I just went to write in my post, but I've gotted really mixed up when I tried to understand the situation. My understanding, as I read through the journeying posts, is that
- Most of the Elves & Faerim were in front.
- Belegorn, Bethiril, and (what appears to be) the main body of soldiers. (How many soldiers ARE there, by the way?)
- Carthor & Co., apparently including all of the civilians and miscellaneous soldiers.
That is how I construct the marching order. Now for a rundown of events, post-by-post:
- Renedwen wanders on when her group (#3) stops. She gets caught in spider web and starts screaming.
- Carthor's group investigate a storeroom and are interrupted by Renedwen's screams.
- Lissi, who had passed the storeroom, rescues Renedwen, and they head back; they are met by some of Carthor's group, and all turn back toward the storeroom once more.
- Elves & Faerim (group #1) as vanguard (well in front of everyone) hear Renedwen's screams and start back. Immediately they begin to hear troll drums from what is now behind them - what is waaaay in front of everybody.
- They run into Belegorn & Bethiril (group #2). On Belegorn's orders (and hearing of trolls), some soldiers retreat back up the tunnel (which ought to be toward group #3). Group #1, Belegorn, Bethiril, and the few remaining soldiers then hear different screams - from further back behind in the tunnel. Faerim takes off, followed by Erenor, and is attacked by something. I presume this is Renedwen's mistaken turnoff; if so, group #3 is still further back up the tunnel.
- The trolls hear a scream - EITHER Renedwen's OR the second set - follow up and meet with somebody.
- Erenor fights the spider that has attacked Faerim.
- Carthor, in front of the 6 or 7 men who left the storeroom after hearing Renedwen, meets up with Lissi & Renedwen coming out of the spidery turnoff. They head back to the storeroom but get lost. NOTE:
Quote:
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In the confusion and hurry that had followed Renedwen’s scream, the group of six or seven men that had rushed to her had failed to mark their route. They were now far from the glow of the rest of the group’s torches as they stood perplexed at the door of the storeroom, and had no mark to guide them through the twisting and turning tunnels.
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I'm confused - who is the bolded they? If it's Carthor, Lissi, &c., where is the rest of group #3? I thought the first sentence quoted implies that there were some of group #3 - NOT the 6 or 7 men - who did not go to Renedwen. Or are they the rest of group #3, and it's their torches that Carthor, &c., can't find? Either way, Carthor, &c., run out of torchlight and into trolls. Carthor orders a general retreat.
- Faerim fights the spider.
- Erenor and Faerim kill the spider and are joined by Angóre.
- Belegorn and the rest of his soldiers head back up the tunnel, away from the trolls and toward the screams. Angóre eventually follows.
- Belegorn and his soldiers reach Faerim and Erenor and their kill, AND Lissi and Renedwen, some distance down the tunnel, but apparently still just recently rescued. They are with some refugees, which ought to be the main body of group #3. Belegorn orders Faerim to lead the women and the rest of the refugees into a side tunnel. Apparently Carthor is not with them - but Osse's post, in which they bump into trolls, includes Lissi, Renedwen, and presumably Brander. Belegorn heads waaaay back up the tunnel, past the spider turn-off, lights a flaming barricade, and heads up another turnoff to divert the advancing trolls.
My immediate problem is that Lissi is in two places at once: (1) Lost with Carthor's group and (2) back with the main body of refugees WITHOUT Carthor. Incidentally, Option 2 leaves unresolved the second set of screams, the ones that send Belegorn and his men back in Post 11. I was going to work this in with running into trolls, in Post 8, but if Lissi and Renedwen aren't running into trolls, who's screaming?
The other major confusion, as I see it, is How on earth does Carthor's group run into trolls in the first place? When they meet up with Lissi and Renedwen at the spider turnoff, they at least start to head BACK up the tunnel toward the storeroom. But they end up waaaay in FRONT of the main body, if they're running into trolls. And if they're in FRONT of the main body, how can the women's screams becoming from the BACK of the tunnel?
And incidentally, just how many people
are on this little expedition? How many soldiers are along - and how many extra refugees? There can't be that many, if Lissi and Renedwen are the only women... Can there?
I am most seriously confused!
