Don't laugh..... it's here.

[Hairy Minotaur]

Feeling a little down in the dumps

Finrod convinces the giants that the party needs to investigate where the trolls were taking the captive. If it was an elf then he would be duty bound to attempt to bring as many back home as possible, and he would need all the help the giants could provide. Flattery got Finrod everywhere, and the giants agreed to help, Paquito came along as it was better than being alone and bored with a block of salt.

The party retraces their steps back to the edge of the woods where they attacked the troll outpost. They see no sign of bodies and assume they've lost the element of surprise. Paquito sends Chip towards the massive tree to scope out what is inside. An hour later the Chip reports back that:

a) The tree is real and alive, and not carved of stone.

b) There are three subterranean levels

c) There is an unguarded back entrance through a cistern into the first sub-level.

d) There were hundreds of voices, none however spoke the language of the earth and Chip could not reproduce any of the voices.

The party decides to tackle the back entrance, so they make a wide circle around the wood's edge and then enter a small drainage ditch that leads to the cistern.

"Ugh! Who up there needs to change their shorts? A stench like that is most assuredly caused by the gigantic evacuating bowel of a Largus Idoitous. No? Paquito comments

"Pokey pet rock not say anything about smell." Moans Gronar

"Chip does not possess olfactory senses, it would be impossible for him to detect even the slightest bit of dragon dung, let alone a rivulet of urine. No?"

"Well, I think we now know why the rear entrance is left unguarded." Finrod speaks up

"Speak for thyself, I for one always have my rear guarded. You get locked in a room with a rutting minotaur bull, you won't want to hear those words. No?"

"It's like you've taking training in breeder, and taxidermy. I can only imagine what life at sea was like with you. Adrift, no place to dock. Dozens of scurvy lice infested sailors, who only care where their next meal comes from. All of them having to put up with your crude jokes and innuendoes, it's a wonder any actual sailing got done at all."

"Well, when you're out of port for that long, it's always good to come prepared with a lot of seamen. No?"

Gronar hushed the rest of the party as they reached the rusted gate partially covering the cistern. Peering around looking for any sign of guards, the party moves out to observe as much ground as possible, while Gronar went about tearing the broken gate out from the damp stone around it.

A couple of grunts, and Gronar had freed the metal grate, tossing it aside, Gronar heads into the dark passage as his eyes quickly change to soak up the faintest bit of light in the passage. The rest of the party follows behind Gronar, who goes in approximately sixty feet before he sees faint light streaming in through a hole in the ceiling up ahead.

Finrod sneaks past Gronar and peaks his head out and up at the light coming in, it appears to Finrod to be a drain and he whispers back to the party his discovery. Gronar moves out under the shaft and stands up, the drain is covered in a slick moss and Gronar can hear shouting coming from somewhere in the room above.

A loud whip crack, sent a shiver down Finrod's spine as he imagined scores of elves being lashed by the trolls.

"I need to get up there." Finrod commanded

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Elfy need to keep loincloth on, what if hot trolls are up there?" Gronar asked

"I've never known a hot troll before, If you cut off their nose are they still considered hot? Or can they regenerate their hotness. That would be mighty impressive. No?"

Gronar gives the drain grate a preemptive shove to test it's sturdiness, satisfied that the whole drain will come off instead of breaking apart, Gronar forces the drain off of it's entombed spot on the floor.

Finrod clambers up the shaft and props himself up on Gronar's chest. "Ready?" He says while giving Gronar a nod

"Yes," Gronar answers, and grabs Finrod across the torso, pinning his arms to his sides, and then Gronar sticks Finrod up through the drain and into the room above. "Gronar remember Korg's plan from before."

Finrod observes a huge room one hundred feet long and half that wide, Finrod sees a rubble pile at the far end of the room, and an exit twenty feet up on the right wall. Finrod sees the two gangly trolls first, they lazily wander through about two dozen seated smaller creatures, some appear to be goblins and the others orcs. The smaller creatures labor in front of several buckets. They seem to be dipping something small into the buckets and then tossing whatever it is into another bucket nearby.

"Let me into the room." Finrod tells Gronar

Gronar obliges by tossing the elf up through the drain and then forward about twenty feet, landing a sword's breath away from a troll. Gronar pulls his spear from his pouch and manages to get the thing up and through the drain hole. Gronar uses the extended reach afforded him by his long arms and long spear, to skewer the nearest troll through the back. The troll dropped to the floor as Gronar tried to shake the troll loose of his spear. Finrod took this opportunity to slice into the troll's throat, as it's capacity for spoken communication has been brought to nil.

