"Cursed Mountain…Cursed Wizard… Cursed Ring…" mumbles Bessimar as he trudges through knee deep snow on the slopes of Caradharas.

Urban is mumbling prayers to Sigmar to spare a loyal servant from the cold, "As I am the steel, Sigmar is the Hammer, place me within your forge oh Mighty One." His metal armor isn't really the best defense against the cold; against Chaos Marauders & Daemons, yes; against snow… no.

The company trudges up the slopes of the mountain, as they have been for the better part of two days now. Nothing of note happens till' Frodo falls backward, tumbling through the snow until Bessimar reaches out and grabs him by his cloak.

Bessimar rights Frodo and says tersely "Still' have it lad?"

Frodo grasps at his neck for the ring, and upon finding it missing, panics.

Bessimar and Urban panic as well.

Then they all see the ring, on its chain, sitting in the snow as Boromir picks it up. The entire fellowship seemingly stalls as everyone watches Boromir.

""It I such a strange fate that we should suffer such fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing." He says, looking as though entranced by the Ring.

"Boromir!" Aragorn's voice calls out

Boromir snaps out of his trance and looks to Aragorn, then back to Bessimar who has drawn a full six-inches of steel from his scabbard.

"Give the ring to Frodo." says Aragorn, slowly

Boromir steps forward slowly and says "As you wish"

Frodo snatches the ring back and Boromir finishes by tousling Frodo's hair and saying "I care not"

Aragorn removes his hand from the hilt of his sword, while Bessimar slides his blade back in with a "shnick!" sound, marking Boromir as one to watch… closely.

They continue up the mountain

Later that day a wind has picked up, blowing a blizzard around the company. Legolas is seemingly oblivious to the snow and walks on top of the drifts as though he was no more than feather-weight.

"Blasted-point ears." mutters Bessimar

Legolas looks back towards the struggling Witch Hunter with an expression of thinly veiled distaste, then he starts. "There is a fell voice on the air!" he says

The company stop their struggling and listen closely, the sound of faint chanting, from a voice resonating with power, comes to their ears.

"It's Saruman!" shouts Gandalf

A massive sheet of snow is suddenly seen plummeting towards them, they all throw themselves against the cliff face.

Moments after the sheet passes them Aragorn shouts "He's trying to bring down the mountain! Gandalf, we must turn back!"

Gandalf shouts "No!" in reply

Gandalf brandishes his staff, and Bessimar's hand instinctively flies to the grip of his pistol, luckily none notice.

Standing with his staff out Gandalf begins a chant of his own, Urban heard behind him chanting litanies of undoing from the Deus Sigmar.

Suddenly at the crescendo of Saruman's chant, a bolt of lightning streaks from the heavens and plows headlong into the tip of the mountain, tumbling tons of ice, snow, and stone down towards the hapless company.

Gandalf throws himself backward at the last moment and the fellowship is buried.

Nothing stirs for several moments before the company begins to free themselves from their snowy prisons, Gandalf is the first followed by Aragorn, Bessimar, and Boromir. The last to appear is Gimli, shortly proceeded by Urban.

Boromir shouts "We must get off the mountain, make for the Gap of Rohan and take the west road to my city!"

"The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!" refutes Aragorn

"If we cannot go over the mountain, let us go under it." Interrupts Gimli "Let us go through the mines of Moria."

Suddenly an inexplicable chill falls upon them at the name of that ancient and forgotten place, a chill not at all related to their surroundings.

"Let the Ring Bearer decide" intones Gandalf, in a sad, ominous voice.

Frodo looks at Aragorn, then to Sam, and says "We will go through the Mines"

"So be it…" intones Gandalf in a tired and sorrowful voice.

Three days hard march later the company round a crook of the mountain and Gimli gasps "The Walls, of Moria!"

Bessimar looks up he and Urban straining hard to see what they can, for in the Chronicles of Sigmar the Dwarves play a crucial role in his ascension to Emperor, so they are held in religious reverence by Sigmarites.

Besides, they had never seen a Karak before…

The company takes roughly an hour to make its way around the great pool of the West-gate, and then suddenly they are before two gnarled trees, flanking a carven stone arch that no doubt is the door to Moria.

