Dead Space Necromorphs vs. The Fellowship of the Ring :End battle and scoring

Please veiw this
and this first

The mood was in the air was that of jubilancy. Gandalf, who the Fellowship had thought dead as result of his battle with the Balrog, was alive again.  Coming out of the darkness, he had startled the Fellowship, who had at first perceived him to be Saruman. After deflecting their attacks, the ancient wizard had explained that he had in fact died from wounds inflicted by the Balrog, only moments after he had emerged triumphant in that duel.  Mandos refused to take his spirit however, instead telling him that the Valar had ordained him to return to Middle Earth, to replace Saruman as the white wizard.  The Valar had sent him directly to the tunnels where the Fellowship was currently traveling through, as they sensed that danger was about to come to the Fellowship.  It did not take long for the White Wizard, riding on top of his equally white steed to track them down; Pippin left a trail of bread crumbs a mile wide.

“Something is most unusual about this tunnel” Gandalf announced to the Fellowship.” The cave was made almost entirely out of steel and metal, with little to no sign of stone, which characterized the Dwarven underground. It is too well made to be orc or any other foul creature, and I sense the hand of man in it  but not even the Nuemorians could build as sophisticated as this.”  As the Fellowship reflected on this, a deep sense of foreboding seized Legolas.

Legolas, speaking his mind, said “Something dark resides in this cave, something of unfathomable malice. We should go back the way we came.”

    Boromir and Gimli then proceeded to argue with the elf, saying that all other routes were infested with orcs and that here is one which seems clear, but Legolas countered that there was a reason for this, that the minions of Mordor must fear greatly whatever resides in this cave.

    Before either of them could counter, Frodo suddenly experienced a chilling vision; of inhuman monsters crawling through vents, coming upon innocent women and children and slaughtering them with animalistic fury. These monsters came in many different forms but all with the same homicidal desire. On and on the massacre went, with the creatures being able to find the humans no matter where they hid.  Finally the last few humans all made a last stand in a room that clearly was an armory, even with strange and foreign weapons Frodo could tell that they had fought until the monsters overwhelmed them through pure force of numbers. All the sudden, the one with the most inhuman face of them all, the six-eyed demon turned at him and roared.

   Frodo awoke to the concerned and fearful looks  of his comrades.

   Shakily but firmly Frodo said “We are going to leave this place. That is my decision “he added upon seeing Gimli's face. Before anything else could be said an inhuman scream was heard from deep within the cave, and suddenly the entire Fellowship reached a wordless, unanimous consensus.

       Rushing back the way they came, they thought they heard the shrill screams follow them, but they couldn’t be sure as the noise seemed to echo off the walls.   Upon reaching the entrance they found to their horror that the way was shut, something, and by the looks of the tracks, something big, had torn away the support beams, causing it to cave in.

“Why is it that we are always getting trapped in dark, scary places underground?” quipped Pippin attempting to lighten the mood.

“Well hopefully this misadventure doesn’t end up like our last one” said Gandalf. Pippin chuckled a bit, but stopped when he saw that there was no mirth in the Wizard’s eye. “Now we must brave the darkness of yet another cold abyss.”

   The Fellowship, with nowhere else to go, marched deeper into the cave.

__________________________________________________________________ ____________

 Gandalf was wrong, Merry thought, this was nothing like Moria. For one there were obviously synthetic lights of some sort on the ceiling. They revealed no fire, and instead they gave forth a light type that was different from anything Merry had ever seen. These were white, while light from the sun or fire appeared yellow or orangish.  Reflecting on this strange device, Merry failed to notice that the Fellowship had come to a complete stop and ran into Gimli. While this normally would have earned him a retort, but he could see the dwarf was just staring at the odd device ahead of them.

     It appeared to be a door but it had no handle, nor inscription, just a glowing circle in the middle. “Beloch” Pippin said, reminded of the first odd door they had encountered. As the rest of the Fellowship expected, nothing happened. Needing to continue on their journey, Boromir and Aragorn split up briefly to look for a way around, but came back disappointed having found known. All the while this was going on, Merry was busy examining the door, looking for some sort of clue to how to get in. The orb was small and circular, kind of reminding Merry of Isengard’s banner, which sent shivers down his back. He would love to never see that white hand again when the problem was solved! “Aragorn touch your hand to the middle of the orb, it’ll open it” said Merry so quickly that the others had to ask him to repeat himself.  Aragorn, cautiously but firmly touched his hand to the middle of the orb and to the shock of all except Merry and Gandalf, it opened!

  “You really are good with these puzzles and riddles” spoke Gandalf “ I am glad that we convinced Elrond to allow you on the journey”. Merry’s eyes beamed with pride at this. After the rest had finished congratulating him, they entered the next room.

     The lights then turned on almost as if by magic,  they were greeted by a grizzly scene, and Merry immediately regretted figuring out that riddle.

  The Fellowship was greeted by a large room, the size of the king’s hall of Rohan.  Tables scattered the room, most of them upturned. Halfway to the ceiling there was a long metal tube running across the room and more of those funny lights were suspended from the ceiling by metal rods.  Towards  the back of the room there were pots and pans, stacked both neatly and not-so-neatly in sinks. This was clearly a cafeteria of some kind, but it wasn’t the futuristic setting that shocked and horrified the Fellowship.…no that would probably be the bodies.

       THEY. WERE. EVERYWHERE.

           They were found in various positions throughout the mess hall. All of them torn up in ways that even orcs were incapable of producing.  One was suspending over a table, his arms hanging swaying slightly, one of them more so due to it nearly being ripped off. Another body had his face split in half-vertically. Still another was ripped completely into pieces, but this one looked a little different, it somehow looked less human then the others and the separation of its limbs seemed less animalistic. It almost seemed to have been done in a methodical manner. Merry took note of this.

          As the rest of the Fellowship loosely filled the room wondering what caused such a grotesque scene, Pippin noticed a body in the middle of the room that seemed different than the others. This one was intact, and neither torn into nor missing any limbs, characteristics that marked the others. The woman’s form  was hunched , and she seemed to bending over something. “That is an unusual way for someone to die” he thought. Then he noticed movement, the body was twitching!

“We have a survivor!!!” Pippin announced to the astonished group, as he rushed over to help her. This was when the Fellowship’s world changed forever.

       As Pippin approached the body, the twitching became more and more pronounced. Yet something seemed wrong with the twitching, not that of a normal man who needed help, but that of something much more sinister, like a predator in wait. Aragorn did not know what gave him this train of thought, but such foresight had rarely failed him before, so he yelled for Pippin to stop when the hobbit was just ten feet from the deceiving corpse.

 It was like the “body” had been waiting for his shout.

         To the shock and horror of the rest of the Fellowship its head extended outwards and upwards, towards the hobbit in lightning fast speeds.  The neck was now freakishly muscular, and extending impossibly long in the direction its prey. As it was extending itself, the lower half of its face grotesquely split in two, shocking even the experienced Gandalf.  Tentacles filled the gap of where its chin used to be, which it used to grab the unfortunate hobbit by the neck.  It then began pulling the unwilling and frightened hobbit towards it, who had burst out of his shocked state and started to struggle. Loud banging noises could be heard in the background, but the Fellowship, who had just shaken off the effects of the initial surprise attacks and were already rushing to help their endangered friend, failed to take notice.  The creature’s body was beginning to violently shake, as if something else wanted out to join the head.

          Gandalf, who was the first on the scene, took out his staff to blast the monstrosity back. However he never had a chance to do so as immediately upon raising the staff something hit his arm, causing him to drop said staff. Two other barbs flew past him impacting the metallic floor and glancing off.  The Necromorph still steadily pulling Pippin closer was now being joined by some friends; from out behind an overturned table another monster emerged, this one tall and black as the night with glowing eyes.  Its arms were now blades, as long as any sword in the Fellowship’s possession, and another set of them appearing to be growing out of the stomach. Maggots flourished in its flesh to the point of overabundance, many falling off the creature and onto the floor. It was repulsive, it was horrifying and it flew right towards Gimli.

Legolas’s keen elven eyes picked out two more forms in the room with them. First was the fiend that shot at Gandalf, Legolas still could not see him but he managed to pinpoint its location to the far wall, where the synthetic light had failed and seeing was difficult. The strange thing about that assailant was that the barb seemed to have been launched from halfway up the wall, not on the ground level.

       A shadow had moved into view on the metal rafters that hung over the cafeteria. Legolas couldn’t tell what it was but it seemed to be the same shape of monster currently charging at Gimli.

Speaking of which…

      Legolas’s arrow hit the chest of the charging Necromorph skewering the right lung and penetrating deep into the heart.  This would have killed any other foul creature known to the Free People’s of Middle Earth, but the monster was stopped by it for a mere moment before resuming his charge. Gimli’s throwing axe impacted it, this time knocking it back and surely breaking ribs, but it kept coming.  By now it was in striking distance and tried to attack Gimli before being blocked by Boromir’s shield.  Deciding they could handle it Legolas began advancing to the back corner, intent on killing whoever was firing at Gandalf and the hobbits, who were now frantically trying to get to Pippin but found themselves under fire. Aragorn took out his bow and scanned the ventilation shaft looking for whatever was making so much noise up there.

      From out of the back of the corpse emerged its spine. Or more specifically the spear that was its spine! Pippin, by now fully realizing what was about to take place, was stabbing the Necromorph’s body with as much vigor as he could manage(he had managed to get the barrow blade out while being pulled) , determined to do as much damage as possible to the creature. Merry, Frodo and Sam, kept from interfering by the assailant in the opposite corner, were frantically throwing rocks at it in order to get its attention or hopefully kill it. The stones seemingly had no effect, as the the grabber kept pulling until the prey was close enough. Gandalf ran forward with Glamding as the Grabber thrust its spine forward….

