At the western handoff, Calion receives Tuiwen’s account of the sealed command channels and promises to carry it onward with the wagons’ report. The Woodmen guides lead the aid toward waiting families while he turns back toward Rhosgobel.
By evening, Tuiwen reaches Rhosgobel beneath the steady protection of its russet hedge. Calion arrives soon after, carrying the report, while the wagons and guides remain on the western road.
Radagast the Brown
Three channels closed, the living roots unharmed, and the command web severed at Caras Amarth. That is no small victory, but it tells us the web reaches farther than we feared.
Radagast studies the copied routes beside his cluttered hearth, his weathered face tightening as the silver markings fade. Outside, birds crowd the hedge branches, restless and watchful.
Then every bird falls silent. The sudden stillness spreads across the birdhouses and russet hedge until Rhosgobel seems to hold its breath.
Radagast the Brown
That is not an assault. Listen. Something is answering through the roots, or through stone.
A low tremor answers from beyond the hedge, too deep for thunder and too measured for shifting earth. It travels from the direction of the Mountains of Mirkwood, pauses, then sounds again beneath Tuiwen’s feet.
Calion
The wagons are secure, Princess. Shall I summon the Woodmen, or carry this warning onward at once?
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify what answered through the roots
“"Carry it where? It think everyone knows as much as I do, which is practically nothing. This is no magic of the elves, nor is it shadow magic. I may have awakened something better left asleep, and now I must go and see to it, because it is my problem and not the Woodmen's. But someone else should deploy the forest wardens and secure the area we have cleared thus far."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled -3)
Tuiwen
Carry it where? We know practically nothing. This is neither elven magic nor shadow magic. I may have awakened something best left asleep, and I will see to it. It is my problem, not the Woodmen’s. Deploy the forest wardens and secure everything we have cleared.
Calion
I will send the wardens to Caras Amarth and the western crossings. The Woodmen will hold their ground while I carry your warning to them.
Calion turns from the hearth and gives the order through the open door. Runners answer from the hedge, while the birds remain silent and Radagast watches Tuiwen study the trembling floor.
Tuiwen kneels and lays her palm against the stone. Perception separates the tremor from root and spell: it is a deliberate pulse traveling through buried mountain rock, old, awakened, and moving south from the Mountains of Mirkwood.
Tuiwen
It is not calling through the forest. It is moving beneath it.
Radagast the Brown
Then you have your direction, but not its purpose. Holding that uncertainty will cost us time, Tuiwen. The next pulse may tell us whether it is rising or searching.
Another measured tremor passes beneath Rhosgobel. Tuiwen has identified its source and direction, but must leave the wardens and Woodmen to secure the cleared routes while she follows the buried disturbance toward the mountains.
Determine why the awakened presence is moving south from the Mountains of Mirkwood
Quest Complete
Identify what answered through the roots