UNDERHALLS OF THE TROLL KING



Hook: Folk in The Village have been complaining of hearing sounds coming from behind a wall in the undercroft of the local inn... The wall had previously been repaired after a crack in the foundation from shifting earth revealed a narrow natural tunnel too small for most people... A cold, wet breeze filtered through it. One of the reasons the room was used for cold storage. Now, it seems the innkeeper and the local leader want to widen the crack and pay handsomely to send in a group of people to investigate to see if there is anything to worry about. In this part of the world, anything is possible, and no one is truly safe from harm. The hinterlands are where natural and magical things go to escape the noise of civilisation. It is conceivable someone, or some thing, moved into or resides in the land beneath The Village.

Details: In reality, the narrow tunnel connects to a larger cave complex left in the granite by water deposits from the days it was cooling magma. A monster lives there, now... If left too long, the creature's spawn will slither up and into the inn's undercroft, and attack anyone down there and eat any stores. Additionally, long ago, before The Village was present, a troll community built their home adjacent to the caves... They sacrifice prisoners and slaves to the thing, to keep it mollified. Though the trolls don't intend to attack the surface, they will not likely be very friendly (they are fiercely territorial, like moles, which is the heraldic device seen most commonly inside the complex, for the god of shifting earth, Zûr-Zóárák (ZOOR zoh-AWR-awk)), unless relations are extremely diplomatic. They are servants of the god of evil and darkness, in addition to their own local petty god, but, their outpost is relatively peaceful. They do outmatch the villagers. They mostly mine the local caves for minerals and gemstones they turn into precious treasures they guard jealously and pass out to those deserving, should they seek alliance or friendship with them. If anyone wanders down into the troll complex, they will either be killed outright, fed to the monster, marked for sacrifice to their gods, or stripped of their gear, detained, and held captive in the slave pen, forced to work the mine until the troll king can hold proper audience with them and address why they are interfering.

The trolls know The Village lies above them. They mined into The Village's well shaft, years ago, but, rather than invade, they kept a guard there, to monitor the activity they hear, and report any news of import. The trolls simply wish to work their crafts and remain left alone. How characters interact with them is up to them. They may parlay, make peace, or make war, but, the leaders of The Village simply asked for reconnaissance... Either way, the trolls are lazy, but, very disciplined, good fighters, and they have more strength than most man-sized surface dwellers, individually.

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