     Pippin saw his life flash in front of his eyes; he and Merry’s pranks on Farmer Maggot, his boyhood swims, his parents, the prank at Bilbo’s party (Pippin internally smiled at this) , his escorting of Frodo from the shire, the battle of Weather top, exploring Rivendell,  the darkness of Moria; all leading up to this.  Being impaled on the spine of some creature more foul then any of Sauron’s creation, about to die in a few seconds. Pippin wasn’t sure if there was a moral here, but he was looking for one, as he dispassionately watched Gandalf sever both the spine and neck from the monster’s body in one almighty sword hack.  Pippin was too far gone to take any pleasure in that, already his lung was filling with blood. It would not be long until he was in the halls of Mandos, to be judged for all those pranks he had pulled.

    Merry rushed to the side of his lifelong friend and cousin, with Gandalf being forced to block them from projectiles with his magical shield (Legolas still hadn’t found the annoying archer yet).

Pippin gave a flicker of a smile upon seeing him and said “I messed up again didn’t I?” Gasping for breath he mumbled something that sounded like “Fool of a took” and chuckled, which sent him into a coughing fit.

“Hang in there Pippin, Aragorn’s going to heal you. Don’t die, not yet.“ Merry practically pleaded with his friend as he motioned for Aragorn to come over. The Ranger abandoned his search and rushed over to see what he could do to help.

 Aragorn could already tell that no amount of Athelas could heal this. The spine had penetrated a spot that was unhealable, and to remove the serrated spine would open the wound up even more. Despite the fact that Pippin may not always be wise to the ways of the world, death seemed to have given him some clarity and he understood what Merry could not, what Merry would not.

 Turning to his lifelong friend Merry for one last time he said “Tell that Diamond girl that I always thought she was-“His eyes rolled back in his head before he could finish. Tears rolled down Merry’s eyes, as Aragorn gingerly put his hand on the hobbit’s shoulder. Pippin, that “fool of a took”, was dead.

Fellowship: 8

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle      1 Exploder         1 Flyer      Grabber                      1 Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector       1 Leaper       1 Lurker       8 Pack     1 Pregnant    1Puker           3 enhanced 0 normal  Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker        12 Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

   

 Legolas saw with great sadness that Pippin was gone. The time to mourn would have to be later however, as he continued his search for the archer.  He had determined that it couldn’t have come from the ground, which confused him as there was no balcony to fire from. Suddenly, he saw movement, and a form could be seen about halfway up the wall. The creature was already aware of his presence, and it raised it’s tentacles at him!  With the fast reflexes that only an elf could possess he dodged the oncoming projectile, stringing his bow as he did so.  Righting himself nearly instantly he let loose the shot at the center mass of the small creature, causing it the screech and drop to the floor. Legolas cautiously approached the fallen creature, only to freeze when he saw what he was fighting. It was a human child that he had just shot at; but not human anymore, tentacles spewed from its mouth and stomach, and maggots infested the skin. Though this abomination was not inactive while he was staring at it, and rushed the elf.  Legolas pulled out his long knives, just as the babe collided with him.

____________________________________________________________________________________

  Meanwhile Boromir and Gimli were locked in combat with an extremely resilient foe. Boromir had impaled the Necromorph on his sword, only for his foe to sink into it and continue his assault. He only just managed to bash it away in time.  Gimli followed up this bash with an overhand axe smash straight to its skull, shattering it and sending brain matter everywhere.

        To the horror of both Fellowship members, it kept coming at them. While it could no longer see, it was still swinging its blades back in forth horizontally in a continuous motion, moving closer to Bormir with every swing, Gimli’s great axe still stuck in it.

    Elsewhere a certain bat–like Necromorph had finally found what it was looking for, the morgue. Upon catching sight of its first body it dutifully set about doing the task that the Marker had assigned to it.

   Turning away from the sad scene, Aragorn returned his gaze to the vents, only to find that two more shadows had joined the first one, and that the first one looked like it was about to vomit. Realizing that something bad was about to happen,  he pushed Gandalf, Merry and Sam(who had just joined them) out of the way, just in the nick of time. The ball of (spit, puke?)  hit Pippin’s now prone and lifeless body, causing  Pippin’s boyish face to melt right before their appalled eyes, along with creating an absolutely ghastly burning smell. It splattered as it, a small glob hitting Merry’s left hand(he was the closest to his friend’s body) began to burn which resulted in him shrieking in agony. Throwing some Athlelas at Sam, Aragorn returned fire with his bow, hitting the creature in the chest, but was prevented from doing more by its friends who jumped down and landed right in front of him and Gandalf. One of them had Talons just like the monster Gimli and Boromir were currently engaged with, but they were much larger and overall the creature was stockier then its counterpart. It's distinguishing characteristic though was that it was, well, pregnant, or at least that’s what Aragorn thought it was. The abdomen had expanded to a gargantuan size, to the point where every other feature on the chest was unable to be seen. It's friend  was the exact opposite, it walked on it's arms and as far as Aragorn could tell didn’t have legs, instead it had a large, scythe-like tail. The creature reminded the Ranger of a something called a scorpion he had seen in the desert.  Whereas the “Pregnant” was fat, this one was practically emaciated, its exposed spine marring it's back with a fanged mouth adding to it's frightening demeanor.

         As Aragorn prepared himself to fight them, he made an additional observation that horrified him, these two monstrosities were now between him and Frodo…and that the scorpion had noticed this as well. …

  Frodo had stayed back as Sam went to comfort Merry, he simply felt too sickened to go on further. He had brought the Fellowship to this fate; it was his fault that Pippin was dead.  He wished he could just leave, run away and finish the quest on his own.  This state of melancholy and regret robbed him of his attention, and he failed to see that he was separated from his protectors until those two….things jumped down.  The hobbit tried silently sneaking away only for the smaller, heinously fanged one to notice him. Giving a great roar it sped after him, tail whipping around as he ran. Frodo broke into a full run.

 Aragorn desperately wanted to get to Frodo but the Pregnant deliberately put itself in his path. “Fine if that’s the way you want it dark servant of Morgoth”, he told the unresponsive things, and slashed open the creature's belly with his mighty sword Anduril , seeking a quick kill and early access to Frodo.

    From within the sack a dozen twisted fiends awoke. Their host was in danger, and the marker called for the assailant’s extermination. In unison the closest three took a leap of faith from their host’s womb, right onto the body of the Human. More began emerging behind them.

    Aragorn was lucky in that the first two had leaped onto his leather, and that they were having a difficult time biting through it. The third however had landed and managed to get underneath his leather shoulder pad and was currently tearing up his shoulder. Aragorn backed up so more couldn’t jump on him from the thing’s belly, and taking his knife from his belt he moved the blade to his shoulder and stabbed the annoying pest, killing it. The other two had now managed to bite through his leather and were now on the verge of tearing through his flesh.  Pulling one off, he crushed it in between his gloves while simultaneously stabbing the other. Aragorn’s relief was short lived , as he saw 9 more crawling towards him, hungry for his flesh.  Luckily Gandalf strode forward, staff in hand and muttered an incarnation from a most ancient and powerful language. Fire spewed from his staff and the creatures squealed as they burned to ashes.

 Fellowship: 8

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle      1 Exploder         1 Flyer      Grabber                      1 Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector       1 Leaper       1 Lurker       8 Pack     1 Pregnant    1Puker           3 enhanced 0 normal  Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

   Legolas felt the grotesque abomination latch onto his face with its tentacles, slathering it in the disgusting liquid that was coming out of its mouth and belly. The disgust was now being mixed with pain as the tentacles coming out of the creatures back ripped into his own.  Legolas was stronger though, and reached up to the baby’s head and began pulling him off. After sustaining a few more blows he finally succeed in doing so, and he now had the infant in his arms. He punched, once twice, three times until the babe was stunned and then threw him on the floor.  Raising his two daggers  that were still in hand , he brought them down onto the babe’s chest,  and pulled them across in two directions, separating it into two.

   Frodo was getting desperate, that demon behind him ran much faster than one would expect to see from such an emaciated body.  Not only that but it seemed to defy gravity; as it was sprinting towards him on the nearby wall. Finally, as the creature neared ten feet from the hobbit, Frodo decided that he had no choice, he had to put the ring on.  As invisibility began to shroud him he ducked behind a nearby table, covering his mouth with his hand so the sound of breathing could not be heard. The creature stopped for a second and gave him a curious look, before leaping from the wall at him. Frodo realized too late that Necromrophs don’t rely on sight, as the scorpion crashed into him.

     Pulling out his blade Sting, Frodo managed to knock it off and get back up. The Creature swung its sharp, scythe like tail catching him in the chest and sending him flying backward. This should have killed the Ring-Bearer; however, the mithril armor stopped the devastating scythe completely, leaving only bruises underneath. Frodo countered with a quick jab to it's shoulder, which only pissed the thing off more and it clawed the offending hand, going straight to Frodo’s bone. Not letting up, it then knocked out Frodo’s unprotected legs with its scythe like tail, amputating one completely and partially severing the other. It then jumped on him for the finishing bite..

      Aragorn meanwhile was rushing to get two Frodo, only to find that the Pregnant, though now extremely deflated, blocked his way and was trying to slash at the Ranger’s knees. Not having the patience for this crap, Aragorn swung his sword horizontally, separating both arms from the creature’s body and finally removing him as a threat. Though Aragorn at this point didn’t care, so focused was he on getting there to help Frodo, he had finally killed the Necromorph. Finally, he was able to run past the body.

