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And now for something completely different...
Back to the story of our heroes...
Ordinary life
After being rewarded by Glóin for the successful mission to save the dwarves, time went rather quick as our heroes returned to their daily life.
Eiirik used his newly found contacts among the dwarves of Erebor to deal better prices on jewelry to be sold to the Elves of Mirkwood, and Miriel ran several delivery runs down to the elven kingdom with shipments.
Gorm went back to Dale and his blacksmith business, and spend some of his money to learn new and better ways to harden the steel and to make new alloys. He also teamed up with one of the most known smiths in Dale to expand their market.
Lomund decided his time as a roving Warden of the woods was over and he bought a small house close to Gorm's smithy, and worked with Gorm, mostly running the bellows to keep the fire really hot.
Funhir was busy being a father of triplets and Flói went back to his day to day business in Erebor as a guardsman.
But there was also time for happy reunions at he Singing Minstrel, where the fellowship met from time to time when they were in town. Gorm and Lomund often came down from Dale with shipments of weapons, mostly swords, that were sold to the Lake Town watchmen.
Miriel decided to take to toughest military training that existed in the elven kingdom as she was asking around to try to enlist for the toughest among the toughest, the Elven Security forces, specially trained soldiers responsible for the security of the Kingdom.
She outran everyone on the obstacle course, men and women, and she showed everyone that she had an iron will.
To be continued...
Gorm's business is really blooming
As Gorm now had invested in knowledge about alloys and hardening techniques to perfect his swords even more, orders came from both the town watch in Dale, the town watch in Lake Town and from merchants who wanted to sell the swords on other markets as well. Lomund worked with Gorm, not as a smith but as a bellow blower, to keep the hearth hot.
They worked long days from early morning till late evenings and each sword was carefully tested and individually adjusted for balance. Everything in the process was carefully handled, hut at the end they could deliver several swords a week. This was not mass produced cast Orc choppas, this was crafted swords for swordsmen with the skills to appreciate and fully use a balanced sword.
Once a month they took a boat down to Lake Town to deliver swords, meet Eirik and Miriel. They also made journeys Erebor to deal with the dwarves and say hi to Flói and Funhir.
To be continued...
Lomund is settling in
Lomund decided to buy himself a house as his days as a rowing warden of the woods now was over. He had revenged his loss, and it was time to move on in life. He found a small cottage with thatched roof outside the town walls of Dale, but just right outside. The house was sold by G & Alf, a local merchant specializing in selling properties. The house was party rebuilt after the Dragon's attack five years ago, but the former owner, a woodcutter recently died from pneumonia, and the his two sons moved into the army barracks as both joined the town watch as regulars.
Lomund, being not the tidiest of men, realized that he really needed someone to look after the house when he was away working, and someone that could keep him company, but he felt he wasn't ready to commit to love, his heart was still not fully mended. He hired a young girl as his maid and housekeeper, the beautiful Valdis. Valdis was orphaned during the war five years ago and had been living with her aunt. She was just sixteen years old but her heart was hardened from the life as an orphan.
She was a little shy when Lomund showed her the cottage, but when Lomund said that she got her own room in the right wing, far off from where he was sleeping, she realized that Lomund was a good man, or boy, as he was only five years older than her, and he was an adventurer and good looking.
The days passed and Lomund worked with Gorm and in the evenings Valdis and Lomund played cards at the dining table eating cabbage soup or turnip stew with occasional rabbits that he hunted. Valdis enjoyed spring and she had helped her aunt in the garden and she made a little vegetable and herb garden.
To be continued...
Finishing a shipment of swords
Alfrim, the blacksmith that Gorm started to work with, used his skills for the final hardening of the swords by using the secret trick of pig urine to force more carbon into the outer surface of the blade. Gorm used his swordsman skills to sharpen the swords to perfection, while Lomund tirelessly kept spinning the grinder.
They worked like this, one week of smithing, one week of grinding, week after week. Spring turned to summer, and summer turned to autumn. In the end of August, they had enough swords to go down to Lake Town again to sell them at the market and deliver some special orders from some sword masters who had special requests for their swords.
To be continued...
An autumn picnic
Eirik and Miriel decided it was time to get out of town, if just for a day. The constant smell of seaweed and dead fish could tire even the most stubborn Lake Town citizen. Eirik decided that his wife Helga should join as he knew that Helga would not allow him to spend a nice fall day with only the company of the beautiful Miriel. The three packed some food and took the horses and rode across the bridge connecting Lake Town with the land.
