Herb Quest Pt. 05: A Burning Hatred

Commander Reevus,

Greetings,

As requested, I and the other archivists have been reviewing the report you forwarded on from one of your exploring officers.

You must understand that the majority of books and scrolls that deal with the lands and creatures to the north were for the longest time considered to be fables. As such we have struggled to differentiate between what may have once been recorded fact and what is the product of bards, storytellers or simply liars.

To the best of our knowledge, the creatures described in the exploring officers report is a Troll of some kind. There are apparently a number of subsets to this species, each subset preferring different types of terrain. Mountain Trolls, Cave Trolls, Ice Trolls, Forest Trolls and so on. Given the geographical area described I think we can best categorise this subset as a Swamp or Marsh Troll.

Like their brethren they are stronger to the pound than humans and have excellent night vision. All Trolls also share a common healing ability, regeneration if you will, that allows them to seal wounds and even regrow limbs. Wounds cauterised by fire will not heal according to our findings, likewise serious wounds to the brain or the heart will kill a Troll and thereby nullify any regeneration.

I regret that this is all the information we can currently share. Any reports you submit from future encounters would be most welcome additions to the archives.

Yours in humble service,

Jaden Morewell (Senior Archivist)

Chapter 1:

Eloise tested the air with her nose, the acrid burning smell brought a smile to her cold features. She wore leather armour, a deep maroon stain colored each individual piece of tooled leather from boots to breastplate and gloves as well. She had forgone the robes and cape normally associated with Mage's like herself. The fate of Margo, a sister in sorcery and a sister in heart as well, so close had been their bond from their time together as novices, had taught her and many of her brethren that even mundane protection like armour should not be shunned in a time of war.

When she had first come into her power as a young girl, her hair had turned preternaturally silver. This was a rare but not unknown side effect to those blessed with the abilities of a magic user. It also marked her as one who was gifted with great natural talent for the arcane arts. Now her long hair stirred in the breeze, floating behind her, framing her head in a silvery cloud. To the men around her she looked like a Goddess of War, or better still, one of Death. Her face was thin, sharp, cold. Attractive, yes, but in a way a sword can be seen as possessing a beauty of its own. To some, Eloise was a beauty, to others a hard, hard woman. Her skin was a pale snow white, two slight blooms of red at her cheeks, the only sign of her emotions. Twin flushes of excitement as she gazed upon the slaughter.

Her tall thin figure picked its way through hewn limbs and smouldering corpses. Fastidiously avoiding the green sludge that passed for blood among the creatures that lay dead about her. To Eloise this was a good start but only a start. The loss of Margo, slain on a fool quest in this northern wasteland had hurt her. Margo had been everything that Eloise wasn't, outgoing, effusive, full of delight. She had brought balance to Eloise, bringing her a measure of recklessness and a greater portion of joy. That had been taken from her by creatures like this, foul monsters. Maybe not these ones in particular or even ones of this species but monsters nonetheless. They had brought pain to Eloise, so now she would revisit it on them a hundredfold.

Eloise turned to face the man moving smoothly towards her. Like his comrades he was coated in a mixture of soot and green ooze from the battle. Captain Montogrune had been pleased when Eloise had arrived at their stockade seeking to lend her support to their operations. She had left the capital city soon after news had reached her confirming Margo's death and over a couple of months, she had moved from one fastness to another along the northern borders, each time adding her skill in sorcery to the slaying of any monsters she could find. Goblin, Orc, Giant or Direwolf, it hadn't mattered. Slaying them didn't slake her thirst for revenge but it did bank the flame in her heart albeit all too briefly.

The good Captain and a force of mounted infantry were being dispatched to a recently discovered village. The village lay close to other settlements of creatures, Trolls apparently, from what the archivists in the capital could ascertain from the old lore, and had been selected to test a hypothesis of the self-same archivists, namely that fire was anathema to the creatures and that combined with serious physical damage the trolls could be slain. To Eloise it seemed fated to be, as if the gods had wanted her here at this moment. Fire was her strongest element when it came to spell casting and she looked forward to using it on these beasts.

