Adventure 2
The Council of Elrond...
The Council of Elrond was held outdoors on his porch. All sorts of people showed up to ask questions. There were Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, and Gandalf, the Wizard.
Gloin the Dwarf spoke first. He said that the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain were worried because Balin had sent no word from Moria, where he went to reestablish the dwarf-kingdom under the Misty Mountains.
Then Boromir, a strong man who came from Minas Tirith (the great city of Gondor) spoke. He told of a dream he had, about Isildur's Bane, a Halfling, and the Sword that was Broken. All was made clear when Strider revealed himself to be Aragorn, the heir and direct descendant of Isildur, keeper of Elendil's broken sword; and I (the Halfling) showed Isildur's Bane (the ring) for all to see.
After I showed the Ring for all to see, I told my part of the story and how I came to get the Ring, which was of course, from Bilbo. Then Bilbo had to tell his story. It was a long story, which I had heard many times before. Only this time, he told a different version, which turned out to be the true version. All the years before I, and everyone else was told that he had found the Ring in the caves. As it turned out, he won it in an unfair game of wits with Gollum.
Gandalf then explained how he discovered it was the One Ring, and how it got to each person. Legolas, an Elf from Mirkwood, interrupted to announce that Gollum, who had been under the Mirkwood Elves guard had escaped.
Gandalf filled in the final missing information by explaining his absence, which was spent in Orthanc, the tower of Saruman. He was summoned there, and was appalled to find that Saruman, the greatest of wizards, intended to join forces with Sauron. When Gandalf would not agree to join forces with him, Saruman locked him on top the tower of Orthanc until Gwaihir the Great Eagle came and rescued him.
After the story was completed, we thought of what to do with the Ring. There were many suggestions. One was to bring it back to Tom Bombadil, in the hope that he could withhold it from Sauron. Another was to throw it into the Great Sea, never to be seen again. Both of these ideas were thrown off the table by Gandalf and Elrond for reasons of danger, and the immorality of putting the Ring's burden on future generations. Boromir suggested using the Ring against Sauron, but Gandalf argued that eventually, anything done with the Ring would turn evil. The last suggestion, and the one finally agreed on was to destroy the Ring forever, in the Cracks of Doom. When nobody could decide on who should go, I volunteered. With me would go Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas the Elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Boromir, Sam, Pippin, and Merry. We were called the Fellowship of the Ring.
