I scare the ever-loving bejeebus out of Meddy. The few interactions I had with her consisted of group work with Rendrick, trying to learn to work as a team in formations and protecting the mage. Every time I looked her way I could literally smell terror coming from her. I hadn’t been aware that terror had a smell, but it was apparently very clear to a troll.

I tried to sooth the young ladies terror by smiling at her gently when we were near each other during a rest period. Forgetting of course that I have multiple rows of razor sharp teeth and slightly slitted yellow eyes combined with a muscular build which would make most body-builders jealous. The results of my gentle

“I’m not going to hurt you” smile was a new skill.

New Skill Learned!

[Intimidation] (Novice 45) - Your opponent’s emotions can be a useful tool, both in and out of combat. Intimidation is all about frightening your opponent into making mistakes in attacks, talks, trade, or retreat. The basics of intimidation are based on your perception as frightening, the advanced stages require knowledge about your targets mindset and circumstances.

Ineffective against some opponents, ie. Mindless creatures or controlled/constructed creatures.

So, not exactly a successful result. I keep forgetting that I’m not human but instead a large green and scary creature out of legend and myth with a horrific visage. It’s was easy to plan strategies around being silent and listening in, after all, a savage like me would never understand the gossip from the help. That kind of thing is easy, but the social interactions are far more difficult to keep in mind. I don’t think of myself as big and scary, as frightening and other than human, but it’s obvious that no one expects me to be anything but large, deadly, and scary.

Sighing I focused back on the practice, now with a bit more distance between me and Meddy. Rendrick and Telor had no such trouble interacting with me. I couldn’t decide if that was because they were confident they could kill me because I was a slave, or because of something else. Telor treated me gruffly but no different then he treated any other person. I think that he only had one real way of interacting with others, as subordinates; probably came from his years in the military. Rendrick acted like I was an ignorant, but not stupid, human. Again, almost endearing if he hadn’t enslaved me.

Soon our last practice period came to an end and we prepared ourselves for the trip to the dungeon. The logistics of the process hadn’t been explained to me, but when the older mage walked out of an odd distortion in the air, it became clear that some kind of teleportation was in order. The distortion slowly appeared like a heat shimmer in a desert in the middle of the training field, the air twisting and warping then shifting in color as well as shape. Out of this odd ripple, a strange black spot grew, then in the middle of the pitch black circle a clear window into another room appeared. Slowly the window grew to the size of a large door and the wizard stepped through.

The ground directly where the portal appeared was sheared through and distorted like a giant had dug their fingers in and churned the earth. I was only guessing, but I would assume touching the black disc would result in a very bad time.

After the master's arrival, the footmen and the maid quickly appeared to ask if he wanted a drink or a snack. The way they instantly responded to make sure he was in perfect health was a bit disgusting to me. But to his credit, he waved away their concerns almost good-naturedly and directed Telor to arrange for our departure.

I was already prepared to go. I had my full armor on, my huge shield on my left arm, my gigantic mace in my right hand and my frightening full helm situated on my pumpkin sized noggin. That was all I was really taking, everything else would be carried by Meddy in one of her dimensional packs. As such that was where Telor spent most of his time checking to see she had everything and that it was secured. I was glad, I would hate to find out my bedroll, pillow, oh, and the food was missing after getting into the dungeon.

While Telor fussed with Meddy, I tried to unobtrusively wander over next to Rendrick who was talking with the older mage. They weren’t trying to be private about their discussion but it was also obvious they were not exactly eager to share with the whole world what they were talking about. That seemed like a discussion I should listen in on.

“…news on who it was?” Rendrick asked.

“Nothing, it could have been any of them, all of them, individually, collectively,” shrugging the Arch-Magus continued, “I’ve pissed a lot of people off over the years and hurting you would be the next best thing to hurting me. Especially since once you enter the dungeon I no longer officially have any ties to you. Heck, it could be your brother.”

“Half-brother,” snapped Rendrick.

Arch-Magus Voren just smiled sadly at Rendrick’s words.

