trolls be stupid
 

I killed the trolls on the bridge near the initial city at level 5 I think while exploring, I didn't get any 'talking' option to go past them but there are some things hinting that I could have talked my way out. My character is very 'social' so the option if there was one should have shown, it didn't look like I was supposed to do that at that level as the fight was very tough (almost like the mother rat fight in DS1), I hope I didn't screw anything up? Maybe some later quest will send me there and I didn't have to fight them?

It is possible to bribe them later in the Game. In Exchange they will give you either a pretty good Chainmail or a useless Robe.

You need to have fairly high Human Nature iirc (around 10) for the option to appear.
Even though I got the option, I fought them instead anyway and nothing got screwed. If you were able to cross the bridge afterwards, there shouldn´t be a problem.

Trolls are - much, much more than the Elves - a kind of "dying race" and have had their peak of civilization long, long long before even the current Aventurians even reached the shore of the continent that is now called "Aventuria". (The Elves, the Dwarves and the reptilian-like Achaz plus the human Tulamids are natives of Aventuria, together with the Ogres, the Orcs, the Goblins and the Nivese people living in the north and the jungle natives, the Mohas.)

In one of the earlier Ages (Aventurian history is divided into Ages, of which the earliest ones are forgotten nowadays by everyone), and each race had a kind of "ruling race". Once, these were the Trolls.

What you see now is the more or less degenerated remains of what was once a proper civilization. Similar to the Elves, of which the wood Elves are kind of "back-to-nature" Elves of the High Elven Civilization (of which you might catch a glipmse in Philleasson's Secret), which is also gone since millennia.

The Nameless Good tried to corrupt a race in each of these Ages for his cause - and to collect their "souls". Once, this had been the Trolls, an once this had been the High Elves.

Trolls are nowadays protected by law, usually, and many years ago I even read of a trollish Baron in Aventuria … Some seem to be more intellugent than those you encounter within the gme, I guess …

Their "script language" is not to draw signs on paper (like our letters), but three-dimensional stone "buildings". Almost no-one is able to read them nowadays.

The trolls actually have a large fortress north of Arania. Back in the days our group went there as part of the Borbarad campaign. The troll culture there is fairly sophisticated.

The chainmail is a good deal. I guess the stuff you need to get over the bridge without violence is quite expensive for a low level group. Still, it was about half the buying price of that chainmail (or equal to the selling price, if you don't like it).