"What I did for myself was heal the wound first, like a regular wound, and I still felt like I might pass out but then Lesser Restoration was enough to let me ride up the hill and walk through the night. But I assume I'm tougher than Frodo to begin with. And then I prepared and cast the full Restoration this morning. And Remove Curse, I don't have a way to tell if that actually did anything."

"I have a Lesser Restoration prepared that I can give it to Frodo, and hopefully it will get him walking. Or I could prepare another full Restoration which will pretty definitely do it, and even another Remove Curse, but it'd take all my open slots which I could otherwise use for fighting spells."

"Do you think I should do the minimum and leave the rest for tomorrow when I have new spells, or go all out healing him and not have as much to fight with tonight?" Gord doesn't feel great about the idea of fighting tonight either way. He wouldn't normally defer to someone else on this, but maybe there's something about Frodo and his ring that he's overlooking, being mildly sleep-deprived.

...actually. "Weren't we going to put the ring in my bag so the wraiths couldn't trace it? It would be better to do it while Frodo's out of it, if he's going to resist later."

Aragorn studies Frodo.  He's not fading rapidly.  "We probably have time... but if we aren't using the horse, we need him to be walking.  What spells did you use for yourself?"

Gord had mentioned the bag several times, but Aragorn hadn't actually asked him the questions he'd need to... "Can the rest of us safely take things out of the bag?  Or would it just be you?"

"Like I said, Lesser Restoration was enough to get me walking - I had several, I cast one right after I was wounded and then another one in the middle of the night when I was getting tired. We only need to walk for a few hours now, so I hope one will be enough for Frodo, and I'll cast the full Restoration tomorrow. And Remove Curse."

"The bag is safe to use. Or even climb into, but you'd run out of air if it was closed. There's a trick to getting the right thing out, I'll show you, your arm can't reach the bottom but you can - fix in your mind the thing you want, before opening the bag, and then the opening will be next to that thing. You can put anything you don't want to carry in it, it's half empty. Just don't touch any of my things." Gord will still be the one carrying the bag, and watching anyone reaching into it, but obviously they need to know what to do in case Gord is taken out.

"Oh, you didn't use any other spells for the healing itself?  Then - yes, that's a fair choice."

Aragorn frowns.  That sounds like a complicated bag, with lots of opportunities for things to go wrong.  "Are you sure that trick can't fail?  The bag itself can't be corrupted by the Ring, and the opening won't be in the wrong place so that the Ring slips on your finger while you're trying to take it out?"

A sudden idea strikes him.

"Or - could we carry Frodo in the bag too?  Maybe leave it open for air, or... do you have a spell to bottle air for him inside?"

Strider seems to have missed what Gord said. "No, I did heal myself first. Cure Wounds, it handles normal wounds, nothing magical. Restoration spells don't do that, they handle tiredness and drain. I haven't healed Frodo's wound because if I do he might resist the ring being taken, but I can do that anytime."

"If we keep the bag open the wraiths might still sense where the ring is. Otherwise, yeah, we could carry Frodo in the open bag without bearing his weight. I have a spell for air but it only lasts ten minutes."

Could the ring... corrupt the bag? Is that even a thing? 

On the one hand, he has no way to definitely rule it out. On the other hand, if he rules it in, who's to say the ring can't make his own sword stab him or do anything else it wants?

"There's no gravity inside the bag," Gord reasons. "So no matter where the opening is, if you reach in carefully, the ring can't - fall out and onto your finger. Unless it can levitate itself. But then it wouldn't need the bag to do it. If it can change the bag to make there be gravity then - I have no idea what it can or can't do, maybe it can just levitate itself to move where it wants? That sounds easier than changing other magic items..."

"Has the ring affected things before, or just people? A major artifact could do pretty much anything, but normally they always do the same thing, like spells - I mean, if its creator thought of it and put it in as an option, then it would do that. Unless it's intelligent. ...is it intelligent?"

Merry, frustrated at the long conversation in some other language, interrupts.  "Wait, what're you talking about?"

"What's happening with Frodo!?"

Aragorn doesn't sigh in frustration.  It wouldn't help, and the hobbits are legitimately concerned.

