The fellowship found themselves staring across the bridge at Uruial. Once again Uruial demanded the Tears of Varda that the Arbun had stolen from her lair.

Jesoc led the litigations, um negotiations. The opening statements revolved around possession being 9/10ths of ownership and that everything in a Dragon’s hoard is previously stolen. Uruial did not find these arguments compelling and restated her position that the Tears of Varda were indeed stolen by a ‘nasty little halfling’.

The fellowship continued to argue that Uruial should have protected the Tears of Varda better since it was so valuable. Uruial agreed and confessed that she placed far too much trust in the party during their meeting.

The fellowship inquired as to why the Tears of Varda were so important to Uruial and she just restated that it was precious and the fellowship stole it.

After some back and forth Uruial demanded that the Tears of Varda be returned and this would be the last time she asked. The fellowship finally acquiesced and struck a bargain that they would trade the Tears of Varda for the Shackles of Manwe that they would return at a later date to Uruial’s lair to receive the shackles.

The fellowship had some reservations about trusting a Dragon, but felt their options were limited. Jesoc crossed the bridge and offered the Tears of Varda along with a blood oath. Jesoc sliced his palm with a daggar drawing blood and Uruial sliced her palm with her claw and the exchange of blood was consumatted with an awkward handshake.

Uruial then flew off with her prize leaving the fellowship behind. The fellowship took a long breath and continued on to Fornost.

The fellowship were greeted by the guards at Fornost and they learned that they referred to themselves as the Wardens of Annuminas. They offered to escort the party to captain Selma Connor and she shared the following information about Annuminas and their duty.

“Annúminas was the city of the Kings of Arnor before the capital of the North Kingdom was relocated to Fornost. The city lay on the south-east shore of Lake Evendim, near the source of the Baranduin river. To the south and west of Annúminas rose the Hills of Evendim.

The city was founded by Elendil in S.A. 3320 shortly after his arrival in Lindon following the destruction of Númenor. With the establishment of Arnor the city became the capital of the realm for several centuries; and was home to the Annúminas-stone, one of the three palantíri of the North-Kingdom, and the Sceptre of Annúminas, originally the rod of office of the Númenórean Lords of Andúnië, the heirloom of and symbol of kingship in Arnor.

Due to losses in the war against Sauron and the Disaster of the Gladden Fields, the number of the Dúnedain of Arnor began to dwindle, until eventually Annúminas was deserted and Fornost became the capital. After T.A. 861 the ruins of Annúminas belonged to the petty Arnorian successor kingdom of Arthedain.

The two relics which had been housed in Annúminas survived the city: The palantír remained for more than a millennium after the loss of its city, but was hidden when the city was abandoned. The silver Sceptre of Annúminas was removed to Fornost by the Kings, and eventually came to be kept by Elrond in Rivendell.

At the time of the coronation of King Elessar at the end of the Third Age Annúminas had lain in ruins for more than two thousand years. Yet Aragorn soon set his mind to preparing a place to stay in the ancient city. Aragorn sometimes came North to his house in Annúminas restored and stayed for a while beside Lake Evendim, and when that happened everyone in the Shire was said to be glad. Aragorn started the restoration of the Royal Library and the Observatory until his passing.

Rumour has it that Aragorn had commissioned a series of challenges to protect Annuminas from interlopers and treasure seekers. Aragorn had worked with Radagast in the creation of these challenges.

A group of Dunedain of the North, calling themselves the wardens of Annuminas, strives to preserve the ancient city of Annuminas and it’s rich history. It is a largely ceremonial role that is now poorly staffed. The wardens of Annuminas were chased off by Engwa and her horde and now are watching the activity from Fornost planning their next attack. The hordes of Orcs and Hobgoblins were seen departing over a week ago.

The realm of Annuminas is in ruins except for the Observatory and the Royal Library. The activity outside the Observatory and Royal Library ceased about a week ago. Occasionally, lights will turn on at the Royal Library but the Observatory is dark. “

KIfak shared that they were there on the King’s command and inquired if they were aware if the Palantir had been found or moved. Captain Selma Connor shared that it had not be found or moved to her knowledge.

The fellowship were offered lodging for the evening which they gratefully accepted. The fellowship left early the next morning and came upon Annuminas in the early afternoon. All was quiet as they made their way to the entrance of the Royal Library.

The fellowship entered the Royal Library and encountered a library that had been restored with archives of the history of Middle Earth. The Royal Library was being cleaned up by a crew of two Tortles and many Nilbogs. They heard that this crew was purchased by Engwa to clean up the library after she rummaged through it looking for information. The Nilbogs were busy, but they answered questions by the fellowship as long as they didn’t remove any books from the library sections.

The fellowship learned that the Tortles and Nilbogs hadn’t seen Engwa for at least a couple of days and to their knowledge she had not found what she was looking for. They also shared that Engwa kept to the upper floors when she wasn’t rummaging through the archives.

