Of Moss Terrors, Monsters with One Body and Two Heads, and Monsters with One Head, but Two Bodies.

They say a rolling stone gathers no moss. Don't believe that shit. These mossy rock trolls rolled over us like, well, like two giant boulders.
 
All through the battle, I kept thinking about Baric's eagerness to explore up here. "Let's go check out that crack in the cliff!" Baric said. "It looks interesting," Baric said. "Seriously, guys, I wonder what's over by that cleft," Baric said. "Maybe it's a chasm that will give us access to hike up the hill!" Baric said.
 
Listen, I love his enthusiasm, but I need to be more wary about getting sucked up into his whirlwind of excitement. At any rate, here we were, and we stared death in the eyes yet again. Eventually, we found that the trick to killing these creatures was a) keep killing them, and b) burn them to ashes. Which, by the grace of the gods, we did. Also, damn: Murland, who previously has seemed more likely to inflict self-harm than damage the enemies, all of a sudden dropped some pretty impressive bombs of fire and was absolutely critical to our survival. This both significantly upped my estimation of his ability to do damage, but also upped my fear that now he could *really* hurt himself with one of these spells. I'm not saying anything to Baric or Oz, but I may have found another reason not to be in the thick of battle when one of those spells goes off. I am definitely not secretly hoping to see some singed beards. Because that would be mean.
 
At any rate, we all took a long pause to assess our relative sorry state and do some soul-searching as to whether we are strong enough to be out here. I took the time to commune with nature and meditate a little, and I feel like during that time I came to some sort of epiphany; when I came out of my trance, I felt I understood the universe just a little better. I felt sharper, stronger. And I felt the power of nature flow through me a little freer, and I am looking forward to channeling these forces with some new spells. The team all felt better, so apparently it wasn't just me. Maybe almost dying is good for you? That sounds crazy as shit, but there seems to be evidence to support this theory. What a world. Baric found a new blessing to cast on me, as well as the dwarves whose necks were itchy still after the were-creature bites. I felt appropriately tingly and am hoping that he was able to lift the curse I have been under. Baric, for all his unwarranted enthusiasm, is a good guy. Hell, the whole party is, all our obvious flaws notwithstanding.
 
Despite our newfound strength, we moved warily into the troll cave to explore. Inside, we found the usual troll-stuff. Some bones, rotten food, broken things, and a stench that filled the nostrils. This seems to be a thing for monsters: stench. Also, dwarves. We also found some solid birch sticks (the purpose of which we never bothered to figure out), 3 fox pelts (yes please!), 60 pretty stones of dubious value, and one large orange-y stone, almost the color of flesh. Nothing tested for magic, btw.
 
We decided to rest in the cave, figuring anything in the area would know to stay out of the way and should provide us a fairly event-free knight. Which shows what we know. Some bellowing, two-headed monster came barreling at us out of the dark of night. Oz, on watch, pulled a Tuath maneuver and turned tail and ran to the protection of the party, shouting something about a horrible heffalump. I have never been more proud of him. Once near the party, he turned to face the oncoming beast as the party started shooting at it from a distance (oh, it's ok when they do it...). After firing off a crossbow bolt, Dash moved up to engage it directly, and despite the blazing speed of the thing, it barely had time to get one swing in on us before we cut it down. We were all appropriately impressed with ourselves. (Don't get cocky, kid.)
 
In the morning, we set off to the camp again. As I scouted, I found no trace of recent humanoid activity, so we decided to head back to a climbing route in a lower part of the wall that we espied on the way. The two dwarves, at home on the rock, ascended the wall with great skill, and tossed down a rope to help pull the rest of the party up. We ended up in a wide, forested shelf, with another wall on the far side that continued up the mountain. I carefully scouted the area. It was gorgeous. To the south lay a large grotto or alcove, while to the north, there was an ice shelf along the wall, with a large ice cornice overhanging the cliff above. There also looked to be a space at the south terminus to the tongue of ice, which might be some sort of opening to a lake, or perhaps another ice shelf. In between, along the west face of the cliff, several windows could be seen. We decided to explore south first.
 
I snuck in to see if I could scout more of the grotto, and spied a strange creature at the far end. It was sort of bearish, and it was also sort of owlish. (I think they call them Berowls, and I am definitely taking some interesting bits to add to my collection to bring to Attabrah to figure out what cool things we can make out of them.) The party decided we didn't want a potential threat at our back, and decided we were going to press in en force and clear the area. Baric pulled an Oz maneuver and ran bravely ahead, shouting in that sing-songy voice he uses when he's excited, "I'm invincible, I'm invincible!" (He wasn't.) But the party rallied and managed to put a quick end to two of the creatures that were in the natural alcove. (As an aside, I don't think I ever really recognized how bite-y monsters are. Rude.)
 
Nevertheless, we were able to dispatch them without experiencing that absolute pit-of-the-stomach "we're all going to die!" fear, which had sort of become our thing for a stretch. It was a good feeling, and you know, fuck it, maybe Baric was right, and I let myself feel just that little bit invincible as well, even though I knew it was a fleeting moment.
 
We searched the area, and found several interesting things the Berowls had collected in their nests, including 3 gemstones, about 400 sp, and a really gorgeous silver wand with a bird claw carved in the end. We also found a small, heavy, ornate chest. I deftly noodled the lock open to find... basically dust, or metal filings, or some such thing. Dash and I stirred around to see if the stuff was covering something else up, but it appeared it was otherwise empty of interesting bits. A bit anti-climactic, but when we have time we can explore it more. Somebody filled it for a reason, and felt it was important enough to lock in a really nice chest so time will tell what its worth or value might be. Baric scanned for magic, and unfortunately everything came up zeros, with just the faintest aura of previous magic on the wand. I was really hoping the wand was going to be a nice artifact for Murland, which I thought might help focus his tendency to blast large areas that often include him. Maybe we tell him that's what it is just as a confidence booster?
 
Speaking of artifacts, Dash didn't seem to think those gloves we found did him any good. I tried them on and I felt *way* stronger. I had Dash try them again, and they didn't seem to do anything for him, nor for Oz. Weird. But it was nice of Dash to offer them to me, and they also look badass, so I'm pretty happy to have them. I'm invincible!
 
We are ready next to explore to the north and see what the story is with all the ice up that way. Am I the only one that is remembering something about a white dragon that leaves icy trails of death in its wake? Nah, I'm sure it's entirely coincidental.