Galadriel draws aside the Mirror’s silver coverings in the high chamber. Below, Caras Galadhon’s golden platforms glow among the boughs as trusted messengers enter and take their places.
Radagast the Brown
These are the settlements Meren’s account places along the southern road. He witnessed the road and stream, but the names given to him remain uncertain.
Radagast spreads the marked map before the messengers, setting stones beside the witnessed road and leaving the doubtful names unmarked. Tuiwen remains beside him, while Meren stays under Rhosgobel’s protection.
Galadriel
Uncertainty must shape our warning, not silence it. We will send only what is witnessed, and plainly mark what remains report or inference.
The Mirror ripples beneath its veil, showing roads converging toward the eastern road. A cold light briefly answers the silver brand in Tuiwen’s palm before fading beneath her sleeve.
Galadriel
We need routes that carry truth faster than fear. Which messengers can reach the southern settlements without passing through the watched road?
Radagast the Brown
The Woodmen can carry warnings by the forest paths, while the Galadhrim send word eastward. Let us compare both routes before Dol Guldur moves.
The messengers bend over the map as Galadriel points to the hidden crossings. No route is yet chosen, but the chamber turns from vision toward action.
“Radagast's birds are swifter than any messenger, and the Woodmen are accustomed to their visits. But we must send more than just warnings. I will ask my father to send a company of elves to reinforce the Woodmen and embolden their defense.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Tuiwen
Radagast's birds are swifter than any messenger, and the Woodmen know them. But warnings alone will not suffice. I ask my father to send a company of elves to reinforce them and embolden their defense.
Tuiwen's appeal carries the authority of the Woodland King's daughter and the trust earned by defending his people, yet her oath-bound caution keeps the request framed around protection rather than conquest. Galadriel places Thranduil's reply before her.
Thranduil
Your counsel is accepted, Tuiwen. I will send a company of elves to the southern settlements, under orders to strengthen the Woodmen, guard the roads, and hold their ground without disturbing the sealed ways.
The written reply bears Thranduil's hand and a lawful royal mark. Its answer is not a promise deferred: riders are already being summoned in the Woodland Realm, while Radagast's birds prepare the faster warning.
Radagast the Brown
Then the Woodmen will receive both truth and visible courage. My birds will carry the warning ahead, and your father's company will show that the forest has not abandoned them.
Galadriel marks the eastern road and the southern settlements on the map, while trusted messengers gather around her. The appeal has become an alliance of warning, reinforcement, and disciplined defense.
The heartstone’s water-hunger remains contained only if both the ward and the ancient sealed roads remain undisturbed.
“It is well that Sauron knows we are watching him. He cannot hide his plans from us, and he will never defeat us, so long as we stand united. Sooner or later, he will tire of these games and turn his eyes elsewhere.”
Tuiwen
It is well that Sauron knows we are watching him. He cannot hide his plans from us, and he will never defeat us so long as we stand united. Sooner or later, he will tire of these games and turn his eyes elsewhere.
The trusted messengers hold their places around the map, and Tuiwen’s words settle over the chamber with the weight of a vow. Beyond the golden boughs, the eastern road waits under watch.
Galadriel
He may turn his eyes elsewhere, but not his purpose. We shall make every refuge he seeks among the Free Peoples costly to him, and every warning swift enough to deny him surprise.
Radagast the Brown
And while he watches the beacon, the Woodmen will strengthen their doors, their roads, and one another. A shadow that cannot command obedience must spend much strength merely being feared.
Galadriel places her hand beside the marked eastern road. The warning routes remain open, the reinforcements are summoned, and the ancient sealed ways remain undisturbed. Beneath their ward, the contained water-hunger gives no sign of escape.
Galadriel
Stand united, then, but do not mistake unity for haste. We will expose what can be proven, protect those in danger, and leave no hidden road open to the enemy’s hand.
