Darkness Fallen

by Dave Willmarth

  Following her instructions, they moved several feet back from the edge and stood behind the mid-sized boulders that had originally blocked their view of the pit.

  Once everyone was settled, Alexander reached out with his Earth Mover ability. He slowly raised the floor underneath the big cat. He didn’t want to make any sudden moved that the prowler would take as hostile.

  When the floor had risen to within twenty feet of the pit’s edge, the big cat came leaping out. Landing between them and the edge, it shifted its gaze around the cavern. Spotting the group behind the rocks, it ignored them and continued to scan the chamber. Seeming satisfied, it sat down and stared directly at Jules.

  “It’s okay. He’s decided to be friendly,” Jules said as she stepped around her boulder and began to walk to the prowler. As if to reassure the others, the big male began to purr.

  Stepping up next to the cat, Jules had to look up to address him. Even sitting on his haunches, the cat’s head was a good eight feet high. She reached out and stroked the fur of the cat’s shoulder, which was head-high for her. She spoke as she petted the monster. “So, you got into a fight with a rock troll?”

  The prowler nodded his head and growled, causing everyone but Jules to take a step back. But the big cat extended his forepaws and sat lower to the ground, giving Jules a chance to scratch his ear. She smiled at the others and went to work with both hands. “See, he’s just a big cuddly teddy-cat!”

  “That could swallow ye in two bites,” Brick mumbled.

  Ignoring him, Jules continued, “We’ll take you out of here now, so you can get back to your family.”

  The prowler growled again, shaking his head. Jules stopped scratching and held still. Her eyes lost focus for a few moments, then she blinked and looked at Alexander.

  “He wants us to help him kill the rock troll.” Tears began to form in her eyes. “I think he’s saying it is killing all their food supply. And is a threat to his kittens.”

  Alexander considered for a moment. “Can you tell him we’ve made friends of other rock trolls, and would like to try the same here?”

  Jules wiped her eyes and nodded her head. “I can try.”

  She put her hand back on the big cat’s head and closed her eyes. After a few moments, the prowler growled, but without much enthusiasm. Then it rose to its feet and moved toward one of the tunnel entrances, sniffing the ground as it went.

  “I think he agrees. But I’m not sure. This isn’t like real talking. Its more, feelings and yes/nos,” Jules explained.

  The group followed the prowler as he made a circuit of the chamber, nose to the floor. He checked each of the tunnels before going back to the one that must have had the most recent scent. He looked down the tunnel and growled.

  “No need fer translatin’,” Brick said as he raised his shield and headed into the tunnel. The others followed, with Jules in the rear with one hand on the big cat.

  They followed the passage for perhaps a quarter mile before it opened into another, smaller chamber. Here again, bones littered the floor amidst broken stones. Against one wall was a particularly large and odd-shaped boulder. Alexander pointed.

  “That’s gotta be the rock troll. Let me try and talk to him. But be ready.”

  Alexander stepped forward cautiously. When he was ten feet from the boulder, he cleared his throat to get its attention. When nothing happened, he bent down and grabbed a small stone, tossing it so that it bounced next to the stone before impacting its side.

  This got the thing’s attention. It unfolded slowly, head rising and arms falling to its side as it looked at Alexander. With a roar, it rose to its feet. The thing was a behemoth. Much larger than the trolls in the mine. Its head nearly touched the ceiling, twenty feet high. Its shoulders were as wide as a cargo van.

  Rock Troll Behemoth

  Level 65

  Health 40,000/40,000

  Alexander held both hands up in front of him in what he hoped was a peaceful gesture. In his left hand, he held the hunk of obsidian. He motioned it toward the rock troll, saying, “We come in peace!”

  Behind him, Brick snorted. While Max said, “Seriously? That’s what you come up with?”

  The enormous rock monster paused for a moment, looking at the hunk of obsidian. Taking that as a sign of interest, Alexander softly tossed the stone to the troll. The obsidian struck the thing on the chest, and dropped to the ground at its feet. Looking down at the stone, then up at Alexander, the troll roared again. This time the entire cavern shook.

  Brick raised his shield and began to move forward, even as Alexander took a step back. But he was too slow. The troll swung a massive hand around and pounded Alexander’s left side, sending him skidding across the floor and into a wall with a crunch. He didn’t move. His health bar dropped to barely a sliver.

  Brick activated his Shield Rush ability and shot toward the massive beast, pounding his shield into its knee. The troll barely seemed to notice the impact. Max, Lainey, and Lorian all began to shoot it in the face with arrows as Brick pounded at its knee with his hammer.

  Sasha threw a Thorn Trap on the monster before running to Alexander, casting her biggest heal as she went.

  The prowler let out a roar of its own, and bounded toward the rock troll. Moving behind it while it was distracted by the arrows impacting its face, the cat leapt onto the troll’s back and began trying to puncture its neck with his teeth. The troll grunted in surprise, then roared in outrage. It began trying to reach behind itself to latch onto the cat.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, Brick dropped his shield and used all his dwarven strength to hit the thing’s knee with three devastating two-handed hammer blows. On the third strike, the knee made a cracking sound. But still, it did not give way.

