Exploring the house

Aragorn followed Einis a little bit away from the rest of the people surrounding the wounded man. "What is it?" Aragorn asked.

"I can take him up to the room and care for him until the head doctor comes, at which point I will be able to join you again. Does that sound good to you?" Einis asked.

"Of course. I'm heading to the important looking house that you can see across the street from our window." Aragorn said.

"I think I know what you're talking about. Be careful." She warned him, giving him an affectionate look before turning away to deal with the transport of the man. Aragorn watched Einis chatting with the little girl, the both of them laughing while heading to the Prancing Pony with the gate keeper in a cart that they pulled. Aragorn marvelled at the change he had seen in Einis in the small time they had been together, at first she had never smiled or shown any affection to him, but over time he had seen that change. Watching her laugh would've been rare when they first met, and it still was, but she wasn't so guarded anymore.

Aragorn turned away from the girls and made his way to towards the house following the tracks left by the horsemen just in case they led in a different direction. Aragorn came up to the huge house across the Prancing Pony and saw that nothing looked amiss from the outside, unless you were a tracker who knew what all the hoof prints outside of the house meant. No one was around the house, meaning no one had any reason to suspect anything bad had happened. Aragorn looked around and quickly slipped inside the unlocked front door. From outside, it seemed everything was fine, but one step inside told a different story. The place was trashed, shelves were thrown across the room, paper was strewn everywhere, and the telltale smell of dead bodies wafted through his senses. "Shit!" Aragorn muttered looking at all the destruction, it would take a long time to find something useful in all the chaos. Aragorn took out his flint and started a fire in a brazier hanging on the wall that illuminated a large central room. It also illuminated a man charging at him with a sword in hand. Aragorn was just fast enough to draw his own sword and parry the man's strike away to the side. The man had long black straggly hair and an unkempt beard. "Your fellow riders left you behind?" Aragorn asked as the man measured him up, circling around him.

"I'm wounded, I wanted to have a little bit of fun with one of the females, silly me forgot to check if she was carrying anything sharp. Turns out little maids can cut pretty deep." The man said pressing his hand against a red stain on the front of his jerkin. "I ain't surviving this mate, I knew that, I volunteered to stay behind, instead of slowing them down. I had resigned to bleed out alone in the dark, but it seems I can get my **** at the end of a sword after all."

"Before we do that though, would you be willing to answer some questions?" Aragorn asked.

"It depends." The man answered guardedly.

"Why come here?" Aragorn asked.

"Our master sent us here to enquire about a certain trinket's whereabouts, apparently it is in the area, so we came to this important looking house searching for answers."

"And did you find what you were looking for?" Aragorn said looking around at the destruction.

"I'm sorry mate, but I ain't telling you anything more." The man said.

"That's too bad." Aragorn said as the man charged him once more. Aragorn could see that the man had no intention of defending himself, Aragorn swung once and watched as the man's head flew apart from his body. Aragorn stooped down and wiped his blade on the man's shirt sleeve. He was about to get up again when he noticed a familiar tattoo on the man's upper arm.

What is it?

A) A clan tattoo of the men of Dunland

B) A mark of rank among the evil men of the south

C) Leave a suggestion

Just then Aragorn heard the door open as he sprung into the shadows and awaited whoever had opened the door. "Aragorn, it's me." Einis said entering the room with her bow drawn.

"I'm here." Aragorn said entering the light once more. Einis showed no hint of surprise or fear as he materialized out of the shadows, she just placed an arrow back in her quiver and swing her bow across her shoulder again.

"This body looks new." Einis noted lookin at Aragorn wryly.

"I certainly hope so, I just dispatched of his head not so long ago."

"They left one behind?" She asked.

"He was injured. I wouldn't go upstairs if I were you, he described in detail what he had planned to do the girls upstairs when his plans were ruined." He said.

"Monsters." She said in a voice with controlled emotion, it took a lot to get her shell to crack. "Did you find anything?" She asked.

"I may be on to something, I recognize a tattoo he has, but just can't place it, why don't we keep looking?" Aragorn suggested.

"I'll take this side, you take that one?" Einis said. Aragorn and Einis searched the place, going so far as to search under all the paper and broken furniture for anything that could help them figure out what had happened. "Aragorn come here, you might want to see this." Einis said. Aragorn walked over to her to see a young girl no more than 19 winters old butchered against the wall.

"Einis I'm so sorry-" Aragorn started.

"Not that. That." She said pointing to something behind the dead girl's body. It was drawn in her blood.

What was it?

A) The eye of Sauron

B) The white hand of Isengard

C) A note scrawled in blood

D) Leave a suggestion

Aragorn looked at Einis, "We have to be ready to go as soon as possible."