“But it will be hard to find the path unless the fog lifts a little later on.”

-Aragorn, The Fellowship of the Ring

That disastrous result of questing is only a precursor to the combat on Day Seven. You’ll recall we only have two in our party left for combat — Beravor and Faramir. And now they face not one, not two, but three enemies (since all of the surging creatures automatically engage in the combat phase by virtue of their low threat numbers).

Combat Phase: First, we must declare our defenders. We choose to have Faramir defend Dol Guldur Orcs, and Beravor against the Wolf Riders. That means the Crows will be undefended, and their damage will apply to one of our heroes.

Let’s resolve the Crows combat first. We draw an Encounter card for its shadow effect, and it makes a bad day get even worse:

Take a look at the fine print on the Shadow effect (boldface mine):

Shadow: Choose and discard 1 attachment from the defending character. (If this attack is undefended, discard all attachments you control.)

That’s right, I must discard all my attachments! That means Theodred loses his beloved Steward of Gondor, which gives him two extra resources per turn. It means that Beravor loses Unexpected Courage, which allows me to ready him instantly if he is exhausted. This is a bitter pill to swallow.

But wait — we have a counter! We play from our hand the event Hasty Stroke, which negates the shadow effect and saves the Steward and Unexpected Courage attachments.

Still, the crows do one point of damage, undefended, which we assign to Beravor (both Theodred and Eowyn currently have two damage each, so we’re spreading the pain). For the first time since our journey began, each of our heroes is wounded.

Next, the second battle: Beravor defending against the Wolf Rider.

We draw an encounter card to check for a shadow effect. Fortunately we draw Evil Storm, which has no such effect. That means it is the Wolf Rider’s attack of two stopped cleanly by Beravor’s defense strength of two, for zero damage.

We are ready to move on to the final battle… but wait! We have a trick up our collective sleeves: Beravor taps his attachment, Unexpected Courage:

The timing is beautiful. Although Beravor was exhausted by defending, his attachment allows me to ready the hero and then attack the Wolf Riders!

2 attack minus zero defense = 2 damage

The Wolf Rider screams in both surprise and pain, and thus both wolf and goblin meet their demise.

Now — on to the final battle: our noble ally Faramir defending against the Dol Guldur Orcs. We draw an encounter card, Dol Guldur Beastmaster. Though a cousin of the orcs, the beastmaster has no shadow effect, and so is moot for purposes of this battle:

2 attack (orcs) minus 2 defense (Faramir) = 0 damage

And so the bloodiest day of our campaign comes to a close. Beravor suffered one damage, the others escaped. The Wolf and its Rider are dead, but the Crows and Orcs live on.

We must contend with them on Day Eight, but for now, we rest.