Rock Trolls
So there I was, outside the cave where the 'trolls' were known to lair. I had a bandolier with a number of vials of acid strapped across my torso, arrows ready to be lit, and my trusty wand of fireballs. The plan was to send a couple of fireballs into the cave, then wait for anything to come out and hit them with flaming arrows until they got close enough for the acid. Tried and true, goodbye trolls.
I was stoking the fire so it would be ready for the arrows when I heard - felt, really - some heavy footsteps coming from behind. I turned around, and behind me was this enormous thing that looked like a kid's snowman made out of rocks. Eyes that looked like chunks of obsidian stared at me, taking in everything I had set up. I had never seen anything like it, and let me tell you, pure terror filled me for a moment. Like I said, it looked to be made of rocks, and I wasn't really prepared to do any mining at the moment.
Well, the creature made a noise that sounded like confusion, then decided it was going to ignore me. It didn't ignore my pack, though - it grabbed it from the ground and started rooting around in there. Sounded like it was sniffing at things while it was doing it, too. As it ignored me, I was able to bring the fear under control for a bit and tried to put my mind to what I was seeing. The creature stood somewhere around 10 feet tall. It had a definite hunch to its shoulders, and I never saw it try to stand fully erect, so that's the best guess I can give you. It's skin was the texture and color of granite, and there seemed to be some lichen growing in spots. It was structured like a tor, with slabs of stone sitting on top of each other in a mostly humanoid shape. The head sat directly on the torso, and looked like a boulder with a slit for a mouth, a vaguely defined nose, and those obsidian eyes. The arms and legs were just slabs of stone, with no obvious way to bend although bend they did. Its hands looked like rocks until it opened them, at which point they looked like a bunch of rocks jammed together.
I guess it didn't find what it was looking for in my bag, because it turned to me. It bent over to be closer to my level, and gave me a sniff. The eyes twinkled as it did, and something like a smile crossed its 'face'. It grabbed my money pouch - I did not object, as I am fond of myself and didn't know whether I could stop it. It opened the pouch, and proceeded to dump it on the ground. It ignored the coins, but seemed pretty happy about the gems I keep for trading purposes. It picked up the garnets and amethysts, held them to its nose, and drew in a deep breath. He seemed ready to pop them in his mouth, then looked down at me. Next, he started to root around in the bag he was carrying - it matched his coloring, so I hadn't even realized it wasn't a part of him until then. Hells, thinking about it now, it may have been a part of him.
Well, he dug around in that pouch for a bit - and I use "he" here, but I couldn't even begin to guess as to whether or not it was male or female, or whether those words had any meaning for it - then pulled out a handful of sticks. He held them out to me, and raised the gems in his other hand beside them. I worked out that he was offering a trade. The gems were kind of low quality, but obviously worth a lot more than sticks, so I was clearly getting the short end of the stick in the deal, if you'll pardon the pun. But I figured grabbing that stick and taking it would not only keep the thing from attacking me, it might lead to learning a bit more about this thing. I took them, and the creature smiled. He opened his mouth, and his teeth looked like black crystals that had grown together. He popped an amethyst in his mouth, and started chewing away with a smile. The other gems he put in his pouch, then he started to walk past me, directly towards the troll cave.
Well, I was well and truly baffled at this point. Did he know there were trolls in there? Was he friends with the trolls, or was he heading in to attack them? I didn't know, but I was going to find out. I followed the creature to the cave entrance, where I stood just outside and watched him go in. It became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to see anything in the dim light, so I crept in just far enough to get out of the sun. When I did, I saw there weren't any trolls at all! Just a bunch of large rock piles scattered about. Then my rock pile sat down, and the other ones started to move. My rock pile dug in his bag and started pulling out various chunks of rock. I recognized some marble and some slate, and others that I had no name for, that not really being my area. he stacked them up, and a few of the other creatures took some and started to munch. Then he went to one in particular, and offered up the garnets he took from me. This one smiled, took one of the garnets, and then slammed its fist into the shoulder of my rock beast. This seemed to be affectionate, as there was no retaliation, and the other one ate the garnet.
Well, at this point I had gotten the idea - these were the trolls that the people of the village had told me about. I have no idea why they called them trolls - they seemed to have pretty much nothing in common with the trolls I know besides their size. They didn't seem really likely to be a threat to the village, and could end up being a trade partner if we could work out a way to communicate. I began to make my way out of the cave, when my rock pile waved a hand at me. I realized I hadn't been as stealthy as I thought, and was grateful that these particular creatures didn't think I was on the menu. I waved back, and exited.
I couldn't think of a better name for the creatures, and doubted I could get the locals to not call them trolls, so I have christened them "rock trolls". I've studied them a bit more over the years, and found that while they can be quite vicious if provoked, as a general rule they don't care about the existence of us meat based creatures. They aren't the smartest, but they have a language of their own, and can be taught common. It sounds a bit weird coming from them, but its understandable.
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