Middle-Earth Role Playing Campaign

Day 19: Rain, Rain, Go Away.


Picture: Map of this week's Campaign

NIT REMOVAL: Do you see a word mispelled or missing? Something in the text that disagrees with something you read earlier? A phrase that just doesn't seem to scan right? All of these are nits, and I am trying to root out every last one of them from the text. If you see something in this story that you think I should know about, please send me e-mail at blowe@wpcusrgrp.org. I will do my best to respond to any and all suggestions. Thank you for your help!

Day 19: Friday
Rain, Rain, Go Away.

It was still raining as they left their tents in the morning. When Bauglir said he believed it would rain all day, they discussed briefly if they should wait it out. But the thought of the search that would now be mounted for them due the death of Durax, plus the knowledge they were now close to the pass out of the dark country, convinced them they should take down the camp and travel in the rain.

Just before leaving, Rhôn, Mîriel, and Luinár searched again for healing plants, finding five athelas leaves, two doses of delrean insect repellant, and seven doses of taynaga poison.

"Bauglir, where do you think we are?" asked Araquenval as they plodded along in the rain.

Bauglir shrugged. "I have never been here," he said.

"But you have been to Litash."

"Yes, I was in Litash. But I was never here. I do not know where here is."

"Did you look around while you were in Litash?"

Mîriel added, "Did you take note of the mountains--any particular peaks?"

"Of course I saw the bloody mountains," Bauglir growled, "but that does not help us here!"

"Actually, knowing exactly where here is is not really that important," said Mîriel. "We know where we're going and the basic route we need to take to get there."

"So, we should keep the mountains to our right," said Araquenval. "Eventually we will reach the pass out of Angmar."

"We will know the pass when we see it," said Bauglir. "I understand the valley leading up to it is deep and has a lake at the bottom of it."

 

The land rose steadily before them as they rode through it, and the travellers found themselves climbing hills and descending again to valleys, each hill higher than the last. Although the rain was cold and very uncomfortable, it kept everything else in shelter: they saw no one on the trail, and no creature took note of their passage.

Late in the afternoon the land began to descend slightly and flatten out. The rain had come down all day without letup, soaking and chilling everyone, making them all feel quite miserable. Even as evening came on the rain showed no signs it was about to stop.

Mîriel and Araquenval noticed a red glow illuminating the clouds to the north of them and pointed it out to Bauglir. "That is probably Litash," he said.

"I don't like the looks of it," said Mîriel. "It seems so close."

"But we are moving away from it."

"It's getting dark," said Luinár. "We should be looking for a place to camp."

But they could find no suitable spot, and they could not go on in the dark on the wet, rolling trail. Eventually they were forced to make do as best they could in a sorry stand of wet straggly trees. Araquenval cast spellways and stored a sudden light spell, then retired to his tent to meditate.

 

Mîriel, Bauglir, and Dennenor took the first watch, Mîriel watching out over the plains and Dennenor and Bauglir concentrating on the woods behind the camp. The red glow on the clouds persisted all night, and even the people sleeping in the tents could not put it out of their minds.

When Mîriel and Bauglir went to bed, Dennenor and Rhôn-Hari-Rhôn came out and observed the bush, while Rhôn looked out across the plain. Nothing disturbed that watch, and finally the rain lightened, then stopped completely. Bradlegar and Luinár relieved Araquenval and Rhôn for the last watch, and it, too, was altogether quiet and uneventful.

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NIT REMOVAL: Did you see a word mispelled or missing? Something in the text that disagreed with something you read earlier? A phrase that just didn't seem to scan right? If you did, please send me e-mail at blowe@wpcusrgrp.org. I will do my best to respond to any and all suggestions. Thank you for your help!

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Copyright © 1996-1998 by Brian Lowe. All rights reserved. You may store a copy of this story on disk for your personal use, and make copies on only disk or diskette for others, but this notice of copyright must be preserved. You may not print this story to hardcopy (eg, printer, facsimile, etc), nor upload it to any bulletin board system, internet service provider, or like electronic distribution.
Brian Lowe / Winnipeg PC User Group / blowe@wpcusrgrp.org
Based on events played to November 14, 1997. Accesses since September 30, 1998: (Counter image not available)