True Monsters – Act 3 Forge Hold - Chapter 25 – Stone Skull Trolls and Tribulations.

David was the first up and last ready, putting on all his armour. It would take a bit of getting used to. Eventually Vivian helped him put the last few pieces on and adjust it so that it fitted comfortably. Everyone’s heads hurt a little from the previous night, they were wound pretty tightly. The local vampire elder wanted them dead, they could feel the pressure of the old monster lurking out there ready to strike at any time.

The night was definitively the monsters domain. The day time was not much better, many of his creatures could move about in the day. Inside the city walls the crime syndicate the hidden hand was looking for an opportunity to slay them, a second team of rogues was probably being dispatched already.

Breakfast was quite a large meal, including a lot of mutton and chicken. Hunters generally carried a lot of equipment and had proportionally large appetites. There guests were much the same. Even Alice was eating huge meals now. Her mind and body demanded it. They waited through the early hours of the morning.

Milroy was carefully going through the paperwork at the church trying to find who had anything to do with the quest to kill the ghouls. A set up to deliver them into the hands of a very angry vampire. There were a number of people who had handled the quest. Someone may have overheard the preparation, someone for example a scribe could be bribed. Even someone who cleaned the floors could have looked over the paperwork.

The rouges that had tried to assassinate them, must have had a local contact to round up the thugs that acted as a diversion. The sheriff Simon would probably get something out of the petty criminals in a few days, they would recover from the drugs that they got high on. In exchange for the information provided they would have a few months taken of their sentences. The letter taken from the spy at vine garden and the paperwork taken from Islington’s lair would eventually narrow down the inside man.

They each handled things in their own way. David started to play card games with the apprentice hunters, they used lead shot as tokens rather than actual money, and he still lost the entire lot. Alice tried to false all the knowledge in her books into her head, one page at a time. An awareness of magical lore, one piece of relevant information could be the difference between there death and the death of an opponent. Martin did a few little repairs to his armour. Vivian used an old armour stand as a practice dummy and used her new bow to perforate the wood, a single heart shot to a vampire the age of lexicon would not kill him outright, but he would suddenly be a lot more vulnerable.

Milroy finally came back, but it was not with answers about the head vampire. He put a folded piece of paper on the table. “I have no news for you yet, but I do have something that you can help with”. David looked at him, “what’s the job”. Milroy patted him on the shoulder, “this will help the defences of this town and this region massively, and it’s also worth a good amount of coin. There is a big troll out in the hills to the west, Stone skull they call him he is about 18 feet high a real monster somewhere over level 40.”

The party were suddenly a lot less enthusiastic, David looked puzzled, “is he threatening the settlement?” Milroy shook his head, “the bruit wandered this way ten years ago, he got a ballista bolt in the ass. He got the message and has not been seen near Forge Hold since, we are going after the biggest local troll because we need him for ingredients”. Alice’s eyes lit up, “health potions, an alchemist can remove the active ingredient from a troll’s flesh, that allow it to regenerate and store it in a potion.” The hunter grinned, “the bigger the troll the stronger the potion, or the lower the dose you need”.

Martin shrugged, “even between the four of us it would be difficult to take down something that size, a troll’s regeneration is significant especially one with that size”. Milroy patted him on the shoulder, “the Merchants guild has had this plan in the works for a while, with the recent trouble we have need to speed things up. The Master battle alchemist, the Cyanide sharp shooter and his party were contracted for this. We were going to get a second group of veterans to help them, your hear you need cash and some levels. You might make some allies and you will help provision this settlement.”

“There is safety in numbers”, Alice added. “It’s bound to be a big bounty on the troll even split eight ways it’s going to be good”, David nodded. “It helps everyone out and we could make an ally in the fight against lexicon”, Vivian pointed out. Martin had a big grin on his face, “the battle alchemist might have a few bits to trade”. Milroy pushed them out the door, “the battle alchemist is staying at the drunken Maier tavern near the trade guild hall, tell him I sent you, good hunting” he pushed the letter of introduction into Martins hand.

