All There in the (Monster) Manual are stories based on creatures from the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Over 2022 I released a different story fitting the theme every single week and I’ve now expanded to Dungeons & Dragons’ Monsters of the Multiverse and even the Pathfinder Bestiary. Could be fantasy, science fiction, horror, or something else entirely! Check them out on the main page of the website.

This Week’s Inspiration: Troll

Something lurks under the bridge in the middle of the park. Something that’s been stealing local pets and waiting for more. Something hungry, and vicious, and strange.

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Words bled off the posters in the rain, ‘MISSING DOG’, ‘BLACK CAT’, ‘MISSING’, ‘REWARD’, ‘FAMILY DOG – MUCH LOVED!’ The titles were legible but the details blurred and pictures melted. Wind tore at the tape holding them to the lampposts as storm clouds darkened the day. Flapping, one missing dog poster tore free from its soggy tape and went whipping past the entrance to the park.

“Brendan, this is crazy!” Alex said. “We should go back!”

“Come on, Lester’s been inside all day! We promised!”

In spite of the storm, Lester, an Australian shepherd, pulled ahead on his leash. Wind billowed through the trees and a fresh peal of rain splattered all three of them. Brendan laughed. Alex carried an umbrella with her but it would be useless trying to use it in these conditions. Bursts of rain blew practically sideways and the wind would invert the umbrella and tear it out of her hands in seconds. She tucked her neck and shoulders deeper into her pink rain jacket and pulled the hood over her face.

“He’s going to get soaked!” Alex said.

“He’s already soaked, and there’s no one else around so we can let him off the leash!” Brendan said. “Go home if you want, we won’t be long!”

Wild as the weather was, Brendan was clearly enjoying himself. Blue jacket rippling, he let rain splash his face and soak through his hair.

Lightning crackled and filled one whole portion of the sky. Seconds later, a clap of thunder drummed the air as wind blew the trees sideways. These long summer afternoons stretched well into evening but the thunderstorm turned the light strange and eerie, a kind of luminous twilight. The park sprawled, grassy paddocks sweeping between thick strands of trees, their shadows deeper than they should have been at this time of day, laced with streams and duck ponds. Brendan bent over and unclipped the leash from Lester’s collar. Fearless and excited to have the park all to himself, the shepherd sprinted off into the storm. Alex couldn’t see any other people, any other dogs, they were completely alone in spite of the apartment blocks lining the park behind them. Even the ducks seemed to have packed up and gone home, wherever birds went in the rain.

More lightning, and thunder battered the sky. Alex flinched as the sound beat her around the head. Clouds churned, becoming darker, and she could see the quality of light dip. Lester was half a field away, tearing away from them mindlessly before coming around in a wide circle. Deep puddles had already formed on the grass.

“I’m just worried, it’s too wild to just leave him out here,” Alex said.

“He’s fine,” Brendan replied. “Go home, we’ll be back before it gets dark.”

Before Alex could respond, a fork of blazing white speared out of the clouds. Across the park, both a safe distance away and yet terrifyingly close, lightning struck an older tree that jutted high above the treeline. Pure electrical force split the tree in two, stripping branches and casting them, smoking, into the void. Wood glowed with heat. Alex threw her head sideways, covering her face, but the jag of brilliant white stayed seared onto her eyeballs. Her cry was lost in the bellow of thunder that tore across the park and flattened her eardrums, almost knocking her sideways.

“Whoa!” Brendan staggered backward, face drained of blood.

Lester fled, yelping. Unlike most dogs, lighting and thunder didn’t usually bother him much. But the primal force of the lightning strike so close to them, within the bounds of the park, was too much. He must have thought he was under attack. Paws hardly touched the ground as the Australian shepherd shot deeper into the park.

“Lester, no! No, Lester, get back here!” Brendan yelled.

Ignoring him, the dog ran toward the duck ponds. Assuming he could hear Brendan at all, Alex’s ears were ringing and every other sound was muffled and deadened by the rain. Still glowing, pieces dropped off the tree that had been struck and into the other trees below. With just how heavy the rain kept falling, however, a fire felt unlikely.

“Shit, we have to go catch him!” Brendan started after their dog.

“Brendan, we have to get home! It’s not safe!”

“We can’t just leave him out here!”

Alex hesitated. “He’ll, he’ll be fine! He knows his way home.”

“No, we can’t! It’s too dangerous!”

