The journey ends at a border settlement beneath a gray afternoon sky. Its palisade bears recent repairs, and frightened households cluster around a council fire, clutching bundles and children.
Galadriel enters beneath Lothlórien’s protection, carrying the wardens’ record and lawful warning. Her presence quiets the gathered voices, though suspicion still hangs over the sharpened stakes.
Galadriel
We have come to learn what danger first drove you toward Isengard’s protection. Speak plainly, and let no fear choose the story for you.
The households answer in overlapping accounts. One remembers raids along the eastern track; another names fires beyond the fields; a third insists the first danger came from within the settlement itself.
The Border Settlement Households
The danger began at the old watch road. No, it began when the wells turned bitter. We asked Isengard for protection only after our own wardens vanished.
Galadriel studies the repaired palisade, then the ash-darkened stones around the fire. The conflicting testimonies preserve fear, but not yet the first cause that shaped it.
Galadriel
Show us the place where the earliest warning was witnessed. We will examine what remains before judging which account was bent by fear, and which was freely remembered.
The households fall silent. Beyond the palisade, the old watch road descends between wind-bent trees, while the settlement waits for Tuiwen to choose which testimony and trail to follow first.
“The well water is closest and should be easy to sample.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +2)
Tuiwen leaves the council fire for the settlement well, where a worn stone rim bears fresh rope marks. She draws a clear sample into a small cup and examines it in the afternoon light.
Tuiwen
The bitterness is strongest near the eastern side of the well.
The water holds no natural mud or dead leaves. Beneath its surface, a faint gray residue clings in branching threads, turning toward the old watch road rather than settling at the bottom.
Galadriel
You have found a physical trace, not merely frightened recollection. The well was touched from that direction, and the cause entered through a connected path.
Galadriel kneels beside the stone curb without touching the sample. Her gaze follows the residue’s delicate branching, then shifts toward the repaired palisade and the descending road.
The Border Settlement Households
The eastern track leads to the old watch road. We barred it after the wells changed, but the bitterness spread before the wardens vanished.
Galadriel
This gives us a defensible beginning. We will preserve the water and follow the old watch road, while keeping the well sealed from further use.
+ New Item Acquired
Water sample
“"First, a question. Where were the wardens last seen before they vanished?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Tuiwen
First, a question. Where were the wardens last seen before they vanished?
The households exchange wary looks. At last, their attention settles on a weathered woman near the council fire, a middle-aged woman with a sturdy build, sun-browned skin, dark hair braided close, and a patched russet wool cloak, who steps forward beneath the palisade’s shadow.
The Weathered Settlement Woman
They were last seen at the old watch road’s eastern fork, beside the fallen waystone. Two wardens went to inspect the bitter water’s source, and neither returned.
A murmur passes through the gathered households. Several point beyond the eastern track, where the road descends between wind-bent trees toward the old watch road.
Galadriel
Then we have the last witnessed place: the fallen waystone at the eastern fork. Their purpose was clear, and their disappearance began there.
Galadriel marks the location on the settlement’s rough map, beside the well and the descending road. The answer fixes the investigation’s starting point without relying on rumor alone.
The Border Settlement Households
The fallen waystone. That is where we saw them last.
“"Then we can follow the same traces they followed and see where that takes us."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Survival, rolled +1)
Tuiwen
Then we can follow the same traces they followed and see where that takes us.
Tuiwen leaves the fallen waystone with Galadriel and follows the eastern fork. Her trained eye finds two fading tracks pressed into the damp earth, their direction confirmed by snapped grass and disturbed ash.
The traces descend between wind-bent trees, passing the sealed well-channel before turning toward a narrow hollow. Nothing has obscured them; the wardens walked carefully, but not in haste.
Galadriel
Their trail is clear. They followed the bitter water’s path beyond the fork, and whatever they found did not drive them into flight.
At the hollow’s edge, Tuiwen discovers the wardens’ last clear sign: a broken inspection staff beside a thin runnel of gray-stained water. The trail continues beneath the roots toward an old stone culvert.
Tuiwen
The water carried the residue from the well to this hidden passage.
Tuiwen reaches the culvert and sees the paired tracks enter its shadow. Galadriel joins her at the threshold, and together they stand at the wardens’ confirmed route beneath the eastern watch road.
“She casts the revealing light in search of further evidence.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +2)
Tuiwen raises her hand at the culvert’s mouth and casts revealing light. White radiance flows beneath the roots, through the gray-stained runnel, and into the buried passage.
The light separates water from residue. It reveals that the bitterness entered through a narrow side channel, then spread into the well by deliberate cuts in the old stonework.
Tuiwen
The residue was carried here, but the channel was altered by hand.
Further within, two pale impressions appear where the vanished wardens knelt. Their tracks end beside a concealed inspection niche, while a third set of marks leads deeper beneath the watch road.
Galadriel
The wardens found the source, and someone came after them. The residue was not merely flowing; it was being directed.
Within the niche, the revealing light uncovers a clay stopper etched with a silver spiral and a scrap of Rohan-dyed cord. Both are fresh enough to preserve their shape.
Galadriel
We have evidence of interference and a trace linking this work to the wider road. We will take the stopper, seal the channel, and follow the marks with witnesses present.
The hidden channel stands plainly revealed. The bitter water’s path, the wardens’ last inspection, and the intruder’s handiwork now form a defensible trail beneath the old watch road.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the source of the settlement’s danger
“"A good plan. Does that spiral shape mean anything to you?"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Lore, rolled +2)
Tuiwen
A good plan. Does that spiral shape mean anything to you?
Galadriel
It does. Your lore has recognized it correctly: the spiral is an old Rohan wayfinding mark, used to guide water and watch-road wardens. This one has been altered.
Tuiwen’s understanding settles over the clay stopper. The silver spiral is not an Isengard seal, but a genuine road-sign twisted into a command: divert the water, conceal the source, and make the settlement depend upon the offered protection.
Galadriel
The alteration is deliberate and recent. Saruman’s hand lies in the redirected purpose, not necessarily in the mark’s making. That distinction will matter before Rohan’s wardens.
The silver spiral catches the revealing light, showing a second, finer groove beneath the first. It points from the old watch road toward the hidden channel and confirms the wardens were investigating a diversion, not a natural failing.
Galadriel
We will preserve both marks, seal the channel, and report the sign as altered Rohan road-work carrying Saruman’s design. That is evidence we can defend.
Galadriel wraps the stopper in clean linen and sets it beside the copied testimony. The spiral’s meaning is now recorded plainly, giving the investigation a reliable link between the settlement’s water and Isengard’s influence.
Quest Complete
Identify the source of the settlement’s danger