The group continued on following the road. Joe checked his notifications, but there was nothing new other than letting him know he had slain his enemies and gained experience. A mile later the party came to the small town of Brookdale. They strolled past a post office and an empty fenced in lot on the left and an old log cabin looking building on the right with a sign stating Welcome to Brookdale. As they passed the sign, Joe received a notice that he had now entered a Level Ten zone. The tension in the group seemed to release as they felt confident in defeating any monster in such a low-level zone.
Thirty yards past the city sign was the Brookdale Lodge. Brookdale was originally a lumber town, and the Lodge was a historic inn most famous for the stream that ran through its main dining room. A number of fires over the years caused renovations to be made but what Joe saw was decidedly not what the owners had envisioned that their rebuild would look like. The entire resort complex was surrounded by a ten-foot log barrier. In fact, it looked much like the dwarves’ own camp walls except this one utilized the local redwood trees as its source. The other major difference was that there was an abundance of crows cawing and calling to one another and circling overhead.
A hint at the reason for that showed when the group reached the main gate. It had been ripped off its hinges and toppled inward as if something had forced its way inside. There were small arrows embedded in the walls and littering the ground. Joe noticed the dwarves ready their weapons, so he called his swords to hand. Bixby’s ruff was up, and his ears were back as he sniffed the edges of the wrecked gates. “Do we go in?” Joe asked the party.
Rory squinted and peered into the area, “I see blood.”
Joe gave a questioning look to Bixby who made a few growls. “Bixby says he smells something awful and there are noises coming from the main building to the right.”
Kier stepped up next to Rory, “Alright, we go in defensive. Iona in the lead with Rory. Joe and Bixby and me’ll follow behind. Joe and Bixby be ready to move to flank anything that comes at us.”
Like they had practiced it a thousand times the group headed into the camp. Iona had her shield up and a firm grip on her axe while Rory walked two steps behind and to her right, eyes darting everywhere. As they passed the threshold of the gate Joe received a notification.
You have entered the Meadowspring Sanctuary Zone.
Monsters will not spawn inside the Sanctuary Zone; however, they may enter from outside.
This Sanctuary Zone includes a Travel Stone.
Note, this Sanctuary Zone must be upgraded to a Village before it will have access to a Shoppe or a Class Room.
Additional Note: This Sanctuary Zone no longer meets the minimum inhabitant criteria of two hundred beings. If the minimum requirement is not met within the next three days, the Sanctuary Zone will revert to an Unclaimed Camp and lose its Sanctuary Status. If unclaimed within the next two weeks this Sanctuary Zone will convert into a Dungeon
“Did you all see that?” Joe asked.
“Aye.” Keir answered. “Methinks we’re walking into a graveyard.”
The area inside the walls was littered with discarded weapons and pieces of armor that stopped Joe in his tracks. Some of the weapons and armor looked a lot like the gnoll equipment that he and his companions had recently added to their inventory. The immediate area was mostly parking lot and entryway blacktop which had been torn up in places. There was blood everywhere but no bodies. Whatever had happened here had been a serious fight. Traces of spells showed in spots and the area was littered with arrows and crossbow bolts. Scorch marks could be seen, and Bixby found a huge, bloody footprint of something humanoid but definitely not human. The party moved with as much silence as they could towards the main building, the Lodge proper. To their left was a large complex of hotel rooms that had been obviously converted into living quarters. As they headed for the front entrance to find the source of the noise, Bixby heard something moving in the shadows of the recessed entryway.
The front of the Inn had a covered entryway with a peaked roof. The interior was darker than Joe thought it should be. There was a marquis sign just above the entry, similar to what a movie theatre would have advertising what was showing. It said, “Thanks for a great season!” And above that flew a rather tattered American flag. Whomever had occupied this area had not had either the time or possibly the inclination to remove them. All of the blood trails ran to the entryway.
Suddenly a wooden bench came flying out of the dark space but fell short of reaching the group. It hit the pavement and shattered, sending shards of wood scattering across the ground in front of them. A growl emerged from Bixby and an answering growl came from the shadows as something began to emerge out of the Lodge entryway. A large hand, greenish gray and covered in blood gripped the column holding up the entryway. The hand was tipped with five-inch, black claws that dug into the stucco. Another hand gripped the opposite column.
