From a roughly bound loose stack of loose paper titled 'Vlolkir'
I go to the smith to take my new mace when I see Carver. Carver tells me there are adepts going to a kaer nearby, I say I have two maces now, and will join them. I have trained much, I know more, I am stronger. I have heard of kaers opening, and wish to see one. We travel southeast, to a place Carver has been before, I am told. They found things inside, Carver wishes to see more of the kaer, to find survivors, or other things. Maybe treasures.
We swim down through water, place things in dishes, it is a ritual I am told. These things are unfamiliar. We are able to enter, and go into another kaer. I have heard of kaers outside of Throal, and what adepts may find. I am ready to tell tales of what we find here. It is dark inside, and everything is broken. There are torches and crystals lit, and we move in. Scratchings and movement comes from deeper in, and we are struck by a band of corpsemen. They are felled easily, and our way is clear to move deeper in.
As we go in, others find a room of records. They read books, there are so many, but they say some more which should be there are not. I trust them, but these are matters which have little concern for me. In the room, though, I find armor. Troll-sized, and of the crystal which forms the peaks of our home. It is dormant, resting. It will fit me, and I take it. As I return to the others, they swear on passions' names and speak of evil done here. Folk of the kaer had a horror locked inside with them. They made deals, they were driven mad, they appeased this creature. It is still here, they others say the last page of the last book was written by it, it bids us welcome, this thing called Ag'xgai and so on.
We leave to find the thing, some others are willing to leave, I see we have opened the door, and we must kill it before it leaves. We go deeper. There is rotten food in pots, but some good honey which I take for mead. We go deep, it is quiet and others only see by torches now. We walk into a room, and a thing comes for me and Carver, Carver is too quick, I try to strike, but it is on my leg, and pulling me. It drains my blood and wounds me. We hear calls and movement, ghouls come, things like monkeys come, they scramble over rocks at us, I am freed from the black tongues by Jael's wolf. We set to. The tongues grab at us, and poison us. Many of us drink antidotes, and are slashed by ghouls, but we are somewhat safe. Carver is struck badly, and blood flows freely. I and archer Tomsson save Carver from the ghoul. Enough of the tongues are severed, they fall into the hole they came from, and we are alone in the dark with ghouls and strange monkey creatures. We kill them.
Once more we go further, Carver showing where traps are so we do not step on them. We go down stairs, past cart tracks, further into the kaer. We go down stairs, into a room. We see corpsemen, and a worm. The worm sees us as it has many eyes. It speaks to us, it tells us we are welcome and it is happy to see us, that it will show us to its master. We fire stones and arrows, and we go back, we go quickly through the kaer, and escape. Our journey back to Throal is restless.
I will return and it will be soon. I will not be conquered by these things. And I will have a sword, as relying on blunt objects is foolish.
AAR [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (2020-04-19 21:00GMT)
Moderator:etherial
Re: LFG [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (April 19, 2020 21:00GMT)
April 19, 2020
LFG [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (April 19, 2020 21:00GMT)
From the journal of Xeviouz, Human Warrior
William Carver the Human Scout approached me about going to Kaer Bashmore again. Volkir the Troll Sky Raider, Karl Tomsson, Human Archer and Jael the Elf Beastmaster will also be coming. William tells Volkir and Jael what to expect when we arrive. IT was a place of death. We will have to go through the puzzels again and try to set up a foothold for future adventures.
We are able to travel along the road and have no encounters along the way. As we reach the site ofKaer Bamore, we put the grass and meat on the statues and it reveals the stairs down. We drink from the small dish of water to be able to breath under water as we progress the underwater passage way to the from door of the Kaer. The statue in front of the door has 2 hands outstretched. We put a copper coin in each hand and it releases the lock on the door.
We walk in, go under a 35’ arch, down a short hallway wide enough for a wagon to go through, then another archway. THis drops us in the main of the Kaer. It is like the town square. Dead bodies everywhere. Old blood stains. Many of the light crystals are still working here, but not on the perimeter of the square.
William Carver is refusing the light crystals as we move in. At the edge of the square, as we are relighting a crystal we catch a glimpse of something moving. Cadavermen are coming towards us. And a couple other types of shadowy creature that moves very fast. It is a quick and brutal fight but we are able to win over the creatures.
