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 E10 The Standing Stones: An Actual Play of The One Ring
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After a sudden Goblin attack among the standing stones, the Company endures its first unsettling brush with the Dark Whisper.
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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 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. Hello everyone, and welcome to Stories with Dice. We're playing the One Ring from Free League, and this is episode 10, The Standing Stones. In our last episode, the fellowship reached the Standing Stones. At the center of the circle lay a pit filled with half-eaten, rotting carcasses and gnawed bones. The stones themselves bore ancient runes in the language of the hillfolk, but orcs had to face them, scrawling in invocation in praise of the fang of the north. Tracks of goblins and wargs marked the ground, and among them lay the massive paw prints of a beast of dreadful size. From the tree line at the base of the hill the company spotted goblins and a wild wolf lying in wait. Their ambush thwarted, the creatures charged up the slope, and the fellowship cut them down. Our tale resumes with the company standing over the fallen goblins and the wild wolf. In the cold moonlight a dark presence stirs among the stones. The air snaps cold, and then an icy voice whispers on the wind. Dalburn and Idanian, please make a wisdom test. I have a failure. I have a great success. Idanion, you gain three shadow points, and you lose endurance equal to twice your current shadow score. That's rough.
SPEAKER_00That's a lot. So I'm at 24 endurance, minus 16, so a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_04So a terrible vision seizes you. You find yourself in a city of men under siege. You clutch a gem in your hand. Your hands are slick with blood. Assel finds you in the burning streets just beyond the castle walls. Grief and fury twist his face as he attacks you. You struggle, blade against blade, until you wrench free and drive your sword into his chest. He collapses at your feet, and shame scalds you, even as the town falls to ruin around you. You flee toward the Horwell, but Baranwin steps from the river mist to bar your path. You strike and wound her, yet she turns upon you at once and brings her weapon down in a mortal blow against you. Suddenly hillmen and orcs burst from the woods. Bleeding and outnumbered, Baranwin retreats south. An orc captain rips the gem from your grasp. Someone forces you into the icy river and holds your head under the water. They're laughing, and when you die you are left adrift, a thrall of the shadow, an unhoused spirit twisted to the dark lord's will. The vision thins and passes like a drifting fog, and you see your companions and the standing stones once again. But at their side stands a young elf, a stranger to you, dressed in the garb of the woodland realm. His eyes blaze with a cold and vengeful light, his skin is deathly pale, and his lips are blue, like the lips of a drowned corpse. The instant he sees that you have glimpsed his true form, his features twist in shame, eyes widening in silent acknowledgement, he recoils from you, turns and flees east, down the hillside, vanishing into the tree line.
SPEAKER_00I look at my companions. Do they seem to have seen this? I mean I guess you you see me probably with this like shaken face and probably like looking around like if I seen things that are not there, then I probably probably look scared and disoriented. And I like Did you see? D did you see the elf?
SPEAKER_02I I didn't see an elf. I I heard I heard the voice on the wind, but that is all.
SPEAKER_00What about you? Did you s did you see or hear anything? Nothing at all.
SPEAKER_05No, nothing but the wind blowing through the trees.
SPEAKER_00I ran to the where the elf went away. Do I see anything?
SPEAKER_04No, you see nothing. You see nothing but the the the prince of the goblins and the and the wolf, and you see the the pine trees at the bottom of the hill.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I will tell them, there was an elf here. I need to follow. And I will just start running down the hill.
SPEAKER_02I look at Assel and kind of like point towards the floor to see if we can find some tracks leading away from here, which might have been an elf. You find none. I shout after Idanyan. Idanian!
SPEAKER_04No one has gone that way. So Idanian has run down the side of the hill. He's just about at the tree line. What are the rest of you doing?
SPEAKER_01Go bring him back, if you can see to the horses. Yeah, I'll turn around and charge on after Idanyan.
SPEAKER_04So Idanian, you you've gone into the you've gone to the tree to the tree line. Are you going into the woods?
SPEAKER_00I just look. I check around. I see if I see anything.
SPEAKER_04You see nothing? You also hear no sound of wildlife or life of any kind. It's deathly quiet.
SPEAKER_00So I will say in Yes, Simdarin, right? I will say, friend, where are you? Where do you go? I shout to the woods. I put my mouth my hands to my mouth. Friend, where did you go? What are you hiding? No need to hide. Come here. Your voice echoes through the wilderness and there is no reply. I move up and down the the line and I keep on shouting.
