Found:
A strange sigil - Ancient. Eroded. Part of a whole?
Broken pick - owner presumably dead.
Sapphire ring - Can't be more than fifteen years old. Worth selling on.
It's been a few weeks since I arrived in this dusty hole of a land. I set up camp at the base of the large hill, Weathertop I believe. There's a good source of clear water there, but foes on every side. For all the talk of bounty collectors roaming Eriador, it would seem that this area has been largely overlooked in the endless quest for coin. No matter. The dull witted are generally avoided with ease and whilst I'd rather avoid a fight, my daggers are ever sharp should the need arise.
My first night here, I saw a light in the distance. Curious, I wandered in its direction. Finding a tavern upon the road, I poked my head in on the hope of a decent cooked meal and a good drink. I found neither. Indeed, this wretched hovel is little better than the ruins I habitually stalk. The food could barely be called gruel and the drinks were little more than stagnant water mildly fermented. The Forsaken Inn and its swill; two apt names if ever such existed!
Still, not all was lost. I'd not been in there long before a handsome stranger entered the, for want of a better word, building. He stuck out like a sore thumb - his attire and bearing clearly marking him as an infrequent visitor - but then I suppose I did too. We spent a night or two at my camp; a welcome distraction. A warm body pressed so close can, for a while, offer the illusion of belonging or affection. But that it all it is in the end; naught but an illusion. I woke one morn to find him gone. So that's what that feels like! The irony was not lost on me, indeed it kept me laughing for the rest of the day!
As he had done, so did I - taking up my gear to move further along the road. I noted that there are many ruins here but most, I think, have long since been picked clean. A chance encounter with a local man - Eglain, they call themselves - revealed that they often seek money from the remnants of the past and there is little here that is by now untouched.
I thought to put my curiosities aside then, to simply pass through these Lone lands alike a ghost and I very nearly did! However, as I wandered along in the deepening dusk, I caught sight of a promising glow within ruins atop a hill.
Wights, of course!
I've such a great deal of experience with the creatures that, by this point, they hardly pose an issue. However, further in, I came across sign of something all together more troublesome. It would seem that a Gaunt Lord holds sway over this place; Nan Dhelu, or so the inscription reads. I hate Gaunt Lords. I've faced them several times in the past and always come out on top, but they are not like their dull thralls. They are cunning, wretched, conniving creatures, stronger and quicker than their bloated and rotten bodyguards. Worse still, they always strike me as so bloody well self-righteous! Not entirely unlike the Ranger types who do so love to warn me against everything.
Speaking of which, I found one of them too. Or rather, he found me. We conversed a while. There was much talk of curses and dire fates, how a woman should not travel alone and so on. Weak creatures that we are, yes? Unable to so much as raise a spoon without the strong arm of a man to guide our hand! Hah! Taunting him was a great deal of fun! For a time there, he was convinced that I was a witch, seeking to steal his very soul through the evils of intimacy! Regardless, I managed a kiss on the cheek from him before we parted ways. He left me with a promise to never forget me; a sweet sentiment, but inaccurate and misguided. I'll fade from his mind as I do from others.
For now, I turn my attention back to this sigil. It is curious. I've never seen its like before, but something tells me that the value it holds lies not within the sigil itself but what it might lead to. I'll need to return to Nan Dhelu, perhaps rid it of the Gaunt Lord for a time - those damned things always reappear after a while. Further investigation is warranted, and if there is nothing within this particular ruin, then perhaps the answer lies within one of the other waterlogged wreckages nearby.
