IC Story Thread: Ch.1,Ad.2 - The Far Reach

They don't appear to be searching any of you. Merely motioning to the implements which they can see.

"We would take you to stand amongst our children, and elders.

Surely you can understand why the squirrel would ask the owl to leave his talons behind?"

You can plainly see that the weapons they carry are primative in nature. Often a stone slightly larger than fist-sized affixed to a stick the length of an arm. But also smaller hand held implements that look more like a tool than a weapon. And again, they wear no raiment of any sort, certainly no armor.

A couple of the Druedain tasked with carrying your arms have to learn the hard way in their explorations of your tools of battle, that metal is sharp unlike anything they've seen before. But seemingly satisfied, the Druedain set off, eight of them walking in single file in a leading position, two following behind you all so far back that at times they can't be seen.

They march for a couple hours, the path is winding (so much so that at times it must almost seem like they're lost), but soon into it there is an actual path that comes and goes, although it doesn't appear to be anything more than a large game trail.

You figure you must be several miles off of the loose course you had set for yourselves, and crossing a creek-bed, when you come in sight of what at first look like normal caves cut into the south-facing wall of the mountain's arm by aeon's of water-flow. But you perhaps do a bit of a double take when you notice that within a couple of the caves, slightly set back into the opening, is what appears to be crude masonry - loose, flat stones piled up but fit tightly together to form an unnatural wall across the mouth of the cave.

You quickly lose sight of them however, below treetops once you've crossed the stream and begun an ascent that heads loosely in that direction.

You come out of a wood line into a sloping meadow at the foot of the cliff and find... a bustling, small community. There are Druedain moving up and down the grassy slope and between a handful of semi-permanent lean-to-like structures cut into the hillside with log and bough roofs. There are a couple of cooking fires burning, children playing, and the low din of sporadic conversation mixed with the sounds of various types of manual labor filling the air.

The only thing that Duinhir has heard of that seems like it could fit these people before him are an often overlooked part of the stories set in the Tale of Ages - the stuff of literal myth and legend - of a race of "Lower Men" who were born before the First Sunrise, and witnessed it along with the Edain - the three great tribes of the first Men of the West - and who would fight alongside the Elves in the first battles between good and evil. Long before the fall of Arnor. Long before the founding of Gondor. Long before even the rise of Numenor.

In that time there was, as it is said, the Elves, the Dwarves, and the Men of the West - the Folk whose descendants would become the Men of Dale, Rohan, Numenor and Gondor - all aligned against the dark forces of Morgoth, goblins and orcs and other black things along with the Men of the East.

And but a foot note to these mythic clashes for the souls of Middle Earth is that there was a race of primitive people, who were not originally understood to be Men, but who stood with them and came to be counted among their kind, against the Shadow. A people who in the legends are only given a place akin to Morgoth's "other black things" - unnamed, barely worth mentioning - but on the side of the Free Peoples.

The Druedain as Turil knows them are a semi-nomadic people. Organized into small family-based tribes, who will dwell on a location for a year or two or more if the surrounding land can support them that long, before moving on to leave the land to recover. They raise no livestock, instead foraging, fishing (with net or woven traps), and hunting birds for the bulk of their food, as well as having some agrarian practices with fungi.

Their general demeanor is not unlike that of the Hobbits, as he understands it. Good hearted, generally peaceful, enjoy merriment and laughing. But also they are a people who have suffered persecution from various parties over the years, and can be grim (though perhaps not so grim as the dwarves), or sardonic, and ruthlessly protective of the lands they live on.

Turil knows them to be excellent trackers, skilled craftsmen (although lacking technological advancement), and also possessed of certain degrees of mysticism and subtle magicks that he doesn't really even know a small portion of the capabilities of.

They have customs that largely revolve around the cycle of daylight and darkness and the seasons. Including ritualistic song or chanting, a kind of athletic leaping dance, as well as some ritualistic consumption of food and drink and smoke (though Turil has found their herb, which is only foraged afterall, to be very bitter and flavorless, however effective).

The bulk of the group stops at the edge of the clearing while the apparent leader continues on to a specific one of the lean-to structures dug into the slope.

Some of those who were going about their daily business stop their activities and approach. Particularly children run up with exuberant curiosity, though most are held back at some distance by adults.

There are some mutters and open questions, posed to the Druedain that Turil can note as general questioning and even displeasure... " Who are they? Why have you brought Men here?!", and such.

But before long the leader of your procession returns and beckons you all to the dugout lean-to. A couple of other individuals exit it, in advance of your arrival, and you're taken inside it's limited space. It's made to accommodate 10 people at most you would say, but more like 8 would be the end of what could be considered comfortable, and there end up being 12 bodies inside the structure with many more crowded around it's open sides, observing with interest.

Although the design of the structure is new to Turil (the tribes he has interacted with live in a more forested, less mountainous area), the general atmosphere is familiar to him. An "elder council" type of gathering. There are three apparent elders in the room, as well as four other Druedain, four of them sitting on flat stones with their knees scrunched up to their chests, and there are four flat stones mirroring them on the other side of a long fire-pit which are gestured to for at least four of you to use.

After everyone is settled, one of the elders begins. She first acknowledges the things she's been told; that Turil claims a relationship with other Druedain tribes - and indeed speaks their language, and that you all are there to hunt the Shadow. But, she says... "Mzag toam-boh dru'dzuh ek gyah." - "It is not our way to welcome Strangers into our home-land.", Turil can note here in the translation that the word for 'Stranger', more accurately means "People who don't take care of the Land like the Druedain do."

So it's less about xenophobia and more about the cultural relationship with nature.

However... the elder says there is a way in which you all can become "spiritual" members of the tribe. i.e. Druedain-In-Spirit. And in that way be permitted to use their lands as you would like, really.

But - she warns - this process requires a trial, as in; an ordeal. And one way or the other, the ordeal will almost certainly pose a threat to your lives.

After receiving the translation from Turil, the Elder bends at the waist rocking a bit like a whole-body-nod of acknowledgement and understanding.

"You may choose one of three possibilities.

Service. It is not always this way, but for you all would be defeating a terrible enemy of the Forest.

Judgement. Where you would travel to the home of an ancient forest spirit, who is our Guardian, and would simply be judged worthy or not. If judged unworthy, he would likely strike you dead.

Ordeal. You undergo a ritual in which you will be confronted with your own truths - both those you embrace and those you wish were not so, your nightmares, and spirits - friendly and not - of your past, present, and future. One way or another you will emerge forever changed. Some are driven mad by the experience, some their body simply cannot endure it, and perish."