SPEAKER_04Okay, and then we'll say at this point, asshole has arrived. Danian, what's up?
SPEAKER_00Have you found anything? No, nothing. I keep on calling, but uh I don't see. I don't understand how you could not see him. He was right next to you, guys. He was just sitting, I mean standing next to you, and then he ran out into the woods. How do you not see? Sorry, but just didn't appear to us. And I I will ask Cassandra, can you check if you see any tracks? You are a better trucker than me, I think.
SPEAKER_01Sure, I'll take a look. I'm not sure how successful I'll be in this fading light, but I'll see what I can see. Sure, go ahead and give us a hunting test.
SPEAKER_04So y all you find are the tracks of goblins and wolves going east.
SPEAKER_01My friend, it's just the goblins and the wolves have been past this way. No sign of an elf. If there would have been one anyway.
SPEAKER_00It must be my mind playing tricks with me. Must be this pl this location, must be haunted. I don't understand. Can you bring me back, please? I think I need to rest. And I and I will just Yeah, I feel tired and disoriented, so I will let him carry I mean not carry me, but I will just hold on to him to go back.
SPEAKER_03Yep, okay.
SPEAKER_04So you're what is Halburn and Boranwin, what are the two of you doing while that's going on? So Halburn, you were getting the horses.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna go and just make sure the horses were okay and nothing snuck up and ate them or anything. And I kind of like shrug my shoulders at Baranwin when they kind of go running off down the hill. And then I just kind of wander down unless Baranwin kind of like asks me for anything else.
SPEAKER_05After he shrugs his shoulders, I would uh keep looking out towards the the forest and say the halber, and they better not go far, there's still more out there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean we we we need to sort of just fortify this for the for this evening because while I don't particularly want to sleep next to a bunch of like dead bodies, it's gotta be better than sort of somewhere down there, especially if there are more of them. I kind of like past the wolf. The paw print of the that we saw of the the big beast, I'm guessing is not the wolf. The one that you fought? No, it is not. No. So there's something bigger and gribblier out there. So yes, I think we need to just bring the horses up here and stay here this evening.
SPEAKER_05What what is our light situation like right now? Like, is it dusk, sun still up, but like at a steep angle?
SPEAKER_04It's like early night, so the the moon is out, there's no sun.
SPEAKER_05Okay, so trying to look down into the pit a little bit more to see details would be near impossible.
SPEAKER_04Yeah? Yeah, not any more than what you already know. Okay. I I'm just gonna keep a lookout on the tree line. So Idanian and Assel have returned to the top of the hill with the standing stones. Halbrin, the horses are fine. Are you guys camping here among the standing stones, or what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02I mean, if we unless we can find another suitable place, this is quite defensible. It could well be a good place to stay, even though it's a bit spooky. Daniel's not looking the greatest. He is not, and we don't really want to travel too far.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he had some kind of experience. You're not sure what happened with him, but he went completely silent for, you know, several moments just standing stock still. Something was happening to him. And you did hear that voice that said death.
SPEAKER_02Which is one of the reasons that I'm not really happy about staying here, but it's probably the most defensible place, unless I can think of anything else that we've seen so far. But there's gonna be goblins and wolves wandering around in themar woods. So I think probably it's just best to kind of stay here for the moment. At least until the morning. Set some watches, a Danyon can have a bit of a rest, you know, have something to have something to eat, rest up as best we can.
SPEAKER_04If you spend the night here, each of you will gain shadow. Remember, there's a murder pit in the centre of the standing stones. This is a place steeped in evil, grim and defiling. You will find no rest here.
SPEAKER_02So let's go somewhere where we can kind of like hold up. It's there's sort of like forest to the west as well. Yeah, the whole hill is surrounded by by woods, yep. Pine trees. Well, we can kind of go in there, then we can just kind of like tuck ourselves away. We don't have a fire, we just kind of make a small camp and just try and sleep through it. I don't know, we'll probably need to rest.
SPEAKER_04Halburn, why don't you make a explore test to find a suitable spot to make camp? And you're gonna be at a a negative one d6 penalty.
SPEAKER_02Hmm, excellent.
