The Fellowship of the Fourth Age (Part 1): A New Beginning RPG

[Folwren]

Kwell watched Carl go until with wind whipped sand hid him from sight. Then he sighed and bent his head towards the wind and headed back the way he had come. He could hear nothing besides the rush of wind, but in his inner ear, he heard Carl’s voice. ‘They might be needing a stout hearted lad such as you, just now. . .You go take care of Azhar for me. I’ve a good hunch you might be better at it than me.’

Then came Azhar’s voice, shouting at him. He had ignored her. ‘Kwell, you louse. I am no child!...A real soldier wouldn’t disobey his captain’s instructions, and he wouldn’t desert his post!’ Would desert his post! Kwell urged his feet onward. Lindir had told him to stay back, but Kwell had thought that he had been told to stay behind so as to keep him out of danger. Could it really have been so that he could fight, when the time came?

He felt something sink in side of him. What if they were attacked? What if people were killed? What if he could have been there to help them? What if . . . what if . . .

But even as his feet hurried onward, his mind began to race to defend himself. They hadn’t told him that there might be danger. Lindir had not said that the women and children might be attacked. They had hidden them so that they would be safe. It was not his fault if they were found and some of them killed.

The excuses ran on in his head, but he could not dismiss the guilty feeling that lay in his stomach like a large stone. He knew he should not have left. He knew he had disobeyed and had done so intentionally.

Something interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and squinted into the wind. He’d gone too far to the right. His shoulders drooped farther, his feet worked faster, and he started again towards the left.

“I have to make it back,” he panted in the wind. “I’ve got to help. I must, I must, I must do something or I’ll never be able to face Lindir or any one else again. No one must die. No one!”

[Undómë]

Zagra & Mazhg


‘Look here,’ Mazhg whispered, lifting up the wadded woolen cloak which served it seemed as the absent slaver’s pillow. ‘Wonder who he killed to get this.’ She picked up the long sharp knife and drew it from its leather scabbard. ‘I doubt he had enough gold to have it made for himself,’ she went on, looking about at the poorer furnishings in the small tent.

Zagra took the weapon gingerly from her sister and inspected it in a hesitant manner. And more quickly slid it back into its case. ‘Here,’ she said with a shiver. ‘You take it.’ She watched as Mazhg tied the scabbard about her waist.

‘You know, Ungolt will like this I think,’ Mazhg said, patting the smooth, dark leather that hung down to her mid thigh. ‘She can use it with her sword,’ Mazhg went on, starting to look through the slaver’s leather sack tucked in at the foot of his rude bed. ‘I’ve seen the men back at the plantation...practice fighting.’ She snorted, remembering the all too bloody matches fueled by brave words and much strong drink. ‘Practice! Huhhhh!! Remember how many dead fellows they dragged off from the practice rings? Those men – they don’t care who they kill, long as there’s someone to mangle and bleed.’

‘Must be big farms where they breed all those ugly monsters,’ Zagra said, stifling a giggle. She shuddered at the thought. And in a brief moment of empathy, she felt some sort of sympathy go out to those women who must have served such beasts and borne their offspring. ‘Poor mamas!’ she spoke, almost to herself.

Mazhg looked fondly at her sister, the dim light inside the tent hiding her quick show affection. Such a tender heart! She shook her head. Sweet little fool...heart of my own heart... ‘Come Zagra,’ she called, taking her sister’s hand. ‘I don’t think we’ll find much more here. Let’s see what treasures another tent might hold.’

Like quick little shadows, the sisters moved quiet and low along the outskirts of the camp.....

[Regin Hardhammer]

Ishkur and Gwerr spent the hour sorting through their treasure of gold coins and tying them into smaller packets that they tucked inside their clothing and under the saddlebag of Ishkur's horse. They made sure everything was hidden and that no one could hear any jingling noises. All the while, Ishkur dreamed of how he would spend his share of the loot. In his head was a picture of a sturdy wooden hunting lodge with a large herd of horses grazing outside and several orc brats running around in circles in the yard, brandishing small swords. Where those Orc brats had come from, Ishkur wasn't sure but he kind of liked them being there.