Gasps run through the smaller creatures as the other troll calls out, but upon hearing no response wades through the sitting creatures towards Finrod. Gronar follows up his strike by forcing himself to squeeze through the drain. Gronar skewers the charging troll, as Korg appears and jabs his spear into the face of the charging troll.

The party cuts down the second troll, they then behead them both and set them on fire.

The smaller creatures clap and shout when the last troll falls, The jingling of metal alerts the party that these are slaves as they are all chained together around the buckets. A closer look reveal the half of the slaves are goblins and the other half are orc. Gronar steps up and takes aim on a length of manacles, he is waived off by Finrod.

"We don't need to make that much noise, not when we're trying to be discreet."

Gronar nods his head off to one side, signaling to the slaves that they had best get moving if they valued their remaining life.

Paquito peaks around the corner to the left and covers his mouth in disgust, before whispering for Korg to come up to his location.

Gronar and Finrod kick over a bucket and watch as hundreds of brightly colored teeth cascade out of the bucket. Apparently the slaves were cleaning and dying these teeth and then they would dip them in colors and then separated by color.

"That's odd." Finrod says aloud

"Why? Where Elfy think ceremonial necklaces comes from? Necklace tree?" Gronar begins laughing at his thought, when Korg calls out for the other two party members to join them at the exit to this room.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

Mercy is for those with the wisdom to recognize it.

Korg arrives next to Paquito and peers into the next room. A large wide ladder descends from the ceiling and ends in the middle of the room. Other than being a rather large ladder, Korg sees nothing else of note as to why Paquito called him over.

"A ladder?" Korg shrugs in bewilderment

Paquito shakes his head in response and points to the right wall. There chained to the bark wall are two tall emaciated ogres. Their eyes open wide and red, their mouths appear to have something in them keeping their jaws from closing.

Korg looks back at Paquito and furls his brow, then waives over Finrod and Gronar. The pair look over the ogres and are also perplexed at their current state.

"Maybe they are prisoner like elfys?" Gronar wonders

"That would seem to be the best guess, I don't want to think about other possibilities." Finrod replies

Gronar steps into the room, upon seeing the hill giant the ogres turn their heads slowly in his direction and begin moaning in agony. Gronar gets within reaching distance of the ogres and stops there.

Gronar sees that the both of the ogre's knees have been crushed, their joints are bent are horribly odd angles. The ogres are help up by chains that are just low enough that the ogre's feet touch the ground. Their eyes have been sewed open with thick black thread, their pupils are a maddening red and only glisten near the corners of their eyes. A thick piece of wood has been shoved into each of their mouths, breaking every one of their front teeth and causing large splinters of wood to sink deep into the front of their jaws.

Gronar winces in pain as both ogres moan pitifully, Gronar wonders if they even have tongues left or if those were ripped from the floor of their mouths when the blocks were thrust in. Unable to even shed a tear of pain any longer the ogres whine and moan at the hill giant.

Gronar grabs the wooden block in each ogre's mouth and slowly retracts the gag. He tosses the wooden blocks behind him and they skitter across the dirt floor. Gronar bends over to get a closer look at the black thread keeping their eyes pinned open as the ogres spit and hack up bits of dried blood. Gronar hears the swift intake of air into each ogres lungs and his eyes go wide just as he recoils his head from the sickening screams that issue forth from the ogres' mouths.

The rest of the party cover their ears, Paquito then realizes what the ogres are doing there.

"Gronar! Kill them!" Paquito shouts over the din

Gronar shoves his big hands over the ogres' mouths, trying to get them to quiet down. The ogres twist their heads in defiance and gnaw the palm of his hands with bloody splinter filled gums. Gronar pulls his hands away quickly and gives each ogre an elbow to the nose, followed by a kick to each of their abdomens. Out of breath, the ogres take a pause from their screaming.

"Kill Them!" Paquito shouts again

Gronar looks back at Paquito and then again at the ogres. Gronar wonders what kind of pain the ogres must be going thru and he brushes off Paquito's request. Gronar reaches up and grabs the chains holding the ogres up.

"Korg come help heal ogres." Gronar calls to Korg

Korg starts to head into the room, but Paquito grabs his forearm and shakes his head no. Gronar growls at Paquito's interference, but then he hears the sharp intake of breath again from the ogres as another blast of moaning sound issue from the ogres' mouths. Gronar pulls his hands away and presses a finger to his lips, he pleads with them to be quiet, but they seem to not hear the hill giant's words.

