by GR Cooper
"Seems reasonable," said Lauren.
"Sounds like a plan," added Snorri.
"You know what they say about plans," snorted Rydra.
"Gang aft agley," grinned Wulfgar.
"What?" asked Snorri.
"Goes often awry," interjected Rydra. "It seems that Wulfgar is not above quoting Robert Burns in the original Scots." He spoke again, this time his voice projecting and booming, "But little mouse, you are not alone, in proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men go often awry, and leave us nothing but grief and pain!"
"Chicks dig poetry," said Wulfgar.
Lauren rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah. Totally."
"There once was a man from Nantucket," began Snorri.
Lauren tossed the remainder of her breakfast crust at him. It bounced off the back of his head and fell into the road. Bear approached the bread, sniffed it, then continued on with the rest of the group as they followed the road snaking to the west, their shadows thrown long in front of them by the early morning sun.
Rydra's voice, smaller this time, trailed from the rear of the group.
"The best laid schemes o' mice an men gang aft agley, an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain."
Wulfgar pulled up on the reins. His horse snorted and pawed the ground, stopping. Wulfgar shaded his eyes from the late afternoon sun. The group had just crested a small rise and saw that the road they were traveling on - little more than a game trail this close to the frontier - was bisected by a deep looking, roaring river. As he looked at the little gorge from the north to the south, he saw that it was not very wide and not very deep, but the water roiled over stones and white water rushed past them. They might be able to cross the river without losing a pack horse or supplies, but he doubted it.
Thankfully, they didn't have to.
A beautifully built stone bridge crossed the gap where the trail met the edge. The trail continued, snaking its way up the rapidly rising ridge line on the other side of the river. Sparse trees - evergreens by the look of them - began to dot the steepening landscape as it thrust upward into the mountain range that fronted the river. Their journey would soon take on a climb.
He looked back to the bridge. It seemed made of stone, expertly quarried and fit together. He could see no sign of any external structure - it was entirely self-supporting. The work of an artisan.
Wulfgar heeled his horse forward and approached the bridge. He was just nearing the threshold when a hand appeared over the side, reaching up from underneath.
It was huge. Larger than his head. Maybe as big as the horse's head.
He didn't have time to measure it against the equine noggin as the arm pulled up and around. It pulled onto the bridge a being that looked like a cross between the comic book character The Thing and a stone Buddha. It stood in the middle of the bridge, its gaze sweeping among the party. It tilted its head - which, though standing, was on a level with the horse's heads - and addressed Wulfgar.
"You want cross bridge. You pay. One gold each."
"Really?" whispered Rydra, "A troll? Under a bridge?"
The troll looked to Rydra.
"You want cross bridge. You pay. One gold each."
Wulfgar smiled, "Four gold seems like a lot of cash to pay for simply crossing a bridge."
The troll shook his head and began pointing and counting, "One, two, fee, four," he said pointing at the humans, "fi', and ..." he said as his heavy finger passed over Bear, "and more, more, more," he added as he counted off the horses.
"Well, at least we know he can count to five," chuckled Rydra quietly.
The troll held up his humanoid hands with the thick sausage-like fingers.
"Dis many gold," it said, pushing the ten fingers forward.
Wulfgar looked to the north and then the south. As far as he could see in either direction, the river seemed the same - dangerous. Impassable. He shrugged and frowned, looking back to the troll.
"That's too much. Can we negotiate?"
The troll looked implacable. Stony.
"You want cross bridge. You pay. One gold each."
Wulfgar sighed.
He heard Rydra's voice behind him, whispering softly, "Keep him distracted. I'll be back in a minute." Wulfgar saw in his peripheral vision the little man slide off his mount and disappear into the brush that framed the trail as it rose to the bridge in a little causeway. He knew just how to keep the troll busy.
"Too much," he repeated. "One gold."
"Each," nodded the troll.
"No," countered Wulfgar softly, friendly. "One gold for all."
