OSR Games and Genres Mashups!

Just something quick, for fun! I will leave you to figure out how to make this work.

D8	Setting A	Setting B
1	Flying Swordsmen	Yoon-Suin: The Purple Land
2	Godbound	Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure
3	Silent Legions	Mazes & Minotaurs
4	Stars Without Numbers	Spears of the Dawn
5	Gamma World/Mutant Future	Carcosa
6	Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea	Weird Adventures
7	Rather than rolling on both, roll A twice
8	Rather than rolling on both, roll B twice

Godbound: The Oasis States and their God-Kings, Part 2

The nobles of the Oasis States are cursed. Oh, sure, they are perhaps among those in Arcem who posses the most divine-level powers outside of abandoned and forgotten Made Gods, dread Parasite Gods and of course the Godbound but is it worth it? Centuries of inbreeding and flesh-shaping has corroded their form and metaphysical nature. Even those who appear as shining golden transhuman divinities of flawless perfection aren't so perfect if one was to look at them on the inside. Maybe not so much in their organs, these could very well be perfectly formed. The issue run deeper, at the cellular and metaphysical level.

Egyptian Alien by Samurai Icecandy.

Degraded Demiurges

As previously stated, it stand to reason the nobles of the Oasis States are very similar to the Ancalian cousins. However it is possible their curse is somewhat different, especially if they used their flesh-shaping theurgy to create something a little more stable than the Ancalian Fae. Those very same modifications could also be their undoing. Some speculation on their nature and flaws:

• The presumably enhanced lifespan of the Oasian nobles could be a double-edged sword and possibly make their problems worse as they get older. Assuming their augmented bodies remain at least partially suceptible to problems like we do they could see an increased risk of cancer. Given their augmented divine physiology this cancer could be even more horrific and deadly than in humans, requiring intensive modification and repair from flesh-shaping theurge...which could very well cause new physical problems.
• Their presumed enhanced healing and regeneration could, likewise, also become an issue. While initially Oasian nobles may have healed faster and better (and without scarring) there may exist a chance that instabilities cause the process to fail or regenerate defective organs, turning what would have been a long but flawless healing process into a nightmare as what should have been a fully functional regrown severed hand into a hideous stump of deformed flesh. The answer? Obviously, more flesh-shaping. Do you see the issue here?
• What of their enhanced mental abilities? It is hard to say, but perhaps these complex brains were designed to be optimized for the post-scarcity, posthuman society of the Polyarchy of Kham. It is possible they are not wired to interact and understand more 'normal' humans. It is also possible these modifications were failures even before the fall of Kham in which case the Oasian have been perpetuating the development and nurture of sick and demented brains.

Overall there is little proof in the 'canon' of Godbound that any of the augmentations of the Oasian nobles were seen as fully completed, tested and stable modifications. Rather what seems more likely is that these were highly experimental and volatile experiments of the human form, mind and nature which somehow survived and were kept in existence via inbreeding, with mistakes corrected by horrific and ill-understood procedures which only made things worse in the long run.

What's wrong with THIS Oasian Noble?

While the current God King and Queen are beings of immense power and beauty (and insanity!) not every Oasian Noble is identical to these two, which are likely the product of the most intensive theo-eugenic breeding. No two noble share the same flaws but some flaws certainly run in the family as a result of inbreeding. Of course, sometimes it's the opposite: two families only distantly related breed in hope of diversifying their bloodline while remain posthuman demigods only for their wildly incompatible bloodline to produce a viable yet horribly unstable offspring. Others still suffer degradation for breeding with those of lower stock, inheriting incomplete sequences of soul-genes. There's just no winning for the Oasian nobles. Except maybe seeking help from a Godbound, Parasite God or Made God with suitably potent power over the Word of Health and Sorcery.

