#reniolind

[find-the-path]

you know, the exit to Reniolind's hideout and the cave the brigands and Amdir are camped out in are awfully close. Wouldn't be too strange if they were connected, would it?

[mighty-mando]

I have been grieving about Amdir for 15 years

Have you ever drawn Amdir, Toradan, Mundol, or Reniolind before? (Not saying you have to draw all four of them), I just finished replaying the Bree prologue in lotro and now I’m sad about them again.

would you like to be sad about them an additional time

[rohirric-hunter]

'hope' + lotr(o) for the ask game 👀

"I lit these torches just yesterday," Reniolind says, lifting the candle in his hand to reignite one of them. It smokes where the flame meets the fuel for a long moment before it finally catches.

"What if Amdir catches up to us?" you ask, glancing over your shoulder into the winding tunnel behind.

Reniolind also glances back as he replies, "We'll just have to... talk to him."

"Do you think he can be reasoned with?" you ask.

"I hope so," Reniolind says, and then he forges ahead into the dark.

[hallothere]

fun headcanons if you're feeling evil

it's Reniolind's first assignment after his sash ceremony to be stationed in the midgewater marshes

Amdir calls human or hobbit pcs 'jailbird' after the initial rescue mission

Radanir served in a big Ettenmoors conflict and at the Fords of Bruinen skirmish so he had experience being a line archer already

Calenglad swore oaths to grown Aragorn once he was of age to become chieftain, but also to Baby Estel, recently fatherless

[a-lonely-dunedain]

hey so the instance To a Ranger's Aid glitched and Amdir didn't actually kill Reniolind? y'know what, I'm gonna consider this the cannon version now

[sweetearthandnorthernsky]

horrible new hc that popped into my brain:

celairant & reniolind are siblings

[captainderyn]

Fictober Day 4: Cargûl

Prompt number: 4. “I know you didn’t ask for this.”

Fandom: LOTRO

Rating: Gen

Warnings/Tags: Mentions of character death

Read on AO3 or under the Read More

--

The hills outside of Ost Baranor had no right to hold the peaceful silence that they did. Not when the shadows of the night concealed the sopping scarlet of the grass, when the starlight cast faint and bitter light on the remains of the brigands that had stood in the Rangers’ and Nazgûl’s way. 

Blackwolds had posed an ongoing threat to Breeland ever since they had begun amassing in their camps and ruins like a plague. Wulfwryn couldn’t hold much sympathy for their blood on her blade. 

It was the billowing red robe she could still see burning on the makeshift pyre they’d constructed. The form that it had draped, hollowed out and gaunt near beyond recognition. 

"You are too late! I am Cargûl!” his snarling voice, hardly even human anymore, echoed through her thoughts on loop. “I serve the Great Eye!"

Burying her face in her hands and keeling over a hoarse whine broke from her throat. 

Her words had done nothing to throw aside the corruption of the Nine. Her presence even less--setting her form only as a target for a kill. Only her blade had been enough to cut the corruption; and the strings that had held up what once had been Amdir. 

Shared glances, lingering smiles and bloated pauses. All things that she had been too cowardly to act on in life, too preoccupied with the possibility of rejection to take the leap. 

It had been her that he and Strider rescued from the Blackwold’s chains in Chetwood. It was pulling her and the two young hobbits from the burning prison that they had been waylaid by the lone rider on the deathly black horse, that the corrupted blade had found his shoulder.

The corruption had pained him all throughout Archet, driven him mad until he disappeared into the night itself. Reniolind, Lenglinn wounded, all in the madness that her mistake had driven Amdir too. 

 Amdir please, I know it isn’t you who’s doing this. Come back. 

Wulfwryn shook her head, fingers curling into her hair until they bit into her scalp. 

I am not what you once believed...

He was dead because of her. No matter what pretty words anyone tried to feed her, his loss was a dark stain on her hands. A brutal strike to her own heart. 

A broken breath. 

Yes... yes, you are. Let me help you.

Never--

A firm hand on her shoulder caused her to flinch, a hoarse shriek crawling from her throat. She looked up, only to immediately focus back on the ground beneath her feet. The grimly grieving look on Strider’s worn face wasn’t something she was ready to face. 

“I know you did not ask for this Wulfwryn, I’m sorry.” he was saying, as though the words were reaching her from across Eriador. “Torthann told me what happened at the altar.” 

At his pause, long enough to be leaving space her her own words, she hummed in recognition. It seemed to be enough. 

“It is possibly too much to ask, but I still need your aid if you’re willing to offer it.  The name Skorgrím has surfaced with an elf now taking shelter in Rivendell; but there is still many questions left unattended here and not enough hands to attend to them.” 

Digging herself deeper into the hole that had already lost her the one she had silently cared for. Perhaps this was her to be her punishment and road to penance for turning her back on her post in Gondor to search for her true king. 

So be it. 

As though her head weighed a hundred pounds heavy on her shoulders she forced her eyes back up. Her voice sounded broken and tired to her own ears. “I accept. Tell me where to ride next.” 

If she couldn’t save Amdir then maybe, maybe, she could make up for it. Somehow. Or fall trying. 

[hallothere]

well I anticipate you getting some angsty ones, so for the wellbeing of our guys I'm just gonna sliiiiide 34 (Trust/Comfort/Safety) in here. heck why not a 79 (hugs) and 57 (rescue) while we're at it

T-T-T-TRIPLE COMBOOOOO (34, 79, 57)

(technically in compliance. this one is a little violent and near-death-y with a side of made-up Ranger surgery so. be warnéd)

Baugarch was dead, to begin with.

