#mincham

picker wheel tried really hard to kill him, took a few goes

(after 12 rangers in a row that weren't viable for this scenario)

9: Mincham & overheated from wearing his thick northern winter cloak at midsummer

a tribute to your genius tags

The scene opens on six of our babyrangers, who have been captured by orcs in Merenost. They all look generally unhappy about this, moreso now that they’re tied together to a crumbling column to wait and see what the orcs decide to do with them. Things are looking pretty bleak.

Of course, the two orcs guarding them aren’t the dumbest they’ve ever met (just their luck) and are genuinely puzzling out whether to take the news to the captain with or without one of the Ranger’s heads as a token. Would the orc captain prefer to do that himself?

Also unfortunately, the orcs are slipping in and out of black speech intentionally to tease the intimidating bits out to the prisoners. It was plain enough they didn’t understand enough for the first few minutes, and now it was becoming a fun game for their guards. Halgeryn looks like he’s going to be sick.

But! the frontmost babyranger to the guards, Bregwyn, catches sight of something decidedly non-orcish flitting in the shadows towards them. She makes a play to distract the guards long enough to let whoever it is do whatever they’re going to do.

“Hey! Ugly!” She interrupts them. Unoriginal but it gets the job done. Thenellant punches her leg with his best manageable ‘what are you DOING’ warning but she ignores him. She has their attention for a second. Best make use of it.

“Your mother was underneath green leggings warg last Tuesday”

The orcs don’t move. They’re too dumbfounded by the string of nonsense that just came out of the prisoner’s mouth to notice another person has come up behind them.

“Bite my river, Man-pants.”

The newcomer makes them not alive in short order. By now, he’s stepped into the light of the orc torch and all the babyrangers wriggle with excitement.

“Uncle Mincham!” Several voices cheer quietly.

He gives them all the most defeated, most long-suffering look any of them have ever seen, and they’ve all met Halbarad.

“Are you going to listen to me and behave yourselves?”

There is a sing-song chorus of ‘yes’s.

Mincham sighs heavily and cuts them all loose, leading them out of Merenost and north towards Esteldin and safety. They’re all old enough for patrol, really, and they behave themselves until there is no sign of danger for miles.

“Uncle Mincham. Uncle Mincham- what’s the real swear? Come on, we’re a patrol now you can tell us.”

I look at what happened at the farmlands as a failing of my own...

.....but I wish to make amends for my negligence

It is a language I have learned to understand, though the study pained my ears and my heart both.

Amon Raith is a shell of a fortress, with just enough wall left to make the absence of the rest stark. Time had weathered away the entire eastern section and all but pillars on the southern side. 

Whatever its effects on cold winter nights, Mincham is quite grateful for the dubious structural integrity now. It makes waking Amon Raith’s resident Ranger easier. Especially since the sound level required to wake Amarion often rivals that which can wake the dead, a perilous possibility on the edge of Fornost Fields.

“Mincham?” Amarion’s voice is still thick with sleep. “Whatever was wrong with knocking?”

“I would consider it if I could stand,” he calls back. Maybe, anyway. This has proven quite convenient. “As it is, I will need assistance to approach your door.”