"I don't lead so much as I encourage," Radagast replies, apparently a bit uncomfortable at the role Borun was thrusting him into.

"We are all wise in our ways, which is why we won't always agree."

"Tilaleria merely wishes not to waste time, opportunity and the magic that has been expended. Such things should not be taken for granted."

"Anira doesn't so much disagree, only pointing out that she is temporarily ill-equipped to continue the battle at this time."

"You all have valid points. Had we the time to investigate the hell hawks, perhaps we could make a better-informed decision. Alas, we do not."

"Tilaleria and Borun... are you prepared to continue the battle right now... on your own? For that is the gist of this discussion, is it not?"

"It is not that we don't wish to aid you, but as Anira has pointed out, we are not equipped to do so at this time. That does not mean we will not help you if you do continue, but it does not seem as if we would be able to slay all the hell hawks at this time."

"What, then, do you wish to do? Remember, you always have this cottage to retreat into."

"No it's not" Tilaleria responded to Radagast "I've already indicated that I'm quite happy to wait, so I don't really know what the discussion is about anymore. I thought it was that old chestnut of 'evil against animalistic' but apparently not."

"I'll just wait for the rest of you to decide what to do since no one wants to do anything specific, and Anira wants to treat me a some sort of Pariah. I've offered one solution and no one has come up with a credible alternative so when dawn arrives and we are rested if nothing else happens I suggest we do that. Alternatively we can just walk out without a plan and hope that nothing bad happens"

"I do not want to treat you like a pariah but I also do not appreciate the way you talk down to the rest of us, acting as if you are the only one with a valid option," Anira corrected.  "Other options were given but they were not anything you wanted to hear.  Since it seems Radagast is willing to try to take on the hell hawks in the morning, I will try to ensure I have more offensive spells ready," she stated and retreated to one of the cots with a book.  The tiny flying squirrel decided to get some exercise, bounding over cot and companion.

"I fear the problem is my fault," Radagast tried to soothe over the nearly-feuding women.

"I, too, accepted the hell hawks at face value, that they were creatures of an evil nature. That is probably because I knew of their origin."

"In truth, they are no different than a lion or bear. Yes, they are a flock, whereas most predators tend to be solitary, and that also influenced me."

"We are moving through strange territories, and what we are used to is likely to be very different here."

"I will attempt to come to terms with these creatures so that we don't have to fight them. Is that acceptable to you, Tilaleria?"

Whether anyone sleeps or not, sometime near morning, Radagast slips out the door. By the time everyone else is ready to exit the cottage, Radagast is waiting outside.

Tilaleria had already said that she was going to leave what happens to other people, so she waits to see what was going to happen. She still didn't know that issue Anira had with her, as the words used seemed to bear little resemblance to what Tilaleria had said or proposed doing, but perhaps it was just a 'personality conflict'. She moved to one side of the secure shelter and pulled out the crude map she was making of where they were and began to work on it

In the morning, Borun greeted his companions amiably.

"I suppose that it's time to go deal with the hell hawks," he casually commented like this was just part of his breakfast schedule.

"We do not need to deal with the hell hawks," Radagast tells the others. "I have come to an agreement with them. We are no longer prey to them, nor are we intruders."

"I hope that is satisfactory to all of you."

"We can now climb the stairs without worry."

Tilaleria nodded, and moved to head back up the stairs again. She didn't understand the Hell Hawks. She'd never heard of anything natural even remotely like them: no natural animal other than some insects would attack as madly as they had, but perhaps it was a measure of Radagast's power that he could deal with even things as tainted as the Hawks

"Shall we just do what we did last time?" she asked "Two scouts going ahead and checking"

Borun raised his eyebrows at Radagast's declaration. The Istari's power over nature was indeed astounding.

Borun peered suspiciously at the hell hawks in the distance. "Of course I am happy to scout ahead."

Continuing up the stairs, there is more of the runic carvings and the recording of those that died. It isn't until you just about reach the top that you notice a difference in the words. A dozen steps from the top, there is no longer a record of someone who died, but rather a series of phrases carved into the riser of each step.

