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Stone Soules Summary: Den of Trolls

Well, I guess that it's Snag's turn to write an adventure description. The title of this one will just have to be:

DEN OF TROLLS, PART 1: The Great Battle

(As recounted by Snaggle-Tooth the Hobgoblin.)

We all knew that the stone soules were running low on funds. We had little cash left and several party members ready for training. Furthermore, the Barony is still far from self-sufficient, and in a month or two we would be unable to meet payroll, even if we spent nothing on training. So the Stone Soules met in our war room to plan our next expedition.

There were many suggestions of where to go and what to do, but it was Gerald's pointing out that Trolls are known to collect treasure that finally won us over. There was a great deal of discussion of how exactly to attack the trolls. We considered simply pouring some of the vitrioli into the cave -- the little para-elementals seek out living creatures and then explode in a burst of acid and fire -- making them the bane of trolls.

But we decided that there wasn't any need to go to such lengths -- we were certainly capable of taking out a trolls by more conventional methods. We decided that both Eli and Dahri would attack using lightning: Eli thought that if the trolls could be caught in the narrow canyon approaching their cave then he would be able to manipulate his "pool-ball" lightning bolt so as to hit all of them; hopefully multiple times. Dahri's druidic spell required the presence of clouds from which to summon the lightning, but the weather is frequently rainy in these parts (sometimes, when it rains for days, I *almost* envy the naked races their lack of fur), so we were confident this would at worst cause a slight delay. We loaded up M.U.L.E. (that's Mighty Ugly Lugging Engine, my pack mule) with some 30 pints of oil, and set off.

Not wishing to leave the Barony unguarded, Cedric stayed behind. However, everyone else in the Stone Soules came. We arrived in the vicinity of the troll caves without incident about 2 days later to bright, sunny weather.
We moved a few hours off and settled in to wait for bad weather. Dahri sent Jeremy (her crow) to scout the area and keep an eye out for trolls, and we all relaxed for a few days enjoying the weather. Then Alegra, after communing with Phalcon, told us to expect a thunder-storm in the afternoon, so we packed up and headed up to
the trolls' lair.

We arrived and set up quickly. Dahri began casting her spell, while everyone else moved into position. Alegra cast an "aid" spell on me, since I was to be the bait for our trap. Then Alegra, Constance, and I entered the canyon. I poured a few pints of oil over the area where Eli's lightning bolt was supposed to strike, then tried to attract the trolls' attention. When shouted challenges didn't draw them out, I gritted my teeth and approached the cave. Finally I got close enough for the trolls to attack -- one moment I saw nothing, and the next moment they were ripping me to pieces!

As planned, I took off from the mouth of the cave, running at full speed.

While this magical banded mail I've been wearing may be a little tougher than my old suit, I maintain that its best feature is that of permitting me to run away at full speed -- a manuver that (unlike Cedric, Faranin, and the other cavalers) I have no objection to performing; especially since I always return later for the kill.

Unfortunately, the trolls were still faster than me, and I took quite a beating as I made my way back along the canyon. Constance managed to land a few well-placed arrows in the troll that was harrying me, but he (or she?) didn't seem to care. And behind him streamed another, then another, then another, until 5 trolls were hurtling down the path. Alegra then cast a wyvren watch over the cave mouth in case any more came after -- and only moments later a sixth troll burst out of the cave, only to be frozen in place by her spell. But all of this I only learned later -- for the moment I was concentrating on nothing more than running away as quickly as by boots could carry me.

I came barreling out of the canyon and ducked to the side just as Eli let loose with his lightning bolt. He timed it perfectly, catching all of the trolls once through, and then hitting them all a SECOND time on the rebound! Unfortunately, the trolls resisted his magic almost completely -- had they not, he assures me, they could never have stood as long as they did in the ensuing fight. One appeared badly hurt, and another mildly so, but the rest mostly shrugged it off.

But as they emerged from the canyon, the trolls faced a gruesome sight: In a circle around the exit were arrayed Gerald, Theo, QuickClaw, Casanna, Claud (yes, he did his share against the hated enemies of the dwarves, although his prime duty was that of guarding Eli), Pap, and Faranin. Behind them, our second row, all armed with bow or lit oil flasks, and ready to attack. The first to act was Dahri -- as the trolls emerged in a tight bunch, she summoned down *another* bolt of lightning, which enveloped four of the five beasts.

Again, however, luck was not with us. Perhaps we didn't wait for the clouds to build up enough -- whatever the reason, the bolt she summoned was a fairly small one. Although it still managed to inflict some damage on the trolls, it came nowhere close to her expectations.

