1
2
2
4 â
1 
Action: Spend 1 
resource and exhaust The One Ring to give Frodo Baggins +2 and +2 until the end of the round.
"It's my doom, I think, to go to that Shadow yonder, so that a way will be found." –The Two Towers
2
1
4
5 â
6
3
1
3
5 â
4
Response: After an enemy is added to the staging area, exhaust Anborn to give that enemy +5 engagement cost until the end of the round. Then, deal 1 damage to that enemy.
"Now I have him at arrow–point." –The Two Towers
1
0
2
4 â
7
Response: After Mablung enters play, choose an enemy to get +5 engagement cost until the end of the round. Then, you may engage that enemy, or return it to the staging area.
"But still we will not sit idle and let Him do all as He would." –The Two Towers
4
2
3
6 â
5
Cannot have restricted attachments. Enters play exhausted.
While Skinbark is attacking alone against an Orc enemy, that enemy does not count its .
"He was wounded by the Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree–herds have been murdered and destroyed." –Treebeard, The Two Towers
1
2
2
4 â
6
Response: After a Rohan ally you control is discarded from play, exhaust Gamling to return that ally to your hand.
"...we have a thousand fit to fight on foot," said Gamling, an old man, the leader of those that watched the Dike. –The Two Towers
Attach to a Gondor or Hobbit hero. Restricted.
Response: After attached hero exhausts to defend an attack from an enemy with engagement cost higher than your threat, exhaust Staff of Lebethron to discard a shadow card from that enemy.
"They are made of the fair tree lebethron, beloved of the woodwrights of Gondor..." –Faramir, The Two Towers
Play Ambush into the staging area unattached. If unattached, attach Ambush to the next eligible enemy that enters the staging area.
Combat Action: The engaged player discards Ambush to declare an attack against the attached enemy.
"But we have a new errand on this journey: we come to ambush the Men of Harad." –Mablung, The Two Towers
Attach to a Rohan hero. Restricted.
If attached hero is Théoden, Snowmane loses the restricted keyword.
Response: After attached hero quests successfully, ready attached hero.
Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. –The Return of the King
Response: After a hero you control defends an attack made by an enemy with engagement cost higher than your threat, ready that hero. Until the end of the phase, that hero gets +2 while attacking that enemy.
"We're going on; but we'll settle with you first. Come on, and taste it again!" –Sam Gamgee, The Two Towers
Lower the cost to play In the Shadows by 1 for each Hobbit or Ranger hero you control.
Combat Action: Each enemy engaged with you with engagement cost higher than your threat gets -1 and -1 until the end of the phase.
He could see them stealing up the slopes, singly or in long files, keeping always to the shade of grove or thicket... –The Two Towers
Action: Ready the Ring-bearer to choose an enemy engaged with you. If the Ring-bearer's is greater than that enemy's
lower its and by the difference until the end of the phase.
For a moment it appeared to Sam that his master had grown and Gollum had shrunk... –The Two Towers
Play only if you control the Ring-bearer.
Planning Action: Brace of Coneys to the victory display to (choose 2): heal up to 2 damage from a hero, add 2 resources to a hero's pool, draw 2 cards, or reduce a player's threat by 2.
“'SmĂ©agol always helps,' he said. 'He has brought rabbits, nice rabbits.'”
—Gollum, The Two Towers
The Searching Eye functions like a player card.
Forced: After you draw this card, either exhaust each hero you control, or reveal an encounter card.
...that horrible growing sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh... -The Two Towers
3
1
4
The engaged player cannot reduce his threat.
Forced: After Groping Dead attacks and destroys a character, place 1 mire token on the active location.
Shadow: If this attack destroys a character, place 1 mire token on the active location.
4
2
5
The engaged player cannot reduce his threat.
Forced: After Dead Things attacks and destroys a character, the defending player raises his threat by 3.
Shadow: Raise your threat by 1 for each Undead enemy engaged with you.
5
2
6
The engaged player cannot reduce his threat.
Forced: After Candle-bearer attacks and destroys a character, it cannot take damage until the end of the round.
Shadow: Until the end of the round, attacking enemy cannot take damage.
Mire 2. Forced: When Haunted Mere is discarded by the Mire keyword, search the encounter deck and discard pile for an Undead enemy, reveal it, and add it to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.
