261 - Bridge Troll

Unnatural Entity: Bridge Troll

The concept of traps scattered to catch the unwary on the path to enlightenment is a common cultural touchstone, it’s present in many aspects of Buddhism, fiction from the books of Ursula K. Le Guin to Star Wars, and at least rumoured in any esoteric magical tradition (to keep the initiates in line, if nothing else).

Bridge Trolls are people who have fallen prey to the magickal versions of these traps so hard that it has warped their entire worldview around the conundrum. Speculation that a Room of Renunciation is responsible is unlikely given the breadth and varied circumstances this happens in but the result is always the same: someone so tightly wound around a pitfall they’ve fallen prey to that they warp reality like a very small and specific school of magick. Unable to move on they instead squat over the territory of their failure like tiny dominions. This territory is typically represented by some kind of physical space (paragon places draw them like flies) but more abstract domains aren’t out of the question.

Within this space the bridge troll is like a petty god. They can’t work constructive miracles but they can obstruct almost anything, physical trespass, magickal blasts, demons, investigation and discovery, you name it they can block you from doing it with an opposed roll. This can take the form of an overwhelming presence of authority to superhuman feats of strength to outright negation of magickal energies. What makes it especially troublesome is that repeated attempts to breach this barrier only wind the trap tighter, for each attempt someone makes to bypass the Bridge Troll it gets to use the best result of any roll it has made to oppose that person. If you’re trying to muscle your way past it on a third occasion it can use the best of this or the previous two rolls against you.

Bridge Trolls are madly hyperfocused so their domains are typically very small and focused, they’re almost always at a crossroads or chokepoint of some kind so unless you need something very specific you might be better off finding another way. They do have a couple of weaknesses. If you can lure one out of its domain they lose access to their ability to block you, reduced to pitiful husks of human beings that serve as depressing object lessons in what may lie ahead.

Alternatively, all Bridge Trolls have a test, like a self-defined riddle or trial that revolves entirely around their own failing. Not all of them will openly offer it but all are compelled to answer the challenge. If you can beat or short circuit it in some way the Bridge Troll’s power holds no sway over you. If their defeat is comprehensive enough they may lose their powers and obsession altogether.

Bridge Troll, Spiteful Sphinx
Impassable 60-90%*: This identity opposes anything that might be used to bypass the bridge troll on its home turf. Use the best result of all rolls made against someone, it gets harder the more you try. Always an obsession identity, Bridge Trolls cannot be adepts (and lose the ability if they ever were) and are rarely avatars. Also has the Casts Rituals and Use Gutter Magick features.