Is this a private conversation between Halleth and Essylt? Just wanting to know if the other PCs are doing other things or if Hartley and Telurin are in on it.
Book 3: Chapter 2 - Into the Cold North
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Telurin whispers to Halleth, "I'm not sure she means what you think. At least, I have heard such alliances sealed with marriage; you might want to ask more questions, lest you agree to something whose implications are far more than you imagined."
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Halleth gives Telurin a startled look, but then nods. Her turns back to Essylt. "What are your people's customs around forming such alliances? What would be your expectations from the Dunedain? I want to make sure there's no misunderstandings. And feel free to pick my brain about the Dunedain."
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Hartley remembered little of the flight from Carn Dum. What he did recall seemed like overlapping scenes from some fevered dream. Always, orcs were chasing. He could feel them biting him, but wait, no, that was his wound burning with pain. Then there was the cold. He could not get warm. And he was always carried around like a sack of potatoes, at least that’s how he felt. It was several days before he once again began to regain some strength. Then his thoughts began to take a more rational shape. He was still too weary to walk on his own more than a few steps. He was remarkably hungry and there never seemed to be enough food to go around. He seemed to relate well to the children, who seemed intimidated by the larger members of their company. He knew it was his small stature that made him less threatening to them. He would sit and tell them stories at night and sing them funny songs he remembered from his childhood when they stopped to rest. Slowly, he was getting back to a sense of normalcy.
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A keen eye, Telurin's and Hwalda's, notices there is a look of admiration in her eye as well when she looks at Halleth, but her affections end there (though once perhaps there was more).
Hartley breaks the conversation by a loud moan and a fitful shiver in the cold, even next to the fire.
Freach stands, "It is enough talk for now. We must be going, there is a long road home. Come, we leave as soon as able." The man has come into his own, and he sets the other Hill-men to packing what meager supplies you have, and dousing the fires and making the children ready to march. Once ready he leads the way out of the valley and south away from Carn Dum and the cold dark north.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Halleth grins and nods at Essylt. "As I said, you will make a far better leader of your people than any of your men."
He nods at Freach's words and, rising, says, "You are right as well, my ally. And many here will not truly recover until we make it to warmer lands, even if we could hide from the orcs and wargs and other unholy creatures indefinitely."
He nods at Freach's words and, rising, says, "You are right as well, my ally. And many here will not truly recover until we make it to warmer lands, even if we could hide from the orcs and wargs and other unholy creatures indefinitely."
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Hartley shivers in the cold and then is lost in dark dreams.
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"Though we are far from safe lands, to have come out of that place alive, and with many others, I consider it most unlikely result, and am thankful," he says to Essylt and Freach.
Telurin begins packing camp and seeing that the weakest are tended to and ready to depart, before he discusses how they will take turns carrying Hartley with Halleth and the Hill-men.
"At least it was a halfling, and not one of the men," he thinks to himself. "Hartley is not some small child, but I can't imagine trying to carry Freach out of here."
Telurin begins packing camp and seeing that the weakest are tended to and ready to depart, before he discusses how they will take turns carrying Hartley with Halleth and the Hill-men.
"At least it was a halfling, and not one of the men," he thinks to himself. "Hartley is not some small child, but I can't imagine trying to carry Freach out of here."
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A Fateful Meeting
The company's way home is long and perilous and along the way a great sorrow strikes. Two of the rescued children perish from the cold and their maltreatment at the hands of the orcs. Worse yet is the health of Hugo the Hobbit. His wounds were festering and infected, and even the skills of the Rangers and Elves and North-men were not enough to save him. The three small victims are buried in rock cairns in a hidden place in a shallow valley just as the snow began to let up. It is a somber trip after that. There is no talk of victory or success, only of loss and the ever danger of the orcs behind. The small miracle that you are not tacked and found lies in the skills of your hunters and perhaps in a bit of fate.
You reach a point where the weather turns and the cold white snow is behind, and the browns of warmer lands are before you. You have come to a point where you debate your next move. East is the way Eysslt will take her peoples, but there is nothing there for you, and south is home for many of you. That is when fate once more intervenes for one day you spy a tall figure in the distance moving toward you from the south. There is no doubt that it is no orc, it is too fair in its movements. Then from among a rocky outcrop it emerges.
The tall cloaked figure emerges suddenly from the rocky stair. The stranger removes his hood, revealing golden hair and fair features. He is one of the Elven-folk! “Well met, wanderers. I have come from the house of Elrond over many dangerous leagues looking for you, even though I didn’t know you before this day. Several days ago a sad remembrance was stirred in my heart, and I left my home to find out the answer to this riddle.”
Those who have been to Rivendell know him as none other than Glorfindel.
You reach a point where the weather turns and the cold white snow is behind, and the browns of warmer lands are before you. You have come to a point where you debate your next move. East is the way Eysslt will take her peoples, but there is nothing there for you, and south is home for many of you. That is when fate once more intervenes for one day you spy a tall figure in the distance moving toward you from the south. There is no doubt that it is no orc, it is too fair in its movements. Then from among a rocky outcrop it emerges.
The tall cloaked figure emerges suddenly from the rocky stair. The stranger removes his hood, revealing golden hair and fair features. He is one of the Elven-folk! “Well met, wanderers. I have come from the house of Elrond over many dangerous leagues looking for you, even though I didn’t know you before this day. Several days ago a sad remembrance was stirred in my heart, and I left my home to find out the answer to this riddle.”
Those who have been to Rivendell know him as none other than Glorfindel.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring