Already Weary

After two days on the road already and having dealt with a confused knight and a scourge of bandits, the group were well relieved that throughout the third day they didn't encounter another soul on the road east.  For some of the fellowship, the travel was already starting to wear on them as walking everywhere was far outside of their usual routine.

"Why didn't we just fly there, or take a car?" asked Evok.

"What?  Like why didn't Sam and Frodo just have Gandalf call the eagles?" joked Sve7en in response.

Evok rolled her eyes and others chuckled.  Meanwhile, Jess had started to feel quite ill.  "I probably shouldn't have played with the iocane powder yesterday with that bandit..." she stammered.  Knowing that despite her resistance to it wouldn't allow the iocane to kill her, it still made her extremely nauseous and weak.   Aleris, seeing Jess in distress grabbed her and tossed her on the card next to Ruggsy.  

"Don't worry, take a load off.  I'll do the walking for you."

Jess was extremely grateful and rested as the group passed over Brandywine river and started making their way toward the old forest by Buckland.   The day was uneventful, much to the appreciation of everyone and it was decided as the sun crept behind the hills to stop and make camp and tend to the ill.



Halfling gone nuts! 

The sun rose on the valley and began burning off a pleasant fog that rolled in over the night.  Sve7en, Nham and Thunder were already up as the run in with the bandits have kept them on edge and fog for sure would allow an unwelcome surprise to creep up.

After another bountiful breakfast, the troupe began heading off after the fog burnt away.  It was around ten o'clock.  The road was quiet, except for the occasional bit of wildlife that came and went.  Rabbits, squirrels and an occasional deer could be seen minding their own business.  As the day progressed on, from the distance the GM's could see trees.  At first they were small, a long line of fading greens mixed with reds and oranges on the horizon.  With each mile it grew longer and taller and thicker.  Before they knew it, it was late afternoon and they were now passing right next to the Old Forest.

"That's the Old Forest" piped up Geekusoid as he pulled out a small book of Middle Earth facts.  "According to this, the Old Forest was once considered part of the same larger primordial forest range that Fangorn forest was part of.  It is full of mysterious trees that are known to sway without wind and whisper to weary travelers.   Also apparently, the house of Tom Bombadil is also here..."

"That's right!" a new voice piped up and emerging from the edge of the forest ahead.  It was none other than one of Newfoundland's GM's, Yosh (@bdu754).  

"Hey!  What are you doing all the way out here?" shouted Nham gleefully seeing their fellow GM there.

"Visiting Tom Bombadil's house, duh" replied Yosh as the rest of the party welcomed him in.  "The real question is, what are all of you doing out here so far, and what's wrong with Jess?"

"We met a bandit on the road a couple days ago and Jess played a battle of wits with him and had some contact with iocane powder.  She's fine, but just feeling sick.    We're all here because Geek found some weird puck." replied Wulf.

"Weird puck?" questioned Yosh.

"Look..." whispered Geek as he pulled out a grizzly sweater and unfolded it to reveal the strange glowing puck.

"I showed it to HO and they said it must be destroyed, but apparently in the same fashion as the one ring.  So here we are, traveling the route the ring took to Mordor." explained Geek.

"Whoaaaaa...." said Yosh.  "Mind if I join you?  I don't have anything else going on." he inquired as he glanced over his shoulder a couple times.

"Plenty of room it seems." replied Evok who was still comfortably on the cart.

"Fantastic.  As cool as Tom's house was, this place can be kind of...creepy, if you know what I mean" Yoshi said as he glanced over his shoulder again.

"NOT AS CREEPY AS YOU!  YOU CURSER!  YOU MIND INVADER!" a small voice shrieked from in the distance.

"What now..." huffed Ragnar.

From the same direction that Yoshi came from, at nearly the same point in the trees stumbled out a halfling.  "YOU CURSED ME AND TOOK MY MIND YOU WRETCHED GREEN EXCUSE FOR A DINOSAUR!!!!" the halfing shouted cursingly while clutching its head.  As it hit the roadway it collapsed to its knees and tucked its head, in obvious pain and discomfort.  Toast immediately dove behind the cart, startled by the halfling.  Jess perked up slightly upon hearing the hobbit mutter about being cursed.   

