They had gone some miles, and the road was at last running down a long slope into a plain, when Frodo's strength began to give out and his will wavered. He lurched and stumbled. Desperately Sam tried to help him and hold him up...
–The Return of the King

When Revealed: Search the encounter deck and discard pile and victory display for Mordor Road and add it to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck and travel to Mordor Road.

Dire. Forced: After placing progress here from questing successfully, each player makes a Fortitude test. If a player passes this test, he places a resource here. If a player fails this test, he discards cards from the top of the encounter deck until an enemy is discarded and puts that enemy into play engaged with him.

At the end of the quest phase, if the number of resources here is equal to or greater than the number of players, advance to stage 3A.