SPEAKER_04Well, look at that. Gandalf is shining upon you.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Tell us what you find. I probably find sort of like a little hollow that's kind of away from any kind of paths, that's got quite a bit of coverage, so we can kind of make make the sort of like tree line work for us. So you'd really have to kind of go off the beaten track, trek through, and then kind of like come into the sort of like little gully kind of like hollow, and that's how you'd be able to find us. So it's actually away from anything, we're hidden from view. It'll mean the the trees and stuff will block sound and and vision, and we'll generally be relatively warm and cozy, I suppose. We can kind of put some of the branches across and just make a bit of a shelter and stuff.
SPEAKER_04So okay, that's good. So I Danian, you can recover a number of endurance points equal to your strength. So can the rest of you. Just a short rest. Actually, you know what? You rolled the Gandalf. Let's let's give you the the full Monty. So uh you can recover all of your lost endurance points. Halburn found a wonderful hidden spot.
SPEAKER_02So much so, can I, guys, steal one of our four community points to put into hope so I can go up to the stuff.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna say you could use your fellowship pool to restore hope if you want to. You guys happy with that?
SPEAKER_05Um, let me think about that. What's your hope at anyway?
SPEAKER_02Five. Oof. Yeah, but of eleven.
SPEAKER_04I'm feeling a bit more refreshed. So the night passes without incident. No wind stirs the leaves, nor does any bird or creeping thing give voice in the dark. The woods lie under a deathly quiet. When morning comes, what do you do?
SPEAKER_02Well, I guess we kind of So the whole thing about the standing stones that there was a darkness around it, and we had a darkness that was on someone, Assel, if I remember correctly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, he was a whole hunter or guide, yeah. You'll have to bear with me, it was quite a few sessions ago. What what did the hunter say to you? He'd escorted a couple of travellers up to see the stones. Apparently madness fell about them all. He managed to escape, but he's got this shadow.
SPEAKER_04And he was also he also told you that it was making him Yeah, look out for elves. Look out for for elves travelling west. And uh orcs and goblins were attacking and and kidnapping those elves.
SPEAKER_02Well, do we wanna I can't remember, Marco, is there like a um mechanic in The One Ring that you have in, say, Mutiny Year Zero, where you can search essentially a hex for any kind of clues or anything like that in and around the standing stones?
SPEAKER_04If you're searching, so the hex is really large, right? So if you're searching just a s a specific location, like a room or the hill where the standing stones are, you would use scan. If you're searching like a wider area, you would use explore.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So maybe if we did that in the morning and just explore around the standing stones to see if there's some other clues or any kind of information we might be able to gleam, then that and then we can kind of meet back on the standing stones and we can kind of explore that a bit more. Or maybe we go back to the standing stones, have a look at it, and then radiate around until we've done a like a search, and then if we don't find anything, we can go back to our campsite because we've already got an established campsite then, and we can spend another night here if we need to.
SPEAKER_05What is it exactly that we want to find?
SPEAKER_02I don't know, looking for clues. I look at Assel. I mean, we're looking for clues around the Great Fang, around the large beast, which might be the same thing. So you're going back to the standing stones. It's morning. Go ahead and you can give me those rolls if you want. So, yeah, we'll we'll kind of search the standing stones first and then we'll search the um the greater area. So my scan, it's not ideal. Uh, but is is anyone helping to search, or or should I or just. Yeah, if somebody wants to spend a point of hope to give him a die, you can do that. If not, I shall just roll. I can give you one. Sure, thank you. An extraordinary success. What is going on? You're making large fire. I'm making up for all the terrible rolls at the very beginning. I guess I start off at the pit and worked my way out.
SPEAKER_04Yep. So on the back side of these four stones here, on that steep slope, you find two torn cloaks that you know belong to rangers. You find a clasp, you know, that holds the the cloak, and you know from those clasps that that these rangers were in Gilrain's company.
SPEAKER_02Right. So they've obviously been this way. Does that mean they found something or they've been eaten?
SPEAKER_04Among those cloaks, you also find the tracks of a child.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Wait a second. Yes. Oh, that's the kid that's going up here to their home, to the human. Always getting himself in trouble. I was thinking to myself, ooh, isn't like the kid like from up further north of here? Okay. Which means the kid has gone. Great. I mean, I guess that gives us something to search for in the area.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so with that extraordinary success, you can actually track the that that kid's footprints around the slope of the hill, and then you lose the tracks, but it looks like he's moving east. Should we try and track this kid? Seems we tried to save him once already. And remember, Gilrayan, Gilrayan sent two of her men to escort him back to wherever he said his home was, right?
