Elendor
Murder Investigation on the Barrow Downs
Muirgheal, Cordelia and the ranger Thulion go out to the Barrow Downs to investigate the skeleton found there before the Mayor of Bree and his friends arrive.
Sort Date: no date set
Location: Barrow Downs
IC Time: Daytime
Weather: Clear
Description: Walking along the east road, you come to a portion that passes north of the mysterious, dark and foreboding Barrow downs. Stories abound about the strange things that have been witnessed here in the past. Stories of spirits and ghosts haunting the hills that lie to the south. Strangely, by day, they don't look so spooky.
"I swear, he's a ranger! Well, he looks like a ranger, you know...tall, dark hair, grey eyes...And if he's not a ranger, he's a hunter and can at least tell us how old that body is." Thus it was that Cordelia explained to Muirgheal why she had asked the man named Leland Foxbrush (or some such 'local' name...the girl couldn't remember it exactly) to journey with them, starting at the crack of dawn, to the Barrow Downs again. Before, as Cordelia had insisted, the mayor and his hundred cousins made the trip and mucked it all up, as hobbits will.
And so, the day has dawned, and Cordelia, Muirgheal and "Leland" met at the Inn-yard of the Pony and are now slowly making their way to the Barrow downs on what promises to be a fine May day, the sun barely even up. Cordelia, for the time being at least, walks, perhaps to keep Leland company. She has been very quiet for the moment.
[Thulion(#28108)]
Tall, raven haired and grey eyed indeed is this 'Leland', striding along the road easily beside Cordelia. Whether hunter or ranger, he certainly has spent a lot of time in the wilds: dark grey cloak of thick wool is weathered, faded and a little frayed at the hem, the cloth lent a brownish hue perhaps by accumulation of dirt, clasped at the throat with bronze brooch marked with a fox-mask. Naught much else is visible of his attire, though he carries quiver and longbow upon his back, and his leather boots are worn with long years' heavy use. His face would certainly be handsome, were he cleaned up and shaven, but as it is scraggly stubble lines his jaw.
Content, too, is he to walk in silence, eyes slightly narrowed as he peers ahead of them, on down the road and to either side of it. When he finally does speak, it is but softly, measured to be heard only by his companions in the still morning air, else broken only by the cry of a hawk high overhead. "We are nearing the Downs. Where lie these bones that you found?"
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal has ridden her black mare, an Elvish horse to anyone who would know, while the other two have been walking. The mare walks slowly to keep pace with them. Lovely Muirgheal looks a bit paler than usual at the prospect of returning to the Downs. She hasn't said much on the way here, but as they near the place where she and Cordelia found the body, she finally speaks up to answer Leland. "Over beyond that little wall," the blonde replies, pointing.
The sound of a hawk cry overhead makes Cordelia look up, squinting into the sky--and then turning her gaze, with a bit of a smirk, to Leland. "Your bird?" she asks him. "That's the second time a hawk has shown up when you were around, and it seemed to..." Well, she lets that be as the man asks a question. "Right, over the wall, just a little south of here. It seems odd--what are the barrows, anyhow?" she continues.
Falling quiet for a moment, Cordelia hurries a bit to draw next to Muirgheal on her horse, whispering something low to the woman, to the effect of, "Doesn't he look a lot like Rhifaroth and the rest of the rangers? I don't understand why all these men who call themselves rangers all seem to look alike."
Roadside Brush, South of the Great East Road
A low ditch to the south of the Great East Road, this area is filled with low-lying brush and ancient trees that were planted alongside the road long ago by the men of the Kingdom of Arnor. The road runs east-west just north of here. Southward, a wide expanse of grassland stretches toward a structure in the distance that appears to be a ruined wall. Beyond the wall rises the spectral and ill-rumored land of the Barrow Downs.
A lightly-worn path leads out of the ditch and southward toward the ruined wall. The Great East Road runs past just to the north.
