Chapter 15

Trolls

That night they didn’t have a big party or feast. They were too busy stuffing their magic duffle bags, back packs, and satchels with as much food and water as they could carry. Torger took a risk he didn’t like; he left all their steel armor with Strong Arm for repairs, and they instead wore leather armor. Torger bought Rome and Brun wood staffs, in case their silver ones broke, and Antic and Arden spent the evening tying billik legs to oak poles of varying lengths, then placing them in the duffle bags. They made fourteen spears in all.

Torger was frustrated with Rome. Every seven minutes, when his mana would recharge, he stopped what he was doing and used analyze on a dwarf. By the time they went to bed he had used it nearly forty times. Torger kept giving instructions and micro managing all the details until everyone went to bed early to avoid his smothering. He knew he was being over bearing but couldn’t help it, he wanted everything to be done with the utmost efficiency.

After breakfast the dirt path took the Regulators, six aqueduct builders, and six road workers to the top of Cajon Pass the next day. Sentries saw rocs flying around on their shifts that night, but the group was too large for them to attack. The next day the road workers stopped along the dirt path where they began making a path to Indio, almost at the falls, and the others headed south. They came to the burned ruins of Home and slept there. The sight saddened Torger and Graul. They underestimated how much Small Foot hated them, and their property paid the price.

It rained for two days making for a miserable journey before they came to the spring west of Indio. They refilled their water skins and slept in Arden and Jex’s cave. Torger felt more comfortable with Stone Fist and the other five dwarves having that cave to sleep in every night. The shield was weak, but they wouldn’t have to waste dwarf power on keeping watch every night.

At almost noon the next day, they saw troll footprints in the mud and easily followed them. It took about two more hours until they found the cave. Rome used Analyze 1 on the cave. A message came into his vision:

You have found cave, level 5. Do you wish to conquer it?

Of course he selected yes. Then a wide smile came to his face.

“Guys, by selecting that I want to conquer the cave, I can see into it.”

Graul replied “It’s daylight. We can all see about ten feet into it.”

“No, I mean it’s grey, deep inside, like looking down an arrow through Jex’s Bow of the Owl.”

Jex handed him the bow for a comparison. It was exactly the same for Rome.

“That’s great! Two of us can see grey outlines in the cave without torches,” Torger said. “That’s a big advantage.”

Rome knew he wasn’t being sarcastic, but also realized the implications. “Torger, if everyone learns analyze one, we won’t need torches to clear out a cave. We will all be able to see in the dark.”

Antic said “That is good news, but for now we have work to do. You said the cave is level five. Remind me what that means.”

“It means if ten people level five attack the cave, they have a ninety percent chance of winning. For comparison, the one hundred razorlings guarding Calico when we first arrived were guarding a level nine cave, and the higher the level, the better the treasure. Also, as a group we are at level sixteen.”

“Very good Jex,” Rome acknowledged, “That means that is one seriously powerful troll or there are others in there.”

Torger instructed everyone to make torches from tied together branches and smear them with animal fat. “We want to try to flush them out. Rome, you’re going to have to use analyze immediately and tell us what we’re facing.”

Rome’s heart swelled with pride. He finally had something useful to contribute to the battle.

Torger and Graul stood to the sides of the mouth, while Arden and Brun threw in dry branches. Brun set them on fire and ran away. After a couple of minutes a huge troll came out, over eight feet tall, kicking the fire with its feet and extinguishing the flames.

Rome used Analyze 1 and saw

Troll Level 19. Health 300/300 Mana 0/0

Rome called out “Level nineteen, three hundred health, no mana!”

The troll looked at him and started running towards him. Jex shot it with a fire arrow, Antic and Arden ran away from it, Brun cast Fire 2 at it, and Graul and Torger stepped behind it and stabbed it in the back. But when Torger’s sword, now infused with Fire 3 struck, something amazing happened. The blade glowed red, and he heard the sound of flesh searing from the heat, but Graul’s blade always did that too. However Torger’s sword shot four fireballs out of it, two from each side. They circled in the air once, then slammed into the ground not damaging the troll any further. It was the first time he used the upgraded sword, and that was not what he was expecting.

