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[Himaran]

At the Camp

Bali was greatly relieved when the company began to pack the following morning. The campsite had been a evil nest, brooding distrust, anger and rebelliousness. Once on the road, the dwarves would move their thoughts onto the more important issue of Rhûn.

The dwarf gathered up his few belongings, cleaned his weapons, and rolled up his bedding. The others were doing the same, although clearly waiting for someone to direct them. They want an order, but they don't want someone to give it to them. Much like myself naught twenty years back.

"We leave in an hour," Bali voiced. "Be ready, long days of marching are ahead of us for the seeable future."

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Onward to Rhûn


Several weeks passed, and the dwarves had made excellent travel time. They had grown closer to the travelers, and had made better friends with one another. Grumbles remained, but on the whole the group was pulling together. For this, Bali was infinitely grateful.

Following the river, the dwarves had made a straight line for their destination. Then the day came. "Over the next hill, we may be able to see the sea!" Bali shouted happily. "We made it, laddies, we're here!"

The Dawning Moment

Then they saw it. The channel.

As the dwarves reached the hilltop, gasps of surprise erupted from the entire group; Bali included. The river suddenly became choppy, and a rapid flow of water shot into a channel. A rock channel, with walls towering over one hundred feet. It was impassible. Looking southwards, Bali could see the range of mountains extending beyone his keen vision's reach.

"Look at the map," Dwalin suddenly stated. "The mountains are on the southwest side. We are on the northwest!"

Bali just stared, stunned. The maps were all wrong. Rhûn was surrounded by rocky hills and small mountains. But how far did they extend inward? Was there no sea afterall? Maybe the whole thing had been a huge joke. No, that can't be. There must be an entrance somewhere. Without even thinking, the dwarf snapped out an order.

"We can't pass through the channel. We have no boats, and there could be a waterfall at the far end. Let us travel south, there must be an entrance into Rhûn at some point."

"And what if there isn't," snapped Haenir."

Bali looked southward, finding no comfort in the undending range of hills. "Then we have made a journey for nothing." And there was nothing else to be said.


Fordim Hedgethistle's Post

From the beginning Gortek had been joyed by the arrival of some fresh company, and the last couple of weeks had certainly not dulled that feeling. Even the apparent distrust that some of the party's numbers seemed to hold against the three companions couldn't bring him down.

During his journeys he had, of course, heard rumors and stories about the land of Rhûn. Everyone with the slightest inkling of the subject claimed that Rhûn was filled with a myriad of natural treasure, but that in it's jungles, death stalked those foolhardy enough to cross it's borders.
He wasn't worried about the potential dangers of the journey. If he had wanted a safe and secure life he wouldn't have made travelling his chosen way of life.
As for the promise of possible riches, Gortek had a hard time containing his excitement. Where ever there was wealth to be gained, he couldn't be kept out.

The simple thought of all the upcoming excitement made him want to burst out in mirth. Even now he couldn't entirely suppress a jolly cackle from escaping now and then. Completely caught up in his daydreaming, he failed to notice that the rest of the company were giving him some berth, seemingly unnerved by his mad laughter.

That was when he heard Bali call: "Over the next hill, we may be able to see the sea! We made it, laddies, were here!"

Gortek almost leapt next to the expedition's leader, eager to catch a glimpse of the fabled land of untold riches and death.
Judging by the gasps of surprise, cries of disappointment and the confused look on Bali's face Rhûn wasn't what they had expected it to be.
Gortek's own expectations concerning the place had always been vague, as news of Rhûn were for the most part very scarce. From what little he had heard though, he knew that entering the land wasn't going to be easy.

He glanced at the company.
"Well, what did ye expect? 'Course it's got to be difficult ta get in, otherwise all the riches would have been taken by now."

He joined the others as they began to trudge southward, looking for a way that would grant them passage into the land of Rhûn.
They had been travelling for several hours when they found what they had been looking for. Overhead, high in the mountains, one could see a high pass that cut it’s way between two ancient and mighty peaks. To get there, though, they would have to scale up the sheer face of the rocky cliff that arose from the earth like a natural wall. It seemed like Rhûn itself wanted to be left alone into its brooding solitude.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

The mountains reared above their heads like an unbroken fence as far as the eye could see. With nothing else to do, the party journeyed south, but their eyes were ever looking to the left as they went, scouring the high walls of this mysterious fence that seemed to have sprung from the earth specifically to bar them access to the riches that they were all now sure lay beyond. Hænir trudged along at the rear of the group where he could keep a ready eye on the newcomers. The Elf and the Man had been quiet and well disciplined during the march south, but still they were strangers to Hænir and not Dwarves – two very distrustful things in his book. The third stranger, Gortek, while a Dwarf was clearly not entirely right in the head. He seemed, in fact, to be on good terms with the Elf and the Man, which was proof enough, to Hænir at least, that his wits had turned at least partly.

The first sight of the mountains had plunged Hænir’s heart, normally so sturdy, right through the bottom of his gut and into his boots. He had glared openly at Bali as though the mountains had been his fault, and he continued to stare at their leader balefully throughout that day. Nerin had noticed this and tentatively asked what was wrong, but Hænir’s sharp reply, so uncharacteristic for him, had effectively concluded that conversation. Hænir, more than usually quiet on the subject, kept his thoughts to himself and did not know what the others thought of this turn of events. Some, he could tell, were disappointed, but he did not know if any shared his now very low opinion of the leader who had led them so far to find only an impassable road.

They had been marching south for several hours when the Dwarves spotted a high waterfall roaring from the top of a cliff. The spur of rock from which the water fell was apparently a far-flung shoulder of the mountains, and it swept out from them in a long, gently sloping plain that ended abruptly in an almost sheer cliff on all sides. It looked for the world like the prow of a huge low-lying boat settled into the earth that lay about the mountains. Hænir could see clearly that the plain at the top of the cliffs extended high into the mountains, where it narrowed into what appeared to be a high pass between two mighty peaks. It was possible that through that pass lay the way into the hidden realm of Rhûn – but only if they could find a way up the cliff…