Wrack and Ruin Read online

  Nessa growled at him, the sound coming from deep in her chest. “That was no trap, orc. You hear that water dripping? See that stone over there?” She pointed to broken and discolored chunks of stone stairway that were scattered around their landing area. “This was simple rot. The water probably ran down the stairway from above with each storm. It found a small crack or hole, and doing what water naturally does, worked its way down. Over the centuries, it has weakened the stone supporting the stairway above this natural void. I am a thief, not an engineer. My skill is particular to manufactured traps, not natural weaknesses in the stone.”

  She paused and looked at Dylan, then looked Smitty up and down. “If it were not for the significant weight of yourself, the ogre, and Max here, we might have crossed safely without it collapsing.”

  “Did you just call me fat?” Smitty unconsciously sucked in his gut, which had little to no visible fat, only thick abdominal muscles.

  “Muscle weighs more than fat.” Nessa informed him matter-of-factly.

  Flexing his biceps and striking a pose, Smitty grinned. “That’s right, baby! Biggunz!”

  Resisting a laugh, Max shook his head. “Right, well here we are, regardless of the cause. Let’s grab some food and maybe a little sleep. I’ll take first watch. If Dylan isn’t awake in four hours, Smitty you have second watch. Then Dalia.”

  “No watch for me?” Nessa asked.

  “No offense, Nessa. But we just met you. I don’t think any of us would be comfortable sleeping with just you on watch right now.”

  “And I should sleep peacefully amidst four strangers?”

  “That’s up to you.” Max smiled at her without showing his fangs. “But I submit that if we’d intended to hurt you, we easily could have before now.”

  The beastkin just nodded her head slightly and moved to the opposite side of the fire from Dylan. Producing a blanket, she set it on the floor and sat down, crossing her legs. “I shall meditate for a while.” she said as she closed her eyes.

  *****

  Max was just about to wake Smitty when Dylan came around. The ogre snorted a few times, then groaned in pain. One massive hand began to rub his head, and his eyes fluttered.

  “Ow.” Was all he managed at first. Max snorted.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, corporal. Again.”

  “What? What happened? Did I die and get rez’d?” Dylan tried to sit up, but quickly changed his mind. Instead he shifted his head so he could see Max.

  “No, you didn’t die. But you were damn close. Crushed your melon a good bit. Broken arm, legs, probably ribs as well. Dalia healed you.”

  “Damn. I remember falling, and breaking my legs. I think I passed out right then, don’t remember the rest.” Dylan rubbed his head again, then his belly. “I’m hungry.”

  “Ha! Dalia said you’d need to refuel. The healing she did took a lot out of both of you.” Max pulled some meat on a stick from his ring. Taking a look at Dylan’s bulk, he pulled some more, and then a few more. “Here, eat up. You’re a growing boy, after all.”

  “You know it!” Dylan set all the food on his chest and began to devour it one stick at a time. “Thanks boss.”

  Max let the others sleep, or meditate in Nessa’s case, as Dylan finished his meal and they talked for a bit. He was in no rush to get everyone moving. They appeared to be safe for the moment.

  As if reading his mind, Red appeared on his shoulder. “Can’t leave ya alone fer five minutes without ya fallin in a deep hole in the ground.” She winked at him. “At least ya had the sense to start a fire and create a campsite safe zone.”

  “Oh. Right.” Max thought back to his first campfire out in the woods when the leprechaun had explained safe zones to him. “Wait, don’t we need a tent, or something?”

  “Just shelter.” Red replied, spreading her arms wide to indicate the cavern. “This counts as shelter.”

  “Good to know, thank you.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Nessa’s voice drifted across the fire.

  “He does that.” Dylan replied as Max stammered, flustered at being discovered. He’d already gotten used to everyone in his party knowing about Red, and forgotten about Nessa. “He talks to himself, even answers himself. Not quite right in the head, our Max. But don’t worry, he’s not dangerous.” Dylan looked at Max, seeing the glare he was sending. “I mean, he’s totally dangerous. A real hard-core killer. But not to his friends.”

  Max gathered his wits and took over. “I apologize if I disturbed your meditation, Nessa.”

