In the House of Elrond, the evil wound that Frodo received on Weathertop is healed and he is reunited with his uncle Bilbo. The One Ring cannot remain hidden in Rivendell for long, so Lord Elrond summons a council to decide what should be done to protect the Free Peoples of Middle–earth.

Setup: Set Lust for the Ring Redhorn Pass, Doors of Durin and Watcher in the Water aside, out of play. Shuffle the encounter deck.

Forced: At the end of the planning phase, each player places the top card of his deck faceup in front of him, in player order, until there are a total of 4 faceup cards between the players. The first player chooses 1 faceup card to be played for 0 cost, 1 to add to its owner's hand, 1 to discard, and 1 to shuffle into its owner's deck. Then, either shuffle Lust for the Ring into the encounter deck, or raise each player's threat by 5. Advance to stage 2.