Great-uncle to the brothers. Tired of fighting, thought washed-up, but the clan’s consigliere. Skeptical of the quest; chose to press deeper into Moria after the ambush despite Veig’s plea to leave.

Clan COO, uncle to Ófhin and Hanar. Approachable face of the expedition, and its boss. Asked Kaedrin to abandon Moria after the ambush; was overruled.

Book-learned and dwarven in bearing; drafted Saruman’s contract. Bears the Seven-Rings chest and The Citadel Covenant Ring. Shadow scars from Zimrakhôr’s thralls; the Nameless Book left three more Shadow points when he seized it at Malech’s Keep.

Least dwarven of the brothers after years among the Elves. Carries Kaedrin’s lyre. Took a Shadow scar alongside Ófhin. Played a mournful melody after kin fell under enchantment.

Departure · Gondamon

The Summons

You set out from the Blue Mountains toward Moria. Gríma son of Gálmod brought word that Saruman would greatly appreciate a meeting at Isengard, a matter of import to both his interests and yours.

Orthanc · September

The Wizard’s Contract

At Isengard, Saruman charged you with retrieving the black book from Moria. Ófhin drew up generous terms. You learned a Black Númenórean had failed before you. Rather than cross the Misty Mountains so late in the year, you rode east of Fangorn with ponies and gear.

The Farm · Enedwaith

Balkîr’s Children

Two days out you found a sturdy farm held by three adolescents: Mara and her brothers Finn and Eldrick. Their mother was dead; their father Aren had gone on an errand. Kaedrin suspected Aren was the Númenórean Saruman had sent to Moria.

Riders came seeking Balkîr of Umbar. Mara showed an ancient blade Ófhin named Bâr-agar, Khîm an-Balkîr, Lord-blood, Sword of Balkîr, confirming Aren was Balkîr, a Black Númenórean who had broken with his kin to build a new life. You decided the children and sword should go to Saruman for safety.

Before you could speak with them, raiders returned in force and set the roof ablaze.

The Road North

Fire, Hostages, and Dead Lands

You fought three of Grishak’s ruffians; Grishak himself fled when the battle turned. After quenching the fire, you sent the children and sword toward Orthanc and continued north with the bandits as hostages: thugs from Tharbad, hired to escort Grishak on artefact hunts.

At the Limlight, two Rohirrim warned of banditry and decline. You sent the captives toward Fangorn. Further on you found dead farmers dumped in the wild, a raided farm strewn with orc and human corpses: one man and one orc showing signs of torture, and four more dead orcs past the Nimrodel. Heavy hoofprints led north.

After a week of travel you reached Moria’s East-gate, where Kaedrin began to recount Azanulbizar until interrupted by Tig, a scavenger digging up old iron from the resting dead.

East-gate & Dimrill Stair

Into the Mountain

Veig drove Tig off for desecration. Inside the gate, Kaedrin and Ófhin read a mark for the fifth hall, throne room of Naín I, son of Durin VI. An orc patrol ambushed you; five fell, but four escaped. You declined to lower the portcullis and instead tried the secret stair.

Kaedrin found a giant eagle feather and gave it to Hanar. At the stair’s foot, Tig’s ruin. He told you eagles guard the valley by night, but one was recently captured and dragged into Moria; he had seen an orc with ritual burn scars and confirmed Grishak had passed the East-gate at least once.

The secret door bore signs of a failed forced entry but opened for you. Within lay a dwarf corpse, scant weeks dead, pinned to the wall with scorch marks. You reached the King’s hall without meeting orcs; Ófhin steered you clear of a pocket of foul gas.

In that hall, Kaedrin and Veig saw Durin VI. The ancient king seemed to hand them a heavy ring of keys and a small black pouch, imploring them to deliver both to Durin’s heir, Daín II. When the vision ended, nothing physical remained, but you know such objects exist somewhere in Moria and matter to the royal line.

Westward Halls

Treasure, Judgement, and Retreat

Near the West-gate you found a days-old dwarf corpse in rags, manacled and collared, killed by a Númenórean arrow from a balcony. A bloody trail showed the captured eagle dragged through the gate. Shire-weed ashes on the balcony suggested Balkîr had ambushed the orcs who took the eagle and pursued west.