    Gimli and Boromir were still working out the kinks on how to kill this thing, while simultaneously avoiding its blows.  It had been stabbed multiple times, two arrows were sticking in it's chest, and a giant axe was still planted in it's skull. Gimli then noticed out of the corner of his eye that the dead-thing that Aragorn was fighting was now truly dead, it's arms having been cut off.

 “ We must cut off it's limbs” he abruptly told Boromir, and pulled out a hand axe, holding it in his left hand as he held his walking axe in his right. He swung the walking axe into the monster’s chest, stunning it as he moved in with the hand axe. Like a logger being rushed to complete his contact, he hurriedly began chopping at the creature's knees. The now pissed off creature took a swipe at the dwarf’s shoulder, only for the offending blade to be cut off mid flight by a vigilant Boromir.  This allowed Gimli to chop the leg off and knock him down, where Boromir and Gimli then slashed and hacked him into pieces.

   Frodo was dying and he knew it, but he wasn’t going to let this fiend kill him before he could give his friends one last gift. The monster’s fanged jaws neared to his neck, as Frodo took the vial of Earndill, used to light the stars themselves. The hobbit thrust it into the creature's face, blinding it and causing it to shriek in pain. It tried to jump off him, only to find something grasping hold of his tail; Aragorn! The now royally pissed off Ranger had finally arrived to help! Using his impressive strength he held the hellion back with one hand and slashed using Anduril with his other. The sword of legends tore through the scorpion’s trademark tail, severing it and causing it to beat a hasty retreat. However as soon as  the beast landed on the wall it found itself stuck the in wall; from all the way across the large room Legolas had let loose an arrow which pinned it to the surface, allowing Aragorn to close in and sever the stuck paw. With nothing to hold onto the wall the scorpion fell to the floor, where another blow from Anduril ended the life of this most sinister fiend.

 The Fellowship gathered around Frodo only to find him on Death’s door. Words were beyond him and speaking was too painful at this point.  With his last bit of strength he handed the grieving  Sam the Ring , the vial and his sword Sting, then finally passed his prized mithril to Aragorn. As the last heir of Isildur, he would need that armor more than anyone else, or so Frodo thought. With a great sigh due to his failure to make it Mount Doom, the ring bearer passed from this world.

Fellowship: 7

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle      1 Exploder         1 Flyer      Grabber                      1 Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector        Leaper        Lurker       8 Pack      Pregnant    1Puker           2 enhanced 0 normal  Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

 Legolas couldn’t see what the rest of the Fellowship was gathering around; he was still scanning the surface of the vents.  It seemed to him that whatever was up there had left, possibly crawling back through them.  Running back to tell the rest that that thing seemed to have left; he stopped short once he realized what they were staring at. The Fellowship had failed.

     A state of despair descended upon the Fellowship.  In the span of five minutes they had lost two members, one of which was the hobbit they all sworn to protect. Aragorn could feel the dread in the air, as he went around the group healing their wounds with Athelas. It wouldn’t help with Merry’s though, whatever the liquid was that hit him (Merry insisted that it wasn’t fire) had burned through his bone, and that hand needed a master’s medical help, namely Elrond.

Gandalf rose “Dark times have indeed come to our Fellowship, and I know times seem to be getting ever darker. Yet so long as any one of us lives, Middle Earth has hope. Hope that the fear will go away, that the darkness will be pushed back. So long as any one of us lives Middle Earth has a chance. Do not give up to fear and despair, for around every dark corner there is a light.  “

Merry, wanting to do his part, piped in “at least we know the way out”, pointing at a bright red sign that said exit.

    Feeling their spirits rise, will and perseverance returned to the disheartened members of the Fellowship, and they pressed on.

    The infector had finally finished its grisly work. Twenty-four new bodies from the morgue had been added to the ranks. The only factor that stopped it from adding more was that some Necromorphs, in their zealous drive to kill the living, had so badly mauled many bodies that they were unable to be reanimated effectively.  But at least there would be new bodies soon, as the horde of Necromrophs descended onto the Fellowship’s location. 

Fellowship: 7

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle      1 Exploder         1 Flyer      Grabber                      1 Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector        Leaper        Lurker       8 Pack      Pregnant    1Puker           2 enhanced 24 normal  Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

   As the Fellowship continued onward, scenes of carnage could be seen everywhere. Bodies impaled to walls, others completely torn limb from limb, one torn in half, etc. The bodies were fresh as well, the infection must have started only hours ago.  As the Fellowship wandered on, mulling over how creatures of such an evil nature were created, a terrifying series of roars and screams could be heard coming from the distance.

  The Fellowship rushed into a nearby room, to fight a battle that they might not live through.

    This room had already seen a battle previously, Gimli noted. There were a lot more of those thing’s body parts strewn around then in the halls, and significantly fewer human deaths. In addition the humans that were dead were wearing strange armor, the design of which was like nothing the dwarf had seen before. There were five shafts leading down from the ceiling to the room. What they were for Gimli could not tell. Though possibly, it was to pump air into the room for some reason.  Four of them were in corners, one for each, while the fifth was directly in the middle.

 After a brief taking in of the scenery, Gimli, assisted by Boromir and Aragorn, set to work moving the heavy table that lay in the center of the room. They pushed the metallic table, which weighed a ton, to the door. No sooner then had they done this, banging could be heard from the other side; the monsters wanted in.

      It went on for about ten minutes before it all the suddenly stopped. “Maybe they’ve gone for easier pickings elsewhere” Sam said hopefully. The experienced dwarf knew that an enemy as persistent as this, refusing to accept death even when its head had been smashed would be unlikely to give up. The dwarf's suspicions and natural paranoia was soon rewarded, as the horrible forms began dropping from the ceiling.

   Never before had the Fellowship fought a harder battle, yet never before had the Fellowship been so relieved. These creatures, though horrifying, were nowhere near as strong as their maggot filled brethren.  Their limbs (for the Fellowship had figured out that that may be the only way to kill these things) were much easier to separate, and they were slower, weaker than their dark black counterparts. They were killing the beasts, even if it was with great difficulty, and with much effort.  Gandalf was using his magical abilities to great effect, setting them on fire and flooding them with electricity.  Boromir took three on at once, while Aragorn was hacking at four. The hobbits combined to fight the last one, nipping at its legs with sword strokes till it went down. Yet the most spectacular fighting came from a certain ever-bickering duo….

“THREE” Legolas Yelled over the din of sword/blade clashes and team-indiscriminate yelling and screaming. He and the dwarf were having a contest of kills; so far Legolas had three with his twin long elven daggers. He had used the bow for a while, and succeeding in crippling most of them in the opening seconds of the fight with precise knee shots. Essentially everyone who he crippled should have been his kill; Gimli and the rest were just borrowing them, or in the annoying dwarf’s case, stealing them.

      “Six” the dwarf gleefully shouted as brought his battle axe down on an already crippled by Legolas Necromroph.  It really wasn’t fair, Legolas had crippled them, doing half the work so therefore he should have gotten at least half points. This was really the second Necromroph that was killed after previously hamstrung, so Legolas should really have four.

   Legolas was about to dive into two approaching Necromorphs that were slowly trudging up from where the farthest vent was, when all the sudden something new fell down. This Necromroph was smaller than the others, its mouth awkwardly cut in two. It’s most notable feature though, had to be its giant, glowing, pulsating arm. Legolas was smart enough to know that he didn’t want to get anywhere near that freakish thing, but at the same time, a curiosity had aroused in him. Picking his bow back up again, he strung it and shot at the oncoming monster.

   The resulting shockwave knocked everyone else in the room of their feet. When the managed to pick themselves back up they looked at the spot where the strange glowing arm beast was. There was now a huge blast circle that surrounded the location where he had shot the arm. Only a few steps away, body parts from the two Necromorphs traveling with it littered the field. With the last Necromroph being bisected by Aragorn, the rest of the Fellowship gave a sigh of relief. Then the arguing started.

“You are second place dwarf, no need to get upset, it was a great contest between you and I, but in the end first place is mine” said Legolas cockily.

“No! No! No! We are tied elf! I got six and I *guess* you got six, although that really should’ve only counted as one. You got lucky that his arm was volatile”

“No you got five rightful kills. I am giving you half credit for those two you killed that I had previously crippled. You are still second place so don’t fret, Gandalf and Aragorn each killed 4, Boromir had three and the hobbits tag teamed 1”.

“What! It was my axe that ended his life, not your bow! These things are just as big a threat crippled as they are walking, if anything they are more! It’s hard to keep them in sight and-“

    Just then a horrible new being dropped down from the nearest shaft, landing right in front of the debating couple. This one had the most horrific appearance of all the new Necromrophs seen thus far; its eyes were hollow and red, it had long arms with claws on the end, maggots were pouring out of every spot imaginable on its black skin.  It's original two legs were twisted and merged together , while a third leg had formed seemingly out of already dead flesh. Most terrifying of all was that it's entire insides, from the throat to the waist were visible. It looked as if the skin that was supposed to be covering it was burned away.

 This was just first glance details, the Necromorph had given no one time to do anything but turn their heads and stare for a second. The monster, known as the Puker, had a purpose and an objective as it dropped down the chute. Jutting out its mouth, it unleashed the contents of its stomach on the dwarf Gimli, specifically his face.