Torger and Graul withdrew their blades but the troll backhanded Torger. His leather helm did him no good as his head snapped back and he collapsed, unconscious, from the incredibly powerful blow. Graul sliced its leg and Brun cast Fire 2at it again twice, then he was out of mana.

The troll tried to punch Graul, but he ducked and ran away. Jex shot it twice more with her last two ice arrows found in Treluge’s goods, and the troll determined she was the biggest threat. He ran towards her and Rome. Seeing his wife in trouble shook Arden out of his daze and he ran at the troll. Antic saw Arden run and a second later he began running at it too.

Jex and Rome both ran away and the troll followed, but Arden followed and stabbed it in the back with his spear. It stopped quickly and grabbed the spear, then pulled the non barbed billik leg from its back and broke it in half. It used the dangerous half like a javelin and threw it at Antic. He ducked just in time and when he looked up he saw Arden running towards a duffle bag for another spear.

In the meantime Graul was trying to wake up Torger, seeing his jaw was clearly broken. Torger finally came to, with his vision blurry, and saw Jex and Arden casting spells at the troll that was on its knees and seemingly near death. It swatted weakly at Antic as he drove his spear into its skull. Everyone cheered and Graul stood up. He never saw the club swinging around like a baseball bat that hit him in the back.

Even from a distance, the others heard the impact and looked. Torger was still on his knees and woozy, but was able to grab his sword from the ground and drive it into the troll’s shin. He looked up and saw it was a female troll. Again the blade glowed hot and seared the flesh behind the shin, and four fireballs came out of the sword. But this time only two went into the ground after circling once. The other two flew into the cave mouth. Torger looked in and saw two six foot adolescent trolls holding clubs a few feet away. Both had a scorch mark from the fireballs on their chest. Torger didn’t have time to think about how awesome his new sword was. The female hit him in the back with the club and through the agonizing pain he didn’t realize he had no feeling in his legs.

Jex shot iron tipped arrows as fast as she could at the three trolls. Everyone was out of mana from killing daddy troll. They knew Torger and Graul both had broken backs, but Antic and Arden ran at them with their spears anyway. As they were running, Rome realized there was something he could do. He ran behind them and when they got near, the spears poked into the mama troll, and Rome ran and grabbed Torger’s sword. He swung it with just a little practice, a lowly level two in two handed swords and compared to Torger it looked clumsy, but the blade sank into mama troll’s bicep and again four fireballs came out, two hitting the adolescents in the chest and two going into the ground.

That unfortunately motivated them to spring into action. They both ran at Rome and he ran away carrying the sword in one hand and the staff in the other. He saw that although they looked fat and slow, they were only slowly losing ground on him. He circled to the side and began making his way back towards Jex and Brun. He saw Jex shooting arrows as fast as she could and shouted for her to help him. She turned toward him and knocked an arrow, and at the same time Brun started digging in the duffle bag near his feet.

Jex shot one troll in the leg, which slowed it down, then shot the other in the leg, giving Rome time to arrive and grab a spear handed to him by Brun. They both turned and faced the trolls. Neither man knew how to use a spear at all, and held them at waist height. Fortunately the adolescent trolls were very stupid and ran forward, impaling their stomachs on the spears. The momentum knocked all of them to the ground, including Jex.

Rome was the first to recover and grabbed a club one of the trolls had dropped. With a savage cry he raised it over his head and brought it down as hard as he could on the troll’s head. The thick skull cracked, and it was knocked out. The other troll grunted and punched Jex in the chest while it was still on the ground. It had plenty of strength and she felt a rib crack. She rolled away from it just as it was drawing its arm back to punch her again, but Rome brought down the club again, knocking that one out as well. He looked up and saw Antic and Arden both drive their spears into the mama troll’s sides, then they backed away and watched her bleed to death.

Rome picked up Torger’s sword and sliced the neck of one of the trolls on the ground. The blade cut easily and three fireballs circled in the air then went into the ground, the fourth hit the other unconscious troll in the chest. He collapsed to the ground with exhaustion.

