In the past years, relations between the northeastern settlements of Dale and Lake-town have grown increasingly estranged from the Dwarven metropolis of Erebor. These dwarves, however, are known to withdraw from political relations without warning or reason; and thus the council in Lake-town paid no special regard to this lapse in communication.
Quite surprised, then, were the elders of Lake-town when--in the midst of a frosty Narvinye morning--they were awakened to an urgent report: the dwarves were moving. Citizens tending the fertile farm land along the river leading to the Long Lake had sighted a large host of dwarves, armed for war, crossing the river and marching south towards the Old Forest Road.