The Fangorn Thief Hunt

[Dungeon Delver]

Round Two:
The Culprit has NOT been found
The Hiding Spot HAS been found
The Item has NOT been found

To throw a wrench (or twig as it were) into the works, the mysterious culprit has left a series of poorly written haikus written on the bark of trees in the location they are NOT in telling anyone following them where they are. What do you all find?

[Romeran]

Whatever notions he had had about where or what had been taken he had been found wanting. Back now at square one he wondered where to begin. He found, scratched on the bark of a tree a poem of sorts which seemed curious. He leaned in forward and read it:

Clearest waters run
Upon the banks where you'll find
Quarry that you seek

Romeran cocked his head curiously. Who could have written such a strange poem? Needlecrown perhaps? They seemed like the type. And what would someone like Needlecrown be interested in stealing Romeran wondered as he tried to puzzle his way through his situation. It would have to be something uniquely valuable, something which perhaps people had only heard of, maybe something so bold as A Black Diamond Apple! Where this had been taken seemed to be hinted at in the poem. A river bank, seemed clear enough, and there were two at least which ran through Fangorn, and the Limlight was the clearest. On this hunch Romeran made for the Banks of the Limlight in search of his quarry.

[Fuin Elda]

Well the brothers didn't find what they were looking for Dart wasn't about and they couldn't find this acorn that they were looking for so they decided that perhaps there might be some edible bits in the particularly shaped pinecone that they could eat and they were absolutely certain that they'd seen that not too far from where they were looking on the Banks of Limlight

They did notice a tree with some odd scratch marks on it and sat pondering for a while, mostly because they were completely and utterly illiterate - why else would they choose a life of crime? Honestly. Hob and Bob for their part scratched their haeds and saw Square the Squirrel and asked them what the scratches meant since they clearly had no clue at all, the squirrel of course didn't seem to know either, or at least didn't tell them if they did.

[Dungeon Delver]

Round Three:
The Culprit has NOT been found
The Hiding Spot HAS been found
The Item has NOT been found

Huum-hooom, at least you're no worse off than you were before

[Drifa]

Mister Black scratched his chin. The character Fleeg was not the culprit. Who then? At that moment, whilst he was pondering, who should walk by but the 'chubby skwirrel' Skwovet . Mister Black's sleuth radar went up as soon as he saw the sneaky sneak, and he began to twitch his nose excitedly. He had suspected this critter before, and why not again? Why he could have been down by the Banks of the Limlight hoarding up the stolen item with all the rest of his hoarded items!. Mister Black seemed to recall the other squirrel playing a tune on a A Stick-Turned-Trumpet not too long ago. Was that the stolen item?

[Lady of Shadow]

Now Naelia found herself in a place known as the Banks of the Limlight whatever that was supposed to be. The minioness also found a note on a nearby tree left by the perpetrator: "What in the name of the Dark Lord is this?!" she thought to herself, when she realized Fangorn's latest thief seemed to put it in some kind of rhyme. "Why some of the free peoples like to engage in riddles like this..." Naelia thought to herself, shaking her just below the shoulders curly black hair.

Regardless of their motivation for engaging in such activities, the minioness still had a thief to catch. On her investigation of the place where she thought that they might be hiding out, she came across something known as A Clay Jar of Ent-Draught, assumingly placed in a place that nobody would think of looking... well, nobody but the cunning talents of one of Mordor's top thief hunters, that was! "This seems to be a popular item to make off with! I wonder what its purpose is?" Naelia thought to herself as she contunued to hunt down the person (or creature in a place as mysterious as Fangorn) responsible for such an act.

It looked like Quagomar was up to his old tricks again, whatever type of creature he was supposed to be. It seemed the minioness was running into creatures that would make awesome minions if they ever decided to go dark, but she also knew that many of the free peoples might have other motivations for doing what they did, but since Naelia herself was a minion, she couldn't help but wonder...

[Fuin Elda]

Well then there was nothing to be done for it the three brothers were going to have to go and see.... they shuddered at the thought of visiting the mad squirrel... if that was what one could even call the creature... Reginald had more interactions with it than Hob or Bob had in truth... but they were now on their way to see Tenebrous Sciurida the mad little beast. They'd caught sight of him on the Banks of Limlight near With a Clay jar of Entdraught

Undoubtedly trying to enlarge itself Hob and Bob both thought and chittered to each other while Reginald continued to look for the strange stick based rotten minded creature.

[Dungeon Delver]

Round Four:
The Culprit HAS been found
The Hiding Spot HAS been found
The Item has NOT been found

[Drifa]

Mister Black, must have heard another culprit playing A Stick-Turned-Trumpet, cause it wasn't the 'chubby skwirrel' Skwovet . No, that hoarding, Skwovet, was holding something completely different in its plump little paws. Alas, the daylight by the Banks of the Limlight wasn't the greatest, for dusk was falling in the forest. Yet, the black squirrel from Mirkwood was sure that the hoarder had what appeared to be a wood carving in his hands. It look like An Elm Effigy, or a bad imitation of Treebeard - praise him and all his toes. Could this be the stolen item? There wasn't much left to steal at this point, and Mister Black hoped upon hope that he had found the thief.