They rode for a couple of hours along the trade route up to a little hill where some beautiful waterfalls were running. The just sat in the sun, talking about different things, enjoying the peace and fresh air.
When they had eaten a lunch of bread with honey and some dried meat, suddenly the silence was disturbed by the voice of a young boy who came rushing out from the forest along the road.
– "Help! Please help me! They will hurt father! The guards will hurt father! Please!"
They spark of adventure lit in the eyes of Eirik and Miriel, and Eirik told Helga to stay and then Miriel and Eirik rushed down to the boy. He pointed at the forest road and said: – "Please hurry, they hurt father". Eirik and Miriel rushed along the old road and into the forest.
To be continued...
Bandits
Eirik and Miriel didn't have to run long before they came to an opening where they saw four loaded ponies and four men. Three of the men were wielding short swords and were surrounding the fourth man, who was holding a branch as an improvised club and was looking very scared.
Eirik shouted "What's going on here?", where Miriel was a little tougher and she put an arrow in the string shouted "Drop your weapons!".
One of the armed men, named Kelmund, turned and faced Eirik and Miriel and shouted back "Get out of here, this is none of your business.". Miriel aimed a little lower and released the arrow and it hit the ground one inch in front of Kelmunds foot. Kelmund looked up and shouted to his friends, "She's an elf!", and Miriel just calmy replied with another arrow on the string "I said drop your weapons!".
Jonar, the leader of bandit band had now realized what was going on and shouted "C'mon lads, let's get out of here." and the three med hurried away into the woods.
The fourth man, still standing with a branch in his hands looked at Eirik and Miriel and shouted "Thank you! Thank you so much kind friends. My name is Baldor, and I'm a merchant and I had hired these three men in Lake Town to be my guards and escort. Have you seen Belgo my son? O, there you are son! Come here!" The young boy rushes to his father and gives him a big hug.
Baldor now said "Can you please help me to get safely back to Lake Town, I need to find another team of guards."
Eirik now recognized the merchant, he was very rich before the Dragon burnt Lake Town and turned his warehouse into ashes. He asked Baldor the names of the three guards he had hired that had turned on him at first opportunity, and he replied Jonar, Kelmund and Finhar. Eirik now knew who they were, they had worked for the former administration of Lake Town, that was recently decommissioned due to accusations of corruption. The three guards where put out of job and has been somewhat of a pest in Lake Town with several clashes with the Town Watch ever since.
Now, they went back and picked up Helga, and returned to Lake Town. Helga saw the sparks in the eyes of Miriel and Eirik, and she knew that adventure would come upon them once again.
On the way back, Baldor said to Eirik and Miriel that he was very grateful, and he asked if they might be interested in the job as his guards. Eirik told Baldor that their two friends from Dale was coming down tomorrow and that they would make it a complete team. Baldor seemed pleased and they decided to meet at the Sining Minstrel tomorrow evening to discuss things. Helga just looked and his husband, knowing it was time to be worried again.
To be continued...
-=>UNLURK,<=- Wonderful stuff. Keep it coming. Behind on mine due to a scene file crash back soon I hope, Till then I'll read yours and enjoy my D&D fix. -=>Lurk<=-</p>
Meeting at the Singing Minstrel
It was the evening of September the 1st, the first day when it officially was fall. Eirik and Miriel was there together with Baldor the merchant, and Gorm and Lomund showed up shorty after. The gang was united except for occasionally missing dwarves.
Baldor told them that he had been a very prosperous merchant seven or eight years ago, then, five years ago the dwarves woke the dragon, and the whole of Lake Town was destroyed in the flames of wrath. His while storage and most of his money were gone, and thats not all, he lost his dear wife in the fire as well, leaving him alone, with nothing except his young son, Belgo. Baldor shows that he is very proud of his son, and the son started very young to run errands for him when he tried to rebuild his business from scratch. Now another round of ale is served, on Baldor's account.
Baldor now tells the adventurers that the ponies where loaded with toys and tools from Dale. The toys from Dale is very popular all around. His plan is to travel to Woodland Hall, on the other side of Mirkwood. He has already made contact with the elves and has been assured an escort along the Elven road. They will travel by horse down along the side of the lake and the along the river until they will be met by the elves. From there they will be in good hands. He needs guards though, just see what happened when he thought he'd hired some, but this group looks much more reliable.
