Aldric's little adventure
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After arriving in the harbour of Fichtenstein, our heroes were drawn straight back to the nearest pub last time. They are now standing in front of the bar in the ‘Boozing Mermaid’, enjoying the hustle and bustle around them, when a sailor approaches them. He introduces himself as Dennis and asks if any of the four would be interested in betting on a fistfight between the mighty Greno and the strong Carlos. Theo is of course immediately on board and places a few silver coins on the strong Carlos. The others, on the other hand, prefer to hold back on betting, but naturally want to watch the two of them punch each other in the mouth. Dennis leads them to a quieter corner of the pub, where a small circle has already formed around the two main attractions. As soon as they arrive, the first fists start flying. After a brief evaluation of the fight, Kel whispers quietly in Löwenzahn’s ear that he would take the two of them apart completely, whereupon Löwenzahn just rolls his eyes and turns away with a suppressed smile.
After a few minutes, Greno finally lies knocked out on the floor, clinging to the last bit of consciousness before his head crashes unconscious onto the hard stone floor. Now it’s Kel’s turn and he asks to face the winner. Carlos and Dennis are happy to receive more bets and immediately agree to Kel’s proposal. Euphoric about his betting income, Theo hands it straight back to Dennis. But Löwenzahn and Aldric can’t help themselves either and decide to place a bet this time. As expected, all three bet on Carlos and thus against Kel Tuh Las. After a short initial phase, in which Kel actually does surprisingly well, Carlos’ fists quickly land unchecked in every part of Kel’s body. And so the duel ends much quicker than the previous one and Kel squats on the floor of the bar.
Two beers later, however, he is revitalised and ready for the next adventure. However, it should not have been necessary that this is an older gentleman who has probably overindulged in alcohol and is now lying in a pool of the contents of his own stomach. Unfortunately, he has sunk his face so deeply into the pool that only a few bubbles of breath occasionally bubble out of the gloop. With medical skill, Aldric pulls the gentleman out of the puddle and begins to scrape the vomit from his throat. Suddenly they hear a loud gasp, followed by regular breaths. The man most likely thanks them (nobody really understands the babbling) and throws them a few coins.
That’s enough for Aldric now and he turns to leave. Just before the door, however, our four run into Dennis again, who is probably in a chatty mood. Aldric wants to take advantage of this and asks Dennis what news there is in the harbour and whether he knows anything about a lieutenant. Dennis replies in the affirmative and explains that the lieutenant has an office on the upper floor of the large loading terminal. In addition, a sailor from Ullana Nana, whose ship is currently anchored here, has probably disappeared. He also mentions that the Fichtenstein cemetery seems to be haunted. Finally, he has a tip if you ever want to get involved with a lady. According to him, the daughter of the herb woman Rosvita is not a child of sadness and often drops in at the ‘Bar’ or the ‘Boozing Mermaid’. Satisfied with this information, the four of them now head back to Fichtenstein, as they naturally take the opportunity to spend the night at Udo’s and wish the gate guard Siomon a good shift once again.
After the usual good breakfast at Udo’s, our friends head straight back to the harbour. Simon, who still hasn’t exchanged words with his colleague Kevin, greets them again and wishes them a wonderful day. Our group splits up at the harbour. Aldric tries to buy some mussels at the oyster farm, as Rosvita needs them as an ingredient for her love potion. Meanwhile, the other three are supposed to have a look around the harbour and search for the loading terminal.
Aldric is drawn away from the small cluster of houses in the harbour and follows a small path overgrown with seaweed and grasses. He walks towards a larger house and can see some wooden piles in the water, which are probably used for oyster farming. Everything seems to be very quiet and deserted, so Aldric thinks he might as well save a bit of money and starts looking for oysters on his own. After a few minutes, Aldric starts to really enjoy it and savours the salty, seaweed-scented air and the light sunshine. But then he is abruptly interrupted. From the farmhouse, Aldric hears a man’s voice shouting ‘Not José again’. When Aldric looks up, he sees a taller man coming towards him with a bow in his hand. After about 20 metres, he realises that his uninvited visitor is probably not José after all, but a stranger. This doesn’t seem to make the farm owner any happier and he taunts Aldric about what he is doing there. Aldric skilfully hides the oysters he has collected so far in the back pockets of his trousers and explains that he just wants to have a look at the goods before he buys anything. The farm owner called Zetti is not particularly convinced, but he asks how many oysters Aldric would like to buy. As he already has half a kilo of oysters hidden in his trousers, he doesn’t really need any more, so he names the huge quantity of five oysters. This makes Zetti even more sceptical, but he agrees and wants 50 ST for the oysters. There’s no way Aldric wants to pay that much, so he refuses with thanks and carefully tries to get out of the affair, which he now simply says goodbye to. Gritting his teeth, Zetti lets Aldric go. But when Aldric turns round and Zetti catches a perfect glimpse of his wet and full trouser pockets, he has had enough. He shouts at Aldric about what he’s hiding and actively draws his bow. Aldric is not put off by this, quickens his pace and shouts to Zetti that he has just sat down on one of the wooden posts. A few steps later, another arrow whizzes past him, but then Aldric is out of range and back in the harbour a short time later. Aldric and you will only find out what his comrades have done in the meantime in the next Arkanthia Pen and Paper blog.
