The Mirror remains open before the silent wardens. Its dark surface shows armed houses in Rohan receiving Saruman’s envoys, while pale offers of protection pass from hand to hand.
Galadriel
The promise of safety may be sincere in the hand that accepts it, yet shaped by the hand that offers it. Look beyond the words, Tuiwen.
The image turns. A second thread of silver bends south toward Gondor, vanishing beneath a veil of cloud before reappearing beside a seal that no messenger openly bears.
Galadriel
Help me distinguish genuine alliances from the hidden road by which Saruman intends to extend them. The Mirror will show patterns, but it will not judge them for us.
The elder Galadhrim wardens remain in their crescent, listening without interruption. Their guarded faces reflect the Mirror’s shifting light as the Rohan visions divide into honest fear, calculated loyalty, and concealed dependence.
Galadriel
Name what you recognize, and tell these wardens which roads lead toward fellowship, and which lead quietly back to Isengard.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Gondor’s hidden seal represents a genuine alliance
“Saruman is the mightiest of wizards, and he is never content to rely on diplomacy alone. He is surely using magic to these ends. But magic cannot be used without leaving traces, a signature to its origin. Find this enchantment and we know his plans, and when we know his plans, we can unravel them.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Tuiwen
Saruman is the mightiest of wizards, and he is never content with diplomacy alone. His magic must leave a signature. Find it, and we can unravel his plans.
Tuiwen lowers her gaze into the Mirror and follows the silver thread beneath each promise of protection. She separates spoken intent from the older force shaping the visions.
Tuiwen
The enchantment bends every alliance toward one hidden source.
The Mirror darkens around Rohan’s seals. Beneath them, a gray-white residue coils through the unseen paths, bearing the unmistakable pressure of Saruman’s will and turning southward toward Gondor.
Galadriel
You have found the signature. It does not command every hand, but it inclines frightened choices toward dependence, then conceals the guiding road beneath lawful words.
A hidden junction appears in the Mirror, linking Isengard’s enchantment to the Rohan messages and the unclaimed southern seal. Its pattern is clear enough to warn both realms and trace the next bearer.
Galadriel
The origin is Isengard. We know the road now, and knowledge gives us a choice: expose the enchantment, or quietly sever its reach before Saruman knows it was seen.
“If we sever it now, Saruman will know at once that it was seen and will replace it with something else, which may be more difficult for us to discover. Rather than simply destroying the junction, we should disable it, so that it no longer transmits commands to the intended targets, but rather reports them here. Creating a second junction would allow us to resend these orders, or to alter them, or to replace them with entirely new commands, and it would not be obvious to Saruman why his channels no longer function properly.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Tuiwen
If we sever it now, Saruman will know. I will disable the junction and turn its reports toward Lothlórien instead.
Tuiwen lays two fingers above the Mirror. Silver paths descend through its darkness, and her magic folds the hidden junction inward without breaking the roots that carry it.
The commands still leave Isengard, but now they arrive as silent reflections in the Mirror, stripped of authority and recorded beneath Lothlórien’s ward.
Galadriel
You have made the junction a listening gate. Saruman will read obedience in his channels while their true traffic gathers here.
The spell succeeds, but its cost settles sharply behind Tuiwen’s eyes: until dawn, natural ward-roots and imposed channels appear indistinguishable to her sight.
the elder Galadhrim wardens
Then Lothlórien holds the report, and Saruman remains unwarned. We will judge each command before it reaches those he seeks to bend.
Galadriel
The junction is contained, not destroyed. You have bought us knowledge without announcing our hand, but every false command now carries your responsibility as well.
Within the Mirror, the redirected traffic forms a quiet silver web. Its first new report names a Rohan house receiving another sealed promise from Isengard.
Quest Complete
Prevent Saruman’s design from returning through another road
Skill Upgrade: Crafting Terrible→Poor