The Opening
Bilbo Baggins arranged for the company to meet at The Prancing Pony Inn in Bree. Gathered were Halford Brandybuck, hobbit of the Shire; the dwarf, Ida, son of Nar; and, the elf scholar, Fingon Finrod of fabled Rivendell.
In a rousing speech, Master Baggins implored the group of three that shadows grew ever darker in the wilds of the untamed lands and, so to, in the hearts of men. He said his travels had convinced him one way to fight back the darkness was to simply unveil it boldly and confidently. He wished the company would do this. Serve as his arm to uncover the relics of the lost realm that might bolster its current people, to draw those very same people together...not in fear, but in the light of hope!
And to do so first, he wondered if the group might undertake a journey that might both uncover the past and show a sign of cohesion to rotten forces of ruffians that had gathered south of Bree.
Bilbo told the group of the "Star in the Mist"
Rumour & Lore
“There’s an ancient tower in the easternmost foothills of the southern Ered Luin, what remains of a powerful castle from the time of the Kings. Wanderers speak of an eerie blue light that sometimes can be seen even from Sarn Ford, like a star shining above the river mists. No one goes there, and recently people have started to disappear in its vicinity.
“The tower is what is left of a fortress built at the time of the North Kingdom of Arnor. It was built atop a Dwarven subterranean ruin. It was besieged at the time of the war with Angmar, and fell after a long resistance. Some say that treasonous Dwarves betrayed the Dúnedain, allowing the forces of the Witch-king to enter the castle by secret ways.”
Bilbo wished the group to not only to investigate and solve the dissappearances, but also to map the city and explore the legends...what was the city's name? Its relationship to the dwarves? What happened?
The Journey
Spring 2965 of the Third Age
Left from Bree the 23rd of March / Arrived at the Tower of Hadirion the 8th of April
Travel lasted roughly 16 days with a stop at Sarn Ford en route
Scout - Halford w/ Jesup (pony) accrued 2 fatigue
Look-Out: Fingon w/ Magic (decent horse) accrued 3 fatigue
Hunter: Elador accrued 0 fatigue
Guide: Ida w/Boy (sturdy pony) accrued 2 fatigue
1. A Rough Patch of Road
Target: Halford Brandybuck (Scout)
Event: Mishap (Success)
Details: Halford forged ahead of the group and was able to successfully note how worn the Greenway was in this area. He capably steered the group, and it's beasts clear of any true damage.
2. Mayhaps a bear?
Target: Halford Brandybuck (Scout)
Event: Noteworthy Encounter (Success)
Details: As the group breaks camp in the morning, Halford hears rummaging from the underbrush near the ponies. Investigating causes a bundle of angry fur and claw and fang to burst forth from the bushes and snarl in his direction. With only a little surprised fumbling, Halford fires a shot from his bow and scares off the beast (Ida assures him twas only a badger).
3. Darkness of Sarn Ford
Target: Fingon Finrod (Look-Out)
Event: Noteworthy Encounter (Failure)
Details: The group makes camp at the Ranger outpost of Sarn Ford. Here they meet, and ultimately take on, the rugged woodsman Elador. However, his compatriot, Drach is ill-tempered, vitriolic, and verbose. He whines constantly about the neediness of folks like hobbits and Bree-men, blames the dwarves for bringing so much more trouble into Eriador, and generally finds fault with all who do not recognize the suffering his ilk go through to protect the lands. Elador and him argue, and Fingon, in his first prolonged contact with Man, attempts to befriend the disgruntled ranger, but only spurs him on to more diatribe. The long night leaves an ill feeling with Fingon.
4. Nearly Too-Peaceful a Night
Target: Elador (Hunter)
Event: Ill Choices (Success)
Details: Finally with noble compatriots he feels comfortable with, Elador let's himself enjoy a night. The open expanse, the brilliant stars of the spring night, battle talk with Ida, the harmonious singing of Halford and Fingon sharing an old Elvish tune... so relaxing was the evening, the hunter ALMOST forgot to check the brace of rabbits he'd bagged earlier. He arrived just in time to shoo away a coyote from spoiling his gains.
