"Yeah, that's not problem," Val says as she shakes her head and squints through the mixture of driving rain and light induced spots. "If it keeps these guys down, I can handle a few flashy lights." The tiefling skips forward, continuing to push in on the next group of trolls. She knife comes up again and she makes another quick thrust.
In a moment of dramatic showmanship, Valaria causes the blabbering troll to lose sight of her starknife for one costly instant... the sudden shock of pain seems to jolt it out of its reverie. It wheels on her, giving Isilme access to the back of its neck. From behind it she lunges forward, letting lose a strike that pierces into its clavicle dead-center.
Meanwhile, further away, the trolls continue to duke it out. With an audible clash, the troll deflects the incoming fist and create an opening for its own, swiping its claws across the other's face.
Hinagiku, Anevia, Xanderghul, and Ehren are up!
"I... think he teleported away!" Ary calls to the others as he vanishes from just within her reach. Like it or not, the guy had style if not of the particular sort that Ary valued. Like... not leaving friends behind after ordering them to die for him - and using them as living bombs.
Anevia, meanwhile, invisible hops down from the rooftop, staying scurrying up and over the nearest chimney and then ducking behind the next chimney, before leaning out to fire on the nearest troll nearest to Valaria, giving up her concealment to take advantage of its distraction.
Anevia's shot goes right into the troll's stomach, lodging an arrow somewhere deep in its gut.
Hinagiku, Xanderghul, and Ehren are up!
Xanderghul struggles under the effects of the skald's linnorm curse magic. He actually isn't even sure whether or not he would still possess the curse when he returned to his own body, but if he did, he at least has the ability to grant himself freedom against such inhibitions. Even if it might take all week to free everybody from all of the curses that they would fall under.
Even while he suffers under boiling blood and immense cursed pain, he rallies, steps behind himself and lashes out at the troll behind him, all claws and teeth and roaring fury.
Xanderghul's enormous tusks slam into his opponent, biting off a chunk of troll-flesh as he rips away, that starts to heal over partially as soon as it vanishes.
Hinagiku and Ehren are up!
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Once Valaria and the others have cleared the area, Ehren pulls from the ley again, intending to finish Yuzu off. This time he evokes a column of white-hot flame, deciding that despite the trolls' resistance to fire, their regeneration had little hope of holding up against it in their current state. The ley-infused flames engulf the two trolls, penetrating their innate resistance to magic.
After the fire has subsided, Ehren turns to the cyclops and gestures at the remaining trolls, taking care to make one exception. "Farðu eftir hinum! Nema, það er það."
All too happy to oblige, the cyclops tramples over the trolls as it rushes towards the remaining trolls, only to come grinding to a halt, its way barred by Xanderghul. The giant lets out a huff of annoyance, not-so-secretly wondering if maybe it could get away with just one swing at the possessed troll.
The smell of sizzling troll flesh is readily apparent to those near Yuzu's corpse, even as the rain quickly extinguishes the remaining embers. Without another word, Hinagiku calmly snaps the troll's neck, hoping to at least put it out of its suffering if the creature had some form of awareness left.
Meanwhile, the confused troll lashes out at Xanderghul with both claws. One rakes across his chain shirt, causing his entire fingernail to come off, but the other rakes across his exposed face just in time to leave a long laceration. The other two trolls in the back likewise duke it out, their blows thwarted by each other's armor, bouncing off of the links with loud clinks.
The Heroes Are Up!
"Like the storm, our assault shall continue unrelenting, until all that remains is the mud beneath our feet." As she calls out to the grou, she Isilme continues moving forward, bringing her weapon to bear upon the troll she had just attacked.
Külə uses his spell to alleviate some of Lann's suffering, tapping him on the shoulder gently with his horn.
Ary, Variska, Hinagiku, Lann, Valaria, Anevia, Xanderghul and Ehren are up!
Despite being out of its radius, Lann recoils from the pillar of flame, finding the heat that radiates from it unbearable. Kule's magic restores a portion of the vitality he lost to the curse, but all things considered, he can barely tell the difference.