[Thulion(#28108)]
At Cordelia's whispering, a slight twitch tugs at the corner of Leland's lips, but walking on ahead as he is, it is unlikely either of the women catch it. He nods, then, directing his gaze and his steps towards the wall, and with casual agility, he crosses over it, his feet landing all but soundlessly on the other side. "Aye, she is a friend," answers he, a bit belatedly, to Cordelia's question about the hawk. "And a good partner to have on a hunt. Where from here?" His gaze sweeps the immediate area, then broadens out towards the horizon. "The barrows are old tombs of men, or so I have been told," he adds softly, a little distractedly, as though this history holds little interest for him.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal's glance darts quickly from Cordelia, to Leland, and back. Dark eyes watch her friend as she giggles and replies, "Yes, he does look a bit like Rhifaroth. Perhaps they're all...brothers? Cousins. From some mysterious country?" Muirgheal hypothesizes, her voice pitched low but not a whisper. She's not distracted by Cordelia's question for long, though. The wall looms ahead, and what Leland says interests her. "Graves. That would explain the skeleton. I -knew- there were ghosts there. That's why we felt so uneasy." Muir says to Cordelia, dark eyes animated.
Just over the wall, trinkets sparkle here and there in the grass--an ancient coin, a broken bit of gold jewelry, even a ring. There seems, in fact, to be a small trail of gold--and in the near distance, something in the grass that is bone-colored.
"Yes, cousins or relatives, of course," Cordelia answers back, her voice low, but now that the ranger has moved on ahead she doesn't whisper. "But from where? I don't get it--they don't look like the rest of the folk from Bree, after all. Where's Rhifaroth from again?" Muirgheal's talk of ghost, though, makes her roll her eyes. "They're just dead people, Muirgheal. I've never seen a ghost. And even the mayor--a hobbit, for goodness sake!--even he doesn't believe in ghosts." She walks firmly toward the wall and, not waiting for the other woman, steps over it.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The answer to his question is apparent enough, and so stepping to the side of the glittering trail, Leland follows it with slow steps, not showing any awareness of the conversation behind him. His gaze is turned downward, inspecting the glittering objects as he walks, but there is nothing covetous in his eyes and he makes no move to touch any of the precious objects. Arriving, at length, at the place with the bones, he squats down low to inspect them visually, his gaze searching, too, the earth around the area. "When did you say you found this, again? And it was just the two of you?" he calls to the pair of them.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal's gaze flits this way and that, skimming over all the treasures that randomly litter the ground. So many bright, glittering things to see! Muir looks at them with an expression akin to lust. "No such thing as ghosts, you say?" She murmurs to Cordelia, trying to put on a brave face. She dismounts her mare and picks up a bracelet with only one stone missing. "Well, then...just suppose I'll help myself a bit..." Muirgheal picks up a ring, and a little necklace- her daughter will like that, surely..The thin woman in lavender walks from treasure to treasure, collecting a little pile like a magpie, hands shaking nervously all the while.
Both of Cordelia's brows arch in surprise as Muirgheal begins collecting jewlery--and she glances at Thulion, giving the man a hard look before she, too, picks up some gold. "A week or two ago," she answers him, slowly making her way toward the skeleton. "Only we didn't like the feel of the place here....seemed haunted. And then, there -was- that tale about the windows breaking in the Pony and something cold and eerie coming through. And not just hobbits telling the tale, either," she squints at "Leland." "You look like Muirgheal's husband. You could be cousins, you know."
The skeleton has clearly been there for a while--it's not ancient, but the man (and it is a man's bones) died perhaps in the past two years.
[Thulion(#28108)]
So-called 'Leland' turns his head to glance towards the women, and seeing the golden objects glittering in their hands, his brows immediately draw together, his grey eyes flashing. "Foolish girls!" he scolds in a hiss. "Is it not clear to you, that whomever this was," A hand gestures to the long dead bones, "Was trying to make for the road with those very trinkets? Tried, and failed! Do you wish to end up like he, dragged away and murdered? If not, then put those back!" He eyes the pair of them darkly, still crouched beside the bones.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal is fairly easy to sway, once Leland has scolded them. She tosses all the things she's been carrying back onto the ground. Her pretty black mare steps sideways, uneasy as her rider. "Th-that's what I thought," Muir stammers to Cordelia, not looking at the man again. "It's haunted." Usually this woman has a fiery attitude and words to match, but not today, out here where she feels a vague sort of dread. What would Rhifaroth say if he knew she were out here again, in her present condition? She puts a hand to her belly, and looks at the bracelets and rings now scattered at her feet. Best to leave them there. Finally, she gives a nod to Leland, as if to thank him for the warning.
