Goodbye, Fichtenstein!
The discovery tour in the last sessions, in which our group explored the islands of Midgar and Logar, seems to have sparked their interest in discovery. Before they’d even finished their free breakfast, the four of them were already standing in the doorway of the bar with their bags. A little sad to see them go, Udo waves goodbye until they’re out of sight. From this point on, Simon, who as usual is keeping watch with tired eyes, takes over the waving, but then falls back to sleep after a short time. The plan is to head to Selbingen, which is about a day and a half’s walk south-west of Fichtenstein.
But instead of enjoying a quiet hike, they suddenly hear horses’ hooves behind them. It’s their best friend’s horse. It’s Karl Flittenberg. They shout after him, asking where he’s going, but he doesn’t respond. Kel has no choice but to take more drastic measures. He conjures up a magic projectile and fires it at Karl. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as planned and the projectile spirals into the sky instead of at Karl. Löwenzahn can’t stand to watch any longer and throws a spear that hits the hind leg of Karl’s horse, causing the animal to fall immediately. Less than a minute later, they’re standing next to Karl, who’s pretty mad, and they start asking him questions. But Karl doesn’t say anything about what he’s trying to achieve. Instead, he says they should take his horse to Franziska, the wife of the Jarl of Fichtenstein, as she’s the only one who knows anything about horses. Otherwise, his horse would soon be dead. Before they set off, they gag and bind Karl, and then it’s back to Fichtenstein.
Franziska is surprised to see our four friends again so quickly, and even more so when she sees Karl stumbling ahead of them, tied up. They told her that they’d seen Karl shoot a magic projectile into the sky and had to stop him. Unfortunately, his horse was also damaged in the process and is now lying injured about a kilometre from the gates of the small village. Franziska promises to look after the horse and talk to her husband about the incident with Karl. That’s enough for our group, so they set off again on the road to Selbingen. The first few hours of the march are uneventful and they also pass the section of road around the Chiraque residence without any problems.
After walking for more than eight hours, they come across a large and welcoming-looking inn called ‘The Wanderer’ on the right-hand side of the trade route. They can really relate to the name, and their tired legs are making a warm place to rest sound pretty appealing. They climb the few stone steps up to the large oak door and go into a corridor with a reception desk at the end. However, the desk is unoccupied, so they turn left into the dining room. They can see two people eating in the dining room, but what really catches their eye is the portly innkeeper, who is serving the two guests with a bright red face. Aldric makes himself known with a cautious ‘Hello’. The landlady turns to them quickly and welcomes them warmly. She introduces herself as Elisabeth and takes them back into the corridor and to her reception desk. They can reserve double rooms for a small fee. For a little more, you can upgrade to a single room and book breakfast too. They decide to go for the double rooms and breakfast, and also book a drinks flat rate for the evening. Löwenzahn heads off to a room with Theo, while Aldric takes Kel for the night.
Once they’ve stowed their luggage in their rooms, they head back to the bar to catch up with the other guests. Magda is just passing through and isn’t very interesting, so the conversation with her dies out after a few seconds. Henning, the blacksmith, is a different story. He’s got a knack for making weapons look good. He sells a range of colour salts that can be used to change the colour of weapons afterwards. Löwenzahn is really interested in this and buys three portions of green-coloured salt right away. The other three stick to tradition for now and aren’t interested in an orange or blue blade. They sit down at one of the tables and order their first round of beer of the evening. Elisabeth puts a full pitcher on the table and says they brew the beer themselves in the ‘Wanderer’. They can take a short tour of the brewery if they want. They finish their beer and follow Elisabeth towards the kitchen.
After two rooms, they arrive at the brewery, which is what it’s called. However, it looks more like a huge mess of dirty barrels and half-rotten ingredients on a sticky floor. Elisabeth’s explanations are actually quite interesting, but they would have preferred to leave the brewery tour behind and enjoy the beer in its full glory. Even though they can’t really do this any more and have to keep thinking about the awful brewery, they order the next round straight after the tour and also order an extensive butcher’s platter for dinner.
Before they’ve even finished ordering, Elisabeth disappears into the kitchen and the inn door bangs open loudly. A small boy stands in the doorway, looking panicked and covered in sweat. There’s a small trickle of dried blood on his temple and bits of twigs and leaves in his hair. His torn and dirty trousers show he’s been on the floor a few times in the last few minutes. He’s out of breath and says, “Help!” in a scared voice, his eyes welling up with tears. Our four heroes spring into action, asking the boy what has happened. He explains that his name is Floren and that his dad was attacked by a pack of wolves in the forest. They’d been out hunting and got caught off guard. That’s all our friends need to know. They spring up and head out onto the road with the boy. You’ll find out in a fortnight’s time when the Arkanthia Pen and Paper adventure continues whether they can hold their own against the wolves or will be mauled in the forest along with Floren and his father.
