We decided to head right into the trolls’ cave, following the newest trail of blood around a complex of tunnels. Just as we were able to make out the sound of voices and cracking bones, the owners of the same made out the sound of our party! We had just a moment to prepare before three trolls shambled around the corner and attacked.

Areon and Rosorc stepped ahead, bravely facing the claws of the trolls as our people with fire prepared to attack. Theona pulled out her wand of enfeeblement, hoping it would help, and I waited to heal those who needed it. Fireballs and lightning spheres, plus the fighters’ weapons, soon had the trolls looking in bad shape, but as we moved forward to finish them off, two more trolls attacked us from behind!

Instead of healing Rosorc, who looked especially bad, I found myself being clawed horribly by one of the new and healthy creatures. We backed into the cavern full of three burning (stinking) troll corpses, and killed one more troll while its partner ran away. Finally, all the trolls in the cavern were dead and burned, but we knew there had to be at least two more around...

We found only corpses of men and horses in the cavern; we’d interrupted dinner. I healed everyone as best I could (myself included!), then we searched for any sign of prisoners. We also wondered what had happened to the stolen loot from the caravan, and if the tiger statue was with it? As we searched the trolls’ “bedroom”, the elves noticed a strange crack in one wall, but before they could check it out, four trolls dropped from ledges near the ceiling!

There was one burned one from our first battle, two healthy, and one very big troll with a sword. We fought them as best we could, backing to the doorway, killed one in the passage and set it on fire to block the others. But the biggest one stepped right onto the body - so much for fearing fire! Things got a little confusing; I was trying to keep the fighters on their feet with healing spells, then throwing a lit torch on an oil-soaked troll, then found myself at the front of the fight next to Rosorc and attacking a troll, which is the last place I wanted to be! Sure enough, I ended up hitting the floor - ouch!

Luckily, someone was able to heal me onto my feet, barely... in time to see the last troll disappearing through the strange crack in the wall. We healed up a little, and checked out the rest of the caves as fast as we could. To my pleasant surprise, we have found some pits with what look to be some survivors inside! Maybe we can explain Rosorc’s snake-throwing incident in some way as to not be branded bandits, after all...