Stories from the past
Last time, our four friends picked up the trail surrounding the mystery of the enigmatic Grete von Feth. They investigated her and her father’s cabin, where they eventually discovered a secret compartment under the wooden floor. Although it was locked with a combination lock, a powerful blow with Kel’s magic axe also had a very ‘opening’ effect. However, the four heroes had not yet discovered what was written in the diary they found. That is about to change: Aldric, Theo and Löwenzahn sit down eagerly on the old bed to listen to Kel’s reading skills.
The diary tells the sad story of a young girl named Grete, who lived out in the forest with her father. She was obviously very attracted to Telohren, the son of the fortune teller Isabel. She often visited the village of Feth just to be near him and win his favour. Tragically, however, she was despised by all the young people in Feth for unknown reasons. She constantly heard whispering behind her back and felt disparaging glances. That’s why she came more and more often at night to watch her crush — which, of course, couldn’t go well for long. Telohren finally discovered her, whereupon she disappeared in panic into the shadows of the night.
From that moment on, she had a reputation as the ‘strange girl from the forest.’ But she couldn’t avoid Feth, as she had to do her shopping there and therefore had to return regularly. One day, Telohren exposed her in front of half the village at the inn. This finally prompted Grete to persuade her father to take over the shopping in future so that she no longer had to show herself in Feth.
But after six months, her father suddenly began to have blackouts, which became increasingly worse. They decided to move to Selbingen as soon as they had saved up enough supplies and equipment. However, this never happened: while Grete was out hunting, her father was chopping wood and suffered one of his blackouts. He fell and landed with his head on an axe that he had previously stuck into a tree stump. He lay there with his skull open when Grete returned from hunting.
Grete’s heart was broken. Without her father’s support, she didn’t know what to do. But one scene haunted her: a crow pecking at her father’s open skull, his lifeless body twitching with every peck. This sight planted a dark thought in her mind: could the brain be made to control the body through external stimulation?
Grete fell into a kind of delusion. She began hunting small animals and experimenting on them. She stole sewing supplies from Feth so she could work more precisely and tried to develop a narcotic so she could conduct research on living objects. And she made progress — but she couldn’t produce a functioning narcotic. Finally, she decided to leave her home and move to the Kresto Plateau. However, she wanted to leave her diary behind in her old home.
Mysteriously, she ended her diary with the words: ‘I will hide access to you at Telohren as soon as I have it. Take care!’
Our friends stare at each other silently for a while, until Aldric breaks the silence: There is obviously only one goal now — the Kresto Plateau. At first, everyone nods eagerly, but then Theo remembers something: He would like to look around Telohrens’ old home to find the access key he mentioned.
So their first stop is not directly to the Kresto Plateau, but first to Telohrens’ former residence. There they search the rooms thoroughly, but at first they find nothing. However, that changes when Kel takes a closer look at the bed. He discovers a scroll with clues to the combination lock on Grete’s secret hiding place. The scroll only mentions the symbols ‘X’ and “O”, which must be set in the correct order. But even with these clues, it is not clear exactly how many ‘X’s and ‘O’s there should be.
Then Theo suddenly remembers: the glass beads that every woman in Feth received for her missing husband. These also have ‘X’ and ‘O’ symbols engraved on them! The friends look at each other with satisfaction — a little proud that they solved this puzzle without Kel’s brute force methods.
They leave Telohrens’ house, quickly stock up on supplies and finally set off for the Kresto Plateau.
But you’ll have to wait until the next Arkanthia Pen and Paper blog to find out what awaits them there.
