Storytelling: Book 2, Chapter 4

The wizard seemed to have other things on his mind when I spoke to him next. He told me of a scholar, one I had heard of told during my apprenticeship, in the swamp of Harloeg. I would have to travel south to meet Aric Stone-speaker to help us rid the land of the poison. This was not my first foray into Harloeg. A week or so prior I had chased a Tarkrip Seeker down there, but I had to stop at the water's edge. The insects on the direct route to Ost Haer, where the Stone-speaker resided, were bigger than any I had seen. The fleeing orc learned this quickly, and I skampered up the hill side listening to its screams.

However the fates changed my course of direction, and I found myself in a fellowship headed for the eastern reaches of the swamp. A company of trolls had made camp in Harloeg, and the Free Peoples were beginning to grow wary of their slow approach. The group, supposedly from the Trollshaws far to the east, were the Balt-Olog trolls. The leader of the fellowship believed them to be well supplied and heavily armored.

Our fellowship of four attacked like a well-trained pack, and the huge slow trolls quickly fell to our relentless attack. I rallied my group on, raising their morale and spirits, and not one of us faltered. Maiden did fairly well, and even knocked one of the trolls unconscious for a period.

Our brief attack severely damaged the grip of the trolls on eastern Harloeg, but our power was not such that we could have erased their foul presence altogether. I am content knowing that they are too weak to make a direct attack on the Free Peoples.

I bid the fellowship farewell at the edge of the treeline. Ost Haer filled the horizon, and I saw a small campfire glowing within. Aric spoke with me directly, a scholar to scholar. His tone was a tad condescending, but then that goes with the territory. He spoke of the dead holding the secrets we need, and the tiny campfire grew smaller. The ruined walls seemed to allow more of the swamp in than before, and that night I could not sleep.