After the battle we continue to look around. There are bodies that have been hung from the columns with the light pillars. Some of the bodies are aying on the ground in pairs, holding hands. We begin to take the bodies of the cadavermen outside, we will put them in a pile and burn them.
We continue to explore, the square has several tunnels peeling off of it. It is set up much like the Grand Bizarre of Throal. We head into the first tunnel, it is a residential area. Looking around, there are bodies everywhere. Some hanging from rope, some with knives in their hands. There was no struggle, nothing broken. Looks like a bunch of self inflicted wounds. Small groups of bodies, 3 or 4. Adults seized, and some with smaller, child sized bodies. WHo or what would prey on children ?!!
We find some journals, all of them indicate There is no escape. On a wall is written “It sees everything”, and “we are doomed”. One journal opened to its last page written in Sperethiel says “we are undun, in this time where all evils are permitted, we must give up what we love most to be safe. I Hope the passions forgive us”.
Second tunnel would have been farms. THe light crystals have all gone out, the crops are dead. Dead bodies in the fields.
THird tunnel was a merchant area. Mayors residence, archive, with the book of tomorrow. Last page somebody has written in small script “There is no tomorrow” over and over and over.
Find the Kaer ledge where they keep track of all the inhabitants. The last entries said we are all going to die, and What is the point? Last dated entry was 150 years ago. Flipping back a few pages, there are a couple reports of suicides. Flip back a few more pages, reports of people missing. One entry says a mysterious illness. One entry catches our eye, it says “Who or what is Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir?” Some of the letters were scratched out. William Carver says some of the books are missing from the time line of books. Year 37, 78, 112, 163, 204 are all missing. Book 205 has the first 30 pages written in, then all blank, except the very last page. It says “Welcome”.
THe last tunnel has alot of dust. There is one spot where a streak on the wall has no dust on it. William Carver says he can see footprints using his tracking ability. We follow the tracks. Very quiet here, nothing moves. This was the storage area for the Kaer. Wagon wheels marks on the floor, highly used area. Possibly a road going to another entrance/exit?
As we go down the tunnel we come to a room as we move into the room some tentacles shoot out of a floor grate and attack Volkier. He is wrapped up and begins taking poison damage, then ghouls come from the side and attack. 2 little scurrier creature begin cursing us with bad luck. I take 3 wounds and am almost to unconsciousness when we finally beat the creatures. My thanks to Kelia for making poison antidotes, it saved my life.
We have to chase down the scurriers as they ran off at the end of the battle. We turn a corner and see 4 more cadavermen and a giant bloated worm with many many teeth and it looks at us and says “ Finally you have arrived, the Master will be pleased.”
At this point we turn and run. We are all grievously wounded and can not stand for another fight. Head back to Throal for healing, training and reinforcements.
I will return to avenge these child victims. THis horror will pay with its life!
LFG [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (April 19, 2020 21:00GMT)
From the journal of Xeviouz, Human Warrior
William Carver the Human Scout approached me about going to Kaer Bashmore again. Volkir the Troll Sky Raider, Karl Tomsson, Human Archer and Jael the Elf Beastmaster will also be coming. William tells Volkir and Jael what to expect when we arrive. IT was a place of death. We will have to go through the puzzels again and try to set up a foothold for future adventures.
We are able to travel along the road and have no encounters along the way. As we reach the site ofKaer Bamore, we put the grass and meat on the statues and it reveals the stairs down. We drink from the small dish of water to be able to breath under water as we progress the underwater passage way to the from door of the Kaer. The statue in front of the door has 2 hands outstretched. We put a copper coin in each hand and it releases the lock on the door.
We walk in, go under a 35’ arch, down a short hallway wide enough for a wagon to go through, then another archway. THis drops us in the main of the Kaer. It is like the town square. Dead bodies everywhere. Old blood stains. Many of the light crystals are still working here, but not on the perimeter of the square.
William Carver is refusing the light crystals as we move in. At the edge of the square, as we are relighting a crystal we catch a glimpse of something moving. Cadavermen are coming towards us. And a couple other types of shadowy creature that moves very fast. It is a quick and brutal fight but we are able to win over the creatures.
