zrtar

it was a cold and stormy night when we set out from the tavern. malwynn whined most of the time complaining that we had no cleric with us, i laughed after all who needs a cleric when you have five and a half feet of solid kharian steel. we arrived at the caves around dawn the rain had stopped and an unusual breeze both warmed and dried us. the bounty on the durden brothers only speculated that this was their base but it felt right to me, a merchant trail lay within an hours easy walk and these caves were said to have been built by the tauren their labrythian halls stretching far beneath the ground. i allowed malwynn the first choice of entrance he chose the largest opening on the right, however the closer we got the worst the smell became, burnt cabbage left to rot over a week old corpse. trolls. the standard bounty on trolls would have made hiring that pyromancer well worth it, ah well could always come back after this one and hope it hasn’t moved on. my choice of entry was the cave farthest from the troll lair, barely literate signs and skulls of dead animals decorated the area around a crudely made door jammed a few feet within this caves interior. we knew the durdens used goblins as fodder and so decided that this may just be our best chance at finding them. i kicked in the door, no sense in using stealth against goblins after all, it flew across the room slamming into a large goblin and slamming him into the wall crushing his bones and taking his life. a double twang from behind let me know that malwynn was already quick at work, knowing he wouldn’t let me count the one the door killed i charged cutting goblins down to either side of me. the fight was over quickly not even any minor wounds to tell of the count was a tie at nine a piece we take their ears knowing a seer who pays a silver for a set, we leave the pair belonging to the door. before long we come to a fork and decide to split up i go left malwynn takes the right, i wonder at times if he’d still be around if he had gone left. a few more goblins don’t even slow me down as i make my way further into the complex. after a couple of hours searching various rooms i come across a door better fitted than the rest. i enter, before me a man stands in deep voluminous robes his hands already dancing in the act of casting one spell or another i smile i was hoping i’d run into this. i had recently acquired a glove from an assassin friend of mine during a card game, he swore it would take any spell directed at me and turn it back at the caster. now was as good a time as any to see if it worked, six skulls shot from his hands each a sickly looking green color with a liquid dripping from them and onto the floor scorching it with a small hiss every few inches. acid lovely and these were knew boots to. i held the glove imagining what sort of payback i might have to dish out if my friend was lying, luckily for him he wasn’t. as each skull was swallowed by the glove i could feel the energy build within it my entire arm hummed with barely contained power, i quickly closed the gap between us, the mage to stunned by what just happened to even throw up a defense. the look on his face would have been almost comical if it had not been caused by me stuffing my fist into his mouth and releasing his acid skull down his throat. an agonizing cry from behind me warned me of the second brothers presence, i turned lifting my sword as quickly as i could barely managing to block those first grief enhanced swings of the enemies weapon. unfortunately my opponent had but everything he had into those attacks and though he managed to get his shield up in an attempt to block my sword it did him no good as the kharian blade easily sliced through both it and the arm attached to it. now staring at his bleeding stump in to much pain to even scream i’m not even sure if the last of the durden brothers even noticed when his became detached from his body.back tracking was quicker without having to search the side rooms i made it back to the fork in under an hour and set off to find malwynn. his trail wasn’t hard to follow a small army of earless goblins pointed the way and i soon began to hear a muffled snorting. turning a corner i saw what made the noise a tauren knelt near enough to death as to make no difference. impaled on his horns a badly mangled and barely recognizable body hung one hand still holding an arrow jabbed through the tauren’s eye buried deep enough to have found it’s brain. i leave his ears on him and make my way back towards the keep thinking about that pyromancer and wondering if she would be up for a troll hunt…