Brenten stood atop the Hill in silence, his sharp gaze staring at every detail of the ruin that stood in the valley ahead of him. He was suspicious. He and his men had been up in these lands for months now and many times before they encountered others who had the same purpose. The memory of almost having his chest pierced by arrows still haunted him, only a fat pouch of coin, a part of their earnings, could eventually convince the men he met on that day of the profit that could be gained if they were to join up. He did not like doing this, the men he assembled under his lead were all but trustworthy, but the only alternative was fighting them or staying away from ruins altogether, both things he was not willing to do. It was therefore that he so meticulously scanned the ruin below them for any sign of occupants, more people could only mean more trouble, or so he thought, best to be prepared for it.
He reckoned that a few dozen, much less then he already had assembled, would be more than enough for their purpose of stripping the old Kingdom of Arnor of it's last, remaining wealth. A selfish but not despicable deed in his eyes. What point was there in letting such treasures rot away in solitude, he thought. One has to make a living somehow and there were not many ways to do so when he was still surviving in the forests of Breeland.
One of his men approached him on his spot where he had been standing for the past hour. "Are we goin' to go into that fuckin' thing today or not?!" he shouted at Brenten with apparent anger. Clearly his men were getting restless of all the waiting, not understanding why he was doing what he did. Wasn't this the reason why he was the leader of their group? Because he actually thought things over and understood them? Because his leadership made their ever-growing group more successfull than they had all been without him? Sometimes he didn't understand them. It didn't matter now, he had concluded that this ruin was free of occupants after all, so he turned around to walk back to the rest of the group that still rested in the forest nearby. All their anger seemed to be gone once he announced that they would be moving in, greedy grins instead spreading as thoughts of all the riches to be found filled their simple minds. Brenten sighed and led on, he still had a bad feeling about this place, somehow.
A few hours later they had finished searching most of the outsides of the ruin, seemingly an old fortification. Not much was to be found there, likely someone else had passed already. But this was not the first time he had been to a place like this, often the insides of a ruin still held treasures hidden to those too cowardly or ill equipped to find them there. He gave the order and within short time, a first group of them went inside, armed with a mix of tools, weaponry and plenty of torches. Some of his men did not mind going into a ruin like this, but even the most messed up men were scared of being in a /dark/ ruin.
Not soon after entering, the faint sound of whispers and steps reached Brenten's ears. He beckoned his men to stop, turning his head in the presumed direction of the noise, but they disappeared as suddenly as they came. He let them stop for a moment as he thought over if these sounds were a product of his imagination or reality, but the absolute silence that followed was even more oppressive and an answer at the same time, although he was certain that he -did- hear something. Were the stories about ghosts true, after all?
Then, suddenly, without having noticed anything, men appeared in front of them, then behind them. Men that looked similar to them, armed with crossbows and rusty axes. They seemed scared, yet they stood there, weapons held high as if they were expecting a fight any moment. "Who are you?!" called one of them out with a frantic voice. Brenten frowned, he had been wrong. Something clearly was off here, these men did not leave a single trace of their presence outside of the ruin. And he had never seen someone that scared by his group. Nonetheless he made a step forward to begin speaking as he had done many times before, prompting some nervous swaying of weapons on the other side. "Calm, calm .. we're only after the treasures in 'ere. No conflict, we could use more men! Work together, there's plenty coin in it for ya." he explained, looking between the men with a faint smile. "Now, what do ya say?"
Their reaction was far from anything he could have expected. The men seemed to be greatly unsettled by his words, lowering their weapons as one of them shot up with a frantic voice: "Are you mad?! You led them right to us!" "What the fuck are you talking about? Who is them?" Brenten replied. "The Rangers! They've been trailin' us for weeks. Been hidin' in here for a forthnight now hoping they didn't see us going in here. And now you came! We're dead men!"
Brenten stared at the man that spoke up in disbelief. He had heard stories of Rangers in these lands before, but rarely did he pay any attention to them, playing them down as mere rumours. But it seemed as if they were true, after all. Even worse, they seemed to be right up their arse before he even noticed. Quickly he turned around on his heels, beckoning his new found comrades to follow him as he called out: "Follow me then! Got more lads back outside, gotta warn them an' get the fuck out of here!"
They were too late.
As they stepped outside, they stepped right into a battlefield. Arrows and bolts where flying through the air, the clashing of weapons could be heard in one corner. Quickly he ran behind the next wall that provided some shelter from the many arrows that came flying at them. The morale of his men was heightened again by their return, his men cheered and continued to shoot back, but all of a sudden the sounds of combat began to subside.
Hours later, Brenten still surveyed every bush and forest within his sight, frantically looking for those ominous attackers, but they did not return. As it appeared, they retreated soon after he and the rest of his group came back, swaying the balance against them. Still, the damage was done, many of his men went to rest with the pain of having been hit by an arrow. They would soon need more medical supplies. At least they had a few more men, having saved those he found in the ruin from their certain demise.
On this day he did not have to use coin to be convincing, but more conflict was sure to follow and they had to move quickly.
