This last session will see our heroes checking out an underground Kaer looking for some diaries or a log to get back to Tyrs. They have stocked up on all the dungeoneering 101 items that you would expect from an 1st ed AD&D party.

The group starts the session by travelling out towards the Kaer, which lies roughly two and a half days southwest of Jerris. Being careful and staying with the wagons they saw a few predators but they would not come too close to the wagons. It was too big a group, too many people for those slinking cats.

Towards the middle of the first day in the road they run into a group of Strawmen who were wandering about, heading north. There was a quick fight there faces a sad sight.

Everyone was doing well holding their own in this skirmish. Arahan was actually causing injuries (rolling well now Si was not touching the dice)! Bod had used Ephemeral Bolt and was surprised to see it affected them, believing they were mindless zombie types. Charis was smacked around a little, tried Mind Crush and could not get it off, but succeeded in casting Mind Dagger and was saved by Grey, who took down one easily and stepped up for the save.

The group then had a restless night; they set up camp and ran watches being careful that they were not attacked. The party were up early the next morning with first light and took some recovery tests to heal up a bit. The heroes organised themselves and left the camp grounds, determined to push on the next day. Their sense of dread was increased after the attack yesterday, with some theorising as to why they were attacked by Strawmen and if they had been purposefully sent. Having no answers they decided to stay vigilant instead.

Just before noon Bod spotted a group of Strawmen travelling in the same southwest direction as they were travelling. Some in the party spoke of rushing up and smacking the Strawmen silly but Bod thought it would be a good idea to investigate. They were going to volunteer Arahan to go with him, but then they remembered that Bod was way sneakier than Arahan, as he tended to think sneaking means jumping around. Bod snuck up to investigate and the Strawmen, concentrating on shambling to an unknown timetable, did not notice him. The group decided to follow behind the Strawmen keeping a low profile, thinking it would scare off regular predators, and if they could stay unnoticed, unhampered by other Strawmen. The heroes successfully managed to stay behind the Strawmen for the rest of the day, easily following semi-automatons who did nothing to hide their trail.

At dusk when they normally would have stopped to rest they kept on following the Strawmen, who seemed to be walking to the same point they were. Bod stayed right up behind them, and they were walking towards a pile of stone. The Strawman walked around a pile of stone and then disappeared. Bod stealthily followed, seeing a tunnel with arches and runes on the arches with heavy stone rolling doors. Bod made his way down the tunnel, and saw another doorway similar to the front doorway, after going through a passage with marked arches. The arched doorway also was marked with runes but some of them glowed on and off quite dully.

Bod decided to push on and look around the Kaer by himself. The rest of the group gets the entrance and waits for Bod to return. Bod has a bit of a poke around,, and sees that the corridor goes in multiple directions, and trusting fate chooses to go left. After moving down the corridor he starts to close on the first turn in the tunnel. As he carefully edges close to the edge of the corner a trap was sent off. A set frame filled with hard nettle like branches whips around past him, stinging him greatly. The whipping of the branches was a bit painful, but not as bad as the stinging of nettles that started to burn only seconds after the trap went off. The pain was enough to distract Bod from his endeavours for a few minutes after it went off. Bod did not notice that after being hit the trap seemed to reset itself automatically.

Bod had a sneaky peak around the corner and sees that the corridor looks empty. Bod, still smarting from the recent nettling and felling a little sorry for himself rightly decides to leaves to inform the rest of the group what he has found. After a quick briefing the heroes follow him inside cautiously. They too go the same direction that Bod had suggested. They forgot that the trap was there and all of the party set off the trap again. Most were able to resist the stinging of the nettles but Grey was hit by the trap badly and started to welt up, trying to ignore the stinging he pushes on.

The party walks down the tunnel and comes to some guard stations. Fearing an ambush they approach carefully and sort out the order of entry through a choke point created by narrowing the tunnel. Once through they see that there was nothing to be wary of. A bit of a scan finds them a dead and decayed body, showing that there have been previous incursions into the Kaer.

Our heroes get to the first lot of proper rooms where they find a food preparation area for a number of people. They enter a dining room and start looking around it. The party stumbles across another body, not too dead by the decay of things on the ground. They keep away from touching the body, not to sure of why it is here. They decide to move into the next room which is a kitchen. Arahan pushes in quickly to see what is in there, being a little incautious. He did not notice the worzel gummidges hanging around the sides of the room.

So Arahan is ambushed by Strawmen who lurking in the room which he did not pick up, or even check for. A battle ensues; Bod floors one straight off with an Ephemeral Bolt. And Charis does the same with a frightfully strong Mind Dagger. Grey moves in and starts wailing on the closest fallen Strawman. Arahan is threatened by for Strawmen who moved up to surround and flank him. They move up flailing knives and kitchenware at him and he takes a few slight hits before retaliating against one and sending it to the floor. Bod lands another Bolt on a Strawman injuring it slightly while Charis follows it with a light Mind Dagger. Grey takes the first Strawman on the floor out of action and steps up to the second. Three Strawmen keep hitting out at Arahan but end up missed terribly. Arahan keeps striking with his blade, hitting regularly (a joy for Si) and whittling away lumps of wood and straw.

The next round sees Bod firing off more Bolt of Euphemisms and Charis tried to load up on a Mind Crush which did not occur as she could not attach the Thread necessary to power the arcane power. Grey slid to the second Strawman on the ground and ended its life with a hearty chop of his blade. Arahan swung again and again and managed to knock another strawman off him leaving only two standing to retaliate.

