Home is behind the world ahead, and there are many paths to
tread through shadows to the edge of night until the stars
are all a light. Hi everyone, it's me, Grant,
your usual producer and Pippin enthusiast.
We don't have a new episode of Game Master Monday for you this
week, so Priya and I are both preparing for two different
conventions. So instead, we're going to give
you something that we both like a whole awful lot.
The first episode of Athroplay After Play is an actual play
podcast using the One Ring system and takes place in the
world of Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings.
It's a beautiful podcast that has incredible soundscaping,
breathtaking performances, and a lore that I find not only honors
the works of JRR Tolkien, but helps fill in the gaps left
behind by time in the world of Lord of the Rings.
This is a cast that clearly cares a lot about their source
material, but also wants to expand and improve upon it.
And I dare say that they do. You may even recognize some of
the voices of After Play from Game Master Monday.
Tori, who plays Ella Arena, is from our Unresolved Sapphic
Tension episode, and Nikki, who plays Kyle, is from our Crushes
and Cryptids episode. So believe me when I tell you we
are huge fans of their show and we really believe in what
they're doing. So without further ado, I give
you the first episode of Athroplay.
And if you, like me, become a fan of their show, go give them
a follow and a listen wherever you enjoy podcasts.
That's it for me. Enjoy Athroplay all you little
tuks out there. Well met friends, and welcome to
Ather Play, a tabletop RPG actual play podcast exploring
the lesser trod paths of Tolkien's legendarium through
role play. I'm James Kaku Pearson, your
host and loremaster. Each episode I will guide a
group of players through an adventure set in Jr.
Tolkien's Middle Earth. As the Loremaster, I set the
scene, narrate the action, and play any non player characters
or NPCS to help provide rules and boundaries.
We'll be using the One Ring Second Edition RPG system by
Francesco Napotello, published by Freely Publishing.
This game takes place in the years between the finding of the
One Ring in The Hobbit and the War of the Ring in Sauron's
Fall. As described in The Lord of the
Rings, this is a time of relative peace.
The dwarves have reclaimed their halls under the Lonely Mountain,
the fall of Goblin Town has scattered the bands of roving
orcs, and the Necromancer has been driven from his fortress in
Mirkwood. However, the shadow is growing.
Travelers from the east carry tales of danger and strife.
Suspicion grows. Rumors whisper of the return of
the Dark Lord to his strongholds and border.
Things stir in the dark places of the world.
It is in this Middle Earth, standing on the edge of a knife,
that we will tell a story of a fellowship of heroes striving
against the shadow. Creating this story together
with me and playing our main characters are our amazing cast.
I'm Nikki Boylan. My pronouns are he, they and I'm
the Co content director at infinitybreak.net, where we're
telling stories our own way, home of Legends of Laia,
Parascience and more. On After Play.
I play Kyle Delor, a Ranger burdened by a generational curse
and the heavy title of the Fell Warden.
Hey I'm Tori pronouns she her part time Co host of the Silver
Marillion. I play Ellarina, Princess of
Wirkwood, adoring daughter of Strangle and sister of Legless
who is on the search for her own taste of adventure.
I'm Steph Medlock. My pronouns are she, her, and
I'm one of the Co hosts of Afterbath, A literary podcast
that explores Tolkien's legendarium.
I'm playing Hildegard Tuk. Also, she her a Hobbit scholar
slash secret romance novel author whose Tukish side is
starting to awaken. Hi, I'm Velvet Dracos, a podcast
performer and editor. You can also find me on the
Clever Corbett's network City That Never Dies.
My pronouns are it, it's and she, her, and my character uses
the same. I play Morinor and Alvin Warden,
who remembers the light of Alanor but now, thousands of
years later, needs to shake herself out of being a drunken
has been to help people out. My name is Jude Vase.
My pronouns are he, him. I am Steph's Co host on
Athrobeth. I am also a Co host on a
reprehensible podcast called Bad Pod where we watch television
shows and make variously horny and stupid remarks about them.
I am playing in the only way. He is a wandering elf from the
distant distant E who is on a personal mission of discovery
thanks to a blue cloaked man who sent him on a vague mission.
And I'm James, my pronouns are he him, and in addition to being
the host and loremaster for the show, I'm also a podcast
producer and amateur voice actor living in California.
Before we begin, a quick note on Canon.
This podcast is a work of fan fiction.
While we may make efforts to adhere to the source material,
we can and will change things. This may be to better suit our
story and characters because we forgot what was originally
written or because it's cool. This is an opportunity to tell
stories and include characters that are missing or
underrepresented in the main narrative, while also
celebrating the works of Tolkien.
Additionally, as a work of fan fiction, we have no claim of
ownership over the world or writings of JRR Tolkien.
Those rights belong to their respective rights holders.
Now, without further ado, we have many paths to tread, and
the darkness is rising. We open in darkness.
Not the darkness of night, but a glossy blackness.
As we pull outward, we see the darkness is moving, running
slowly. It's liquid.
We pull back further and we follow the flow of the darkness,
and as we watch, a droplet coalesces and falls and breaks
with a spatter on a green leaf. It's only now, as we continue to
pull back further still, that we see that the darkness is blood.
Not the red that we would expect, but a deep dark icker
which has been splashed across the foliage of a wood clearing.
The clearing we see was clearly the site of a pitched battle.
Huge furrows have been rent into the ground, tree branches have
been knocked down, and tree trunks showed gashes and gouges,
some of which were made by blades but some of which look
like claw marks. And then there's the blood,
which is spattered everywhere across the plants and pooling in
the muddy soil. The battle may have been pitch,
but it was also decisive. A fell beast, massive with six
powerful limbs and grey skin like a shark, lays dead in a
heap in the center of the clearing.
It's rough frog like body is cruelly slashed and gouged, and
it's long slender neck ends abruptly.
It's monstrous head, which was removed in a single clean cut
lays of the dirt. Whomever the victor was, they
chose not to take any trophies into this clearing.
A figure steps carefully. They've been tracking this beast
for the better part of a week, only to find that someone is
beating them to it. As you come into the clearing,
Kyle Delore, please describe yourself and what you do.
I am a tall Ranger, tan skin, long dark black hair, braided.
Find it to the side with a single kind of greenish blue
feather hide in at the end of the braid, and a similar
feathered earrings that I wear as well, same color as if
probably from the same source. I have a leather corset which
bears the marks of many battles and of course self prepared
which is quite obvious upon looking at it, and tall boots
that are also leather that go up to my knees.
The color of my clothing is like a very dark green with some
brown to camouflage with the forest that I live in.
On my back is a beautifully made bow with a sling of arrows at my
hip, and on the other hip a sword that is Ebony black with a
jewel at the center of the hilt that almost looks like an eye,
the aura around of which is quite eerie should anyone grow
too close to it. And I am a Ranger.
I fight evil things. And the evil thing that you had
been intent on fighting lays dead in this clearing out of
you. You've been following its
tracks. The North has been filled with
strange creatures, cast offs from the last war, things
created in the laboratories of Angmar that were set loose after
the fall and have been growing and breeding in the woods of the
North. This one happened to head
further South, into the areas where you patrol, in the areas
where the Rangers dwell. And so you picked up its trail
and you've been following it. And now as you come into this
clearing, you see that it's been killed by somebody, clearly, but
not by you. I guess the first thing I do
when walking into the clearing is checking to see how recent
this killing was, if I might be able to tell if anything is
nearby or watching me or that stayed around to look at their
kills. Yeah, that's a great question.
The blood, like you reach out and you touch some of the blood
on one of the leaves and it's tacky and drying.
This kill is hours old, not days old if you want.
Why don't we go ahead and just get the rolling in.
This game started early. Give me first role of the game,
a scan role to look around for somebody watching or somebody
like the signs of some other person.
OK, and remind me how this goes again?
So on your character sheet you'll see that you have 3
attributes, Strength, Heart and wits, and underneath each
attribute you'll have a number of skills.
So essentially the way that this game works is you will take a
feet die which is the D12, and then a number of success die
which are the D sixes equal to the number of ranks you have in
the skill. So you'll always roll 1D12 and
then any number of D sixes equal to your rank in the skill.
If it is a favorite skill. If a little check box next to
the skill is filled in, you'll roll 2D12 and take the higher.
And what you're trying to do is you're trying to beat your
target number for the attribute. So in this case you're trying to
beat your widths target number. OK, I don't beat it.
It's a 14 and I should have gotten the 17.
So you look around like you scanned the you scanned the
clearing, trying to see if there's any sort of sign of who
did this, anybody watching anything, you know, anything
that could tell you more about what happened here.
The fight was pitch. It was clearly somebody with a,
with a bladed weapon. You can't tell if it was a sword
or an axe or something like that.