[Fuin Elda]

The brothers were certain, but what it was that they caught Tenebrous Sciurida The mad twig squirrel thing with was not ent draught on the Banks of the Limlight No instead they found him doing some sort of ritual with An Elm Effigy.

Reginald the third had the good sense for once to be terrified and hugged his brothers tightly wondering what maddness this beast was trying to conjure into this realm and if perhaps he was trying to increase his own life span as a possibly rotting corpse filled with weird sticks. At this point the Brothers would of course be thoroughly terrified by any 'bad taxidermy' they ever saw on principal alone thanks to Tenebrous.

[Dungeon Delver]

Round Five:
The Culprit has NOT been found
The Hiding Spot HAS been found
The Item has NOT been found

Hoom-humm, you might be getting closer now

[Fuin Elda]

The brothers were so invested in watching Tenebrous in terror that they almost missed Quagomar as they passed by on the Banks of the Limlight carrying a peculiar flower. It was only the fact that the flower bonked Reginald the third on the head and made him itch something fierce that he even paid any heed to it. Probably some form of allergy honestly, that said Hob and Bob were took a bit more convincing in terms of getting their attention about the strange flower that had passed by but eventually Reginald managed.

And they headed off to investigate the itch inducing flower.

EDIT: @Innlandshjarte Ummm I just went and checked we've actually cycled through all of the items at this point?

[Dungeon Delver]

Treebeard looked confused for a moment. The raccoons were, somehow inexplicably, talking sense. He had simply just misplaced his [item redacted] and assumed the someone had taken it.

"I'm so very..... very..... very sorry."

Yeah, whoops, that's my bad, I blame myself for not only having items that look similar to one another but also not reading things closely enough.

In light of my monumental cock up, everyone who posted this go round gets to jump up a level and we'll start over with a less confusingly similar item

[Fuin Elda]

THE TREE WAS TALKING THE TREE WAS TALKING!!!! The three brothers very swiftly and promptly scuttled about absolutely everywhere in a strange cartoon fashion where thieves chased them ran in opposite directions, was that a potato being dragged across the forest floor after them in a bed sheet pulled by a wire? Possibly. There was also a very strange bunch of teenagers and a dog that appeared during one of the various scramblings.

They then got separated and in their panic ran into each other head on and knocked utterly out cold for several seconds before waking up slowly clutching at their now sore heads and looking around to see if the creepy Tenebrous Sciurida and his creepy Elm Effigy were anywhere near them which seemed to be... Ent Moot Point It seemed. At least that's where they thought they were.

[Romeran]

For supposedly one of the eldest beings left in middle-earth he supposed that Treebeard could be forgiven for his forgetfulness. The hunt was on again and Romeran was eager to prove that his success in previous rounds had not been entirely a fluke. Romeran was on his way towards Fern Falls when he heard the birds talking rumors to each other. They chirped and squawked apparently concerned that someone had stolen their precious Black Diamond Apple ! The birds didn’t seem to know who the culprit was only that they had seen them head towards the falls. Hot on their trail, Romeran began to guess at who the culprit might have been. The birds of Fangorn forest were known to be a cliquey group and perhaps a Clever Crebain had seen fit to mess with the popular birds?

[Dungeon Delver]

Round One:
The Culprit has NOT been found
The Hiding Spot has NOT been found
The Item has NOT been found

This time around, Treebeard is quite certain he's correct and hasn't simply misplaced anything

[Dungeon Delver]

At the kind behest of @Drifa, we are going to give this whole thief hunt thing another go, with all new culprits, hiding spots, and items cultivated by Drifa herself!

Possible Culprit:
Fin the Elf - Thofum the Dwarf - Douglas the Ent - Deoflasa the Human - Gastom the Hobbit - Castor the Beaver - Arth the Bear - Oral the Eagle - Jorty the Hart - Feta the Swan

Possible Hiding Place:
between the beard and whiskers of lichen - in a packet of lembas - near the old stump with only two branches - near the fringe of the forest - on the a-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë - between the stone jars and ladle - under a great bed on low legs - near the feet of great stumbling stones - besides a row of Rowan - near a few gaunt pine-trees

Possible Stolen Item:
two small bowls - the pillows of grass - all the red berries of the rowan tree - the great vessel with the golden light - the bed on low legs - one large bowl - the great vessel with the rich green light - a basket of sloe berries - a cob of corn - Quickbeam's comb

Let's see what you hunters have, eh?

[Lady of Shadow]

Taking a break from thief hunting in order to try conquering the Tower of Might, Naelia was now back on the hunt (even if this particular Thief Hunt didn't take place in Mordor, but Fangorn could be just as creepy).

