Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Join us at our virtual table as we play Mysteries of the Loop, our Tales from the Loop series; explore the Arthurian mythos in The Sword Campaign, the first part of our Great Pendragon Campaign; chart the stars in Star Trek: Magellan, our Star Trek Adventures series; and sail the seas in Dark Blue Sea, our Mutant: Year Zero campaign. Stories from other worlds are coming soon, including The One Ring, The Electric State, Legend of the Five Rings, Twilight: 2000, and so much more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
The Fellowship of the North S1 E3 A Star Above the Mist: An Actual Play of The One Ring
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
After laying the fallen Ranger to rest, the Company heeds his final words: Follow the Hoarwell into the foothills. Look for a star above the mists of the river. Turning from the road, they enter the wild, broken country of the Trollshaws.
Join our Patreon
Join our Facebook Group
Website: Stories with Dice Podcast
Subscribe to our Stories with Dice YouTube Channel
Music & Ambience provided by Tabletop Audio & Pixabay
This is the Fellowship of the North, an actual play of the one ring from Stories with Dice. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you'll never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode. Hey everyone, and welcome back to Stories with Dice. We're playing the One Ring 2nd Edition from Free League. I'm Marco, your lore master, for this campaign. I'm not going to make everyone introduce themselves again like I did last session. I'm just going to say, Ed. Hello, how are you? I'm good. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_04As usual, messing about with character sheets and going going wrong.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you can't remove the ranks in your axe, which you're not supposed to have. Six ranks and axe. Woo! Oh, you don't really. Ed is playing Halburn Ashcloak, a Ranger of the North. Indeed. Assol! I mean Pete, how are you doing?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Fine, thanks. Pete is playing Assel, A-S-A-L, not Asshole, the way it sounds in the recording and the way the transcript transcribes it. He is also a Ranger of the North. And then we have Charlotte. How are you? I am doing well. She is playing Baranwin. Baranwin? Baranwin. I never get that right. I'm so I'm sorry. She is a Bayorning from Across the Misting Mountains. Have axe, well shot. And then we have Tony, the sexy Spanish person. How you doing? Hello. I'm playing I Danian of Linden. Idanion of Linden, an elf from the Great Havens. Alright. So when we last left our characters, so it is about coming up on late afternoon. You have reached the last bridge that crosses the Horwell. You discovered the fate of the missing ranger. The missing ranger is dead. You all acquired some shadow. Halbyn gained more because of his personal connection to the to the ranger. And and he his dying words were follow the Horwell into the foothills, look for a star above the mists of the river. So it is about late afternoon. What are you doing? The river is, you know, the roar of the river is is in the background, and and the you hear, you know, not much else, but just the birds and and and and the river. Mostly mostly the river, it's very loud.
SPEAKER_04Well, clearly the first thing we'll have to do is bury Fell here. Okay. Whatever ceremony that we do in the ranges of the north for our fallen, and then I will swiftly go on some a rampage of revenge. Yeah. A little bit of a butt of madness, perhaps.
SPEAKER_02Would you have anything worse? Sorry, go ahead. So what do you have anything worthwhile on in that you'd be able to repurpose? Someone's gonna get a punch if they do that. A ranger would not want to have good material go to waste when it could help his brothers and his family. Loot the corpse, Ed, loot the corpse. I'm not loopsy looting the corpse other than the.
SPEAKER_01When you saw him in the land of the Bayornings, he was by himself. And you understand that his his companions didn't make it across the mountains. Something bef something horrible befell them.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I'm in a very dark place, and I will not really talk to people, and I will just go about burying my uh adopted father.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you find a like a quiet little spot off the road, probably south of the road, not in the trollshaws, so like you know, uh uh uh in the angle, but like near the road. Uh i among those pine trees, a nice little quiet spot. You you make a carn for him. What are you what are you doing with his possessions, you know, his weapons, his his He has no provisions on him. Yeah, he must have eaten through them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I ma I will kind of like take something that he that's personal to him. I can always take it back to his family, but yeah, that'll basically go my travel equipment. Okay. And then if there's anything else of his that is personal to me and him, I mean the the only thing that I've really got from him is my is my travel equipment. My sort of like um That's your useful item, right? Yeah, it's my useful item for sort of like resting and traveling and and just just basically living out in the wild. So yeah, I I mean it's I'm I'm I'm I'm very upset and broody and just not not really wanting to kind of engage with the rest of the fellowship. Uh okay.