On the walls of his lodge hung stuffed heads of boar and bear that he had brought down in the hunt. There were several females living in small, neat huts along the edge of his land. Now and then, he got up and ordered them around. Best of all, there were no bosses to tell him what to do. He could hunt and sleep as long as he wanted and spend the night carousing, and no one would yell or complain.

When the job of sorting was done, Ishkur turned back to Gwerr and grinned, "Well, my friend, a lowly maggot face you may be, but your idea was good. We should have no trouble getting back to camp and the Uruk-Hai will be none the wiser." Ishkur clapped Gwerr on the back. Still, there are two things I still want to do. Let's have at that ale. Those idiots won't be back for hours. I want some hot brew in my stomach to keep me warm in this storm. We can stay inside this tent since it's the sturdiest. It's blowing worse to the west so those fools will be tied up for a while."

"The second thing,....." At this point, Ishkur glanced away. His face was going red. He was having a hard time finding words to say. In fact, he could not remember when he'd said anything like this before. "Well, this probably doesn't make sense. But those females helped me when I was hungry. There's three of them. I'd like to give them a few of these coins--Zagra, her sister, and the one from the breeding camp who sometimes tags along with them." Ishkur could not even say the last one's name. "Yeah, that one," he nodded in reply to Gwerr's raised eyebrows. "She's the one who wants to learn how to use a sword." All the while, he privately thought how useful it would be to have a partner who could actually fight. Seeing the look on Gwerr's face, he quickly added, "Don't worry, Gwerr. I won't take money out of your share. And nothing very big. Just a coin or two. The silver ones that don't bring so much on the market. But when we finally get north, we may need some help setting up things. These women may even know a thing or two that we don't....." Ishkur thought deeply about this possibility for a minute and then muttered. "Probably not, since they're only women, but you never know...." This time Ishkur had a pleasant vision of female orcs complacently doing his laundry, sharpening his weapons, gutting the rabbits, and massaging his feet.

Ishkur turned and grabbed his large bag and started sorting out nine silver coins into three little piles and then tied them up with smaller rags. Then he poked his head out of the tent and looked around. Even with the storm roaring, he could see that there were many in camp. He stepped back inside and reported, "Well, Gwerr, the slavers' fine camp is now overun by our fellow Orcs. The whole band is here. I can see Makdush and his gang, and the women, and lots of others. Why don't you drag that ale barrel back inside the tent so we get our fair share?" Ishkur mumbled one more sentence, more to himself than Gwerr. "After that I'll go and give this money to the females and tell them to keep their traps shut." Ishkur had been talking so fast that Gwerr had not yet had a chance to say anything.

On a last minute impulse, Ishkur turned aside for a minute, untied the large bag and dug out one more silver coin, the smallest that he had. He stuffed it inside his pocket. This one was for that young Orc brat, the one they called Grask. He had no idea why he was doing this. He said nothing to Gwerr because he didn't think his friend would exactly approve....

[Firefoot]

Grask lifted his waterskin to his mouth for another swig of the fiery liquid from Iskur and Gwerr's keg only to find that it was empty. He felt vaguely discontented at this. He had drunk ale only once or twice in his short life, and never a whole skin's worth: only a small swallow snitched from the older Orcs, and typically on a dare. Now his senses seemed heightened and Grask was feeling remarkably carefree and bold, though light-headed. Life was good. He was possibly better supplied than he had ever been in his life; his pack was full and there weren't any other young orclings around to challenge him for it. And even if he were to want for something, an entire empty man camp was spread out before him, ripe for the picking.

He considered poking around the camp to find more ale to fill his waterskin - it couldn't be all that hard to find, as drinking seemed to be at least one thing men had in common with orcs - but decided against it. Gwerr and Iskur would undoubtedly find some more, and Grask could fill up then, if he wanted to and they still felt inclined to let him. And then there was the sandstorm that pricked at his skin and irritated his eyes and nose and mouth. Finding shelter would be preferable to finding ale.

