A troll raiding party armed for war and out for a purpose such as, Raiding Elves, Raiding another troll tribe, hunting down Chaos or targeting other groups it knows are in the area.

The cult mix of the trolls will depend on tribe and clan. Followers of Zorak Zoran will be over represented in most war parties.

They may see the adventurers as a threat to be avoided, victim’s to be taken advantage of, a resource to use or as possible source of intelligence. It will be a rare situation where the players are the planned target of the raid.

Humans with large amount of metal weapons and armour will be treated with caution, and are unlikely to be the source of a full frontal assault without good reason. The presence of Elves, Dwarves, people who look like chaos or other traditional troll enemies within the party will greatly increase the chance of the encounter turning violent quickly.

Most raiding parties will constitute a rune leader or two, over 6 experienced dark or great troll warriors, with an equal number of Trollkin scouts and skirmishes. Larger war parties heading towards Elf or Dwarf territory may be 4 or 5 times the size.

Most Elder Wilds trolls will be using stone and flint weapons, and using hides and leather armour. Some more advanced clans from the central Troll Hills area can send raiding parties out with some metal armour and weapons.

Most daytime encounters will be encountering a resting troll group, there scouts becoming aware of  the players  group and then talking, defending, scouting or negotiating as need. Even if the trolls are hostile, they will prefer to talk in the light and fight in the darkness.

Darkness encounters will be nastier with raided campsites, hostage taking before any negotiations, or abductions with grim and grisly warnings left to be found in the morning.

A fully committed surprise night raid from these guys would probably mark the end of all but the most powerful parties.  So unless the party have brought that kind of attack on themselves I suggest using this encounter for threat, skirmish, hostage taking, bribes and tense negotiation, even when it may not be the most obvious and direct course of action.

Small Parties – These will be raiding locally with a specific foe which is close to the geographic location they are encountered in likely to be trollkin mobs, other trolls, baboon troop, minor chaos, humans Votanki or Balazarings dependent on location or elves if near elf forests.

These are likely to be most passive with players unless they have good reason not to be, as even a  successful fight could very much weaken them for their planned raid

Medium Raiding Parties – These groups can travel long distances sometimes for a specific goal sometimes juts to raid and pillage an area. This means they could very troublesome for the players as they could very well be seen as fair game.

Due to the size of the group I would suggest it makes a better game if the players see them before they see the players. Then the players can decide if they want to attack, retreat, negotiate, mislead or distract the war party.

Large Raiding Parties – This is a large group which is only usually brought together for a specific raid at a specific target. They will be disciplined are unlikely to attack then players out of hand.

Usual targets for a group of this size would be a reasonable sized community be they troll, human, baboon, elf or mostali. Also significant chaos threats could merit this response.

Trolls could interact with the players and try to use them as dupes, information sources, bait, allies or lunch.

Culture: Wild, Hunter or Barbarian

Cults: Zorak Zoran, Kygor Lytor, Zong,  Ancestor worship

Found: Anywhere

Stats:

• small raiding party
• medium raiding party
• large raiding party