The fellowship spent a few days in Minas Tirith resting up before deciding to finally make the journey to Cirith Ungol. On the second day, a search party came back with their horses that were retrieved. When hearing where the fellowship was intending to go, the king offered to provide a four horse guard to escort them to Cirith Ungol so them didn’t have to lose their horses again. The fellowship graciously agreed and planned to set off in the morning.

The four horse guard met the fellowship at Fionns Macools Tavern in the morning. Jesoc quickly used his divine sense ability to ensure they were not hollowed ones. Jesoc was satisfied that there was no reason for concern and signaled to the party that they were good to depart.

The fellowship journeyed out in the morning and soon rode under the ominous shadow of Ephel Duath, the mountains of shadow. After a couple of hours they came up to the gate of Minas Morgul and the riders bid them farewell. The party cautiously approached the bridge and Kifak detected movement on the parapet above them. Arbun cautiously moved across the bridge and also detected red eyes on the parapet above. Finally, Arbun misty-stepped up to the entry way and saw that the portcullis was raised and that the tunnel led to a green courtyard beyond. Arbun gestured for the party to join him and they all cautiously crossed the bridge.

Arbun didn’t detect the smell of any magic, but the party was still cautious. Jesoc cast light on a rock and threw the rock through the tunnel onto the grass of the courtyard. It bounced and sounded as expected with no reaction. Kifak also wanted to try to throw a lighted rock but unfortunately flubbed throw and the rock ended up hitting the tunnel and rolling down the tunnel to end of short of the grass of the courtyard.

The party cautiously made their way through the tunnel with Jesoc leading the way and a downcast Kifak kicking rocks. They arrived at the courtyard and looked up to see the same sky and stars that appeared in Minas Tirith. No member of the party had noticed that they were now seeing stars when it was daytime and cloudy outside of Cirith Ungol.

The fellowship looked around and saw that there was a wall covered in vines in the centre of the courtyard and that there was a stairway behind them that led to a second floor terrace above the tunnel. The fellowship decided to first investigate the vine wall and the courtyard and return to examine the stairway later.

The fellowship arrived at the vine wall and saw that the vines covering the wall were unremarkable and bore no fruit. The party then saw a number of entrances on the other side of the courtyard and decided to make their way to the south east entrance.

The fellowship entered the room and saw that it was an abandoned merchant store front and supply room. It appeared that this merchant store front was for an antique purveyor named “The Honest Raven”. All of the goods were smashed or decayed to the point of providing no value. The party moved on to the south and east and eventually came up to a entrance to an altar room to the south.

The altar room contained an altar with a sculpture of a spider on the altar with the following inscription on the wall behind the altar:

“I swaddled the newborn dawn in bottomless thread,
And drank the silver sap where twin lights bled.
I bartered with a blackened king for glutted night,
Then gnawed my oath and swallowed spite.
I birthed a brood where terror clings,
In chasms void of moon or wings.
Name me—whose hunger wove the world with blight,
The weaver who devoured living light”

The fellowship approached the altar and saw that the spider sculpture was disassembled with the heads and separate legs being the following colours:

• Head – Blue
• Legs
  • Copper
  • Brown
  • Gold
  • Burgundy
  • Tan
  • Lime Green
  • Teal
  • Maroon

The fellowship was able to discern that the inscription was in reference to Ungoliant, the mother of Shelob. Arbun was also able to smell intense enchantment magic from underneath the spider sculpture.

The fellowship tried to assemble the spider sculpture and were dealt painful jolts pf necrotic damage until they finally figured out that the pieces had to be assembled in this order:

• Blue
• Brown
• Burgundy
• Copper
• Gold
• Lime Green
• Maroon
• Tan
• Teal

The altar still remained motionless. The fellowship was puzzled and started shouting out “Ungoliant” and “Shelob”, but there was no response. Jesoc then tried to push on the spider sculpture, but there was no reaction.

Jesoc then noticed that after the pieces were moved into place that there were buttons revealed that spelt out the colour of the piece. Arbun tried to examine which buttons may have been pressed more frequently, but he could not tell.

The fellowship tried various combinations of pressing the letters that spelt “Blue”, each unsuccessful try resulting in the letters just popping back up. Jesoc and Kifak tried to press individual letters from “Tan” and “Burgundy” but they also just popped back up.

Finally Kifak noticed that there were nine pieces, nine colours, and that you needed nine letters to spell “Ungoliant”. The fellowship surmised that they now needed to spell out “Ungoliant” by pressing one letter in each word representing a colour.

• Blue
• Brown
• Burgundy
• Copper
• Gold
• Lime Green
• Maroon
• Tan
• Teal

After pressing the buttons to spell out “Ungoliant”, the altar platform hissed and opened revealing four artifacts.

The fellowship soon found that all the items were sentient as they talked to them. Kifak yearned for the axe but could feel that the axe was cautious about magic. The axe tentatively accepted Kifak and told him that he would need to see him in battle.

Jesoc claimed the Vorpal sword, Arbun the gambler’s blade, and Hallamir the trident.

The fellowship decided to continue to explore rather than converse and practice with their new found weapons. The party moved east down a long hallway and were attacked by huge barbarians unlike anything they had ever seen before. The fellowship would learn later that these goliaths were Desdursya from beyond the northern wastes. The Desdursya attacked with axes in close range and threw spears from far away. The Desdursya inflicted severe damage before the fellowship gained the upper hand.

Just then an even larger Desdursya appeared from around the corner and shouted in a language no one could understand. He appeared to be ordering the other Desdursya and he moved forward to attack! The fellowship moved forward to attack the Desdursya Chieftain and his cohort and after a frantic battle they stood victorious.

The fellowship went to examine the room that the Desdursya Chieftain emerged from and found simple bed rolls, a well, and a chest. Arbun examined the chest and found that it was locked. Arbun confidently moved forward to pick the lock but failed. Kifak stepped forward and asked for Arbun’s tools to try and pick the lock. Arbun was shocked when Kifak confidently stepped forward and expertly picked the lock.

Kifak found that there was a spirit board and a satchel that contained Nolzur’s marvelous pigments in the chest. Jesoc played around briefly with the Spirit Board while the rest of the party showered him with disapproving looks. Jesoc handed the Spirit Board back and they gathered the items up and continued east to explore.

The fellowship encountered a stairway that was collapsed with rubble and moved on. The party moved past a room and were overwhelmed by the stench that came from the room. Kifak told the party that they should just move on, but Arbun couldn’t resist and he entered the room and found a solitary pit in the corner of the room. Arbun tossed a lighted rock down the pit. The rock bounced off the walls and settled at the bottom with a soft ‘plop’.

Suddenly, a Necrotic Worm flung itself out of the hole and attacked! Kifak rushed forward shouting “I Fuckin’ told ya!”. The battle was engaged and the fellowship all attacked together against the Necrotic Worm. The Necrotic Worm pivoted and bit and swallowed Kifak whole! The fellowship continued to attack and to their surprise Kifak erupted out of the belly of the Necrotic Worm dealing damage and shouting insults.

The fellowship all decended on the Necrotic Worm in a fury. They were successful in killing the worm, but the Necrotic Worm exploded in its last moments covering the fellowship in slime. The fellowship all looked at each other and smiled.

The fellowship decided to return back to the Chieftain’s quarters to rest before they continued on. The party used Nolzur’s marvelous pigments to paint a bathtub to clean up.