"Now, let's see…Ithildin" says Gandalf, brushing his hand across the rock as though feeling invisible ancient carvings.

"It mirror's only in starlight, and moonlight…" Gandalf sweeps his hand back and a cloud passes from across the moon, illuminating the arch. Suddenly the arch begins to glow as ancient elven glyphs reveal themselves and create a breathtaking doorway, still sealed.

A moment passed, then Bessimar said "Well, how do we open it? We don't have forever to gawk."

Urban hummed in agreement.

Gandalf raised his staff and pointed out elvish words as he read them aloud, "The Door's of Durin- Lord of Moria, Speak Friend and Enter"

"What do you suppose that means?" asks Pippin

"Oh, it's quite simple. If you are a friend you speak the password, and the doors will open." said Gandalf with a self-assured smile.

Gandalf then placed his staff upon the door and spoke an unknown word in a commanding voice… nothing happened, Gandalf tried again… again, nothing.

Gandalf put his staff back upon the ground and looked extremely puzzled, "I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves, Men, and Orcs…"

"Uh-huh" said Bessimar dryly "Yep, we're stuck." And turned away to sit upon the ground

The next hour passed slowly as Gandalf tried strings of words every few minutes, most of the fellowship sat around and talked, Urban read from his large copy of the Deus Sigmar, and Bessimar walked around impatiently.

Merry and Pippin were skipping stones into the great-pool of the West Gate, until suddenly as Pippin goes to toss another stone, Aragorn grabs his arm and says commandingly "Do not disturb the water"

Bessimar, who is nearby, walks over and says "Why?"

Aragorn looks at Bessimar, still not liking the Witch Hunter, and says slowly "There are things that are at rest in the world, things of which it is better that they stay that way."

Bessimar eyes the pool, dark and still, and fingers his pistol.

Suddenly, across the camp, Frodo stands up and says, "It's a riddle, 'Speak Friend and Enter', Gandalf what's the Elvish word for Friend"

Gandalf is about to answer when Urban looks up from his book and says "Mellon…" and before he even finishes the word the doors rumble and begin to open.

Bessimar walks over and claps Urban on the shoulder, nodding, then lights a torch and walks in with several others.

"Soon master elf, you will enjoy the famed hospitality of the dwarves, Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. This is the home, my friends, of my cousin Balin." Says the happy Dwarf, the says with a laugh "And they call it a mine! A mine!"

Boromir looks around and says ,"This is no mine… it's a tomb."

The fellowship look to their feet and see dozens of dwarf bodies, long decayed.

Gimli walks over to one corpse and wails, while Legolas pulls out an arrow from a corpse and shouts "Goblins!"

Legolas pulls out his bow, Aragorn, Boromir, and Bessimar their swords, and Urban pulls out his massive Warahammer.

"We make for the gap of Rohan" says Boromir slowly, "We should never have come here!"

There is a slithering sound and moments later Sam yells "Strider!"

They all turn around; A long black tentacle has slithered out of the pool and is trying to drag Frodo to his doom.

What was left to sleep has awoken.

With a roar of "For Sigmar!" Urban rushes forward and slams the spike-studded flat of his hammer into the tentacle, pulping it.

It slithers into the pool and all is still for a moment, then five tentacles whip out of the lake, grabbing Frodo and hoisting him into the air. The fellowship desperately hacking at the tentacles while the full mass of the Thing shows itself, mouth agape to eat the unfortunate Hobbit.

Boromir manages to cut off the tentacle holding Frodo and he drops unceremoniously into Aragorn's arms.

"Into the mines!" cries Gandalf

As they all make their way into the mine's first room, Boromir shouts "Legolas!" who puts an arrow in the monster's eye, it drags itself ashore and collapses the entrance, trying to bury the company for all time…

All is still as the rockfall created by the destruction of the West-Gate subsides, then in the blackness Gandalf's voice is heard along with a thump and a bit of light "We now have but one choice…", another thump and a crystal in Gandalf's staff shines with a moon-like glow "We must face the long dark of Moria, be on your guard, there are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world."

Everyone looks to one another, checking that all were present, and then they shuffle forward into that ancient and forgotten place beneath the Misty Mountains…