Roleplayer #24, June 1991
Norse Trolls
Monstrous Foes for Viking Adventure
by Graeme Davis
In GURPS
Vikings (rush out and buy it now!) I made the conscious
decision to restrict myself to sources from the Viking Age. This cuts out
a lot of wonderful stories from later Scandinavian folklore and literature,
right up to Peer Gynt and The Three Billy-Goats Gruff.
This article presents a miscellany of information and ideas based on post-Viking
Scandinavian folklore, which can easily be incorporated into a Vikings
campaign. Most of it could be used in a GURPS
Fantasy campaign, as well.
Troll Types
The Troll race seems to have undergone a period of great diversification
shortly after Christianity became widespread in their homelands. This may
be the effect of Christianity driving them to the edge of extinction, or
a depleted gene-pool causing wild-card mutations, or it may be that the
word "Troll" was erroneously applied to other creatures. Be that
as it may, here are a few possible sub-races:
Cliff Trolls
Cliff Trolls vary in size, but are little seen; possibly they have some
kind of natural or magical camouflage, or have developed great stealth and
hiding skills. They are also highly skilled climbers, as might be expected.
They specialize in throwing people off cliffs; their favorite tactic is
to cut the ropes of egg-collectors, although they will also seize people
who wander too close to a cliff-edge, and throw them to their doom on the
rocks below.
No one has ever had a close look at a Cliff Troll; the most that anyone
ever sees is a hairy arm reaching out from behind a rock. They will avoid
cliffs which have been blessed by a Christian priest, but it is wise to
leave them one area of cliffs which they can call their own; if they are
entirely robbed of their home, they become vicious and the situation can
end up in outright war. With their stealth and concealment skills, Cliff
Trolls make deadly terrorists.
Sea Trolls
Sea Trolls generally live in sea-caves, and lay claim to a stretch of water
surrounding their homes. They are fully amphibious, and can grow to immense
size; some tales tell of a pair of arms reaching out of the water and crushing
the hull of an eight-oared faering, or dragging it under with a
single pull. Like the Cliff Trolls, Sea Trolls avoid being seen, and most
people will only see a pair of huge, hairy arms reaching up out of the water.
Lesser Trolls
These vicious little creatures were mentioned in passing in GURPS
Vikings. Much like Goblins, they are small, individually weak
and cowardly, and prefer to attack in large numbers (and, if possible, from
ambush), overwhelming a single victim. Their precise size and shape varies
widely: some have tails and/or animal legs, some look like ugly little humans,
and some can have multiple forms, often masquerading as a child or farm
animal to cause chaos.
Greater Trolls
Some of the Trolls of folklore grow to enormous size -- at least as big
as the true Giants of Norse mythology. These Greater Trolls tend to be rather
slow and stupid, but their strength is immense. They can pick up buildings
(especially churches) and throw them several miles, and they can do the
same with building-size boulders. They can drink a whole lake at a single
draught, or create a new one by leaving a footprint across the course of
a river. They are mainly used in folklore to explain geographical features,
but could make a deadly opponent for Viking PCs in a mythic campaign
Advantages and Disadvantages
GURPS
Fantasy Folk lists several new racial advantages which
would be appropriate for folklore Trolls. Because of the extreme diversity
of the race, however, not all of them are suitable for all Trolls -- this
is the reason for omitting any Fantasy Folk-style
listing of advantages and disadvantages. Weaknesses are discussed in detail
below; the rest can be listed in two categories -- those which most Trolls
will have, and those which some Trolls will have.
Common advantages include Damage Resistance, Dark Vision, Claws
(+2) and Early Maturation (9 years).
Occasional advantages include Regeneration and Re-growth (see below),
and Increased Strength.
Common disadvantages include Dying Race, Phobia (Christianity),
Reduced IQ, Ugly Appearance and Weakness (Sunlight).
An occasional disadvantage is Inconvenient Size; this is most common
among trolls with Increased Strength. Some Trolls have an actual Weakness
with respect to Christianity.
A Note on Regeneration
Ever since the first days of roleplaying, it has been an accepted truth
that Trolls always regenerate. This, along with the green skin, impressive
warts and three-foot nose with which Trolls are commonly depicted, seems
to have originated in Poul Anderson's fantasy novel The Broken Sword,
better known as Three Hearts and Three Lions.
Some Trolls from Scandinavian myth and folklore do have rapid healing abilities,
but more often they have phenomenally high DR and PD scores. Regeneration
and Regrowth are suitable advantages for some Trolls, to be sure, but the
GM should be aware that, in Scandinavian tradition at least, they are optional
rather than mandatory.
