Trulladon
Trulladons, sometimes called bridge trolls or elder trolls, are a species of monstrous, semi-sentient creatures descended from giants. They are most closely related to the common troll but lack the ravenous hunger and mutative limb autotomy that make trolls so culturally pervasive and reviled.
Trulladons can grow to absolutely enormous sizes and have an exceptionally slow metabolism, allowing them to seemingly merge with the landscape during periods of hibernation. Overtime, a trulladon's hide accumulates soil and flora that grows on the creature's body, protects it from the elements, and provides it with nutrients. This gives trulladons a highly attuned sense of their environment, with some reports claiming that trulladons can detect changes in the pH level of the soil, the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen in the air, and the onset of drought or flooding in the region.
To protect their external microbiomes from erosive conditions, trulladons have a strong affinity for resting in damp hollows and river beds. This causes many of them to seek out the bases of mortal structures, particularly bridges or aqueducts. Many legends of trulladons "guarding" dilapidated bridges appear in mythologies across Holos. In reality, trulladons are quite peaceful and only become aggressive if they feel threatened or if their environment has been damaged in someway.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Trulladons are massive creatures about the size of an elephant. They are normally quadrapedal, though they can stand erect on occasion when browsing for leaves. This makes them the only quadrapedal giantkin and it appears as though they attained this walking style after being bipedal. We can infer this because of their knuckle walking posture, similar to that of a great ape or calicothere. As a result, their forelimbs are longer than their hindlimbs and end in grasping claws which they use to uproot trees, pull down branches, and fend off foes.
Trulladons typically bear a set of six horns that jut out from the side of their heads. These horns appear on both male and female trulladons and are likely used as display for mating and as further camouflage as they often appear to look like petrified tree branches.
Trulladons lack a nose of any kind and have two blue-white eyes. Their mouths are filled with sharp, conical teeth that, while appearing fearsome, are actually designed to strip conifer branches of their tough needles.
Trulladons are covered in a thick, rubbery hide reminiscent of their troll relatives. It typically appears dark grey, however, much of the trulladon's defensive capabilities comes from the accumulation of soil, pebbles, and plant matter that grows on the animal as it rests. In fact the rubbery hide of the trulladon has the unique ability to absorb nutrients from the soil around it and then also transfer chemicals from its internal organs to the microbiome that grows on its body. These chemicals are usually compounds which the trulladon does not need but that can help cultivate a vibrant micro ecosystem on its exterior.
Genetics and Reproduction
Trulladons are highly solitary animals and very territorial. Reports of infant or juvenile trulladons have never been confirmed and it is unknown exactly how they reproduce.
Growth Rate & Stages
Though no infant or juvenile trulladons have ever been confirmed, adult trulladons can live an exceptionally long time. Their slow metabolisms and unique symbiotic relationship with their environments allows them to attain near negligible senescence and no reports of a trulladon dying of old age have ever been recorded. However, trulladons can be killed and are particularly vulnerable to fire and severe burns.
Ecology and Habitats
The primary indicator of habitability for a trulladon's environment is rainfall. Trulladons rely on persistent moisture in order to facilitate the exchange of nutrients between their skin and their internal organs. In drier regions, trulladons are forced to do more traditional foraging and browsing, whereas trulladons in swamps or rainforests can survive without moving from their hollow for decades.
Additionally, few other creatures have as much of an attuned sense of their environment as trulladons. As a result of this perceptive ability and their semi-sentience, trulladons do manipulate their environment in order to better suit their needs, often in dramatic ways for the rest of their ecosystem. Trulladons are known to dam rivers with uprooted trees or even their own bodies, dig trenches to redirect water and even remove fouling carcasses from areas where they could contaminate local aquifers.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Trulladons get most of their nutrients from symbiosis with the microbiomes growing on their hide. However, this requires a great deal of moisture in order to be maintained, and so trulladons do have a more traditional way of gaining calories. Trulladons appear to have originally evolved from an herbivorous variety of troll and grew to their immense sizes based on the consumption of conifer plants. They used their large claws and size to reach high branches and their conical teeth to strip the twigs of their pine needles. Modern trulladons still do this, particularly in times of drought or in areas of low-to-medium yearly rainfall.
Biological Cycle
As stated before, trulladons have a strong sense of the state of their environment, but it is unclear if the shift in seasons has any profound impact on their behavior. Trulladons do live in temperate seasonal environments, but apart from moving to drier locations in midwinter, little has been recorded of trulladons reacting to or manipulating their environment based on seasonal shifts.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Trulladons are highly solitary and territorial creatures. In fact, there have been no confirmed accounts of two trulladon interacting with one another. It is unclear how they mate or reproduce or how they will react to finding another of their kind in their territory.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Trulladons are an Endangered species. Historically, trulladons have been hunted out of fear and ignorance. Stories of violent trulladons abound as does misinformation regarding their behavior and attitude towards mortals.
However, today's trulladons are being aggressively hunted like never before. Because of their historical association with trolls, trulladons are killed for their blood. Troll blood has exceptional regenerative properties, which allows trolls to heal wounds with staggering speed, often before one's very eyes. This makes troll blood an important in producing superior healing potions, the highest grade medicinal potion available through mortal alchemy. Though their numbers have not declined as rapidly as the common trolls' have, this is likely due to their lower profile compared to their highly territorial, aggressive, and ravenous kin, and not due to any sense that trulladons should be protected.
