NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3172176" data-attributes="member: 143">Had to cut the trip sort; my wife sprained her ankle. I've basically spent the weekend hanging out around the house, fetching things for her, and playing Xbox 360 (tough life, I know  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  ). * * * * * Chapter 39PAY THE TROLLThe troll reached down, and grabbed Argus with a meaty claw.  The creature lifted the two-hundred-pound fighter easily, drawing him up to stare into his face with its beady yellow eyes.  “Gurunga, tod nok,” it rumbled.  Argus, only semiconscious, muttered something incoherent. Talen, restored to full awareness by a powerful healing spell from Varo, stood up and drew his sword.  “Let him go!” he shouted at the troll.  He moved to the edge of the stream, but the troll and Argus were on the far side, and there was no way for him to get to them.  The troll laughed and responded with another comment in the Giant tongue. Dar turned to Allera.  “Help him,” he said, pushing Aelos’s unconscious form up onto the shore.  He considered swimming across to the troll’s side of the stream, but only for a moment.  He pulled himself up on the near side.  Reaching for the small pile of his belongings, he drew out his heavy club. Talen had taken out his small shortbow, and was hastily fitting a new string to it to replace the waterlogged and ruined one left on from before.  If the troll seemed threatened by his actions, it gave no sign of concern.  In fact, it seemed almost casual as it shook its prisoner, and checked him for valuables.  Finding little of interest, it glanced over its shoulder, and barked something else, “Zoolbing!”  Dar saw the second approaching form first.  If the first troll was large for its kind, this one was truly monstrous.  Standing well over ten feet tall, it carried a tower shield easily on one arm, and a large metal gauntlet covered its other clawed fist. “Oh, we’re screwed,” the fighter muttered to himself.  The first troll tossed its captive back to the second troll as it lumbered forward.  The creature caught Argus in its huge claw, locking its thick fingers around the helpless fighter’s waist.  Argus was conscious now, and aware of the dire circumstances of his situation; he struggled to get free, but against the troll’s strength his efforts were feeble. Talen drew an arrow from the quiver at his hip, and lifted it to his bow.   But before he could act, the second troll smashed Argus hard against the nearer of the two stone spires.  A loud crack echoed through the chamber, and the fighter fell limp in the troll’s grasp at once.  Argus’s helmet had fallen from his head, and his hair, matted with blood and brains oozing from his shattered skull, left a greasy smudge on the stone as the troll dragged him across the ground.  Seeing that this prey was done, the troll tossed him over his shoulder. “Damn it, you bastard!” Talen cried, drawing his bow and firing at the troll that had killed his comrade.  The hasty shot hit the troll’s shield, glancing away harmlessly. Shaylara was up now as well, and she shouted a warning as the first troll came forward.  The companions saw with surprise that the troll merely stepped onto the surface of the stream, charging forward with surprising speed.  Dar hurled his throwing axe at it, but even though the weapon opened a gash on its right arm, the attack did nothing to hinder its charge.  Within a few long strides, it was on their side of the cavern, and coming fast. The second troll came forward as well.  It looked as though its intent was to merely hurdle the stream, and as strong as it had already proven itself to be, it looked as though the obstacle would prove no barrier to its rush.  Had it smashed into the defenders at the same time as its brother, the adventures of the Doomed Bastards would have likely come to an end right then and there.  But Argus’s death had bought them a few seconds, a delay that gave Varo time to call upon the intervention of Dagos once more.  A pair of huge monstrous centipedes came into view around the two stone spires, converging upon the onrushing troll between them.  The troll arrested his rush as one of the summoned creatures stabbed its mandibles deep into its shoulder.  The second came up behind it, but the troll’s sharp senses detected the second attacker an instant before it struck, and it brought its huge shield up under the centipede’s head, knocking it aside.  With the other centipede locked on its shoulder it couldn’t bring its claw into play, but it brought the shield around like a club, smashing it into the giant vermin’s body, tearing it free.  The wound it left behind was a vicious one, but the troll’s regenerative powers were already working to close it, the flow of blood and venom from the injury quickly easing.Dar, Talen, and Shaylara met the other troll’s charge, spreading out to flank it.  The troll’s considerable reach gave it the first attack, smashing Dar with a painful blow to the chest from its leathery fist.  Dar grimaced and staggered back, but he was quick to recover with a potent two-handed strike that caught the troll in its arm.  The creature’s tough hide absorbed much of the force of the attack, but by the way it snarled at him, it was clear that the blow had hurt it. Talen, dropping his bow, drew his magical sword and rushed to join the attack.  His first thrust was ineffective, glancing off its skin as it turned to respond to Dar.  Shaylara, however, was able to exploit its distraction, coming up from behind, and stabbing her small sword deep into its flank.  The troll reacted quickly, turning on the scout.  She ducked under its first sweeping claw, but it abruptly grabbed her with the second, digging its talons painfully into her side.  Shaylara cried out and tried to break free, but as she lifted her sword to stab it, the creature lunged and seized her wrist in its powerful jaws.  She screamed as the troll bit down hard, breaking her arm, and as the other fighters desperately pounded on it, trying to force it to free her, it spun its head around, sending her flying.  She hit the ground hard, rolled, and came to a stop in a battered heap, unconscious and dying. Allera and Aelos had not been idle during those first chaotic moments of battle.  The healer had followed Dar’s instructions, ignoring her own hurts as she channeled a powerful stream of healing energy into the battered priest.  Aelos’s eyes shot open, and he looked at Allera with surprise, as if surprised to see her there.  The wound above his eye knitted shut, and the purpling bruises faded to a more normal color as the potent healing spell, augmented by the healer’s natural talents, worked its course. Allera, exhausted, sagged back into the water.  Aelos grabbed onto her, and pulled her to the edge of the shore, placing her hands firmly on the rocks.  “Heal yourself, child,” he said to her.  “I must help the others against this dire foe.”Channeling his own divine magic, the cleric summoned a spiritual weapon, a shimmering field of force in the shape of a flaming torch.  Seeing that the other troll was still distracted by Varo’s summoned centipedes, and that his companions were being hard pressed by the other, he mentally directed the weapon to aid them in melee. Neither he nor Allera saw the third troll that crept around the southern spire, near where the river entered the cavern.  The troll, blending into the shadows, slipped silently into the water, and surged toward them.  Allera was just reaching up to pull herself up onto the shore when a pair of huge claws seized her from behind, and dragged her deep under the surface.</blockquote>

Verification