"You want cross bridge. You pay. One gold each."
Wulfgar sighed again.
"Why should we pay at all? What gives you the right to charge us a fee to cross this bridge anyway?"
"Me make bridge."
Wulfgar nodded, "Oh," he glanced back to his friends, "I guess he's got a point, then." Rydra still hadn't returned. He looked back to the troll.
"Fair enough," he said, "but it's still too expensive. What if we only have five gold?"
"You cross bridge," said the troll.
Aha! though Wulfgar, at least I've finally got him negotiating!
"You cross bridge," repeated the troll, "an' you leave horses."
Wulfgar nodded, bemused.
"Should have seen that one coming," laughed Snorri.
Wulfgar crossed his arms across the pommel and leaned forward.
"How did you make this bridge? It's beautifully done."
"Cut stone. Stack stone," said the troll simply. "You want cross bridge. You pay."
"One gold each," interrupted Wulfgar, "Yeah, I gathered as much. You know, from before."
"One gold each," finished the troll, ignoring Wulfgar.
"If we have to pay, we have to pay," came Rydra's resigned voice over Wulfgar's shoulder. He looked back and the little thief winked at him, hefting a small bag that tinkled metallically. Rydra tossed the bag to Wulfgar, who unraveled the rawhide strip that wound around the top.
Wulfgar looked into the sack. It was filled with gold coins. Wulfgar guessed around twenty. A small fortune. He counted out ten and gave the handful over to the troll's outstretched paw.
The troll looked at them suspiciously, then grinned - at least, Wulfgar took the eruption of rock like protrusions that showed between the troll's lips as a smile. As the troll slowly counted out the coins, Wulfgar looked over his shoulder at Rydra and raised one eyebrow.
Rydra shrugged and whispered, "There's a cave underneath the bridge. In the cave was the bag." The little thief smiled.
Wulfgar smiled back and turned again to face the troll.
The troll looked back up at Wulfgar and nodded, "You cross bridge," it said as it raised one of the coins to its mouth. He clomped down with one of his stone-like incisors into the coin as Wulfgar's horse began to pass. The troll then held up the coin to examine the troll-tooth mark that would ensure the gold's malleability and purity.
The troll seemed satisfied for a moment with the impression his tooth had made into the gold.
Then he noticed that there were two such bites.
Wulfgar never saw the fist coming.
"You have taken 19 points of damage!"
"You are no longer stunned!"
Holy shit!
Wulfgar rolled away from the stone bridge wall, and tried to focus his eyes. One second he'd been sitting on his horse, the next he was regaining consciousness on the bridge. Only, from the sounds of it, much more than a second had passed. He rose to his hands and knees and shook his head.
Big mistake.
His vision swirled and he felt a wave of nausea. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. The sounds of battle enveloped him. He opened his eyes and, slowly, turned his head to look. His friends were fighting the troll. Fighting and losing, from the look of it.
Snorri and Lauren - fully armored thankfully - were trading heavy hits with the bridge keeper. As Wulfgar watched, the troll rained
a huge blow down upon Snorri. The fighter had raised his battle axe and held it, cross-wise in both hands, in an attempt to shield himself. The axe haft held, but Snorri collapsed to his knees under the downward force of the hit.
Lauren spun, activating some longsword skill, and connected with the trolls head, sending sparks splaying outward. The troll took it as though it was nothing. He backhanded her and she fell, sprawling onto her back before rolling away from the troll to get to her feet.
Bear was growling and nibbling at the troll's flanks, but his teeth were of no concern to the troll who left the dog alone for the moment.
Rydra was nowhere to be seen.
Wulfgar grunted and forced himself to his shaky feet. As he watched, the troll finally took notice of Bear and reached behind itself, grabbed the dog by the scruff and tossed the nearly one-hundred kilo dog into the river.
Wulfgar reached behind his back and drew Shepherd's Sting. Crouching, he moved forward toward the troll's back. After a step, he remembered to enter Stealth.