And you can see a few, there are a few sort of boot prints left
in the mud. But the scene is so was so
disturbed by this battle that whatever sort of signs there may
have been have sort of been lost and just sort of been trampled
and, and, you know, churned up in the mud.
And so you, you know, and you know, you look around, but you
don't see, you know, there's, there's no, nobody clearly
watching you and clearly no sign of, of whoever did this.
In that case, I'm going to go and try to examine the fell
beast, OK? I want to see if there's
anything I can get off of it, any either more information or
like about how it died just by looking at it more directly or
examining it more directly in comparison to maybe what I can
do or what I've seen prior. Yeah.
OK, you get close to this creature, and the first thing
that teach you is the smell. It smells awful.
The thing. It hasn't been dead for that
long, but it smells like it's been rotting for ages.
But you tough. You tough it out.
You're a strong Ranger. You tough it out.
You get closer to this thing and you begin to examine it.
The wounds that this thing took in this fight were brutal.
Whoever this thing was fighting, they were like this is a very
large monstrous creature that seems very powerful.
Like there are trees that have been knocked down.
Like this battle was a knock down drag out fight.
And whoever was fighting this thing, whoever this sword wheel
there was did an amazing amount of damage to this creature.
Like the brutality of this fight.
You can only imagine how like what this fight must have been
like just based on the the science that you see.
You are bent down examining this creature when you hear the sound
of a twig breaking from the opposite side of the clearing
behind you. My hand immediately goes to my
sword. Do you turn?
Yes. OK, your hand goes to the sword.
You spin around and stepping into the clearing, you see a
figure. She's tall, strongly built.
She has dark hair with just a hint of silver at her temples,
and her her long dark hair is sort of pulled up into a really
intricately braided bun at the back of her head.
She's wearing Ranger clothing sort of similar to yours, but
you can tell you you recognize her.
But you, even if you hadn't recognize her, you'd be able to
tell from the clothing that she's wearing that she's maybe
from the upper crust, whatever upper crust there is of the
Rangers. And the most, the, the most
telling thing you can tell about her that sort of marks her as
being maybe a little bit more of a noble Ranger, is the cloak
that she wears, which is brown and sort of camouflaged on the
outside. But as she steps into the
clearing, it sort of billows a little bit, and you can see the
lining of the interior, which is a deep, almost black blue
studded with constellations of Silver Stars.
She has a black eye patch covering her left eye and a scar
that extends down from there onto her cheek and a Longbow
strapped across her back. And as she steps into the
clearing, she raises a hand, like she sees your hand on the
sword. She raises a hand and she says,
hail fell. Warden, this is Gilran, daughter
of dear Heil, Chieftain of the Doonadi.
Did you do this? No, I was actually about to ask
you the same question. Well, that leaves.
Even more unanswered questions. Still pleasure to meet you,
maybe in less messy circumstances, but clearly your
attention is and I kind of gesture to the Belvis behind me.
Here. Wasn't me, as much as I wish I
could claim that. It's actually fortuitous I found
you. I need some assistance and I was
hoping perhaps that you might be willing to oblige.
Kind of look from side to side as if like there might be
someone else she's talking to. You want my assistance?
Yes, your reputation may have preceded you, but I know there
is more to you than simply your reputation.
What assistance do you require? I've been tracking a group of
strangers travelling South. Two weeks ago they approached
the Sharp Hollow settlement. Only one of their number went
into town seeking information. By all accounts they were
polite, courteous. However, everyone who met with
them to A1 described them as feeling foul somehow, a feeling
of discomfort. And shortly after those
strangers left Sharp Hollow, their water soured.
It's most likely the settlement will have to be disbanded and
moved. So they sent word and I've been
travelling S trying to follow them.
Their path has let me here and it seems perhaps that they may
be responsible for this as well. Responsible for you being the
fell beast itself or the killing of it.
She takes a long moment and ponders that question.
I'm not 100% sure it's one or the other, perhaps both.
Interesting. As you can see, I think that
there is a danger here that perhaps if we pooled our
resources, we may be able to do more good together than
separately. I can agree with that very well.
This was the charge that I was stalking for some time and
clearly it no longer needs my attention.
So I guess I'm free for business.
Very good. We'll continue to travel South.
We should move quickly. I have a rough idea of where
they might be going. And where's that?
They were asking a place to the South I'm not sure you're
familiar with called the Shire. And with that, the camera pulls
backwards from the two Rangers flying up.
Pulling back, we see the expanse of the north, the woods and
Moors, and the desolation of the Northlands.
And the camera moves southward and we see the moorland begin to
give way to green fields. And pastures and orchards and
rich farmland. And we find ourselves in the
land of the Shire. And of course, because we are in
the land of the Shire, we have to have a pastoral montage of
various scenes. We see a wheelbarrow of pumpkins
being moved around. We see a bunch of hobbits
sitting outside of a pub, drinking ale and eating some
fine cheeses. As our camera travels through
the Shire, we hear little snippets of gossip.
The hobbits are still in, you know, as they sit outside the
pub gossiping and talking, you know, telling tales.
They still are talking about the time that that one Hobbit from
Hobbiton left in the company of those dwarves and came back
weird, even though that was like 20 years ago, they're still
going on about it. And we travel through the Shire
and finally find ourselves in what passes in the Shire for a
the big city of Nickel Delvin. This is of course the quote UN
quote capital of the Shire, where the town hall is.
And as we pass through the square, we see the fountain with
two streams of water coming out of it, which was a big deal in
the center of the square. And on the far end of the square
we see a building that for the hobbits is quite grand.
It's four stories tall, 4 Hobbit stories tall, so two regular
people stories tall, A very large building sort of standing
on its own with a big round door, and the camera drops down.
We pass through the open round door into a room filled with
taxidermy animals, the crowning one being a obviously juvenile
bear, but which has been stuffed and is standing in a big like
bear pose. And we pass through this room
full of taxidermy into the interior of the Matham House.
The Matham House is of course, the Museum of the Shire, where
hobbits will take the the their family heirlooms, the things
that are too important for them to like get rid of, but like too
fancy to sort of keep around their holes.
They'll donate them to the Mattham House.
And the interior of the Mattham House we see is chock a block
with Hobbit trinkets and treasures.
There are bookcases lining the four walls.
There is a gallery that runs halfway up.
And on this gallery there are, you know, sort of a balcony that
looks down to the the lower floor.
And we see just dozens of like we see rows of glass cases and
the things inside these cases are sort of like organized by by
type. So there's like 1 case that's
full of like butter making equipment.
And there's one case that's full of like, you know, musical
instruments. And so there's like a bunch of
penny and stuff like that. And so we see all of these these
glass cases filled with all of the treasures of the Shire, such
as they are. And in this place we see a
couple of hobbits sort of moving around.
It's a slow morning in the Matham house.
We see the proprietress of the Mahtham house.
Her name is Malva Slowfoot. She's an older Hobbit, and she's
bustling around. She has a feather duster, and
she's just making sure that the cases are dusted.
And following behind her is a terrier named Firework, who
follows dutifully along at her feet.
We pass through these cases and we find another Hobbit, a
younger Hobbit, working here in the Mahtham house.
Hildegard, why don't you describe yourself and tell us
what you were up to? Hello, my name is Hildegard Tuk.
I am of adult age I would say, but on the youngest side of
course about 40. Let's see, Hildegard is dressed
in a very fine clothes, a long skirt as well as a nice, nice
vest. And let's see some lovely
strawberry blonde hair, quite long, but worn in various
braids. She has what is known as a
chatelaine, which is a thing on her belt.
It's like a silver thing with chains on it.
And on each chain is a little thing, a pencil, a magnifying
glass, a little seal. And what else have I got?
I don't know, a mirror perhaps something little bits and bobs.
So when she walks, there's a bit of a tinkling sound or she she
bustles around. She's quite tall for a Hobbit.
She's about, I would say 3 foot 5, just quite a good height.
Very good, very good. She is very good-natured and we
find her. Today I am cataloguing a large
collection of buttons that came in from Cordelia Chubb.
This is Cordelia Chubb's curious buttons that she's gathered from
all over the Shire. To be really honest with you,
they're quite boring. It's, you know, they're just
buttons. I don't know, brass, wood, some
stone, some Mother 1, mother of Pearl, which is quite nice, but
I suppose this will have to go in the button case.
But anyway, I'm a bit bored to be honest.
Yes, you are in the middle of counting these buttons for the
third time, having gotten so bored that you lost count twice
before. And you are just like you were
like 353637 when you are interrupted and you lose your
train of thought yet again by the barking of firework.
Who is yapping from the other side of the Matham house?
You look up and you see a figure cloaked sneaking through the
cases. They lock eyes with you and then
move quickly over to you and pull back their hood and you see
that it is your cousin, Violet Bulger.
Violet is a little bit younger than you.
