Move 253: More Troll Bonfires
Aloysius and Echo cast identical fire spells on the troll they were facing. It collapsed to the floor of the cavern under the onslaught of flames. Azrun hit the troll facing Olaf with a magic missile spell. Invisible Arachne took the torch and started burning downed trolls.Daelen dropped his whip and took a dagger off his belt. He missed the troll he was facing with both weapons. The troll raked him with both of its claws. Blacky took a large amount of damage from the troll he was facing, but he did chop into it with his axe. Jana cut into the troll on her with her sword, but as she tried to move to intercept the other incoming troll, she got bit. She was unable to keep the troll from running where it wanted to go, which was after Azrun. Renn went to help Olaf, managing to cast a healing spell on the other priest even as the priest of Tyr parried the trolls attacks on him.
Aloysius threw some magic missiles at the troll Blacky was facing. Renn repeated his healing spell on Olaf. Arachne continued to light up troll bodies. Azrun magic missiled the troll that came after him. The troll ripped into him with claws and teeth, nearly dropping the bard. Echo also cast a magic missile spell then ran over to help Azrun.
Blacky, Daelen and Jana all took down the trolls they were facing. Olaf continued to attempt to defend himself against the troll, but this time, the troll clawed him anyway. Luckily, the healing that Renn had provided was enough to keep him from going down.
Blacky was too badly hurt to go after any more trolls, but Daelen and Jana moved after the two trolls remaining. Azrun was, at this point, using his quarterstaff and Echo was wielding a dagger. Echo got clawed again before the troll she, Azrun, and Jana faced went down. Daelen dropped the one on Olaf before it caused any additional damage.
The southern tunnel remained webbed with no sign of any trolls fighting their way through. Arachne finished lighting up the rest of the trolls, eight in total this time, again filling the caverns with stinking smoke.
Aloysius took a moment to catch his breath. "Still we have not seen any trolls that appear to be the Slaverer's leader. I suggest we heal to the extent possible and examine the other tunnel. Surely there can't be many more of them."
He sighed, looking rather tired. "Can there?"
Echo replied, "I hope not. Haven't we killed almost as many of these slobbering ones as we did Topknots?"
With a satisfied smirk, Daelen wiped the gore off his dagger and sheathed it to retrieve his whip.
Jana looked around at the assorted injuries. "You okay?" she asked Echo softly. With a pained expression she said to everyone, "We're gettin' our asses kicked. Two of the damned things got by me. I don't know how many more of these droolers are out there, but we've just gotta do better, be smarter, or we're gonna stop being lucky and someone's gonna die. I'm just not sure how t'go about getting better. I mean, I'm fine with smashing things but not s'good with out-thinking 'em. We've gotta be smarter about this. Anyone got any ideas?"
"I'll be okay once I get the troll spit off me," Echo replied quietly to Jana.
Echo said, "I was up ahead before the fight started. The tunnel we're in now gets wider. It may be leading into another cave. It think it had another tunnel branch off but I didn't get a chance to look close."
Aloysius glanced around at the wounded. "'Twould seem that our main difficulty in fighting the trolls involves the dimensions of the battle sites themselves," he offered. "These passages and caves are too wide to prevent the trolls from bypassing our front line. Would that Stargazer had more spells that affected an area rather than a specific target, but I do not."
He stared off into the darkness for a moment. "No real suggestions have I," he added finally. "Although I, too, have reservations about our capacity to combat a foe that does something other than rush blindly ahead. Perhaps the invisibility spells can be more frequently utilized for scouting purposes. At least that way we know somewhat ahead of time what we might expect."
"If we could pick a constriction in the tunnel and fall back to it or lure the trolls to it like in our first battle, we would be able to better hold the line." Blacky commented breathlessly as he tried to staunch the flow of blood. "I certainly hope there aren't many more of those guys."
"I think the answer is right under our noses." Daelen said, hefting one of the spears the trolls had been using. "We haven't even tried arrows or those pikes we got from the orcs. No point prancing around with a load of kindling on your back if you aren't gonna use it to poke some holes in the enemy's charge."