SPEAKER_01And what are the rest of you doing?
SPEAKER_00I will help Alboran. For me, you know, the passing of somebody is something very that also impacts Elden. I mean people, I think I will probably uh be with him. You know, I tend to be a merry person. In this case I will remain sober, but I think I will be singing a song. This is how I share my grief with him. It will be a a song that helps him in the process of burying the ranger and perhaps talking about you know how we fight so that people can keep the hope and how we do this because it's our task kind of honoring the courage of the ranger. And I will just be there, not bothering him, just kind of uh like a shadow, but singing and helping what I can without bothering him or talking to him.
SPEAKER_03I'll help gather some of the stones for the cairn to rise above it. But apart from that, I'll just give Halberand plenty of space.
SPEAKER_01Under the shadow of the pines, you lay Felhir's sword across his chest, his hands folded upon the hilt, the steel grown dim in the waning light. Then you gather stones, smooth and heavy from the forest floor, and raise them with care over his body. As you labor, Idanin begins to sing, a low, clear lament that winds through the trees like a breath of smoke. It is a song of Arnor, long fallen, of valor spent in friendships that outlast the years. Halbrin sits beside the carn long after the elf's voice falls silent. All is quiet, save for the soft chorus of crickets as night steals gently in. So did you want to make camp here and then leave in the morning? And then where was where will you go? So are you gonna keep going along the road or are you gonna Well, take his words?
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna take his words and go north follow the follow the river. Okay. And look for it sounds like some kind of waterfall or something. Above the mist there'll be a star, and I imagine there's something like a a sigil or something like that that will hint at where it might be.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yep. So you do is everyone in agreement that that's what you want to do?
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Alright, so the you spend the night south of the of the of the road, just sort of at at that the tip of the what's known as the angle, which is like where where a lot of the rangers dwell when they're not out roaming. The night is uneventful. They're those crows are gone, morning rises, and you set out north into the dreaded troll shaw's. That is an eye of Sauron. Oh, I have raised the eye awareness. So so every time you roll an eye outside of combat, the eye awareness increases. So that means that you're slowly starting to become noticed by the enemy. As the guide asshole, perhaps in collaboration with the scout here, sort of give me an idea of your travel route. So I know, you know, so like how close are you hugging? Like, are you hugging the river here? Like which way are you going? You're you're he told you to follow the river to the foothills. So you tell me sort of what that's going to look like for you guys.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, start off just following the river on the troll shore side? Yeah. And that'll be where the mistakes come in. I start looking for where the banks of the river are steep or whatever. I'm looking for alternative routes around, coming up against dead ends, trying to clamber over small cliffs, moving further away from the river into the trees, then having to find our way back to it, just not doing a great job.
