A brown haired woman and a blonde man walk into the Prancing Pony in the early morning to find it almost empty. They order something for breakfast and sit down.
"It'll be nice having something other than basic rations," Cwendreda says.
"Are you getting tired of salted pork and stale bread?" Northrim asks smiling.
"Yes, after two months of nothing else I want something new."
"Butterbur knows how to cook so it should be both new and good."
"The next thing I want is a bath," Cwendreda says. "I could soak for a week and still not feel clean."
"Still mad you tripped in the swamp?"
"That water is disgusting. Dead things and bugs are constantly standing in it. I don't want to think about everything that I got covered in."
Northrim laughs and says, "I told you to be careful."
"You're a jerk."
"That's hurtful."
"I'm so glad Frideric and Stanric let us be the ones to bring the treasures that adventurer found here to sell," Cwendreda says.
"You brought back valuable objects so I'm sure they were happy to give you a little time off."
"I'll need to remember to thank the adventurer again if I ever see them."
"They certainly made us safer destroying so many of the dead bodies that were walking around," Northrim says.
"I hope they did enough damage to the bodies to keep them from getting up again."
"That would be nice but we don't know how much damage that would be. Only thing we can do is burn what bodies we can find that aren't already attacking us."
"Unfortunately there are a lot of bodies sunk into the swamp from the old wars," Cwendreda says.
"When you put it that way I'm not sure the water and meat I asked that elf to gather for us will be enough."
"The Eglain are survivors. We always find a way to keep going."
"I have no doubt about that your people aer as stubborn as mine," Northrim says.
"Where are you from?"
"Rohan the king exiled me when I spoke out against a decision he made. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do after leaving the plains of my homeland. Stanric found me in Bree and offered me a job."
"I'm glad he did," Cwendreda says. "Watching over the ruins would be much harder without you at my side."
"I am simply happy to be able to help the free people battle evil in some way."
"Our job should be a little easier so when we get back we might have time to do some hunting and gather water for ourselves."
"Why do you assume we'll have an easier time?" Northrim says.
"I had the adventurer kill the master of the ruins. It was one of the guant men and lead the dead into battle. Without it around the undead shouldn't be driven to attack us."
"How did you know about something like that?"
"An old story of the Eglain," Cwendreda says. "During the great battles of the second age a guant lord came to these lands to drive all men from Weathertop. The enemy wanted the fort we built there for themselves so they could attack Bree-Land more easily. During the battle the guant lord was driven into the swamp where the battle continued. After the battle raged for two weeks the Red Maid grew upset and sealed the guant lord in a tomb before dragging all the dead it had raised into the mud."
"A nature spirit lives in the swamp?"
"Yes one with great power."
"Where is she?" Northrim asks.
"I don't know. Something must have happened to her for the guant lord to return."
"The creature must have been weakened by it's imprisonment to fall so easily."
"We were lucky to have a chance to strike at it so quickly after it woke," Cwendreda says.
"I'm worried about this nature spirit. If she has died there's nothing we can do. However with the condition of the swamp I'm guessing she was somehow corrupted."
"We'll have to talk to the brown robed stranger about looking into it when we return."