This cache is placed in Pace Bend Park, a Travis County Park located approximately 30 miles west of Austin on Lake Travis. The park is open 7 days a week from sunrise to 9pm for day-use visitors with overnight camping available. There is a fee to enter the park. Please be respectful of the posted signs and the other people using the park. This cache is placed in accordance with the guidelines for geocaches by the Travis County Park system.
For as many good guys as there are in our story, there are an equal number of bad guys. This bad guy numbers nine and is the key to finding Weathertop.
Background
According to Tolkien's legendarium, the nine Nazgûl arose as Sauron's most powerful servants in the Second Age of Middle-earth. They were once powerful mortal Men, three of which being "great lords" of Númenor. Sauron gave each of them one of the nine Rings of Power. Sauron also gave seven Rings of Power to the Dwarves, and Celebrimbor forged three for the Elves, untainted by Sauron's evil. It was Sauron's design to control the Nine, Seven, and Three Rings through the power of his One Ring, forged in secret for this purpose, but it was only the Nine who succumbed completely to its power: Those who used the Nine Rings became mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. They obtained glory and great wealth, yet it turned to their undoing. They had, as it seemed, unending life, yet life became unendurable to them. They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and of the domination of the One which was Sauron's. And they became forever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows. The Nazgûl were they, the Ringwraiths, the Enemy's most terrible servants; darkness went with them, and they cried with the voices of death.
The corrupting effect of the Rings extended their earthly lives far beyond their mortal lifespans, while their bodily forms faded over time until they had become entirely invisible to mortal eyes. They assumed visible form only under their outward black attire. The red reflection in their eyes could be plainly distinguished even in daylight, and in a rage they appeared in a hellish fire. They had many weapons; in The Fellowship of the Ring they were armed with steel swords while their leader, the Witch-king of Angmar, wielded a knife with insidious magical properties. Later, during the Battle of Pelennor Fields, he bore a "long pale sword" that struck fear into the hearts of Minas Tirith's defenders, and after the arrival of the Rohirrim he wielded a mace in a duel against Éowyn.
Their arsenal of deadly armaments was not confined to physical weapons: they were perpetually surrounded by an aura of terror, which affected all but the most powerful living creatures. Their breath (called the Black Breath) was poisonous. The effects of the Black Breath, also known as the Black Shadow, were contracted by exposure to them. Victims could suffer deep despair, unconsciousness, nightmares and even death. However, the herb athelas could be used to counter the effects. The most well-known victims to the Black Breath were Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry, who were healed by Aragorn during the War of the Ring.
In addition, their terrible cries caused terror, loss of bodily control and despair. The Lord of the Nazgûl was notorious for practicing black sorcery. According to Tolkien, though, it was the fear they inspired that was the chief danger: "They have no great physical power against the fearless," he wrote, "but what they have, and the fear that they inspire, is enormously increased in darkness."
The Nazgûl first appeared around S.A. 2251 and were soon established as Sauron's principal servants, less than three centuries after the rings were forged. The Nazgûl were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron in 3441 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but their survival was nonetheless assured since the One Ring survived.
They re-emerged around T.A. 1300, when the Lord of the Nazgûl, also known as the Witch-king of Angmar, the Black Captain and the Morgul-lord, led Sauron's forces against the successor kingdoms of Arnor: Rhudaur, Cardolan and Arthedain. He was eventually defeated in battle in 1975 and returned to Mordor, gathering the other Nazgûl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm, having achieved his goal of destroying all of Arnor's successor kingdoms.
In 2000, the Nazgûl besieged Minas Ithil and captured it after two years. The city thereafter became Minas Morgul, the stronghold of the Nazgûl, from where they directed the rebuilding of Sauron's armies, also acquiring a palantír for the Dark Lord. In 2942, Sauron returned to Mordor and declared himself openly in 2951. Two or three of the Nazgûl (the Second of the Nine was put in charge) were sent to his fortress in Mirkwood, named Dol Guldur, to garrison it.
In 3017, near the beginning of the story told in The Lord of the Rings, after hearing news of the One Ring, Sauron commanded the Ringwraiths to recover the One Ring from "Baggins of the Shire". Disguised as riders clad in black, they sought out Bilbo Baggins who, as Gollum had revealed, had the One Ring in his possession. It was around 3018 that the "Nine Walkers" of the Fellowship of the Ring were chosen to mirror the Nazgûl, "Nine Riders".
The Nazgûl rode specially bred black horses that were trained in Mordor to endure the terror. By now, they had learned that the Ring was in the possession of Bilbo's heir, Frodo. They found Frodo and his company at Weathertop, where the Witch-king stabbed Frodo in the arm with a Morgul blade, breaking off a piece of the blade in the hobbit's flesh. When they were swept away by the waters of the river Bruinen, their horses were drowned. The Ringwraiths were forced to return to Mordor to regroup. They reappeared later mounted on fell beasts, at which point they were referred to as Winged Nazgûl.
The Witch-king of Angmar himself was slain by Éowyn and Merry (known as the Magnificent thereafter), during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields: Merry's stab with a powerfully enchanted Barrow-blade drove the Witch-king to his knees, allowing Éowyn, the niece of Théoden, to deliver a strike between his crown and mantle. Which blow actually destroyed him is a matter of debate, since the text specifically mentions that Merry's blade was enchanted and covered with runes meant for the Witch-King, while Éowyn fulfilled a prophecy that he would not be killed by "Man". However, The prophecy is somewhat ambiguous, as Meriadoc was a hobbit, not a member of the race of Man. In both cases, the weapons that struck him were destroyed — a standard fate for weapons that touched his undead flesh. Whether all Nazgûl had this power is unknown.
The remaining eight Ringwraiths attacked the Army of the West on their fell beasts during the last battle at the Black Gate. However, when Frodo put on the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, Sauron ordered the eight remaining Nazgûl to fly there to intercept him. They arrived too late, with the Ring falling into the fire. At the moment of the One Ring's destruction, the remaining Nazgûl were destroyed.