Torger was in so much pain he could barely think, but he finally managed to cast Cure 1 on himself. The pain subsided a little, but not much. It was enough for him to realize he couldn’t feel his legs. He looked to the side and saw Graul laying at an awkward angle and not moving, but breathing.

He called over “Hey Graul, you still with us?”

Graul didn’t move but answered with his face in the ground “Yeah. I can’t move my legs and it hurts to breath.”

“Me too. I’ll cast cure one on you, then again in two minutes.”

The cure eased some of Graul’s pain, but his back still screamed. All he could do was lay there and wait.

The others walked down to them, Jex holding her ribs, and the others carrying gear. Rome handed Torger his sword, and Brun handed him his silver staff to aid with the cure spells. Rome and Antic volunteered to check inside the cave, Antic using the Bow of the Owl to see. As soon as they stepped in Rome saw a message.

You have cleared this cave. Would you like to take possession of it?

He called out to the others “I got a message asking if I want to take possession of the cave. How do I answer?”

They all talked about it for a while, Rome afraid to exit the cave and lose it. Brun called back “Select no. Let’s see if I can take it. We have access to it either way.”

Brun walked in but didn’t get a prompt. That was frustrating. He walked back out and Rome and Antic walked to the end of the cave. They saw nothing but animal skins and a fire pit in the far back. They looked around, but there was nothing to find. They walked back out. Rome exited first, and as soon as he did, Antic got a message asking if he wanted to take possession of the cave. He told the others.

Antic walked out, and Brun walked in by himself. Only when he was in the cave by himself did he get the message asking if he wanted it as his own property. He selected NO and told the others. During that time Arden and Torger were able to cast Cure 1 on Graul and himself once each. Their pain diminished substantially, but they still couldn’t move their legs. The others dragged Graul in and walked out of the cave. He took possession of it, then they dragged Torger in and, with the safety of a shield over the entrance, cooked dinner and drank water. Arden cast Cure 1 on Jex, and Torger got in one more cure for himself and his brother, the freedom from pain combined with a sleeping potion from Calico allowed them to fall asleep.

In the morning they were all healed. Graul left the shield up and they walked back to tell Stone Fist they succeeded. He told them he was glad, but they asked him why they had such a hard time defeating a level five cave, and they told him the whole battle.

“It sounds like it started out just fine, an unfortunate hit to Torger. But if I understand correctly, Graul you were overconfident thinking the battle was over. You got blindsided by a powerful blow, taking you out of the fight. How different would the fight have gone if you weren’t surprised?”

Graul thought about it. “I could have killed one of the adolescents all by myself.”

“And that would have changed the whole battle?”

Everyone nodded and agreed. Stone Fist said “The battle wasn’t difficult for you because your levels aren’t high enough, you went in with leather armor made for level two or three dwarves instead of steel armor made for levels fifteen to thirty, or even iron or bronze, and you didn’t fight together as a team. You’re talking about going to attack hundreds of goblins without steel armor and not working together. I hope you take this event as a wakeup call.”

They sat there looking at the ground and felt dejected. After a few minutes Brun asked “Now what?”

Torger looked up and said “My suggestion is we go to Havasu and find those potions.”

Stone Fist looked at him with shock on his face. “What potions?”

Torger was uncomfortable with the restrained greed behind the dwarf’s eyes. “We know a place where there might be some buried potions.” He didn’t want to say more.

Stone Fist let the news sink in for a few minutes, then he stood up on his tip toes and rapped his knuckles on Torger’s forehead. Before Torger could say ow Stone Fist started yelling “Idiots! All this time you’ve barely managed to fend off razorlings and big bears, and you knew where to find potions? We dwarves can only make low level potions, and the farmers have to wait until the end of winter to set out to plant crops for food and ingredients for potions. Those are a huge boost in a fight! How easy would that fight with the trolls have been if you had four cure potions and four mana potions? Even low level ones? It takes a month to grow the ingredients for potions and another three weeks to brew them. Calico has nearly exhausted its supplies on you humans, and it will be a couple of months before farmers can plant the crops for the ingredients.” Frustrated he stormed off and called them idiots over his shoulder.