They've yet to come of age but are just a couple years away
from turning 33 and they've been staying with you in your house
and working sort of as a as an intern at the Matham house to
just get away from their parents who are a little bit more Bulger
and a little bit less chook. They rush up to you and they
grab your arm and say. Hildy I have them I.
Have the new books. Quickly, I have them walk around
the corner. Show them.
I just out of Malva's sight so that Malva can't see us.
Show them to me. Show them.
Let me see. They move around.
Yeah, they move around. They have a basket which is sort
of covered in, covered in like a gingham cloth.
They pull back the gingham cloth and inside you see a stack of 10
books. They say the the clerks at the
town hall just finished them this morning.
I had to pay a little bit extra, but this one should be as free
of errors as possible. Oh, wonderful.
That's great. Lash will reimburse you for
sure. This is wonderful.
Thank you so much. Are you, may I, may I add my
seal to them? I've got it on my little chain
here to make sure that I can authenticate the books as my
own. Of course.
And they begin to to pull the books out.
Will you tell us what these books are?
Sure, so in her spare time, Hildegard is a great writer of
romance novels. They often they they're about
myriad things, however they tend to focus on hobbits going off,
having adventures, falling in love with folks from all over
Middle Earth of all shapes and sizes.
And this one is the newest installment in a a long running
series called Passion in the Greenwood, which focuses on a
Hobbit and an elf Princess. And it's just like one of her.
This is one of her Hildegard's favorite things to write.
And it's they Hildegard has never met an elf, has never been
out of the Shire. So some of these things are
maybe not factually correct, but there what a Hobbit, you know,
would think of these things. So yeah.
So these are the books. Now.
It's important to note, though, that this would not be something
that the Shire folks would, you know, look well upon, you know,
being somewhat insular, right, for the most part.
So she writes under a pen name, a nom de plume of Ambrosia
Everbottom. So these are these are this is
like, let's say the four whatever the 4th installment of
this love, passion in the Greenwood by Ambrosia
Everbottom. Yeah.
All right, so you are stamping these like you stamp the, the
title page of each of these books with your, your stamp.
You know, you have, I assume, like a a fancy kind of like
Ambrosia Everbottom stamp. Yeah, yeah, it's just like a
little, it's just like an AAB with like some little like birds
around it. And I just kind of stamp it in
the in the cover because, you know, people like to flash with
me by often sometimes plagiarizing or making their own
copy. So I do if I can.
I do like to make sure that this is an official licensed copy.
Yes, so you are about to stamp the last book when you hear the
sounds of of tapping dog feet on the the floor and the clack
clack of Malva slow foots heels. She rounds the corner around one
of these cases, all you know, 2 foot eight of her and she says
Violet Bulger is that you and Violet?
They, you know, stands up and then immediately throws the
gingham back over the cloth and Violet turns and says, oh yo,
yes, it's me, but her Don't come too close.
I'm sick today. That's why I'm not working.
Melva stops and sort of looks at them.
All right, fine. But I expect all of your
categorizing to be done by the end of the week.
And Violet says Oh yes, of course when I've when I've
really better eye. And Melva turns and walks away
at this point. Phew, that was close.
You got to get out of here. Yes, now that you've stamped
these, I'm going to take them to Bree and sell them.
Are you sure you don't want to come with me?
Oh oh, Bri is ever so much fun. Oh, I could possibly, I could
have so many buttons left to count.
You know, I think there's like a wistful look where she like
wants to go, but there's, you know, she's a bit.
No, no, no, I shall stay. No, you go, you go.
Have a lovely time. Lovely time.
Let me give you some pocket money to pay you back.
So I give like a couple coins or whatever our money is.
I don't know. Yeah, you give them some some
copper pennies. They take them and stick them in
their their pocket, and they say the buttons will still be here.
One of these days you'll have to come with me.
Promise me. It's a promise someday.
They reach out and give your your shoulder a squeeze and
then, tucking the books underneath their arm, they turn
and begin to leave the mathem house.
And so we get this shot of you watching your cousin heading out
into the wild, the wide world, until they disappear from sight.
And then you turn back to your buttons and the camera pulls
back from the math and hassle again.
We fly up now high above the Shire, and we see the road that
leads from Michael delving through the middle of the Shire,
through Bywater and Hobbiton and then on to the West into into
Buckleberry and then through the, you know, through the the
woods and finally to Bree. But the camera continues past
Bree on the road and begins to drop down.
And we see as the camera begins to drop down, we see the line of
the Misty Mountains in the distance and a little glimmer
that we know having just seen the, you know, having seen the
map Pro Pie, we know we see the little glimmer that are the
roofs of Rivendell far in the distance and the long road that
stretches from Rivendell back towards Brie and the Shire.
And as the camera descends down now we see, you know, storm
clouds in the distance over the Misty Mountains, and we see a
large sort of round hill with a ruined watchtower on top of it.
And in the shadow of this ruined watchtower, walking along the
road, we see two figures walking from the direction of Rivendell
towards the direction of the Shire and Brie.
They walk. They're not on on horses.
They're walking together. And as we see them walking down
the road, the camera pulls down and we see that they are two
elves. The first elf that we see is,
well, El Arena. Why don't you describe yourself
and tell us what you look like? What can you see?
An elf with skin as dark as the night sky, her white hair on her
head and piercing eyes both seem to glitter like the stars that
elves are known to worship. Two small white braids join
together from the front of her hair to the back to a slightly
larger braid down the middle of her long drilling white hair.
In a not thought half down situation if you will, both
sides of her hair are shaved close to her head in a way that
you haven't typically seen from Ox female elves.
He's adorned in a long flowing dark green robe that opens up to
the front to show more practical loose fitting button up shirt
tucked into a simple brown pair of pants and traveller boots.
Edges of the robe are decorated with a scattering of sparkling
silver thread and gems, wearing a star-studded sky and a
constellation familiar to elves and often worshipped upon.
Strapped on her back is a small wooden buckler with the etched
image of a dragon helm and bow in the middle, surrounded by
green emeralds and a larger green emerald in the middle that
also matches the green emerald at the end of a silver pointed
spear. Also attached to her back.
Strapped on one leg is a leather harness with a book and a rolled
up scroll, and then finally atop her head you see a simple silver
circlet of branches and leaves come together to meet up a small
emerald in the middle of her forehead.
Clearly you are dressed very finely.
Do you carry yourself with sort of the bearing or the the manner
of somebody who maybe is noble or royal?
And yes, she does walk a little proud with her head kind of held
high, but there is a little bit of mischievousness and kind of a
flirty smile. And walking along besides El
Arena, we see another elf who's dressed probably very
differently. Young way, please describe
yourself. Neon Way is dressed for the
road. Everything he wears is dusty and
worn except for the long indigo blue cloak that he wears on his
shoulders. He's tanned in a way that a lot
of elves aren't from long journey.
His skin is like a honey gold color and his black hair is sort
of WAVY curly. It's got kind of a party in the
front or business in the front party in the back thing going on
because he's been cutting his hair with a, with a pocket with
his, with his dagger for the last year or so.
So it's kind of long down to his shoulders in the back, but a
little shorter in the front. And he is wearing a, all of his
gear is a very good quality but has obviously seen quite a bit
of Rd. recently. He wears an archer's
breastplate. It cuts across his chest to
expose his right arm to keep it free.
Free for movement, which is decorated with wheat stocks and
bees and most prominently 2 Elks head to head.
And his cloak is affixed to this harness with a sort of elaborate
silver elk pin and a golden bee pin.
He's shorter than El Arena by a bit, and he's not particularly
tall for an elf, and he has a not stockiness, but a hardiness
to him. He's more muscled than Fey the
way that some elves are. He has a very, very serious
looking bow on his back and a large collection of of arrows in
a quiver on the side and two daggers in the belt across his
middle. One is bronze and the other is
appears to be some sort of black glass and he looks he speaks
with a with a bit of a curious accent as they're talking,
walking and talking. His accent is slightly different
than hers. They're speaking He he is
clearly syndrome is not his first elvish tongue.
So as the camera pans down and we see these two travellers,
very different travelers, we pull in a little bit closer and
let's hear a little bit of what you guys are talking about as
you're walking down the road. Neil What?
Yeah. Did you ever beat my brother
Legolas in a bow off? I could I, I dare say I I would
like to think I could. I spent a long time with the
bow. That's.
That's quite a mighty 1 you have too.
He looks faintly embarrassed by that.
I've put quite a lot of work in my bow, thank you.
Bow making is not my personal skill, but it was crafted for me
by a a very good friend back home.
I would like to see you go against my brother I I think
someone needs to knock them down a peg or two.
He's very proud, was my observation.
Yeah, very proud. That that just kind of goes with
the family. You know how it is.
No. No, don't know how it is.
No, no I'm not. Remind me to show you more of
how it is next time we're that way.