The fact that this was the first settlement found north of the mountains was also significant and so the force being sent to subdue it was a highly experienced and capable one. Each soldier carried either a halbard or double-bladed war axe to hew the monsters. In addition, quantities of pitch had been distributed among the men for use on wounded Trolls.

The Trolls had stood over seven feet tall, thick limbed and blocky. They appeared to have been all male adults but it was a tough call deciding that. Each had a uniform appearance, green skinned, nude and seemingly sexless. Once the fighting had finished, Eloise had inspected a corpse for herself. The flesh seemed spongy yet tough, facial features were rough and broad, noses too long, slab teeth crookedly emerging from too wide a mouth. Their blood seemed a thick green ooze and she marvelled that something so viscous could have been pumped through a creature's veins. All in all, they resembled the environment, as if they were offshoots of the boggy mire in which they dwelt.

The battle itself had been short and bloody. One hundred well trained soldiers and a revenge driven mage against a mere sixty of the Trolls. Eloise had sundered the creatures hastily formed lines, fireballs tearing lumps from foes and inciting screams of rage and panic among the survivors. The infantry had then sliced their way through them, weapons rising and falling in methodical strokes, limbs of the Trolls scattering in their wake.

The captain cleared his throat, dragging Eloise's attention back to the present.

"Beg pardon Ma'am but my scouts report a second force, reinforcements, in route from their larger settlement." he reported crisply.

"Larger settlement?" Eloise queried.

"Yes Ma'am, scout's reports are vague beyond that. The sight of the reinforcements drew them back before they could see more."

"Numbers?" she asked, her attention fully on him now.

"Four hundred at least, possibly as many as seven hundred." He took a half step closer, checking that none of his men were within earshot. "We've expended most of our pitch, any further clashes and we won't be able to ensure any wounded enemies can't regenerate. We need to pull back. We've about a ten-minute lead on them and they travel faster on this terrain than we do."

"You are right. It appears your mission has been a complete success and carried out with a minimum of casualties. You and your men are to be congratulated on your professionalism." Eloise said, her compliments were just the simple truth. The soldiers had eliminated the forces in the village, proved the effectiveness of fire on the Trolls, razed the buildings and all this had been accomplished with just two dead and five wounded.

"Get your men moving Captain, I will hold here briefly. I can delay them, give you an opportunity to increase your lead. More importantly I have an alternate form of travelling so the terrain will not hinder my escape."

At need Eloise could portal herself to a location. She did not use the spell often for a number of reasons, it was taxing, she needed to be very familiar with the location and it needed to be vacant when she travelled there or someone might be injured. She had however had the foresight to secure accommodation in the fortress, marking the room well in her mind for such a situation.

As she stood on the edge of the village preparing to greet the newcomers, Eloise could hear the fading sounds of the troop of mounted infantry riding away. The squelching sound of horse's hooves on soggy ground gradually receded until only the crackle of the flames consuming the rude structures behind her remained. A few minutes later the wide column of reinforcements lumbered into sight just a few hundred yards away.

Eloise rolled her head, releasing some of the tension from her neck before she began. She muttered a quick incantation and an oblong shield of pure energy manifested itself before her. She hadn't seen any missiles being used by the Trolls before this but she would take no chances.

She began another spell, this one longer, more complicated. Before completing it, she tied it off in place, just awaiting a single word before it would cast. By now the Trolls had closed the gap to just two hundred yards and she could feel the earth shaking beneath her feet. Eloise snapped off some rapid fire cantrips and a series of magic missiles in the shape of flaming arrows sped from her fingertips to strike the flanks of the enemy line. She continued to fire the missiles, each one burying deep inside a Troll's chest the victim dropping down stone dead. Aside from the few dozen she killed, it also had the effect of causing the Trolls to bunch up towards the centre of the line.

When she felt that the block of enemy troops had coalesced as compactly as possible Eloise released the spell she'd held onto. A lance of pure sunlight streaked from each of her palms. She started at the edges, dragging the beams slowly across the enemy's front, as she brought her hands together. It appeared as sunlight but the effect was more like molten lava.

