G’narsh
The Troll, The Myth, The Legend
by
Kevin Stillwater
chapter 2
# # # A Little Back Story to Set the Future in Place # # #
page 1
In a college town deep in the North Country, there used to be a restaurant called Ray’s Pizza
that G’narsh came upon in his wanderings. It was for sale, and
seeing the irony in it all, G’narsh decided to buy the place and change
the name to G’narsh’s Ray’s Pizza and Handyman Services.
G’narsh had intended the sign to be (in part at least) an advertisement
for a home repair business that he had been thinking about starting,
but in all the years he has been here, no one has ever asked him to
replace a storm door let alone remodel their kitchen or retile their
shower. Most locals have simply taken the wording of the sign to
be some kind of secret code, as if it was another way of saying
“adventuring services available here,” but -- believe it or not -- that
hadn’t been G’narsh’s intent.
It was perhaps
easy for the locals to come to this misunderstanding, because at
G’narsh’s -- as the college kids called the place -- cobalts did the
cooking and cleaning, gutter fairies did the waitressing, and a four
armed creature from the Courts of Chaos itself -- one Lady Lane --
worked the door and whenever required acted as the bouncer as
well. Due to her imposing size, professional wrestler physique,
and a reputation that proceeded her, she was seldom required to
actually bounce anyone out the door. And in her opinion this was
a genuine pity, for bouncing was a duty she took quite literally.
The relative inelasticity of humans making the chore all the more
challenging and thereby rewarding.