Troll, Sewer

ECOLOGY

Environment any underground
Organization solitary or gang (2–5)
Treasure standard

Sewer trolls are close relations to both common trolls and scrags. They are much smaller, however, only weighing around 200 pounds and reaching up to 6 feet tall. Like normal trolls, sewer trolls possess regenerative powers that allow them to recover from almost any wound and even regrow limbs, though these powers can be thwarted by fire or acid. Their regeneration is significantly slower than a normal troll‘s, however.

Unlike the eyes of normal trolls, sewer trolls’ eyes are so sensitive to light that they are momentarily blinded by bright lights. Their eyes absorb ambient light, which damages the slimy membrane that covers them. As the membrane regenerates, a strange reaction causes the eyes to glow orange.

In addition to being smaller than normal trolls, sewer trolls are incredibly flexible and can squeeze through small spaces with ease. When the terrain is favorable, they hunt by ambushing prey from small spaces that don’t appear capable of harboring a threat.

Sewer trolls can eat almost anything, but prefer fresh meat, and like normal trolls they need a lot of food to power their regenerative abilities. Though they can subsist on subterranean fish, they prefer the warm blood and flesh of mammals.

Sewer trolls tend to lair underground in areas with a large prey population or ample sources of other nutrients.

While sewer trolls are common in some of the immense caves deep underground, their name derives from their lairs under the cities of the surface world. A major city often hosts dozens of the creatures, living in small family groups or lairing on their own. They rarely leave the sewers because of their light blindness, but they have been known to hide just below sewer grates and snatch children who walk too close. In times of desperate hunger, sewer trolls may leave the sewers, invariably at night. They stick to the shadows and ambush lone walkers, or sneak through windows to snatch babies from their cribs. Sewer trolls outside of their native environment are easily scared, but woe to the unprepared foe who follows them back into the sewers.

Sewer trolls sometimes join groups of normal trolls or, being semi-aquatic, groups of scrags, to benefit from safety in numbers. Their smaller size and weakness mean they’re often bullied by their more dangerous cousins, but many sewer trolls accept this as inevitable.

They typically have to do menial chores, like collecting rodents to eat if bigger game is scarce, or being the first to venture into unexplored caves, in exchange for protection.