SPEAKER_01So I guess their home was here. That's true. And maybe get some answers as to what happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm wondering if also what I the vision that they had of the elf running was running east. Yes. Right? Correct. So perhaps it was a sign. So east it is? That's uh let's go east then in that case. Are we all agreed?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, got nothing else to go. Yeah. You follow the tracks, and it's you know, there are goblin tracks, wolf tracks going back and forth up this little trail through the woods. You also pick up the kid's trail again. He's also following this same path. You just go a few miles east into these woods, and you come to a clearing. You see a palisade made of tightly packed tree trunks. Their branches largely but not completely all hacked off. There's a shattered timber gate on the ground. It's totally deathly silent. There are no animals, no smoke rising from within the palisades. And you can see through the broken gate that there are huts that are in ruin. Frames are splintered and torn apart. You see, and you can start to smell some decomposing bodies on the ground. Some of them, there are crows picking at them. And then in the center is sort of a very large structure that appears to still be standing.
SPEAKER_02I've motioned Assel to take the left. I'll take the right, and I guess I'll let the other two decide which way whoever they're gonna follow.
SPEAKER_04So that circular building spans like a dozen paces across and stands half as tall. Its that roof is supported by large wooden beams, it's its doors are shattered. And the tracks are bringing us here? The goblin tracks, the wolf tracks, and the and the tracks of the boy lead you here, yes.
SPEAKER_00Can we gather then these are the ones that we fought on the standing stone? These are the ones or not? Are they going out or going in? The goblin tracks?
SPEAKER_04The goblin tracks went in and they went out the uh through a hole the other side. So apparently they just walked through instead of going around. But the boy went in and he went into this building in the center of the of the room. There are other tracks of wolves and goblins that are older.
SPEAKER_02Okay, but I guess we kind of take the left, take the right, either side of the path, keep our eye out left and right.
SPEAKER_00Or we go to the to the big hut in the middle. Yes, yes, okay. So I'm I I I take out my bow and I notch an arrow, and I'm moving like very F-like, carefully, looking everywhere with an arrow ready.
SPEAKER_04And all you all you see around you are there's a couple of dead bodies of Hillmen. Crows are picking at them. They look like they've been dead for at least a month. Right, okay. The stench is pretty foul. Okay. Guess we make our way carefully. And I imagine maybe you think to yourself, hmm, about a month ago, if we had escorted him here, perhaps this could have been avoided.
SPEAKER_05We're not even gonna think about that. We have enough on it, man.
SPEAKER_04That thought does not cross our mind. You move through all the These d broken, burnt, half burnt huts. Are you going into the the large structure, the large building? That seems to be mostly intact. Okay. Yep. So, like I said, the the doors are shattered open. There's furniture that's been destroyed. Looks like there was a violent struggle here. The only main intact fixture is a large stone fireplace. It's cold and dark, but untouched by the violence around you.
SPEAKER_02Just look around for a small child in this large round hole.
SPEAKER_04Give me a scan roll.
SPEAKER_05While he's doing that, I'm going to call out is there anybody in here?
SPEAKER_04Your voice echoes up to the rafters. No one responds. Ed has rolled, I think Ed has rolled a Gandalf now twice in a roll. Four times in a row.
SPEAKER_00Ed is cheating. Yeah, automatic success.
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah. Put that module tour cheat mode.
SPEAKER_04It's always roll Gandalf is enabled, right? Yeah, yeah, that's the one. Yeah. Yep. So you you pick up the boys' prints again in the in the dirt floor of this large communal hut. It goes to the to the fireplace, to the stone fireplace that's in the center, and it stops. So you look up and you can see him on one of the beams, one of the rafters, one of the beams above you. He's hiding up there. So he must have climbed up like the chimney, you know, that went up. And he's up there with at least half a dozen other children. They look dirty, terrified, half starved. He knows that you he knows that you've seen him, you like lock eyes with him, but he says nothing to you. And he recognizes you, but he says nothing.
SPEAKER_02I look up at him, I kind of recognize him, and I look around the rest of the room, just in case there's someone else hiding here, and that's why he wants to stay quiet. You are alone. Which case I kind of point upwards to the everyone else.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I look up and see them. And then kind of call out again, just looking around. Is there anybody in here? We're friends. Go away.
SPEAKER_04We're here to help. Bjorkus had gone. Other rangers couldn't help. We're normal rangers.
SPEAKER_05The other rangers didn't have a bjorning.