The untouched King’s quarters still held a great hoard. Hanar found a secret compartment with a gold and mithril chest inscribed in Elven: THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE OF THE JEWEL-SMITHS AND THE MASTERS OF THE CITADEL, the coffer that once held the Seven Dwarf-rings. After long debate, Ófhin agreed to bear it; if disaster struck, he and Hanar would flee Moria to bring it home. Among the treasure Ófhin took The Citadel Covenant Ring, a signet that lends quiet step and weight of treaty to the bearer. Kaedrin gave Hanar a lyre from the hoard.

In the Hall of Judgement, orcs had built a fighting pit. You found a lead tablet naming a convict: Imri. Drums sounded from the east; you ran west, ambushed a pursuing patrol, and withdrew to the King’s quarters for rest, interrupted before you could fully recover.

The Low Road

Hunter, Eagle, and Balkîr

Following the blood trail west, you slew two Black Númenóreans: Thurak the Falconer and Murzad Black-Teeth. The noise drew a cave troll; you escaped by toppling a statue to block it.

At a ruined roadhouse you camped and set traps. In the night, someone cut the ropes without waking you and left a token: a deliberate taunt. You were being hunted.

Steel on stone led you to a vast cavern capped by a stained-glass roof open to the sky. An eagle was bound below. On a ledge Balkîr duelled Kastamir One-Eye while orcs watched. You joined the fight, freed the eagle; razor shards from the breaking glass slew the orcs, and Balkîr killed Kastamir.

Balkîr acknowledged the same errand as yours: the book Saruman wants is a force of darkness. Then drums seemed to rise from every direction, as if the battle and the eagle’s escape had woken Moria.

Before Mazarbul

The Ash-Marked Ambush

In a brief respite, Balkîr told you more:

• ◆ The book holds a song of unmaking, a spell to twist living creatures into abominations.
• ◆ It should lie in the Chamber of Mazarbul, the chamber of records.
• ◆ Balin was rumoured to have a colony there; Balkîr hoped he lived, but had never seen Balin’s people.
• ◆ Three of Balkîr’s pursuers were already dead; only Zimrakhôr the Ash-Marked remained, or so Balkîr believed.
• ◆ Grishak wanted Balkîr dead. Under Umbar law, Grishak could claim Balkîr’s title only with his body or a witness to his death. Balkîr refused to renounce his claim before witnesses.

When you told Balkîr his children and sword were sent to Saruman under the contract, he doubted the White Wizard’s intentions.

The next chamber was Zimrakhôr’s ambush: the Ash-Marked, four spellbound dwarves, and orcs. He offered your lives in trade for Balkîr. Kaedrin feigned agreement to draw a shot; Zimrakhôr ordered the enchanted kin to attack.

Balkîr declared Zimrakhôr would not have his body, stepped off a cliff, and vanished into darkness. Ófhin judged the shaft at least three quarters of a mile deep. You tried to subdue the thralls without killing them; all four perished anyway. Zimrakhôr and the orcs fell quickly after. You looted Númenórean treasure from the dead.

Hanar played a mournful melody. The company was devastated. Ófhin and Hanar each took a Shadow scar.

Veig asked whether you should leave Moria. Kaedrin argued you must press on and achieve at least one goal, so the journey would not be wholly in vain. After a short rest, you continued toward the Chamber of Mazarbul.

Mazarbul

Balin’s Tomb and the Empty Reliquary

The Twenty-first Hall was littered with broken bones: dwarf and orc alike. Camps had come and gone. Layered defences and a toppled throne marked the place where Balin had once ruled, but no living colony remained. As Ófhin and Hanar moved toward the throne, Kaedrin heard drums in the deeps.

In the Chamber of Mazarbul you found Balin’s tomb and the Book of Mazarbul, the Record of Khazad-dûm, still in Ori’s hands. Ófhin read from it and added your own story to its pages, so the past and future of Moria would remain with Balin’s expedition in the Hall of Records.

You gathered the fallen dwarves as reverently as you could, laid them with their armour, and lit a campfire. During Fellowship, you spent one activity researching mining records: mithril was worked near Malech One-eye’s Keep, and the Nameless Book is believed to be inside that same fortress. Hanar composed a song for the journey and for Balin: There and Back Again.

