The Babies on the Boat go Whaaa Whaaa Whaaa

The journey back is surprisingly uneventful. This is lucky because there’s scarcely room to swing Hawkmoon’s cat.

The Elven Box-Ship contains:

Thesis the hulking Lizard-man.

The two Lizard-folk slaves.

Durin the stout Dwarf.

Eolar the tall Half Elf.

The (thankfully) human sized Ragnar.

Bodush the Sorcerer.

Gajapan the tiny viper.

Mara’ch the slightly larger Kobold.

And his unnamed rat.

Hawkmoon the Elven Archer.

Rou the cat.

Roly (the annoyingly obese) cleric.

The two Hamster-men.

The four Sailors.

The three boys.

The four girls.

The three Siren children.

A Riding horse.

And last but not least: Meldo the donkey.

A total of thirty-one creatures in a ship designed to hold fifteen.
Still if you get hungry…

Two’s Company, Twenty One’s a Flock.

It’s a few weeks later when Eolar receives the call he’s been waiting for. He is in Cabal En’s chamber within minutes of the summons.
“That was quick Eolar. Are you in such a hurry to be away from here?”
The old man’s smile disarms any offense.
“As you are well aware from your past exploits, we of the order of St Cuthbert see it as our duty to eradicate Chaos and disorder. We want you to take over a so called temple of Chaos on the boarders of the ‘Forbidden lands’. Not much is known about it other that it promotes both War and Chaos.”
The High priest pauses for a moment and smiles again.
“The council thinks you are the perfect candidate for this mission. No pure cleric could find their way through such difficult terrain or be able to combat such disorder. It is supposedly difficult to access but little is truly known about it as no-one from our Order has been in that region for centuries.”
On noticing that Eolar is no longer smiling, the old priest continues.
“Remember, you will have the now Paladin Elogyn to help you as well as fifteen acolytes. I will even send one of the Cathedral guards to aid you. Brave Cotis has specifically requested he accompanies you and the young priests. You'll also have those two magnificent war horses of yours... And that old mule. If you still feel the need for you ‘friends’ help, the church is prepared to offer a ‘protection’ fee of say five hundred gold coins… each?”

Thoughts of a Mule

It felt quite nice without all the stuff on the back. Everything was so .... light. But now the two-legged creatures were gone and with them the one who always guided him to the nice places that had tasty chewable stuff on the ground, Meldo felt a bit bored. It was quite dark since the others left because they took the glowing thing with them.
It was actually really dark! He was standing around for a while and waited for them to come back. Staring into the dark was boring.
Due to an absence of other distractions, Meldo started to smell around. He followed a scent a few steps and ran into a wall. After cursing for a while (i-aaaa, i-a, i-aaa) he concentrated on the smell again. It smelled wet, mouldy and boring. He looked around again. Still dark.
He turned a bit and slowly walked a few steps again. No wall. Another few steps. No wall but his hooves got wet. Another smell. Smelled like water, but with a strange side-smell to it. He remembered the other creature that was there. Shiny black and white colors to show off. He didn't like it! Grey was still his favourite colour. But the creature was gone. It was a bit behind the shaky thing they used to get over the lake. It was there for a while and then..... Meldo took a few, rather fast, steps backwards. Could explain the smell.
He turned again and took a few careful steps forward. There were a few things on the ground. He knew, because he stepped on them. He tried to eat one of them...wood! Buargh! Ah, another one...stone. Ouch! Nothing tasty! He smelled at every thing he stepped on...another wood, stone, stone....ouch! His head hurt!
He didn't like to be dragged around all the time by these two-legged ones (although he liked the one that he knew for ever. He always knew where the tasty stuff was!) but this was boring. He didn't like boring!
Another few steps, very, very careful this time. He stepped into something bigger. He smelled at it! It smelled like... like.... him?? He pushed his nose into it and it really smelled like him! An lots of other things. He tried to bite into it. Didn't taste good and was too leathery. But somewhere inside it smelled good.
After a few hours of trying, pushing, prodding and pulling, a few things rolled away. He followed them (because they smelled good) and bit into them.
Ah, finally!! The two-legged one was hiding tasty stuff for him! For hours, he chewed on one after the other! He felt quite good and the darkness was suddenly bearable.

(The party won't find Kruddo's 9 rations anymore and Eolar has to sort the stuff in the saddlebags again)