Torger looked at the others. “I guess that settles which way to go.”

Chapter 16

The Muddy Desert

None of the Regulators were still tired when they woke up. Antic’s cave was plenty big enough for everyone to sleep. He felt happy he had something to offer his friends, both human and dwarf, but sleeping on bare ground would have to be improved on one day.

They ate breakfast, their bread and dried fruits were very low but they still had plenty of dried meats. They set out due east with full bellies and water skins. The cold wind from the northwest made them put on their winter coats, and they saw clouds rolling in.

As they walked Rome said “I’ve been watching the daylight. I think yesterday was the shortest day, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ll pretend tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Just thought I’d let everyone know.”

Christmas. The idea reminded everyone of home and family. Their families had no idea what happened to them; they went for a hike and were never found. For every one of them, their thoughts turned toward homesickness, which then turned to anger towards the tyters for taking them away for some sort of pleasure hunt. They walked in silence, but daydreamed about killing their enemies in less than two years. As their thoughts turned dark, so did the sky.

They made camp on the backside of a hill, out of the wind as much as possible. It was difficult to keep the cook fire going, and as soon as they put a couple rabbits on spits it began to rain. Arden grabbed the spits and threw the rabbits as far as he could, and as the fire got quenched no one could blame him.

Torger took the first watch as everyone went into their tents early, and hungry. Using the Bow of the Owl made it a lot easier to be on watch, and he found he was less jumpy at noises. Near the end of his shift he saw three coyotes come and eat the two rabbits forty yards away. They saw him but with enough food they left him alone.

They walked as far as they could the next day with the rain falling on and off. Spirits and heads were down and they walked mostly in silence. They only made it about twelve miles and set up camp on a wide expanse of soft sand.

The next morning they ate the last of their dried foods. The sun had come out, and they continued due east until they came near the Colorado River. The cold, wet and boring journey wearied them, and they weren’t highly alert when a large razorling walked in front of them. Torger saw it half a second before the others and he looked around. There were sand dunes in all directions.

Jex readied her bow and Rome cast Analyze 1.

Razorling Level 14. Health 400/400 Mana 0/0

Rome called out the stats and asked “How could it have more health than the troll? It’s a lower level!”

Jex released an arrow and struck it in the chest. Arden cast Ice 1 and its movements slowed a little. Torger answered Rome’s question. “It probably has higher health but lower strength and stamina. But those claws will be just as sharp as the level nine ones we fought at Calico.”

Rome looked at this razorling, and it seemed to be the same size as the ones at Calico, and bigger than when he saw them near the Colorado river almost a year earlier. Torger and Graul walked towards the beast, swords held at the ready. When they came near, Jex shot it again, but they heard Antic yell “Another one to the left!”

Torger looked and saw one coming over that sand dune. Rome yelled “Another on the right!”

The injured razorling in front of them ran forward. Graul stopped its claws with his iron shield, and Torger sliced off its foot. Four fireballs came out of his sword and flew in four different directions away from him. He heard Brun yell “You’re negating the ice spells!”

Torger didn’t like hearing that but he had no choice. Graul stabbed it in the side while Torger distracted its face. It turned to bite Graul but he jumped back in time, though the soft muddy sand slowed down his footwork. When it tried to bite him it exposed its neck. Torger drove in his sword at the opportunity. Again four fireballs shot out in four different directions. It stumbled as blood gushed out, but retained its footing enough to try to bite Torger.

Torger felt the pommel slip out of his wet hands when it turned its body. He used his forearm to protect his face, but the leather bracer did little to stop the sharp teeth. As they were sinking into his skin Graul took a full swing and chopped its head off. The pressure on Torger’s right forearm lessened a little, but the severed head locked its jaw and didn’t drop off. He used his left arm to try to pry the teeth apart, and Graul ran into battle behind him.

Graul saw the others were in trouble. He ran to the right and blocked a claw that was coming down at Rome, who was lying on his back. He heard the twang of a bowstring but didn’t have time to look up to see what Jex was aiming at. Graul shoved his sword into the lizard’s mouth and quickly withdrew it before it countered. He heard another twang and knew that was too fast for Jex to aim and release again, but he kept his mind on the five foot reptile a foot from his face.

