Wood Troll
Ogre
Taken by the Woods

BIOLOGY

Physiology

Trolls, being Ogres, universally have a frame and shape similar to a human woman's, even for a monster. In the case of the woodland troll, she is often extremely gaunt and slender, with prominent shoulders, extremely long limbs, and a combination of a lack of fat and a near total lack of muscular tone. Her skin is often an earthy shade such as gray, white-green, brown, beige, or even more exotic shades such as bright yellow or orange like an autumn tree's leaves. Her hair is often wild and ratty, and will usually be either a nasty, dirty shade, or a bright, colorful one, depending on the individual. Her eyes are a bright yellow and are often slit, though not universally. Her nose is extremely long and pointy, to the point one could compare it to a woodpecker's beak, while her teeth are long and yellowed, ending in points that aren't quite sharp but couldn't be described as blunt either. Her ears are pointy and long. Oftentimes, her body will be covered in scattered sections of warts, moles, and similar, and her fingernails are often long. Rarely patches of woodland bark or fungus may be found on her body, but this is most often the result of her shapeshifting abilities rather than a natural trait of her body. Similarly, for those who see no use for their shapeshifting, it may instead be a cultivated part of their magic workings instead.

Wood Trolls have an unnatural and fascinating ability to easily shift their form as they please, being able to warp their body's appearance in various fashions, such as to create weapons, rapidly heal wounds, and even outright shapeshift to mimic other creatures. Everything from pigment to skeletal structure to even biological makeup can change. However, the Troll has a limited supply of mass, and compared to some of its sibling Troll species, it cannot regrow limbs with ease. This also has the unique effect of making it so that when they transform, their overall mass is preserved - so the larger a form the Troll shifts into, the weaker, lighter, and more easily wounded she is, while the smaller a form, the stronger, the heavier, and the more durable she is. When a Wood Troll dies, their body will return to their "natural" state, regardless of how extensive their transformation was prior.

Intelligence

Wood Trolls are devious and crafty generally, having an instinctively cunning personality, though like most Trolls their hermit lifestyle means they are unlikely to be considered "traditionally intelligent" by human standards, as they shun more advanced ways of living in favor of their rustic ways of life. To underestimate their intelligence as a result has been the death of many a Troll hunter, as they are most often quite intelligent, often even moreso than most humans sent after them. In particular, Wood Trolls are skilled when it comes to tricking people, as well as mimicing the behaviors of various animals and people. However, their capricious and whimsical nature may often lead their mask to slip at the worst time, exposing them - though among the best of the Wood Trolls, this is hardly a concern at all. In general, to assume you are the Troll's better in wits is inviting ruin upon yourself, especially when foraying into the woodland that they call home and master so thoroughly. The tricks and schemes played by Wood Trolls upon the inhabitants of neighboring lands rivals the Fay when it comes to famous stories and tragedies inflicted upon man by these woodland monsters.

Diet

Wood Trolls are omnivorous, but like most trolls they have a fondness for cooked human meat. I place emphasis on it being cooked in the case of the Wood Trolls, as they never seem to eat a human raw under any circumstances, likely due to societal reasons. Sadly, the flesh of younger humans, especially infants, is most palatable to them. Other meals enjoyed by the Wood Trolls are various fungi and lichens, woodland insects, frogs and newts, and more rarely cooked woodland mammals or birds. They also often feed upon unique breads grown in hidden away fields, and despite a reputation as backwards woods dwellers, are actually somewhat skilled in agriculture.

Habitat

As one could expect from the name, Wood Trolls live exclusively in forested regions, far away from civilization. While most common in boreal woodland, they can also be found in temperate woodland from time to time as well. You will almost never find them outside their preferred woodland, and as a result it's rather easy to prepare for possible encounters with them depending on where you are headed - if you're not surrounded by trees, your odds of being turned into a stew by some Troll is unlikely.

Reproduction

Like all Trolls, Wood Trolls reproduce asexually, with new children being generated over time by a "mother" Troll, with every family unit typically only having one or two of these "mothers." However, thanks to their shapeshifting abilities, Wood Trolls are somewhat infamous for laying with humans in disguise, having disguised themselves as dashing young men to seduce fair maidens, often resulting in a child that seems human at first, but is actually a Wood Troll in disguise from birth.

