Darker Days RPG

[Mithalwen]

He is definitely feeling better , thought Elfride drily, that means he will be dangerous as soon as I get this out. She may have not have been tutored in interrogation techniques but she knew that as long as the arrow remained in situ Samuel's henchman was at her mercy. She didn't like the way the conversation was going and she needed calm assistants.

Overcoming her scruples as a healer she was less gentle than she might be in probing the wound site. The pain silenced the injured man momentarily. She had decided that given the arrow's trajectory and the fact she suspected it might be of a hunting type, designed to leave the head in the wound, she had decided the best course of action would be to push the dart straight through the skin rather than try to pull it out. It would be painful but better than leaving the arrowhead behind. The wound would drain better too she thought and be less likely to get infected.

She would need two strong assistants to hold him and at the moment she would prefer them not to be Thomas and Mayonette. She looked around. The fire seemed to have been put out but a thick haze of smoke remained. She saw Cordelia and Garnae together...no not them... .not the villagers who were busy checking all sparks were extinguished or talking with Hama who seemed to have drawn the village leaders to the river side of the fire - no doubt to delay expalnation of the wounded man. Then she saw Edhener and Leoflic. Perfect..
She called them over and suggested to Mayonette and Thomas that maybe the General would need their help in explaining the situation to the village elders since they knew most about it and that it would be better if those less involved helped her with the extraction of the arrow. Before she did so she made sure the man was bound hand and foot and that her assistants were ready.

"This is going to hurt a lot" she warned as she grasped the arrow firmly and with as much force as she could combine with precision she pushed the arrow through his flesh so it pierced the skin a few inches away from the entry wound. It wqas then an easy matter to remove the arrowhead and withdraw the shaft leaving a relatively clean wound. "All done - I think you'll live", she commented but the man showed little sign of gratitude to herself and her assistants who continued to stand guard as she dressed the wound. She smiled her thanks at them and then glanced across to where the others were and wondered how Hama had explained the situation to them. Hopefully they were not in Samuel's pay and the wounded man could be left in their care and custody until Sandrina was recovered - and then if necessary they could answer for their actions before the King at Edoras in the meantime, though he were off duty, Hama's status and would surely be surety enough to leave them free to proceed. Samuel clearly had locals in his pay but the Reeve of Underharrow would surely be true to the king. The village was too close to Edoras for such corruption.

[The Sixth Wizard]

"Crean!" yelled Garnae as Cordelia led the stallion towards him. "I thought I'd lost you! You're safe! That was amazing Cordelia!" Cordelia nodded but started to sob and cough in the ash, as she whispered, "What have I done?!" She fell on to the ground, staring at it.

Garnae smiled grimly. "You did what you did, it was nevertheless brave." He lifted her chin. "Don't feel bad, we all make mistakes. You just need to weather them with those that love you. Come, our friends need our attention." He hugged her swiftly, then leapt to the back of Crean.

Mayonette and Thomas were crouching over the man who had been shot. He looked not badly hurt and was talking to them. But Garnae couldn't believe what he was hearing. A murderer? Thomas? If he really did, we can't afford to keep him. Will this mean the end of our company? Can Mayonette go on if we have to get rid of him? These were dark thoughts.

As were Cordelia's omens. Just what would happen to her, even if Zach survived? He hugged the girl and stared at the smoulders. What a mess. She didn't know what she was doing. I have a bad feeling we'll be running from this on our horses. Fast.

[Cordelia Harrison]

She hugged Garnae back tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. She knew that she wouldn't be without punishment. She had judged too quickly. She only hoped that his actions of starting the fire would explain her actions. He had been the man to start the fire. Perhaps that would redeem her, but she hardly doubted it would be that simple.

"Oh Garnae. I'm afraid. I may have to leave Rohan for all the rest of my life and I don't think I could bare leaving the home of my birth," she whispered, clinging to him. And what would happen to him? If she was banished from Rohan for her actions would he come with her? Did he care enough to abandon his own home to start a new life somewhere else with her? And would Mayonette, once she was married to Thomas, ever come and visit her? Mayonette was her only friend in this world and the only person that had ever tried so hard to make her feel like family.

[Crystal Heart]

Mayonette looked up at Elfride and nodded, sheathing her sword slowly. She grasped Thomas' hand and they walked away from the man named Zach. She looked up at Thomas and could see the turmoil in his eyes.

"Don't let that liar get to you. I know you and I know your heart. I know that you would never have killed someone, even for a job," she said softly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. Yet her insides were shaking. What had Thomas done in the time that he had been away in Gondor? Had he killed innocent people in order to prove his worth?

She shook away her thoughts. No matter what he had done, she didn't care. That was in the past and he was here with her now. That was all that truly mattered. Yet it still nagged at her conscious.

