John wakes up with a new headache and mud drenched clothes. He sits up and rubs the pain away to stop his eyes from spinning. He could see he was in a dimly lit room made from earth and mud. He was inside the bunker trolls cave. It didn't look like what he saw in the pictures of his studies from the village though. The ceiling was covered in bronze pipes and the walls seemed carved neatly with dara knots and pictures of what looked like stories. Even with words carved neatly along the walls in a different language he hadn't seen before. He looked at his room more closely and saw he was on a soft mat and his room was somewhat cozy. This confused and worried him greatly.
John looks around more and sees an opening with no door. He stands and staggers to it and looks through it to find two giant brown stone figures standing at either side of the doorway. One of them moves with a shrug and shows that the stone look was crumbling dirt that covered its body. Bunker Trolls. Monsters that choose to burrow themselves in the earth and hide in caves doing one thing only. Mine. the proof being one of them holding a crystal coated pick. The other held a chiseled hammer marked with the same strange language that was carved on the walls. The one with the hammer was actually much thinner than the one with the pick, which made no sense to him until the Thinner one Turned around and looked at him.
John backed off and fell back after seeing its distorted face. the entirety of the troll's cheek and jaw was missing its flesh and most of the muscles that was meant to be there was dried and decayed, as if something cute into it and and melted it away. This grotesque appearance revealed its cracking, rotting, brown and yellow teeth. The troll grunts at the other and they both walk in like stiff statues as the crust on their bodies crumble around them. John shuffles back to the mat he found himself on completely horrified by the contrast of the two.
the larger troll starts mumbling something to the decayed one and walks off, leaving john with the other. John looks around the room and taps around his sides, he was looted of all his possessions. The troll with him suddenly sits and leans his Hammer against his shoulder and continues to watch John. John looks back at the troll and sees more grotesque details about him. his singed, large chunks of muscle was missing from many segments of his body under dry skin patches, and his left torso was missing a breast, revealing a large hole riddled patch of muscle from the center of his chest to the ball of his should. This wasp nest patch was also on his right leg in a jagged line from his inner thigh to his knee cap ending with a bony calf somehow holding on to a normal looking foot.
the troll suddenly takes a deep sigh. still uncomfortable, John sits up right and crosses his legs to get comfortable enough to relax a bit.
John: (thinking) ... okay. so, I'm obviously not dead which means they want something from me, which could also mean that Casper is alive somewhere. Hopefully... trolls aren't normally good at keeping people alive unless they find them useful in some way. most of the time, like the goblins and orcs, they would usually take women for breeding if they don't have a female in their horde while the men are killed... but these are bunker trolls. I guess they're different. I know they are more territorial that normal trolls from the surface, which explains why we got attacked, but why would they keep us alive? ... the fat one had a neat looking pickax on him, and I know most bunker trolls are miners, so maybe they are using us as miners too? But what for? we won't be of any use and our life span isn't as long as theirs...
Meanwhile elsewhere...
Casper wakes up in a cell and looks around rubbing his head from the ringing in his ears. He spots the beastman John tried to save sitting against the wall staring at him. Casper notices his balance was off and check for his sword. It was gone with his armor. He clicks his tongue and tries to think. As he thinks, he notices a guard pass by with a familiar satchel that sounded like it had stones in it. He instantly knew it was John's. He watches as the guard goes to talk to another troll dressed oddly in old tribal clothes he couldn't recognize where he saw them though. he couldn't understand what they were saying, but he couldn't shake the feeling that their situation wasn't normal.