The Trollish Assault on Rotan City
(part five)

2705:11:26

22:34

Rounds twenty-one to thirty

At this point in the battle there are two key battle sites: at the only remaining breach in the wall and on the streets near the Command Centre where some two dozen trolls entered the city before Lurik sealed the gap. Many more trolls will soon be entering the city via the ectoplasmic ramp.

Battle Map


Battle site 1: Inside the first breach
As we join the action, there are eleven trolls alive inside the breach, three of which are badly injured. More trolls are streaming through the hole in the wall every few seconds. On the ground with Flash and Owen, Officer Gareth Torr leads two dozen soldiers and five dwarven pikemen, most of whom are already injured. Four dozen archers and a half dozen wizards are showering the trolls with missile fire from nearby roof-tops. Six or seven clerics weave through the battle trying to reach the wounded.

"For the King!" cries out Flash as he charges into the fray, followed by an elven phrase that no-one else hears. The elf catapults himself under one of the troll's defenses and sinks Bloodletter deep into its leg. The troll roars in pain as Flash withdraws the glistening green blade and reverses the stroke into the troll's midrift. With muscles rippling across the creature's back, it brings its greatsword down with a mighty overhead cleave. Flash brings the lighter short sword in his left hand up to parry the blow and at the same time twists his body so that the troll only catches him across the leg. A cleave that would have disected most men leaves only a gash on the swordmaster's leg. But the troll is now out of position and leaning heavily to one side. Flash continues the motion with his short sword, sliding the parry up along the troll's blade and then opening up three lightning quick slashes in the creature's exposed chest. The troll looks down at the blood oozing from its wounds... it tries to raise its greatsword but Flash has somehow leapt skywards and is bringing the glowing green avenger around in a 360 degree overhead spin... the troll feels a sharp flood of pain and then its world goes black. Flash lands a few feet away, and turns in time to see the troll's decapitated head hit the ground.

Meanwhile, Owen's flaming sphere has winked out. Dodging out of the path of the rampaging trolls, he creates another flaming sphere and moves it into the gap in the wall -- preventing more than one troll from passing at a time.

Gareth Torr and his men manage to take down another of the trolls, but lose two more men in the process. Flash yells at Gareth to pull back and reform. The archers are sending an endless stream of arrows at the trolls trying to move past the flaming sphere, and the two fire elementals are quick to finish off each troll that falls. Some of the trolls inside the wall turn their trollsticks on the archers in retaliation.

While Flash continues fighting the trolls -- taking on two at a time -- the rest of the footsoldiers retreat in order to reform. One of the wizards fires a web spell at several of the trolls, hampering their movement. The handful of priests do their best to assist fallen defenders and cast minor combat spells but there are simply too many trolls for them to do so safely and two more of their number join the dead.

Gareth and seven of the footsoldiers reform a line in front of the pikemen, while six of the other footsoldiers join Flash. The remaining soldiers help the clerics to set fire to the fallen trolls. Owen dodges past one of the trolls and has just enough time to cast a cure light wounds spell on Gareth before the trolls press forward again.

Although they are still managing to hold their own against the trolls, the cost is too high to continue - for each troll that falls, four men give up their lives. As if to underline their dire situation Owen's flaming sphere winks out at the same time as the two fire elementals. Flash and Gareth exchange a knowing look and begin signalling for a strategic retreat. As they do so, screams mixed with explosive sounds echo from one of the buildings. Before the horrified eyes of the retreating warriors, almost a dozen archers detonate into fragments of lifeless flesh.

Protectors of Rotan
Artak stumbles briefly from the shock of hearing King Anwell's voice, but quickly regains his concentration. "Brilliant," he thinks to himself, "I must let the others know we have captured a troll", and then he wonders if the others have heard his thoughts. "No - it must be a conscious sending," he recollects. Whilst maintaining a steady trot towards the Interrogation Chamber, Artak pictures images of the gruesome tortures that they have prepared for their enemy, and wonders what the other Lords would think. Then, in an inner panic, he realises that he may have inadvertently transferred those evil thoughts to the Lords! Mentally kicking himself, Artak gathers his wits and thinks out loud "Fellow ring bearers, we have captured a troll and intend to find out from where they have come, and who their leader is. We need an aid that can understand the foul tongue of these beasts." With that he focuses his gaze on the gnarled face of the captive.

