NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

The right-hand passage, where the troll-men were going
"Well, they had to be going somewhere, right?" You ask the group as a whole as they pick through the dead.

Stigr shrugs as he yanks an arrow from the skull of a troll-man, grimacing at the blood. He pulls a cloth from his belt to wipe the iron clean. "I dunno," he squints as he examines the gunk-encrusted arrowhead, a light frown twisting his face, "but this stuff isn't easy to clean."

"Troll-men blood clots quickly, but burns easily when dry," Eric says as he relights his torch with a finger snap — it had extinguished after he shoved it in a troll-man's mouth, "Troll-men only do things because they think it will get them meat."

Stigmar rubs at his beard — which had finally started to thicken up, "So they had to have some reason for running this way. They didn't have full bellies nor were any sporting injuries, so they weren't returning from a raid..."

You frown, running thumb and forefinger across chin and jaw — Eric mirroring your motions, "Right, but that wasn't a very big group of troll-men, not nearly enough to hit a farm, right?" Your frown deepens as a sneaking suspicion starts to slither through your thoughts, "They didn't seem very surprised to see us, but is that a result of lacking intelligence or was it because they knew we were here...?"

Silence falls across the group as nobody wants to acknowledge the possibility that you might be walking into a trap. Nobody wants to speak it into existence.

"I've been meditating on tranquility since we started walking," Gabriel's voice startles you as he suddenly finishes praying and rises to his feet, "so they couldn't have heard us."

You quirk your head to the side, your brows furrowing a valley on your forehead. "You've been... meditating?"

"Yes," his helmet dips in a nod, "through meditation and contemplation of the Lord's Creation, one can bring a myriad of things to pass."

"Huh," you're about to ask him more but Stigr coughs into his fist and puts a stop to that.

"That's all well and good and all, but we've got places to go and things to kill, yeah?" He spreads his arms wide, head turning from you to Gabriel and back again. Eric looks to be in agreement while Stigmar doesn't seem to care all that much.

"Right, right..." You trail off as you return to the intersection. Left or right? Coming from or going to? Hmm...

Blackhand takes the moment to add his piece, 'I, for one, am interested in seeing where they were going.'

"Since they had to have some kind of objective and Gabriel was doing his weirdo Christian cultivation stuff," you wave a hand in Gabriel's general direction as he scoffs and rolls his eyes, "then why don't we go see what that objective was?"

Nobody has any complaints or issues with that plan, so you set off to the right, to find where the troll-men were going.
Do you happen to run into anything while on the way? (Hamingja: 6x4, 5x1, 4x2, 3x2, 2x5, 1x2) 7 Successes.
The journey is swift and concise, a pleasant change to the slog that brought you here. The further you walk, however, the more a sort of dread starts to build up in the bottom of your stomach.

You've only been down here... maybe an hour? Thirty minutes at least. Just what is going on?

'We are surface dwellers, creatures of the sunlight. To go against that is to invite terrible things into your life. The longer you spend outside the sun's light, the more bad luck you will accrue. End this as quick as you can, else your hamingja will begin to suffer.'

You resolve to do just that, then. No time for dawdling down here!

Fortunately, the tunnel breaches into a massive, wide-open chamber. The chamber is round and smooth, obviously not natural nor made by troll-man hands.

And speaking of troll-men, their bodies are scattered across the chamber, piled high by the dozens. Working to stack the bodies are around seven or so... are those dwarves? If they are, then they sure don't look it!

For one, they're actually a tiny bit smaller. For another, dwarves don't have pale white, heavily wrinkled skin nor do they have bulging, segmented eyes. They also definitely do not have four arms!

'Svartalfar, the ancestors of modern day dwarves. You don't typically see this many of them this close to the surface, however... The Enemy is fond of using them in its schemes.'

A svartalfr notices you and a sharp, insectile hissing rises from their chittering mouths — mandibles replace their lips, though their teeth are square like a human's. They raise their weapons — swords, axes, shields, and spears — up high as they start bunching together.

"Halla?" Stigmar has his weapons at the ready as he turns to you, questions clear in his gaze, "What do we do?"

You frown, considering the options before you.

The svartalfar don't look very hostile. Well, at least not in the sense that they'll be aggressive about attacking you. If you get too close, they will almost certainly attack — that's what their shimmers say, at least. They won't chase you, though, if you retreat. However, if you do that, then they'll be able to continue whatever they were doing. You'll also be giving up this opportunity if you do retreat.

On the other hand, this is an opportunity to put a stop to one of The Enemy's schemes before it has a chance to even start. But, there's no way that doing that won't come at a time cost, not to mention that they outnumber you at seven-to-five. They also probably have dwarf-like tricks up their chitinous sleeves, meaning that their capabilities are more or less unknown and likely exotic.

What do you do?
[ ] Nip the problem in the bud, before it has a chance to fester
[ ] Pull back, this isn't worth it
[ ] Talk to them first, let's see if they can understand Norse.
-[ ] Write in what to say

0~0~0
(Hugr (Tactics): 6x3, 5x2, 4x2, 2x2, 1x3)8+4(Frenzy)=12 Successes

First things first, the svartalfar are seemingly content to wait for you to do something. Their movements are that of trained warriors, which is further supported by the fact that, though there were easily over three-hundred troll-men here, not one of them has anything more than a token injury — a bruise or scrape.

The chamber is a large, dome-like shape. It's easily roomy enough for you to comfortably fly around in. It's completely smooth and, on the far side of the chamber, is a small, svartalfr-sized door — shut tight and likely also locked, to boot.

The svartalfar, if pushed, will fight as a unit. One will cover the other as they attack, which is only made worse by the fact that they all have four arms and each holds a weapon. They'll play it defensive, but thinking that they aren't prepared for wide-scale, formation disrupting attacks is a mistake.

Stigmar is fine.
Stigr is fine.
Gabriel is fine.
Eric is fine.

They look to you for direction.

Endurance: (10/10) | Frenzy: (4/4) (+4 to all Combat Rolls) | Armor Health: (9/17) (+4 to Defense) | 4/4 Shield Layers
Orthstirr: (382/449) | Odr: (13)
( ) Frami: 150 | ( ) Virthing: 150 | ( ) Saemd: 149
Sagaseeker has 35 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Your Armor has 13 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Shapeshifting is granting you (+1 Damage and +1 Attack-Speed)
Your combat pool is 60d6.

You currently have these on your person:
x1 Bottled Sunlight
x7 Exploding Charms
x1 Set of Digging Tools
x4 Torches
Plenty of Rope (Enough for any given scenario)

What do you do? (Only necessary if deciding to attack)
[ ] (Plan Name)
-[ ] (Dice) Attack
-[ ] (Dice) Defense
-[ ] (Dice) Intercept
-[ ] (Dice) (Trick) (Orthstirr)
-[ ] Tactics Write in

0~0~0

AN: Well then, how do you want to play this?

No moratorium.