Trolls Will Be Trolls 4e – Part 2

Hey there space cadets! This is Part 2 in a series of posts where I share my conversion of Heron Prior’s Trolls Will Be Trolls One-Page Dungeon to 4th edition. I strongly recommend you all take a look at that link, as it’s a very cool dungeon! It will also give context to the encounters below.

You can find Part 1 here.

Each part in the series will detail my specific monsters and encounter layout for the different rooms in the dungeon. Any specific treasure will be noted; otherwise, it’s up to the DM to determine how many (if any) treasure parcels are found in each location.

I hope you guys enjoy these write ups, and if you use them please let me know how it went!

Area 2: Upper Guardroom

Setup

If the players came in via the front entrance (encountering Kelgg the Gatekeeper along the way), they will follow the tunnel up into a huge open space. Cracks in the ceiling provide dim light, which illuminates an odd scene.

One troll staggers around the room or slumps against a wall, singing a horrific song in a drunken slur (characters who speak Giant can get the gist of it, which is unpleasant to say the least). Three half-trolls (two are short and square with knobbly green skin and beards of lichen, the other has tusks and is a mottled brownish color reminiscent of an ogre) are playing a game of horseshoes, their ears plugged with cloth. A large cave bear sits  in a corner, chewing on bones.

Players with good perception checks (and low-light vision) may notice two other trolls arguing with each other in a small cave connected to the main room. An eye-watering stench of urine and fecal matter wafts from the cave, tainting the room.

There are three methods of egress from the Upper Guardroom; the main entrance, a tunnel to the north which leads to Area 4, and a tunnel to the west that leads down to Area 3.

The trolls here will not attack on sight unless the PCs have drawn weapons. It’s not uncommon to see strangers of a variety of races come into Vulture’s Crag on business with Stencheye. The drunken troll will, however, engage the PCs and demand to know why they are here if they progress into the room. Failed bluff checks will lead to combat with the drunk troll (the half-trolls will join in); the two trolls in the cave will join in if they hear/see spells being cast (arcane, divine, elemental, primal, psionic, etc). Alternately, if the fight is going well for the PCs one of the half-troll’s will try to summon the two trolls from the cave to help.

Tactics

The drunken troll rushes into combat against the nearest enemy and attacks until that person is dead or not moving, then moves to the next closest person. The drunk troll fights to the death.

The half-troll warriors stay back and use their Poison Arrow attacks against mobile or unarmored PCs, and then move in to take them down.

The two trolls from the caves, if they engage, will move into melee and attempt to take down the nearer targets. They use simple tactics, trusting that their regeneration will keep them up against their foes.

If the party starts throwing around fire or acid, the trolls will first try to kill that player as fast as possible; if prevented from doing so, they will run if bloodied.

Running trolls will alert the rest of Vulture’s Crag, putting the whole place on alert.

Features of the Room

• Dim illumination throughout the main room via cracks in the ceiling (no illumination at night).
• The small cave has a couple torches in sconces on the wall, shedding dim light.
• The stink coming from the small cave is really powerful; any non-troll standing in or within 3 squares of the cave takes a -2 penalty to all defenses.
• Blood has been spilled in this room many times; some of the rock has absorbed enough that it is now bloodrock. Any creature standing on a square of bloodrock scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Combatants

Regular trolls can be found in the Compendium, here. They have been reprinted in the Monster Vault, and can be found in the Monster Manual (although I recommend updating them to the new Monster Manual 3 math. See this link for how to do so).

Notes

Caves of Carnage is a good set of dungeon tiles to use here, if you have them. The drunk troll has the same stats as a normal troll with the following additional trait:

Drunk: this creature grants combat advantage to its foes, and starts combat with 20 temp HP.