The group discuss among them, openly in front of Baldor, talking about travel times, needs for rations and water and Baldor realizes that this group of adventurers that is will hire seems to be much more experienced, all he wishes for now is that he make a good profit in Woodland Hall, otherwise payment might be a little thin, nothing he tells the group though.
They decide to meet at the Bridge gate on the morning of the third, at sun up, leaving two days for the group to finish business and for Baldor to purchase provisions according to the requirements of his new guards.
To be continued...
On adventure we go
The weather was nice and the first day of travel seems to pass rather fast. They rode along the same road as they had done some days before and passed the place where Eirik and Miriel had rescued Baldor a few days ago. In the evening Gorm found a good spot to make camp, on a little hill, and the night passed without any disturbances,
The second day, September 4, was a grey day and they rode along a trail trough the marshes and made camp for the night, one of those days every adventurer have but never talks about. The next day was not any better weather wise, grey and dull. In the evening they reached the spot where they were supposed to be met by the elves. Gorm and Lomund got a little bored at started to question Baldor if he really had made an agreement with the elves, but the came after dark, on rafts.
They loaded the ponies and the horses on the rafts, but the animals seems to be scared, so the elves whispered softly in their ears, and then they calmly walked onto the rafts. It was a silent journey along the winding river in the dark, only lit by the lanterns on the elven rafts.
To be continued...
The Elven City of Mirkwood
The elven rafts took the group and the horses to the elven city. They were met by the elven lord Lindar who greeted them, specially Baldor and Miriel. The horses were taken care of and stabled, and the people were led into one of the great buildings and shown to the guests quarters. They were given strict orders, no one were allowed to roam outside the guest quarters, no one except Miriel, who was kin.
They were well treated, with food and bath, but time passed and they all started to get a little restless when they has spend a whole day in this captive like state.
To be continued...
I really like the lighting of the Meeting at the Singing Minstrel. Beautifully done Totte!
The journey continues
Several days of waiting made everyone a little irritated as elves doesn't see time the same way as men. A day or two are just a blink of an eye for an elf, patience is an elven virtue.
Finally, on the third day, Lindal told them that he would be their guide, but he would only follow them as far as the enchanted stream. That is where the border to the Elven Kingdom is and the old elven trail begins. The elves will go no further. Lindal also says that there are two important rules to follow. One, don't drink the water of the enchanted stream, and two, never ever leave the path. Breaking any of those rules s mortally dangerous.
The first day, September 8, the weather was nice and they could see the sun high above the trees. In the evening they made camp and it was more like a hike than traveling in the wilderness. The second day began grey and rainy. They were all soaking wet and they all felt a gloomy darkness in their minds. This was the real thing, adventuring when the weather was at it worst. They all longed for the campfire that would hopefully dry some of their clothes at the end of the day. The day ended and so did the rain, and they made camp. Lomund had the third watch, and when he sat there with his back to the fire, watching, he saw something in the trees, something that moved in the tree tops. It was a spider, a huge spider. He fired an arrow but it missed, and then nothing more happened that night.
The third day was overcast weather, but the gray felt like sunshine compared to the rain the day before. At the end of the day, the reached the enchanted stream, and Lindal said goodbye to them, and said once again: – Don't drink the water and don't leave the path.
They all waded across the stream and the ford, except Miriel who surfed the river on her shield. Elves, always such show-offs.
They decided to camp just a bit into the forest on the other side of the stream. The forest here was darker, the trees more crooked and bent, and the smell fouler.
The night was coming, darker than ever before.
To be continued...
Shield surfing elves :D *goes back into lurking*
LOL, the player playing Miriel really makes her do stunts like that, all the time. She's like Lara Croft on steroids ;-)
Too cool, Love the shield surfing.
I really love looking at your renders
Thanks folks, you give me inspiration to continue
Surprises in Mirkwood
The day was September eleven, but not that anyone cared anymore. It was a constant rain and everything smelled like a wet dog. It's almost as dark as late evening even if the sun is up there somewhere and the forest depresses everyone.
When they thought things started to go smooth, the trail split into to two, one turning north and one turning south. Miriel tries to whisper to the trees, but they are all silent, like they are just ignoring her. Gorm looks the ground really careful, and decides that the last person who travelled here went south, so south it is.
