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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3601123" data-attributes="member: 143">And it begins...* * * * *Chapter 193THE SLAVE PITSGuturk was not having a good day. The creature grimaced as the deep wound in its neck closed, and the flow of blood down its chest stopped.  A noise like an earthquake rumbled in the troll’s chest, but it stood its ground.  In most circumstances, the troll would have leapt upon its three brethren, hacking with its massive greatsword, unleashing a storm of pain in response to the insult that had been visited upon it.  It had already been humiliated in front of its peers earlier, dressed down by a mere goblin.  No one would call Guturk bright, but the troll had not been stupid enough to talk back against the Overseer; no one was that stupid.  Buruz knew that; it was likely why it had felt bold enough to hit Guturk, carving the other troll’s throat open with a vicious gash when it hadn’t been looking.  Given specific orders to keep watch—and, more importantly, to keep quiet—Guturk had not been able to respond in the troll fighter’s customary fashion. Guturk’s yellow stare remained fixed on Buruz while its regenerative powers healed the wound.  That look promised a reckoning, but Buruz only chortled, and the other two trolls joined in, enjoying their comrade’s suffering.  The three of them went back to the game that had precipitated the argument, tossing a goblin’s skull that had already seen a fair share of damage against the wall, wagering on where it would land.  Guturk snarled to itself and walked away, across the room. The troll was a massive specimen of its race, impressive even before one took into account the chain shirt and huge hide-covered shield it bore, or the greatsword that it wore slung across its back.  Buruz threw the skull past him as it crossed the room; the oblong missile missed the troll’s left knee and skittered across the room, trailing bone shards as it bounced off the stone floor and walls.Guturk ignored the further insult; the troll had heard something from across the room, in the direction of the narrow stair that led up to Grezneck.  The troll’s eyes narrowed as it approached, and as it sniffed the air, it frowned.  That smell... familiar...Then, chaos burst into the room. Goblins... they came out of nowhere, spreading out from the entry to the staircase like water poured onto a flat surface from a jug.  Small missiles flooded the air, arrows and javelins, and despite the troll’s considerable armor protection several shots from that initial barrage found vulnerable spots where they bit deep.  Even with the advantage of sneak attacks, the wounds were not critical for a being as huge and as powerful as the troll, and almost at once they began to regenerate, forcing the weapons from the wounds as the torn flesh grew back. A half-dozen goblins wearing chainmail hauberks and bearing shortswords rushed forward to engage the troll in melee.  They moved nimbly, and spread out to flank the much larger creature.  Guturk, becoming annoyed now, smashed one with a claw; it staggered to the side but quickly recovered, darting back in to slash its sword across the back of the troll’s hand.  The injury was barely a scratch, and the troll smiled as it reached across its back with its other hand, and unlimbered the massive blade it carried there. The troll guard’s companions had been quick to abandon their game in favor of more exciting sport, and the chamber shook as they charged forward in a wedge, drawing their swords as they came.  But more combatants continued to emerge from the stair, and these surged forward to meet the troll rush.  Several of these newcomers were larger prey, hobgoblins and humans clad in heavy armor.  Herzord, flanked by his lieutenant, met Buruz, the pair splitting to avoid the first downward swing that smashed hard into the ground between them.  They flanked the troll, delivering probing strikes with their magical swords to test its defenses.  The troll roared and rounded on Herzord, its sword coming around in an arc designed to cut the hobgoblin captain in twain, but the hobgoblin set his feet and turned into the stroke, his own black blade driving forward to meet the other.  Metal clashed, and the troll’s sword came apart, slabs of rough-forged iron exploding across the chamber as the weapon was sundered. Buruz merely dropped the now-useless hilt of its weapon, and set upon its foes with claw and tooth. Dar and Talen were battling another troll just a few steps away.  The pair echoed the initial tactics of the hobgoblins, letting the troll come to them, spreading out and stepping forward into flanking positions.  Dar took a hit hard across the body from its sword, but his old breastplate, recovered from Varo, held against the impact, although it suffered a serious dent from the force of the blow.  The fighter’s breath was blasted out of his lungs by the hit, but before the troll could get in a follow-up Talen savaged it with Beatus Incendia, scoring a pair of hits that cut the troll’s left leg to the bone.  The creature shouted in pain and fury and rounded on the knight, the huge sword coming up to strike. It never got a chance, as Dar unleashed an all-out full attack upon its back.  The last troll felt a momentary dizziness as a puff of interesting-smelling gas erupted in front of its face.  But while the troll was stupid, it was hardly weak-minded, and it shook off the effects of Snaggletooth’s breath weapon, and focused on its companions, being hacked to pieces a few steps away.  It started toward Talen, intending to counter-flank the enemy, but before it could engage it was confronted by a slender human woman.  At first it hardly considered Shaylara a threat, but that changed when the scout sprang up into the air, right toward its face.  Her sword flashed out, slicing a long gash open in the troll’s neck, and then she kicked off its chest, flying back.  The troll’s leathery flesh had been too thick for the wound to have been critical, and it would have healed quickly in any case.  But it was enough to draw its full attention, and it charged at the scout, who fled back into the corner of the room, toward a spiral staircase that led down.  Had the troll been in a more contemplative mood, it might have realized that it was being drawn away from the battle, but as it was it charged after the fleeing woman, hacking at her with its sword.  Shay took a pair of hits, but both were just glancing blows, and each time she kept dodging back out of its reach, forcing it to keep following after. Guturk was surrounded by goblins now, and having a tough time of it.  The troll had scored a hit with his sword that had knocked a goblin fighter halfway across the room.  Allera was there even before it had rolled to a stop, saving its life with a minor healing spell.  She could not help, however, the goblin scout that the troll cut in half with its backswing, as the small creature delivered a painful cut with its axe across the huge monster’s left ankle.  The troll was continuing to regenerate, but it was taking hits faster than its body could adapt, and in close quarters the sneak attacks from the flanking scouts were starting to tell.  Another stabbing pain shot through the troll’s thigh, and as it turned to deal with yet another foe, its damaged ankle gave out, and it fell forward.  It took some solace in the fact that it fell onto a goblin, crushing it beneath its bulk, but then a blade cut across its eyes, blinding it, and then things got really nasty. Buruz tore violently at Herzord, but while the hobgoblin leader was taking damage, each time the troll was just too slow to get a solid grasp on him, enough of a hold to tear and rend his flesh.  The hobgoblin, despite his heavy armor and full helm, seemed to anticipate the troll’s attacks an instant before they were launched.  His lieutenant continued to hack at the troll from behind, but the creature ignored it, focused on the greater foe.  It made another attempt to seize him, but Herzord met that attack with a swing that took off the troll’s left arm at the elbow.  He stepped under the troll’s other swing, and as it staggered forward, off balance, he drove the length of his blade through the troll’s chin up into its brain.  The hobgoblins fell back as the troll collapsed.  Herzord turned to see Dar standing over the body of his opponent.  “What took you so long?” the fighter said, with a grin. There wasn’t time for a reply, as the battle wasn’t quite over yet.  Shay had led the troll on a chase around the spiral stair, and now drew it back, grimacing as she held her injured side.  Talen was there to meet it, taking everything the troll could put in its swing, deflecting it just enough with his shield to avoid losing his arm.  Ignoring the pain from the broken limb, Talen swept Beatus Incendia across its belly, opening a fearsome wound that sizzled as the holy fire around the blade seared troll flesh. The troll’s counterattack might have finished off the knight, but it never got the chance, as Dar and the two hobgoblins, joined once more by Shay, charged forward and put an end to it.</blockquote>

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