The Restoration of RhudaurBeing the journal and memoires of Amdirhim of Rhudaur

Chapter 9 – Tharbad under siege – Opening the old North-South roadA battle with bandits

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 18, cold, light rainWe have a reputable merchant, Gudbrand with 2 wagons and 4 caravan guards to escort. Halbarad has lent us a third wagon so that some of us can hide inside. Ragnar and Rothbar are hidden in the middle of one wagon under a tarp and surrounded by luxury goods from Gondor and Toki and Geralt similarly hidden in another. Mírwen, Lóthiniel, Loki and Lily with no armour and weapons well hidden ride on one wagon openly, posing as travellers, while I ride, without my shield and 2 handed sword. I think we look like a pretty ripe target. I am awfully glad to be riding rather than cooped up in a wagon. We passed through the villages of Dinach and Redhel and camped a little way beyond the ruins of Laldir. They seemed unremarkable farming villages of less than 100 poor folk each and no protection to speak of. In my role of caravan leader, I was able to ask around for any news of bandits, but nobody offered any useful information.

We saw some fiara (small deer) but no other travellers on the road all day.

In the evening, Aflith flew in with the news that he had marked a group of 5 men following behind us after we passed through Redhel. Ragnar, Rothbar, Geralt and Toki remained hidden until it was fully dark and are staying away from the campfire.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 19, cold, light rainI fully expected an attack last night after Aflith’s news, but nothing happened. A little after midday we passed through Gwaelin, a larger village that we had expected to be more prosperous. Here no one stopped work to watch us pass by. Ragged children ran indoors and haggard looking folk kept their heads down and turned away when I approached. A few buildings looked recently burned. I made for a bar near the road in hopes of finding someone who would talk of their troubles, but it was occupied by five burly looking ruffians. Now I was pretty sure we were on to something. I mounted quickly and turned back to the caravan as if deciding not to risk an encounter with these men. We hurried on – hopefully looking like we wanted to put some distance between us and Gwaelin before dark.

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Again Aflith reported we were followed – this time by 10 men. If our disguise has worked they should think that 10 will be enough to take us easily. This time we were quite sure we would be attacked and were fully armed and only pretending to be asleep. Our camp was next to the fast flowing river reducing the directions we could be attacked from, but with Aflith, the Dwarves and Lóthiniel’s night sight we had the advantage anyway.

They attacked in two groups from different directions, creeping up in the darkness and hoping to take us by surprise. We allowed them to get very close, to minimise the chances of any escaping, and then sprung the trap, with Ragnar, Rothbar, Toki and Geralt appearing out of the dark on behind the group on my right, and Lily, Loki, and Lóthiniel behind the group on my left. Geralt and I sprang up from our feigned sleep with Gudbrand and his guards. Mírwen had a sleep spell fully prepared and 3 of the bandits on the left fell asleep even as they advanced. Lily, Loki and Lóthiniel took care of them. Swiper and Aflith kept the other 2 busy for a few seconds until Lily and Loki finished them off. On the right, Ragnar attacked two at once with a tremendous sweep of his axe, crashing through the leader’s helmet and skull and fatally wounding the man next to him. Rothbar and Toki killed one each and I struck the last down as he turned to flee. It was over in seconds and without them even landing a blow.

We healed and revived one of them and interrogated him to find out where their camp is and if there are any more of them, at first he was tight lipped, but when we offered to let him go in return for information he suddenly became extremely helpful. He told us everything – They have taken over an old Dúnedain keep built on a hill on the other side of the river. There are 32 of them (22 now) organised military style in 6 (now 4) bands of 4 men and a sergeant plus two leaders. They have 8 prisoners who work for them mainly in the kitchen. He described the layout of the keep and the entrance. Apparently there is only one entrance and the trapdoors to the roof are bolted shut. Also the roof leaks so is likely not very safe. I don’t like the sound of that – the walls will be slick in this rain, so sneaking in by the roof will be hard and risks crashing through if the roof gives way under our weight. Then again, a frontal assault through the gate could be tough if we don’t get in before all 22 defenders are alerted.

They organise themselves in shifts of 4 hours, but with 2 units together they have eight hours. They have been out for 3 hours already so they will be expected back at the keep within 5 hours which will be dawn. When asked what they would do if they don’t come back he said they have 10 horses so the “commander” or “captain” would probably ride out with the best men to look for them once it was fully light.

The keep is actually marked on the map I have although no crossing over the river is marked and right now it is deep and fast flowing – it would be difficult to cross if our prisoner had not also divulged the location of a good ford.

We decided to get some rest and then see if we could set an ambush for them at the ford. If we can take down another ten men at the ford then taking the fortress would be considerably easier.

We stripped the two surviving prisoners of armour and weapons and tied them. On two of them we found keys on the leaders. The rest each had around 2 months wages on them which is a lot but not huge as it is probably all they own. I expect they can’t trust each other enough to leave anything behind – unless they have a lock like the leaders.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 20, cold, cloudyBefore dawn, we left Gudbrand and his guards at the camp with the prisoners and made our way to the ford. It took us about an hour to find the ford and a while longer to find decent ways to hide ourselves ready for an ambush. The plan is to let them get to the ford, then Ragnar, Rothbar and Toki and I will block their way back while Lily, Loki, Geralt and Lóthiniel pepper them with arrows and Mírwen casts sleep spells as rapidly as she can – hopefully, they will fall off their horses. I wanted to lay caltrops in the shallow water but Mírwen, Lily and Lóthiniel were all horrified at the idea or deliberately harming horses.

Now Mírwen won’t talk to me (Well, to be fair she is trying to sleep and regain her power) and I wait silently wrapped in my cloak against the cold morning air. At least it has stopped raining.

We did not have to wait long before we heard and then saw 7 men riding rapidly towards the ford from the south. They were not taking any precautions and did not seem likely to spot us. They slowed as they reached the ford and entered the water with the two leaders in the lead. I had hoped they might dismount to cross but I guess they were clearly familiar with the ford. As the last of them passed us we attacked.

Mírwen’s sleep spell caused the 3 rearmost to fall off their horses and Lóthiniel and I nailed two of them as they tried to get up again. Lily repeatedly hit the commander as he tried to wheel his horse around in the ford. Geralt wounded their captain but he too seemed to ignore the wound. Loki’s first arrow went deep into the Sergeant’s stomach and he never recovered – he attempted to turn his horse but between the wound and Aflith mobbing him, he could not

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manage it and eventually passed out and fell. None of them was particularly adept with their horses and this gave us a moment longer. One bandit spurred his horse right at Ragnar, but Ragnar struck first and caught him square in the chest, taking him right off his horse. Another attacked Toki but found himself outmatched by Toki and Rothbar working together. I charged forward shouting encouragement to them but I don’t think anyone heard in the heat of the battle. The remaining bandits tried to charge through us, but Ragnar’s next sweep took the leader out of his saddle, I cut down the one already on foot as he fled and Rothbar felled the captain. Only the leader remained, with both arms broken, and 4 of Lily’s arrows sticking out of him at various angles. He only managed to struggle to his knees before Ragnar struck his neck and his head tilted right back, attached only by the barest threads and as his body fell forwards in a fountain of blood. A gruesome end. As all of these men’s lives were all clearly forfeit for banditry, murder and probably countless other things, we did not try to save those that were close to death.

The leader had 2 keys and the Captain had one too, and both had good weapons and armour that we can use (Toki took an excellent Warhammer to replace the one that Doris made that he broke on a troll back at Cameth Brin). Oddly the Sergeant had nothing while the other bandits each had full coin purses. Maybe he lost a bet before he lost his life!

Aflith, Lily, Lóthiniel, Loki and I went on to find the keep and scout it out while the others took the seven horses and the unconscious captain (bound and stripped of armour and weapons) back to our camp.

I am sitting in a copse of trees about 350 yards west of the keep, half way up the side of the hill, musing over how we should attempt to take it, while we wait for the others to join us.

