Trolls are a race of humanoids of widely varying shapes and abilities. Tho they fall into certain broad categories, there is no such thing as a standard troll. This essay will talk about the origins of the trolls , both as a race and a species. First tho, a word of Introduction would be in order, I am Ben vu Rish a scholar-naturalist and high priest of the temple of forgotten Gods. It is true that self-important fools have tried to deny the first, and ridicule the second position I have earned; the facts remain that I am indeed a leader of trolls and priests, and have contributed more to the knowledge of trolls and related subjects than any being in living memory. Thus it was a lucky coincidence that brought myself and the editor together.

This essay is unique, if I may say so myself, in that its view and organization of 'sub-species' of trolls shows that they are integral to the races unique form of reproduction. Tho this essay will only touch upon the subjects of troll religion and sociology I feel that it will develop a paradigm far more useful than the myopic views my colleagues typically expound.

Trolls are virtually unique in two respects, they regenerate damage and seem to completely lack organs of reproduction. These form a happy coincidence. Simply trolls have no natural enemies and only a hostile, intelligent foe stands any chance of destroying a troll utterly. Thus if trolls reproduced in a normal fashion we would soon be crowded off all the world's land masses. This simple work of intellect should lay to rest any claims by my misguided colleagues of trolls having 'low sex drives' , and reproductive organs that are used once and then rot off (!). The question of how trolls reproduce is central to understanding their widely varying natures and religions but most naturalists view these questions as inexplicable and therefor , unimportant. Yet I have been publicly humiliated on several occasions for shedding lite on this important subject! I wish to repeat, despite lies given by young fools that wish to make a name for themselves (as well as certain older researchers that should know better) there have been no cases of trolls being seen in the act of reproduction.

How then do trolls replenish their losses to the slow ravages of time and mischance? Rather than answer that here let us look at the publicly agreed upon aspects of troll's natures.

Trolls are ugly brutes that are very individual in their personal appearance. Trolls often seem ideally fitted to there immediate environment. For example, there was a troll that lived in an underground cavern that was filled with a scaffolding secreted by the caverns original inhabitants. This troll had extraordinarily long arms, prehensile toes, and over-developed eyes & ears to allow it to navigate in the near perfect darkness of the cave. This troll also regenerated all damage except for drowning damage (in the bone dry caves this is an extreamely unlikely occurrence). We are expected to believe that this troll wandered tho the world until it found this spot it was so ideally suited for. This in the face of the fact the trolls are rarely seen wandering (except if on a religious quest). Why then, do some trolls seem to choose to live in areas that are so wildly unsuitable to them, like the ill-fated troll that insisted on living under, and stealing food from the molitov bottling factory?

The trolls always can regenerate all damage except damage from one particular source, typically fire damage, for example. Why do trolls always have this tremendous advantage (and built in weakness?) This is another question that is not regarded as important by most naturalists.

Most intelligent races are concerned with religion and worship their gods en mass. Why do trolls always seem to worship their gods individually rather than organizing and concentrating on, say, one troll god? (And trolls are widely known for worshipping the strangest of gods). And what is the trolls strange relationship with deities that each troll save some very, very old ones have? Why do so many trolls serve as acolytes in organized religions content to follow orders with out hope of advancement?

The answers to these questions would solve the mystery of trolls and I immediately recognized the importance of the relationship between gods and trolls . I embarked on my search to define this relationship and started to question priests, seers, trolls, and even the gods themselves.

I learned from the priests that when some task must be done occasionally a troll would show up and offer to help. They did not know why they typically got trolls other than the trolls special abilities made them capable of handling the job. Obviously the gods chose trolls because A) this was the best the god could do, or B) trolls were in some way convenient. Most priests due to their narrow-mindedness refused to even discuss the first possibility (indeed became dangerous ) but a few offered such arguments (admittedly in an unseemly emotional manner ) to convince me that this was a low probability. Why then do gods prefer trolls?

Thru the help of a beautiful seeress that was quite enamored with me I embarked on a quest to discover the troll's secret. After the most terrible of dangers and foul betrayals (or whom Yathill gnor Im will forever be known), I found myself losing hope of ever discovering the troll's secret. I cursed those that put their own selfish goals ahead of those of undying knowledge. And I called upon the gods to aid me on my noble quest. That night the last of my stupid guides deserted me. Tirelessly I trekked on, defeating legions of unspeakable horrors single-handed. That night I slept in a ring of standing stones with a fire with me on the little mound at the center of the decaying circle. As I slept I had a dream in which I was cast upon a barren plain, blown by a vampiric wind that fed on my warmth and soul. Slow fires burned on the land and in the air, and the land was a smoldering lifelessness.

