Story - Part 2 - Icespire Peak

Garic hits the troll and it erupts in flames. Martina and Vienne both attack the troll and inflict severe wounds.
The troll roars and rears up but then collapses on the ground before it can do anything

The final roar of the troll echoes for a while and then it's silent. The two smoldering corpses of the trolls lie in front of you. You think you can see a doorway at the side of the mountain right where the trolls originally stood.

Garic waves his shields, gathering back the flames, and look over their forms carefully
Mixing my magic with my shields is pretty for attacking but I think my shield work needs a bit more work so I can be a better guardian. Sorry and he focuses to Infuse Life to heal Martina (2 HP)

"Thank you Garic." Martina takes a seat and waits for the magic to take effect. She begins thinking aloud. "Those trolls weren't as tough as I feared they might be. Although their regeneration ability was interesting. I wonder if it's the same kind of magic you're doing now or if it's just part of their biology."

When she is ready to stand, Martina walks toward the fallen trolls to salvage whatever crossbow bolts she can. She pulls one from the prone corpse and examines the bloody head. She ponders it then makes a decision. She pulls her waterskin out of her pack, empties it out, and puts it to one of the troll's wounds, draining the blood into the waterskin. "Whether it's magic or mundane, I have a feeling that the secret to the trolls' regeneration can be found in their blood." she offers by way of explanation to her companions. "If I get ahold of the right alchemical equipment, I bet I can figure it out."

Im a bit better with plants but i can help a bit if you like. Garric offers Martina

Looking to Vienne he asks Do you need healing before pulling out tht silver item and Looking it over.

Vienne sits down where she is for a moment and watches the other two before standing back up. "If it won't be hard on you, that would be great. It's not too awful, so don't worry about it if you can't." She offers Garic a smile as she answers. She isn't sure how difficult it is for Garic to heal people and she doesn't want to be the reason he is exhausted later.

"I'm not familiar with these kinds of things, so I'll trust you know what you're doing, Martina. I can try and help if you give me instructions though." She isn't even sure what the right alchemical equipment would be, let alone how to use it.

Garic heals Vienne as well explainig I have been working on enhancing my combat magic and woked out how to heal myself and others. I cant heal diseases or poison like a full healer but this should help wiith bumps, bruises, and fights. But my family often crafted medicines and I am not too bad at it so will continue keeping an eye out for useful herbs to make anti-toxins and medicines as we travel.

Martina easily collects a full waterskin of troll blood. It's of a pretty thick consistency, a bit like warm honey. It could very well be a lead to their regeneration ability but she'll need a fully stocked laboratory in order to be sure and more importantly be able to reproduce the effect.

Garic heals you all and then has a look at the silver item. It's a metallic cylinder with a screwed on top. It's finely made and decorated with geometric patterns. He screws off the top and finds two pieces of parchment inside, a map and a scroll with runes.
You have some difficulties in interpreting the map but Martina recognizes the scroll with runes:
It is a spell scroll made to create a strong magical effect. Having opened the item you have two ways ahead of you. You can continue up the mountain on the path that you came along or you could go through the doorway in the side of the mountain.
It's very tall and the sides are decorated with runes. The doors are made out of stone, without any decorations and stand slightly ajar. When you peek in you can hear dripping and occasional thumping but you can't see anything but a hallway leading into the mountain.

Garic tries to make sense of the map. His family uses maps to track where herbs can be found. But in the lowlands it is mostly streams, farms, and large hills or whatnot used as landmarks.

"Thanks, Garic! That will be super useful." Vienne claps her hands together in happiness before focusing on the parchment Garic found. She isn't bad with the wilderness, but maps were a whole other thing.