D20	OASIAN INSTABILITY
1-2	Minor Physical
3-4	1d4 Minor Physical
5-6	Minor Mental
7-8	1d4 Minor Mental
9-10	Minor Physical+Minor Mental
11-12	1d6 Minor Physical
13-14	Major Physical
15-16	Major Mental
17	Minor Physical+Major Mental
18	Minor Mental+Major Physical
19	Major Physical+Major Mental
20	Aberration

MINOR INSTABILITIES
D8	PHYSICAL	MENTAL
1	Repulsive Appearance: Be it googly eyes, massive over/underbite, large ears and crooked teeth, this noble is quite ugly.	Irascible: Biochemical imbalances and/or minor physical problems have made the noble notably easy to tick off.
2	Constant Cough: In spite of being technically more resilient than any mortal human in other aspects this noble is afflicted with an inexplicable respiratory problem.	Melancholic: This noble is prone to intense melancholy, depression and sometimes apathy as they lament the flaws of their existence.
3	Partially Paralyzed Limb: One or more limb is stiff and/or shrunken and misshapen. Alternatively the noble has a fused spine which make turning their head difficult.	Jumbled Memories: Sometimes the wires get crossed in ways they shouldn’t and this Oasian Noble has a terrible habit of misremembering events which happened moments ago.
4	Partially Blind: Either one eye is missing or malfunctioning or alternatively this noble suffers from heavy cataracts. Alternatively they have alien senses which are poor at perceiving colors and movement.	Nervous Tic: Pulling their nose or ears. Grinding of teeth. Rapid eye movement. For whatever reason this Noble is afflicted with some nervous tic which can become nearly self-destructive when stressed.
5	Rapid Aging: The Oasian Noble appear in their fifties and beyond in spite of whatever their actual biological age is. This can be an issue as it mean they may spend experience a century or more of life as an ailing old person.	Lethargic: This Oasian Noble is notoriously tired and blasé even when they don’t want to be. Unless their attention is focused on a task they will either enter a trance or fall asleep for hours on end.
6	Stunted Growth: Rather than a towering being of wrath and beauty, this Oasian Noble is stunted and dwarfish by their standards, barely able to escape the five feet mark.	Mood Swings: One moment this Oasian Noble is happy and the next they are ordering their subordinates be flayed alive. They can’t spend more than a few minutes without a complete switch of emotional state.
7	Repulsive Odor: This noble has some glandular problems and constantly sweat a disgusting smell. Alternatively they reek of chemicals used to stabilize their health.	Wild Imagination: This Noble live in it’s own fairy tale of a head and their augmented brain spend most of its processing capacity dreaming up make believe words.
8	Skin Grafts: This noble has scars indicating that flesh-sculpting was used to repair or improve their appearance.	Intense Phobia: There is something utterly mundane this Oasian Noble is afraid of: a certain word, a certain color or maybe rabbits. They will scream and flee from it like a vampire exposed to sunlight, no matter how silly.

MAJOR INSTABILITIES
D6	PHYSICAL	MENTAL
1	Crippled Body: This Oasian Noble has a weak and deformed body which is virtually useless for anything but walking around with braces, relying on Theurgy, augmentations or something else to function.	Mad Genius: This Noble is extremely intelligent and creative yet unable to focus this talent on anything useful to their society. They could be insane, degenerate artists or they could be criminal genius.
2	Veiled Monster: Deformed and twisted, this noble hide behind baroque clothes, masks or even illusion magic as it’s twisted form reject even flesh-sculpting.	Pathetic: Unlike the above, this Oasian Noble is a feeble creature. It is pitiable, weak of spirit and of mind and only kept around either due to its power or familial ties.
3	Atavistic Monstrosity: Rather than looking like a being beyond humanity this creature is ugly and bestial, the worst and most primitive traits of human appearance having reasserted themselves.	Murderous: This Noble should never be offended or else it will become mad and violent and use all it’s power at its disposal to inflict as much harm as possible on the offender.
4	Overstimulated Augmentations: Whatever augmentations this Noble have are visible, exaggerated and even grotesque. They look less like a posthuman god and more like an Uncreated monster.	Obsessive: A single thing or subject consume the Oasian Noble’s mind. It could be something harmless, which make them a shut in or it could be disemboweling live kittens. Usually the latter.
5	Flesh Sculpting Addict: This Oasian Noble has over-relied on flesh sculpting to the point they look artificial and waxy in an attempt to perfect their appearance.	Disconnected From Humanity: This Oasian Noble has a hard time grasping the limitations of baser forms of humanity and cannot understand they are individuals.
6	Siamese Twins: These two-in-one nobles are conjoined twins. Twice the power and ego and twice the insanity.	Delusions of Godhood: Technically speaking, the Oasian Nobles are a form of posthuman divinity but this Noble takes it to a new extreme: they speak in third person, are ridiculously grandiose and obsessed with never showing sign of weakness or mortality.