SPEAKER_01So, Ashcloak, give me an explore test, please. You're gonna have a penalty, so remove one die because you're on difficult terrain. I guess I'm gonna spend a point of home to go back to zero. An automatic success. Look at that. Okay. So it has been two days since you've crossed the last bridge. You're cutting a path through tangled undergrowth, passing birch trees marked with strange sigils, dark against the white bark, half hidden by moss and shadow. Your hand finds the deep gashes in the trunk of a tree, you brush the moss aside, and you see it clearly. A crude, lidless eye, carved and painted in dried blood. A foul stench of death hangs in the air. You go no further and you cut a trail away from the edge of the of the river as you continue your way toward the foothills. So everyone gains two fatigue points for those two days of travel. Assel, give me another marching test. Another eye This is my territory. The trolls are dangerous places. Buranwin. Yes. While tracking some game through the wooded hill country, you step beneath a moss veiled arch, the last remnant of some long ruined estate. The game trail winds through thickets and broken stone and then vanishes behind a crumbling wall, and I would like for you to make a hunting test for me. And you are also gonna lose one die, so you have a a penalty, remove one d6 for the terrain. Ba ba, but it's favored. Gandalf, okay. So you you move cautiously through the tangled brush and and halt when the ground ahead seems to sag beneath a tangle of grass and creeping roots, and there, half swallowed by the earth, lies the dark mouth of an old forgotten cellar. Its timbers long since rotted, its purpose forgotten. You pass it by with care and press on through the greenery until at last you catch a brace of conies and turn your steps back toward the company. Everyone gains three fatigue for this stretch. I think you're being too heavy-handed with fatigue here.
SPEAKER_02I'm about to riot. If I wasn't so exhausted. I'm just I'm just following the book.
SPEAKER_01I am weary. Yep, you too. So we have two of our player heroes are now weary. That means that when they roll their dice, all the six-sided dice, if they produce a one or two or three, are ignored. I say blame the guy because yeah, you haven't really gone very far. Assol, give me another marching test. Everything has gone horribly awry. That's when the drama happens. Hey! A great success. That's more like it. These dice keep rolling. Lookouts and scumina scouts. Ashcloak, make an explore test for me. You wanna add hope to that? You reckon?
SPEAKER_04Oh god, okay. An explore. Do I get any penalties? Yes, you remove one die. I am going to cry a little. So explore is favored. Well, I think I could do something with that, can't I? Maybe it's a favored.
SPEAKER_01If it's favored, it's that means that it's you're rolling two feet dice and keeping the best result. Yeah. Which the whole system should automate. Ultimately do. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm gonna spend a point of hope. Surprisingly enough.
SPEAKER_01Remember, you also you can use your useful item as a bonus if that's tied to your explorer skill. I'm not sure if it is.
SPEAKER_04It's not really tied to the explorer, it's kind of like camping and and surviving in the wilderness. But that I mean it's not really gonna be useful for like exploring.
SPEAKER_01Well, the role of the scout is in charge of setting up camp and opening new trails.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so yeah, okay. In that case, I will gain an extra Dyson, I guess. Right. So it'll cancel out the the the single. I'm still gonna use hope because I think we need it. Yeah, because you're weary.
SPEAKER_01For the love of Oh the love of God, he rolled an eye. Eye awareness is now five. I am not happy. Tell me what happens. Well, this one I'm gonna put on you. Like I I mentioned earlier that on a on a Discord that I might do this to you guys.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so as we're kind of like moving along, I'm kind of looking for place to sort of like either stop or to get closer to the river. And I guess we end up getting turned around by the river. We kind of like go into sort of like the gorge part of the river, realizing that once we're there, there's no place to go. So we have to then turn back and double back on ourselves as we then have to like make a way up. Everyone has to do a scramble, we waste some time, and we probably end up getting more fatigue because you know we've we've wasted that amount of time doing it.
SPEAKER_01So everyone gains two fatigue points. Very sorry, very, very sorry.
SPEAKER_02Alright, from here on in, everyone is using hope on their roles.
SPEAKER_01Goody. Asshole. Another travel. Another travel, yes. That was a great success you had last time, wasn't it? So you actually, yes, that was actually so three days. Okay, yep. So you've you've traveled for three days now.
SPEAKER_00We decide to stop and rest at some point, let's say now that we've got to be.
SPEAKER_01You can stop and and try to find a place to rest and and recover, yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04I was looking at sort of like gaining fatigue, but it doesn't tell you specifically that it's at the end of the travel. There's obviously you make your travel roll, which is the end of the travel, but then it also says that if you do your your rest, long rest, then you gain it back. But it doesn't say that happens either at the end of the journey or when you have a prolonged rest. I I don't know how that would work.