Graul blocked another claw strike with his iron shield, but the claws almost went through. The shield wouldn’t survive another heavy blow. He had to end the fight with the next stroke of his flame sword. He dropped to one knee and drove it up through the monster’s chin; through the mouth and brain. Its body collapsed and landed on the sword, with his hand still holding it.

Rome recovered and picked up the head while Graul wiggled his sword until it came free. They looked and saw Antic holding one at bay with his spear, and Arden trying to hold another at bay with his spear, but not doing so well. Jex and Brun were both using bows to shoot another one that was heading for Torger. Graul ran to help Arden, but watched Torger as he did.

Torger finally got the locked teeth off his arm and picked up his sword just in time. He blocked a bite attempt with a blade edge, it sank an inch into the lizards nose before it flinched away. Four fireballs shot out of the sword, two circled and went into the ground, the other two flew at the other razorlings, each hitting one. They flinched with pain, but their movements became faster. Torger didn’t see that however, as he was busy stabbing his sword at the already wounded nose. The blade sank in easily and deeply, and the razorling frantically backed away. Two more fireballs shot at the two other razorlings. Torger withdrew the sword and sliced down on its head, splitting the skull. The beast died and another two fireballs found their mark. He looked up in time to see Graul stab the lizard that was giving Arden a hard time. It died a few seconds later and Torger ran up to the one that was busy with Antic. It looked like a porcupine with about twenty arrows sticking out of it. Without swinging his sword he encouraged his friend “Go ahead Antic. Finish it.”

Antic thrust his spear at its mouth and leaned forward slightly. The billik leg went through the mouth and into the brain. It shuddered and died.

Graul walked around cutting off feet while the others regrouped. Torger cast Cure 1 on his arm and most of the blood stopped, but the puncture marks were still there. He asked if anyone else was hurt. When they all showed minor scratches and bruises, he completely cured himself.

They were all tired and depressed from the journey and the rain, and set up camp right there, with an hour of sunlight left and only a few miles from the river. They all went to bed hungry, but no one saw any trouble on the night watches. During his watch, Rome checked and saw he was just thirteen experience points short of another ability point. Almost all of that came from the four trolls and five razorlings.

The next morning they made it to the river and were very hungry when they got there. They turned north and headed for Havasu, hoping to find a deer drinking from the river as they walked. They didn’t make it far when they saw a group of dwarves coming their way.

The leader said “Ahh, you must be the prey we heard about. We heard some humans came here months ago, didn’t have two coppers to rub together between the lot of ya. Have times improved for ya?”

Torger stepped forward. “I am Torger, and as you can see we are not so weak as when we came here last time. We were a little further south then, but the razorlings seem bigger here. Why is that?”

The dwarf leader stood up straighter. “Razorlings? Where did you see them? We’ll kill those beasts for ya, can’t have them coming near our village.”

“We killed them last night. There were five of them.”

“You killed them? Were they babies?” He eyed Torger suspiciously like a kid with chocolate on his face that said he didn’t eat any cookies.

Torger reached into the duffle bag and removed all twenty feet. “Do you want to trade us something for these?”

The dwarf looked shocked. “I guess I was misinformed. You’re not as weak as I was told. No we don’t want razorling feet, we’ve got a barrel full of ‘em in the village that nobody wants. Got all the sticky nets we need too. You asked why the razorlings are bigger here. Actually, they’re not. All tyter prey comes to Nuva weak, and gains in power and levels as they get stronger. The last time you were here, the lizards, and you too I suppose, were young and weak. But tyter’s beasts usually gain about one level every month, on average of course. Some grow faster, others slower. Take you for example. You’ve been here twelve months and gained nineteen levels. These razorlings been here twelve months and gained seven levels. You’re all fast growers it seems, but the razorlings started off at level seven, now they’re at fourteen.”

Rome thought about that. “So by the time the tyters come once every three years, you could be facing some very dangerous monsters.”