I didn’t know what was going on, but it was deeply fascinating how those two interacted, it was kind of like seeing behind the scenes between two heads of state after the cameras shut off.

Of course my sneak skill was terrible so of course, both of them noticed me just standing oh so casually near their conversation, not listening in at all, nope! That broke up the discussion quickly and the older mage directed both of us over to the last minute checking of Meddy’s gear.

I had been practicing teamwork with Rendrick for weeks now, I had watched him regularly cast spells during practice. Rendrick would stop, concentrate, mutter to himself, sometimes move his hands and fingers, and then cast his spell. The entire process was obviously difficult and required a large amount of focused concentration. When I had asked about his muttering and finger fiddling he said that it was just memory aids and that pure concentration was all that was truly needed. Arch-Magus Voren demonstrated the true difference between himself and his son in the quick walk back to Meddy.

Without a word, gesture, or even looking in its direction Arch-Magus Voren summoned a portal behind himself which connected to the camp before the dungeons mountain peak entrance. I couldn’t imagine that this spell was simpler than Rendrick's frost spells, it had to be far more difficult, but the elder mage made it seem almost instinctual, casual almost. Once we had all moved through the portal I watched Vorens eyes and there was only the barest of flicker of inattention in his eyes as he closed the portal. I literally shuddered as I thought of the truly apocalyptic amount of power these mages carried within them.

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The peak of the mountain where we would be diving into the dungeon was cool and windy, ice and snow lay on the ground and on every surface. The scent of tree sap and the crisp smell of fresh mountain air was invigorating after so much time spent in the dusty practice field. The camp was an area surrounded by large jutting stones with only two exits, the mouth of the cave that was the lowest difficulty entrance to the dungeon, and the dirt trail which traveled down the mountain. The large stone barricade around the camp had to have been created by magic, the large stones, some the size of carriages, was stacked four and five layers high.

Glancing around, the old mage nodded then began to give us our last instruction, “I will wait here with an illusion of your group for the next three days. This will allow you to get further into the dungeon unmolested. My wards are keyed to magical power, so if a mage tries to enter I will be able to come and kill them since they will be trespassing. I doubt any will do that. What I do expect to happen is that sometime after I leave a troop of mercenaries will climb the mountain and head in. Plausibly deniable you see. No way I should be hovering over the entrance like that, smacks of protecting you and we all know a mage would never play favorites like that.”

I looked at Meddy and Rendrick but neither seemed surprised by the idea of a troop of mercenaries trying to track us down within the dungeon. This lack of information sharing is going to cause me problems I can already see.

“I would bet a stronger group will probably try and come in from the lower entrance as well, that group is probably as good as dead. They won’t have a mage with them and that will be needed at that level. My suggestion -and I know I can no longer command you but please take my advice- is that you should make your way into the dungeon as far as you safely can, find a secure location you can easily defend, and let your Defender work on a few breakthroughs as you work to purify a Source or two. The change in power will make you far harder to kill and will serve you well further into the dungeon.”

Rendrick nodded to his father and former mentor and said, “That is my plan, somewhere around the Kobolds or if we have difficulties at the Goblins. I was planning for at least a three-month wait, possibly as long as four. I’m not eager to search out a new place to gain power and we have more than enough supplies with us. It will be rough and boring, but power isn’t about pleasant things.”

The tone of voice in which Rendrick said that last line made it sound like a much-repeated message he had been subjected to often. From the smile on Voren’s face, I could guess where he heard it from.

Before we headed in Rendrick created a party and invited us into it. The entire process was decidedly odd. Unlike with the windows which appeared in my mind and was ‘visible’ in some sense, the party invite was purely a mental construct without a corresponding mental visual. I just ‘knew’ that Rendrick wanted me to fight with him and that Meddy was also invited. I just ‘knew’ that I had accepted and that Meddy had also agreed. The entire process was odd, invasive, and deeply disconcerting.

With a good-natured slap on my shoulder, Rendrick pointed us towards the dungeon. Tapping the enchanted glow stone embedded in the brow of my helm to get it to light up I entered the mouth of the dungeon. That it was a dungeon and not some naturally formed cave was instantly apparent. Stepping inside I could feel…something…appraising me. There was an impersonal but gentle touch across my body and mind, lightly inspecting me for something.