After the battle we continue to look around. There are bodies that have been hung from the columns with the light pillars. Some of the bodies are aying on the ground in pairs, holding hands. We begin to take the bodies of the cadavermen outside, we will put them in a pile and burn them.
We continue to explore, the square has several tunnels peeling off of it. It is set up much like the Grand Bizarre of Throal. We head into the first tunnel, it is a residential area. Looking around, there are bodies everywhere. Some hanging from rope, some with knives in their hands. There was no struggle, nothing broken. Looks like a bunch of self inflicted wounds. Small groups of bodies, 3 or 4. Adults seized, and some with smaller, child sized bodies. WHo or what would prey on children ?!!
We find some journals, all of them indicate There is no escape. On a wall is written “It sees everything”, and “we are doomed”. One journal opened to its last page written in Sperethiel says “we are undun, in this time where all evils are permitted, we must give up what we love most to be safe. I Hope the passions forgive us”.
Second tunnel would have been farms. THe light crystals have all gone out, the crops are dead. Dead bodies in the fields.
THird tunnel was a merchant area. Mayors residence, archive, with the book of tomorrow. Last page somebody has written in small script “There is no tomorrow” over and over and over.
Find the Kaer ledge where they keep track of all the inhabitants. The last entries said we are all going to die, and What is the point? Last dated entry was 150 years ago. Flipping back a few pages, there are a couple reports of suicides. Flip back a few more pages, reports of people missing. One entry says a mysterious illness. One entry catches our eye, it says “Who or what is Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir?” Some of the letters were scratched out. William Carver says some of the books are missing from the time line of books. Year 37, 78, 112, 163, 204 are all missing. Book 205 has the first 30 pages written in, then all blank, except the very last page. It says “Welcome”.
THe last tunnel has alot of dust. There is one spot where a streak on the wall has no dust on it. William Carver says he can see footprints using his tracking ability. We follow the tracks. Very quiet here, nothing moves. This was the storage area for the Kaer. Wagon wheels marks on the floor, highly used area. Possibly a road going to another entrance/exit?
As we go down the tunnel we come to a room as we move into the room some tentacles shoot out of a floor grate and attack Volkier. He is wrapped up and begins taking poison damage, then ghouls come from the side and attack. 2 little scurrier creature begin cursing us with bad luck. I take 3 wounds and am almost to unconsciousness when we finally beat the creatures. My thanks to Kelia for making poison antidotes, it saved my life.
We have to chase down the scurriers as they ran off at the end of the battle. We turn a corner and see 4 more cadavermen and a giant bloated worm with many many teeth and it looks at us and says “ Finally you have arrived, the Master will be pleased.”
At this point we turn and run. We are all grievously wounded and can not stand for another fight. Head back to Throal for healing, training and reinforcements.
I will return to avenge these child victims. THis horror will pay with its life!
Re: LFG [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (April 19, 2020 21:00GMT)
My name is William Carver, I am a fourth circle Scout, third circle Thief.
The adventuring group consisted of five people in total. Jael, Vlolkir, Xevious, Karl, and myself.
We traveled to Bamor today. Xevious and I were last there when we were first setting out from Throal. I thought we were ready and could take the world by storm. I thought we were true adepts like in the legends and we could reclaim Bamor, avenge its people from the horrors and build our own legends. How wrong I was, I don't think I am going to sleep well again because for the first time I understand the true horrors that happened in the scourge...
We arrived in Bamor to find that things were as we left them. We once more made our way through the various riddles and went into the main entrance of the kaer. There were pillars with some of the light crystals still working. We saw bodies everywhere, at least a decade old from what I could tell. Some hung themselves, some looked as if they killed themselves. We saw carvings on the walls with sayings things like the only way out, no other chose and other such sayings. About half of the light crystals were active, I walked up to one of the pillars and reawoke one of the crystals, and that was when all hell broke lose and the creatures that were hiding in the shadows made themselves known. We were attacked by cadavarmen with pack mentality and some that seemed to cloak themselves with the very shadows and had a chilling touch. We engaged them and made fairly quick work of them. It felt like we could do this, the battle was tough but we were up for the challenge, we were battered but not beaten.
Leading off the main chamber were a series of tunnels. The right most tunnel lead us to the residential area. Bodies were everywhere, the journals that we found all had the same suicidal thoughts. These people killed themselves, and their families. They didn't starve as we found that the food stores had badly decayed food but still had some food to be had. They just killed themselves and their loved ones.