"Curse?  I'm a paladin you know.  I could heal a curse..." she said weakly as she started looking through her pack for something.   As Fluw and others stood glaring, doing nothing, Kalesalad moved foward to try and offer assistance.

"Hey there little fella." encouraged Kale.  "Do you need help or..."  

The halfling lashed out as soon as Kale was close enough.  Enraged....berserking even.  Kale leapt back from the assault, the fingernails of the hobbit just barely grazing Kale's jacket.  

"IT CURSED ME!  IT INVADED MY MIND!!!" the hobbit screamed again and glancing over at Yoshi.

Defensive now, Kale shouted back to Yosh.  "What did you do to this thing!?"

Yosh, surprised at the accusation raised his hands in the air.  "I swear, all I did was try to recruit it for Newfoundland".

Nham rolled his eyes.  "Really? This again Yosh?  How many times do we have to go over this.  No, early recruiting.  Are you trying to get us fired?"

Evok, despite the situation getting tense and the raging of the halfling growing louder giggled as she interjected.  "Are you kidding Nham?  I've been trying to get fired this way for years!  It never works!".

The halfling lashed out again, trying to harm Kalesalad who thankfully just sidestepped the assault.   "GET AWAY FROM ME!" the hobbit shrieked as it held its head in pain once more.  Meanwhile, back in the cart, Jess had found what she was looking for and had pulled out a small book that she was feverishly looking through.    "Hold it down" she said weakly as she sat up and gingerly dismounted the cart.  

"Are you kidding?  This thing is trying to eat me!" yelled Kale, jokingly.  The hobbit lunged again and this time was able to grab ahold of Kale's jacket.  "IT CURSED ME!!!!  YOU ALL CURSED MEEEEEE!!!!!" it shrieked before Geekusoid came up from behind and clubbed it with his boot.

The halfling fell to the ground and was promptly detained by Ragnar, Sve7en, Geek and Thunder.  It spat at them and wriggled with everything it could.  Now that they could all clearly see it, they realized that she was indeed bewitched.  Her eyes were cloudy and red with terror and rage.  Each time the grasp on her was softened she tugged and pulled to wrench an arm free to try and bite, scratch or spit at her captors.   Nham, helped Jess to her feet and helped her walk closer to the female halfling.

"YOU CURSED ME!!!  I WILL FINISH YOU!!!  GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!" the halfling shrieked again as Jess came closer and began reading from her book.  "You see without seeing.  To you, day is as dark as night..." Jess giggles.  "Oops, wrong spell....almost turned her into a bat."  She thumbed over another couple of pages.  "Ah, here we are." she said as she held her hand up toward the hobbit.

"Reverte.  Offero surgito finite incantatem.   Reverte.  Offero surgito finite incantatem..."

As Jess proceeded to repeat these words, the hobbit began to relax and the shrieking began to stop.  The red in her eyes began to dissipate however her eyes were still sullen and grey.  Eventually, the hobbit stopped resisting all together and Jess nodded to the others to go ahead and release her.   As they did, they watched the hobbits hair turn silvery gray, almost matching that of her eyes...before her eyes closed almost at peace.  

"Reverte.  Offero surgito finite incantatem." Jess whispered one more time as the hobbit drew a long deep breath and began snoring.  It wasn't a young hobbit, but an older woman halfling.  Sve7en and Geek moved her off the roadway and near a soft mossy spot and covered her up with a blanket.  The hobbit rolled over and snored loudly again.

"Poor thing was indeed cursed.  By what, I have no idea..." gestured Jess as she was assisted back to the cart, still weak and ill.  "She's sleeping now.  We should get going because while I don't think she's cursed anymore...when she wakes up she's going to have one hell of a headache..."

The party nodded in agreement and set off quickly away from the halfling.   They were a couple miles away as the sun began setting.  Camp was struck and a fire made.  Ruggsy, who was now the de-facto chef of the party began cooking dinner while south of them the trees rocked...and swayed....and whispered.