The Champion Cave Troll in Kryta, known as “Larry” on Piken Square is really a tragic, sad figure. Look at the reality of it:
Larry is not out rampaging, ever on his own. So what does he do? Obvious, he sits at home and eats worms while admiring his pretty rocks with pictures. Heck half the time Ida goes in, gets her bait, and Larry is never an issue. So what is really going on here?
So why is all this happening? Well The Rune Thief, being too spineless to actually confront Larry or even to ask his permission sends some gullible dupe in to steal Larry’s ONLY possession, his rock. When he runs out to get it back, she suckers a pack of gullible treasure hunters to kill him for her, because she’s not only spineless but weak, and then she takes his rock and BREAKS IT INTO PIECES, selling them as Trinkets. She’s not after knowledge, she’s a common thief. Even if she is after knowledge, Larry speaks and understands language so he’s clearly sentient, and owns the rune. Unwilling to take no for an answer, she resorts to theft and then murder to acquire it.
So what do I suggest? Obviously the villain here is the Rune Thief. Not even having a NAME destroys all chance of her being seen as someone after important artifacts, she is simply a thief. So fix the quest. On arrival at the cave, the players see Larry moping outside “Stupid woman take Larry’s onliest rock and kick Larry out!” and that spawns the Champion Rune Thief. The players run inside the cave, and find a power-mad and quite irrational woman using Runic Magic to fire bolts and blasts everywhere shouting things like “It’s mine now, No one can take it from me! The power is MINE!” and after a battle she is defeated. The players go inside and find Larry back inside with his rock, and he sells Grubby Troll Cookies to players, which act as food of some sort. A 10% xp boost to lowbies better than some trinket with the same stats as 4 or 5 other low level trinkets.
Just a suggestion, as these games always assume because someone is a troll, or a human determines if they are good or evil. Larry isn’t evil, he’s just seriously irate after having his ONLY possession stolen repeatedly by some spineless thief and her flunkies.
