Ranger’s Apprentice Book 1, The Ruins of Gorlan; Prologue — Transcript

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1. 0:00the rangers apprentice book one
2. 0:03the ruins of gorland
3. 0:06prologue
4. 0:08morgoroth lord of the mountains of rain
5. 0:10and knight former baron of gorland in
6. 0:12the kingdom of oraluan looked out over
7. 0:15his bleak rain swept domain and for
8. 0:17perhaps the thousandth time cursed
9. 0:20this was all that was left to him now
10. 0:23a jumble of rugged granite cliffs
11. 0:25tumbled boulders and icy mountains
12. 0:28of sheer gorges and steep narrow passes
13. 0:31of gravel and rock with never a tree or
14. 0:33a sign of green to break the monotony
15. 0:36even though it had been 15 years since
16. 0:38he had been driven back into this
17. 0:40forbidding realm that had become his
18. 0:42prison he could still remember the
19. 0:44pleasant green glades and thickly
20. 0:46forested hills of his former fife
21. 0:48the streams filled with fish and fields
22. 0:50rich with crops and grain
23. 0:53gorland had been a beautiful living
24. 0:55place
25. 0:56the mountains of rain and night were
26. 0:58dead and desolate
27. 1:00a platoon of wargles was drilling in the
28. 1:02castle yard below him
29. 1:04morgaroth watched them for a few seconds
30. 1:07listening to the guttural rhythmic chant
31. 1:09that accompanied all their movements
32. 1:11they were stocky misshapen beings with
33. 1:13features that were halfway human but
34. 1:15with long brutish muzzle and fangs like
35. 1:18a bear or a large dog
36. 1:21avoiding all contact with humans the
37. 1:23wargles had lived and bred in these
38. 1:25remote mountains since ancient times
39. 1:28no one in living memory had ever set
40. 1:30eyes upon one but rumors and legends had
41. 1:33persisted of a savage tribe with
42. 1:34semi-intelligent beasts in the mountains
43. 1:38morgoroth planning a revolt against the
44. 1:40kingdom of oralune had left gorland five
45. 1:42to seek them out
46. 1:44if such creatures existed they would
47. 1:46give him an edge in the war that was to
48. 1:48come
49. 1:49it took him months but he eventually
50. 1:51found them
51. 1:52aside from their wordless chant wargles
52. 1:54had no spoken language relying on a
53. 1:57primitive form of thought awareness for
54. 1:59communication
55. 2:00but their minds were simple and their
56. 2:02intellects basic
57. 2:04as a result they had been totally
58. 2:06susceptible to domination by his
59. 2:07superior intelligence and willpower
60. 2:10morgoroth meant them to his will and
61. 2:12they became the perfect army for him
62. 2:15ugly beyond nightmares utterly pitiless
63. 2:18and bound totally to his mental orders
64. 2:21now looking at them he remembered the
65. 2:23brightly dressed knights and glittering
66. 2:25armor who used to compete in tourneys at
67. 2:27castle gorland
68. 2:29their silk gowned ladies cheering them
69. 2:31on and applauding their skills
70. 2:33mentally comparing them to these black
71. 2:35furred misshapen creatures he cursed
72. 2:38again
73. 2:39the wargles attuned to his thoughts
74. 2:41sensed his disturbance and stirred
75. 2:43uncomfortably pausing and what they were
76. 2:44doing
77. 2:46angrily he directed them back to their
78. 2:48drill and the chanting resumed
79. 2:50mogoroth moved away from the unglazed
80. 2:52window closer to the fire that seemed
81. 2:54utterly incapable of dispelling the damp
82. 2:57and chill of this gloomy castle
83. 2:59fifteen years he thought to himself
84. 3:02again
85. 3:0315 years since he had rebelled against
86. 3:05the newly crowned king duncan a youth in
87. 3:07his twenties
88. 3:09he had planned it all carefully as the
89. 3:11old king's sickness progressed
90. 3:13banking on the indecision and confusion
91. 3:15that would follow his death to split the
92. 3:17other barons and give morgroth his
93. 3:19opportunity to seize the throne
94. 3:22secretly he had trained his army of
95. 3:24wargles massing them up here in the
96. 3:26mountains ready for the moment to strike
97. 3:29then in the days of confusion and grief
98. 3:31followed by the king's death when the
99. 3:33barons traveled to castle oraluan for
100. 3:35their funeral rites leaving their armies
101. 3:37leaderless he attacked overrunning the
102. 3:40southeastern quarter of the kingdom in a
103. 3:42matter of days routing the confused
104. 3:44leaderless forces that tried to oppose
105. 3:47him
106. 3:48duncan young and inexperienced could
107. 3:50never have stood against him
108. 3:52the kingdom was his for the taking the
109. 3:55throne was his for the asking
110. 3:58then lord northhold the old king's
111. 4:00supreme army commander had rallied some
112. 4:02of the younger barons into a loyal
113. 4:04confederation giving strength to
114. 4:06duncan's resolve and stiffening the
115. 4:08wavering courage of the others
116. 4:10the armies had met at hackham heath
117. 4:12close by the slip thunder river
118. 4:14and the battle swayed in the balance for
119. 4:16five hours with attack and
120. 4:18counter-attack and massive loss of life
121. 4:21the slips under was a shallow river but
122. 4:23its treacherous reaches of quicksand and
123. 4:25soft mud had formed an impassable
124. 4:27barrier
125. 4:28protecting morgrath's right flank
126. 4:31but then one of those grey cloaked
127. 4:33meddlers known as rangers had led a
128. 4:36force of heavy cavalry across a secret
129. 4:38ford 10 kilometers upstream
130. 4:40the armored horsemen appeared at the
131. 4:42crucial moment of the battle and fell
132. 4:44upon the rear of morgarath's army
133. 4:47the wargles trained in the tumbled rocks
134. 4:49of the mountains had one weakness
135. 4:51they feared horses and could never stand
136. 4:53against such a surprise cavalry attack
137. 4:56they broke retreating to the narrow
138. 4:58confines of three-step pass and back to
139. 5:01the mountains of rain and night
140. 5:03morgroth his rebellion defeated went
141. 5:05with them
142. 5:07and here he had been exiled these 15
143. 5:09years
144. 5:10waiting plodding
145. 5:12hating the men who had done this to him
146. 5:15now he thought it was time for his
147. 5:18revenge
148. 5:19his spies told him the kingdom had grown
149. 5:21slack and complacent and his presence
150. 5:23here was all but forgotten
151. 5:25the name morgaroth was a name of legend
152. 5:27nowadays a name mothers used to hush
153. 5:30fractious children threatening that if
154. 5:32they did not behave the black lord
155. 5:34morgoroth would come for them
156. 5:36the time was ripe
157. 5:38once again he would lead his waggles
158. 5:40into an attack but this time he would
159. 5:43have allies
160. 5:44and this time he would sow the ground
161. 5:46with uncertainty and confusion
162. 5:48beforehand
163. 5:49this time
164. 5:51none of those who conspired against him
165. 5:53previously would be left alive to aid
166. 5:55king duncan
167. 5:56for the wargles were not the only
168. 5:58ancient terrifying creatures he had
169. 6:00found in these somber mountains
170. 6:02he had two other allies even more
171. 6:05fearsome
172. 6:06the dreadful beasts known as the kalkara
173. 6:09the time was ripe to unleash them