Weathertop

Eridan son of Halas, um, is his name.

And so she says that there's a clue or the last place he was seen was Weathertop.

We go to Weathertop.

We meet Kyrian who became kind of a surrogate son for my father and was looking for him as well because he's erratic, not checking in regularly, that kind of thing.

So, uh, we went to Fort Arliss, which I believe was somewhere around here.

So yeah, that period isn't really covered.

So while you can go to Weathertop and it's the same Weathertop as in the films, the books, other things are going on there.

I think it would be harder if you were going to play through, right, OK, we're going to start in the Shire with you finding the One Ring.

I don't think you can do that, retrace the footsteps.

It's becoming winter.

And they make it to Weathertop, and Strider's like, we'll get on top of this big old hill, which used to be a watchtower, and we'll look around.

And they get to the top of the big old hill, and they look around, and they go, ah, ringwraiths! And the ringwraiths are like, ah, Strider! And they climb up the hill, and Strider, like, waves some fire at them.

They go away.

That's the

movie.

I don't think it happens at Weathertop in

the book.

He did.

Like, he provided Tiller with two different completely rewritten suggestions for abridging the attack on Weathertop.

That's the scene with the ringwraiths, right?

Yes, exactly.

Then they reach an inn in a village called Bree, where they meet a weather-beaten ranger who calls himself Strider.

On a hilltop called Weathertop, the Ringwraiths catch up with them and Frodo's stabbed with a cursed blade and leaves a wound which he'll never entirely heal.

They then run for the elf house at Rivendell and he very nearly doesn't make it and that's where the council I opened with takes place.

Nine of them set out from it afterwards, nine companions, chosen deliberately against Sauron's nine riders.

I think that's a good way to do it.

The bad way to do it, which is what they do also in this movie, is be like, "Here's all the prequel nonsense to set up Sauron, and, uh, here's all, like, let's add the sub-boss orc who's, like, who gives a shit about Azog." Uh, so and, like, the references there where he's like, "He's at Weathertop" at one point in the movie.

Ooh.

I also was like-

Yeah

... oh, that's Weathertop.

And then, like, five minutes later it was like, oh, there was no reason for that to be Weathertop besides for me to say-

Nope

So one of the things that's really stuck out to me, having read the film really and listened to listen to the podcast, really delved into the lore and things like that have been the poetry.

Oh, Stan quotes and that Bilbo quotes and then Strider quotes as they're going to Weathertop.

And I think that would be one thing that I really focused on was, was the lore itself to write poetry about it, because that's been my favorite thing.

Cause I mean, when I was a kid trying to read it, I just gloss over the songs and I was like, Oh, that's probably stuff that I just think about nonsense, you know?

And Eventually, Arnor broke into three pieces, and due to infighting and mismanagement, as well as attacks from the Witch-King of Angmar, they eventually got decimated, and now it's just Gondor.

And that's why there's a lot of ruins of Weathertop, of Anamenas, of Fornost, as well as some others.

And...

That's kind of where we're at, is that we need to get an army that's been gathering here.

I picture it's off the beaten path a little ways.

Maybe it's pouring rain, we're looking for shelter, and we know that there's a sanctuary nearby of some old ruin of a guard tower or watchtower throughout the thing.

Not quite as large as Weathertop, but something much smaller in scale, but with a similar purpose.

But it does have some overhead shelter from the rain.