The first four are:

Where the cold wind blows and the bright stars shine,
Where darkness abides and the fat rats dine
Let Naethrul’s path revealed with summer wine
Count the wings for flying nine


The next seven are different, which is why you are able to differentiate between the two groups:


Two down, three up, five around,
Never breaking ground
The night gate found
By the leaping hound
A tail is wound
The way unbound
By Forstan’s sound

"Well isn't this interesting" Tilaleria commented "Clearly a riddle or a warning of some sort. Probably both"

"Perhaps we should pause and consider its meaning. Perhaps we can trigger some ideas by discussion"

"It seems to me that this is a rutter for a way into Naethrul, the city of the dead. The first two lines feel like a description of the destination, the third a statement of how to get there, although 'summer wine' is, at might be expected, a puzzle" she gave a half laugh "I am reminded of a human song I heard a century ago, but it had that haunting quality and stuck in my head. A girl rode with a man and tempted him to drink her summer wine. When he woke, she was gone, as were his valuables"

"Another puzzle is the 'count the wings'. The most obvious meaning of the 'nine', when we discuss Morgoth and his works, is the nine rings made for mortal men. As far as I know they don't have wings though. Perhaps this details mounts for them, or aerial scouts. Neither is attractive. Perhaps this has something to do with the Hell Hawks: they are large enough to make a mount for a wraith"

"The second verse seems more obvious. A set of movements to make. Perhaps two steps down, three up, and then either turn around five times, or see some other meaning at that point. The 'night gate found' comment would imply that this little ritual should be undertaken in the dark."

"The 'leaping hound' would mark the start of that movements perhaps. It might well be that its tail would indicate the direction to turn around in, or perhaps indicate a side set of steps or something: only to be taken after the two down, three up"

"The final line is worrying. I have no great desire to fight one of the great trolls of Forstani, and few others would make that sound."

Tilaleria shrugged "Mostly hypotheses and guess work. Perhaps they will trigger ideas in the rest of you. I do suggest though that we look for signs of a leaping hound, or a great troll in this signs"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:10, Sat 03 Dec 2016.

"A riddle, huh?" Borun frowned. "Who or what is this "Naethrul"? City of the dead, you say? Most flying creatures have two wings each, so I suppose "flying nine" should have eighteen wings."

Moving on to the second poem, Borun simply shrugged in confusion.

"I don't know much about this 'Naethrul'" Tilaleria said thoughtfully. She moved down some steps and gestured at some runes carved on the column supporting the bannister "See these runes here. There are talking a Naethrul the curse city of the dead" she pointed back down to the previous column "And those about the Great Trolls of Forstani"

While she was moving she as looking for 'clues' any thing that might match the poem: things indicating her guess work was correct or flawed

"Naethrul and Forstani... these are unfamiliar places to me," Radagast comments. "We thought that these lands had been destroyed. Nothing was coming out of the East to make us think differently."

"These runes said there was a way to get past these places safely. It didn't say to go around them. I'm guessing that when we reach the cities, these riddles will make more sense."

"Can someone write them down?"

"Sure" Tilaleria said and began to do just that. She had a good memory but Radagast was correct. "I thought it was instructions 'here', but I suspect you are right"

She gave a half laugh

"You know when we get back and a hundred years from now, or in the next age even, these may be the only records from this place and time. People reading them will think we have far more lore than we do. It's worth wondering if the heroes of legend were as puzzled by the things they meet as we are"

"I've never heard of these 'great trolls'," Elmohtar offers. "I suppose they could be the same as the Olog-hai, but it seems like something else is meant."

"The runes spoke of a city of them. Doesn't sound like Olog-hai, especially if we can get through them... or the city... without having to fight our way through them. The runes almost make it sound like we can reason with them. Like maybe there's a password to get them to leave us alone... or maybe even help us."

"Anybody else get that impression, or am I reading too much into it?"