Every attempt of mine to leave that terrible place was met by damnable problems in logic. Finally I called upon those that had brought me here. "Release me" I called, "Why have I been banished here?" A dancing flame stopped before me and said, "Some knowledge is beyond Man's patience", Freezing and burnt I could only nod. "There are some things I would tell you but what payment can you offer?", the flame asked. "Let me leave.", I begged. "I have need of you. Yet you think only of yourself, forgetting even your 'grand' purpose.", the flame sneered. "What do you want?" "Your service.", the flame boomed. On that terrible place I wished only to quickly agree to what the flame asked. The flames words were slow and awful , carrying a compulsion to do as they bid. But I could not do as they demanded. I remained silent, shaking, until a wall of flame crawled onto me. "No, no. I can't serve you. Let me go, I must be free!", I screamed. "Why?" "Please so I can tell every one what I learn!" The flame roared up. "Obey!", the god screamed thru every thread of me. I moved to obey but even as my lips moved to swear fealty to him the words choked in my mouth and I said nothing. I was laying in my camp.

A cold mist had flowed over everything and my fire was out, the wood unburnt. Shapes stirred in the mist, mist trolls slid in thru the stones. I was terrified for I knew I had disappointed the flame's purpose. The first of the three trolls moved onto the mound to my left. Stumbling back I traced the sigil of barriers before me. It was an empty gesture for I command no magic but the trolls stopped and looked at each other. "Depart from this place.", I screamed, "Leave me." The troll stepped a half step closer. "This is the resting place of Remm na Trev, the leader of a forgotten people and the last of the priest/wizards of the God Ishtal rennor. We remember. There are curses and prophecies about this place. Who are you?"

"I'm the scholar-naturalist, Ben vu Rish." I cursed myself inwardly, then, for knowing I was not a wizard they might test my sigil.

"It is said that a hated scholar atheist will build a temple here."

"I know there are gods.", I said wondering what the curses were.

There was an ominous pause and the smallest troll started forward. "Do you worship any God?", the leader suddenly asked, interrupting the smaller's advance.

"No.", I said hastily.

"In the old language the words agnostic and atheist are the same. We are to serve the one that builds this temple."

"So you worship this Ishtal rennor?"

"No , none of us do." "Then why do you want me to build a temple to him?" "The temple doesn't have to be to him.", the troll said carefully.

"And if I don't build this temple?"

"We will eat you."

It turned out that the trolls were oned (strange term ) by the Gods Mestor em Sassof, Eoinef, and Assew lemm of the mist. They would naturally prefer if the temple were to their gods. I agreed thinking a) I could always sneak away, or b) I could help them build some sort of rude hut temple thus fulfilling my part of the bargain. Then a strange thing happened; I started to enjoy helping the trolls. The fine fellows were loyal and hard working and accepted my advice on how to lay out the temple most politely. A few days later another troll came along and offered his services as a carpenter and we gratefully accepted. I became high Priest to a large group of forgotten or almost forgotten gods. Any god that deigned to answer our worship was built a new wing or building onto the temple complex. (Tho I never did any thing for Ishtal rennor and the fine trio also kept their silence.) Far from being forced to stay with the temple I often go for long trips accompanied by dozens of loyal followers. On these trips I have studied religious worship and architecture.

My studies continue, however. By carefully divining the thoughts of several Gods I am now the worlds foremost expert of trolls.

Trolls come into being only due to a God's presence or intervention. A troll seems to be a simple form for Gods to create, perhaps trolls are stronger forms of elementals or spirits. Certainly trolls can be divided into those that display elemental properties and those that show a spirit-like development. This was in fact the tact taken by the late researcher Wanth to Hemme. His wonderful writings first engaged my interest in trolls. He, however, was defeated by the variable natures of trolls, simply was this an artificial division, nor did it have a relationship to trolls true natures.

Trolls that have an especial affinity or weakness to the basic elements are by far the most common form of troll. Examples would include trolls that can't regenerate fire or stone damage. Also consider the large number of troll forms that live in the water. The remaining trolls vary as widely and as individually as spirits do. It is worth noting that those spirits that are extremely common have a little cluster of similar trolls. As we will see there are any number of variations of trolls that live in woods. Once in a great while a powerful troll is come upon that does not fit comfortably into the above categories. W. to Hemmests will suggest a strange powerful spirit became a troll. It is now my own theory (a B. vu Rishish theory if you will) that some, at least, of these powerful trolls were created by Gods to fill special purposes. The perfect example of this was the troll that was in the caves 8 km south of Star's Landing Crater. The entire area is accursed and overgrown with strange plants hostile to unwary travellers. Old towns and cities once existed there, but none remain within 150 km. In my researches of lost civilizations (this civilization did not die but moved, taking its Gods with them ) I learned that a troll lived in the caves that was of tremendous power.

I immediately decided to meet this troll. During the trek to the caves we gradually came across an increasing number of plants and animals of forms I had never seen before. These creatures are regularly venomed with a strength-sapping poison and are dangerous to eat. If I had not been a trained naturalist and been accompanied by a large group of trolls (which allows one to learn quickly by trial and error) we might not have survived. Happily we are poisonous to them also and the far greater numbers of regular plants and animals are pushing this alien region back. The wardens of life also have done much to burn back the evil white plants and my temple now has a beautiful shrine for the wardens' patron spirit. When we finally reached the caves we found the whole region was overgrown by a web of white rods typically 2-5m long. The caves were filled with these rods and the troll, Status , was living inside.

