Of Long Rests That Really Aren't All That Restful

We resume our chronicles after another near-death experience with Things that Don't Die, wherein we had no option but to retreat and rest to heal and regain our spells. We decided the best space would be in the observatory, which was protected by stairs and a door, and the space appeared to have been undisturbed for several months. Seemed a pretty safe, ideal spot.
 
Which shows what we know.
 
On our last watch, a troll decided to make a visit -- which overall went as badly as expected, except this one also had a freezing breath area attack, which just about knocked the party flat before combat even began. Murland went down, I was at half heath, and things looked like death again.
 
I played the role of healer, popping a goodberry into Murland's mouth so that he could fire off a spell before getting laid flat again. Rinse and repeat. At any rate, after knocking it out for like the 100th time (approximate numbers), we decided to toss it into the magic ring to let the tentacles hold it in place. None of us thought about the possibility of summoning another air elemental, which, obviously, is exactly what happened. We did finally manage to crisp the troll, (noting that it was a 50/50 situation on whether Murland blew up the troll or blew up the party) and then turned our attention to the air elemental. (Which, it is worth noting, sent Dash flying -- a neat trick aside from the wall that interrupted his flight.)
 
So after our long rest, we ended up in just about an only-slightly better place we were before the long rest. Whether out of frustration or foolishness, we decided we would push on, because how many unkillable trolls could there be? (Also worth noting: the dwarf lady was no longer tied up. I'm going to have to give knot lessons to the party; if she could slip her bonds while unconscious, somebody didn't do their job.)
 
Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement outside, and we snubbed the torches while Oz and I went to look out the window from the bird room. Hard to tell how many humanoids there were, but there was definitely traffic, with at least one holding a torch. I was for scaling out the window and engaging them directly. Others were for pushing down the stairs to potentially challenge them in a room below, while a third faction thought we should call down to them and maintain the advantage of higher ground. A committee was formed, and rules of order were established. We had barely begun our SWAT analysis when somebody pointed out we were moving too quickly towards tactics and really what we needed was to start with our vision of what we want to accomplish. This was hotly debated, with one side indicating that our goal was to simply rescue Murland's original party, and another faction claiming that perhaps some people in the party didn't understand what our mission and vision meant, and how the rescue fit into those values. We broke off, where everyone went to write down what our vision meant for them, along with an aspirational statement of success, when we noticed that the party outside had long gone.
 
So, for better or worse, we pushed on, discovering right away a tentacled pit with fleshy roots and fungus and slime all about. (The affinity to which, btw, was possible explanation for another dark spell for me after battle; whatever Baric did, didn't, and I need to get to the source of this and root it out.) It was another hotly contested battle, and while the party sustained significant damage, it was a confidence booster to find that we can overcome a monster that doesn't regenerate, and therefore we pushed on.
 
Dear reader, I know you know what was coming next. And I'm sure those of you reading at home were all like, "Don't go in that room!" But that's exactly what we did, and -- as I am sure you predicted at home -- ran into another mouth-breathing troll. You can save your "I told you so's" assuming we ever make it out alive. After sustaining stunning area damage before even getting our first shots off, we waged battle in what I genuinely thought would be our last. We fought like it, and the last few spells and a dwindling supply of torches finally managed to bring the fucker down, with several of us clinging pretty tenuously to life.
 
Time for a long rest. Which, I am sure, will likely be as futile as our last one.
 
Final note: we did get some reward for our efforts:
100 cp, 80 sp, 30 gp, a 180-gp gem, as well as some quartz, 55 gp, and a leather sack from the first troll. Again: we will make a more thorough sweep when all is said and done. Assuming we actually make it out alive.