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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4868334" data-attributes="member: 3285">Castle Ambrose: Part 3 – The Billygoat’s Woe“So, I don’t suppose you know how to get out of here?” asked Kham. Sebastian, wearing a featureless pallid mask, shook his head.  “He flees where queen and prophet meet, where twin suns fall but never set, escapes the tomb of lost Carcosa…”“You know if you didn’t have the same bat wings and fireballs I wouldn’t be sure it was you under that mask.  But it is you, right?”Sebastian nodded.“Now what?” grumbled Beldin.  He was still grumpy about being eaten by a tree.“We follow the path, of course!” Kham grinned.They came to a ten-foot wide wooden bridge that spanned a meandering stream. The path continued across the bridge. On the side of the bridge closest to them was a humanoid with the head and horns of a billy goat."Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared a voice beneath the bridge."Oh, it is only I, the tiniest Billy Goat Gruff, and I'm going up to the hillside to make myself fat," said the billy goat, with such a small voice."Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," said the thing beneath the bridge."Oh, no! Pray don't take me. I'm too little, that I am," said the billy goat. "Wait a bit till the second Billy Goat Gruff comes. He's much bigger."“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Vlad.A deep gruff voice from beneath the bridge answered, “Well, be off with you," said the troll. The billygoat exited across the bridge.“This place is ridiculous,” said Kham. “Let’s just cross the bridge.”Beldin gripped his axe.  “It’s a troll.”“I know it’s a troll,” said Kham. “That doesn’t mean we have to fight it.”“I’m not going to be bullied by a troll,” said the dwarf.  He approached the bridge.“We could just run right past it.  We don’t even know if it’s really a troll.  Probably a—““Gremlins,” said Sebastian.  “They’re everywhere.”Kham looked at him sideways.  “Sure.  Gremlins.  Maybe it’s gremlins.”"Who's that tramping over my bridge?" roared the troll.“It is I, Beldin Soulforge!” said the dwarf, who had an ugly hoarse voice of his own.Kham slapped his forehead."Now I 'm coming to gobble you up," roared the troll.“Well, come along!” shouted Beldin down at the bridge. The troll wasn’t hiding under the bridge.  Its body unfurled, bent over as it was beneath the bridge. It was huge and monstrously ugly, with teeth the size of Beldin’s body.  “I'll poke your eyeballs out at your ears!” shouted the dwarf.  Beldin rolled as a huge claw came down, missing him.  He hacked downwards with his axe when he came back up, severing the troll’s hand.The troll howled. “I'll crush you to bits, body and bones!” shouted Beldin.  The troll hunched over him, maw opened wide.  Beldin charged right into the thing’s torso.  He knocked it sideways.Before it could react, a gout of flame consumed it from behind.  Sebastian landed on the other side of the bridge, dusting his hands.Vlad peered over the edge of the bridge.  The boiling stream washed the twitching remains of the troll away. “What just happened?” “It’s a dwarf, troll, bridge thing,” said Kham.  “Try not to think about it.”</blockquote>

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