The Tarnished in LOTR with Elden Ring

Hearing Tarnes' words, Thorin showed an expression of incomprehension.

Noticing his expression, Tarnes gestured for Thorin to look at the three stone giants and explained: "From the beginning, when I saw that stone giant throwing rocks at us, I felt something was strange. Because I couldn't sense any hostility from it."

Thorin said: "Perhaps it's just because it's made entirely of rock, so you can't sense it?"

Tarnes shrugged: "Maybe you're right. After all, hostility is too ethereal a concept to be believed. But Thorin, did you notice? That stone giant that threw rocks at us didn't attack you after approaching. Instead, it swung its fists at the companions coming from behind."

Bernahl also came over at this time and agreed: "Tarnes is right. Moreover, we were walking on a stone giant's knee the whole time. If it had wanted to kill us then, although Tarnes and I would have been fine, Kili and the others with us might not have been so lucky."

Thorin fell into silence, while Bilbo asked curiously: "But Mr. Tarnes, why did it throw rocks at us in the first place?"

Tarnes also fell silent. After a long pause, he said in a strange tone: "I think that rock might not have been thrown at us. Weren't we on a stone giant before? I'm afraid that rock was aimed at it."

Bilbo's mouth twitched: "But why throw such terrifying rocks at their own companions..."

Tarnes said: "For us, those hill-sized rocks are indeed terrifying and deadly. But for their massive frames, they're probably just like pillows."

Thorin said: "I've never seen such hard pillows."

Tarnes shrugged again: "You've also never seen rocks with limbs that can play around, have you? Anyway, we're safe now, but the rain is still heavy. Balin, how much longer until we're out of the Misty Mountains?"

Balin wiped his face and squinted at the path ahead that flickered in and out of view under the lightning, calling back loudly: "I'm not sure either, Mr. Tarnes. To be honest, I'm not certain how to proceed now, because those stone giants have completely changed the local terrain. I can't be sure whether the rain will stop first or we'll exit the canyon first."

Thorin immediately said: "Then let's walk a bit further ahead and find a cave entrance where we can shelter from the rain. We'll rest there tonight, and if it's still raining tomorrow morning, we'll wait for it to stop before setting out."

Tarnes also nodded: "I think that's a good idea."

Bilbo opened his mouth: "But what if the cave we rest in is a stone giant's mouth?"

Thorin's sharp eyes fixed on him, making Bilbo shrink back: "I mean, what if..."

Thorin said flatly: "If that's really the case, I hope you can use your methods to communicate with the stone giant and beg it not to close its mouth while we're sleeping, Master Burglar."

Bilbo immediately shut his mouth.

Then Thorin's group checked that they hadn't lost any important items in the recent commotion and began carefully moving forward again.

Although the stone giants were now far from them, Bilbo's words made these Dwarves feel that all the rocks they could see looked like sleeping stone giants.

They were really spooked.

As Bilbo walked, he continued saying to Tarnes: "Actually, I have another question. The path we came by was definitely destroyed by the stone giants, so how will Gandalf catch up with us?"

Tarnes rubbed the chain links of his mail coif thoughtfully. This question really stumped him.

He said uncertainly: "Gandalf is a powerful wizard. Perhaps he has other ways to find us? Believe in the wizard's magic, Bilbo. Since Gandalf said he could, he'll definitely find us."

At this moment, Thorin called from ahead: "Found a cave. Let's get inside quickly. Fili, Kili, and Dwalin, you three go in first and explore. There are very few ownerless caves in the Misty Mountains."

Fili and Kili nodded, while Dwalin had already gripped his battle axe the moment Thorin gave the order, carefully entering the cave.

Their exploration work was quickly finished. Kili's head poked out of the cave, calling to those outside: "It's safe inside. We're lucky. No signs of any beasts. It looks like an ownerless cave."

Thorin nodded and gestured to the Dwarves behind him to go in.

After the last Dwarf entered, Thorin stopped Tarnes, who was about to enter the cave, and asked the same question Bilbo had asked earlier.

"How will Gandalf catch up with us in this situation? If he can't catch up, I won't stop and wait for him," Thorin said.

