Move 246: At Least They're Not Topknots....
Troll Caverns--Afternoon, Day 14The group moved down the unexplored tunnel. They had not gone far before their lights fell on two more trolls. The two were guarding an area where another smaller tunnel branched off the main one. Now that it was apparent that the party was coming their way, they did not hesitate in closing the short distance between them. These trolls did not have the tufts of hair on their heads, and as they got nearer, the thick yellow-green spittle that ran from their mouths down their chins was visible. One of the trolls began bellowing; although the volume was nothing compared to the noise the big gray Topknot troll had been capable of, it was likely loud enough to alert any other trolls in the immediate area.
"Shit! I guess we found the slaverers, I didn't think they would be this close. There goes our surprise attack." Blacky charged to meet the bellowing troll and swung his axe in an attempt to silence it.
"They'll be surprised enough when they wake up in the abyss!" Daelen answered as he ran to help shut the thing up.
"I'm thinking," Jana said, drawing her sword and gripping her shield, "dispatching these two quickly and making a strategic withdrawal is the order of the day." She moves to engage one of the nasty trolls. "Any of you have one of those webby things?" she asked.
Olaf drew his sword and moved forward to double-team the troll Jana attacked. "Come on you stinking pile of feces, time to die!"
"Who's got a torch?" Echo asked, looking around. She started casting a spell.
Aloysius slid over nearer to the lefthand wall. "Azrun, perhaps you should prepare a torch. Stargazer shall attempt to cover the passage."
He pulled a stick covered in white, gossamer-like material from his robe and began to cast a spell.
Azrun nodded, "I'm on it!" With that Azrun pulled one of the torches he had been given and attempted to light it.
"If someone who's carrying a torch could drop it," Arachne's voice called out from one of the tunnel walls, "I'll work on getting it lit."
Renn waited til Aloysius cast his spell, then began an incantation of his own.
Blacky and Daelen took on one troll, while Jana and Olaf took on the other. Blacky and Daelen both wounded the troll with their weapons. The troll raked each of them with a claw, but it did not score a bite against either of them. Jana tried to block the claw coming at her with her shield, but the troll got past her defenses. Her swing went wide and she nearly lost her footing on the cavern floor. The troll caught Olaf with its other claw, but the priest hit the troll they were facing with a fearsome blow from his strangely silent longsword.
Echo started casting a spell, but it did not go off. Aloysius filled the narrower tunnel with a mass of webbing. After the mage finished his spell, Renn followed it with one of his own which had no immediately noticeable effect. Arachne offered to light a torch, but Azrun went to work on getting one started himself.
Two more slobbering trolls charged down the wider, unwebbed tunnel to join the fight.
"Sure, come and join the fuckin' party." Blacky said with a sudden burst of profanity as he took a couple more swings at the noisy troll. "Shut the fuck up, we don't need your whole family here."
"Damn!" cursed Aloysius upon seeing the two additional trolls approaching. He began casting another spell.
Echo stood with one of her daggers in her hand, poised to throw it at a troll if she found an opening.
"Olaf," Jana said, "pick on of the new ones up. Blacky, can you get the other?" She swung at 'her' troll. "Uh, guys," Jana said, swinging at the troll again, "can you maybe use a spell on the tunnel they're coming out of?"
"Aye, Jana!" Olaf turned and sped towards one of the new trolls, bellowing at the top of his lungs, "COME ON AND DIE, YOU MISBEGGOTTEN FROG SPAWN! JUSTICE! TYR!"
Those on the front line rearranged themselves to stop the charge of the two incoming trolls. Jana and Blacky continued fighting the trolls they had been facing, while Daelen and Olaf took on the other two. Echo threw her dagger. The thrown weapon hit the troll facing Jana, puncturing the monster's tough hide. Aloysius called three magic missiles into being and hurled them at the troll on Daelen. A light stone, appearing out of nowhere, skittered across the floor and stopped near the fighting in the front.
Blacky hacked into one troll with his axe, leaving the brute badly hurt. The troll had a smoldering wound from Daelen's sword attack earlier, but the wound had not caught fire. Blacky's armor served its purpose, deflecting the troll's sharp claws and teeth from causing him any harm. Jana's sword sliced through troll flesh, piercing vital organs in the creature's abdomen. It fell to the cavern floor, but as everyone knew, it would get up again if it was not burned. Olaf swung at the troll on him, but he missed. Luckily, the troll could not find an opening in the priest's defenses either. Daelen used his sword to prevent the troll from clawing or biting him.
Five more trolls came running down the tunnel to join in the fun.
Olaf shouted, "Bah! Getting slow in my old age!" He aimed another mighty swing at the creature.
"Damn my poor judgment!" cursed Aloysius as he cast another spell.
"Fight on, old man, you won't be any quicker if you're dead! The gods are watching; let's give them a show!" Daelen said as he attacked the wounded troll with an enthusiasm bordering on the perverse.
"Arachne," Jana said as she moved away from her downed troll, "can you burn this one?" She moved to engage one of the new trolls, two if she could. "Azrun, something constructive would be nice."
"Pull my dagger out of it before you burn it, if you can," Echo said. She put a bolt in her crossbow and aimed it at a troll.
Azrun scowled, "I'm trying to light this damn torch, Jana." He continued working on the torch, trying to get it lit.
"Arachne can do that," Jana replied, stepping in front of the oncoming trolls. "She can't web shut their damned tunnels."
Rennirolas looked about, drew his long sword and moved up to help Olaf if space in the tunnel allowed. "Never expected the tribes to be so close to one another," he sighed as he swung his blade.
Blacky swung once again at the troll opposing him, hoping to take it down.
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