TTT: The Power of Kroll

[Jim Roberts]

[Feb 6 AM -- The Waterworks]

> The Troglodyte Temple, fortunately, excelled at teamwork. A fellow
> underpriest dove on the rolling scroll. Whether the helper’s intent
> was to stifle the malfunctioning scroll, somehow complete the
> interrupted spell, or simply to hurl it away would be forever unknown.
> A new pillar of Flame and Hate roared upwards from an Infernal Region,
> not upon the hated intruders, but upon the pair of underpriests and
> their loyal minions. And when the fire cleared, all that was left of
> the troglodytes in front of the Temple were sickening burning corpses.
> By some perverse quirk of fate, the scroll was not consumed in the
> conflagration and fluttered smouldering beside the outstretched bones
> of the troglodyte underpriest’s arm.
>
> “Wow,” Lomi marvelled. “Did not see THAT coming. Makes me feel bad
> about whining about that arrow in the ceiling.”
>
> “I think the men! owe you a beer,” Jeyshann smirked, then looked down
> the tunnel at the burning corpses, and shook her head. “Make that a
> bar tab - a BIG one.”
>
> “I’ll drink to that,” Lomi agreed cheerily.

“Sing along if you know the words, gang,” Tramma called out. She then
began a soulful lament for the poor, departed troglodytes. Her dirge was
infused with bardic magic, the first line sticking in everyone’s memory
for some time to come.

It’s not easy bein’ Green…

Up at the sharp end of Team, Finfin’s promised Haste swept through the
entire group, lending them an additional fleetness of foot. The Abbot,
meanwhile, invoked a quick – and much needed – healing prayer over
Laquendi, washing away her injuries, while Laurelin treated herself to a
similar divine curing. And with the newfound speed bestowed by Finfin’s
spell, the Team began to close the distance.

Soon, the forwardmost elements of the Away Team, Ben and Finfin, were
just at the entrance to the temple. The crude temple was arranged in a
vague cruciform shape, and the lead warriors could see troglodytes
peeking out from around both the northern and southern lobes. Running
into the middle of the temple, with a sea of troglodytes to both the
north and south, not to mention Dhulokk, seemed unwise. But Ben had a
solution for that.

As he moved forward, he slowed, and Finfin slowed as well, keeping pace.
The Abbot began to chant, his hands tracing out some glowing red lines.
A moment later, a circle of whirling blades appeared, slicing through
the air with a gruesome metallic screech and clatter. But these were not
arranged in a defensive line before the priest, nor were they arrayed in
a protective circle. Instead, Ben had invoked what most knew to be a
Blade Barrier in the MIDDLE of the Temple of the Troglodytes, exactly
cutting off each of the four lobes of the cruciform temple. And more
importantly, trapping all of the remaining troglodytes in either the
northern or the southern lobes of the temple. Those that were not caught
IN the Blade Barrier, of course. Over a half dozen troglodyte cultists
were reduced to bite sized portions by the whirling blades.

"Well,” Laquendi smirked. “This is certainly a standoff; the Abbot’s
father shall SURELY hear of it.”

“Like shooting TROGGS in a barrel,” Ben chortled!

“More like trog in a blender,” Lomi corrected, rolling her eyes again as
she closed up to look for a target, trying not to think too hard about
the cut-off screams and sodden squishy sounds mixing in with those of
the whirling blades.

"That reputation Mikhailenes have," Finfin mused, snapping off a shield
spell for the fight he knew was coming, "for rushing in, when a more
contemplative order stood aside. There really may be something to it,
after all."

As the Hastened Away Team continued hustling towards the Temple,
Tramma’s voice wafted through her Speak With Allies spell. "Anybody have
an invisibility handy?" the bard queried. "I got an idea".

"Not here," Finfin sighed. "I imagine Laquendi does."

"Yes, one," the silver haired elf confirmed.

"Perfect!” Tramma enthused. “Go invisible, Laq, and I'll cue off you."

"So ordered." And Laquendi... disappeared.

Oddly, from the point of view of everyone else, Laquendi was still
there, hurrying down the corridor along with everyone else.

"I got this," Tramma insisted.

Jeyshann stared ahead, speared a quick glance back toward Tramma and
laughed. “Really, gang, wait for it," the Cat Priestess instructed,
using Tramma’s magic allowing the team to communicate. Being a high
priestess herself, and every bit as paranoid as Laquendi, she was
mortally certain that Dhulokk was waiting somewhere just inside with any
of several devastating spells even worse than the Flame Strike ready to
unleash on any of the overly amped people in front of her.