Gronar realizes that he has probably let them scream far too long to not have someone come looking into the noise, and steps back and with one motion, beheads both ogres. He then grabs his spear just below the point, and severs the thread keeping their eyes open. Gronar has to unpeel their eyelids and forcibly set them down over their eyes, but he manages to close their eyes to death.

"Why Pokey not let Korg help!" Gronar's voice was more of a shout than a question.

"Because they weren't prisoners, they were lookouts. No?"

"But that makes no sense, who would do such a thing to their own kind?" Finrod asked

"Who says they were friends of the trolls? A better question for you might be, if they do this to ogres imagine what they're doing to the elves? No?"

Finrod's heart beat a cold pulse through his elven veins, "Lets find them quickly then."

The party retreats back to the tooth coloring room and proceeds south where the room ends in a hallway leading west, turning the party sees two trolls whipping a small force of kneeling beings who are clearing away some rubble against the southern wall.

The two trolls never hear their death approach, as the party quickly comes up behind them and takes them out with quick efficiency. They then look over the chained slaves, half orcs and half goblins. All of their feet have been broken or crushed, ensuring that there would be no escape. Their fingers are all bleeding and most of them have the white of bone jutting out of their bleeding fingertips.

The slaves all mumble something to the party, after a few tries Paquito hears "kill me" spoken in infernal by one of the goblins.

"Lets leave them, they're not who we came for." Finrod speaks

"Gronar say free them, or Gronar not help when elfy finds other elfys."

"They want to die, let's end their misery and move on. No?"

"Korg will try to heal them." Korg moves up and places a hand on the nearest goblin. A blue light radiates outward and the goblin collapses.

"Why Korg kill snot*?" Gronar asks in stunned disbelief

"Snot not dead, snot is resting, see?" Korg points out that the goblin's chest still moves with the breath of life.

"The wretched things are near death. Korg could waste all of his healing powers on these things, and it still wouldn't be nearly enough. All that will get us is no help when we're injured." Finrod exclaimed

Gronar thought over the elf's words and knew that he spoke true. "Korg, let Pokey kill rest of them." Gronar said to his friend

"Korg not let piggies and snots die because elfy afraid of getting bruise." Korg spat indignantly

Finrod and Korg began a shouting match that had Gronar soon involved as well, and when they were good and engaged in the argument, Paquito fired up a scorching ray that put an end to all of their suffering.

Korg's mouth gaped open and then slowly closed as the hill giant made his way to face Paquito. "That was very bad thing, very bad thing." The hatred in Korg's voice was almost replaced by the sadness in his heart. Korg turned and walked away from the minotaur.

Paquito looked up at Gronar and Finrod who both gave knowing nods to the deed Paquito finished, then Gronar went to console his friend as Finrod scouted out the end of the hallway.


* hill giant's term for goblins

 

[spacehulkster]

Well, no goblins and Ogres, there go two possibilities as characters for Matt and John!

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

All I wanted was a nose job, but this is ridiculous.

Finrod comes to the end of the hallway and finds that although the hallway makes a ninety degree turn to the west, there's a cube shaped block sitting in the middle of the turn. With only about four feet of space to maneuver around the block of stone. It then occurs to Finrod that this is the first thing made of stone that they've come across thus far. Finrod steps back to try to see if the stone fell into place, but can detect nothing out of place with the ceiling.

Stumped, Finrod rejoins the rest of the party and tells them of the stone block.

"Finally, stinky trolls use good building material." Gronar points out

Their interest piqued, they party approaches the block. Looking around the west side of the block, they see two rooms side-by-side about fifty feet west of the block. Both rooms have their doors shut, as they look back at the stone block, they see that it too has a door built into it's west facing side.

The party takes the long way around to ensure their safety from ambushers, then congregate at the stone block's door. Crude writing and arcane symbols decorate it's surface.

"Keep out, go away, bad things below." Paquito reads aloud.

"It doesn't say that, it says.... oh, I guess it does say that." Finrod reluctantly concurs

"This must be where they keep the prisoners, only a stupid troll would write on here to keep out when it's such an obvious double negative on their part." Finrod states

"Why elfy think that where other elfys are?" Gronar asks

"Because, how many trolls do you know read? Which begs the question, why write these words here if no one in this place can read them?" Finrod answers

"Very good point elfy, but, Gronar think we need to look in those doors. Gronar want to make sure no stinky troll sneak up behind Korg."

