TOEE - Arriving in Hommlet

First off, I should tell you not to worry too much by the header. Although I intend to do a series of posts on TOEE, I don't really intend to chronicle my passage through the game. What I plan is to capture screenshots of different combat situations I end up in as I go through the game and explain my approach to that encounter. Hopefully, it will serve as a series of posts which will illustrate the tactical diversity available in an RPG with turn based initiative mechanics and also provide some concrete reasons as to why its such a shame that more games like this aren't published.

With that said, watch as I now immediately deviate from the plan!

Early Origins
Its not much of a spoiler to tell you that TOEE is based on the classic D&D module released in 1985 and voted as one of the most popular D&D modules of all time. And just as with the original module, the meat of this game starts off in the village of Hommlet.

One of the interesting things that this game does though is start you off with an opening vignette which is based on your party alignment and which gives you a reason to travel to Hommlet in the first place. Although nowhere near as extensive as the origin stories in DAO, its quite cool that the game gives you this motivation to be in Hommlet instead of just plonking you down there and saying that you are looking for adventure.

The Neutral Good vignette starts you off in the capital city where, while wandering the streets at night, your party hears a scream in one of the side streets. Rushing over like the bunch of adventurers that you are, you come across a thief standing over the body of a woman. The thief is easily dispatched at which point you search the woman and find that she was the canoness of the church in Hommlet.


In the world of D&D, this should actually be - "if only my cleric was high enough level to cast raise dead..."

With a good alignment, your party decides that it should make the several day trek to a remote village to tell the church there that their canoness is dead. Yeaaah. I know we are 1st level adventurers and hence, poorer than spit, but still - couldn't we even afford to hire a messenger?


Before I know it, we have arrived in Hommlet

Believe it or not, the first thing to happen to my group after we arrive is that we get shaken down by the game's equivalent of the local mafia. We had headed straight for the church to tell them of the bad news whereupon we came across Calmert. Calmert is the administrator of the church and if we wanted to see Canon Terjon, we would have to pay 10gp as a "donation" to the family church.


Luckily, I had pumped some points into my intimidate skill

Seriously? I'm here to do you a favour and deliver some bad news and you ask for a donation? Well, guess what, I got two pieces of bad news for you then cos you ain't getting even a copper piece out of me!


The Raise Dead spell, while great in gameplay terms, is a real drama killer

Hommlet quests
The quests in the opening village of Hommlet are some of the best I've seen in a cRPG. Unfortunately, the very same quests are also some of the worst I've ever seen as well. How? Let me tell you what happened when I first arrived in Hommlet.

When I first arrived in Hommlet, I found my party on a dirt track leading into the heart of the village. The first house I wandered past had a bevy of kids as well as a relatively young grandmother who tells me that she felt it was a shame that two brothers, both of whom are farmers, are feuding over the limited space they have in their barn. A family feud - me senses the potential for some xp!

Walking across the street, I enter the house of Percy, one of the feuding brothers, who promptly complains about how his brother, Filliken, is taking up more than his fair share of space in the barn. Oh, if only someone could talk some sense into Filliken! The wife though, who seems eminently more sensible, has a great idea - why don't they build another barn!

So, I start heading towards the carpenter and along the way, come across Filliken. Who is immediately belligerent toward me as he believes that I am there at the request of his brother, Percy. Which, to be fair, was true. So, no luck in talking some sense into Filliken. I guess that leaves the carpenter.

I look up the local carpenter and ask him if he can build a new barn for the brothers. Unfortunately, the carpenter is busy and isn't willing to help the brothers out by building their barn first. Current estimate is for the barn to be built in around a years time. By now, I should have seen sense and left them to their devices but the munchkin in me wanted the quest xp.

Anyway, the carpenter has a brother called Marek who tells me that he is in love with Althea, the eldest daughter of Filliken. Unfortunately, the carpenters were new in town and members of the Church. Filliken, being old blood, was a member of the Old Faith and before the two young lovers could be wed, Marek would need to convert to the Old Faith. Alas for poor Marek, Jaroo (the local druid) wasn't willing to perform the conversion on Marek.

Ah - true love. How could any hopeless romantic like myself not help out? So, off to see Jaroo to find out why he wasn't willing to help out these young lovers.

It turns out that Jaroo would love to perform the conversion of Marek to Old Faith. The problem is that he is trying to maintain a neutral relationship with the local Church so he won't actually perform the conversion unless he has the blessing of the local Church. At this point, its worth mentioning that this is the same Church that tried to shake me down when I was doing them a favour. Yeah - I'm sure they would be willing to do a good deed.

