I voted for the watcher in the Water. Well, I suppose I had a bit of the movie influence when I voted, but when it comes to horror scenes it's the movies that make the best impression on me. And maybe another reason I didn't think of the books was because there was no creature from the Sil. in the poll.

But to Mor I'd say Ungoliant is actually less scary than Shelob. All you have to do is feed the greedy thing and run, whereas Shelob is sort of disinclined to negotiate, isn't she?

This is so, Vir. I did have some second thoughts about the Watcher, but at the end of the day I still come back to "the worst it can do is kill me." Stealing my will and my soul, but leaving me alive and conscious, seems far worse to me. To each his own, I suppose. As to Shelob being worse than Ungoliant though, well, sure, you can feed Ungoliant, but how does that end? You make her increasingly powerful until you run out of stuff to feed her, which doesn't leave her in the best of moods.

On a completely unrelated topic, last I checked the OTHER poll we had an 11 vote lead. Go us!

And I don't see why anyone should fear Smeagol if you don't have the Ring in your possession. But Ugluk might be creepy. He could tear you apart bite by bite....eeeeek!

I still go with the Watcher though. Think of those tentacles winding around your neck as you sleep and silently bringing your body closer to its dark wet mouth. And oh yes, don't forget the slime it'll bring as it slithers across you (this is imagination... but it could happen)

As for Ungoliant, she can get bigger, sure. But she'll probably get so fat her legs won't be able to support her. And of course, she's easily distracted by food, so you can get away if you're quick. Shelob's webs are just too freaky. Imagine her weaving webs all over your room so that you're trapped as soon as you wake up.

Well, at least I would be able to kill a Nazgul, since "I am no man."

I'm not too fussed about spiders or giant squids, so it was the Nazgul for me.

I went for the Nazgul as well. Shelob you just hit in the eye, well, one of them, and flash a bright light in it, or use a can of bug repellant, about 4 should do the trick, and she'll run away.
The watcher you just nuke. But if you don't have any lying around, then chop off his tentacles or let him grab you and start bringing you to his beak, when he opens wide, shoot him.
You'd have to fight Ugluk, burn the Black Huorn, and use pepper spray on Smeagol.
Cloveress, Ungoliant is far worse than Shelob, Ungoliant doesn't weave webs of thread, she weaves them of impenetrable shadow, void, nothingness that even Melkor couldn't escape from.
Upon being devoured by her, you would pass into oblivion. With Shelob, you would have the comforting thought that someone might find your bones, or if they found you relatively shortly afterwards, your rotting remains, after she had picked the choicest pieces of flesh. But considering the fact that her diet usually consists of orcs( and they doesn't taste very nice now does they precious), you could be sure she'd pick the bones clean.

Yeah, but Fionw’ makes a good point; why limit ourselves to Tech Level 2 stuff when even Tolkien didn't do that? And on that note, I'm confident my shotgun could handle the Shelob, or even the Watcher, but what's it gonna do to a Nazg’l?

Firehose, maybe, but "have you got Vilya in your hip pocket this time?"

Yeah, but that reminds me of the bit in the GURPS Basic Set 3rd Ed. about how the trick with sand in the eyes only works once or barbarians would trade in their swords and start carrying around buckets of sand. I don't think a small quantity of water would do it, else Earnur would have simply brought a bucket to his confrontation and come home to Gondor with a Ring of Power and a rusty crown in his hand (and wouldn't that have just ended wonderfully; E’rnur the Witch-King. :elfrolleyes And the Master Stone of the Palantiri would have been safe in Osgiliath, too. I don't think a water gun will do it, particularly given the Nazg’ls aversion is clearly to RUNNING water, modeled on the same traditions that gave us Draculas. A super soaker isn't really running water. But doesn't this belong in the Gondolin thread?

Traditionally, vampires, werewolves and even demons don't cross running water, though I suspect that last to be an old wives tale. If the Witch-King could have been driven from the field by simply saying, "Go soak your head!" though I'm sure Earnur would have done it; THAT'S combat, and therefore relevant, even if Minardil or Glorfindel didn't tell him. Though it does seem likely Earnur was ambushed. Moron.

Edit: we have a typo in our SMILEY CODE?!!! :elfrolleyes:

Which kills the super soaker, and it's bearer as well, yes? So you can STOP a Nazg’l with water, even unhorse and wash one away if you DO have Vilya in your hip pocket, but you can't KILL one that way. Though I suppose that would be sufficient to keep us safe if it's under our beds, assuming we aren't drowned ourselves. But the flip side of that coin is I have to think the Watcher is pretty gangly and defenseless on dry land. Assuming it's not just Cthulhu briefly regaining consciousness.

Is it just me, or does anyoneelse find it funny that no one at all seems worried about Ugluk? I suppose that, with the other choices, Ugluk pales in the comparison, but it is funny to me all the same!
If I had not already voted for Shelob, I might have voted for Ugluk out of pity!

And that's : tongueelf :

I haven't been able to vote more than once as the results always show up once I have voted, as was meant to be.

I think most allies of Morgoth and sauron had a fear of water because it was the realm of Ulmo. As Ulmo never abandoned the people of Middle earth, when the other Valar locked themselves in Valinor, there was always the potential for him to pop out and grab those he did not like if they ventured too close.

I don't think Ulmo would do that. Oss’ is another thing, but as I understood he only roams the coasts.

OK, about the current "Who is oldest?" poll : I voted Tom Bombadil, not because he literally says " Oldest am I " in FOTR, but because he came first to Arda even before Melkor did. So in that way, I'd attribute the concept of 'oldest' to him.

If Tom Bombadil is an Ainu, though, he would technically be equally old as Treebeard, who is an Ainu too; both would be offspring of Il’vatar's mind. But inside E’, ToBo would be oldest for he was there before TrBe was.

So there shouldn't really be much of a choice in this poll, really.

We've already had this ToBo vs TrBe discussion (yes i edited it). Hence I shan't go into it again, yet I'd suggest you go here for more information : Tom or Fangorn

I agree that there is not really any point in voting for who's oldest, since obviously Eru would be the oldest (and I did vote "none of the above"). Why Elrond is on there I don't know, and why he got any votes I don't know either. It would be better if the poll was changed to "who is older?" with only ToBo and TrBe as candidates. Then we'd have some fun. Although I think ToBo would probably win.

Right - that one should give you something to talk about.