Teaser: Jonstown Compendium entry

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 13:54:59 -0800


A teaser for a trolls' magical practice I've been thinking of writing up:

>From the Jonstown Compendium, entry #182,466:

A strange report from Sword Sage Hothrik of Heortland: "While traveling, my companions and I were set upon by bandits. We drove them off, but one of my retainers was wounded, and I lacked the skill to heal him. His wounds were not great, but were so painful that I feared he would die of exhaustion before we could reach help.

The second night after the ambush, a powerful Dark Man appeared by the wounded man's pallet, slipping unnoticed past the guard on watch. Before I could move, he threw himself on the wounded man, seeming to tear at him with his teeth--but after a moment's shock, I saw that the Dark Man was not actually injuring my servant, though the teeth appeared to rip into his flesh (yet leaving no mark behind). After a short time he stood up, and to my amazement my servant was sleeping peacefully, no longer in pain.

The Dark Man said to me in halting Heortling speech, 'I go? Or we fight?' He was unarmed, but so large and strong that I preferred not to press the issue. I responded, 'You may go. But what did you do?' He answered, 'No pain in Good Home' (by which I surmise he meant the Trolls' Hell before the Sun came). 'I eat pain, make this into Good Home.' He then vanished into the night.

My servant no longer seemed troubled by his wounds, and healed rapidly thereafter. When we reached my temple, I consulted a sage who knew of the Uz and their gods. He could not explain the troll's behavior, and said it did not comport with any of their known cults. He was shocked when I sketched the ritual scarring on the troll's face and arms, as he said the scars were most like those of the Zorak Zoran berserkers--whose behavior is certainly very different from that we saw!"

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