From the Journal of Zil, Windling Elementalist
On our previous expedition to Ironbark grove, we were surprised to discover the roof of an underground Kaer. We found the entrance in a totally different cave, but we needed certain ritual supplies to to open the door that we could only obtain the Throal.. While in Throal I talked to a friendly purifier, who had much to say about the nature of wood. We were not dealing with wood with an addiction to metal. Rather the problem was woods nature to dig deep into the earth in times of trouble, even when the trouble is coming from the earth.
In any event, we obtained our supplies and returned to the kaer entrance, where the ritual was accomplished with surprising ease. First we temporarily suppressed the illusions that hid the entrance, the door, and the ritual area. Then performed the ritual that caused the mighty kaer door to open. We were met by a large force of guards, who demanded to know who we were and what we were doing. We introduced ourselves and announced the scourge was over, much to everybodies amazement. Everybody present performed the greeting ritual, mostly to everybodies satisfaction. We were invited inside by the guard commander, Denia . And the door was resealed behind us. We were then escorted to the kaer Irondelves' central gathering area where we met the residents, etc. We took 20 representatives outside for a quick tour. fortunately it was a nice day, and we did not run into any Ogres or Giant Spiders.
The elders announce there will be a feast that evening. In the meantime we look around the farming area of the Kaer. They mention that the kear has taken in refugees 3 times during the scourge. We talk to the last batch, who came in about 15 years prior, it is the head farmer Uneqh Brstef and his family. We talk to them, but they seem all right. Somebody mentions that some of the people who are in the outskirts of the kaer are overdue, and we volunteer to go look for them. Unegh's daughter Zhevra shows us the way. Just short of the herbalists cavern, we come upon blood and signs of a struggle. We are on guard as we enter the cavern (where they harvest moss, lichen mushrooms and herbs (including a spicy moss and l have never heard of before that is quite tasty).
We spy a pile of bodies, and as we approach, Zhevra announces that they are Aetherinos's (the Elf herbalist's) apprentices. These fresh bodies do nothing, but when we approach, 5 older bodies rise and attack us. They are 4 Cadaver Men, and something else, which we dub a Shadowy Cadaver. We destroy them, but during the fight we Durbin feels that something is messing with his mana flows. He investigates and announces that something is hiding inside the wall. I fly over and look for openings, but can't find anything bigger than a peephole. As I hear somebody running away to the East, it takes me several minutes to find an opening to the hidden tunnel.
We follow the running footsteps as quickly as we can, and an hour later are only 100 yards behind as we catch a quick glimpse of him before he turns yet another corner. We re enter areas of worked stone to see the Elf speaking with a human and a dwarf. It quickly becomes obvious that all three are horrors that can imitate humans and that they infiltrated the kaer long ago (no less than 2 months ago, but for all we know it might have been decades earlier). We have perhaps the toughest fight I have ever been a part of. The horrors were fast, easily getting two attacks in for every one of ours. Also they had a great deal of armor: they apparently have some natural armor, plus were wearing light namegiver armor on top of it. The dwarf looking horror had taken the place of the kaer Elementalist and knew Elementalism, casting Air Armor really gilded their armor lilly. While we could hit them, we could almost never do any significant damage to them. They had a hard time hitting us, but when they did hit, it hurt. We, however, had several characters almost kill themselves taking strain. Eventually we managed to debuff the elementalist a great deal, and slew him as all three were running away. We were in very rough shape.
We separated the dead horrors head from it's body and took it back to the central square. We informed everybody that the kear had been infiltrated by at least three horrors, and that we had slain one, the one that had been impersonating Sarvik Ironspeaker, but that Aetherinos Silvegalin (herbalist) and Varin Khos (scout) were dangerous and loose in the kear. We strongly urged the leaders to call the entire kear together, and make a muster and roll call to make sure that every resident was in attendance. William had learned how to use Creature Analysis to distinguish these dopplers from name-givers, and each person (ourselves included) underwent a very stringent search, physical, artistic, astral, and via creature analysis. One other Doppler was found and killed.
With the kear opened up, and the residents busy building a settlement topside, I release the Earth Elemental from it's bond to protect the kear, and it moves further from the huge tree that is home to the Wood Elemental.. With the Earth Elemental gone, the Wood Elemental becomes less aggressive. We also drove off the Ogre family, and warned the new settlers to keep well away from the spider grove until it has been properly cleared. Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Sat Apr 04, 2020 4:12 am
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