From ToEE

Day 2.

Morning

Travelled all morning to reach the tiny town of Hommlet.

Slowly getting used to the smell of orc. I'd say it wasn't so bad once you're used to it, but I'd be lying. The eager one (I think he's called Glug) keeps chowing down garlic. Enemies will smell us a mile off. The half-orcs act quite oddly. Glug carries a bird cage with a couple of rather depressed looking birds (they're probably just dizzy from the endly swinging of the cage) and the other one (who seems to be called Garadull) seems like a snob, or rather very refined in a way you just can't really imagine a half-orc being.

Also in the party is that odd elven druid. I've discovered her name is Ilona. I still feel uneasy around her, but as she spent a lot of the morning so far, staring at Glug's birds I figure she's probably safe enough. If the birds don't look happier when we next take a break, I might speak to her about whether she's planning on freeing them.

Vladameer (the strange priest) has also brought along an elven mystic who's name I missed, Zaria perhaps? She was adopted by the party as the leader which seemed fair enough to me. Other companions include Kunoichi who doesn't speak (vow of silence perhaps?), Benjamin who appears eternally nervous and Steph who says "Crikey!" a lot but hardly anything else. Kunoichi wears no armour but carries a staff so I figure she's probably monastery taught. Benjamin's got to be a warrior of some god but I suspect he missed the classes where they covered self-composure and courage. Steph also appears to be an elven druid although she is very, very different from Ilona.

When we reached Hommlet we were greeted by the sight of black smoke. Surely something had been devastated. Upon a brief visit to the nearest house, we were told by the goodwife there that goblins had raided the night before and set the hay shed on fire. It was rather odd though, because she didn't seem that concerned about it. She was in her house clothes with time to talk to strangers. I would have expected her to be out with the men folk fixing it. Especially since the shed belonged to her family members. Insane!

In fact, none of the women-folk were helping the men fix the shed. Surely the whole town should have been rallied, men, women and children. Maybe hay isn't as important a thing to keep here?

The men seemed quite unsurprised when meeting my companions. Maybe it was just due to exhaustion on their part. If a group of 9 strong warriors of orcs, elves and humans wandered up to my family I know that I'd be up in arms demanding to know if their intentions were good!

We volunteered to help the men fix their shed but they really didn't seem happy with that idea, so maybe they had sense after all. One of them told us of a family heirloom that had been stolen by the goblins and pointed out the way, so we headed off, eager for adventure. The party asked me to track the goblins, but seriously, I expect a child could probably have done it. It wasn't as if there were any attempts to hide their tracks. Now, on the other hand, there were some well disguised tracks crossing our path along the way, but I imagine that's of no real consequence...

Evening

Phew! What a day.

We tracked the goblins into a hill where Ilona took the scouting position and I got shoved into the third row of our marching order. I really didn't expect my companions to be so well prepared, but someone had taken a good amount of time to think about how things should go. I was sandwiched between orcs but with the stench of burning torches this was hardly noticable.

Within moments of our entering the hill our party was divided in two when a portcullis dropped down between us. Fortunately noone was injured in its falling but as we were then attacked from the front this was mildly annoying. Unfortunately for me I was stuck on the wrong side to deal any damage, so I guarded the rear and chatted to Kunoichi. At the end of the battle we were able to raise the portcullis and hold it up by hammering in iron spikes.

We hunted through the catacomb, killed some goblins (took some prisoner), killed some wolves (although Steph decided to befriend one) and apparently there were some centipedes killed too. The most frustrating occurance was when we chanced upon the final goblins. They were thorougly demoralised yet for some bizarre reason two of my companions decided to attack them. Of course they attacked back! They had been huddling in a corner holding their weapons, shaking terribly. It would have been trivial to bring the situation under control without further blood shed.

Fortunately, the remaining, surviving goblins surrendered.

Then the party broke into argument as to what to do with them. Garadull wanted to set them free, Vladamir wanted to take them back to the village for justice (where they'd get tortured to death). Garadull set them free, Glug and Vladamir caught them and knocked them out. Then some impatient person smashed open the treasure chest and broke some glass ware. I'm adventuring with insane people!

After all of that I decided to pet Steph's wolf while she kept singing to it, until the rest of my companions were satisfied that they'd done as much damage as possible.