(Editor's note: for reasons of clarity and space Mr Rish's description of the conversation with the troll Status and its powers has been deleted. Status in TFT terms is :

ST 25
DX 15
IQ 18
MA 8/14 ( 14 while climbing scaffolding )

Fist 2d+2
Armor -3 hits / attack
Regenerates 4 hits / turn except drowning / smothering damage.
When saving vs. alien poison treat ST as *2.
Additionally Status is immune to all forms of psionics magic, and
can eat the alien life.

The story I got out of Status was that these spider-like creatures used their fire magic to destroy human cities completely and burnt all life for a wide area. Then by encouraging their own plants and animals they started expanding their foot hold on this dimension at the rate of 20-30km / summer month. Status then moved into the hive spider's cave and, finding they tasted good, stayed. Tho narrowly escaping being evaporated by the hive spiders on several occasions, Status eventually ate them all. The human survivors moved away or continued to fight the now leaderless advance of the white plants. The plants are very hardy and only in the last decade have the wardens started to push back the infected area. The only other thing I learned of interest to us here, is that Status is not affiliated with any God at all. I suspect from Status' changing point of view that he was some sort of god that took on a troll's shape in order to fight the hive spiders. Obviously the transformation was one way so he tampered with his own memory so as to not brood over his own sacrifice. It may also be that he was created by a coalition of Gods and was given background information to begin with.

The editor has asked me to include a table listing common trolls and tell a little about each. This I did, but then he asked me to give the percentage chance of meeting each type of troll. As well as listing this incredible number he asked me to 'juggle' the percentages so as to fit these percentages onto a bell curve. Lastly When I asked where this hypothetical spot was the editor told me to 'pick a typical spot'. I pointed out that the chances of finding one of the underwater varieties of troll on land was remote, he said, "Oh, give them about 5%". Despite his assurances to the contrary, such a table would be of no conceivable use to anyone. I now know he is brain damaged and any one that would want to use such a table is also brain damaged. If he wants such a table he can invent it himself. Rest assured that a 'troll probability table' has no bearing on the real world.

Ben va Rish

This table is intended to be used by PC's when rolling up troll player characters. Also GM's can use it to generate random varieties of trolls when a troll encounter is called for. In the later case GM's must remember that it is unlikely for a hill troll to be found away from the hills. The best way for a GM to use this table would be to first roll one die: on anything but a six use the troll(s) most likely to be found in that area (i.e. at a bridge in the woods use either a bridge or a woods troll). If a six is rolled then roll on the troll probability table, discarding any impossible results.

The table is split into two parts: Common trolls (that adventurers would often run into), and exotic trolls, when rolling on the troll table, first roll one die to determine which 1/2 sub able to use.

Exotic Trolls ( 5-6 on first roll to determine table )

All trolls vary widely, and will be +/- 10% the values listed on the table.

* means as explained in the text.

' means these vary very widely. The values will very from -60% to +300%.

Typical Hits means the bonus typically added to Fist Damage for that troll's claws.

Trolls do not fear anything, not even their weakness (they don't know how to fear). They are smart enough to attack people who are using their weakness against them.

Any attack that destroys EVERY troll cell can destroy a troll. Thus hot enough fire can pretty much destroy any troll, (but most trolls will regenerate the fire damage for a long time).

a) Mace type weapons do non-regenerating damage.

b) A similar type of troll called a Pass Troll can be found in mountain passes. It is 3 hexes and has a ST of about 130'.

c) Just how still the water must be is up to the GM.

d) Edged weapons do 1/3 damage after any armor.

e) Also commonly found hanging from eves.

f) Often have treeish magics. This is a highly variable troll.

g) Designed for some purpose. See GM.

h) As above but not as powerful, or as tightly focused. See GM.

i) Found in high mountains. This troll and everyone one around (if it so wishes) may walk on clouds while in its presence.

j) Only figures in the air, doing physical attacks can harm this troll.

k) Pure aluminum does +12, non-regenerating damage as well as Adamantine.

l) In HTH it does (1/2 its basic ST) in fire damage per turn.

m) The easiest way for a GM to make an Unusual troll is to randomly choose one troll, and then pick a random exception to its regeneration rule.

n) In HTH it does (its basic ST) in fire damage per turn.

o) A hopeless troll is one that has a exception to the regeneration rule that is completely inappropriate for the area where it lives (e.g. a swamp troll living in a molitov factory). Strangely these trolls normally do not move to safer quarters. GM's may allow PC's to reroll.

p) Weapons of solid air do full damage, each liter of air that bubbles thru them does 1d damage.

q) Can do wind effects like the whirl wind spell.

r) The wood weapons are general usable only once. Does (Three times * basic ST) in fire damage per turn.

s) Typically attributes for trolls in the service of a temple. Its weakness might be anything, but it is not unknown to be holy weapons of that religion.

t) This troll can attack two ways: crushing (roll per fist damage) or by drowning (mist gets so thick that water fills the target's lungs. Treat as being held underwater). It is hurt by being in a fire and throwing sand thru it (it regenerates fire damage normally). Sand has no effect with out fire. RED HOT SAND thrown thru it does 6d+6 damage.

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