I would like that I I am not familiar with nobility this far
West. That might be for the best.
As you round a bend in the road, in the shadow of this hill,
capped with this ruined watchtower, you see figures
approaching you on the road. There are several figures on the
backs of Snow White horses, a number of figures who are, you
know, carrying weapons but also wearing sort of cloth garments,
not armor. And at the center of this
traveling group is a palanquin being carried by 4 porters.
The palanquin, as you know, curtains drawn around it, but
whoever is is riding, this is clearly somebody of some
importance. This party takes up the entirety
of the road. And to the left there is a
drainage ditch that is filled with muddy water.
And to the right is the steep side of the base of this hill,
leaving not a ton of of clearance on the road.
As this group makes their way towards you, you hear a voice
call out. He'll trouble us.
Clear the way. Clear the way.
What? What is this?
Who are we clearing the wave? For.
They continue to approach as you, you know, you, you call
back to actually, now that they draw closer, you you see that
the figures are all elves and the elf at the front of this
group sees that you are elves as well and raises a hand and the
the party comes to a stop a few feet away from you.
Who? Who travels?
I didn't recognize you as other elves.
How is the travel today? God, James.
It's a palanquin, right? Yes.
That's what they're. What what manner of conveyance
is is this? Who we are, we are merely
ferrying my My Lady back to her home in in Ladras.
This is merely her palanquin so her feet do not get dusty upon
the road. Neon Way looks down and his
boots are fucking caked. Yes, with.
Dirt and dirty. What's wrong with the dirt?
Tell me, travellers, who, Fred, do you hail?
I thought at first that you must be also dwellers of Imladris,
but your garb and your voice seems quite hard to me.
I lean over to Ellarina. Which one's Imladris?
Ellarina shrugs. Also there went to talk about
accents. What is what is this voice going
on? I'm sorry, by way of
introduction, my name is Neon. The way I am a traveller, an
alpha of the Faranos in in the Far East.
I have no idea what Imladres is. When you say this, his
expression, which had been sort of curious and like not
unpleasant, but just a little curious, his expression sours
and he literally lifts his chin so that he can look down his
nose at you. Oh, oh, from, from the years to
say, well, I haven't seen one of your type in.
Well, I don't think I ever have him.
Ladrus is the last homely house, the great home of Lord Elrond
Rivendell. She say his his smirk.
Kind of. He looks kind of down upon the
own way. Oh yeah, big time.
OK, but Ellarina kind of wants to butts in and says I'm
Ellarina of Merkwood. Why don't you live a little more
respect for my buddy here? Oh my apologies my lady, I did
not recognize one of the Sylvan Realm.
And the way he says Sylvan realm tells you that he thinks that
the Silver realm is less than Rivendell.
My apologies. Alarina's going to roll her eyes
a little bit. Have we been to Rivendell yet?
I'm sorry, I, I lost track of all these places.
It's been a busy, we've been, we've been walking for it's been
a hot minute of walking. Hot, hot minute.
I think it's right of walking. So I, I don't really remember
the last couple of places we've stopped, was it was that the one
with the caves or the one with the trees?
Did we stop in in in Rivendell? I don't remember.
If you are on this road you surely must have passed through
there and I've I did. Hard to believe you would have
forgotten such a place. I mean, I clearly I have.
I don't know. I don't.
I don't find many places that don't have caves very memorable
to be honest with you. I'm sorry, Sir, can we circle
back here? Who are you again?
Where are you from? Who are you carrying?
I am merely the steward and chief factotum to my lady.
And he gestures to the palanquin.
And you see the curtain on the palanquin has been moved to just
like you see an elegant hand has moved the curtain to the
palanquin aside just a little bit.
And you see just a little bit of face and an eye looking down at
you. You know, the curtain kind of
moves a little bit more and you see the profile of a very
beautiful elf woman dressed in fine robe, her hair very finely
done, and she kind of looks down at you and you maybe like you
can only see part of her face, but you're pretty sure she
winked at you. I'm going to gesture to known
way very quietly. Oh, she's kind of hot, though.
I'm. Still stuck on the the Palin
King. What?
Why would you travel in a box? I don't I don't understand.
People don't like dusty shoes. Maybe you should give it a try
next time we'll find you one, no?
Absolutely not. I I would I'm the whole point is
to walk. I left the no.
Yeah, don't knock it till you try.
We'll get there, We'll get there.
The Only Way is very upset at the notion of traveling in a
box. He's really struggling with
this. Elorina you wave and you say
hello in there to the the woman in the palanquin and you see
just a little bit of smile on her face and then she lets the
curtain go and it closes. And the elf who you've been
speaking to says, well this was all quite informative.
However we must proceed on the path if we were to reach our
destination before tonight. So make way, make way and the
the party begins to move again. OK, bye.
Nice to meet you. So the two of you step aside and
they move past you down the road and continue on their way.
And as they disappear into the distance, we see the two of you
back on the road, continuing to walk W the smoke of Bree
beginning to appear on the horizon.
With me on way, continuing to just be baffled by someone would
prefer to ride in a box rather than walk on the ground.
And the camera pulls back from the two of you as you continue
on your journey. We zoom back to the West, this
time stopping in Bree, and descend into the streets of the
city. For all of the desolation of the
north, for the fall of Arnor and sort of the emptying of the
northern lands, Bree has somehow managed to sort of escape a lot
of the, the desolation. The fact that they're at the,
you know, at a crossroads on the Greenway and the east West road.
Even in this time where there is not sort of the, the, the
commerce or trade or travel that there was back in the old days
when the old Kingdom still exists, has kept the town
profitable and and populous. And it's not uncommon in Brie to
see hobbits, men, elves, dwarves, sort of all mingling.
And as we pass into the town, you know, we see people going
about their business, we see markets, stalls, we see, you
know, workshops, forges, everything sort of going on that
we would expect in this town. We pass by a busy, boisterous
inn. We see a sign of a prancing
pony. And rather than go into that
well loved and well established institution, we turn down a
dark, dingy alley until we finally end up at the sign of
the Gray Have Inn, which is the other in in Brie, the one which
is far less frequented. We pass into the the common room
of the Grey Haven and we see that there aren't many people in
here. An older man, the innkeeper, you
know, sits behind a counter, cleaning a glass with a rag.
Just over and over again we see a few people clustered around a
table eating a plate of, you know, passable food.
And we see a figure curled around a bottle.
Mourinor, please describe yourself.
So, not that it can be told just now, but Mourinor is an elf.
Pretty tall, like 6-3. But of course she's hunched
around the bottle right now, slumped across the table, but
you can see like a long volumous mane of bright red hair going
down her back. But it's all must and messy and
not, well, Kemps, and may have been brighter when she was
younger, because unusually for an elf, she must be very old,
because she's actually showing some signs of age at all.
She kind of like adjusts so her cheek is against the table and
she has some laugh lines beneath her eyes, just the slight
beginnings of crow's feet. There's a streak of Gray at her
temple. She also has a kind of fan ish
complexion and golden eyes, not yellow like a cat's, just like a
warm soft gold that probably looks kind of greenish yellow at
a distance. She's dressed in this really
heavy and kind of oversized Gray cloak, and indeed all the all of
her clothes are somewhat mismatched, still distinctly
Elvin, but all Grays and blacks and very faded colors.
There's no trace of the usual Alvin green or white or blue or
any of that, although it seems less a fashion statement and
more that just she's dressed down and doesn't care.
Yeah, I think off to the wall there was like a long kite
shield that almost looks like it wraps more along around the arm
and a very long, very thin Elvin blade.
But those are off to the side. And she's just slumped off the
table, kind of like 1/2 drunk smile on her face with the
bottle. And it kind of gives the
impression of like a big pile of ash with a with a fire in it
that's about to go out. Oh, that's amazing.
I love that. So Mordor, you are curled around
this bottle, a little half smile on your face.
And then the bottle topples over and we hear sort of the clatter
of an empty bottle falling, falling over.
And you slump down to the table, passed out.
And we zoom in on your face, pulling in real close, just
real. It's that thing where we zoom in
in your eyes and then your eyes open and we see the dream that
you are having. You stand on a Greenfield,
beautiful with lush trees filled with flowers behind you.
The beauty of this place is there's so much beauty in this
place that you it can't render in this dream that you have.
So it all is sort of like a sketch around you.
In the sky, we see light of the sun, and then everything begins
to dim and darken. And as we watch, the sun is
eclipsed by the moon and we see just the the disk, the dark disk
with the rays coming out from behind it.
Everything goes dark in the world around you and the
Greenfield and the trees disappear.
A fire Kindles in front of you. It starts small, the begins to
grow. It crackles and burns and
becomes a row A through of fire stretching out into the
distance. This is similar to the room of
fire in Rivendell, where it's a dark room with just lit by a
single fire in the center of the room.
