Blue-Hand Troll is an NPC (non-player character) from a Planescape game I played in many years ago, and I've been itching to bring Blue into MeatShield. He was a not-too-bright fence who had a shop in Sigil, the City of Doors, and bought and sold whatever we needed to dispose of. In Blue's words, He "used to sell just stuff, but then me branch out and sell THINGS too! Me's gonna be rich...."
Why is Blue-Hand Troll's hand blue? Why don't you tell me?
CONTEST TIME!
Leave a comment below with your idea as to why Blue-Hand Troll's hand is blue and the one I like best will get a free sketch* with the character of their choice! NOTE: No toilet jokes, that's too easy (i.e. playing with the blue water) :) Cut-off time is Friday, October 22, 2010 @3:30 PST.
Have a great weekend!
~Rob
*: Limitations on sketch subject matter apply:
- No nudity
- No drug references
- No Prince Jonuses burning in effigy. ;)
Accident with a Limited Wish: He’s a lefthanded guitar player who loves to play the blues.
I’m more interested in knowing why there’s a hole in his shop roof.
Mmmm….let’s see…I’m going with the craziest possibility mind….
A few years back, Blue started his fencing business, and was basically picking up and buying basically whatever fell into his lap. One of the thieves looted a wizard’s house. Well, this was a wizard who appreciated irony and was relatively high level, unfortunately the spell on his equipment to reveal whoever stole it was set to go off at midnight. So, the thief got the stuff to Blue just before midnight, Blue couldn’t sell it in time and POOF, blue-hand. Might’ve even been caught that way, if he wasn’t restrained to selling STUFF at the time. (Version 1)
Next possibility.
Before Blue-Hand began his slowly uprising business, he dropped a copper coin in a large bowl of blueberry juice used to ritualistically mark the next shaman in a small tribe of goblins. He reached into the bowl, and the coin was sadly stuck into the bottom of the hollowed out half-coconut. Blue-Hand ran away from a tribe of angry goblins carrying a bowl of sacred unguents onehanded as he ran. He did get his coin though. (Version 2)
I’ll write up more if I think of them, alright?
a group of adventurers were seeking the lost treasure of Lauko stumbled apon a small item they thought was another clue, but really it was cursed and whoever owns it is doomed to have a random body part turn their least favorite color until it is returned to it’s resting place. the now pink footed adventurer sold it to him for a knife and now his hand is turning an awful shade of blue.
coincidentally there’s a hole in the roof because Blue-hand was trying to patch it up (again) with his world famous roof-tar (tweaked from a cupcake recipe). And as we all know blue is slightly heavier then green and the patchy roof was unable to support him.
the end.
Blue Hand was a child in a small orc village when a great mage sent out word that he (the mage, that is) was looking for an apprentice. Each village in the area was to submit one child as a candidate. Blue, being the only child in his village, was selected. Failing every possible aptitude test, Blue Hand should have been expelled from the mage’s presence immediately. For some reason or another, however, the mage thought that Blue’s crude use of language (and everything else) showed an innate honesty, which can be a powerful trait in a faith-based spell caster. Before this narrative continues, it would be wise to note that as a young child Blue Hand could not properly pronounce the “S” sound. Because of this, his mother found it convenient to have him say “Blue!” when he was sad, instead of crying or yelling “I’m thhhhththththaaad!”. It is also useful to note that Blue was aware of his failures in his magical education, and was not happy with his performance. On with the story. The mage, thinking that Blue Hand’s honesty and crude emotional strength could be harnessed, asked Blue to meditate with him. Blue obliged, eager to prove himself, but doubtful in his ability. The mage asked Blue to focus on his prime emotion at the time. “Let it flow through you.” Said the mage. “Now focus that feeling into your left hand, and hold it there.” Blue did, and was surprised to feel a tingling in his hand. “Good, now release!” In a flash of blue light and fire Blue Hand let go of his pent up emotion, forcing it through his hand. The mage looked on, aghast. Blue Hand looked down to see that he now had a blue hand. With this revelation, the mage finally declared Blue unfit as an apprentice, but did give him a large sum of money as a consolation prize. In an un-orc show of sense, Blue’s mother saved the money until he was old enough to start his own business. Ironically Blue’s native Orcish name is Bloo Hund, which roughly translates into “Not a Mage”.