    The smell of burning flesh and hair filled the air, and Gimli gave a roar, not of pain but of anger. He pulled out both throwing axes at once, and hurled them with great might into its chest. Next he pulled out his hand axe and walking axe and did the same, all the while sprinting as fast as his little legs could carry him at it. Running at it the grotesque creature was still spewing puke his way. Finally pulling out his cousin Balin’s great axe, he tackled the creature as the rest of the fellowship prepared to intervene. Screaming at them not to interrupt the duel, he lifted up the axe again and again, slamming it downward on the  floored Necromorph with literally ground-shaking force. Again and again he did this, even as his face began to resemble that of the creature below him , even as the non idle creature slashed at  every unprotected place it could reach, slashing to the bone on Gimli’s knees and futilely slashing at his chainmail covered stomach. The latter did not penetrate, stopping the monster from disemboweling Gimli. Puke sprayed everywhere as Gimli continued his obsessive drive towards extermination, burning his arms and knees and even going tearing through his chainmail. Still the necromoph persisted, despite the fact that the pure amount of blows on its stomach would have killed any of its brethren save one. With it's last bit of strength it succeeding in getting a swipe in at the dwarf’s now exposed belly, disemboweling him as the great axe slammed down on it's head. 

   Turning to the rest of the Fellowship, he could see from their horror and sadness on their faces that he did not have much longer to live. Gimli’s face now resembled that of a skeleton, as did many other parts of the body that puke had got on. His entrails were burning; the last swipe of his fallen foe had exposed it to the gush of pus that came out once its head had been crushed. Still he had one last message to impart on his friends before he left to join Aule and escape the pain of his mortal body.

“I win elf”.    

    With those last few words, Gimli, son of Gloin fell to the floor, and let the icy hand of death take him.

Fellowship: 6

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle       Exploder         1 Flyer      Grabber                      1 Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector        Leaper        Lurker       8 Pack      Pregnant    Puker           2 enhanced   Normal Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

     The Fellowship was distraught, and for once even Gandalf was at a loss for words. However there would be no time to mourn. From the fifth and center ventilation shaft, the only one that was not used by Necromoprhs in the battle, a deep rumbling could be heard.  From out of the darkness, a creature emerged unlike any this world had thus seen. It had six eyes all glowing red and  a long thin body with a very muscular chest. It's legs were long and slender, with three toes at the end instead of five. It's blade/claws were six in number, three for each side, with each one of varying lengths. The new fiend was as black as a moonless night.

    The Fellowship, now vindictive for being interrupted in grief, attacked the creature in full force. Aragorn attempted to halve the beast, only for this new necromorph to catch the blade with it's right arm. It would have countered had Boromir not drove his long sword into the beast’s left arm. Such was the strength of it's skin and bone, that it could not go through, and the Ubermorph (for that was what the creature was known by) merely smashed him aside. Legolas, who had spent the time arguing with the late dwarf had been collecting arrows from corpses, and had now sent an arrow into one of it's eyes. Then another, and another, until the creature finally was annoyed enough to focus it's attention on the elf, slashing at him with such swiftness that the agile elf just managed to dodge.  Aragorn took advantage of the Necromorph's lack of attention by hewing and finally severing the creature's outstretched left arm. The creature retaliated by doing a whirlwind-like slash with it's remaining arm, slashing through the leather of Aragorn and giving him a deep cut.  Gandalf then used his staff to pick up the Necromorph with telekinesis, and slam him repeatedly against the ground while Legolas took out his long knives and moved forward. With agility and grace unmatched by any outside the realm of Mirkwood, in three swift movements he severed the being’s head, legs, and remaining arm.

   The Necromroph was no more….

    …… Or so it seemed to the Fellowship.  As they glumly exited the room, they heard a strange sound coming from the rear. As the turned around they were shocked to find that not only was it still alive, but it's right  arm was now halfway grown back. Other limbs were starting to form and the torso was twitching violently.  Realizing that this might not be an enemy that they could beat, the Fellowship fled the room.

      They followed the red exit signs through the almost endless series of blood-stained corridors.  On and on they went as the screams and roars followed them. As they went further on the fellowship began to notice that the strange fungus they had barely noticed earlier became more and more frequent, until the ground was now covered with it. Pressing on they continued forward until they were stopped by a horrific moan and a freakish sight . Ahead of them was a human torso and head, missing all other limbs, glued to the wall, right where a necessary right turn was needed to continue down towards the exit. It was in motion with what looked to be entrails emerging from its stomach and attaching themselves to the wall. Upon hearing the Ubermorph’s oh so familiar roar in the background, the Fellowship decided that it didn’t have time for this, and charged forward with the shielded Boromir in the lead in the event it shot out projectiles from its abdomen.

    Boromir was completely wrong; it didn’t shoot barbs or puke forth from its gut, in fact it didn’t shoot forth any projectiles like that. No, it shot forth giant SPIKED tentacles, many of them. Boromir, viewing all this over the tip of his shield, was only JUST able to get his face back behind the shield, as a mere moment later the spear of an entrail burst through the wood of his shield, where his head would have been. Two more tentacles now landed in the blocking instrument, and despite the great Gondorian’s many attempts to shake it off it was now entrenched, and actually pulling him closer to it's body. Deciding that it would be best to be far away from that thing and unable to safely raise his sword arm for fear of the still-writhing tentacles, Boromir reluctantly let go f his prized shield. Upon getting it out of Boromir’s reach, the other idle tentacles grabbed hold of it and tore it to pieces in front of Boromir’s sorrowful eyes. A single tear fell.

    But that wasn’t the only thing coming from, or at Boromir’s sorrowful eyes. From high above the rafters came a loud screech and a bat like form came flying down towards Boromir. With its vicious tail it gashed Boromir’s right eye, causing Boromir to clutch the now empty socket in agony.  The mutated bat now flew away, with its prize, Boromir’s eye, skewered on its tail.

 Aragorn pulled out his Athelas to try to ease the wounded Gondorian’s pain…and prevent shock from taking hold. 

      Not letting up its assault, the abomination on the wall pulled ….something from it stomach and threw it at the ground at its feet. The blob of flesh, for that is what it was, immediately sprouted forth a tentacle, which Legolas, remembering his experience with the demented baby immediately sliced off the tentacle with a well placed arrow shot. The pile of flesh twitched for a second before violently exploding; knocking Gandalf (the closest) back.

        The old wizard had his left ankle shattered from the blast, and needed help from the Hobbits to get up, but when he successfully managed to right himself he was furious.  Pissed that this limbless, constantly screaming creature was delaying their journey so effectively, he telekinesisly through the next living blob that was about to come out of the fiend's stomach area and slammed the foul filth back into it's host’s face. The explosion completely destroyed the monstrosity’s head, and it troubled the Fellowship no longer.

    But the flyer was still trouble, and already it was beginning its dive run at the preoccupied wizard. Gandalf turned to it just as it gave a screech as it moved in to make a kill, it's screech was cut off as Legolas’s arrow penetrated it's exposed lung. It crashed and skidded against the metallic floor as the Fellowship trudged on. From behind them, not too far now, the constant and steady steps of the Ubermorph could be heard.

Fellowship: 6

Necromorphs:

1 Brute    1 Crawler      1(6parts) Divider      1 Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber                       Guardian(pods not specified)       1 Infector        Leaper        Lurker       8 Pack      Pregnant    Puker           2 enhanced   Normal Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

 Aragorn was now almost out of Athelas, having just used a great deal of it to ease the pain of Boromir and Gandalf.  Boromir’s wound though was unable to be repaired even with healing herbs, while Gandalf would need some rest before his ankle could be healed. It was clear that that was not available as the distant roars, clanging and now strange whispers attested. Constant movement was necessary.

         They continued down the Labyrinth of halls, down what looked to be an absolute maze of a path, following the almost endless series of “exit” signs. Twice they had reached the actual exit point, only to find it destroyed by some unknown large creature.  The fellowship couldn’t hear the Ubermorph currently, but they knew it was still following them; a persistent enemy such as that was unlikely to give up.  The group reached an end to the corridors, and walked into what looked to be the living quarters. Bloodstained beds lay overturned in several places, and feathers from pillows were strewn about the room. What looked to be a dining table had a man grotesquely laying on it, kitchen utensils sticking out of him.  At the far right corner was a huge bloodstained hole, whatever had caused it had been big and powerful enough to drill through steel.

       A couple of chairs lay haphazardly around the room, and the Fellowship moved them to the center, away from any ventilation shafts. Gandalf, the Hobbits, and Boromir all needed their rest; they had been in a constant state of action for what seemed to be an hour, and more Athelas need to be applied to the former and latter’s wounds . No noise could be heard from the vents, but Legolas secretly worried that some Necromrophs were hiding behind the beds, so he kept a watchful eye on them.

    The company sat in silence, too keen to listen for any unwelcome movement to talk. Boromir cut a piece of cloth from his elven cloak and wrapped it around his empty eye socket, both to prevent dust from getting in there and to calm down Merry and Sam, who were staring at it.  Gandalf sat massaging his broken ankle, all the while Aragorn searched through his satchel so see how much Athelas he had left. After extensive digging he could only find two pieces.  Sighing he put those two pieces away to be only used in emergencies, and gave his quiver to Legolas who only had a few arrows left. The elf would use it better than he ever could, anyway. Legolas nodded and emptied the arrows from that quiver into his own.

     A long and almost mournful whale-like call broke the uncomfortable silence, and though the Fellowship was not comfortably rested, they prepared once again for a fight. They did not have to wait long, as a tall gaunt form in a coat appeared in a doorway, and gave off an extremely loud whale call. Legolas sent two arrows at it, more to shut it up then to kill it, but the creature showed no reaction as they hit it's torso. Before his bow could be strung again something huge knocked him down and grabbed him by the legs. Turning to his newfound assailant he saw to his dismay it was a huge arm. Before Aragorn could help Legolas the tall gaunt figure launched a fleshy rope at him that wrapped around his neck, throttling him. Gandalf would have helped them, but that acid spitter had returned, and was trying to fire its deadly arsenal at this preoccupied Fellowship, so Gandalf was blocking the acidic pellets with his magical shield. From out behind the beds, many mutilated and mutated kids appeared, all possessing almost foot long claws.

