[color=8882be][i]Eros followed doggedly, though he had no trouble keeping pace. He listened and though, thought and listened, he wasn't much of a planner or thinker, but one question did come to mind that he felt needed voicing as it became clear that the group was going to Mordor. He had gone up stairs and donned his weapons, though his armor he merely laid out for the morning. Now nursing a swelling hand with some ice chips and a damp rag from Butterbur, he sat at the table, as far from the fire as possible to keep the ice as long as possible, and he offered his own question, one that might not hold much merit, but that his mind needed an answer too. [/i][/color]

[color=39b54a]I'd rather not go through Moria, no offense master Ori, but deep places and I are not on good terms. Why not go south and seek the white wizards council, or go east to Elrond, but from there take the lonely road. The same road Thorin and company traveled some twenty years ago, if they can make it we surely can. We just won't stop at Erebor, we'll move on past the Iron hills, and come down from the north. 

If I was the dark lord, my focus would be on the kingdoms of men, as they are the descendants of his last defeat, Isildur. So why don't we try to rally the elves and dwarves into helping us crush his fortress while he's out pillaging the realms of men. He might not even see it coming in time to do much about it, though I wouldn't count on it. Not with these riders out and about.[/color]

[color=f7941d][i]I outlined with my right index finger, the paths I was suggesting, both south through the Gap of Rohan and east through the Misty Mountains, to the north of Moria, and on to Mirkwood, and Erebor, across to the Iron Hills then South through Rhûn and around into the back of Mordor. I don't know if either are particularly viable, but I know that the north roads will be hard for the riders to travel, and so perhaps I wish to take the north roads to be as far from them as possible. Even so, I will not hesitate to follow Raven where ever he decides to go, he has led us well so far, and I'm not about to doubt him now.[/i][/color]