3 Kuthona 4711
News comes from Tatzlford, in the form of a battered Loy Rezbin, two-days after our illustrious heroes return from their second sortie to the troll stronghold:
Two trolls attacked the burgeoning village in the night. Killing and maiming easily 50 of our people. They attacked from two directions; those who fled the first troll ran headlong into the second. The vile giants finally retreated after the townsfolk rallied against them, without a concentration of Riverwardens or Dragonguard in the city, the response was horribly slow.
Rezbin reports directly to the council:
His torn clothing and injuries make it abundantly clear that not even the founder/mayor of the small hamlet was spared. Fatigue wears at his eyes and face.
"Those who fled the first onslaught were mostly women and children. The weakest among us were the majority of casualties...
"The second troll waded into the midst of them, crushing skulls and bodies with every deafening swing."
His grief is unmistakable. It quickly turns to anger,
"Months have passed since Tatzlford was founded. Months! And though you promised support from Six Rivers, there has been none since we established the city. Nothing! While Six Rivers continues to grow, there's not even a suitable tavern or inn to speak of in Tatzlford! Much less a guard post that could have alerted us!"
His tirade is cut by a heavy cough. Black spittle decorates his lower lip - evidence that the villagers used fire to combat the troll threat. Perhaps too much fire, as you notice his singed eyebrows and bandaged hands.
"I do not forget the lumberjacks who helped us clear away the forest. But cleared lands means nothing against trolls and their ilk. We demand improvement of Tatzlford. Something, anything, to defend our people from such attacks!"
(Unrest increases by 2 as news spreads that your sorties against the trolls have inspired such a reprisal)
Grant would have had him jailed for bleeding on the carpet.
ReplyDeleteGood ol' Grant!
ReplyDeleteActually he had a plan for the city. Why is he taking it out on us if he didn't put a tavern and a guard post in it? I'm starting to think we should actually have him executed.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, is he sure there's no guard post? This seems strange.
Maybe there's a guard post, although an informal one, and Noble Kobolds have died trying to defend Tatzlfort. I'm sure of this. (We need to put a couple of kobold bodies there to back the claim. Throw in a couple of human riverguards too).
ReplyDeleteHe HAD plans for the city. But when he connected himself to the Six Rivers, he became dependent on you.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Leonidas needs to push for a caster's tower there - three mages raining down arcane destruction would probably take care of any bad neighbors.
I didn't think Troll society was organised enough to have a notion of 'reprisal'. I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteIntelligence check suceeded!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, isn't it.
Lol. *This* is why you wanted me to put the tower there! But they don't have the money (nor the spells) to build a tower. Who guards the mages though? Really three mages of the 6th level can do something against two trolls but not if there's too many of them. Trolls don't seem easily scared either.
ReplyDeleteThough fire seems to make them act very irrationally. Your balls of flame pushed more than one troll out of the fight.
ReplyDeleteI don't want a tower there at all! I love to kill helpless townsfolk! Especially women and children!
ReplyDeleteThink of the carnage!!!!
Really I thought the troll was a mushroom like creatures standing there drooling, ready to be killed by adventurers. I was surprised already to see the two heads of the two headed troll arguing (another notion I wouldn't have attributed to trolls) over the events of the night, but I assumed he was some advanced mutation. And in the end he didn't even try to retreat when he was dying.
ReplyDelete"Though fire seems to make them act very irrationally. Your balls of flame pushed more than one troll out of the fight". Actually fly away from the dead zone seams rational! So there were more in the dwarf dungeon who escaped. I had kind of guessed, it couldn't be just three of them there.
ReplyDelete"I don't want a tower there at all! I love to kill helpless townsfolk! Especially women and children!"
ReplyDeleteAdult males would be better: the necromancer could turn them into a working force. The country where you only work after you die. Actually they do that in Geb too. But Geb is in another continent entirely.
I bet that troll is going to start a new reprisal....
ReplyDelete