It was the perfect ambush.

Taking out his longsword and turning to the hobbits Boromir said “I’ll hold off the kids, you little ones must help Aragorn and Legolas. “

  Sam and Merry rushed to fulfill the Gondorian prince’s task, with Merry going for Aragorn and Sam for Legolas.

  Legolas was shooting the giant yellow pustule at the creature’s midpoint, which seemed to be hurting it. The only problem was that every couple seconds it would drag him closer to the hole from where it came, thus throwing off his shot. Taking out sting and his own Barrow blade, Sam rushed at the creature’s midpoint.

      Meanwhile Merry was about to reach Aragorn, only for a giant bat-like creature to overtake him. The wouldbe rescuer now needed to be rescued, as he and the bat engaged in a life or death grapple, with the bat moving in too close for Merry to draw his sword. The bat didn’t have a face, but it did have a long spear-like snout, which it was trying to impale Merry with.

  Boromir could not see the trouble Merry was in, so intent he was on the enemies at hand. Eight of the pale little monsters were running straight for him, and the captain of Gondor charged straight at them.  His first slash separated the lead child’s upper body from the rest of it, and he impaled the second on his sword, punching him a couple of times to make sure it was dead. Now things began to get a little bit tricky, as the remaining six were closing in on him too fast for him to take them individually.

    Pulling out his dagger, he threw it at the lead member of this child pack, surprisingly killing him.  He got off one more slash, cutting off the legs of another, before they were literally on him.

     The Drag tentacle knocked Sam back as he dug both swords into the glowing orange sac, shaking off the swords as well. One flew far out of reach behind a bed while another, Sting, luckily landed right at the hobbit's feet. Moving quickly he charged back into the fray, stabbing and finally destroying the sac, and severing the arm in half.

 Boromir was in trouble. All four of the remaining kids were clinging to his body, biting and scratching where they could .Three were on his back, and the last was trying to tear through his mail armor, thankfully failing.  Realizing that there would unfortunately be no disemboweling today, it gave up trying to cut through his mail and began climbing the man’s body until it was up to his face. Giving a terrifying scream and baring its fangs it prepared to eat his face when something else of a more steely substance entered his mouth, going straight up to his brain. The Gondorian just managed to save himself there, but was forced to drop the sword as one of the pack member’s ate through the tendons on his right arm. Moments later the other pack on his left arm did the same, making him useless. Boromir now knew that he was going to die, and averted his gaze from his mangled arms to look to see how the other members of Fellowship were faring. Legolas and Sam had just finished cutting away the remains of the giant arm to free the elf, Aragorn had finally snapped the noose around his neck and Gandalf had grabbed a glob of spit mid air using his staff, for purposes Boromir in his extreme pain knew not. Looking at Merry, Boromir was saddened to see that one of his favorite hobbits was no longer among the living, with the bat like thing's proboscis now piercing the forehead of the once bright young hobbit. Yet it was what was crawling next to Merry that seized his attention from all other matters, including the animals still drilling into his arms. It was a baby, but one that not even a mother could love. It's head was twisted back and his face was full of a dark grimace. The legs and arms were pasty gray with blood running all over them. The entire abdomen region was just a huge orange sac, reminding Boromir of the Necromorph that he had seen   Legolas shoot earlier…speaking of which it was crawling right towards them!

        Boromir knowing that he was dying couldn’t let this foul thing kill two more of the Fellowship. He broke into a sprint towards the babe, with his passengers still on his back.

A half of the way there….all three were hanging on, not wanting to let the man who they were hunting get away. One on each of his arms, another around his neck,

 Three quarters of the way there…the one with it's claws around his neck was tightening, and it was pulling itself over to do something.

  Right as he was 3 feet away from the crawling babe, he felt teeth dig into his neck, and knew that if he was going down, he was taking these fucks with him! He body slammed the infant, causing it to explode in an incredibly gory explosion sending parts of Boromir, the three pack, the nearby infector and Merry everywhere.  A violent and glorious death, for a man who had dedicated his life to violence and glory.

   ____________________________________________________________________________________

       Fellowship: 4

Necromorphs:

1 Brute     Crawler      1(6parts) Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber                       Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           2 enhanced   Normal Slasher         1  Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

   Gandalf felt an explosion shake the ground from behind him, and immediately knew what happened, and who fell in it.  He managed to not fall this time, but by the grace of Eru his opponent stumbled. Still holding the acid via telekinesis with his staff, he slammed it back into the creator's face, melting it and causing the acid that was in its throat at the time to splash everywhere. The Spitter was given a taste of it's own medicine, and it soon crumbled to the ground never to rise.

 Aragorn, feeling rage and much anguish over the deaths of two more of his friends, charged the gaunt creature and cut out both of it's legs.  To the ranger’s great displeasure, the whole body crumpled to reveal that all parts of its body (except for the random torso) were all alive and still threatening. One leaped up to his neck, throttling him once again while the other three (two had been killed when he cut off the legs) were waiting for their chance at the Ranger. An arrow pierced the octopus like head of the creature currently strangling him; the others had arrived to help.  Sam stabbed one with Sting, and Gandalf set another on fire. The last one, seeking to flee, was pinned to the wall by Legolas.

       Fellowship: 4

Necromorphs:

1 Brute     Crawler      Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber                       Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           2 enhanced   Normal Slasher           Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

1Ubermorph

  Screams and roars still reverberated off the walls, and the Fellowship knew that all the monsters still hadn’t been killed.  They fled down the next hall, with Legolas taking the lead followed by Aragorn and then Sam. Gandalf, with his hurt ankle was limping behind in the rear, a significant gap between him and the rest. Suddenly from the ceiling two Necromorphs jumped down, separating Gandalf from the rest. One of them was the Ubermorph.

The old wizard sighed and said “Time is short, and I am only slowing you down. The three of you must carry on this journey without me.”

   None of the others wanted to leave him again, but Gandalf was insistent “If you tarry here then all will be lost for Middle Earth, and Sauron will conquer.”

     As the others reluctantly left him, Gandalf stoically prepared for what would be his final battle.

      The first Necromorph, of the same breed that Gimli and Boromir had fought what seemed to be so long ago, stepped forward intending for an easy finish to this fight. Gandalf was having none of that. When the Necromroph raised his left blade-arm in a attack maneuver, Gandalf sliced it off with Glamding. Not letting up he used the power of his staff to levitate the severed limb and slam it into the Necromroph, sending him flying backwards and pinning him to the Ubermorph, who was marching up from behind him.

   Aragorn, Legolas and Sam continued running down the corridors, eager to get to the exit. A sign up ahead said “Cargo Bay” and the Fellowship felt hope enter their hearts. Cargo Bays would need an easy exit point to export and import goods, so a way to the outside was not far off.  A lone Necromorph, another one of those festering with maggots, stood in their way. The ground shook.

 The Ubermorph, pissed at this unwelcome circumstance, sliced its impaled comrade to pieces to get it off, killing it. He then turned to the human that dared impale him. Gandalf was ready, and blocked his first blow with his staff, using his other hand to attempt a decapitation. This was blocked by the other arm of the Ubermorph, who then head butted the old wizard. Gandalf fell backwards.

  As Aragorn prepared to charge through the fiend, the shaking became more pronounced and something else charged through the Necromroph instead, sending pieces of it everywhere. This one was huge, easily the size of a troll. It possessed plates on its front, was as black as the previous Necromroph it had just killed, and it used its giant muscular arms to move itself. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, it was heading the Fellowship’s way!

 The Ubermorph attempted to impale the downed wizard, but the said magician slammed his staff on the ground, sending the Ubermorph spiraling backwards. Easily picking himself up the creature felt a sword sever its arm once again. But the amount of force that was required to successfully slash through the Ubermorph threw the wizard off balance, and the Necromorph slashed into his upper thigh.

   Aragorn dodged the first smash by this the Brute and jammed Anduril in between the creature’s ribs. However the creature’s armor stopped it from getting far. Enraged, it violently knocked him aside and prepared for the finishing blow only to be interrupted by an arrow to the face.  Easily distracted it now went after Legolas, who just dodged his charging head butt by the grace of Elven agility, all the while stringing his bow, firing at the giant’s back legs as he went past. The brute gave a roar of rage and turned around.

  The Ubermorph now had the advantage. With its arm having grown back it pressed the attack. Three times Gandalf was only just able to block, each time harder than the last.  It succeeded in giving him two more slashes across the chest, both deep enough that bone was exposed. Gandalf now knew that this was a fight he could not win, and he summoned all the remaining magic his exhausted old body still carried for one last attack.

  The brute pulled Anduril from his breast and threw it at Aragorn, who just barely evaded it. Before he could press on his attack against the king, he felt something on his shoulders and soon something drilling into his head; an arrow. That pesky elf had climbed up his back, and was now trying to sever one of his arms with the twin elven swords. Well the brute wasn’t going to put up with that! Bucking with five times the intensity of the most wild horse,  the big beast made the elf hang on for dear life. Finally it slammed it's arched back and succeeding in throwing off Legolas, sending him spiraling into a wall and out of the realm of consciousness. He then moved in to finish off his prey.

      Calling upon the Valar one more time he summoned all of the fire and electricity that he could still call upon into his sword, just as the Ubermorph impaled him on his blade. Feeling blood ooze out of all orifices, the wizard gave one last battle cry and plunged Glamding into the Ubermorph’s chest.  With a brilliant explosion of light and power both Gandalf and the Necromorph disappeared from this world, to other places still unknown.