The Drunken Maier tavern was a place that primarily served the trade guild. It always had a few people who were waiting for a delivery coming in or out of Forge hold. It would usually be coal, which was shipped all over the place perfect for most blacksmithing work. There was a separate place that the coal miners drank in close to the mine. This bar was filled with driver’s craftsmen and the odd supervisor. It had a little lodging. The group entered the establishment, the bouncer took one look at them then looked across the bar to an equally eccentric bunch seated at a table, he rushed to get out of the way.

The group at the table eyed up the other adventurers, there was a brief pause. No one was reaching for a weapon or looking hostile but they were both cautiously evaluating each other. Martin took the piece of paper over to them, he identified the one battle alchemist in the group and introduced them.

“You must be the cyanide sharp shooter”, the man grinned “yes call me Tony who are you.”

“My name is Martin a level 34 Vampire hunter, of the order of steel and silver, Vivian and David level 28 and 27 of the Glass Bay Mercenary Company” they nodded. “Finally there is Alice of the royal mages tower”, she smiled. “I understand you’re contracted for a troll hunt”?

Tony nodded, “come sit with us we can discuss a little hunt together”. Tony's group moved round one side of the table, Martin and the others grabbed chairs and sat down the other side.

“I am a master of battle alchemy, specialising in explosives and poisons”. The master battle alchemist Tony was tall and thin, in his mid-thirties with a long thin black moustache. He was dressed in a long blue padded robe, it was knee length and good armour. Over this he wore a mitral king’s mail vest. Going from below his knees to below his elbows, there were side slits in a foot soldier configuration, easier to walk in than to ride in.

He had Dark blue leather boots and gloves and bracers. He had a White Fur trimmed steel pot helm. There was a Musket on his back in a sheath, it was very heavy and bulky. A short sword hung in a sheath at his side it was steel with a mitral edge. He had a bandier of bombs canisters and corked vials, with some poisoned darts in a holster. He had made every part of his arsenal his intelligence was formidable.

“This is Heather out magical support, a licensed veteran conjure from deep furrow”. She grinned “I didn’t want to become a druid and help crops grow”. Heather was in her early twenty’s, tall with short cropped black hair and brown eyes, her leather armour made her more like a rogue. She carried a staff on her back. It sat in a custom made sheath, it split into two sections. It could fit together a little short but magically functional. She had a few weak healing spells. Most of her magic was cold based. Her icicle storm spell did the equivalent damage of a fire ball, the rest of her spells were ice based variants.

She had a few scrolls in a sealed leather tube at her waist. She was quite solid for a mage, she had taken three ranks of the intensive training perk, she was quite wiry and strong. She had a healing potion and mana potion at her side. She had one good Magic item a steel bracer with an enchantment of cold resistance of 45 points. She could use her spells at point blank range and survive.

“This is Peter he is a bit of a rarity, a licenced level 20 psionic, he comes from tower keep, the cattle city”. “I grew up on a farm, nothing is more irritating than listening to the thought of 200 cattle waiting to be milked”. Peter was nineteen short and a bit nervous. He had one good artefact, a circlet of psionic amplification. It boosted all his abilities as if he was 5 levels higher, effectively giving him the abilities of a veteran. He also carried a useful ring of natural armour + 5. He had some help with a couple of minor potions of psionic rejuvenation, so he could keep using his psionic abilities. He wore a Brown clothes with black piping. He had a dull brown hooded cloak, there was a short curved iron dagger at his side.

“This is Elizabeth she comes from Lignorum, the city in the forest. She is a mercenary level 22 who brought out her own contract”. “I got fed up not picking my own assignments, so I paid up and left, it’s a bit too cold up hear but I am getting used to it”. Elizabeth was a shield and mace specialist. She was bulky and tall, getting on for six foot six. She may have taken a few growth potions to bulk up, they had some side effects which lowered agility. But the extra strength endurance and reach often made up for it.