Without making a conscious decision, Grask found himself again near the pit where the man children had been held captive. It ought to serve well; the wind would not reach him there. Grask slowly lowered himself down into the pit, though as he neared the bottom he somehow slipped and found himself sprawled on the ground. He blinked a few times in confusion and tried to clear his head. What had just happened? He shrugged it off.

He was disappointed to find that one of the meat packages he had thrown down to the man children was untouched. Surely they would have been hungry? Didn't they eat the same sorts of food? And that had been a nice chunk of meat. His initial disappointment wore off quickly, though, as he realized that he was rather hungry. He ate the meat himself, savoring the raw, juicy bites. After eating, he decided to explore the pit and quickly found the stream. It passed under the pit's walls and seemed fairly deep. Grask did not swim; he recoiled in disgust from the cool water. But he knew that some orcs could... and he supposed that men might, too. Why not? Could those men children swim? Had they escaped, rather than being put to death as he had previously assumed? So where would they be now? Might he see them again?

But he was not about to attempt a swim, and he contented himself with thinking over these questions while he waited out the sandstorm in the bottom of the pit.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Urlok’s post

Urlok swung his horse about on the rocky ledge and brought her to a halt, staring down on the grove where the slavers had begun their charge. The older man had no idea where his Captain was. A few minutes before, six of the band, almost half of those left who were capable of fighting, had come galloping up to him with garbled accounts of what they had seen. Speaking in fearful voices, the men described a gigantic flying creature that had charged down on the plain not far from where they were standing. One of the men had claimed to hear the shrieks and roars of three comrades obviously under desperate attack, and that one of those despairing voices had belonged to Imak.

Urlok did not know what to make of this. He was a stolid man, experienced and battle hardened, little given to imagination or flights of fancy. In all the years he had fought, he had never seen or heard of any such gigantic flying beast, other than those in the faerie stories that were told to children around winter fireplaces. Even glimpsing this great creature from a distance, his men had been terrified and shaking, fearful that the creature would descend on their heads and strike again. Urlok had roared back at his fellow slavers, telling them to stiffen their backbones and to keep their minds on what they were doing, promising that, if he heard any more about flying beasts, he would personally separate their shoulders from their heads. He had said this in such a way that his men had backed off and begun to regroup for the battle charge.

Urlok knew nothing of dragons or myths, but he did know about fighting, possibly more than Imak. With the Captain nowhere in sight, he had stepped to the front and barked out orders to the men who were returning to the grove in twos and threes. Within a short time, he had managed to organize them, so they were now charging forward into the grove. Despite heavy losses among the slavers, Urlok felt that his band had a decent change of prevailing and dragging off any number of women and children back to Nurn in exchange for gold and silver. He still had twelve stout fighters, all experienced in battle. Although relatively few of the defenders of the camp had been slaughtered, great numbers of them were wounded and totally unfit to fight. Moreover, there were many women and children who, while whole bodied, had no knowledge of fighting. Altogether, Urlok guessed that the slaves possessed no more than fifteen to eighteen fighters who could put up a fierce resistance. Moreover, most of the enemy were on foot, while most of his own band still had their horses. The odds, then, were not bad. With that consoling thought in mind, Urlok kicked at his horse’s flanks and urged him down the rocky slope, his sword draw from its scabbard.

******************

Save: Lindir describes the action

Lindir, Gretl, and Wulf raced into the grove a few moments after the slavers' attack had begun in earnest. Aiwendil bustled over to the elf's side and hurried him off to the sheltered cove where Athwen was attempting to care for the injured. It was the one place that was still well protected and they could talk in relative peace.

