Flood troll

From PathfinderWiki
Flood troll
(Creature)

Type
Humanoid
(giant)
CR
2
Environment
Temperate swamps or rivers
Alignment
Source: Battle of Bloodmarch Hill, pg(s). 88

Flood trolls, called aruk-taii (meaning half-scrags) in the Giant language, are the results of dwarfism within scrags.1

Appearance

Flood trolls are tall and gangly, with a thick hide of mottled blue, protruding yellowed canines, narrow slits for eyes, and large, powerful hands that end in wicked claws. Flood trolls average seven and a half feet tall and weigh 250 pounds.1

Ecology

Every scrag brood has a small chance of producing a flood troll, which increases with the size of the brood. Young flood trolls are invariably smaller, more frail and grow more slowly than normal young scrags. This makes them undesirable to their mothers and likely to be eaten by their stronger siblings. If not abandoned by their mothers, flood trolls are treated as lesser beings by the rest of their family, and most flee before coming of age, preferring to fend for themselves in the wilderness rather than be abused by their family. The exception is when a brood includes twin flood trolls (aruk-taikii) whom scrags view as an omen of storms and floods to come, which cannot be dealt with by abandoning them. Instead, the twins' mother and sisters pamper them as much as possible, albeit reluctantly, in order to appease the weather gods according to the scrags' superstitions.1

Unlike scrags, flood trolls are not amphibious, but their regeneration powers rely on water that is continually refreshed with minerals and oxygen, so they tend to live near rivers and areas with high precipitation. The mutation that produces flood trolls also renders them sterile, so they prefer to live alone, steeped in ire for all living things: they are born amid hatred and rejection and expect to die the same way.1

Abandoned flood trolls survive in the wilds by sticking close to a freshwater source, and those who fail to find one are usually eaten by wolves or similar predators.1

Society

Flood trolls are nomadic, closely following the herds of game and humanoid travel patterns. Due to their small size, they have to rely on stealth and traps to ambush prey. While smaller and less organised than scrags, flood trolls' solitary nature and desperation for food often drive them to commit atrocities that inevitably end up with their execution at the hands of the local humanoid population.1

Flood trolls are only seen in pairs if they are twins. Because flood troll twins are pampered by their mother, they tend to be more intelligent and creative than their solitary kin, and some few have learnt to use weapons or poison.1

On Golarion

Flood trolls lurk amid the craggy hills of Belkzen, Varisia and other wild lands of northern Avistan, and serve as a menace to orc raiders and human adventurers alike. Since they are more tolerant of aridity than scrags, flood trolls are more common in Belkzen, whose orcs claim that flood trolls wander over the Mindspin and Kodar ranges to flee their families in the Varisian wetlands. In the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and Irrisen, scrags near the Arcadian Ocean and Glacier Lake drive flood trolls south along the Marbleflow River or east toward the Gullik River.1

Though most common in Avistan, flood trolls are also encountered in Garund. The Zenj tribes of the Mwangi Expanse speak of blue-skinned humanoids called jeburo that stalk the riverbeds in the dry season and boldly attack villages in the storm season. A small number of flood trolls inhabit the Sodden Lands, preying on the humans in the land where rain is never lacking.1

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Tyler Beck, et al. “Bestiary” in Battle of Bloodmarch Hill, 88–89. Paizo Inc., 2015