Gryfflet has been hobnobbing with Prince Imrahil and Hurin, Warden of the Keys, while awaiting our return so that he can visit our friend Pippin. Taking a brief moment to luxuriate in the unexpected sunshine he makes his way to the Houses of Healing, finding the correct House eventually. Pippin is attending Merry and we are overjoyed to discover that our task is to undertake a Session Play as Merry himself, which reveals his troubled dreams and sparks much discussion, once we work out how not to die immediately. Merry meets Pippin, Sam, and then Frodo in a dream of the Barrow-downs, while battling representations of his fear and remembering to heal. He is suddenly transported to Rohan, in the company of Uglúk and his Orcs, running across the grass, and thence to Isengard where Pippin is picking up the Palantír. Unable to prevent this disaster he is whisked to the War-stead of the Eorlingas where the soldiers appear to have all been slain. New enemies are revealed but it turns out that there was a timer that we had overlooked and we have to start again, working our way back through while noticing some new things and discussing what it all means. In the War-stead he discovers Éowyn and her alter-ego Dernhelm, standing back-to-back. Neither responds to him and while he is still considering what this means he is transported to the fight between Éowyn and the Witch-king: gripped by terror he struggles to reach her but the Session Play concludes before he can. We leave Pippin to his vigil and seek out Ioreth for more jobs to enable us to proceed to the next stage. She sends us to gather herbs and prepare them properly, and to comfort the wounded. While he scurries about, visiting the other Houses as necessary and greeting some familiar faces, we indulge in more Discussion. We report to Ioreth, levelling up in the process, then make our way to Torchún for more jobs. He wants us to disperse the well-meaning but annoying Well-Wishers who are getting in the way, to collect fresh supplies, and to comfort some more patients. We manage the dispersal before finding the first of our visitees who turn out to bear most of the various familiar names we have been noticing on our previous visits. Many patients and some empty rooms later we set off in search of the supplies which turn out to be more difficult to locate than expected, taking us into the Silent Street which is mostly less gloomy than when we last visited-the collapsed House of Stewards being the notable exception. We find the supplies and an appropriate bin to put them in, then return to Torchún to report our success. We are caught by a messenger summoning us to help Ioreth: it turns out she needs our help with the treatment of Faramir but there is no time before the session ends.
"I'm dying! Oh come on!"
"I'm more willing to be patient and die multiple times than I am to miss anything, just saying!"
"Oh, I'm fighting allegorical figures, wow that is wonderful!"
"I love me a good allegorical combat!"
"I can't look at everything at once!"
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!"
"It might seem kind of graphic: yes, it is!"
"Can a single person disperse?"
"At least no-one chucked him through the window this time!"
"This place looks much more cheerful when you're not being chased around by a Nazgûl!"
"Well, the fire's mostly out, you know?"
Lore discussed this week concerned the quests underway, although we briefly mentioned various adaptations of the story for good and for ill, and found time to consider the question of allegory. (Credit for the title goes to Drowsnake on Twitch.)