Saruman's army has been defeated at Helm's Deep, but the Wizard's fortress is beyond Rohan's power to capture. However, the Ents of Fangorn have also suffered great injury because of Saruman and his Orcs. They have the strength to break Isengard, but only if they can be roused to attack.

Setup: Set Gates of Isengard Orthanc, Saruman, and Saruman's Staff aside, out of play. Add each copy of Ent of Fangorn to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.

Players cannot draw cards or gain resources. Do not commit to the quest or reveal encounter cards during the quest phase.

Forced: At the end of the round, place 1 resource here. Then, the players may advance to stage 2. If the players advance, the first player shuffle the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck and reveals 1 encounter card for each resource here. Then, remove each Ent objective in the staging area from the game.