The warg-father, minion of sorcerers, and fell-guardian of the Blackwolds was finished.

And so was Ningeryn, daughter of Nirondil, Ranger of the Dunedain. She lay under the corpse, still holding one sword in her hand as it pierced the heart of her enemy. The other was lodged in the beast's back. Not enough to have killed it the first time.

It hurt too much to cry properly so she let the tears stream down her face. Her first assignment... and her last. At least she'd done it. At least she'd found the warg, even if she didn't have enough time to track it to its den, or warn Andreg. She was supposed to get backup before she faced the beast in combat. She hadn't had enough time.

The warg was now too heavy to lift. She tried, but she was well and fully pinned. She'd scared birds in the otherwise silent Chetwood when she cried out. It wasn't how she wanted to die, in the silent, empty forest. Alone. She tried to put a brave face on it. At least she'd done a good turn for the people of Combe, Archet, and the surrounding towns. Farmers wouldn't get eaten. Woodsmen neither.

And she'd put down the sorcerer's beast. The minion of the one that took Amdir from them. And Mundol and Toradan. And Reniolind... Reniolind had been her friend, and they'd ensorceled Amdir until he'd been stolen from them completely. Until he couldn't see friend and foe.

The tears came faster now that she thought of her friend. She'd die not far from him, maybe have her name etched next to his. But she'd wanted to live. She'd wanted to avenge him as she could, and keep the lands they'd promised to watch over safe. But she'd lashed out too hotly. Swung her swords with no thought of defense, only destroying the warg that represented everything horrible in Breeland.

Everything became dimmer for a bit. She wasn't sure how much later it had been when a horse whinnied in protest. Boots crunched in the leaf litter and then Baugarch's corpse lurched on top of her. She cried out again. The dead warg rolled into the grass and a blurry face filled up her vision.

"Ningeryn! Hang on. Hang on..." It was Andreg! He'd made it... She never thought anyone would. "You had to go and challenge the beast yourself..."

But the rescue had come too late. She squeezed his arm once and all went dark.

-------------------------------

Ningeryn woke up screaming. She hadn't meant to, but the warg was clawing her again and that had already killed her once. She didn't want to do it again.

"Help her, Amlan!"

But that was Saeradan, and Saeradan would rather die than let her get torn to shreds. Well, if he could help it. And if Amlan was there too, they would be more than a match for some scruffy warg of Angmar.

On instinct she pressed her shoulders and head into the surface she was laying on. Wood. A floor maybe. There were hands on her arms, and she could feel them wavering as if they were actively afraid they'd hurt her. Someone was laying across her legs with equal hesitation. Saeradan needed her not to kick and roll. She would do it- anything- for him.

Ningeryn reached out for a hand and found one quickly. Heedless of the fact that there were bones under the skin, she squeezed it for all she was worth.

"Ningeryn?" It was Amlan this time. Sounding pained. Likely, his were the bones being reduced to dust. "Can you hear me?"

She nodded. It was all the motion she could stand, rigid and tensed against the pain as she was.

"Can you drink something? Saeradan can't stop now, you've lost too much blood. You were asleep before, but now--"

Now she knew. They were trying to save her. Ningeryn had fought to be here, in Bree, in the ranks of the Rangers. She would fight, but not fight Amlan and Saeradan and Andreg. That warg wouldn't kill her twice.

She managed to nod again, and to swallow something sweet and heavy. It went down bitterly, but it stayed down. Saeradan was muttering something soothing as he went to apply a different salve over what she presumed was a section he'd already sewn. Or, just maybe hot lava, as something like liquid flame touched an open cut and she screamed again.

She held Amlan's hand until it went dark once more.

-------------

Next she awoke, she was in the middle of drinking something freezing. She sputtered and that lit a fire in her torso. It was dulled, red embers maybe, but it was still there and it still hurt. The drink had been moved and someone was drying her face with a towel.

"You're safe. You're in Saeradan's house. It's me, Andreg, and you've been asleep for almost a day. Nestadam is on her way from Nen Harn, and she'll be here soon."

Ningeryn didn't respond as gently and eloquently. "Whahappen?" Her mouth felt dry- probably the reason for the offered drink- and she felt like her head was wrapped in wool.

"Do you remember anything? What was the last thing we talked about?"

She wanted to curse his protocol and his probing questions. But, she was still leaned up against him where he'd helped her to drink and she was very comfortable. One arm hugged supportively around her shoulders, the other lost to the void or possibly still holding the towel. Ningeryn was unfortunately familiar with being nursemaided, but it was still a safe feeling. A good feeling.

"I killed it," she said at last, "I killed that warg."

Andreg sighed. "Without backup. What possessed you--"

"Don't rile her up, Andreg." That was Saeradan. All gentle admonishment. "You think she hasn't learned her lesson?"

The hand she could feel tightened around her shoulder. "No, of course not." Not a true retort. Andreg was uncommonly quiet. But she was sure about why now, as she was coming out of the fog. He'd even warned her about it before she left. He couldn't lose another of them so soon. Not after Reniolind.

"I'm fine." Ningeryn said. If she sounded sure enough she might convince them both. "I'm tired, and it does hurt a little, but I'm fine."

"No you're not."

Aha. Two voices in tandem. Ningeryn let herself smile. Oh she was fine now, and she was sure they'd make certain of it.

[poetry-draws]

Have you ever drawn Amdir, Toradan, Mundol, or Reniolind before? (Not saying you have to draw all four of them), I just finished replaying the Bree prologue in lotro and now I’m sad about them again.

would you like to be sad about them an additional time