Escape from slavery
In the last blog, our group was led costumized to a festival at the Chiraque residence, where they are supposed to entertain the guests in order to make up for the attempted theft of Kel Tuh Las. To this end, a huge, very hairy man, who had already provided them with their costumes last time, leads them across the square with his escort of two guards until they arrive at a small wooden stage decorated with shining lanterns and colorful banners. They were to entertain the guests here as punishment before being taken back to their slave quarters. A short time later, they stand alone on the stage and are stared at enthusiastically by many onlookers. When nothing happens, various types of fruit begin to fly onto the stage. Our two-part horse begins to hop frantically back and forth on the stage and Theo tries his hand at various acrobatic tricks. However, as most of these end up on the floor and the running horse does not send the audience into raptures, the barrage of oranges, artichokes and peaches intensifies. Meanwhile, Löwenzahn makes his way into the crowd and tries to interact with some of the children and cheer them up with jokes. In doing so, he cleverly avoids the fruit bullets, which Theo copies straight away and starts playing card tricks on the audience. These are not particularly imaginative, but at least they work. This immediately makes Theo overconfident and he begins with a singing interlude and the presentation of various magic tricks. He immediately tramples the tender seedling of entertainment and is thrown down with fruit all the more intensely.
Meanwhile, Löwenzahn comes up with a crucial idea. He calls the now brightly colored horse to him and offers a little girl a ride on its back. While Kel Tuh Las is still letting out a stifled cry, the child is already placed on his neck. Before he can complain, the little girl gives the horse a good spurring, so that Kel gets another whack on the nose. While Aldric and Kel Tuh Las are more than necessary for the ride, Löwenzahn makes sure that the girl sits safely on the horse’s back. Theo seizes the opportunity and prances around the group so that he is not left alone at the stage. The destination of the ride is now clear: the exit of the fairground and the gardens of the residence behind it. Now that the horse is finally moving at the speed the girl expects from such a muscular stallion, the kicks in Kel Tuh La’s face are slowly diminishing. So in a few moments the gate to the garden is in sight, when our three adventurers (Kel Tuh Las can’t see very much apart from Aldric’s behind) realize that this gate is unfortunately manned by guards. Luckily, Löwenzahn has obviously chosen a passionate horsewoman who not only wants to ride slowly in a crowd, but also fast and in nature. In addition, the little girl also has the advantage of an insanely nasty mother who wants to enforce everything for her little angel. This means that the guards hardly stand a chance of resisting this concentrated female power. In order to pass authentically as a horse, Kel also throws the rotten potatoes that have wandered into his pockets in the loot madness out of the horse’s rump. After a few hundred meters, the riding lesson really comes to an end for the little girl, who happily and contentedly takes her mom’s hand and skips back towards the fairground.
The fact that their plan actually works comes as such a massive surprise to all four of them that they first have to come up with a new plan on how to proceed. Since neither Kel Tuh Las nor Aldric enjoy the intimacy that the horse costume gives them, it goes straight into the first hedge that comes along. Löwenzahn, on the other hand, loves his new outfit and insists on continuing to wear it. Theo roguishly decides to adopt a new disguise and turns his costume inside out. The group’s next goal is to reach the garden border. But before they get there, they run into a gardener who is crouched down weeding. Fearing that he might give away the escape, our four decide without further ado to take the gardener with them. They rush on into the muddy Telzer Moor, which is criss-crossed by rivers. After a few minutes, they pause briefly to discuss how to proceed with the gardener. In order to do this in peace, the gardener is quickly stripped and tied naked to the nearest tree. From a brief interrogation of the prisoner, they learn that his name is Emanuel and that he would certainly never betray them. While Theo patiently listens to Löwenzahns and Aldrics discussing whether they can believe Emanuel or would rather cut open the soles of his feet and leave him to his fate on the swamp, Kel Tuh Las decides to let action speak for itself. He summons his magical battle axe and professionally splits Emanuel’s skull open. Shocked, Löwenzahn and Aldric start to get upset about Kel’s splitting, to which the latter only reacts with a shrug of the shoulders. After Löwenzahn has snatched Emanuel’s good gardening gloves and Aldric Emanuel’s leather boots, they set off on a short march through the Telzer Marsh. Suddenly they hear loud splashing in a nearby pond. A few steps later, our four are standing at the edge of the pond and can observe a much too large anaconda fighting with a crocodile, which is so huge that it probably also has a slightly abnormal gene pool. As courageously as Kel has just summoned his axe, this time he also decides meekly to leave the fight alone and continue wandering through the swamp instead. Before nightfall, they discover a small, brightly lit camp. Before they reach it, this session of Arkanthia Pen and Paper with Aldric, Kel Tuh Las, Löwenzahn and Theo comes to an end this time.