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With the battle gradually winding down, Ehren moves down the stairway, making his way back to the bottom of the watchtower. The others would be needing more fire or acid rather soon.
The cyclops meanwhile, continues to glower at the back of the Xanderghul-troll's head. He glances side to side, looking at the rooftops of the nearby buildings.
Ary, Variska, Hinagiku, Valaria, Anevia, and Xanderghul are up!
"Hang on Mr. Lann. You may stay in the back and recover, I think we got this." Hinagiku says, letting go of the troll's head in her hands. Then, with deft quickness, she darts through the decrepit buildings. Jumping, dodging, using beams to propel herself, the monk makes her way pasts the possessed troll and its opponent to the two that are hacking at each other. And, from the dark of the building she bids her time, waiting for her companions to join her side.
Ary, Variska, Valaria, Anevia, and Xanderghul are up!
The curses were going to be a problem. But... there was nothing that Ary could do for them short of retreating for now. Granted, a single day's retreat surely wouldn't prevent the group from venturing further, and safely... part of her really didn't want to be here at night, regardless. She turns her head to check on Xanderghul's slumped form and Lann as well as Kule.
"Lann, Kule! Please keep an eye on Xanderghul." Ary yells out as she moves back out into the rain, a small shudder being all that she allows herself as the stinging slivers of water slide horizontally into her vision from the howling winds. She moves gracefully as she can over the two violently destroyed bodies as she moves forward into the little cul de sac, stopping beside Valaria once more. The poor town wasn't big enough for the twelve of them.
Anevia stays precisely where she is, rain sloughing slowly over her leathers. She takes her time lining up a shot, waiting for the troll's lack of attention to result in an overextension. With quiet determination she forms her quicksilver blade in the air and launches it towards him.
Val shifts uncomfortably to the side as Xanderghul's borrowed body steps back and she's forced to press back against the wall. "Getting a little crowded in here I think. Let's clear up a little room." Val jumps up and kicks off the wall, flipping over the Xander-trolls arm and diving down through the still hostile troll's legs. She rolls to her feet and drives her starknife into its exposed back.
Variska rolls her eyes when the flamboyant skald simply vanishes from sight. "Yea, yea, well, f%!@ you too, you bugger," she grumbles. "I f#**in' hate bards." She strides back out into the rain, coming behind Xanderghul inside of his enormous fleshy troll meat-puppet.
"Can I learn that spell next?" she asks him, shielding the rain from her eyes as she watches him tear apart the troll in front of him.
Meanwhile, with her deft hands, Valaria manages to jab her starknife deep into the troll's back, causing him to howl in pain. In a moment of dramatic showmanship, her antics force the troll to lose sight of Isilme for one costly instant... whilst Anevia watches carefully, waiting for the right moment. Her arrow hits him right in the neck as he cranes into view, and the giant falls to the ground with a tremendous crash. As he falls to the ground, Hinagiku weaves through the surrounding ruined buildings. She pauses in the one beneath Isilme, passing by a half-ruined cradle. She could swear she could hear the soothing song of a mother's lullaby, even as the wind howls outside. She feels strongly compelled to stop and look into the cradle... but no. She shakes off the compulsion and moves on, appearing on the other side of Valaria.
Further back still, one troll finally manages to land an upper hand on the other, managing to connect with a low swipe, leaving him limping. Deep bleeding gashes cover his legs, dripping blood into the muck. That is, until Xanderghul pushes his troll body to stride over the now fallen troll. He lunges forward, aiming for his neck, but his teeth find purchase in his armored shoulder instead. With a mighty grunt, the other troll barrels its head towards his enemy's belly, but with surprising agility the troll shakes Xanderghul off of him, and steps aside. The charging troll stumbles awkwardly, leaving himself open for attack. He starts gasping for air, exhausted from the effort.
Round 5!
Ary, Variska, Kule, Hinagiku, Lann, Valaria and Isilme are up!
Another troll down and two to go. Isilme had little she could do to help finish the filthy giants off, so she would just have to focus on helping to kill the remaining two.