Aiwendil blurted out a quick report, trying to give Lindir an accounting of what had happened in the course of battle. "It has been hard...very hard. The freed slaves report many losses. Reagonn, Syth, Zaki, Erlech, and Joshwen have all fallen. Others too....more than I can name. And there are others we have not seen, a number of those who were on horseback.....Darren, Korden, amd Ayce. Whether they live or die, we do not know. Many too are wounded. Too many for Athwen to tend easily. Hadith has been brought in with injuries, and Adnan too. Athwen has gotten some of the women to help her."

Lindir glanced over and saw Johari kneeling beside the wounded Hadith. He could also make out Azhar and two other young women helping to care for those who lay wounded, "Azhar is safe then? I'd heard a garbled account that she had fallen to the enemy."

Aiwendil shook his head, "No, she was brought back safe here, but not before a serious scuffle. She went out searching for the lost child Tom. She managed to find him alive but in the hands of several slavers. Rôg rescued them both and did us a service. He took out two of the slavers on his own and injured Imak severely. The man has lost his hand and should not bother us again today."

Lindir raised one eyebrow but said nothing. Glancing up, he saw Dorran dismount from his horse, carrying Fewerth in his arms. The Rider lay the injured man in front of Athwen, explaining that he had been trampled by a horse, and then went off to collect another man who had been wounded. Aiwendil's eyes met Lindir's and , despite the hard surroundings, saw a look of relief. "They both made it back then. I feared for their safety."

"Yes, Athwen told me that Dorran's head wound is bleeding again and, like so many, he can not ride out to fight. But he insists on helping with the injured and bringing those in who need attention. And if this part of the grove is breached, he will fight, wound or not."

Lindir nodded and glanced around. He could see Khamir and Nasim fighting doggedly in the thick of battle. Beloan had also joined them. But others, too many, were missing.

Lindir prodded, "Where is Shae and Kwell?" I do not see either of them. Indeed, I thought Kwell was to be placed in charge of the older children in the grove, but I only see Grwell, standing there beside Rôg. Kwell was at the trench, I know, although he was supposed to be here. But since then I have not seen him. And the woman? Where is she?"

Aiwendil shook his head and hastily replied, "I have no news of Kwell or Shae. I have seen neither since the battle began. But there is one more thing I must show you."

Aiwendil walked gently over to the Dwarf and knelt down on the ground. "Vrór." he said simply.

Lindir slipped to his knees and put his hand on the dwarf's chest. The breaths came slow and halting.

Lindir shook his head and spoke, "This is the hardest, the hardest of all." At that moment he glimpsed one more friend trying to stay alive in dangerous surroundings. A large horse was prancing and snorting on the outskirts of the grove with two fighters precariously mounted on his back. Carl was in the front and was having some difficulty guiding the animal while Dirrand was hacking wildly in all directions with a large sword. They were faced by three slavers, the first tall and heavy wielding a battle axe and the second a much smaller fellow who darted in and out with a small slashing knife. In the distance, just approaching them, was a man whom Lindir knew to be one of Imak's most trusted henchmen. He had riden down the hill and was charging straight for the beleaguered pair.....

Hastily, Lindir stood up, "I must go. Carl needs my help and I can do nothing for my good friend here. We will have to leave that to Athwen and to the ancestors of the Dwarfs whom they say look after their own. Aiwendil, hold the grove. So far the women and children are safe. We must keep that so." Then Lindir turned and sprinted down to where Carl and Dirnan were fighting.

[Tevildo]

For the past half hour, Azhar had tried to do what Athwen told her: running to fetch water jugs, collecting strips of cloth from the ladies in camp to use as makeshift bandages and helping to clean the wounds of a few whose injuries had been minor. The center of the grove, the area where the hospital had been set up, still held fast against the attackers. Several of the freed slaves had formed a ring around that part of the encampment, and up to this point none of the slavers had managed to break through.

On the outskirts, however, the two sides battled fiercely. The area of conflict was clearly widening. Already, one or two slavers had ridden within a stone's throw of those women and children who had hidden in a tangle of boulders set further north, close to the entrance of the grove.

