THE BARROW-DOWNS

1. When you enter the shaded area on the map above, fog descends upon the downs (the screen turns grey) and you cannot see where you are going. You can dispel the fog temporarily using Countermagic, but to remove it permanently you need help. If you stay in the fog, after some time your companions disappear one by one (up to four of them). You can leave the foggy area without your friends, but to save them you must turn back. Wander in the fog until the Leader is finally captured with the others and brought to the largest barrow (5).
   Note that the Leader need not be the Ringbearer. It is perfectly possible to lose the Ring in the Barrow-downs, but you cannot proceed to Bree without it.
2. At night, there is a 25% chance that a barrow-wight attacks, provided that the fog has not been dispelled. While there are 5 possible places where the event may occur, it will happen once only.
3. At night, there is a 40% chance that a barrow-wight attacks, provided that the fog has not been dispelled. There are 3 of these spots. The nasty barrow-wight will threaten you from somewhere below ground even when it does not actually surface to attack.
4. A chill wind whispers. At night, a barrow-wight attacks (if the fog has not been dispelled). There are 5 possible places where the event may occur, but it will happen once only.
5. You fall into a barrow where you find the skeleton of a tomb robber. Use perception to learn more about his fate. When you get the gem, two barrow-wights appear.
6. The only way into the twin barrows is to get captured by a wight in the fog. When you regain consciousness, you find yourself lying in a sarcophagus (a), unable to move. The barrow-wight is about to kill your companions. If you do nothing, it uses its sword, and the game cruelly leaves you lying paralyzed until you give up and reset. Instead, use perception to find a dagger. Get the dagger. Use it to buy some time. To survive, though, you must use either the Countermagic spell or the !HelpHelp or !Bombadil words of power. Tom Bombadil appears, disposes of the wight and temporarily joins the party. In a room to the west you find a locked chest (b). If you have been to Rivendell to get help (or, to be more precise: if you have defeated the Black Riders at the Ford of Bruinen), three barrow-wights guard the chest. Use picklock or the Unlock spell to open it. Get the four Barrow daggers and the silver pennies. When you exit the barrow, Tom Bombadil leaves.
7. If you enter the barrow by day you are attacked by a barrow-wight. Get the two daggers, the leaf belt, gem, and silver pennies.
8. At the top of the barrow, you are attacked by a barrow-wight at night (if the fog has not been dispelled). While there are 2 possible places where the event may occur it will happen once only.
9. The entrance to this barrow is marked with the symbol of a sceptre and a swan-winged crown. There is no way in. See below.
10. The first time you enter one of the stone circles (if the fog has not been dispelled), the Ringbearer is tempted to put on the Ring but resists.
11. Discard an object in the center of the stone circle for hints:
    • A Maiden's Favor Softens a Hardened Heart. (Refers to Thadred the ghost in the Weathertop area.)
    • Two words ye must have to enter Durin's Doom. (Refers to the secret levels in Moria where Durin's Axe is hidden.)
    • Gloom, Tomb, Doom, and a Hidden Room. (Probably refers to a secret room past some misty passageways and a tomb in the Third Deep of Moria.)
    • When ye climb the windy rock, seek a stone apart. (Refers to the standing stone at Weathertop.)
    Discarded objects cannot be retrieved, so drop things that are no longer needed. Use a shovel to find and get a bottle, some elfdraught, and some silver pennies.
    At night, you are attacked by three of Sharkey's men searching the area.
12. Stomping around in the ruins, you notice that your footsteps sound hollow. Stand there scratching your head for some time and you will find a cellar by falling into it. Alternatively, use a shovel. Inside you find a buried dwarf. Use perception to find and read an interesting scroll. Climb or use rope to get bounced back outside.
13. At night you are attacked by a barrow-wight in the ruins (if the fog has not been dispelled).
14. (Daytime only) You are attacked by three orcs on patrol. If you have been to Rivendell (or, to be more precise, if the Black Riders have been dismounted at the Ford of Bruinen), the defence was strengthened while you were away and you are attacked by five Uruks.

Silver pennies
Twin barrows	200
Tomb robber barrow	150
Stone circle	200

• The sealed barrow with the swan-winged crown captures the imagination. The hotspot for the door serves only to display the message about the symbols. There is no script allowing you to enter.
• You can get into the unused mystery tomb (marked '?') by teleporting (map 4, x 110, y 1560). Inside you will find a chasm (a) that you can jump, and a ghost standing by a sarcophagus (b). There is a script for the ghost as well, displaying a reference to text paragraph 65 – that is, the paragraph used in the Rivendell crypt.
• At the entrance to several barrows, a message is displayed about it being sealed with a huge stone slab. Actually, one more message was supposed to appear if you had Ranger Lore, but due to an error in the script it does not. The screenshot below shows what it looks like with corrected map data.
  
  
• In the map data, there is an unused script that may have been intended for the Barrow-downs area. The script is functional except that its hotspot has been cleared. At some point, you were meant to see the following message: 'You see a large stone pillar covering a hollow.' Then if you used a shovel, the following message was supposed to appear: 'You have dug a hole under the menhir. The hollow descends into darkness.' Presumably another script would have taken you somewhere if you climbed, but I have no idea where. (Yet another unused string reads, 'You descend safely'.)
• Other unused strings in the map data refer to the stone circles. One of them reads, 'A feeling of evil comes from within the circle of stones.' The string that actually appears at #10 reads: 'An extremely strong feeling of evil comes from within this stone circle. The Ringbearer almost unconsciously slips the Ring onto his finger, then puts It away.' Perhaps the unused string was meant for situations where no Ringbearer was present. Two other strings are more interesting: 'The compulsion to put on the Ring is almost unbearable. It is getting incredibly heavy!' and 'You put on the Ring and escape!'. This suggests that at one stage during development, the Ringbearer was meant to suffer some inner struggle in the stone circles; but what would have happened if he put on the Ring? Perhaps he would simply have become invisible and lost some Will. Or would some shadowy wraith have sensed him and drawn him into her hollow under a menhir?
• An unused string reads, 'Tom summons a pony to join the party.'