Souriin reacts quickly to the expanded reach of his thoughts, and snaps out several mental commands. "Euvgeni, take charge, now! You know the layout. Close the gaps. Our forces are ineffective without direction. Use Indo to place the archer units. Tekuna, you have a small army of sneaks - can't you try to find the brown trolls if any have slipped into the city? Damalanthas, hold on! I'm coming."

Tekuna broadcasts her reply to both Souriin and Annaline. "Indeed. I'm hoping Annaline can co-ordinate that, though. I'm not too keen on leaving the throne room." Annaline's reply can be heard by all of the ring-bearers: "I'm near where they broke through. I don't think more than a dozen escaped into the city, but they are moving around too quickly to track from the ground."

Next, Sepyt's calm voice is heard. "Keep sending the wounded this way." The elderly priest's words are accompanied by an image of the domed hall a few blocks west of the Command Centre which is serving as a temporay infirmary.

Euvgeni grabs his message tube back from Suwaya Illis as he races down from the Command Centre and into the battle below. His mental voice is a sharp bark: "What about Nesgasp? Doesn't he have anything we could use? I'm gonna call him..." Holding the message tube to his mouth as he runs, the burly warrior yells, "Nesgasp! Nesgasp! Rotan needs you!"

Mother Nari's cracked voice reaches out through the rings. "I am sharing my sight with those who wish to share. Can you see the green trolls?" Both Euvgeni and Sir James Fortell start as two of the brown trolls fighting in the streets near the Command Centre turn from brown to green. Similarly, as he retreats from the battle, Flash see one of the browns suddenly change in colour. The green troll points its fingers at the elf and snarls as a ray shoots towards him...

Another mental voice speaks, slightly fainter than the others, but still clear. "It sounds as if you could use some help. One of my runesmiths believes she can transport my soldiers to you quickly enough to help. Should I send the Nedgari army to Rotan?" asks Fengar the Grey.

Battle site 2: Near the Command Centre
In the streets between the Command Centre and the city walls, almost a score of trolls face Euvgeni's hand-picked combat teams. Each of the three teams has net throwers carefully protected by pikemen and royal guards. A fourth team of alchemist-fire throwers stands ready, but out of the main combat zone.

While their companions draw off the trolls' attacks, the net wielders dart in and hurl the weighted nets at the gangly bipeds. Although their aim is not always true, their tactics work well, and several of the trolls are snared and then quickly dispatched by the other warriors. Damalanthas and Sir James Fortell make a particularly good team, but even together they cannot compare with the savage killing frenzy that is Euvgeni. He dispatches three trolls in quick succession.

But the battle is not all one sided. The trolls wield their greatswords with vigour and as many warriors are felled as trolls. Disturbingly, five of the warriors simply stop fighting, and stand vacantly in one spot, staring into space. One of the fire throwers retreats a moment to late, and a troll grapples her from behind. The smell of dissolving flesh follows as the beast melts the poor woman into two pieces. A similar fate befalls one of the clerics as she tries to heal a royal guard.

Liam Grell's group gives a cheer as they bring down another troll, but their celebration is stopped short when one of the trolls opens its mouth to release a chilling cone of ice shards. Both Liam and the wizard next to him die instantly as the thousands of icy missiles slam into them. Luthe Domarian signals the few remaining members of the group to retreat and Euvgeni steps in to protect them. As he turns to face the ice-breathing troll he realises that it is one of the greens...

Up on the wall, overlooking the battle, stand several wizards.
"Aster, Bel, get the mages out of here," yells Souriin, "they aren't trained for war. Go to the palace to rest!" Raising his voice, he calls out to Makor, standing a hundred feet southwards on the wall.
"Makor, take charge of the circle. Tackle the whites."