  “It is of no consequence. I am well rested.” She shrugged, getting to her feet. “That food smelled quite good. Do you have more, perchance?”

  “Of course.” Max produced a couple of kabobs and handed them to her. “Enjoy.”

  Nessa sat back down and daintily consumed the bits of meat in a very catlike manner. Smitty and Dalia, both awakened by the conversation, approached and received their share as well, and Max took the opportunity to eat a couple kabobs himself.

  Nessa wasn’t the only one who was attracted to the smell of the kabobs. Max’s elven hearing and Nessa’s beastkin ears were the first to detect the sound. “Something’s coming.” Nessa got to her feet, a dagger already in each hand as she turned to face the only opening in the cavern.

  “Several somethings.” Max corrected. “Heavy, by the sounds of it.”

  He’d barely finished speaking when a roar echoed through the opening, followed quickly by a large shadow moving into the cavern. Answering roars from behind it confirmed Max’s guess. Max focused his gaze on it, and darkvision showed him a creature he’d never seen or heard of before. The monster was taller than Max, maybe eight feet, and walked on two legs. It had a thick, hairy body with long arms and large hands with sharp claws that nearly scraped the ground as it walked. Its shoulders were wide and powerful looking, supporting a thick neck and oversized head. When it opened its mouth to roar again, Max saw a set of very sharp teeth designed for rending flesh. A second later his Identify skill kicked in.

  Shadow Troll Mutant

  Level 20

  Health: 2,500/2,500

  “Deep trolls.” Dalia whispered, then spat on the stone floor even as she equipped her shield and sword. “This be bad.”

  “I’m showing they’re called shadow trolls.” Dylan offered.

  “Aye, that be what the gods named ‘em. We call ‘em deep trolls, cuz we only ever find em deep down in the mountains. They be vicious, and hard to kill. Tough skin, and the same rapid regeneration ability as you have, Max.” She looked again at the troll. “This one be larger than I ever heard of.”

  Three more of the monsters entered the cavern behind the first, which had been stalking toward them. It halted some twenty feet away, unable to enter the safe zone, its gaze focused on the fire, roaring in anger.

  “It clearly doesn’t like the fire.” Max stated the obvious. “Is their blood also flammable like mine?”

  “Yep!” Dalia grimaced. “But if ye light one up, get yerself far away. They explode, and the burnin’ bits fly everywhere.”

  “Okay, we can work with that.” Max looked at Smitty. “Same plan as with the undead in the arena. Only I’m not getting close this time. Dylan, you’re in front. Dalia, you too. Shields up, and get low. Smitty, you and Nessa right behind them. Nessa, when you hear me shout, get low and stay there.”

  Max produced his bow from inventory and nocked a wooden arrow. Taking careful aim at the stationary troll, he fired. The arrow struck it’s cheek, only penetrating a short distance, but knocking the troll backward. Almost immediately, another arrow from Smitty struck its chest, pushing it further off balance. As it teetered backward, Max focused on his arrow and shouted, “Boom!”

  The others hit the dirt as Max dropped his bow and equipped his shield. He was still crouching down to hide behind it when the arrow exploded. A chunk of the falling troll’s face exploded with it, showering the monster and its companions with blood and bits of fl
esh.

  Not needing to be told when, Smitty equipped an arrow wrapped in cloth and cast Spark on the tip. The moment it lit, he fired at the lead troll. The arrow struck its shoulder just below the ruined side of its face, and the flaming cloth touched off its blood.

  “Get down!” Max shouted, the orc quickly dropping to his knees behind Dylan and his huge shield. There was a high-pitched whistling, followed by the sound of a wet explosion. Flaming bits of troll showered both groups, most bouncing off the shields. But several flew in a high enough arc that they passed over top of the shields and landed on those behind. Nessa gasped in pain as a hairy chunk of troll arm landed on her back. Dalia was hit with a flaming finger, burning her hand when she grabbed it to keep it from damaging her valuable leather armor. Smitty was hit with several burning droplets of blood, but shrugged off the pain while he swiped them away, then shook off what had stuck to his hand.