The next area we searched were the farms. This was a massive cavern, some bodies were here but not as many. The crops were dead, the light crystals were out. There was not much else to be found here.
The tunnel following the farms was the archives and library. This place is a treasure trove of knowledge. I took a book about how to better train your perception. These people had figured out better means to train abilities and skills. This is also the place were we understood what happened to these people. Looking at the births and deaths record we were able to trace back to where this may have begun. The book of tomorrow that they had in the last few pages in small letters wrote over and over again there is no tomorrow, there is no tomorrow. Something got in somehow and it caused these people to go insane and kill themselves and their loved ones. The most troubling book though was the one where things were fairly normal and then some blank pages and on the last page it said Welcome. We also made note that some book of days where missing Who or what is Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir? and we found a name in one of the books. The missing books were for the following years Year 37, 78, 112, 163, 204. In book 205 was where we found the welcome message.
We were exploring the fourth tunnel and Vlolkir and I were passing a grate. Tentacles shot up from the grate and snagged Vlolkir, I managed to jump back and out of the way before they could grab me. Then once more the things in the shadows made themselves known, Ghouls and some sort of scurriers that we could not fully identify the powers of.
This battle was hard, the tentacles prevented us from moving around better, the ghouls had a poison that damaged us. One of the ghouls nearly killed me, Karl saved my life. I was on the ground, it was hovering over me, tongue out drooling in hunger, I had my shepard's strength in hand drawing upon the power within for all I was worth. I was going to die and then an arrow erupted from its chest and the ghoul died and I lived. We won the day but the fight left us drained and low on resources. We healed up as best as we could and pressed forward. We were bloodied, battered, and badly wounded, but still we pressed forward. Still we moved on. We are adepts, we are the light within the darkness and we needed to at least see what awaited us. Too see what fated had befallen Bamor.
I saw a true horror for the first time in the final tunnels. It welcomed us and said its master would be most pleased to meet us. More of the shadowy cadavers laughed from the shadows. We looked at each other, we looked at it and we retreated as fast as we could. We chose to live, because if we stayed that thing might have killed us. I thought we were ready to face the horrors of Bamor, I was wrong. We were not ready for the things we found inside, I was not ready for the things that we found. Bamor has fallen and the horrors are not gone. I believe that the name Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir means something, it could be the horror of Bamor, it is something that must be researched more. For now I am going to visit my family which I have not seen for some time, I am going to laugh and joke with them. I am going to hold them, for I have seen death and I need to embrace life if even for a few scant hours. Maybe I can find some sleep, but that horror, the bodies in the kaer. I fear they will haunt my dreams for a long time to come.
Beware the folly of Bamor for the horrors are not gone and they are laughing at our foolishness from the darkness...
The adventuring group consisted of five people in total. Jael, Vlolkir, Xevious, Karl, and myself.
We traveled to Bamor today. Xevious and I were last there when we were first setting out from Throal. I thought we were ready and could take the world by storm. I thought we were true adepts like in the legends and we could reclaim Bamor, avenge its people from the horrors and build our own legends. How wrong I was, I don't think I am going to sleep well again because for the first time I understand the true horrors that happened in the scourge...
We arrived in Bamor to find that things were as we left them. We once more made our way through the various riddles and went into the main entrance of the kaer. There were pillars with some of the light crystals still working. We saw bodies everywhere, at least a decade old from what I could tell. Some hung themselves, some looked as if they killed themselves. We saw carvings on the walls with sayings things like the only way out, no other chose and other such sayings. About half of the light crystals were active, I walked up to one of the pillars and reawoke one of the crystals, and that was when all hell broke lose and the creatures that were hiding in the shadows made themselves known. We were attacked by cadavarmen with pack mentality and some that seemed to cloak themselves with the very shadows and had a chilling touch. We engaged them and made fairly quick work of them. It felt like we could do this, the battle was tough but we were up for the challenge, we were battered but not beaten.
Leading off the main chamber were a series of tunnels. The right most tunnel lead us to the residential area. Bodies were everywhere, the journals that we found all had the same suicidal thoughts. These people killed themselves, and their families. They didn't starve as we found that the food stores had badly decayed food but still had some food to be had. They just killed themselves and their loved ones.
