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
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 card’s
Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo sprang up, and drew Sting from its sheath. —The 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." —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.
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
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.
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 card’s
Things would have gone ill with Sam, if he had been alone. But Frodo sprang up, and drew Sting from its sheath. —The 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." —The 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