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He helps the freedwoman board a ship to the River Kingdoms and that's it, they can't catch her anymore, and he can bask in the uncomplicated high of a Good deed done.
The nearer Wound is almost familiar ground, by now, so he crosses the Warstone line on his way back. No-one will pursue him here and he'll be fine, as long as he's careful and ready for a fight.
So of course it's not a fight that gets him.
An Abyssal rift opens up at his feet and spits him out - elsewhere.
"They are sent from Mordor," he says flatly, "and they fight with terror as well as blades."
Then, remembering that he's speaking to one of the few people in Middle-Earth who's never heard of Mordor, he adds, "From the Dark Lord Sauron, to kill us or worse."
Gord has no more idea who the Dark Lord Sauron is than about Mordor. As far as epithets go, and by demonic standards, Dark Lord is practically wholesome.
They're not telling him why these Black Riders are after them, or asking for his help, or even saying they don't want to fight them, per se. Fair enough. He does have a selfish reason not to want to leave, because these people are his only source of information right now, but if they're attacked while he's there it will be much harder to convince the attackers that he's a neutral party.
...wait. "Merry. Translate what I said." He picked a good target for Share Language, because Merry speaks unguardedly, but clearly not the best one for coordination during a possible fight.
"He says - he says -" Merry gulps, and then repeats in the Common Tongue, "if we want to fight them he'll go away or stand back - and he doesn't know enough about the world to tell whether to help us or them unless we convince him - will they even let him stand back? I guess they didn't kill everyone at Bree, but -"
"They left people alive because they were after bigger prey, or so they thought."
Aragorn purses his lips. It goes against his instincts to tell a stranger anything about the Ring, but Gord already saw that it was magical - But then he doesn't know how Gord would respond to any hint of "they aren't explicitly trying to kill us," and the only truthful way he has to answer that is by explaining how the Ring would increase Sauron's power to kill or tyrannize everyone. And saying that - saying anything to tempt Gord after the Ring himself - might ruin everything.
"What do you want to know!? Those Black Riders have been chasing us ever since we left Bag End - they've been putting magic on Master Frodo and terrifying us all - they tried to kill us - I don't know what they did to poor Fatty Bolger -" Sam throws up his hands.
"I don't see how fighting with fear-spells is worse than just stabbing you to death. You say they tried to do that too, but frankly you don't seem likely to have fought them off with your daggers." Not unless those riders are a bunch of first-circle wizards afraid to ride into melee - no, focus. Gord crawls back from the cliff-edge to where he can stand up and fix Merry with his glare.
When Gord said he'd leave, they didn't say they'll go after you when you're alone. The Black Riders have been chasing them for a while, but not attacking others. If he leaves now he should be fine.
These halflings are acting like they're still under a fear spell. Gord's tempted to round them off to civilians - noncombatants who don't want to fight and should be given the benefit of the doubt - except civilians don't normally go around uniformly armed with magic daggers. Maybe they're just rich, but then where are their servants, their guards? Or - no, he shouldn't assume; maybe magic weapons are plentiful and cheap in this world, and any real fighters would be dripping with magic items.
Merry doesn't look like a real fighter, unless he's a very good actor, but everyone has to start somewhere. Gord has Remove Fear prepared, but it'd be silly to spend it now and not during the potential fight itself.
"Translate this. You don't want to tell me why they're after you. That's your right. But I won't fight on your side just because they're Black and scary. If I help you, and you kill them, it's as if I've killed them myself." He's not going to explain how fighting purely in defense makes the fight more dangerous, he's already straining Merry's capacity for translation.
"In a few minutes my spell for understanding all tongues will run out. Only you will be able to translate for me, until tomorrow morning. I'm inclined to come back in the morning, heal any survivors, and maybe try talking to the Black Riders then and hear their side of the story. Do you not want to fight them? How could I trust you not to kill them, if I help you defend yourselves? Translate exactly what I've just said." And give the rest of his party a last chance to say something more useful.
"He says he won't help us fight without a reason more than they're black and scary - we haven't said why they're after us - he doesn't see the difference between fear-magic and daggers - and -"
Merry's impatience with translating rather than responding runs out.
"We didn't try to fight back - we hid! I picked up this dagger a few days ago and I still haven't used it for more than cutting our way through the marsh!"
Frodo respects how Gord wants a reason... even though he's strange enough that the reasons that make sense to them somehow don't to him.
"We've been trying to avoid these Black Riders; it's not like we've been using magic or daggers, and... I don't know how fighting back is going to work, unless Strider's hiding something, but we can't just let them kill us this time."
Gord has no idea how dangerous the Black Riders might be. It sounds like they could have killed this party and didn't, several times; they might be herding it somewhere with their fear spells; but if a fight develops and they see a real combatant on the halflings' side, he doesn't know what they're capable of. And there are five of them; even if all they have is longbows (magic longbows?) they'd have the advantage.
He doesn't know why they're after this party. Not wanting to fight a losing battle does not necessarily make the halflings good or righteous. Perhaps they did something to the riders that they seek to avenge; perhaps they are planning something that the riders seek to avert; perhaps they are only waiting to link up with their stronger allies (the wizard Gandalf?) before turning the tables on the riders.