At the entrance a ramp goes up towards the gate and there is a fifteen foot gap where a drawbridge used to be that the bandits seem to have bridged with a wooden platform and they appear to have a makeshift wooden barricade partially blocking the back of the gateway. Inside the gateway they have 2 guards. There appears to be no other way in although the walls do look climbable (certainly for Lily), however, I don’t like the sound of the description our prisoner gave of the roof – it would not be good to fall through a rotten roof and land in front of a guard.

Now that the bandits are leaderless and we have already killed more than half of them, I am tempted simply to go for a frontal assault. There is little to no cover for almost 200 yards around the keep, but all of the shutters are shut at the back and all the arrow slits are 15 feet off the ground so it might be possible to sneak up to the walls from the rear and work our way around the bottom of the wall to the front gate. In that way we could probably get to within 25 yards of the gate or even right under the wooden platform without being seen – a quick sprint or a short climb could see us inside the entrance before they can stop us and if only 5 men are on guard we should be able to overpower them before the rest arrive. The main danger is if they have laid traps in the entrance, but I doubt it – from their actions so far they seem over-confident. They even have their 3 remaining horses outside the keep. Mírwen has not regained enough power yet to support us with magic, but I don’t want to wait too long and certainly not until dark as they might shut themselves inside.

After I explained the plan to everyone, Lily and Lóthiniel decided to do their own thing and try the roof anyway so they left behind bows and quivers and backpacks and armour – taking daggers, clothes, lockpicks and rope only. We got to the rear of the keep without any mishap and Lily climbed to the top with only a couple of hairy moments. She secured and threw down a rope for Lóthiniel who followed her up. While we quietly made our way around the walls to the front in ones and twos, Lily cautiously crept to a trapdoor on the eastern tower roof but found it bolted from the inside. It was old and loose fitting but still very hard to prise the bolt using Loki’s thieves tools, and she could not open it even after using oil to try to loosen the bolt and hinges. Not wanting to resort to using hammer and chisel, she backtracked and turned her attention to the western tower instead. This time she succeeded in opening the trapdoor quickly and quietly and gave Aflith the thumbs up. Lóthiniel gingerly followed Lily across the roof to the trapdoor, keeping her weight above the walls and the two of them disappeared into the keep. Aflith flew down to let us know, just as we were in position. Mírwen at once made an addition to the plan of her own by sending Swiper to create a disturbance by worrying the 3 horses in the field, meanwhile the rest of us got ready for the sprint. Moments later we heard a shout from the second floor (Lily and Lóthiniel had succeeded in creeping up behind the two guards there, and stabbed them repeatedly but one survived long enough to let out one cry before Lily silenced him.) As we charged, I shouted for full force and all responded, scorning defence for extra force of attack . Swiper and the cry from above did a good job of distracting the three guards in the gateway, and they didn’t spot us until we reached the ramp. When they did they turned and fled inside the keep shouting. Their leader attempted to block the way while the other two rolled a wagon barricade across the entrance. Mobbed by Aflith, he could not stop us from entering the great hall beyond and he was wounded by each of us as we struck him and continued past. As I reached

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him I could see 5 more getting up and drawing their weapons and continued past him. He finally fell to Ragnar’s axe. Mírwen blew her magic horn to give us all a further boost. Loki and I ran to stop the two men from moving the barricade wagon even as two more joined them and Ragnar charged the other three on his own, not caring to wait for Rothbar and Toki to catch up. I decapitated one man, Ragnar slew the second sergeant with a huge blow that almost took both his legs off and then crushed the entire rib cage of another and Geralt nailed an arrow through a fourth man’s kidneys. The rest tried desperately to get away but none surrendered. Just as the last two fell, Lily and Lóthiniel arrived through the south eastern door and another 5 bandits arrived through 3 other doors. I think they were caught off guard by the carnage of their cohort’s bodies across the hall, for they all hesitated and before they could decide what to do, they too lay dying, except for the sergeant who died instantly when Lóthiniel stabbed him in the neck.

In case there were any bandits hiding and hoping to escape, we moved the barricade across the gateway and left Toki, Ragnar, Geralt, Mírwen and Swiper in the great hall to guard it. The rest of us spent the afternoon searching the place.

In the kitchens and cellars we found 11 very scared and badly abused young women the bandits have been using as slaves. We took them to the great hall for Mírwen to look after. I wondered at there being no male captives.

The place was packed with stuff – I never imagined such a hoard – they clearly stripped everything of value or use from the village of Gwaelin as well as every merchant caravan that came this way for months. We found an extremely well documented inventory and plans for taking much of it South to Sudúri to sell. They should have retired sooner! This is what we found:

- A large chest full of coins (estimated) 1000 GP, 3000 SP, 6000 BP, 10000 CP, 10000 TP- Common jewellery, ornaments, clothing etc – (estimated) total value 60 GP - Expensive jewellery, ornaments, clothing etc – (estimated) total value 900 GP- 10 horses and 6 useable wagons- 24 bolts of cloth, 2 large tapestries, 3 crates of iron ore, 4 barrels of beer, 22 bags of grain (150lbs each), 13 casks of mead- 10 suits of chain armour with metal arm & leg greaves and helmets and 20 suits of rigid leather armour- 10 short bows, 7 longbows, 25 swords of various kinds- 14 doses of Arkasu herb (Mírwen)- Tattered cloak – not sure why we kept this but Lóthiniel says it is of elven make and must have hidden powers?- Wand of Haste (Mírwen now has something to play with when she runs out of power!)- Enchanted Jade pendant of movement (which Rothbar took)- Fine dagger (which I took)- Dwarf enchanted Full Plate armour including helmet and greaves half normal weight (Ragnar will be unstoppable in this)- Silvan boots of soft green leather with gold thread tracery in the shape of a group of trees (Lóthiniel)- Enchanted Steel Mace (Rothbar took this)- Two sets of enchanted human male chainmail x2- 3 magic weapons: Longbow, Short sword, Two handed sword- Enchanted war-hammer (which Toki already took)

The papers we found also reveal what happened to other captives – the despicable thieves sold them to slave traders in the South. There are rough instructions to a hidden harbour at the mouth of the Gwathlo where the slaves and high value items are taken. The next ship is expected in 3 weeks’ – it would be nice to be there to welcome it.

We will need to stay another day to get everything packed up and ready to take back to Tharbad.

We will leave a portion of this – especially the food - with the survivors of Gwaelin.

We are thinking the road will be clear from here on – it seems unlikely that these bandits would have tolerated any competition - so Gudbrand has decided to go on alone rather than returning to Tharbad with us. I asked Aflith to watch over them until tomorrow night and then return here. We collected the wagon that Haladan provided and brought it to the keep.

We gave the women 1SP, 5BP, 30CP and 200TP each and offered them a safe haven and safe passage to come and work at Cilbar-Estel. Seven of them will come with us at least as far as Tharbad and we will arrange safe passage North for them if they wish. Four of them headed off to Gwaelin at once as they have family there (or did have). I hope that in time their grief and hurt can be healed.

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Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 21, cold, clear blue skyWe spent the whole day loading six of the wagons (We don’t have enough horses for them all and one is practically unusable anyway having been converted into a moving barricade for the entrance). We packed one wagon to leave at Gwaelin to help them – 2 bags of grain, 1 barrel of beer, 2 casks of mead and all the tin pieces. All is now ready to depart tomorrow morning.

Our co-operative prisoner showed us that the fireplace in the kitchen is magical and can be controlled quite easily, so we used it to cremate the bodies – preferable to leaving them to fester or attempting to bury them with only one spade in the place and the ground still frozen hard. We asked the women what their experience of our prisoners was and it seems that the one that is helping us was one of the better ones, so we allowed him to go free. I had already promised to do so if he helped us – but we could have let him go and allowed them to exact some vengeance had they wished to do so. We could also have let him go with nothing – but instead we bandaged his wounds and gave him several day’s food. If he is sincere about making an honest living it should be possible for him to start over. Apparently some of the bandits were coerced into service by the leader. There is nothing we can do about that now – but maybe worth bearing in mind for the future – perhaps we should try harder to make enemies surrender and patch them up after each fight. It is a quandary for certain for if we had done so we would now be lumbered with many prisoners who would ultimately be taken to Tharbad and tried and most likely executed anyway since banditry carries the death penalty.

