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AAR: Bare Kaer Stair

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:31 am
by Reyntrannin
AAR: Bare Kaer Stair
Time: 2018-10-13 17:00 GMT (1 PM ET)
GM: ReynTrannin
Circle: 10
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Ceadda: 69,000LP, 3,500sp, 3 TIPs
Romari: 69,000LP, 3,500sp, 3 TIPs
Thane 69,000LP, 1250sp, 3 TIPs, Horror Stalker mulit-discipline training
fenrir 69,000LP, 1250sp, 3 TIPs, Horror Stalker mulit-discipline training

GM Reward:
Blaethynn: 6,000 Legend, 850 sp, 1 TIP

Downtime Actions:
Romari:
Item History 25 (Rank 8, x2 Karma)
Research 34 (Rank 9, x2 Karma)
Map Making 18 (Rank 8)
Enchanting 22 (Rank 10); Spell Matrix Objects (Standard, Enhanced, Armored)
Fenrir:
Alchemy 12 (3: Booster Potion)
Animal Training 12 (5)

Additional Notes:
The Entrance to Kaer Litnael has been located at 51, 22. The entrance was sealed with a slab of living crystal, which has been cracked across its width and the wards protecting the kaer have been twisted into a lethal trap.
A Horror lay in wait with two of its constructs and ambushed the Adepts sent to investigate, but was driven off and its constructs destroyed.
An Elven Horror Stalker Named Shaltre was found dead near the entrance of the kaer. His sword was returned to his sister Killana and their master, a Troll Named Aerich, who agreed to induct some of the Adepts into the Horror Stalker Discipline.

Re: AAR: Bare Kaer Stair

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:28 am
by ChrisDDickey
From the journal of Thane Cawdor.

An exploratory vessel sailing down the Coil River had recently returned with the sighting of distant activity far southeast of Lake Ban. Subsequent research into that area (hex 5321) shows a Kaer Litnael marked on several pre-Scourge records. Cyril Manson, a dwarf merchant who organized the original expedition recruited Fenrir, Romari, Ceadda, and I to look into this more closely, and if possible establish communication with the kaer if it survived.

We talked with some sailors who witnessed the original kerfuffle. They could not be very specific, just a lot of noise (maybe a battle, maybe not), heard a lot of movement, saw a trail broken into some woods. Saw what might have been a large corpse. Smoke and light from a large fire in the distance that lasted more than a day. We took a T'Skrang riverboat to the location of the original sighting. They said they would wait for us for up to 5 days, but With Romari's new 'Call' spell we were able to give them status reports every evening.

At the site, we found a 50 foot wide path of broken trees and churned earth with trees snapped off at ground level. It looked a bit as if somebody had dragged a house though the forest! Eventually things started to change. The ground no longer looked as churned, and fewer of the trees were broken off. This confused us even more, since a 50 foot wide swath of total destruction could be caused by something 50 foot wide moving. But a 50 foot wide swath of incomplete destruction means whatever it was, was probably not 50 foot wide. I started wondering if maybe it was a herd of Gengus or gnashers or some such collective menace. We had been following the ever fainter path to the SW. We noticed that an ash was falling, and eventually Romari announced the amazing discovery that each individual particle of ash was connected by an astral thread to something to the SSW. We decided to follow the threads.

We came upon a hill. All the trees had been removed from the hill and drug (or possibly flung) to the foot of the hill. Near the top of the hill the rocks glowed with a magic light. Romari informed us that all (or at least a great many - he sometimes becomes unclear when mumbling over his notebook) of the rocks all had the same pattern, and that the pattern was a strange ritual pattern of magic he had never encountered before. He pulled out his notebook and said something about recording his observations. This ended up taking him the rest of the day. In the meantime I tried examining the trees again, and Fenrir tried talking to some animals. About all he seems to have learned is that rabbits are very stupid and squirrels even more so. When Romari at last finished recording his observations it was almost nightfall. and we had long since made camp. Romari said that the ash that was falling was seeming to absorb corruption and then melting into nothing. He also mumbled something about maybe somebody might have sacrificed a horror to make this ritual.

That night I noticed fire in the very far distance. I made note of the direction, but in the morning we saw nothing in that direction. We decided to travel in that direction anyway. Between Romaries Quicken Pace and my Stride of Floranuus, we made an incredibly quick pace. Every hour or two we paused while Romari flew up about 1000 feet to look around, and in late afternoon he reported seeing a stone structure in the direction we were headed. We discussed stopping short, but in the end decided to push on, and arrived (coordinates 5122) shortly before twilight. It was a huge, low, worked stone structure, only about 20 feet high, It had stairs up the outside, which we climbed, expecting a fight at any instant. We came upon many corpses, some seemed like they might have been fairly old cadavermen, but there was an Elf with a Thread Sword that looked as if he might have single handedly slain most of the cadaver men, and in turn been slain by something or another, not very much more than a month ago.

In addition to the corpses scattered around, there were some large piles of weathered bones that looked quite ancient, and a huge slab of living crystal that seems to have been intended as a kear door, sealing the rooftop entrance. The Crystal had a huge crack in it, and Romari said the enchantments were very, very wrong. We wandered around poking at things for about 20 minutes, while Romari stared at the door muttering to himself. Suddenly the two huge piles of bones stirred, and one of the 'corpses' leapt to it's feet, reveling what appeared to be a very ancient old man. I leapted over the old man, and destroyed it in two strokes, one of which went right through it's chest and almost tore it in half. I then attacked the nearer pile of bones. Romari meanwhile was yelling that the 'old man' was now astral, or something like that. Ceadda destroyed one of the pile of bones (which we later learned were called Skullfiend's) but then fell under the power of the 'old man' (whom we later hypothesized was a Bloodshaper), and tried to attack Romari. Fortunatly Ceadda was grappled by the one remaining Skullfiend. Since the Skullfiend's grappling of Ceadda was probably the only thing keeping Romari alive, I gave it a kind of half-hearted attack. Enough to damage it, but hopefully not enough to kill it yet. Romari meanwhile was furiously casting spells into Astral Space, and apparently succeeded in driving it off (or maybe killing it). Then we killed the remaining Skullfiend.

We stayed at the kaer for two nights and a day, burning the bodies and observing the continuing process of ash slowly falling, absorbing corruption, and dissipating. Once we were confident that the horror had no immediate plans for return, and that the cleansing of the corruption was continuing, we returned to the riverboat.

During the day we rested and observed, Romari translated the dead Elf's journal for us. It reveled that the Elf was a Horror Stalker named Shaltre His last entry read...
Our master was correct. Ghostglim has been leading me unerringly as I approached our old home. It's already aided me in destroying one nest of the foul beasts, and the corruption trap seems to be working exactly as Killanna said. She's going to be insufferable once I return and tell her. First though, I need to see if Litanel has held out long enough to be saved. We were too late. Goronal's forces are performing the ritual already. Tonight, there should be enough corruption gathered to allow me to use the burden I Bear. They will suffer for what has been done here.
We returned the Horror Stalkers ashes, and his Sword and other effects to his Sister Killanna, who apparently is doing some deeply weird Horror Stalker stuff that leaves Wizards scratching their heads and saying things like, "OK, I saw you do it, but I still don't believe it can be done!". His trainer, a Troll named Aerich agreed to Train Fenrir and myself in the Horror Stalker Discipline. We both stayed with him and started our new Training immediately.

Re: AAR: Bare Kaer Stair

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 11:29 pm
by BattleChad
The Great Library of Throal thanks Thane for his contribution.

Journal Reward: 3,450 Legend Points and 875 Silver