The Journey to Khazad-dûm, part 3.
Khazad-dûm, long lost. Balin went there with an expedition, to reclaim it for the Dwarves. No words have been heard from Balin and his expedition in a long time. And now, it is finally decided to send a new expedition there. I, Dhordur Stonebeard, Troll Slayer, son of Ghord Stonebeard is joining this new expedition. I am hopeful of it, this will succeed, we will find Balin or what that remains of his expedition and reclaim Khazad-dûm for the Dwarves!
The Trollshaws
''Trollshaws, full with Trolls and other creatures that lurk in the dark. Bah, I am not afraid for some mere Trolls, I have slain some and would slay more if I could. I'm after all Dhordur Stonebeard, Troll Slayer! With my axe I will slay any Troll coming in our way. This place, it is watched over by the Elves of Rivendell, a hidden Elven city somewhere deep in the Trollshaws.
Bah, Elves, they could not hunt out all the Trolls in the Trollshaws, they are too lazy and get others to do their bidding. Meh, enough of the Elves. We will head of soon, through the Trollshaws. We know that we will encounter Trolls on the way, but can not say how many. We will keep to the road until near the Ford of Bruinen, there a road is said to head of up a hill and further on. That road we will follow and pass by some old Elven ruins, there we will set up camp for a bit and then head further on. There we will go up another road in Tâl Bruinen and into Eregion.'' - out take from the diary ''Expedition of Khazad-dûm'' by Dhordur Stonebeard, Troll Slayer.
They packed up their camp by the bridge from the Lone-lands into the Trollshaws and set off. They had to be even more wary now, this regions name have not got the name just for the mere fun of it, it was inhabited by Trolls. Somewhere in there it was also said that the three Trolls, that Bilbo Baggins on the Quest to reclaim Erebor, that he had made into stone by tricking them until morning. If they were lucky enough they would have the sun on their side and would not encounter any Trolls at all, but they did count with encountering some, as the trees of the Trollshaws do hide the sun at some points.
They had passed the Southern Trollshaws without any encounters, but now the trees grow more together. Just as they almost were by the Bruinen Gorges, they encountered two Trolls that came out of no where. They fought bravely but then a third Troll came out of the other side, grabbing two of the dwarves and head away again into the forest to the north. Dhordur managed to slay one Troll and the second one head off back into the southern forest. It was the two brothers Dhorim and Ghorim that was taken.
Dhordur, Hordh and Dherd II set off into the northern woods to save them while the caravan set off in advance.
Rescue in the Trollshaws
Dhordur and his companions was heading north into the woods, they were tracking the Troll. They went through Nan Tornaeth, it took them a rather big part of the day and they ended up in the Northern Trollshaws, still tracking the Troll. They managed to track the Troll to the place he had stopped at. They could see two Trolls there, one being the one that took the Dwarves and the other being the one that had attacked on the southern side.
''Trolls, how do they dare to cross my way. We were attacked by two Trolls from the south just by the Bruinen Gorges. When I was about to slay one of them a third Troll came from the north, snatching the two brothers, Dhorim and Ghorim and ran off back towards the north. I did slay the Troll and the last Troll ran off to the south. I brought Dherd II and Hordh with me and started to track the Troll up to the north, we had to rescue the brothers. It took us well past mid day to track it, all the way up to the Northern Trollshaws it went.
There we could see the Troll that snatched the brothers and the other Troll that had attacked us. It felt strange, Trolls are mindless, they could not have planned that attack by themselves. That was when we saw some Wildmen, even known as Hillmen, the ones that the Rohans had hunted up into the hills to the west of Isengard. They wore a mark of a white hand, they were only four, one of them looking like the leader.'' - out take from the diary ''Expedition of Khazad-dûm'' by Dhordur Stonebeard, Troll Slayer.
While they watched them they saw four wildmen of Dunland coming out from the shadows to the Trolls, they wore a mark of a white hand. They engaged in speaking with the Trolls, the Dwarves were not close enough to hear them and suddenly the wildmen leader as he appeared to be struck one of the brothers. That was when the three Dwarves ran out of their hiding spot, shouting high and clear, ''Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!'', with their axes held high.
Dhordur quickly climbed one of the Troll, slaying it in one quick sweep, cutting the head of. The other two charged the wildmen, fighting them. The last Troll charged the Dwarves attacking the wildmen and Dhordur set off towards it, cutting it's left leg. It helped as it stopped and got down on one of it's knees, then it took a quick sweep with it's arm, Dhordur flew a few meters and landed close by a big rock, it was just mere luck that he did not hit it. Two of the wildmen were dead by now, the Troll stood up again, now walking towards Dhordur. Dherd II quit fighting and ran to the brothers, handing them an axe each, they got up and ran towards the Troll as Dhordur was still on the ground, shaken by the hit and the flight trough the air.
When he had shaken it of himself, he saw the Troll just over him, getting ready to squeeze him to death when the brothers attacked the Troll, cutting it as much as they could. Dhordur quickly got up, cutting the troll in both legs, deeper this time, making it to fall. Now he took up a spear from one of the fallen wildmen, as all of the four wildmen were slain now. All the Dwarves stood next to Dhordur as the Troll started to scream at them. Dhordur quickly pushed the spear right into it's open mouth, pushing it so it went out through the back of it's head, killing it instantly.
As soon as the Troll died the Dwarves instantly head of the same way they had taken when they tracked the Troll.
Joining the caravan again
It started to grow dark as they finally arrived back at the road again. They headed east along the road and found the road that went off to the south, they followed it. They went past the Elven ruin and it had now turned to night. They managed to get to the next road and headed up it into Eregion, as they followed it further they could see the ruin of Gwingris, where Elves now resided. Just outside the ruin the caravan was camped, at dawn it would head further south, to Echad Dunann, just outside the road up to the walls of Khazad-dûm and Durin's Door. Soon they would be at last at the end of their travel.