D4	ABERRATION
1-2	Curse of the Cousins: This Oasian Noble suffer from a degeneration much like the Ancalian Cousins, requiring flesh blood and minds to replenish what their transhuman bodies can no longer produce.
2	The Crackles: Specialized Prana-Canals and other theurgic organs exist inside this Noble and suffer from a major defect in that the Noble may undergo spontaneous combustion when attempting massive feats of sorcery. Unfortunately for the noble, such events are not fatal...but painful.
3	Unstable Form: Beautiful and perfect on the outside, this Oasian Noble hide a terrible secret. When inflicted severe damage their flesh will revolt and twist in horrific ways as new limbs and organs sprout at random.

Godbound: The Oasis States and their God-Kings, Part 1

Transhumanism via magical means plays an important role in the backstory of Godbound's default realm, Arcem and there are two locales where this is most obvious: Ancalia and the Oasis States. Both share a common origin in the Polyarchy of Kham. In the Oasis States this legacy is incredibly obvious due to their entire society being shaped by intensive amount of genetic modification and eugenics...and inbreeding.

Ra by Jurgen Schwarz.

Transhuman Nobility

The nobility of the Oasis States are, in many ways, little different from the Ancalian Cousins or 'Fae': both are impossibly distorted and augmented lineages of post humanity which have become biologically, mentally and metaphysically different from the original human stock. However where the Ancalian cousins retreated into their barrows and away from civilization when their modifications became unable to fully sustain them the Oasian nobles retreated to their pyramid-arcologies which could house whole communities. From inside these pyramids they maintained their existence and ruled as god-kings, free to pursue their eugenic modifications.

The idea that the Oasian nobles require inbreeding to properly manifest their gifts isn't actually that much of a stretch of the imagination, even if it is likely that it has partially manifested out of cultural reasons. What likely is the cause is simple: the early theo-eugenic experiments of the Polyarchy were extremely complex and likely depended on technology and sorcery which can no longer simply impart an unborn child with the desired modification, which manifest as Recessive Genes. As such producing children with unmodified humans would very much dilute the bloodline. Do keep in mind these would not be genes which would exist in ordinary humans and goes far beyond something as simple as, say, blue eyes: these would be extremely complex modifications born of reality-bending sorceries which would impart clearly superior abilities. Thus the Oasian eugenics go far beyond mere aesthetics or even racial theory but rather a desire to preserve masterworks of genetic engineering which cannot be replicated. To lose these traits would mean to lose actual divine power.

Nature of the Augmentations

It is likely that the core basis of the Polyarchy's modifications were rooted in what we'd still recognize as legitimate science and not the divine theurgy of the Godbound setting: simple genetic modification with no 'magic' involved. These likely began as relatively simple augmentations and repairs to the human body, which still exist in the genepool of the likes of Ancalia and even other regions of Arcem. It is quite likely even lowly laborers in the Oasis States posses such genetic augmentations and they are (generally) not what the God-Kings seek to preserve.

