The Troll's Claw is located in the northeast of Baldur's Gate. It, along with the Troll Mountain in the west and the Roaring Troll Forest, are the places where the three known troll tribes thrive.
Among the three places, Troll's Claw has the smallest area and the most dangerous terrain. Because the troll tribes in these places have never appeared on a large scale outside, harassing the human cities along the coast of the Sword Coast, so the nearby human kingdoms also let it go, and did not organize troops to encircle them in the mountains, at most when some unruly trolls appeared scattered , organize a team of adventurers to clean them up.
The world of Toril is different from other worlds of different time and space. Whether it is Karatu in the east or Faerun in the west, although humans occupy a dominant position, they have not really ruled the entire continent.
Hundreds of races coexist in this world, and this has been the case since ancient times. Even in the heyday of the elves, other intelligent races also had their place.
This is not because the human civilization developed in the Toril world is not strong enough. Compared with the human federation where Qin Lun was in before, the magical civilization in the Toril world is even stronger.
For example: the first great human empire that appeared in modern times—Nesenel!
At that time, Nethernel was based on the Nether Scrolls discovered by humans, and even developed a floating city floating at an altitude of 10,000 meters. Each scroll of Netherer is a large-scale complex magic forbidden spell. The Netherel Empire analyzed it and developed a whole set of human magic systems except elf magic and dragon language magic.
How powerful is a large compound magic forbidden spell? You can get a glimpse of the two forbidden curse disasters that happened in Faerun Continent.
One is the border war between the Jondal elves and the Jondath Kingdom, which was located in the center of southern Faerûn at the time of the flourishing empire. Pressing down on the Kingdom of Shaar in the south and reaching the Kingdom of Tethyr in the west, almost relying on the power of one country to beat the two powerful kingdoms to death.
During the development of the kingdom, Jondals needed a lot of natural resources, so the Jondal Forest in the territory was cut down wantonly, which caused a conflict with the Jondal Elf Court.
At that time, the elves on the continent of Faerun were in the stage of retreating from the world, and no one in the human kingdom on the mainland paid attention to those elves who only played house in the forest.
Unexpectedly, the furious Jondal Elven Court finally launched a large-scale compound forbidden spell at the cost of the entire Elven Court's high-level council of elders at the end of the war.
All of a sudden, the swarming flood engulfed the most elite northern border of the Jondas Kingdom, forming today's Weihong sea area that leads directly to the Sea of Falling Stars.
The other disaster caused by the forbidden spell was more distant, and it was a typical case of the elves committing suicide by themselves. It was the late period of the first Crown War, the civil war between the two elf courts of Arivandar and Maierita.
Arivandar is ruled by the Gold Elves, who are now the Sun Elves, while Maierita is ruled by the Green Elves. Maiyeli Tower is also the four main branches of the elves—the green elves, the greatest and most well-inherited elf family from ancient times to the present.
Although Arivanda was the most powerful elf court at the time, Maierita was the center of art and advanced magic for all Faerun elves. When a country's force is not enough to protect wealth, it will naturally usher in the prying eyes of robbers.
The prosperity of Maierita brought disaster to itself. Arivanda launched the first crown war and fully occupied Maierita. Originally, at the beginning of the war, Maierita still had the ability to resist, but their elf court was as deadly as they wanted to use a large complex forbidden spell to directly destroy Arivanda's elf army.
It's a pity that they were unable to control the irritable magic elements. The power of the forbidden spell that exploded in the next moment turned the entire country and millions of square kilometers of forest into a wilderness. This was the famous forbidden spell known as the dark disaster at that time.
The entire Maiyeli Tower was destroyed. This land is called the Supreme Wilderness today, and it has not been able to restore its original appearance until now. The green elves lost their inheritance and origin, and the future four branches of elves actually became three, and the green elves finally became the vassals of the moon elves.
Even if some moon elf courts suffered changes in the later period, and the leaders changed from moon elves to green elves, they still failed to get the inheritance. When the world tree is updated, the green elf courts will still decline, just like the current Jondal Elven Court.
From these two famous incidents, it can be seen that large-scale compound forbidden curses are more terrifying than nuclear weapons. At least the human federation where Qin Lun belongs has not developed nuclear weapons capable of directly destroying millions of square kilometers before Qin Lun entered the Broken Starry Sky. arms.
When the Nethernir Human Empire obtained the Netherer scrolls, there were eighteen different types of this compound forbidden spell! It is conceivable how high their magic civilization has reached.
Compared with the current human kingdom on the continent of Faerun, the magic civilization has not improved. On the contrary, after most of the Nether scrolls were lost, it has declined to varying degrees.