The monster that emerged was large and humanoid. Its skin was a sickly green-gray and its limbs were long and gangly. Its head was covered with a nasty mop of long, greasy black hair flecked with old and new blood and a small swarm of flies were darting around it. Its head was a bit oversized for its body with long angular features and a ridiculously large, pointed nose. Malevolent red eyes and a grin filled with razer teeth made it look just like what it was. Evil.
Troll (80)
HP: 20000
Status: Hungry
Regeneration, Vulnerable to Fire
“Shite on a stick!” Rory exclaimed.
“Joe, we cannae take a troll! Nae of that level!” Kier called out with genuine fear in his voice. Iona, with her shield held firmly, was slowly backing up with Rory and Kier sticking close to her.
Joe was eyeing the troll, “How is this any different than the salamander? That was a seventy-five.”
Rory answered, “Cause the manky salamander was nae capable of regenerating!”
“OK, so it heals. Let’s just dog pile it and chop it to pieces.” Joe was getting irritated but also concerned by how scared the dwarves seemed to be. He continued to back up with them as the eight-foot tall, lanky, pot-bellied monster slowly advanced. It eyed them like they were deserts that it couldn’t decide between.
“You’re daft if you think we can have a square go with this thing without fire!” Rory bellowed angrily as he twirled his hammer in his hand. Sweat was beading on his head and Joe could see the fear in his eyes.
“Nae one of us has any heavy-duty fire attacks! Tis the only way to hurt it!” Iona added her voice to the mix.
Joe looked at Bixby who raised an eyebrow, then back at the dwarves. “Guys, I’m going to do something either very cool, or extremely stupid. When I say go, you book it out of here!” He moved in front of Iona as Bixby picked up on what Joe had in mind and flanked the troll.
Iona yelled, “Joe, you daft dobber! What in Mithra are you doing?”
The troll was only fifty feet away from Joe when he held his hands out and yelled, “Go!” Without waiting to see if his friends heeded his advice, he cast Dragon’s Fire. A hellish gout of fire erupted from Joe’s outstretched hands and sluiced over the troll. The troll roared in agony and anger as the flames seared its flesh and began to consume it. But instead of turning tail, the troll dashed forward into the flames, heedless of the destruction of its own body. Joe, blinded by the flames could not see what the troll was doing and was completely taken by surprise by the charred mass of talons that swiped at him.
The troll’s claws caught Joe in the side of the head and across his torso, and sending him sideways to impact the pavement. Joe’s head rang with the impact, and he was slightly disoriented. He heard the roar of the troll and a shouted challenge from both Iona and Rory. He felt something warm and sticky trickle into his left eye and realized that it was blood. He checked his status to see that he was stunned and had taken over five hundred points of damage, his dragon scale armor and his Tough as Nails ability were the only things that kept the troll from taking his head clean off or disemboweling him. He turned and looked up from his prone position on the ground just in time to see the troll, still burning, charge in and slam Rory and Iona aside as if they were dolls.
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Bixby was barking at Joe to get up, but his body would not respond. There was a timer in the periphery of his vision counting down from some number Joe was unsure of, but it was at nine and going lower. The troll moved swiftly and advanced on Kier who landed his godly lightning bolt directly onto the troll, but the backsplash hit Kier as well and sent him flying backwards, smoke and traces of electricity playing across his chainmail armor. The lightning bolt had a devastating effect on the troll and had blown its left arm clean off.
As the timer reached two, Joe watched in shock and horror as the troll’s arm began to regrow at an astounding rate. By the time the timer had concluded, and Joe had scrambled back to his feet, the troll’s arm was already half reformed. Holy shit! Joe thought. Did I just get us all killed? Joe shook off his shock and yelled at the troll to get its attention, but Rory was already up and had slammed his hammer into the side of the troll’s body, knocking it sideways but the beast kept its feet under it. The partially reformed arm flashed out and cracked across Rory’s shoulder. The jagged shards of metal on Rory’s armor tore ribbons out of the troll’s half formed arm, but the impact tossed Rory aside. His hammer went spinning away as his body tumbled across the blood smeared parking lot.
Iona stepped in as the troll was distracted and her axe bit deep into its right thigh, causing ice to form along its leg. It roared again and smashed its good hand into Iona’s shield which buckled but held. Barely. Being the thing in front of it, the troll swiped at Iona again, leaving deep furrows across the face of her shield. It then bent down and bit the top of her shield and stood up, bringing her along with it. Its left arm was now completely regenerated, and it slashed across her midsection. Joe watched as blood and pieces of armor flew to the side. Iona pulled her arm from the shield strap and collapsed to the ground with a groan.
