Mounted up

[tomcat]

it is two hexes to the river, so 20 miles, the hex just north of the Elf Tower.

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn had a burning, almost irrational hatred for orcs. The sight of their fletched arrows brought back to his mind the massacre at the steading. His desperate stand to keep the way clear for Grimbeorn and the last guardian over his friends mutilated body.  The memory stoked his fire to a red hot burning.

With a spring he dismounted and looked at the bodies. First he tried to see from where the men hailed from, and then he looked at the arrows of the orcs. He pulled one and examined the arrow head and the fletching. The color and way they were affixed would perhaps give him a clue.

Then he checked the area around to see where they may have come from, and what manner of Ambush they had sprung, whether planned or hasty.
 

Ooc: i will use Enemy Lore Orcs for an auto success on my investigation and then roll awareness and Hunting for the particular situation and where they came from and went to.

Awareness

Rolled 1d12 : 9, total 9

Rolled 3d6 : 6, 3, 1, total 10

Hunting

Rolled 1d12 : 8, total 8

Rolled 3d6 : 6, 2, 4, total 12

[Telcontar]

 
That should be two great success.
  
Who's updating character sheets these days?

[tomcat]

I think this is our first series of real tests. Great rolls!

Going to shower then I will update the story with your results.

[tomcat]

Hathcyn shooed away a large buzzard which made argument of its interruption through a series of croaks.

The smell of death was already heavy over the three men, the day's sun hastening the decay. Their skin, though blanched atop and looking badly bruised where their bodies met the ground, still was darker than those that lived in the vale. The Beorning had never seen the swarthy men of the east, but had heard tales from those that lived on the eastern eaves of Mirkwood. Merchants and travelers told of the six great tribes of the lands of Rhûn - the Sagath, the Brygath, the Asdriags, the Gathmarigs, the Odhriags, and the Kykuria - many of them wain-riders. They migrate across the seas of grass taking what they pleased, making only few permanent settlements, and harrassing the folk of Dorwinion. Some said they worshipped the Shadow and gave their devotions to Him.

But why would such men of east and south be so far north? Why here? Were these the assassins of which Esgalwen spoke? Yet they lay dead upon the field, apparently ambushed like any other common person.

The arrow he had plucked was in his hand. Hathcyn looked at the shaft. The wood was strange - none that he knew from the breadth of Mirkwood, and many were the types of trees there. Strange, too, were the feathers that fletched the shaft - not like any quill from a bird of the wood, but that of the mountains. They had been fired to harden the wood marking their craftsmanship as far greater than any orc-tribe of Mirkwood.

What new machinations were afoot?

Hathcyn stood and quickly moved about the bodies to find signs of where they came from and to where they went. The grasses about were hard-matted, as if large things lay in their cover. These ambushers then quickly stood and filled the men with arrows. Raw mud was churned up by heavy boots. Then he saw it - there among the prints... a small hand and what looked to be a bare-foot.

He followed the trail a short way. The grass thinned over an area of rocky ground and again within the soil was the imprints of a small foot and hand. A child? Or maybe those small people that were only hinted at in song? Like the one that Arbogast and Grimbeorn were so fond of - Bandy-bras?

From the clearing, a trail could be espied in the grass that continued on to the river some miles away. It was not easy to spot, but it was there.

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn shared his observations with his friends and indicating the trail to Esgalwen went back to the dead men.

He squatted and Gazed at the men. He looked at their gear and their equipment. They came from afar but he looked to see if they had been equipped locally.

There gear was weathered cared for and traveled. The Orcs had looted them for treasure, but Hathcyn checked them for simpler 'worthless' items. He looked at their food, their personal items, anything that could tell him in greater detail who they were, and who had aided them when coming so far west.

"These are men. If they came this way headed towards the river they had some expected means of egress, perhaps we may find this as well as the orcs. A half man was with them, but he travels almost more like a beast than a man."

[tomcat]

Esgalwen will add to the hunt to make sure she is seeing what the Hathcyn is pointing out.

TN 14 hunting 2d

1d12 : 10, total 10
Rolled 2d6 : 1, 6, total 7

TN 14 search 2d

1d12 : 6, total 6
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 2, total 5

I also want to roll an Lore roll to see how familiar she is with the Easterlings

TN 14 lore 2d

1d12 : 10, total 10
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 2, total 5

[tomcat]

"These men bear the markings of the south, but they are Easterlings. Many times have we in Gondor dealt with raiders out of the lands of Rhûn, but certainly not as much as those of Dorwinion."

She helped Hathcyn search through their gear and pockets but found nothing. The Beorning had the same luck. It was apparent that their killers picked them clean of personal items. The dried foods that were in their pouches were standard trail provisions - dried meat, fruit, and varied nuts. It was nothing that could not be attained within the vale.

Esgalwen looked to see the trail that led towards the west and the Anduin River. The Gladden Fields were there, too, and that would make for a hard search.

"The trail is before us. Do we continue? We are little provisioned if we are to follow into the marshes."

[Telcontar]

"Well Grimbeorn, your thoughts? We could bury the bodies and the other two can ride back for provisions."

[Eclecticon]

"There is merit in your plan, Longspear," Arbogast says, "but I say we must forge ahead together or not at all.  We must keep the pursuit hot, else lose our quarry, but we know not what dangers may lie in wait ahead."

As Hathcyn opens his mouth to protest, the Fire-watcher adds "and if we are slowed by the need to find food, then so is he whom we pursue."

[Telcontar]

I've wintered at the frugal table of dwarves, so I'm not unaccustomed to long work and short food. The decision is Grimbeorn's in my case. I offer my advice and my service to him, but it is his word that directs where they shall be applied and how."

Hathcyn continued as if he wasnt there present and smiled as he did so.
"Also, he dislikes lordship and command so I know he can be trusted."

[GandalfOfBorg]

"We are neither provisioned for such a venture but we also have matters to attend to back in Rhosgobel that must be attended to before any trek should occur.  The events' end is nigh and some have families to see about.  If you believe we can chase down the culprits by day's end, then I say we go forth now.  If not, we bury the dead and discuss the next plan of action.  Mogdred may have said he's content, but who's to say his people will be?"

[Telcontar]

"Loathe I am to allow these brutes to roam free across any lands, but I do not think we could catch them today, and we dont know in what number they are."

[Eclecticon]

Though he does not say as much, Arbogast's heart is buoyed considerably by the discovery that the companions' quarry are Men, not Hobbits that might disappear in plain sight or unnatural shades bound to the service of the Eye. 

"Then let us return," he says, "to settle our business and prepare for the trials that await us."  And let us bid farewell once more to our loved ones, he adds only to himself. 

[Telcontar]

The hand axe came quick to the Longspears hand and he began cutting some sods of turf.

"Come Firewatcher, they may be villains and murderers, but we may at least cover them in sod."

Then seemingly oblivious to the task at hand he began to whistle and hum working songs to pass the time.

The hatchet rose and fell quickly and soon he began prying out sods of turf to cover the bodies with a meager grave.