No sign of Aflith – I hope they are OK.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 22, cold, overcastAflith arrived during the night. They had made good time and were over half way to Sarn Ford without any trouble when he left them. Gudbrand sent his greetings and thanks.

It was quite a struggle to get the fully laden wagons 5 miles across country and over the ford to the road. It took us all morning, but we managed. The people of Gwaelin still seem stunned and afraid to look at you, but the four women we freed are already much recovered and came out to welcome us. I wanted to hurry on but we ended up staying for over an hour meeting people and helping in small ways. I was struck again by how few young men there are here – I guess they were given only three choices – join, die or run away.

We passed two groups of people on the road in the afternoon – I was surprised given the bandit trouble but maybe the news of their demise has already travelled ahead of us.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 23, cold, overcastArrived back in Tharbad at mid-afternoon to cheers and clapping in the streets as all the workers stopped to see us go by – the news of our victory beat us here and may have also been exaggerated, but a convoy of 6 fully laden wagons has not been seen here for many months. The Dwarves and Geralt were driving wagons, but Lily, Lóthiniel and Mírwen and I made the most of it by walking ahead waving and laughing and greeting everyone. Lóthiniel went into bard mode and sang a ballad that told of our great victory over the bandits while Mírwen and I danced along with some of the women we freed and tiny Lily did cartwheels and somersaults down the centre of the street. It was like a travelling fair coming into town - quite ridiculous, but fun and particularly good publicity for us – I could not have scripted it better if I had deliberately arranged it.

Haladan was expecting us and we did some serious bartering over rewards and prices. His starting point being that he had offered no reward and everything we recovered was stolen goods and should be returned to its rightful owners. I didn’t agree of course, since its rightful owners were probably mostly dead because people generally don’t pay for goods before they arrive. Rather than argue law and semantics I preferred to stick to the line that we had done a very great service to the city of Tharbad, Cardolan and to king Elessar and I was sure he would want Halbarad to reward us. This argument brought him up short and in the end we gave him all the horses and wagons, cloth, beer, grain, mead, iron ore and the ordinary weapons and armour in exchange for 500GP (or rather another IOU for 500GP), and for arranging safe transport to Cilbar-Estel for any of the women who wish to go as well as the two tapestries a create of better weapons and the chest full of coins.

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Dunland PoliticsFo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 24, freezing, clear blue skyA beautiful but freezing cold spring morning - Mírwen and I went for a walk together like ordinary people – well actually not so much until we got out of Tharbad because everywhere we went in town it felt like people were looking at us or pointing us out and talking about us. Nevertheless a nice, restful morning.

In the afternoon, a short meeting with Haladan to discuss the next task – opening the South road that leads across Dunland to Rohan and Gondor. Haladan really does not know why no supplies are getting through. He wants us to start by going to Palomirë, a Dúnedain who owns large tract of land in Northern Dunland on the old south road about 55 miles from Tharbad. Some say that to survive in Dunland his family “went native” but Haladan says they remained true to the Dúnedain when it counted. They had to leave their estate during the war but returned immediately afterwards and during King Elessar’s negotiations to obtain safe passage across Dunland, Palomirë’s contacts with the Feargan clan leadership were hugely important. Hopefully Palomirë will have ideas about what is going on and if not will be able to introduce us to those in Dunland who might help us for the sake of maintaining good relations with Gondor. So that’s all we know. Tomorrow we ride for Palomirë’s estate.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 25, freezing, snowingI can’t believe it was snowing! We had to ride extremely hard to cover 55 miles in those conditions in one day. One good thing – we didn’t meet any trouble on the road. We made it to Palomirë’s estate before dark – I was worried they would not let us in if we didn’t even with the letter of introduction Haladan gave us. Palomirë welcomed us as if we were the answer to his prayers and we soon found out why – his daughter has been abducted – he believes by the Temple of Justice – the leaders of an evil cult that call themselves the Daen Iontis – meaning “Dispossessed” or “wronged” people. Their ultimate aim is to retake their lands from the Rohirrim and the Dúnedain but their immediate aim is to defeat the Daen Coentis – meaning “Skilled” people who wish to return to an even older time before the Dúnedain arrived but more importantly (to us) to live in cooperation and peace with those around them. The Daen Iontis are the same cult that collaborated with and followed Saruman in the war of the ring. Their army was destroyed and they lost the support of most of the clans but they were never broken because they accepted peace after Saruman’s fall and the destruction of Isengard by the Ents. Their high priest is once again gathering support amongst the clans and inciting them to persuade or force the Daen Coentis into submission.

No ransom has been requested but he believes they sacrifice captives to their evil Gods. The likely next ceremony would be the Summer Solstice – the first day of Cerveth, so hopefully we have plenty of time.

The temple is about 120 miles West of here as the crow files. We talked deep into the night as he showed us maps and explained more of the politics of the main 15 tribes of Dunland to us.

He offered us 600 gold to save his daughter (or even 100 to retrieve her body) and the help of ten of his retinue of guards. I couldn’t bring myself to try to bargain him up and of course we accepted despite the apparent hopelessness of the situation.

He urged us to go and see his main contact - Enion, the Chieftain of clan Feargan (the largest clan, by some regarded as the leaders, who are currently neutral in the conflict). Larach Duhnnan, their clan hold, is the largest town in Dunland and is less than 30 miles further South-East where the Old South road crosses the river Dunstrem. He still hopes Enion might be persuaded to help although he already made representations to him and was turned away.

Had I realised we would be going to such a large town I would have brought a horse loaded with stuff to sell rather than sending it all back to Cilbar-Estel – oh well, it’s too late now.

He also suggested we talk to Elharian, a half Dunish-half Dúnedain astrologer who lives in Larach Duhnnan and who deals in information but is meticulously careful to remain neutral.

He hastily wrote a letter of introduction that he hopes will get us in to see Enion.

We were well looked after at Palomirë’s estate.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 25, freezing, light cloud.We arrived in Larach Duhnnan in the mid afternoon and (having been warned by Palomirë’s mento avoid the Bloody Axe tavern because it is frequented by Daen Iontis supporters (who don’t like foreigners and particularly hate Dúnedain), we made our way to the Golden Goat Inn where Geralt took a shine to the owner’s very pretty daughter

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but got burned – he didn’t even manage to get her name. Lóthiniel (who makes anyone seem plain in comparison) rescued him by going over and fawning over him and we all had to hide our laughter at the expression on the young woman’s face. We enquired after Enion at the Chieftain’s tower but were told to come back in the morning. We decided not to go to Elharian as trading information with such a man that plays both sides could be dangerous – if we ask about the Temple and someone else goes to him and pays to know what we asked. Anyone can know that we arrived with Palomirë’s men but we don’t want anyone to guess at what we intend to do.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 26, cold, cloudy.We left Rothbar, Toki, Loki and Geralt behind as they don’t go in for politics and negotiations much. The rest of us had a good breakfast and then left early for our meeting. Enion did not keep us waiting when we arrived - we were ushered into the Chieftain’s tower immediately although they made us leave our weapons at the door. Having dispensed with the introductions and pleasantries and listened to the request for help that we brought from Palomirë, there was a long silence. It seemed that he was weighing up whether to take a risk with us. I could see Lóthiniel fidgeting and fighting the urge to use her doe eyes on him. We waited in silence until at last he asked if there was any oath we could swear to not divulge anything he was going to say. This we all did freely and honestly and I sensed him relax a little – only a little, but he proceeded to explain his political situation.