Bixby leapt on the troll’s back and began to savagely tear into the monstrosity’s neck. The troll dropped the shield and spun in place, reaching back, and trying to grab the enraged dog, but Bixby blinked away. Joe took the opportunity to rush to Iona’s side. He hoisted her up in his arms and ran to where Kier had fallen after his lightning blast. A roar of fury from behind him told Joe that Rory was back in the action. Joe set Iona down, his arms and chest already covered in her blood. “Save her!” He demanded.
Kier looked gravely at Iona’s wounds and began casting his healing spells. He waved Joe’s hands away and said, “Git Rory out of there!”
Joe took a second longer to gaze at Iona, who, through pain clouded eyes caught his. She said, “Don’t let my brother die.”
Joe smiled down at her, “I don’t plan to.” He winked and said, “I’ll be back.”
She called out, “What’re you gonna do?”
Joe threw back over his shoulder with anger burning in his voice, “I’m going to kill this thing.” Joe forced himself to turn his attention away from the disemboweled dwarf woman and focused on the troll that was currently tearing into Rory and Bixby. Joe realized that Rory was right earlier about being tough, as long as he was not knocked away, he was holding his own, but just only. Joe could see that Rory’s health was down below half and his body was covered in the telltale red mist. He was cursing and spitting and completely in the grips of a berserker rage when Joe watched in amazement as Rory activated an ability or a spell of some sort and his health shot up by five hundred points. The troll was hard pressed to stop the attacks but gave as good as he got. Within moments, the health boost was almost gone as the troll landed several blows on the maddened dwarf.
Joe rushed up and pulled all the Mana he had stored in his amulet, then he cast Haste and activated his Mantle spell, giving himself and the other two active fighters an extra damage cushion. Hoping that Rory, in his crazed state, could understand what he was about to yell, Joe called out, “Rory, smash its leg and then back off! Bixby hamstring the fucker!”
Amazingly, the dwarf responded, not in words but by changing the arc of his next attack to slam full force into the knee of the troll. There was a massive cracking sound and the troll dropped to one knee. This brought its other leg low enough for Bixby to run behind it and tear into the back of its thigh. Unfortunately, that put Bixby close enough for a backhanded swipe of its claws and even hasted as he was, Joe’s companion was caught by the attack. Joe could only look on in horror as Bixby’s back leg was separated from the rest of his body and his own momentum took him careening away from the fight in a shower of blood, bone and horrible yelps of pain.
Joe saw red. “You mother fucker!” He roared and activated his Bestial Fury ability. His health, strength and agility shot up as his Stamina plummeted. He stepped in front of the troll and summoned his swords. The troll, on his knees, but seeing an easy target lunged forward with his arms outstretched. Joe blinked backwards just out of reach as the troll overreached and landed with its arms completely outstretched in front of it. Joe dashed in and with a swipe of each blade, lopped off the troll’s hands, leaving it without its main offensive weapons.
Knowing how quickly the creature regenerated, Joe dropped his swords, dashed in and placed his hands on either side of the troll’s head, he cast his Dragon’s Fire spell again. This time the deluge of fire erupted and seared into the troll’s skull. It roared in agony and pounded on Joe with the partially reformed stubs of its hands, but with Joe’s already inhuman strength doubled by his Bestial Fury ability, there was no way it could dislodge him. The fire ate away at the troll as Joe watched its health plummet. Its attacks began to become feebler as the five seconds of the spell elapsed. Joe and the troll were standing in a semi melted hole in the parking lot. Incredibly, the troll was still not dead, it still held on with over a thousand health left. Joe was pissed. Why won’t this thing die?
In his rage, Joe tried casting another Dragon’s Fire, but his head exploded in pain as a notification unfurled in his vision.
Warning! You are suffering from Mana burn! Your mana will recover 20% slower than normal until full.
Joe screamed out, “Fuuuuck!” as he recalled his swords to his hands and in a smooth motion, swept them in a line and decapitated the troll. The troll’s smoking head plopped to the ground. All of its hair had been burned off and most of its features had been eradicated by the fire. Joe staggered as his Bestial Fury concluded and he almost dropped to his knees. His eyes tracked over to where Bixby was laying on the asphalt. He took a few faltering steps in the direction when he saw the troll’s headless corpse begin to twitch. The stump where its head had been, was visibly swelling as it began to grow back.