She had a big hexagonal Damascus Mace with electrical damage enchanted into it. She had a big round shield, it looked fancy steel plate with a brass decoration in the shape of tiger head. She was wearing black padding and a blackened set of fully covering chainmail. She had some plate over the top but not a full suit. She had a steel helmet without a visor, an iron neck guard and a thick iron chest plate, it didn’t include the back plate.

The group got chatting, Martin and tony exchanged notes on explosives. David and Elizabeth debated the advantages of a mace or a sword. Alice started to gently interrogate peter about psionics, he was the first one she had met. Vivian was left talking to Heather.

“So what’s it like working directly for the government”? Heather spoke to Vivian. “It’s not direct I am a member of a free company, but we do work mostly for government contracts, we get access directly to the local officials, we have the rule of law on our side. We are sanction, we have most of our food lodgings and travel paid for, what about you”? “We have to undergo a few checks every year and pay a fee for a licence, but I prefer being a free range adventure. Not tied to the church or crown or guild, we are free to go for the most lucrative contracts and we don’t get tied up in paperwork”.

Elizabeth looked at David, “so your past veteran rank what’s it like”? “I have access to rank 2 adrenalin attacks, I can cut through most things. I feel like I could keep going on and on”. “Pity you couldn’t afford steel plate”. “At least I have a full suit of armour”. She grinned back and slapped him on the back, making a clanging noise and forcing his visor to drop down. “Don’t need it my shield protects the rest of me”.

Alice looked at peter, “so let me get this right psionics function a lot like magic, it’s almost like mana and focus are combined in your mind to create psychic energy. That you can then use to manipulate minds cause direct damage or manipulate the physical world”. Peter nodded, “like a mage I have a penalty to my strength and endurance, unlike a mage I can vary the amount of psionic energy I use. I could put the smallest amount into a psionic technique, or my entire battery of psionic energy, of course that would knock me out cold but you get the difference”.

Martin chatted with tony, “So I ground the powder very fine I use cotton for wadding and with the silver bullets, I cast them in a slightly larger mould. They contract a little as they cool but then they fit perfectly”. Tony nodded, “that would work for a short range attack, for longer range I spoke to a musketeer before I set up my beauty”.

“I have a lead slug, and then I carefully bore out the centre and fill it with cyanide. You need to keep the powder charge on the weak end. But as long as you hit the monster or human centre of mass they are toast eventually. Of course some things have poison resistance or regeneration but I have plenty of other tricks. Like a mitral bullet no one expects that, you have to wrap them in lead to stop the metal from tearing up your barrel, but it’s worth the effort for that stubborn monster.”

Martin showed tony his triple barrelled pistol and tony showed off some of his poison darts. They moved onto business, “so you finished of the wyvern that was causing trouble with the sheep round grey forge”? Martin nodded, “yes we got a good price for it”. Tony sighed, “That was our secondary mission, you beat us to the punch there, but you were here first. The big troll is going to be very lucrative, easily ten times what the wyvern was worth”.

“You like to hunt big monsters Tony”. “Oh yes big monsters have big rewards on their heads, they have known weaknesses and strengths. Known habits that can be exploited and they help build a reputation. I have far more chance of a break through upping my level limit to 75, when I am developing a weapon to slay a big monster, than when I do work on pest control”.

Martin shrugged, “we seem to be magnets for every monster, even ones we have no hope of fighting alone”.

Tony cracked his knuckles, “down to this contract, we hunt the giant troll together and its 5 gold total, we split it 30/70.” Vivian interrupted him. “We are all past veteran status, it should be a different split how about 40/60.” Tony shook his head, “we are using my custom made explosives, it isn’t cheap so I am not making that much. But it’s going to be an easier kill than you think, my first offer was 30/70 it stands. Vivian looked around the group she shrugged “ok”.

