The Fellowship drank their well deserved ales and agreed that they wanted to find the Southern Barrow Downs. They noticed that Carter and Lily Parson who owned the “Tokens of my Confection” were having dinner again. They thanked them for the delicious cinnamon buns and promised they would come and see them the following morning before heading out.

The Fellowship next moved to the table where the guides, Mortimer Tiller and Bernard Smythe were sitting. They told Mortimer Tiller and Bernard Smythe their tale of being unable to find the South Barrow Downs. The guides were not surprised and they proceeded to share what they knew of the South Barrow Downs.

“The North Barrow Downs were the graves of the aristocrats. Their restless spirits wander and take vengeance with trespassers. Many looters have sought out the crypts as they were buried with all their humanly treasures.”

‘The South Barrow Downs were the graves of the Edain which includes the Black Numenoreans who were corrupted by Sauron. Some of them were those on Numenor that persecuted the Nimruzrim. (The Faithful) After the fall of Numenor when they attempted to reach Aman by sea, The Black Numenoreans that escaped Numenor sailed for Middle Earth and lived in disgrace in Arnor while the faithful that escaped found the realm of Gondor. Rumour has it that the barrows are protected by some magic that makes it difficult to find so that the Black Numenoreans remain in exiled even in death. We have seen that some graves were exhumed recently – for what purpose we do not know as we never enter the South Barrow Downs”

The Fellowship listened intently and agreed to pay 5 gold pieces each to be led to the South Barrow Downs. They left the guides and went upstairs to play the games of chance.

After hearing the rules of Gyp and Dead Eye Dice, the party decided to play Dead Eye Dice. Kifak and Arbun both played, but the luck was definitely on the side of the halfling. Arbun was able to win three games straight, causing the table to close early.

The Fellowship returned to the lounge and Hallamir was again generous with his purse before the party retired for the night. Before the Fellowship left the next morning, they were sure to visit the bakery and make sure each member had four cinnamon buns for the journey. Jesoc also remembered the horrible singing of the Barrow Wights and made a stop at Baldrick Tinder’s music store. Jesoc bought 2 sets of earplugs for each party member. Hallamir and Arbun also sought out the local butcher – “The Fatted Sausage”. Both Hallamir and Arbun bought some wild game for their companions.

The Fellowship returned to the Prancing Pony and met the guides for their journey. They again paid Arlington Bowman to stable their horses until they returned.

The guides led the Fellowship southward and told the party to just follow them and look at the ground as they led them. The guides seemed to take a series of non-sensical steps but soon the Fellowship found themselves before the gate of the South Barrow Downs.

The guides bid them farewell and wished them luck. The South Barrow Downs didn’t have a gate, but just an open archway. It was again enclosed by iron fencing. They Fellowship could see that eight graves had been dug up and that a solitary figures was in the middle of the eight open graves conducting some sort of ritual.

The Fellowship cautiously approached trying to determine the purpose of the ritual and to stop it from proceeding. Unable to stop the priest, they eventually attacked. The priest was knocked to the ground and severely wounded. The priest touched six tattoos on her arm and six Shadows coalesced from the fog and attacked. The Fellowship was able to defeat the priest and the shadows without too much trouble.

The Fellowship found that when these Shadows attacked they seemed to sap strength from their very bones. Their grips on the weapons seemed weaker and the swings lacked the strength that they had minutes ago.

The Fellowship soon discovered what the target of the ritual was – the eight open graves each had a grave marker and a small figure in the centre of the open grave.

The Fellowship read the grave markers:

• Ar-Gimilzor. The grave contained a figure of a White Wolf.
• Ar-Sakalthor. The grave contained a figure of a White Tiger.
• Ar-Adunakhor. The grave contained a figure of a White Bat.
• Ar-Belzagar. The grave contained a figure of a White Dragon.
• Tar-Ancalime. The grave contained a figure of a Red Tiger.
• Tar-Telperien. The grave contained a figure of a Red Dragon.
• Tar-Vanimelde. The grave contained a figure of a Red Wolf.
• Tar-Miriel. The grave contained a figure of a Red Bat.

Hallamir informed the party that these were the names of eight queens of Numenor from two separate lines. Hallamir also informed the party that the legends told of these queens being corrupted by Sauron and persecuting the faithful.

Kifak cautiously approached and tipped the White Bat Figure over. It toppled easily and Kifak could see writing on the underside. Kifak leaned closer and saw that the writing on the underside was ‘Nixe’.

The Fellowship immediately recognized the name of the crone they met in Fangorn Forest. They quickly decided to sweep the remaining figures cautiously into the bag of holding and saw that they had the following names inscribed in the bottom of the figurines,

• White Wolf – Helka.
• White Tiger – Ninque.
• White Bat – Nixe.
• White Dragon – Losse.
• Red Tiger – Serke.
• Red Dragon – Engwa.
• Red – Wolf – Agarwaen.
• Red Bat – Vasa.

The Fellowship recognized these were the names of the Hags they encountered or that were mentioned in notes they had discovered.To their surprise, when the figurines for Helka, Losse, Agarwaen were tipped, they crumbled into dust. Kifak quickly mentioned that these were the three Hags they had killed. Kifak also noticed that these figurines seemed to have been carved out of human bone. If Kifak had looked closer he would have been able to discern that the bone was from a human femur.

The rest of the figurines were swept into the bag of holding by Arbun and he climbed out of the open graves. Once Arbun exited the grave, twelve Spectres formed out of the fog and moved forward to attacked.

Their attacks were not as vicious as the Barrow Wights, but the attacks left their opponents feeling less powerful. Kifak smartly decided to cast Turn Undead and the vast majority of the Spectres fled. The Fellowship was able to defeat the remaining Spectres easily.

The Fellowship decided to eat the cinnamon buns but although they were once again delicious, none of their strength or energy seemed to return. Kifak also cast Remove Curse in the hope that it would restore their strength and energy, but it also had no effect.

The Fellowship then searched the rest of the South Barrow Downs and the priest but found nothing of interest.

The party decided to return to Bree and were able to find their way due to Hallamir’s expert pathfinding and tracking. Before they left, Kifak cast Divination and asked:

“Can figurines assist in harming the Hags?”

A clear, resounding answer came. “No”

The Fellowship returned to Bree and stayed again at the Prancing Pony. They discussed their next plans and agreed to make their way to Annuminas since it was close to Bree. They noticed that the guides, Mortimer Tiller and Bernard Smythe, were back at the Prancing Pony. The Fellowship inquired about the best way to Annuminas and the guides recommended proceeding north to the outpost of Fornost. It was mentioned that Fornost was a Ranger Outpost that was monitoring the recent activity at Annuminas.

The Fellowship also sought out the Blacksmiths, Albert and Herbert Chamberlain. They asked Albert and Herbert Chamberlain if they would start crafting with the Dragon Scales and Yeti Claws and they would pay upon their return. Albert and Herbert Chamberlain were open to it but requested a down payment to compensate them for their time in case the party never returned. The party tried to negotiate but eventually agreed to the down payment.

The next morning, the Fellowship retrieved their horses and headed north on the Andrath Greenway to Fornost.

After a half day on the Andrath Greenway, they could see the outpost of Fornost on the hill ahead. They came upon a wooden bridge that crossed a ravine that led up to Fornost.

The Fellowship were just about to cross the bridge when they heard flapping above them. They saw a massive shadow and ducked. The Fellowship looked up to see the enormous presence of Uruial land on the other side of the bridge.

Uruial snorted and growled:

“Treasonous Halfling, I believe you have something of mine”

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