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

Turil isn't aware of any bipedal inhabitants of Andrast, other than the Druedain and in theory some of the primal nature spirits. And this... attack?... is far more aggressive than any behavior he's seen from the Druedain. But the 'YOP'-ing ... that does strike him as a behavior similar to what he's seen from the Woses of the north, used to track and identify each other's location when on a hunt.

Looking back on the location of where he sat and where the log came down and at what angle, Cirion reckons that the projectile must have originated from at least 25 meters out. Which would be a truly exceptional physical feat, if thrown by man. From here he cannot tell whether or not there is any sort of mechanism that might have assisted...

The rushing figures run full bore up until the fringes of your camp... but then they stop short. Less than 10 meters away from any of you. Except a couple of those nearest the Lady of Gondor, and her fearsome challenge, who stop several more meters short of that! Each of them end their charge behind a tree or dropping flat onto their bellies into brush.

By that time you can all get a good look at your assailants before they take their cover, and they are indeed fairly human-like in appearance. But they are short and stout, not unlike a dwarf, their features are broad and bulbous and heavy with the mass of prominent bone and muscle, reminiscent of the stone and gnarled trees about you. Their skin color ranges from an earthen ruddy brown to an earthen grey, and there bodies - which are unclothed - are adorned with dark hair and geometric patternings of some sort of smeared pigment.

Turil recognizes them instantly at this point as the Druedain.

'YOP-OP-YOP!!", they call out to each other in a final volley of the wordless shouts, and you can count ten of them, before they fall silent. They each poke their faces out erratically, to get a final measure of the stance and behavior of your group, when ultimately a voice rings out...

"Ung'HUH! Mog ba'AH!!"

"Ba'AH gohm k'mog..." - You are not recognized - the voice begins to say, in a formal manner of address, but then it pauses, as they realize you spoke back in their tongue, and with an appropriately deferential reply no less.

There are murmurs that ripple through all of them now, Turil can catch bits of astonishment, "...bah'OH tog... ...ud'Dru..." - They speak... They speak our tongue... - many of them are saying in quiet amazement.

"Ba'AH gohm Dru'ghu. Na'GUH tog bah? - You are not Druedain. Who are you?

A few of them poke their heads out of their cover to try to get better looks at you all, their eyes wide and wondering.

A ripple of murmurs again passes through the circle of Druedain.

"These are not your lands to hunt. Perhaps you hunt a shadow, perhaps you cast the shadow.

But, if the Northern clans have Named you, perhaps you could earn the right to hunt our lands..."

As your postures change, and the conversation develops, the surrounding Druedain emerge from their cover, some of them looking upon and studying you each with open curiosity.

The Druedain don't seem to be prepared to share the pipe with you all yet.

"If you are to hunt our lands, it will be decided by an Elder.

If you wish to speak with an Elder, you must relinquish your shining-stone weapons...", they gesture to your metal implements, clearly unfamiliar with it as a material.

"There will be no battle unless it is upon your insistence.", the apparent leader says in the gutteral and short syllables of their tongue.

"The Forest remains.", the translation is difficult... "Go'HUH da suug'HUH.The context also implies that it could be the forest "waits patiently" or "tolerates" or "abides" or "listens and watches", but there's also an element of "but it doesn't change". It's an idiom Turil has heard in the northern clans, expressing the general ethos of the Druedain and their generally peaceful nature but also how they are seemingly timeless and persistent and inevitably "win" or rather cannot be defeated - like a forest, like nature itself.

The handing over of weapons doesn't seem very negotiable. They offer a choice to hand over your arms - quivers of arrows included, but not a bow itself - and treat with an elder for permission to remain, or to leave their lands.

Some of the Druedain had began to emerge and approach cautiously and curiously, but as the conversation possibly becomes contentious, they assume more ready postures again.