Lomund gets really depressed, his heart sinks into darkness, everything is hopeless, the shadow will take us all keeps passing through his mind. Even Miriel is getting a touch of depression, but Eirik suddenly finds a spark of inspiration and says "Hey, cheer up, we're almost half way by know", and then he starts to sing a happy song about Teobold the Dwarf.
Suddenly an arrow misses Miriel and makes a small hole in her cape. Orcs! They come rushing from the right, from behind and from ahead. Miriel pulls her bow release an arrow but misses. Baldor and Bendo looks terrified. The Orcs scream their war cries and charge.
To be continued...
The battle rages on
Eirik gracefully jumps off his horse and rushes to protect Baldor and Brego, while Gorm rushes forward to meet the three orcs coming from that direction. Lomund not so gracefully jumps of his horse and grabs his spear, finally a fight where a long pointy stick can be useful.
Gorm takes down one orc but got hit himself, not bad but a bruise. Eirik keeps two orcs busy while Lomund drives his spear right through the eye of an orc and it falls down dead to the ground. Miriel now jumps of her horse and shots an arrow in the flight, hitting another orc. Eirik is getting bruised too while taking the attacks. The air is filled with the sounds of metal against metal, cries and pain. Lomund draws his dwarven dagger and attacks and hits, but is hit himself, painful. everyone is getting tired fast. After a few minutes of fighting Gorm and the last of his orcs are looking like teenagers dancing in grammar school, clinging on each other trying to regain enough strength for s final blow.
Miriel shots the last orc dancing with Gorm in the eye and the battle is over as fast as it started. Seven orcs attacked them, and everyone need some rest to catch breath. The scout a little, just close to the trail and find a small orc camp. The place was perfect for an ambush, but was it just a random ambush, or where they the actual targets? So many questions and so little time as they had to move on.
They ride on and suddenly Lomund sees a huge branch hanging over the trail that is about to fall.
To be continued...
Baldor goes sleepwalking
The huge branch falls down on the trail just behind the last horse, this time they were lucky. They found shelter for the night, and the next day, the 12th, was gray and rainy too. Baldor asked Eirik how far they had left and Eirik replied to him that he couldn't really say, which made Baldor suspicious. The darkness, the trees and the rains made everyone depressed.
During the camp times, Brego is very fond of Miriel and he said that he wanted to be an archer like her when he grows up. During watch, Miriel carves a small bow for him, and some arrows.
On the thirteenth, at night, when Gorm has the guard and is sitting and sharpening his sword, Baldor wakes up and strolls down to a nearby stream. Gorm peeks and seems that Baldor is taking a leak, but then be bow forward, like he is seeing something., but stand up again. Gorm looks around into the forest again, as you cannot only look at one thing only unless you like being surprised by a stab from behind.
When Gorms eyes once again returned to where Baldor had been, he didn't see him, but then he saw him, walking, or wading half across the stream. Gorm quickly wakes Miriel up, who dashes after Baldor, and Gorm shortly follows. Lomund is woken by the sound of Gorm splashing through the stream in a not very nimble way. Lomund wakes Eirik who also runs and orders Lomund to guard the camp and Brego. Baldor walks fast away into the fog on the other side of the stream.
To be continued...
Spiders!
When Miriel, Gorm and Eirik finally finds Baldor, he is tangled in a spider web, and a spider is busy wrapping him up. They look around, they hear sounds, the ground is moving, so are the trees. Spiders, they are everywhere. Miriel sees an old ruin in the woods, but they feel that this is not the time, nor the place to go treasure hunting. Eirik shouts to Lomund:-"Break camp! Saddle up, we got to run!" Lomund wakes up Brego and tells him to quickly pack his things before he grabs the most important stuff from the camp and tosses it into a saddlebag. He saddled the horses and tighten up the straps on the ponies making ready to leave. And puts Brego on his horse, telling him to hold.
Meanwhile Miriel, Gorm and Eirik fight a wild battle against the huge spiders, and they finally get hold of Baldor, Gorm grabs him and tosses him on his shoulder and begins to rush back. The others cover the retreat. The pass the stream and someone says that spiders cannot cross water, but the spiders just climbed the trees.
The had to tie and gag Baldor to his horse as he was all mad, shaking, wiggling and screaming. Now they finally got away. They could see spiders climbing the trees, this was not at all a nice situation. They rode away, in panic, fleeing this spider infested place.
To be continued...
