New heros
In the last blog, our friends returned from the Selbinger Felseninsel. When they arrived in Selbingen, the four of them headed straight to Mayor Siegfried to tell him about their success. Siegfried was quite astonished and our friends could see what a huge burden had just been lifted from the mayor. As a reward for saving the village from the Pale Ones, the four of them even received a little beach hut of their own.
However, their victory against the Pale Ones has not yet really sunk in with everyone in the village, so Kel Tuh Las decides to prepare a little speech the next morning. The purpose of this is not only to bring all the villagers up to date, of course, but possibly also to show himself off a little and possibly get even more reward out of the whole stunt. However, in the course of the speech, our four heroes also want to return all the stolen goods they found on the rocky island to the Selbingers (of course, they would accept a small thank-you here too).
So while Kel cobbles together a little speech in no time at all, Aldric, Theo and Dandelion are already collecting the stolen goods and stacking them in small piles in front of the village church. Then comes Kel’s big moment, and with several loud shouts he tries to gather the whole village on the market square in front of the church. Gradually, some of the villagers do indeed crawl out of their houses and look at Kel expectantly. He then realises that his speech must not have been very well rehearsed after all and begins with an emotional freestyle speech. But it doesn’t really matter how he tells the story to the villagers, because the fact that the robberies will stop and they will get all their valuables back is enough for most of them to burst into thunderous applause.
Flattered and self-confident, Kel stands on a crate in front of the church, obviously dripping with testosterone, because not even a minute after his speech, a young lady strolls innocently towards him. She is looking somewhat theatrically for a wooden box that has supposedly been stolen from her. On closer inspection, however, her eyes are actually only looking for Kel’s attention, who of course immediately rushes to help. However, it soon becomes clear that there is no wooden box belonging to the young lady, which doesn’t seem to bother her. She then falls into a little small talk with Kel, which ends in them wanting to meet for a date in the evening at the pier that extends into Lake Selbig.
No sooner has the young lady disappeared than the next young woman turns up, trying to flatter Kel, and so Kel joins his three friends a short time later with a second date in tow. They have worked hard in the meantime and have already distributed most of the stolen valuables to the residents. Of course, this lifts Kel’s spirits once again and, with a grin on his face, he asks his friends if there is anything else he can do to help. Dandelion contritely hands him a pile of leather armour and says: ‘Come on, we’ve got a few things we need to sell to Meckmo.’
And so the two of them run to their favourite blacksmith and throw what feels like army material for a small battalion at his feet. Meckmo looks at them a little perplexed and asks what they want for all this stuff. Just as Dandelion is about to start multiplying the number of swords by Meckmo’s selling price, Meckmo interrupts him and explains that he has to get a good discount if he is to buy everything. Neither Löwenzahn nor Kel Tuh Las are happy about this, but neither of them really want to lug all the stuff to the next village and sell it there. So they accept the first offer Meckmo makes and are pleased that they have perhaps just made themselves a little more popular in Selbingen.
In the meantime, Theo and Aldric have also finished returning all the things they found to their original owners. The two of them now make a quick trip to Lukas Lukan Valerius to get rid of a few odds and ends that were either not taken by the villagers or that they had otherwise found in the Pale One’s hideout. But while they are with Lukas in the trading centre, Theo discovers a large map of the whole of Zazyrus, studded with small needles. Lukas explains to him that this is a trading map and that they are welcome to join the transport business, which is currently suffering from an acute shortage. Theo and Aldric are briefly interested, but when Lukas explains to them that things like carriages, drivers and the rights to a trade route are pretty expensive, their interest quickly disappears. So the two of them move on straight away and say goodbye to Lukas. But Theo and Aldric still have one small stopover before heading home: the sauna on the beach.
Steam billows out of every crack in the small wooden hut and there is an ethereal smell in the air. A tall, hairy man with a big belly and a long beard sits in front of the sauna. A deep but very friendly ‘Hello, my friends! What can Juri do for you?’ rings out to them, and they feel right at home. Yuri is an entertaining fellow who laughs a lot and seems as if he couldn’t be in a bad mood. But Juri has one problem: his mead, which he always buys at ‘Odin’s Waters’ just before Selbingen, is running low and his well-fed body always makes it a little difficult for him to walk. But he offers Theo and Aldric a good deal: They pick up the truckload and they get an extensive tasting as well as free entry to his sauna. The two don’t need to be asked twice. They agree, say goodbye to Juri and make their way home.
Back at their beach hut, Aldric and Theo meet only Dandelion, who tells them that Kel is already on his first date. Even if we don’t want to go into too much detail about this, we can already tell that Kel is very well received by his date. However, this is more due to the size of his chest and arms than his character, although this is enough for a sporty lunchtime activity. Unfortunately, Kel realises once again (as he has already experienced with Elisabeth) that he can still learn from others and is sometimes taken by surprise by positions that he is not yet familiar with. To give himself a little help here, Kel quickly says goodbye to his date and then pulls a small, leather book from his jacket that he had found on the rocky island. He grabs his pen and inkwell, sits outside on a small bench in the sun and begins to write and sketch. And so the first two entries (of course he also adds Elisabeth here) are made in Kel’s personal ‘diary’. You’ll find out next time you visit Arkanthia Pen and Paper whether there will be another entry next time or whether the book will only contain two entries for all eternity.