The next area we searched were the farms. This was a massive cavern, some bodies were here but not as many. The crops were dead, the light crystals were out. There was not much else to be found here.
The tunnel following the farms was the archives and library. This place is a treasure trove of knowledge. I took a book about how to better train your perception. These people had figured out better means to train abilities and skills. This is also the place were we understood what happened to these people. Looking at the births and deaths record we were able to trace back to where this may have begun. The book of tomorrow that they had in the last few pages in small letters wrote over and over again there is no tomorrow, there is no tomorrow. Something got in somehow and it caused these people to go insane and kill themselves and their loved ones. The most troubling book though was the one where things were fairly normal and then some blank pages and on the last page it said Welcome. We also made note that some book of days where missing Who or what is Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir? and we found a name in one of the books. The missing books were for the following years Year 37, 78, 112, 163, 204. In book 205 was where we found the welcome message.
We were exploring the fourth tunnel and Vlolkir and I were passing a grate. Tentacles shot up from the grate and snagged Vlolkir, I managed to jump back and out of the way before they could grab me. Then once more the things in the shadows made themselves known, Ghouls and some sort of scurriers that we could not fully identify the powers of.
This battle was hard, the tentacles prevented us from moving around better, the ghouls had a poison that damaged us. One of the ghouls nearly killed me, Karl saved my life. I was on the ground, it was hovering over me, tongue out drooling in hunger, I had my shepard's strength in hand drawing upon the power within for all I was worth. I was going to die and then an arrow erupted from its chest and the ghoul died and I lived. We won the day but the fight left us drained and low on resources. We healed up as best as we could and pressed forward. We were bloodied, battered, and badly wounded, but still we pressed forward. Still we moved on. We are adepts, we are the light within the darkness and we needed to at least see what awaited us. Too see what fated had befallen Bamor.
I saw a true horror for the first time in the final tunnels. It welcomed us and said its master would be most pleased to meet us. More of the shadowy cadavers laughed from the shadows. We looked at each other, we looked at it and we retreated as fast as we could. We chose to live, because if we stayed that thing might have killed us. I thought we were ready to face the horrors of Bamor, I was wrong. We were not ready for the things we found inside, I was not ready for the things that we found. Bamor has fallen and the horrors are not gone. I believe that the name Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir means something, it could be the horror of Bamor, it is something that must be researched more. For now I am going to visit my family which I have not seen for some time, I am going to laugh and joke with them. I am going to hold them, for I have seen death and I need to embrace life if even for a few scant hours. Maybe I can find some sleep, but that horror, the bodies in the kaer. I fear they will haunt my dreams for a long time to come.
Beware the folly of Bamor for the horrors are not gone and they are laughing at our foolishness from the darkness...
Re: AAR [5M]: Bamor Beachhead (2020-04-19 21:00GMT)
This is the Journal of Karl Tomsson, Archer and Beastmaster.
William told stories about finding a closed off Kaer. After getting through to the Entrance, they managed to open up the Kaer door and saw dozens of undead, half rotten creatures. They quickly closed, sealed and labeled as dangerous the entrance, to return at a later day. This day is today. And boy would I hope it wasn't.
Besides William, the Human Scout, and myself, were also my trusty friends Vlolkir the Troll Skyraider, Jael the Elven Beastmaster, Xeviouz the Human Warrior and myself.
Carefully Entering the Kaer we determine it to be a side or back Entrance. We also deduce that sealing a Kaer with riddles did not seem to work too well against the more intelligent Horrors. We are not sure what entered this Kaer, or how he did it, but this place was doomed.
In the first hall we found old, rotting Crates, that could have been used for fishing for eels. There was a large stone archway leading into a large Hall, like a Plaza, filled with corpses. Mostly only skeletons remaining. One skeleton held a knife. Besides it we found the words "Only Escape" carved into the stone. William immediately connected the clues and muttered that this looks like a mass suicide of 50 suicides, which was their only escape from whatever Horror had made this Kaer, which should have been their refuge, a prison.
