Blood Run: A Terror Returns RPG

[Thinlómien]

The dwarves were talking in low voices, in some secret tongue. It irritated Lea that they did not care to share their plans with the others even in such a dire situation. She was just about to interrupt their talk with a pointy remark, when the howling came again, much closer this time.

"It is very close," Orin whispered, terrified.

Lea remembered Sam's words that had gone unheard a moment ago. She turned to the hobbit.

"Should we light a fire?" she asked in a fierce voice.

[Dimturiel]

Erling had had enough. He had had as much as he could bear of walking in the dark with those creatures howling from every direction. He could no longer stand the howls, the darkness, the tension, the fear of his companions that seemed to intensify his own terror. He could not really tell later how he had restrained himself from not simply abandoning all of them there and then and getting himself as fast as he could. But he knew he should not praise himself for that. Perhaps the only reason why he had stayed put was the fact that he still had enough wit to realise that by running blindly in the dark he might very well end up in a Warg’s mouth.

And all the while there was that great feeling of helplessness, of not really being in control of things that irritated Erling. He felt he was being born towards his end against his will-although, he was telling himself, he should have expected such an end when he had landed himself in this “defending” business. Well, he had not. He had thought things would go differently from the way they had turned up.

Suddenly, Erling knew what bothered him, when he heard the two Dwarves speaking in their own incomprehensible language. What were they about? Why could they not speak words the others could understand as well? Did they not trust them? Did they consider them mere helpless peasants, not to be trusted with grave matters? But this was their own grave matter. They had to know what was going on. For a while, Erling said nothing about this, but when he heard Orin’s terrified “They’re close”, he could stand it no longer. He turned to Gorin and Kuric.

“Look at this,” he began in one of his rare, but still great outbursts. “You two should stop your mutterings in your own tongue and tell us all what to expect. I know quite well what you think. You think we are not capable to face what’s coming, that we are only a foolish folk, useless in a fight, unable to cope in tight spots. You despise us, you deem us unworthy of your great plans. I do not deny that I know absolutely nothing about battle. I do not deny that I am scared. But I am ready to fight whatever is to come, yes, with my frightened wits and rusted weapon I am ready to withstand it and try my best to defeat it. We all are. So show us some trust and tell us what we should do…”

Erling paused, breathing deeply. The howls around them seemed to be getting near. He looked around him, his expression uneasy.

[Groin Redbeard]

Gorin was worried. The distant howling of the wolves had unsettled his companions. He had not talked to Kuric long before Sam, the hobbit, spoke his mind, but Gorin paid no attention to him at first; Kuric had not finished speaking. Kuric paused for a minute before attempting to say anything further, but he never got that chance.

"Should we light a fire?"
But as soon as she had finished speaking, and Gorin and Kuric stopped their discussion, then Erling gave a great outburst whose tenacity startled the dwarf.

“Look at this, you two should stop your mutterings in your own tongue and tell us all what to expect. I know quite well what you think. You think we are not capable to face what’s coming, that we are only a foolish folk, useless in a fight, unable to cope in tight spots. You despise us, you deem us unworthy of your great plans. I do not deny that I know absolutely nothing about battle. I do not deny that I am scared. But I am ready to fight whatever is to come, yes, with my frightened wits and rusted weapon I am ready to withstand it and try my best to defeat it. We all are. So show us some trust and tell us what we should do…” Fear and confusion was growing amongst them, and Gorin’s patience had been spent.

“Enough,” He cried allowed with outstretched arms, “I do not doubt your valor and courage young Erling, and no I do not despise you or anyone here. You have all shown great courage so far, but I will not be reprimanded by someone half my age, a mere boy compared to me!" Gorin stepped towards Erling in a threatening manner, but the young man did not flinch and grasped his weapon. The dwarf noticed his own weapon in his hand and half raised; it was then that Gorin realized that he was in the wrong. He let his arm drop to his side, and his shoulders sagged as he sighed.

“Come my good man,” Gorin said in a very passive and reluctant voice, “You call me untrustworthy and I call you a mere child, but we should both know better. I have brought you all into this predicament and I am sorry for that. Forgive my hasty words, Erling, there was no truth in them at all.” Erling didn’t respond in words, but the expression on the man’s face told Gorin all we need to know.

