Days 8-10
These days have not been easy.
The rescue party - most of our company, along with three of the Elves - returned in the morning on the first day. I had slept very little from worry, but they returned looking slightly less bad than my worst fears... Morfryn was the most badly injured, but thanks to the wonders of Elvish medicine, by the evening he had already made a remarkable recovery.
Just as importantly, their mission had been a success: they found an Orc camp where the captives from the road were being held, and freed them all, after a fierce battle with the beasts.
We also had a stroke of good fortune. The Elves had agreed to help us rescue Fiontann, though none of us yet knew the location of their main encampment: but that same day, a Ranger, Estenthel, returned to Gwingris. She had been presumed dead by the Elves, but had in fact managed to locate the main Orcish encampment. Apparently it lies many leagues to the West, in the foothills of a great mountain named the Redhorn (they all kept calling it Caradhras, but Redhorn appears to be its common name).
And she had even seen the six Orc riders enter the camp with a Man fitting Fiontann's description. Finally, we know where he is!
In less good news, Estenthel had also counted between two and three hundred Orcs inside - not to mention wargs: far too many for our numbers to confront openly, even with warriors like Blodflaed and Morfryn, and even if the Elves would assist us.
We turned to planning. The Elves - Almerion - proposed that it would not be too difficult for most of our company to pose as bandits seeking to join the Orc-leader's warband. In that way we could gain entry to look around, and slowly build trust - both to find Fion, and to recover, or destroy, the Chain. Almerion warned us that this would be a "long game" - I don't know how Elves think about time, but he seemed to be speaking of weeks at least... perhaps months.
None of us had a better plan, so... we have agreed.
I am not at all sure about this. Oh - it will not surprise those who know me at all to read that I will not be joining the undercover group. Someone actually laughed when I mentioned I was considering dressing up as a bandit... and they were right. I can't imagine anyone in the party more likely to give the game away. Though it does leave me with a bit of a dilemma of what on earth to do that might be useful. Morfryn suggested I go back to Rivendell, and use the library to try and learn more about the Chain. I'm not sure I will be able to learn much, and I suspect he knows it... he just knows I want to feel useful, and how much I enjoyed our brief time there.
As for the others: the Elves had found some old battered Mannish weapons and clothes (which I suspect might be what gave them this mad idea), and they have all been fashioning disguises and personas, and some of them practising with new weapons.
((The next line is written in clumsy Elvish letters - perhaps an attempt to encode them, in case the journal falls into enemy hands- ))
Blodflaed is to be Belle. Morfryn is to be Drake. Lheuwen is to be Nessa. Remaric is to be Crawley.
I feel I must emphasise my general disagreement with this whole plan... though of course I am torn. We cannot abandon Fiontann to weeks of captivity, or worse. My preference, I suppose, would be to go looking for enough allies, to help us rid the Lone-lands of the menace of this warband once and for all. Perhaps that is what I shall do... although, it is one thing for me to imagine or declare what would be best - and quite another to persuade hundreds of people to leave their homes and farms, and march halfway across Middle-earth to risk their lives against a vast force for a group of strangers who could not even protect their own leader...
I cannot think about it too hard. It becomes hopeless. And suddenly I am brought back around to our only hope lying in secrecy, and reluctantly going along with the Elves' plan anyway. So here we are.
... I do not know how regular my entries will be from now on. Perhaps I shall write something just to keep my mind busy. But it will be difficult and risky for the others to sneak messages out to those of us remaining in Gwingris; and I don't imagine they will be able to get much detail to us even then.
I can only place my faith once again in the Powers. I pray they keep my friends safe from harm, and let everyone come safely home. I shall pray for nothing else until then.