With the Dunlendings pushing North to Tharbad the fellowship sets off to protect the city. But as they arrive they find strife and revolt fomenting. Will the greatest threat to Tharbad come from within or without?

Session Log

Expecting to meet Gandalf at The Prancing Pony, Nob and Boron arrive early—Nob because he lives just around the corner and Boron because he enjoys day drinking. By the time Gandalf and the rest of the fellowship arrive the Pony is getting crowded, so Gandalf sets off on a stroll with the fellowship.

As they walk through Bree Gandalf tells the fellowship of grim tidings from Tharbad. Dunlendings have been rumored to be headed north to Tharbad with dark intentions. Gandalf must go to The Three Towers, so he asks the fellowship to protect Tharbad in his absence.

Setting off with their ponies and horses for Tharbad, the fellowship loses a day when wolves spook the horses in the night. The next day as they near Tharbad Griff becomes overconfident thanks to the great speed made by Boron and doesn’t spot a refugee crowd coming upon the fellowship until it’s too late.

As rain begins to fall the horse of one of the soldiers pursuing the refugees knocks down a woman and panics. Before anyone can reach her the horse steps on her leg with a sickening crack. As Tarandis and Griff attempt to help the woman the guards escalate and soon swords are drawn.

After an opening volley of warning shots the soldiers ride up on the fellowship. Boron’s keen strategic mind notices that the soldiers are unlikely to keep fighting if unhorsed, so Tarandis, Nob, and Boron tackle the riders and the battle is ended with everyone unharmed.

The leader of the soldiers, [[ Captain Kaelfor ]], explains that leaving the city is against the laws of Captain Gurnow. Boron claims that one of the children fleeing is a dwarf and therefore under dwarven provision, but seeing the state of the refugees and the weather Nob convinces everyone to return to Tharbad where the fellowship will work things out with Gurnow.

Upon entering Tharbad the fellowship heads to The Bridge Inn where Titus is miraculously happy to see Griff even after his reaction to the eel pie (in Not Bad, Tharbad). Titus has tried to improve his eel pie with muskrat and, surprisingly, it worked. Maybe Titus truly is a gastronoldör (there are no gastrognomes in Middle Earth).

Griff and Nob go to check on the woman trampled by a horse. He name is Eloise Borvel, and she was fleeing the city after Dunlendings kidnapped her people from the South Bank of Tharbad. She wants to go to Bree, where there are no Dunlendings.

Meanwhile Boron and Tarandis go to check on the child he claimed was a dwarf, who turns out to be Ariana Gelweth (Notadwarf). Her family was fleeing the Dunlendings as well, as they don’t believe Gurnow can protect them. Tarandis tries to dissuade them from trying to leave again: “the soldiers are the least dangerous thing on that road.”

At their appointed time the fellowship arrives in the shabby hall of Gurnow and his false nobility. Griff introduces the fellowship, leaning on his rustic upbringing, and a perfectly-timed break in the clouds gives an accent of hope to his words.

Nob presents the opening argument, bluntly telling Gurnow he’s not very good at his job, and that he needs a wall. Griff tries to save face by telling Gurnow that he of course already knew he needed a wall, and asks him why he hasn’t been able to build one yet. Gurnow claims that no wall is possible, which Boron refutes with an ancient stone-building song of the dwarves. Tarandis draws Gurnow back to the point at hand: if people aren’t safe they should be able to leave.

Gurnow concedes and agrees that people will be allowed to leave the city, but asks the fellowship for help in tracking down the Dunlendings and the Tharbadians they kidnapped.