The suspicious liquid stays down and does not go through the closed trapdoor.
The tingles were running up and down her back, and her knuckles were white under the gauntlets, but Illithia stepped into the room, glaive held tightly to prevent shaking. It must be in here. But where?
As you step into the room, distracted by the play of dust particles in the flame-colored sunbeams falling through the window, several moments pass in complete silence. Suddenly, the silence is broken by Dario screaming in pain and pressing his palms to his ears!
You hear a high-pitched ear-piercing scream: "WHY HAVE YOU WROUGHT RUIN UPON US?!". No one else seems to hear anything. Take of sonic damage, Fort DC12 for half, and be dazed for one round.
Behind and above the door, a richly dressed porcelain doll with ribbons in her curly white hair hovers below the ceiling. The doll depicts a cute little girl and is a bit over 2 feet tall. It has different eyes - one deep red, and one hazy blue. The eyes glisten malevolently. She clasps a sharp hairpin in one hand.
Dario clutches his ears and screams. "WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" He spins around and points to a small doll hovering above the door.
This time, the doll screams out loud: "MURDERERS!". A small crack appears on her forehead, as she flies straight at Dario, attempting to stab him with the hairpin!
"That ain't right." Bishop walks up to grab the doll, in hopes to stop it from stabbing anyone else.
Illithia quickly strikes out with her glaive, aiming for the doll amidst the fight. By Shelyn's grace, she hoped they would end this quickly.
As the doll attacks Dario, it meets the sharp end of Illithia's glaive.
The blade rips out a large chunk of porcelain out of its chest, sending cracks to the neck and shoulder, but does not stop the doll.
However, as Bishop grabs it, the doll looks at him and something forms in its hazy blue eye. Is it... a tear? Bishop feels a rush of guilt for attacking a small helpless child's toy.
Bishop almost immediately lets go of the grapple as he feels a wave of guilt so overwhelming it makes him sick. He takes a 5 foot step back and clutches his stomach while fighting back the urge to vomit.
"Bishop? What's wrong?" Illithia shouts, bringing her glaive around again with another powerful blow.
"Just add grabbing possessed dolls to the list of things I shouldn't do." He answers weakly, his breakfast still threatening to show itself.
"Kill it! Kill it!" Dario recovers from the doll's shrieking and draws his rapier. He tries to skewer the creepy thing.
Now free of Bishop's grasp, the doll avoids Illithia's glaive but finds itself on the pointy end of Dario's rapier. There is a 'ka-ching' sound as the narrow blade bends against the hard porcelain and straightens again, sending a flat note through the air and leaving a deep dent in the doll. It looks severely battered at this point.
Dracius steps forward, drawing his flail in an attempt to crush the tiny thing.
for
Without the flanking, the doll has just enough wiggle room to escape the harsh blow...
With Bishop struggling to grapple the creepy doll, Ferrucio does the only thing he can think of that won't endanger his companions--he shuts the door and steps back.
With an unobstructed view of the creature, Ferrucio has a better opportunity to study it, to see if he can work out what it is.
Actions: close door (move action?), 5ft. step to I7 (no action). Knowledge check (no action).
Ferrucio contemplates his options. His ranged attacks might endanger his companions, but he doesn't feel comfortable wading into the melee.
But then, judging by Bishop's earlier reaction to the doll's scream, it doesn't look like he has a choice. He draws his purloined mace, and then steps into the fray.
Actions: draw Shanwen's mace (move), move to F7 (move), drawing an AoO along the way, but now flanking with Illithia. AC is 16 (mage armor is still active from the fight with the tieflings in the alley).
###
Dracius, you can draw a weapon as a free action as part of movement if you have a BAB of +1 or higher.
The only thing Ferrucio manages to learn is that the doll is some sort of arcane construct powered by magic of the necromancy school. This is not something that was covered extensively at Egorian Academy.
Ferrucio tries to sneak behind the doll, however this maneuver does not go unpunished as he is painfully stabbed at the thigh by the doll's hairpin.
Another crack appears at the doll's forehead as it goes after Dario again!
The treacherous stab is especially painful, aimed at Dario's solar plexus.
Dario screams, half in rage and half in pain, as the pin stabs him again. "Stupid glorified tea set! Die already!"
###
Ferrucio yelps in pain as he makes his way to the corner, and then, clutching his leg with one hand, makes a wary attack against the doll, hoping that his help will give Illithia the opening she needs to finish it off.
Unfortunately his swing goes wide, coming dangerously close to Dario as the other man lunges at the doll. Ferrucio looks at the blood on his hand, his cheeks becoming pale as a bloodstain spreads on his usually perfectly-creased trousers.
Dracius takes a small step to the side, putting the doll between Dario and himself before swinging with his flail again.
for
Bishop decides to forgo the grappling and just takes a swing at the evil doll.
Dario's strike, fueled by his pain, hits a weak point in the doll's body and it shatters like a broken vase. The head rolls away, but still continues to glare at you, until Bishop smashes it with a kick.
This reveals that its eyes were actually made of two precious gemstones, which are fairly large as far as such gemstones go - about a quarter of an inch in diameter.