SPEAKER_00If I remember, I think it was at the end of the journey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, page 111. Any remaining fatigue is recorded on the character sheets. They will get rid of it at the rate of one point of fatigue for each prolonged rest they take in a sheltered and safe refuge. You're not gonna find a safe refuge in the troll shaws, so that's not gonna happen, unfortunately. Yeah. Okay, so what was your role? Ordinary success? Okay. You know what? This time I'm gonna ask one of you roll a six-sided die. Tell me what you get.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Tony, you do it. You haven't done much rolling lately.
SPEAKER_01There you go. A three. The lookout, that would be that would be you, Tony. So, Danyan, make an awareness test, please. So you're on the misty banks of the Horwell. You see a beautiful elf maiden. She's singing a mournful song in Cindar, and her eyes meet yours, a melancholic smile lingers before she fades slowly into the river mist. Yet her haunting melody lingers, echoing like a sorrowful breeze to the trees. Can you make an awareness test for me? There you go. Thanks, sis. Okay, so you sense danger in the song's sorrow and warn the company to plug their ears against the pull of the melody. And though the maiden vanished, her final glance seemed to carry a flicker of hope, a whispered direction carried on the wind. And Assel is gonna gain a success die on his next travel test, as if he's being led by unseen hands.
SPEAKER_00MVP of the game, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_01And you recognize the song, by the way, as the a song about the destruction of Bellerand in the elder days. So, Assel, give me another marching test. And you're gonna add, you're gonna get a bonus D6. Alright, an automatic success with a Gandalf. Buranwin. Lore Master. Give me a hunting test. There's no way to do this from our fellowship sheet, is there? Uh yes, there is. If you hunting roll. You click on the sheet and then you go to the hunter, you should be able to do it from there.
SPEAKER_02Any adjustments to the dice?
SPEAKER_01You are losing one die because of the terrain. Even Weary, she makes a great success. Okay, so as the company is following the river farther north toward the foothills of the Misty Mountains, you're getting quite close. You can actually see the mountains in the distance. They're huge. You walk past a dense thicket of brambles, and you see a fallen statue of some ancient king of men, and it's shaped like a grim and resolute warrior, now covered in dirt and worn by time, but at its feet is a wreath of flowers. And you recognize the plant as Kingsfoil. So everyone in the company can regain a point of hope. Hey! You might have a different name for it where you're from, but the Rangers know it is King's Foil. But you can s you can harvest a sprig of it. Yes, please. And it will allow a hero to gain a die when making a healing roll. So all of you can can harvest a sprig of King's foil if you wish, and you all regain one point of hope. Can I put it somewhere?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I can. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02So you said it would add an extra dice to our healing roll?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I do have that sitting there as a attribute.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So you make camp for the night, and in the morning you press on. For most of the day as you're following the river, you see the misty mountains rising in the distance, like a high wall stretching from north to south across the horizon. Closer at hand, wooded foothills roll beneath a gray sky. It's a land of tangled trees, mossy slopes, and sudden drops. Miraculously, you have not met a single troll in the trollshaw, so as bad as your rolls were, you dodged that bullet. Woohoo! On one of those foothills, rising above the swirling mists of the river, a single light glimmers like a star, faint but steady. It burns atop the beech trees, cold and distant, an unblinking sentinel watching from the ridge. As you press on, you discover that there's a tower on that hill. The tower stands beyond a deep ravine, cleaving the hills like an old wound. And there's no obvious way across, so you'll need to sort of scout around the area to find a way to cross that that ravine.
SPEAKER_02How big is the ravine itself, Chasm?
SPEAKER_01Fairly deep. What about uh widthwise across? Widthwise across, you could probably get around it in a day from either direction, north or south.
SPEAKER_02Then how far is it from side to side? I'm trying to see if we can like make something to get across. That's that's the opponent's question.
SPEAKER_04Can we like throw some rope across?
SPEAKER_01Can we know it's too it's too it's too far across for you to like throw rope across, yeah, yeah. Can we throw a ranger across?