SPEAKER_04You know us? We helped you last time. Freyek looks at Branwood and says, You sent me away with them. We couldn't take you with us. We were in worse danger. So someone give me either Branwyn or Halbrin or Assel or Idanian, whoever wants to engage with the with these children. You can give me a courtesy role in heartin.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna start singing a song. I'm gonna start singing a song of hope on one of from the elves. Okay. I'll try to to get them out of this kind of despair where they are at, where they think nobody can help. So I'm gonna sing a song of hope to, you know, when the trees were still alive and we could enjoy the the light of the trees. But I'm just gonna take out my my ARP, harp, and I will just start singing in Cinderin, I don't care. Okay. And I will just try to lighten the mood. Give me a song. Yeah, and I'm gonna use hope for this. Okay. Because I'm gonna use rhymes of lore. So I guess it's my distinctive feature. Yeah, perfect. So that's my inspiratory. Yep, that gives you two bonus dice. Yep. Perfect. So I'm gonna roll that. I will just sing it out. Okay, extraordinary success.
SPEAKER_04I I Danyan starts, he takes out his harp, he starts singing this really beautiful old Elvin song, and it starts to sort of calm the children down. They they start to climb down the rafters down to the floor. One of the children steps forward and and he kind of he he touches your harp, Danyan. He just kind of like, you know, when you're done playing, he just kind of like strokes the the strings to sort of make, you know, make a little sound, and then he he and then he sort of steps back for a moment, and it appears to him that you've just like performed something that that you've done something magical, like he's never heard this kind of music before, he's never seen a harp before. Are you an elf? Yes I am. We we've never seen an an elf before.
SPEAKER_00We heard about them in stories, of course, but Well, now you've seen one and you've heard one. I hope you like my song. Do you have any food? I'm sure we do. Please share with us our meal.
SPEAKER_04So you you start sharing some of your provisions with these kids. Like I said, there's about a half dozen of them. And the one who's speaking to you, he he tells you his name is Kuvrang, and he and he says about a month ago, I think it feels like yesterday, goblins dressed in wolf pelts and wargs. They they raided our village. The ones that weren't killed were dragged away in chains into the east.
SPEAKER_02Well that won't do. We need to get you somewhere safe.
SPEAKER_04Well, what about our parents? Will you will you will you find them?
SPEAKER_02I look at the rest of them.
SPEAKER_04Yes, I I I think we will.
SPEAKER_00First we need to find a place for them. Should we take them to Brie? We're not we're not leaving. This is our home. Cannot they stay here with the death and the decay that you have around. And you're just little kids. Cannot leave you here.
SPEAKER_04How old are they? What kind of age? So Kouverang is about twelve. The others are are, you know, nine, ten, around that age. They're fine.
SPEAKER_05They're adults.
SPEAKER_02I mean they're like they're practically adults.
SPEAKER_05If you stay here in the village with it like this, you're bound to catch a disease. The bodies and the c crows and the carrion feeders. You're gonna get sick. And what if they came back again? What if the goblins and the worgs came back? What would you do? What can you do? We can hide really well. How can you feed yourself?
SPEAKER_04There's mice. Mice also carry disease. You'll get our parents and then they'll come back and they'll feed us. And and you're big enough. You're big enough, you can you can drag the the dead ones away and burn them. Could. We can.
SPEAKER_05Even if you hit again, what's to say next time if they come back that they won't find you?
SPEAKER_04They don't think anything's here. Why would they come back? They've destroyed this place and taken all the survivors. When did this happen?
SPEAKER_02About a month ago, maybe? A month ago. I mean your parents could be anywhere. We'll we'll try and look for them. I kind of like side gloss to everybody else.
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry to put this so bluntly, and it's not what you're going to hear, but we have two options here. We either save you, or we go look for your parents, and there's a good chance that you're not going to be here when we return.
SPEAKER_04But I know where they are. Where are they? They took them to see the queen.
SPEAKER_05What queen? The Fang of the North. Hearing that name, it's like, alright, we'll be right back. Stay here. Wait, Byrne, come back. They they have kind of swayed me a little bit with that. You lot, stay here. We're going to talk about this outside.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Leave them eating whatever food we've we've given them. Go outside. They're ravenous, they're chowing it down. I look at Berenwin. Tough call. I mean, if they think they know where the parents are and it's not too far away, then we could do that. They could stay here with some food, hide if they need to.