  The troll returned its attention to the tank, swinging a massive fist downward to crush the dwarf. Brick managed to roll to the side and avoid the blow, which cracked the floor upon impact. Grabbing up his shield, Brick activated his Shield Bash ability, again targeting the monster’s knee. The impact caused visible cracking in the joint, but the troll remained standing. Putting its weight on the uninjured leg, it kicked out at the dwarf, connecting with his shield, and sending him hurtling backward several feet. Brick lay there, momentarily stunned by the impact.

  Lainey hit the thing in the face with a stun arrow. It seemed to feel a sting from the electric shock, but the stun effect failed.

  Sasha paused from healing Alexander to throw two big heals on Brick, who was shaking his head and beginning to rise back to his feet. Then she returned her focus to Alexander, who was back up to 50% health, but still not conscious.

  “Keep it distracted. Let the cat work on it!” she called out to the group.

  Brick cast Holy Smite on the troll, causing it to roar in anger. As he activated his Shield Rush ability and charged toward its knee once again, Max took advantage of its open mouth and fired an arrow. Just before it reached the troll’s face, the arrow split, sending five arrows directly into the thing’s mouth. The impact stifled the troll’s roar and sent its head recoiling backward.

  With the extra weight of the giant cat on its back, the troll lost its balance and fell backward. Sensing the danger, the cat leapt off to one side before the thing could crush him. The troll’s impact with the floor shook the entire cavern.

  Brick once again took advantage, jumping to the side of the troll’s leg and smashing the knee with a tremendous overhand hammer blow. The thing squealed in pain as the joint finally gave way with a crack. Brick immediately dove over the troll’s legs and went to work on the other knee.

  The rock troll reached up and yanked the arrow shafts from its mouth, roaring in pain and anger. Sitting up, it tried again to crush Brick under one of its massive fists. Brick grinned, then dove back across the rock monster’s legs. It tried to adjust its blow to catch the dwarf, but was too slow and actually smashed its own knee instead.

  Amused by this, Brick couldn’t resist. “Bwahahaha! It be dumbe
r than a rock! Get it? Rock?” he looked around, finding Max. The ranger just shook his head and shouted, “Behind you!”

  Brick turned to see the other massive fist barreling at him. His left arm moved to raise his shield, forgetting he’d dropped it to use both hands on his hammer. He tried to duck, but the troll scooped him up in its fist and began to squeeze.

  “Noooo!” Max screamed at the troll, firing arrow after arrow into its eyes and mouth. Lainey and Lorian did the same.

  The prowler dove in from the other side, again latching onto the troll’s neck. He growled as he thrashed back and forth, trying to use his weight and momentum to tear the rock-hard skin. Focusing on the cat, the troll reached across to try and grab him. Realizing he still held a cursing dwarf in that hand, he flung Brick away. The tank hit the same wall Alexander had struck, falling limply to the floor, dead.

  “Shit! Brick’s gone!” Sasha cried out. “We’ve got no tank. Max, try to keep it from killing the cat. That’s the closest thing we have now!”

  Alexander had regained consciousness in time to see Brick die. His head, not surprisingly, felt like a rock troll had pounded on it. He tried to get up, but was too dizzy. He couldn’t focus enough to cast, either.

  Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the Ray of Light Wand and handed it to Jules. “Use this. It will do more damage than arrows. Focus on sending… burst,” he managed before falling back onto his back and passing out.

  Jules didn’t hesitate. She pointed the wand at the troll and fired a burst of light into the thing’s face. The troll howled and raised both hands to cover its face.

  Lainey shouldered her bow and ran to where Brick’s hammer lay on the floor. Taking it up, she leapt toward the downed troll’s leg, smashing the hammer down with all her might on the second knee. Then she raised the hammer and pounded again and again, getting in five blows in rapid succession. On the fifth blow, the knee broke, and the giant rock monster roared in pain yet again. It removed its hands from the defense of its face to reach for Lainey. As soon as it did so, Jules shot it in the face again with an even larger burst of light magic.

  Taking damage from every direction, and unable to stand with two broken knees, the confused troll rolled onto its stomach and began to push itself up with its hands. Sasha cast another thorn trap on it, but the brute strength of the troll’s arms snapped the vines across its back. Those on its legs held fast, though.

  The prowler took the opportunity to jump on the troll’s back and once again clamp down on its neck with his massive jaws. At the same time, he dug into its shoulders with his fore-claws, and began trying to shred its back with his rear claws, pumping his rear legs furiously.

  Jules shot the monster in the face with the wand again, using up the remaining charges in one massive burst. The light bored a hole partway into the side of troll’s head, just in front of its ear. She called out to Max, “There’s an opening! Kill it!”

  Max and Lorian began to fire arrow after arrow at the opening. One of them scored a solid hit, and an arrow sank deeply into the troll’s head. Its arms instantly went limp, and it fell back to the stone floor, face down.