The Adventure
Bandits, Above & Below
While the tower itself glows atop the eastward reaching arm of the Ered Luin, it also casts shadow over the group and others. Upon their arrival, and after sheltering their beasts with a nearby farmstead, the company are beset by a band of poorly-equipped brigands. However, elf, man, and dwarf prove far too skilled to be harmed by the bandits.
With victory in hand, Ida, son of Nar, glowers down at the bandit encampent, wholed up in front of a cave entrance into the mountains proper, and demands their surrender. The few there toss down their arms, but one; this man, of southern look and fashion, sneers at the dwarf and dashes into the caves.
Interrogation of those that surrendered reveal that the bandits had been working for the escaped man, Sabian, that many more of them were out looting and hunting now, and that the ruins in the cave were clearly haunted.
A Fallen Bridge
Letting the bandits leave, the company ventured into the cavern. Here they descended a great number of dwarven stairs that led to a stone bridge across a mountain chasm; the bridge was broken and in disrepair. In a feat of impossible grace and agility, Fingon lept across the gap, secured a rope, and with this employed, carefully assisted the others in crossing the dangerous drop.
Flooded Chambers
Though they lost track of the southerner Sabian, they did find evidence of the bandits campsite within the structure. So too, did the company find ill-gotten goods from the bandit's forays into the farmlands around these foothills. They wisely decided to distribute the wealth to the farmstead that held their horses.
Ida picked up on the dwarven runes and architecture. They spoke of the Firebeards and the city below of Narag-Nala...the Black River. Elf and Ranger too noticed how these runes were interspersed with the writings of Western Man, the kingdoms that came in the wake of mighty Arnor's split. House Hadirion they gleaned, and Narag-Nala, city of Firebeard dwarves, operating as a joint venture in dark times. The hallways and architecture spoke not of one building atop the other, but of a shared venture.
Eventually these hallways gave way to a flooded chamber that chilled the bone and stank of decay. Amongst the fetid water rose a number, no less than nine, stone sepulchers in various states of despair. The chamber's mere stillness enough to quake the hearts of the company, it was made worse, when, in between the shadows and rubble of a collapsed tunnel they caught site of a figure--Dwarf??--then the peal of a chime. This noise stirred the unliving, water-bloated dead that sat lifeless at the bottom of the room's rank water. Though the company fought valorously and victoriously, the shining hatred of deathlessness in the dead's eyes left scars that even their sharp bone fingers could not.
Most haunted was young Halford Brandybuck who swore that during the battle he saw a fair, stern matron of blue light descend the stairs across the chamber, lock eyes with him, and then melt into bone and mold!
The Accursed Halls
After the battle, the company took short rest and searched. They uncovered treasure of the old fiefdom, but, more damningly, in the sensechal's journal they found the claim that Hadirion had been betrayed by the dwarves of narag-Nala...
Rising a set of stairs, and ignoring where ever the 'dwarf' might have scampered too, the company broke free of the flooded chambers and rose into the windswept ruins of the old city nestled amongst the mountain tops. For a great many hundred yards in each direction, the ancient, dilapidated city spread out like a labyrinth of broken stone walls, upturned cobblestone, and ruggedly overgrown buildings.
More disconcerting was the malaise enveloping the fallen city; a grey pallor that blotted out the sun and made the mountainous winds even more cutting. There was but one beacon for the company to follow in this sombre ruin, the star that had beckoned them each night since they'd been a few days out of Sarn Ford...a bright blue pulsing shine atop a tower of Hadirion's fallen palace.
And so the company set out.
Passed clear signs of the horrid siege that must have struck this city in the time of Angmar, the Witch-King, past beautiful architecture still intact, past orc skeletons nestled into deep wells, the group marched to the base of the palace.
Tower of the Star
Upon their approach, the Lady of the manor made herself known.
She appeared as a crooked hag, wrapped in tatters hiding her spectral features. Her flesh almost transparent, and her eyes aglow like a bonfire's embers. Thin strands of white hair
escaped her hood. She addressed the Company speaking in a hissing voice and
strange accent: “Why have you come?
