A Troll Hunt.....

 Reports of a troll eating local livestock near Villensdorf, located near the edge of the Sackwald forest, reached the offices of the Department for Supernatural Affairs run by Ernst von Tiddenheim (the hereditary witchfinder general).  Von Tiddenheim put a team together comprising himself and his wife Eleanor, Samantha the white witch, Sargeant Manfred Harfenist (from the Kings Jagers) and Brother Osbert from the monastery of Alt-Wittenberg..... they travelled by coach .....

---oXo---

 On a clear moonlit night, the squire of Villensdorf leads some of the local men into the rocky countryside to locate and kill a troll that has been taking their livestock....

Ernst Von Tiddenheim and his group of 'monster hunters' arrived in Villensdorf, they were supposed to be met by the local squire... but he had not waited for them.... they would have to search for the troll without any local guides...

The troll has emerged from his lair and is out for a night of hunting...

The group led by the local squire moved up over a rocky outcrop ...

they reached level ground, still nothing in sight... however the troll had heard them and was moving their way...

von Tiddenheim's group moved carefully through the rocks....

The troll sees the squires men, they see him and fire at him, wounding him...

Enraged, the troll charges at them swinging his club, knocking down one man

Tiddenheim's group moved to towards the sound of the shots fired. On arrival they opened fire to little affect, an attack spell from Samantha forced the troll back. The troll climbed up on a large rock and roared at his attackers...

The troll attacks the squire and his men again, avoiding the sting of a spell from Samantha's wand..

Everybody gets out of the way as the troll swings his mighty club...

The troll charges down a narrow defile downing one of the squires men, the rest are wrong-footed,  they'll have to try and catch up with the troll ...

The troll rounds the rocks and turns to face von Tiddenheim's party...

Brother Osbert tries to get round behind him as the rest move up to higher ground and open fire....

The troll turns and goes for Brother Osbert who dodges him and the troll continues on to swing his club at a couple of the squire's men...

Brother Osbert fires his blunderbus, the blessed projectiles and musket fire from the squire's men finally kill the troll......

a good nights hunting....

---oXo---

1)  Another nice enjoyable small game using my Simple Combat rules with relevant parts of Devilry Afoot for the troll's stats and actions.

2)  Of the squires men there 3 dead, 1 badly wounded and two with light wounds (they should have waited for von Tiddenheim & co).

3) von Tiddenheim & co, ok apart from a few bumps and scratches ... ready to deal with the next supernatural threat.

Into the Sackwald .... Day 3: At the ruins......

After they set off in the morning, they met a large man with a club (you could say he was a small giant); he was reasonably friendly if somewhat gruff. They asked him if there was anything of interest to see in the vicinity; he said there were some ruins further down the pathway and gave them a curt goodbye and disappeared into the forest...

 a bit later as they could see something above the tree tops...

as they carefully traversed a marshy area, they could see the ruins ...

they were soon there and arrived in a small square, surrounded by a few still standing columns and some extant walls....

While they decided on where to camp, Scharfe spotted a large white hart on the edge of a thicket; after a moment it turned and went into the forest...

Soon the camp was setup .....

they were on their guard after the incident with the snake yesterday... a good job too ! As they prepared for something to eat, a huge lizard approached .... 

The lizard moved forward and hesitated

then it started to move on and looked like it was going to walk through the ruins along the roadway

As the others edged backwards, Limburger moved into the square area to get a better look at the lizard; the lizard seeing his movement turned and attacked him.....

Limburger tries to fend it off, Eleanor fires her pistol at its head, others at the body

The lizard tosses the helpless Limburger away...they fall back to re-load...

The lizard then went after for the pack ponies....

The woodsman managed to save of the pack ponies; while the lizard started to eat the other one

having eaten it turns round and moves slowly into where the expedition had setup camp...

everyone fired at  the lizard, some hit it; the lizard wounded sloped off into the forest ...

Scharfe checked on Limburger - he was dead; the other pack pony was dead and mostly torn apart. After a quick consultation, they decided to end the expedition and head back out of the forest as quickly as they could. Before leaving they buried Limburger in the floor of one of the smaller ruins.

---oXo---

The journey back out of the forest was uneventful; although they had the feeling they were being watched. They rested for a day at Eisern and then returned to the capital to report to the King. 

Into the Sackwald .... Day 2: Further into the woods....

The Second day....

They broke camp and after half an hour or so folling the pathway,  they rounded a corner in the path. Von Tiddenheim spotted something moving up the pathway towards them "Look theres a bear ! "

"Is it dancing ?" - asked Scharfe

"No" said Big Hans "Its not one of those soppy talking bears - On your guard everyone, its a wild one"... 

The bear reared up and moved towards them ....

Two shots from the jagers killed it......

A bit later as they entered a clearing, they disturbed some deer....

After stopping for lunch, a small wild boar scuttled out of the forest and ran past them ....

in the late afternoon, they sighted some large hairy ape or man like creatures walking into the forest...

After the day's trek, they made camp...

Just as they were about to eat ... a large snake appeared .....

Esme kept it at bay with a spell using her wand....

if then slithered off...

then reared up again

all those nearby fired at it , and missed - having had enough, the snake moved off and into the forest ....

to be continued

Into the Sackwald .... Day 1: There wolf !

After a nights rest the expedition prepared to depart; the pack horse attendants and the two guards hired in Eisern refused to go any further - they left taking the donkey cart back with them and anything that was surplus to the expedition's needs. 

Carla Cranz, who was one of Madame Givenchy's adventurous Irregulars, decided to go on into the forest and changed her cantiniere's outfit for some more appropriate attire. The two pack horses were led by private Limburger and the Woodsman.

The expedition formed up with Scharfe and Big Hans leading the way. It was slow progress as they moved along the pathway into the forest; they took a small rest in a little clearing mid-morning. Randell and Hopkerk took bearings and updated their notes.  An hour of or so later they reached a large clearing...

"There wolf !" shouted Big Hans; three wolves bounded out of the forest heading towards them.... everyone tried to get off a shot at them before they closed...

One of the wolves went down and Big Hans finished it off with his sword.... the other two closed with the expedition; they tried to fend the snarling wolves off ....Sgt Harfenist got bitten... others had a few scratches...

After the wolves got hit a few times, they ran off into the forest; 

They paused for a while, while Esme the witch put a poultice on Sgt Harfenist's wound. After an early lunch they started off again following the path. The afternoon was uneventful; at one point the pathway skirted a small rocky knoll. Randell and Hopkerk used it to look for some higher points in the landscape they could use for surveying reference. 

After some hard work in the late afternoon cutting through some thick brush that had grown over the path in one place, they stopped and made camp.  The night passed without incident, although in the early hours they were disturbed by the sounds of some large animal moving nearby.

to be continued

Getting ready...

Setting up for the Sackwald forest expedition games....

The game table is split into two main zones, firstly the actual game-space; the expedition movement and encounter zone. 

Trees will be shuffled and suitable scencics added as needed; then the second area - the control zone which has the event tables, rules etc.

Any spare space is used as 'parking' zone for extra trees, figures etc.