But it's unlike that room where it is, you know, a fireplace
with fire. Here the fire stretches into the
darkness, in, into Infinity in both directions.
From somewhere in the darkness, you hear the sound of soft
weeping, not from any particular direction, just sort of
generally in the darkness. And then a figure steps out of
the darkness into the firelight in front of you, standing across
from you in the fire. She is tall.
She is probably 7 feet tall. She towers above you.
Her eyes blaze with the light of an elf who has seen the trees.
This is Galadriel. She looks down at you with this
look of hidey and revulsion in her face and then reaches down
to her belt and pulls out a black ocarina.
And she says to you, long ago you gave this to me along with
your pledge that I need simply return it to you, and you would
render your aid. Call on you now to fulfill your
oath. Your path will soon cross that
of two Rangers of the Blood of Noumenor.
Their quest is far more dire than they know.
You will join and assist them do this, and I shall hold your vow
fulfilled. And she holds the ocarina out to
you in the dream. I think Moran or Kyle looks down
at it, back up at collateral with a look of familiarity, but
like, it's been a long time and she's different and says, you
know, glad, really. You could have just sent me a
letter instead of rubbing my face and all this.
The frown on her face deepens. She holds the ocarina out to you
and now it is sort of above the line of fire that separates you,
and the flames are sort of coming up and licking around her
wrist. And so it's like a hand reaching
through the fire with this black ocarina in it.
Fine. And no, it's an oath.
She grabs the ocarina. You can reach out, you grab the
ocarina, you feel it in your hand for a moment, and then you
wake up and you you're like at the table, still a little bit
drunk, and you're clutching the empty bottle as he, like your.
Your hand is holding the empty bottle in the same way you were
holding the ocarina a second before.
Do I actually have the ocarina you look?
Around the table, you like she reached out and you like check
your pockets. You're feeling a little, you
still feeling a little bit inebriated, so you're just kind
of like moving really weird, but you don't have the ocarina.
I think she kind of slumps forehead on the table and was
like, well that was a dirty trick.
You slump down, forehead on the table, and at that moment the
innkeeper, who had gotten up to go deliver some meat pies to one
of the table, is walking past your table.
Excuse me, sorry, it seems you have dropped this.
And he reaches down and picks something off the floor and
places it on the table next to you, and then bustles off back
behind the bar. What is it?
It is a black ocarina. I think she just kind of picks
it up, looks at it like nostalgically and plays like 1
like scale and ends on one really clear crisp note and as
it ends one of the logs in the fire, the fireplace splits so it
does so the fire goes painful and kind of has to resettle.
Yeah, everybody like you, you play the scale.
And the few people who are in the bar, you know, the
conversations kind of die down. And they, they look, they begin
to look over like, oh, we're going to get some music.
And then you hit that last note. The log breaks.
There's a a crackle of sparks in the hearth.
And at that same moment, the door to the end opens and two
figures enter and we see Gilran and Kyle walk into the Grey
Haven. Both of them are familiar to me,
right? At least Kyle is slightly.
Yeah, you would probably know if you knew about the Fell Warden.
You would know by looking at my store to know who I am.
I gotcha. Even if you hadn't seen me in
person before. So 2 Rangers of the Blood of
Numanor walk into a bar. Is this the start of a joke?
I think she looks between the two of them and says the fellow
warden and you, you know I want to believed it if I hadn't been
told to expect you. Gilrin stops.
She furrows her brow. Wine cloak.
I see you're awake this time. Yeah, unfortunately, to what do
I owe my Aiken head? We are on business, business
that does not concern you. We're simply here to get some
provisions before we continue on away.
Actually, I think it does concern me.
I, I think she stands up, stumbles a little bit.
We already know she. She turns the kale.
I'm Mourn. Or Orion cloak if you want to
get silly about it. Nice to meet you.
She offers a hand. There's kind of a moment of
hesitation where Kyle is kind of like sizing her up a little,
trying not to make judgement. It's like, yeah.
And then just offers their hand to shake hi I'm.
Kyle. Pleasure to meet you, Kyle.
Seems you already know me though.
Well, I've, I've seen your family throughout the years.
I I I can know the sword, but. I guess that makes sense.
I'm pleased to meet the current bearer, actually Gilrand.
I think it is my business. I'm not sure why, but if glad
we'll say says so, it's got to be true.
Her already sort of dowery expression darkens even more.
She frowns even deeper and you know, narrows sort of like
narrows her eyes at you. She looks around the inn and
then gestures to the gestures to the innkeeper who goes and like
lifts. He lifts up the bar and sort of
like pushes open the door to like the storeroom.
And she says explain and gestures for you to go into the
backroom. Oh right, I'm not exactly being
being discreet, sorry. Gilran, Kyle Gilran looks at you
and she just kind of like rolls her one eye and then gestures
for the three of you to go into the backroom.
Yeah, she follows. Kyle just kind of shreds.
So we see the three of you go into the backroom and as this,
as the conversation begins and you begin to sort of explain
your dream and all that. Yeah.
We begin to pull away from the three of you having this, this
meeting back out into the streets of Brie.
And we see walking through the streets of Brie, El Arena and
Neon Way, you've walked a long distance.
You're muddy, you're tired, you're hungry.
And you've heard from other folks on the road that the
Prancing Pony does an amazing meat pie.
And so we see two Alvin figures push open the door to the
Prancing Pony and step into the boisterous, loud filled common
room of the Prancing Pony. Good Lord, that's loud.
From behind the bar, we see Barleyman Butterburr, the
proprietor of the Prancing Pony. He gestures to you.
He's like busy serving like 3 different people.
He gestures to you and he kind of like points to an open table
and he like gives you a big thumbs up and just sort of
leaves you to your own devices. On the own way, we have to try
some of the local food here. I've never, never seen a place
like what? No.
Hold on, hold on, back up. Backing up.
They're so. Small.
Have I been? Struck in the head.
What is going on here? Looking around, how does the
height of the other people around here look compared to us?
Lorina, how tall are you? I would say around 6 foot.
Add or subtract base of how beyond how tall Diablo is.
Yeah. I'm under 6 foot which is pretty
unusual for an elf. I'm like five, 10511, not a big
deal. Yeah, so the men who are in this
this bar are sort of the same height as you.
But I think what the Own Way has locked onto is a table of
hobbits who are busy playing what essentially amounts to like
flip cup but with earthenware mugs and not paying any
attention to you at all. But in the Own Way, you are
staring at these tiny little people playing this game.
Lorina is going to follow his eyesight.
Do they let the children drink beer?
What are they, children? I don't think children play
games like that. What?
But they're drunk. Can't be children then?
I don't know. People do weird things.
You would not believe some of the weird people I've met on
this walk. Wait, wait, Neon, where are
those? Are those hobbits?
What's The Hobbit? Hey, I've only read about one in
this book. It kind of matches up the
description, but also the book was not very good at describing
an elf. So it's, you know, it could be
like historical fiction. It kind of sounds it looks like
a Hobbit. Is this the one you were
giggling? You were reading and giggling
the other night. Yes, don't worry too much about
it unless you want to read it. You can read it after me, but
guess that one. He's neonwe is trying really
hard to not like be awkward, but then finally it's just like, oh
fuck it and goes over and like sweeps his cloak out behind him
and just like sits down at their table and says hello.
I am the only way of the far north.
I've never met a habit. You're very short.
Are you children? The only way?
I don't know if that's kosher. Oh man, I think we need a role
here. Can I get please a courtesy
role? Heart.
So you'll be a courtesy role against your heart target
number. Tell you.
That's it. Oh, just one D12.
OK, one D12. Well, remember, you always have
the ability to land a Gandalf rune, which is, which is an
automatic success. So there's a one in 12 chance
this might work. Yeah.
Oh dear. Nope.
The hobbits are in the middle of playing this game of flip cup
with these earthenware mugs, which is a very loud, very
boisterous game. And they've already broken like
4 mugs and they're very obviously in their cups.
And when you say that they go dead silent.
All of the mirth and, you know, childlike Glee that you'd see it
on their faces that made you think that they were children
drains away. And one of them reaches down and
picks up a Shard of earthenware, like a particularly pointy
Shard, and says, what did you say?
Oh OK, definitely not children. Oh no, excuse him.
We we don't, we don't get out much.
He just. He has.
We're always outside. No, I've never been inside of a
building and like. No, we just, it's just, we went
back in. We went back in.
I'm so confused. The Hobbit with the with the
Shard of pottery begins to like move stuff on the table aside.
You think they're going to come over the table at you when
another Hobbit that you now recognize as a Hobbit wearing a,
you know, a very smart waistcoat and trousers and little little
glasses comes up behind them and puts a hand on their shoulder.
And they say, Now I see here several fans of the Passion
under the Greenwood series, and I have for you the latest copy
of the most recently published version.