SPEAKER_05We'll have to clean this place up before we go. We can't leave them like this, because they're going to have to come down and try and get their own food. And we don't want them walking amongst the bodies. If they get desperate enough, anything looks like food.
SPEAKER_02True, we can kind of clear up some of them, maybe put them in one of the uh the sort of like half-destroyed building, put all the bodies in there and then burn it.
SPEAKER_05Well, I I would say we do that outside of the walls.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_05At the very least, if someone comes to investigate the smoke and the fire, they might not venture inside too much.
SPEAKER_02I mean they've been they've been the parents have been away for a month, so another day or so clearing all bodies wouldn't be a problem.
SPEAKER_05No. But and this is where I'm torn. How far away is this Queen of the North? Or Queen of the Fang?
SPEAKER_02I guess we can use the kid to find out.
SPEAKER_05Fang of the North? What the hell's her name?
SPEAKER_02Queen of the North. Fang of the North. Fang of the North. Also known as the Queen. So we can do that? What do you think, asshole?
SPEAKER_01I dang em. We fail. I don't give them much chance of surviving out here. Not on their own.
SPEAKER_00How far uh uh how far do you think the the rest of the community are? And we Well if the kids think they know where it is, it can't be that far.
SPEAKER_05Agreed.
SPEAKER_00Perhaps we just need to be be you know be hasteful and save their parents and bring them back. Leave them in a foot.
SPEAKER_05If we take the kids back to Brie, and we come back here, that is and that's weeks back and forth, and and then we still have to go and find out what's going on. We can't let this scourge roam the lands to attack other villages that are around here.
SPEAKER_00I agree. So I think we have no choice. Leave the kids, leave enough resources, and move on.
SPEAKER_02They could fortify the the hall as best they can from any wolves or anything like that. It's not gonna be able to hold matchup against smokes or goblins, but at least it's something.
SPEAKER_05I think while we uh get this place cleaned up, we should also do some foraging. I'm inclined to look for any kind of fruit or berries or vegetables that we may come across. No meat, because meat will require fire, fire will attract.
SPEAKER_02I think you've just volunteered, right?
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_02Okay, Branwyn, go ahead and give me a hunting roll when you're ready. Assel, do you and I want to kind of get rid of the bodies?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Maybe we should dig some shallow graves rather than creating a pyre. Yeah, we can do that.
SPEAKER_00And if you and if you want, I think I will spend this time telling terrifs to the kids, trying to raise their moods and keep them inside the hut so they don't come out while you are doing this grisly.
SPEAKER_02Seems like a really good idea. They seem to uh like your music, so okay.
SPEAKER_00So we'll just take out my ARP and perhaps tell them stories of the elves and you know keep them entertained.
SPEAKER_04Burenwin, you find nuts and berries, a handful of edible plants, and a clear stream running cold among the stones. But there is no game in these woods. No sign of beasts or birds remain. Instead, everywhere you turn, those enormous tracks mark the ground. It needs little guesswork to know the truth. This land has been emptied. Something great and hungry has passed through it, and nothing smaller has been left alive. Assel and Halburn, you haul the bodies beyond the palisades, dig a pit and burn them. The crows that have been picking at the corpses circle overhead, cawing harshly. They are the only living creatures you have seen in these parts. When the flames gutter and die, the birds wheel east and fly off, their cries fading into the grey distance. In the communal hut, the children sit close as I Danyan plays his harp, and time passes lightly in that warm hall. In their gaze you seem half legend, half remembered tale, and they cling to every note and lyric. When at last the elven music falls silent, the day is already waning, and the long shadows of the late afternoon stretch across the floor. Buranwin has returned with nuts, berries, and fresh water. Assel and Halburn have finished their grim work. So what is your plan? Will you stay the night and depart in the morning?
SPEAKER_02I mean that makes sense. That way the kids feel like they're safe when they're when they're here. We can kind of use the last part of the day to fortify the communal hall, you know, make sure all the shutters are shut properly and the door's kind of like sturdier, we kind of add some wood to it or whatever, just to kind of shore it up a bit.
SPEAKER_01Let's see if I can put some little signal traps or something across the uh brakes in the surrounding uh walls. In case something tries to creep through.
SPEAKER_05I am tempted to see which one of them is better with a bow.
SPEAKER_04One of the kids?
SPEAKER_05Yes, because I might leave mine with them just in case.
SPEAKER_03It's the it's Freyek.