Travel: Exhaust Smeagol to travel here.
"They lie in all the pools, pale faces, deep deep under the dark water." -Frodo, The Two Towers
Mire 5. Forced: When Stagnant Pools is discarded by the Mire keyword, raise each player's threat by 5.
Stagnant Pools gets +1 for each mire token on it.
Travel: Exhaust Smeagol to travel here.
Mists curled and smoked from dark and noisome pools. The reek of them hung stifling in the still air. -The Two Towers
Mire 1. Forced: When Soft Mires is discarded by the Mire keyword, the first player reveals an encounter card.
Travel: Raise each player's threat by 1 to travel here.
The hobbits soon found that what had looked like one vast fen was really an endless network of pools, and soft mires... -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Either raise your threat by 1 for each character you control that is committed to the quest, or deal 1 damage to each character committed to the quest.
Shadow: Raise your threat by the attacking enemy's
When Revealed: Put the topmost Undead enemy in the discard pile into play engaged with you. Each Undead enemy engaged with you makes an immediate attack.
Shadow: Put the topmost Undead enemy in the discard pile into play engaged with you.
Forced: At the end of the planning phase, place each Harad enemy in the staging area facedown underneath The Black Gate.
If there are at least X facedown cards underneath The Black Gate, the players lose the game. X is 3 more than the number of players.
3
1
4
Forced: After Man of Harad engages you, discard 1 random card from your hand.
Shadow: Discard 1 random card from your hand.
4
3
5
Forced: After Captain of Harad engages you, each Harad enemy gets +1 and -10 engagement cost until the end of the round.
Shadow: If this attack destroys a character, return attacking enemy to the staging area.
Immune to player card effects.
The Cross-roads gets -1 for each facedown card under it. The players cannot travel here unless there are 0 facedown cards under The Cross-roads and at least 20 progress tokens on stage 1B.
"We must go to the Cross–roads. But make haste! Be silent!" -Gollum, The Two Towers
While Henneth Annân is the active location, skip both the encounter phase and combat phase, and ignore the Forced effects on stage 1B and The Black Gate.
Forced: After Henneth Annân becomes the active location, return each engaged enemy to the staging area.
"This is the Window of the Sunset, Henneth Annân, fairest of all the falls of Ithilien..." -Faramir, The Two Towers
While Southward Road is the active location, each player may optionally engage an additional enemy during the encounter phase.
Travel: The first player reveals the top facedown card under The Cross-roads and adds it to the staging area to travel here.
"These cursed Southrons come now marching up the ancient roads to swell the hosts of the Dark Tower." -Mablung, The Two Towers
While Foothills of Ephel DĂșath is the active location, each Harad enemy gets -1
Travel: The first player engages an enemy in the staging area to travel here.
"And they go ever more heedlessly, we learn, thinking that the power of their new master is great enough, so that the mere shadow of His hills will protect them." -Mablung, The Two Towers
While Ithilien Woods is the active location, it gains:"Forced: After a player engages a Harad enemy, he readies a character he controls."
Travel: The first player reveals an encounter card to travel here.
Ithilien, the garden of Gondor now desolate kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness. -The Two Towers
While Hills of Ithilien is the active location, it gains:"Forced: After a player engages a Harad enemy, deal 1 damage to that enemy."
Shadow: Discard a non-objective attachment you control.
When Revealed: Either place the lowest Harad enemy engaged with you facedown under The Black Gate or reveal the top card from under The Cross-roads and put it into play engaged with you.
"Always more people coming to Mordor. One day all the peoples will be inside." -Gollum, The Two Towers
When Revealed: Each player must either return an enemy engaged with him to the staging area, or search the encounter deck for a Harad enemy and put it into play engaged with him.
Shadow: Attacking enemy gets +1 If this attack destroys a character, place attacking enemy facedown under The Black Gate.
When Revealed: Either place the lowest Harad enemy in the staging area facedown under The Black Gate and reveal an additional encounter card, or each enemy in the staging area makes an immediate attack against you.
"Not nice; very cruel wicked Men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs..." -Gollum, The Two Towers
When Revealed: Until the end of the round, each Harad enemy gains Archery 2.
Shadow: Either place attacking enemy facedown under The Black Gate after this attack, or it makes an additional attack against you after this one.