I heard faint movement to the North, while William worked on reactivating two light crystals that had gone out. As the Quarzes lit up, we saw yellow eyes reflecting the light and got ready for a fight. A whole bunch of walking cadavers waited behind a partially broken wall for us to come across. I walk around slightly for a better angle and pierce something with an arrow. Several corpses come at us, carefully trying to stay out of our lights' radii, which unfortunately did not last too long. The fight was short but intense, and took a good portion of our energy.
There were different tunnels leading out of this hall.
The first tunnel led to a residential Area, that held another 100 corpses. Some houses had ritual circles with little corpses within them. Bodies were in half empty bath-tubs, and bodies were hanging from ropes. All this with no single sign of a fight, just by now 150 people who decided to kill themselves. I looked for food storage houses, which we easily found. They were full of food, so that was not the reason for their despair.
In one of the houses that also had a child's corpse in a ritual circle we found a journal. The last entry read "We are undone. And in this time, where all evils are permitted, I realize that the only way for us to be save, is to give up what we love most. I hope the Passions will forgive us."
The second tunnel led to the Farms. The Light Crystals had gone out, all the crops and lifestock were dead. There were far fewer corpses than in the first hall or the residential area, but even here some people had gone to kill themselves. Otherwise there is nothing else of note to be found.
The Third tunnel took us to a kind of merchantile area. There are Several official-looking buildings. We entered what looked like the archive. Prominently displayed we found the Book of tomorrow. The last dozen pages, meant to be filled by the inhabitants of the Kaer, repeats thousandfold in tiny script "There is no tomorrow."
We looked for a registry detailing Births and Deaths. Going backwards, looking at the deaths, there were hundreds of very detailed entries, however most of them made no sense:
Going back some pages further, the entries were clear again, reading "Death by Starvation" which made no sense, and other causes of death that are more explainable.
One entry read
Trying to find a pattern between the deaths, we noticed that Elders and children disappeared first. The unnatural deaths seemed to have spanned somewhere between one and five years.
We looked for the Books of Days, which should detail any special happenings. We tried to look for entries that detailed what could possibly have gone wrong and noticed that the books for years 37, 78, 112, 163, 204. In book 205 just the first couple pages were filled, after that everything was empty. Except for the last page, which carried a single word:
Welcome.
Looking at the fourth tunnel, William finds recent trails and some small sets of footprints, maybe Elf or adolescent Human. Following in, we notice an eerie silence, not even mice moving. We found a storage area, with track marks of wagons and a great assortment of smaller tunnels and doors. Moving carefully, William was just quick enough to leap out of the way of a massive amount of black tentacles that shot out from a crate in the floor. They still got Vlolkir, who got severely poisoned, while the tentacles pumped blood out from him.
Further there were hideous large and strong Ghouls who resembled nothing I have ever encountered, and strange rat-monkeys coming at us. Vlolkir and Jael chucked Antidotes while Fang severed the tentacle holding onto Vlolkir.
Two Ghouls came up and attacked Xeviouz, barely able to pierce his armor, however he still shouted out in pain, poisoned by their magic.
My magic gave me a sense of the tentacles looking oily and dry, which would make it vulnerable to fire. I threw my torch into the tentacle mass, to which several tentacles pulled back into the crate. This was not long lived unfortunately, as soon after they shot out again, trying and missing to grab Fang and Vlolkir, but successfully grabbing Hedbut.
I shot a ghoul and hit, but the arrow somehow seemed to fall of its claws. It then started chasing after me, but with the help of William and some good legwork on my part was able to shake it off... Directly into William's direction, who took the blunt force and was knocked down by its attack, screaming how his whole body burns. Luckily I was able to fell the Ghoul with my next arrow, removing all Potency from the poison.
After barely surviving this combat, having decimated the foe's troops, and being severely wounded, we decide to seal the Kaer again and come back another day to finish the job we started.
William told stories about finding a closed off Kaer. After getting through to the Entrance, they managed to open up the Kaer door and saw dozens of undead, half rotten creatures. They quickly closed, sealed and labeled as dangerous the entrance, to return at a later day. This day is today. And boy would I hope it wasn't.
Besides William, the Human Scout, and myself, were also my trusty friends Vlolkir the Troll Skyraider, Jael the Elven Beastmaster, Xeviouz the Human Warrior and myself.
Carefully Entering the Kaer we determine it to be a side or back Entrance. We also deduce that sealing a Kaer with riddles did not seem to work too well against the more intelligent Horrors. We are not sure what entered this Kaer, or how he did it, but this place was doomed.
