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Black Pool
(Isengard)
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Location of the Black Pool (upper left)
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Type
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(Small) Lake
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Region
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As head of the Heren Istarion, Saruman the White delved into all manner of wizardry. As the Third Age progressed, the Wizard, failing to quickly attain the degree of power he sought, began to experiment with dark and evil sorceries, secretly performing incantations that were atrocities to the Order. Many of these experiments went awry in one manner or another, and a few left behind foul and spoiled creations, manifestations of evil magic that Saruman knew not how to destroy or unmake. In the northwest of the Nan Cúrunir, some three miles from Isengard, lay a dark, brackish pool surrounded by a trio of tall but sickly and blackened oakwoods. The water was fetid, stagnant, and murky, and shedded a pale luminescence visible from a thousand yards after nightfall. Those who came within a few dozen feet of the pool and its strange trees immediately sensed the profanity of the place. The pool had a will of its own, a result of Saruman’s channelling of fell sorcery into it. The water itself was now perverted and unnatural, a rare occurrence in all of Middle-earth. The oaks had once been Huorns, but were now twisted and fouled and under the powerful sway of the pool. When living creatures came within a few feet of the pool, the tainted oaks attempted to knock them into the ensorcelled water, which was highly toxic to all living creatures.