[Child of the 7th Age]

Despite his earlier advice to Dorran and Athwen that the members of the fellowship should exercise patience, Aiwendil was the first to leap up from his chores and wag his staff excitedly towards the north. "Rôg, Lindir, take a look. That direction over there. I've not seen such woebegone travellers in a while. But what a welcome sight!" He pointed towards tiny specks in the distance that grew larger with every step.

Once the scouts approached within a hundred paces, the istar waved again and let out a broad haloo to indicate that everything was fine in camp. In a manner of minutes, all had gathered around the two returnees. Carl and Vrór each took some good natured ribbing about their dirty faces and disreputable looking appearance. Before the travellers sat down to talk, they were given fresh water to scrub off the worst of the mud and dirt, and were afterwards rewarded with a generous portion of journey bread and ale to slake their hunger and thirst.

When the two had finished wolfing down their meal, Lindir turned straight to the business at hand. Each of the scouts described what they had seen in the slavers' camp and how the streambed they'd followed had led into a tunnel very close to where the prisoners were kept. Lindir listened with particular interest while Vrór explained that he and Carl could likely break through to the prison if they had proper digging tools. There was absolute silence as Carl went on to state how they had heard the sound of one child, but only one, when they'd listened to the noises coming from the underground pit and how the guards had thrown rocks and dirt down into the enclosure where the prisoners were being kept.

After asking several pointed questions of the scouts, Lindir turned to the others and spoke, "It seems we'll have our work cut out tonight. Carl and Vrôr must dig through the tunnel. A few others will need to back them up by that streambed, to get rid of the guards and anyone else who tries to stop us from rescuing the children. We also need someone to wait a short distance away and keep an eye on the horses, since we may need to get out of there very quickly." Here, Lindir glanced briefly at Athwen. "Actually it's even more than that. We don't really know what shape the slaves are in. The fact that Carl and Vrór heard only one voice is not encouraging. In addition to having the horses handy, we've also got to be prepared to transport children who may be sick or unconscious."

"Alright then, who does what? Any more suggestions or ideas how to go about this? I have been wondering if we'd want to send someone to the far side of the camp to create a diversion. Or would that only decrease our numbers since we need to take care of those guards?"