"You didn't kill people. . . did you, Thomas?" She asked, her voice shaking. She stared at the burnt ground around her, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer.

[Dimturiel]

Edhener thought he would need time to allow everything that Leoflic was telling him in such an urgent tone sink in. It seemed that, even if they had made it unharmed from the fire, they were still in a great plight. They had a wounded man with them, hit by one of their arrows. There was no way of hiding him from the villagers. Would they be allowed to continue their quest? Now more tham ever did he want to know where Hama was, whether he would be able to explain their situation to the villagers,so that they would let them continue their journey or not.

Suddenly, Elfride called to them, requesting their assistance to hold the wounded man while she removed the arrow. Edhener inspected the prisonier with a searching gaze. There was something in the man's face that worried him. He seemed to have a mooking look in his eyes. What could that mean? What other mischief had he in store for them, that they could not yet forsee?

Edhener looked away from the man. He did not feel cmfortable when their eyes met. He glanced towards where Cordelia and Garnae were sitting. The girl looked dejected. Edhener shook his head concerned. He wondered what were the chances of them being alowed to continue their quest and how safe would it be to leave their prisonier in the care of the villagers. What if they were sending him actually back to his friends, who wolud free him and then begin pursuing them?Of course it was highly unlikely for the whole village to be working for Samuel, yet how many things had he once thought unlikely only to be proven that it was not at all so? He looked at his two companions questioningly.


"What do you think?" he asked them. "Will we be able to go on after all this? This man frightens me. I cannot say why, but something tells me that he is still capable of doing much harm to our quest.

[Glirdan]

Just then, Elfride called them over to her to help guard the ruffian. He nodded at Mayonnette and Thomas as they walked past each other. He drew his blade as they got nearer to the ruffian. "Don't want him to make any sudden movements," he thougth grimly as Elfride removed the arrow and dressed his wound.

He looked over the scene at hand. Cordelia and Garnae on the ground, Mayonnette and Thomas on their way to where the villagers gathered, the scorched ground which was all that remained of the fire and then Elfride and the wounded man on the ground.

"What do you think?" Edhener asked them. "Will we be able to go on after all this? This man frightens me. I cannot say why, but something tells me that he is still capable of doing much harm to our quest."

"I do agree that this man could do a lot of harm to our quest, but he doesn't frighten me. If anything, he invites sypmathy from me. Wreaking havoc amongst the innocent for pay. Shows he had a very poor childhood. But he could have changed all that. But I don't know if we'll be able to move on right away. Eventually yes. But perhaps our General will be able to find a way to postpone the judgements. Just perhaps..." he trailed off, thinking of what could happen if they were delayed. Images flashed in his mind of his father's body, and his mother on her death bed. "I will not allow this to happen to Sandrina! I will go on myself if I have to!"

"Elfride, what did he tell you and Mayonnette while I was away? Who is this man?"

[Mithalwen]

"I don't know him, but he claims to know Thomas from his time in Gondor." Elfride elided the man's accusations as she finished strapping the wound and finally rose to her feet brushing the dust from the knees of her trousers, forgetting that they were coated with the man's blood. I think there is a map or something in his pack that may guide us to Sandrina - I hope that may compensate from any delay this incident will cause us. She pointed at the bag and in doing so saw her hands and realised what a state she was in, smoke, heat and blood had all left their mark and her cloak was a singed rag.

She looked across to the where the horses were cropping grass peacefully by the river and then at her patient still bound with strips of cloth. "Can you guard him a while longer - take a look at his pack before Hama and the villagers come over ...I need to clean up a bit. Give him something to drink but watch him carefully. I won't be long".

She walked a little unsteadily to the water, picking up a leather bucket, discarded by a villager on the way. It was far too public to change clothes but at least she could wash. She scrubbed the blood from her hands feeling slightly sick. She was no stranger to the sight of blood but this was the first time she had tended a deliberate wound and the thought made her queasy. Suddenly she felt tired. She had not slept the previous night or much on previous nights and though her guests had been well provided for she had eaten little herself. She filled the bucket and loosed her hair hoping the icy mountain water would revive her even if it could not quite cleanse the smell of smoke. Leaning forward she poured the water over her head wincing as the cold water reached her scalp. Then as she sat on the bank and wrung out her hair, the horror of the still young day hit her as well as the magnitude of their task. Unbidden tears mingled with droplets from her still wet hair Samuel would clearly stop at nothing to achieve his ends. What else might he do? What else might he already have done? . "Sandrina will not be helped by your sobbing", Elfride told herself sternly, "you need to go back, to go on". she wiped her face with a grimy sleeve and returned to the others.