The battle that followed was a lush one. Although they dealt some grevious blows, the trolls never managed to break our circle of death. It was our tactical position, and the fact that we have trained to fight well together that enabled us to gain the victory. When, to cite one example, Pap sustained a blow which surely must have been mortal, he merely stepped back -- allowing those next to him to close ranks around him -- and swallowed the handful of Good-Berries that Dahri doled out. This is but one example of the perfectly timed actions of our clerical support -- there were many others. And as soon as we would bring down a troll, Eli would apply his burning-hands spell, or Ludo would apply flaming oil to ensure that the creature didn't recover and return to the battle.

While a blow-by-blow rendition of that battle would make wonderful reading (and be instructive as well), this is not the place for it. Suffice to say, that when the 5 trolls had all been brought down (but NOT yet all burned!) we had been decimated. No lives had been lost yet, but all of our main fighters (except -- by pure luck -- Gerald) were badly wounded.

But Alegra warned us that there was little time remaining -- within moments, the spell of paralysis which held the sixth troll would fade away.

So I headed up the canyon, followed by Ludo, with a stock of oil flasks, and by Star, who began a healing spell as soon as he got there. I was able to get in but a single blow before the troll shook free of the paralysis and attacked! I tried to hold him off while Ludo pelted him with flaming oil, but the wind in the canyon gusted terribly, and Ludo's flasks kept flying wide of their mark. Finally, with the troll overbearing me, I made a tactical mistake which I now regret: knowing that I couldn't possibly survive another round of blows, I stepped back behind Ludo, to let him absorb one of the troll's attack routines. What I didn't count on was that the troll would fell Ludo in a single blow. Leaping over him, I continued the attack (and with others' help, managed to destroy the fiend), but only the immediate and desperate intervention of Star and Alegra saved Ludo from dying immediately. Please accept my apologies, my short, agile friend.

When all six trolls had finally been dispatched -- and permanently -- we quickly began gathering a party to decend into the cave itself. While we (rightly!) feared this might be dangerous, we felt that we needed to press our advantage while we held it. We had no desire for any treasure to be looted or born off through some bolt-hole or back entrance, nor did we wish any other trolls to attack us in the night time, when they are at their strongest. So we entered the cave: and that adventure is recounted in "Part 2: Into the Troll Den".

DEN OF TROLLS, PART 2: Into the Troll Den

(As recounted by Snaggle-Tooth the Hobgoblin.)

Sorry that I took so long in getting this written, but I got distracted by more important matters. I'd been helping one of the new farmers lay in the foundation for the house he was building -- after all, we ARE trying to make Middle an immigrant-friendly town -- and writing up these records in the evenings. But then Quick reminded me that I'd been neglecting our practice and training sessions, so we spent most of the next three days out on the practice field. After our recent experiences, we wanted to do some practice with flaming oil -- by the way, the stuff is NASTY when it hits you! But this afternoon we left off practice and went out to Dahri's grove to help her reposition some logs and boulders, so this evening I have a little free time to continue the account.

We had just defeated all six trolls -- more than that, we had burned all that was left of them. We had no casualties, but the toll of wounded was great. Faranin, Theo, and myself -- our usual "frount-row" fighters -- were all severely wounded. Gerald, fortunately, was not, and he bravely agreed to guard the rear of the party. Aside from him, the warrior in best shape was actually QuickClaw! Claude -- being so short that he was almost impossible for the trolls to hit -- was assigned to lead the way, and Quick followed him. After her came Faranin, then the rest of our group: Dahri, Khanstin, Alegra, Eli, Casanna, myself, Theo, and Gerald. (I THINK that was it -- there may have been others though: traveling single-file through rough rock passages doesn't give one much opportunity to see one's companions.) The others remained outside; Faranin's men standing on guard, while the rest tended each other's wounds. We took all of the remaining eleven flasks of oil in with us.

We stooped to enter the cave and proceeded single file to a small chamber with several passages leading off it. As we continued through the tunnels we encountered many more such splits in the path -- I won't try to recount them all perfectly since Eli made a rudimentary map of the place. We began exploring, quickly finding ourselves in a dead end, and a nasty one at that. It was filled with a strange glop consisting of rotting flesh, raw sewage, and other more-unpleasant unmentionables. The stench was overpowering!