Some rangers and druidic circles have begun to try and educate the public on the important role trulladons play in the ecosystems of Holos, but it is unclear if the rapid rise in adventurers and the need for superior healing ingredients will be stemmed by this kind of outreach.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Trulladons are most commonly found in temperate and tropical woodlands and rainforests, swamps, marshes, and other wetland environments. They can tolerate seasonal cold temperatures, but are not typically found in taiga. Areas with recorded populations include Czeršia, the Dyrmark, Reikerk, the Mehilan, Érulad, and Mérulad, the Washgrove, the Witchwood, the Maddrell Moorlands, Northern Varangia, the Mistwood Forest, the Kwila Peninsula, and the great jungles of the Nakisi Basin in Hakoa.
Average Intelligence
Trulladons appear to show some signs of semi-sentience, able to understand object permanence, facial recognition of the self, and a complex understanding of the world around them. However, they lack the ability to make tools and have no collective culture or adopted cultural traits to speak of.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Trulladons are uniquely attuned to the environment around them. This includes conditions such as soil pH, the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen in the atmosphere, and the presence of oncoming droughts or floods. Stories of trulladons attacking mortal settlements after the establishment of commercial lumber mills or slash-and-burn ranching techniques appear in many parts of the world. However, it is unclear exactly how they are able to detect and pinpoint the cause of these changes. Some claim that the continued exchange of compounds through the trulladon's hide to its external microbiome includes the passing of information in the form of chemical signals. Others draw upon the species' presence in mythology, specifically fey folktales. In these accounts, it is suggested that trulladons are somehow endowed with fey or druidic magic, which allows them to monitor the environment around them.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
The back and hide of a trulladon hosts hundreds of thousands of various microbes, plants, fungi, micro and macro animals. These creatures act as a microbiome that interacts directly with the skin of the trulladon, exchanging chemicals and nutrients to help one another live. Most of the organisms living on a trulladon are hydrophiles, absorbing the large amounts of liquid water that trulladons seek out with their homes in order to facilitate a robust exchange of compounds between the host and the helpers.
Civilization and Culture
Common Myths and Legends
Many myths and legends speak of the "bridge troll," a fearsome beast that guards ancient bridges built by the pre-Palladian peoples. Often times, the bridge troll is intelligent and can speak. In these circumstances, the bridge troll requires a toll to be paid in order to secure safe passage across the gap. Usually, this payment is food in the form of one or more of the travelers. These stories usually then involve some kind of trickery on the part of the travelers. One example sees the travelers convincing the bridge troll to let them pass so they can return nice and fat for him to gorge himself on. Another tells of the bravest of the party allowing himself to be eaten but with their sword hidden in their pants leg and then bursting forth from the gut of the bridge troll after he's been swallowed whole.
While amusing, these tales tend to conflate the behavior of trulladons and trolls. Trolls are carnivorous and cannibalistic and will prey on anything that moves, including mortals. Trulladons are peaceful herbivores and rarely attack mortals except if threatened. Additionally, common trolls do not frequent areas that mortals traffic frequently, such as bridges, while trulladons seek out damp hollows and river beds for their moisture to sleep in.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Origin/Ancestry
Giant
Lifespan
~500-1000 years (see negligible senescence)
Conservation Status
Endangered
Average Height
4.3 m (~14 ft. tall @ shoulder)
Average Weight
470-660 kg (1036.2-1455.1 lbs)
Average Length
5.5 m (~18 ft. long)
Average Physique
Trulladons are considered Huge creatures
Geographic Distribution
Trulladon
Huge giant, unaligned
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 172 15d12+75
Speed
25ft
STR
22 +6
DEX
13 +1
CON
20 +5
INT
6 -2
WIS
14 +2
CHA
6 -2
Saving Throws Con +9, Wis +6
Skills Perception +6, Stealth +5,
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Senses passive Perception 17
Languages Can understand one language but cannot speak
Challenge 10
Symbiotic Camouflage: the trulladon has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while it remains motionless in its den. Regeneration: The trulladon regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn. If the trulladon takes acid, poison, or fire damage, it regains only 5 hit points at the start of its next turn. The trulladon dies only if it is hit by an attack that deals 10 or more acid, poison, or fire damage while the trulladon has 0 hit points.
Actions
Multiattack: the trulladon makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws. Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 9 1d8+5 piercing damage. Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 3d6+5 slashing damage.
Trulladons , sometimes called bridge trolls or elder trolls, are a species of monstrous, semi-sentient creatures descended from giants. They are most closely related to the common troll but lack the ravenous hunger and mutative limb autotomy that make trolls so culturally pervasive and reviled. Trulladons can grow to absolutely enormous sizes and have an exceptionally slow metabolism, allowing them to seemingly merge with the landscape during periods of hibernation. Overtime, a trulladon's hide accumulates soil and flora that grows on the creature's body, protects it from the elements, and provides it with nutrients. This gives trulladons a highly attuned sense of their environment, with some reports claiming that trulladons can detect changes in the pH level of the soil, the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen in the air, and the onset of drought or flooding in the region. To protect their external microbiomes from erosive conditions, trulladons have a strong affinity for resting in damp hollows and river beds. This causes many of them to seek out the bases of mortal structures, particularly bridges or aqueducts. Many legends of trulladons "guarding" dilapidated bridges appear in mythologies across Holos. In reality, trulladons are quite peaceful and only become aggressive if they feel threatened or if their environment has been damaged in someway.
Trulladons seek out damp areas and are most commonly found in swamps, temperate to tropical woodlands and rainforests, and other wetland environments. They avoid mortals and are often hunted for their blood, which is believed to have healing or regenerative properties like that of the common troll.
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