"A good suggestion as well my towering pillar of pain bringing. No?"

The party shuffles up to the first door, the iron scent of fresh blood hangs oppressively in the air.

"Pokey you smell that?" Gronar asks

"Whomever smelt it dealt it. No?" Paquito replies

"What are you eight years old?" Finrod replies

"In elf years? No." Paquito responds

Korg ignores the spat, and gently pushes the door inward. The hinges creak slightly as the smell of bleeding to death floods Korg's senses. Finrod catches breeze of the smell, turns to the open door, and begins to retch upon his feet.

Blood trickles out of the open portal, it's source comes from eight goblins chained to a stone block midway into the sixty foot long room. All of the goblins are missing both of their ears, their chins, fingers, and toes. Plus all of them have had at least one leg sliced off, two goblins are missing both legs. They pull their load so slowly that it barely makes a sound as it scrapes across the wooden floor.

At the back of the room stands a green troll, it's back still turned towards the open door and the party. Gronar seethes with anger a disgust and shifts his weight to begin a charge, when a voice booms from the rear of the room.

"I've been expecting you. Took you long enough to get back here after you made the ogres cry. Tell me, did they hesitate before they completed their duties? I'd hate to have to turn them into mindless slaves because they failed in life to perform what they'll be doing for the rest of eternity." The troll speaks without turning around.

"Troll let snots go free now!" Korg shouts

"The snots as you so eloquently call them, are free to go. They merely need to cross the room's threshold with their cargo. The winner will receive the gift of immortality, forever in the service of my master. It is a wondrous gift, therefore the recipient must have the constitution to withstand the gift. This is way these tests are required of them." The troll answers

"You're a sick, sick freak. I'll show you the meaning of pain." Finrod charges into the room, leaping away from the streaming blood and landing to the left of the short stone block the goblins are pulling.

The troll turns slowly, and reveals a Frankenstein patchwork body. The troll's face is a composite of at least three other trolls, it even includes the presence of a third eye, embedded halfway down the troll's right cheek. It peers out at Finrod through a cloudy iris. A glint of metal catches the elf's attention as the troll slowly twists a wickedly curved blade in it's left hand, it still drips of goblin blood.

"You have come willingly? Oh such is the glory of the master, he sends me more fey to play with. Shall I add a strap to the block?" The troll asks Finrod

With those words, Finrod leaps at the troll and slashes his sword down upon the outstretched left forearm of the creature. His blade slams into the trolls arm but it doesn't bleed, nor give ground. It feel to Finrod like he sliced his sword into a sack of sand.

The troll spins his torso and uses it's right fist to slam into Finrod's ribcage. Audible crackles are heard throughout the room as the momentum of the troll's blow flings Finrod back against the wall behind him.

Gronar wades into the room, and levels his swing to the troll's neck. Much stronger than the elf, Gronar's attack slams into the troll's body with much greater force, but it has much the same effect as Finrod's blow. Gronar looks puzzle for a moment as his blow did not cut very deep into the troll if it was flesh and bone.

"Pokey, no kill snots." Korg says to Paquito with a wagging finger just before he too enters the room and snatches the stone block in his powerful grasp.

"No please, don't kill them yet. I need to know which one dragged it the farthest. If you go killing them now, I'll never be able to finish my work." The troll laughs maniacally at Paquito

"The ogres, they were your handiwork. No?"

"Oh no, they were sent by the master. I heard their heads roll across the floor, I know they will need to be replaced. While I've never had the pleasure of working on a minotaur before, I feel the ache to do so now, I relish the opportunity to he you reassigned." The troll lick his lips across broken skin at Paquito.

Paquito releases an incensed scorching ray at the troll, the stream of fire erupts squarely over the troll's chest.

"Burn, yes, oh burn, burn. Just like daddy you have to feel the burn to appreciate coldness of death." A hysterical laugh bursts from the troll.

Finrod rights himself against the wall, as Gronar slams his sword into the head of the troll, this time a black viscous fluid seeps slowly from the open wound. The troll rushes Gronar, leaping onto the stone block and Korg's hand causing the goblins to collapse into their own blood from the added weight. The troll whips his knife out at Gronar and cuts a nasty scar across the giant's cheek.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. a scar for a scar, and a womb for a womb." Laughs the troll

"Disgusting freak!" Paquito shouts as he shoves magic missiles into the troll's chest.

