Luke, Halfling Fighter: Part 11 – Of Cats and Trolls
Luke vaguely remembered promising some fancy-pants lord named Firkraag to “clear his lands of evil” in exchange for a LOT of money.
Say one thing for Luke — say a LOT of money and you’ve got his undivided attention.
The Windspear Hills looked peaceful enough… until Luke found himself nose-to-whisker with a hulking, cat-like creature called a Ruhk. The beast didn’t just look smug — it was practically radiating “you can’t touch me” energy. And to be fair, once it threw Protection from Magical Weapons, it was exactly right. Luke’s normal darts bounced off the feline creature:
What followed was less “heroic duel” and more “overgrown game of cat and mouse,” except the mouse was Luke, and he was running for his life through cold stone corridors muttering, “I really hate Ruhk” between breaths. Eventually after a lot of running when Rukh's protection disappeared and he managed to take it down.
(Side note: This is usually the hardest fight in Windspear Hills for me — not counting Firkraag. If I ever play a ranger again, I’m making Rakshasa my racial enemy out of sheer spite.)
Past the carcass of his feline nemesis, the dungeon swallowed him in damp, echoing stone. Orcs fell. Undead crumbled. Golems shattered. Then he stumbled on treasure — real treasure. Not gold, but something far rarer: a pile of
Darts of Stunning:
In the Sword Coast, these were as common as a drunk dwarf in a tavern, but here in Amn? Priceless. Luke stuffed them into his pack with the same tenderness some people reserve for newborns.
Freshly armed and riding a wave of confidence, Luke rounded a corner and met… three Greater Wolfweres. Big, fast, and smug about it, they regenerated faster than he could blink. Darts of Stunning? No luck. Darts of Wounding? That finally did the trick, but not before Luke found himself muttering, “Please, gods, let this be the last time I see one of these hairy nightmares.”:
His next opponent was the biggest, meanest golem Luke had ever seen — easily the size of a barn. It was like David versus Goliath, except David was using darts instead of a sling, and Goliath kept looking like he might squash him into jam. Fortunately, the golem’s pathfinding wasn’t great — it got stuck. Luke pelted it from a safe distance for what felt like a hundred darts (he was sure as hell glad to have his returning dart here) until the giant finally toppled over with a thud that rattled his teeth:
Finally, at the heart of the dungeon, Luke faced a mage named Kevin Conster. The wizard managed to get off a Teleportation Field and True Sight before Luke’s regular, unenchanted darts tore through him. Protection from Magical Weapons? Cute trick — didn’t work on sharp bits of mundane wood:
That’s when Luke discovered the truth: the “noble” Lord Firkraag was actually a giant, fire-breathing, smug-as-hell red dragon. Apparently, the whole quest was just a bit of entertainment for the beast. Firkraag waved him off, chuckling. Luke considered throwing a dart at him on the way out, just to see the look on his face — but for once, reason won over impulse.
Luke left the dungeon sweaty, bruised, and slightly richer in both gold and ammunition — but most importantly, very certain that next time someone offers “a LOT of money” for “just a quick bit of monster slaying,” he’s going to ask exactly what kind of monsters we’re talking about.
Or would he?
Say one thing for Luke — say he never learns.
Because on the way back to Athkatla, he took a detour to D’Arnise Keep, where he’d promised to deal with an “invasion of unknown monsters.” The highborn lady who greeted him tried to act like one of the common folk, but Luke had met enough nobility to know better.
Inside, he found his first troll. Bringing it down wasn’t hard — keeping it down was the problem. The beast kept getting back up. Then Luke remembered some dusty Candlekeep text about trolls: fire or acid was the key:
So he dug out a fancy-looking fire sword from his pack. He’d been half-afraid it would one day ignite inside his magical bag and turn all his belongings into a bonfire, but apparently the bag was fireproof. Or maybe Valygar’s remains stank so badly in there that even fire avoided them. Either way — it worked, and the troll stayed down.
From there, Luke went on a troll-clearing spree, though the spirit trolls gave him real trouble. Their magic bounced off him, but their regeneration and dart resistance were a nightmare. Still, they weren’t as bad as the dreaded Greater Wolfweres — and that was something:
One snake-headed mage popped up to cause trouble but went down fast under Luke’s mix of magical and regular darts:
A pair of secret doors later, Luke found himself staring at three hulking trolls in a tiny room. He blinked. How the hell did they get in here? Crawled in as babies? Teleported? Built the walls around them? Just another unsolved mystery in a world that made no architectural sense:
Among the debris, Luke found a stash of Darts of Stunning — a welcome blast from the past. He used them immediately on a fellow named Glaicus, stunning him just like in the old Sword Coast days, when life was simpler. Well, if you could call “Solving Iron Crisis, clearing your name, and winning the Grand Tournament” simple:
Deeper inside, Luke found a strange room with three altars and six golems. He checked the altars for treasure — and, naturally, the golems came to life. With a halfling sword in his off-hand to ward against Slow and a blade named Namarra in his main (his only non-missile +2 weapon at the time), Luke hacked away until the last stone brute fell:
Next to the golem room, a set of stairs led downward. Strange noises echoed up from the darkness, and Luke’s halfling instincts tingled. “Nope,” he muttered. “Not today.” He’d come back later.
In the garden, he put his newly acquired Horn of Blasting to use for the first time, stunning the local Otyugh before crushing it in a flurry of attacks:
(Side note: First time I’ve actually used the Horn of Blasting was the last was when we were playing with Kalam/Ryland and @Borco. Turns out it’s actually pretty decent, especially for Luke as crowd control is not his strongest side.)