SOCIOLOGY

Community

Despite an incorrect reputation of being hermits, Wood Trolls actually live in tightly knit family groups which can number in the dozens of members. These groups are centered around the resident Troll Mothers who have all authority inside the group, and are most likely to be Crones of all the members of the family - though exceptions exist, such as rare daughter Trolls also pursuing the path of the Crone, as well as substantially rare families of which every single Troll is a Crone. Their reputation as hermits more likely comes from how hidden away and sneaky the Trolls are, their lairs hidden in the depths of forests far from prying human eyes. Even their interactions with fellow Monsters are shrouded in obscurity and secret, as the Trollfolk of the woodland are especially mysterious and prone to isolation. Despite this, deals with other monsters and rarely even humans may be made, often in return for things which benefit these Trolls. Of the monsters, they are most prone to interacting with Dryads, often cultivating large amounts of Dryads to serve as personal minions and aids. Similarly, the more feral monsters such as some Beasts and most Vermin are often used as minions by the Wood Trolls, and Trolls are prone to manipulating paleolithic monsters such as Dire Wolves to do their bidding, often even cultivating groups of such monsters to worship them as deities. As well, the Wood Trolls, like most more intelligent Trollfolk, know well of the secrets of the Fay and how to deal with them in various ways. Finally, Wood Trolls often keep close connection with Witches, and they are the second largest Troll demographic for Crones to teach human women and girls the ways of Wyrd Magic and thus transform into Witches. Often, but not exclusively, these Witches are in many ways slaves to their Crone mistresses, forced to appease their ambitions and aims in order to continue learning the secrets of the Wyrd.

Technology

While the Wood Trolls live a rustic lifestyle and shun the ways of modernity, one must not underestimate their understanding of primitive technology and inventiveness when it comes to the ways of alchemy. Wood Trolls are skilled in making cottages, growing cropes, harvesting sap from trees, hosting charcoal for flame, and, especially, the ways of cooking meat and vegetables alike - their stews are exquisite I'm told, but be warned, a single taste may hide a nasty curse, or pieces of your blood and brothers in a foul trick. While not quite as adept in the art as Bog Trolls, Wood Trolls are expert portion makers, aided by their mastery of the Wyrd, and potion effects can range from rapid regeneration, terrible death, to more exotic things like changing one's sex, turning them into a tree, or forcing them into a sleep which will last decades. These potions can take the predictable form, btu they may also be hidden away in stews or coated on poison arrows.

Theology

As with most Trolls, the matters of religion are handled by the Crones - the Wyrd Mages who rule Troll society. Unlike most Ogres, Trolls do not worship Titan in any form, and instead worship the legendary first Troll, Freyja, a monster from the time before the moonfall. They also pay homage to Mon, but in a more indirect way, treating her as mor eof a force of nature, similar to how the annals claim Freyja treated her. Sacrifice is a cornerstone of worship of Freyja, most often in the fashion of burning a human alive while impaled with spears. Other methods of execution are also administered, but they are rare among Wood Trolls in comparison to other Troll groups. Similar to Bog Trolls, rare accounts of Wood Trolls worshiping the Outsider have also been recorded, and these groups are often some of the most hideously monstrous of Trolls I have ever had the displeasure of learning of.

Diplomacy

As with most Trolls, the woodland Trollfolk are both among the most diplomatic of monsters, and the most insidious and backstabbing. It is rare to encounter a Troll which does not invite conversation, even if she intends on killing you or wors,e and in many ways can the Trolls even be pacified by entering deals with them. These deals may even provide boons to the human, but they often come at a grisly price. I remember encountering a village which made a deal with the Trolls of a nearby wood - so long as the firstborn child of every family was given to the Trolls for feasting, the Trolls would bless them with good fortune and exponential growth. Eventually, the village grew into a city, and the people within it believed thaty they were powerful enough now that they no longer needed to pay the Trolls' tithe. They refused to offer the village's children, and the Trolls pretended that this was acceptable, promising to never steal another child. Over the next few nights, every woman in the city disappeared under mysterious circumstances, taken into the woods, never to be seen again. Any woman that came to settle in the city was taken away as well, and within months was the town abandoned, now serving as a ghostly testament to the grim price of treating with Trolls. Ambitious women often approach Trollfolk to learn the secrets of the Wyrd, but as in all things pertaining to Trolls, ti often results in a weighted deal that is more against their favor than not. Uniquely for monster-monster relations, deals between Trolls and other monster races often end similarly, with a temporary benefit in return for something harmful to the trading partner... and swift revenge if the deal is called off.

