(Character) searched for a comfortable spot to make camp and passed a small lake surrounded by reeds and cattails that seemed to dance in the evening breeze. He was almost past the lake when a faint cry reached his ears. Pausing, he listened again, and again heard, weakly, "Help! Anybody?! Help!" It was a child's voice, surely, but why was a little one out in this wilderness? Moving carefully and quietly back towards the lake, he heard the cry again this time much closer. "Could it be some enchanted creature's trick?" he thinks. "If not, the child will die by nightfall."
Character Encounter
Usually encountered in Mirkwood or the Anduin Vales
| Options | Free People | Neutral | Dark Servants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Declare your ALLEGIANCE | No effect | No effect | No effect |
| SEARCH for the voice | Combat | Combat | Combat |
| FLEE | Escape | Escape | Escape |
| Say (only one word) | ? | ? | ? |
Also known as the Mewlip or Mewlips encounter.
SEARCH: Combat. Ambushed by a monster (a Mewlip). If you kill the monster you'll most likely get a tidy sum of gold (11,000 reported). (Bobbins)
If the character is at a lake and investigates the cry, he'll be ambushed by a monster. If at a swamp, the character will find a lost child. Finding the child has no known benefit. An unconfirmed rumor states that rescuing the child will often result in a reward of 10,000 30,000 gold. I'm told this is actually two different encounters that have similar openings. This won't make any difference in terms of the response set, but you might want to separate them out in your encounter file just to avoid confusion. By the way, I'm told the monster are mewlips.
A character can safely ignore this encounter if he so chooses.