We found a few more dead ends of this sort, all filled with the troll's putrid wastes. Then we discovered a passage which seemed to lead someplace. Suddenly, Claude called a halt: there was a large pit in the floor ahead. The pit was about 15 feet deep, and some 20 feet wide -- just perfect for a troll to cross with a single long step. The bottom was covered in twisted scraps of metal (contaminated with deadly troll excrement I am sure), to ensure the slow, painful death of any who fell into it. Quick, having been practicing lately at climbing while armor-clad, took one end of a rope and proceeded across. Bracing herself against the wall, she held the rope taut so Claude could cross. It was while she was braced here, holding Claude above the deadly pit, that the cowardly troll attacked her.

Never losing her courage, Quick bravely maintained her grip on the rope to keep Claud from falling. The troll took advantage of this to rip two horrible gashes into her back and upper arm. The blows probably should have killed her, but Quick fought through the pain to maintain consciousness. She held the rope until Claude was across, then quickly climbed down into the pit.

I will admit that at first I was as puzzled as anyone else -- how could she leave Claude on the far side of the pit to face the troll alone? But her plan quickly became obvious. Claude began a defensive fight -- swinging again and again with blows that almost (but not quite) hit the troll; trying to hold the beast off. Meanwhile, Quick ran to the other end of the pit and literally hoisted Faranin down; then ran back and hefted him up on the other side to join the battle with the troll. As Khanstan loaded oil into the bulbs of his humming-bulb arrows and shot the flaming things into the troll from this side of the pit, Quick began ferrying people across to the far side. Eventually the troll was brought down, and Dahri lit her scimitar into flame with a spell, and used it to dispatch the troll's remains forever.

We continued onward. As both Quick and Claude had been severely wounded, Faranin led the way, with Theo behind him. We moved forward some distance, then came to a fairly large room strewn with rubbish. Faranin called for us to stop, and he looked about -- shortly spying what he was looking for: a tiny troll-ling (probably a young troll, or perhaps a cutting from a larger one). He moved forward and quickly three of the small things swarmed him. Theo moved in with his short sword, Faranin continued to hack at them, and Khanstan fired arrows at the beasts, but they were devilishly hard to hit while swarming Faranin. I nearly slashed Faranin himself while trying to scrape one off of him. Finally we stepped aside and Eli used another burning-hands spell (he had already cast several today). Faranin turned so that the scrabbling troll was towards Eli and he stepped into the flame. He remained in the flame only moments (although in his condition, and with the strength of Eli's flame spell, moments was enough to bring him to the verge of death!), and the ones still clinging to him dropped off.
Eli manuvered so as to encompase two of the trolls in the flame at once, and he managed to burn them away just as his spell sputtered and died out. Durring the battles, we had used several vials of oil and had only about 4 remaining, so every last spurt of troll-slaying flame was becomming vital.

Once again, we regrouped, with Theo in front, myself behind him, followed by Khanstan. Gerald still guarded the rear of our party, although most of the people next to him were too wounded to assist him much, were danger to come from that direction. Nor could Alegra be of much assistance: she was jealously conserving her few remaining healing magics for those whose wounds were such as to be immediately mortal. Onward we pressed. Eli was rapidly becomming the most battle-ready warrior in our group!

Just past the room with the tiny trolls, a passage ended in a mid-sized chamber; as we peered in, one MORE troll attacked. Weary, wounded, but still game, we pressed the attack. As I attacked from the side, I managed to bend yet ANOTHER scimitar as well as drop my dagger. Clearly, I was in no shape to be fighting -- but then again, neither were any of the rest of us! Dahri leant me her scimitar, and I continued to press the troll.
Khanstan fired the last of his flaming arrows, and we pressed the attack, but the troll still wouldn't go down. In shock, we realized that it seemed to be resistant to our flames -- resistant, that is, even compared to a normal troll. When we finally beat the creature down we wanted to conserve the last two flasks of oil and Eli's last spell, so we burned the creature with our torches, while keeping it down with our weapons. Eli used his staff to remove the troll's necklace, and that seemed to help -- eventually we burned the thing.

Searching the room we found what looked like an altar block. It was discovered that it was movable, so we shoved it aside. Below was a shallow pit filled with human and demi-human skulls. Dilligent searching revealed nothing else. Grumbling to each other ("Why was it that we came here again... treasure?"), we turned back: this was a dead end.