SPEAKER_04We only throw dwarves. That's all we did. Okay. What's the what's the can we climb down and then up again?
SPEAKER_01You could. That would be arduous. You're not sure how deep it is. It's dark, you can't see the bottom. So it took you about a day to get here after you make after you woke up from camp. So it is now the you know uh evening.
SPEAKER_04We just have to like, yeah, we just have to rest here.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you're gonna you're gonna rest here for the night?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean there's no point like bumbling around at night. You can go around in the morning? Yeah, that makes more sense. We can also, if we can see it, we can obviously keep watch over it as well. To see what happens to it. Is there any lights on? Is there like, you know. That's true. Is there movement? Is there not? You know, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so at camp, you guys can essentially you're taking a prolonged rest here. So you can all recover all of your lost endurance. Um you're not technically in a sheltered or safe space, so you can't recover fatigue, but if you were, you could only recover one point of fatigue. But you could essentially recover all of your all of your endurance. Which may help your fatigue state. Nope. I tried. I tried, ladies and gentlemen. I tried. But you're all at full health, uh full endurance, that's why. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Would a good meal help with our fatigue? My if I got rid of my leather corslet and some and weapons. Alright, can I go hunting for food to try and help us get our fatigue knocked down? Oh, just a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Uh, should I use hope? As we've already made camp, shall I go hunting as well?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, because we got a benefit to dice at that point, don't we?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so if you're both gonna go hunting, I'll give you uh each of a bonus die.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so we roll separately or Yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02So you go one direction, I go the other? Bonus die. Not a success. Wait, bonus die healing. I don't know. Why were you healing? You rolled the wrong skill. I clicked the wrong button. You get to roll again. Alright, bonus die. Yes. Roll. Let's do this. No. Oh no. Well, okay, so it was a favored roll. So two would have been higher than the eye of Sauron.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Why did it which one did it select?
SPEAKER_04Automatically choose anyway, regardless.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it will do. Yeah. The only way to go against it is to go against it.
SPEAKER_01Take that eye. Okay, so Assel, you had a success. Why don't you tell us tell us about your hunting journey and what it is you caught?
SPEAKER_03It's probably a small deer of some kind, a bit like a munt jack kind of thing, going through the undergrowth. Yeah, just happened to stumble into an area and then stalked it along the edge of the ravine until I found a good clear shooting point and hit it with a single arrow.
SPEAKER_01So what you're telling me is you killed Bambi. Okay. And it tastes nice. Buranwin, what what happened to you as you were on the hunt?
SPEAKER_02Trying to go through some overgrown areas, my foot caught on a root, and despite my best efforts, I went tumbling down.
SPEAKER_01But at least you didn't get wounded. My pride is wounded. Your pride is wounded. So after a couple of hours, both Baranwin and Assel return to the company. Buranwin returns empty-handed, maybe a little scuffed up. And Assel returns with a small deer. And you guys eat well tonight. You can remove. Let's see. Not only will I let you have hope back, one point of hope for each of you, you can also remove, let's see, how much fatigue can you remove here? Let's see what do you have. What's going to be helpful?
SPEAKER_04I mean one. I mean, that would make sense, right? It's a good night's sleep with some good food. Let's say two each. That's very kind of you, sir. No matter what the rest of them say, I think you're all right. Still weary, but do we see anything or do I see anything? Over the course of sort of like the evening and then into the morning when there is light to look into the um tower. Why don't you give me an awareness test? Oh, okay. Don't do it, it's a trick. Don't do it, it's a trick. I'll do my best. I will use a point of hope because I just got one back, so I might as well use it.
