Shadows in the graveyard
After our four heroes successfully completed their first quest last time and brought the Jarl of Fichtenstein home safely, they are now bursting with wealth. They head straight to Hellebard Dunkel, the general merchant of Fichtenstein, to splash the cash. Hellebard has wisely put back the baskets of goods they packed the day before so that they can now complete their shopping quickly. Aldric leaves the shop with a bow, some arrows and a sleeping scroll, while Theo picks out a small selection of daggers and another sleeping scroll for himself. Kel doesn’t need any weapons because of his magical fighting tools and the new Jarlsword, so he opts for a bowler hat to put the finishing touches to his outfit, some daily rations and the obligatory sleeping scroll. Löwenzahn also takes these with him and stows them directly into his newly acquired backpacks. In addition, smaller items such as water hoses, quills, ink and paper or a flint are purchased.
Now our four are much better equipped, but they are also virtually bare again. As the “do quest -> have money” system worked brilliantly last time, they decide to do it again and enter the village church together. They quickly find Herzfried, who is in the process of removing wax from a candlestick. Visibly annoyed by this task, he is all the more pleased to see our four friends and to be able to take a short break. The four of them offer to take care of his cemetery problem and keep an eye on the cemetery during the coming night. If anyone turns up desecrating graves again, they will be apprehended and arrested. This prospect also lifts Herzfried’s spirits and makes him a little cocky. He enthusiastically offers to take part in the night-time operation. The four look at each other in surprise, but as it is his church, his mission and, after all, his grave robber, they shrug their shoulders and accept their employer’s decision. It is still afternoon, however, so they say a quick goodbye to Herzfried so that they can eat something sensible at Udo’s and freshen up if necessary (Kel and Löwenzahn don’t attach much importance to this, of course, preferring to concentrate on having another beer).
At around nine o’clock, our group returns to the church with the new sleeping rolls and makes themselves comfortable in the pews. They decide that two people will keep watch at all times, while the other two can take a nap. After two hours, they swap over. Even before things really get going, Herzfried goes to bed and the four of us quickly realise why he never really made any progress in capturing the grave robber. While Aldric and Theo take over the first watch, Löwenzahn and Kel Tuh Las try out their newly acquired sleeping rolls to make themselves comfortable for the next two hours. And so most of the night passes. Very uneventful and only occasionally interrupted by their changing of the guard.
But then, we are already in Theo and Aldric’s third shift, Aldric sees a shadow swinging across Fichtenstein’s small wooden palisade. Both are immediately wide awake and Theo sets off to wake the other two. Meanwhile, Aldric watches as the shadow creeps crouched across the small graveyard. It carefully scrutinises the gravestones and seems to be looking for one in particular. Our four remain in the church for the time being and continue to observe the situation. Finally, the person seems to have reached his destination and takes a spade out of his cloak. However, our group continues to watch the first few spades through the church windows. As the person slowly runs out of breath, they finally see their chance. They carefully sneak across the cemetery and take the figure by surprise, who is already up to his knees in a hole in the ground. Less than two seconds later, however, she is lying down and has a half-orc sitting on her chest, grinning at her. Meanwhile, the other three begin to tie the person up. The grave robber is then carefully lifted out of the grave and leant against the nearest tree where the interrogation is to take place. Kel tactfully begins directly by asking the following, diplomatically valuable question: “What the fuck is this shit?”. Confused, the young guy they have just pulled out of the grave looks at the mountain of muscle called Kel Tuh Las. After a bit of stuttering, he mumbles something about “I was given this as an assignment” into his non-existent beard. After a few minutes of interrogation, our four are primarily annoyed by their prisoner, who has now introduced himself as Karl Flittenberg. Apart from his name, he hasn’t actually revealed anything. However, this is not really enough for our adventurers and they shift up a gear. You’ll find out exactly what this looks like and whether they can squeeze one or two pieces of information out of Karl next time on Arkanthia Pen and Paper.
