Alfheim
The sun was just beginning to set in the Elven world of Alfheim, dense forest covered the planet with various villages and cities peppering the surface. Ulik was not worried about the cities today but an abandoned village in the middle of nowhere. He had been leading his troll's far off the beaten path but given the amount of money his employer had given him up front and promised more when he returned would make any amount of walking worth it.
He had been instructed to come to this area and find the abandoned village and investigate, he was promised an easy trek through the woods with little to no danger involved which for once proved to be true. "I found it" called out one of his scouts he had sent ahead. Ulik bumbled through the woods given his large and slightly overweight build and quickly found the opening in the trees showing a village that clearly had seen better days.
"Spread out and see what you can find" he ordered as his trolls spread out and he made his way to the center of the village. He looked around at the destroyed village, burned huts and broken pottery. It had clearly been a very very long time since anyone had lived here and Ulik doubted that anyone alive would even know what had caused the destruction. The center of the village was stone that was circled by the dirt and grass of the forest where the huts and the actual village stood. "This place is ancient" he said to himself as his trolls continued to search the area. The employer hadn't told them what to look for but they would know when they found it.
They combed over the place for hours and had found nothing, Ulik scoffed "Wild goose chase" he said to himself picking himself up off a rock he had been sitting on. "Let's go boys, nothing here." He turned and dropped a coin from his pocket as he moved to head out and bent down to pick it up when he saw the writing on the ground.
Ulik couldn't understand the language but knew that it was the something he was looking for, he touched the ground and could feel something underneath stir, as if it was awakening from a long sleep. Ulik turned "Bring hammers and get us underneath this stone" he ordered moving away so his henchmen could get to work.
They worked the entire night and managed to get a good-sized hole in the ground and looked inside but found that the torches they had lit while working failed to light the cave that they had uncovered. "What is this?" one of his trolls asked which Ulik blissfully ignored.
"We'll search it in the morning. I want someone up and guarding all night, we don't need some Elf sneaking up on us and getting down there" Ulik ordered retiring to one of the more stable huts in the village.
Ulik awoke with a start to the screams of his trolls outside, he put on his gauntlets and jumped into the fray to find the village empty. No blood, no evidence his trolls had even been there aside from their weapons and the camp fires. He scanned the village and stopped when the light glinted off something. "Who goes there?" he shouted knowing that Thor would have made himself known by now and even elves couldn't make bodies disappear.
The figure stood up almost like it was unwinding after a long nap, it turned, red light seemed to be glowing within it, it answered no questions, made no sounds, and showed no mercy as it snuffed out the life of Ulik the Rock Troll.