4
4
8
Indestructible.Cannot have attachments.
Shelob gets +1 for each resource on her.
Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, either place 1 resource on Shelob, or she makes an immediate attack against the first player.
3
2
3
When Revealed: Either discard 1 random card from your hand, or reveal an additional encounter card.
Shadow: If this attack destroys a character, discard 1 random card from your hand.
4
2
5
When Revealed: Either discard 1 random card from each player's hand, or Orc of Cirith Ungol makes an immediate attack against you.
"I say, something has slipped. And we've got to look out. Always the poor Uruks to put slips right." -Gorbag, The Two Towers
Immune to player card effects.
Forced: After Morgul Vale is explored, search the encounter deck and discard pile for a Morgul Wraith and add it to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck. Then, the first player must either exhaust The One Ring or discard 1 random card from each player's hand.
Immune to player card effects.
Travel: Either exhaust Sméagol, or discard 1 random card from each player's hand.
Forced: After Sméagol's Secret Way is explored, each player either exhausts a character he controls, or discards 1 random card from his hand.
"...a stair, a narrow stair, O yes, very long and narrow. And then more stairs." -Gollum, The Two Towers
Immune to player card effects.
While The Cleft of Cirith Ungol is in the victory display, Shelob gets +2 loses the Indestructible keyword, and gains: "Shelob engages the first player."
Travel: Place 1 resource on Shelob to travel here.
The Cleft, Cirith Ungol, was before him, a dim notch in the black ridge... -The Two Towers
Forced: When The Spider's Lair is explored, remove 1 resource from Shelob.
Forced: After The Spider's Lair becomes the active location, Shelob makes an attack against the first player.
There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider–form, even such as once of old had lived in the Land of the Elves in the West that is now under the Sea... -The Two Towers
While The Under-way is in the staging area, each Orc enemy gets -5 engagement cost and gains:"Forced: After this enemy engages a player, deal it a shadow card."
Shadow: Deal the attacking enemy 2 additional shadow cards.
While Deep Dark Passage is in the staging area, it gains:"Forced: When any amount of progress would be placed on a location in the staging area, reduce that amount by 1."
Travel: Exhaust Sméagol to travel here.
Not since the lightless passages of Moria had Frodo or Sam known such darkness, and if possible here it was deeper and denser. -The Two Towers
While Den of Night is in the staging area, it gains:"Forced: After a `When Revealed' effect is canceled, place 1 resource on Shelob."
Travel: Place 1 resource on Shelob to travel here.
Here was some opening in the rock far wider than any they had yet passed; and out of it came a reek so foul, and a sense of lurking malice so intense, that Frodo reeled. -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Each player discards 1 random card from his hand and 1 non-objective attachment he controls.
Shadow: Discard a non-objective attachment you control.
"Ugh! That smell!" he said. "It's getting stronger and stronger." -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Each location in the staging area gets +1 until the end of the round. If the number of locations in the staging area is less than the number of players in the game, reveal an additional encounter card.
Shadow: Attacking enemy gets +X where X is the active location's
Setup: Attach to the Ring-bearer.
Forced: At the end of the planning phase, either raise each player's threat by 1, or exhaust the Ring-bearer.
"It's heavy on me, Sam lad, very heavy. I wonder how far I can carry it?"
-Frodo Baggins, The Two Towers
5
4
9
Cannot have non-Morgul attachments.
While The One Ring is exhausted, Morgul Wraith gets -30 engagement cost and gains: "Immune to player card effects."
"They see everything, everything. Nothing can hide from them." -Gollum, The Two Towers
When Revealed: The first player must choose: either search the encounter deck, discard pile, and victory display for a Nazgul enemy and add it to the staging area, or exhaust The One Ring and reveal the top card of the encounter deck.
Shadow: Attacking enemy makes an additional attack against you after this one.
When Revealed: Either flip Sméagol to Gollum, or Gollum makes an immediate attack. The first player may spend 1 resource and exhaust The One Ring to cancel this effect.
Shadow: Attacking enemy gets +1 (+3 instead if the attacking enemy is Gollum).
6
2
9
Cannot have attachments or take more than 3 damage each round.
Forced: After Oliphaunt engages you, exhaust each ally you control.
