020 - The blind scouts

October 30th, FA 15

Finbert and Irina slowly teetered in the dark up the road, through the tunnel and finally reched the troll camp. The ease to defeat two trolls almost convinced the company to casually walk to meet the other trolls in their home. The idea was turned down, probably for the best. However, the hobbits wanted to see what was going on over there. Although seeing is something that they could hardly do as the world was at this time made of two shades of black and one dark purple [-4 to all checks].



It was simple enough for the hobbits to trace their steps back to the nearly collapsed building where they overheard the trolls in the previous afternoon. Their footsteps were still visible under a thin blanket of new snow. The scene on the King's ground was very quiet. Irina though that she heard some screaming to the north, but this noise was distant and faint. The hobbits approached the troll camp with caution. No signs of life could be found from outside. A faint smell of a campfire came from within the building. Finbert slipped along the facade and reached the front stairway. It lead to a very large hall. Inside, they could only guess at the shape of thing in the glow of dying embers. The fire pit attracted their attention first. The hall was once a majestic construction: with pillars, dramatic relief carvings on the walls, wide alleys. A fire pit was set near the back of the hall. The room was otherwise strewn with debris: tree trunks, boulders, a smashed metal trunk.

Finbert and Irina, still in nearly perfect silence, slipped through the shadows and entered an adjacent room to the left. The ceiling of this room had collapsed a long time ago. Some kind of curtain roughly made of evergreen branches had been recently laid to provide shades to the adjacent room. They walked by a spiral staircase. It lead to the roof of the building, which at some point would have been a second level. They proceeded next to enter a darker room against the back wall of the building. In there, they could hardly see any details. There was stuff all over the floor. The hobbits managed to proceed through without making any noises. They found six coarse troll beds, and the suspended body of a northman.

The door to their left lead back to the main hall. The hobbits inspected the bonfire once more. The other side of the building was in a much worst shape, the ceiling was nearly all collapsed and the ground covered in snow.

Fearing to be surprised by the returning hunters, the hobbits left and quickly inspected another building that Arnadil had annotated as a possible site for the Royal Library. They headed back to camp: this eventful day was hopefully done.