Hostility

As I have established, Wood Trolls are not inherently hostile to humans, but one could say they are inherently duplicitous and scheming regarding affairs with humans. A troll will act sweet and kind one moment, offering things the human desires, before turning on them when they feel it is time, often coaxing them into slavery or something worse. Wood Trolls are especially notable in this regard due to their talents as shapeshifters, often taking the shape of attractive humans in order to trick humans into schemes and traps. Despite this, there are examples of Troll-human interaction, at least among Wood Trolls, which do not end in tears, such as offering potions to those who need it out of pity or perhaps whimsy. Nonetheless, one must never assume a Troll has their best interests in heart - these cases are the exception, not the rule. Similar to the affairs of diplomacy, Wood Trolls treat monsters much the same, sweet at the first taste, bitter at the last. In this way, one could almost see Trolls as a rare "neutral" form of Monster, but do not get ahead of yourself - that the Trolls are more interested in their personal goals does not make them an ally, merely a competing enemy.

HUNTING

Range

Wood Trolls, like most Trolls, are largely only found in the northern regions of Stelen, especially the Edelan peninsula, where Trolls in generally most concentrated, as well as far northern Yuaja and some regions of eastern Stelen. They are limited to woodlands and as a result where in these regions one may find them can be easily predicted, but unfortunately due to their tendency to live deep in the woodland far from civilization it can be considerably difficult tracking down and finding their lair. Unverified reports of them being present in the northern regions of the Known World have been recorded, but I would not be surprised given geological evidence a massive bridge of ice once connected northern Yuaja with the northern regions of the New World. Unlike some similar Trolls, they are hardly ever encountered in the Oakmier Isles.

Magic

As with most Trolls, the woodland Trollfolk are masters of one of the rarest and most secretive arts of magic - the Wyrd, also known as the ways of Seithr. Sometimes known as wild or weird magic, Wyrd magic has potential in both sorcery and combat magic almost unseen in the sheer variety of what it can produce, from roaring green flames, to strangling tentacles, to even transforming unfortunate victims into animals such as lamb or toads. The wielders of this power are known as Crones, and are the rulers of Troll society at large, not just Wood Troll society. Crones are of course masters of Wyrd magic, but Wood Crones are also known as masters of nature and blood magic, and have talents and abilities to match. Like most Trolls, they have a magical aversion to normal fire and flame, due to Freyja's defeat by the god of the forge in ancient times. This is perhaps even more pronounced for Wood Trolls due to how often they partially shapeshift their bodies into more flammable materials such as wood. The effects of Wyrd magic are rather unpredictable, so one ought to prepare for anything when facing a Crone.

Combat

Normal Wood Trolls, when in combat, will often use their shapeshifting to their advantage, creating biological weapons such are blades, extra long teeth, horns and more, as well as instantly healing any non-severing wounds they obtain. If they feel outmatched, they will often change into a small animal in order to flee, and they may also shapeshifting into animals to intimidate or frighten a target, such as a wolf or bear - though in the latter case, they are actually at potentially their weakest when it comes to shapeshifting. They are all too willing to use primitive weapons in combat ranging from spears, to axes, to even simple knives. They're also known for using slings and shortbows.

Strengths

Extremely adept shapeshifting, extra strong when in a smaller form. Tricksy and can regenerate. Crones know Wyrd Magic.

Weaknesses

Extremely vulnerable to fire, cannot regenerate lost limbs, larger forms are very vulnerable to damage.

Final Summary

When facing a Troll, alone or in a group, bring fire. When it comes to Wood Trolls, keep a level head and try to face her in an area that's more open and does not invite the ability to use shade to transform and slip away. Be vigilant and prepared when facing a Crone, as you never know what you may witness.