Book 4: Act 1 - Kinstrife & Dark Tidings

[Blubbo_Baggins]

Finn begins pulling the boat ashore, to the East side of the Anduin.
"Tom, stay here near the boat. If there is trouble, duck into the bow and cover yourself with one of these crates."

Once landed, Finn disembarks and joins the others to investigate. He pulls his shield from his back and sets his hand on the hilt of his sword.

[Shurijo]

Borir stops once the horse decides it doesn't want to go any further. While he's not fond of horses (or boats), he always trusts their instincts. The dwarf nods in agreement of Varuthil. He looks for a place to hand off the horse reigns so he can collect his axe and inspect the situation.

[Eilandor]

The deluge of rains have put Wren in a foul mood, which is quite the task for the normally upbeat Elf of Mirkwood. As they approach the boat and discover the two are in fact dead, he continues to drudge forward, "This mud may be the end of me..." Wren glances into the boat and then gets a closer look at the black arrows protruding from the dead men. "These appear to be of the same make as those fired upon us at the ring fort."

[TetNak]

Returning to the others, Aerth waves down Borir and Varuthil. "There's someone about, I think." He points to the river, "I have noticed something coming and going into or out of the river. They could be footprints, but the sludge and water makes it difficult to tell for certain."

[Vardaen]

Finn steers the boat into the shore, leaving Tom to man it as he and Pipkin climb out into the muddy banks. At the same place Borir hands the reigns of the pony off and Tom ties him to the boat. Moving forward with all caution the group begins to draw weapons and shields as keen eyes search the banks on both side of the river.

Wren declares them orc arrows and you agree they sure look to be of orcish or goblin design. The boat itself is a simple wooden one, and from the look of it Finn suggests they were rowing up the river.

The men look to be Beornings by the make of their clothing and weapons. They actually wear silver cloak-pins int he shape of a bear's head. Pipkin points out those sort of pins are given to men trusted by Beorn. He's seen that sort come through the Inn on occasion. These two men were Beorn's thanes, his wardens and watchmen.

Borir, inspecting their gear notes how they have very little supplies left, suggesting they were at their journey's end. Varuthil pointing out Beorn's home itself is not far from here if you were to head east. Inside the boat are also few other strange pieces. You find several lengths of rope cut jaggedly with a blade.

Aerth comments on how only one of the dead men has a blade, the other wears only an empty scabbard on his belt. He also comments about churned up mud on the west bank, perhaps someone or something was there, but without rowing over to the west bank to investigate you can't know more.

OOC

I tried to just use your various traits and skills to give you what you can without delaying for a long search of the scene

[Blubbo_Baggins]

Finn scans the opposite shore.

"It is highly improbable that Orcs were on the East side of the Anduin, so near to Beorn's stead, if that is nearby as you say, Varuthil. It seems as if these men were ambushed, likely heading back to Beorn on some urgent errand. Can we see anything on the far shore? Why don't a few of us go into the boat and cautiously approach, just to see if there are further signs of their attackers? If they were lying in wait for us, I feel they would have already attacked."

[Shurijo]

Borir nods at Finn's assessment. The dwarf then states, "If they are not here, then we must give the men their rights or taken their bodies to the village. Their families would be worried and a search party may soon be sent to retrieve them, but I do not think their bodies would fare well here in the ... the marsh with this darned birds and orcs and whatever else crawls in this filth."

[Muskrat]

Varuthil nods. "And we should carry word to Beorn. If these men were on a mission for him, he will want to know they were slain." She frowns. "Indeed, perhaps that was they were slain--to silence them."

Varuthil kneels down and says, "Perhaps the reeds or water here may tell us something more of what passed. I don't know if they can tell orcs from men, but perhaps they can tell us how recent it was." With that she begins running her hands through the reeds and the water, murmuring to them in Elven, occasionally pausing to listen the running of the water and the rustling of the reeds.

Display

So, does Riddle feel like it makes the most sense here?

[Muskrat]

Varuthil looks up at the others. "Interesting. The reeds tell me that it was indeed orcs who did the killing here--but also that there was a third man here." She pauses, "Yes, look--there's a footprint in the mud that's not one of ours and there's cut rope in the bottom of the boat. He must have cut himself free with the missing sword and and fled." She stands and says, "So these two were probably bringing a prisoner to Beorn and ... the orcs rescued the prisoner? A man? I do not like this. It makes me wonder about those hostile Woodmen we encountered back in the fall. Perhaps they were in league with the Shadow after all? Something is fishy here. We should definitely let Beorn know about this."

[Vardaen]

Finn loads the boat with a few of the keen eyed of the group and rows to the far shore to investigate what might have happened there. It doesn't take Finn, Wren and Aerth long to find some orc tracks in the mud, but more importantly they discover the remains of two orcs lying dead in the mud on the west bank. Both orcs appear to have a single spear impaled through them! One of the Beornings must have thrown his spear across the breadth of the river with enough force to punch clean through one Orc and kill another one behind the first. That was a mighty throw indeed!

Varuthil and Borir both speak of returning the dead and speaking to Beorn himself. His house is not too far away from this spot, and taking the two thanes there would be a noble thing to do.

GM

Beorn's house is less than a day away from here. And if you want to take the dead to their people taking them to Beorn would certainly work, how do you carry the bodies.