Nazgûl reenter Mordor through the Black Gate!

Night had fallen across the Dagorlad, the Teeth of Mordor gleamed under a pale moon. Nine Black Riders rushed across the North Road making for the Gate.

Lugdush, captain on watch at the Black Gate, strode along the top of the span between the Towers of Narchost and Carchost upon the Iron Gate of Mordor.

A message had come by courier from the Dark Tower only hours before. Orders direct from Lugbûrz that the gate was to be opened in the hour just before dawn. The Nazgûl were coming and they were making straight for Barad-dûr. Nothing was to hinder their passage upon the road to the Tower of the Eye. Time passed. Lugdush spat and licked his lips and as he thought of the Nazgûl. He whispered the name and looked out once more upon the plain of Dagorlad under the moonligh. With his keen orcish sight, he was just able to make out dust swirling upward upon the road in the hard distance. The riders approached.

He began to bark orders. A brazen horn was sounded. The Black Gate of Mordor began to open. Lugdush applied the whip to any snaga near him who appeared to be moving too slowly. The heavy iron door began slowly to open. He stood atop the gate and waited anxiously for the riders to reach the open way. It was not long before the Nine reached the vast gates. As they passed into the land of their Master, each of the Nazgûl let out a terrible scream that torn open the very fabric of the darkness. The rushed through the breach with the speed of a violent wind.

Lugdush felt like falling to his knees as the other Orcs around him had done, at the sound of the terrible screams. Instead, he gripped the side of the gate and stood tall as the riders passed beneath him and into the Vale of Udûn. He did not dare show weakness to the Uruks under his command, he knew if he did so they would tear him apart.

The huge Uruk commander looked south as the riders tore across the empty vale on their errand to the Tower. He wondered, and not for the first time what would happen when the War finally began.

Lugdush waited for the sound of the screams to subside and then he once more barked orders and applied the whip to any orc foolish enough to  draw near him. The vast iron gate of Mordor began to close. The giant Olog-hai strained and grunted as they put their backs into iron works the opened and closed the mighty gate. A deep boom echoed across the the hills as the way into Mordor was once again shut.

The Nazgûl had returned to Mordor from some secret mission to the north and Lugdush knew the soon the would stand before the great Eye in the Dark Tower. He susddered at the thought.

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