SPEAKER_05Alright, yeah, so I'll I'll take them all out back and whatnot and put them through a f a few like training shots just to see who handles it better. And then once I identify which child is better at it, I will give that one a little bit more training with it, and I'll tell them that I'm leaving this bow here just in case it's needed, but only use it in case of emergency.
SPEAKER_04Okay, thank thank you. So spending the night here again, if anybody needs to, you can recover endurance here. You can also recover point of fatigue. Yay. And again, if you want to use fellowship points to recover hope, you can. How many do we have left? Three. You have three left.
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't mind recovering one, perhaps. Get to ten, if that's okay. Yeah, I think, you know, I think it makes sense because I've been spending time with these kids and you know, seeing him, telling them stories. So I'm just also as a role-playing thing, I think my my spirit has been lifted by seeing these young children be amazed by the stories of the elves. And you know, me also retelling these stories also brings me back to to all that and makes me feel hopeful for what's to come and the battle that we have ahead.
SPEAKER_04Right. During this time with the children, you see only harmless, curious faces, no trace of the enmity their ancestors bore toward the Dunodine. In their eyes flickers a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the path of darkness need not claim another generation. Even the rangers who have long known the hatred of the Hillmen might see a chance for something better here. For now there is only innocence in need of help, and in that you feel a rare and quiet hope for the future. When morning comes you gather your gear. Kouverang shows you the path east toward the Queen, and estimates the journey should take about four days. He has never travelled it himself, none of the children have, but they have all heard the adults speak of that place. The trail is easy to follow, marked by goblin and war tracks going back and forth between the Queen's lair and the standing stones.
SPEAKER_03We'll be back with your parents. Thank you, thank you, sir Sir Ranger. Giving them false hope. Ashtok.
SPEAKER_05The name is Ashclick. Ashcloak. Thank you, thank you, Ashcloak. And I kind of shake my head, howberin giving false hope to the children. Give me a marching test, Asyl.
SPEAKER_04Going well this week? Wow. Another a Gandalf from Asle. Alright. I Danyon. Can you make an awareness test for me? What are your L P I C, sir? Ooh, a Gandalf again. Gandalf. Alright, so you've been traveling on this path for about three days now. Three days east into Rudar. And you see up ahead a black cloud rising, twisting against the gray sky, dozens of crows wheeling and crying sharply. Their wings stir the cold air as they sweep over the land. You signal the company, and everyone slips undercover just in time as they pass overhead, their cries fading behind you, leaving only a prickling sense of unease that lingers long after the danger has passed. And you know, Idany, that the this path is being watched by these birds. But because of your keen sight, they have not seen you. Thanks, Mr. Elfsa. Assol, give me one more marching test, please. Okay, so you're moving further east into the dreary, rugged land of Rudar. There are dark trees that cling to rocky slopes and vales, and there's ancient stone walls and ruined castles that crown distant hills. The weather is gloomy and restless with wind and mist rising from the valleys to obscure the ground. Underfoot the trail that you've been following grows faint until at last you lose it altogether. Berenwin, make a hunting test for me. Great success. Also averted an eye. That's twice that's twice this evening. So the disappointed gym. No, I find I f I find that exciting. So the clouds lift for a moment over the distant hills, and there's this shaft of sunlight that falls upon the ground directly where the path picks up again. And you see the shadows of these great eagles gliding across the ground, as if the noble birds themselves were revealing the track that you had lost. And you look up and you can see them wheeling overhead and soaring, their golden wings flashing against the sunlight, stirring your hearts and lifting your spirits. Everyone can regain a point of hope.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_05Looks like good tidings ahead.
SPEAKER_04I forgot for the previous journey event you all had two fatigue. But for this event you get none. And so you've traveled now about four days, and those tracks veer their eastward course and start to descend into a dark, narrow valley. The way soon becomes treacherous and uneven, strewn with jagged stones and patches of loose earth that shift beneath your feet, and half hidden beneath a jutting shelf of stone and bracken yawns a gaping cave. Old bones lie scattered before its mouth, human and animal alike. From inside the cave, two harsh voices carry along the stone, rough and mocking. Footsteps echo faintly. I hear old Hadaron lost his crown. An orc sneers. Shame really, the other says, thick with mockery. Gave good sport, worth every nail, old Tharzog himself told me. Then a dark whisper, like a chill wind, keens through the cave. One of the orcs gasps, its voice trembling. We better get a movin. More loss has come. Their footsteps continued deeper, fading into the gloom, leaving only an uneasy silence.