After twenty minutes the two groups of adventures set off, they joined up with two carts. Two cart drives, a couple of chemists with a lot of tools and one very large heavy wooden crate painted red. There were also lots of empty barrels piled up on the carts. They went out of town, along a rarely used track that had warning markers, they got to the base of the hills slowly the group got off the carts. The merchant’s guild people stayed back as the adventures moved forwards. Elizabeth and David carried the box Martin and Vivian lead the group with the rest at the rear.

There was an area with massive signs of destruction, trees broken and smashed massive foot prints in the ground a few very thoroughly chewed deer ribs. They set the box down Tony looked left and right, sending people up to positions to fire down on the location, he was planting his explosives.

He dug six holes in a rough circular pattern. Finally with some pomp he removed the explosive devices. There were six small barrels, they each had four spikes sticking up and out that would probably act as triggers, there was a pin attached to a cord on the lid of each one.

The explosives were buried very carefully, so that there was only the metal spikes sticking out of the ground. Tony carefully scatted some leaves over the mines to hide the tops of them. He carefully pulled the pins, using the string to arm them. He looked at Martin, “you have the highest endurance by a mile and a tone of defensive blessings”, Martin nodded. “yes you want me to find it and get the bastard to run this way”. Tony nodded “it’s not very fast but tough and strong, you get it to this minefield, and my mines will shred it. Then we finish it off and harvest it.” Martin nodded, “I will keep well clear of your explosives”

Martin headed off into the surrounding area, troll's usually started man-size then they grew up to 18 foot tall, that was when they hit level 50 there limit. They were sometimes controlled by vampires, a necromancer could use there corpses but they were not that common a monster. They might have been created by the blood alchemists, as a source of materials for alchemical ingredients, which was all they were useful for, he mused filling his mind with thoughts other than death by troll.

Martin came across the troll after twenty minutes. It was absolutely huge, shaped roughly like a human with dull unintelligent eyes, black fur covered its thick body. It had huge ears a huge flat nose, slightly crooked legs bowed under its weight. It was omnivorous as it was stripping the bark and smaller branches from a tree, with three fingered hands round as boulders. It took stone skull about five seconds to realise that there was a better meal, running away from it. The beast whooped and cried out, it dropped the remains of the tree and charged forwards after Martin.

Martin was already a good way away, he had to turn back in time to see the troll drop into a crouching stance, where it switched to running on its hands and feet. Martin appreciated that it was now quite a bit faster and put more effort into running himself. Martin dodged left and right over some branches and a tree stump. The trap with the explosives was ready, he ran up to it carefully skirted round it. Martin ensured that the trap was between him and the oncoming troll. He charged forwards, desperate to get as much room between him and the explosion as possible.

The scene seemed to happen in slow motion, the troll running across the trap the first explosive activating, sending a hail of shrapnel fire and concussive force into the troll knocking it down. The remaining five explosives activated as the troll hit the ground, they had enough force to lift the troll several feet into the air. The powerful explosive mines had done their job, just like the battle alchemist had planned, mangling the troll’s legs. The shockwave had hit Martin and now all he could hear was a ringing in his ears.

Peter concentrated, the air shimmered around him. A blast of psychic energy hit the troll. It stopped trying to crawl forwards and instead its eyes started to twitch and its mouth foamed, as if it was having some sort of seizure. Martin activated his chain smite ability and began to fry its head with bolt after bolt of lightning. Tony used his musket with poison shot, hitting the beast in the skull again and again.

Viviana began to put cheap arrows into its thick neck, Peter hit it with stun again and again to keep it down. David and Ellizabeth attacked with power strikes from both sides, on its legs so that it would not have any chance to heal. Alice and heather pelted its torso with spells, alternating between fire balls and icicle storms. This went on for nearly 30 seconds until they were certain that the massive beast was completely pulverised. Tony shouted to everyone “good job, heather go get the guild guys we have the second part the less fun part now”.