He might be clan chieftain, but his views are by no means in the majority in the clan, and he must take the clan with him of lose his position. He is very opposed to the Daen Iontis, partly because of their religion, but even more so because they would provoke war with Rohan – and thereby with Gondor – and he believes that could only end in disaster for his people. Tharbad and the Rohan garrisons might seem weak now while the King is away in the South fighting the Haradrim, but he has no doubt that Gondor and Rohan would eventually prevail. He is determined to avoid such a war. But he is also determined to avoid a clan war. He needs to weaken the Daen Iontis faction and sees the Temple of Justice as the central force behind Daen Iontis power and so also the key to weakening and eventually defeating the Daen Iontis faction. He cannot openly move against them without provoking a clan war which has to be avoided until he can unite more clans (including his own) against Daen Iontis. There are all sorts of hushed rumours that the Temple of Justice and the Daen Iontis are involved in all sorts of nefarious activities designed to raise support, promote their religion and raise money to pay for war. Anything that can weaken the Temple of Justice or to find evidence of their evil and malice in order to persuade the undecided clans away from them would win us influence and friendship with Daen Coentis clans and any that are persuaded to join them. He seemed to be offering more work and no help. He gave these examples, none of which he could give us any material leads.

- Drug smugglers are shipping drugs to Gondor down the Dunstrom and Gwathlo.- Disappearances being reported in the North- Attacks on trade caravans on the old South road- Raids on Rohan lands

One thing he can give us is a plan of the 1st and 2nd levels of the Temple of Justice including the location of the Prison where Palomirë’s daughter is probably being held.

Finally he came to his immediate problem:

Clan Treforn has brought a tribe of Drüedain to live in Caedh Wood over the last few years. Their existence in the woods was revealed to few outside of clans Treforn. Roth. and Ewen. The Arailt have recently heard a rumour of this and the Chieftain of clan Treforn, Aonghas, has sent word to Enion that he has good reason to believe that a small party of Arailt warriors, along with Priests from the Temple of Justice are planning to raid the Caedh Wood, with the objective of killing every one of them. Aonghas has asked Enion for help in the matter.

Should the Arailt succeed in their purpose, clan Treforn would have to retaliate with clans Ewen and Roth. Madoc, Dobec, Ruadh, Sonmar, Eogbann. and Colgar would probably join in on their respective sides and a clan war would follow and clan Feargan might split in two, some supporting one side and some the other.

Should Enion intercede and stop the raiding party, then he would have declared itself and clan Feargan would face an internal struggle even as the Arailt retaliated and a similar war would start almost immediately.

If Clan Treforn rides in force against the raiding party, the Temple of Justice will accuse them of persecuting its priests with the same end result; war.

The only bid for peace available to Enion is for us, since we are not clansmen, to intercept the Arailt raiding party and stop them from killing the Drüedain. He stressed that at least one or two of the raiding party must be allowed to

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escape in order to convey the message to clan Arailt and the Temple that their attackers were not clans-men. Of course that will mean that our descriptions will be known and all the Daen Iontis clans will be looking for revenge.

Apart from his friendship, Enion will give us an old Dúnedain dwelling in northern Dunland, the land around it, and 50 horses if we succeed. I am not sure what we will do with such a reward, especially if half Dunland is determined to kill us, but his needs so obviously fall in line with ours that I agreed at once. We are natural allies – we clearly need the Daen Iontis destroyed in order to save Tharbad – It would be the first place to fall if they were to win the leadership over the Dunlending clans.

I asked Enion if he thought it would be wise to ask Elharian for information and he gave a very decisive no it would be most unwise as he would likely sell all the information he gained from us. It would become a race against time before our enemies guess our plans.

The key to defeating the Daen Iontis must be, as Palomirë suggested, the destruction of the Temple of Justice. As luck would have it we know where some of their priests will be very soon and they will be protected only by a small raiding party – We must capture at least one of them and pry out of them more information about the Temple – the layout of the higher levels, locks, traps, numbers and rotas of guards, the location of the high priest’s chambers etc.

We left hurriedly for the Arailt raiders might attack any day now and it is a good 2 days ride (100 miles) to the Caedh Wood. The snow has melted and now the roads will no doubt turn to mud in due course, but for now the softer ground made it easier for the horses.

The Drúedain of the woodsFo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 27, chilly, cloudy.Spring is here at last, so warm I took my coat off outside for the first time since leaving home. We saw only wildlife on the road today – no Dunlendings – that is good, I hope it means we have not been marked by the Daen Iontis yet. Towards evening we slowed down as we entered the woods and sent Lily, Swiper and Aflith ahead to try to find the Drúedain – we didn’t want to alarm them with 20 heavily armoured mercenaries suddenly appearing in their midst. They spoke Westron in a halting fashion, intermingled with their own guttural words when the correct word eluded them. We told them of the expected attack and that we had come to help and they took us to a clearing where we could camp for the night. Tomorrow they will bring Rhân-Guri-Rhân to us. I am not sure if that is a name or a title. The village is small – probably no more than 40 Drúedain and I saw only seven fighting men, though they were hard to spot in the trees.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 28, chilly, raining.Rhân-Guri-Rhân arrived mid-morning by which time we had packed our camp and were impatiently pacing too and fro worrying lest the raiding party arrive before we could speak to him. He greeted us with a bow almost to the ground. He indicated we should sit and we did so while he squatted on his haunches. We explained all that we knew and he listened intently. Finally he said simply “Imagine not we defenceless, but we accept you help drive away bad men with bright iron.” With that he stood and beckoned us to bring our horses and follow him. “Come we go see wise man, find out more.” He led us Southwards away from the village. After a while I became impatient to know where he was taking us. At the speed he was walking, Rothbar and Toki were unable to keep up and we were rapidly getting strung out along the path. He seemed to sense my irritation. “We go south … big village … big walk … big hurry yes?”. I got the point – he was quite aware of the danger and the need for speed. The big walk took us into the afternoon to reach the big village - only slightly larger. They were clearly expecting us when we got there. Again we were shown a suitable place where we could leave the horses and make our camp. Rhân-Guri-Rhân held up three surprisingly log and agile fingers “One, two, three, come. Rest stay” and he hurried off, looking back and beckoning for us to hurry. Unable to pick three without causing trouble, I followed, hoping the others would decide for themselves, but Mírwen, Lily, Ragnar and Lóthiniel all followed! Rhân-Guri-Rhân led us to one of the small, squat circular stone huts that made up the village and turned. He looked puzzled and counted on his fingers “1,2,3,4,5 is not three no five is not three”, but he turned and bade us follow him in. The hut was bright and colourful inside but very low (Even Ragnar had to stoop) and it was quite a squeeze for five of us to join Rhân-Guri-Rhân and five other Drúedain inside. I felt very embarrassed as they all had to shift up to make room. I’m afraid their names (or titles) were only said once quickly and in their low guttural voices and I did not take them in or wish to embarrass myself further by asking them to repeat their introductions. I was then asked to repeat all that I had told Rhân-Guri-Rhân, and this took some time for they interrupted with discussions in their own language very often. At last all was told and we turned to making plans. The “wise man” will apparently have a dream tonight and then we will know more. I

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know enough of the world now not to be surprised and to hide any doubts, but they clearly thought this quite normal. In the meantime, we helped them to make stakes and twist vines to make traps. Lily and Geralt became very interested (and useful) in the trap building and put all their energies in to helping them, learning from them and in their turn, teaching them too. But by the end of the day, although there was lots of material made, I asked to see where they had laid the completed traps. They looked at me as if was stupid and explained “We don’t know where to put them yet – we need to wait for the wise man.” …Oh, Ok then, of course!

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 29, chilly, light cloud.The wise man had a “good dream”. In it he saw “On cold and cloudy day twenty bad men follow stream north-east in woods”. “Two lead silent and wary”, “Two lead sure and certain”, “All bad, all strong, all bright iron”. A bit cryptic but lots of information if true. It sounds like the river leading to this village and he confirmed that for sure. He could not tell the time of day because of the clouds – but not night and not dawn or dusk, and cloudy – so not today. I hoped it would be fewer than twenty, but we will certainly outnumber them considerably which is good. Not so good they are all strong. Sounds like they have two scouts and two priests. With the knowledge of the direction of attack, Rhân-Guri-Rhân took us down the stream to an excellent site for an ambush where the stream is hard to cross and overlooked by a steep bank and thick trees and undergrowth on one side. The trap builders made themselves busy designing ingenious traps all around and set us to work digging and carrying all day. I made sure that some attention is also given to the other villages’ defences in case the dream turns out wrong or the attackers get diverted elsewhere due to our actions.

