7th Vorhexen (Early Morning) 2511 – mid-Jahrdrung 2512

The scene was carnage. Dead people; dead beastmen; dead horses and an overturned carriage. The beastmen had been felled by Salundra, Gunnar and Ferdinand. Now they stood over a body of a well dressed man, one of several people ambushed and killed by the beasts. They had just finished reading two documents, one promising riches to a Aloysius Kastor Lieberung and the other attesting that the identity of its bearer was said Herr Lieberung. The opportunity to find financial security and ensure a safe place for Janna was a tempting prospect. 

The thunderous sound of approaching hooves snapped them from the moment. A group of five road wardens, led by a sergeant, approached from the opposite direction to Altdorf. Ever quick-witted, Salundra managed to tuck away the important letter inside her breastplate, keeping it safe and out of sight. The sergeant, a dark-skinned man with a black goatee and heavy armour, surveyed the scene and questioned the party, noting the blood on their weapons. When asked, Salundra vaguely stated they were travelling to Altdorf when they came upon the end of the ambush, the beastmen beginning to feast on the slain. He noted they still had one horse and wondered what happened to the others. They said they only had one other and it had fled back towards the farm. The sergeant dispatched one of his men to fetch the scared horse and then turned to Gunnar, commenting on the mess on his axe. Gunnar shrugged. After assuring them they would tidy up the scene, the wardens allowed the group to continue on their way. The road wardens expected a show as Gunnar went to mount horse Ferdinand was riding. They were disappointed when he jumped up with a feat of agility and strength.

The Road to Altdorf and Dockside Preparations

The journey to Altdorf took about an hour and a half, with the group entering through the Western Gate. The city streets were already bustling in the early morning. Salundra, despite her best efforts, struggled to control her horse amidst the city’s distractions, with her horse even bumping into Ferdiand’s at one point. Gunnar, meanwhile, was relegated to being a passenger. To avoid drawing undue attention Salundra wisely chose to dismount and walk, matching the horse’s pace through the crowded streets. Gunnar, still visibly bloodied from his earlier beastman encounters, garnered some “strange looks” from passersby.

Their destination was the Lock and Quay inn in the Docklands, where they expected to find Franz, Maglyn, and their family. By mid morning, they arrived to find the Deft Dancer and the Bierbele II moored on opposite sides of a pier, ropes strung between them adorned with lanterns – an interesting sight indeed. It was clear preparations were underway for the wedding ceremony. Ferdinand tried to make sense of the scene, noting the “weird human traditions” that were lost on Gunnar. He later learned from Gela that the ceremony was connected to the cult of Manann, the god of water and sea, and often referred to Grandfather Reik.

Downtime in the City

With the wedding set for later near midnight, the party had some time to kill in Altdorf:

Salundra opted for a low-key approach, “hanging out and hiding out” on the Deft Dancer and in the Lock and Quay, checking on Janna and enjoying watching the children play.

Ferdinand sought a different kind of solace. He wandered up the Street of a Hundred Taverns before heading to the Amethyst College to consult his master. Upon entering his Von Stahl’s cluttered office he thanked his master for helping him escape the unpleasantness previously. His master assured him it was “appropriately dealt with” through “very advanced magics” to destroy “a tome of such, I mean, terrible, potential”. Ferdinand, however, sensed this wasn’t entirely true. He questioned if a book could “affect” a wizard, admitting he “had heard voices” and seen “a terrible face”. The master warned him to “Be careful,” suggesting something beyond amethyst or Death magic might be “pulling on” him. He advised Ferdinand to find calm in the book he had given him, De Pax et Loquendo ad Mortuos, which contained “simple magics” to “fortify yourself from the aspects of the winds of magic that might… pull at your soul”. Despite the master’s hurried departure (to an “appointment” that didn’t seem to materialise), Ferdinand returned to the Street of a Hundred Taverns.

Later, Ferdinand pursued his interest in herbs, acquiring The Herbst Guide for 14 silver shillings. He purchased dried herbs, with the intention of developing his skills and potentially concocting a non-alcoholic tincture that might also serve to clean water.

Gunnar immediately headed to a tavern, finding a spot, the Kazak-a-Cask, that served Bugman’s beer. With very little money to his name Gunnar could only manage to afford a few of the delicious Dwarfen brew. His attempts to barter a “dead beastie” for another drink were met with condescension by the barman, who told him to “find some gold crowns elsewhere”. A very drunk Gunnar was later found by Ferdinand, who decided there was no harm in sponsoring Gunnar to have another brew or two.

