Siege of Gundabad RPG

[Firefoot]

Adranel was steadily becoming more tired and cold as she trudged along. The settlement she had seen earlier was now off to her left; she was giving it a fairly wide berth. She was paying very little attention to her surroundings, and looking ahead she was somewhat surprised to see three men directly in her line of march. For a moment she considered avoiding them like she had the town, but she quickly decided that she did not care to go even more out of her way just to avoid three men. It was not that she was afraid or shy - far from it, in fact. She would just rather not have contact with any people right now.

Through sheer willpower Adranel drew herself up to her full height and walked with her head up, trying to appear ready to face the world. She would not be seen as a needy woman to these men. She could take care of herself and did not want their pity or anything else they might try to offer her if she appeared incompetent. Perhaps it would not be very convincing; anyone else who was travelling in this weather would have a cloak and very likely some kind of pack. Adranel had neither.

As she drew closer Adranel saw that the men seemed to be getting ready to move on. That made sense, as it was only a short time after dawn and about the time when most people would be waking. She was nearly upon them when one of the men addressed her.

“Good day to you, Miss...?” he said, indirectly inquiring what her name was. Good? Would someone care to explain that to me? mused Adranel sarcastically.

“Adranel,” she replied coolly. She eyed him and his companions over. He was the easily the youngest of the three, though still older than herself by a few years. “And you are?” Adranel wasn’t sure why she was asking his name. She needed to be moving on, not chatting with a complete stranger that she hadn’t even wanted to meet in the first place.

“Beluf,” he answered with a friendly smile. He seemed to have missed her less-than-warm undertones. He continued, “You are travelling then? Are you from this town?” He gestured vaguely towards the village. The other two men still had not acknowledged her presence, and that was fine with her.

“Yes, to Dale,” said Adranel curtly. “But not from here. I come from further west.” She honestly didn’t know why she was giving out so much information. She was trying to figure out how to rid herself of this man and his idle conversation so that she continue on her way when he spoke up again.

“We too are heading for Dale,” Beluf stated. “Why don’t you come with us? You look like you could use some company.” Adranel frowned briefly. Why would he invite her to travel with them? She certainly had given him no encouragement. He seemed genuinely friendly, but still she wondered whether he might see her in need of protection.

“Well, all right,” she found herself saying, and immediately wished she could snatch the words back. It was too late, though, and it seemed that she was stuck travelling with these men, at least for the mean time.

[Boromir88]

Sjorging gazed up at the sky, it appeared to him that another snowstorm was coming. He wasn't bothered much by the weather, he had lived in Dale his whole life, and was used to the cold that would often hit the region. Much more so then the Gondorians in the south. But, he has to admit the weather has been getting to him lately. He looked and saw this lady coming from the distant. She appeared rather young, but a certain sterness was on her, and she definately looked tired.

"Who's this" he whispers to Gelding, who was standing right beside him.

"How should I know." he replies, "Probably one of the townsfolk."

"Na, can't be," Sjorging says, "she's coming from the wrong direction. She also looks rather exhausted. I bet them orcs got her town too." Sjorging hated orcs more then anything else that slithered on the earth.

Pretty soon Beluf came up to Sjorging, with the lady behind him, "This is lady Adranel, she's heading to Dale too, I said she could come with us."

Sjorging shoots a sharp glare at Beluf, he turns and faces Adranel, "Will you excuse us for a moment." Adranel nods her head, seeming as if she wasn't surprised at this. "What gives you the right to just go and tell people they can join us?" Sjorging says loudly, but making sure Adranel can't hear.

Beluf is slightly taken off by this attitude of Sjorging's, but he better get used to it. "Wel-l-l, I-I just figured, since she's going where we are, she could come along." Sjorging fixes his eyes on Adranel, and looks at her hard. Adranel returned the look with the same intensity, and it was Sjorging who withdrew his glance. "Next time you tell me or Gelding when you even think about having somebody join us." Beluf lets out a sigh, but walks back towards Adranel, with Sjorging and Gelding.