Weaknesses
In post-Viking folklore, Trolls have two outstanding weaknesses -- sunlight
and Christianity. The precise effects vary from individual to individual;
sometimes a Troll can actually enter a church without suffering more than
a little discomfort, while other Trolls are turned to stone by the sound
of church bells. Similarly, some Trolls are wounded by sunlight, while others
are petrified or killed. GURPS Fantasy Folk covers
the Weakness disadvantage on a racial basis, but Trolls are a diverse lot,
and the GM might decide that although the race as a whole invariably suffers
from one or both of these weaknesses, the level can vary from Troll to Troll.
For readers without GURPS Fantasy Folk, here's
a summary of Weakness:
A creature with a Weakness suffers actual damage through exposure to
a certain substance or condition. The value of the disadvantage is a function
of the amount of damage (or the rate at which damage is accrued) and the
rarity of the cause. 1d per minute is worth -20 points, 1d per 5 minutes
is worth -10, and 1d per 30 minutes is worth -5. This base value is halved
if the damage caused is Fa-tigue rather than hit points. It is also halved
if the cause is very rare, and doubled or even tripled if the cause is common.
The amount of damage, and whether it comes from Fatigue or hit points, is
a matter for the GM to determine, and will vary from Troll to Troll.
Sunlight is pretty common, but can be avoided by adopting a nocturnal lifestyle,
so a doubling of the base disadvantage value would be appropriate.
Christianity spreads over time -- it is very rare (half value) prior to
about AD 900, and moderately common (normal value) between 900-1000. After
1000 it becomes very common (double value). A rarer weakness is to the sound
of one's own name. This would appear to be a terrible disadvantage, but
it only seems to take effect when the name is pronounced by a Christian.
A whole adventure could revolve around the task of finding out the name
of a Troll who is terrorizing a community.
Troll Magic
Several stories feature Trollish magic, giving a rather mixed set of spells
to work from. I've made no attempt here to integrate these effects into
the GURPS magic system; this is up to the individual
GM. In many cases they are better used as major plot elements rather than
as day-to-day NPC magic.
Lure
This spell can be used to draw a victim to the Troll's lair from a distance
of several miles. The caster must have some idea of the victim's identity
(e.g. Rolf Gunnarson, or the farmer by Gudbrandsdal, or the priest of Slingsby).
If the victim is a devout Christian, or if prayers are said for the victim
by a devout Christian (and note that devoutness has only a slight connection
with Clerical Investment!) the victim has a bonus to resist the spell. This
bonus should be in proportion to the Troll's magical ability and the GM's
estimation of the devoutness of the Christians involved. If the spell is
not resisted successfully, the victim enters a kind of trance, and makes
his way to the Troll's lair unless forcibly restrained until dawn.
Curse
A Troll with magical ability can curse a place or person to barrenness.
A cursed field will bear no crops (in extreme cases, nothing at all will
grow there -- not even weeds), a cursed lake or stream will become empty
of fish, and a cursed person or animal will become completely sterile. This
spell is also available to hedge-wizards, wise women and mystics.
Fog
Trolls can call down a fog so thick that visibility is literally zero. It
covers a comparatively small area -- no larger than a single field, usually
-- but the fog is so dense that they can approach a cart under its cover
and abduct someone from a cart without anyone in the cart noticing until
the fog clears.
Stocks
Trolls are very fond of kidnapping humans -- especially children (for eating)
and young women (for a worse fate). Some species of Trolls, like the Kunal-Trow
of Norse Orkney, must actually take a human wife, because the troll-wives
are infertile. A favorite trick to delay discovery and pursuit is to leave
a stock behind in place of the victim. This is a cunningly-carved
wooden replica of the victim, which is good enough to fool most humans --
although priests can sometimes recognize them for what they are.
The victim is abducted at night. The stock is found and assumed to be their
corpse. Funeral arrangements are made for the person who "died in the
night," and it is not usually until the stock is about to be buried
that the officiating priest notices that it is made of wood. This gives
the Trolls a good head start (up to a couple of days) before any rescue
attempts are made.
(To recognize a stock, roll vs. any medical skill, or its default, at a
-6. A Christian gets a +2. A modern physician would get no extra bonus;
this is magic, not science! Anyone with Magery would have their normal chance
to detect the stock as an enchanted item, but the only thing they would
be likely to think would be "That corpse is enchanted." They still
wouldn't realize it wasn't real unless they made the medical roll.)
Errata from Roleplayer #25: The article on Norse Trolls
states that The Broken Sword is also known as Three
Hearts and Three Lions. This proves not to be the case; they're
different books. The regenerating troll appears in the latter.
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