SPEAKER_01That's success. You can make out a passage across the ravine, and it looks like there's a camp there.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So maybe we might not have to go all the way around. Yeah, so I probably see that first thing in the morning as first lights kind of hitting it. Oh, actually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it seems like it seems like there it's an actual bridge that that has been repaired by bits of wood over time. So parts of it are like it are made out of you know wood and parts of it are old stone.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I'll kind of make it make it I'll I'll take Assel aside and obviously show him once I've kind of like spotted it. And kind of get a lay of the land down sort of like first light in the morning. Perhaps maybe we can kind of make our way down that way, cross around, and then come up on this side of the bridge. So instead of us taking it all day round, maybe it might be a couple of hours to kind of do that. If we pick our way down to kind of get to the bridge. What do you think, Assel?
SPEAKER_03Doable? Save us plenty of time. We might be a bit exposed out on the bridge if there is anybody about, but as long as we're careful.
SPEAKER_04I've not seen any light last night, so no one is well, I didn't see anyone camping or doing anything there.
SPEAKER_01Well, you s you saw a camp over there and also a plume of smoke rising from the area. So there is somebody over there.
SPEAKER_04Okay, right. We just have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01Alright, so you uh you follow the the ridge, I mean the the ravine up to that bridge, and and there you hunker down behind some bushes because you see from this vantage point, this angle, you can see four men of the south, south ronds, at that camp. There seems to be also a cave just on the other, just just on the other side of their of their camp. And one of them comes out of the cave, speaks to the other men, and then goes back inside. Uh Danyan, give me an awareness test. Success. When that man came out of the cave to speak to the other to the other men, you heard him say, be on alert. She is unquiet. So what do you guys want to do?
SPEAKER_04She is unquiet is worrying. Perhaps I could get closer on what do I think of Southrons?
SPEAKER_01What do you think of Southrones? South Runs are generally considered in league with the enemy. That's why they were being followed. And remember, Falhir was tracking a Southron into the Troll Shaws. Yeah, they're very far away from their homes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so they shouldn't really be up here.
SPEAKER_01No, I mean South Rons are south of Gondor, south of Mordor, Lake South. Harod, far Harod, all the way down there.
SPEAKER_04We are a small band, and I do not know how many there are of them. Especially if it's a large tower. I do not wish to risk our lives, needlessly. Perhaps if we were to capture one of them, we could ask them questions. And if indeed it is that they are responsible for Falhir's death, or at least in league with those that are, then we can get a larger force of rangers here and deal with them.
SPEAKER_00So we can keep lookout and see how many they are. And then see if one of them, you know, goes on patrol and then do as you say.
SPEAKER_04I agree.
SPEAKER_00I can be on the lookout. You guys can perhaps camp nearby but not expose yourselves. I look at the others.
SPEAKER_03Burnwin, Assel, what do you think? You worry is the number they're dark folk. It's our job to eliminate the risk.
SPEAKER_02This is true. They are a threat to all that they come across, correct?
SPEAKER_01Perhaps our fate is decided. Do you guys want to try to either ambush them or maybe try to ambush and sneak your way into that cave without being noticed? Or wait and see if one of them ends up alone and then you can capture him.
SPEAKER_04Maybe sort of spend half the morning waiting to see if someone becomes alone, because then that'll make things easier. If that doesn't happen, then I guess the next thing would be to try and get as close to them as possible and then spring an ambush.
SPEAKER_00And I can do that, perhaps I can get closer. I'm a stealthy, and I can climb on a tree and hide somewhere, you know. Everyone knows that the elves are very quiet, nimble.
SPEAKER_01True. Do you want to so do you wanna do you want to cross the bridge by going perhaps underneath it, hanging from the underneath parts of the bridge? No, well I'm fatigued. I'm talking about him. Yeah, yeah. Do you have a good athletic?
SPEAKER_00No, athletics. Yeah, I have two. Not amazing. I'm better stealthy. I would rather just go stealthy crossing.
SPEAKER_01Okay, do you want yeah, you can cross the bridge and roll stealth if you want to do that. That'll be safer. You don't want to that way you won't fall to your death. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna I'm gonna go stealthy.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Give me a stealth roll, please.
SPEAKER_00There you go.
