Recap: Meeting Tom Bombadil and Goldberry

Short Version:

The Nifty Nine, along with Akmentu and a few of his attendants, meet Tom Bombadil, and enter the Barrow Downs to save his wife, Goldberry, from a group of wights. When they meet the undead contingent, the group destroys a staff artifact held by a wight, and Mia convinces Goldberry to give the Cup of Immortality to the group. After spending a night eating and resting at Tom and Goldberry's home, the group tries to decide which artifact to pursue next - there are now very few artifacts unclaimed...

Long Version:

After several days of riding on the shapeshifter as a Mumakil, we see a stout woodsman, who looks very nervous. Mia recognizes him immediately from one of the palantir images. He appears to be human – he says that his wife has been kidnapped by wights. He adds that the wights are becoming more powerful by sapping energy from his wife, Goldberry. The group agrees to find and rescue his wife, and bring her back to him.

When we arrive at the Barrow-Downs, we find many shallow graves. The palantir leads us to one in particular, where Goldberry is being held. The group sends an advance scouting party, which sneaks up on eight undead, who are flailing a woman in chains. After ambushing the undead figures, the team finds that these undead are more powerful than usual, and cannot be killed by physical violence, or even Allen’s holy water. Mia calls for help, and Allen casts a barrier pit, causing two of the zombies to drop. The rest of the undead charge at the scouting party. Before long, the rest of the team arrives and countercharges the remaining undead, while Mia and Allen use Brunhilde’s magic carpet to fly over to Goldberry and release her.

The rest of the team engages the zombies in combat. Ardwinna melts some zombies with the Rod of Sunfires, but the rest of the team cannot cause any damage. However, the melee fighters take some savage hits from the undead warriors. After Goldberry is freed, the undead in Allen's barrier pit uses his staff to cast a spell on Mia. She feels excruciating pain, which causes her great agony; she feels like her arm is broken. She then uses the Disruptor Scepter to destroy the staff, and she flees with Allen and Goldberry on the magic carpet.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group has gone down another passage, and they find normal-looking humans (not undead-looking) eating at a table. Dalir joins them, and when Brunhilde tries to, they grab dinner knives and try to attack her. Walter talks them out of it, and they stop to stare at each other. Dalir continues eating with the men, and while waiting, Walter decides to use the pipe given to him by the old man, and proceeds to get extremely high. Allen comes over with a bottle of wine and tries to get the men seated to drink some – he has secretly put a sleep potion from his cup of potions in the wine bottle. Dalir drinks it and begins to feel sleepy.

At that point, Ardwinna unexpectedly begins burning the 12 men sitting at the tables with the Rod of Sunfires. After the men have all been destroyed, Goldberry and Akmentu look at each other awkwardly. We soon learn that Goldberry has the Cup of Immortality, and she refuses to give the cup to the team. Allen speaks up for the cup to be destroyed, reasoning that immortality should not be trifled with. However, Mia eventually persuades Goldberry to give the cup to the team. We then leave the tomb with Goldberry, making our way back to Tom Bombadil. At the edge of the forest, they see Tom and Goldberry reunited. After much strenuous and unreasonable debate, the group accepts an invitation to go to Tom and Goldberry’s house in the forest, to join them for dinner.

After staying the night and getting a good rest, the team learns from the palantir that Tom and Goldberry have more artifacts. The bola on Tom’s belt is useful for capturing animals or enemies. Mia talks him into giving her this artifact. She then tells Tom of their struggles to find the artifacts before the other groups, and he gives the group the hat, which controls weather, reasoning that he has enough power as it is.

At this, the group tries to decide which way to go in pursuit of more artifacts, since the list of unclaimed items is dwindling rapidly.