Out of the ashes and into the fire
Baldor was screaming and yelling through his gag and wiggling tied as he was wrapped in spider webs in front of Gorm. They were all galloping as fast as they could without losing the ponies. Eirik was first with Miriel close behind.
Suddenly huge spider fell from the trees, one just missed Eirik and another one passed right beside Miriel.Brego begin to slide of his horse and Gorm tries to grab him but only catches the cape, which breaks and Brego falls off the horse and rolls to the side. Gorm jumps off his horse and rushes to protect Brego, when three hungry spiders are coming from the other side. Lomund pulls his bow, fires but misses, again.
Lomund now turns his horse and rides back while shouting to Eirik and Miriel to turn back. Gorm shouts to Lomund to protect the kid. It's chaotic, horses, people and spiders. The fighting is fierce again, Gorm cleave a spider in two with his sharp sword, Eirik cuts a few legs of one and Lomund grabs Brego to get him out of the fighting zone. Miriel takes down the last one with a well placed shot, as always.
Baldor is raving about things that happened five years ago, about fire and the death of his wife, and he seems to think he has been kidnapped by his guards, our brave adventurers.
It takes several hours to get Baldor back into his old self, and Eirik uses his persuasive talent to make him understand that he had a bad dream, a very bad dream that is.
To be continued...
Cheer up, it could be worse. They cheered up, and it got worse.
The fourteenth of September, yet another day passes, gray and rainy. Everyone are becoming so fed up with rain, even the horses seems to dislike the weather.
Baldor has slowly accepted that this is the reality and what he recently saw and felt was history repeating itself in his memories. Brego started to complain too, even if Miriel spent time at the night camp showing him how to shoot his bow.
The next days was also rainy. Gray, wet, rain, dirt and the constant smell of wool cloth beginning to rot started to make this journey unbearable for all of them. When would the weather ever change? They all silently prayed for it to change, and in the afternoon it did. Unfortunately not to the better, instead the rain went from pouring to waterfall showers. No one has ever experienced such rain. It hurt when it fell and made every little inch of your body scuff against the wet clothes.
They had almost lost count of the days, but Eirik reminded them that is was the sixteenth of September, then he sang a happy song to make everyone get it a little easier to survive the darkness in their hearts.
On the Seventeenth, the resin was still falling like waterfalls, and they were desperately looking for a shelter, when they found a huge tree to seek cover under. They saw that the tree was hollow, and they carefully looked inside. Someone was living there but it was empty right now.
Inside, there were crude paintings on the walls of monsters with sharp teeth, or it looks like monster anyway. On the floor was a pile of leaves and a small fireplace, and from the roof skins of squirrels and rats were hanging for drying in wooden frames. There was a really foul smell in this room.
They tied the horses and ponies outside, under the huge branches of the tree which gave some cover from the rain, and started a fire in the fireplace and brought in some food. They all removed as much clothes they could to try to dry them over the fire, making the foul smell mix with the smell of drying wool and smoke.
Lomund sat himself at the inside of the opening, guarding it, as he was the one who was most used to rally bad weather and didn't suffer as much as some of the others.
Suddenly he heard footsteps, and someone mumbling to himself. "Who are they? Careful, careful.."
Lomund looked out, and saw a scared old and terrible dirty old man. After a while and some talking, Lomund told the old man that they would him food as payment for lending him house to seek shelter for the rain Then the understood what caused the foul smell, it was him. The man ate the chicken drumsticks like he'd never seen food before, and after a while he talked a little, but he was clearly totally out of him mind. He gave the group a piece of an old axe that he had wrapped in a piece of cloth, saying he had no need for it anymore. The piece looked ancient and had different old runes carved on it. Then, after some minutes he crawled onto his pile of leaves fell asleep.
To be continued...
Be prepared for yet another episode coming up, looks like there will be a game next weekend (last session was cancelled due to the GM had sick kids and hadn't slept all night.
Very soon, the brave adventurers will set off once again through the depressive forest of the Mirkwood. Will they survive? What fearsome beasts will they face? Stay tuned for the next season of the Adventures of Lomund.
After the storm
The morning the eighteenth when the adventurers wake up in the hermits tree house, he is already gone, and they feel that they should be going to as they didn’t seem very wanted visitors in the first place.
