A New Standalone Scenario Is Now Available for The Lord of the Rings

“He was suddenly aware that it was getting very cold, and that up here a wind was beginning to blow, an icy wind. A change was coming in the weather.”
    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that Fog on the Barrow-downs is now available for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Brave a perilous journey across the barrow-downs, and come face to face with the barrows’ terrible wights. First released in 2014 as part of a special Fellowship Event, Fog on the Barrow-downs is a fifty-four card scenario for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game directly inspired by one of the early chapters in The Fellowship of the Ring. You’ll need all your courage to survive. You’ll also need to be careful you don’t end up trapped in one of the barrow-wights’ tombs, for the danger of winding up inside a barrow, separated from your friends, is a very real threat.

Moreover, just as with the The Old Forest scenario that came before it, Fog on the Barrow-downs can also be played in campaign mode as part of your The Lord of the Rings campaign. In addition to its quest and encounter decks, Fog on the Barrow-downs comes with a new campaign card and a powerful boon.

From the house of Tom Bombadil, the scenario’s four quest stages and forty-one encounter cards lead you into the thick of the barrow-downs… It’s up to you to find a way out.

Trapped Inside a Barrow

“Then suddenly he knew that he was imprisoned, caught hopelessly; he was in a barrow.”
    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the journey that Frodo and his companions take across the barrow-downs nearly ends in disaster. Frodo is ensorcelled, captured, and dragged into a tomb, along with Sam, Merry, and Pippin. As dread washes over him, Frodo scarcely manages to summon forth his courage. He resists the wight and calls for Tom Bombadil, who eventually saves the Hobbits.

When you play through Fog on the Barrow-downs, you’ll be able to share some of the panic that Frodo felt when he found himself imprisoned. In order to defeat the scenario, you need to pass through the Standing Stones (Fog on the Barrow-downs, 6), which means that at least one player must leave the fellowship, only to be trapped inside a Great Barrow (Fog on the Barrow-downs, 7), isolated at his own staging area.

There, inside the Great Barrow, you’re separated from your friends, unable to aid them or receive their aid, and although previous scenarios for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game have also split the fellowship, none have done so in quite the same way, leaving your friends to face the wights among the barrow-downs, even while you must survive the other wights residing within their tomb.

It’s possible, too, that your friends may also be caught by the wights and buried. There are five copies of Great Barrow, so the longer you spend trapped at your own stage four, the greater the odds are that your allies will get caught, themselves. And then the pressure really starts to mount, both because you need everyone to reconvene at stage three in order to win and because the wights that you’ll face inside the barrows can prevent you from drawing extra cards, gaining extra resources, and lowering your threat.

Fortunately, the trials you’ll face in the barrow-downs don’t take you too far from Tom Bombadil’s home, and there’s a good chance that Tom Bombadil (Fog on the Barrow-downs, 19) may appear just as you fear you’ll be overwhelmed, sing one of his cheery songs, and help you on your way.

In campaign mode, you may even be able to take one of Tom’s songs with you. If you complete your passage through Fog on the Barrow-downs, you earn the boon, Ho! Tom Bombadil! (Fog on the Barrow-downs, 21), which allows you to cancel the “when revealed” effects of any one encounter card you face later in the campaign. However, you’ll want to use this boon wisely; once you use it, it’s removed from the campaign pool, and Tom’s cheery voice will be nothing more than a memory.

Enter the Barrow-downs Today!

“Don’t you go a-meddling with old stone or cold Wights or prying in their houses, unless you be strong folk with hearts that never falter!”
    –Tom Bombadil, The Fellowship of the Ring

How strong is your heart? Will your courage hold up to the trials of Fog on the Barrow-downs? Now is the time to find out. Pick up your copy today!

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