Pelipe warned them about the fire, but seeing how quickly the dogs rushed upon them, she couldn't get into position. She wishes Jhod was here with his clerical magic after seeing their friends get slashed. In response, Pelipe grunts in frustration decides to let fly an acid orb into the biggest dog.
Katrine takes a step back, whistling a command to Storm. The wolfdog charges forward to engage the trollhound while Katrine nocks an arrow to her bow. She lets fly at the beast, once and then twice.
Stayven's handaxe swing just catches the trollhound and digs into its warty hide, bringing the beast down.
The two remaining trollhounds gnash their teeth at Stayven and Storm, respectively, but in both cases their jaws catch only empty air.
As the battle rages on, the druidess utters another druidic incantation, taking a few small sling stones from a belt pouch and speaking to them, reminding them of a time centuries ago, when they were larger, awakening the ancient mass and power of a time long past.
As she does, the nettles continue to sting, acid disabling the troll healing.
Stayven takes a moment to assess the troll's movement, seeing how it moves.
With that, he steps forwards, taking a precise, calculated swing at the troll with his handaxe.
Faerin's acidic nettles continue to burn the troll and one of his hounds as Katrine's arrows sink into the trollhound battling Storm.
As Ahto gets into position and Faerin casts a new spell, Stayven deeply buries the head of his handaxe into the troll's gut. The big green brute does not take this well, and he again turns his teeth and claws upon the cartographer. One overwhelming swipe does catch him, but he evades the rest of the sharp strikes.
"That's it! Get 'im, boy!" Storm lunges at the trollhound again, bolstered by his mistress' encouragement. Katrine looses another volley of arrows at her companion's target.
This is an intense combat for the well-to-do-mage. Her books and libraries didn't involve dogs leaping about and trolls bounding with weapons. Nettles burst and her allies dig in deep, but her attacks seem weak at best. She tries to calm herself with a deep intake of breath and recalls her schooling.
The newcomer will see Pelipe holding her hand over her ribs, despite not taking damage. It seems she is hurting. Regardless, she seems to power through and casts another blast of earth-shaped rock that seems to harden into acid when it hits the large troll.
The second trollhound falls to Storm, who proves who is the superior hound.
His mistress, meanwhile, begins riddling the trollhounds' own master with arrows.
The last trollhound makes a very fruitless snap of its jaws at Stayven.
Rapidly spinning her sling, Faerin let's fly with one of her enhances stones, the pebble slamming into the troll with the force of a small boulder.
Seeking to take down the troll for good, Stayven channels all his focus into getting as big a strike as possible.
Two more swings from Stayven and Ahto bring the troll down to its knees, where it wobbles precariously. If it wasn't already dead, then Faerin's magic stone makes sure of it as it strikes the brute's big, green head and finally knocks it down to the ground. Pelipe's acid keeps the most severe of its injuries from sealing up.
Katrine, Pelipe, and Storm make short work of the last trollhound, which already seems befuddled by the loss of its master and packmates.
As the final trollhound falls silent, felled by the combined attacks, Faerin takes a breath, looking over the scene of the violent battle. "I doubt this is all of them, given the activity I've seen in the area. I'm assuming the intent is to rout them all?"
"Perhaps the leader would do, if we could manage it. I'm fearful of what a room full of these would do to us. We may need an army!" she sighs quietly.
With care, she will ensure that nothing is regenerating.
"At least...it seems...that our battle is unnoticed. I suppose it is a benefit to have them always fighting amongst themselves."
She will look about them and make sure they are alone. With one room looking like a dead end, she will carefully move slowly and quietly that way to briefly check it (R5).
It is clear from her wounds that she is not the most adept at sneaking at the moment.
Storm prances happily back to his mistress, tongue lolling out. Blood covers his muzzle and drips down onto his ruff. "Who's a good boy? You are! Yes you are!" Katrine beams down at him, pulling a chunk of cold roasted meat from the previous night's dinner out of a belt pouch and tossing it to him. The wolfdog catches his treat out of the air and gulps it down.
Her companion properly rewarded for his part in the fight, Katrine takes a good look around the room for any valuables or information.
"No...I am fine," she answers Ahto, despite her injury. it is one beyond the aid of healing. She does seem eased to see his own wounds closing up at the sight of devouring the sins of the troll.
Faerin tries to keep her expression neutral at the odd dark ritual.
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Stayven shakes his head at Ahto's question, "Not a scratch on me, thank you very much."
As Ahto does his sin eating ritual, Stayven shoots a look to Faerin. Though wordless, it does a decent job of subtly conveying something like, "Yeah, I think it's weird too."
Katrine's reward for Storm has grim symmetry within this main hall. You find that the small, headless body atop the stone table is the remains of a luckless halfling trader caught by the trolls, and the one you just slew had been feeding bits of the trader to the trollhounds.
The room to the north, whatever role it may have originally served, has been turned into a kennel by the trolls. Three thick chains are bolted to the northern wall, and the floor is covered with bones, half-eaten rotting meat, and mounds of foul-smelling dung.
South of the main hall, you find a storeroom. Stacked boxes, barrels, crates, and bags fill this room from floor to ceiling and line the crude wooden shelves along the walls. A rough hole gapes in the southern wall, leading deeper into the hillside.
Katrine grimaces at the sight of the unfortunate halfling. "Once we've cleaned the trolls out of here, we should come back and bury that poor soul. Or make a funeral pyre; the ground might be frozen too hard to dig a grave." She motions Storm to heel, so he won't eat any of the halfling's flesh.