Fo.A.4 / Gwirith 1 / 30, chilly, clear.Another beautiful clear spring day, so they aren’t coming today.

The wise man – “Seer” I suppose - confirmed again all that he saw yesterday and a few more vague ideas or feelings. He thinks they already on the way – which likely means they will arrive tomorrow. He saw two Drúedain standing beside each bad man. It could mean we lose two for each one of them or that each of their warriors is worth two of ours – that could be bad – or it could just mean we outnumber them two to one. Either way there is nothing more we can do about it. We unpacked and distributed amongst ourselves the glass vials that we got from the assassins. If we are overmatched this could be a good time to make use of them. Mírwen practiced using Miffli’s staff and has filled it with spells (apparently it can store up to seven). We all agreed that however strong the warriors are we must first take care of the scouts before they reach the ambush site, to stop them from spotting the traps. This means some will have to endanger themselves by attacking the scouts and then slipping away before they can be caught. Our second objective must be to incapacitate the priests – I stress incapacitate as we must capture them alive if at all possible.

All is now made ready – we have been lucky that the time has been given us to prepare.

Fo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 1, cold, cloudy.Woke up to a cold and cloudy day – exactly as the seer foretold. We hurried to get in position and Aflith flew to the edge of the woods and promptly flew back with the news that there are indeed twenty men five miles away coming up the stream. Two are scouting ahead and two of those following wear black robes with red and gold trim and their hair is short and bleached white. The rest carry axe and shield and wear leather jerkins. None wear helmets. I must put this journal away and prepare now.

Lily, Lóthiniel and I went to our preprepared hiding places to attempt to take out the scouts. Lily’s first shot took one scout through the neck and he died with a gurgle and a spray of blood unable to cry out and Lóthiniel hit the second scout in the leg. Bleeding badly, he called out, but before he managed to dive behind a tree, they both managed to get a second arrow off. Lily added a second arrow in his leg but Lóthiniel’s hit him in the neck and his cry was cut off short. Meanwhile I badly mishandled my bow and stood there fumbling about and stunned at my total ineptness. Lily pulled me away and we three ran as the warriors responded to the call. It took them some moments to find their scouts lying dead in the forest undergrowth by which time we were gone. Part 1 of our plan had succeeded perfectly.

We three quickly moved up the stream to our main ambush site. Here we had twenty Drúedain up in the trees on both sides of the stream in a line facing the stream, Palomirë’s men blocking the way to the village behind a series of traps, and hidden behind trees and bushes with Rhân and a Drúedain stone-master who had animated the village’s Pukel man, like a stone Golem, which looked extremely formidable. We were on the ground hidden amongst the trees and bushes on the east bank. The whole ambush resembled a horseshoe shape. When the foremost raiders set

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off (or spotted) the first trap, Mírwen was to blow her horn and all with missile weapons would come out of hiding and shoot. Everyone with a view of the two priests was to concentrate on them. Only if the Arailt advanced to attack or were weakened or fleeing would we join in melee. Our plan was cautious considering the odds were 2:1 in our favour, but these were likely hand-picked elite warriors of the tribe and two high ranking priests, so we did not wish to take any chances. Since we have to go straight on to attack the temple of Justice to rescue Palomirë’s daughter, it wouldn’t do for us to take any serious injuries.

They advanced quickly on the east side of the stream where slope was easier, four abreast and just a few feet apart which suited our trap perfectly. Two were twenty feet ahead of the rest and the priests were protected in the centre, but as we had a small height advantage, it was still possible to shoot them. As the first two neared the traps I snuck out behind the whole group to cut off their escape – the trap was shut.

The first two blundered right into a net trap that hoisted them up. One was hopelessly ensnared with both arms entangled and pinned to his chest. The second broke loose but was spun around and disorientated for a moment. Mírwen blew the horn and darts and arrows began to fly at them. I nailed a warrior in the back and he fell, and I saw another fall with at least 3 Drúedain darts in him. The Arailt warriors recovered from their surprise quickly and, ignoring the darts and arrows coming from the woods either side and with paying no heed to their injured or fallen comrades, charged forwards in an attempt to break out of the back of the trap. This was unexpected and so furious was their onslaught that I dropped my bow and ran after them, fearing lest Palomirë’s men and Rhân might be overwhelmed before we could come to their aid. They were slowed by the traps - one hung limply by his neck from a net trap while another was frantically trying to get his shield out of a net as I charged up behind him drawing my sword. Part of my mind was shrieking that Mírwen was caught up in their onslaught but then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a berserk Swiper disembowelling a screaming warrior, and Loki and Ragnar dodging their way through the traps in hot pursuit of the tribesmen and I knew she would be OK. The man before me took 4 darts from Druedain blowguns before giving up on his shield and dropping it – just as I reached him and struck him in the back and a second time in the head. The unfortunate fool expired in a heap. As I ran on through the traps I saw that over on my right the Pukel Man, Loki and Rothbar were advancing slowly, straight ahead the temple priests were casting dark stunning spells and had already stunned Aflith and Ragnar, but on my left, two of Palomirë’s men were defending desperately and would surely go down soon - I had to go to their aid and hope that someone else would take care of the priests – but at that moment a Priest turned to me and cast his dark stunning – I felt the horror of it pass through me, but somehow shrugged it off and swung across and down at the two warriors ahead. Miraculously it severed the spine of one and the leg of the other and they both collapsed. As I turned to face the next, Ragnar recovered and crushed a priest like a bug – “take them alive” I shouted. Only 6 remained standing – barely – 4 were severely wounded and one suffering from the nerve poison. They were surrounded and assailed from all sides now and they should have surrendered, but they fought on desperately. With a shout of “oh crap sorry”, Lily opened an artery in the remaining priest’s leg and he fell, rapidly creating a large pool of blood. Loki struck another Warrior down from behind and Swiper launched himself off the falling body to sink his jaws into the neck of the next. The man fell screaming, only stopping when Swiper’s teeth cut out his windpipe. Rothbar smashed through the shield of another and practically cut him in half and finally, I slashed the weapon arm of the last warrior and he was unable to fight on.

We were too far from the village to fetch the healer quickly, so it was up to our first aid skills to save any of the fallen that we could. Mírwen managed to save the priest that Lily made a hole in and Lóthiniel and I patched up 3 of the warriors. Meanwhile Palomirë’s men who had acquitted themselves extremely well under pressure, helped each other as seasoned soldiers will naturally. Four of them in particular had taken quite a beating – but they were all still standing - nothing broken and nothing that would not heal quite quickly with rest. In all 6 warriors and 2 priests survived. But one priest and one warrior may be paralyzed for life so I am not sure that saving them was much of a kindness. The warrior is already begging to be allowed to die in battle.

Not wanting to show them the village, or their numbers, the Drúedain drew back and left the prisoners to us, although Rhân, the Seer and the healer joined us to help. Both priests had lost a lot of blood and were unconscious, but the healer was able to bring them both around.

All of the Drúedain seem to have an uncanny ability to tell whether someone is lying, but the Seer has this ability in spades and has mind visions which can read surface thoughts and force truthful answers to boot. Lóthiniel also has Bard’s Lore spells that can do similar things. All this, together with the information we already had from Enion, my own interrogation and persuasion skills and some mood magic from Mírwen, has enabled us to get a comprehensive map of the temple, the guard patrol routes, meal times, ceremony time and guard changing times. We didn’t even

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have to promise to spare their lives. I think these men expect to be killed or disgraced forever for their failure anyway. I guess that’s why they fought on even after their position became hopeless. The priests are far worse than Orcs who have little choice for it is in their nature, but these men chose their path through their own minds and actions. Some of their unspeakable acts, the Seer uncovered during the interrogation but even more freely told as they are proud of their ‘achievements’. We have no authority here as this is Dunlending land, so no legitimate trial is possible, and they are too steeped in their evil religion with its human sacrifices to think that they might reform. In all conscience, I cannot set the priests free for fear of the further harm they might do – they must be slain.