Hopping across the small gap to the next building, Isilme runs up the roof and back down the other side, coming up alongside Hinagiku. "Not exactly the view I would have hoped for!" she says to the kitsune with a wink as she brings her weapon to bear on the troll.
Ary, Variska, Kule, Hinagiku, Lann, and Valaria are up!
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Not having anything better to do, Külə sits down with an audible sigh on the road to wait on the others to finish.
"I can manage that," Lann replies shakily, more to himself than to Ary. He can still hold a sword, after all. Looking to the tower that he remembers Xanderghul chose to hide in for the ambush, he makes his way inside.
Ary, Variska, Hinagiku, and Valaria are up!
Given that the storm was making life hellish on the druid being able to put down their foes, Ary was more than willing to utilize her personal gifts in making such a thing simpler. "Help me keep this one down, Variska." Ary says as she begins to manhandle the currently-limp form of the troll into a building's entryway, heaving and trying to untangle the beast from Xanderghul's spacing. If she could get the creature at least partially inside, the veritable monsoon might not wash his acid away enough to enable the Druid to realistically ensure that not only does he stay down for now... but that he never gets back up. "Ehren, when you have the chance, blast him."
Val dashes forward again, rushing at the house directly in front of her. She ducks low to keep out of the troll's grip before leaping up and kicking off a windowsill to launch herself straight up and flip onto the rooftop so she was level with the monster's head. "Ugh, maybe this wasn't the best idea. I can smell its breath from this close." The tiefling wrinkles her nose and aims her dagger to go straight into the troll's eye.
Ary shifts the massive 1,000 lb troll over and into the building next to her as easily as if she were carrying a sack of potatoes, though his long green legs stick out of the doorway awkwardly, ending in toes covered in thick, curved yellow toenails. Meanwhile, Variska squeezes past Xanderghul's troll body to face the remaining two trolls, her enormous bastard sword in hand. Fortune favors the bold, and so it seems that fortune favored the troll for daring to stand against the heroes as her swing narrowly sails wide. Soon, the giant’s luck would run out....
Hinagiku nods up at Isilme through a hole in the roof, and steps out onto the small wrecked house's front porch. Spotting her as she emerges, she ducks underneath the troll's wild attack, lashing out as her blow connects with her kneecap with a crunch. The troll topples to the ground with a mighty crash, and her next blast of a punch connects in its gut with a loud clap. Then, Valaria flips onto the rooftop. Dodging a hasty swing, she exploits the opening and flings her starknife into the troll's face, which then vanishes and reappears in her open hand. The troll roars with fury, only somewhat muffled by the howling wind and rain. Isilme then leaps off of the roof, grabbing onto the lip of the rooftop with one hand while bringing her starknife squarely into his solar plexus, interrupting his bellowing cries. He gasps, his breath caught in his throat. Out of instinct more than anything, he raises his fist, aiming a blow straight at Isilme. Isilme simply pulls herself back up onto the roof with one arm, dodging out of the way just in time, and his fist slams through the wall of the house spraying the inside with splinters. A small smile appears on Isilme's lips as he struggles to pull his fist out of the wall.
Anevia, Xanderghul, and Ehren are up!
Anevia slips out of her hiding spot on the roof to get close enough to take advantage of the close quarters her enemies were in. Tiny tethers of shadow dart from Anevia's gloves to encircle her current arrow as she lifts her weapon into direct sight on the troll. The nocked arrow flutters in the wind and rain appearing to go off target, but being ripped along a wind stream towards the awaiting, unexpecting troll.
Xanderghul's troll body continues to heal, all of the wounds that the other troll inflicted on him finally washing away like the grime from the rain. He stomps past Variska and Hinagiku over to the right, allowing Ehren's cyclops to move up behind them, and lashes out with his superior reach against one of the few surviving trolls.
Now that he is out of the tower, Ehren makes a mad dash across town, following his friends as they make their final push against the trolls. Thanks to his greater longstrider spell, he is able to run over the charred troll corpses littering his path effortlessly, managing to make it all the way to the building that Ary managed to move the unconscious troll into. Seeing as she was able to carry Soltengrebbe's corpse on her shoulders, he is hardly surprised.
