One of my PCs is interested in playing a troll, via the Savage Species Progressions. I wanted to "troll" the waters as it were, and see if there was anything regarding Sasserine that might make a troll a bad choice. (Like in Waterdeep, the history of the city makes the city rather short-tempered with trolls, despite its cosmopolitan nature.)
Has Sasserine had any bad relations with Trolls? Would an ice troll or otherwise variant troll potentially not have as bad of a reaction?
Finally, there was an idea for the troll to be completely amnesiac, as a result of being completely ground to paste during a keelhauling. I'm making a DM call on the nature of regen (at least troll regen) affecting memories and personality, so we don't need to start any arguments on that sticky subject.
But an interesting idea was presented: if he was keelhauled across several miles of ocean, with the occasionaly come up for air to keep him from drowing and possibly switch him to an anchor dragging, what sorts of debris would get stuck in him? (This debris clog idea was presented to justify the savage species progression, the slow return of size and regen and such). Chunks of coral (valuable or worthless) has already come to mind, as would be small chunks of timber (the sailors might have been particularily nasty and thrown empty crates into the water in front of the boat while he was being keelhauled).
Any ideas for other items for him to occasionally expel as his regen copes with the trauma?
Hehe, I like this. At some point he has to have a terrible hacking cough.
*hack*
*cough cough*
*Blech*
A boot lands on the ground.
"I was wondering where that was!" puts on boot.
Some suggestions:
Boots, Tires, Chunks of driftwood, coral, fish skeletons, dolphin skeletons, a turtle shell, a bunch of sea stars, kelp, a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle, a monkey skeleton, a mandolin. For some reason I see this troll just being filled with junk.
Well, I don´t think an ice troll would fit into the tropical environment of Sasserine.
What kind of ship would have a troll aboard and keelhaul him ? AFAIK, keelhauling is a very severe, often (but not always) lethal punishment, normally done to sailors found for example sleeping on their watch. So, a ship would have to have a troll in its crew to make this idea viable. And for a troll with its regenerative abilities, this punishment loses much of its danger and thus the deterring potential of punishment.
MINOR SPOILER AHEAD
I would think it much more logical that this troll hails from the surrounding jungle. Perhaps he was caught and some unscrupulous souls tried to sell him as an exotic monster, keeping him subdued with fire all the time. The whole thing went haywire, the troll was badly burned and has to heal normally (explaining why his regeneration kicks in so slowly). Somehow, this experience changed him from being a ravenous beast into a somewhat rationale creature, probably deadly afraid of fire, even more than normal trolls. Perhaps a kindly soul nurtured him back to health for whatever reason, teaching him some reason and morals in the process (and conveniently providing a future contact for the character to become involved with the story). Perhaps he was (for some as yet obscure reason) on the ship of the Vanderborens when it burned down, and survived barely, and wants to find out why he was on the ship in first place and why it burned.
Stefan
|
On a similar vein, MM3 has forest trolls in it. Don't have the precise stats, but they are medium size, fairly intelligent (about the same as a human), about 4HD and have fast healing rather that regeneration (i.e. rather more balanced for a character). As stated above, an ice troll would not be very appropriate for a distinctly tropical campaign. A forest troll, maybe from the jungle, might be a better bet.
The player decided to go with Ice Troll, to form a character tie with another player's glacial sorceror. While he will have some disadvantages in warmer climates, I can't find anything within the rules that makes a tropical climate fundamentaly inimicable to him.
He was keelhauled because he had stown away on board and was eating the supplies. Once the very unfreindly sailors realized he couldn't really be killed by the treatment, they kept doing it ("It is just a monster after all") all the way from the north to Sasserine. (I'm not neccessarily using the standard greyhawk map, so if that technically wouldn't be possible, no problem, my campaign.)
Good suggestions on debris, I was thinking I might make a "expulsion table" for random things he spews out. Might even put a couple minor magic items in him. Any suggestions?
A fish, which having survived in the troll's stomach long enough has gained regeneration of its own.
A bottle, with something in it (a simple message, a magic scroll, a tiny ship, etc.)
A single squid tentacle
Crockery
Seaweed
an eyeball of flare which allows the use of the flare spell 3/day, but to use it the owner must replace one of his eyes with it.
a cutlass
rope
a glass floater (the kind used to buoy a fisher's nets)
another cutlass
a parrot (dead)
a crab (possibly alive)
half of an anchor
clothes
bottle of rum
a few coins or a gem
a seagull
barnacles
Maybe he's got something alive in him inflicting regular damage by nibbling... this would account for an (effectively) lowered regeneration rate, and would allow in the case of an ice troll for him to look something like an aquarium! You could even name the little parasites, like party mascots. Later, when the troll hits his full regeneration, you rule that his immune system kicks out the critter(s), or that they die, etc... (OK, maybe that's a bit goofy, but no more so than having an ice troll character in the first place.)
There was once an orc rogue in my party who smoked troll meat just enough to have an infinite supply of jerky.
My suggestion is a 1974 Louisiana license plate (go watch "Jaws" again). Just kidding.
More constructively, what about finding a message in a bottle at some point. Particularly if you want to introduce some fact or sidetrek. Maybe it contains a treasure map.
Arrrrr. Missed the bottle suggestion in an earlier post. Great minds think alike, at least I hope that it the case.
Lemmywink!!!
Lemmywink?
Sorry..."Lemmiwinks."
Aha! "South Park": gotcha. But (shudder), not even Vanthus is THAT low... or is he?