But even the Nethernir Empire, which was at its peak, never ruled the entire continent of Faerun. Their national border was almost the current Silvermoon Alliance in the North, and included the northern part of the Ennook Desert.
The biological level of Faerun Continent is too high. The urban civilization developed by humans currently occupies a dominant position in the continent, but the wilderness outside the city still belongs to various wild monsters that have multiplied from ancient times to the present.
The humans in the continent of Faerun have now learned the lesson, and they will not provoke other intelligent races again if there is no life or death crisis.
This includes not only the surface elf courts whose magic power is still strong, the well-equipped dwarves in the northern mountains, and the drow cities in the dark area, but also some small tribes. The troll tribe that occupies the troll's claw is here. within range.
The high-level shamans and chiefs of the troll tribe also understand these principles. For a long time, they have restrained their tribes and entered the rule of human cities on a large scale. They follow ancient traditions and live in dangerous mountainous areas suitable for living. Except for the sacrificial festivals where a large number of living animals are required to be provided every year, they never go out of their territory.
In a tribe of trolls who were only a few tens of miles away from Qin Lun and the others, the trolls were about to hold a large sacrificial festival.
Their shaman and chief were very satisfied. Before the festival day came, they not only obtained a large number of sacrifices from the swamp in the south, but also caught some lifeless human sacrifices. It was extremely lucky.
This time, there is no need to send the warriors of the clan to venture out of the mountains to attack the business travellers. This kind of attack often makes some brave troll people fall under the butcher knife of human adventurers. Human beings are really terrible!
This troll tribe occupies a small valley in the southwest of the mountains, with a population of about two hundred to three hundred. Different from the imagination of outsiders, they already had a primitive civilization, and a few wise people even learned the common language of Faerun.
Trolls are descended from ancient giants, and are more pure than their ogre cousins. Most of the adult trolls are more than five meters tall, and their rough green skin has good physical and magic resistance.
The trolls have a low reproductive rate, which makes them not practice the couple system. Both males and females have several mates. As long as the sexual interest is there, they can mate at will, and the ethical concept is very weak.
There is a tall fence around the village, and there are animal pens for jurass in all directions of the village, which are the main source of food for the trolls.
There are probably hundreds of stilt houses in the village. These stilt houses are built with thick coniferous trees, which are very strong enough to bear the weight of trolls.
The stilt houses are evenly distributed around the village, and the core positions are the residences of chiefs and shamans with relatively high status in the clan. In the middle of the village is an open space with a semi-permanent fire pit, which is used by the trolls when they hold celebration ceremonies or big dinners.
At this time, in the northwest corner of the village, a string of chicken cage-like bamboo baskets were hung on the crossbar between the two flagpoles, and a figure curled up in each bamboo cage could be vaguely seen.
Compared with trolls, these captives were not all humanoid creatures, and among them were the monsters that Qin Lun and others had seen in the Land of the Dead.
On the left side of these bamboo cages, there are a few humanoid creatures. Judging from their ragged clothes, they seem to be humans or elves. It's just that after being trapped for a long time, the spirit is a little sluggish, lying in the cage without knowing life or death.
"Elisten, how are you?" A human female suddenly called softly from a bamboo cage on the far left.
"It's nothing, I'm not going to die yet!" An extremely tired voice came from a figure sitting cross-legged in the bamboo cage close to her.
She was wrapped in a coarse cloth cloak, and her disheveled silver hair covered her face. Judging from her haggardness, it was hard to believe that this was the naturally beautiful elf druid from before.
"Has your magic power recovered?" The human female who first called Elistine was not much better at this time.
The leather armor on her body could barely cover her body, and on some of her exposed limbs, there were thick blood eggplants everywhere. Her bright red hair had lost its luster, and her bare feet were covered in blisters and fetid pustules. If the trolls hadn't applied some herbal medicine to her a few days ago, she might have died long ago.
Of course, the trolls didn't have any good intentions. They were just afraid that these living sacrifices would die before the sacrifice day came. Although dead creatures can still be eaten, they can no longer be sacrificed.
"It's only 20% of what it used to be, and most of the magic power is used to maintain the body's functions." Elistin kept a sitting position motionless, and said softly, "This is still using the energy of moonlight, otherwise with my injury, I should have been injured a week ago." Dead. It never occurred to me before that trolls could be so intelligent."
"Me too, if I didn't believe in Ms. Lovita, I would have been half dead. And we have to act. Although Mason was healed by the troll shaman. But he is too old and can't bear it anymore , I was in a coma last night and still haven't woken up." Idriya said softly.
"Wait a little longer, wait until night!" Elistine whispered to herself, "In the past two days, I seem to have a strange feeling, although I don't know where it came from, but it makes me feel very comfortable, as if It’s as if an empty corner of my heart has been filled.”