"Got it," Ehren says to Ary with a nod, ready to douse the troll with acid.
By the time he has gotten there, the cyclops has already made his move. The very second Xanderghul moves out of his way, he immediately resumes his bellowing and runs in with his axe held high, practically slobbering with bloodlust.
Anevia waits for a moment for the troll to be distracted, then simply sticks them with a well-placed shot. He roars in fury, becoming momentarily distracted from his fight with the other troll. Unable to find a clear path to charge at Anevia, he punches at the building Isilme stands on, trying to clear a path with brute force despite his complete and utter exhaustion.
Across from him, using a cunning underhand swipe, Xanderghul catches his opponent completely off-guard. He misleads the troll into the defensive, their great fists curled around each others in a titanic battle of strength and so, with a twist, the cyclops cuts under his defense with a fatal strike. Only one troll remains..
The Heroes are up!
Turning quickly to the last troll standing, Isilme is thrown off balance again by loose tiles on the dilapidated roof. With her first swing having missed by a wide margin, she brings her blade to bear with a second swift cut at the troll's head.
Laying on the ground, Külə keens his ears for any sign the fighting had ended without bothering to raise his head.
Darting to the left and low, Isilme quickly reverses her swing and takes advantage of the opening she created, slashing the troll across the arm.
Ary, Variska, Hinagiku, Lann, Valaria, Anevia, Xanderghul and Ehren are up!
Xanderghul backs up, standing uncomfortably on one of the troll corpses, trying to make room for his allies to file in against the final troll, especially Ehren, who was key against killing them. He balances precariously, with one leg on the shifting, regenerating troll corpse and the other on the ground, experimentally flexing his fingers.
Variska steps up against the final troll, shouting an unintelligible battle-cry as she swipes her huge sword at it front the back of one of its dead comrades. What a rush! What a battle! And she would be getting treasure afterwards, which was simply fantastic.
Variska's hewing slice opens up the last troll with a spine-chilling snick...
Ary, Hinagiku, Lann, Valaria, Anevia, and Ehren are up!
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Standing over the unconscious troll, Ehren points a finger down and blasts its body with a bolt of acid. Even if it does not kill the giant outright, it would at least disable its regeneration long enough for someone else to finish it off.
Meanwhile, the cyclops glares at Hinagiku and Variska, and thinks angry thoughts.
Ehren simply douses the arrow wound in the troll's neck with acid, cutting off its rapidly regenerating arteries from feeding oxygen to its brain. It stops breathing shortly afterwards.
Ary, Hinagiku, Valaria, and Anevia are up!
As another troll falls, Val smiles and spins her starknife again. "Only one more to finish this..." She takes a split second to get a good start then rushes forward, leaping the gap between the building she's standing on and the next, landing heavily on the shingles and pressing forward until she manages to wrap all the way around the back of the monster and slash across it's face with her starknife.
Valaria's starknife shimmers in flight, a sliver of death delivered unerringly to her dismayed victim. It falls to the ground, not quite dead.
Meanwhile, Lann crouches next to Xanderghul, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he does all he can to ignore the intense pain of the curses laid upon him. He glances out towards the town, wondering if the trolls had all been defeated yet.
Combat Ends!
Convinced that the troll is dead for good, Ehren slides off its body and rushes over to the last two, knowing that it would not take very long for them to regain consciousness. Giving them a quick examination, the druid identifies the most grievous of their wounds and fires more acid at them, destroying their exposed vitals. His summoned cyclops stands ready, just in case they wake up a little early, or need one last hack at the neck to be put down.
After that, with the battle apparently over, the cyclops mopes for a few moments longer before dissolving into starlights, which promptly burn out.
"Now what was this about a curse?" Ehren asks, his concern more evident now that they are not in immediate danger. "Can it be broken by a cleric?"