Another howl was heard in the night air, but this time it was directly ahead of them. Gorin spat and cursed at his negligence and foolish arguing, their prey was close at hand.

“Lea and Sam speak wisely,” he remarked, “We are blind not to have thought of it before. Kuric, could lend a hand and chop some suitable branches to be used as torches; I’ll start the fire in order to light them.”

Gorin reached back into his sack and retrieved a bag and box. He poured the contents in the sack out on the ground, shavings that he kept to lights fires in emergency, and started striking on some flint the he took from the box. In a matter of seconds a fire was started and was being fed with whatever things that they could gather.

“At least we’ll be able to rid ourselves of this nighttime chill in our bones.” He said rubbing his hands together vigorously.

[mormegil]

Kuric had made up his mind and he knew what he must do. Erling’s outburst made Kuric understand that these companions were afraid, but they pursued their fates anyway. It touched the old dwarf and that is what caused him to realize that he must do what he could to preserve these people. As Groin and Erling were loudly discussing what should be done Kuric took one look back and a with a deep breath and sigh he left the forest opening heading toward the sound of the warg, for he knew there were more than one.

Kuric trotted along doggedly as best he could in the direction of the sound. Weaving his way in and out of trees, he felt that at any moment a warg may jump out and attack. Instinctively he clutched his great mace preparing for any attack. Alright lad, he told himself, ya’ve been in battle a hundred times, this’ll be no different. He had never reassured himself before, but he felt something was different this time.

Finally, he was reached the point where he must stop running. Leaning over for a moment to catch his breath, Kuric heard sound that made the adrenaline course through his veins as he felt new vigor and strength. He yelled the ancient dwarven battle cry, "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" He rushed toward the source of the sound uncertain of his fate but knowing that he must do all he can to save that small group of Breelanders that were unprepared for such a battle.

[Durelin]

They had come out of nowhere, and Parkun and Toby had suddenly been surrounded by snarls and growls. These were no ordinary wolves. Though they resembled them, they were larger, and there was an intelligence in their eyes that Kun had not seen in any other animal. There were three of the great beasts, and they looked…hungry. They seemed to be grinning at their prey. Wargs…Kun had thought them beasts of legend, or at least creatures destroyed in the War.

Suddenly Kun heard an angry growl from behind and thought one of the Wargs was preparing to leap onto him and the hobbit, but instead, Kun saw two more wolves came bounding out of the trees as he whirled around. One had silvery fur throughout his coat, and it…it spoke to the others, and even Kun could make out the words.

“You had orders, fleabags,” it growled angrily, looking around at the three who surrounded Kun and Toby, “You were not to touch any of the two-legs, even the small ones.” The speaking warg gestured with his muzzle towards Toby. “Besides – you know I get first kill.” The beast’s eyes met Parkun’s. The thing really was smiling at him, and Kun sensed that it was preparing to move.

“Wait!” he yelled, and sought quickly to save his life. He had not volunteered to die. He was no sacrifice. No one and nothing was worth a sacrifice, much less held value equal to his own life. “There is a party looking for you. They are probably in the forest by now. I can lead them to you. I’ll tell them you have the hobbit. No, I’ll tell them he’s hurt, and bring them to him, but you’ll be there…hidden. An ambush.” He quickly counted in his head. “There are…there are at least six others, most much bigger than this hobbit. I can bring them to you.”

If they were busy with six meals besides Toby, he could escape, even if they did not let him go. They would not bother hunting him, bellies full, and when he had helped them after all. When he would be no threat to them. If he did not bring them back, they would hunt him down, and he knew he had no chance. They knew he knew that.

The wargs caught a whiff of the other humans, Hobbit, and…another scent, which Kun identified for them as Dwarf; and several began howling in anticipation. The plan was in motion, and Parkun was still alive…

~*~*~*~*~

Parkun rushed through the trees in the direction the wargs had sniffed out the others. He was not sure if they would eat Toby yet, or wait to enjoy him with the others, but he heard nothing but the howling for some time.