“Yes. One tyter would take on five level ten razorlings by himself. They want a bigger hunt than that. But words been going round that the tyters brought in all kinds of prey this time, though no one seems to know why. In another year the whole planet will be a war zone. That’s why we’re trying to get all the prey out of the area as quick as we can while they’re still weak. Tyter prey usually respawns if we dwarves kill them, though somewhere else in the world, away from other dwarves.”

Brun asked “What if we kill them?”

“I have no idea. There’s never been two kinds of prey on Nuva at the same time. But what brings ya here?”

Torger answered “We have a task to complete to the north. We wanted to follow the river hoping to catch a deer.”

“Our village is to the north. I’ll go ask the mayor if you can come in or if you have to go around. Until then stay here and good hunting. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

He left a couple dwarves with them so they wouldn’t head toward the village. Rome used analyze on one of them.

Dwarf Level 22. Health 400/400. Mana 15/15

Rome was a little surprised, most dwarves in Calico were around level seventeen. He was told they usually maxed out on animals to kill in Nuva around that level. To grow higher they would have to kill the tyter’s prey, and that was usually pretty dangerous. They usually had low levels of mana since most dwarves couldn’t gain any level two spells.

Torger received a new quest:

From: Romalt

The dwarves of Parker don’t want any tyter prey in the area. Remove all prey within 20 miles of Parker.

Reward: Significantly increased reputation with the dwarves of Parker.

Reward: 900 exp.

Reward: Ice weapon of choice

While they waited Jex tracked and shot a deer, and Arden field dressed it and carried it back. They were cooking it when the leader came back three hours later. Jex had used her regular recurve bow for the hunt. Torger had signaled to her the dwarves shouldn’t know about her elven bow or his sword. The leader told them they were welcome to spend the night in the village, for three coppers each. Torger handed him the money and they started walking north.

They made it just before sunset, and were disheartened to find out three coppers would let them sleep on the dirt outside, but in the safety of the village shield. They were given the option to sleep in the caves dug in to the banks of the river, for an additional three coppers each. But they were within a shield, so out of principle they set up tents right in the middle of the town square, suggested by Arden. The dwarves who came out of the caves gawked at their audacity, but the Regulators fell asleep before the last rays of sunlight disappeared.

In the morning Torger was the first one to wake. He was happy to use a latrine again, and when he came out he saw a blacksmith outside stretching in the early light. Only the guard was awake. Torger walked over and struck up a conversation.

“Hi I’m Torger.” He stuck out his hand. The black smith looked at it then ignored him.

“Let’s try this again. How is your supply of iron?”

The blacksmith looked at him. “It’s a little low, like everyone else. But I’m fine,” he said with a guarded voice.

“If I can get some iron delivered here in say, three months, would you want to buy it?”

That got his attention. “You know where iron’s at? Name’s Guntrink. I’d pay a fair price for it sure, but as I said, I’m not desperate yet. The goblins haven’t come by here selling anything for a year, ‘cept salt and coal. If ya can sell it at four coppers a pound like they do, we could do business.”

Torger’s hopes sunk. Apparently an iron mine was worth way less than a silver mine. Made sense, but unless he wanted silver armor, he needed iron to make steel. Then the idea hit him. Silver armor would be better than the leather armor they were wearing. He should have Strong Arm make them “cheap” silver chainmail. He pushed the silly thoughts aside and said “Guntrink, do you have any armor our size? I mean my friends and me? Anything would be better than this leather we’re wearing.”

“No, nothing your size, but I could have some bronze armor expanded and reshaped in a few days. Are ya going to be in the area?”

“I think we’ll pass back through here in a few days. How much would it be?”

“Oh, about a gold for each of ya for the full getup.”

“Whoa, that is some serious price gouging. I guess our two mages and archer don’t need it. On second thought, forget it. Our steel armor is being repaired and we’ll manage without the bronze armor.”

“You got steel armor and you left without waiting for the repairs? You’re dumb or desperate. My offer stands. One gold per full set of bronze armor, and four copper per pound of iron ore you deliver.”

Torger shook his head. “A gold is more than I have, and I wouldn’t pay that much anyway.” He walked away thinking he had to complete that quest to increase his reputation in the village.