Ary simply moves quietly forward, before bodily hauling the trolls into the buildings. As long as they stay unconscious, Ary doesn't really have anything limiting her from doing so, after all. It was strange ripping live bodies through mud and rain, especially with the forced dispassion of the event. Dragging Soltengrebbe back to the tower had felt quite different, as it was more like dragging furniture... now it was a living, breathing - for now at least - thing. With a small huff that had nothing to do with exhaustion, she continued the task at hand, though, helping Ehren to ensure the grim business was swift.
Val carefully hops down from the roofs, not wanting to face plant in the muddy ground while it's still storming. She opens her mouth to call for Ehren to finish off the two monsters, but the druid melts the throats of the trolls before they can recover. "Well, that's that," she says, attaching her starknife to her belt again. "I really hope so. Otherwise, Lann might be in a bad way." She takes a few minutes to search over the trolls for any sign of useful information or perhaps more clues about what they were doing.
'Heh, that skald ran off, leaving all those trolls to die. Ugh, disgusting. How typical of mortal love.' comments the Bound Horror in your head. You can feel his small weight inside your backpack, where he had sought shelter from the intense wind and rain.
Valaria pokes around the troll bodies, but she doesn't find much except for on the she-troll, Yuzu. There she finds:
- A swirling, clear draught that smells of cloves
- An opaque ceramic vial that feels cool to the touch
- A hand-drawn note in a clean, cursive script. It reads:
Yuzu
Trollhafinn elskan mín
Sjaldgæf af snyrtifræðingur
Opnir sár mín passa viðvarandi
Skuldurinn minn er ógreiddur
Hafa lítið að nafni mínu
Ég lýsi ást á mér
Skuldbinding mín
Mér allt
Sem tákn um viðleitni mína
Sem svar við ástúð þinni
Elskan mín er Yuzu
Yuzu
My trollish honey
The rarest of beauties
My open wounds fit sustained
My debt remains unpaid
Having little to my name
I declare my love
My commitment
My everything
As a token of my endearment
As an answer to your affection
My dearest is Yuzu
"Mmm... I mean, I can probably do the thing. You know, borrowing the magic without asking, then just dropping it off in the ether. It's been pretty neat so far. So maybe get rid of the most twiddle-finger stuff we can, since I don't know how many of them I can reliably... untwiddle?" Anevia suggests, as she slides down the roof and drops into the mud near the rest of the group, seemingly unbothered by being dirty at all.
Val picks up the two vials from the female troll. "Hey, anyone know what these two are?"
With the last of the trolls dead, Isilme hops down from the roof, landing with a splash of mud and water. She puts away her weapon and draws her cloak tighter against the wind and rain, walking over to Val to see what she'd uncovered.
Looking at the vials, she takes a moment to detect magic on them before studying their signatures to identify them. "They appear to be a potion of heroism and an elixir of hiding," she says after a moment.
After the trolls are taken care of, she gathers with the others to discuss what they should do. "So Lann and Xanderghul have been cursed?" she asks, referring to the effects of Lambrecht's song. The effects had come as a surprise to Isilme, having never heard of people who possessed the linnorm's curse, much less the ability to share it with others. "Is there anything we can do about it now? If not we may need to send Lann home to rest until we can have his curse removed in Nerosyan."
'Yeah, he didn't care about her it all. A big charade. Pft. Pathetic'
Variska hefts her big heavy blade to rest on her shoulder. She strides over to Xander-troll and looks up at him. "Eh, boss looks alright. Takes more than some stupid bard-curse to bring him down," she says, approvingly. "But I agree, maybe Lann could head back, maybe with your unicorn, and get some healing."
Xanderghul lumbers back over to the group and Lann. He reaches out towards The Handsomest Underfolk. "I can free him from that," he says, his rumbling troll-voice washing over the group along with a fresh wave of rotten, green breath. He lays a sweaty and disgusting claw on Lann's shoulder, and his divine power channels anticurse magic into the underfolk.
He sighs as he feels the shackles drift away from Lann's soul, but he also frowns with displeasure at his own spiritual discomfort. "My turn next."