Excerpt from Troll Shaman, Book 2 of the Troll Lands Saga

Isabo stared at the wooden plank erected beside the canyon bridge. In the beginning, after she led the captives out of the troll-infested mountains, someone had posted a list of humans killed by the monsters in the latest battle. She knew well the names at the top of the list: her own brother Amon, Will Perban, Mayra Faulken, Arno Voss, even the idiot Marko Gaskun, who had grudgingly served as a commander in her army. Finn Zollar, the scout Willim Tallard, Makkins, Kellick… The list grew as locals added their loved ones killed in previous troll raids. She could add her mother, Magda, and her twin sister, Seala, to the list. Everyone had lost someone to the things.
Then the trolls came out of the mountains to trade. Her father had betrayed all of humanity by agreeing to a treaty with them that would allegedly end the raids. He had befriended a trollish sorcerer and even aided the hideous beast in some meaningless task under the mountains. In exchange, the monsters promised to halt the raids and free their human captives.
She spat. They could no more trust the word of a troll than that of her treasonous father. Instead of leaving the things to starve in the mountains as they should have, people began to trade with them, encouraged by her father and Alastor Faulken, the mayor of the nearby village of Pineholm. And this was despite Faulken losing his own daughter to the accursed beasts. Trolls brought salt, iron ore, and even a passable wine. Humans brought foodstuffs and other goods. A makeshift settlement called Bridge Town sprang up, largely consisting of ramshackle huts, tents, and stock pens.
On one day in the early spring, she came to the bridge she’d sworn to destroy. Someone, or some troll, had added another plank to the memorial. It was carved with ugly, unpronounceable names, like Ghuruk and Appa and Malbah. She could only guess they were trolls she or someone like her had slain in righteous combat. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long for some good person to tear the thing down. The plank was replaced and then destroyed again.
In time, one of the troll traders brought a slab of granite carved with all the names, human and troll, and erected it at the edge of the canyon. Within a week, the troll names were splashed with blood.
Isabo laughed at that. She had discovered an effective weapon to kill the tall, powerful beasts—troll blood. The substance acted as a vicious poison against the monsters when painted on swords or spears. It killed them quickly and painfully. How appropriate that someone had thought to decorate the names of dead trolls with it. If she ever found out who did it, she would have to buy them a drink or three.