Move 255: Bring on the Drooly Trolls!
Troll Caves--Early, Day 17Arachne healed the rest of Echo's wounds before Echo cast invisibility spells on them both. The group set out, determined to finish these trolls once and for all.
Rennirolas began to cast a spell just before everyone set off. When he was nearly done with the casting, he took a drop of sweat from his brow and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, completing the spell. "For the next hour, unexpected danger from a near source will not catch us completely unawares," he smiled.
The caverns were very quiet, other than the noises the large group made.
They walked back to the tunnel junction where the most recent fight had taken place. The webs that had covered the entrance of the southern tunnel were long gone. The decision of the moment was which way to go first, into the southern tunnel where the last group of Slaverers had come from or into the eastern tunnel in front of them."Shall it be the southern way?" Renn said quietly, his hand at rest on the pommel of his longsword.
"Perhaps the southern tunnel?" Aloysius suggested. "That way, we won't walk past any Slaverers and potentially allow them to accost us from the rear."
"I wouldn't rule out the possibility of ambush no matter which way we take." Daelen commented, drawing his dagger, "Either way is fine with me."
"Southern tunnel's good with me," Jana agreed, "unless someone knows better."
The party moved down the southern tunnel, the one the Slaverers had come from earlier. Not surprisingly, it led to another cavern. This cave had thin roseate-white stalactites and stalagmites along its western and southern edges, along with some rock "stumps" where the protrusions seemed to have been broken away. The place seemed to be free of trolls. Behind one of the stalagmites were a couple of old traveling packs, much like the ones many of the party members carried their belongings in.
Cautiously, Aloysius scanned the ceiling of the chamber. Upon noticing the packs, he frowned and rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Odd," he said finally. "Ne'er have we seen any sign of others from the surface coming down here, save perhaps Ranchefus. Carmeneren said nought of such things."
He turned to Azrun. "Have thee a spell of magical detection, Azrun? Such packs would serve as a likely lure for an arcane trap of some sort."
"I agree that it looks suspicious. Do you think that the trolls have the intelligence to lay magical traps?" Blacky asked.
"Perhaps, perhaps not," replied Aloysius. "But if they be in league with others from above, their allies may well have that capacity."
Azrun shook his head, "Sorry Aloysius. I'm only packing combat spells.
Perhaps Renn's danger sense spell could sniff them out?""I'll check 'em out," Jana offered. She held her shield in front of her body and advanced on the backpacks, moving them gently with the tip of her sword. If they seemed innocuous, she bent down to examine them more closely.
Jana poked at the packs with her sword. Nothing happened, so she bent down to take a closer look.
"Nothing much in here," Jana said, turning back from her inspection of the packs. She grabbed them and walked to the others with them, dumping the contents. "Some personal junk and some bags of coins. Didn't count 'em," she added. "We might want to take the packs, just to carry stuff in. And the money, 'course." She tossed the coins and one empty pack into the second pack then tossed the assorted kibble toward the wall.
Olaf stayed near the back, watching the cavern openings. "Where are the rest of the trolls, I wonder?" he asked.
"They'll probably show up soon," Echo's voice said glumly. "I don't see anything else in here. Are we ready to go?"
"Or we could possibly have killed those what remained," Renn smiled. "Corellon willing that's the way of it," he said more softly as he stepped back out of the entrance to the southern cavern to allow those within to exit.
Azrun looked over at the packs, "What sort of personal junk? Journals or something?" Azrun went over to look at what jana had discarded.
Daelen looked at the packs and stuff that was dumped out with mild interest.
The things that Jana had discarded were things one might expect to find in a pack, although none of them seemed very useful anymore, some short pieces of rope, a wooden cup with a hole in it, a moldy waterskin, some old clothes in poor repair. There were no personal effects that might have identified the previous owners. The packs themselves still seemed functional. Both packs had been nearly filled to capacity with the smaller bag of coins before Jana had dumped their contents onto the cavern floor.
"Let's keep moving," Jana suggested.
Azrun nodded and stood up and readied himself to go with the group to the other passage.
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