Move 225: Troll Fight
Tunnels--Midmorning-ish, Day 10Five more trolls came barreling down the tunnel and attacked the three fighters blocking them off from the rest of the group. Two of them went after Blacky, two after Daelen, and one after Jana.
Blacky took a claw rake from one of the trolls and another bite from the other. In retaliation, he took a large chunk of troll flesh out of one of them with his axe.
Daelen's sword failed to make contact with either of the trolls he was faced with. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have the same problem with him as, like Blacky, he got hit by a claw from one and bitten by the other.
Jana fared better. She slashed the troll across one leg with her bastard sword about the time Aloysius' spell went off. The dart he threw at the troll hit it in the left shoulder. An acid burn appeared where it hit.
Renn and Olaf continued their face-off with the other troll. Renn missed with his long sword, as did Olaf with his flame blade. The troll, however, caught Renn with a claw and bit Olaf, the more threatening of the two since he was bearing fire.
Echo disappeared again.
Azrun poured oil on one of the trolls that had gone down, and Arachne lit them both up with her torch. The bodies caught fire easily and in moments, they were burning in a high blaze that blocked off two-thirds of the tunnel, separating the rest of the group from the battle zone where the fighters and priests fought the six trolls in front of the fires.
"Sweet Mystra," the mage cried out, although it was unclear if it was meant as an entreaty for divine assistance or as a stunned response to the latest wave of trolls. Gathering his resolve, the mage cast another spell.
Olaf swung his sword and his flaming blade at the troll.
"Troll seems almost as good as straight oil," Arachne muttered to herself. "I wonder if trolls need fresh air to breathe -- the way that we all do..."
There was one troll on her side of the bonfire, but it was still too frisky for her to want to go near it. She looked at the bonfires and the tunnel walls, trying to see a way around to where most of the trolls now were.
Jana swung her sword, first at the troll in front of her, and if she dispatched it with one hit, she directed her second swing to the troll on Blacky closest to her.
"Aren't you guys too big to be ganging up on us little people?" Blacky asked rhetorically as he swung a couple more times at the trolls.
Daelen hacked vengefully at the troll who had bitten him.
Azrun looked around at the chaos trying to decide what to do. Finally, he pointed a finger at one fo the trolls on Daelen and recited an incantation.
Renn grunted at his latest wound and continued to hack at the troll facing Olaf and himself.
Arachne and Azrun both peaked around the fires to see what was happening up there.
In front of the fires, the fighters continued hacking away at the trolls. The acid burn on the troll Jana faced spread slightly as she cut into it again with her bastard sword. She kept up her roll of good luck by avoiding taking any damage from this troll yet again.
Daelen hit one of the two he faced with his sword, catching this one on fire slightly just like he had the one before. That troll got distracted by trying to put himself out and allowed Daelen to hit it again. In addition to that, Azrun hit it with a couple of magic missiles, but the stubborn troll still didn't go down. The second troll facing Daelen sunk a claw into Daelen.
One of the trolls facing Blacky fell to his great axe. The other was still up and still hungry, apparently, as it ripped into Blacky with a claw and a bite, leaving the fighter barely standing.
Meanwhile, back with the priests, the wounds on the troll they were fighting began to slowly mend themselves, an unnerving sight for those who hadn't seen it before and probably even for those who had. They continued the fight, hitting the troll hard. Aloysius struck it with his magic missiles. Renn caught the monster's spindly arm with his blade and cleanly severed it above the elbow. Echo appeared behind it, a jet of flames from her hands igniting the troll's back and hindquarters. This prompted it to adopt the age-old stop, drop and roll manuever, which threw off Olaf's attacks in its unexpectedness. Its severed arm, however, seemed to have no qualms about going on about its business, which at the moment was to grab Renn's ankle with its clawed hand.
Jana slashed again at the troll in front of her. She tried to press forward. "Olaf, see if you can get in here to help Blacky. And you guys torch 'em fast, soon as they're down." She growled. "If the damned things'd ever go down."