  Max was also hit with a few chunks, his adrenaline pumping as he watched them land on his chainmail-covered back. One chunk lit his long white hair afire, and Max nearly panicked. Having flammable blood, being on fire was a serious threat to him. His mind briefly took him back to the mortar round exploding right in front of him, ending his life on Earth. The flashback caused him to panic. He reached back and grabbed a handful of the burning hair, yanking as hard as he could. He ripped away the burning bit of troll flesh, along with a good bit of his hair, and threw it to the cavern floor. He ignored the pain from both his torn scalp and his burned hand, checking to make sure the other chunks didn’t burn through his mail armor. Grabbing an arrow from his quiver, he used the tip to flick the burning pieces off his back. He felt a heal wash over him, and the pain in his scalp eased a bit.

  The roars of pain from the trolls brought him back to the battle, his terrified lizard brain giving way to his combat instincts. The lead troll was down, what was left of its body engulfed in flame as it twitched on the floor. The other trolls were liberally coated in burning bits of flesh and blood, and were gyrating around, bumping into each other. But the movements seemed to be caused by fear more than pain. Their tough skin was resisting the flames enough to keep them from exploding like the first troll.

  “Okay, that was a bad idea.” Max said aloud, unwilling to cast Boom! again and risk more flaming shrapnel. “Dylan! Knock them down. Smitty, head shots!” he called out, quickly adding, “No fire!” His mind raced, trying to find a way to kill the enemy without closing to melee range and endangering himself. Arrows would knock them back, but with their regenerative capabilities, only a lucky shot to the brain stem, or maybe the heart, would kill them. Using fire spells might result in more explosions, which was also a hard pass.

  At that moment, Nessa appeared behind the troll who was furthest from the group. Her black armor reflecting the light of all the tiny fires on the trolls’ bodies, Max saw her grab the troll’s chin with one hand, lifting it up and driving a long dagger up under its jaw. She must have penetrated its brain, because the monster instantly went limp, falling to the floor. A blink later, the beastkin had faded from sight again, none of the other trolls even realizing she’d been there as they frantically tried to rid themselves of the flames.

  Dylan roared, thumping his shield with his newly acquired axe while using some kind of taunt ability. The remaining trolls focused on him as he advanced toward them. That moment’s distraction was all Nessa needed. She appeared behind another of the trolls, this time ramming a dagger into the back of its neck. The blade penetrated the monster’s thick skin, the tip sliding between two of its vertebrae. Nessa used both hands to give the hilt a hard twist, causing the blade to turn and flex, separating the two segments of the monster’s spine. This troll went limp as well, but the damage wasn’t fatal. Its eyes bulged and blinked and it roared in pain as it hit the floor and Nessa spun away. It lay there, unmoving, watching as Dylan the massive ogre approached.

  “Dylan, kill that one before it heals itself!” Max called out. The ogre nodded, then used his shield to bash away the one troll that was still upright, knocking it back toward the exit. Raising one massive foot, he stomped down on the immobilized troll’s skull. Surprisingly, the thick bone resisted the ogre’s weight.

  Grunting in surprise, Dylan stepped back and swung his axe, the heavy blade cleanly severing the troll’s neck. As the head rolled free, he growled, “Regenerate that!”

  Smitty hit the last troll in the chest with an arrow, pushing it back nearly to the cavern exit. Unfortunately, his arrow struck its gut through a burning piece of the first troll, penetrating its thick skin and pushing some of the flaming flesh through with it. “Oh, shit! That one’s gonna blow, boss!” He called out.

  Thinking quickly, Dylan rushed forward and bashed the troll through the exit opening. “Move to the sides, guys!” He called out as he planted his shield across the opening and ducked down. Max and the others did as he said, rushing to either side until they were out of the line of sight of the burning troll even as the telltale whistling began. A moment later the explosion hit the ogre’s shield, knocking him back onto his butt even as a shower of flaming bits passed over his head to land in a fan-shaped arc on the cavern floor.

  “Damn. Sorry, guys.” Smitty got to his feet and walked over to Dylan, who was laying on his back with his shield on top of him. Several chunks of troll were burning his scalp and forehead. Smitty quickly picked or wiped them off, ignoring the damage to his hands, as Dalia cast heals on both of them.