More magic flies around, with Bod still bolting well and Charis getting off a Mind Crush. Grey keeps his woodsman skills sharp by taking out another Strawman on the ground. Arahan kills off the second last Strawman, as all his trained skills seem to align for once in the last few weeks. The last two rounds every one manages to do some damage to the Strawman which is finally killed by a Mind Dagger to the brain, provided by Charis, exploding straw over everyone and leaving Arahan and Grey sneezing in a hayfever induced fit.

The next room is explored, and Arahan does a thorough Search and sees footprints. The door the footprints go into has had a locked door and Charis picks up that there is humming on the other side of the door. The Human shield Arahan takes the lead again an just walks in and sees that it is a chilled room with rune sealed boxes. After a lengthy search he finds that some have been opened and finds food in them that have been spoiled. Grey opens some sealed boxes and finds that there is fresh food in the box and nothing else. There is nothing else in the room so the heroes agree to leave.

Pushing on they round another corner and see a door with the Rune of Sealing shining bright over a door that is ajar. The party is nervous and decides to use the ten foot pole approach. No reaction occurs due to the pole, but walking through the arch gives a hair raising tingle. Bod looks at it astrally and sees a brown sticky web enclosing the rune. Further down the corridor Bod and Charis are shot with a poison dart trap. Bod resists its effects but Charis succumbs and start to go crazy as the psychedelic courses through her system. As she runs past Grey screaming he manages to grapple her and subdue her by placing a hand across her mouth. In a rage she attempts to start biting Grey but the drug in her system and Greys grip do not allow her to collect flesh. The next round Bod is told to get a leeching poultice out from Grey’s backpack and apply it to the wound. Charis manages to get herself under control, even though she is still a bit distracted. Bod removes the spur and Charis tries to bite him, just for fun. They manage to get the poultice on and that helped to leech out the poison quicker.

They decide to turn right and follow a long hallway. After investigation they see that this is barracks and weapon storage areas. The weapons in the storage are irreparable, seeming to have rusted very quickly under some corrupting influence. They decide to skip over this area, staying focused on reaching their goal. At the end of the hall the party get to a crossroad with a sign that says offices or hall.

Remembering that they are here after some books/diary/log they head towards the offices. Bod goes ahead stealthily and finds that the hallway ends in three rooms, one a library, one a lot of tables and such for an administration area and a final office/meeting room with desks and couches and the like. The group decides to check the library first, and check out the podiums. They do find books in library but they seem to have decayed in a similar manner to the weapons. Looking on the central book stands they find what looks to be a log of activities in the Kaer. They read the last entry, which says Strawmen and Cadaver Men overrun the Kaer about 50 years ago.

The party moves into the main office to look through a number of cupboards that look like they hold files. Opening them they find a range of administration files, including personnel lists, citizen lists and food stocktake lists. Arahan and Bod search for more pertinent information, looking for floor plans, finance information and other files containing money information which they find and procure.

Grey starts to go toward the hall by himself, he sees his wife in front of him beckoning him on down the hallway and into the entrance of a large area, probably used a s meeting area for the residents. He follows her to the edge of the hall where she signals for him to stay. She walks halfway across the room to a stone altar. There is a body on it. There are examples of half finished cadaver men and Strawmen on the other altars. She turns towards the altar, and speaks a few words silently and raises the body as a Cadaver Man.

Grey is locked in a rage as what looks like his wife moves to the other end of the hall, waving sarcastically. A couple of Cadaver Men move up to support the newly created one and they move across the room, looking to unleash their eternal anger on the intruder. The rest of the party arrive and they see different things on the other side of the room. Arahan sees his mum as does Charis, while Bod see his goat. A ghost is flying next to her and there are also some Strawmen in the corner of the hall. The vision looks as if they are moving off. Looking at the horror astrally indicates a little being within an illusionary being with a brown ropey aura and a Thread attached to it. Charis recognises part of this aura as Omniet. The horror calls for the ghost, Evie, to follow her as they retreat.

The fight starts, Arahan and Grey are toe to toe with the Cadaver Men while Charis and Bod shoot magic at any offenders. Bod gets an idea to burn the Strawmen and rummages through his pack to find oil and a light a torch. Grey uses Air Dance effectively to get extra attacks an the Cadaver Men, they are quite slow and his axe does heavy damage to their decaying corpses. Arahan is busy doing armour defeating hits and knocking opponents down with his Forged sword, fighting as well as he had all his career. The first Cadaver Man falls in the first round to Greys second attack. The next two take a few more rounds to finish off with Charis weighing in with her magic, with the final blow being Grey and Arahan simultaneously slaying the last. Bod has poured oil over the Strawmen and applied the flame. They go up burning and the party have won the small skirmish in a short period of time.

They check the treasury room to find nothing in there at all. Grey decides to reads the log again and finds out the troubles started in the Kaer when the “Golden tongued one and the other” arrived inside the Kaer seeking shelter. The party stand in the empty hallway, confused and definitely a bit battered. The treasures they expected to find have not been in evidence and there is a solid hunch that something strange is going on with Omniet, and quite possibly Tyrs.

The heroes decide to think over their next move, while machinations and plans occur in the background. What will be the fate of Jerris? What will be the fate of Grey’s children, held captive by Theran Slavers? Wait until series 2 of the Jerris Wheel Adventures (due late 2010)