The sunlit road blooms again in the pale circle on the ground. Haldir reaches out, and the light answers him like a living thing.
His skin drinks in the radiance. For one breath, his shape turns translucent, an old guardian cut from memory and starlight.
Radagast the Brown
A remnant. Not merely harmed, but hunted for what he is.
The hedge shivers inward. Darker threads at the treeline recoil from Haldir as if they have touched fire.
Eldred
So that is why they shadowed him. Why the forest bends around him.
Eldred’s face drains of color. The fear he has been hiding finally shows, raw and unmistakable, as he stares at the vision and then toward the dark woods beyond.
Radagast the Brown
They seek to extinguish him. This light marks an older power, and Sauron would see it ended.
Haldir steadies beneath the glow, while the hidden shadows outside Rhosgobel keep their distance, waiting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Haldir from the hunters
“"Oh, oh, oh," she says, staring at a sacred power far older than herself, "If only I had known!"”
Tuiwen
Oh... if only I had known.
The words slip into the glow and fade. Around them, the circle keeps shining, and the old road in its heart looks less like a memory than a warning recognized too late.
“"They will be after him again, Radagast. What are we to do?"”
SUCCESS (Superb Willpower, rolled -1)
Tuiwen
They will be after him again, Radagast. What are we to do?
Radagast the Brown
Then we do not leave him as he is. We hide his trail, and we learn who marked him.
Haldir
So the hunt is no longer a secret. Good. Secrets let the dark choose the ground.
Eldred
If they can scent him through the light, they can scent us too. I know how such nets are laid.
Radagast the Brown
Then speak plainly, Eldred. Where have you walked for Dol Guldur?
Eldred
Where I was made to walk, and where I escaped. I have no banner to offer you, only the map left in my bones.
Haldir
A hunted one, then. Not unlike myself, though the wound in me is older.
Radagast the Brown
We keep the light on him, and we test the thread that reaches for him. That will tell us what hunts him, and who answers it.
“"I like it. Let us hunt the hunters. But how are we to conceal Haldir?"”
SUCCESS (Fair Lore, rolled +1)
Tuiwen
I like it. Let us hunt the hunters. But how do we hide Haldir’s trail?
Radagast the Brown
Not by making him vanish. By teaching the wood to remember another path, and by laying false scents where the dark expects him.
Haldir
A leaf can bend without breaking. So can a trail, if one knows where to press.
Eldred
I know the tricks of nets and countersigns. Give me bark, ash, and time, and I can muddy a hunt long enough for a miracle.
Radagast the Brown
A miracle is wasteful. We need craft. Tuiwen, your light showed the wound, so it can also veil it.
Haldir
Then let the concealment begin with me. I will bear what must be borne, if it spares the road behind us.
Radagast the Brown
Good. Sit still. We will braid hedge, shadow, and memory together, and see if the dark can read what is no longer there.
Quest Complete
Uncover Eldred’s true allegiance
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Superb→Legendary
“"Pardon me, but I see only the outlines of your plan. Shall I create an illusion to distract the enemy?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
Tuiwen lifts her blade and casts a thin, bending image over the circle, a false Haldir shaped from light and leaf-shadow. The air shivers, then settles around the decoy.
Radagast the Brown
Good. Let the hunters bite at that while the true road goes quiet.
At once, the illusion takes the strain. The dark threads at the hedge twitch toward it, then recoil as Radagast scatters ash and bitter herbs along the rim.
Eldred
That will turn their noses, if they are scenting by magic or memory.
Haldir’s shoulders ease as the false shape holds him apart from the scent of pursuit. The forest beyond Rhosgobel answers with a low, uneasy hush.
Haldir
They look elsewhere now. The net has missed its knot.
Then the hedge shudders once, not inward this time, but away. Somewhere off in the trees, the hunters lose the line they were following.
Expose the hunters' true target
Quest Complete
Protect Haldir from the hunters
Skill Upgrade: Lore Fair→Good