"That's because he was robbing someone or something," Cordelia rolls her eyes. "But we're not robbing anyone, are we? These things have been here for a while, from the looks of those bones, and it's not likely that whatever it was--ghost or not--will come after us after all this time." Still, she drops the trinkets she has picked up--or appears to, palming a golden brooch studded with small jewels. Keen eyes might see her do so, if they are watching closely.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The man narrows his eyes at Cordelia, his voice low and a shade dangerous. "You say the ghost that broke in at the Pony was no hobbit-tale, and yet you doubt that something will come for its rightful belongings? Did you, or did you not take an earring from this very place, Miss Wood? Have you thought that, perhaps, maybe /that/ was what the ghost was seeking?"
Slowly he rises to his feet, seeming taller than ever, grim-faced with penetrating gaze felled upon Cordelia. "A man this was," he nods to the bones. "Died some year and a half ago, I deem, and by no hand of man, for there is no weapon mark nor sign of physical struggle upon him. Ghosts do not perish and do not tire, Miss Wood, and they will seek revenge upon any who take what is theirs. Finding something upon the ground does not mean it is unwanted by someone, or something, and it certainly does not make it rightfully yours."
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal listens to all of Thulion's talk of ghosts with increasing distress. She walks over to her mare, putting a hand on the horse's neck, trying to calm and steady herself. "Let's just go," Muir says, already mounting her horse again. "This was stupid," she mutters to neither of her companions in particular. "This place is damned. Ghosts.." She shivers visibly. "Rhifaroth was right. I shouldn't be out here at all, least of all when I'm pregnant..." Before she gets ready to ride out, however, she has something else to say to Cordelia. "Mind you do what Leland says and leave the trinkets. If the ghost comes looking for you, would you know how to fight it?" She shakes her head.
"I...no..." Cordelia shakes her head rapidly at the ranger, stepping back involuntarily, almost, as the man turns his gaze on her. "I found an earring in a meadow by the north gate..well, that's one of them...there's the one I showed you," she colors--glancing to Muirgheal, but that woman is no help. Frowning, Cordelia turns back to Leland. "All right..there's this, yes." With that, she draws out the earring she showed him the other day. "Will this do?" she asks, as she stoops to set it on the ground. Of course, there's the brooch she just palmed...and a knife she picked up last time she was here, but neither of those are mentioned.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The Ranger's - or hunter's - gaze remains upon Cordelia for another painfully long moment. "Miss Wood, only you can answer for that," he says quietly, then at last breaks his eyes from her, glancing skyward, then sweeping the area once more. Stepping away from the bones, he takes care not to trod upon any of the gleaming objects. "Heed your friend, if you will not me," he adds to the dark-haired woman, then looks towards Muirgheal, his gaze hardly the piercing stare of a few moments before. He nods his head, a tight smile pulling at his lips. "Yes, come, let us go. If you both wish, ride ahead on your horse, that you reach town in time to get yourselves home. I do not mind the walk."
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal, now atop her mare, gives Leland a sweet, quick smile. At least someone agrees with her about the dangers of ghosts! Cordelia had almost convinced her that she was foolish not to take the treasure... "Alright," Muir agrees about riding on. "Just be careful," she adds needlessly. "Oh...and Leland? My husband would thank you, I think. For convincing me to part with the trinkets." She grins, then looks to see if Cordelia wants to ride with her.
Uncomfortable under the ranger's glare, Cordelia quickly drops her gaze. "I'll ride with Muir," she says, waiting until that woman is not looking her direction--and then opening her hand and letting the jeweled brooch fall softly to the ground. She looks up, giving Leland a quick glance before walking to the horse to mount behind Muirgheal.