"Congratulations! You have gained a level in Stealth!"
Great, he thought grimly, but he realized that wouldn't increase his overall ability in Stealth - not for a long time. The Clandestine Gauntlets and Slippers he wore gave him a total of +14 to his Stealth, but they didn't stack with his skill. While he was happy that he'd just gone from level two to level three, it wouldn't make a difference, yet. He still only operated at level 14, the same as before.
That flashed through his mind as he closed in on the troll's back. As he got to within an arm's reach, he pulled his right arm completely back and thrust it forward with all of this strength, aiming at the center of the troll.
"10 points of damage!"
"17 points of damage, Hidden Stab!"
"You have poisoned your target!"
Wulfgar leapt backward, narrowly avoiding the fist of the spinning troll. He felt his health begin to rise as, every second, the troll shuddered at the poison's effect. His blade, Shepherd's Bite, had inflicted the creature with a recurring jolt of damage - Wulfgar recalled the specifics as he scrambled away - 1d4 damage per second for (1d6 + Small Blade Level) seconds. That poison damage subtracted from the troll was applied to Wulfgar as healing. He could tell, from his own health increase, that he'd been awarded near the maximum; three or four points per second.
Snorri and Lauren took advantage of Wulfgar's distraction and jumped at the troll, each of them landing heavy blows onto the stone back. The troll staggered, then turned and began once again fighting off the tanks.
After about six seconds, the healing effect wore off. The troll was no longer poisoned, but Wulfgar had regained eighteen points of health. He was now almost back to full hit points.
Grinning, he once again advanced on the troll as it was gaining the upper hand on his friends. Without thinking, he once again tried to enter Stealth, but the fizzling sound of failure reminded him that the cool-down period hadn't elapsed. As he reached the troll, the creature and Snorri landed simultaneous blows. Snorri's axe rang off of the stone skull, stunning the troll. The troll's fist, however, had connected solidly in the center of the Viking's chest, sending him sprawling in the dirt at the verge of the bridge.
Wulfgar activated Blade Wind.
His right arm shot out from the centrifugal force of his body whirling in place. The skill gave Wulfgar a +10 to hit chance and made him invulnerable during the attack while targeting the most vulnerable facing part of his opponent. The higher to-hit percentage increased the odds of him landing a critical hit and the auto-targeting took that need away from Wulfgar.
"12 points of damage!"
"Critical Hit!"
"Your target is enraged!"
Uh oh.
Wulfgar forgot to move until it was too late. The invulnerability that Blade Wind provided him ended once the attack had completed. He watched, in slow motion, as the troll's right elbow came hurtling back and felt a wave of fear and nausea even before it connected with his nose.
"You have taken 15 points of damage!"
"You are slightly stunned!"
Wulfgar fell back onto his ass, the world flashing yellow as he once again dropped to well below fifty percent health. He was slightly stunned. He could still move, but slowly. He rolled away from the fight and rose unsteadily again to his feet. He stumbled away a few steps to get some distance between himself and the troll.
He looked back to the fight. The troll now had a glimmer of yellow about him. After all of this time, Wulfgar reflected grimly, they had only brought it down to less than half strength. Snorri, likewise awash in deep yellow, was still trying to right himself. The same color surrounded Lauren, who was the sole focus of the troll's attention at the moment.
Wulfgar wobbled back toward the troll. After a few steps he began to feel a bit better.
"You are no longer slightly stunned!"
He reached the troll again. Blade Wind was still in cool-down, so he just stabbed straight forward, aiming for the center of the hulking stone beast.
"11 points of damage!"
"You have poisoned your target!"
The troll spun yet again, but his aim was high. Wulfgar managed to just duck underneath the blow and lightly step back. He could feel his health increasing, but nowhere near the rate it had before. He continued to juke from side to side, evading a rapid rain of blows from the furious troll. After eight seconds, the poisoning - and healing - had stopped. Only eight points of health had been transferred between the foes, but that was enough to bring Wulfgar out of the yellow.
