Ok, for this you will need to cast your mind back. You may remember that on your way to Fornost in the very first game a few years back, you met up weith a convoy being led by Lord Farael, escorting the Princess Mallachiel back to Fornost itself. An Orc raiding force attacked the group and you barely escaped alive- you may remember a fight with a particularly vicious and enormous Black Orc swinging a ball and chain.
Now, you guys knew this attack was coming because you had overheard a Dunlending messenger talking it over with his Orcish contact after you pursued the Dunlendings who attacked the refugee camp in the very first event of the game. Farael thought there was no possibility of an Orcish attack so deep in Arthedain, and so didn't believe you (which you may also remember caused an argument between him and you which has caused bad blood which still exists). The attack did of course come, though remember also that Farael fought like a madman in that fight and had also sent for additional forces which did also save the day.
In the second story, the story of the Fortress of Baranar, the players found themselves again privy to extraordinarily insightful attacks by the Orcs and Dunlendings at the absolute worst times, culminating in the attack on the Fortress itself (led by that same Orc).
Just to make it worse, this was a diversion of spetacular power. The army sent to relieve Baranar deprived Arthedain of forces at a vital time; the Orcs mounted a surprise attack on the incomplete northern fortress of Embylosse- centrepiece of the Arthedain strategy- and destroyed it months before completion.
Many assume the dark powers of the Witch-King explain all this but Arvedui sees further. A combination of the events you have seen and the destruction of Embylosse have left him convinced that theire is a traitor in Arthedain- and to know the things that are being leaked, the traitor must be a member of the Council itself. He wishes the traitor found but any internal investigation is doomed to failure by the traitor's hands- so he has turned to outsiders. Specifically Vardalain, who has done good work, but he still remembers your part in saving his daughter, and he wishes you to help him as well.
The members of the Council are noted at the top of the main page. Arvedui says you should feel free to suspect anyone, even himself, but has placed Lord Gorlim in a position to aid you, because the traitor is unlikely to be him as he would have ambushed himself, and also was in the wroing place to have organised the destruction of Embylosse (he was with you guys at the time and could not have coordinated it). By the same logic, it is unlikely to be Farael either, as he would have had to organised his own potential death in the first game.
You have no officicial power; you must find the traitor by your own wits.
i resent that rex 😛...i simply told you everything that i knew....which wasn't much.
well..that brings a little light to the story, ush.
my question is...how will the council members react to the fact that we're asking nosy questions all day long. it's not that we have any authority before which they have to explain themselves.
it's a delicate matter...and we have to use diplomacy....so as not to offennd them, and spook the traitor as well.
anyway..i'm back in the game now.
Mallachiel lives in one of the towers of the Palace with a small army of personal retainers. Getting to see her can be a tricky proces,s though as an Elf they are happy for you to make contact, so long as you don't mind waiting for a little while in a luxury waiting area.
Seems you are not the only person waiting to see her. Also in the room is a young man and his retinue; you recognise the man, though you have not had much interaction with him, as the Lord Annuneryn.
You don't see royalty as that different to your own system of Chieftians, Argentis; they just seem to dress it in more frippery than you do. (shrugs)- Men of the West, who understands them?
"Are you here to make a pledge to the Princess also?" asks Annuneryn of you, Argentis- and Vardalain senses some... not hostility, but certainly a tone of not being entirely happy.
-
As for the rest of you, Gorlim will take the initative.
"May I ask what all these questions are getting at? You are showing great interest in... certain parts of our struggle. You will forgive me, but that is something that much of the rest of Middle-Earth has often cared little about, so we do not normally expect such curiosity."