"So, are we to move ahead after healing, or shall we camp once more?" asked Aloysius, turning towards Jana. "I've but one magic missile spell left, and I fear that my other remaining incantations will do little against a troll."
He surveyed the other party members. "I hate to move ahead too hastily, but also do I tire of these troll-ridden tunnels."
"What say we vanish into the darkness to lick our wounds? I doubt we finished the job yet but we'll be back sooner and rest more safely if we fall back while we've still got some fight in us and a few spells ready." He suggested as he replaced his whip at his side.
Olaf went to Azrun, Blacky, Echo, Daelen, and Jana and prayed over each of each for healing.
Olaf then said, "I have only two prayers left, a glyph like I used before to guard our site, and another pyrotechnics prayer."
Olaf used his healing spells on Azrun, Blacky, Daelen, Echo and Jana. The divine healing improved each of their conditions somewhat, some more than others.
"Are we under some sort of deadline?" Arachne's voice asked, from close by Jana. "We shouldn't let impatience make us take a dubious decision. There's eight fewer trolls in these tunnels now, but if we're banged up and depleted now, then going looking for more right away might be reckless. As for getting better at this, I'll admit that I still believe in scouting as the best way to improve our chances. We can't pick the setting for a fight if we don't do anything to control when the next fight is going to come along. I don't suppose there's any spells that would suppress the noise someone makes the way that invisibility suppresses the sight?"
"Yeah," Jana replied, "we are. Those prisoners aren't going to be kept alive forever. But you're right; we need to get healed up first."
"Scouting might be a good idea," Echo agreed. "We don't know what these tunnels are like. I've got two invisibility spells, one for me, one for someone else. I can use those now if we keep going or later if rest."
Aloysius sat down on the tunnel floor. "Arachne is correct. Let us not permit our fatigue and frustrations to cause us to act rashly. We assume that there are a similar number of Slaverers as Topknots, but we have no way of knowing that. Let us rest and renew ourselves afore venturing forth once more."
He pulled out his waterskin and took a drink.
Aloysius took a seat on the tunnel floor and drank some water. Some of Jana's wounds healed, seemingly spontaneously.
Meanwhile, the troll fires continued to burn. As always, the troll bodies burned rapidly so the fires started to die down as everyone stood around at the former battle site.
Azrun looked at Jana's wounds, "Arachne, did you just heal some of Jana's wounds?" He shook his head trying to clear mind of the fuzziness,
"Apparently, the rumors of me tasting delicious have past on to the other tribe. I'm all for resting and licking wounds." The bard looked like he was ready to collapse."Uh huh," the gnome's voice said softly close to him. "If you could sit, or kneel at least -- maybe lean against a wall a moment, if you think that getting up again would be a problem ... though it's a little easier for me if I can put my hand on the injuries..."
Arachne spoke up from somewhere over near Azrun, and soon after, some of his wounds disappeared.
The group relocated to the cavern with the pool, where they had rested before.
Azrun looked to where he thought Arachne was, "Little gnome, you are a large blessing in a small frame. Thank you for your healing. Perhaps I can return the favor, some time."
He looked to Jana and Aloysius, "I have two web spells left this day if needed. Perhaps we should gather up a few of those spears, like Daelen suggested. If the trolls do come, the web may slow them down enough to jab and prod them with the spears. I'm sure they'll up some of the damage, but it'll be a start. It's just a suggestion though."
He wandered over to a comfortable spot on the cavern floor and sat down, holding his wounds.
Once everyone was back in the pool room, Renn cast a similar sounding prayer on each of Olaf, Azrun, and Blacky before he changed spells and spread the second wave of healing prayers over the worst amongst everyone. "All I have now are a few less than useful enchantments. One which grants strength or agility, a fae light, and a spell which would remove magicks," the elf said.
Olaf placed another protection over the entrance to the cavern. "Now, if a troll crosses he'll take twice the burn." Olaf said with a grin.
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