There’s nothing here, only death. Leave this place, or join me in my torment!” Armed with a long, pitted sword, and a spear, the weapons she used to
defend her city and fortress, she sprang forward.
A vicious battle followed, but one the company against stood firm throughout. Upon her
death, she reverted to her fair form…then screamed and dissipated. As the company regained their wits, they saw the light flare upon the tower in the mist.
And, so they strode forward towards the spiraling stairs leading up...
The
shape of the palace's main hall was still recognisable, a flight of wide, cracked steps
leading to it. Its walls covered in crude graffiti, drawn by Orcs, Fingon noted.
Among the graffiti are mixed sentences composed using Elvish letters, of an
ancient mode; they were written with horrible care, using the Black Speech, and revealed to all the horrendous truth: Angmar himself had laid the curse upon this fallen land!
As the group ascended, they heard the gathering screech of Lady Elwen once again. She was reforming, the curse binding her here the same as it was the perpetual fog that blotted out the sun, the stars, the moon...
Atop the shambling tower of white stone marked black by by-gone battles and the passing of the years, rested the mortal remains of the Lord Hadirion, his mummified body tied on a rotting throne of wood, a metal crown nailed to his
head. A shining blue gem is set on the crown, its luminescence visible for
miles and miles.
As Lady Elwen reformed and threatened death to those who dared lay hands on her beloved's corpse, Ida lay his mighty axe on the ground and pulled out his craftsman's tools to begin his ugly work...carefully, as spectral battle began to rage around him once more, he wrested the metal crown free of the dead prince, and the dead prince free of the rotting throne.
With a flash, Lady Elwen and Lord Hadirion were together again, briefly, as they were, hale, hearty, and then, like smoke dwindling, they dissappeared...as did the malaise over old Hadirion.
No Escape
After filling thier pockets with what treasure they could carry from the forgotten coffers of ruined Hadirion, the group sought an escape. The cliffside seemed to steep and jagged to descend in any careful, meaningful manner. The rubble could be cleared but it led only into deeper darkness and, very likely they remembered, traitorous dwarves. And, the front entrance had been barred by no less than two-dozen bandits no doubt angrily awaiting the company's arrival.
After much deliberation, the group ventured the only potentially safe passage was the one they didn't yet know about...the descent into Narag-Nala.
Narag-Nala
Minutes stretched into long hours in the twisting hallways of the dwarf-lords of Narag-Nala. Even Ida's familiarity with how mines and the like might be laid out, did little to help the groups ponderous progress through the dim, claustrophobic tunnels beneath Hadirion.
When exasperation and frustration had mounted to nearly insurmountable levels, however, the dwarves made themselves known. They moved
stoically and swiftly in triads. Broad shoulder to broad shoulder, glinting
picks and axes at the ready, dust covered armor locking together like walls, the
dwarves of Narag-Nala, ashy beards and pale skin, encircled the group, and led them to the hall of their queen.
Here the group held council with a frail and ancient blind queen of these cursed dwarves...Veiko. Speaking through her intermediary, her daughter, Ilmi, the venerable queen listened carefully to the group's request to have their reward for lifting Angmar's curse upon the land be free leave of these sovereign lands.
Veiko ultimately acquiesed. So to did she share a great many truths: her kind had been in this spot since Thangorodrim was broken in the First Age, and that they'd been trapped in gloom for centuries upon centuries since one of their own had given into shadow and spite by aiding Angmar's assault on the Men above, and that the company's bravery has perhaps freed the dwarves of Narag-Nala to once again open the vents, burn the fires, and run the mighty forges and smiths once more...
The group is escorted through a series of secret tunnels to the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains and safely returned home.
The Aftermath
At Bilbo's behest and generosity, the group settled in Staddle, where they might draw less attention than in Bree proper. Elador used his funds to claim a horse, which he in turn used to discover the failings of his compatriot Drach as well as potential disconcerting rumours surrounding the Dunlendings in the South-East.
Moreover, the group took the time to retrace their steps back to Veiko and old Hadirion to reclaim some of the treasure they couldn't leave with before.
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