As a troll, Blue can regenerate its limb or reattach them when cut. As a member of a “civilized” troll tribe, he must make an initiatic travel to earn is grown up name. During his travel in the far north, on near the top of a mountain, a destination picked by following the indications of a small arrow floating in a round box, he discovered a crazed ice troll who attacked him. In his attempt to escape, he triggered a huge avalanche and lost his arm in it. After some time in the snow, he mannage to find his arm(at least what he though was his arm) and reattach it before returning home. Because he was color blind, he discovered that he had made a mistake only when he finaly returned to his village. Since then, he was known has Blue Hand.
There once was female ice mage who was sick of being groped by perverts. To combat this she cast a curse on herself. As a result anyone touching her without permission has the offending body part stuck permanently in a half frozen state.
Blue hand learned about this the hard way.
How about the prince learning the same lesson.
Blue the purveyor of stuff and things. Just loves to cook but sometimes gets distracted by customers and his pots tend to start boiling over and need to be moved off the stove. Having burned his hand numerous times from touching hot pot handles when there was no imediatly available oven mitts handy found it cheaper to have a fireproofing spell placed on his hand rather than have to pay for medical attention all the time. The spell worked, but an unfortunate side effect of the spell turned his hand blue.
@Mike has the story ALMOST right.
Blue Hand was cooking for a party of adventurers and wondered why their new metal teapot (picked up at the bottom of a dungeon) didn’t seem to be getting hot. He picked it up and discovered it was indeed hot … it’s just that being enchanted, it didn’t look hot.
BH cried in pain “It is so hot! My hand hurts!”
“Blow on your hand,” said the party cleric, “And it will stop hurting.”
BH was amazed to discover this worked and reflected on how much suffering he would have avoided if he’d learned this sooner, saying “I Wish I Had Blew Hand all my life!”
The pot granted the wish!
Everyone is so close…
As a service to his customers, BH was putting more toilet paper in the restroom when he noticed a gold coin in the porcelain throne. He reached in and got the coin out before remembering he had also just replaced the automatic toilet bowl cleaner…
Prior to being the fine purveyeor of “Stuff and Things” Blue-Hand Troll was a thief- a particularly bad thief! He was actually called “the Red-handed Troll” since he was so often caught red-handed. One day he had the misfortune of attempting to steal an amulet from a powerful wizard. He was, predictably, caught and forced to return the amulet. However so enraged was the wizard that he magically colored the thieving troll’s hand bright red and also felt like it was burning!
Seeing the troll clutching his painfully burning red hand, the wizard took pity on him. He offered the troll a deal: although the hand would always remain a odd pigmentation, as long as the troll never stole again, the hand would change into a different color and no longer cause great pain.
The troll promised the wizard that he would never steal again. However, the troll was crafty enough to realize that although he could never steal himself, nothing was preventing him from handling stolen goods. He quickly established himself as a buyer and seller of questionable goods and products, and eventually his hand changed to another color. Soon all petty thieves knew a fence that would offer the best prices, run by a certain blue handed troll.
Short version:
Blue was once an adventurer throughout the Planer Universe and while going through a portal got misdirected to the Para-Elemental plane of Ice. While he was there he accidentally got a sliver of pure Ice stuck in his hand. Where most adventurer’s would have been frozen solid immediately, as a troll his body regenerated and only the area surrounding the Ice sliver stayed cold, and pure ice. If the sliver is ever removed from his body he would ( at the very least ) lose the hand. So Blue retired from adventuring and became a fence in Sigil.
OR
Really Blue was once a small frost giant who got cursed and the curse turned his body green all except his hand which maintained it’s original blueish hue.
OR
Once upon a time a troll hooked up with a frost giant and …..wait sorry wrong website for that post 🙂
As the Town Crier of MNRF, I have seen many things over the years. Some years back I noticed a table set up in the Privies area. This table was covered by a pristine white cloth, stained in several locales in the shade of a bright blue. Centered in these blue spots were various items: wallets, watches, combs, etc… The table was labeled “H.R.M. Privy Lost & Found” The owner of this business had one arm, stained blue to the elbow, and within the blue hand of the blue arm was a blue sandwich, which the man was eating. Most disturbing was his blue lips, teeth, and tongue. The response, by patrons, was of two camps; utter shock, or utter glee. I still get the giggles when I remember this scene. Needless-to-say (and therefore very needfully said for some, like Dhur) this is how the Blue-hand Troll got his start in the procurement and distribution business.
Some of you came close, but still no Cigar. This is a poorly understood phenomenon that effects the races differently. However the effect does seem to be permanent and primarily effects males. Human adolescents are all told that this action will make them go blind, while the same action will cause adolescent Trolls’ hand to turn blue. There is currently no cure or antidote for this condition. As an aside, it is possible for Human boys to continue until they need glasses. If they quit then, vision will not continue to progress.