Fantasy Flight Games recently released the first full article detailing the next Lord of the Rings: LCG Saga Expansion: The Road Darkens! You can check out the article here as well as the homepage for the new expansion here. The main page also introduces the three iconic quests that will make up this final Saga Expansion for the Fellowship of the Rings story line.
The first quest, The Ring Goes South, takes the newly formed Fellowship out of the peaceful valley of Imladris to begin their quest to destroy the One Ring. While in Rivendell, however, it is apparent that the nine members of the Fellowship made some allies that will always be there to aid them in their time of need. Two of these allies (brand new to this expansion) are Elrond and Bilbo Baggins. Likewise, they both contain very unique abilities iconic to their characters.
With absolutely amazing stats, the new Elrond ally comes into play similar to Gandalf in that he is only available for one round then he departs. His stats are identical to the hero version of Elrond, and instead of costing five resources like Gandalf, he is only three Lore resources. Elrond's response ability, however, is where he truly stands out: "After Elrond enters play, choose one: heal all damage from a hero, discard a Condition attachment, or each player draws 1 card." Gandalf also comes into play with several nice options; however, they always only apply to the player who just put him into play. Elrond's ability, on the other hand, can benefit any player and provides a much needed player action of removing all those nasty conditions that crop up from the encounter deck. 
Also present in Rivendell during the time of the Fellowship's departure is an aging, yet still wise and witty Bilbo Baggins. After his unexpected journey over sixty years before, he has settled down into a peaceful retirement. Yet, he now sees that his dear nephew, Frodo, is going out into the wild; so, he decides to make himself available for willpower. Not only does Bilbo provide a wonderful two willpower for his Spirit sphere cost of two resources, but he also provides an excellent way to get pipe attachments into play with the response "After Bilbo Baggins enters play, search your deck for a Pipe attachment and add it to your hand." The Hobbit Pipe, as well as its Spirit companion event, Smoke Rings, was introduced in the Black Riders Saga Expansion, and while they combo quite nicely together, they can sometimes be tricky to set up properly. It now looks like everyone's favorite four foot burglar is going to help to remedy that problem.
Eventually, no amount of preparation can ready the adventurers better than experiencing the wilds of Middle-earth for themselves. They eventually reach the slopes of the Misty Mountains, as they venture into the mysterious hills of Hollin. The quest promises to throw villainous enemies of all kinds at the Fellowship such as wargs, crebain, and orcs. They ultimately reach the solitude of Moria, but only after a horrific fight with the Watcher in the Water. In the next quest of the Saga Expansion, Journey in the Dark, the Fellowship must endure the long dark of Moria, discover Balin's tomb, fight for their lives in a tumultuous escape, and ultimately lose their leader in the chasm of Khazad-Dum.
From the description above, all these events may seem a bit familiar since we've visited many of these locations and enemies before. I have faith, however, that they will play out much differently than they did in the Dwarrowdelf Cycle. For one thing, these will be much more in line with the literature itself like the Hobbit and Black Riders expansions were; so, we will be able to witness the actual events much better than we did in the more open-ended early quests that lacked a strong narrative. Furthermore, since the earlier quests of the game, many of the gameplay mechanics have been vastly improved as well. For the past few days, I've been playing the Nightmare mode enhancements of the core set quests, and they play out so much more vividly, both mechanically and thematically. I really feel like the designers at FFG are making a solid effort to consider every option and avenue to make the game function better. So, rather than the classic Hama-Feint combo on the Balrog in the depths of Moria, I think we will have a vastly improved boss battle where perhaps Gandalf is an objective ally that must battle to the end with the ancient fire demon.
Once the grief-stricken Fellowship escapes the clutches of evil in Moria, they make their way to Lothlorien, where they are somewhat revitalized and continue upon their journey to Mordor. However, more tragedy befalls them and this is told in the final quest of the expansion, The Breaking of the Fellowship. The FFG news article is quite vague on what this quest will entail specifically, but it does imply that there will be a physically splitting of heroes as they search for Frodo, who has vanished from their company. Will Boromir's corruptive advance to seize the One Ring play out as it does in the literature or will other heroes risk becoming too lustful and fall? Only time will tell.
At any rate, this new article has me thoroughly excited for what's to come, both with this Saga Expansion as well as the Ring-maker cycle of Adventure Packs. All of this news almost makes me forget that the Voice of Isengard is arriving soon as well! For the sake of my sanity, I hope the wait for that expansion is nearing its end.
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