The stones of this size could fetch about 500 crowns in the jewellery market (for both of them).
Actually, less, because they are not flawless. There is something like tiny air bubbles frozen inside them.
If you stare at the bubbles inside long enough, you can swear they move in a slow whirl. These are not ordinary flaws. You also get a creepy sense that the stones are staring back at you.
The gemstones actually act as receptacles for living souls, which were driving the doll. These are not full-blown phylacteries, so they can only house fragments of a soul. But the implications are still gruesome because it means that someone, or possibly even two people, must have died to animate this doll. While intact, the stones can be used to animate another construct, and thus can be worth much more to a spellcaster willing to engage in such a process. Shattering the stones would release the soul fragments, but also reduce their worth as a jewellery.
Under the tiny bedsheets and pillows in the dollhouse you find a fine pearl necklace. It is non-magical.
The now-quiet room provides an exit to the main portion of the city through a window, which can be used as a fixture for the rope.
Bishop looks around the room, in vain it seems. He mutters something under his breath about stupid evil dolls.
{Scavenger racial trait}
Dario takes a knee and then sits down with his back against the wall. He's holding his chest where the doll struck him. "Might need a little help here. That was weird. And painful." He glances over at what is left of the doll. "Hey something wrong with those gems. They're still looking at me." Then he winces and goes back to just sitting.
When he sees the others searching, he makes a motion and his eyes flash momentarily.
The fragments of the doll's body give a lingering enchantment and conjuration aura, while the gems themselves radiate necromancy of moderate strength. No other magical objects are in the room.
"I think that doll hit you harder than we thought. They just look like gems."
"You can take 'em and sell them if you want, but I ain't touching 'em. There's some weird swirling in them and they have necromancy magic. Not a good combination in my book. Go ahead. Take a closer look."
Bishop takes a closer look.
"Don't see anything. They just look like gems." Bishop will pick them up.
Dracius looks at Dario with a look of concern on his face, "You really need to take better care of yourself.", he says with a smile and then closes his eyes, letting the beauty of the Eternal Rose fill him. Lady, let me wash away these ugly wounds..., he whispers silently as he places his right hand on the enameled silver and his left on Dario.
Ferrucio takes a glance at the gems as Bishop picks them up.
Hang on Bishop...can I look at one of those?
Ferrucio wipes his hands on his already-ruined trousers and then turns the gemstone over in his fingers, leaning against a wall for support as he does so.
There are tiny little--
Ferrucio's voice trails off as his face goes even more pale. He hands the gemstone wordlessly back to Bishop.
Be careful with those, he says, pushing himself upright to stand unsteadily. This one, at least, contains a fragment of a creature's soul. You have three options: sell them at the market as baubles, sell them to a spellcaster who is willing to use them to power another construct like that doll, or shatter them, and free the souls inside.
He moves to the window, his face still troubled.
As for me, I intend to get out of here. He suits action to words by taking Dracius' rope and tying it on. There. Dario, are you feeling better? Who wants to go first?
"Stupid power hungry wizards." Bishop looks at the gems with disgust. The choice is an easy one as Bishop smashes them on the ground.
Ferrucio presses his lips together--not at Bishop's actions so much as his words.
Stupid isn't the word I'd use--especially when I'm within earshot. It's not entirely clear whether Ferrucio's deadpan delivery is because he is tired or because he is genuinely irritated. Besides, wizards run the gamut, just like tieflings, or half-orcs. He glances at Dracius. Some are noble, others are...self-absorbed.
This conversation is starting to make Ferrucio uncomfortable.
Ferrucio fiddles ineffectually with the rope. Are you lot coming, or not?
The gems, being one of the hardest objects found in nature, rebound off the floor unharmed.
"Anybody got a flask of acid?"
No acid...but maybe I could make them cold enough to shatter?
Ferrucio holds up his hand, coated in ice crystals.
If that doesn't work, we can always bring them with us, and destroy them back at the church.
"That might work." Bishop shrugs
Dario finally gets to his feet, invigorated by Dracius' healing. "That's better, thanks." He winces as he gets up, clearly still not completely right.
"Hey Ferrucio, I got what I think is a spellbook off that tiefling. We can take a look back at the church." He goes over to the window and looks down to be sure there's no one around or anything unexpected below the window.
"For now, though, let's get out of here." He grabs the rope and then slides down quickly.
Ferrucio takes the gems into his hand, then closes his fist and mutters a few arcane syllables. When he opens his hand, striations of ice criss-cross the gems' surface. He places them on the floor, next to Illithia's booted feet.
Care to do the honours, miss? Ferrucio asks. Give them a good stomp--and if it doesn't work, bring them with you.
Ferrucio hooks a leg over the windowsill and makes his way carefully down the rope.
Bishop watches Illithia attempt to crush it before making his own way down the rope.
It takes several rays of frost to make the stones fragile enough so that cracks begin to run through them because of the inner tension.
In that case, Bishop will try to break them himself before climbing down the side of the building.
This time, the fragile gems shatter easily in Bishop's strong fist into lots of small pieces. A gust of wind rustles through the room as Bishop carefully collects the valuable pieces into a pouch, before sliding down the rope.