SPEAKER_01Extraordinary success. An extraordinary success. Alright. What do we do without the elves, eh? What do we do without the elves? Give us a picture of how you're crossing the bridge in this extraordinary manner. To be honest.
SPEAKER_00Take it perhaps very, very slow and try to move slowly and then stopping at key points to basically kind of mimic the bridge or kind of very you know like crunch down and crouch down and very careful, like mimicking kind of a wood, even like moving in a way that is like part of the of the bridge. And I take it very very small.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, your companions don't even see you at this point as you're crossing the bridge. They don't hear you, they don't see you. You get to the other side, and there are so there are four South Rons at this camp. There was a fifth that came out of the cave, spoke to them, and then went back in uh several hours ago. And so you can overhear them talking. They seem to be arguing about goblins and why they need to listen to that Zakaruk, that they don't answer to him.
SPEAKER_00I will try to hide somewhere. I I wanna listen as much as possible and get as much information as possible. Just basically I will be I will just stand guard and try to see if any of them moves away for whatever reason and just wait. I mean, I'm an elf. I can be very, very patient and I don't need to sleep a lot.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. What are the rest of you guys doing while this is happening? You can't see a Denyan, you have no idea where he went. You crossed the you lost sight of him as soon as he started crossing the bridge. You don't know where he is, but but it appears that they don't see him either because there hasn't been a ruckus.
SPEAKER_04I'm just gonna wait. Yeah. We're waiting for him to kind of either come back with someone or come back with some information, I suppose.
SPEAKER_01So, I Danyan. These guys break out some ale, they start to drink, they're a little bored. They keep one of them keeps complaining about this about the goblins and Zakarug and how they answer to the black ship, not some goblins from the Misty Mountains. And then another of the the Southrons say that but they all answer to the eye. So he should shut his mouth. And then so then that that that guy who's been complaining, he kind of waves the other one off, and he gets up and says that he has to go relieve himself, and he he leaves the camp, goes into the into a sort of a wooded area, just off to the side of the bridge, not too far from where you are, actually. You can smell the beer on him. That's how close he is to you. And he's a little he's sort of moving back and forth a little bit, like he can't stand. He's had a bit to drink even before they were they all broke out the booze and started drinking.
SPEAKER_00So we'll get close to him with something heavy, perhaps with the pummel of my sword. Or just unsease it. And I will try to hit him on the head with the pommel as to knock him out.
SPEAKER_01Well, you had an extraordinary success, I believe, right? On your stealth roll? Yeah, so I'm just gonna say you can do that. So you you s you clock him on the back of his head with the pummel of your sword, and do you catch him when he falls?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, of course. Yep, okay. So I try to hit him and then his followers, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yep, you catch him. He falls right into your arms quietly, and now what do you do?
SPEAKER_00I will try to go back to the bridge. I don't know if, you know, as careful as I can. I don't know if they're still around if they're looking at the bridge or not. No, no, they're drinking around there uh at the camp. So I will just go to the bridge and very carefully start moving back and dragging him. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna ask you for another stealth roll. And you're gonna because you're bringing this guy with you, you're gonna be at a penalty, so remove one die from your stealth, I remove one die.
SPEAKER_00I will use hope in this case. Okay because I want to make sure that things happen probably. That's it. Uh, because I know to inspire, nothing else, I put the negative. There you go. Great success.
SPEAKER_01Okay. You, the rest of your companions will switch to your point of view for a minute. You all of a sudden a Danian just appears on your side of the bridge carrying this unconscious man of the south who smells like the floor of a pub.
SPEAKER_00And I drag him next to them. They're probably hiding in a bush. And I slay him down on the floor and I say, There you go. It's done now.
SPEAKER_04Guess we'll have to uh clap. Clap, no, no, yay, no, and everyone goes, What over there? No, I guess we'll have to drag him further away so that he's with outside of earshot of his companions. Okay. Where I guess we can interrogate him.
SPEAKER_01You drag him away to a secluded spot that is out of earshot of the men on the other side of the ravine, and we will pick it up next session.