Rather the abilities the divine nobility of the Oasian are much more intense than mere corrections and slight augmentations of the human body. These likely began as extensions of the corrections: the ability to see more colors, quicker healing, enhanced organ regeneration and increased cranial capacity. From there, more complex modifications which required advanced Theurgy would be crafted, birthing beings of enhanced physical and mental capacity, who age very slowly, have senses no humans have and posses an innate ability to tap into complex reality-controlling process and learning said process, making them innately gifted at Theurgy.

Posthuman Castes

It stand to reason that, just as a ruling caste of augmented, posthuman rulers would emerge then so too would other castes would. This also make sense as it allows the eugenicist to focus on certain traits and abilities and focus on maintaining and refining them to the best of their abilities.

• The God-King/God-Queens were and are the pinnacle of Oasian eugenics and were even in the days of the Polyarchy. They were the elite oligarch of certain ideotribes who had already augmented themselves above their brethren. Presumably their bloodline is the most direct line of descent from the greatest founders of the Polyarchy. They were and still are divine beings which are meant to be immensely powerful, impossibly beautiful and innately magically gifted. Their closest counterpart would be the Prince of Dawn but presumably the current God King and Queen are way more mentally unstable, demented beings who live in a haze of madness and who can barely grasp human existence.
• Presumably there exist a Lesser Nobles caste of some kind, although it may not originally have been intended to exist. These would presumably be the most advanced and augmented bloodlines which survived the collapse of the Polyarchy without dying and degenerating beyond repair. These beings would, presumably, be the most varied in nature, appearance and focus of their augmentations, with some being more focused on mental tasks while others are impossibly beautiful messenger and courtesan and others are warrior-generals of equal physical and mental might.
• There presumably has to be an Elite Warrior caste of some kind. These would presumably be distant relatives of the nobles and God-Kings whose sole purpose is to be bodyguards and elite enforces...as well as potentially being those who execute their relatives when their degeneration become too much of a problem.
• Different from the other lineages would be a proper caste of Lesser Warriors who are nothing short of genetically engineered brutes and foot soldiers, more elite than ordinary soldiers but still very much below the Elite Warriors. These are presumably bred for maximum efficiency and loyalty at the cost of anything resemblance true intelligence. Some of these creatures are animalistic in design, sporting heads more like beasts than humans.

Below all these would be all other variations of the human form: some merely byproducts of natural selection and population while others are produced as specialized servants by eugenicist. The lot of these people likely is a rather terrible one and some might even be crippled with horrible deformities with no positive transhuman modifications to compensate.

Random World Part 8: Goblins, Gremlins, Dwarves and more!

When it come to the monster 'niche' of this still-unnamed world, it goes somewhat like this on a scale of pure combat monster to full-blown NPC race: Orcs, Trolls and Goblins. The category of 'goblins' is one which cast an even wider net in term of creature variations than even trolls. Like them, they are ancient beings steeped in ancient secrets, wild magic and an ancestry going back to trickster spirits made flesh.

"Did you say....GOBLINS?!"

Honest talk here: I've not developped goblins as much as I should but this lazyness does serve a purpose in that, if I want/need my various goblin types and tribes to be interesting, unique and most importantly weird I basically need to keep things vague as they are the most versatile of the major monster types fleshed out so far, down to having one of their own as a playable option: Dwarves. While I'm just as much prone to lore obssesion as anybody, I've become increasingly aware that 'lore' is useless if it is not practical to produce adventure material.

Goblin Physiology and Psychology

Need to find artist on this.

Where the Troll is ancient, mighty and filled with primal hunger and power (but also, at times, wisdom) the Goblin is it's cousin steeped in magic, mysticism, trickery and deceit. Both are tied to wild and dark places but goblins differ from trolls in both size and their greater ability to form societies.