Suddenly there was a shout that rose above the howling, close to Kun, in a language he did not recognize, and then he felt himself crash into something too short to be a tree and too hard to be a bush. He was pushed backward, but before he fell, a heavy blow thudded against his chest. Kun landed hard on his rear, the wind twice knocked out of him and his chest pulsing with pain. He gasped for breath, and it felt as if his heart had stopped altogether for several moments. It had not stopped pounding in his ears since he had first heard the snarls of the wargs.

It was strangely quiet now in the forest, as Kun lay on the ground at the feet of Kuric with his mace, coughing and flailing in a panic to take a full, normal breath again. Perhaps the wargs really wouldn’t be the ones to kill him after all... Everything slowly faded...

~*~*~*~*~

Dûrkoth leapt at his approaching comrade with anger burning in his eyes, and clenched the other warg’s neck in his teeth, not gently. Blood covered Carchel’s maw and his front paws, and there was a gash in his left flank. “You fool! What have you done?” he growled. Those looking for them now knew exactly what they were looking for and where to look for them, and their pack was weakened by one wounded. Dûrkoth let out a howl to silence the four others and bring them to him. He would be making an example of Carchel, and they had work to do.

[Groin Redbeard]

Gorin had the fire going nicely and by now everyone was gathered around it to warm themselves. As Gorin sat comfortably on ground, his mind began to wonder from the present situation. The flames from the fire began to form shapes, in his mind, of great dwarven halls deep under the mountains. He could hear the smote of the hammer on the anvil, the plucking of harp strings, and the joyous laughter of dwarves feasting. The illusion was short lived, and Gorin awoke from his dream when Sam bumped him.

The dwarf’s mood was suddenly a sour one. Then he remembered why he had lit the fire in the first place.

"Where is Kuric with those torches? Probably asleep somewhere." he said turning around to see if the old dwarf was sleeping.

"Kuric?" he said in a raised voice, "Where has he got to?"

He walked to the border of the fires light to see if he could see or even hear the old dwarf; nothing.

"Kuric!" this time Gorin's voice was loud and clear.

Even though Gorin was worried, he just put it out of his mind telling himself that Kuric went to do his business and would be back soon, but this meant he had to chop torch wood. He was done in a short amount of time, and brought back four large bludgeons of wood. The ends were placed in the fire.

Gorin had seated himself back beside Sam and waited for Kuric to come back, but several minutes passed by before they heard it.

The nighttime stillness was broken by Kuric's deep dwarf yell, "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" Gorin jumped up from where he was sitting.

"He's in trouble! Quickly we must... Gah!" and he fell to the ground screaming. Gorin had not noticed in his hastiness that he had put his left boot in the middle of the fire when he jumped up. He fell to the ground sputtering and slapping at his boot with his hands. When his boot was extinguished he grabbed one of the torches from the fire and tried to run off after Kuric, but someone grabbed him.

"Let me go, I he needs us! Let me go lad!"

"Hush, Gorin," came Ash's voice, "Let's not get separated for a second time tonight. We are coming."

Although Ash was young he was incredibly strong, using one arm to grab the dwarf's shoulders and his other arm to stop Gorin from hitting him. However, Gorin calmed down before he could do any harm to Ash. With their weapons in one hand and blazing torches in the other the defenders started off, this time in search of a dwarf.

[mormegil]

In a moment Kuric would spring upon his enemies, this was his moment. He always felt most alive before the kill. With adrenaline pumping he steadied his mace waiting for that glorious moment of combat. Suddenly, he realized he had made a mistake when a creature came crashing in at his back near his flank. He turned abruptly and with all of his strength he swung his mace at his attacker. Ready to let out a victory yell, he suddenly realized mid-swing that his pursuer was not a warg, in fact it was human.

Instinctively, he pulled as much of the swing as he could. Fortunately he was able to angle to blow downward, away from the head. He hit the man's chest and abdomen with a glancing blow, certainly not enough to kill a man. "Good" he thought as he saw the man go down. "This might be our enemy too" He began approaching the figure cautiously when the man began to slump and looked up at him; that is when Kuric realzied that he had hit a fellow defender. Before Kuric could speak he saw the man, Parkun slump down splayed out on his back. "Lad, are ya alright," Kuric queried.

Going up and shaking Parkun roughly by the shoulder, Kuric attempted to wake his companion. "I wonder how ye found me lad," Kuric wondered as he shook.