his men to plunder the depths of Anglach. Unfortunately it turns out that they have been driven mad and when Lachir is forced to defend himself against them he is overtaken with grief and runs off, never to be seen again. Gryfflet continues his exploration and finds a locked door far underground which seems to fit the mysterious stones, so he hunts down the rest of them and tries them in the door. This turns out to conceal a very angry Fire Grim who proves to be rather easier to defeat than Gryfflet might have expected. At this point we decide to jump back to the Udûn Foothold to see what we are supposed to do next. Gryfflet is commended for his work so far, and a ceremony is held to mourn Captain Lachir who is presumed dead. Gryfflet's eye is caught by King Éomer who is waiting patiently at the Foothold: he has instructions for the Allegiance system so of course Gryfflet decides to help Pippin and Merry, his fellow Hobbits. He sets off towards the Black Gate where he finds that Gandalf has been duplicated: one of them, along with Merry and Pippin, is ready to help us once we overcome a strange bug that seems to haunt this particular spot. The four of us travel to a hidden ruin that has been set aside for the Hobbits and it gradually dawns upon Gryfflet that we're going to have to clean it up, but that brings us to the end of the session.
"OK, Orcs, disperse: nothing to see here!"
"What is that? Oh, it's a bush!"
"Why did I just explode?"
"I'll do extermination if that's what has to happen!"
"I thought maybe we could have a civil conversation, but no!"
"That wolf-head is very verisimilitudinous!"
"But I get his pants, apparently!"
"Don't be shy now! Oh, I have to listen to you!"
Lore discussed this week included the meaning of some of the names we encountered, and—briefly—whether Orcs could possibly repent; a question about whether Elves are telepathic led to consideration of "canon" in JRRT's work. We also discussed various ongoing and upcoming adaptations of said work and touched upon the subject of modifier order. Credit for this week's title goes to EdythAldora on Twitch.