• Goblins, like Trolls, traces their ancestry to the forgotten origins of the world.
• Goblins are small in size, ranging from the truly diminutive imp and pixie-like gremlins to the almost human-sized dwarves and hobgoblins. Their power is rarely, if ever physical. Size and might is not what they are known for compared to Trolls.
• Like Trolls they have sharp senses and underground-living Goblinoids dislike bright lights.
• They are much more likely to display openly magical abilities but these are powers of illusion, trickery, mind control and/or witchcraft.
• Goblins aren't always evil, but they are rarely if ever forthright on any matter. Trickery, lies and deceit is their very blood. There is a certain alien-ness to them which contrast with the brutality and simplicity of their distant Troll cousins.
• Some goblins organize in 'goblin courts', which are ruled by Goblin-Kings/Queens. Folklore has made out goblin-queens to be beautiful and fae-like beings but...well, even I doubt this is true. It is more likely that powerful goblins use their powers of illusion to appear taller and more beautiful.

Their societies vary between simple holes in the ground where they hide treasures to small, primitively organized goblin-towns. These places are rarely seen by humans as they are hidden in the deepest caves, the darkest forests or in the forgotten underground sewers of antediluvian human and pre-human cities. In these places, old goblin-witches brew potion recipes unknown to outsiders, cast mysterious and ill-understood spells and perhaps enact foul rituals whose purpose is unknown to all but goblins.

Known Goblin Sub-races

This is but a mere sample of known goblin sub-types. Do keep in mind quite a bit is derived purely from human classification of these creatures and does not always reflect any true category.

• Gnomes: An alternate name given to forest-dwelling goblins.
• Gremlins: These are the smallest of goblins and the least intelligent. They are twisted, weird little buggers who love to inflict malicious pranks. Their shapes are rather varied.
• Hobgoblins: Magically-empowered servants and guardians to goblin and human witches and sorcerers.
• Kobold: A type of mountain-dwelling goblinoid. Hairy, scabby and blue.

Goblins Adventures & Encounters

More than Trolls and Orcs, Goblins are a flexible lot as far as monster categories go for the unnamed Random World. They can be anywhere on the monster-to-people spectrum. However one thing to keep in mind is that goblin-related combat is very rarely going to descend into an all-out violent brawl unless they are either fighting well-armed hobgoblins or if the goblins panic and proceed to overwhelm a party with sheer numbers.

1. The party has accidentally walked into a patch of wilderness which is claimed by a local primitive goblin clan. Should they camp in the area the goblins will attack at night with guerrilla warfare and/or steal their stuff.
2. As above but the goblins create complex illusions to confuse the party, who seemingly wakes up in a different locale.
3. A group of elite goblin-knights are out hunting on their frog mounts. They aren't picky for what they are hunting and if they encounter the party there is a chance they might decide to hunt them. As goblins aren't known for frontal assaults, they will retreat the moment they take any significant damage and proceed to harass the party over long distance via their almost tireless hopping mounts.
4. The local lord has had his court magician summon and empower hobgoblins to restore order to his politically unstable land. While obedient to their current master, goblin nature is goblin nature and they tend to cause trouble on purpose when bored.
5. Gremlins have cast confusion on the local priest repeatedly as a joke. Unfortunately the long-term effects of the spell have driven him to murderous, genocidal rage. Oops.
6. The party need some magic items or a curse lifted: the strongest local spell caster is a goblin-witch who will ask for a really bizarre favor.
7. House spirit-type goblins have invaded a village and are 'trying to help'. Apparently they have peculiar tastes when it come to redecoration and it is turning to arson and broken windows.
8. The local goblin lord which to make an alliance with a nearby village of humans: both his court and some humans resist the idea on the basis that they find this distasteful.
9. Hobgoblins serving a local witch or sorcerer have organized into an efficient, mafia-like society.
10. A group of apprentice goblin-witches have been experiment 'for fun'. A side effect is that the region is now infested with monsters created from stolen poultry and cattle.

Dwarves

Dwarf by Matthew Melmeth

Of all the goblin races, Dwarves are the most akin to humans in appearance and mannerism, if only barely. Creatures of earth, hills and mountains they are as elusive as other goblins yet the least hostile and the most likely to trade with humans. Unlike other goblins, they are considered a playable race.