"Go Aster," says Belimirar, "lead our charges to safety. I need to stand here for the common people to see that we fight with them still."
Brovan Shorn chimes in "I'll stay with you Belimirar. We started this together and we finish it together."
"It looks like it's up to me to keep you two alive," chuckles Arban DoLittle.
Before she leaves, Aster touches Arban's blade and speaks a few words of blessing. Then she signals to the scattered University wizards, hurries down a ladder, and heads off towards the Palace."

Brovan quickly surveys the battle below and the situation outside the walls, and decides to target another wall of fire across the bottom of the trolls' glistening ramp. With perfect precision, a twenty foot high sheet of flame springs up all along the base of the ramp, blocking the snarling trolls from climbing up it. Brovan follows this feat up with several well aimed webs hurled at the combatants in the streets below, allowing Euvgeni's teams to dispatch two more of the trolls.

While Arban and his hawk companion watch over the wizards, Belimirar selects one of the trolls on the battlefield outside the city walls. There is still no sign of the white trolls, so he picks a brown. He targets a feeblemind spell at the creature, and as the spell takes effect, the troll stops dead in its path. Belimirar decides to try something else
-- delicately he reaches out with his mind to try to sense the troll. He makes a connection and recoils from the overwhelming feeling of loneliness and confusion. It feels as if the troll has lost a part of itself and is desparate to regain the missing 'self'.

In this part of the battle too, the clerics play a key role. Lurik, no longer bleeding, but still holding on to the wall to stand upright, barks the word 'flee' at a dozen of the trolls who are already on the ramp. Six of them turn around and leap off the edge of the ramp in response. Lurik slumps down and takes a moment to heal himself. Many of the other priests target the trolls with spells -- causing fear, hurling magic stones and even scorching one troll with a burning hands spell.

One block away from the edge of the battle, Mother Nari gathers thirteen citizens in a circle. She waves her staff, speaks a few precise words and all thirteen begin transforming into wolverines. Quickly Mother Nari points in the direction that the stray trolls took into the city and says "Go. Find them. Work together." Immediately, the wolverine pack begins trailing its prey.

From his vantage point on the wall, Souriin saw Ayak crash land. Turning to survey the battle inside the wall, he see Damalanthas all alone against one of the trolls. Quickly, Souriin taps his staff of power on the ground and carefully targets a spot a short distance away from the troll. A massive fireball detonates there seconds later, killing the target troll and severely injuring another one nearby. Trusting that his friend will now be okay, Souriin casts an invisibility spell on himself. Immediately thereafter, he polymorphs himself into a troll (still invisible) and moves cautiously down the edge of the glistening ramp, towards Ayak's motionless form.

At the edge of the battle, a teenage boy is trying to get Euvgeni's attention without being killed. He seems to be waving some sort of potion in his hand...

Outside the city walls
The hundreds of brown trolls still outside the city walls continue the onslaught. More bolts are fired from their trollsticks, and more of the defenders of Rotan are wounded or killed. The bolts targetted at the Command Centre bounce harmlessly away, thanks to Belimirar's wall of force.

At various locations along the wall, the trolls are forming living ladders and climbing up each other to reach the top. The brave citizens of Rotan are pouring pitch and hot oil as fast at they can, but some of them are not quick enough, and they are pulled off the wall by the snarling trolls.

More than a dozen trolls are the wrong side of the wall of fire on the glistening ramp. Aided by some of the other members of Project Deathwatch, aging Makor casts Souriin's Shadow-wisp Summons. At the top of the ramp, whisps of smoke whip around and touch several trolls. Reflexively the trolls pull back, but a single touch of one strand is enough to cause them harm.

Nearby, Gramm Eddar and the gnome Enyaki are rigging a barrel with flash powder and a fuse. As soon as it is ready, they call two burly lads over to hurl it into the seething mass of trolls below. Seconds later, there is a smell of burned troll-meat. Immediately Gramm and Enyaki start rigging another barrel.

Suddenly, six amorphous shapes spring into existence along the top of the city walls. Each of them is roughly the same size and shape as the trolls, but they seem to be made of the same semi-transparent slime as the ramp. As each creature appears, it shakes itself and then begins advancing on the nearest person on the wall...