Alex stewed as she followed Brendan across the park. That was exactly what she’d been trying to tell him and he hadn’t listened. An apology or even just an acknowledgement of the fact would go a long way but with nothing forthcoming she just seethed instead. Rain battered her across the head and shoulders, coming in waves. In spite of it, every few seconds she craned her neck back to search the sky. She was afraid another bolt of lightning was going to come down right on top of their heads. The sky lit up with hot, white light, tinged with purple, and for a moment she thought it was really happening. Lightning took shape somewhere beyond the park, however, fracturing the sky far enough away that she could appreciate its many jags and angles. The accompanying thunder came only heartbeats later.

A fat, wooden bridge met the path, crossing a stream that fed the duck ponds. Swollen by the storm, the usually gentle, gurgling stream gushed beneath the bridge. Its banks rippled. Alex and Brendan heard a whining sound beneath the roar of the storm. Crossing the bridge, they looked down. Lester was backed up near the foot of the bridge below. The stream tore at the mud and sticks inches from his paws. The poor thing looked confused and terrified, too scared to move, presumably an effect of the lightning strike.

“Lester, come here!” Brendan said. “Come here, boy!”

Lester whined, his attention went from Brendan to the stream, and back and forth. Brendan kept calling, trying to hide the mounting frustration in his voice, but the dog wouldn’t budge.

“I’ll go and get him,” Brendan said.

“Watch out, it’s dangerous,” Alex said.

“Yes, I can see that. I’ll get him up and we’ll go home, alright? Get nice and warm and dry.”

Alex bit the side of her tongue to keep herself from snapping back. She stayed on the bridge while Brendan walked around and climbed the small fence surrounding the streambank. As he climbed, she wondered how Lester had managed to get himself over it. Stunted trees grew along the slippery bank. Brendan used them for handholds as he negotiated his way down. Another peal of thunder rocked the park. The light was quickly dropping as the centre of the storm moved overhead. Rain pelted both of them, making Brendan’s footing all the more slick.

“Lester, come here!” Brendan said. “Come here!”

Lester didn’t even look toward his master’s voice. He seemed distracted by something beneath the bridge instead. A deep, pitying whine escaped his throat. Brendan was forced to make it all the way to him, slogging through mud and fallen branches. Taking Lester by the collar, he brought the leash around in his other hand.

“Come on, buddy, what are you-,”

A gnarled hand, attached to a sinewy arm, shot from beneath the bridge and snatched Brendan by the face. Its skin was bright, mossy green, covered in scales. The palm and fingers enveloped Brendan’s features from chin to forehead. Brendan let out a muffled cry, partially smothered. The hand and arm and their hidden owner hauled him forward. He crashed into Lester, the Australian shepherd whimpering, and both were pulled under the bridge.

“Brendan!” Alex screamed.

Leaning across the railing, Alex tried to see what was happening. Brendan’s kicking feet were dragged out of sight. Something skulked in the dark and damp beneath the park bridge. Lester yipped. Brendan let out a series of scared moans.

“Oh, oh, what?” Brendan groaned.

A horrible, wet sound, and Brendan’s cries stopped instantly. Lester kept yipping and whining. Alex couldn’t make sense of what she had seen. The green skin, the proportions, the scales and fins and tufts of hair. Running back and forth, she saw the water rush under one side of the bridge clear and then emerge from the other pink and frothy. Her stomach plunged as she recognised blood in the water.

“Brendan! Brendan!”

The green hand, fingers ending in talons, gripped the side of the bridge. Alex froze, paralysed with terror. Rain splattered the side of her face. The green hand gripped hard and the creature from below the bridge hauled itself up, clambering over the railing and landing heavily on large, splayed feet.

The creature had to be a troll, what other monster lived under bridges? Mossy green, it was humanoid but somehow still looked like it had been assembled asymmetrically out of random parts. Its skin was scaly and fishlike fins jutted at various angles but it also had tufts of darker green hair. Naked, the hair thickened on its chest and thankfully covered whatever lurked between its legs. Its hands and feet were oversized, hands like baseball mitts and feet like flippers though its hunched frame only rose as high as Alex’s ribs. Breathtakingly ugly, its eyes were mismatched. One was big and boiled yellow, the other small and pitiless black. Its ears were pointed and also different sizes, its nose crushed. Its mouth opened like a bucket, ringed with a jumble of overlapping fangs and backed by a lolling, black tongue.

“What-, what?” Alex managed.

With a snarling, hissing roar, the troll launched itself at Alex. Her paralysis broke like a snapping rubber band. Spinning on her heels, she turned and ran. The troll dropped to all fours and gave chase.