"We were talking about how to heal him without using so much of Gord's magic he can't fight if the Ringwraiths attack again tonight.  And then -" (How to best phrase it?) "- he said he thought his magical bag could keep the Ringwraiths from sensing the Ring.  And I asked if we could put Frodo in that magical bag, and - maybe?"

"If the Ring's in the bag, who carries the bag?  And if we're about to heal Frodo, why're we even talking about the bag?  Just put all our packs in it and we walk like yesterday!  Or - at least, Gord needs to heal Frodo so we can all talk about this!"

Aragorn translates for Gord.

"And for your question - The Ring has changed its own size before, to serve its own goals.  I'd certainly at least want to wrap it up before putting it in the bag.  I... haven't heard of anything that's clearly corrupting other magical objects, though Isildur's... magical crown... reacted to the Ring when he wore it..."

"We should definitely wrap it, yes, I have empty sacks in the bag. If it can change its size, it can... become too small to find, or too large to fit in the bag - if it grows bigger than the bag can hold it might rupture it and its contents will be lost... It could try to stop us from getting something else out of the bag when we most need it?" Gord is beginning to suspect that carrying the ring in the bag means not carrying anything else in the bag. 

"Too large - I've never heard of its doing that - at Bree it was pretty clearly trying to be noticed, but it didn't grow too big for Frodo's pocket...  And like Sam said, it would be helpful to carry our supplies in the bag, though I think we could carry them on our backs if we need to."

Aragorn's doubting the Ring can normally grow that large, though he's uneasy about assuming it when dealing with a complicated unknown magic bag.  Also, he isn't looking forward to Merry and Pippin's response if they need to carry the supplies themselves rather than use the promised magical bag.

"You made me worry enough that I'll carry my most expensive and - personally important belongings outside of the bag! Anyone who wants to can put their pack in. I can conjure food and water, we won't starve on the way."

Gord takes a (nonmagical) haversack out of the bag and proceeds to stuff it full of smaller bags and pouches. Some of them go on his belt instead.

Also, here's a sack to wrap the ring in. "Ready?" 

"Wait, what're you doing - are you going to put the Ring in that bag -"

Arguments?  About the Ring?

Aragorn opens his mouth to agree - and then stops.

He shouldn't even touch the Ring.  Let alone take it from an unknowing sick Frodo.  Even if he thinks he's doing it for prudent reasons... a lot of evil things were done for reasons thought prudent. 

And it's best if Gord doesn't touch the Ring either.  He doesn't know what temptations might ensnare him... but it's best if they're given less chance to.

"Fair question, Sam," he says.  "Not yet -"  

And then in Hallit:  "Gord?  I think one of the halflings should put the Ring in the bag.  They'd probably be less at risk."

All... right? "I really want to understand how you think of the risk here! Sure, go ahead." What does it matter who puts the ring in the bag, if they all agree to do it and nobody tries to stop the others?

"Sam, Merry, Pippin -"  He makes sure to catch each Hobbit's eyes before continuing.

"We need to try to make sure the Ringwraiths can't find us, especially if we can't fully heal Frodo - and I'm not sure how long this healing will last."

"You aren't either?"  Sam frowns but nods in sympathy.

Good; he's gotten Sam's sympathy at least.

"I don't know.  I haven't seen this before; Gord hasn't seen Morgul-knives before.

"But - the Ringwraiths can feel where the Ring is, so they'll keep chasing us as long as we have the Ring.  So, the one way to keep it safe and keep us safe is to put it in Gord's magic bag - since the inside of that bag is in another plane.

"Frodo knows you - would one of you like to wrap it carefully up and put it in Gord's bag?"

"A bag in another world!"  Pippin's eyes go wide.  "Can I get in the bag too?  Like you were saying Frodo might?

"And - oh, sure!  Though do we have to do it now when we can't tell Frodo about it?"

"The Ring might hurt Gord's healing magic, right?  I can do it."

Sam was going to object, but he deflates at Merry's comment and nods.

"So... do I just throw it in the bag?  Or do I need to do some magic first?"

(Aragorn translates, with a summary of the hobbits' exchange.)