Shadow: Attacking enemy gets +3
4
3
4
Forced: After Haradrim Soldier engages you, it makes an immediate attack.
Shadow: Attacking enemy makes an additional attack against you after this one.
3
1
5
Archery X. X is the number of players in the game.
Forced: After Haradrim Archer engages you, assign X damage among characters you control.
Shadow: Deal 1 damage to the defending character.
When Revealed: Make Blocked Tunnel the active location, returning any previous active location to the staging area.
Action: Exhaust a character with a Weapon attachment to place 3 progress on Blocked Tunnel. (Any player may trigger this effect.)
Across the width and height of the tunnel a vast web was spun, orderly as the web of some huge spider... -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Attach to a hero you control and exhaust that hero. (Counts as a Condition attachment with the text: "Limit 1 per hero. Treat attached hero's text box as blank, except for Traits. Attached hero cannot ready.")
Shadow: If attacking enemy is Shelob, resolve the 'When Revealed' effect on Shelob's Poison.
When Revealed: Shelob gets +2 until the end of the phase. Then, she makes an immediate attack against each player in turn order.
Shadow: If attacking enemy is Shelob, she makes an additional attack against you after this one.
Setup: The first player claims The One Ring and attaches it to the Ring-bearer.
Attached hero does not count against the hero limit. The first player gains control of attached hero.
If The One Ring leaves play, the players lose the game.
Frodo and Sam left the Fellowship above the falls of Rauros and crossed the great river to climb the Emyn Muil upon the Eastern shore. After days of wandering through that maze of rocky crags, they have finally reached the edge of the Dead Marshes only to discover that Gollum is following them.
Setup: Put Gollum into play engaged with the first player. Each player searches the encounter deck for 1 location, reveals it, and adds it to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.
The players cannot advance unless the first player controls Sméagol.
Forced: After a player declares any number of attackers against Gollum discard the top card of the encounter deck. Gollum gets +X for this attack, where X is the discarded cardâs
Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo sprang up, and drew Sting from its sheath. âThe Two Towers
The Hobbits soon found that what had looked like one vast fen was really an endless network of pools, and soft mires, and winding half–strangled watercourses. Among these a cunning eye and foot could thread a wandering path. -The Two Towers
When Revealed: If the number of locations in the staging area is less than the number of players in the game, discard cards from the encounter deck until a location is discarded. Add the discarded location to the staging area.
Progress cannot be placed on locations in the staging area.
The players cannot advance unless the first player controls Sméagol and there are at least 4 locations in the victory display.
Forced: At the end of the staging step, if the number of locations in the staging area is less than the number of players in the game, reveal the top card of the encounter deck.
For a moment the water below him looked like some window, glazed with grimy glass, through which he was peering. Wrenching his hands out of the bog, he sprang back with a cry. "There are dead things, dead faces in the water," he said with horror. -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Each player searches the encounter deck and discard pile for an Undeadenemy and puts it into play engaged with him. Shuffle all locations in the victory display into the encounter deck.
While any player is engaged with an Undead enemy, progress cannot be placed on this stage.
The players cannot defeat this stage unless the first player controls Sméagol. If the players defeat this stage, they win the game.
Gollum laughed. "The Dead Marshes, yes, yes: that is their names," he cackled. "You should not look in when the candles are lit." âThe Two Towers
You are playing campaign mode.
Setup: Each player may change hero cards he controls without incurring the +1 threat penalty. Each player shuffles 1 copy of The Searching Eye into his deck. Remove each burden with the following burden set icons from the encounter deck and each player's deck: Helm's Deep, The Road to Isengard
"It's that Gollum! Snakes and adders! And to think that I thought that we'd puzzle him with our bit of a climb! Look at him! Like a nasty crawling spider on a wall." -Sam Gamgee, The Two Towers
Resolution: Each player must choose: either take a permanent +2 starting threat penalty, or earn 1 copy of The Searching Eye. Record each player's choice in the campaign log.
The marshes were at an end, dying away into dead peats and wide flats of dry cracked mud. The land ahead rose in long shallow slopes, barren and pitiless, towards the desert that lay at Sauron's gate.