The Church was not willing to sanction the conversion of Marek to Old Faith (quelle surprise). Unless I could get someone else to convert to the Church and maintain the balance of power in Hommlet. To this end, the Church tells me that Jakk Borton, a local leather merchant, would be a good choice as they have been trying to get him to convert for a while without any success.

So, after quickly changing into my Jehovah's witness shirt, we trek across the village once more as we head out to find Jakk Borton and convince him to join the Church. Naturally, things aren't that easy. After finding Jakko, he tells us that he will only convert to the Church if the Church's God can perform a miracle. Not just any miracle though but a healing miracle on his brother-in-law, Bing, who used to help him in the shop.

Alas, the Canon Terjon is not willing to perform this miracle. The canon actually says that he doesn't have the ability to cast a Heal spell but this is a blatant lie as I find a scroll of Heal in his belongings. Some quick thievery later and I am armed with a Heal spell with which I can cure Bing's sickness! Finally, some progress in resolving this family feud (you do remember that all this is so that I can resolve the family feud right?).

After Bing is healed, Jakko declares his undying loyalty to the Church. The Church then approves the conversion of Marek to Old Faith. Jaroo then completes the conversion and Marek and Althea start planning their wedding. As Filliken is now family, the carpenter is willing to build the barn first. Awesome! Suddenly, everything is falling into place and the feuding brothers will soon have a barn each!

Except not. Naturally, things aren't quite that easy. Although the carpenter is willing to prioritise the building of the barn, he still requires someone to pay for it. Unfortunately, Filliken, who is a stubborn old fool isn't willing to pay for the barn as he thinks that Percy should pay for it. And no, Percy isn't willing to pay for it either. But again, Percy's wife comes to the rescue!

She tells me that Mathilde, the old grandmother I first met, is actually in love with Filliken. Furthermore, Mathilde is loaded so she could easily pay for the barn. Once more unto the breach as we brave the streets of the village looking for Mathilde.

We find Mathilde and sure enough, she would be willing to pay for the barn. Huzzah! Alas, she tells me that Filliken has rejected her advances. Boo!!

Off to Filliken to find out why. Turns out that, although Filliken also likes Mathilde, the stupid old sod believes that he is still in a period of mourning for his dead wife. His wife died over a year ago and Filliken can't remarry under the rules of Old Faith.

Even to my simple eyes, that sounded like a bullshit excuse. But what I needed was proof. So off to Jaroo again to confirm the rules of marriage under Old Faith. Jaroo clarifies that the period of mourning need only last one year at which point people are free (nay, encouraged!) to remarry and have children. In other words, Filliken is free to remarry and has no more excuses.

And with that last obstacle out of the way, Filliken agrees to marry Mathilde. Mathilde in turn, is willing to pay for a new barn and I finally manage to solve the feuding brothers quest. Huzzah!!

Wow - what a quest.

On one hand, this is an awesome quest in that it is so involved. In addition, the solution to the quest is not a simple one and considering the hoops you have to jump through, its no surprise that the villagers themselves never actually managed to resolve it themselves. Which is part of why I love this quest.

So many cRPGs have you doing simple fedex quests where you walk across the street, talk to an NPC and then bam - quest solved. At the end of it, you just sit there and wonder why these morons couldn't have resolved the quest themselves. I mean, all they had to do was walk across the street!

On the other hand, this quests involves you running back and forth across Hommlet numerous times which is really time consuming and soul destroying when you just want to get into combat and kick some ass. Never mind the fact that my party of adventurers, who go around killing monsters to help protect civilisation from the evil cults that value anarchy, ends up spending their time playing Cupid. Really? Geez, I really hope the evil cult doesn't complete their plan for world domination while I'm running around plinking love arrows into people...

Awesome Sword is awesome
Anyway, with all of that running around Hommlet, I actually spent a fair amount of time in Fillikens home. Filliken actually has two daughters in this game. The first is Althea who is in love with Marek. The second is Meleny who became very friendly after I talked to her a couple of times. And when I say very friendly, I mean "farmer's daughter" friendly...

Alas for me, I cannot consummate until Althea is married. Basically, Filliken is old school and won't even consider any hijinks with Meleny until his older daughter is married. Of course, this problem is resolved as part of the feuding brother quest as Althea is free to shack up with Marek. This in turn, leaves me free to shack up with Meleny (who is a level 1 druid).

But shacking up with Meleny is really just icing and is not my main objective. What I really want is the awesome family heirloom that I get for marrying Meleny. Filliken has a Holy Longsword +1 which he gives to me after my agreement to marry his daughter.

Naturally, he makes me promise to look after her.


After all the trouble I went through with his family feud, I can guarantee you that she will get what she deserves...