It's the evening of Bilbo Baggins's eleventy-first birthday
and all of the Shire is gathered for the party. Even Bilbo's old friend, the Wizard Gandalf, is there, providing his unique brand of fireworks for the entertainment of the hobbits.
Bilbo's adopted nephew Frodo is of course there as well, with his friend Sam.
After much eating and drinking, the hobbits settle down to listen to Bilbo make a speech.
"My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles and Proudfoots!"
("Proudfeet!")
"Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday! Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
"I regret to announce that this is the end. I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell. Goodbye."
And with that, Bilbo vanishes.
The crowd is stunned for a minute, though Frodo knows that Bilbo has used his magic ring to turn invisible. Frodo looks around, and notices that Gandalf had apparently disappeared as well.
Frodo sees his friend Sam, plus a number of people who look familiar, but he can't quite place all of them.
aaronk
amplify
clowntable
dmk
econophile
fmxda
GT1T
herbie
Iron_Yuppie
jeremy
kumubou
lastchance
luckay
Neil Stevens
nez
nichp
soah
stephen
TFG
thebram
traz
voj
VR
wdcbooks
zero
zurvan
Frodo returns to the home he shares with his great-uncle and finds Gandalf waiting for him.
"Bilbo has gone to live with the Elves in Rivendell. He left you this house, and his ring. I must go now and make some investigations. In the meantime, keep the ring hidden, and don't put it on."
Frodo agrees, and Gandalf vanishes into the night to look into the origins of that curious ring.
Gandalf, please submit a peek.
It is NIGHT.
Game starts Thursday morning.