It’s something every GM will face. You’ve started a game, and now you have new players. The second installment of our Dungeons & Dragons in an alternate collapsing Roman Empire met last night. My task for the night was to fuse two new players and their characters, plus one of the main group that had been away the week before, into the action.

When last we had left the two characters introduced in the “pilot”, they were hunkered down with a half dozen people in a small, but wealthy, caravan of merchants in the little hamlet of Timo’s Ford, a small town next to a stone bridge over a tributary of the Rhine in the Black Forest. The entire 150 or so of the town’s population had been disappeared, their homes trashed, their animals slaughtered simply for the fun of it…they were certain it was the work of the Vandals that had hit their caravan a few hours earlier, but that would mean there’s one hell of a big population of them somewhere nearby!

They were attacked by a small band of Vandals — in our game, the Vandals are goblins pushed out of Scandinavia by the people there — and they managed to dispatch them and capture one for questioning.

The new characters are a Roman noble who has been exiled from home for his antics, and who is traveling the empire as an entertainer (he’s a bard); a former anchorite — an assimar monk who is part of the Cult of Jesus, an aasimar prophet who was hung up by the Romans — and whose guardian angel, Michael, has put him on the path to hunting demons, and linking up with one of the established characters, Aurelius Augustinian, a cleric who has healing powers; and an dwarven ranger from the Jura Mountains who’s clan are tied to the Alemmani. The last is a folk hero for his selfless rescue of an Alemmani village from Vandal raiders.

They are introduced in media res — running for their lives from two dozen Vandals and their wolves through the deep cold and snow in a darkened forest. Carrus Zwergi, the ranger, has managed to find them the fastest route away from the Vandals, keeping them behind, but they have been running for an hour and collapse at the base of a snow bank to catch their breath. Where to go? What to do? The bard is stunned — where is the army!?!

They see strange lights in a little hamlet across the river…it’s Timo’s Ford, Zwergi knows. They race to the bridge fording the river and make contact with the caravan group, and voila! the characters are joined up! After taking stock of their weapons, doing some healing, while the bard boosts everyone’s spirits, Zwergi and the former Roman legionnaire, Quintus Marcellus, plan their strategy. There are a dozen of the goblins across the bridge, barely visible against the snow; they can hear the wolf with that party baying to the second wolf with another group stealthily making its way around the opposite side of the town. They don’t have much time, and only the PCs and one NPC are any kind of fighters…they have to move quick to preserve any advantage they have.

The party leaves the safety of the old Roman-styled tavern and cross the bridge, luring that group of Vandals out. Marcellus and Augustinian shoot the leader of the band, putting him down, but not killing him. They then jump into the fray, and Augustinian and the monk, Icio Zaccharius, surprise each other with their use of magic. Two magic users in one place!?! This is no coincidence. Zaccharius knows this is not coincidence, for the cleric had once visited his anchorhold in Malta and had questioned him on Jesus’ teachings. He knows Michael has put him on a path to find this man, and then to join forces to find the demon that killed his mentor…

After a hard-fought battle, they kill most of the Vandals and capture the leader. Their victory causes the other group of attackers to break off.

The next morning, having rested, the ranger gathered food for the group and their first decent breakfast was had. Next, they question the Vandals, discovering that there is a large force of the goblins just moved into the neighborhood — perhaps 100-200 fighting men, and maybe a total population — with their women and children — of 500-750. They took the people of Timo’s Ford to trade as slaves to the other tribes in the area.Most of them are even still alive.

The characters formulated a plan: the lead merchant of the caravan is going to take one of the horses and make a mad dash for the nearest Roman guard post, about a day’s ride in the snow. The rest will accompany the caravan to the nearest decent side town to see if they can gain some sanctuary and perhaps aid in rescuing the people of Timo’s Ford.

The characters have already leveled up from this adventure, and the stage is set for the obvious goal of this portion of the campaign: save the town and become heroes.