The Orc Camp at the base of Mount Doom boils like an anthill

At the very feet of Orodruin lay a vast camp of great soldier orcs, mountain trolls, and dark evil men of the south.

The camp sits upon high ground at the base of the Mountain of Fire…

The site of the camp sits upon high ground at the base of the Mountain and was chosen because most of the choking fumes that boil down along the mountainside are sucked into deep gullies and ravines that run along the base of the Morgi.

The Orc camp had a natural wall of rock around it’s western side and to the north of the camp a gate had been erected. The gate was guarded ceaselessly by a legion of large black Uruks from the Dark Tower. It was guarded as much to keep the servants of Sauron in, as to keep aggressors out.

Sauron had placed this camp as a last defense against attack from the West over the pass of Cirith Ungol. If a Gondorian Army marching up the Morgul Vale was able to fight it’s way past the dead city, then ten legions of orcs could be dispatched quickly to hold the Haunted Pass.

However, on this Day in Mordor, the Orcs were carrying out a more mundane task.

Three legions had been dispatched up the side of Mount Doom along Sauron’s Road, to clear the path that wound around the great cone and ended at the door of Sammath Naur. The road traveled from the feet of Barad-dûr across the plain of Gorgoroth to the Mountain of Fire. Along this road ran the Naur Trench that carried molten fire spewed from tunnels cut in the side of Orodruin and carried it across Mordor to feed the fires in the forges of Barad-dûr!

The road was often blocked or destroyed by the tumults of the mountains furnaces. However, the labor of countless orcs kept the road cleared and repaired. A small army of trolls beat the molten rock with giant hammers, until it was broken down into smaller pieces to be carried off by hand by legions of Orcs that stool along the road. These broken stones were cast down along it’s sides, creating vast piles and mounds of rock.

As the servants of the Dark Lord worked along Sauron’s Road, they could feel the disquiet of the mountain. Ever and anon there were be a rumble as the mountain shook and trembled, and at times fire would spew upward into the air and belch forth hot ash and lava down along it’s sides. Always the orcs worked under the constant threat that the angry Mountain would spew forth a river of lava to consume them.

Just an average day of fear and terror in the Land of Shadow.

Lay your staff on the link below to follow the Time-line of the War of the Ring from the Eye of Mordor.

The Mordor Appendices ~ The Time Line of the Year 3018 ~ 3019