Sjorging again, gives a hard look at Adranel, like he's studying her. "Nobody's forcing you to come with us. Our road lies onward, to King Brand. If you desire, you may follow us until our road splits, if it does split. I'm sure you already know Beluf, I'm Sjorging, and this is Gelding. We leave tomorrow morning to try to get a head start before this storm hits us."

[Beserker_Warrior]

Snagar stood knee high in a trench draped in fur. The whole world around him was a brilliant shining white. It was also freezing cold. " Curse this bad weather, we need warmth. Gushrag!" "Comin' Cheif, what do we need?" whined Gushrag. " Find us some food, and bring wood so we can light a fire in the caves below," Snagar snarled. Gushrag went loping off mumbling to himself, "One day I'll kill Snagar and then I'll be cheif that would be nic...."

A knife buried itself, hilt deep in Gushrag's back. " Thought you were better than me, aye, but no one's better than Snagar the Great, curse you scum," with that Snagar pulled out his knife, turned and walked to the caves. " You two, go find food and wood. Get going now before I skin the both of ye!" he roared andripped the top off of a flask of orc draght that he was holding.

The two small orcs scurried off to do their master's bidding. Snagar let loose a great laugh and started slopping the draght into his mouth. A few hours later two sentries were the only ones awake. Snagar lay on a bed of skins with an empty flask next to him and a mind full of dreams of bloodlust, war and victory.

[Firefoot]

As the man Sjorging introduced himself and the third man, Gelding, he appeared to be scrutinizing her, testing to see what she was made of. Adranel lifted her chin fractionally and set her jaw firmly, drawing on her inner strength. She suspected that there was a good deal more to Sjorging that met the eye. She wasn’t overly impressed by him, and doubted she would come to like him much. Even his manner of speaking rubbed her the wrong way: if you desire, you may follow us until our road splits. Well, she wasn’t about to do any following; she would go with them or alone, but she did not follow.

When Beluf offered their company to her, her acceptance, unwilling as it may have been, was partly because of his appearance of genuine friendship. She got the distinct impression that he did not want her along with them, and that he only invited her along because Beluf already had. It was partly this that made her decision - she would show him that she did as she liked, and his unfriendly attitude wasn’t going to put her off. This was compounded by the fact that she would feel immensely foolish saying she would go alone after having already agreed to travel with them.

“I will continue on with you,” said Adranel decisively. “I’ll be ready by tomorrow morning.” Sjorging grunted in acknowledgment. Adranel thought he sounded skeptical and resigned to her presence.

Beluf gave her a small smile. “You look cold. Why don’t you warm yourself up by our fire?” Warmth sounded heavenly to Adranel. Her fingers, toes, and ears were like ice cubes, and she was chilled to the bone. She realized how long it had been since she had been warm: almost a whole day, when... She blanched, and quickly swallowed down the emotions that had risen up. She could give no words to describe the previous day’s events, even if she had been asked, because she had buried all the memories into the deep recesses of her soul.

“That would be good,” Adranel replied, hastily trying to cover up her near loss of self control. Beluf nodded, and showed her to the logs they had set down to sit on near the fire. It was quite some time before Adranel began to feel any semblance of heat, and during that time she said little, concentrating on the crackling fire. Finally she looked up, and found Beluf sitting nearby, watching her with some mild curiosity. Sjorging and Gelding had separated themselves and were talking quietly.

Adranel wasn’t particularly in the mood for conversation, but the silence was starting to feel uncomfortable and, despite herself, her interest in her new companions had been piqued. She tried to think of something that would keep the conversation off herself, for she wasn’t ready to share much news of herself with these strangers, not until she knew more about them, especially Sjorging. She was rather wary of him, and glad he had not deigned to join her and Beluf. It didn’t occur to her that Beluf might be as close-mouthed about himself as she was about herself.

“So,” she began, finally unable to think of anything but the obvious. “Have you been travelling long? Did I hear correctly that you are going to see King Brand?”