Aggy Digweed walks into the Prancing Pony. He takes a seat at an empty table and sighs heavily. When someone behind him touches his back he jumps and looks around. A town guard is standing behind him.
"Sorry about that," Clayton Cole says.
"It's not your fault," Aggy says "please join me."
"What's wrong?"
"Trestlebridge is surrounded about orcs and standing guard is making me jumpy."
"There are goblins and bandits around Bree but they never attack us," Clayton says. "I can't imagine having to be prepared for an attack every minute."
"It's not just being prepared. The orcs are actually attacking constantly at the north gate."
"Your people must be remarkable fighters if they've held off the enemy that long."
"Those set to protect the Trestlespan are amazing," Aggy says. "My job is to wait at the other end of the bridge and sound the alarm if any orcs get across the bridge."
"An important job."
"Yeah but it gets worse when the orcs start to try and get clever."
"What have they been doing?" Clayton asks.
"They have barrels of black powder. I heard them experimenting one day. The explosion was so loud it made me shake."
"I thought the bandits sneaking a few spies into town was bad. I hope the orcs don't bring that powder south."
"Your goblins don't have any?" Aggy asks.
"No they have poisons but they aren't smart enough to get it into our water sources."
"I wish we only had goblins to deal with. One of the orcs is smart and managed to sneak a bomb into town."
"Was anyone hurt?" Clayton asks.
"A few but the damage was less than it could have been. I don't know how it managed to get into town without anyone noticing."
"Did it climb a cliff?"
"Now that you mention it there is one thing," Aggy says. "A path that comes up from the river. We hadn't thought about it because there wasn't a way for the orcs to get down to it."
"You might need to set some guards at it."
"When I get back I'll look into it. It might just be safer to build a wooden barrier there."
"Are you bothered by the orcs in Bree-Land?" Clayton asks.
"No oddly enough we barely need to guard our southron gate."
"They must be too busy attacking the farms."
"I feel sorry for them," Aggy says "but I'm happy that we aren't being attacked from both sides."
"I can't say I blame you for that."