Chapter 4: Robbers in the Woods

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[Date: 2000-01-02, Storyguide: Michael Krammer]

Cast, Part One:

Cast, Part Two:

Part One

A week ago, four grogs had left Eichenbrunn, the place which used to be their home and which amongst the strange magi goes under the name Aesculus. The four grogs - the housekeeper Frida, the carpenter journeyman Gottfried, his apprentice and nephew Christoph, and the young trouble-maker Friedrich - were travelling to Pettenbach, a small village between Steyr, the seat of the duke of Steiermark (Styria), and the Totes Gebirge ("The Dead Mountains"), where they were supposed to meet maga Imma Eule of Aesculus and their other new masters, and be guided to the covenant of Ad Astra, their new home.
    Somewhere between Steyr and Pettenbach, they took the wrong fork of the road and were now forced to travel along a small forest road with their ox-cart and their pack-horse. They thanked God for the fine spring weather which kept the road dry and made the trip more comfortable. In the afternoon, they encountered two men running towards them. The two men, dressed like peasants from some nearby village and equipped with quarter-staffs, stopped running as they approached the grogs. One of the men introduced himself as Hildolf from the village of Kirchdorf and asked the company if they could help him and the other men from the village to capture a couple of bandits, who had robbed a local pedlar and almost beaten him to death. The bandits were just recently tracked down to a camp in the woods, not far away from the place were they were now standing. Hildolf explained that their lord, Ulrich von Schlierbach, was away hunting with duke Otakar, unfortunately accompanied with all of his knights. Hildolf pleaded to the grogs for assistance; the only way to seize the bandits were by superior number, and thus they needed any help they could get. After some internal debating, the three men hesistantly agreed to help the villagers and equipped themselves with axes, knives and staffs before joining the two men. Frida stayed by the cart and kept an axe, in case she would need to defend herself.
    The village men gathered a short distance from the bandits' camp. When the men stormed the camp, intending to catch the bandits using two big fishing-nets, the bandits quickly got onto their feet and drew their swords, effectively causing a stand-off. After a while, one of the peasants asked aloud if the attacked pedlar hadn't mentioned three bandits disguised as pilgrims, instead of five soldiers like these. Since Friedrich found the stand-off pathetic and felt that the soldiers were innocent, he left making bad jokes about the peasants who could neither count nor make the difference between pilgrims and soldiers. Gottfried and his nephew Christoph quickly followed the young man.
    When the three grogs had almost walked the entire path back to Frida and the ox-cart, they heard shouts and screams from the soldiers' camp. They quickly turned around and ran back, only to find some peasants caught in their own net, and the leader of the village men lying on the ground with a sword pointing at his chest. Other peasants were complaining about hurting wounds, obviously made by the flat edges of the soldiers' swords. Soon, the peasants rose to their feet and quickly left the camp while excusing their poor judgement.
    The three grogs introduced themselves to the five soldiers, who in turn presented themselves as Jozef von Kosice, Adam Frank, Ellhard, Waldemar and Leopold. Since the soldiers feared that the peasants might be asking help from their noble lord, they expressed a wish to leave the camp, and since the grogs had only a couple of hours trip to Pettenbach, it was agreed that the soldiers were to guide the grogs through the woods in the dark to the village. However, the soldiers did seem a bit unsure about entering the village, since that they had troubles with the tavern-keeper the last time they stayed there (the grogs didn't quite get the picture, but something seemed to have happened between Ellhard and the tavern-keeper's beatiful young wife Matilde).

Part Two

The next day, the noble knight Albert von Pettenbach arrived to the village, questioned the strangers about their presence in his village and finally, made an offer to the soldiers to help him hunt down three bandits (!) who were hiding in the woods. After some negotiation, Jozef and his men agreed. Adam stayed with the four grogs in Pettenbach, but the other four soldiers made themselves ready for departure. They walked southwards a couple of hours to a village called Viechtwang, were they joined the forces of two other knights called Bernhard von Scharnstein and Ulrich von Schlierbach. All together, they counted about 30 armed men.
    The bandits had been tracked to a forested valley to the east of Viechtwang, so the men soon spred out between the trees. Jozef and his men followed a small brook upstreams, suspecting the bandits to have their camp near the water. After an hours walk in the dark wood (it was well after dusk by now), they caught a glimpse of a camp fire. They draw they swords, sneaked closer and stormed the camp. The three bandits never stood a chance; one received a nasty cut in his right arm, one got his collar-bone broken by a nasty slash, and the third fell by a fatal blow with the flat side of the sword which crushed his forehead.
    The soldiers started looting the camp, finding wine-skins, purses with money, a very beautiful silver bracelet and expensive clothes. However, after realising that the bandit with the broken head had the ears of a cow, they quickly put the treasures away, suspecting that the items could be cursed by the fair folk. Instead, they called the other warriors to the camp. The noble in charge, Bernhard von Scharnstein, ordered the bandits to be taken prisoners. Jozef and his men witnessed how Albert von Pettenbach collected some valuables, including the silver bracelet. Bernhard von Scharnstein now invited all men to to celebrate the successfull hunt with a small banquet in the Scharnstein Castle. The four heroes were now shown the proper respect and attitude that were formerly lacking. After the late evening meal, they were shown to a room where they could sleep under roof for the first time in a couple of weeks. In the morning they shared breakfast with the three nobles' retinues, when Herr Bernhard announced that one of the bandits had the ears of a cow, one had the tail of a donkey and the third had the feet of a goat. To calm the men down, the castle priest called for for a mass in the castle chapel. When the ceremony was finished, the four heroes collected their reward of 12 Kremser Pfennige and started their walk back to Pettenbach.
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