The hobbit Tim Baggins stared into the deep, dark wood, and curled his toes nervously. Dusty cobwebs hung from the twisted boughs and not a single shaft of sunlight penetrated into the gloom. The air hung thick and motionless like treacle. 'We're not going in there... are we?' He turned and looked up at the dwarf king Owen, son of Thráin. The Wizard Domdolf interrupted them.

‘Tim, we have come to recover the Dwarves' sacred letters, stolen from their witch Zepherine’s spell book by the evil witch Ylwa who lives on the far side of the forest’ he said, leaning on his staff and furrowing his brow. ‘It is ten days march through and there is no other route.'

'You are our guide, hobbit, you must lead the way.’ boomed Owen and crossed his arms across his breastplate. ‘We must spend the next 10 days undercover making a mighty Flash game. With your woolly-footed design skills, my developmental battle-axe and Domdolf's digital powers we can create a really good game in just 10 days, thus defeating the evil Ywla and returning the prestige to the Dwarves that Middle Earth owes us.’

Tim feared that Owen was about to start moaning about the bloody Elves again, so quickly cut in. ‘Are there, you know… goblins in the wood?’'

‘Forgetful hobbit!’ bellowed Domdolf. ‘Seven great goblins live in the wood. Ywla conjured them with her sorcery, creating them from the very letters in Zepherine’s book. We must create a series of word puzzles that will transform the goblins back into letters.‘

Tim turned back and peered into the gloom, scratching his head of curly hair like Brian May. Could they really write a really good Flash adventure game in just 10 days? What lay hidden in the forest? He swallowed hard, knowing he had to be as resolute as Owen and Domdolf.

'Crikey! Well, OK, let's give it a bash then, eh?' he wheezed. 'If we make it through OK, what say we meet down the hobbit hole at The Werks on Tues 10th November at 7pm for a jolly good chat about it, over tea and cakes?'

He straightened his knife in his leather belt and stepped tentively into the wood, swiftly followed by the other two.

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