The ringing in Martins ears was starting to fade as the level up hit. Two members of Tony's team also gained a level. Martin hit level 35 he gained several more blessings, two more used of his divine regeneration healing blessing. Two more used of his circle of consecration a particularly useful on against large number of the undead. A single use of the stronger version sphere of consecration, which would hit advisories that tried to escape into the air or the ground, it also did twice as much holy damage.

As David hit level 29 he put another skill point into his duellist ability, at rank 4 it was as good as he needed it to be to face single opponents in most circumstances. As someone who balanced attack and defence he was looking at building a skill set for most circumstances. Vivian applied the opposite philosophy as she hit level 28, she took her critical strike skill up to level seven which would stack well with all her other skills. Alice felt the level up uncomfortable, but she stood back up. She had reached level 27 and improved her healing aura spell. She noticed Peter had blacked out. She shook him awake, he clutched his head in pain.

The dull time-consuming part of the day arrived. The chemists from the guild parked up the wagons and set to work. Now that the troll was dead the adventures were relegated to expensive labours. At least the guild handed out aprons to keep the troll blood of their clothing. Martin and Tony cut up the troll with big sharp knives, David and Elizabeth set to work with a giant saw to cut up the troll’s limbs. Vivian started to peel off hunks of troll hide with an axe. In a sort of organised chaos the troll's corpse was decimated, stripped of alchemical ingredients. Alice ladled blood and flesh into barrels, Peter and heather used shovels to collect bits and pieces. Even the cart drivers had to lend a hand, carrying things and adding chemicals to the barrels, stirring them to preserve the ingredients potency.

The chemists took charge so that in under three hours, all that was left of the massive troll was a bit of offal. That was bagged up to be cooked down and used as grease it was quite fatty. There were lots of bits for alchemists and chemists to work on, a good part of healing potions. The two chemists sent out collected two tons of troll bone, they would extract the marrow. Nearly 250 square feet of useable troll hide, that could be proceed into high end medium armour. A troll eyeball floating in a big pickle jar, 25 barrels of useable material flesh and blood had been collected. And one giant troll skull was being added to the local lord’s collection, if he could keep it quiet from his wife for a few days.

They got back to forge hold, some checks on them and their cargo including a check on the barrels with a magnet and they were let into the settlement. The procession arrived at the trade guild hall. Luther was there, he hugged Martin and Tony in a bone squeezing bear hug. “Well done with this material we will be able to supply a lot of high quality healing potions to this town and the rest of the region, give it a couple of days and I can get you a discount on the first batch.”

Luther went off to get their money, the adventures stopped off at the local tavern. Tony got the first round Martin raised his glass, “Tony there is a local vampire, around level 125 he has a 20 gold bounty on his head, I specialise in vampires a 50/50 split we could claim the money and fame together.”

Tony considered it he downed his tankard, “They have armies of servants, it would cost me so much ammunition and potions it wouldn’t be worth it”. Martin ordered a refill at the bar then turned to him, “a lot of the servants will have a few silvers on their heads as well. You could keep that to offset your costs, what about a 60/40 split then in your favour”? Tony started on the new pint, “it’s tempting but finding and nailing the buggers is time consuming”. Martins hope flagged, this man had probably hunted lesser vampires before and was not inclined to do it again, “I have a few other contracts first then I might catch up to you”.

Tony slapped Martin on the back, “you get me, we are kindred spirits born of gun powder and fire”. He looked at Martins bandolier, “you like thermite, I bet you have something with a bit of real punch”. Martin grinned showed him the bundle of dynamite, then shoved it back into his coat “It always pays to keep your options open”.