When they look out through the opening, the see that the storm has calmed down and the rain is only a soft shower, which feels pleasant compared to the past days rainstorms. They ride out again and several days goes by without any events worth noting, three days passes and on the twenty-first, the rain has stopped completely. The group starts which a good porridge breakfast, it all felt so right, and when it was time for a lunch break, Gorm saw a perfect spot, a nice clearing where a few rays of sunshine came through the dense tree crowns. They made a fire, and had some dried meat, and even a few sausages was added to the meal, and after eating they all felt a little drowsy. Eirik almost lied down against a tree and closed his eyes. Baldor had to nurse Belgo as he had some bad dreams, he was yelling mommy! mommy! in his sleep. Miriel also took a short nap, while Gorm was working, as usual, on the his sword, keeping it sharp as a razor.
Lomund felt a need to take a leak so he went behind a tree, and there he saw another clearing just about 40 paces away, where some old ruins where. He went back to tell the others of his discovery. Meanwhile, Eirik was dreaming about a cave full of gold and gems, and his his dream he floated up towards the sunlight that came through some kind of well. When he woke up, he jumped on his feet and started to walk hastily in the direction Lomund was pointing to, but Miriel had woken up too, and she was already ahead of everybody. Gorm shouted to Baldor to look after the camp while they were investigating.
To be continued…
The magic well
They all walk, or almost ran to the new clearing. When they saw the well, Eirik shouted - “Be careful, that well looks dangerous, someone agile should go down first.”. Gorm and Lomund was not even looking at the well, but walked towards some of the ruins. Miriel saw Eirik jump up on the edge of the well and then disappear. She quickly took a few steps towards the well and looked down. She could not believe what she saw. On a ledge, just ten feet down, lay a wonderful elven bow from the ancient times. She saw herself lead great armies as the greatest general the Elves ever had. She jumped down to the bow, and just sat there on the ledge with the bow in her hands, not even noticing Eirik further down.
Eirik had jumped all the way down as the well was dry, and there he just sat, letting gems and gold pass through his fingers. He was now the richest man in while Laketown, maybe even as rich as some of the dwarves under the mountain.
Gorm caught a glimpse of Miriel’s hand when she disappeared into the well, and he didn’t see Eirik anywhere around. Both Gorn and Lomund now saw it, the roots around the well started to crawl towards them, and towards the other clearing where Baldor and Brego was waiting.
To be continued…
Well well well
Gorm and Lomund realized that something was not quite right, so the both decided to run to the well. Gorm successfully dodged a root that tried to attack him and Lomund was attacked by a gnarly root, which he cut off with his shiny dwarves dagger, but more roots attacked him and tried to snare his feet. Lomund chopped as fast as he could with the dagger and get loose with just a bruise from the rough root.
Lomund came to the well, looked down, and there he saw Miriel sitting on a ledge, looking like she was holding something in her hand, but she was tangled in roots that tried to strangle her, but no sign of Eirik. Gorm tried to do as Miriel always did, so he just jumped down into the dry well trying to parcour his way down, but he was not as nimble as Miriel so it was not a graceful descent. Gorm landed on all four, and there he saw Eirik, also entangled in roots, but was looking like he just had been blessed.
To be continued...
Edit: Updated the image with more roots after feedback from the LoreMaster.
The thing in the well
While Lomund fought his way to the well cutting of several roots and getting splashes of dark blood in his face. Miriel woke up from her dream as something was trying to strangle her. The bow, it was so real, she had felt ir, now she was entangled in an inferno of moving roots. She quickly wiggled herself out of the strangling grip and tried to reach the edge of the well.
Meanwhile down below, Eirik woke up and all his gold and gems were gone and something was trying to crush his ribcage. He also saw Gorm cutting and slashing roots all around it, seeking for the mother root. Gorm yelled “It has to have a heart or mother root, it just has to.” Eirik breaks free and tried to climb up when Lomund pulls Miriel in her arms while a fat root still has her left foot in a firm grip. Miriel really disliked to be used as a tug of war, but suddenly the root let go and they all came up from the well. Gorm had found the things heart and stabbed it.
In the evening, it was the first night camp in what seemed to be ages without pouring rain. three more days passed and the forest became less dense, until mid day the third day, when they finally reached the end of the forest. They were out, the had made it.
Baldor explained that now he and Belgo would go south to Woodland Halls, and he payed the group thirty pieces of silver each for a job well done. The group decided to continue west as there somewhere ahead civilization would begin on the banks of the River Anduin. Baldor amd Brego did join them to the river, where they took a boat down stream.
To be continued…
Nice scenery. Nice balance of grass and trees. I can see the mountains in the distance.