Adventure in Middle Earth

Adventure in Middle Earth

I’d thought that I’d begin to understand what was going on, but I’m just as confused now as I was the day the fire swept across the Argalen. that was sure an eventful day…

I was hunting in the forest early in the morning. I noticed that there were no animals to be found, and I know that something strange was afoot.

My wife was down in comp on the edge of the plains. “She shouldn’t be here,” I thought, “the wild isn’t for her, but I guess some people are stubborn.” Heck, for that matter, I shouldn’t have been there. If only I hadn’t upset her family. I was such a nice fam…

That thought was stopped short, interrupted by a flash of light from what looked like a huge sheet of flame rushing across the plain. I realized that it was heading directly for the camp, and my wife. My wife! I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost her there, but I was lucky that day.

I approached the edge of the forest to find the camp slightly singed, but my wife ok. I also found a strange elf standing there. I greeted in my native Elvin tongue, Quenya, but he gave me a puzzled look. I started to speak again, but I stopped abruptly as I noticed a dark figure in the distance. The Elvin man must have noticed it as well, because he pulled out a large whip at the same instant that I got my bow off my back. I when I turned again to sight the figure in the distance, it had disappeared.

I had little time to ponder this strange occurrence for not too far to the west of the camp marched a large army of orcs. I knew then that a very dark force was emerging. The Elvin man, whom I was soon to find was named Phalus, my wife, and I ran to the edge of the forest. Just inside the cover of the trees, I noticed a man, an Edain, well hiding in the surrounding trees. I yelled to him in Quenya, “Hello, who are you?” He also seemed to not understand, so I shouted again in Sindar, “Hello, who are you?” He responded by shouting, “ORCS!” and pointing to the northwest. We look at each other for a quick instant, and he begins to run to the southeast.

We ran for a long way, and it began to get dark. We were too tired to go on, so we decided to camp. The man began to climb a tree, and I follow. When I looked up the tree, I was surprised to see Phalus already at the top, especially since I know he started up the tree after us and I hadn’t seen him pass me.

We slept badly that night, each of the males taking a turn at watch. The night passed rather uneventfully, and we awoke fairly rested. We could still see large armies of orcs marching to the northwest, so we decide to go to the southeast On the trip I learn that the man’s name is Belack and that he is a scout that has been separated from his people.

About midday we come to a small clearing. In this clearing stood an enormous person clad in half plate. A ways behind him, and better hidden was a shorter Elvin woman. I called to the in Quenya, and they responded. They were relieved that we were not orcs, for they had been running from them for a while. They thought that it might be nice if our group stayed together for a while for safety. I agreed that this was good, and began to tell the rest of the people about it. Just then a person, obviously also an elf, though not one from around my birthplace, walked into view. He wore very tattered cloths, and must have run for miles. I greeted him as well and he decided to join our party as well.

That group of diverse people soon became my friends, and fighting companions. The first elf I met was Phalus, a monk. Belack the ranger, somehow managed to heal himself almost as quickly as he hurt himself. The large person in plate was Angellan, and elf who was traveling with Sorrell, a mysterious person who I later found knew magic. The elf in tattered cloths was Venir, a Sindar elf from the far south. He ended being very helpful with his magic of illusion.

At first we struggled our way along. There were lots of evil creatures on the loose, and we were not very good at defending ourselves against them. On our first encounter with orcs…

We had entered a small tunnel to hide from the large army of orcs, marching almost directly upon us. While I rested, Belack scouted out the situation. He returned and told us that really couldn’t leave the way we had entered. He did however inform us that the cave continued on. We went down the tunnel until we came to a large room which contained a number of orcs. The party came to the conclusion that we would be able to take these orcs, so we entered the room, one at a time through a small opening. We fought for a long time with the orcs, and eventually defeated them, but not without taking a lot of damage on our side.

The room had a number of exits, but most had the sounds of orcs emanating from them. We finally exited from a large wooden door. This led into a tunnel that sloped downward, deeper into the earth. We passed numerous side passages and branches in the tunnel. Later we ran into more orcs and I fell unconscious in the fight. Luckily an old, eccentric elf with a very large mace, came and dispatched the orcs before anyone was fatally injured.

This old man told us of a group of elves on a mission into the south to protect a valuable gem. He also told us of the tragic end of this party, and asked us if we would be interested in retrieving this gem. My friends and I decided that it would not be a bad idea and accepted the duty. The old elf told us the location of the gem. Before he led us out of the caves, we rested for a while, and he gave us a bit of equipment. Belack grabbed a great battle axe, and I got a full shield inscribed with Elvin runes. From what I could tell, the shields title was “Lifesaver”.

