“Man, we should have just helped that evil Druid out instead; probably would have been easier,” Sang grumbled as she began to look around. “Wait, didn’t that evil lady travel through the well? Can’t we do that?”
“How?” Van asked as he scrambled back to the well and looked into it. He dipped a finger into the water and pulled it back.
“I don’t know... you’re the bard. Use some kind of song or something,” Sang replied as she looked at the portal.
“Check the crazy lady’s corpse. Maybe she had some kind of magical item on her that controlled it,” Van instructed. “I’ll use my bardic knowledge to see if I can figure something out.”
Sang rushed over to the woman’s corpse and opened up the item interface. There wasn’t much on her—just a few pieces of gold, a bearskin hood, and a sealed scroll. “Do you think a scroll might help?” she asked.
“Yeah, hand it here and I’ll read it,” Van said as he took the scroll from her, broke the seal, and unrolled it. He paused for a moment to study it. “Alright, it’s some kind of spell ritual, but the good news is that I have a skill in using spell scrolls. Give me a quick second and I’ll figure out what to do.” He scanned the document and began to mumble a few words to himself.
Sang glanced up and saw that the clock had dropped down to 25 minutes. She nervously stood by, waiting for Van to finish translating the document. “What’s taking so long?” she asked.
“Hey, reading ancient magical languages isn’t easy—get off my back!” Van replied as he sat down on the edge of the well and mumbled some more.
“Hurry!”
“Alright, if you rush me, I’m going to turn this quest around and go home,” Van said. Sang grimaced and sat next to him, watching the clock drop down. They sat for a few more moments in silence as Van continued reading.
“Wait, this isn’t a ritual... it’s a shopping list,” Van said.
“What?” Sang gasped.
“I’m kidding,” he said, grinning. “Stand back; I gotta cast the spell,” Van said as he stood up and held the scroll up in front of himself. He cleared his throat for a moment, and then spoke.
Well To Well And Water Below
Where Will Any of Us Go?
With a Spell and with Grace
Take Us to Another Place
The waters began to contort and bubble at this point, creating a swirling portal. “Well, I hope it worked!” Van said as he dove into the portal without warning Sang.
“Hey, wait for me!” she said as she leapt in after him. She felt a warmth wash over her as she flew through some kind of strange dimension, and though she didn’t particularly understand where they were, in the blink of an eye, they were suddenly standing topside again. She shook her head and looked around, realizing that there were no Trolls in sight.
“Look out!” Sang cried to the Druids in the next second. “Run and hide! Trolls are coming!”
“Please, you must defend us!” said the leader Druid NPC. “We cannot defend ourselves, for we have taken vows of nonviolence!”
“Here they come!” Van said, pointing to the hole that they had been crawling around inside for quite some time. “Get ready!”
There was a horrible shrieking noise as the Trolls began to crawl out from the hole, screaming and roaring at the tops of their lungs. The blue monsters scrambled their way out of the tunnel and began to frantically hiss and charge at the Druids.
“Quick!” Sang shouted as she began firing arrows at the Trolls. They died quickly enough, but there were nearly thirty of them still coming out from the hole.
“Uhhh, I’ll use my flute to try and tame a bunch of them!” Van shouted as he pulled it out, and then he began to play. Sang shook her head, feeling the beads of sweat pour down her face as the Trolls scrambled towards them. She snapped off a few arrows at the big one charging at her, but the arrows said NULL DAMAGE! She didn’t know why that would be the case, but she pulled up the stats of the big one.
Troll Boss
Leveclass="underline" 11
Health: 200
Attack: Vicious Bite +50 damage
Immune: Fire
Immune: Piercing Damage
Weakness: Insufficient Knowledge
Ability: Rally—as long as other Trolls are nearby, the Troll Boss is able to spur them on to coordinate and attack.
“Van!” Sang screamed as she dodged the massive Troll’s jaws, rolling past him and shooting a few arrows into a Troll that had been about to grapple a Druid. “What kills a Troll Boss?”
“Troll Boss? Uhhh, magic! Or some kind of blunt weapon, like a club. Gotta crush their brains with brute force!”
“Isn’t that a Zombie?” Sang asked. “I’m pretty sure you have to kill a Zombie’s brain...”
“Most creatures... if you kill their brain, it kills them, so just bash it with something!” Van said, but then he picked up his flute and began to play again, causing eight of the Trolls to stop what they’d been doing and stare at him blankly, the word STUNNED appearing over their heads.
“Uhhhh...” Sang checked her inventory and found a grand total of zero blunt weapons. She had a sword, an arrow, and a dagger, but nothing blunt. She glanced around looking for some kind of powerful weapon, but there was nothing within reach.
“Van, a little help with this big guy!” she called out as she rolled out of the way of the boss Troll’s massive arms. She was fast and agile enough to keep leaping from his grasp and shoot other Trolls, but there were still dozens of them pouring into the jungle from the hole.
“Uhhh, man, what can I do? Don’t you have anything useful?” Van asked.
“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking for help, would I?” she demanded as she narrowly avoided his attack again. Her stamina bar was decreasing to the point where it was almost completely gone. Each time she had to dodge or jump out of the way was going to cost her valuable stamina at this point. She felt herself slowing down, and she knew that the next time the Troll tried to grab her, it would probably succeed.
“Okay, I’ve got an idea!” Van said as he grabbed a stone and threw it to Sang. She instinctively caught it in her hand. “What now?” she asked, expecting some kind of brilliant plan from him.
“Kill it with a rock!” Van said.
“That’s idio—ahhh!” she screamed as the Troll leapt on her and pinned her to the ground with one arm. It brought its ugly, snarling face close to hers and hissed loudly at her. Her right arm was free enough for her to bring the rock up to the creature’s head, though, and with one swift move, she smashed it right in the eye. 10 damage! said the display as Sang nailed him square in the face over and over again. It howled and leapt off of her, holding its eye and staggering around.
The nearby Trolls all stopped moving at the same time and watched their boss, waiting for his instructions. He was hissing and howling, though, stunned by the violent attack that Sang had surprised him with.
“Hurry!” Van yelled as he grabbed his bagpipes and began to play “The Warrior’s Dance Song”—filling Sang with a powerful boost to her strength and accuracy. She rushed forward, her stone still in hand, and smacked the Troll right in the face with it. This caused the Troll boss to shriek in pain again, and it fell backwards. The word CRITICAL hovered right over Sang’s rock. She couldn’t believe that this was actually working... that beating a Troll in the face with a rock was a viable strategy, but it was functioning perfectly! The Trolls were now in a state of chaos, a few even attacking each other while some were running in opposite directions and Van was throwing his darts into the rest, picking them off one at a time.
“Haha!” Van said. “We’re doing it! You hurt the boss, they lose control over their own ranks!”
Sang smiled as she watched the Troll boss run back toward its cave. It dove straight into the tunnel and vanished from sight.