Move 217: Planning a Troll Hunt
Svirfneblin Camp--A little later, Day 7The group discussed various strategies for taking on the trolls. After some time, Carmeneren returned to indicate the patrol was ready to leave. The so-called patrol consisted of two deep gnome fighters who looked remarkably like Pruc and Ciekor. They were not the same gnomes, however, and neither of them seemed to speak a word of common.
Tunnels--Late, Day 9
At the end of the first day of walking, Aloysius approached Echo with his spellbook. "Perhaps now
would be a good time to get some spells copied," he said. "I also have the material components for the invisibility spell, except for the eyelashes. I believe you said you had 'burning hands' in your spellbook?"Echo showed Aloysius where to find the spell. She traded books with him and started copying the
invisibility spell."By the way," he added, "I have an acid spell in my book . . . .here," he said, indicating the page. "I knew not if thou had any interest in it or not."
Echo shook her head. "I need to work on one thing at a time."
After working with the spell from Echo's book for a while, Aloysius began studying the formula he had transcribed. The longer he sat there, the angrier he became. Finally, he snapped the book shut.
"Dammit!" he spat. He held his face in his hands and sighed. "What a fool I be," he muttered to no one in particular.
The group traveled with the Svirfneblin two-man patrol. They made their second camp near a split in the tunnels. After another uneventful night of camping, one of the deep gnomes indicated the passage the party should take before they took their leave of them.
The floor in this tunnel was damper than in other places and covered with loose rock and slick fungal growths that they had not encountered before. It made walking difficult and slowed them down. This passage had no side tunnels or caverns, only a few small alcoves and cracks in the walls.
The group paused in a spot in the tunnel that was large enough to open the cottage if they wished. They estimated, from Carmeneren's words, that they were within a few miles of the troll caves.
"You have an acid spell?" Arachne choked. "You have an acid spell and you're worried about how to dispose of the trolls _quietly_? I _thought_ that trolls don't bounce back from acid burns any better than they do from fire -- and acid doesn't light up the hallways the way that fire does." She shrugged. "Acid would be much better than fire for a quiet bit of work -- are there drawbacks to the spell?"
"Well, I have to sling a small missile at the target. If I miss, the spell is ineffective. E'en if I am successful, doubts have I that the spell be potent 'enow to fell a troll."
He shrugged. "Planning was I on using the spell to keep the troll in question down for good, rather than for putting him . . er, 'it' . . .down initially. Besides," he noted matter-of-factly, "it likely wouldn't be all that quiet. Suspect do I that an acid-covered troll would raise quite a cacophany."
"At least it wouldn't light up the tunnels, besides if it hurts the trolls they might not be so anxious to run into battle. I like the pit thing. We could also use it to cover a retreat or a false retreat. Fight them head on then fall back. Have Aloysius drop the pit in front of them and toss the oil and a torch in after them." Blacky added to the strategy session.
"The tunnels are gonna be lit up anyway." Daelen said, shaking his head. "Aloysius is probably gonna have to be able to see the troll to hit it anyway, and I'm sure as hell not fighting blind. If these things are used to the dark, more light can only help us."
"Besides," He said, cracking a smile and grasping the hilt of his weapon, "in these twisted tunnels anything close by will hear the sound of swords and axes cutting trolls in half before they see the light from a burning corpse."Olaf said, "We have twenty flasks of lamp oil in the house. But we shouldn't use it all if we don't have to. I have two flasks of my own as well, plus several others carry some amongst their personal gear."
"In regards to the plan, I think we should simply push forward. Once we arrive we can scout and plan then with more intelligence. If an opportunity to turn the trolls against each other arises, we can take it. But to debate it here will accomplish little, I think."
"Wrong," Arachne said bluntly. "Here, we can expand the cottage and get from it anything we think we're going to need. When we get to picking out our battlefield, we probably won't have that luxury. We don't need to get out all 20 flasks of oil from the cottage stock, but if everyone's agreed that we're going to be burning trolls, then we probably want to pull out a few more. Likewise, rope -- if we're going to be playing with pits." She shrugged. "We've already walked enough today -- _I_ think. It wouldn't _hurt_ to expand the cottage for a while, draw for a while in the sand, and imagine what's involved in attempting to massacre some trolls."
Olaf shrugged, "Thinking ahead is good. We just should become married to any plans we make yet."
Aloysius sighed. "How can we plan anything without knowing what lies ahead?" he asked. "We can remain here and speculate about every imaginable contingency until Selune drops from the heavens, but that gets us little nearer to achieving our goal."
He looked around the area, checking the height of the ceiling and sniffing at the air. "What if someone who can see in the darkness proceeded onward under the cover of an invisibility spell? That would at least give us a clue as to how far away the trolls are, how many of them there are, and what their lair looks like. Without that information, planning in a meaningful manner is impossible."
Glancing down at Arachne, he added, "Arachne is correct. It would be prudent to be sure that everyone has at least some measure of oil. One of the few things we know with certainty is that we shall have to incinerate the trolls at some point."