• A mortal (albeit long-lived) goblin sub-type, even if they may not consider themselves to be goblins.
• Look like short, hairy wizened men. They tend to have odd features such as bulbous noses, pointy ears crooked teeth, unibrow, long nails, a lot of wild hair and sometimes have unusual skin color which can be yellow, brown or grey among other colors. These vary between dwarven clans.
• Insular beings who only interact with humans to trade. They are aloof and mistrust humans.
• While they can be aloof, dwarves are still tricksters and their magic is one of illusions.
• In addition, they are well known for forging magical weapons and armors. However, anyone trying to buy something from a dwarf should know better, as they are not above selling cursed junk to people they dislike.
• That said, by goblin standards they are quite strong and tough. They are more than capable of handling themselves in a direct confrontation. In times of war they have been known to field actual armies.

As such, Dwarves can be described as the most 'normal' of the goblins and in, many ways, very much your typical fantasy dwarf: greedy mountain-dwellers, craftsmen and miners. The core difference, however, is that the fey and gnome-like nature of Dwarves is played up and they acquire a meaner streak as sullen and untrustworthy con-men and tricksters rather than honorable, alcoholic miniature vikings.

Random World Part 7: Hungry, Angry Trolls

Trolls are an ancient race, distant cousins to the races of goblin. No, that's wrong: they are precursors to mankind. That is also wrong: some myths say trolls are spirits cursed into a grotesque which reflect their base instincts. Or maybe trolls all of the above and none at the same time.

Troll Biology and Psychology

There aren't many conclusive evidences on the origins of trolls, only myths, legends and folklore and as such beyond the basic facts I intend to play fast and loose with how trolls are like. Research on the true origins of trolls is difficult as they tend to eat those who attempt to study them. All that can be fully confirmed is the following:

Troll by Abner Martin

• Trolls are ancient beings, often tied to primordial places and wild locales.
• They are large, hungry monstrous giants with a usually foul disposition. Trolls are angry and hungry and that basically form the basis of their entire mentality. They are simplistic in nature but they aren't all dumb.
• They usually have sharp senses. Some breeds, however, especially underground and nocturnal trolls can be partially or completely blind.
• Many troll breed dislike sunlight to a certain extent but this is hardly as universal as people believe.
• Magical abilities possessed by trolls can include regeneration, immunity to certain forms of damage, supernatural 'berserker rage' and camouflage with their local environment.
• Trolls vary widely in form, shape and attitude depending on the region but also between individuals.
• Troll Wyrd are trolls who display magical abilities which are quite uncommon to the rest of their kin, such as the ability to cast spells as Magic-Users do. They are strange-looking and very unique even by troll standards.
• There may or may not exist long-lost, ancient 'troll magic'.
• Trolls can cross-breed with other creatures, or at least could in the past, which explain beings such as Ogres, Ettins and Bugbears which supposedly posses human and/or goblin blood.

Trolls are often categorized by their environment, such as Mountain Trolls, Forest Trolls, Swamp Trolls and more. These aren't really cut and dry categories so much as classifications made by humans and other races to keep up with troll variations. They are true to a certain extent, however, as Trolls tend to reflect their environment.

Troll Wyrd

Trolls are ancient beings with potent, primordial (and often chaotic) magic in their very flesh, that much is a fact. A Troll Wyrd is a mutant troll born with truly unusual powers and appearance. These beings are randomly born from seemingly normal (if such a thing exist) troll parents for no apparent reasons. Crazier, stronger and often smarter than other trolls they are walking piles of chaos.

