Trowls
Long ago, the dragons sent by the Eshu scrawled Runes, the ancient and complex markings in which lies the secrets of creation, into the stone of the mountains where they laired. The magic of the Rune symbols transformed the rock and gave it flesh, blood and bone. The Trowls, over thousands of years, awoke from their inanimate slumber to carve vast kingdoms in beds of granite and slate.
Appearance
Trowls seem so old and rigid, they look carved from solid rock. In stature they are small and bent, resembling elderly humans with oversized heads, hands and feet. Their hands possess only three fingers. When they transform, (see “Personality”) their hands and feet ironically do not increase in size. These are the warning signs that Trowls are not as feeble as they appear. They possess no hair to speak of, but calcium deposits, stalagmites, stalagtites, moss, grass, fungus, lichens, mold, and stringy vines they do let grow on them in mockery of human hair.
Their eyes can be the color of coal, or as bright as diamonds, but are always large and pupil less. Their bodies are covered in ancient runes, carefully and painfully chiseled into their tough skin at “birth,” (see below).
Personality
The Trowls are slow to act, and slow to anger, but when their ire is raised, they become truly horrifying. When enraged, a Trowl transforms into a broad shouldered, ten foot, rocky behemoth, covered in runes and chalky spirals. In this stage, Trowls are little more than single minded, angry juggernauts bent on destroying enemies. When they are calm, Trowls carry centuries of knowledge, even if they have a hard time recalling it or getting it into words.
Habitat
Trowls live in the mountains, hills and caves, where they can most easily find the precious stone they craft from. For the promotion of their race, they cannot leave the rock for long. They prefer, quiet, dark places of surety and security. They look unfavorably on things built of unsound materials.
Society
Trowls start life off as pure rock. When a new member of the clan is desired or needed, an existing Trowl will work at a single piece of stone for days, months, or years, until they are satisfied or until need declares the task finished. After a new Trowl clan member has been sculpted, the elders place the animating runes on the Trowl and it becomes flesh and blood inside, with organs and all. Trowl skin is actually a soft, claylike substance which simply hardens over time to become stone-like. So in this way, new Trowls are created, not birthed.
The highest tiers of Trowl society are the “Stone Princes.” The more immaculately carved a Trowl is, the higher level in society he/she will occupy. Since the arrival of humans, many Trowls have looked to them for inspiration and many Stone Princes resemble or are outright copies of ancient kings or heroes.
Adventures
Trowls will often leave the clan in search of inspiration for a new creation, more exotic tools with which to work the stone, in search of a lost or stolen item of value, or in search of a new material to craft from.
Trowls are commonly found in Halvmir, Cadwal, Bosemya, and Te'Nebra.
Max Caps
Powers
- Sculpt Stone: A Trowl can rumble and hum, calling on the original sounds of creation, causing vibrations which shape and sculpt the rock around them. Messages and trail markings can be etched into the rock, or simple rock weapons can be carved from cave walls or boulders. This also means that holes can be hollowed in walls with time. For instance, if a Trowl is the victim of a cave-in, he/she can eventually get out, whereas a normal person might be trapped forever. Say, ten minutes for a cubic foot of stone?
- Transformation: It is unwise to underestimate a Trowl because of its small, exaggerated stature, for when they become angry, they transform into huge brutes, capable of crushing and bashing smaller creatures. And when they transform, there aren’t many creatures that aren’t smaller than them. It takes a Trowl one full round to transform (being rock and all, they are slow to move), at the end of which it has grown to ten or twelve feet in height so that now its hands and feet seem proportionate in size to the rest of them. A savage fury takes them, like the momentum of a rock rolling down a hill. If a Trowl is the victim of taunting, insults, or has their ire roused in any way, a Self-Control check must be passed with a DL of 13, or he/she immediately transforms.
In this form, a Trowl’s Muscle, Endurance and Presence increase by 2, and will always pass Courage checks, while Self-Control, Personality, Persuasion, Intellect, Insight and Cunning all are reduced by 3, but to no lower than 1. This lasts for three rounds after the Trowl’s anger has played out, or until a Self-Control check is passed.
