Year 2950: A Darkness in the Marshes

[thesloth]

Dahr-Ol of the Beornings

"Cecil speaks true of the goblins. And like many a hungry animal, perhaps they might be lured to ambush by bait. Properly prepared, we might be able to kill enough that they hide for a generation

Barin your folk have foughtthem for untold centuries. Might such a trap be laid with a week's work?"

 

 

[Suzuki Stumpy]

Barin Greycloak

Barin mused over the question for a moment or two before responding. "Hmm ... possibly. If we could find a chamber large enough that is also well connected, we could possibly lure them in with the offer of meat or baubles. If we prepared well enough in advance the ceiling could be rigged to collapse, burying them beneath the rock. We could also rig the tunnel entrances to collapse in case any of them tried to escape, or survived the ceiling fall."

"It's not exactly delicate work, but dangerous for those weakening the structure."

"But ... unless we can get their chieftain into the collapse, they won't necessarily give up or vacate - indeed, we could just succeed in angering them and spurring them to a more direct confrontation, but we would thin their numbers somewhat."

[thesloth]

Dahr-Ol of the Beornings

"Annungil and I penetrated a goblin hold when freeing Cecil's cousin. But we were by no means confronting the chieftain, though....

What sets the goblin chief apart from his followers? His desire for glory and dominance. What if we set about taunting this chieftain before we set the final bait? Might we hunt a few patrols and leave one alive each time with a message for their leader?

I suspect he could not allow us to continue long, without a personal confrontation. He would be deemed weak and unfit to rule I suspect."

 

 

[Suzuki Stumpy]

Barin Greycloak

"Yes ... yes, that might just work. If we can find a suitable chamber in the mine, and can contrive to keep the goblins away long enough for us to work it, then yes, I believe what you suggest will work. Their numbers would be reduced, their chieftain would be spurred to action, and let's face it, goblins aren't known for their intelligence or strategic thought."

Glancing back to Hartfast, he added a cautionary note, "Although all of this cannot be done without some measure of risk to your people or this settlement."

[Modest_Proposal]

Cecil Brandybuck

At the mention of his cousin, Cecil lost his appetite. He drew his pipe and struck a match, leaning back in his chair. “Well, then, why wait to collapse the entrance? Why not do it first? Let hunger kill them. We need not be inside - we can shatter the entrance from above.” His gaze fell to his ember lit bowl. “Or - imagine if we smoked the tunnel first. We could pack the entrance with hay, let them scurry up like rats, and then bring it down on them!”

 

He glanced at Barin and quickly looked away.

 

[Vladim]

"We could, master hobbit..." interjected Hartfast, "...and indeed that is what we did many years ago, under similar circumstances. It was Fundor that convinced me to reopen that old mine, and he still insists that he and his kin can deal with the goblins. He is inside now, with a handful of other dwarves, though how deep I cannot say. But though I disagree with him, I cannot seal the entry and turn the tunnels into their tomb."

 

OOC

Encounter successes: 4

Tolerance: 1/???

[thesloth]

Dahr-Ol of the Beornings

"I always believed goblins to be tunnel builders. Would they not simply tunnel throughin a few years time if they knew the object of their hatred was just beyond the blockage?"

 

 

[Suzuki Stumpy]

Barin Greycloak

"Smoking the tunnels could be a useful tool to drive the goblins to a point where we could trap them, but would also hamper our own people in there so we would have to use caution. Dahr-Ol is also correct. Trapping the goblins won't be enough. They would need to be driven out - and the only likely way to do that is to cut off the head so to speak."

"I will speak to Fundor. Perhaps, between us all we can work out a viable plan to both thin their numbers, and kill their chief - that should be enough to drive them away for at least a generation."

[Malkavian Grin]

Lachiel had been quiet for much of the conversation. She was not familiar with goblins, nor was she familiar with underground tunnels and the workings of the earth. Hers was of the forest and of the orcs that raided there. Of spiders and their kin. The more words spoken, the more she felt out of place.

 

Finally, the Elf spoke up. "I have spoken with the river, Icewater, and it knows of these foul beings. It speaks of their ability to burrow and tunnel, like a festering plague. I fear if you are to be rid of this problem, then they must be purged from the earth itself. Chasing them away will likely not work."

 

With a deep sigh, Lachiel added, "I believe our mission lies at the end of their lives, deep beneath the soil. It is not something I relish doing, but something I have promised the wizard. And in so doing, protecting the world from further darkness."

[Modest_Proposal]

Cecil Brandybuck of the Shire

Lachiel did not often speak grimly. As she did, Cecil felt almost betrayed by it. He stirred in his chair and spoke over his contemplations.

 

“Dreadful.” he squeezed his cuff, “All this nasty talk is not befitting of a good dinner - we need a bit of cheer. I’ve written a song for our hosts. And isn’t it a funny thing, that with wine the voice grows longer and memory shorter. I best let it out before it is too late.” He cleared his throat.

 

(song set to the tune of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMrHQHUa1Y&ab_channel=TheYoung'uns-Topic)

 

“Oh, the farther I go, 

The more I do know,

And the clearer and truer life is.

 

For the meadows have died, 

Where the branches grow wide,

Toward the land where the hill meets the sky.

 

Near the wide Gladden Fields,

Where my people did yield,

I will sit and be merry again.

 

But the way is not straight, 

And the boat, it can wait,

So I’ll follow my troupe where they may.

 

There is Barin the dwarf,

Who has ne’r seen a wharf,

But who braved the Anduin with me.

 

And there’s Lachiel, who speaks,

To the water and peaks,

And whose hair is as red as the fire.

 

There is Dahr-Ol, the Beorn,

Known by King Bard Bowman,

Who has saved my dear cousin from death.