That was a wonderful shield too. It saved my life many times, in many battles. Too bad it cannot help me now, lying here on the floor of this dreadful cavern.

I remember the first time I saw its tremendous power in action. It was in what we came to know as the mountains of terror…

We had come upon a group of Edain women and children. Belack knew these people and was friends with a few of them. They were heading south, out of the danger of the great war. We were heading that way too, and it seemed a good idea to travel with them, offering each other whatever advantages we could.

One of the first nights we camped in these mountains turned out to be very tragic. A small creature, with great speed had come into the camp and killed one of the women. We did what we could in attempt to subdue this horrible creature, but it was for the most part in vain. Just then a huge fireball, later discovered to be a tragic spell failure from Sorrell, exploded on the fringe of camp. From this area emerged a giant spider, as tall as a man and the likes of which I had never seen, nor do I care to see again.

The spider plowed into camp, trampling a number of the women and children. My companions and I rushed to the aid of the distressed camp. I having only my bow and a dagger to fight with, opted to fire an arrow at the spider from point blank range, a tactic I found to work well. It was a direct hit, plunging deep into the side of the spider. This obviously annoyed the spider as I found it now charging directly at me. Not knowing what to do, I pulled my shield off my back, and held my dagger up, trying to look as threatening as I could. The spider kept charging, not that I thought it would stop mind you, and it ran full force into me. My body was wracked by the blow, but I found myself standing, very much alive. I looked at the spider who was eying me, looking for a way to attack. Not knowing what to do, I advanced toward the spider, I suppose to try to fight it with my dagger, though I know now that is was rather pointless. I quite possibly would have been attacked again, this time more cunningly, except that Belack came from behind, and with one giant blow, gutted the spider.

That was a bad night, but it was not the last encounter we had in those dread mountains. We survived the attack of undead, and mighty lightning storms. One of these storms took out a good friend of ours, Angellan. I was afraid that he might not walk again. There were also a couple of encounters with large spiders that were quite interesting…

We were walking into a thicker stand of trees. I was watching for danger, though I saw nothing here. On the other hand, others in the group did find some. Large spiders, though not as large as the one we had slain earlier, dropped out of the tree onto some of my companions. Belack and Phalus were kept busy by a pair of spiders near a web, while I killed numerous spiders that fell on top of Sorrell. I have never been as concerned with accurate shots as I was then, for if I missed, there was a good chance that I would kill Sorrell. I shot arrow after arrow, until finally the spiders attacking her were dead. I, being wounded, ran back to camp to the healing tents. My wounds were quickly tended and I ran back to rescue fallen friends. Sorrell and Venir were severely wounded, and I worried for their lives, but luckily they soon healed. We finally ended up burning down the spider den, a strategy that we had to repeat once again on the other side of the mountains.

One of the final encounters is one that I will never forget, for that night I thought I saw the dark god, Morgoth himself.

A couple of days after the encounter with the spider, having barely survived a horrible lightning storm, we had finally crossed over the ridge of the terrible mountains and burned out another den of spiders. Not to long after making camp that evening, another terrible creature of evil attacked us. I was a ways off, and did not notice the fiend for a short while. I heard a shout from my companions, and looked in that direction. What I saw was the most terrible, and yet awesome sight I had ever seen. It was a large, dark clothed figure that I swear looked exactly like the dark god Morgoth himself. I ran to the camp yelling warning to all I could find, but they just though I was crazy. I turned out that I in all reality was, for in a little while Venir came to me and explained that the vial thing was a wraith, which, while still horrible, did not mean instant doom as have Morgoth attack surely would have. I began to help usher the women and children away from the wraith and into some sparse shelter on the hillside. Again, great luck for the group came as Belack dispelled the wraith with a mighty swing of his axe.

That night was our last in those mountains. The next day we had a run-in with a few more of the nasty, lightning fast creatures that had taken a number of our party already. We then had a short respite in a peaceful valley south east of the mountains. Oh how I long to be back at the side of that river, not having to worry about being killed at any moment in the night. And I cannot help but think how much better those days were, than the one I am having now, broken and near death at the bottom of a large ravine.

The night we camped at the river turned out to be quite nice, though in the morning we discovered that three of the women in the camp had wandered off in the night. One of those women was my wife, and I was very worried for her life. Their tracks were very evident in the dirt, and I tracked them without too much trouble. Belack, Sorrell, Venir and I followed them into a dusty cave…

The dust on the floor of the cave made their tracks easy to follow. I was amazed at the numerous passages and branches in this cave system. A way into the caves, the group of women had split up. I tracked my wife, I followed the tracks of my wife, as I was very worried about her.

