Yolig had been told by the stones to expect a lot of things from the surface. He'd been told it was a bright, horrible place. He'd been told it was an empty, roofless wasteland, ravaged by the followers of the mad god of blood. And it had all been true. What he hadn't been told was how much fun he would have there.
Still, it was a wasteland, and sadly short of the delicious fungi and cave mushrooms that he and the other troggoths loved to eat. If they were going to break down the gates to heaven, they would need full bellies. Yolig didn't need the stones to sing that to him. Fortunately, the little one they had saved had somehow found a way to some food. Even more fortunately, the mad god's minions were there too. This would be fun.
They had a couple of the skull giant things with them this time, and Yolig and the boys charged, quickly bashing the thing about with stones and hammers. Olvarn wasn't about to be outdone, and he crushed one of the barbarian in his fist.
The mad barbarians didn't seem too troubled by that. Yolig wasn't surprised, what with them being mad. They instead crowded around Olvarn, and he roared in annoyance as they managed to hack a few wounds into his stony skin. Yolig had a bit more luck, as he smashed the skull monster's... skull in with his trusty boulder.
After that, things began to go a bit awry. There were still more of the skull giants between Yolig and the food, and the next one dealt one of his companions a horrific wound, felling the bold Troggoth. Olvarn was having more luck casually slaughtering the barbarians, but it wasn't enough to break them.
Telek was about to have troubles of her own. A band of the blood maddened warriors had managed to somehow sneak around the flank, even though they were screaming about blood the entire time. Telek managed to bash one of them over the head with her staff, but the others closed in... and things might have gone very badly had they not been suddenly doused with buckets of acidic vomit. The few who survived the deluge fled.
This was now the second time that Telek had been saved by fortuitous vomit, and frankly, she thought, it had better be the last.
After that, things got a bit wild. The blood worshipers weren't about to give up the food (whatever it might be) without a fight, and Yolig wasn't going to let them get away with hurting his buddy. Olvarn had finally managed to fight free of the band he'd been stuck dealing with, and with a roar, he lumbered into the fray, knocking down a wall as he went. Still bellowing, he called out to Telek. "We need help, little wizard! Call the beast!"
None of them really expected what happened next. The grate in the middle of the ruins had gone ignored, after all, there was a whole lot of food next to it. The first thing Telek heard was a horrifying war cry. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a dwarf, leaping out of the now open grate with his axe swinging. There were a few bloody moments, and then the skull giant fell, dead. The surviving barbarians fled.
Olvarn looked over the carnage, and the crates of liberated food, and smiled broadly once again. "Well done! A tiny beast like you! That is good too."
The dwarf still looked... quite furious. Good might not be the right word.
(to be continued)