"Don't worry, I'll light you up real soon..." Daelen growled as he shrugged off the claw and followed through with his advantage, going for the kill on the flaming troll. The smoke was starting to burn his eyes and he wanted to end this as soon as possible.
Blacky knew he was in trouble after the momentary elation of downing another troll was quickly blasted away by the other troll. "Arachne, I could use a little help over here." Blacky grunted out while trying to fight off both the troll and the black spots that kept trying to overtake his sight.
"I'm going to help Blacky!" Olaf told Renn, leaving the downed troll to him and the back guard. Flaming blade and sword in hand he jumped over the burning trolls as best he could and tried to attack the troll on Blacky, hoping to distract it.
Surveying the scene in front of him, Aloysius let loose with yet another spell.
Echo tossed one of the two flasks of oil she hadn't dumped in the waterskin at the troll on the ground.
Azrun eyes widened after the wounds Blacky took. He muttered another incantation and pointed to the troll on Blacky.
Not only did Blacky ask for help but there was another target for her torch at his feet. Arachne hurried around the fires to the huge (injured) man.
"Understood," Renn gasped. With a look of disgust on his face, Renn attempted to pry the severed hand from his foot and if successful, he tossed it onto the burning trolls that separated the two fights.
Arachne, who was going to the same place by a different trajectory... dodged.
Jana dispatched the troll she was facing with a masterful sword stroke.
Aloysius rose in the air a few more feet to get a good sight of the troll facing Blacky then sent some magic missiles its way. Azrun, from his position peaking around the fires, targeted the same troll. Blacky, thrown off by the extent of his injuries, missed the troll with his axe. Olaf went through the fires to get to Blacky, only getting singed a bit in the process.
He went after the troll with his blade of flame, hitting it and getting its attention away from the badly wounded fighter. The troll dug one of its claws into Olaf. Arachne, unable to get her hands on Blacky easily in the midst of all this, torched the downed troll.
Daelen pressed his attack on the troll that was trying to put itself out. He hit it again, nearly taking it down. It bellowed in rage at the onslaught and turned on Daelen, or more precisely, on the offending weapon, which the large creature managed to knock out of Daelen's hands. As his sword clattered to the tunnel floor, the other troll ripped into him with two claws, leaving him in about the same state as Blacky.
Renn grabbed the claw off of his ankle and summarily tossed it in the fire where it wouldn't cause any additional problems. Echo threw a flask of oil at the troll. The flask burst as it hit the troll and the flames on its body spread. This seemed to enrage it and it went after her, but she dodged its attacks.
The first two troll bonfires had begun to die down, and now there was a third in the area where Blacky and Olaf faced the troll.
Arachne, unable to get her hands on Blacky easily in the midst of all this, torched the downed troll.
Azrun seeing Jana's troll down moved to it and dowsed it with oil so it could be lit up too.
"Serves me right... I'll see you in hell." Daelen spat as he pulled the long dagger at his belt and rushed the troublesome creature gone berzerk.
Aloysius pushed his weary arms and cast another spell.
"Aloysius, web up the tunnel if you can!" Echo yelped as she dodged the troll coming after her. "We need to make sure no more get here," she said. She cast a spell at the one armed troll.
Jana moved around the body of the troll she'd just taken down. "Renn, help Echo," Jana said, as she saw Azrun oiling the troll. She scooted around behind the other three trolls, the one on Blacky and two on Daelen, attacking the one Daelen did not attempt to tackle if possible, the best target otherwise.
Blacky fought off the growing numbess in his arms and gave two hefty chops at the creature hoping to bring it down and gain a small respite from the battle.
Olaf continued slashing at the troll he faced. If it goes down, he rushes one of the trolls on Daelen.
"Surely," Renn replied, his shield and sword held firmly as he took a hard swing at the one armed flaming troll.
Arachne didn't want to drift too far from Blacky, in case she got an opportunity to help him with his injury. But as long as he kept moving, then where Azrun went with the oil, she followed with the torch.
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