session 13
In Hollowglade, Kiri Ani draws Soros aside and shows him the black, hand shaped mark on her stomach. Soros says he detects no malice in the mark. Pale Shadow returns, battered and bloodied, the sole surviver of the elves who went to clean out the uruk ungol lair and hunt down the creature they believe to be Goroth.
Cyan goes out hunting alone and bags a couple of wolves that were prowling outside of Hollowglade. She seems tougher to the others; leaner, meaner, more feral. Her hair has grown longer.
Soros sends a message via death's head moth to the Witch of Isengard, asking for her aid. The travel by horse out of Hollowglade the next morning, and ride into sudden swirling mists. The landscape seems different as they spy great towers of iron and gold, but they stay on the path. They pass great shining halls and cities of glittering scales. In the morning, the mists clear and they see Isengard, having traveled many hundreds of miles in a single night. As they approach, the ents speak to the group. Cyan replies in entish unknowingly, not aware she did so. They enter Orthanc and the Witch introduces them to a tall, gaunt man clad in the livery of a soldier of a battle unit some 150 years from the past. She introduces him as Tark of Gondor, known to the common folk of Middle Earth simply as the Dead Man. She says that the Dead Man will take them down the Paths of the Dead to speak to Isildur. She also tells them that Ellesar is talking of war against the orcs for the death of his son. The Harad, she tells them, have thrown in with their Rhunite allies against their own impending war against the orcs.
Kouglar reveals that he is a half orc. Everybody else just goes "well, DUH!" Tark the Dead Man takes Soros, Einar, and Kouglar down the mist-shrouded Paths of the Dead, where they glimpse the strange towers and ichthyoidal halls they saw in shadows the previous night during their sorcerous journey to Isengard. They learn that the shade of Isildur has been locked out of Time itself and is held by the magic of the First Ones in Umbar, Land of the Dead. They prepare to go back to the Living World, but the shades will not allow them to cross back. Spectral monsters come from the shadows to bar their path. Tark hacks through the creatures, utterly without fear or any other emotion. Soros casts his spells to frighten the creatures into thinking that Tark is even more powerful than he actually is. Soros' magic strengthens their ties to the Living World, and they are able to break free from the Path of the Dead.
Back in the mortal world, strange stirrings come from Einar's pack. The strange egg he and Kouglar found has hatched. Inside the backpack, a tiny dragon no larger than a hand peeks out at Einar, accepting the wicked old Hobbit as it's mother, much to Einar's complete astonishment.
