A Dirge for Derrick Cork: The Warren

[Mia Cobol]

((Sorry for the slow response time. This is before the ambush. >.<))

Slowly a hazy picture formed in Mia's mind. Large green hands reaching down and grabbing some rusted metal debris. As the vision began to focus, it turned down a tunnel and began moving. Down the winding path, bobbing when another Troll passed. The arms appeared again, tossing the rusted junk into a dead end before the Troll turned back. It repeat the process again. And again. Each time, it passed a pile in the middle of the warren. Electronics. Not debris to be cleared away. This was important stuff.

Mia grit her teeth and tried to count, remember the path her unwitting guide was showing. This was nothing like riding along with a bird or a small animal on the campus. While the Troll wasn't particularly intelligent, it's single-mindedness made for a difficult time. After the third time it passed the pile, Mia groaned quietly and leaned against the wall behind her, wiping the charcoal symbol from her forehead.

"I saw a pile of electronics. About halfway in there." She spoke quietly, almost tired. "I have a... basic idea how to get there. But we have to get in there first. It's all visual cues. A rock outcropping, a certain bend in a tunnel. Get me inside and I can lead us there."

[Eric Alpaith]

As Eric followed the group a thought occurred to him. He then tried to catch up to Lauren to ask her thoughts on it.

"What if they come up behind us while in the tunnel? Do we attack them first or only after they make the first move?"

[Wyatt Wyborn]

"Okay -- no matter what happens, we stay together," Wyatt said and began leading the way into the nest of Trolls. "Eyes in the back of your head, too. Eric has a point. But if we see them before they see us, we can maybe avoid a confrontation."

The battle in the crater was a better diversion than anything they could have done on their own. No doubt it was Heraclea and her gang, and no doubt they were after the same thing Wyatt and his friends were after.

The way was winding, but so far they had not encountered any resistance. Things were going good -- too good. It reminded Wyatt of the raid on Mr. Bones market.

If it was a setup, if they were walking into an ambush...

Focus.

[Chris Sloan]

Chris kept with the rest of the group, wishing he could be useful as more than a strategist, and he wasn't even doing that very well. He kept his hand on his right pocket, where his book was. He remembered a few of the spells he had been practicing, but he hadn't had time to master yet. He also knew he didn't have time to pull out his spellbook to look for anything else, so only had what he could remember to work with. A weak force field, some small healing, and if he was risking the damage to himself he might be able to pull off a lightning bolt.

He shook his head, Save it for later, he thought to himself, and followed with the rest of the group.

[Twitchcraft]

The crater smelled of smoke and blood.

Even trying to skirt the edges of the chaos had its hazards. An arrow arced past Eric's head, missing him by inches. A tendril of flame scorched the earth in front of Mia at one point. Chips of stone and flecks of metal pinged off Wyatt as he cut a path through the melee.

More than once, shouts seemed aimed at drawing attention to the Westbrook party. But they went unheeded as the fight raged on.

The warren itself was frigid and dark. The stench grew overwhelming only a few paces in. It appeared that most of the Trolls had headed into battle, leaving behind only scavenged bits of junk and scrap metal.

[Twitchcraft]

The journey deeper into the warren was far from smooth and not at all graceful.

Running through the gloom was next to impossible. Keeping together seemed far more important, at any rate. So a compromise was swiftly reached -- a sort of stumbling jog that allowed Wyatt and Lauren to retain their modest lead.

Even with Mia's foreknowledge, there were still wrong turns and dead ends. The place seemed endless. The dull thumps and thuds from the battle outside had faded to mere whispers only a few paces in; after all the twists and turns, would it even be possible to navigate back to the entrance when the time came? And what would be waiting there?

It was easy to get distracted by such concerns. Perhaps that was how the three Trolls had gotten so close without being spotted. Or perhaps they'd been lying in wait for intruders they'd been expecting.

Either way, they blocked the path ahead and advanced on the group, prepared to fight.

[Lauren Lombardi]

Lauren wasted no time unleashing her powers upon spotting the Trolls, the burning sensation in her skin heralding the scorching flames that engulfed her to protect her from harm. Hopefully the sudden flare-up in the gloomy passageway wouldn’t blind her friends, or at least it would blind the Trolls just as badly.

She didn’t waste much time worrying about it. Instead she closed with the nearest one, bringing the full force of her fire to bear as she wound up for a two-handed strike. She wanted to be sure either she or Wyatt had their full attention, to make sure when the Trolls lashed out they were swinging at one of them and not their friends.

[Chris Sloan]

Chris covered his eyes at the instant flash, blinded for a moment, but soon recovered. He didn't have much time to react, there were three trolls and only two front-line fighters.

Quickly he closed his eyes to remember the spell, and then opened them to aim at the troll furthest away from Lauren. "Ex igne fiat glaciem. Ex Ventus fiat terris. Descendunt de caelo, qui exterreat." Lightning began to cackle in his hand, and he made it linger there as he attempted to charge the spell further, something he hadn't tried yet. "Ex igne fiat glaciem. Ex Ventus fiat terris. Descendunt de caelo, qui exterreat!" The lightning grew in his hand for a moment before shooting out mostly at the troll he was aiming at, hoping to strike it in the chest. Unfortunately, as was known to happen with this spell, a bit of the lightning struck Chris's hand, making him recoil it on instinct.

He wasn't going to be using that hand again for spells until he got it healed, as he winced at the pain, hoping it was worth it.

[Wyatt Wyborn]

Lauren's fire flared and Wyatt had a good look at the Trolls that blocked the path. One - two - three -- not so many, but maybe still too many. The fist of the one nearest him slammed into Wyatt's gut so hard it lifted his feet off the ground.

This was good. All three of the Trolls were engaging them which meant that none of them were running off to alert other Trolls. This was bad. One Troll would have been a handful, but three...?

This needed to end quickly.

The Troll pounded Wyatt's face and Wyatt felt the impact all the way to his feet. A few more of these and even Wyatt might go down. A gutteral growl rose up and Wyatt was surprised when he realized that it didn't come from the Troll, but from himself. The Troll drew back wide for a killing blow and Wyatt lunged toward it, throwing his his arm around its neck, bulldogging it. He pulled it down, doubling it over, and gave its neck a violent twist...

[Eternal-Equinox]

Sam rushed in with the rest staying well behind the others. She was looking around when she saw the first flash and turned seeing three trolls in their path and Lauren rushing towards them her fires blazing.

Then Wyatt moved in, Sam looked around for something to use as a weapon she had no intention of getting within punching range of the Trolls, if just one hit her he'd break bones for sure.

As she searched the rubble for something to throw she heard Chris speaking his magic. She looked up to watch him which was a bad idea as the lightning shot off into the distance. She was blinded for a minute and when she could finally see again she saw Chris pulling his hand back, it looked like it was smoking slightly as she saw him wince.

She rushed over to him and looked at his hand,

"You OK?"

She stood by Chris ready to help him or defend him if needed.