Welcome to TibiaVIP!

Return
Dec 17 2019 CEST

his is the ongoing story of our hero Tibicus. Follow the links below to read up on the previous episodes!

1. Rain 2. Ransom 3. Desperation 4. Trouble 5. Rivalry 6. Handover 7. Reckoning 

8. Reunification  9. Conflagration  10. Insights  11. Casualty  12. Past  13. Desire

He could not tell how often he had sat alone on his roof lately, watching Suon chasing his sister through the sky, waiting for the night to come. It had been several months since Tibicus and his friends had returned empty-handed to Thais.

His eternal adversary Beefo was gone. His former allies and associates had backstabbed him the second they got wind of the tragedy that happened in Venore and slowly but surely new parties were now about to fill the vacuum of power he had left behind. The emptiness that his malicious deeds had left inside Tibicus, however, was just as painful as on the first day.

He had left Thais for long hunting trips in the last months again and again in order to take his mind off things. Thanks to those trips, he had been able to replenish most of the rare items he had sold before and even gather some new ones for his trophy room. Deep inside, however, the devastating certainty had spread that nothing could compensate for the loss of his precious hat.

Tabea on the other hand, had a hard time herself. Even after all these months, her eyes were always red from crying while the lacklustre skin and the deep pouches under her eyes represented the negative effects of her ongoing sleep deprivation. She had spent every free minute visiting the libraries all across the country in desperate search of clues to the realm of demons and a possibility to break through the magical barrier separating it from this world. However, the few cryptic clues that she had dug up in this regard had all proven to be nothing but useless fantasies and legends.

As if this was not underwhelming enough, she and Tibicus were locking horns more often recently because of their different views on Fridolin. Much to the chagrin of Emilio who found himself between the hardened fronts of his friends.

The meetings in Frodo's pub became more and more rare and ended more and more often in heated quarrels. Even though nobody wanted to admit it, the three had drifted apart and since everyone was hunting his own demons, it seemed inevitable that in the long run, everyone would cut his very own path.

It was one of those evenings when Tibicus sat down alone at one of the small tables at Frodo's. Embittered as always, he gazed down into his pint of beer cursing under his breath and demonizing the world. 

After some time, a young man tapped him on the shoulder: "Do you mind?"

Tibicus only grunted morosely and indicated with an unmotivated wave of the hand that he should bugger off. The young man, however, had already taken a seat and took a deep sip from his glass.

"Aaaaah! There's nothing better than a delicious beer before a big battle, don't you think?" the adventurer tried to start a conversation and drank a toast to his bad-tempered table neighbour.

Tibicus raised one eye brow, then hesitantly raised his glass too and nodded.

Battles have always been a weak spot for him and the mentioning of an upcoming fight aroused his curiosity.

"So, what battle do you intend to participate in?" Tibicus asked in passing.

"Haven't you heard? It's all over town! Movements have been spotted at the citadel. The evil sorcerer is about to return. We'll set out soon to fight him."

Tibicus choked on his beer. Coughing and gasping for breath, he bumped his chest with his fist to clear his throat and wiped the spilled beer from his legs. "You mean?"

"Have you been living under a rock lately? Ferumbras is coming!" the young man completed his sentence.

Hastily, Tibicus shoved the wooden table aside, squeezed himself through the drinking crowd aiming for the exit. "Put it on my tab, Frodo!" he shouted as he kicked the door wide open and stormed out of the pub into the night.

Like a streak, he rushed down the road, took a sharp turn to the right running towards the eastern city wall. Seeing the draw well at the end of the street, he knew that he was close to his destination. After another sharp turn to the left, he climbed up the ladder and stopped, out of breath, in front of a wooden door.

"The City Wall 3e"

The closed shutters implicated that whoever was living in this house was either asleep or absent but Tibicus hammered his fist against the door. It took a while until a lanky man opened the door. Still drowsy with sleep he rubbed his eyes: "Tibicus? What do you want? Do you know what time it is?" 

"Tell me... Is it true? Is Ferumbras about to return?" Tibicus was gasping trying to catch his breath after the long run.

The man gave him a saturnine look. "You would know, if you had joined me on my journey to discover the lands back then."

"Listen, I don't have time for your little power games. You discovered the hole land, gathered incredible wisdom and in some magical way always know what is about to happen before everyone else does. Now tell me, Interest Keeper, is he going to return?"

"Don't call me that! It's no magic, I just visited all interesting points in Tibia and thereby built a network of very resourceful informants." the man answered. "Something, you were too lazy to proceed with. And, yes, it is true. Ferumbras is coming back! Probably within the next few hours. Now get lost, a man needs his beauty sleep."