–The Two Towers
"These cursed Southrons come now marching up the ancient roads to swell the hosts of the Dark Tower. Yea, up the very roads that craft of Gondor made." -Mablung, The Two Towers
Setup: Add The Black Gate and The Cross-roads to the staging area. Shuffle the Harad encounter set and place it facedown under The Cross-roads. Each player, except for the first player, searches the encounter deck for a different non-unique location and adds it to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.
Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, reveal the top facedown card from under The Cross-roads and add it to the staging area.
The players cannot defeat this stage while The Cross-roads is in play. When The Cross-roads is explored, the players win the game.
"The road may pass, but they shall not!"
âMablung, The Two Towers
You are playing campaign mode.
Setup: Each player must choose: either add 1 resource to each of his heroes' pools, or shuffle 1 copy of Brace of Coneys into his deck. Remove each burden with the following burden set icons from the encounter deck and each player's deck: Helm's Deep, The Road to Isengard
So they passed into the northern marches of that land that Men once called Ithilien, a fair country of climbing woods and swift–falling streams. -The Two Towers
Resolution: Each player who chose to shuffle a copy of Brace of Coneys into his deck during setup has earned that boon. Add each earned copy to the campaign pool. Record the name and quantity of each enemy underneath The Black Gate in the notes section of the campaign log.
"Here is the last parting of our ways," said Faramir.
"If you take my counsel, you will not turn eastward yet. Go straight on, for thus you will have the cover of the woodland for many miles." –The Two Towers
Sméagol has led Frodo and Sam to the Morgul Vale, where he promises to show them a secret way over the Mountains of Shadow and into the land of Mordor, but Sam fears that Gollum may be leading them into a trap...
Setup: Set Cleft of Cirith Ungol, Shelob and The Great Spider encounter set aside, out of play. Put Sméagol into play under the first player's control. Make Morgul Vale the active location. Add Sméagol's Secret Way to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.
Progress cannot be placed on Underground locations.
Response: After Sméagol's Secret Way is explored, discard 3 random cards from each player's hand to discard each Nazgûl enemy in the staging area.
Forced: At the end of the quest phase, if Sméagol's Secret Way is in the victory display, advance to stage 2A.
Presently they were under the shadow, and there in the midst of it they saw the opening of a cave. "This is the way in," said Gollum softly. "This is the entrance to the tunnel." He did not speak its name: Torech Ungol, Shelob's Lair. -The Two Towers
When Revealed: Add Shelob to the staging area and shuffle all cards from The Great Spider encounter set and the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck.
Shelob cannot leave the staging area and Sméagol cannot attack or defend.
Each player cannot play, or put into play, more than 1 ally each round.
No more than 4 progress can be placed on this stage each round.
They had not gone more than a few yards when from behind them came a sound, startling and horrible in the heavy padded silence: a gurgling, bubbling noise, and a long venomous hiss. âThe Two Towers
"Got him!" hissed Gollum in his ear. "At last, my precious, we've got him, yet, the nassty hobbit. We takes this one. She'll get the other. O yes, Selob will get him, not SmĂ©agol: he promised; he won't hurt Master at all. But he's got you, you nassty filthy little sneak!" He spat on Sam's neck. –The Two Towers
When Revealed: Add Cleft of Cirith Ungol to the staging area. Flip Sméagol to Gollum and heal all damage from Shelob. Each player places 1 resource on Shelob.
If Gollum is defeated, add him to the victory display. (Do not flip him over.)
While Shelob has at least 1 resource on her, she gains:"Forced: When Shelob is dealt any amount of damage, cancel that damage and discard 1 resource from Shelob instead."
The players cannot defeat this stage unless both Shelob and Gollum are in the victory display. If the players defeat this stage, they win the game.
You are playing campaign mode.
Setup: Attach A Heavy Burden to the Ring-bearer. Remove each burden with the following burden set icons from the encounter deck and each player's deck: Helm's Deep, The Road to Isengard
"There is another way. O yes indeed there is. Another way, darker, more difficult to find, more secret. But Sméagolnknows it. Let Sméagol show you!" -The Two Towers
Resolution: Add a Heavy Burden to the campaign pool. The players have earned that burden.
"Master, dear master," he said, but Frodo did not speak. Ass hehad run forward, eager, rejoicing to be free, Shelob with hideous speed had come behind and with one swift stroke had stung him in the neck. He lay now pale, and heard no voice, and did not move.
–The Two Towers
