Tonight’s Dungeons & Dragons session saw the characters leaving Wolfsangel for Lenta, the home of the Lentienses, the tribe of Celts (elves) that the 12 the party rescued from the Quadi (hobgoblins) after the festivals of Saturnalia. The group travelled south along the Neckar toward the Danube, following the old Limes Germanicus from over 100 years ago. The feeling of decay was exemplified by the sections of still standing wall, the empty or half standing guard towers, and the snow-covered, but solid Roman road still taking them south. Marcellus is particularly touched by the fact this barbarian land was once part of the empire.

A few times, they thought they glimpsed people tacking with them, but never got a good look. After stops in little towns graced with thermal springs (hot baths!), they moved into the hills and the Black Forest. Only a half hour or so out of Bad Neckar, as the sun was setting, they went to cross an old Roman bridge over the river, only to be jumped by a massive humanoid creature! Twelve feet tall, mottled, greenish skin, wearing clothes of bear pelts sewed together and a necklace of human ears, and wielding a small tree trunk club, the troll bashed Carrus the Dwarf right off of his pony, killing the animal, and nearly nearly killing their other tracker with one swing.

This encounter was designed by my six year old daughter after leafing through the Monster Manual with me. The previous week, she had gotten to roll for the bad guys, and had knocked the party around pretty handily.  She chose the creature, but only after a long argument about the nature of trolls, which a certain movie convinced her were herbivorous, friendly, and musically inclined. I had to explain the real legend to her.  Trolls it was.

The fight involved 12 elven archers, the characters, and a single troll. I played the rules to the hilt, and several characters got knocked about pretty handily, but finally they started to make a dent in the monster. Finally, Carrus used his menacing attack badly injuring the creature and frightening it enough that it slipped and fell off of the bridge while retreating. They saw it last floating downstream vowing revenge.

After a stop in Bad Neckar to heal and avail themselves of the hot springs, they pressed south toward Heilbrunna, a new Alemanni town of 5000 or so, led by a Marco the Hammer. They were jumped an hour outside by more Quadi, but this time led by a pair of giant versions of the creatures (bugbears) — this is a Quadi bloohound squad and they had been hunting the party for days.

The fight was short, only 5 rounds, but saw Legate Marcellus and Calvinus the Bard hit first, then the creatures concentrated their efforts on the monk and cleric. It didn’t help them. Calvinus’ shatter spell destroyed two of the Quadi soldiers, Carrus took out another, and the NPCs dealt a death volley to one of the bugbears. Augustinius took an arrow through his leg, but afterward was able to use bless to boost the other characters. Carona the satyress took out one with a surprise attack ram maneuver killing him instantly. Eventually, the bard drove the other bugbear off, giving Marcellus time to collect himself, give chase and kill it with a single blow.

With one hostage, they were able to learn that the Quadi use the larger, meaner versions of themselves as hunters, and that they have been tracking them. They learned about the characters, and which were magic users, from the people of Wolfsangel — which the Quadi destroyed after they raided the place and heard about the fight with their platoon of men a week ago. The town was raided, people taken as slaves, and the place raised, then bloodhound were sent looking for them.

We ended the night with the reaching Heilbrunna, where they were received with enthusiasm after Marco the Hammer recognized Carrus the Goblin Killer from stories about him. He’s even heard of his father, the master blacksmith! They were treated to baths, new clothes and a fine meal when we knocked off for the night.