Dungeons and Dragons: The Fated

Chapter 3

Upon opening the cottage door, the warm heat of the sun blasted against the three adventurers as they stepped out of the cottage. Almorith scratched his head as he walked a few feet away from the cottage, "'The Chickens are with the Wolf at the end of the stream'?" Aurora nodded, "The same thing is written on piles of paper in the shithole behind us, but this one has fresh writing on it." she said as she waved around the paper. Almorith knelt down and sat in silence whilst Esmeralda turned towards Aurora, "So you want us to go on a investigation to find what exactly? These chickens?" Aurora's expression grew rageful, "There is three dead hag's in that cottage, one carrying this note letter thing, clearly this is more then what it says!" Almorith stood up, "Stop. I hear the stream." he said calming, walking behind the cottage which lead to a trail, and within eyeshot was a flowing stream. Esmeralda sighed, "We will check it out, but I'd like to be at Aramour by noon."
The three began to take their steps towards the path when they got hit by a ghastly scent. It hit so hard, it made the three nearly gag. Almorith sniffed the air after a moment and pointed back towards the cottage, aiming at some wooden barrels. Esmeralda went towards the barrel and opened it slowly, but regret kicked in as she ran away a few feet, puking up the fruits from last night. The smell strengthened tenfold as Almorith covered his nose and walked over, peeking inside the barrel to see bloody meat, rotten flesh still on bones, and a small human skull. Almorith closed the barrel and walked back towards the path, "Children. The 'Chickens' are Children, but what is the 'wolf'?" Almorith and Aurora looked towards Esmeralda, who's face went pale upon the realization, and the anger boiled in. She let out a yell as she turned to the house and started throwing fireballs at the house, setting it ablaze. Once the house was coated in fire, she wiped her mouth of the remaining upchuck and flicked her arm to attempt to clean it, and she walked to the path, walking past the others quickly, but not fast enough to hide her tear stains on her cheeks.
The steam flowed towards the right at the end of the trail, and the three adventures followed the water. Esmeralda simply watched the water quietly as the three walked, Aurora took notice and thought for a moment to herself before asking Almorith, "Think it'll be more hags?" Almorith shrugged, "Unlikely, hags usually only stay in their own circles lately, meaning they're doing something with someone who needs children.. or food." Aurora looked away at the thought of dead children, "Their parents must be devastated." Esmerelda scoffed under her breath as the three tracked on.
Eventually, the stream lead them towards a cave, the flowing water moving inward. "We gotta go in there, huh?" Auroa asked, and Almorith nodded. The three exchanged looks before drawing their weapons and slowly entering the cave. A few steps in to the cave revealed the water went down a sinkhole, but the path did continue forward in the dark abyss. Almorith looked towards the ground, and in a hushed whisper alerted the group, "Footsteps. Large. Only one set however." With his eyes locked on the trail of steps, the women followed each step carefully, and each step in the cave made it darker and darker.
"Can we shine some light in here?" Aurora nudged Esmeralda, and as Esmeralda went to set her hand ablaze, Almorith quickly spun around and grabbed Esmeralda's wrist gently. Almorith shook his head and pointed down the cave where a faint light lived. The adventurers slowly started to resume the path, each foot step slowly revealing the echos of deep laughter and faint crying, and the light grew in size. The path lead to a hooked path, and light shined through cracks in the stone walls. Almorith crouched down and signaled for the girls to do the same, which they did. A few more steps finally lead them to a massive open area, lit by bonfires and filled with scattered bones, pots, animal carcasses and cages. Almorith saw a broken bolder a few feet in to the room and crouch ran to it, trying to get a better view, but his sight became a small shock as his predictions were proven true. A troll sat next to one of the bonfires, seemingly meditating, while guarding 2 cages full of children. Almorith counted the children, counting 7, 3 in one cage, 4 in the other. Almorith looked to Esmeralda and Aurora to signal 7 fingers up, then the two girls nodded.
Putting an arrow in his bow, Almoith aimed to the opposite end of the room from the cages, and shot the arrow, causing a cling noise to fill the room. The sitting troll had the speed of an ox as it quickly stood up and ran to the noise source, looking around for the cause. Aurora ran out of cover towards the cages as she pulled out a dagger, taking cover behind a broken barrel beside the cages. She looked at the children, who all were staring at her, and whispered "Don't panic, we're gonna get you out of here." The troll turned around and began to slowly walk back towards the cages, which Almorith saw and went to duck for cover against the bolder, causing a few loose rocks to crumble down.
The troll looked over and started to run over, but Almorith jumped out from behind the rocks to reveal himself to the troll, an arrow drawn and ready as he aimed it at the troll, "Oi, stop that stomping or you'll bring the whole place down!" The troll stopped running and pulled out a large tree branch from its belt before speaking, "Tiny human barge my home and attack?" Almorith shook his head, "I'm just lost, came across this cave when I saw those there kids. I thought I'd bring them home." The troll growled, "No return chickens! Chickens feed me! Hags bring chicken for me!" Almorith squinted, "Let them go, they don't have much meat on them in the first place like cows do." The troll looked to the children in the cage and mumbled something before slowly facing Almorith while slowly stepping forward, "Tiny Bigger chicken looks meaty." Almorith started backing up, "Did you just call me fat?"
As the troll began to charge at Almorith, Almorith released his arrow, it piercing the troll in the chest, but not slowing it down. Esmeralda rushed out from cover and ran towards the bolder, running up and jumping off the bolder swiftly before transforming to a crow, flying towards the troll and clawing its face quickly before flying away. The dazed troll stumbled back as it rubbed it scratched face, then let out a roar that shook the cave. The children began to cry, and the troll turned to see them, but instead saw the tip of a Dagger being forced in to its eye. The troll yelled in pain as Aurora flipped over the head of the troll to be behind it, while keeping a grasp on her dagger, as she pulled out her second dagger and slashed it over, driving the blade into the trolls other eye. The Troll fell to its knees, bloody tears leaving its eye sockets as it roared and shouted, but Aurora held on, pulling one blade out before pushing it back in, then doing the same with the other, repeatedly. Esmeralda flew to the kids and transformed back to her Tiefling self in front of them, softly speaking through the yells of the troll "Don't worry darlings, don't watch."
Aurora used all her strength to pull back on the trolls head, forcing it to fall over to the stone floor before pulling out her daggers and stabbing it in the face quickly and repeatedly, blood covering her face and clothes with each stab. Almorith ran over with 3 arrows in his hand as he jumped on to the trolls chest and drew back all 3 arrows, shooting the arrows all simultaneously in the trolls chest, confirming the kill. Esmeralda used her sword to cut the rope locking the kids in the cages, "Where are your parents?" One of the children whispered, "Amoura, we were kidnapped by witches.." the kid started to tear up, but Esmeralda reached out, "Don't cry, we'll take you home." The three adventurers got together and started rounding the kids up safely when Almorith looked at a large boiling pot, and noticed a small leg sticking out. The group left the cave quickly after that sight.

Nearly 2 hours pass as the adventurers and the kids walk over a hill, and the kids faces all light up slightly and they start running down the hill. Esmeralda went to stop them, but smiled as she too saw the sight of a large kingdom, with a massive castle in the back. Almorith and Aurora both stopped beside Esmeralda and had the same smile reaction.
"Finally."