She cancelled the spell as her hands met, cautious of expending too much energy despite her thirst for vengeance. The twin beams of destruction had decimated the force in front of her, the smouldering corpses of close to a hundred figures lay blackened and still as the remainder of the Troll troops paused, shocked by the destruction visited on their comrades.

Eloise began to step back, gathering the words of the portal spell together as she fixed the location of the room in the fortress firmly in her mind. A low bestial howl from the line of trolls distracted her however and irritably she looked back at the enemy force.

A single Troll had stepped clear of the carnage of her spell casting and was walking toward her with a careful gait, a long staff thumping into the boggy ground with each shuffling step. If he'd been human, Eloise would have been tempted to judge him as advanced in years, his tread that of an old man. A leather satchel hung over each shoulder and as Eloise continued to watch him slowly cover the distance between them, the troll drew some powder from one of these satchels, throwing it into the air, arcane muttering sounds drifting toward her as her did so.

"Druid." She spat the word out and drew the energy shield back into place.

Eloise snarled out the cantrip for magic missiles once more, four of them speeding from a raised hand toward the approaching troll druid.

He shimmied as he walked, a shambling dance almost, waving a hand before him. The missiles veered to either side of him in response, bring a snarling curse from Eloise's blood red lips.

A fireball, a lightning bolt, two waves of kinetic energy. Four attacks hurled at the druid in a dozen heartbeats and all four swatted aside as if they were the ineffectual attacks of a toddler.

Her training screamed at her to leave but her pride would not allow it. 'He might be able to shrug off direct attacks on himself' Eloise thought quickly, 'but can he protect others as ably?'

Once more she began to conjure the powerful energy spell that had shattered the troll troops a minute before. It was a gamble coming so soon after her exertions of the day but Eloise felt sure he would not be able to redirect that much power spread as it was across a wider target.

The druid's approach stalled as she began the spell, the large figure stiffening in place in reaction to the energies being drawn together before it. With a speed that disputed her earlier conjecture regarding his age, the druid dropped to one knee, slamming a clenched fist into the soft ground, staff tapping rhythmically at the same time.

"Too late my green friend, far too late." Eloise grunted as she completed the spell.

Her outstretched palms began to glow with power and a savage cruel smile appeared on her face as she saw the Troll force begin to break apart, turning and running in fear.

The shield in front of her winked, the energy flashing in response to something breaking through it. Eloise felt her control of her spell slip. Not the control, the energy of the spell itself slipping from her grasp, dissipating as it did so. On her left wrist she saw a living bracelet of green plant life clinging to her flesh. As the spell faded, the leaves and the vines of the bracelet blackened, crumbling away.

Immediately she felt her control return, the spell was nullified but her power was back. Time to go.

The shield winked, once, twice more. A fresh green bracelet entwined around each wrist now. She summoned flame to burn them away but nothing happened beyond one leaf blackening. A cantrip, nothing, a simple word of power to cloak her position, again nothing save some further damage to the damnable bracelets.

Eloise tore at the vegetation clinging to her but it appeared to be far stronger than its frail appearance would suggest, remaining unmarked and unbroken. Her hand dropped to the knife belted at her waist but even as she drew the shining blade free of its scabbard a large green hued hand dropped onto her forearm, holding it still.

"Enough." the Troll druid spoke in understandable common tongue. He tapped Eloise on the head with his staff and she knew no more.

Chapter 2:

Eloise regained consciousness slowly.

At first it was a dull throbbing pain that was all she was aware of, an ache from a blow only partly recalled. Time passed and the pain eased slightly, her thoughts sharpening.

Her eyelids felt gummed together, opening them a struggle that she abandoned after a brief time, not through failure but from the sharp sting of light blurring her vision when she finally did get them open.

The blow to her head from the druid's staff was only one of the wounds discomforting her. Her jaw felt tender and Eloise could taste the blood in her mouth from where her teeth had scored across her own tongue. Her entire body felt battered, no doubt a beating had been delivered to her unconscious form, an unsubtle revenge for her work on the battlefield.

