The last stage of their journey to Orodruin came, and it was a torment greater than Sam had ever thought he could bear. He was in pain, and so parched that he could no longer swallow even a mouthful of food.
–The Return of the King

When Revealed: Shuffle the encounter discard pile into the encounter deck and discard cards from the top until X locations are discarded, where X is the number of players in the game. Add each location discarded this way to the staging area.

Dire. The first treachery revealed each quest phase is immune to player card effects and gains surge.

Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, the first player makes a Fortitude test. If the first player fails this test, no more than 5 progress can be placed here this round.

This stage cannot be defeated unless Mount Doom is the active location.