When they returned back to the docks, they saw Felix holding a fishing rod. He looked nervous and admitted he’d “never caught a fish before,” a task seemingly required for the ceremony. Drunkenly Gunnar dramatically declared, “I am the cannonball” and leaped into the river with his axe to “scare the fish out of the water”. In a surprising feat, he harpooned a fish with his axe. Gela, seeing Gunnar’s predicament, threw a rope, a “perfect” throw that made Ferdinand wonder if she was recalling her late husband, Thomel, who was lost in the river. Gunnar, fish still wiggling on his axe, was hauled out of the water, much to Felix’s astonishment. That was Gunnar’s gift for the couple sorted!

Salundra and Ferdinand realised they hadn’t procured a wedding gift. Salundra suggested a high-quality boat hook and a sword for Felix. They pooled 10 silver pieces for the gifts and planned to carve Felix and Yasmina’s names and the dates (7th and 8th of Vorhexen) onto the boat hook.

A Dockside Wedding & A Monstrous Foe

The wedding preparations continued apace. Eugen and Janna were seen playing, while Maglyn was busy in the kitchens preparing food for the feast. Felix and Yasmina, the soon-to-be-weds, had been diligently working on the ceremonial knots for their wedding. The deck was adorned with colourful lanterns, creating a lovely ambiance. The ceremony was scheduled for very late, typically at midnight, symbolising the transition from one day to the next, like a tidal effect. The specific location was a temporary shrine of the Grandfather Reik, positioned very close to the Lock & Quay Inn, on a wooden pier where both Gele’s Deft Dancer and Josef’s Bierbele II were moored side-by-side.

The atmosphere was set by lanterns that had been lit, painted in blues, greens, and a slightly whitey-silvery hue, which cast beautiful reflections on the river. There was a slight, wet snow falling, though it was not heavy. The boats and pier had been thoroughly cleaned in preparation for the ceremony. As guests arrived, a hum of river shanties could be heard.

More people gathered as midnight approached, including staff from the Lock & Quay and various dock workers and sailors, some of whom worked on the Bierbele. Notably, everyone, including the children, removed their shoes. Crates were set up on the pier, slightly raised, to store all the footwear.

The ceremony itself began with the Manann priest, who initially said nothing. He made a gesture “as though he’s manipulating water”. Following this, buckets of water that had been prepared and left sitting on the edge of the pier were sloshed down the pier and onto the boat decks, getting everyone’s feet wet.

Felix and Yasmina appeared, beaming and visibly happy. Yasmina carried a reed rope, about a yard in length, while Felix carried the fish that Gunnar had caught earlier. They made their way down to the end of the pier, where Felix handed the fish to the priest.

Wordlessly, Yasmina and Felix positioned themselves facing each other, with their backs to the priest, the yard of rope between them. They began to manipulate the rope with both hands, knotting it around their hands until they achieved a perfect hand-in-hand hold, with the rope self-knotted. This crucial part of the ceremony was referred to as the “right of binding” and the “Knot of Tides”.

For the first time, the priest then spoke, placing the fish over their knotted hands and proclaiming, “As the river binds sea to land, So are you bound. As the tide rises and falls, Salt shake our lives, move together. As the knot holds, So shall your vows”. After these words, he stepped aside, indicating the edge of the pier. Felix and Yasmina then walked to the edge and cast the fish back into the water from which it came.

A ripple in the water that was clearly unnatural was observed. Suddenly, someone exclaimed, “it’s the pike!” and something launched out of the water with the fish in its mouth.

The creature was a gigantic pike with arms, described as having a “vile look” and being “deeply malevolent and unholy”. It had a “substantial girth” and an estimated “15, 20 feet of this thing” was visible on the pier, with potentially another 10 feet remaining in the water. Its eyes were dark orbs with no discernible pupils.

Upon surfacing, the pike flopped onto the pier, knocking Felix and Yasmina aside. It began to flail and flap wildly. It made a wild, lunging snap towards Felix, who quickly kicked out and pulled Yasmina close to the Bierbele II for protection, as they were still tied together by the ceremony’s rope. The Manann priest attempted to strike it with his boat hook, but it merely skidded off its body. Salundra swiftly moved in, sword in hand, grazing the pike slightly near its gills, which produced a distinct smell of “fishy blood”. She poked it with her sword, but her initial jabs did not cause major wounds. Gunnar, who had earlier jumped into the frigid water to catch the ceremonial fish, decided to charge straight at the monstrous pike. He aimed for its head, executing a “leaping… downward axe into the middle of the forehead,” embedding his axe slightly into its skull. The pike growled and slashed side to side, then snapped towards Gunnar, perceiving him as a threat. Gunnar batted the attack away with his axe.