Tony nodded. “Let me give you some advice, I work in a team, but it’s my way as I am the highest level of the lot of us. You could end up in team with three other masters, you need to set out an agreement between you or egos could pull you all apart.” Martin nodded, “we are all under orders, we are colleagues, but that will change. Four weeks ago I was level 3, we have bounced from one crisis to another to another, and soon if we can survive we can get a break. Then we will have enough seniority to pick and choose assignments, then this decision will be made”.

Tony grinned “a little history lesson, battle alchemists were one of the jobs that went into founding the vampire hunter job, Nobel Colt and Tesla all exalted masters all powerful men, they were there when the vampire hunter was codified into a profession there skills are now the skills of all hunters”.

David and Elizabeth were showing off, Elizabeth had a little less strength than David, but her alchemical bosting made it a closer thing. She was confident with leverage and her enhanced endurance she could beat him in a friendly game of arm wrestling. David was confident of his higher strength and the boost from his magic ring he could beat her.

“Ok I bet you a”, he stopped looking at Vivian scowling at him. “The next drink, that I can beat you in arm wrestling”. Vivian’s face softened. The room watched as the two mercenaries squared off on the table, brawn against brawn. The two of them tried for ten minutes with David slowly gaining ground over Elizabeth. Before either could claim victory the table they were sitting at collapsed under the force. The bouncer stood up he was a level 10 blacksmith, a level 8 minor and a level 15 militia man. He considered his chances of throwing them out even if drunk and sat back down.

Peter looked at Alice, “you have a good composition in your group, we could do with a hunter or crusader or cleric in our group, there are some monsters we can’t tackle without blessings”. Alice nodded, “it works very well, but against anything with a weak brain you can take them down easily”. “That troll was a lot easier to stun, because its mind was flooded with pain”.

Heather finished talking to Vivian, “if I ever get to level 50 and become a master, my moniker is going to be the ice queen. No maybe the mistress of blizzards, you get the idea, what about you”? Vivian shrugged, “I will worry about it when I get there”. Heather walked over to Elizabeth and put her hand on the larger woman's shoulder, she pulled her down into a kiss. “Come on we have more interesting things to do, we need to get rid of the troll smell”. Elizabeth answered, “Yes ma'am”. David and Vivian exchanged a raided eye brow, then sniffed noticing the troll smell that permeated them as well.

The group saw Luther again, “you have to see Tony for your pay”. Alice spoke “we know that, we are getting a bit of shopping show us the veteran stock.” Luther nodded, they got three scrolls of relieve, it was a druid spell that removed paralysis and petrification, Alice could not learn the druid spell but she could use a spell scroll. She wrapped them in a cloth and tucked them in her belt. They also got a small battered copy of a brief guide to monsters, supernatural and alchemical in nature. Martin secreted the worn book into one of his coat pockets. The total cost was 10 silver a reasonable investment.

They met up with Tony and Peter who were still at the bar. Tony toasted them and put a large leather bag onto the counter. David checked through the reward all 150 pieces of silver were there. David grinned then his grin faltered. He looked over at Vivian and handed her the bag. Tony grinned, “The guild was good with the money, we will head out soon. One of those chemists tried to create a hair tonic from the troll blood. It worked too well now he is fury all over, if he isn’t careful they might mistake him for a troll. They also gave us a little bonus something to take care of the troll smell”. Tony handed Martin a couple of small ointment bottles.

The group headed back to the hunters house for the night's meal. There was still the threat of vampires and every grubby little minion that served them. But a few drinks and a talk with some of their colleagues and they had let off a bit of steam. A mix pot stew and some cheese and they were feeling quite a bit better.

Martin took the time to reinforced David’s boots with thicker souls and hobnails, the job was not his neatest but it would hold out against a lot of abuse. David eagerly tried them on, the crunch of hobnails was not very quiet. But then no piece of his armour or shield was, “not a perfect defence but the chance of that happening again is reduced”, David nodded his thanks. “spines or cal traps I want to be ready”. Tomorrow they could hopefully chase up the leads on the spy in forge-hold, tonight they would sleep better.