Alex fled blindly, leaving the path and sprinting across the grass. Her feet splashed through scattered puddles. Glancing back, she saw the troll ran like a chimpanzee or a gorilla, propelling itself with its ropey arms, its legs kicking behind it. Reaching into her pocket, she fumbled with her phone. She wanted to call the police, unsure of what she would tell them, but struggled to use the phone while running as hard as she could.

“Leave me alone!” Alex shouted over her shoulder.

Lightning crackled, and thunder hammered. The storm was in retreat but rain kept coming down hard. Without thinking, Alex continually tried to unlock her phone but repeatedly got the combination wrong. Her foot fell in a puddle and she tripped, windmilling to catch her footing. She managed to stay upright but the phone slipped from her nerveless fingers. It spiralled and landed with a splat in the wet grass.

Alex hesitated, turning and sprinting sideways for several steps. Her instinct was to pick the phone up but the troll closed in from behind. With those claws and teeth, it would tear her apart in seconds. She left the phone and turned away, picking up speed toward the nearest playground.

What did Alex know about trolls? Not much, nothing that helped. They lived under bridges, they were enemies with billygoats. Some distant part of her memory said something about them being allergic to sunlight in the fairytales, but there was no sunlight to be found. She had nothing to help her. She’d dropped her phone and wasn’t even carrying keys, Brendan had them. Her umbrella, cord looped around her wrist, dangled from her arm.

“Help! Help!” Alex yelled.

Alex’s voice got lost in the storm. In spite of the park’s wide open spaces, she hadn’t seen a single other person the entire time they’d been there.

Galloping on all fours, the troll gained on Alex. Some sixth sense screamed a warning, and Alex veered sideways. The toll lunged, clawed hands swinging, and missed her only because of her abrupt sidestep. She veered again toward the playground. The troll tumbled to the wet grass in a tangle of deformed limbs and took a few moments to right itself.

The playground was a long area carpeted with damp wood chips. Dominated by a domed climbing frame, it was home to swingsets, a seesaw, merry-go-round, and a series of concrete tunnels. Alex circled the climbing frame, running at speed, and dived behind a low, wooden wall. The troll followed her to the playground but lost sight of her for a moment. Scrambling across the ground, umbrella dragging from her wrist, Alex kept moving. She had to find somewhere to hide but didn’t have a lot of options.

Several concrete pipes, tunnels, stacked in a triangular shape and surrounded by rubbery material, sat in the middle of the playground. Crawling, Alex hurried inside one of them. She was out of the rain but trickles of dirty water and more wet wood chips ran down the centre of the tunnel. The concrete radiated cold. Some teenagers had drawn dirty pictures on the walls where adults couldn’t see and kids wouldn’t understand.

Breathing hard, Alex tried to stay quiet but a strangled whimper slipped out of her mouth. Her heart thundered in her chest, sending tremors through her limbs. She could only crawl inside the tunnel, her head already brushing the ceiling. Twisting and turning, she tried to keep an eye on both ends of the pipe at once.

Rain began to lessen outside. Lightning and thunder retreated into the distance. Over the noise, Alex heard movement. Dragging its ropey arms, the troll staggered past the mouth of the tunnel. The troll was shorter than Alex but the top of its head, and its eyeline, were just above the upper rim of the pipe. It couldn’t see her but it was searching and listening. She heard the creature inhale. Alex could only hope the rain muffled her scent. Her pants and jacket scraped against the concrete and she froze.

“No, please, please,” Alex whispered.

Shambling, the troll actually seemed to pass by. Alex’s heart slammed against her ribs, her breathing choked. She could hear it moving away and hoped it would keep going. Meanwhile, she remained as still as she possibly could.

Suddenly, the troll’s horrible face filled the end of the tunnel. It snarled, the sound reverberating the length of the pipe, and Alex screamed. Its talons scarred the concrete as it started toward her.

Alex scooted backward, collecting wood chips and dirty water underneath her, but she couldn’t move fast enough. She had to defend herself somehow but the only thing that came to hand was the umbrella attached to her right wrist. The umbrella that she hadn’t used because the wind and storm were too powerful but that she hadn’t dropped thanks to the cord looped around her wrist.

“Get back!” Alex yelled. “Get away from me!”

