Trolls tell strange riddles

General Summary

Things continue to not be good (Trade you 4 kids and a cow for boats ). We’ve managed to kill a couple of the trolls, but now we have a new villain, a mounted soldier and he hits hard. Painfully hard.
Cap and I engage him while Marcus finishes off the last troll, but Athea is nowhere to be found. The soldier has us on our last legs, Marcus is barely standing, and I don’t have much more in the way of health, we could be easily finished off when the horsemen looks worried and calls out to the troll Marcus has been kiting, “Keep them busy. Don’t let a single one of them downstairs.”
“Okay,” he called as the man disappeared underground. “Let’s play a riddle game. If we both win, you get past me into the maze, and if we both lose, then you die. Who wants to go first?” He pulled a small (relative to his size) book and a pencil out of somewhere. I have no clue where they came from
I stared at him in confusion, that didn’t even make sense. He pointed at me. “You go. What has a head at night and none in the morning?”
That doesn’t even make sense as a riddle. I stared and thought furiously, what could it be. It wouldn’t be too difficult. I tried a desperate guess, “A pillow?
“That’s right!” He danced happily and clapped his hands. Maybe he won’t kill me after all.
“What goes up in the morning and down at night?” I asked.
He scratched at one of his chins, because that’s right I neglected to mention this troll has three heads. “The sun?”
“You’re right!” Then I disappeared below and this next part I was told later.

What happened while I was down below

He pointed at Cap, “How do you make a strawberry shake?”
Cap paused for a moment, “Like this?” He mimed shaking something.
The troll laughed and laughed. “You’re right! You’re so smart.”
Cap smiled and nodded, “Yes, you are too.” He turned to see more trolls gathering and they were all listening to the riddle game. “Here’s your riddle. What is round, hard, and giants like to throw them?” He told me the answer was supposed to be “a rock,” but…
“An egg!” Guessed the troll dancing in place.
Cap opened his mouth, and then said, “You’re right. Wow, I didn’t think you would get that one.”
“I smart,” and Cap appeared down below with Athena and I. He turned to Marcus, “A red house has red bricks, a yellow house has yellow bricks, what is a green house made of?” He glared at Marcus as if he expected this to stump him.
“Green bricks?” Marcus said.
“You are so smart!” The troll danced in place, “What’s my riddle?”
“What is green and grows on the ground?” Marcus asked.
The troll scratched his face and looked at his finger, “I know a booger!”
“Yes,” said Marcus and he too appeared down below with the rest of us.

Down below in the troll dungeon

Athea had found a new danger, there were statues in the corners of the room, and she had pushed the first statue over, but as she attempted to knock over the mounted knight statue, the knight we had fought came below to guard his statue.

“We need to knock over the statue,” Athea yelled as I appeared.
“Let’s see what we can do!” We worked to kite him towards the statue, and slowly wore him down. After a few seconds Cap appeared and joined the fight. He helped Athea knock over the statue, and the mounted knight dissipated.
“Quick, let’s knock over the rest of the statues!” Athea shouted, and we hurried to start on the giant troll statue in the middle as Marcus appeared.

The statue began to shake, and instead of a statue, we were facing a giant troll. The creature battered us, and we barely held our ground as he landed blow after blow on us.

“We need to change the grounds,” Marcus shouted. “It’s healing, and we’ll never defeat it at this rate.”
Athea ran away down a hall looking for any sort of advantage. “There’s a water hole down here, maybe we can knock it into this.”
Marcus starts to kite it down the hall towards the hole, I try to hit it with my sword, but it doesn’t seem to be working quite the way I was hoping. Then the troll hit Marcus with a particularly well-timed hit and he flew into the water.
Only it wasn’t water. I had stuck my hand in it briefly and it had felt like home to me. When Marcus fell in, he felt like he was dissolving. Athea attempted to pull him out but lost her balance and fell in after them. I reached down and pulled them out and they looked slightly different.
Marcus looked less human than he had before. He looked more fae. Athea looked paler, maybe? When I talked to her about it later she told me she felt a stronger connection to the Man in the Moon.
The fighting resumed and we succeeded. The troll monstrosity fell into the liquid hole, and we started to catch our breath, but it jumped out and seemed ready to take on the world. It was stronger than before.
“This isn’t working,” I panted, “If you can get him in there. I’ll hold him in.”
“Are you sure Addie?” Cap asked.
“Yes.”
Cap and Marcus worked together and pushed it back into the liquid and I dived in after it. I pulled out the unmade blade and here it glowed. Unlike in the world, I could see the blade glowing like a bright fire.

“Spirit Kudzu,” I cried, “You have strayed from your purpose.” I sliced into it and it grew smaller. “You were called to bring life back to burned lands. You have twisted that purpose and destroyed your good gift from the Creator.” As I swung on the troll it grew smaller and smaller and I began to glow and grew wings. “I bind you to your purpose. I bind you to the growth of the wildlands and the nurturing of the burned.” I felt it shrink and revert back to its original calling.

I could hear the song. I felt its pull and the desire to become one with it and stay there, but that was not my purpose. My calling was not complete, so when Cap reached in to pull me out I took his hand and I came out. I could hear The Song as I emerged it still played here.
“Addie,” Cap said quietly. I turned to him and his eyes widened. “You’re glowing.” I looked down but my hands didn’t seem any different, “And you look different.”
I sheathed the Unmade blade and looked at my hands turning them over, “I feel different. I can hear it more clearly now.”
Cap nodded, “I hear it too.”

We emerged from the depths and the trolls continued to gather, they looked to me with a questioning look on their faces. “Hunt the orcs,” I commanded. “They push into lands that are not their own.” The trolls turned and left us.

Report Date

03 Nov 2022