The Heart of the Bear-Folk

[GandalfOfBorg]

  My luck has leeched into this game as well *sigh*

[tomcat]

Matt... the dice are not your friend, at least while you are playing as elves.

[Eclecticon]

Such places prove hard to find in the rolling lowlands at the heart of the Anduin valley, but thankfully the Men standing watch on the Carrock seem uncaring of any signs they may see of other folk abroad in the nearby land and the Fellowship's rest, though watchful, is undisturbed. 

Though the campfire is a small thing, concealed as best it can be behind a hastily-built screen of stones and branches, and conversation is muted, Luindîs' excitement to be once again close to the foe is plain.  "Come the morning," she asks, her eyes gleaming in the firelight, "what shall we do?  I (or my comrade in arms, I suppose)" she adds with a sidelong glance at Gwaithlim "could easily shoot an arrow on to the island as our harbinger." 

Her eyes widening still further, she exclaims "Oh!  And we could tie a message to the shaft announcing that the Fellowship of the Helm has come to give battle, man to man, with the northern chieftain!  Have they honour enough, do you think, that they would accept the challenge rather than just kill us?" 

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn poked the fire with a stick absently while his hand caressed the raven hair braided torc around his neck.

"That is not the way of it. I will ride up to them and issue the challenge. I had hoped that we would find the rock passed by, but they now  hold it against us. Our chief aim is to disrupt their plans and allow Grimbeorn time and space."

The Longspear sighed.

"I must travel far tonight, and with speed other than my own."
 
paul, i would like to spirit walk this evening. Primary task is to get word to the Green Stone Steading of what is happening and then any remaining time do some recon to see how bad the harrowing is.

[Eclecticon]

Right you are, Tom.  Does anyone else want to weigh in before we move on to Hathcyn's nocturnal foxery?

[Eclecticon]

High above, the clouds slowly, silently creep across the sky, the stars vanishing one by one as the fire burns low.  Esgalwen, well-accustomed to the silences of nights on the road, is already snoring quietly but Luindîs cannot seem to stop watching Hathcyn as the Longspear settles himself, shuts his eyes and begins the almost-imperceptible breathing that accompanies the beginning of his spirit-roaming. 

Only Gwaithlim, his Elven eyes long accustomed to the seeing of things beyond the sight of mortals, marks the uncurling of the spirit-fox as if it abode in the Man's belly.  He sees it sniff the air briefly before taking flight like an arrow loosed toward the river, and smiles to see an art once thought by the Firstborn to be nearly lost still in use by the foes of the Shadow. 

Hathcyn, for his part, feels his heart swell with the pure joy of night-going, the scents of nearby loam and grass, Men and Elves, and the fainter tang of smoke and water all strong in his nose.  But as he closes in on the pebbly western bank of the Anduin, another scent reaches him, a scent of fang and muzzle, of the terror of the hunt.  His heart skips a beat as a long, high howl once again carries a message in the hound-tongue: "We smells you again, foxen one!  Run fast, run far, for no pretty spears and strong friends guards you now!"

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn immediately felt that he had stumbled into a trap. He had forgotten the words of the warg at the steading. Or perhaps his great need drove him to ignore the warning. The fox hunt was on and using all the wiles of his spirit companion he ran through the night.

His first thought was speed, let me test their speed first and run where they expect me to go. His spirit self was driven on by the remembered memory of braying hounds in the chase, a memory no longer. So he ran first towards home and the green stone, they direction they expected him to go. Though truly it had been his first intention, but now he no longer believed it to be the wisest course, but he would let them think first that fear drove him.