Ófhin found an iron-ring niche where a heavy book had once been clamped. It was empty. Frár’s torn note pointed lower: the Iron Reliquary in the Burnt Delving on the Fourth Level, requiring a key, but the trail now leads to Malech.

You met Imri, a burned and scarred dwarf with an empty sheath and a voice full of shame. He would not enter Balin’s rest. You fed him, heard of capture and enslavement, and accepted his offer to guide you toward the Fourth Level and the Palace of Stairs. He warned Hanar that the ruin Hanar saw before him was what he might become if he did not change.

You ended by following Imri into the deeps. In the darkness behind you, unseen eyes watched while someone lit a pipe: Grishak.

Malech’s Keep · July 2026

The Citadel and the Crevice

Following Imri, you entered a vast cavern with a colossal unlit lantern at its centre and a citadel built into the rock: the Fortress of Malech, the Palace of Stairs. On the descent Imri told you all that you would never leave Moria whole. The best parts of you, he said, would stay forever: your hopes, your dreams of Balin’s colony and wealth. He spoke of himself in the third person: what was best in Imri was gone long ago; what remained could never leave.

Ófhin believed he could reach the lantern and light it. You debated distracting the enemy or relighting it first. Veig saw that Imri was still on his masters’ business. Ófhin convinced Imri that reinforcements were coming to the secret stair and sent him to watch the Keep while you hid elsewhere. You found a key on a dead member of Balin’s expedition.

When a company of orcs marched out, you rushed the citadel. In the throne hall Malech One-eye and two lieutenants argued over the black book. Ófhin slipped in through a back door and seized the Nameless Book. The moment he touched it, a melody rose in his mind—a most perfect song. Yet something was slightly amiss: a small dark imperfection, set against such perfection that the contrast alone made his mind reel at the corruption it represented. Three Shadow points marked him. He barricaded himself behind the door while the rest of you fought.

The battle went hard. You slew the burn-scarred reader and Yagul the Snatcher, but not before Malech broke through to Ófhin. Ófhin hurled the book into a crevice, then threw Malech from the walkway. Malech dragged him down. Kaedrin planted his grappling hook, jumped after Ófhin, and caught him, but the line snapped. The fall that should have killed you both became grievous instead. You landed together on a ledge deep in the gorge.

Veig and Hanar fought on above. Yagul wounded Hanar badly before you ended him. On the throne dais you found Imri’s broken body: Malech had murdered him after Imri reported half-truths to protect Hanar, claiming all four of you had fled long before.

The company is split and wounded. The Nameless Book lies in the crevice. The tale pauses there.

Relics & Treasure

• ◆ Gold and mithril chest (once held the Seven), Ófhin
• ◆ The Citadel Covenant Ring, Ófhin
• ◆ Kaedrin’s lyre, Hanar
• ◆ Giant eagle feather, Hanar
• ◆ Númenórean treasure, from Zimrakhôr’s band
• ◆ Great hoard, taken from King’s quarters (24 treasure points)
• ◆ Book of Mazarbul, read and continued by Ófhin
• ◆ Key from a fallen colonist (Cave of Lights)

Charges & Duties

• ◆ Retrieve the Song of unmaking for Saruman: briefly seized, then lost to a crevice in Malech’s Keep
• ◆ Bring word of Balin’s death and the fall of his colony
• ◆ Locate the ring of keys and black pouch for Daín II (vision only; not yet found)
• ◆ Bring the Seven-Rings chest safely home if you must flee
• ◆ Win mithril from the workings near the Keep, if you can survive the taking

Allies & Contacts

• ◆ Saruman: patron; mission giver; trust now strained
• ◆ Balkîr: shared quest; cliff jump; fate unknown
• ◆ Freed eagle: flew up through the glass roof; whereabouts unknown

Enemies & Threats

• ◆ Grishak: Black Númenórean; hunts Balkîr; watched you leave Mazarbul from the dark; not yet met at the Keep
• ◆ Malech One-eye: hurled from the citadel walkway; fate unknown
• ◆ Orc patrol survivors: four fled the East-gate ambush
• ◆ Drums in the deep: aroused since the eagle’s escape
• ◆ Orc succession: chaos may follow Malech’s fall if you can exploit it