Frodo has a magic ring of great power, but the Riders don't seem to be after it or they'd have taken it already. Hiding only goes so far, and a wizard who can cast fear spells ought to be able to cast Detect Magic and Locate Object too.
If Gord was infinitely powerful, he'd protect them until morning, with no casualties on either side, and then talk to the Riders (after they'd seen him help their enemies) and decide which side to help, if any. But he's alone in a strange world and up against unknown enemies who outnumber him five to one - he's not really thinking of this party as combatants anymore - and this plan is insane and frankly suicidal. He can make a very good showing for himself if pressed, but that means less than nothing when the enemy is unknown.
He doesn't have a spell prepared that would let them all hide for the night, like a wizard's rope trick; he'd have to actually fortify and defend a position, and these people aren't even competent to tell him what their enemies are really capable of when pushed to it. He has his daily nondetection, and other tricks to help him sneak away, but they're only enough for one person; he was traveling alone and didn't prepare any party buffs, and the only thing he has that would affect them all is that useless mass disguise other that only works for a few rounds. He has his bag but only one air bubble and even that only lasts for a few minutes.
Even if he led them away from here, he has no idea how the Riders have been tracking this party and the middle of nowhere, in the dark, would be worse to fight in than a prepared position.
He really, really ought to sneak away now and return tomorrow morning.
Also, he can only talk to Merry and Merry is not a good translator, because he's scared but also because he's just - untrained and not being efficient or focused. A scared civilian, afraid of an upcoming fight.
...
"How did you hide, if they're wizards? Can you do it again? The five of them against the five of you seems like a doomed battle, if they know how to use weapons and you only picked up a dagger a few days ago because you were scared."
"Do you know how they tracked you? Do they have an advantage in the dark, or will they wait to attack in the morning?"
"We... hid? Under some bushes, the first time. And then another time we crossed the river and stranded one of them on the shore..."
He turns to translate. "He's asking how they tracked us, and whether they've got an advantage in the dark or if they'll wait till morning, and he says this seems like a doomed battle..."
Aragorn give a nod. "Good questions. They'll attack at night - like most wraiths, they're stronger then. Maybe they're waiting for that, or maybe for the others of them - there are Nine in all, though I do not know where the others are."
"Hiding under the bushes didn't work," Sam says, ignoring the part he doesn't like thinking about to reply to the part he does understand. "The Black Rider was sniffing us out until the Elves came and scared him away! Or, maybe, sniffing out Frodo's Ring --"
He suddenly realizes what he said and claps his hands over his mouth.
It's not very surprising that this has to do with the ring artifact.
...they are wraiths? And they failed to mention this, before? And... they hid from wraiths under a bush? If he remembers correctly, wraiths are the kind of undead you flat out cannot hide from, at short range anyway.
Five (or nine!) wraiths, at night, is not an easy fight.
"Explain 'wraiths' and their abilities," he says urgently. "They're incorporeal undead? Flying, afraid of the sun? How and why are they riding horses - never mind that. Do they drain you with a touch, do people killed by them become wraiths, do they have extraordinary senses to find living people? Any other abilities I didn't mention? Remember I'm from another world, the word 'wraith' may not translate exactly or your wraiths might be different."
Gord really, really hates intelligent undead that turn their victims into others like themselves.
Finally, Gord looks and sounds concerned. And his questions aren't bad.
"Bodiless undead - yes. Or, they have bodies, but not material as we do. They can smell the blood of living things, and... drain, yes... strength and willpower not just with touch but with closeness if they bend their will to it. And they can smell the blood of living people and -" (Sam mentioned the Ring, so...) "- sense the pull of Frodo's ring. Their master, the Dark Lord, commanded them to bring it to him.
"They have less of the normal sense of sight that we do - but their horses have it, and they can somehow see using them.
"People they kill... no, not normally. The Dark Lord does have daggers that turn people into wraiths... but I have not seen them used in many years."
"How weakened are they during the day, can they drain people then?"
Is the sun far up enough that if he takes off running right now he can reach them in daylight?
Aragorn frowns in thought. "I do not think so. At least, I have not heard of them doing it..."
"Then I'm going to attack them right now. Better chances than waiting for nightfall. I can hide myself long enough to sneak up on them, can't hide you too but if you come you could distract them from a distance, are you coming?"
Aragorn looks between Gord and the hobbits.
"I do not know where the other four wraiths are - they might be sneaking up.
"How are you planning to attack them? Fire will repel them for a time, or flowing water - there's a small stream just east of here, if you need to retreat - simple steel without spells will do next to nothing -"
Pippin is looking almost eager at Gord's plan. He remembers how Fatty Bolger stayed behind to decoy the Black Riders...
"Distract them? How?" he bursts out.
"I do have spells, and a magic sword. Clerics are the strongest counter to undead, even though I didn't prepare for this fight at all. If I need to retreat, well, I just hope they really can't fly faster than I can run. And if they sneak up on us at night I can't save us if I don't notice them in time, so we have to take the risk while it's still daylight. If I damage them enough, maybe kill some of them, hopefully the rest will be wary enough not to attack at night."
"You can distract them by being either a nuisance or a juicy target or both while I sneak up on them, if you have a ranged weapon you could try shooting their horses - really I meant Strider, he's faster than you are and might be able to run away. I can't guarantee you'd survive it, if one of them goes after you even after I start my attack."
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