Tarnes replied to Thorin as he had to Bilbo: "Trust Gandalf. Wizards are never late. Maybe he has some special magic that can directly locate our position and quickly come over."

Only then did Thorin nod: "That's good. I was worried that if he really followed our path, he might die at the hands of those three playful stone giants."

Tarnes entered the cave, which contained nothing but accumulated dust.

The Dwarves had already hung their soaked clothes and packs on protruding rock points in the cave, then collapsed directly onto the dusty ground without any disgust.

Even with Dwarven stamina, they felt extremely tired.

Bilbo was the same. He felt his feet had lost almost all sensation from being soaked in rainwater, but he gritted his teeth and didn't complain.

He rarely complained about such things anymore. This long journey had taught Bilbo that complaining didn't help solve any problems he encountered.

Bofur didn't rush to lie down. Fighting his body's fatigue, he extended his hand to Bilbo, pulling the more exhausted Hobbit aside and helping him remove his heavy pack.

"Thank you, Bofur." Bilbo braced his hands on his knees and caught his breath before expressing his gratitude.

Bofur had already collapsed on the ground and weakly waved his hand: "It's nothing, Bilbo. It's what I should do."

After confirming everyone was inside, Thorin took one last look at the thunderstorm outside that wouldn't stop anytime soon before entering.

He saw the Dwarves sprawled every which way in the cave, then saw Bilbo rubbing his hands and breathing on them for warmth, and frowned: "You're all still wet. No matter how tired you are, you can't lie down like this. Fili, Kili, you two start a fire to maintain body temperature."

Fili and Kili reluctantly stood up from the ground, leaving Dwarf-shaped wet patches where they'd been lying.

Then Fili found himself in difficulty. Seeing his brother wasn't moving, Kili asked: "What's wrong?"

Fili looked around the cave with a conflicted expression, finally sighing: "It's all rocks here. Where's the firewood? Should we burn our own clothes?"

"Ah, this." Kili blinked and found that Fili was absolutely right.

Fili continued: "And there's another problem. We've been in the rain so long, the fire starter in our packs might not work now."

Kili nodded: "So we can't make a fire on our own to warm our bodies?"

Then they both looked at Thorin, who obviously realized this problem too.

Thorin admitted he hadn't thought it through, but he didn't want to lose face. His dignity as their elder made Thorin shift his gaze to Tarnes.

"Tarnes."

Facing Thorin's almost pleading, subtle look, Tarnes smiled helplessly and nodded, then reached out his hand.

But he quickly stopped and said to the Dwarves lying in the cave: "Could you please make some room? I don't have space to make a fire."

"If only Gandalf were here. We never worried about making fires when he was around."

"Right, he just touches that ring of his, and the wood catches fire."

"It would be even better if he weren't so verbose."

Then Tarnes watched as the Dwarves, unwilling even to get up, chattered among themselves and wriggled their bodies like earthworms to make room.

Tarnes: "...Fine."

In the blink of an eye, several items appeared in Tarnes' hands.

There were broken ropes, some grayish-black plants full of liquid (which the Dwarves didn't recognize), and a flying insect that produced sparks when it flapped its wings.

Actually, these were rope scavenged from demi-humans, a Rimed Crystal Bud found near the Eternal City, and Glowing Fireflies that liked to dance around fires.

Although Tarnes could also cast spells to create flames, his magical power consumption had been quite high recently, and he wanted to conserve when possible.

Though he had other magical power recovery items in his pack.

In any case, the readily available Glowing Fireflies were more cost-effective.

Tarnes wrapped the rope around the Rimed Crystal Buds, made about ten in the same way, tossed them in the space the Dwarves had cleared, then threw the Glowing Firefly on top.

The Rimed Crystal Buds ignited, flames blazing up instantly and dispelling some of the cave's cold.

Then, under Tarnes' twitching gaze, the Dwarves wriggled over to the fire to warm themselves.

Bilbo also stood up and sat by the fire, holding his palms toward the flames.

He asked curiously: "Oh, what kind of plant is this, Tarnes? It can actually burn like firewood?"

Tarnes answered simply: "Rimed Crystal Bud. The liquid on this plant is similar to fuel oil and can burn for a long time."

With the warm flames, the physically and mentally exhausted Dwarves and Bilbo quickly fell asleep in this warmth, snores rising and falling.