Finfin, too, could see the apparent danger of their situation. Someone
was going to have to expose themselves to incoming Unholy Fire.
Something he was willing to do… but only when he had a magical counter
of his own. Which he did, though it would take a moment to prepare. In a
moment; for now, he trusted in Tramma and held back. Still, the elven
warrior-mage shot a questioning glance towards the Abbot, as if silently
asking, "do YOU know what's going on?"

The more Jeyshann thought about it, the biggest danger she could see was
her compatriots’ eagerness to close for combat. "Tramma's idea looks
good,” the Cat Priestess urged. “Sit tight and you'll see." The
adventurers in front of her were visibly straining at the leash, but
something in her tone was just enough to hold them.

All but one. Only the Cat Priestess because of her True Seeing and
Tramma because she was responsible were aware that the Laquendi who
broke ranks and charged into the room was not, in fact, the original.
Finfin could see the hazy form of the invisible Laquendi, who by simple
logic had to be the REAL Laquendi, following not far behind what HAD to
be a very good illusion executed with considerable skill.

The illusionary Laquendi broke north, and ran to the very edge of where
the whirling blades were slowly chewing a tall paper thin slit into the
wall, and looked south to acquire a target. Her eyes seemed to lock on
something, and bat guano pellet in hand, she began casting a fireball.

Simultaneously, the hazy form of the (presumably) real Laquendi (for
those all hung up on the concept of reality) stopped well out of the
blast radius of the incoming spell she was expecting, trying to get the
best view she could into either wing of the complex.

Before the visible Laquendi's fireball could be completed, a hissing
voice raged from somewhere unseen in the southern wing, "Feel the
Destructive Power of KROLL! Feel HIS power... and DIE!" while scores of
troglodyte acolytes fervently repeated a dull chant of “KROLL!”

A nasty horribly red-purple lash of unholy power seething with wrongness
flashed from the south, and squarely blasted the visible but illusionary
Laquendi. She screamed, “Oh unhappy foul magic, my chest is thy sheath.
There burn, and let me diiiiiieeee.” She crumpled quite dramatically to
the ground in an award winning performance.

"The shit was that,” Laquendi demanded urgently over the party’s magical
comm? “I need a target!" From where she was standing there was no line
of sight to where the awful spell that killed her visible twin had
originated, though the terrible line of perilously purple swirling evil
magic left little doubt where the troglodyte evil high priest was concealed.

“That was insufficient preparation, and my riffing on act 5 scene 3,”
Tramma admitted in mild chagrin. “More importantly, a nasty spell you
didn't have to eat. You know what to do, gang!"

The real and still invisible Laquendi nodded absently, and suddenly
appeared in mid casting. "Catch," the drow wizard growled menacingly as
she fired her coldball as far as she could into the southern wing of the
temple. Apparently she took being killed with terrible foul magic rather
personally.

The Abbot looked bemused at the drama unfolding before him, his gaze
moving from the still dramatically twitching “dead” Laquendi to the
newly revealing “living” spellcasting version, and back again. He
shrugged eloquently, and decided that this was something he did not need
to figure out just now. He certainly knew what that awful Destruction
spell had been; it could not just kill, but as appropriately named,
outright DESTROY its victim to a degree that even HE would have to
struggle to fix. And if it had befallen HIM, a fix would have been nigh
impossible.

Even as these musings raced through his mind, Laquendi’s coldball
carrumphed to the south. Stifled reptilian screams were suddenly
silenced forever amid suggestive sounds of shattering ice. None of them
could see what the dusky wizard had hit, but from the sound of things
there had been a lot of them.

The Abbot charged in, this was not the time to try to figure out the
details. He confidently dispelled his blade barrier, allowing Captain
Finfin to charge past him into the southern wing. The elven Captain’s
movement revealed the awful sights of reptilian forms torn apart by the
blade barrier splattered on the walls, and dozens of frozen and
shattered troglodytes littering the area ahead. In the southeast corner
sheltered from both spells cowered one whimpering troglodyte too
spell-shocked to even consider fighting.

Standing alone among all the carnage was a bigger and tougher looking
troglodyte looking angrily at the ruins of his bodyguard. His anger
visibly increased as Laurelin ran past Ben and hurled a cloudkill into
the northern wing, eliciting horrific screams and choking sounds as the
troglodytes up there died. In the midst of all this death and
destruction and the failure of his lovely trap, an arrogant soft skinned
elf DARED to charge up and swing a sword at his very person!

