A will-o'-the-wisp in the distance
Our four heroes successfully uncovered Grete’s story last time, discovering a whole host of interesting but also creepy things. On their way back to Feth, the four of them wandered through the sulphur ponds, where Löwenzahn made a strange observation.
A small light glows brightly in the distance, moving through the mist. Fascinated, our four heroes follow the light as it slowly makes its way through the swamp. It radiates a strange power that completely captivates the four of them. They don’t even notice how they slowly resume their journey – only this time in the direction of the light. For hours, they wander after the light as if in a trance. They don’t even notice that they are wading through waist-high pools or crossing thorny thickets – the attraction of the light is too strong.
After what feels like an eternity to our heroes, but is actually no longer than the blink of an eye, the light begins to hover over a small island in the middle of the pools. Our friends continue to approach the light until suddenly, out of nowhere, the spell that has led them here is broken – and they find themselves back in the bitterly cold, stinking reality. Under the light, they see a bog body lying in the swamp, from which a ghostly figure suddenly rises.
‘Grete?’ Kel asks cautiously, to which the ghost girl replies, ‘Yes, how did you know?’ But Kel isn’t really interested in a normal conversation. Instead, he tells Grete straight up what a psycho she is and that everything she did was very wrong. Although Aldric tries to have a more constructive conversation from time to time, Kel ruins it for him. Instead, he continues to explain everything that was creepy and paranormal about Grete’s actions.
What Kel didn’t anticipate in his little hate speech, however, is the fact that Grete might not necessarily want to hear any of it. She makes this clear quite quickly and unambiguously by first throwing it in Kel’s face that no one has ever suffered as much as she has. However, as Kel is only moderately impressed, Grete pulls a rusty and bloody axe out of nowhere and swings it down on Kel.
Completely perplexed at now having to fight, our four heroes draw their weapons and strike at the ghost. Since Löwenzahn and Aldric already have experience fighting ghostly figures, they try to shout a few tips to their two friends during the fight. However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is not necessary, as Grete is not a particularly strong opponent. After a short time, they have defeated the girl. With a ghastly scream, the ghost rushes around them and then disappears back into the bog body. The will-o’-the-wisp goes out, and suddenly there is dead silence.
The soft cry of a crow breaks the silence and snaps our heroes out of their thoughts. It is already dusk, and they have no idea where exactly they are. But one thing they know for sure: they don’t want to spend the night here. They quickly try to make their way back, but finding their bearings is not so easy here. The yellow haze, the twilight and the completely uniform surroundings don’t really help. But they are lucky – after a while, they can make out the dark heights of the Kresto Plateau against the moonlit night sky. They walk until they find themselves back at the foot of the plateau. Here they turn north to at least reach the nearest road connecting Feth and Zist.
It is already the middle of the night when they finally set up their camp. Although they would like to set up a night watch for safety reasons, they realise that none of them would be able to keep their eyes open for even five minutes longer than necessary. So all four of them simply roll out their sleeping mats and immediately fall into a deep sleep. Find out whether they finally make it back to Feth the next day in the next instalment of Arkanthia Pen and Paper.
