User blog:Sinthorion/The story of Pallando the Blue Wizard

I started this story for the LOTR RPG forum thread because I want to learn more about Pallando's life and actions. But I realised that I don't like this RPG thread, too much metagaming, not close enough to the reality in my opinion, and it's mostly about epic battles and the movement of whole armies instead of simple adventures. So I moved my story here to write on it whenever I have too much time.

Feel free to give feedback!

Chapter 1
Pallando waked up and saw the sky over an area of plains and forests. Birds flew through the sky and various animals rested in the sunlight. He leaned with the back at a big boulder. Where am I?, he wondered.

The last thing that he remembers is the meeting with a group of men, dark men, who said to support him. He drank the mug of water that they offered him; a traditional act of trust in these cultures. Then suddenly, he felt growing weakness. He tried to get it away with his powers but the poison blocked it. The world turned black...

Now he remembers the details that bugged him with this meeting:  The suspicious grinning of the shaman of this tribe, the strange symbols on some of the banners...of course, that must be symbols from Mordor! And now he remembers where he was: In the south of Rhun, travelling to collect the support of more tribes for the rhunic resistance movement. He was poisoned and kidnapped by men that he thought of being allies and for any reason, they left him here alone.

Suddenly he jumped on his feet and checked his equipment. Some things such as money or food were missing but at least his wizard's staff and other magic utensils are there. Of course my staff isn't missing, he thought. Wizard's staffs always stick to their owners.

He still felt weakness from the poison, so he swallowed one of his potions and hoped that it will help. Then he tried to get any information about his position from the surrounding land. It was clear that he must still be in southern Rhun, but the terrain looked very different from the place where he met the evil tribe. The terrain was more even and the grass was greener. No signs of civilisation could be seen beside a suspicious ruined and overgrown stone block 10 meter away. The boulder where he laid belonged to a group of five boulders that formed a remarkable landmark, encircling that stone block, and a few paths led through this formation of stones. Pallando never had a good pathfinding skill and he would have lost these paths quickly if he tried to follow them. Without knowing where the heck he was, he started to walk towards the west. West, the direction of Valinor, can't be that wrong.

After travelling for nearly one day (and hunting for food during the travel), Pallando suddenly stopped. His magic senses told him of many souls nearby. He sneaked onward through the forest and after a short distance he saw a camp. He prepared his sword and sneaked to the wooden palisage, carefully looking for guards who could spot him. After reaching the wall, he tried to find a good spot to enter the camp unseen.

He heard a crack and instantly drew his sword and turned around. Two guards stand behind him.

"Who's that, a thief? Or an escaped slave?", one of them asked in the rhunic language.

"Don't you remember him? That's the prisoner we left at the shrine of Melkor! He seems to have survived the poison, surprisingly. But he can't be far from being dead. Drop the sword!", the other guard said while coming closer. Pallando had no choice but to surrender. He still felt the weakening poison and even if he could beat these guards, they would alert the whole camp. He dropped the sword. "The staff too!". Pallando hesitated. Without the staff he wouldn't be able to use magic anymore. The guards came closer to forcefully capture him.

Just when the first guard wanted to grab Pallando, the guard fell to the ground with an arrow in the back. The other guard opened his mouth to a shout but Pallando was faster. He stabbed his staff with both hand in the stomach of the guard and he fell to the ground. Pallando ensured that the guard was unconcious and then prepared for the encounter with his savior.

To be continued