Because Bilbo was more tired, he quickly fell asleep even amid the Dwarves' very loud snoring.

Thorin didn't rest but sat with his back against the cave entrance, taking on the responsibility of keeping watch.

He looked at the thunderstorm outside the entrance, lost in thought, then heard light footsteps nearby.

Tarnes walked over on tiptoe to avoid disturbing the Dwarves.

"What is it?" Thorin asked quietly.

Tarnes said: "You can go rest too. Leave the watch duty to Igon."

Thorin thought for a moment, nodded, and didn't refuse.

He was indeed tired and needed rest.

Then Thorin noticed Tarnes leading Bernahl and Millicent toward the depths of the cave.

"You're going to..." Thorin asked curiously.

Tarnes said: "When Fili, Kili, and Dwalin checked earlier, they probably only examined the outer cave and didn't notice there's a passage that only allows sideways passage to continue deeper. I want to see where the passage leads. If there's danger, we can eliminate it in advance."

Thorin frowned slightly: "But what if there are traps in this passage? Even you couldn't dodge traps in such a narrow space, right?"

"That's easy. I'll use this to trigger any traps first, so there won't be any danger." A black stone fragment had somehow appeared in Tarnes' hand, with faint golden runes and withered branches stained with dark blood.

Margit's Shackle, something Tarnes had purchased from a traveling merchant friend named Patches.

As the name suggested, it was originally only usable in battle against Margit.

But later, when exploring caverns and underground tombs in the Lands Between, Tarnes accidentally discovered this shackle could also indiscriminately affect mechanical traps and hidden doors, making it a useful tool for exploring unknown caves and underground tombs.

Although Thorin didn't know what Tarnes held, considering his identity, Thorin said nothing.

After all, if something really happened, he and his Dwarf kinsmen would be lying on the ground while Tarnes might still be alive and kicking.

After Thorin also found a comfortable position to rest in the cave, Tarnes began his operation.

Millicent said: "Tarnes, after you test for traps, let me go in first. I'm female with a more slender build than you and Mr. Bernahl, so I can move more freely in this passage."

Tarnes looked at his own frame, then at Bernahl, who wore the Scaled Armor without taking a breath, and nodded.

Then he slammed Margit's Shackle on the ground, golden ripples briefly appearing.

However, the narrow passage showed no changes. No sounds of triggered traps or movements of appearing hidden doors.

Tarnes looked into the passage a few more times and said: "Seems like there really aren't any traps, but be careful anyway, Millicent."

Millicent nodded and was about to enter when all three present heard the sound of some mechanism slowly turning, with minor vibrations beginning to come from the ground.

Then came the Dwarves' screams as they woke from sleep: "Ahhhhh!"

The ground they were lying on suddenly cracked open, opening downward like doors and making all the sleeping Dwarves fall in.

Thorin was a light sleeper, so the vibrations woke him first, but he still couldn't avoid falling in.

"Bilbo!"

Thorin's sleeping position was close to Bilbo's. He shouted urgently and, before falling, pushed Bilbo away from the opening ground, causing the Hobbit to wake confusedly from sleep.

Igon reacted quickly. As the one on watch, he'd been holding his great bow with an arrow constantly nocked on the undrawn string.

He shot one arrow, the shaft piercing through one Dwarf's collar and cloak, pinning him to the steep rock wall of the deep pit.

But by the time Igon wanted to shoot a second arrow, the Dwarves had already rolled down the rock wall to who knows where.

"I'm going after the Dwarves!"

Without hesitation, Igon simply left one sentence and voluntarily slid down the rock wall into the deep pit.

Everyone present fell silent and looked at Tarnes in unison.

Tarnes' mouth twitched. He glanced at the shackle in his hand and quickly put it away, saying awkwardly: "Well, I didn't expect we were sleeping right on top of a mechanism."

"Mr. Tarnes, could you pull me up... I feel like my clothes can't support my weight much longer."

At this moment, Ori's somewhat frightened voice came from the deep pit. The Dwarf Igon had saved in his urgency was this most learned and least combat-capable Dwarf.

"Help me pull him up," Tarnes said seriously, as if he hadn't been the one to trigger this mechanism.