 

And there’s Gramtyng of stalls,

Who has known these great halls,

And now shows us its splendorous gate.

 

So I’ll rest my poor feet, 

Where the mountaintops meet,

And sing songs to our hosts of the hill.”

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Modest_Proposal (see edit history)

[thesloth]

Dahr-Ol of the Beornings

Dahr-Ol listened as Cecil sang. The hobbit enjoyed making songs. It was not an aptitude which Dahr-Ol possessed. It fascinated him to see what the stout fellow could create when he himself had seen nothing of unusual significance in their journey to date.

"Cecil, you remind me again of the value in having good companions with a cheerful countenance. Perhaps we can indeed speak to Fundor tomorrow."

Heeding Cecil's advice Dahr-Ol turned to Lachiel, "Is it true that you actually speak with the fields and the streams? I've journeyed only once with another elf, he was a brave soul and noble of heart. But never did I witness him speaking to the land as you have.

Is this a gift purely of the elvish people? Is it a speech that any man might learn, like Dwarvish or the ancient tongues of men?"

 

 

[Suzuki Stumpy]

Barin Greycloak

Barin listened intently as Cecil sang. The dour dwarf cracked a small smile as he marvelled at how the Hobbit could conjure up song on the spur of the moment like so.

He also listened intently as Dahr-Ol questioned Lachiel adding, "Among the Dwarves, there are those of us blessed so by Mahal. Stone singers we call our most talented masons and sculptors - they converse with the stone and can derive precisely what it's very nature wishes it to be. We have the same with our jewellers and smiths too."

"Alas, I was never so gifted. Whilst I can listen to the stone and generally make out it's voice, I lack the ability to discern precisely what it wishes to tell me. But these are gifts from Mahal himself rather than skills that can be trained and learned. I wonder if 'tis the same for the Elvish folks?"

[Vladim]

The chieftain and his kinsman kept their silence as the conversation momentarily drifted away from matters and troubles at hand, and, in response to Cecil's song, wandered towards the nature of things and peoples in the world. It was a pleasant interlude, but Hartfast was no scholar or lore-master, and for such things he could offer nothing but idle speculation, or at best legends and tales. Yet he said nothing, except to urge the discussions back to Mountain-Hall's current problems.

He turned to Dahr-Ol first.

"I cannot say much about goblins and their tunneling, save that in years past, before their defeat at the gates of Erebor, that newly-reopened mine often gave us the most trouble. Why they never dug around it when we blocked it, I cannot say. Perhaps they are lazy folk, eager to take advantage of what is their already, but unwilling to undertake the hard task of digging themselves. Certainly they cannot be as skilled as dwarves in this. Still..."

He turned to Barin next, whom he deemed an expert above all others in such matters.

"...I thought it was safe to reopen the mine after the Battle of the Five Armies. I thought that business in the north had thinned their numbers in the Misty Mountains sufficiently to reconsider my old decision. Yet perhaps it was a mistake."

He turned to Lachiel last, adding a few last thoughts: "I cannot say if our troubles and the wizard's concerns about the Dwimmerhorn are connected. I cannot see how they might be: the Dwimmerhorn is far to the south, and away from the mountains. Nevertheless, if you and your friends are willing to help Mountain-Hall, I will eagerly accept such help."

Whether or not Radagast would be pleased at such a change in priorities, however, remained to be seen.

 

OOC

@Modest_Proposal the song was a nice touch! Can you also give me a song roll to go with it (perhaps adding it to your post above) to have some mechanics to go with the RP? TN 12 should do.

Social skill successes: 4

Current Tolerance: 2/???

[Vladim]

At the mentioning of the Dwimmerhorn, the elder that Hartfast had summoned looked at the company, but he held his silence so that its members could speak. Yet there was no answer or reply to the chieftain's comments. Reluctantly, the old hunter begun, seeking to fulfill the purpose for which Hartfast had called him.

"The Dwimmerhorn is an old fort made by evil folk, that sits on a black, stony hillock, deep in the misty marshes. Only once have I seen it, many years ago. And it was only from afar. But I have heard many tales, though whether lies or truth you'll have to decide for yourselves.

When I was a child, my own elders, who passed many winters ago, told me the tales that they had heard: that it was built by servants of the Necromancer long before Mountain-Hall was raised, and that it was abandoned by him many times over. But it always draws dark things to itself, and never remains empty for long. Some say orcs. Others say ghosts and evil spirits."

For a moment he paused, and placed his hand on his beard, fingering the grey hairs in silence. But there was more, many other tales he half-remembered.

"I've heard a few hunters make mention of it. They said to me that it was as if it moved of its own accord, never found in the same place twice. One hunter in particular spoke of it, a Magric that ventures southwards often. He said that he saw the fortress sitting atop a great black rock, with only one way up: a narrow path that felt as if watched by countless hidden eyes.

But that was two years ago, and I do not think that any have seen it since."

 

OOC

Although mechanically we can continue this encounter, if you want we can also stop here and move on to other matters, such as checking the mines and Fundor or finding this Magric.

[Malkavian Grin]

Cecil's song brought a smile back to the Elf's face, as she too preferred to focus on the happier aspects of life in general. She may be a warrior skilled in death, but that was merely her duty, not her passion.

 

Nodding to Dahr-Ol, Lachiel replied, "Tis true. I have the gift of The Speakers. Not all Elvish people have the gift, but as far as I have ever known it is only something an Elf may achieve. It brings me both peace and concern. Nature is meant to be wild and untamed. My people know this and live with Nature, that we may both thrive together in symbiosis."

 

Barin's words brought an even bigger smile. "I wonder what the rocks say to the Dwarves? I've only heard tales of such a thing in Esgaroth. If you are curious, perhaps when we have a moment we might talk to the mountain. It may well help us in the caverns below if that is where our path leads."