It is done. I gave the paralyzed warrior his wish too. We have taken the priests’ temple robes in case they might be useful, but with their distinctive hair, such a disguise will not survive much scrutiny. I have asked Rhân to keep the warriors here for a day after we leave, to give us a head start and make them go back the way they came. The healer has given Palomirë’s men some Aloe herb which will help them to healing more quickly. Before we departed, the Stone-master returned and gave us a miniature stone Pukel-Man about 3 inches tall for helping them. It can reduce and area of stone to gravel once a day – useful for building passages, or getting through stone doors that wont open – but it makes a huge noise of course. He showed Mírwen how to use it too.

We moved our camp near to the northern edge of the woods for a quick departure tomorrow morning. Barring mishap, we should get close to the temple before sundown tomorrow.

A Sacrifice for JusticeFo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 2, chilly, raining.Not long after setting out we saw some warriors on the road but they were fewer in number than us and I think from Roth (Daen Coentis supporters), and (maybe thanks to the rain) not inclined to challenge us. We saw nothing else all morning and despite the rain we made good time going North on the road. Ten miles from the Temple of Justice we turned east off the road, into the hills surrounding the Temple in order to come to it from the North without being spotted. Here is was hilly and much slower going and we were frequently forced to dismount. It was dark before we made it to the Temple, but we were able to find a hidden dell less not much more than a mile of the Temple. We are now resting until after midnight when we hope to catch them in their sleep.

1. Rescue Palomirë’s daughter, Kireil. 2. Kill the High Priest, Maben and search his rooms for evidence against Daen Iontis.3. Kill as many of the ten priests as possible.4. Destroy the temple and all inside: 36 Acolytes, 8 Officers, 80 Temple Guards

Just a small undertaking!

Whether successful or not, we will have to ride out rapidly so I am not sure when I will be able to write again. Wish me luck!

We left Palomirë’s men at the camp, before midnight, climbed the hill behind the temple and came down the pathway undetected, to the doors below the horns of the Temple. The Temple is made from a dark granite and is formed into the shape of a huge stylized bulls head. All seemed quiet and deserted. After checking for traps, Loki was able to pick the lock on the door easily and quietly. We had made it inside without any mishap! Aflith then flew back to the camp to fetch Palomirë’s men and lead them and the horses quietly to the back of the temple at ground level with the horses. Meanwhile, we slipped inside into the top floor of the temple. A corridor with two rooms either side. We could hear no sounds from either room, so slipped into the left hand room quietly, one by one until each stood over a sleeping Acolyte. Mírwen made good use of a magic torch, first obtained by Lily and Loki from Manor Ranoran in Tharbad, and then found again at the assassins’ hideout. She put in inside a thin bag so that it gave off a soft, dim light and pointed it at the ceiling to provide just enough light without being likely to wake anyone. At the same time she held a sleep spell ready just in case. Toki and Rothbar stood watch in the dark corridor outside. The thick granite floors made it impossible that anything would be heard on another floor. I wont go into the gory details of how each died, but Geralt failed to kill outright, so Mírwen had to use her sleep spell to keep him from waking, which showed signs of not working too well, so Lily quickly rectified the matter with a deftly thrown dagger. On to the next room. This time it was Lily who did not manage to despatch her man, and he also resisted Mírwen’s spell, he managed one feeble shout before Lily cut his throat. We all froze and listened. Not a sound. We quickly filed out and entered the priests’ room. There were 4 here so we split ourselves up – 2 on each and Mírwen holding the light.

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They never woke up. As Lily listened outside the next door, she could hear someone moving about. I pointed to the stairs and we quietly made our way down them to the next level rather than risk it. Killing Acolytes is not one of our main objectives. Creeping into the High priest’s private chambers was nerve racking. We were surprised to find them unlocked. The room was decorated in a morbid style with tapestries and paintings depicting the deaths of people in gruesome ways. A large desk and a chest caught my eye but more so the bed in which the high priest slept. A staff leaning beside the bed and a dagger in a scabbard belt on a clothes horse with his priestly robes. All was neat and tidy and set in order. Loki, Ragnar and I surrounded him and struck without delay. Ragnar severed one of his legs, while Loki and I made a bloody mess of his head. Before we started to search the room, Mírwen cast a reveal magic spell and found that there were at least two high level magical symbol traps - one in the desk and one on the wall behind a tapestry– and probably more. Armed with this knowledge we were able to search the room carefully without setting them off. Loki opened the chest to reveal that it was full to the top with gold coins – he shut the lid and whispered “Were rich!”. Rothbar found a secret drawer in the desk and Loki was needed again to open it. Inside was a whole sheaf of documents which Rothbar was able to extract from the drawer without setting off the symbol trap. Meanwhile, Lily had found the secret door to the back stairway down to the cells but we weren’t ready for that yet – the next task would be to take out the guards at the front and let Palomirë’s men in so that they could take care of the guards on the ground floor in case the alarm is raised – we had been lucky so far but had escaped by a hair’s breadth at least twice. Leaving all the things we had found in the high priest’s room, we stole through the High Chapel where daily services for the priests and acolytes were held by Maben. We paused to prepare at the next door, knowing there would be two guards on the other side. Mírwen prepared a sleep spell, Geralt knocked his best arrow and Lóthiniel and I were to quietly open the double doors and make sure falling men or weapons did not make a noise, while Loki and Lily slipped silently through to kill. Despite our precautions, everything seemed to go wrong. The sleep spell didn’t work, Lily fumbled her Rapier and Loki failed to get a clean kill. Geralt, however, made no mistake and Lily rectified her own mistake with the dagger in her left hand. Lóthiniel tumbled forwards caught a falling pole arm and broke the fall of one man, and I grabbed the other. A bit of a panic and a scuffle, but we got away with it. Knowing there were guards around the corners of the two corridors, I signalled for Ragnar, Rothbar, Loki, Toki to go one way and the rest of us the other way. This time there were no mistakes and we all appeared back at the top of the main stairs moments later.

Now for the most difficult manoeuvre of all – In the entry hall below we expected to find 5 guards and an officer: 2 at the stairs, 2 at the doors to the Main Chapel and 2 at the entrance (the mouth of the bull). There was less need for silence here as the thick granite walls of the entrance chamber would stop most sounds from penetrating but if any should get to a door, there were . I had already signalled to Aflith from the eye for him to bring Palomirë’s men around ready to attack the 2 guards outside the entrance and immediately enter at the first sound of trouble. Ragnar now took the Dwarves around and down the secret back stair to the Main Chapel to attack from there. Mírwen, Lily and Lóthiniel returned to the eye take out the 2 guards at the entrance and Geralt and I waited on the stairs for the Dwarves to open the door to the Chapel – which we could just see from the top of the last flight of stairs. Mírwen put one guard to sleep and Lily took the other out with an arrow through the side of his head. Then Palomirë’s men moved up to the entrance ready to attack as soon as they heard a sound. When the Dwarves came through the Chapel doors there was a flurry of blows and all 6 remaining guards were dead or dying before they could get react. As planned, Palomirë’s men immediately set about (quietly) barricading the doors to the barracks with benches from the Chapel, throwing oil on them and adding curtains and hangings and anything else flammable. I think few of the Temple guards on the ground floor will have escaped. Leaving them to this work and telling them to light the fire as soon as they were ready and meet us at the exit with the horses, we returned to the second floor via the back stairs to the prison. Ragnar opened the door with the key and we stood in tiers with bows drawn, but it was not needed for Mírwen put both guards straight to sleep. First we found and freed Kireil, Palomirë’s daughter. She appeared to have been treated reasonably well (Lily noticed they had not even taken her earrings). Asked if she could ride, she rolled her eyes. Lily and Loki got busy picking all the locks and as they released each prisoner we gave them a quick interrogation to find out who they claimed to be. Lóthiniel was able to catch any lies and we soon identified them. Two were guards guilty of some minor infraction – we bound their hand and gagged them and brought them along. The rest readily agreed to be silent and follow our orders and we made our way up to the High Priest’s chamber. Ragnar, Rothbar, Toki and Mírwen took the loot we had gathered and the prisoners out of the temple to join Palomirë’s men while the rest of us filled the corridors with curtains and hangings and benches from the smaller chapel and threw oil on everything. By now the smoke from below was getting bad so we lit torches and set fire to everything and hastily exited, locking doors and jamming the doors as we left. Having only one horse to spare, we could not take the prisoners we had freed with us so we wished them luck and let them go. Even then we had some repacking to do to accommodate Kireil on the spare horse. We left the two guards behind (tied of course) so that

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they would be witnesses to the fact that this was done in order to rescue Kireil. We watched the temple burn for only a moment before turning our horses to the road. It was tempting to stay and try to cut down anyone escaping from the flames, but with seven possible exits it would be impossible. We did enough damage to them anyway. I doubt that even half of them escaped.