“No. Fucking. Way.” Joe spat out. He yelled, “What does it take to kill you?!”
Behind him, he heard Rory’s breathless voice, “You took its head, now you can burn the body to kill it proper!”
He glanced back at the bleeding dwarf, “I can’t. I’m tapped out of Mana.” He brought his attention back around to the troll and stepped back away, “Shit!” The troll, with just a nub where its head was reforming was even now trying to move.
Suddenly a bright surge of Dragon’s Fire came washing over the troll and Joe. Surprised, Joe saw that Bixby had managed to move closer and the infernal stream of flame was coming from his open mouth. He held the stream of blistering flame for the spells full five seconds as Joe watched the troll’s health hit zero then he felt the tingle in the back of his mind that told him it was well and truly dead.
Joe stumbled over to Bixby and dropped to his knees. He pulled his flask from his inventory and began pouring it over his friend. Bixby’s health was low. Of his nearly fifteen hundred health, he was down to less than three hundred. The troll was truly a monstrous foe to face. Joe was numb and coming off of the adrenaline high of the fight as he saw the ruin of Bixby’s hind leg. His breath caught and he had a hitch in his voice, “Oh, Bix, you beautiful, crazy dog! I am so sorry. This is all my fault.” He poured the life rejuvenating water over Bixby’s severed limb and the bleeding stopped. Tears began falling from Joe’s eyes, mixed with the blood from his own head wound. He did not notice when Kier knelt next to him nor when Iona put her hand on his shoulder.
Kier placed a hand on Bixby and a warm glow suffused the dog’s body and Joe watched as his health climbed steadily up. “I’ll need to rest up and get me Mana back before I can do more for anyone.” Kier slumped down next to Joe.
Joe handed the flask to Kier, “Here, this will help. Pass it around, everyone drink or pour it on your wounds.” Joe’s voice was flat and emotionless. His eyes went back to watching Bixby who licked Joe’s hand and wagged his tail weakly.
Kier inspected the flask and his eyebrows shot up then he took a healthy swig and passed the flask to Rory, who was standing guard. Rory, took a swallow and said, “You’ve got a bag of tricks to make a whore blush with envy, lad.” He walked over and handed the flask to Iona who also drank.
Kier patted Joe’s arm, “We’ll get him patched up proper.”
Joe turned, tears running through the slowly drying blood matting his beard. “But his leg…” He left the statement hanging there.
“Well, lad, if we can get to a Shoppe, you can buy a potion or scroll of regeneration. That’d get him right as rain.” Kier looked around the parking lot, “But, for now, we need to get out of the open.”
Joe bent down to pick up Bixby, but he snapped at Joe with a yip and pulled himself to his feet. Rory patted Bixby on the head, “Atta boy! You’re one tough bastard.” Bixby snorted and hop stepped towards the main Lodge entry.
“Guys. I’m sorry.” Joe cast a look at each of the dwarves as the group moved towards the Lodge. “I got cocky and almost got us all killed.” Joe received a notice as Rory, off to the side, looted the troll.
Iona patted Joe’s shoulder, “We didnae die. And nae a single one of us here can say we have’nt done somelike stupid afore.” She paused, “Well, maybe nae quite so stupid as taking on a troll.”
Kier walked up to Joe and grabbed his arm, “You’re a doaty gommy is what you are! I told you we were outmatched by the malinky troll, but you didn’t listen! You almost got us all killed to death ‘cause of your arrogance! You told us you had no clues about the world but when we warn you, you just ignore us! The next time we come across something that I say tis too powerful, use your noggin and listen! Mithra’s ballbag! If Rory or Iona tells you ta step off from a fight, you bloody well step off! You understand?!”
Taken aback, Joe took a step away from the angry dwarf. Chagrined, Joe answered, “Yes. I’m sorry. I admit I got cocky. I think maybe my time with Gharak made me not understand the real dangers here. I promise I’ll listen better in the future.” Joe wiped his face with his hand and pulled his hair from his face as he looked to the rest of the group, “I truly am sorry for almost getting everyone killed. Lesson learned.”
Kier sighed, “Was it a dumb-shite thing to do? Aye, but somehow you pulled a win from your arse.” He clapped Joe on the arm and turned towards the others. “We’ll get Bixby patched up too, so stop your whinging and let’s find your kin.”