Frodo, trembling, grabs Merry's arm before he can run.  "No!  We can't get lost too!" he hisses.

If nothing else happens in the meantime, around the same time Gord completes his spell preparations, Strider and the other two hobbits come back but with no pony.

"We had him," Sam exclaims in disgruntlement, "but then he ran at that shriek.  And Strider said we needed to get back rather than find him again."

Note to self: don't trust Sam with any decisions of importance.

"No time to pack. Leave anything that weighs you down, I can conjure food and water. I think we keep the horse, I or two halflings can ride on it when we get tired, we can probably move faster that way. We'll still leave ordinary tracks, can't hide them with a party this size, but try at least to be silent. Strider, figure out quickly what direction we should run in and how to obscure our trail. The spell will last for eighty minutes but we should keep moving until daybreak, get as much distance as we can and a place to hide in, it'll be safer to rest during the day."

"...Frodo, put your ring in my bag, that thing's like a beacon and you said they can track it. The bag's extradimensional (*), the inside isn't really here so they can't see it while it's inside and it'd take a powerful wizard to track." The bag is itself visibly magic but there's no way around that.

(*) Of course the language of a mostly-illiterate barbarian people has a simple word for 'extradimensional', what kind of a weird language doesn't?

"You can create food!?" Merry exclaims, and then translates.

Sam glances around the scanty baggage that got unloaded from Bill the pony earlier, and grabs up one bag of spare clothes and a little food.  "We can at least carry this!  On the horse, maybe?"

Frodo stands up slowly.  "A... beacon?  But... the Black Riders are wizards too, aren't they?"

... And he really doesn't like the idea of just giving the Ring over to Gord, but he's not saying that yet.

"I don't know what all they can do and neither do you. It's definitely visible as is, it very likely isn't in the bag. If you're not using it for anything, it's much safer that way."

Gandalf told him not to use it for anything, and Strider told him again, but -

Sam, seeing Frodo's reluctance, interrupts.

"And who're you to be telling Mister Frodo to give you the Ring?  What're you going to do with it?  Maybe one of us should take your magic bag?"

Maybe it's the scream from earlier, or something about the drain, but Gord really doesn't have the time or the patience to deal with these bloody halfling civilians anymore.

"I am the guy who ran off to fight a bunch of wraiths for strangers," he almost snarls, "instead of running the other way when you said they were after you. I am the guy who came back, injured, to try to get you to safety. The one who's still trying to convince you instead of just turning around and leaving. I need the bag on me because if we're attacked I'll be using it to fight for your lives," even if he has no real idea how.

"You are none of you fighters. You're not competent to walk around with a bloody artifact in your pocket, and if you want to do it anyway it won't be with me, because I don't want a wraith-attracting artifact on me while trying to dodge wraiths in the night. You can put it in the bag and I'll give it back when you ask, or leave it behind on the ground for all I care, but you're not bringing it out in the open."

"I'm leaving. Who's coming with me?" Except for the horse, the horse doesn't get to decide, that's his spoils of war. "I'll cast the spell on everyone, you don't have to come with me for that."

This tirade will probably lose something in Merry's translation, but right now Gord can't really bring himself to care.

Frodo gets the sense of Gord's rant even without a translation.  His hand goes to the Ring, and part of him tries to pull it out because Gord really has been helpful - but he doesn't.

He's not surprised.

"I can't," he murmurs.  He doesn't think even the other hobbits can hear.

Merry blanches - and then tries to translate.

Things are almost falling apart, again.

Well, Gord already knows that it's valuable, so... "Tell Gord - He is asking much more than he knows.  The Ring lures its bearer in, and fences in his will.  We think only one person in history has been able to give it up freely."

Merry's eyes go even wider - he hasn't heard the full story yet.  "B-Bilbo?  Only him?"

(Strider nods.)

And then he translates.  "N-no offense, but we've just met you today, and also, Strider says -"

So just take it from him - oh. He said the bearer, not the wearer, didn't he.

So that's why they've been wandering the wilderness with wraiths after their artifact and haven't just dropped it and ran: they're enchanted and can't give it up to save their lives. And they can at least tell him that he's at risk if he puts it in his bag.

Will he come under the same curse if he merely travels with them? Are they even allies, or just a bunch of random people snared by the ring, forced to wander together and unable to separate?

He's not really sure what they can say to make him agree to travel with them (or rather, with their cursed artifact), but he can at least give them the courtesy of letting them say it. "Am I at risk, if I travel with you while Frodo carries it?"

"No!" Merry instantly answers without translating.

(inquisitive frown at Merry)

"... he asks if the Ring will affect him if he's just traveling with us."

There's a simple answer to that, and a complete answer, and an answer which will actually help him if he does go with them... and he doesn't know what ideas Gord has in his mind that he'll need to counter.

... "It might tempt you, but not more than that.  It is not wise to handle it, or see it, more than you need to."

(Merry looks like he's chewing on some distasteful idea as he translates.)

"... and I haven't touched it myself, ever," he adds.  "Pippin hasn't either.  Nor Strider.  I don't know about Sam."

They haven't touched it, but they're still travelling together. And the ring is still "tempting" them - to do what, exactly? 

Gord has spent most of his adult life fighting and adventuring around the Worldwound, has had more than his fair share of consorting with demons, and he is still alive and (as far as he knows) unenchanted. 

Which is to say: he knows how to respond to the prospect of "constantly magically tempting companion" - namely, by running away at the first opportunity - and, also, you need some serious Splendor if you're going to try to tempt him. This Ring isn't even pretty. (*)

Well, at least they're being honest, and they'll not part as foes.

"Then I shall be wise and not see it more than I have to. You will have to escape separately; I will cast the spell on all of us. Does anyone still want to come with me?" He doesn't think they can but he's still going to offer.

(*) Gord has no ranks in Spellcraft.

"Come with you?  But where're you going?" Merry yelps.

" -- He says he'll cast the spell on all of us but he's leaving separately."

... yeah, this's the reaction he thought he'd get, before Merry and Pippin insisted on coming along.

They're not answering quickly but he can guess why.

"Everyone gather closely around me, I need to touch you all quickly to cast the spell on everyone." He stands next to the horse and holds out both hands.

Merry translates and quickly takes a hand; he doesn't know why this man is alternating between helping and distrusting them, but he's happy for a spell to maybe hide them from the Black Riders.