T-I-G LXVII: The Rangers of the North - The Fell Winter

[Gwathagor]

Ok, well, I'm going to vote Lommy for Night-Guard since Kath hasn't been around and it seems like a waste of special privileges.

++ NG Lommy

[Gwathagor]

Heck, in the absence of better ideas:

++Boro

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Ok, well, I'm going to vote Lommy for Night-Guard since Kath hasn't been around and it seems like a waste of special privileges.

Says who.

EDIT: sorry Nog, that was missed by a hobbit's hair.

[Nerwen]

Captain Legate, the Lynch and the Night Guard votes are tied. So do your duty.

EDIT: Oh, Nogrod's making the decision, is he? I thought Legate had to.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Captain Legate, the Lynch and the Night Guard votes are tied. So do your duty.

Nope. He's no more the Cap'n... Not his job...

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Nope. He's no more the Cap'n... Not his job...

Ah. I thought he was Captain until the new Captain was announced.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I don't think I am a Captain. Or that I have any privilege.

EDIT: x-ed!!! yes, so you see. I should not have been saying anything. It's Night! The rules should not be breached! Sorry, nog

[Nogrod]

Be my guest...

[Nogrod]

The Rangers buried their dead with heavy hearts and packed their backpacks despite the blizzard. They were ready to continue their endless-seeming mission through the white storm to reach the Shire in time to prevent the wolves to wreak havoc on them. How impossible that seemed with the problems of their own to be sorted out!

“Don’t you think someone should need to know about our ordeal back there?” Boro called the others over the howling wind. “I could try to reach Bree! I know the way there the best of us!”

The others halted.

“If you feel it must be you, then you go” Legate said matter of factly.

“But how come you’d just sneak away? Shouldn’t we take tougher measures on you actually?” Gwath yelled.

“Why do you say that? It’s a tough quest to do all alone.” Nerwen reacted.

“Why would I like to sneak away if I was a wolf?” Boro answered somewhat irritated.

“Well, that’s not logically proven stuff you come forwards with comrade… you might be arguing in circles…” Roa muttered.

“If he wishes to go, then he goes.” Legate snapped to Roa. “He does what he sees fit and we others continue, with him or without him. That's the Captain's words.”

It was clear the two were not in the best of terms, not the least as during the morning hours it seemed they were the top contestants to be the Captain.

The pragmatic Rangers turned that rivalry off by choosing Nienna as their new Captain.


But who would they lynch toDay… that was a question they all went through in their minds while pushing through the storm that seemed to grow as the day draw nearer to the end.

That day the weather really pressed them and they soon realised they would not be able to travel very far. There was no good shelter for resting within miles and they knew it.

Finally they found a few mounds that were high enough to hide behind from the icy wind and where they could light some fires that had even slight chances of burning. Even if that hope soon turned out to be a fool’s hope.

But they had to make a choice – and as long as they all sat around the fire it kept burning as the mass of men kept the wind outside the lonely circle of light in the middle of the storming moors.

It ended up with Loslote and Valier being the ones to choose from.

“So as I’m not your Captain anymore it’s up to you Nienna to decide who…” Legate said calmly.

Nienna looked at Legate and then at the two pierced by the stare of all the other Rangers, everyone of them thinking how it would turn out this time.

“It will be Valier… give him a knife to be an honourable Ranger who faces the distrust of his companions.” Nienna finally ordered.

Valier looked scared but also annoyed. “Wait a minute! You didn’t give me even one chance to do anything! You guys call this fair? Once I’m in this you didn’t even give me one try?”

Valier denied the knife handed to him and looked at the others challengingly. “Knives…” He spat on the snow with disgust in his face and draw his sword. “There’s only one way to go for a Ranger… and that is…” He set the blade into the snow blade upwards and leaned lightly on it.

The others held their breath in honouring the composure of their brother.

“… like this!”

With that Valier threw the sword from the blade towards those nearest to him and kicked the fire down leaping away from the same footing.

“Catch him!” Nienna yelled and drew his bow.

“He’s running that way, quick after him!” Lommy called and pointed to the direction while reaching for his bow with the other hand.

Greenie had leapt after Valier already and produced his knife. “So a knife is not good enough for you traitor? Try this!” With that Greenie threw his knife after the shape that was trying to evade them into the darkness. A loud cry was heard when the knife landed on Valier’s back.

Two bows rang at the same time and before he fell down two arrows pierced him to finalise his fate.

