The broken archway smolders behind them, and Rhosgobel feels held in a tight breath. Radagast’s question hangs there. Eldred finally looks up, amber eyes fixed by old dread.
Eldred
Because I have seen this work before. In the south. In places men do not speak of, if they hope to keep their throats.
Eldred
If I say too much, I lose what little trust I have left.
Radagast the Brown
Seen it where, Eldred? Name the road, or name the hand behind it.
Eldred’s jaw tightens. He glances toward the hedge, where the trees press close, their boughs bent inward as if listening.
Eldred
Dol Guldur does not only wound living things. It learns them. Trails, habits, fears. It turns the wood itself into a net.
At that, the leaning forest becomes plain to see, branches crowding the hedge like hands against glass. Haldir watches in grim silence. Radagast’s grip hardens on his staff.
Eldred
I know because I was made to follow such nets. I escaped, but not cleanly. The enemy left marks in me, and I learned to read theirs in return.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn where Eldred was made to follow the nets
“"Then you have travelled much farther than most Woodmen."”
SUCCESS (Great Diplomacy, rolled +1)
Tuiwen
Then you have travelled much farther than most Woodmen.
Eldred
Farther, yes. And in worse company. The roads south teach a man what it means to be noticed.
Eldred
If I name the wrong place, I lose them. If I name the right one, I may lose myself.
Eldred
I was sent where nets were already laid, and I learned to step where the snare had been cut open before me.
Radagast the Brown
Sent by whom? Speak plain, Eldred. Were you a helper, a captive, or a spy?
Eldred
At times, one. At times, all three. I carried messages under watch, and I learned the marks of Dol Guldur by surviving them.
Haldir
There, in the root-lines. The thread under the skin stirs when he speaks of it.
Eldred
I have no banner left to hide behind. Only the truth, and it is worse than caution.
“"You are afraid to speak. I can understand that. But I too have travelled a good deal in my 250 years and by the art of goeteia, I can show you some places I have been. Let me know if you see anything familiar." She draws a circle on the ground and casts a spell of illusion over it. Then she sits down and closes her eyes, calling up from memory scenes of distant places. One by one, they appear in the circle, only to fade away and be replaced by someplace else."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Tuiwen lifts a finger and traces a pale ring in the earth between the roots.
Her illusion settles inside it, a clear pool of light that shows one memory, then another, each one fading before the next can take hold.
A mountain pass flashes there, then a river ford, then the broken edge of a black road under iron skies.
Eldred
Those places... I know that kind of road.
Eldred
This one, I have walked near it. Not by choice.
The circle brightens again, and Eldred’s face drains as a harsher memory flickers across the ground, all thorn-shadow and watchful trees.
Eldred
There. That bend in the firs, and the old cut in the rootline. Dol Guldur used that shape to turn us.
Haldir watches the glow in silence, while the dark thread beneath his skin gives one uneasy stir.
Quest Complete
Learn where Eldred was made to follow the nets
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Great→Superb