It is said to have appeared after the damming of the local river Sirannon, and its presence was first recorded by Balin's dwarf company 30 or so years before the beginning of "The Fellowship of the Ring". When the party approaches the Gate, the Watcher seizes Frodo Baggins with a long, pale-green, luminous, fingered tentacle, succeeded by twenty more. The Company rescue Frodo and retreat into Moria, and the Watcher seals the Doors of the West Gate shut. As Gandalf commented, "Something has crept or been driven out of the dark water under the mountains. There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."