       Fellowship: 3

Necromorphs:

1 Brute     Crawler      Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber                       Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           enhanced   Normal Slasher           Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

Ubermorph

   “ I have failed you Frodo, I have failed you Pippin, I have failed you  Merry, Gimli and Boromir, but I will not fail you Legolas and Aragorn.”

             The specters of all but the last two had haunted his visions ever since they each fell, asking Sam why he wasn’t there for each of them, and inquiring as to where he was when he was actually needed. Sam knew enough to tell that they weren’t real, that some Malevolent presence was affecting his mind, but that didn’t stop them from haunting him and his thoughts, which is why he said little throughout this entire journey.

         Sam saw the huge Necromroph advance on Legolas, only to be stopped by Aragorn’s slash to the shoulder, which managed to separate one of the massive arms. Pissed, it punched the ranger with it's remaining arm, slamming him into the wall and knocking him unconscious as well. It was now up to Sam. Just as the brute was about to tear into his downed prey, it was interrupted once again. Sam hacked away at the creature's exposed legs, cutting deep into the dead flesh. Enraged, the brute slammed his arm down onto Sam’s location, only to find that he was no longer there. The hobbit had leaped between his legs, and was continually hacking at it from down there, forcing the brute to back up. Sam finally cut off the leg supporting the remaining arm, sending the brute spiraling to the floor. Unfortunately for the Hobbit, his leg got caught underneath the creature’s massive girth in the escape.  Sensing his opportunity, the brute grabbed hold of the hobbit and slammed his frail body into the floor, once, twice and then a third time before bringing it up to his mouth. However the hobbit was still alive and wielding a surprising weapon; a frying pan! The hobbit smacked him in the face with it, which succeeded in stunning him.   Mustering the last bit of his strength, he thrust Sting directly into the horrible creature’s mouth, ending it forever.

  Aragorn and Legolas finally managed to bring each other out of consciousness, only to see  with awe on their features that the Brute was dead, Sam having killed it. However the heroic hobbit had every bone broken in his ribcage and now was dying from a broken chest. Wheezing uncontrollably, he managed to give the ring and light of Earndill to Aragorn,  and gave them a brief flicker of a smile.

 “Tell Rose that I have always loved here, and give her the light”

 Nodding somberly Aragorn put both away, as Sam closed his eyes for the last time.

       Fellowship: 2

Necromorphs:

 Brute     Crawler      Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber     Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           enhanced   Normal Slasher           Spitter       4 Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

Ubermorph

      With low spirits the last of the Fellowship cautiously entered the cargo bay. It was like any other cargo bay, with boxes being stacked high throughout the building. Their Spirits returned, as they saw and felt the real light of the sun reach them, the outside and freedom from this dreadful place was just a room away. Breaking into a run, Legolas and Aragorn ran toward the exit, which was about 400 yards away (this cargo room was huge). Unfortunately, the familiar feeling of being watched returned to the Fellowship and loud screeches only served to confirm that they were not alone. 

  Legolas couldn’t yet see the creatures, but he sure could hear them. He knew they were hiding behind boxes, but other than that their location was unknown. Legolas saw a shadow different from that of the boxes, it had a birdlike shape. Seeking to catch it on the unaware, Legolas strung his bow with one of the last three arrows that he had left, and crouched behind a nearby box. He slid to the side and alerted Aragorn via hand gestures that something was behind it.  Legolas turned the corner  right into a most ugly face. It's skull was exposed, with a large horn coming out of the forehead and the lower jaw was split it two. The creature screeched and head butted him, not with much force but enough to knock him backwards and give him a severe headache.

  As Aragorn helped him up he noticed a screech from behind, and the resulting collision knocked them both down again. The Stalker then screeches at them, allowing the pair to see it's entire form. It is so skinny that it is emaciated, with long slender legs and a wicked set of claws.  The ribcage was exposed, and the heart showing. Before anything could be done it fled, but not before Legolas let loose a arrow which pierced its kneecap, crippling it.

         Realizing that it wouldn’t be able to walk, it changed course and crawled as fast it could towards Legolas as the elf fired another arrow into it's head, which failed to stop it. Aragorn and Anduril did, and the creature's huge head fell off, Just as Legolas heard another screech from behind. With a quick and skillful dodge roll, he narrowly managed to get out of the Stalker's path, who continued on towards Aragorn. With a skillful evasive maneuver, he sliced off both of the stalker's legs and it smashed its head against the ground with a sickening crunch, seemingly killing it. Then two screeches filled the air, and Legolas turned just in time for a head to collide with his midsection, breaking many ribs and knocking him to the floor.  Another one ran past him heading for Aragorn.  The one that knocked him down had, instead of running away, put it's long slender paws on top of his body and unveiled it's claws.

   Aragorn was prepared for the charging Necromroph this time, and right as it lowered its head to ram he thrust out his sword. The result was the sword penetrating through the fiend’s head and into his rib cage, which had the effect of making it look like a stuck pig over a camp fire.

 Legolas felt pain take hold as the creature stepped onto his chest. Taking out a sword with his left arm, he stabbed into the chest of the Stalker. The monster, unlike all of its other comrades, actually acknowledged pain and retaliated by driving both of its claws deep into the chest of the elf, spearing through vital organs and going out all the way to the other end. With his last bit of strength, Legolas drove his other sword into one eye socket and out the other. It gave one last slash to the face of the elf, before falling down, never to rise again.

     Legolas, with his last breath, bid his friend farewell and good luck for what could be the last adventure of the heir of Isildur. So passed Legolas, Elf prince and greatest archer that ever lived.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Fellowship: 1

Necromorphs:

 Brute     Crawler      Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber     Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           enhanced   Normal Slasher           Spitter       ½ Stalker         Swarmer           1 Twitcher

Ubermorph

          Now deeply embittered, Aragorn trudged on towards the exit.  It was only a few yards now, all he had to do was climb the steps and get on the platform, after which he merely had to walk out into the forest.

        Unbeknownst to Aragorn, he was being followed.     Stalkers have always been the smartest of the Necromorphs, and this particular specimen proved to be no exception.  It slowly and deliberately crawled after the escaping prey, careful not to go too fast to draw unwanted attention.

____________________________________________________________________________________
      Aragorn was not alone on the steps. While there was no Necromorph in sight as far as he could tell, there was something that invoked even more fear in him then the monsters did. Aragorn shared the platform with a massive obelisk, about 2 times the size of even the huge Balrog. It was black, but with glowing red symbols, of some incomprehensible language, covering nearly every square inch of the object. Bodies littered the floor around, oddly they were not torn apart like the others, rather they all had holes in their heads and peaceful looks on their faces.

  Suddenly a vision overcame Aragorn. He saw a huge crowd of people, all chanting the same phrase over and over again, and “Altman be praised”. Then the leader of the congregation took the podium and told his congregation to “listen to the voice of God and prepare”, at which everyone in the crowd took out identical looking tools, which Aragorn guessed were weapons. A man from outside the congregation (Neumann his name card said) came onto the scene ordering them to cease, but the Deacon merely ignored them and bellowed “NOW IS THE TIME TO TRANSCEND DEATH”. With that the entire congregation activated their weapons, killing themselves as the horrified interloper looked on.

     With that the vision ended and Aragorn noticed that he had fallen to the floor during it. Picking himself up, a shadow then entered his view. Looking up he saw one final Necromorph, this one looking like the most common variety but with some significant differences. It was much paler, armor of some kind seemed to be fused to it's body and it's blades were much longer. Tentacles grew out of it's hair, and it seemed to be a little, well twitchy. The name on his name tag was that of the visions, Neumann.

   Without further preamble, the twitcher rushed at Aragorn, who took the first blade in the chest. Luckily the Mithril given to him by Frodo’s dying hands served him well, and although he probably fractured something, he was still alive. Not letting up, the twitcher then landed a vertical downward hack on his shoulder, which the Mithril again protected.  The third lighting fast slash came at his face, but this time Aragorn was prepared.  He blocked the strike with Anduril and kicked the fiend back.  The ranger attempted a downward hack of his own only for the Twitcher to almost effortlessly dodge and jab him in the ribs, cracking it even though it didn’t penetrate.  The Twitcher's follow up attack was again checked, this time by the dagger that Aragorn had just pulled out. When the creature came close again to attack, he moved closer and buried it into his chest before being knocked back yet again.

    The ever persistent stalker had finally reached the platform where it's maker was located….and it's prey.  With all the strength it could muster it sped forward to the fight.

___________________________________________________________________________________

     Aragorn pressed home his advantage, thrusting Andruril deep into the Twitcher before being knock off balance again. A horizontal strike was only just blocked by the Necromroph, however the following bash by the ranger was not, and he was knocked back.

       About to press forward to his victory, Aragorn suddenly felt almost blinding pain in his calf. The Stalker whose legs he had taken out, that he was reasonably sure he killed had followed him and was now tearing deep into him with his claws. Deciding to focus on the more important opponent right in front of him, Aragorn swung his sword Anduril diagonally with one hand-which the Twitcher predictably blocked. Grasping the dagger still stuck in its chest with the other, he pulled it out and jammed it into the fiend’s brain, or where the brain should have been. Pushing it back one last time he performed one of his most devastating combos, taking off both arms before impaling it on his sword.

 The creature twitched uncontrollably for a second before going limp after which Aragorn wasted no time in pulling Anduril out and swinging backwards at the feet level, separating the head of the Stalker in half.

       Without another word, he walked out of the cave that caused him so much sorrow, into an uncertain future.