“Impudent wretch,” fumed Dhulokk, even more incensed that the gaseous
emissions of he and his dearly departed congregation of believers did
not seem to be slowing down this despicable elf. Adding insult to
injury, a tall softskin with that awful dark mossy stuff on its head
snapped an arrow - AN ARROW! - at his person. “I am the Will of Kroll,”
the troglodyte priest screamed insanely. “BOW BEFORE HIS AWESOME MIGHT!
FOOLS, I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!!!!”

None of the adventurers seemed inclined to bow. Lomi perhaps misheard
Dhulokk’s command, thinking he meant ‘shoot your bow’, and arrows
skipped and whined as she shot at the troglodyte past her friends.

Laquendi’s rage was as incandescently insane as the raving priest, and
she ran wide to come in on the troglodyte’s flank. The Abbot ran up to
stab the foul creature, Jeyshann acrobatically used a surprised Finfin
as a launching point to spring over to bury her claws in the evil
priest. Laurelin lunged forward to stab at their scaly opponent. Finfin
unleashed a flurry of blows as Dhulokk dodged and weaved helplessly
under assault from all directions. Despite all his rantings and the
infernal power infusing his every scale, he never managed a blow before
he fell.

Before anyone could come up with a fitting comment to mark the passing
of the evil high priest, a whimper from the corner reminded them that
there was still one living troglodyte. One or two of the hardbitten crew
raised their weapons and started toward the cowering reptilian, but
Jeyshann’s insistent purring voice brought them to a halt.

“Let him go,” the Cat Priestess instructed firmly. “There is a saying
among my people, ‘always leave at least one enemy to spread the word of
your victory to your foes’.”

Finfin considered the notion, and nodded. “That would work well. And the
troglodyte cultists are shot on sight by kobolds of ALL persuasions, so
I have no concerns about him reporting to the SJE.”

That decision made, the Away Team turned to far more important matters –
treasure and loot.

Once the immediately pressing issues of treasure and loot were settled,
Tramma quietly approached Laquendi. “Thank you for backing my little
trick back there. You played it to perfection!”

Laquendi considered the matter for a moment, and then nodded. “It was an
effective ruse for drawing Dhulokk’s fire,” she opined. “But there was a
key inaccuracy of which you need to be aware.”

“The Death Scene?” Tramma asked. “I’ve already decided I need to talk to
the Abbot about that.”

Laquendi, however, merely shook her head. “The Fireball. I do not, as a
general rule, need to use low grade spell components. The bat guano was
unnecessary.”

Tramma smiled. “Oh I know that! But Dhulokk didn’t, so I HAD to put that
detail in so he’d buy it.”

The silver haired elf blinked at the equally silver haired bard. “You
mean you had to introduce a deliberate inaccuracy in order to make the
illusion MORE believable?”

“Welcome to my world, sweets!” Tramma laughed. “That’s showbiz!”

“Regardless, your ‘little trick’ likely saved Abbot Kenobi’s life, and
by extension the entire party and beyond,” Laquendi told the
silver-haired bard sincerely. “The community would be far worse off
without his influence, and I have zero doubt those to the north in
Carchost and Amarthoria would revel in the news and take full advantage
of his demise.”

“Tramma, that was extraordinarily clever,” Laurelin put in earnestly. “I
doubt I ever would have come up with that idea. Thank you and well done
is certainly an understatement.”

“I entirely agree,” Finfin confirmed.

The silver haired bard seemed to fairly glow from the range of
compliments. “That little thing,” Tramma demurred modestly? “Just
something I threw on a sudden inspiration…”

Her friend Lomi just groaned and rolled her eyes, perhaps making it
clear where she had developed the habit. “You’re about to burst into
song again, aren’t you?”

The bard loftily ignored the jibe, but also didn’t rule out that might
happen. “But, seriously, Laquendi’s equally quick thinking, bravery, and
combat spells, along with everyone’s trust that I could follow through
and actually HAD a good idea was what made it all work,” Tramma told
them quietly. “Thanks for the trust. We are much stronger as a team I’ve
noticed. And that shot YOU made to blow up that trog underpriest’s
scroll was pretty amazing, Legs.”

“Aww, lucky shot, really,” Lomi demurred.

“Well, for now let us go on,” Tramma suggested. “When we get outta this
mucky place, I intend to gush enthusiastically about how great we all are.”

“Other than the whole throwing caution to the wind thing,” Jeyshann
smirked. “It worked out, but let’s not be quite so gung ho from now on.”