The fellowship discovered the following thirteen collections in the library:

• Archives of Finwe
• Archives of Feanor
• Archives of Fingolfin
• Archives of Finarfin
• Archives of Earendil
• Archives of Turin Turambar
• Archives of Thingol and Melian
• Archives of Hurin
• Archives of Beren
• Archives of Luthien
• Archives of Turgon
• Archives of Beor
• Archives of Sauron and Thuringwethil

The fellowship discovered that some collections seems to have been rummaged through more by Engwa and some less. Of note, the Archives of Sauron were in a shambles while the archives of Beren, Luthien, and Thingol and Melian were almost untouched.

Arbun sensed that the entire library seemed to smell of crisp pear, indicating extensive magic.

During their investigations, Arbun noticed that there were barriers preventing the fellowship from accessing the stairways to the second floor.

Soon the fellowship asked the Nilbogs if they could point them to the last book in each collection that Engwa had looked at. The Nilbogs were happy to oblige as long as they didn’t interfere in their cleaning up.

Kifak investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Sauron and Thuringwethil. Kifak felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Dur’ – the elvish term for ‘Dark’.

Hallamir investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Beor. Hal felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Edain’ – the elvish term for Men.

Arbun investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Turgon. Arbun felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Edain’ – the elvish term for Men.

Arbun investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Luthien. Arbun felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Meleth’ – elvish for ‘Love’.

Kifak investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Earendil. Kifak felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Aear’ – the elvish term for ‘Sea’.

Hallamir investigated the last book Engwa looked at from the Archives of Finarfin. Hal felt a burning sensation on his forearm and when he looked at his arm he discovered the following tattoo in Tengwar.

Hallamir was able to translate the that Tengwar script symbolized ‘Quendi’ – the elvish term for ‘Elves’.

None of the other books caused any effect when they were investigated. The tattoos had no immediate effect other than creating some soreness.

The fellowship continued to explore the first floor and came upon a lounge that had nine heads on pikes in a circle.

Nine desiccated, severed heads were mounted on 4-ft.-tall wooden pikes to create a circular formation with a 15-ft. diameter in the middle of this room. The heads are partially rotted and bear varying facial features, though each of them appears to have had its mouth sewn shut. A single piece of parchment rests on a 3-ft.-high stone pedestal in the middle of the circle.

• The 9 heads all had distinctive features:
  • One bald
  • One long black hair
  • One bent nose
  • One bearded
  • One with eye patch
  • One in a helmet
  • One with an earring
  • One with a tattoo on forehead
  • One with a nosering

The following message was on the parchment:

“Vul vm aolzl zlclylk olhkz ovskz aol jvyylja rlf. Aol vaolyz dpss klzayvf fvb. Zlhyjo ilopuk aol allao vm aol thu dpao vusf vul lfl.”

Finally, the party spotted an armored skeleton resting in a chair. The armor had the insignia of a red fish on the armor and shield.

Arbun was able to determine that the message was not a language but a cipher. While Kifak, Jesoc, and Hallamir set about decoding the cipher, Arbun examined the armored skeleton. Arbun soon discovered a note tucked into a crease in the armor. Arbun found that the note had the following message in common:

 “The bald head holds the key”

While the rest of the fellowship continued to try and solve the cipher, Arbun took his dagger and cut open the mouth of the bald head. Suddenly a Finger of Death ray exploded from the mouth of the bald head and knocked Arbun on his Halfling butt.

Arbun got up and then noticed that the red fish on the skeleton’s armor was actually a herring. Arbun smacked himself in the head and rejoined the party to help to decode the cipher. The party focused all their attention and decoded the cipher to the following translation:

“One of these severed heads holds the correct key. The others will destroy you. Search be behind the teeth of the man with only one eye.”

The fellowship agreed to cut open the mouth of the head with the eye patch. Kifak cut the sewed mouth open and inside he found a single, silver key. The fellowship exhaled a sigh of relief.

As they left the lounge, the fellowship saw that the barriers that prevented using the stairs to the second level had disappeared. Although tempted to go up to the second floor, the fellowship decided to first finish searching the first floor. They first found and old printing press with a single sheet of paper in the printing press. Oddly enough, the single piece of paper was covered with one character – a ‘7’.

It was at that point the fellowship realized that the cipher was a translation where each decoded letter was 7 letters prior to the letter in the cipher.

The fellowship continued into the next room and found that it appeared to be a study room with maps spread out over a large table. In addition, there were two kegs on the table – one keg of ale and one keg of wine. Kifak stepped forwarded to the keg of ale and took out an empty vessel to be filled.

As Kifak touched the spigot on the keg, both kegs transformed into mimics and attacked. The fellowship was able to easily dispatch the keg mimics. Once the keg mimics were destroyed, four of the maps revealed themselves to be mimics as well. The party destroyed the map mimics into scraps of paper without even breaking a sweat.

The fellowship spotted two doors in the corner of the room and approached. They opened the doors and to their horror they smelt a stench beyond anything they had smelt before. While gagging they quickly closed the doors and surmised that these where the lavatories for the nilbogs.

The fellowship agreed that had explored all of the first floor and moved to the stairs and slowly made their way up the stairs. They reached the landing and were attacked by two Paper Drakes. These Paper Drakes also provided little challenge and were likewise sliced into small pieces of paper.

The fellowship looked around and saw that there were more stacks of books and closed rooms. They tried to decide where to go first.