     Fellowship:1

Necromorphs:

 Brute     Crawler      Divider       Drag Tentacle       Exploder          Flyer      Grabber     Guardian(pods not specified)       Infector        Leaper        Lurker        Pack      Pregnant    Puker           enhanced   Normal Slasher           Spitter        Stalker         Swarmer            Twitcher

Ubermorph

Fellowship WIN

   Epilogue:

The now bitter and grim King Aragorn Ellessar II won the war for middle Earth, this time organizing a massive coalition of men, hobbits, ents, dwarves and elves which was used as a direct assault on Mordor.  The latter had been most reluctant, seeing as they wanted to leave Middle Earth for the heavenly lands, but Aragorn persuaded them by threatening to keep the Ring for himself.  Finally on Mount Doom, after the largest battle Middle Earth had ever seen since the First Age’s War of the Wrath, the Ring made a final appeal to him, to use it to achieve ultimate power and majesty. Aragorn, remembering how the Ring had failed in the cursed caves, threw it into chasm without another thought. Such a weak thing it was compared to the power of the marker. Speaking of which….

       To the surprise of all, Aragorn did not disband the coalition forces, instead sending hem forth on one last mission which he personally led.  Returning to the caves that had troubled his dreams for so long he ordered his forces to wipe the cave system, and the adjacent forest, off the face of Middle Earth. What they found there was never officially recorded, although the men who returned, who had been so cheerful and joyous after their well earned victory over Sauron, were now gaunt, fearful and cursed with recurrent nightmares. Many of them took their own lives or the lives of those around them, escalating in violence until Aragorn ordered each surviving man to be rounded up and put in the newly built asylums. The hobbits who returned never participated in the celebrations that so marked their people again, and they too were suffered from repetitive nightmares. The elves only spoke in dark whispers of what happened in the tunnels thereafter, and many dwarves who returned became part of a new volunteer force, roaming the mines in hordes looking for any signs of their presence.

   Aragorn, while he felt guilty that his cleanup caused this generation such misery, was happy. After all he had saved future generations from a horrible threat.

 Dead Space scoring:

Necromorphs:

Slasher:   The Slasher was the most common variant of Necromroph in this fight, as a result of it being the only member able to increase its numbers. Originally three, it could grow in numbers as long as the infector was still alive, although the original three were the hardiest.  They are gifted with the knowledge of basic tactics, and are great at ambushes, especially when working in conjunction with other Necromorphs. Still they are a bit easier to slay then some of the others, and have to get extremely close to do damage. In addition their slashing/stabbing attacks fail against armor, which most of the good Fellowship have, while biting will only have success if they get close enough to reach the neck(most of the time, they won’t).   Their “play dead “tactic may only work on those stupid enough to get close to it (*cough Pippin cough*). In conclusion this variants ability to have its numbers replenished and do fairly decent a close range, but vulnerability of non-enhanced forms and lack of anti-armor weaponry net it a 8 out of ten.    8/10

Infector:  As the recruiter of this infection, it is the only Necromorph that can create new Necromorphs, and without this guy the category above would score a lot less. It is a specialist in my view though, and would fail at doing every other activity besides “recruiting”. It has a long and dangerous Proboscis as well as claws, that is true but both would fail against any enemy with armor.  In addition a stronger Fellowship (anyone who is not a hobbit) could probably beat it off when it tries to grapple them. It is rather difficult to kill with ranged weapons, and big slashing/crushing weapons would be the best against it(Gimli, Boromir, Aragorn). The army raising ability, but failure in close quarter combat nets it a six out of ten.  6/10

Pregnant: By itself, it is just a slower, heavier version of the slasher. While its blades are quite devastating if he can get in close (but still fail against armor as well as quite easy to dodge), its main contribution to this fight is releasing its payload. The abdominal sac screams “weakness “ to everyone that doesn’t no better, and so in most battles it would have been cut, stabbed or shot at . The ability to realize payload, but failure at everything else gives this one trick pony a four out of ten.   4/10

Swarmer:  Against solitary Fellowship, this horde could be a nightmare from which they will never awake. Armor will only slow them as they will simply seek to crawl around it, although you would be able to easily outrun these things.  Against a group, so long as the group is not distracted, the attacked Fellowship member will likely survive. Gandalf will be able to simply incinerate them as well. Regardless as to if they kill, they are still great distracters! The distraction factor and effectiveness against solitary members, but failure against a Team/Gandalf reward it 5 out of ten.     5/10

Exploder: Against all melee Fellowship this guy is one of the best. Add Legolas, Aragorn or Gandalf to the mix and it will fail miserably, possibly even taking out fellow Necromorphs. Sometimes it was able to get around this by jumping from a vent next to them, but not often. Legolas in particular kept it at bay so much that I really can only give this thing 4 out of ten.  4 /10

Crawler : The second installment in my suicide bomber series, this baby from hell has all the advantages and disadvantages that the exploder does, with two additional factors to note.  One is it gives off baby noises whenever it sees a human, ruining ambushes and 2.  The Fellowship may hesitate to shoot it at first, but not for long once they realize what it is. This infant has a lot of growing up to do, and I can only give it 3 points max.  3/10

Flyer:  I underestimated this thing in my initial scoring. Since it is a flying Necromorph that stoops low to attack that means that the unprotected face is usually the first region hit, allowing for terrible wounds and sometimes death. It’s predictability takes away some potential points however, and Legolas will send into crashing down to the ground with his bow whenever he is available. Overall 6 out of ten.  6/10

Leaper : in my opinion this Necromorph is the most annoying one in the entire game. It’s amazingly acrobatic skill and guerilla tactic make it fairly hard to hit.  While armor would slow it down in most cases it doesn’t aim for regions protected by armor, and when it does its tail can be used to bludgeon. It also is great at dodging heavy melee blows, though light ones will surely hit it.  When it grapples even the strongest Fellowship would be vulnerable to its fangs. Legolas would be  great at slowing it down and pinning it to walls however, and he pretty much stop it from getting  a 10 . 9 /10

Divider :Ill split this into two parts: Gaunt form: Advantages : can easily take a lot of damage, and its claws are fairly devastating . It can use an appendage that comes off its neck to garrote the Fellowship pretty effectively. Disadvantages: Very Vulnerable to fire and rather slow. Divider form: Advantages: 6 pieces running around, all trying to hijack or claw at the Fellowship. Great distractions. Disadvantages : Will be extremely difficult to hijack bodies with other Fellowship around, extremely vulnerable to fire. This form is also very easy to kill( assuming that they can hit it). Overall 7 /10

Lurker : Its fast long range attacks will do great against all the best members of the Fellowship ( the relatively unarmored Gandalf and Legolas, as well as Aragorn since it will be able to penetrate Leather). It’s rapid rate of fire and ability to climb walls means that it will be a great support unit for other Necromorphs and it is a perfect member to include for any ambush. Its long range fails against shields, mail and mithril- as well as Legolas once he realizes someone else is shooting at him. In close range this baby didn’t do well even against hobbits, which was pretty easily able to fight it off and deliver fatal blows to it (which is much easier to do then against any other Necromorph).  It gets a 7 as a excellent support unit.  7/10

Drag Tentacle: Against a singular Fellowship member, there is probably no one better as all parts of it are difficult to cut through save it midpoint. It has the advantage of a nearly heart stopping surprise and will be a great ambush starter.  Against a team it will face difficulties with multiple people attacking it. Once it kills a Fellowship member it leaves, never to return.  I’ll give it a six as it is pretty much a one shot weapons that may fail against a non-distracted team.  6/10

Grabber : Very inconspicuous and a great ambush starter it suffers from all the advantages and disadvantages of the above, with one additional disadvantage; it’s prey can break free much easier. Ill subtract a point from the base 6 just for that.  5/10

Guardian and pods: the last of our nonmoving ambush starters and defiantly the best. This thing will absolutely rape all Fellowship in melee with the many bladed entrails s that emerge from its belly. So effective this thing is in melee, that not even Boromir and his shield or Frodo and his Mithril will get close to it.  It also shoots out pods, or Fetus’s which shoots little barbs at the Fellowship and have a duel function as small landmines. What’s worse is that this is often placed on important paths, so it may not be avoidable.  Legolas can hypothetically fill it with enough arrows to kill it, but Gandalf has mastery here. His ability to barbecue this thing is its only weakness. An almost perfect nine out of ten. 9 /10

The Pack: These little kids have the advantage of numbers and will surely overwhelm any singular Fellowship member. They have razor sharp claws and a viscous set of teeth, though neither will do very good against armor. They are by far the easiest Necromroph to kill and against a well prepared team they will fail. A seven out of ten gives the kids a barely passing C. 7/10

Puker: At every range this creature shines, with its acidic balls at long, its endless stream of puke at mid and its devastating claws at short. It probably has the best of all the grapples here, and it can take an insane amount of damage.  When you do damage it acid will spew out of the wound, making melee inadvisable, ye long range will struggle to do much against it. Even Gandalf will have trouble killing it. Due to the mass amount of advantages, here is our first perfect 10 /10

Spitter: the Spitter has a lot of the advantages that the puker has, as well as a lot of the disadvantages.   The acid spit of this girl has greater range then the Puker’s, and is more damaging. It also compounds this with guerilla tactics, and can be seen ducking behind pillars while it “reloads”. Gandalf and Legolas would do wonderful against it, as it doesn’t have the durability of the Puker. The Spitter is also infamous in online multiplayer for the ease which you can accidently team kill with.  For being a danger to both sides, I’ll give it a solid 9/10

Most Deadly

Twitcher: This guy moves so fast that he is literally a blur, and although he has no long range he can close distance in literally seconds. The armor that is fused to its body gives them a bit of defensive value as well, and repeated hits with their large blades will eventually tear through mail armor. The way to defeat this guy is to continuously knock him off balance, which Boromir would be able to do quite handily with sword and shield combo. Te Twitcher is great to include in a ambush, and despite some weaknesses I will still give him a solid 16 out of 20.  16 /20