• Troll Wyrd are spontaneous mutations of trolls.
• They are easily noticed as being different from other trolls around them, usually due to bright colors.
• They are innate spellcasters but not all of them control their magic. Those who do become truly fearsome sorcerers.
• Some Troll Wyrds just burst with power and vomit energy in the form of brightly colored 'trollfire'. Sometimes Trollfire can cause spontaneous mutations in others.
• Their magic is either incredibly flashy and destructive or it is some fate-warping nonsense which suddenly make every sword swing miss and arrows bend their course and stab the butt of the archer. Fighting one can be very annoying.
• In spite of their apparent eccentric behavior, Troll Wyrd are potent magicians and often wise guru and hermits. It is not unknown for magicians to seek them out to learn spells and Troll Wyrd are usually more cooperative than other trolls. That doesn't mean what they demand in exchange for their service is safe and simple.

Ogres

Ogre by Kyle Bastian.

By far one of the more prolific Troll-kin, Ogres are comparatively more mundane than their ancestors. Their appearance is far more human-like, as they appear as large and grotesque human caricatures with a few monstrous traits, such as sharp teeth, abundant body hair, odd skin color or horns. They are more common than true Trolls but live much shorter lives, about the same as a human to sightly longer. They are more likely than trolls to produce stable, recognizable traits shared across a family or tribe such all having red skin or abundant red hair.

• Ogres are basically big, ugly troll-like humans. They are the byproduct of an ancient mixing of human and troll blood, some believe.
• Ogres are much more social than Trolls but only barely more likable: they are loud, boorish and over-the-top brutes and hedonist. An ogre isn't just a bigger and uglier human on the outside but also on the inside.
• Greed, lust, hunger and anger is what motivate them. As a result they are often mercenaries and bandits.
• They can crossbreed easily with humans to produce Half-Ogres. These creatures can use the Hobgoblin, Gnoll or even the Orcs stats but they are none of those.
• Ogre Wyrd are quite rare but is what we know as 'Ogre Mages'.
• Ettin are subrace of Ogres.

Troll Adventures and Encounters

Much like the Orc, the troll is very much a monster built for heart-pounding action and fear. However it doesn't have to be just that: trolls are capable of playing other roles and, provided they are offered some food and/or something shiny they may very well be placated long enough to talk and even let people go, at least for the more intelligent ones. Here are some adventure ideas for trolls beyond just fighting them when encountered in the wild.

1. A lone troll is encountered. Wizened and bent, this old creature speak in riddles and/or odd prophecies speaking of the future written in the bones of the earth. It is unlikely to attack unless provoked but it will most likely try to make life miserable if it gets frustrated at the party's inability to make sense of its riddles.
2. A smaller troll is looking for help to defeat a larger, older rival. It claim that his rival has a collection of magical items, which the troll would not mind giving if the rival is slain. Is this a trap? Who knows?
3. A Troll Wyrd is leading a band of bandits with its mind control powers. The bandits collect odd trinkets for the troll's fruitless magical experiments.
4. It's troll mating season and trolls are now kidnapping goats! NO! Not to breed with, that's disgusting: rather these are offerings to the females.
5. A raging troll is rampaging toward the village and the party are the only ones equipped to (maybe) defeat it. Even worse, it's coming any minute now. Worse still, the troll is on fire because the last people it encountered threw their torches at it.
6. When the party set up camp, the ground shake beneath them and a large earth-and-stone troll wakes up, confused by the noise and maybe smell of cooking food. It may or may not attack.
7. Troll activity has swelled in the region: in truth, ancient Troll Wyrds are preparing for an ancient troll ritual celebration....which will end in a lot of drinking followed by more drinking and eventually pillage of local alehouses.
8. A troll cook is wandering from town to town looking for things to spice up it's stew. It will probably go on a rampage when it knock at the door of a city with sufficiently armed guards willing to try to push the troll back.
9. A three-headed trolls is causing a rampage because it's three heads can't agree. As they wrestle for control, they are destroying whole villages. This is a regenerating troll: the solution is to cut them in three parts.
10. A local evil sorcerer has charmed a bunch of trolls and equipped them with spiky plate armor and giant war hammers. Good luck surviving that!