ROTN Chapter 1. Moors and Shadows

Gondril and her pony have departed, she never broke the cover of the rowans where they had made their final camp together.

Shouldering packs after the breakfast, they will set out northwards. To the right, the row of black teeth that are the tips of the Misty Mountains forms a wall and a horizon.

Over to the west the yellow and brown lands are dotted with many patches of pale green grass as far as the eye can see. Jagged clumps of black and grey rocks can be made out, jutting out from the thin soils. Thus is not a very fertile place, and there is little sign of other beasts here. Gondril has said that goats and some small mountain deer flit around at night: small herds or solitary creatures for the most part. The howl of the wolf comes in winter - when some of the northern packs come south if the weather or other conditions are fierce towards the north - or so said Gondril. She had added that that did not mean there would be NO wolves here, just less likely.

The Company will be setting off through the Trollshaws. And heading north. Elrond has left the choice to them about how close they travel towards Mount Gram, or instead how tight they follow the line of the Hithaeglir. He wants to know where the spies he discussed are coming from. If he can learn that he can investigate further. The Company are not tasked with uncovering the purpose of these spies (that can be easily surmised!); nor even whose bidding they are doing. But if there is little risk, Elrond will find all additional information useful.

Since several of the Company have journeyed here before, the trip through the Trollshaws needs but a simple TN 14 to be successful. They have the advantage of the boost provided by the supplies carried by Gondrils pony: until now, there has been no need to hunt for food and they have full food bags. Water is plentiful too - once it has been filtered through any of the many reeds to be gathered from the pools and puddles of the moors and bogs.

Travel test at TN 14 please. The Trollshaws would be harder, except the Company have had a particularly easy start.

Making very good progress throughout this stage of their journey the company finally reach a significant shelf of rock, almost a plateau really.

From this elevation they will see the lands to the immediate north before them all at lower level.
Somewhat undulating in nature, the lands beneath them carry a slight, yet distinct, smell of rotting plant material lying in slow moving or stagnant waters. This part of the lands at the edge of the Trollshaws has a lot of rainfall in Autumn and Winter. In Spring the snow melts from the Misty Mountains provide a further soaking in addition to the storms of that season. This is a land of bog and shallow swamp. Poorly drained or slow-draining, it will be a damp experience marching through this terrain. Pools and other stretches of water dot the land before them.
There are almost no trees, and certainly none of any height. There will be little protection from the northern winds said to sweep down from the cold lands much further ahead of them. When they set up their campsites those that are assembled in hollows where the cold winds might be screened will be particularly wet; and in the higher parts that will be less waterlogged, those campsites will be exposed to an incessant chill.

The Company expect to have to travel through these wetlands, and even Explore the region somewhat: Elrond needs to know the routes taken by spies attempting to make the reverse journey to the one the heroes are making.

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Ooc: Since the company has either 2 or 3 skill level in Explore, we can each have a roll in order to obtain as many Successes as we can and locate the most promising routes that would lead back towards Rivendell. TOR1e has a similar mechanic for Encounters, and TOR 2e has its own mechanics for Prolonged Tasks and Councils, where a running total of Successes lead to the degree of Success.

Can each one of us attempt an Explore roll? TN 14. (Please remember that Explore is a Survival skill for gaining Advancement points)

explore

The Company seem to be particularly blessed with good fortune in these lands so far.
It takes a day or so of scrambling up and down but Ahmo comes across a series of steps hacked out of a steep section of the drop off, angling diagonally upwards (or downwards). In addition to this she can see (partly covered in loose soil with fresh weeds growing in it) several disturbed blocks of stone: large boulders that she can reasonably guess were removed from this new pathway.
But more pertinent are the tracks leading around the base. Tracks that the members of the company have witnessed before when they travelled in these regions last time. Trollprints. The way the boulders were moved and the trackway constructed seem evident now.

The others follow Ahmo down and join her as she casts around. Then she chooses to run back up the slope: she wants to know how quickly someone might make it.

Larsi potters around and around, calling for the assistance of Jot to examine the tracks that Ahmo has discovered. Aeglief joins them as well as soon as the dwarf explains he has an inkling that the troll work was done over a few days or more.
Jot can offer his opinion that the disturbances are truly not that old... maybe even in the last fortnight or so, and barely a month old in other words.

Ahmo has been down, up, and down the "stairway" again. It is quite a secure path: but not one a horse could ascend; unless completely unburdened. At the narrowest parts of the path three men could easily march up in line across.
However,as she descends she joins Larsi in examining the land at the base of the stair. Most of the terrain right at the base of the steep drop is reasonably firm, and covered in an emerald green reedy grass. but a few paces is all it needs before some patches of soft and waterlogged ground begin even to give way under her elven balance and light tread. There are few secure places here, and an armoured man in mail or with heavy boots or a large pack would struggle to move quickly.

Larsi himself, with Aeglief behind, are watching Jot at work. The ranger picks up small handfuls of mud, and sometimes sand. He looks around at the plants growing in various patches. There is little of the Sapphire Mallow flower to be seen here. But some clumps suggest higher and drier ground. One such clump attracts his attention and he moves to the base of Ahmo's "Ladder" as they are calling it. And looks again at the same clump and the mound.

"Yes. Here, and leading to there. I think this is what you are after, Larsi. The marks of the troll-workers make an shallow indented trail from here to there. Let us proceed carefully."

Despite his own professed warning about being cautious, the ranger calls out to Oderic and waves at Cora. The two are further away along the line of the drop. while they come back quickly Jot will take off his pack and ready his weapons. He also takes out a short piece of wood to prepare to make a torch.

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Seven success even before Jot rolls! The company have discovered all the clues they need to reveal that the trolls directed to make this thoroughfare will have rested during the day in a hole - and that hole was inside a dug out or cave on slightly higher and drier ground, marked by the Sapphire Mallow flowers. Jot will realise that if there are enemies in the hole they will have been seen already. And if the enemies are trolls it will be nightfall before they can come out.