The tracks led into large dark room. As I entered the room, I was called to the center. In the center of the room, on a pedestal, was a large two handed sword. The sword told me to pick it up. It was a strange feeling, the sword talked to me in my own language. It told me to swing at a dark tentacle that had snuck up on my in my lack of attention. I swung, and even though I had no idea how to use a sword of this type, I easily chopped the tentacle off. The sword hit the wall and a shower of sparks and rock chips flew up.

My companions and I hacked at the tentacles until they all retracted into the corner of the room. We grabbed my wife and the women, and continued to look for the last lost person. Her tracks led into a room that was much larger than the last one. There were a number of large pillars in this room, and as we stepped around one of them, we saw a large dark form. This form attacked us with a flail and so we began to fight it. I swung mightily at the ghostly form, and it seemed as if my sword passed through nothing. Then the creature hit me with the flail with a force of which I hadn’t felt the equal. To my great surprised I was not stunned, and began to feel better and time went on. This was due to the magic in the sword I had just found. I only got one more attack off on the creature before I became paralyzed from an evil spell cast by the thing. I watched in horror as my companions struggled to kill the creature. Belack fell, and I thought all was lost, but then a bolt of fire streaked across the room, killing it. When I was able to move again, Sorrell and I searched the room, and found a number of gems in a side room.

I thought that I would never have to go into that cave again, but I was mistaken. My wife had wandered off from camp again, and had gone directly into the caves. It turned out to be a good thing though, because the things that we found in those caves helped us greatly. Without them it is doubtful that I would be alive now to remember this. Too bad it all has to end here, me dead in a deep chasm.

My wife had gone into a different part of the caves this time. I walked into a room and found my wife, hypnotized by a dark person playing music on a violin. A voice from my sword said “Kill this!” Unfortunately I was caught in the spell of the music. A ball of fire streaked across the room, and hit the creature, disrupting the spell, and knocking my wife to the ground. In rage I rushed forward, and with one swing of my sword, I cleft the foe in twain.

This however was not the only thing I was to face. Out of two very large doors burst another evil creature. This one seemed to be flesh though. Again in rage I swung at the creature, again killing it quickly. The group I was with wanted to leave, but I was compelled by my wife to just look around a bit. Against my better judgment, though to the good fortune of the group, I walked into the big doors. Worried that there might be more things waiting to kill us, I used what little magic I knew to scan the area for intelligence.

Detecting none, I opened a door just beyond the two big doors. Inside I saw a white sword lying on the ground, and a fiery sword floating in the air. I picked up the sword and if felt perfect in my hands, so I put it on my back. It immediately began to speak with the two handed sword I had just found.

Just then Sorrell came into the room and picked up the white sword, and Venir opened a door into another room filled with treasures. Sorrell got a shield made of mithril, and Venir got a dark cloak and dagger. I went into the other room and found a suit of red chain mail, a helmet, and some boots. We also picked up some weapons and armor that we felt would work well for others in our group.

At this point the group split up. One part went to pick up the fallen Belack, and I and Sorrell to watch my wife and to pick up Belack’s weapon. As Sorrell and I were leaving, we ran into a group of animated skeletons which we easily fought our way through. I found the power of the white sword amazing as Sorrell let out blast after blast of elemental magic.

We got out of the cave all right, and came back to camp. The next day we crossed the river and split from the party of women and children to see what the flames in the north were. Sorrell was convinced that a number of elves were in distress, and my swords seemed to tell me the same. After a short bit of travel northward, Sorrell announces that she want to fly ahead to see what is going on, and we let her. That night we ran into some more orcs…

There were about 20 orcs that approached from the north. Venir went and hid, telling us that he would be of no use, and we took a stand against some trees. The orcs pressed, and we had to fight them in threes. Phalus used is deft martial arts to neatly pile dead orcs behind him. Belack and I had to battle with swords. I fought for a while, and then got hit in the hands, dropping my sword. As soon as I could, so as not to get hit with an orcish blade, I pulled out the fiery sword. Flames leapt from the blade, and my armor began to glow with a bright light. I fought orc after orc, as did Belack and Phalus, until all the orcs were either dead, or had run away. This fight had gone much better than the last fight we had with orcs.

The next fight we had did not go as well. After day’s journey north we met up with Sorrell who had with her a group of elves. They told us of the fight with dragons at the pass, and of the fact that the defenses would not hold up much longer. Not too long into the day, the group got to see one of these awesome beasts, though I know now, that neither I nor the rest would ever want to again.

The dragon flew down from the north, blasting showers of flame on all creatures in its path. We had no idea what to do, and part of the party ran for the trees, while the rest of us worked on a plan. The plan was this, I would get the attention of the dragon, and because I had on fire resistant armor, I would be ok. Then Sorrell would be teleported up to the dragon, because her sword allowed her to fly. Venir, the person who would do the teleporting, would also lend support with his illusions.