The air within the cave was warmer than outside, the floor rough but without dirt or grime, normally an impossibility in a cave like this. The other obvious difference was the mana that swirled through the air. I was normally pretty oblivious to the movement of magic. Standing directly next to Rendrick when he had cast his largest area-of-effect frost spell I could feel only the gentlest of change in the air from the movement of mana. Only the Arch-Magus caused any real impact on my atrophied or nascent mana sense. Not so the case with the dungeon entrance, I could feel the magic ebbing like the waves on the ocean.

I wasn’t sure what we would be fighting at first. I knew that it would be relatively simple and easy, I had been told that would be the case for a good distance into the dungeon. It was the way the dungeon lured in adventurers, make it seem far easier, then it would suddenly increase the difficulty. I knew all of this. I just didn’t expect the slimes.

Small balls of animate snot, no larger than my, admittedly large, boot. Most of them flopped and squirmed and wiggled, seemingly completely aimless. As they moved they removed any dirt or dust from the floor of the cave which explained why the entrance was so clean. While the balls of goop looked like they would leave a gross snail trail behind them, they instead seemed to roll away leaving a dry clean space.

My first real opponent was as pathetic as I thought it would be. I walked forward, held my mace out over the slime and let my arm swing down almost gently. The slime popped like a water balloon. Given my longer than human arms and extra large mace, I didn’t even need to bend down to kill the little squishy monster. But that first kill amazed me. I felt something wonderful flow into my body and mind. It was like liquid electricity gently massaging my brain.

I knew it was animus, the conversion of mana which creates living things and that with enough of it I would experience a breakthrough. I had pieced things together from Telor’s rambles during practice combined with some judicious questions, questions Telor was all too happy to answer through long diatribes. But nowhere did anyone explain that it would feel that amazing.

That was the only excuse I had for my mistake. I was distracted by the wonderful discovery of how animus feels. Meddy was talking to Rendrick and running around collecting what was salvageable from the slimes. Rendrick was chatting nicely, and I was casually walking along and smushing slimes. Killing them required absolutely no effort on my part, I could do it while walking unhindered. That’s is my explanation for why I didn’t notice that the puddle I stepped into was a slime and not just water.

For a troll, there are only really three things which can end you, if you are well fed that is: fire, acid, and dismemberment. Now being chopped up was something I was hoping to avoid, but what I had learned to fear was fire. Fire hurts and it hurts a troll in a way that normal breaks and cuts don’t. Something about becoming a troll dulled pain for me. I knew that pain should be, well, painful, but I shrugged off in training with Whisper lacerations and breaks routinely. Fire though, the burns from the slave collar, that pain stuck around. I quickly learned that acid was worse. Far, far more painful in fact.

Once the slime started to eat into my foot -ignoring entirely the leather sole, padding, and metal foot covering- I started to bellow in pain. My reaction was quick and precise. I slammed my mace into my foot as hard as I could. I felt the bones in my foot shatter, the plate covering inverted instantly, and blood squirted out of my mangled foot. The pain and agony I experienced from my strike were nearly blissful compared to the pain of my skin melting. Even as the animus from the crushed slime rushed into my body the pain from the acid continued to bite into my limb.

Rendrick called a halt to let me recover while Meddy cowered away from my obvious anger and pain, but it was the window that popped up that caused me to freeze. The window suggested a path to power, a way to greatness, a way that I knew I had to take the moment it occurred to me, I couldn’t do anything else, I couldn’t even conceive of not reaching for that power. But the way to gain it, the road I would have to travel caused me to break out in a cold sweat.

New Trait!

[Resistant Skin] - After recovering from acid damage your [Troll Regeneration] has increased the density and defense of the affected skin. Provides slight resistance to fire, acid, cold, and slashing in the improved area of skin without loss of sensation.

Trembling in terror from the coming pain I asked Meddy for a container and then went hunting for a slime to store for my future ‘training’.