Korg quickly removes his hand from under the troll, causing the troll to lose it's balance and fall backwards onto it's back. Finrod and Gronar each cut into the troll, ripping open a deep gash into the troll's torso. The troll gasps as it staggers to it's feet, amid another swing from Gronar and Finrod. Both attacks slice across the troll's back, and the creature wobbles and falls to it's knees, where it teeters and finally tips over onto the wood floor.

Gronar rushes to stand over the troll's body looking for any signs of movement. Finrod limps over to Korg as the hill giant helps two of the better off goblins off of the floor.

"These trolls, they are severely deranged. No?"

Korg begins to patch up the goblins as Finrod arrives by his side.

"Why even bother, we don't have the resources to heal them back up, not can you regenerate missing body parts." Finrod asks

"Umtala teach Korg that life better option than death." Korg answers

"And a fine credo it is, which is why it is a good thing that none of these goblins worship Umtala. No?"

"Pokey, Korg say no kill snots! Pokey no want Korg to teach Pokey about spear to face lesson?" Korg says with a booming voice.

"Gronar want to see that lesson!" Gronar answers for Paquito

An argument soon ensues as a minute goes by with no end in sight, until a shrill scream escapes from Gronar's mouth as he topples over backwards grabbing his crotch.

A quick turn of the head reveals a knife in a troll's hand thrust up into the air, dripping anew with blood.

"Gronar, why you let troll stay alive?" Korg asks in amazement

"It regenerated." Finrod says as he pivots around to engage the troll, and slips in the blood. Finrod spins his knees into the floor.

Knowing the troll must have just regenerated to the point of consciousness, Paquito takes out his spear. "I'll save you!" Paquito leaps onto the stone block and then pushes off of it, he points his spear down preparing to drive it's point through the entire body of the troll. Paquito however overestimates his jump, and ends up overshooting his target by ten feet and landing on top of the troll's worktable at the back of the room.

Korg winces as Paquito shatters the troll's table. "Pokey! Troll hurt Gronar, not table."

The troll rises from it's prone position, allowing Finrod and Gronar to once again swing at the creature, they both manage to slice across the troll's hamstrings. The troll once again teeters over and collapses into unconsciousness.

"Korg..... Gronar..... need...... help..... badly" Gronar's voice escapes meekly from his lips.

Paquito pulls himself free from the troll's lab area, he then stands over the troll's body with the spear tip inches from the troll's head. "If it moves I'll stab it. No?"

Korg rushes over to his friend and immediately goes to work healing the damage wrought by the troll. Finrod pushes himself to sit astride the stone block, so that he too can watch the downed troll.

 

[Jon Potter]

But what's the point of being immortal if the chicks don't dig you?

What's the three-eyed franken-troll's story? Some type of flesh golem? Depraved minds want to know.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

But what's the point of being immortal if the chicks don't dig you?

What's the three-eyed franken-troll's story? Some type of flesh golem? Depraved minds want to know.

I call it tainted regeneration.

There's a feat (can remember off the top of my head where) that allows trolls to stick severed pieces of themselves back onto their bodies wherever they want. I took this a step further for this troll and made it so he could regenerate faster by using other's body parts. So after he multilates himself he cuts off a piece of whatever race is handy and slaps it on.

Why would he multilate himself? You'll find out in the next room.

 

[Jon Potter]

I call it tainted regeneration.

Cool. As always, it's all about the flavor text.

Why would he multilate himself? You'll find out in the next room.

I can only imagine...



... and it ain't pretty!

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

What's for dinner chef?

Well I'm back from an awesome GenCon, where I picked up the Beast Builder book from Expeditious Retreat Press.

Another post or two (depending on how long the succubus takes to write out ) and the story hour will be caught up with the summer long hiatus. So it's a good thing that the game will resume this Wednesday!

The party quickly dispatches the downed troll after Gronar gets some much needed healing.

"I think we should assess our assets and cut our losses before we lose any more of them. No?"

"What are you trying to say?" Finrod replies

"Nothing that anyone here hasn't been thinking. No?"

"You're saying something." Finrod answers

"Well, I see three possibilities, one the elves are dead, two the elves are dead, or three the elves are DEAD. No?"

"Well I, for one, do not live my life through assumptions and second guesses. There's one more room to clear out and then we can head below and prove you wrong."

"There is some sick twisted depravity going on here, I don't know what is up with these trolls, but they're not right in the head. No?"

"How gross can next room be? Gronar ok to kill more stinky trolls."

