Chapter 16: Deals with trolls

General Summary

"We need to find out more about the Scarlet Tower," I said to the new serving maid, "Where might we find out more?"
"There's a monk outside of town at the ruins of the Temple of Cors," she said. "He collected stories and information."
I explored the corners of my brain trying to remember just who Cors was and recalled he was from the Maydar Pantheon, a Sun god, a champion of justice and light. Maybe his followers were trying to undo the nonsense down there?
"Let's go explore some ruins," DaVinci said.
But before we do, I bought a keg of salt. No ghost dogs were going to make me run again. Or that's my theory.

Exploring the ruins

Ash and Hemlock studied the bits and pieces of the golden keep we could find. There wasn't much we found, especially since we couldn't get into the Red Tower.
Heading back to town, we talked with the gate guard, Fritz Bellway, and he said the tower is something special to Cors, "You should talk to my aunt, she knows all about that stuff."
So off we trotted to Aunt Bellway's house. She invited us in for tea.
"Can you tell us about the Red Tower, ma'am?" I asked as I delicately sipped at the tea and ate some carrot cake.
"The warriors for Cors raised the Scarlet Citadel, but they were not able to completely drive out the evil in that keep," she said as she poured Alfred another cup of tea. "That's why the heraldry of the sun and the holy blade are there. If you want to know more, you should go ask Brother Fidelus."
"Is he the monk out at the ruined keep?" I asked.
"Yes, he should be back here in a few weeks." We finished our tea and thanked her for her information and headed back to the inn.

A Deal with a troll

That night trolls came to town.
They asked to parlay. We came out to talk, and he introduced himself as the lieutenant to Bjrnyar.
"We are only interested in the icon of Mjulnir. It is in the shrine of Thor below but we have not been able to figure out how to get into it. We propose an exchange."
"We're listening," Ash said.
"We'll lead off the majority of the other trolls, and while they are gone you get the hammer. Once you give it to us, I'll be able to convince Bjrnyar to leave. That will clear the way for you to get to whatever it is you want."
"That is an agreeable deal," Ash said.

Finding the hammer

We watched as the troll led a group of his friends out into the fields and snuck down the circular staircase we had found bypassing many of the traps.
DaVinci headed down into the room we thought would lead us to the hammer, and a portcullis dropped down trapping him in the room. We watched as he found the panel controlling it, and picked the lock as a gas seeped into the room with him. Somehow the gas was staying in the room. After a moment, he picked the lock, and the door raised releasing the gas. We all held our breath as we ran into the room, and jammed a barrel under the portcullis so it couldn't shut on us again.
As we examined the door before us, we noticed three insets on the door, an anvil with a hammer, flames from a forge, and a horse's head.
"Spread out," I said, "We need to find the figures.
We looked through the rooms nearby and found a chest, after a bit of creative engineering, we go the chest open and found lots of money (finally we're not poor). Inside was a stone horse head, a potion, a scroll, and a pearl.
We put the stone horse head into the door and hear a click. We looked around and couldn't find any anvils small enough to fit into the inset. Alfred wandered over and hit the anvil in the room in frustration.
And we heard a click, and the anvil on the door had been filled.
Hemlock threw a flame at the door, hitting the inset, and we heard the final click, and the locked door opened.
Through the door we saw a warning:
Mighty Thor overlooks the sins of those who praise his name.
In the middle of the room stood a large anvil.
DaVinci said, "All hail Thor," and bowed. Then he climbed to the top of the anvil and found a golden hammer. He pushed hard to shove it off and it landed on the floor with a clank.
Ash was able to pick it up, and he hit the anvil a loud resounding gong sounded. He hit the bronze doors and said, "Praise be Thor."
Dwarvish runes appeared above the door, or maybe they were already there and we finally noticed them saying, "Pale Ones faction."
"You know guys," Ash said, "We should try and figure out how to use this. Maybe we should use the powers of Thor somehow?"
"I have an idea," Alfred said, "When you hear the thunder, hit the door." He cast lightning and thunder clapped, then Ash hit the door with a hammer, and a door opened at the other side and there's an image of Thor with a hammer.
Ash, pulled some incense from his bag and sprinkled it in the braziers around the room and lit them.
"If you are worthy and have need le the faithful take it and smite their enemies." Thor's statue said holding out the hammer.
"Thank you mighty Thor," Ash said and bowed. We backed out of the room, and turned to look around. "I think if I wield this I could get rid of the evil in this dungeon."
"But we told the trolls we would give it to them," I said.
"But, they're evil, so is it really that bad to break the deal with them?" Ash asked.
"Yes! We said we'd give it to them."
"Well, if they're really worthy, Thor will show me, and I'll give it to them." Ash said.
We went over to the final door in this wing and when it didn't open, we knocked it down. Inside were seven sarcophagi.
We found:

• gold ring torc (300 gold), 2 gold and diamond teeth (50 gold)
• bronze shield with dog- animated shield, no proficiency attunement- Hemlock
• arm band (250 gold)
• warhammer- returning, thrown, requires attunement, always get max (simple) D4- DaVinci
• ring of charis- ring of spell storing- 5 spells- Alfred 
• scroll case- scroll of protection from good and evil
• ring in dwarvish- guarantees service of the folk of Alpentor, regeneration- Dom
• flute- spell focus for bard, allows to speak with dead 1 time a day
• daggers- chalcedony (+1 +1D6 against undead), hit with both 2D6- DaVinci
• belt- attunement, con+2, advantage to persuasion with dwarves, 50% chance of advantage to save to poison and resistance to poison- Me
• pearl- bead of force, 5D4 force damage (grenade) 10' radius- Me

After that we headed home for the day, and we did not give the hammer to the trolls.

Report Date

12 Jan 2024