"Last year? Very little. I wasn't even in Fornost-Erain at the time; I was at my estates dealing with the Cardolani refugees. Surely you know more about that than me?"
-
"Well," says Gorlim, "I am fairly sure the Witch-King seriously did want to take it, to try and kill off the alliance from the start. But it now seems the Witch-King had hatched a plan to take advantage of Arvedui obs... umm.. dedication to his plan by making Baranar a good placr to draw our attention away for his attack on Embylosse. It must have take him motnhsa or longer to plan."
Gorlim sizes you up for a few moments.
"Well, it's no secret that Arvedui seeks alliances abroad..." He sighs.
"Do you really wish to know? If you become involved, you will inevitably find yourself a target of the Witch-King. The involvment of Elves is something he would want to quickly snuff out and we would hate for it to be percevied that we are welcoming Elves here only for them to find their doom."
-
Annuneryn goes in ahead of you, Vardalain. His pledge seems to take rather a long time; it is 30 minutes before a Handmaiden arrives and invites you in to see the Princess Mallachiel.
"Well... very well," says Gorlim. "As we were discussing earlier, Malbeth's naming of Arvedui- The Last King- heralded a prophecy that he would be the last King of Arthedain, and so obviously it is implied that there will be no more Arthedain after him, yes? In fact, his exact words were 'Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain.'
"But Arvedui is convinced that the Prophecy is not necessarily the curse it appears to be."
He points at you.
"You have it right there. You see, Malbeth hinted that there would be a choice of destinies for Arvedui- and indeed, for Man as a whole. He thought it is the legacy of the Heirs of Isildur to lead Man to victory against the forcess of Darkness- or to perish forever. That is the role of the Dunadan. And so Arvedui, instead of perishing with Arthedain, seeks to make a new and better Kingdom. He will indeed be Arthedain's Last King- but he will be the First King of something FAR greater!"
He looks at you oddly.
"Why would he march on Cardolan? I also feel you misunderstand his logic by asking if he is going to march on the Witch-King."
-
Mallachiel- who, I shall remind people, looks like Jennifer Connelly- is in an antechamber to her personal chambers, where she is sitting on a regal chair (not a throne, because this isn't ceremonial, but this is no simple piece of furniture), surrounded by various well-dressed attendants and a few guards. The room, faintly scented, is decked out in brilliant colours and jewelery.
"Master Elf," she says, with a nod. "It is well to see again one of my rescuers of the year past. But what brings your affairs to my chambers?"
"First of all," says Gorlim, "attacking Angmar comes down to whether you believe in the Prophecy or not. If you do, then Arvedui can only succeed if he created this new Kingdom. Attacking Angmar does not fulfill that, and so such an adventure would be doomed to failure. Not everyone believes, of course. But the King does."