The messengers bow and begin carrying the agreed warnings eastward. In the high chamber, the alliance holds its course: light made visible, courage reinforced, and the shadow denied the obedience it seeks.
The heartstone’s water-hunger remains contained only if both the ward and the ancient sealed roads remain undisturbed.
Tuiwen studies the silver brand on her hand. “Clumsy of me, I seem to have enchanted myself. I wonder who else can see this mark.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Tuiwen
Clumsy of me, I seem to have enchanted myself. I wonder who else can see this mark.
Tuiwen turns her palm beneath the chamber’s gold light. The silver brand answers exposure with a cold gleam, sharpening into lines visible against her skin. Her Oath-Bound restraint keeps her from forcing the magic beyond its lawful surface.
Eyes of the Unseen reveals the brand’s hidden edge: it is not merely shining, but presenting itself to those able to perceive magic. Corruption Sense finds no fresh command within it, only a faint hostile attention turned outward.
The answer settles clearly. Galadriel and Radagast can see the mark and its magical structure; the ordinary messengers nearby see only an unmarked palm unless Tuiwen deliberately exposes its radiance.
Galadriel
I see it, and so does Radagast. The messengers do not. That concealment is still yours to keep, unless hostile magic draws its light outward.
Radagast the Brown
It bears no leash that I can find. Yet it answers the shadow’s notice, so cover your hand when unfriendly eyes are near.
The silver brand dims beneath Tuiwen’s sleeve, its nature understood without being broken or cleansed. The sealed roads and the heartstone’s ward remain undisturbed, and the contained water-hunger gives no sign of change.
The heartstone’s water-hunger remains contained only if both the ward and the ancient sealed roads remain undisturbed.
“Perhaps then I will uncover it and brighten it. The light may intimidate things of the shadow.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -1)
Tuiwen
Perhaps then I will uncover it and brighten it. The light may intimidate things of the shadow.
Tuiwen opens her palm. Eyes of the Unseen follows the brand’s hidden channels beneath the skin, revealing a dormant radiance threaded through hostile attention.
Her Oath-Bound restraint narrows the working to illumination alone. She does not command the brand, reach into the shadow, or disturb any sealed road beyond the chamber’s ward.
Beacon’s Radiance answers. A clean silver-white column rises from her palm, bright enough to crown Caras Galadhon’s boughs and shine visibly across the surrounding forest, while the mark remains under her control.
Galadriel
It is brighter than before, yet not uncontrolled. You have made the hidden mark a beacon, and the shadow will know that we answer its gaze.
Radagast the Brown
A light to frighten dark things, aye, but also a light that calls eyes toward you. Keep it ready, Tuiwen, and let us learn what dares look back.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the hostile presence responding to the silver beacon
The heartstone’s water-hunger remains contained only if both the ward and the ancient sealed roads remain undisturbed.
She smiles. “Ha! This could save me a lot of money on candles. But I will take your advice and save it for when it is needed.”
Tuiwen
Ha! This could save me a lot of money on candles. But I will take your advice and save it for when it is needed.
Tuiwen smiles and folds her glowing hand beneath her sleeve. The silver-white radiance contracts without resistance, leaving only the faintest coolness across her palm.
Galadriel
A prudent choice. Light is most powerful when it answers necessity, not vanity.
Galadriel lowers the veil over the Mirror, and the chamber returns to its gentler gold. The eastern road remains marked, the warnings remain in motion, and no ancient seal has been disturbed.
Radagast the Brown
Keep the beacon in reserve, then. Candles may serve Rhosgobel, but a beacon should make the shadow remember that the Free Peoples still stand together.
Radagast chuckles beneath his beard, while the last silver glimmer fades beneath Tuiwen’s sleeve. Around them, the gathered counsel resumes its quiet work, strengthened by a light held ready rather than wasted.
The heartstone’s water-hunger remains contained only if both the ward and the ancient sealed roads remain undisturbed.