The Smugglers’ HoldFo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 3, cold, raining.We went as fast as we could through the rest of the night with Lóthiniel and the Dwarves leading the way so that those of us who could see less could just follow. Aflith flew ahead of us, but we encountered nothing on the road. As soon as we could we turned into Roth lands as they are aligned with Daen Coentis and therefore much safer for us. Having put a good distance between ourselves and the Temple, we left the road and rested the horses for a short time as we watched the dawn. Lóthiniel is meanwhile using a Language spell to sift through the documents that we found in the High Priest’s desk (mostly written in Dunael). She has found a map showing a location in Sonmar (Daen Iontis) which could be considered on our way.

On the next rest Lóthiniel discovered that the map shows a Dunedain Manor house where illegal herbs (Tartella, Gort and Kirtir) are grown. Twenty years ago the smugglers were sent here by the Temple of Justice to help fund the Daen Iontis and, later, the war against Rohan. They soon found a prime market for their goods in Umbar and later all across Southern Gondor. The herbs are sent to Larach Duhnnan by cart and then by river to Sudiri at the mouth of the Gwathlo. Here they are transferred to ships bound for the South kingdoms. This explains how the High Priest came to have such a hoard of gold and is good evidence that he intended to prepare for war.

We have decided to take a detour to this place and give them the good new. I considered sending Palomirë’s men on at once with his daughter, but we decided that staying together is the safer option for all. It will be dangerous to go through Sonmar but we should still be a day ahead of any news about the temple or the failure of the Arailt raid so I hope will only face their normal hatred of foreigners rather than the hew and cry that will soon follow us.

The cold wet day was unpleasant but at least it seemed to have kept everyone off the roads - We saw no one on the road all day and continued wearily on into the night to stay ahead of any trouble. Just after dark, we passed an unsavoury looking group, but they were only 14 and less well armed than us. I suspect that saved us from any trouble, and had we split up, things might have gone differently. Trouble may come from the encounter since our descriptions will no doubt be given to any that ask. My hope is that they were bandits and unlikely to be talking to large groups of chasing tribesmen. We are resting now within sight of the Smugglers’ hold. We are all tired but we have to do this tonight and escape into Feargan and back to Larach Duhnnan, Palomirë’s Estate and out of Dunland to Tharbad before the hunt is up. I have no doubt any Daen Iontis sympathisers will attack us on sight.

Both Lóthiniel and Mírwen are out of power and have had no chance to properly rest and regain – so we must do without magic. Lóthiniel sees guards atop one tower, but not the other – which looks in poor repair and might be only a shell. This means there must be a portion of the outer wall that the guards in the tower cannot see. We will enter over the wall at that point and see how far we can get before the alarm is raised. I do not wish to risk Palomirë’s men or daughter in this, so they will stay outside the compound. They will try to prevent anyone from escaping from the two entrances. Three of them will move around to the side gate and six will move to the main gate once the alarm is raised. Kireil and one man will remain here with the horses. We will wait just a little longer.

Lily was up and over the 10 foot outer wall in no time and let down a rope to help the rest of us. I thought getting Swiper over would be difficult but he had little difficulty. The trouble with doors is not so much opening them as not knowing what is on the other side. We ignored the outbuildings and headed for a large door facing the main gate. I feared it would be barred, but Loki had it open in a jiffy to reveal two surprised guards staring straight at us as 4 arrows sped straight at them. Lily’s arrow took one in the neck and he died instantly. The second took an arrow in the thigh and took a deep breath to shout when Loki arrived in front of him and he instead held his hands up in fear and surrendered without a sound. We filed in quickly and quietly and Mírwen bandaged his wound silently while, with a few whispered words and gestured he told us what was behind each door. He was most co-operative. We took care of the leader and his wife first. It must have taken Loki two minutes to open the lock but he never made a sound. Both died instantly and silently. Lily stuck the leader through his eye into his brain and Loki impaled his wife in the heart. We moved to the next two rooms. Lily and I made short work of the Daen Iontis man, but Loki and Lóthiniel did not manage to kill his bodyguard in one blow. The man woke and shouted loudly until they both hit him again and his bellow was cut off. Expecting that that would be enough to rouse the whole castle, we gave up trying

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to be stealthy, and rushed into the courtyard to attack. The Dwarves disappeared into the tower and made short work of the guards as they tried to grab their weapons. Most of them surrendered. Lily, Lóthiniel, Geralt and I had a one sided archery duel with the three guards on the top of the tower without them ever scoring a hit. Then we waited. After a short while a door opened, Lily and I immediately engaged the warrior that stepped out and he was getting the worst of it when Ragnar charged out of the tower and with a flying leap at the man split hi helmet and crushed his skull. The woman in the room behind him screamed and backed away – I strode in and she did not stop me taking her by the arm and pulling her out. Another door had opened, but Lóthiniel, Geralt and Swiper had quickly subdued the man inside. I demanded his key, pushed the woman into his room and locked them both in. Now Aflith appeared saying that a young girl and what seemed to be farm hands without weapons were coming from the outbuildings to the door we entered by. All began to move that way when Aflith saw another door open and a woman trying to sneak off in the other direction. Mírwen sent Lily and Loki off after her, leaving Mírwen, Swiper and me to guard all the prisoners. Thanks to the quick actions of Lóthiniel and Ragnar and Palomirë’s men outside the main gate, all the farm hands were caught without a fight. The young girl, however, would not stop and had to be knocked down. Thinking she was not that badly hurt, no one thought to check her wound and she was close to death before the wound stopped bleeding. It was a long time before we heard of Lily and Loki again after they pursued the woman out of the courtyard. I was beginning to worry when Aflith reappeared asking for someone to bring a horse to help them carry the woman back. I had expected Loki to be the one to hunt her down since it was dark and he would have the advantage, but as it turned out he twice failed to climb the 10 foot outer wall and was lucky not to hurt himself, while both the woman and Lily appeared to fly over it. It was Aflith that had mobbed her and scratched and lacerated her head and arms as she ran in the dark until at last she tripped and fell and hit her head in her tumble. All the time Lily had matched her, but had always been unable to strike. Lily and Loki were then able to bandage three bleeding wounds that Aflith had dealt her.

So we have taken the hold. After a short rest we will search it and interrogate the prisoners. Palomirë’s men have brought our horses into the compound and shut the gates.

In the stables they had 7 good horses, and every one of the leaders had something of great value - many good weapons and armour. I think they might have once been an adventuring outfit before they settled down to drug smuggling. They were living the good life here – swimming in luxuries and gold – and still providing huge sums of money to the temple of Justice. We found meticulous records of sales, shipments and payroll for the workers as well as directions to reach a secret harbour at the mouth of the river Gwathlo by barge, and plans for the next shipment to reach the harbour in 9 days. That is the just one day after the Ilmaryen Bandits were aiming for.

Inside a secret vault lay a small chest containing about a thousand gold pieces and a large number of rubies and gems in a jewelled canister.

I acquired a nice set of leather arm and leg greaves and an enchanted helmet which make me much safer from attacks. I am even more glad of Mírwen’s acquisition of a magic armband of protection.