The pike managed to bite and grip Gunnar’s right leg and attempted to drag him into the river. Felix and Yasmina, bound together, struggled to hold onto Gunnar and prevent him from being pulled into the depths. Gunnar, in a fit of rage, hefted his axe and sliced right through one of the pike’s arms, severing it entirely. This caused the creature to immediately release its grip on his leg. His furious assault continued. Gunnar then delivered a powerful uppercut through the pike’s open jaw into its upper jaw, effectively hooking it on his axe.

This “kill worthy of a slayer” concluded the fight. The pike, half out of the water, was “very definitely dead”. The priest declared it a “most… Blessed sign! For the wedding of Felix and Yasmina,” proclaiming that the “dreaded Reikerbahn Pike has been killed”. Following the battle, sailors and fishermen hauled the massive, dead pike onto another boat instead of discarding it back into the river. The pier was quickly swabbled clean of blood and viscera.

Gunnar, utterly fatigued from his frenzy, was left “wobbling back and forth, about to go face first into the water”, and had to be steadied by the priest. Felix was “deliriously happy,” seeing the creature’s death as the “most amazing gift”. Both Josef and Gele were highly impressed by Gunnar’s feat, with Josef shaking his hand and offering any future assistance they might need. The wedding ceremony then resumed.

Post-Wedding and Life at the Farm 

The celebration continued into the “wee hours” with warm food, drinks, and shanty music. Gunnar, despite being “completely wiped out,” was content with a drink and the camaraderie. Ferdinand managed to heal Salundra’s and Gunnar’s wounds, though he noted the depth of the bite marks on Gunnar’s leg. Felix, “sheets to the wind” drunk, repeatedly thanked Gunnar for the “two fishes”. 

Yasmina and Felix were given a couple of days of privacy in the Deft Dancer. The wedding lanterns were taken down, and both the Deft Dancer and the Bierbele II were loaded with cargo.

The time had come for the barges to depart. Gele expressed her deep gratitude to the party, seeing them as instrumental in her redemption and finding joy in her new life and business venture. She planned to be in Altdorf every two weeks. Josef specifically thanked Gunnar again for killing the Reikerbahn Pike and introduced his crew: Wolmar and Gilda, noting that Gilda was carrying a baby. Josef offered Gunnar future assistance, telling him that if he were to be found in Altdorf it would be at the docks or the Boatman Inn. The Bierbele and Deft Dancer departed smoothly from the docks, the Bierbele heading downstream and the Deft Dancer tacking upstream.

Over the next few months, life settled into a rhythm at the farm. Franz began preparing to build a new, defensible house in the courtyard. Georg’s health gradually improved, as did his relationship with Fronika.

Gunnar spent his time learning to ride a horse (which Franz named “Gunner”), becoming remarkably proficient at controlling it with one hand in order to wield his axe in the other. Salundra’s instruction also improved her own riding skill. He also took the opportunity to get more fish-themed tattoos in Altdorf. He continued to dream of demigryphs.

Ferdinand dedicated himself to studying herbs from his Herbst Guide, experimenting with dried herbs to create a non-alcoholic, water-purifying tincture. He also learned a poultice recipe from Franz for treating dirty wounds. On Hexenthag, an interstitial day in the calendar, he experienced vivid, unsettling dreams, feeling he had been “gazing at Morrslieb”. A subsequent dream of Kastor Lieberung’s face ignited a strong drive to understand the letter found on the dead man.

Salundra continued her sword drills and focused on adapting to her new role, striving for calmness and comfort in her own skin. She assisted Gunnar with his riding lessons and periodically patrolled the woods, finding no beastmen signs. Crucially, she initiated a private conversation with Ferdinand and Gunnar about the documents found on the dead man, suggesting a significant inheritance might secure things for the family.

As the early months of the new year progressed, Franz completed much of his building work on the new house. 

The group, with Ferdinand now driven to uncover the truth of his identity, prepared to leave the farmhouse and journey towards Bögenhafen, the city mentioned in the letter.

Until next time,

Owen