As the fighting crept closer to Azhar, the noise and stench of battle was almost more than she could bear. But seeing Athwen's calm and quiet demeanor steadied the girl and helped her keep her fears in check. All thoughts of changing into a wild creature and challenging the enemy single handed were gone. Azhar instinctively understood that she had no real control over the animal shape and that to try to shift over in the middle of this chaos could only lead to disaster. Plus, as she watched Athwen work her quiet miracles on those who had been injured, the girl sensed that what was going on in this little corner of the camp was just as important as actual fighting. Even Dorran did not complain too much when his wife suggested he use his horse to help bring in the wounded rather than engaging directly in the fighting with the cut in his head reopened and bleeding.

Azhar filled a gourd with water and brought it over to Azhar who had knelt down beside Vror to look at him more closely. After accepting it, the older woman explained, "We need another to help. There are too many wounded for the two of us and my husband is likely to bring in more. A few moments ago, Aiwendil spoke of an older woman who is a midwife skilled in the use of herbs. Her name is Rowenna. Run up by the entrance to the grove and see if she can come back here. But be careful! There is fighting not far from there."

With that, Azhar nodded curtly and sprinted off in the direction that Athwen had indicated.

[Nogrod]

Gwerr

Ishkur asked Gwerr to get the ale barrell inside for them. That sounded fair and reasonable enough. But then all this talk about giving some of the coins to the females, even trusting them to just hold their tongues about it made Gwerr really nervous. He took the few steps needed to get to the doorway but from curiosity glanced back to the tent as he went out just to see Ishkur untying one of his bags and stuffing one more coin to his pocket. Man, you’re losing your grip... Why do you have to go jelly-brained at the moment when we should be our smartest?

The rising wind threw dust on his face as he stepped out of the tent and made him cough. As he was able to open his eyes after a while he noticed the general hassle in the camp. What he could judge from the flickering shades and noises coming from different directions, it seemed that all the others were present, looting whatever they could. The wind was furious, gaining speed every now and then and making nearly all perception impossible.

After a while as Gwerr tried to locate the barrel he suddenly noticed Ishkur’s newly acquired horse stepping to and fro looking very nervous. Oh Morgoth! Well, good I was the one coming out...

“C’mon you!” Gwerr called the horse as he approached it and took the reins commandingly into his hands. He pulled gently but demandingly and the horse followed him, calming down a bit. Slowly Gwerr took the horse to the opening of the tent and then gripped it from the mane, pulling it’s head firmly downwards. “Now you’re coming with me my four-legged treasure-carrier, you come nicely to the inside... You’ll like it more there and we’ll like it so much more to see you and your carriage all the time”. Simultaneously he half pulled, half pushed the animal inside the tent, pulling it’s head downwards so that it fitted in without felling the tent down. Ishkur seemed a bit perplexed with the entry of the two.

“I may have my reasons to believe your overall sanity going bye-bye, but leaving our treasure out there for the Uruk-scum to grasp is just outstanding! What if Makdush and his slimy friends would have noticed this one while we were in here nicely sipping ale and getting our well deserved drinks? What then, Ishkur, What then?” He showed his contempt with an orcish gesture and went back outside. He thought for a second why he had been so angered about the horse being left outside before he realised that it was probably because he himself was to blame as well. Neither had he thought of getting the horse with the loads of coins safely inside in the first place. But Ishkur saw it earlier that the others were around and about... he tried to reason to himself but failed to make himself confident with that.

When he came back in dragging the barrell he could sense the tension in the air. Ishkur was looking at him sternly. Gwerr said nothing, but after laying the barrell in the middle of the tent he took his axe and hewed the top open. The splinters of wood spread all around and considerable amounts of ale splushed over to the mat. As he reached out for a goblet that was lying on the table near him he finally smiled to Ishkur. “Okay mate, you may be becoming a nimcompoop, but whatever. You’re my mate anyhow. Let’s drink!” He filled the goblet from the barrell and handed it towards Ishkur.