Badger's Delve

[Brutoss]

This place is strange, strange, strange. Everything here is sooo big.  The people, the houses, even the rats.  You could put our whole clan burrow into one of their ‘houses’ and lose it, provided you buried the thing underground before you put the burrow in of course. Good thing uncle Bindlewort taught me a bit about the big folk and their short-tongued language or I wouldn’t understand the half of it.  I’m still not sure I do. Houses built above the ground, temples to things they call Gods, and more people all together than I have seen in my entire life.  And it’s rush, rush, rush.  Not that that is unusual for big’uns but the place doesn’t even slow down much when the light fades and the stars come out. There is a constant clanging and bashing and chattering from the smithy and craft shops, and there are so many people dressed in armour and carrying weapons of all make and manner, it’s as if a war was going on.  

There is one place where the kitchen is almost never empty.  Mind you, what a kitchen!  Presses and ovens and stoves and drying racks and water always available and, and, and… it’s just fantastic.   I’ve been able to sneak in there in the wee hours and cook up a storm - enough for me and some of the friends I have made around the place.  There are the rats Eee, Ek, T’t, Teet, Scar, Twitch and LongTail – they are always interested in a feed.  The kittens Pushti and Siang are also great for a laugh, but they don’t like the rats.  I was playing hide and seek with them a couple of days ago and ran into an underground opening, only to find strange worked stone and the most dreadful smell, and lots of rats.  That was when I met Eee and Ek and made a few new friends.  I’ve managed to stay out of the way of most of the big’uns, but is it _really_ bad luck to be seen by the big folk?  I’ll have to think about that some.

[Brutoss]

I've been in and around town enough now to see some sites that go against all I was told when growing up, about how the big folk hunt us little folk for food, or to shut us up in cages and treat us as slaves or 'pets'.  I have seen big'uns mixing with normal sized people and not treating them like slaves - even acting as if they were friends.  I was in the inn recently and someone had locked the door to the kitchen.  Why would they do that?  Anyway, there was someone from a people who I have learnt are 'halflings' - only a little taller than the forest folk - laughing and chatting with a mixed group of elves and humans.  She just walked up to the door and gave the handle a twist and it opened as if by magic, which the others seemed to think was a good joke.  

I have grown lax in my time here.  I was by the pond recently and was startled when a stranger appeared from the rushes, from where they had been fishing.  They seemed to be part normal person, part fish and part cat, but said they were something called a 'tiefling'.  I hadn't seen them at all until they spoke.  I tried speaking to them in the forest tongue but they didn't understand.  Nor did they speak gnome, replying in a language that was strange to me.  At least we could communicate in Common.  They said that it was usual in Hlint for people of all races to work together - even some goblins and orcs and half-giants would work with the humans and elves and dwarfs.  The fish-cat-person had even been out hunting ogres with some of the big'uns and was accepted as part of the group.

People here do seem quite willing to help those in trouble.  I had gone for a wander away from Hlint recently and back to the forest when I was attacked by some nasty undead creatures.  I had summoned a spirit of the forest to help me but we were sorely pressed, when a human with a glowing sword came charging in and returned the undead to the ground from which they had risen.  I was quite spooked by the whole afair and didn't stay around.  Maybe the human had just attacked the undead because that is what they do, or maybe, just maybe, they may have seen me in trouble and decided to help.  Who can tell the minds of such creatures?

[Brutoss]

I have actually spoken to a big'un!  I think she was a human, but she may have been an elf.  If is so hard to tell when you can't see the ears.  Anyway, she had seen me over near the pond and approached me in a most friendly manner.  I thought of running away, and I did try to hide, but she searched me out again and requested my aid.  Imagine that - a big'un wanting the aid of one of the forest folk!  You could have blown me away with a feather.

The big'un had promised to retrieve something from the sewers for another big'un and was having trouble with all the rats down there.  I went with her into the sewers and introduced her to some of my friends but she just wanted to kill them.  Maybe these big'uns aren't as pleasant as they make out to be after all?  I tried to explain that the rats were just hungry and if she fed them they would be her friends too, but then some of the rats let hunger get the better of them and attacked us in earnest.  Seems there are bad apples in very barrel.

Some of the rats down in the sewers are Huge!  We may not have made it out if my big friend Honey hadn't shown up.  Honey followed me from home and says she will stick around so long as I feed her proper - with fish and of course more honey.  Now she hangs around town getting fat and lazy.  It's a wonder that the towns people seem to ignore her, but I have seen a number of her kind around town.

When we went deep into the sewers we found a most strange sight.  A giant rat-man was there.  I have heard stories of such creatures from uncle Bindlewort but I never thought I would encounter one.  He had taken something from a big'un on the surface and my companion wanted to retrieve it.  The rat-man was also stiring up trouble with the rats and I decided I couldn't allow that to continue - he was causing problems for everyone.  With Honey's aid we managed to defeat the rat-man and return to the surface.  I even kept some of the pelts as the rats no longer had need of them.  Maybe I can make something from them?