So, can anyone use scrolls? he asks sheepishly. Magic always came natual to me but I never did get the hang of that runic structured magic stuff and shrugs

Martina lights up when she sees the runic scroll. "Let me take a look!" She takes the scroll and, after some time mentally translating, she speaks up "Ah! It's a spell for manipulating stone—shaping it, growing it, or reducing it. I practiced reading scrolls like this at university. This one seems to be a bit more powerful than what I'm used to, but I think I could cast it if the need were to arise." Martina stashes the spell scroll in her pack. "I'll hang onto it if that's alright."

Sure go for it. and hands her the scroll case with both papers.

Looking around, at the burned bodies of the two trolls then into the darkness of the mountain depths, Garic scratches his head and muses I think I got carried away. I took the scroll out of curiosity and just as a prank but whne they attacked. Eh, well . . .
I am thining attacking the first trolls we find is not the best way to get into their good graces to figure out why they are moving down to the other peoples lands. Not realy sure I want to head into their home and talk with them at this point.
As he talks Garic uses a bit of magic to clean his shields and cloths of any trol blood then moves to do the same to the others.
Anyway, do we head up the trail or into the dark? I prefer the open sky and fresh air but am curious about the cave. Maybey we can check it out on the way back down? making it clear he would preffer the trail option without saying so.

Vienne and Garic study the map. You see mountain ranges, valleys and rivers as well as cities and castles but you don't see which area in general the map is supposed to depict.
For all you know the map could be of any area all over the known and unknown world
Unfortunately the focus action is only applicable in combat

Vienne is happy to let Martina handle scroll related things, and turns to thinking about Garic's question. "You're probably right, our first impression is going to be terrible. I'm inclined to head up the trail, and besides, the answer we need might very well be up there as well." If they ignored the initial attack they did, Vienne still wasn't sure that the trolls would have been helpful. Or even that they wouldn't have killed them just for entering the house. They did fly into a huge rage over one item, after all. Words could have worked there. "Plus, if we get some height, maybe we can see something similar to this map by looking down."

Great! and Garic adjusts his pack before heading up the trail anxious to be away from this place, uncertain about the trail tribe numbers and territory.

Seeing no strong reason to choose one path over the other, Martina follows along behind.

You choose to leave the doorway behind, at least for now.
For a few hours you follow along the path. It becomes steeper and narrower. You still recognize the signs that the path was constructed by someone who knew what they were doing but it also becomes more and more eroded as you continue along.
In the afternoon the sun is becoming clouded and a cool, strong wind is coming up. Above you you can see the castle on top of the mountain clearer and clearer. It's made from dark grey stone and incredibly it seems to be in a pretty good shape. While some of the finer features like decorative statues and merlons are visibly damaged, the main tower and the walls are all still intact.

After another hour of walking you arrive at a section of the path were a rock slide is blocking the way.
A narrow strip right at the edge of the path is still walkable but it's risky given the strong winds. You could also try to climb over the rocks but you don't know wether they'll become loose.
Or you could try to climb up the mountain side until you get to the an unblocked section of the mountain path

Garic looks to see if over if their roots is long enough to cross the rocky section of the path
If only we had someone small enough to cross the path first dressing a rope who could then hold that side to help others cross he says while winking at Marina.
What do you think, you up for a dangerous mission with peril and a change of perspective? he worries her with an amused tone and pulls some rope from his pack

Vienne looks at the obstacles before them and speaks to Ahki. "Think you could get the rope across bud?" She looks at Garic when she continues. "If we have something that could be wedged at the end, he might be able to do it. Or maybe he could test the rocks for us, see what it is like with his lighter body?"

"A gap that size would have been plenty big enough when I was a gopher." Martina muses. "You know, I never felt quite the same since I changed back. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like that gopher form is still part of me—like maybe if I focused in just the right way…" And suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, Martina vanishes in a puff of magical smoke and the gopher that the group met back on the road to Icespire peak is standing in her place.

"Eek!" gopher-Martina squeaks in surprise. "I didn’t think it would really happen!" She stretches and scampers around, getting re-accustomed to her rodential body. "Alright—let’s try your rope plan. Hopefully I can get myself back to normal on the other side."