And they reach into a basket underneath a gingham cloth and
place it on the table. The Hobbit who had the Shard
looks down at it and like, looks over at the other hobbits and
oh, no, I don't. I don't read that garbage.
And then like takes the book and slips it into their coat and
then goes sits back down. This Hobbit like looks up at you
Ellarina and over at you Yonwei and says, I think that I might
have heard that there is an open table over there.
This one is far too crowded. Would you please come join me
and perhaps I can buy you something to drink?
Lorina's jaw has dropped here. How did you that that not be
it's it's not in stores. Are you familiar with passion
under the Greenwood? Yes, that's that's I mean, most
of my knowledge of hobbits come from that book, but is it you
are a Hobbit, right and The Hobbit in the book this is how
did you get that book? Well, I'm Violet Vulture at your
service, and I happen to be they kind of look around the room.
I happen to be a close personal friend of the author and the
sole licensed distributor of official copies.
Neon where we have to sit down with them.
We I need to, I need to know. More Oh, Eric, we'll thought
just one thing. What is Passion of the Greenway?
Do I have something for you? And we see you go sit down at
the table and begin to talk very like effusively with Violet,
like so you know, time passes, you have some food, you have
something to drink. And Violet sells most of the
copies. El Arena, they give you the last
copy from under the basket and towards the end of the meal they
say, you know, I think she might be a little bit mad at me, but I
think that Ambrosia Everbottom would just absolutely hate me if
I didn't take this opportunity. Would you like to come meet her?
Yes, yes, Neon way and I both say yes right.
I'm not sure if she's met an elf and I just think this would be a
great business opportunity for us both.
What's happening? I feel like I missed something.
It's OK, We're going. It's down.
I've we've got it. OK.
As long as we're heading basically W, I'm I'm not E just
in the in the westerly direction, I'm fine.
And so the camera again pulls back out and we see two groups
travelling West towards the Shire.
We see Kyle, Morinor and Gilran moving off the road, keeping far
away from travellers and people who may notice them.
Like having, you know, gone into the backroom and discussed at
length, even though Gilran was reluctant, you know, to
eventually acquiesced to Mourinor joining the party to go
in and find these strangers who'd been heading South.
And on the road, we see Nyongwe, El Arena and Violet just having
the best time chatting, being friends and walking down the
road into the Shire. We cut to night time.
It is dark. The lights in most of the most
of the houses in Mickel Delving are out except for one light in
the window of a house. The camera pulls in and we see
the interior of Hildegard's house.
Hildegard, can you describe what your Hobbit house looks like?
Is it a hole or is the house? I think it's she calls it like a
cottage, but I think it's just like kind of like a row house in
hobbits have such a thing as like a row house.
So I think it's very beautifully wood paneled.
She has taken to painting the walls with like little vignettes
of flowers and pastoral scenes and stuff.
So it's quite colorful inside. It's got like with the wood and
then a little bit like colorful paint and it's like full of
books and all kinds of writing utensils.
It's kind of a little bit of a mess.
She has sat down to the modest supper that she made for
herself. The table is completely full of
all of the things, including a giant thing of like a pile of
scones and cream and jam and all the things.
And because she's had a long day of counting buttons, so I and I
think she's been baking. It smells really nice.
It's warm, it's very cozy. There's lots of like velvet
cushions and things. It's super nice in there.
It's nice. So you are just tucking into
your to your supper and you know, you're you're thinking
about. OK, Well, it's been you know,
it's been a few days since Violet went to breathe.
You're just beginning to get a little bit worried because you
know you don't like it when they're gone for this long and
you hear a noise from outside your house.
There has been some raccoon like animals.
I don't think we have raccoons here but they're recruiting type
animals. Beat my dustbins and I'm.
Yeah, there you are. Thank you voice from inside my
head. Badges.
There must be those badges again.
I'm going to put on my woolly robe because I'm already in my
sort of night outfit. I'm wearing a long silver
necklace with a piece of like, colorful kind of rainbowy glass.
I stuff it inside my robe, cinch the robe tight, and I grab my
fireplace poker, which is long and iron and quite, quite pointy
with a little hook on it. I'm not going to hit a badger.
I'm just going to scare it. Yeah.
So I bust out of the front door and I'm like, you bet, Just get
out of here. And I give it like a Wang a Dang
on the stones like. The round door of this Hobbit
cottage bursts open and you emerge in full, like you've got
your fight face on. You emerge in full battle mode.
You Wang the the thing on the ground.
You make a lot of noise and completely startle Violet and
two very tall figures who are standing on your doorstep in the
darkness. Neon way is absolutely not
prepared for this attack and is just lets out a RIP of a swear
in Quenya in his particular dialect of Quenya and doesn't
fall over but is thoroughly like embarrassingly off his balance
and is like stumbling back off the stoop and is like trying to
get his bow off his shoulder and is just off his game entirely.
And when he realizes it's an angry Hobbit lady swearing about
Badgers, he tries to gather himself and mutters something
about Badgers being fierce creatures and he understands it.
And then like he tries to like collect himself and and look
cool but fails. Marina is stifling A giggle at
rough and tough in the own way flying.
Back Have you ever fought the badger?
Badgers are mean. You have out here, but back
where I'm from, you don't screw with a badger.
The only way I think she thought you were the badger.
Well, I'm just saying I understand the ferocity of her
aggressive. Attack because Badgers are
butts. Violet steps forward.
They've got their hands up sort of appeasingly.
Now. Now Hildy, please don't be mad
at me, but I have brought 2 fans of your works to visit and they
are elves. Hildy, I mean you mean you your
your ambrosion. Fan seems like a strong word.
I slowly lower the fireplace poker look at you with my big
brown eyes like my goodness swim.
Hi. Yes, button.
She puts a finger up to her, to her lips.
She shushu, shushu, shushu, shushu.
And now please come inside, my very tall friends.
And Violet, you have returned. I'm sorry, I thought you were a
badger again. It's only the third time.
This is heaven. Please.
And I gesture for all of you to come.
Let us not speak the name Ambrosia out here in the streets
of fickle delving. Well, the streets have a years.
Marina ducks down and her eyes were very wide at this kind of
home she's never seen before. As Neon Way steps inside, he
turns to Hilda and he says, But what?
It's what I'm short for an elf. I I look up at you, how am I
very hot in here? Is it hot?
Both of you? Oh my.
Please come in. I'm sorry.
I'm in my robe. I put the fireplace poker down,
usher you in. I've set up a it's quite a small
meal. I do hope there'll be enough.
Please come into the kitchen. Let's let's have let's have a a
mug of something a nice as hot chocolate.
Even though the table is Hobbit size, you step into the kitchen
and there is a feast laid out on this table.
See. Not much.
Really not much. Are you the Ayavana born again,
sweet mother of plenty? If you want me to be absolutely
happy, whatever both of you happy, whatever you want.
I've true elves in my kitchen. I can't believe it.
No. Should I?
Take my Should I take my boots off?
This is a really nice. Boots off.
They're a little dusty. They're a little dusty.
There's more than dust on there. There's muddy.
There's yeah, let's take them off.
Take them off. Yeah, all right.
I never know what to do. Are you throwing a party this?
This is a feast fit for like one of my father's parties.
Your father must be quite a meager person then.
This isn't much at all. In fact, I have more I can bring
out. I've made a seed cake and all
kinds of things. So do come in and I shall, I
shall. We shall get some seed cake in
your soon enough. I'm very flustered, very hot.
As you come into the house and take off your boots and you
know, begin to try and like wiggle your way into the kitchen
and Hildegard, you go off to get the seed cake.
Violet follows you and they say you you will be fine.
They are very big fans of yours. I have to get back to the mathem
house. I realize it took a little
longer to get back than I should have.
I'm going to work late tonight and just finish up my
cataloguing and then and then hopefully Malvo won't yell at me
again. They are lovely elves and really
just just have fun. Bye.
And they bundle up this this food and head out of the house.
OK, I go back in and I sit down and I say, well, you aren't you.
I will. So you're fans of my books?
Right. Well, yeah, I yes, I am.
Neon. Wait, hasn't read it yet, but
you know, I've read a little bit to him and told him of the story
as we've walked. Haven't actually learned how to
read your language yet, so I'm working on it.
I could speak it well. That's wonderful.
It might be a tricky book to start it with but I've I've you
said you've never met an elf and also based on the description of
elves in your books I'm assuming you have it.
But I I have never met a Hobbit before besides Violets if you
walked us over here. Through we we met those 4
hobbits at at the bar that were very.
Met might be kind of a strong word.
They were very mean, menaced me with a broken Shard of pottery.
I'm I'm not sure. If they like to be called small
in the on way. Actually, uh, Hilde, Hilde,
Hilde Hildegard took what you may call me Hildegard Hilde,
whatever you like, but. Do you do you feel what people
call you small just so we can educate my buddy over here.