Brute: The biggest Necromorph and hardest to kill, this guy could run straight through the Fellowship should they fail to dodge in time. Brute is the strongest participant in this entire battle, and his fists will smash through armor and shields, crushing the body underneath. Should this fail he can also pick them up and bite the Fellowship’s heads off or use the cannon built inside his chest to shoot explosive sacs at them.  The front is just a giant plate of armor, however this is one sided and its back is left uncovered.  It will also not hesitate to team kill if a Necromorph is in its way. 18/20

Stalkers: By far the smartest of the Necromorphs, there is no one else as skilled as them in setting up an ambush and the pure amount of Tactics available to them give them a lot of points. They are also dangerous in straight up melee, with a bone crushing head butt and devastating claws/upper body strength.  Great as an ambush starter and participant.  18 /20

Ubermorph : Nigh unkillable, this thing can only die by Gandalf’s magic or the Fellowship systematically turning his body into many tiny strips. In close range it was very dangerous however easily avoidable. Great to include in a ambush and ever persistent, this guy was also avoidable as well. The Ubermorph cannot run, giving him a 17/20

Additional factors

Marker : The Markers effectiveness was severely limited by Gandalf’s ring and the strong wills that it was facing. Still the incomprehensible alien intelligence managed to get a good seven out of ten, due to the pure amount of psychological confusion it could cause.  7/10

Infected vision: The Fellowship could not hide……10 /10

191/250

Fellowship;

Pippin;

Weapons: Neither the Barrow-blade nor Elven dagger are suited for hacking off limbs, being too short to do so in one slash.  Since this is the most effective way to kill a Necromroph, they are automatically at a disadvantage entering this fight. Still they could stab to death some weaker Necromorphs, and the hobbits would undoubtedly provide support for the big guys. Rocks are terrible and will only serve to piss people off. I’ll give them a 4 out of ten, which will be copy pasted along with the description for the next three weapon slots.   4/10

Armor: Nothing can hide from the Necromorphs, and Elven cloaks will not enable them to. The belts cover such a small area that its protection value is basically void. Since they are small and agile and rather difficult to hit in the first place, I’ll give hobbits a base 2 out of ten.  2 /10

Tactics/Traits/other: I will start with the positive: Pippin is brave and he will try to help his friends whenever he can. However he is also overly curious and none too bright, and whose actions may lead to the fellowship finding themselves in an ambush (there is a reason I killed him off first in the Sim).  He also has no real combat experience meaning he’ll be found lacking when he tries to fight the Necromorphs. His bravery gives him a three and I honestly feel generous giving him that. 3/10

Overall : 9/30

Merry:

Weapons:  Neither the Barrow-blade nor Elven dagger are suited for hacking off limbs, being too short to do so in one slash.  Since this is the most effective way to kill a Necromroph, they are automatically at a disadvantage entering this fight. Still they could stab to death some weaker Necromorphs, and the hobbits would undoubtedly provide support for the big guys. Rocks are terrible and will only serve to piss people off. Same as Pippin’s  4/10

Armor:  Nothing can hide from the Necromorphs, and Elven cloaks will not enable them to. The belts cover such a small area that its protection value is basically void. Since they are small and agile and rather difficult to hit in the first place, I’ll give hobbits a base 2 out of ten.  2/10

Tactics/Traits/other : Merry really shines here, and he was a great asset to the group. His intelligence, resourcefulness, adaptability and bravery all surge his points in this category much farther than Pippins. He does suffer from being a little impetuous and having little combat experience. 8 /10

Overall:  14/30

Sam:

Weapons: The Barrow-blade will again have difficulties slashing through limbs, but can quite easily stab through weaker Necromorphs like the Pack. Next comes the most unique weapon in this fight, his frying pan. It will be more effective than one would expect, as it could stun  a Necromorph  and then follow up with a couple of sword slashes.  If it were somehow heated, it would sear flesh. Rocks are again, useless. 4.5 /10

Armor: None, but given base hobbit agility. 2 /10

Tactics/Traits/other: as the Tolkien described “true hero” of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he possess all the traits that you would expect of a hero; loyalty, selflessness, and indomitable will. While he suffers from lack of experience, he does have great potential which I allotted to him for his handling of Shelob in a later film.  7  /10:

Overall: 13.5/30

Frodo:

Weapons: Sting is much stronger than all other daggers, and it probably could slash through Necromorph limbs fairly easily. On paper ill give Frodo a six out of ten for his famed magical dagger. 6 /10

Armor: Mithril = Unbreakable, and if he dies this will be given to other Fellowship members; no way I can see anyone burying this! Light of Earndill may be able to stun nearby Necromorphs with extreme amount of light. The ring will be useless and he will be screwed If he relies too much on it. Mithril alone nets him :   10 /10

Tactics/Traits/other: Frodo is the worst fighter here; even Pippin would be able to take him in a fight. Nor does he possess a great will, and I can see the Marker influencing him to do some nasty thing. Loyalty to friends gives him a 2 /10

Overall: 18/30

Gimli:

Weapons: Gimli has an axe for literally every situation: long, mid, short and extremely close.  His long range is decent, but hardly as effective as Legolas’s arrows, and he only has 2. The Battle axe is probably the most powerful single weapon here, but it is a bit slow which will harm him when fighting fast moving enemies. Walking axe is faster, and covers close and the hand axe covers extremely close. All axes can be used to hack if necessary. 8 /10

Armor: Gimli has a helmet, and he is covered in Dwarven mail and leather. Mail is a great defense, but is not unconquerable, and repeated stabs will get through. He is also very vulnerable to acid spit as the Sim proved  Still   8.5/10

Tactics/Traits/other : Gimli is one of the most resistant to the Markers influence, and he is extremely tough which we enable him to keep fighting even after receiving grievous wounds. His only problem is that he is physically slow.  9/10

25.5/30

Boromir:

Weapons:  The sword and shield combo combines great defense with great offense, and he may be one of the best in long drawn out melee fights. Should things get a little hairy he has a dagger as well.  The only factor that sops him from getting perfect is his lack of range. 9 /10

Armor: Like Gimli he wears mail and leather. Unlike Gimli he mixes that with a little steel and a shield, which can be used to protect against acid.  To emphasize that Mithril is the singular most perfect piece of armor, I cannot give it a 10 but I will give him a  9.5 /10

Tactics/Traits/other  : Boromir is a near perfect warrior, and it really showed in this battle. His only defect is that he was somewhat ill-suited to the Marker’s influence, which caused problems between him and everyone else. 8/10

Overall 27.5/30

Aragorn:

Weapons: Aragorn has the strongest sword here, and it will easily hack through Necromorphs He is also a sword-master, so he is wielding it with great skill (same is Gimli with his axes and Boromir’s sword and shield).   The one problem with it is that it is heavy, which hurt its rating against fast Necromorphs. He has range in the form of the bow, along with up close in the case of the hunting knife.  A 9/10

Armor: Leather makes for decent defense against slashes, but stabs with go right through it. The skill he possesses with Parrying and blocking means that this will only really be a worry for long range. His sheath just means that Anduril will never be broken again.  A mediocre 5/10

Tactics/Traits/other  /: Tactics, fighting prowess, skill and leadership: Aragorn has it all. His skill with Athelas(healing herb) probably saved other Fellowship’s lives, making him a significant contributor to the well being of the entire company. I’m giving him a 10 here. 10/ 10

Overall : 24/30

Legolas:

Weapons: Legolas is absolutely wonderful in this category. His  immense skill with the bow and Elven long knives(which can also be used to parry effectively) nets him a perfect 10  /10

Armor:  Elfish mobility and agility give him a 4 here, other than that he has nothing really. 4 /10

Tactics/Traits/other  /: Another 10/10. Legolas is so immensely skilled with Archery that in the entire Lord of The Rings Saga he never missed a shot. His incredible senses mean he is a anti-ambush detector and did I mention he does pretty well in combat. :P 10/ 10

Overall: 24/30
 Gandalf:

Weapons: Glamding and the wizard’s staff are duel-wielded, which allow for an almost infinite combination of moves. His wizard’s staff can be broken though, so that I something to consider when grading. Overall 8  /10

Armor: 2 for being an effective blocker 1/10

Tactics/Traits/other : The pure amount of experience behind him and his anti –marker prescience nets him a 10/10

MAGIC! : While his spells would be devastating against even big Necromorphs like the Brute, he can only really use most of them so long as his staff is operational. In addition these would fatigue him fairly easily  8  /10

Overall: 29/40

Athelas: Athelas was great at healing minor to moderate wounds and stopping depressions, especially when Aragorn was the Healer. It did not do much for major wounds. 7/10

Out of 290

(yes it will be out of 290, but since I am a rather harsh grader  expect it to be somewhat fair for both sides).

191.5/ 290

Fellowship wins……to be honest I am not sure if I should declare it a tie.  

    To my great surprise when I was grading I found that the Fellowship barely came through with a mere .5 difference. This was incredibly close but the superior skill, magic, precision archery, defense and healing herbs barely won the day for the Fellowship. Middle Earth is now safe from the threat of alien infection, but at an astoundingly great cost. I guess this battle goes to show that you should never doubt the power of one of the greatest military companies in literature.

 Holy SH%T that was close, to the point where I fully expect people to dispute this. They are welcome to. Every single Necromorph and Fellowship had a counter among the opposing force, one who could take him down much easier the others.  And to all dead space fans such as myself; don’t worry an alternate ending will come soon J