Alex thrust the umbrella forward and at the same moment thumbed the button on the handle to open it. The troll’s mouth gaped, reeking like blood and spoiled meat. The umbrella’s handle somehow extended past its jumbled fangs and struck it in the back of the throat before opening. Of course, the umbrella’s open canopy didn’t have the power to distend the troll’s jaws but the edges of its wire frame caught and propped themselves into place, jamming against its gums. The troll gagged and threw itself backward, thrashing.

Alex yanked her hand free from the cord attached to the umbrella’s handle. The half-open umbrella filled the troll’s mouth, handle jutting obscenely. Alex scrambled backward to the other end of the tunnel then rolled herself free, rising to her feet, turning, and running. The rain across her head and shoulders grew lighter. The majority of the storm moved on, rattling away in the distance, but there was still no one in sight. Alex ran for the closest exit from the park, hoping the troll wouldn’t follow her.

Alex heard barking and looked up to see a glimpse of brown and grey streaking toward her. Lester crossed the wet field, paws tearing up the grass. She wished she saw Brendan with him but she didn’t have the time to think of that now. Lester joined her, galloping alongside her, tail wagging, like it was all a game.

“Run, Lester! Run!” Alex said.

Behind them, the troll emerged from the playground tunnel. It ripped the umbrella out of its mouth, the canopy inverting and breaking. Tossing the umbrella aside, it took off after the woman. Its rage seemed to give it speed, falling again to all fours.

“Run, Lester!”

Alex didn’t have her phone or keys but if she made it back to their apartment building she was sure she could at least get inside. There, she would be safe. The exit from the park was in sight. Overhead, clouds broke apart. The rain softened and then stopped, leaving only puddles. Lester ran close, too close. The Australian shepherd brushed against Alex’s legs. Sensing the danger, it tried to press against her for safety but his furry body tangled with her lower legs and she tripped forward. Her hands scuffed the wet grass, the impact sending pain through her wrists, and she spilled sideways with the dog wrapped around her.

“No!” Alex yelped.

Alex kicked free from the dog. Lester whimpered and scampered backward. The troll rounded on the two of them. Rather than leaping right on top of Alex, however, the troll circled in front of her to cut her off from the park’s exit. It appeared wary of her, making sure she had no more tricks like with the umbrella before it moved in for the kill. Rising to her knees, she held out her hands, pleading.

“Please, no! Don’t kill me, leave me alone!”

Drool dripping from its terrible fangs, the troll studied her. Its talons extended from its fingers and it leapt. Alex thought of Brendan and closed her eyes, waiting to be torn apart.

Through disintegrating clouds, shafts of late afternoon sunlights carved across the park. Weak as it was, direct sun hit the troll while it was in midair. It calcified instantly. Everything the sunlight touched, its skin, its hair, its flesh, its eyeballs, the inside of its mouth, all turned to pale grey stone. Suddenly heavier, the troll dropped and rolled across the wet grass. It hit the ground with enough force that limbs snapped off and pieces crumbled.

Alex opened her eyes at the thudding sound and stared in amazement. Vaguely, she remembered her earlier, desperate scramble to come up with some kind of weakness to use against the troll and thinking they had some weakness against sunlight. A sudden rage overtook her. Lunging forward, she snatched one of the troll’s stone arms which had broken off at the shoulder. She swung it like a bat, beating the troll’s head until both it and the limb broke.

“Why? Why?” Alex screamed.

Beyond the park exit, ink had bled off the missing pet posters until they were nothing but a colourful mess. Bits of paper and tape dribbled down the pole, gaining strength, the sun gently warmed them and started to dry the rain.

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Sean: I think I’ve mentioned a couple of times that a few months ago my wife and I moved to a new place, and we’re just loving it. Can’t get over how nice it is. One of the big pluses has been the balcony where I sit and work almost every day, and do a lot of my writing, faces directly onto an absolutely sprawling park. Also worth mentioning is that here in Australia we’re coming into the final month of summer. It has been a very hot but also very, very wet summer, some huge thunderstorms, so you can kind of see what might have inspired this one. Actually, I just love writing about storms. If I could think of the right stories, I’d be writing about them all the time.

I’ve had a week off from work this week which has been great, I hadn’t had much of a break in months even around the Christmas period. The magic of live radio, it just doesn’t stop. My writing productivity has been slightly terrifying, really makes you wonder what I could get done if I didn’t have to also earn a living. Working on a couple of new novels at the moments set in a shared world, and there’s some more short stories coming your way. Weird ones. Next release I reckon will be inspired by the Crawling Claw and it’s an unreasonably long one so keep your eyes open for that one!