I've been following this thread for a few days and just wanted to throw in my 2 clacks:-
Trolls are described in various places as being huge beasts with large
shoulders, strong skulls, tusks and large bellies, however also described
as being as agile as (frex) a human despite that. This adds extra weight
(pun accidental, I assure you) to Trolls having particularly strong leg
muscles. We also know they tend to huch over in a fight. They have long
arms. They have Darksense! So, based upon all thet and more, I'd analyze
the Troll unarmed fighting style to be as follows:-
Heavily punching based, since they have range and power. Their defense would be like a boxers, relying on their large, tough forearms to soak a lot of upper body hits, although they could afford to leave their head moreunguarded due to their tusks, thick skulls and meaty rounded shoulders for deflecting hits.
Kick-wise, the Trolls use them infrequently but to deadly effect, at long range always to the thigh or knee... a direct hit to such an area to anything short of another troll would almost certainly be a break, due to their weight more than anything else. I suspect almost entirely swinging kicks with the ball of the foot, instep or shins although a short ranged stamp to the knee, shin or foot would also fit.
The above is basically Muay Thai, let's face it.....
Grappling: Also big for trolls due to their weight and muscle power. Also, as regards biting, I suspect the intial grapple (if close rather than a throw or arm lock, etc) to include a lot of goring with the tusks... not biting as such, but a lot of damage could be inflicted by mashing the opponent's face with the tusks... facial cuts hurt and bleed a great deal. If they got a good hold, I would suspect a bite, likely finishing the fight, but I agree that that wouldn't be a tactic until the foe was more-or-less unmoving.
The above paints Trolls as deadly in unarmed combat and, AFAICS, there's no reason to suspect they wouldn't be. As an extra, the Trolls are natural blindfighters and have an accurate sense that functions in all directions around their body! Scary..... I can think of few reasons why a Troll martial art wouldn't exist, being a lot like Muay Thai with extra grappling elements thrown in. Note the fact that they would "spar" a lot with each other (thus gaining critical fighting experience) due to their brutal, violent natures and you have a set of MEAN unarmed fighters. Of course, not the equal of a good sword or spear, but get in close...
Vulnerable points: Few. Their ears and snout would probably be extremely
vulnerable to direct hits, if you are good or lucky enough. Their layers
of fat and slabs of muscle would give good defense against most blows, but
like all big fat people you'd be best off going for their knees, since
they're a critical point, holding up all that weight. Unfortunately, troll
bone structure is dense and the knees would be stronger than in humans
(since all trolls (uzko) are fat, but still, a good knee kick would F_at_!*
them up until it was healed.
Enough of that for now, I'm sure I could think of more, but I'll wait for responses.
BLOODSEEKER ARROWS:
Joerg was worried for his safety and posed a few questions, aimed I assume at Sandy but I'll throw my piece in anyway since I'm interested in all this:-
The arrows are looking for _you_, Joerg, and thus fly around inanimate objects. However, they have a limited ability to sense armour because it's so close to your body... it smells like you and your spirit permeates it slightly. So I'd say your armour counts. It could however sense shields, weapons, paving blocks etc used to parry with and would attempt to fly around them, but you might be able to parry if you were fast enough.
Their range is still IMO limited to the normal arrow range, but I qualify this with the suggestion that an elven cult (maybe the elf bow "cult") certainly has a stackable Battle Magic charm that greatly magnifies the range of the next arrow shot. So just don't be within a couple of miles of the shooter!
IMO the blood would need to be in liquid state but not fresh as such... there are many natural substances (both plant and animal-based) that prevent blood clotting in the RW, and presumably in Glorantha too (there's no reason to assume not). There is also probably a cheap spell available to some hunter cults that is a poor man's Seal Wound... it doesn't prevent healing, just blood clotting, meaning you could kill an animal by shooting it once and letting it bleed to death. Of course, you'd lose a lot of it's bodily water that way so you wouldn't want that in the Wastes, frex. But it would be very appropriate for elves. I'm not sure you'd be able to cast it on a bottle of blood, though... feels more like a weapon charm to me. But you could do that with saliva from a giant (insert bloodsucking animal here) or with sodium citrate from the rind of almost any citrus fruit, so no problems. Also, it doesn't have to be blood, it could be anything your body produces that has a nutrient the plant can use to grow... as Sandy said, sweat and dung both do the trick.
All my opinion of course, we'll see what Mr Petersen thinks...
Good luck avoiding the arrows, Joerg!
Until Later,
Paul.
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #482
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