Alas, Vincamir! My companions and I have yet more incidents to add to your map in addition to the groanings of nature that Bethberry describes.
Thankfully we survived, though with bloodshed and injury. Our adversaries did not fare so well, as several were killed. One you might still capture alive ... * Gandalf smiled with wry humor. * Just north on the Andrath Greenway from Sarn Ford, you'll find a wretch who's spent the night shuddering too high in a tree to climb down safely. Where that tree is, mark on the map an encounter with a band of eight or nine waylayers.
The night before, just below the South Downs, we encountered a Black Rider, whom we defeated after heavy battle. I seem to have befriended its horse, Midnight. * Gandalf picked up his pipe from the floor. Putting it back in his mouth and relighting it, he would say no more about the Black Rider. There were general gasps of astonishment from the assembled Rangers, many in recognition of the enormity of the danger, a few at the improbability of taming a horse from Mordor. *
* One pair of Ranger eyes in particular met the wizard’s gaze at these last tidings. Gandalf bowed his head in deference to this solemn-cloaked Ranger, approaching along the cabin wall for a few discreet words before Vincamir resumed speaking. *
As darkness comes, precisely then it is that the embers of anticipated fire shall be stirred anew against it, Aragorn. ... Any word on Gollum? Have you seen him?
...
[ August 04, 2002: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]
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