Oh well, you know, it's sort of all of the the tone of voice, I
suppose. However, I am quite tall for a
horrid you will see at 3 foot 5 1/2 I.
Thought I was being exceptionally friendly but.
Little tired just sit down you. You sort of need to ask to be
invited in where we. Sort of think of you all.
As vampires to but to in. No, maybe that was it.
Did we introduce ourselves? I can't remember.
No, you, you have not. However, whatever you like, my
Lord, is. A weird night.
I'm sorry. Believe it or not, I have better
manners than this normally, it's just been on the road a long
time. He takes a deep breath and
gathers himself and bows very deeply, like almost bumps into
Hildy as he bows. I am the only way of the
Faranos. I am travelling.
I have been walking W for it's like a really long time, like a
really long time. I met Elarina in, I can't
remember the name of it. There were a bunch of trees and
there was like a cave thing, which was cool because I haven't
been in a cave since I was home, but there were some elves.
It was nice. That's the only way.
As ever, you have such a way with words.
I'm not great with names. Okay, I've worked.
So. Far like there's everything's
got a name, everything's got like 3 names and three different
languages. It's hard to keep track of it
all. You need to like write it all
down. Nice to meet you.
Care buddy buddy eat this and I'm going to pass him a plate.
And my, my lady, please Gaunt, give me your name if you wish.
Yes, I'm Alarina, Princess of Merkwood.
And she kind of stumbles past that to be like, we'll make a
big deal, don't make a big deal. Thank you for inviting us into
your home. Oh, my Princess, my lady.
Well, no, please no, don't, don't, Don't worry about it.
No, I'm very worried about it indeed.
I've never had even the even the bear of this silly town here.
This is oh, I'm please, oh, what can I do for you?
Will you give me a cushion or something?
Fine, just. I I think we would really like
to hear about Muppets because I've never I've been really left
the the forests of Merkwood. So this is very exciting, let
let alone author of my favorite books.
Oh, stop. Oh, you stop it.
I haven't left the shires, though we have that in common.
Perhaps we can educate one another for I would like to, I'd
look you up and down and like I'm I would like to familiarize
myself for the films now that I have two such beautiful elves in
my kitchen. I'm sorry.
Arena stares very intently at the scone in front of her.
The only way this is all that stuff text and it's just like, I
don't know, I'm I'm filthy. I don't know what beautiful.
I mean smell like the back end of a horse right now.
I feel like on that face palm, on Ellarita's face palm, is the
perfect time. We pull out through one of the
windows, we leave the cozy Hobbit home and all of its
awkwardness behind, and we are out in the darkness of the night
in Mikkel, Delving on a hill overlooking the town.
We see three figures emerge from the bushes, basically Kyle,
Gilran, and Mourinor. You followed the tracks and
clues that you could find and they've LED you here.
These strangers from the north, their trail has has LED here.
You look down into the town, it's quiet.
You can hear the the burbling of the the fountain in the town
square and there are a few buildings with lights on inside,
but it's mostly dark. Could I please get from both of
you an awareness roll? An awareness or scan roll up?
The difference being awareness is passive and scan is active.
I'm doing awareness. Me too.
Yep, I hit it on the dot. OK, Dad, forget it.
OK, so the three of you come to rest at the top of this hill.
You're taking a moment. It was a lot of travel, you
know, and it's even after dark. It's been, it's been hard to
sort of follow the trails Periodically.
You've had to do things like try and get assistance from animals
and things like that to try and get sort of whatever information
you can about these, these strangers.
And so you stop at the top of a hill, Gilray, and reaches down
to her belt and she pulls out a canteen.
And Kyle, she hands the canteen to you and you're drinking some
water. More and more you're sort of
standing there just sort of gazing down at the village,
wishing that that canteen was full of wine instead of water
when you see movement in the square.
At first it's one figure and then two, then 3456 figures
slipping from shadow to shadow. You only see them sort of in the
light cast from one of the lit windows.
You see them moving through the square towards a very large
building on the edge of the square.
This large building has its lights on, all of the lights on
inside, and as you watch you see them go to the back of this
building and from the the vantage that you can see, they
go to one of the doors. Then you think what you see is
them force the door open and slip inside.
You're the only one of the three who sees this.
Where those are people or we just witnessed in a burglary.
What did you say? I saw three little shadows down
there just forced their way in the back of the house.
I'll put the canteen down, hand it back and try to see what
she's seeing. I mean, it's kind of weird that
they've ended up in the Shire anyway, but.
The figures that you saw were definitely not habit sized.
That's one thing that you definitely noticed as you saw
them crossing the the square, Kyle, you try to see what
Morinor saw, but you don't. You don't really see anything.
And so the three of you were kind of like watching quietly
for a moment, and then you hear the sound of a dog barking, high
pitched, frantic from inside that building that the the
figures went into. All right.
Well, I'm going. And yeah, so the three of you
just sort of look at each other and then without another word,
move towards the building. It's late after Hildegard's
feast and a lot of conversation and getting to know each other.
Eventually you all turned in for the night.
You're just just falling asleep when you're awoken by the sound
of a dog barking frantically. Hildegard, you recognize this
immediately. This is the barking of Firework
Malva's dog, who sleeps in the Mahtham house.
It's sort of a guard dog. Firework is all bark, but the
bark is at least a good alarm. And Firework knows Violet well
enough that Firework wouldn't be barking at Violet.
So even if Violet is in the Mahtham house, the fact that
Firework is barking this frantically means somebody else
is in there. And it's just weird.
It's really kind of not usual, especially this late at night.
Yeah, I checked just to make sure that Violet that they have
not come home. They're not here.
Yeah, Violet is not here. OK.
Oh my goodness. I'm, I'm.
Are we all three still in the same room?
Yeah. I feel like you come out of the
bedroom and the Ella arena and and Neon Wei.
You haven't like gotten to sleep yet.
So you hear Hildegard sort of like moving out of the room and
like the barking of this dog and like everything sort of feels
like your elf senses are tingling.
When the old one is awake anyway, you find him standing
outside barefoot, looking up at the stars, and when the barking
starts, he draws his eyes down. Does the dog supposed to be
barking? No, no, I'm actually quite
worried about my cousin Violet. They're still over there.
I'm going to go have a look and would you please come with me?
He grabs his quiver and bow off of your coat rack and starts to
jog down down towards the mathem house.
Lorina will follow. My lady, thank you, I will grab
also my fireplace poker on the way out case it's a badger.
OK, so the three of you head out the front door and across the
square to the front door of the Mahtham house.
Gilray and Kyle and Moranor feel like would you guys, would you
have gone to the back door or the front door?
Whatever way that Moranor said that she saw them go in.
OK, so as we see this Hobbit and two elves running towards the
front door, we see the three Rangers sneak up and enter
through the obviously forced open back door.
You get to the door, the frame is broken, somebody has has
broken this door open and you slip inside.
And so we see sort of a split screen of these two groups
entering the mathem house at the same time.
Everybody please give me an awareness roll as you enter the
mathem house. You rolling Aidan?
I failed this one. OK.
I failed to. 9/10/11. 123043. I succeed.
OK, I fail as well. Is that right?
Failed, Yeah. Meaningful smell like.
There are many wonders to perceive in here, so perhaps
you're you're taken back by a wonderful taxidermy.
I can't gauge distances when everything looks so small.
So Ellarina Nyunwe and Hildegard Hildegard, you come up to the
front door you pull your key from and unlock the front door
and open it up. And as the front door opens,
firework streaks out past you, still barking, and just runs
off, scared into the night. OK, we'll find him later.
It's OK. I we need to find Violet first.
He'll be OK. And so the three of you, like,
pass through the room of taxidermy into the main room of
the math and house at the same time, Kyle, Mournor and Gilray,
and you push your push the back doors slightly open and slip
inside. Kyle.
You were the only one who passed the awareness check.
As you enter the Mitham house, like you, you all sort of take
in what you're looking at. And it is, yeah, it's a very,
very odd place. It's filled with glass cases
filled with trinkets and bits and bobs hanging above, like
from suspended from the rafters. There is a like a cart and like
a canoe sort of at the level of the the gallery, the second
level gallery. But Kyle, what you notice is a
weird smell and not the smell of like old musty books and stuff,
but like a chemical pungent smell in the air in this place.
Similar at all to the Felbees. No, that was decay.
This is this is chemical. It smells like pine and tar.
Have I smelled it before? Or is this like something
completely newly revulsive? It's not.
It's not even that it's revolting, it's more that it's
just very pungent. You have smelled it before, but
you can't quite put your finger on it.
