Image Created By AI
OOC - Author's Note:
This entry recounts a live RP session which revolved around the IC introduction of new player characters to the Company of the East Road - open to all. It is part of a chronicle aimed to be weekly called "Signs Along the Road". If you would like to join the Company and use this RP hook to do so, please reach out to Naridalis.
This session was held on 22nd June 2025 | The next session was held on the 29th June 2025, which you can find here. | A quicklink to the previous session is here.
A Letter to the Company of the East Road, Bree Homesteads
Subject: Request for Archival Entry — Incident at the Brandywine Bridge
Mervedis,
I hope this letter finds you well. I write so that what follows may be entered into the Company’s record. Please see it preserved under the affairs of the East Road, appended to the present season.
What occurred this morning may seem, at a glance, the work of common brigands. But the manner of it, and its ending, speak of deeper roots.
At dawn I arrived in Stock, in the Shire where word of a blockade at the Brandywine Bridge had spread swiftly. I was met by a capable party: Garibald, Oirano, Bethrelfin, and a newcomer hobbit, Bratikus, whose candid demeanour belied her bravery. The Company’s banner flew quietly with us as we marched north.
The blockade was no rumour. We found the bridge sealed by debris, crates, and felled timbers. Bounders held the western approach, weary and undermanned. Captain Eadric confirmed the bridge was taken by Rogan “Ironhand” Brand, a known outlaw, and his gang of cutthroats. They demanded coin from travellers under threat of steel.
Our first course was diplomacy. We approached under truce. Garibald spoke with strength and clarity. His words nearly won the day, Ironhand wavered, clearly unsettled, but the brigand’s courage failed him in the wrong direction, and he ordered the attack.
I gave warning. My arrows found their mark, and when Ironhand charged, I met him directly. He cut my bow arm, a shallow mark, but I turned him with steel to the thigh. Beside me, Oirano held the line with disciplined spearwork, and Bethrelfin’s bow struck true more than once. Bratikus, though flustered, rallied behind Garibald and showed no small courage.
It was Garibald, however, who shifted the battle’s rhythm. While the rest held position, he slipped through the chaos with purpose. He tripped two brigands cleanly off their feet, and sent one tumbling over the edge and into the river. Later, seeing Bethrelfin under pressure, he struck her attacker with a brutal blow to the back of the head, felling him outright. His actions were not only valiant, but precise.
And then came the unexpected: Dumpling, Bethrelfin’s calico cat, had infiltrated the enemy’s camp. At her mistress’s whistle, she burst from the crates and felled barrels, scattering the enemy further with hisses and claws. One brigand lost footing entirely, another dropped his sword. What chaos she sowed, we reaped. I would scant have believed it, had I not seen it myself, though Beth tells me it is not the first time such tactics have been successfully employed by her and Dumpling.
Captain Eadric’s Bounders charged atop their ponies soon after. Their lances broke the remaining line. Ironhand was taken alive. His men surrendered or fled.
In the quiet after battle, I questioned the brigand leader. His confession was soft and shaken: the blockade was a ruse. Its purpose was to hold attention here, while smugglers moved goods through Bucklebury Ferry to the south. He claimed the goods were harmless. I doubt that.
The Brandywine is clear now. The crossing is safe. But the ferry bears watching. I will see to it personally, though may be joined again by the companions I felt glad to have at my side this day.
Please ensure this account is set to parchment in the archive.
Further, I hope my letter finds you well.
— Naridalis
[Meanwhile in Michel Delving]
Diary of Mayor Will Whitfoot—
It ain’t every day a Mayor’s handed a letter from the Bridge-Watch with ink still damp and urgency written all over it. Seems there's been a bother on the Brandywine, though I suppose that’s putting it a bit lightly.
A band of ruffians, Men, no less, not the usual mischief-makers from around Frogmorton or Tookbank.... set up a blockade on the bridge itself they did. Bold as brass, they were, shaking down honest hobbits for coin and goods, or turning them away outright. And right at our eastern border, too. Such cheek. I’d wager not even Lotho would have had the gall, and that’s saying something.
But here’s the part that brought me to blinking. The report says the whole lot was scattered, the road made safe again, not by any muster of Shirriffs but by Outsiders... that same band calling themselves the Company of the East Road. Not just sword-swingers, mind, but scouts and wardens, elves and big folk, even one of those peculiar hobbit-lasses with more attitude than sense. Captain Eadric's called them “strange companions,” but his tone bore a respectful note. Said they moved fast, struck hard, and left no trail of wreckage save what the ruffians brought on themselves.
Now, I’ve heard mutters about the shire-inns... folk wondering if it’s right, trusting protection of our bounds to folk from Bree and beyond. But I’ll say this plainly: when trouble came knocking, they answered. And if the roads are safe today for market wagons and mushroom carts, it's on account of their blades and their daring.
Still, I’ll be keeping an eye on them. Help is help, but even well-meaning folk from outside don’t always understand how things are done in the Shire. Best to send a word of thanks... and a polite reminder that we mind our own, mostly. Though perhaps, in these times, the road don’t end at our fences anymore.
—WW
You can find more tales along the road here: "Signs Along the Road"