[Thulion(#28108)]
Leland's glance falls back to Cordelia just as she looks up at him, and he nods. "Fare well then, for now. I am sure we shall meet again soon," he murmurs, then steps towards the road. As he passes where Cordelia had been standing, his gaze drops briefly, lighting on the brooch, and a faint smile flickers across his lips. He is over the wall then, back upon the road, a hawk's cry piercing the air overhead.
"I swear, he's a ranger! Well, he looks like a ranger, you know...tall, dark hair, grey eyes...And if he's not a ranger, he's a hunter and can at least tell us how old that body is." Thus it was that Cordelia explained to Muirgheal why she had asked the man named Leland Foxbrush (or some such 'local' name...the girl couldn't remember it exactly) to journey with them, starting at the crack of dawn, to the Barrow Downs again. Before, as Cordelia had insisted, the mayor and his hundred cousins made the trip and mucked it all up, as hobbits will.
And so, the day has dawned, and Cordelia, Muirgheal and "Leland" met at the Inn-yard of the Pony and are now slowly making their way to the Barrow downs on what promises to be a fine May day, the sun barely even up. Cordelia, for the time being at least, walks, perhaps to keep Leland company. She has been very quiet for the moment.
[Thulion(#28108)]
Tall, raven haired and grey eyed indeed is this 'Leland', striding along the road easily beside Cordelia. Whether hunter or ranger, he certainly has spent a lot of time in the wilds: dark grey cloak of thick wool is weathered, faded and a little frayed at the hem, the cloth lent a brownish hue perhaps by accumulation of dirt, clasped at the throat with bronze brooch marked with a fox-mask. Naught much else is visible of his attire, though he carries quiver and longbow upon his back, and his leather boots are worn with long years' heavy use. His face would certainly be handsome, were he cleaned up and shaven, but as it is scraggly stubble lines his jaw.
Content, too, is he to walk in silence, eyes slightly narrowed as he peers ahead of them, on down the road and to either side of it. When he finally does speak, it is but softly, measured to be heard only by his companions in the still morning air, else broken only by the cry of a hawk high overhead. "We are nearing the Downs. Where lie these bones that you found?"
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal has ridden her black mare, an Elvish horse to anyone who would know, while the other two have been walking. The mare walks slowly to keep pace with them. Lovely Muirgheal looks a bit paler than usual at the prospect of returning to the Downs. She hasn't said much on the way here, but as they near the place where she and Cordelia found the body, she finally speaks up to answer Leland. "Over beyond that little wall," the blonde replies, pointing.
The sound of a hawk cry overhead makes Cordelia look up, squinting into the sky--and then turning her gaze, with a bit of a smirk, to Leland. "Your bird?" she asks him. "That's the second time a hawk has shown up when you were around, and it seemed to..." Well, she lets that be as the man asks a question. "Right, over the wall, just a little south of here. It seems odd--what are the barrows, anyhow?" she continues.
Falling quiet for a moment, Cordelia hurries a bit to draw next to Muirgheal on her horse, whispering something low to the woman, to the effect of, "Doesn't he look a lot like Rhifaroth and the rest of the rangers? I don't understand why all these men who call themselves rangers all seem to look alike."
Roadside Brush, South of the Great East Road
A low ditch to the south of the Great East Road, this area is filled with low-lying brush and ancient trees that were planted alongside the road long ago by the men of the Kingdom of Arnor. The road runs east-west just north of here. Southward, a wide expanse of grassland stretches toward a structure in the distance that appears to be a ruined wall. Beyond the wall rises the spectral and ill-rumored land of the Barrow Downs.
A lightly-worn path leads out of the ditch and southward toward the ruined wall. The Great East Road runs past just to the north.
[Thulion(#28108)]
At Cordelia's whispering, a slight twitch tugs at the corner of Leland's lips, but walking on ahead as he is, it is unlikely either of the women catch it. He nods, then, directing his gaze and his steps towards the wall, and with casual agility, he crosses over it, his feet landing all but soundlessly on the other side. "Aye, she is a friend," answers he, a bit belatedly, to Cordelia's question about the hawk. "And a good partner to have on a hunt. Where from here?" His gaze sweeps the immediate area, then broadens out towards the horizon. "The barrows are old tombs of men, or so I have been told," he adds softly, a little distractedly, as though this history holds little interest for him.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal's glance darts quickly from Cordelia, to Leland, and back. Dark eyes watch her friend as she giggles and replies, "Yes, he does look a bit like Rhifaroth. Perhaps they're all...brothers? Cousins. From some mysterious country?" Muirgheal hypothesizes, her voice pitched low but not a whisper. She's not distracted by Cordelia's question for long, though. The wall looms ahead, and what Leland says interests her. "Graves. That would explain the skeleton. I -knew- there were ghosts there. That's why we felt so uneasy." Muir says to Cordelia, dark eyes animated.
