Wasteful Wanderings 5: In which Gryfflet has had enough of Herbalism

Gryfflet has been moping around Haerondir awaiting our return, trying with little success to find the least dismal outlook, so he is only too glad to set out to scare some Orcs as requested. This turns out to be just as fun as Rhadrog forecast and he is grateful for our help. Gryfflet still has an outstanding quest for Milgamel the Herbalist, so he decides to go in search of Trollstrife which takes only slightly less time than he feared. Although grateful she has yet another task for us, fetching mushrooms and samples of soil and water so we set off across the landscape. The mushrooms prove much easier to locate than the soil and water samples but Milgamel is delighted and has us plant the samples: her addition of the water has an unexpected effect so we leave her to her experimentation and set off for Dûm Boha, the nearby enemy camp, which is the next stage on our journey to rejoin Aragorn. Whilst there we harass some enemies, destroy some supplies, plug up some improbably large holes, and collect some of the poison that has been used against our friends. This gives us time to consider a long-standing Lore Question while Gryfflet roams the camp sowing chaos. There is some small confusion when we return prematurely but Gryfflet returns to smite the leader of the camp, at which point he is done with Haerondir and can depart for his next stop, pausing only to check in with Mírthel the Ranger who has recently returned from patrol. Gryfflet mounts up and sets off across the Noman-lands towards the Slag-hills where he meets up with Aragorn who has an immediate scouting mission for him. This gives us what would be a great view of the Black Gate in better circumstances, but we report back that all seems quiet. Aragorn plans a parley at the Black Gate which Gryfflet defers while he checks in with the Rangers on the other Slag-hill, Candúr and Thurindol: this turns out to be sensible as they have a slew of tasks for him to accomplish. He starts small, looking for black powder and clearing out hostile wildlife, while we discuss our favourite parts of the game. On our return, Thurindol wants us to add powder to Orcish fires, blinding them with smoke, while Candúr wants us to venture to the camp at Lang Rhuven which is likely to prove highly challenging. Gryfflet sets out to survey the route to Lang Rhuven, dropping powder into fires as he goes, and gets as far as the approach to the Black Gate before we run out of time.
"That's really lovely!"
"No wonder I hadn't found it! Good grief!"
"She's not at Haerondir, she's right here!"
"Looks like the battle already happened and I missed it!"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to lick it!"
"That's the best spelling!"
"Oh, this is going to go well!"
"You are not the Half-troll I'm looking for, I have no quarrel with you!"
"How am I going to locate that much rubble?"
Lore discussed this week touched upon the knotty questions of free will, predestination, and providence in Middle-earth.