  When both were flame-free and fully healed, Dylan used his shield as a crutch to get to his feet. “Let’s not do that again, huh?”

  “Right on, dude. That was gnarly.” Smitty agreed.

  “Yeah, note to self. Don’t turn trolls into flaming flesh grenades.” Max shook his head, still slightly rattled by the near death experience.

  “I did warn ya.” Dalia walked over and patted him on the back. “If Battleaxe were here, he’d laugh his fool head off. Then punch ye really hard and say, ‘Don’t do that again, ye damned fool!’”

  Despite the adrenaline and lingering fear in his lizard brain, Max chuckled. “That’s exactly what he’d say.” He leaned down and gave the dwarfess a brief hug. “Thanks.”

  Max allowed the others to loot the corpses, not wanting to touch the still burning bodies. He laughed as Dylan looked through the opening at the last exploded troll, not finding a body to loot, then gingerly extended one ogre pinky to touch a crispy eyeball that was stuck to a wall. That apparently did the trick, as the ogre’s eyes unfocused to read the loot notification.

  “I got three vials of troll blood.” He called out. “And its heart.”

  “Four vials here. And some claws.” Nessa added. The others received similar loot, as did Max. In total they received three of the four hearts, a dozen very tough and sharp claws, ten teeth, something called a control crystal, and eleven vials of blood. Max spent a moment wondering about receiving the blood in glass vials, then just wrote it off as a vagary of this new world. Neither Dalia nor Nessa seemed to question it at all.

  In fact, Dalia was smiling widely. “Me da would love to have a few o’ them vials. If he could distill the blood and use a few drops in a healing potion…”

  “Troll healing!” Smitty shouted. “Like, you could drink one before a fight and it would speed up your regeneration for a while?”

  “Aye, that be it exactly.” She smiled at him.

  “Totally!” his wide grin faded suddenly, though. “But, uhm… would it make our blood explosive, too?”

  “Ha!” Dalia slapped his butt as she walked past him. “Nay, it’d be too diluted by the potion and yer own blood.”

  Max shook his head. “If that is possible, why didn’t you ask me for some blood? I’d have happily donated some to your father.”

  The dwarf shook her head, looking embarrassed. “We, ummm… we figgered since yer blood be o’ so many different races, the result might be tainted. I mean, unpredictable.” She gave him an apologetic look.

 
Not offended in the least, Max just shrugged. “I see. Well, as I get better at alchemy myself, maybe I’ll experiment with that.” He looked at his loot notification again, which included the crystal. “What is this control crystal?” There was silence as everyone just shrugged or shook their heads, indicating they didn’t know. Eventually Smitty ventured a guess.

  “These things were described as mutant trolls. Maybe the crystal has something to do with that? Could the gnomes have used implanted crystals to somehow control creatures?”

  “Might explain why they were so close to the surface.” Dalia agreed. “We only run across ‘em in the deepest mines and caverns.”

  Max shook his head, thinking. “Only one of them had a control crystal. How long do trolls live? Could it have been alive back when the gnomes were here? Maybe these others were its offspring?”

  Nessa cleared her throat. “This is all very fascinating, but I suggest we move on before more trolls show up.”

  “Right. Let’s go.” Max motioned to the exit and the short tunnel beyond, where most of the troll bits had burned themselves out. Dalia cast a spell that created a small globe of greenish light to hover above her head. It illuminated the area well enough for Smitty to see clearly for ten feet or so in every direction.

  Though they didn’t expect traps in the obviously naturally formed tunnel, Nessa still took the lead as they proceeded out of the cavern and began to explore.

  Chapter 5

  As they stepped into the next cavern, Dalia pushed her light globe outward so that it illuminated a wider area in front of the group, and cast less light directly upon them. Max and the others who could see well in the dark scanned the area, but found no immediate signs of danger.

  Leaning close to Max, Smitty whispered loudly enough for everyone else to hear. “Hey, boss. You think if we shoved that control crystal into Dylan, we could like, remote control his dance moves?”