Tuiwen reaches Rhosgobel’s russet hedge with Thranduil’s sealed warning and copied testimony secured against her side. Her healed shoulder is free of bandages, though the long journey leaves it stiff.
The hedge shivers as she approaches, its red leaves whispering without wind. Hidden wards recognize the king’s seal and part, admitting her beneath a sudden flutter of restless birds.
Radagast the Brown
Come within, child. That seal has crossed too many dangers to wait beneath the trees.
Radagast emerges from his crowded house, his white beard stirring as birds wheel anxiously around the eaves. He takes the sealed warning with both hands and leads Tuiwen inside.
Radagast the Brown
Saruman’s shadow-work is not confined to walls or battlefields. Near Dol Guldur, it has begun teaching roots, paths, and frightened creatures to carry his will.
He breaks Thranduil’s seal beside the herb-laden table, unfolding the warning while the copied testimony lies beneath it. Outside, the birds fall briefly silent.
Radagast the Brown
I will read every line and tell you what my senses have found. But understand this: the shadow is searching for a living path farther west.
The warning rests open between them, its royal wax broken and its testimony ready for examination. Radagast looks to Tuiwen, leaving the next question in her hands.
✓ Quest Accepted
Hear Radagast’s testimony about Saruman’s shadow-work
“"What does it seek in the West?"”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -1)
Tuiwen
What does it seek in the West?
Radagast lays one finger across the copied testimony, then turns the warning toward the window. The house grows still as he follows several faint correspondences through the reports.
Radagast the Brown
Saruman seeks a living passage into the western forests, not a battlefield. He means to bend roots, beasts, and frightened folk into a hidden net of influence.
He points to the references concerning Caras Amarth, the southern roads, and the lands beyond Mirkwood. Their differences conceal the same design: isolate the settlements, then make their fear carry his will westward.
Radagast the Brown
His purpose is to reach the western verge and establish influence before the Free Peoples recognize an invasion. He wants Mirkwood divided, watchful of itself, and unable to answer him together.
The answer is clear, but Radagast must spend the remaining daylight comparing every route and custody mark before he can name the first place Saruman intends to touch. The delay is certain, though the design is no longer hidden.
Determine what within Rhosgobel Saruman’s shadow has touched
Quest Complete
Reach Rhosgobel
Quest Complete
Hear Radagast’s testimony about Saruman’s shadow-work