Day Two

In the morning, the soldiers were still fighting worgs outside. It must be taking its toll on moral, but they seem to have plenty of capable volunteers to rotate in. I rarely see the same face twice.

Breakfast was a plate of warm grits and water. I don't expect much from a makeshift outpost, but I hope the food gets better once the invasion's quelled. I'd hate to be thrown into a different dimension and this is their idea of fine dining.

Socializing hasn't been very successful. There are some recruitment soldiers at a table outside, lieutenants wandering around the grounds. They say hi and "King's Honor", but I can't get any information from them. I'd say they were too busy to talk, but they're not. The soldiers have the fight contained. Other recruits are just as taciturn. I tried striking a conversation with someone who had the same robes as me, asked if he was a hælmancer too. He said he was a mage, then just walked off.

I found McBride again. Instead of going back to killing worgs, like I thought he'd do, he told me about the spies seen wandering around the grounds. I guess they're not as incompetent as I thought they were. Well, I guess that's not fair. I don't know much about this world. Although I will say they don't have as much diversity as I'm used to. It also might explain why they're sending a healer out to perform the tasks of a warrior. They must be overstocked on people like me. If only the guys at home could see me now.

Destroying the spies wasn't too difficult. They were always focused on their targets, never on me. So I could destroy them from long range. Taking a life feels different than restoring one (obviously), but I really felt no compunctions about it. Maybe because these orcs seem more animal than man.

As a reward, McBride gave me a nifty new robe, colored in green. I was thankful for that -- I am so sick of white.

One more thing, while I was in the east on my hunt, I saw a fire across the river in a vineyard. Blackrock warriors were setting fires where others had been quenched by recruits. That made me wonder what kind of attackers we were dealing with. A vineyard's not a very strategic holding. What was these orcs' purpose here? Just marauding and trouble-making? They hide in broad daylight, they set fire to land. If this is an example of their battle prowess, I'm not sure why the Alliance is so worried about maintaining their holdings. Unless there are bigger threats I don't know about.

--Caden Watkins