Tilaleria mused aloud for a while, obviously thinking about what Elmohtar was saying. She was hoping that this would spark off some ideas. "I'm not a great expert on Runes, but my reading of them is subtly different. I am reading about 'the Cursed City' and 'The Great Trolls of Forstani', but I don't know how the two are linked other than these words 'by Forstan's sounds'. Even this is awkward because is Forstan in this context a troll? There is so much context needed to read these runes that we don't have"

"All that said your interpretation is interesting. I like the idea of the password certainly. I've fought a Cave Troll and it wasn't my idea of a good time. I lost friends. People I have known for many lives of men.  And a Great Troll could easily be as bad or worse. I would rather not loose more."

Borun frowned silently at this talk of "great trolls". Although Borun himself had not fought against trolls, those few dwarves who returned from such fights were often maimed, both physically and mentally.

Anira was quiet as they read the runes and others began to discuss what they might mean.  It was clear she was trying to drudge up something from the depths of her mind, brow furrowed as she continued to stare at the puzzle.

---

14:38, Today: Anira rolled 20 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 10.  Knowledge History.

OOC: Ack! The New Year is fast approaching!


Both Anira and Lady Isile have a bit of knowledge about these two places, and the possible... perhaps even probable inhabitants.

The information carved into the steps by the Dwarves would seem to support this information, but the information is old, so there's no telling what conditions still exist in the Broken Lands.

Reaching the top of the stairs, the vast expanse of the Broken Lands stretch out before you. Although Lady Isile had aerially scouted the area already, it looks far more imposing up close.

There is no area of level ground that you see for as far as you can see. Huge slabs of rock are tilted upward at precarious angles, interspersed with smaller angular boulders scattered everywhere. At various spots across the rugged landscape are pinnacles and spires of stone. The pinnacles (small mesas) look like they are the remnants of hills or even mountains, whereas the spires look like daggers of rock thrust upward from the ground.

When she was in her true form she made sure to speak to the group about what knowledge she was able to gather about things.

"Almost nothing is known about the East any more... that is, nothing since Sauron took over the area and corrupted most of it.

But some information did swish into my ears.

Naethrul is supposed to be the name of the necromancer than founded the city. Supposedly, he wasn't a 'bad' person; he thought he could use necromancy to heal and cure people. Somewhere along the way, though, he took the wrong path.

Even so, the undead that he created to populate his city are the people he couldn't save. Some remnant of their previous life continues to linger in them. That's why you can talk to them, negotiate with them, trade with them.

As for the the old city of Forstani was taken over by the Great Trolls. Most of the original citizens fled. No one knows, however, what keeps the Great Trolls there. The Great Trolls are larger, more intelligent trolls, prone to obesity, and somewhat masters of magic.

When the land was broken, only the two walled cities remained standing, but no one knows why. Actually, until now, no one was even sure that they had survived.

"Well I guess we keep following the trail" Tilaleria said after listening to what the others had to say. It was thought provoking but she didn't really know where to take the information "We've made notes. Maybe it will help later" she looked at Radagast "which way?"

"I believe we should stick to the--as you called it--trail," Radagast replied. "We don't know what lies to either side of this so-called path. If we had months, even years, where we could explore these lands, that would be different."

"Without that kind of knowledge, though, we have no way of knowing which would be the quickest, easiest or least dangerous path. The Dwarves conveniently left us clues to get past what we would have considered serious dangers, so that's the way I think we should go."

"The broken terrain will slow us down some. My concern is for Saxon's wagon. There is no way it is going to be pulled over all those rocks."

"Do any of you have a solution to that problem?"

Tilaleria gave a helpless shrug "A wagon is not a suitable form of transport for the type of mission we are on. Even horses may be awkward, but on the whole their advantages outway their disadvantages. I believe when I mentioned this problem  originally the suggested solution was 'summoning something big to carry it'. Failing that we must simply take what we can from the wagon and distribute it among ourselves. Perhaps hiding the wagon as this is the most likely route we will return along"