Actually, by this time we had explored the entire cave, with the solitary exception of the small shaft near the entrance which lead straight downwards. Returning to the entrance, we debated whether to check down it or not. None of us were in any shape to encounter another troll, but neither did we want our entire expedition into the cave to come to nought because we turned aside at the final moment. I offered to be lowered into the hole on a rope (Ludo was unavailable), but Eli overrulled me with a better suggestion: the vitrioli. He had brought a few tiny vials of the stuff with him -- not more than a few drops taken all together. But the substance was ideal for destroying trolls, and using it didn't risk any of us. Furthermore, in his experiments he had learned how to control the demi-elemental star-creatures somewhat: he knew they were attracted to light and movement, and that they sought out the nearest living thing before exploding in a burst of fire and acid.

So we returned to the entrance, extinguished all of our lights, and Eli dribbled a drop or two down to the base of the shaft. Moments later, there was a popping sound followed by a horrendous roaring scream from a troll below. As Eli pulled out his light bead we could see the form of a HUGE troll -- one-and-a-half to two times the size of a large normal troll -- climbing rapidly up the shaft! Eli poured more of the vitrioli onto the troll, but the material was ineffective until it landed on the surface below, and the small star-creatures were unable to climb up after the troll. As the enormous beast sped upwards, I hurriedly got out the remaining 2 vials of oil while someone lit a torch; I threw the flaming oil down on the troll just as he crested the top. One vial burned him some (he seemed resistant just like last one), but the other clattered down to the base of the shaft where it set off several of the star-creatures, who exploded harmlessly.

Gerald and Theo were waiting, swords in hand, as the troll crested the pit. Eli prepared his final burning-hands, and Khanstan readied his bow in the awkward confines of the narrow corridor. I got ready to provide cover for Eli when his spell finished. The fight was fierce, but brief. The troll downed Theo in a single, horrible blow -- the extremely severe wound he recieved would have surely killed him right then and there had not Allegra immediately applied all of her remaining spells to him. But weak though we were, we could still inflict damage, and Eli was able to flame the creature to maximum possible effect; finally we knocked the beast back down the pit.

Short moments later, it would have regenerated the damage and would have climbed up to dismember those of us still standing, had Eli not quickly poured the rest of the remaining vitrioli down on the ground next to him.
The star creatures gladly threw themselves on the brute, and their explosions killed him permanently.

Worn, torn, battered, and beaten, we now retreated from the cave. By this point, a single troll could have decimated half of the party before the rest of us fled on horses; two of them could have slaughtered us all. We retreated into the bend in the canyon -- here a few could hope to hold off attackers while the rest of the party fled to safety. Faranin's men guarded the horses and the entrance to the canyon, while Gerald and I stood guarding against any threat from the cave itself. Everyone else slept -- huddling under tarps we set up to ward off the rain. After a few hours, Alegra awoke, and cast healing spells on the worst-injured of the party; then she returned to sleep until a second round of healing could be done.

After the second nap, we decided to brave the cave again. Gerald was exhausted, and dropped off to sleep, but, loath to abandon the quest at this point, I joined the crew that returned to the cave. Quick volunteered to be the first to climb down the pit (Ludo was still unavailable) while Theo and Khanstan held a rope. When she reached the bottom she saw a sparkling shape darting towards her. She scrabbled up the wall, and the people above hauled her out of harm's way just as the small star-creature reached the place she had been standing. We exploded it with an arrow, then Dahri dropped a light bead to attract any others (as it turned out, that was the last one). Repeating the manuver, she climbed down, finding herself waist-deep in troll muck! We all followed her, with the shorter demi-humans being carried on the shoulders of the taller people.

The room opened up into a large chamber, with lots and lots of small side passages (and a single larger one). We checked all of them -- nothing but more troll muck. Finally, Eli plucked up his courage and probed one of the muck-blocked passages with his quarterstaff -- sure enough, he turned up a gold piece.

So we spent two EXTREMELY unpleasant days digging through the muck of the troll cave. Although he refused to help scrape through the muck, Eli managed to earn his worth by casting a vast number of cleaning spells in several shift a day, so that we had a chance to escape from the worst of the grime and stench when on our off shifts. And what we found was incredible. When taken all together, there was around 10,000 gold pieces worth of coinage of every type, style, and minting. There were also several items which turned out to be magical: a ring (later shown to be a ring of protection), yet ANOTHER magical morning star (+1/+2 vs ogres), a belt of metal boxes which held more than they should have been able to and without gaining any weight at all, a magic small shield which turned out to be a shield +3!, and, best of all, magical bracers of protection.

So we returned triumphant, having disposed of the trolls as well as having solved the fiscal crisis in Middle. In fact, with some of the money we recovered, we paid off the last of the remaining debt to Cedric & Faranin's family.

Snag - Michael Chermside

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