  Lainey ran forward and began bashing madly at its head with Brick’s hammer. She screamed in rage as she smashed the hammer down again, and again, not stopping until the hammer was too slick with blood and brain matter to hold onto.

  Dropping the hammer and gasping for breath, she looked up at the others. They were all staring at her, including the cat. She wiped some of the gore from her face, arms, and armor before bending to retrieve Brick’s hammer and shield.

  She walked over to where Sasha knelt over Alexander. “How is he?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Sasha answered, sounding worried. “I’ve healed him back to 100%. But I think something got knocked loose in his brain or something. He’s not waking up.”

  “If Brick were here, he’d say something was always loose in there!” Max tried to lighten the mood as he went to loot the rock troll. “Hey! It’s giving me this thing’s head and heart as loot items. Maybe there’s a bounty on this thing somewhere?”

  The others mostly ignored him as Sasha continued to fuss over Alexander. The prowler moved over to hover above the fallen elf, sniffing at him a couple of times before sitting back on its haunches. Jules buried her face in the cat’s shoulder, crying softly.

  As Brick’s body faded away, Max gathered his gear to return to him at respawn. Nobody spoke of it. Max smiled slightly in anticipation of Brick’s reaction when he got back.

  Chapter 5

  Mind Over Matter

  “I suggest we get out of here,” Max urged the others. “Jules, would the cat be willing to let Alexander ride?

  Jules sniffed and wiped her eyes, looking at the prowler for a moment. She turned back to Max and nodded her head. The prowler flattened itself to the ground as Max and Lorian lifted Alexander onto its back. They placed him face down, with an arm and a leg dangling on each side. He looked as if he were just sleeping atop the cat’s back.

  When the cat rose and began to walk toward the tunnel that led out, Jules and Sasha walked on either side, each with a hand on Alexander to steady him. The others followed behind. They moved up through the troll’s tunnel and into the tower’s underground structure. As soon as they were within the tower basement area, Max called out to Jeeves.

  “Jeeves, has the golem seen anything?”

  “I have detected no movement within the tower, or its immediate vicinity, Sir Max the Fabulous,” Jeeves’ deadpan voice replied.

  Just then Brick’s voice came across the party chat, “Did ye kill the damned thing?”

  Sasha answered as Max was still snickering over Jeeves’ reply. “Barely. But it’s dead. Alexander is down. He’s healed, but unconscious. I don’t know what to think. We just reached the tower’s main level.”

  “If he don’t be dead, he’d want ye to clear the tower before ye leave,” Brick advised. “I can hop on Bacon n be there in 15.”

  Sasha nodded her head, though Brick couldn’t see it. “Alright, head this way. We’ll probably have the tower clear by the time you get here. I don’t expect to find anything dangerous upstairs. We can have the golem tank if we need it.”

  Max and Lorian lifted Alexander from the cat’s back and set him against the wall behind the tower’s main door. The golem remained at its post there, and could watch over Alexander.

  Jules petted the prowler patriarch and told him he should go back to his family. He growled and headed up the stairs, clearly understanding their intent to clear the tower.

  The others quickly followed. Jules slipped into stealth mode and followed close behind the cat. Sasha took up the rear behind the three archers.

  The tower was built to nearly the same design as its larger cousin, just on a slightly smaller scale. The second, third, and fourth floors each held a hallway with rooms on either side. The team moved quickly through each floor, checking room after room and finding nothing. They were anxious to get back to Alexander and get him to Fitz, so they moved faster than was probably wise.

  On the fifth floor, they found a shorter hall, with four large rooms. They appeared to be laboratories of some kind. The team checked each room for living enemies, but did not take the time to look around for loot or secret places. Max closed each door as they exited, to keep any wild animals from wandering in.

  The sixth floor was a single, wide open room with a stairway leading up to a roof hatch. The room was bare except for a long stone table and chairs. And in one corner stood a six-foot-tall mirror, much like those they had traveled through recently.

  The big cat, upon seeing its reflection in the mirror, began to growl, its hackles rising. Jules patted it on the shoulder and began to explain mirrors and reflections. She walked up and waved at the mirror so that the big cat could see her reflection. It calmed down quickly and sat quietly.

  Sasha took the lead. “Max, Lorian, head up onto the roof and check it out. Lainey, help me set thi
s mirror on the table. That should secure it until we find out where it leads.”

  Max opened the roof hatch, which was not locked in any way, and stepped up onto the roof. Lorian followed immediately after. A moment later the call came down. “All clear up here.”

  Sasha and Lainey set the mirror face down on the table, and the whole group followed the two men up onto the roof.

  The view from the rooftop was lovely, if limited. They could see above the treetops of the new growth section surrounding the tower, but the elder giants reached much higher than the tower roof. However, the sky was clear, and the sun felt good on their faces.

  Sasha had an idea. “Jeeves, can you open and close the doors in the tower? Specifically, the main door?

  “Of course, mistress Sasha. The tower and its structures are now fully within my area of influence. I can also operate the lights in the corridors, and the water systems.”