Route 1.1 – Give him money

You sigh again and close your eyes briefly before digging your wallet out of your coat. You decide that it would be your good deed for the day to help this poor man. After taking out a portion of the money you have just earned through trade, you stow the purse away again and turn around. The beggar’s eyes gleam and you hand him the valuable medium of exchange. He bends forward briefly to express his thanks and shakes your hands enthusiastically. “Thank you so much, you have just saved the life of a poor old man. This world needs more people like you. I wish you from the bottom of my heart that all your dreams come true and you are accompanied by happiness till the end of your life! Thank you so much!” You scratch your head sheepishly and nod, then watch him limp back into the shadows of the covered alley. You hope you have done the right thing and make your way back to the inn.

After a while without further incident, you reach your destination and enter the warm, reasonably welcoming building. A maid at the reception welcomes you and offers you a room for the night, which you gratefully accept. To your disappointment, however, the kitchen is already closed and so you are left to endure your hunger until the next morning. But since you are tired anyway, you are sure to fall asleep quickly and so it would all be half as bad, you think. But before you go to your room, there is one thing you don’t want to miss – your cold after-work beer. So you go along the stairs next to the reception desk into an adjoining room with ‘Bar’ written in large letters above the door and sit down on one of the free stools at the bar. You place your order and while you wait for your cool refreshment, your eyes fall on a group of guests playing a card game at a round table. In the middle of the table is a considerable sum of money, which is being laughingly embraced by a man in the group. Behind him is a blonde woman who is clapping her hands enthusiastically. You’ve never had a good hand at gambling, unfortunately, so you’ve been hanging it up for a while. Fools. You smile and put out the money for your beer, which has just arrived. You enjoy your cold refreshment to the full while the pub slowly warms you up from the cold of the night. When you are already half dry, you take the last sip of your drink and head for your room. The stairs to your room creak with every step you take and you hope not to wake anyone. You open the door and find that one of the two beds here is already occupied. Since you had given money to the homeless man earlier, you had to take a cheaper room and share it with a stranger. But the stranger snores and you shrug your shoulders and go to your bed. Tired, you take off your wet clothes, stow your wallet and dagger under your pillow and look out of the window before lying down and pulling the warm blanket over your head. To the sound of pattering rain, you quickly fall asleep.

Warm chromashine filters through the window as you are slowly awakened by the increasing brightness of your surroundings and loud birdsong. Yawning, you open your eyes and complain that you have not had enough sleep. You look outside and can already see some chromastars in the sky through the window. You think it is high time to go home and get up. Your wet clothes have dried by now and you are happy about that. You get dressed, retrieve your valuables from under your pillow, are relieved that your money is still there and make your way out of the inn. Despite feeling hungry, you decide not to have breakfast – you would last until you got home, leaving more money for your family. After paying for the night, you head out into the street and this time take the shorter route to the stables through the alley, which no longer seems threatening when lit by the glow of the chromastars. Halfway there you pass two knights who are talking to an upset woman. As you get closer you can see that she is crying and at her wits’ end. “Please, you have to find him, this is not his way not to come home, something must have happened! In the end… my husband… is a victim of the Halloween Killer… and I’ll never… see him again…” The two knights look at each other and try to reassure the woman, try to make her understand that there is nothing they can do now except keep an eye out for her missing husband. You walk past them, not wanting to assume the worst straight away, thinking that her husband might be with another woman. Nevertheless, you look down and without knowing why, the feeling creeps over you that she is right and will not see her lover again. Shaking your head, you ask yourself why you worry about things that are none of your business and finally arrive at the stable after a while. There is a small group of people in front of the building and you sense a tense atmosphere. But you ignore it and go inside through the open doors. As you pass by, you notice that the group is gathered around a knight, but you don’t hear exactly what they are talking about, just upset confusion. But you are in a hurry anyway and want to leave so that you can get home before dark at best. You fetch your horse and start hitching it to your cart, glad that both are still there, when a man breaks away from the group of people and comes to your aid. Apparently an employee of the stables. He greets you quietly without looking at you and starts to put the harness on the horse. A queasy feeling creeps over you again and when you notice that the man is shaking, you decide to ask him about it. “Sir, are you all right?” Without answering you, the man now looks at you – he looks pale and fear is written all over his face. You look over at the group of people the man came from and notice that some people there also look scared. You point with your head to the crowd and ask him, curiosity getting the better of you. “What’s that about up ahead and what’s the knight actually doing here? Has there been a theft?” The man’s eyes wander to the ground with a blank stare before he gives an answer. “Ha-haven’t you heard? The… Halloween killer is… back… Last night he struck again… They’ve already found one disfigured body and… there are already some people reported missing…” He swallows and gets back to work, while you stand there slightly shocked and with widened eyes. And yet you thought it was finally over. You realise that you might have been in danger yesterday and you remember the queasy feeling you had when you looked into the dark alley, which ultimately stopped you from taking that path. Who knows, maybe it was this feeling that saved you? Suddenly, an unpleasant cold shiver runs down your spine. You shake off your thoughts and start to harness your horse to the cart, thank the man and climb onto the wooden bench of your means of transport. Forgotten are the thoughts of investing in Archdorf’s goods. You just want to get out of here as quickly as possible. Even though Halloween is already over and it’s a bright, shiny morning, you can’t shake the feeling that something terrible could have happened to you yesterday if you had walked down that dark alley. Hm… It could have… But it didn’t. You are glad that you are well, but feel sorry for the victims. After you have steered your horse out of the stable, you trot it off and head for the exit of the village. As soon as you reach the earthy country road, you look back. The trees and cornfields pass you by and the distance between you and Archdorf increases. You look ahead again and hope that no incidents will happen on your way home. And in any case, this was the first and last time you will be in Archdorf for Halloween.