The Story of Trolls 3

Events unfold as if guided by a sure hand but in fact are little more than a a wild assortment of collected moments tumbled together in a knot that Gordan sets in folds upon itself whereby one end seems fit to be the beginning of another and only the most skilled practitioners of mining the past can land near to the what happened thens. Somewhere there is a universal truth, but no one much cares about it.

Continuing the story from here.

Raising the money seemed more important than a name. A few of those were tossed out and Mac took up the task of marking down a few ideas of logos and names and their arrangement. In the meantime they are looked about for sources of financing. It seemed that about $5000.00 would do the trick, covering the print costs and the trip to Gencon . . . at least for the most part. Mac and Steve had already set to pitch in $2500.00 apiece but Davis, hard working archeologist at the time hadn't the cash to spare.

As this was going on Davis opted to put together an adventure of his own, to join the other two already in the offing. Shopping for a printer proved a bit of a bear and many phone calls later revealed one, Quebecor from Canada who offered a nice discount if four books were put forward. The overall cost went up to about 6100.00 but the hope of gaining a fourth book proved too seductive.

Another hasty business meeting was called and much beer consumed, and probably some pizza, to discuss the fourth book. The rock slid off the hill and started an avalanche. After much deliberation the fourth book settled upon would be Steve's; his world of Aihrde setting already possessed copious amounts of material written for it and was the further's along. The setting had been the center piece of what was styled The Big Game since 1984/85 when the group first convened.

A note on The Big Game. This game started around Todd Gray's 3rd character, Luther the Gallant in 1984. Charlie Sifford and Mac Golden joined it later and the game ran for years. Experience acquisition was slow, whole sessions passing where only a few dozen points were awarded  . . . none for treasure, or role playing and none if your character went negative. The level gain was slow, the games many and more (up to three times a week for four years, and then less as the years progressed). The game ran until about 2001 after which the high level characters proved almost too high to CK. The characters fought a number of foes over the years, some great, some small, but none matched the duration of the long running battle with the wizard Nulak-Kiz-Din, called the Troll Lord.

So it was settled over that beer fest that Mortality of Green, the Fantastic Adventure and Vakhund Into the Unknown would serve as adventure fodder and the setting would be the one currently in use, After Winter's Dark, the World of Erde (now restyled Aihrde). Jokes abounded that the Troll Lord, the architect of the Winter Dark (for it was he who summoned Unklar the Horned God who brought the Winter Dark upon Erde and with its failure in The Big Game was actually transcendent for the Troll Lord's world, the one created After Winter's Dark, would see the light of day in print. With little discussion and no argument the name took and without a backward glance the name Troll Lord landed in front of Games, and thus TLG was born.

But with every leap forward money hounded the trio, for with more books were more tasks and time was not sated, for it devours all moments with equal lust, and Gencon loomed.