Eventually she felt in control enough to open her eyes fully to take stock of her situation. She was lying prone on a long table; her armour had been removed at some point so that she was only wearing a light red silk shirt and soft leather trews. The tightly tailored garments were perfectly acceptable beneath her armour but on their own they only served to highlight the full curves of her flesh. Eloise may not have chosen to flaunt herself as Margo had, but she was a curvaceous woman who exercised her body as much as she did her mind. Daily sword drills and horseback riding had kept her naturally small waist trim, accenting her large breasts and wide hips.

She was in a building and not one of the crude wattle and wood structures like the rude village she'd sacked earlier that day. The walls and floor of this room were dressed stone, mortared in place, as sophisticated and sturdy as any building in the human southlands. The room about her felt familiar, jars and tomes were stacked upon a multitude of shelves, evidence enough that she was in the lair of the druid who had bested her in battle.

The druid.

'What manner of spell had he used to cut her off from her powers' Eloise wondered to herself. She checked her wrists to find both of them thick with the living bracelets of green foliage, covering half of each forearm. She tried using an incantation to identify the unfamiliar plant but even that small display of power was denied to her, the only result of her casting, a darkening of a single leaf.

In a fit of pique, she brought her wrist to her mouth, chewing on the green manacles stemming her abilities. All she got for her efforts was a mouthful of leaves that she swallowed quickly, lying back down on the table as a door somewhere opened and shut with a low 'boom'.

The tapping of the staff on the stone floor announced the druid's approach. Eloise didn't feel like instigating a charade, he was too powerful for that and childish pretence on her part would only strengthen his position. So, she sat up on the table and looked at her captor.

He differed slightly from the trolls she had fought in the village. Although he was dressed similarly, if you could refer to a smooth nakedness as being dressed, he sported a web of facial tattoos in a blue ink. The spongy flesh was also wrinkled in spots, particularly about the eyes, leaving her certain that she was in the presence of an elder of their race. A though occurred to her at this point, Eloise had referred to the troll as 'him' and 'he' absently but in truth she had no idea what sex the monster was, in fact she had no idea if they even had genders. For certain they did not appear to have external sexual organs, man shaped they might be but only to a point.

The thought of sexual organs elicited an unfamiliar urge of desire in her. Eloise was no stranger to sex, although she hadn't shared the same carnal cravings as her dear friend Margo, she had been no wilting violet growing up, familiar with a number of young men in her village before ever coming into her power. But as her abilities increased, her joy and pleasure began to stem from them primarily, the fleeting delights of the bed chamber a distant second to true power.

Eloise gave a slight shake to her head, wincing as she did so. The motion and accompanying pain focused her mind however.

"Why am I here? Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" Eloise put her questions to the troll as if their positions were reversed and he were the prisoner not she.

He didn't answer at first, instead taking a moment to peer at the magic defusing foliage about her arms. The troll made a slight tutting sound as he saw the damage caused by Eloise's attempts to gnaw herself free, the sound giving her pause as it reminded her of one of her aged instructors in the arcane arts.

Satisfied that his wards still held firm, he turned dark eyes on his captive before letting out a 'humph' of dissatisfaction.

"Kill. Kill, destroy. Old, young, innocent. Kill. Kill. Kill. That's all your kind knows. And then you call us monsters." His words were delivered in a heavily accented voice, tone dripping with contempt. He waved a large hand at her outraged expression, flapping her stuttering reply into silence.

"Yes, truth. You bring sharp steel and fire to slay my people. Fling the old power at the defenceless, burning them. You are rich in strength, lacking in heart. Typical human."

The Troll leaned his staff against the table, reaching out for a well-thumbed book. He then squatted on the floor, opening the book to read. The druid glanced up at her one more time, speaking before settling down to read.

"Your question, why I brought you here? For judgement, for the murder of my people. My King is still in the far north, you will wait on his return to learn your fate."