It turns out that the tower they had no guards on is perfectly useable – so that was pretty stupid of them and lucky for us! It may be because they were using the inside of the tower as a storage and drying room for their “herbs”, so it was kept locked. There is a huge store of the herb Tartella and its purified form Tartec here. Mírwen is busy with the Dwarves arranging the tower so that we can burn it all.

Once again the dilemma – what to do with the prisoners – I don’t think any of them are irredeemably evil, but those responsible should be held to account. The questioning did not take as long as I expected – the workers and Cila were most forthcoming. It is In order of (most likely) innocent to guilty:

- 3 servant girls, 13 guards, 10 field labourers – easy – some may not even be aware what the herbs are. They can be set free once we are gone.

- The young girl – Neacal – 14 year old daughter of the two leaders we killed. She is naive but determined and fierce. We obviously cannot kill her or hold her to account, but we have probably created a lifelong bitter enemy.

- Cila – The woman we found with the warrior that Ragnar slew. She was in charge of the serving girls. She plays the part of the dumb mistress well but I think there is more to her. The serving girls have nothing against her though and she was very helpful when questioned. I doubt she was much involved with the drugs anyway, so we will let her go too.

- Iarless – The woman who Lily and Aflith caught. A strikingly beautiful but cold and dangerous Dunlending woman warrior in her mid-thirties. She was in charge of the field labour. She certainly knew what she was doing and was

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the only one to hold out under questioning. I rather admire her loyalty and her attempt to escape, but she cannot be allowed to go free.

- Voronthor – Subdued by Lóthiniel and Geralt’s arrows, Swiper’s growls and seeing the warrior’s head crushed by Ragnar. Probably the leading Dunlending herbalist. He was in charge of the crops, including growing patterns, harvesting and storage as well as being responsible for perfecting the purification techniques for the herbs and the production of Tartec. That such talent should be so misused hurts me though he co-operated with us fully and I have no doubt would seem unusually friendly for a Dunlending if we had met him under other circumstances.

We will attempt to take Iarless and Voronthor with us and hand them over to Enion.

Escape from DunlandFo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 4, cold, cloudy.We left before dawn, setting the herb tower on fire before we left and leaving 28 of them tied up safely in the compound and all the gates bolted from the inside. No doubt the fire will draw attention and they will be rescued shortly even if none of them manage to free themselves. If not, I am sure Enion will send people to investigate anyway.

It took us about 3 hours to reach the Dunstrem river. Just after sunrise I saw an eagle ahead in the sky and called Aflith to come sit with me just in case. Here we found the bridge was occupied by 14 Sonmar tribesmen. There was no telling whether they were there on our account or merely there by chance or a regular patrol, but we took our chances and hoped the prisoners would not risk death at our hands a second time so soon. They did not seem to recognise us, but were immediately suspicious nevertheless. Eight of them blocked the way on the bridge and six more circled around behind us, I went forward to the commander and explained that we are a mercenary company that had been chasing bandits and that two of our number were badly injured and we needed to get them to Larach Duhnnan. Then adding some intimidation, I sat as tall as I could in my saddle and told him he had no reason to detain us and we would cross over their dead bodies if he forced us to. He seemed to weigh the odds for a moment – 14 common tribesmen in leather armour against 20+ mercenaries mostly in chain mail - and then backed off and waived his men away.

We crossed over into Feargan and hurried on. Now we watched over our shoulders for fear of pursuit more than we watched ahead. None came however and we met only merchants and hunters on the road.

We reached Larach Duhnnan well before sunset as the days are getting longer now, and I sent Palomirë’s men off in search of somewhere to stay while we continued to the Chieftain’s tower to see Enion. He received us at once but was not pleased with the fact that we had drawn attention to ourselves by coming to him all together and openly. He soon changed his mind however, when we gave him the news of the destruction of the Arailt raiding party, the Temple of Justice and the smugglers. We handed over our two prisoners and all the documents we had found at the Temple and the smugglers’ hold. (Well, nearly all, for we kept some that Lóthiniel had found that looked interesting – the smugglers’ contacts in Suduri - and some research the High Priest had been doing into some very old documents about the dragon in these parts that he seemed to think might be still in existence). He at once excused himself and began to dictate orders for the leaders of the Feargan clan to be summoned and for all available messengers or fast riders to be fetched (as well as the jailer). After a short while he returned to us and promised the agreed reward, but I asked him to keep it for now and to send messages to Tharbad when it might be safe for us to return. He agreed that was wise and also advised us to suggest to urge Palomirë to vacate his estate for a while as a precaution too. “With the blows you have struck and the evidence you have gathered I hope to unite clan Feargan against the Daen Iontis at last and then we will persuade the other undecided clans to join us. If we act fast enough, a clan war can be avoided, but if not we will persuade enough to our side to prevail. You have done the Dunlending people and your own King a great service. I hope we will meet again in peaceful times.” With that we were ushered out and went in search of Palomirë’s men.

Fo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 5, chilly, cloudy.We made it to Palomirë’s estate before lunch and delivered his daughter safely home as well as all ten of his men. There were all the scenes of great joy and celebration that you might imagine, although more formal than ordinary folk might be. But there was also concern about the news that there could be a clan war and that they should evacuate to Tharbad for a while. We were asked to stay the night and accompany the household to Tharbad in the morning. I was in a hurry to get out of Dunland, but did not feel able to refuse – imagine if we had rescued his

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daughter only to leave a day before him and hear later that the whole family had been slaughtered. Of course we had to stay. We gave each of the ten men that helped us one of the fine daggers that we took from the Acolytes at the Temple. Palomirë gave us the promised 600 gold for rescuing his daughter, but we refused any more for staying a day to escort them to Tharbad. Palomirë sent two fast riders off to Tharbad to prepare somewhere for his household to stay and to give news to Haladan.

Fo.A.4 / Lothron 2 / 6, chilly, cloudy.Palomirë left half his men behind to guard the estate against any small numbers of bandits but told them to keep good watch and to keep their hoses saddled and ready to go and to ride away if large numbers of tribesmen appeared. The rest of us left as soon as we could after sunrise. It was slow and frustrating accompanying the wagons and carts of goods that Palomirë thought it necessary to take and it took us well into the night before we reached Tharbad.

We met one small group of tribesmen on the way but they were of the Ogaron clan that have always been friendly to Palomirë, although their clan does lean towards the Daen Iontis. They passed by without any hint of trouble so I doubt they had yet had news of our exploits.

Coming into Tharbad after dark might have been dangerous a month ago, and persuading the guards to open the gate would have difficult, but we were allowed through without any delay and were asked to attend Haladan at the castle even at such a late hour. Once through the gate, we parted ways with Palomirë and went straight to the castle. Haladan, of course, wished to hear all the news, and our opinions on what would happen next and how long it would be before the road was again open. Our answers were not all he might have hoped, and far from certain, but all that could be done has been done and now we must wait and hope for the Dunlendings to put their country to rights.

Having heard the news, Haladan bade us rest and return to him tomorrow to discuss the next steps. He also handed us a letter that arrived from Doris yesterday requesting the aid of Councillor and Seer (Rothbar and Mírwen) or myself to make the most of an opportunity – many of our new people are looking for a sign and guidance from the Valar, and with our help she believes we could make good use of this and the news of the blessing of the Valar might travel and bring people To Rhudaur. Loki, Toki and Geralt are sceptical that there is any merit in this, but Mírwen abd Rothbar are torn. It is at least 6 days’ hard ride each way and 10-14 days of preparation for arranging a ceremony. So that means a months delay to any further help we could give to Haladan or going on without them. I like to think she does not want to be separated for a month too. I will wait to see what Haladan has to say before making a decision.

Enclosed within the letter from Doris is a second letter – this one from Mother. She is preparing to leave. All the household (such as it is) and a few other neighbours will set out for Rhudaur as soon as they get word from me. Knowing it will take a while for letters to go to and fro she is planning to leave at the beginning of next month. My mother is not a great one for writing but it was a long letter by her standards full of memories of my father and lost dreams of the place she made her home with him and brought me up. It made me want to ride to her at once. She did not mention it, but I know that they would be safer on the road with an escort. Tomorrow I must find someone I can trust to provide one.

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