Just over the wall, trinkets sparkle here and there in the grass--an ancient coin, a broken bit of gold jewelry, even a ring. There seems, in fact, to be a small trail of gold--and in the near distance, something in the grass that is bone-colored.
"Yes, cousins or relatives, of course," Cordelia answers back, her voice low, but now that the ranger has moved on ahead she doesn't whisper. "But from where? I don't get it--they don't look like the rest of the folk from Bree, after all. Where's Rhifaroth from again?" Muirgheal's talk of ghost, though, makes her roll her eyes. "They're just dead people, Muirgheal. I've never seen a ghost. And even the mayor--a hobbit, for goodness sake!--even he doesn't believe in ghosts." She walks firmly toward the wall and, not waiting for the other woman, steps over it.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The answer to his question is apparent enough, and so stepping to the side of the glittering trail, Leland follows it with slow steps, not showing any awareness of the conversation behind him. His gaze is turned downward, inspecting the glittering objects as he walks, but there is nothing covetous in his eyes and he makes no move to touch any of the precious objects. Arriving, at length, at the place with the bones, he squats down low to inspect them visually, his gaze searching, too, the earth around the area. "When did you say you found this, again? And it was just the two of you?" he calls to the pair of them.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal's gaze flits this way and that, skimming over all the treasures that randomly litter the ground. So many bright, glittering things to see! Muir looks at them with an expression akin to lust. "No such thing as ghosts, you say?" She murmurs to Cordelia, trying to put on a brave face. She dismounts her mare and picks up a bracelet with only one stone missing. "Well, then...just suppose I'll help myself a bit..." Muirgheal picks up a ring, and a little necklace- her daughter will like that, surely..The thin woman in lavender walks from treasure to treasure, collecting a little pile like a magpie, hands shaking nervously all the while.
Both of Cordelia's brows arch in surprise as Muirgheal begins collecting jewlery--and she glances at Thulion, giving the man a hard look before she, too, picks up some gold. "A week or two ago," she answers him, slowly making her way toward the skeleton. "Only we didn't like the feel of the place here....seemed haunted. And then, there -was- that tale about the windows breaking in the Pony and something cold and eerie coming through. And not just hobbits telling the tale, either," she squints at "Leland." "You look like Muirgheal's husband. You could be cousins, you know."
The skeleton has clearly been there for a while--it's not ancient, but the man (and it is a man's bones) died perhaps in the past two years.
[Thulion(#28108)]
So-called 'Leland' turns his head to glance towards the women, and seeing the golden objects glittering in their hands, his brows immediately draw together, his grey eyes flashing. "Foolish girls!" he scolds in a hiss. "Is it not clear to you, that whomever this was," A hand gestures to the long dead bones, "Was trying to make for the road with those very trinkets? Tried, and failed! Do you wish to end up like he, dragged away and murdered? If not, then put those back!" He eyes the pair of them darkly, still crouched beside the bones.
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal is fairly easy to sway, once Leland has scolded them. She tosses all the things she's been carrying back onto the ground. Her pretty black mare steps sideways, uneasy as her rider. "Th-that's what I thought," Muir stammers to Cordelia, not looking at the man again. "It's haunted." Usually this woman has a fiery attitude and words to match, but not today, out here where she feels a vague sort of dread. What would Rhifaroth say if he knew she were out here again, in her present condition? She puts a hand to her belly, and looks at the bracelets and rings now scattered at her feet. Best to leave them there. Finally, she gives a nod to Leland, as if to thank him for the warning.