Hmm. Ahto's right. Why would trolls be collecting supplies for a settlement? "I wonder if someone else is pulling the trolls' strings? Someone who would have a use for these items." Wouldn't be the first time some overly optimistic would-be lord tried using nonhuman tribes as cats' paws. It usually backfires on them at some point, but that doesn't stop people from trying.
Pelipe knew that the monster races of the world saw humankind as food, but she had never seen the grim brutality of someone being stripped of their body for feed.
She can hardly stomach it, and coupled with her pain, and the smell of the troll waste area, she struggles to keep her composure. That makes exploring the troll-hound area even harder. Unbeknownst to the others, she'd leave her own foul essence in the corner when she (as silently as she can) throws up.
"There is nothing in there..."
She will leave the door open, allowing the area to vent out and dry some of the offensive scat.
The others head south and she will follow.
"All of that is possible, but I have a feeling that halfling there was a trader, and these were his supplies. No doubt, we will find his abandoned cart somewhere in the woods. Some of this may also be from the lizardfolk village we were in. Perhaps they just grabbed everything instead of being selective..."
She will nod in agreement with Katrine's idea to bury the halfling. She will continue onward with the party, keeping her eye out for dangers. If ever it gets too dark in here, she will light up the room with a spell.
"It is also possible that these caves were inhabited by others before the trolls chose to make this place theirs. They indeed seem very organized...for trolls at least." Faerin replies as they push forward.
"All the more reason to end their predation of the area before it spreads." she says moving forward cautiously.
"I know it seems like a cave should you consider where you entered in on the side, but if you skirt around it, and look to these walls, it is actually an old fortress."
Stayven takes a look at the supplies, jotting down a quick estimation of their value in his logbook, ”These trolls may have grander ambitions. It may be unthinkable given what we know about trolls, but if we can make it to their leader, we could try to come to an agreement with them? Trolls may be dim, but the civic good they could contribute if educated properly could be…well, immense.”
"I think we've perhaps determined they are beyond that possibility," she gestures to the dead halfling, "...but I'm willing to give diplomacy a shot if it makes Tamlyn stronger."
To her, the Strouds committed just as many offenses and they were given partial leeway, but will trolls even listen? Hags are at least intelligent to some degree.
The front halls of this ruin are the remnants of an ancient dwarven outpost. The rear wall of the storeroom has long since collapsed or been torn down, with a rough hewn tunnel leading deeper into the hillside. The tunnels beyond were clearly not carved out by the same dwarven hands as the rest of the outpost, but it's hard to discern whether this was the work of the trolls or some other intervening occupant of this ruin.
The passage quickly branches, going north and southwest. You can hear loud snoring coming from one of the passages, but with the acoustics of the rough stone walls it's hard to determine from which direction it's coming.
Following down the northern passage, Faerin keeps her staff held ready, prepared to battle whatever lies ahead.
Katrine follows a few steps behind Ahto, bow in hand and Storm at her side.
Ahto confirms that the snoring sound comes from the northern passage, which seems to lead to some sort of barracks or sleeping quarters. It sounds like a couple more trolls may be resting in that direction.
Meanwhile, Katrine and Storm detect something equally terrible - if not worse - lurking down the other passage. Storm bristles at the smells wafting from the southwest. Katrine can hear two distinct voices having an indistinct, muttering conversation with each other.
Hmm. That doesn't sound good. Katrine moves closer to the rest of the group and whispers, "I hear two voices down the southwest passage. Storm smells something down there as well."
"If we deal with that first, we will have to worry about the sleeping ones awakening and attacking us from behind." Faerin whispers back, looking toward the snoring sound.
Pelipe doesn't have any objections. The sleeping guards are going to sleep through anything that came up anyway, since they weren't even alerted to their fight in a room not far away. She shakes her head no to Ahto, though she is not perhaps the best to be the one dispatching them swiftly with her spells. They were not made for such actions, or she doesn't know how to use them that way.
She will keep watch toward the sound of the other voices down the hall to ensure they don't approach.
"Sounds like a plan. Want me to try sneaking in and killing them quietly?" Katrine can probably manage that. The question is whether Ahto will consider it 'dishonorable' or something of the sort.
Katrine nods to Ahto, motioning for Storm to stay. The wolfdog huffs, clearly displeased, but obediently sits down anyway.
Bow and arrow in hand, the ranger sneaks toward the sound of snoring.
Katrine creeps northward to investigate the snoring and peers around the corner of the junction in the tunnel. She finds the floor of this wide cavern is littered with half a dozen pallets made of branches, leaves, and smelly, uncured hides. A pair of trolls are dozing upon two of the rough pallets.
Katrine's approach does not rouse them, and they remain asleep.
Katrine silently steps up to the first troll and nocks an arrow to her bow. She points it right at the troll's closed eye and fires.
The arrow quickly skewers the troll's brain, killing the creature immediately. The twang of the bowstring, the wet sound of the killing blow, and the exhalation of a final breath all fail to rouse the other sleeping troll, who rolls over and scratches its rear.
Katrine smiles to herself and quietly walks over to the other troll. Clean, quick, and quiet. Just as a kill should be.
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This is another sight the studious arcanist-mason had never seen before. She'd seen Katrine hunt and be silent before, but this was an assassination. The sight brings back bad memories of her childhood, as someone did the very same to her and she somehow lived; not without detriment. To see it from the other side though was somewhat disturbing. One second the trolls were alive, the next dead.
Instead, Pelipe focuses on the other side of the room and makes sure they aren't snuck up on.
The troll rolls over and grumbles in his sleep, creating a tense moment when Katrine worries the creature's eyes will snap open and affix upon her - but this never happens. The troll remains asleep, vulnerable to the same fate as his bunkmate.
After a long moment, Katrine lets out a long breath and continues toward the other troll. Another arrow out, point at the eye, and fire.