It's not something that's sort of normal in Ranger society, but
there was a little sort of a hint of it in the in the inn,
like when you were when you were there in the inn, especially in
that backroom, there was a little hint of this smell, but
here it's very pungent and very strong.
As the six of you move into the Mattham house, you hear a voice
from inside. At first it's quiet, but because
you're all sort of sneaking in, you hear you overhear this voice
quiet. We are looking for a very
particular book bound in blue leather slim volume.
If you know where it is, which would be in your best interests
to help us. Otherwise this may be unpleasant
for you. You hear Violet saying, I
promise you, I don't know. I don't know anything about it.
You can you can look all around. I mean, they heard the books
upstairs and down here. You can look like take your
time, please. It's it's really no problem.
I will be happy to help. I think more and more kind of
looks between Kyle and Gilray and like anyone you know.
Joe ran not shakes her head. No, I.
Think she wants to try and take a peek around the corner?
You peek around the corner, out from behind one of these cases,
and you see a few figures standing, sort of in almost the
dead center of the floor. You see a tall, ruggedly
handsome man. He has like a mustache and a
beard, black almost, like very, very dark brown, brown, almost
black hair and light brown skin. And he's wearing very simple
clothing, but it's all black. He's not wearing any armor, but
he's just wearing sort of a black shirt, black pants, black
boots. And on his left index finger you
see he has a ring of black metal.
And you can see this because he is holding Violet off of the
ground basically by the scruff of their neck.
And the ring of black metal is sort of glinting on this hand
that is clutching Violets shoulder.
You don't know that this is Violet, but they're holding this
this Hobbit off of the ground. Standing at his side is a
shorter, strongly built woman with dirty blonde hair and
piercing blue eyes who's looking back and forth around the room.
And as you watch, she reaches over and she just pushes one of
these glass cases and it falls and shatters on the floor and
like buttons go scattering everywhere.
You're. Going to have to count all those
buttons again. Hildegard El Arena Nyongwe
Because you coming in the other direction, you don't see these
two figures. You hear the sound of shattering
glass. You hear this, the voices.
But what you do see are two figures moving along the gallery
from bookcase to bookcase, quickly scanning and pulling
books off the shelves. As they move from bookcase to
bookcase. You actually see there are two
other figures doing the same along the walls on the floor.
You can see them sort of like looking through the glass case.
You see sort of the wibbly outline of two figures doing the
same thing thing on the the ground floor as well.
What do we do? Go back outside.
Islet we have to get. Violated Neon way draws an arrow
and starts to mutter to himself and is is clearly speaking his
own language and says this is no, this is no place for you.
You're not the, you're not the fighter.
I can't believe myself. And then draws back on his bow
and in a big way. And he is looking for the other
Bobbitt. He's not concerned about the two
that are looking for the books. Have we seen Violet yet?
We could just hear Violet. Yeah, the three of you have only
heard. Yeah, but you haven't seen
Violet yet. OK, Ballerina would like to try
and sneak towards Violet's voice.
OK, so yeah, the three of you begin to move towards the sound
of the voices. Kyle Mourinor, what are you
doing? I think Mourinor kind of like,
looks with her eyes at Kyle and like tries to indicate, let's
circle around behind these two. Kyle will just nod.
Like, I get what you're putting down.
You begin to sneak in as well. So we see the two groups
beginning to sort of sneak towards these figures.
The silence is broken again by a voice from up in the gallery
saying it's not here and let's see it, it's not here.
And then another voice, yeah, not over here either.
And then a third voice. Nothing on this side.
And basically the the four figures who'd been moving from
bookcase to bookcase, calling out that they haven't found
anything. You hear that first voice again,
say keep looking. If it's anywhere, this is where
it will be. What do you do?
As soon as I can see them I'm running forward like very loudly
at them going violent. That was my just lost all my
cool. Can it happen that Moore and
Nora and Kyle were just about ready to like, draw their
weapons on these two and then all of a sudden this yes little
Hobbit runs in screaming? Yes, so much of the element of
the. Problem is going detective mode
and it's going to try and get violent to safety while
everything else action happens. So Kyle and yeah, Kyle Morinor,
you have circled around, you're at the like basically on either
side, like hiding behind these cases about to spring out and
charge pincer movement at these two figures in the center of the
room in the only way you have your bow knocked.
You are like you are also about to like pop out from behind
cover and let off let a shot fly when Hildegard you see Violet
being held aloft by this man and your side takes over and
Hildegard screams and goes charging towards these figures.
What do you all do? I think we I would fire at the
man's hand. OK, running to try and grab
Violet. I think Mourinor is straight up
startled then is wait a. Minute.
Or Man boys follows what's happening.
I think she like knocks against the case or something and
Stillwater sword. Manly's balls.
Yes. So good I.
Don't know. I'm not startled, I'm just going
right in there with my sword. OK Kyle you keep your wits about
you Ellarina. You follow Hildegard to try and
get to Violet and Neon why you loose the arrow and a few things
happen at the same time. The woman who was in the middle
of trying like of sort of like she has this bored look on her
face. She was in the middle of like to
pushing over another case. Her eyes go wide and get this
kind of crazy look in her face and she gets this huge smile as
the screaming starts and she lunges forward and snatches the
arrow out of the air before it can hit this man's hand.
And she she's holding the arrow in her hand.
And as you watch the on way, as you watch, she reaches down and
she sniffs the feathers, the fletching on the arrow.
And it is the really creepy. It's a real creepy.
I don't like. That at all it smells.
Like, yeah. Hildegard, you charge towards
this, this figure, and he is surprised momentarily.
And then he kind of like shakes his head a little bit and you
get in close and he reaches down and he bats with his free hand,
his left hand. With his right hand, he bats the
fireplace poker away and snatches you up as well.
And now he's holding both you and Violet sort of off the
ground. I'm like kicking and wiggling
around like a batcher in a bad spot, like a.
Violet, like Violet gets this really scared look on their
face. They look over at you and at the
same time Kyle. You burst from cover, sore drawn
and you begin charging at them. The woman who has caught this
arrow, she finishes sniffing the arrow, then she sees you
charging in and she kind of smirks and takes the arrow.
Does the arrow have a stone head or a metal head?
I think it is. I think it would have to be like
lint. Like I think he has some metal
headed arrows but most of them are are like Obsidian or Flint
headed arrows. OK, she takes the arrow, she
flips it around so that the point is down, and then you
think for a second that she's about to stab herself in the
arm. But instead, she roughly brings
the arrow down and it strikes a metal bracer that she has on her
wrist. And a spray of sparks comes off
of the bracer. And Kyle, as you're charging
towards this woman, you suddenly remember what that smell is.
You smelled it in the back of the inn because that's where
they kept all the lamp oil and pitch that they use.
For. The torches and lanterns that
they have get the fuck out. There is a The sparks hit a pool
of oil which has been spread on the floor of the Matham house,
and it immediately. Bursts.
Into flame and you are cut off from your target by this wall of
fire that leaps up between you. El Arena.
You are also caught behind this wall of fire and you see this
man sort of standing behind this wall of fire holding these two
hobbits. Then you hear Violets voice.
They say, I know where it might be.
There's a secret library. I know where the troops keep
their secret library. If you go there, they might have
it. Just let her go.
Let my cousin go. The man looks at Violet and then
shrugs and throws Hildegard. Hildegard.
You smash into a, you smash into a decorative case of brooms and
you're sort of like, like you disappear in a fall of brooms
that sort of like a fall all around you.
And all of you watch from behind this curtain of flame.
The man sort of gestures with his free hand.
And the two figures who were up in the gallery dropped down to
the floor. And all of them, all of the
figures just leave through the back door.
As they exit through the back door, you see that woman still
holding Neon Way's arrow. She sniffs it one more time and
then breaks it and throws it on the ground and they disappear
through the back door and that is where we will cut to black
for this time. Calling my shot.
I'm killing that bitch. Home is behind the world ahead,
but sadly this episode is over. This episode of Ather Play
featured the talents of Nikki Boylan as Kyle de Lore, Velvet
Dracos as Mourinor, Tori Owens as Ellarina, Steph Midlock as
Hildegard 2, Jude Vase is Neon Way, and James Kaku Pearson as
the Loremaster. This episode was edited with
sound design and additional production by James Kaku
Pearson. Follow the show on social media
at Ather Play. under score Cast. Ather Play's theme song is A
Hero Rises, composed and performed for the show by
Sundoss's Kid, who can be found at Sundoss's kid.co.uk.
This episode features additional music and sound effects from
soundstripe@soundstripe.com and Epidemic Sound at
epidemicsound.com. Track details can be found in
the show notes. Soundscapes courtesy of Tabletop
Audio at tabletopaudio.com. Thank you for listening.
And remember, Tom Bamba does not actually that mysterious.
He's Middle Earth's version of Jimmy Buffett.
Athroplay is a production of the Athrobeth Podcast Network.