I started the action, by yelling, “Hey dragon, over here!” and waving my flaming sword standing in glowing armor. Seconds later I was bathed in a blast of intense flame. The rest of the group, hiding under a rock just a few feet behind me got hit by the perimeter of the blast. All in all we were lucky as only my wife was knocked unconscious by the blast. The rest of the party that was running was also lucky, because if the dragon had blasted them like it had blasted me, they might well have been killed.

Sorrell was teleported up to the dragon and fought it valiantly. Then I decided to be teleported onto the dragon as well. This was a stupid idea, as I had forgotten about one important fact, getting down. I landed on the dragon, just barely holding on to one of its spines. I lifted my sword to strike the dragon, but had to hold on again because the dragon had just attacked Sorrell, shaking its body. Seconds later, Sorrell was falling from the air and the dragon spun upside down, dumping me. I hit the ground, and to my good luck went instantly unconscious so that I did not have to bear the pain.

The dragon attacked the part of the group that had run, but they had made it to the trees, whose sparse protection kept them from all being killed. The group came and got me and Sorrell, and the magic of my two handed sword healed us enough to be able to get out of the valley. Sorrell had messed up her back really bad, and had a broken leg, and I had a broken leg and some broken ribs.

It took nearly a week for those wounds to heal. We were holed up in a cave, afraid to venture far for fear of encountering another dragon. Those few days, were my last days of peace. I wish I were able to live them over, but instead I am lying here on this canyon floor, waiting to die. I sure hope that the giant mechanical wasp we stirred up died when it fell in here, or I could be in trouble.

After we healed, we talked to a few elves who told us that the defense at the pass had fallen and that it was no longer safe in this valley. They gave us a couple of horses and what little supplies that they could spare and left rapidly. We decided that we should do the same. We got to the cave, made a couple of travois. We put the few members of out party on them, and started out to find a city where we could get some supplies and directions to the Dwarven stronghold, where we would then look for the gem that the elf had told us about.

About a day later we came to a human city. Belack and Venir went into the city to see about directions, and about getting me a scabbard for my two handed sword. They were able to find a scabbard, but nobody knew directions. They also found that the party of women and children that we had traveled with were camped on the outskirts of the town. We went out and saw them, and camped the night there. The next morning Belack and I went into town and got supplies to ready ourselves to travel further south…

We traveled south for about half a day, when Belack spotted some tracks and left the party. Venir and I decided to follow him though we could not keep up. Late in the night we found him just outside of a camp of dwarves. He decided to sneak into camp and so did Venir. I attempted to sneak in as well, but stepped on a twig and gave myself away. The dwarves approached me and asked me what I was doing. I said that I had stumbled upon there camp. Just then Belack and Venir attacked. Venir made a wonderful illusion of a giant floating sword. It amazed me how solid and dangerous that illusion was, as it hacked that the legs of the dwarves. I jumped into the battle as well, battering the heavily armored dwarves with my large sword. We killed two of the dwarves, but two had run off.

These two dwarves were obviously carrying something. We followed them up a mountain, where we saw them give a body to a giant mechanical wasp. The dwarves then came down the mountain surrendering to us and telling us that if we killed them we would never find the girl.

Soon we met up with the rest of our party and rested. The next day the dwarves led us to a large opening in the mountains. We entered and before us was a huge stone statue. There were doors on both sides of the room. My sword told me to go through the door to my right, so I did, but the rest of the party ran off too the left.

I have no clue what the encountered, but I fought my way through a large orc warren. The orcs were piled at my feet before I met up with the party again.

Evidently they had not found the girl, so we continued down a corridor that they had not followed. This led to a ledge on the edge of a chasm. Across the chasm was heard the screams of a girl. Everyone but Belack and I were able to fly across the chasm, but we had to try to find a way around. I don’t know if there was one. As Belack and I followed the ledge, we ran into the two dwarves. He began to fight one, and one ran away. I chased it, but it ran fast, so I invoked the power of my boots and the made me run much faster. I caught up to the dwarf, but at the last moment he dropped to his hands and knees and I tripped over him. I tried to catch my balance, but could not, but fell over the edge into the chasm. After the first hit I was knock unconscious. I must have lied at the bottom for hours.

That is where I am now. My sword, the thing that might be able to heal me is somewhere lying on the ground, too far away for me to get it. I have numerous broken bones, and feel terrible. My friends don’t know where I am, I’m doomed. I can only hope that they find me and get me out of this. Otherwise I will surely die.