The Rangers closed up on him carefully their weapons ready for any werewolf-tricksery, but there was none. Valier laid face down in the snow, a knife and two arrows in his back.

Suddenly his head moved a bit. "The wolves should... no... they will... prevail..."

Those were the last words of Valier the Traitor.



The Living:

Fea
Nienna
Sally
Kath
Loslote
Greenie
Nerwen
Roa
Lommy
Legate
Gwath
Brinn


The Dead:

Nogrod (mod) - turned into a werewolf and butchered on N1.
Hakon (The Master Hunter) - stuck dead on D1.
Rune (Werewolf) - killed from the sword of the Master Hunter at the end of D1.
Macalaure (The Berserk Hunter) - eaten alive by the werewolves on N2.
Inzil (Ordinary Innocent) - decapitated by the Berserk Hunter on N2.
Boro (Ordinary Innocent) - left to Bree to infor others about the Company's tough fate on D2.
Valier (The Night-Traitor aka. The Cobbler) - killed by the Rangers while trying to flee on D2.

It's Night3 now.

Hush...

[Nogrod]

At places the snow had piled up in drifts as high as up to a man’s waist. The Rangers dug individual holes into these drifts to make the snow keep them covered and warm.

There was no need for five people staying up in an open place like this. The wolves could not make their mischief in secret like they had done the Night before in the shadows of the trees. And everyone was dead-tired so the more people could sleep the coming Night the better. So only Nienna, Sally and Kath stayed by the fire watching over the camp – if one could call it a camp. It was more like “nine men living in makeshift hobbitholes” as Fea had put it before crawling into his hole in the snow.

The wind showed no sign of getting weaker, nor the snowfall of ceasing. And the Night went on.


With the first shades of light increasing the three decided to wake the others. They should use all the sparse daylight they had.

“Rise and shine! We’re leaving in twenty minutes!” Nienna called walking around.

“Did you say “shine”?” Lommy asked cynically after pulling his head out from the hole and getting the biting wind to his face.

“I wouldn’t take this for a Day if I hadn’t your assurances… though I’m still wavering between that and the proof of my own eyes.” Gwath grumbled.

“Don’t be sulky mates, nothing happened during the Night!” Sally answered cheerfully. “Just grin a bit softer!”

“There was no sound, no movement during the Night.” Kath confirmed.

“Blessed be the Valar." Roa said and took his backpack "Lets’ get on with it then.” only to suddenly freeze motionless.

“What is it Roa?” Nienna asked passing him by.

“Have you seen Brinn?” Roa asked.

Nienna turned to look at Brinn’s hole. His sack and his weapons were there but it seemed there was nothing else.

“Wait, there’s a tunnel under the drift here!” Nerwen shouted suddenly stepping on it less than ten meters away from Brinn’s hole.

“Let’s follow it!” Legate called and started kicking the snow from around the place where Nerwen had bumbed into the tunnel.

After a few minutes of slowly following the tunnel in the blizzard they finally saw an odd shape in the drift in front of them.

Loslote was the first one to spot it and he ran forwards fighting the snow that had piled almost up to his chest. After throwing the snow around with his bare hands he finally yelled “It’s Brinn! …and he’s… naked…”

Greenie had followed in his trails and tried frantically to find a pulse. The other Rangers fought their way slowly around the body of their mate. After a minute or two of painful silence Greenie shook his head and turned towards the others. “He’s dead. Frozen to death.”

~*~

The Living:

Fea
Nienna
Sally
Kath
Loslote
Greenie
Nerwen
Roa
Lommy
Legate
Gwath


The Dead:

Nogrod (mod) - turned into a werewolf and butchered on N1.
Hakon (The Master Hunter) - stuck dead on D1.
Rune (Werewolf) - killed from the sword of the Master Hunter at the end of D1.
Macalaure (The Berserk Hunter) - eaten alive by the werewolves on N2.
Inzil (Ordinary Innocent) - decapitated by the Berserk Hunter on N2.
Boro (Ordinary Innocent) - left to Bree to inform others about the Company's tough fate on D2. (killed by the wolves travelling alone in the blizzard)
Valier (The Night-Traitor aka. The Cobbler) - killed by the Rangers while trying to flee on D2.
Brinn (Ordinary Innocent) – stunned, dragged through a tunnel, stripped naked and left to froze to death on N3.

It's Day 3 now.

It's your turn...