This week starts with our heroes being charged at by 5 foot tall flightless birds, who are all displaying some degree of tomb rot. How does this end for our heroes?

It starts with the Death Turkeys closing the distance from heavy growth to the trade route path very quickly. Those armed with bows unslung them quickly while Grey stood forward preparing for a countercharge. Bod flies up behind Grey and delivers a Displace Image effect on the Troll. Initial shots are fired causing a little damage to the charging chickens. Grey counter charged and knocked on e oversized kiwi to the ground after using Air Dance to greatly improve his speed. The second round of arrows are sent towards the targets but Siegfried badly misjudges and manages to pinion Bod with a cunning arrow shot. The pain quickly got to Bod and he ended up writhing on the ground after suffering a wound.

The undeaded birds keep running on looking to engage this round. Grey was paralysed by a turkey who breathed orange gas in his face, causing him some pain along the way. Bod was also gassed and was paralysed on top of his injured condition, leaving him precariously on deaths doorstep. The rest of the Turkeys pass by Arahan and Siegfried but none of them manages to succumb to the orange gas emissions.

Siegfried and Arahan manage to resist falling under the spell of the turkey gas and keep pumping arrow after arrow into the rotting flesh of the undead cassowaries. Siegfried made up for shooting Bod by shooting a cassowary off Grey, who was still paralysed and would have been easy prey for this vicious raptor. Siegfried managed to produce the killing shot on 4 out of 5 of the birds, while Arahan the Average still did good damage and managed to send one of the death turkeys back to the grave.

The group continued on to Sleece after Bod and Grey manage to shake off the effects of their gassing. They were unhindered on their due to a farmer with a cart load of potatoes who offered to drive them to Sleece as they looked pretty beat up by the Crakerbills.

The party got to Sleece, and Arahan went off to meet Verity Ehrinewind. Arahan saw a big forge and an wizened elf who was in smith clothing overseeing a group of apprentices. Arahan introduced himself as a student of Master Stalwart and asked for instruction as recommended by his master. Verity acknowledged Arahan, and said he knew Master Stalwart. Verity offered to assist in some training and offered to test Arahan for Novice ranks when he feels he is ready. Arahan said that he would return, and he was also interested in knowing the secrets of forging Air Daggers. Verity explained it would take a couple of weeks training to teach him that, as there are many important things one must remember to do when forging these type of blades. He explained the special alloy that is used is a careful mix of steel and good elemental air, which is common in the Jerris area. Arahan thanked Verity, explaining he would be back soon to test for Novice level.

Grey was happy to take himself, the injured Bod and Siegfried to the coaching inn to book accommodation for the night. Siegfried is sent off to hustle the ladies of negotiable affections, which he sets to straight away. Bod was walking around with an arrow sticking out of his side. A Dwarf Wizardess noticed the entry of these messy travellers who look like they seen some action on their way to town. Bod pushed forward and tried to give a good First Impression to the innkeeper and failed spectacularly. The innkeeper then asked how he was able to move around with an arrow sticking out of him. Under pressure Bod started to babble and in doing so started to convince the innkeeper he was horror tainted and that’s why he was able to keep going. Bod realised he was not getting through to the innkeeper and finished off a masterpiece in “how not to win friends and influence people” by failing to demonstrate his Artisan ability. At this stage the innkeeper had been thoroughly convinced a cadaver man was standing in his taproom, and started screaming for help. Charis the Dwarf Wizardess intervened at this moment, using her depth of knowledge in Horror Law to prove Bod was not undead, mainly because of his pulse and his ability to feel pain. During this dissertation she grabbed and wiggled the arrow that was sticking out of Bod, causing him to vomit and then faint in pain. When this occurred Grey quickly intervened, plucked the arrow from Bod’s side and then carried him upstairs to put a poultice on.

Grey comes down stairs and buys a drink for Charis thanking her for her intervention. They get to talking and find out they are both looking for Tyrs, she mentions that he gets a few things wrong as far as Theran Slavery and she wanted to talk to him and clarify these. At first Grey challenges Charis as to why she thinks Tyrs is wrong. She states that as he was a slave himself he was too close to the subject to separate his feelings from the truth and could not subjectively write about the subject. Grey and Charis get into a heated debate about slavery due to Charis’s view that slavery is economically viable pastime, when one separates emotion from it. Arahan comes in and sees that there is tension between the Troll and Dwarf, and their discussion is quite animated. He introduces himself to break it up.

Bod awakens, comes down to the taproom. It is around dusk and all the town is starting to filter into the taproom for a nightcap. There is no entertainment in so Bod decides to tell the story of Gregoriuses Fighters, Star Wars style with a bit of light and sounds studio effects. The story greatly impressed the crowd and the group have been offered free drinks for the rest of the night. Charis decided to scribe the story down and was also making sketchings of the heroes that made up Gregoriuses Fighters.

Grey left the bar to get away from Bod’s story, afraid he might do something violent. He speaks to an Orc outside whom, with some prompting, tells him of the great night they had a couple of weeks back when Evie Velacruz and Tyrs Tyrsian had an epic jam session right here in the coaching inn. When Grey goes in for another drink he finds the innkeeper quite merry and he tells Grey that drinks are on the house for the night. Grey gets another ale, and some premium smokeweed and heads back outside. Arahan seeing Grey is distancing himself from Charis because of her comments, but thinking Charis may be useful in trying to meet with Tyrs, walks over to Charis and tells her a bit of Greys history with Slavers, and also tells her if she apologises to Grey then she can travel with them back to Jerris. Charis thinks about the power emus running about and pecking her to death, and decides it may be prudent to have a few extra bodies around if it occurs.

Charis goes and apologises to Grey, and even though it is not perfect he accepts it to move on and forget about the issue. They all reaffirm their intention to travel tomorrow back to Jerris, and then continue on drinking at the expense of the innkeeper.

During the night when all are asleep Bod is awakened from his slumber by a feeling that something is just not right. He is noticing that a shape is moving outside the window. Using his ability of Astral Sight he sees that a ghost is actually outside his window looking in. Initially the ghost is looking like a young human female, but when she finally notices Bod can spot her she turns all skeletal and emaciated (think librarian ghost in Ghostbusters) and silently screams at him before fleeing away into the Aether. Bod shakes his head trying to figure it out but eventually goes back to sleep.

In the morning Gregoriuses Fighters plus one start to venture off back to Jerris.

What can they expect to find in Jerris? Will Omasu be free to finally talk with the group? Will they be able to meet with Tyrs even though he travels all over the Jerris region? Will they be able to get back to Jerris without being breathed on by zombie chickens?

Next Week – I see dead people or I have a strange nosebleed and then heads explode!