A Daring Rescue

Within the coastal village of Harshwind I encountered a woman in distress; his father, the mayor of the village, had been leading a hunting party into the woods when they had been ambushed by the forest trolls.

The mayor’s huntsmen managed to scramble back home, but they say they witnessed the mayor himself being hauled off into the forest depths by the nasty trolls. I’ve been enlisted to look for the mayor on the off-chance he’s still alive.

Though I can’t know for sure where the trolls might have taken the mayor, I’m told the trolls have multiple camps and possibly a whole lair in areas south of the village.

I made it inside a dank and dreary cave within Prowler’s Thicket, where the trolls have clearly made their home. Now to look for the mayor.

He will surely be under guard...

I felled the troll jailor present and found the mayor lying in his cell. He doesn’t look too good from afar…

I should check on him.

The mayor complained rough treatment by his troll jailors, claiming they forced him to eat hay, no doubt in an effort to fatten him up for their cookpot.

Even though a healing potion would have the mayor on his feet in no time, the man seems unreasonably paranoid about drinking such things. Instead he requested I bring him a juicy steak, insisting it's all a man really needs.

I suppose I might have to go hunting in the woods.

After getting the mayor to stand upright, we surmised we can’t break through the bars on the cell. The mayor did however spot an opening on the ceiling, where he might be able to crawl out.

However, he’ll need rope to climb up there.

Unfortunately we were interrupted by the arrival of a giant troll, larger than I’ve ever seen. He dealt me quite the killing blow, though I naturally woke again finding myself outside the cave.

The arrival of this new guard means I can’t just hand the rope to the mayor. All he managed to say before we were interrupted was to ‘use the hay’. I could try asking Maice for advice back at the village.

The mayor managed to slip away from the trolls' clutches and made his way back to the village!

I should talk to him about my reward.

In time the mayor will recover from his ordeal with hay.