Just playing through The Hunt for Gollum for the first time. On 1b, the Forced effect states: "After the players quest succesfully, the first player looks at the top 3 cards of the encounter deck. Reveal and add 1 of those cards to the staging area, and discard the other 2 cards."

My question is if I can add a treachery card to the staging area instead of a location/enemy card? The cards I drew were Hunters from Mordor, Evil Storm, and The East Bank. Since my threat is low, I would rather deal with the Evil Storm than either of the other 2 cards. Just wanting to clarify to make sure I'm playing that correctly.

Of course you can. Effectless treachery cards are your best friends in this scenario, since you want to avoid the hunters as often as possible.

Awesome, thanks! I figured that was the case but I figured I should double check.

Take every bit of help you can get! You will need this advantage to find 'Clues' and avoid those vicious Hunters. The 2nd part also helps but you choose 1 from only 2 and at the start of the Quest Phase. This whole scenario boils down to finding 'Clues' but avoiding 'Hunters'. Enjoy! Cheers!