Not knowing much about the land inhabited by creatures known as Ents, the minioness found herself wandering through a place known as in a packet of lembas. "I believe this is some kind of delicacy by those confounded Elves!" Naelia scoffed, wondering if her nuisance of a half-sister ever feasted on this stuff. Regardless, she was on the hunt for a thief, so she put her disgust to the side for a moment and began to search the area.

It didn't take the minioness long to come across two small bowls of all things. "Is this how these creatures get their daily fill of nutrients?" the minioness wondered, knowing that trees had to somehow drink from the earth, so she didn't know why they needed bowls to accomplish such a task. Was the land that defiled? Whilst wondering what the creatures known as Ents would use these bowls for, someone known as Gastom the Hobbit tried his darnest to hide from the minioness.

"Oho! One of the Halflings is up to no good again, I see, but I don't remember hunting him down before!" Naelia thought to herself as she began to follow the creature she thought was guilty of the crime.

[Drifa]

Mister Black was back. Having secured his daily stash of winter food for the coming cold months, knowing that the woods would soon be under snow and edibles would be buried or hard to find; he was now ready for some relaxing frolicking and munching on the forest's tidbits (nuts, berries and maybe even a piece of bark or an insect or two). And so, twitching his nose, he set off.
As he scuttled across a large oak branch, he was suddenly aware of something big moving across the forest floor. Halting in his tracks, he let out kuk in alarm, then paused motionlessly. Below him, he saw a large black furry shape waddle threw the trees. It was a bear. And one Mister Black recognized. "Arth the Bear"! he exclaimed in squirrel speech. He had run across this giant before and knew better than to torment him with squirrely antics.
Looking down quietly at the creature, it seemed that Arth had something in his massive jaws. It seemed to be something wrapped in leaves, and it was bulging. He had seen these leaf packets before (having tried to steal one from a wander in the forest but with no luck). What he had in the leaves was anyone's guess, but Mister Black was sure he saw a bowl shape in the packet - in a packet of lembas. Had the bear been visiting the Ent houses? Could it be one large bowl that the heavyweight snatched for his licking pleasure? Mister Black waited for the beast to move deeper into the woods than secretly began to follow. There might be some fun to have with the bear, after all.

[Dungeon Delver]

Round One:
The Culprit has NOT been found
The Hiding Place has NOT been found
The Item has NOT been found

[Drifa]

The bear rumbled through the forest with the squirrel on his tail, Mister Black jumping from branch to branch when suddenly, the bear stopped, dropped the packet in his mouth and made off in a westerly direction. Waiting a moment for safety's sake, Mister Black scuttled down a tree and nosed his way over to the packet. It was indeed what he previously thought. But why the great bear had dropped it (and not eat it) was a mystery. And before he could ponder on it more, he heard a noise and scampered back up a tree.
Down below him, he suddenly saw a slim figure with long flowing golden hair. He had seen this figure before in the forest. Sometimes he tried to speak with Mister Black but seeing that Mister Black was from Mirkwood and spoke a different language and could not understand the language of Fangorn. The figure was an elf (Fin the Elf). And as he made his way past, Mr. B noticed that the elf had something clenched in his hand that resembled a cob of corn. The only place corn grew that he knew of was guarded against all (especially orcs). So had the elf stolen the corn? As the squirrel watched the elf hasten through the forest, he seemed in a hurry; he followed.
A short time later, near a few gaunt pine-trees , he saw the elf place the item in hand behind the gauntest tree, then hurry off. Mister Black could only imagine this was an act of theft and waited to see if the elf would return for the corn. And if not, he would have to find a way to drag it to his hidden cache. Turning one's nose up to free food was just too squirrely even for Mr.B.

[Fuin Elda]

The Three Brothers

Most animals slept through the winter, the raccoon brothers had on rather fully bellys found a rather nice hollow tree and fallen asleep quite soundly nestled safely in it from where they would at least for the time being be safe from thievery as well as being stepped on by the walking talking tree that had terrified them (which also may have had something to do with their sudden nap as they may have decided they were having delusions due to exhaustion.)

When they crawled out they didn't see any thing but began scuttling about looking for things. and decided to start seeing if there was anything that Thofum the Dwarf was hiding under a great bed on low legs and thought that perhaps they had in fact found the bed on low legs under it. It was all very meta.

[Lady of Shadow]

"it seems Fangorn's latest thief continues to elude me!" Naelia thought to herself as she continued to search the land of the Ents for a wily thief that would even give the other hunters in Mordor a run for their money!

Now finding herself in a place known as near the old stump with only two branches, the minioness tried to get inside the mind of the thief to see where they might have hidden the item in question. "Not that the item could be very big in a place as small as this..." the minioness thought to herself as she began to scour the area for anything out of the ordinary.

It wasn't long before she came across none other than all the red berries of the rowan tree and noticed someone skulking away at the same time. "Oho, trying to give me the slip, are they?" Naelia thought to herself as she noticed someone known as Castor the beaver trying to get away with something that didn't belong to them.

[Dungeon Delver]

Apologies for the long wait everyone...

Round Two:
The Culprit has been found
The Hiding Place has been found
The Item has NOT been found