Boldercross

The Mistvale, long a source of "Elvish Haunts, " had been tamed by the late third Age era of the Shire. Boldercross, now a prosperous farming village, stretched between two well-built bridges on the Great East Road. A hill near the village occasionally spouted strange-smelling fumes. Attempts to dig the source out had always failed, as the hill was riddled with tunnels filled with acidic smoke, and the diggers invariably wound up burned or blinded. Some said that a smial was once dug under Stinking Hill by a Fallohide with pretensions to sorcery. Others told a more curious story. They said a ghost lived under the hill, one having the appearance of a feral-eyed Hobbit, tall, but with a scraggly beard. Others called the apparition a Petty-dwarf, or a Dwarven spirit. He was said to leave the hill from time to time when the moon was dark, foraging for herbs and minerals to use in obscene alchemical concoctions designed to keep his substance bound to the world. Since he was also said to need the body parts of Hobbitlings for his experiments, no children—or adults, for that matter — were allowed near the hill after dark.