"That's because he was robbing someone or something," Cordelia rolls her eyes. "But we're not robbing anyone, are we? These things have been here for a while, from the looks of those bones, and it's not likely that whatever it was--ghost or not--will come after us after all this time." Still, she drops the trinkets she has picked up--or appears to, palming a golden brooch studded with small jewels. Keen eyes might see her do so, if they are watching closely.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The man narrows his eyes at Cordelia, his voice low and a shade dangerous. "You say the ghost that broke in at the Pony was no hobbit-tale, and yet you doubt that something will come for its rightful belongings? Did you, or did you not take an earring from this very place, Miss Wood? Have you thought that, perhaps, maybe /that/ was what the ghost was seeking?"
Slowly he rises to his feet, seeming taller than ever, grim-faced with penetrating gaze felled upon Cordelia. "A man this was," he nods to the bones. "Died some year and a half ago, I deem, and by no hand of man, for there is no weapon mark nor sign of physical struggle upon him. Ghosts do not perish and do not tire, Miss Wood, and they will seek revenge upon any who take what is theirs. Finding something upon the ground does not mean it is unwanted by someone, or something, and it certainly does not make it rightfully yours."
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal listens to all of Thulion's talk of ghosts with increasing distress. She walks over to her mare, putting a hand on the horse's neck, trying to calm and steady herself. "Let's just go," Muir says, already mounting her horse again. "This was stupid," she mutters to neither of her companions in particular. "This place is damned. Ghosts.." She shivers visibly. "Rhifaroth was right. I shouldn't be out here at all, least of all when I'm pregnant..." Before she gets ready to ride out, however, she has something else to say to Cordelia. "Mind you do what Leland says and leave the trinkets. If the ghost comes looking for you, would you know how to fight it?" She shakes her head.
"I...no..." Cordelia shakes her head rapidly at the ranger, stepping back involuntarily, almost, as the man turns his gaze on her. "I found an earring in a meadow by the north gate..well, that's one of them...there's the one I showed you," she colors--glancing to Muirgheal, but that woman is no help. Frowning, Cordelia turns back to Leland. "All right..there's this, yes." With that, she draws out the earring she showed him the other day. "Will this do?" she asks, as she stoops to set it on the ground. Of course, there's the brooch she just palmed...and a knife she picked up last time she was here, but neither of those are mentioned.
[Thulion(#28108)]
The Ranger's - or hunter's - gaze remains upon Cordelia for another painfully long moment. "Miss Wood, only you can answer for that," he says quietly, then at last breaks his eyes from her, glancing skyward, then sweeping the area once more. Stepping away from the bones, he takes care not to trod upon any of the gleaming objects. "Heed your friend, if you will not me," he adds to the dark-haired woman, then looks towards Muirgheal, his gaze hardly the piercing stare of a few moments before. He nods his head, a tight smile pulling at his lips. "Yes, come, let us go. If you both wish, ride ahead on your horse, that you reach town in time to get yourselves home. I do not mind the walk."
[Muirgheal(#32535)] Muirgheal, now atop her mare, gives Leland a sweet, quick smile. At least someone agrees with her about the dangers of ghosts! Cordelia had almost convinced her that she was foolish not to take the treasure... "Alright," Muir agrees about riding on. "Just be careful," she adds needlessly. "Oh...and Leland? My husband would thank you, I think. For convincing me to part with the trinkets." She grins, then looks to see if Cordelia wants to ride with her.
Uncomfortable under the ranger's glare, Cordelia quickly drops her gaze. "I'll ride with Muir," she says, waiting until that woman is not looking her direction--and then opening her hand and letting the jeweled brooch fall softly to the ground. She looks up, giving Leland a quick glance before walking to the horse to mount behind Muirgheal.
[Thulion(#28108)]
Leland's glance falls back to Cordelia just as she looks up at him, and he nods. "Fare well then, for now. I am sure we shall meet again soon," he murmurs, then steps towards the road. As he passes where Cordelia had been standing, his gaze drops briefly, lighting on the brooch, and a faint smile flickers across his lips. He is over the wall then, back upon the road, a hawk's cry piercing the air overhead.
Players: Thulion,Muirgheal,Cordelia
