Rising in the morning, Ankih prepares and casts Consecrate on the area.
It is difficult and he nearly losses focus more than once, but he completes the task.
Standing and wiping the sweat off his brow he notices the butterfly, and nods in its direction.
" You're welcome Desna Dream Walker. May you watch over travelers who come this road."
" Thanks be to you Milady Sarenrae. May your light shine eternal."
Packing his gear for the day, Ankih straps his armor on Nadya's sled, instead of wearing it.
" Ahh. It feels GOOD to be free and light again."
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" Fear not good lady. If Sven and Kalt say they will do something, they WILL do it."
Frowning he pulls out his crossbow and loads it, then checks to make sure his dagger is ready to go on his belt.
" Trolls , you say?"
As they begin to move away from the woman's hut, Kalt looks unusually pensive, remarking, "She did say trolls, didn't she, Ankih? I'm recalling a bad day I had with a troll a while back, I'm hoping to put it behind me today."
He smiles a grim smile, but one still laced with the hope he felt at the restored Desnan temple, and sets himself to scanning the ground for signs of the woman's husband or the troll that may have done him in.
The woman seems truthful in her request, though Avora gets a suspicion that there may be additional motives to the woman’s praising of Sven’s size. Nadya nods in agreement that she and her boys should stay away from trolls, but rejects an offer to come inside the hut, choosing to stay and care for the dogs.
Kalt is easily able to follow the woman’s directions and trail of her fearful flight, and quickly finds some large, misshapen footprints in the snow where the troll was said to have been seen. Tracking that, the arctic ranger leads them towards a small pock mark in a hillside, with barely a 20’ indent serving as the trolls cave. Inside, the group can barely make out a largish shadow, various growths upon its back and vines dangling from its arms. It appears not to have noticed you.
"Moss trolls are smaller and less strong than other trolls, but no less dangerous. We should be cautious!" Avora whispers.
"I could put a few arrows in it from here," offers Kalt in an equally quiet voice, "though we will likely need to hit it harder than that if its wounds close up like other with other trolls. You all said you burned the last troll, I think, and that kept it dead. I have a flask of fire, how else could we burn it? Ankih, you're usually pretty reliable in that department."
Sven creeps forward as the beasty continues milling about its cave, and gets the scent of evil from within.
Luck seems to favor the ninja like Ulfen and as he concentrates, the scent shifts slightly. The evil is still very present, but it had masked a second, non-tainted one.
The evil is of moderate strength, akin to the level of stench Sven smelt the other times he has fought a troll. But the northman's luck has run out, the beast turns around to look out of the cave and spots the man. A hefty axe coming into its hand, it makes an odd and feral growl.
"What is it? Is it trying to... communicate?" asks Lana, straining her eyes to study the troll.
The thing retreats farther into the cave, huddling in the darkest part.
As Sven moves forward to sense evil, Kalt follows along close behind, though he shakes his head a bit in disbelief. Sensing evil in a troll? That's like sensing cold when it's snowing!
"Sven, what's going on? Are you trying to negotiate with this thing? The only language it will understand is violence."
He tries to peer into the darkness where the troll has retreated, then looks over his shoulder and says to the others, "Can one of you make a little light? Not something burning, we want to see it, not scare it."
No reaction from the thing.
Lana picks up a pinecone and brushes the snow off it. "There is light inside everything," she replies quietly, turning the pinecone over slowly. "You just... have to find the right spot..."
Her voice trails off, but a moment later she barks a foreign word and the pinecone explodes with light. The woman's face relaxes ever so slightly into a smile as she tosses the glowing pinecone to Kalt.
"Uhm, is it possible that the troll IS Finngarth? That he has somehow been transformed?"
Kalt catches the glowing pinecone and nods at Lana. Turning back towards the cave, he mutters, "Can't believe I'm doing this...here goes" and holds it up before him.
"This won't hurt you, we just want to see what's in the cave!" he shouts, then throws the pinecone toward the back of the cave.
" I'm not sure what's going on, but after seeing what the last troll did to Kalt, I am not taking chances."
While Kalt is tracking and Sven moves forward to 'sniff' the cave, Ankih pulls out a scroll case and uses one of the scrolls therein.
He then grips his crossbow, taking aim at the 'cave' entrance.
Avora wracks her brains, but if a spell did this to Finngarth, she cannot think of it. She remembers many that could make him LOOK like a moss troll, but none that might give him the personality and mind of one.
There is but one occupant in the cave, a misshapen form of humanoid with large patches of moss and vines growing out of it. When the cone lands, it growls and rushes at Sven, moving nimbly across the snowy terrain.
As the troll charges, Kalt says quietly to Sven, "Let's get around him, quick, and end this." When the troll is in range, the slender ranger takes a quick step to its left, then swings his blade hard at it, eager to express his feelings about trolls.
Kalt’s blade hits home, opening up a nasty gash in the beasts flesh. However, the keen eyes ranger notices that the moss and vines moved out of the way to avoid the strike. At the same time, a puff of spores erupt from the things shoulders, right at Kalt’s face.
Kalt finds his mind fogging over, his senses growing dull.
Sven gets the same overlapping scent from the mossy beast, one part evil of a moderate strength, the other not evil at all.
Lana frowns, studying the creature. "Perhaps try to knock him out, instead of killing him? If we can get him where we can really look at him, we might be able to tell. Are you sure of what you're sensing?"
As the group watches the fight, it is clear that the "troll" isn't really a troll. Dull grey eyes peek out from beneath the mossy growths and bits of shaggy brown hair can be seen interwoven with the foiliage.
Bugsby, trying to at least aleviate some of the damage that wicked looking axe could do, summons forth a glob of goo and flings it at the mossman's axe, making it slick.
The axe squirts free of his grip, falling to the snow.
The moss parts right where Sven's axe strikes, sending a fountain of the mans blood to the snow, but leaving the thing intact.
The man swaying on his feet, Kalt hears a voice in his head.
Then, to the amazement of everyone, a large chunk of the moss detaches from the man's back. Amazement turns to horror as vines lash out and sink into Kalts flesh. Kalt doesn't seem to mind, nor does he put up a fight as the thing quickly drags itself onto the ranger and settles on his back and neck.
With the thing seemingly gone, the man crumples, still alive, but barely.
Avora shouts out that it looks to be a mind-slaver mold, a parasitic growth that feeds on living things to grow and multiply. It has the ability to completely dominate its host, to the point the host would kill its friends and family if the mold told it to.