In the first hall we found old, rotting Crates, that could have been used for fishing for eels. There was a large stone archway leading into a large Hall, like a Plaza, filled with corpses. Mostly only skeletons remaining. One skeleton held a knife. Besides it we found the words "Only Escape" carved into the stone. William immediately connected the clues and muttered that this looks like a mass suicide of 50 suicides, which was their only escape from whatever Horror had made this Kaer, which should have been their refuge, a prison.
I heard faint movement to the North, while William worked on reactivating two light crystals that had gone out. As the Quarzes lit up, we saw yellow eyes reflecting the light and got ready for a fight. A whole bunch of walking cadavers waited behind a partially broken wall for us to come across. I walk around slightly for a better angle and pierce something with an arrow. Several corpses come at us, carefully trying to stay out of our lights' radii, which unfortunately did not last too long. The fight was short but intense, and took a good portion of our energy.
There were different tunnels leading out of this hall.
The first tunnel led to a residential Area, that held another 100 corpses. Some houses had ritual circles with little corpses within them. Bodies were in half empty bath-tubs, and bodies were hanging from ropes. All this with no single sign of a fight, just by now 150 people who decided to kill themselves. I looked for food storage houses, which we easily found. They were full of food, so that was not the reason for their despair.
In one of the houses that also had a child's corpse in a ritual circle we found a journal. The last entry read "We are undone. And in this time, where all evils are permitted, I realize that the only way for us to be save, is to give up what we love most. I hope the Passions will forgive us."
The second tunnel led to the Farms. The Light Crystals had gone out, all the crops and lifestock were dead. There were far fewer corpses than in the first hall or the residential area, but even here some people had gone to kill themselves. Otherwise there is nothing else of note to be found.
The Third tunnel took us to a kind of merchantile area. There are Several official-looking buildings. We entered what looked like the archive. Prominently displayed we found the Book of tomorrow. The last dozen pages, meant to be filled by the inhabitants of the Kaer, repeats thousandfold in tiny script "There is no tomorrow."
We looked for a registry detailing Births and Deaths. Going backwards, looking at the deaths, there were hundreds of very detailed entries, however most of them made no sense:
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Cause of Death: Folly
Cause of Death: We are all Fools.One entry read
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Who or what is Ag'xgai Nl--th--vx---ir?We looked for the Books of Days, which should detail any special happenings. We tried to look for entries that detailed what could possibly have gone wrong and noticed that the books for years 37, 78, 112, 163, 204. In book 205 just the first couple pages were filled, after that everything was empty. Except for the last page, which carried a single word:
Welcome.
Looking at the fourth tunnel, William finds recent trails and some small sets of footprints, maybe Elf or adolescent Human. Following in, we notice an eerie silence, not even mice moving. We found a storage area, with track marks of wagons and a great assortment of smaller tunnels and doors. Moving carefully, William was just quick enough to leap out of the way of a massive amount of black tentacles that shot out from a crate in the floor. They still got Vlolkir, who got severely poisoned, while the tentacles pumped blood out from him.
Further there were hideous large and strong Ghouls who resembled nothing I have ever encountered, and strange rat-monkeys coming at us. Vlolkir and Jael chucked Antidotes while Fang severed the tentacle holding onto Vlolkir.
Two Ghouls came up and attacked Xeviouz, barely able to pierce his armor, however he still shouted out in pain, poisoned by their magic.
My magic gave me a sense of the tentacles looking oily and dry, which would make it vulnerable to fire. I threw my torch into the tentacle mass, to which several tentacles pulled back into the crate. This was not long lived unfortunately, as soon after they shot out again, trying and missing to grab Fang and Vlolkir, but successfully grabbing Hedbut.
I shot a ghoul and hit, but the arrow somehow seemed to fall of its claws. It then started chasing after me, but with the help of William and some good legwork on my part was able to shake it off... Directly into William's direction, who took the blunt force and was knocked down by its attack, screaming how his whole body burns. Luckily I was able to fell the Ghoul with my next arrow, removing all Potency from the poison.
After barely surviving this combat, having decimated the foe's troops, and being severely wounded, we decide to seal the Kaer again and come back another day to finish the job we started.