"We also know that wizards and priests need to rest in order to do their special tricks," Arachne said. "And fighters also, if they are to kill things most effectively. So, most of us aren't going anywhere for the nonce. A little idle speculation here costs us absolutely nothing. But if idle speculation offends some, they can ignore it. As for _effective_ action, that would be for whomever is going to go scouting, booted and invisible. I suppose that that would be either Echo ... or me." She considered. "Or us?"
Aloysius returned to his prior examination of the ground. "Afore, it seemed reasonable to employ the boots of speed in the scouting endeavor. Howe'er, 'tis my considered opinion that ths ground may prove to be most slippery, particularly to one moving rapidly. The trolls are likely accustomed to it."
"Small one, of your cautious nature and quiet step, I lack no confidence. I would suggest, howe'er, that Echo scout alone. Assuming the floor causes her no problems, she should easily be able to escape any troll that might espy her. My concern is that thy short legs may not afford you a similar chance of success."
"I sure hope we won't be fighting on this slippery crap," Jana said, scraping softly at the fungi with her boot. "Yuck."
Aloysius looked down at the ground, but didn't provide any reaction to the ground's composition. Looking ahead at the tunnel, he cleared his throat. "'Twould seem that this would be where our reconnaisance should commence. Echo, how didst thou fare with the spell of invisibility?" He began digging something out of a belt pouch.
"I finished it," Echo said. "I can only cast it once though."
Aloysius was still looking nervously down the passage. "Olaf spoke wisely earlier," he noted. "Not until we have more information about their lair will we be able to formulate a meaningful approach. If Echo is going to be our scout, we should give her a large headstart so as to not alert the trolls with our light. A few minutes at least. As soon as she detects anything remotely trollish, she can return and advise us of their location, proximity, and, if she has seen any, number."
He looked over at Echo. "It pleases me not to have you imperil yourself so," he said finally. "Would that we had a reasonable alternative." He knelt down and prodded the floor, trying to ascertain if traction would be a problem.
"Have a care with the enchanted boots. This floor might be treacherous."
Jana turned to Echo. In a quiet, grave voice she asked, "If you have to, can you run on this stuff? There's no point in you going off to scout if you can't get away." She seemed quite adamant about that. "If you're not sure, maybe you oughta walk down that tunnel a short ways, then haul ass back here, see how the footing is. Maybe those magic zippy boots help keep you upright. But then, maybe they make it worse."
I don't know if I should try them out just yet," Echo said. "If I remember right, it's going to make me tired. How about this. You come with me. Not all the way, but close enough to give back up if I need
it. We're still a few miles from the trolls. If Renn comes to, we can lead you once we get close so they won't see your light. Then I'll just go in, invisible, while the two of you wait a ways back. I'll be careful and I doubt they'll ever know I'm there. Everyone else can stay here, get what we need out of the cottage, and keep talking about what to do.""That seems reasonable," interjected Aloysius. "Echo, ne'er again shall you be heard to denigrate thy talents arcane. You have unraveled two spells that I could not."
As the impact of what he just said struck him, Aloysius moved a ways away and sat down on the wet fungus stuff.
Jana nodded. "Sounds good to me. Worst case, we can hold them while you haul ass back here for reinforcements." She turned to Renn with a questioning look.
"Yeah, we'd get there just in time to find the trolls picking their teeth with your bones." Daelen pointed out. "Better the scout go alone, that way in the worst case we only lose one person. Besides, she's less likely to get caught if she isn't being followed by two visible people wearing armor and carrying a light."
Jana's face clouded ominously as Daelen mentioned it being better for Echo to go alone because at worst, only she would be lost. She started to speak a couple of time, but didn't, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. Finally, in a determinedly calm voice she said, "Daelen, you didn't listen carefully." She looked as if she might be about to say something else, but instead just said, "Renn, if he agrees, and I will go with her until we are close. Renn will lead me so we don't have to use the light stone. We will stop before we are close enough to be heard and wait while Echo goes the final way in and looks around, and then the three of us will come back together. If Echo has trouble, we will be able to help her. The tunnels here at least are so slippery, I'm not sure she could run all that fast if she needed to. And Renn and I will be at a defensible point, if it should come to that. The worst case is that Echo has to hurry back here for your help and we fight the trolls sooner than we'd planned." She turned to Renn. "Are you going to come with us?"Daelen shook his head. "If you're so sure there's going to be trouble, we might as well all go. I'd bet if it's too slippery for her to run from the trolls it's probably too slippery for her to get to us and for us to get to you two before they overwhelm you. Specialy considering there might be more than enough trolls to fight you AND chase after her."
Jana sighed and looked up in a distinctly 'why me' manner. She sighed again and said to Daelen, "I don't think there'll be trouble. I think Echo will get a good look and we'll all stroll back here with necessary intelligence. I'm going just to give some backup, a sensible precaution. Everyone going would defeat the purpose of scouting and drastically increase the odds of our being seen and heard." She turned to Renn and asked pointedly, "So are you coming or not?"
Azrun had stood quietly as the hundreds of plans were discussed, "So we'll scout a bit, then try to make a plan after we think we know what's ahead of us. Good. We'll wait here. When you get back, we'll discuss what you saw, get the appropriate items from the cottage and go trolling for trolls."
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