"Yes, Korg think can only get better now." The hill giant said with a smile

The party reforms their ranks outside the adjacent room's door. Gronar tries the handle and it turns for him, he thrusts open the door and it collides against the wall behind it.

Two orc bodies lie upon stone tables attended to by two trolls. The left body is that of a male, his left arm is missing at the shoulder and the troll near him shoves a severed troll arm into the socket and begins to sew the arm in place. The right body is that of a female, her very pregnant womb has been cut open revealing a bowl shaped blood receptacle. The troll nearest her dangles a flank of troll meat inches above the red fluid, a bubbling effect slowly spreads out across the surface of the blood.

"Yes, yes, time for breakfast." The troll says as a long snout erupts from the pool and snatches the meat out of the troll's hands

The party's presence goes unnoticed as Gronar quickly slips into the room and cuts his blade through the air and into the back of the right troll

"Ow! What'd you do that for?" The troll screams as it turns to face it's attacker.

The other troll also turns and takes in the full view of the party, "Oh look chef, one of the elves it trying to escape. They're so cute that way, always thinking they're morally superior."

"True Twitch, but just like all the other elves, he couldn't do it by himself. He had to go get two big nasties to kill us for him. Such cowardice I've only ever seen in hill giant mothers as they throw their infant children at an approaching enemy, hoping they'll get their fill of baby meat and ignore the juicer cuts off of the grown-ups." The other troll responds

Gronar flies into a blood rage and begins hacking wildly at the troll he just cut into, the troll however seems to be a step ahead of Gronar as most of Gronar's attacks slam into the wooden floor where the troll had been standing.

"Ooh, Me likes this one chef, he fights with adrenaline, with heart. Unlike the elves who only seem to be able to fight with their sphincters." Twitch comments

"We'll see how well your sphincters work after my sword widens them up about four feet!" Finrod shouts

"Hold dainty one, they are just trying to goad you into a fight. They must have a purpose to their rambling madness. No?"

"Obviously they have renounced their wicked ways and wish to be put to death immediately." Finrod replies

"Ooh, close. Call me loony, but I believe it is you that they want put to death. No?"

"Are we even on the same plane? Of course they want me dead, and you'll be next if they get through me."

"Pointy you state the obvious to such a degree, that I can only ponder as to the depths of your gregariousness. No?"

"What language are you speaking? Get in there and help, or guard the hallway."

Paquito mulls over his decision as Korg and Gronar fight to a stalemate with the trolls. Finrod enters alongside Korg and draws his blade.

"What Elfy waiting for? Korg's death?"

"Are you saying you need my help?" Finrod answers

"Isn't that what Korg just say?"

"You were right chef, the hill giants do throw their babies before a superior foe."

The other trolls giggles at the appearance of Finrod to the fight, "Make sure you bite slowly, there's not very much meat on the babies."

Finrod flicks his blade out at Twitch and cuts the troll on the inside of it's forearm.

"Oh the baby wants to play? Well, baby see how your pathetic wound closes and heals up before you can get in another swing? Useless stack of flesh on worthless bones." Twitch taunts Finrod

Korg steps off to his left, turning his body ninety degrees to the troll, a move that confuses the troll until it sees the bright orange glow from a scorching ray leap from Paquito's hands and strike the troll in the face.

Disorientated, the troll bends over as it wails in pain. Korg happily decapitates the creature ending his duel. Astonished at this turn of events, Chef centers his anger on ending Gronar's life. However outnumbered now four to one, the last troll soon falls.

"Gronar think we should leave now."

"I can't, I need to know what happened to the elves. If any of them are suffering because of these trolls, I owe it to them to get them out of here."

"Korg agree, Korg would not want friends to be here either."

"What about those two or three? Should we not end their suffering as well? No?"

Finrod and Gronar look over the two bodies, "I think they're already dead."

"Gronar think they not live."

"Well, let's hurry then. This place gives me the creeps. No?"

The party exits the room and silence reigns over the former battleground, as a lone tear seeps from the eye of an elf that got left behind.

 

[Jon Potter]

The party exits the room and silence reigns over the former battleground, as a lone tear seeps from the eye of an elf that got left behind.

Well that just sucks!

Do we get to find out what happened here?

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

Well that just sucks!

Do we get to find out what happened here?

That part was included as a little reader foreshadowing. Assuming the party makes it to the adventure's finale (which with 4-5 more PCs I like their chances), what's going on will be revealed. Since there's nothing the party can do about this room, and I wanted to convey a sense of paranoia for the new PCs.