After a final heavy swing that Wulfgar skipped away from, he jumped forward and activated the newly refreshed Blade Wind. He spun again and his blade connected heavily with the side of the troll.
"9 points of damage!"
"You have poisoned your target!"
"Congratulations! You have gained a level in Blade Wind!"
Wulfgar exulted as he sprang backward, away from the troll's arms. He was too slow. He felt the air rush out of his lungs as the arms of the beast enveloped him, pulling him into the troll's chest, crushing him against the heavy stone torso. He felt the healing transfer from the sword's poisoning effect drain away as fast as it was applied.
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
Wulfgar bellowed in pain and frustration.
"Your target is no longer enraged!"
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
He looked frantically around the scene. Snorri still crawled in the dirt, seemingly barely able to move. Lauren lay not far away from Snorri, on her back, dead to the world. If not actually dead.
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
The troll was squeezing the life out of him. The only thing that kept him alive was the constant influx of health from the poisoned troll. Wulfgar grunted, unable to laugh, at the thought that he hadn't known that you could poison stone. He grunted again, struggling to free himself from the crushing embrace.
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
He felt the flow of health stop. The troll was in deep yellow, but not yet red. He still had more than ten percent health. If it weren't for the health transferring properties of Shepherd's Sting, the troll would have killed Wulfgar many times over. Snorri had collapsed next to Lauren. Neither moved.
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
That one really hurt. He dropped into the yellow. He was unable to move. Unable to breath. Unable to scream. The only thing he seemed fit for was to die, crushed against the chest of the stone troll.
"You have taken 5 points of damage!"
He dropped into the red. He would die in the next second and there was nothing he could do about it.
Rydra's arm appeared around the troll's throat and the little thief screamed as he pulled the blade across it. Sparks flew as a line traced underneath the troll's c
hin. A grimace appeared from behind the troll's head as Rydra pulled himself inward, grappling. Blood flowed from the left side of Rydra's bruised and swollen face. The troll dropped Wulfgar, who sprawled backward onto the bridge, as it reached behind its head with both arms, grabbing Rydra and flinging him, with no more effort than if the man was a straw-stuffed doll, past Wulfgar onto the crest of the arched bridge.
The world continued flashing in a dangerous red hue. Wulfgar was down to one or two hit points. He pushed himself away from the troll with his legs as the creature turned to face him. Rydra's attack had been mighty - the troll was now deeply red - but it hadn't slowed the troll. It looked down at Wulfgar and advanced, reaching out and down toward him.
Wulfgar was out of ideas. Out of health. He didn't even have Shepherd's Bite anymore; at some point during the squeezing, he'd dropped it. His friends were all incapacitated and he was about to be finished off. His mind seemed to be removed from his brain. He still thought, still planned, still moved, but he was apathetic. He'd become a spectator at his own execution. He was losing consciousness. The hazy red was rapidly turning to black. His vision narrowed.
The last thing he remembered seeing was a dialog box.
"Are you sure?"
Yes.
Wulfgar groaned and rolled onto his belly. His vision still wavered red, but he was stable. Regaining consciousness. He pushed off of the ground - off of the bridge - and rose to his knees. He looked groggily toward the site of the fight. The troll just stood there, looking back at Wulfgar incuriously. It stood, hands at its sides. Waiting. Wulfgar looked back up the bridge. Rydra was similarly pulling himself upright. He looked no better than Wulfgar felt.
Wulfgar twisted around on his butt and leaned back against the wall of the bridge. He tried to gather himself. His healing poultices were all on his mount, happily munching away at the grass on the verge of the bridge. The troll stood between them.
Rydra crawled forward and fell in a heap, leaning against Wulfgar's side.
"What's happening?"
Wulfgar shook his head lightly, grunting.
"Not sure."
"Not sure," he repeated after a moment, "but I think that the troll is now my familiar."
