Fellowship of the Dice

Suddenly a bright light shines from the quarters where Telurin, Hartley, and Halleth stand. Telurin holds his lamp high. His companions expected this and do not react, but even the men next to them can't help but look at the light.

"Aravule, Dubthach, to us! Retreat!"

Halleth pauses--he was on the edge of plunging into the melee to rescue Aravule, even knowing it might be fruitless and get him killed as well, but Telurin's lamp might make that unnecessary.

The Lamp is lit and men turn and stand in awe. Even Aravule stand gaping, long has it been since he's seen the light, and brighter and stronger does it seem to him. Its Dubthach that shoulders Aravule to action, "Aravule! Move, go!" Dubthach motions with his axe, and shouts, "The river! To the river!" He pushes Aravule to the side, and knocks two other men of yours into action. The four break and escape the melee racing for the docks and the river nearby. It may be their only escape for the way to you directly is choked with the enemy.

Telurin's lamp holds the dark men of the Eryn Vorn to inaction, and Halleth and Hartley and the others with you turn and race for the boats down at the river. Like two sides of an angle you are heading for the same point now, chased by men who eventually break free from the spellbinding of Telurin's lamp as he joins the flight to the river.

Its only minutes to reach the river, but it seems like hours. Each step is dangerous and deadly, each step could be your last. Its your company that reaches the river first, with Aravule and Dubthach not far behind. Behind them however the foes have closed the distance after shaking off the stun of Telurin's lamp. They are shooting now, large black arrows into the air, and the two men with Aravule are hit and slain dropping off tumbling dead as they are struck.

You have secured some boats, and have them ready to row out into the river, your hope that these dark men can't swim or won't have enough boats to follow you down the Gwathlo. Aravule comes up over the bank, and smiles as he spots you holding the boat for him on the end of the dock. That's when he's hit in the shoulder and staggers forward tumbling to the ground. Dubthach grabs him and drags hims to the edge, where Halleth pulls him, gravely wounded, into the boat. You push off, and Dubthatch leaps into the last spot of the second boat. "Go! Row!"

All hands are on the oars or hold sup shields and such as a volley of enemy arrows float into range. The boat's are hit, and one of your men is struck and knocked into the river quickly sinking below the raging current lost from the mortal realm.

Escape is at hand, and you manage to make it out into the river, just beyond the reach of the bows. Your enemy can't chase you here, out in the water, they aren't river folk, and they curse and holler at you as you sail down the river, past the isle of the Black Numenorian and finally out the southern river gate of Tharbad ito the wilds south of the city along the Greyflood into the Minhiriath.

The foes chase you down the banks of the river for a time, taking pot shots, but as you sail past the point where you first did battle with Vara and the dwarves along the river they finally give up. Your escape out into the wilds is complete, but Tharbad now is given up to Arguzagar. Its perhaps ten or fifteen minutes of rowing out of the city down the river that your guard drops, the adrenaline wears off,and you turn your attention to Aravule and your new plight.

"My liege, my liege," says Halleth in a panicked tone, as he tries to treat Aravule's wound. "Hang out--I will not let you die!"

Halleth, panicked, removes the arrow from Aravule's shoulder and bandages the wound. The black feathered arrow clatters to the boat's bottom and its plain for all to see a green sticky substance still on the arrowhead -- poison!! Aravule looks up through blery eyes, "Ha, Halleth? Oh Halleth, I..."he coughs up a bit of blood, "...I have failed. I wasn't strong enough." He tenses, his whole body as he reaches to his cloak and removes a shining silver star brooch from his cloak. "Halleth, take this, long have you deserved this." His whole body shudders with a fit of coughing as more blood, now with a tint of green foam comes from his mouth. "I was a fool, like you always said I was... Take me home Halleth, bury me with my people in the North." He glances to the side and smiles when he sees Hartley and Telurin in the boat with Halleth, "You are in good company..." again the pain of the poison and the wound assaults his body. "Halleth....Halleth..." he clutches at the ranger and pulls him down and whispers something in his ear, then he passes from this world.

Telurin watches, feeling both a sense of fulfillment, as Aravule's fate had been foretold, and horror at seeing the young man's promising life come to a sudden end.

He had intended to help, but as soon as he saw the poison, he knew there was nothing he could do. Not in a boat, without supplies, and time.

He tries to be thankful that the others have survived, and that they are at last done with Tharbad. But South was not the direction he wanted to go. It was time to return to Rivendell, to report to his Lord, and to give up these lands.

He expresses these thoughts about the direction of their journey with the others, as much to distract his mind as anything else. "What do you think? Let us push ashore on the western bank, and turn our road north again, after so very long."

Halleth clutches Aravule's hand as days, tears running down his face. "Yes, my liege, I promise you, I will bury you with our people." When Aravule's life slips away, Halleth throws his head back and let out a keening howl of grief. He desperately clutches the star brooch in his hand, not yet truly aware of what Aravule has given him.

"Oh Aravule." Hartley looks at the ranger wishing he could do something to help the man, even if only to ease his passage. "I am glad to have known you friend."

Afterward, the hobbit wipes a few tears from his eyes. He looks at the others. "I should be wanting to get back to a more hobbitish way of life back home in Bree and yet my heart is not yet ready to settle back into my old life. You probably don't require my service any longer, but if you are willing, I would return with you to Rivendell, if only to help lay Aravule to rest. What say you Halleth? Telurin? Will you bear with me as a companion a bit longer?"

"Ah, Hartley, I would have it no other way. We return to Rivendell together. Then let us see where the road takes us."

Halleth consumed by grief wails out.

Telurin takes command of the boats, and has them slide up on the western bank. He puts the men to work pulling the boats from the water and going through what gear and supplies you have. You don't have much, having fled like you did. It will be a difficult road from here all the way to Imladris.

The boats bump up against the shore, and you unload one by one, many eyes on Aravule's body.