As he sees Einar about to collide with it, Mr. Whiskers shouts "No, Einar! There is a wall of force there!"
He then says "I'm going to fly out and see what the situation is."
With that, he flies out the door he just came in by.
Crummock's starknife is fully effective but Dimitri basically blows both nuckelavees up.
Mr Whiskers sees the Queen and her guards flying outside, looking out for any further threats and they give Mr Whiskers a relieved wave. There are no signs of other hostile.
Mr. Whiskers flies back in. Seeing only the water elementals remaining, he says "The Queen and her guards appear to be alright and there are no signs of the Nuckelavees. Tell me when you are ready and I'll take the wall down."
When they indicate he should, he dismisses the wall of force.
The nuckelavees cast their obscuring mist, obscuring their water elementals who continue to pound at the wall. Water from the breached cistern has also flowed down, leaving puddles on the floor here and there.
Mr Whiskers takes down the wall of force.
Einar bites and claws into the water elemental, and realizes bites and claws aren't fully effective, but he still does quite a bit of damage. The water elemental tastes rather salty, and smells of the sea.
Crummock wanders forward, and attempts to pimp-slap the (uninjured) elemental.
The elder water elemental dissolves into a puddle at Crummock's twin pimp slaps.
It pops one of Einar's doppelgangers.
It then retreats as the nuckelavees call it back, and Einar swipes at it.
Einar wounds the water elemental but it's still up.
The nuckelavees move forward then both exhale, covering Einar, the earth elementals, Crummock, and Greta with their breath weapon.
The earth elementals pop.
Greta gets out of there seeing it isn't worth it to be in breath weapon range when no one is going to dispel obscuring mist."Could someone dispel the obscuring mist so the rest of us can see?"
Crummock grins, and responds with his own blast.
He then 5' steps forward, spinning his starknife on his hand...
One of the nuckelavees is paralyzed while the other resists the blast.
Einar bites and claws into the unparalyzed nuckelavee, but his teeth and claws aren't fully effective.
The unparalyzed nuckelavee tries to reposition it's paralyzed buddy, then get out of the way.
Einar swipes at it as it goes.
Einar claws another chunk out of it.
The water elemental moves in and tries to whack Crummock, and Einar also takes a claw at it.
The water elemental is still up.
It tries to smack Crummock, but doesn't connect.
Einar finishes off the water elemental. And gets soaked as it falls into a pile of water on him.
Crummock frowns, then purposefully flits forward through the mist, and attempts to pimp-slap the unparalysed Nuckalevee.
Mr. Whiskers looks into the mist, then looks over at Greta. "I'm sorry, I didn't take that spell today. I suppose I could give you the gargoyle form and we could fly around to the cistern. Shall we do that?"
It looks barely standing and Crummock finishes it off with inflict moderate wounds.
The party kills the paralyzed nuckelavee, and Rajet reports that the nuckelavee forces have fled in disarray, and those unable to flee have laid down their arms and surrendered, to be taken in as prisoners of war. Crummock heals both the party and the Maftets who got caught in the nuckelavee's breath weapon.
Queen Esmyra thanks the party for their help - the party is heralded as saviors of the Golden City and the maftets begin crafting statues of the party to place among the heroes depicted in the city’s plaza. Out of the statues of the party crafted...there seem to be an exceptionally large amount of Crummock statues. Many houses in the Golden City are in the process of building a Crummock statue at their doorstep, to ward against evil spirits.
True to her earlier promise, Queen Esmyra bequeaths to the party the entire kingdom treasury. In the treasury the party finds 15,000 gp worth of gold and precious gemstones, 4 wands of CLW, a +2 holy adamantine lucene hammer, +2 flaming crossbow, a Metamagic Rod, Elemental (Lightning), and an absorbing shield.
The Queen promises to bring the party to the tree where a powerful witch had buried her death a day later, so that both her city and the party have a chance to recover from the siege.
Breakfast is a akkawi pockket, and the party goes to bed after.
While the party is asleep, the Maftets are busy burying their dead and repairing the damage to the palace. The sahaugin and sea troll prisoners of war are made to cut down forest to free up more space for cattle ranching.
The party is treated to a delicious dinner of tomato soup,Samak Meshwi, Siyadiyeh, Al makhtoum, dibis ramman, shrimp kabsa in stuffed bell peppers, with halva for dessert and carob juice as a drink.
The next day, the party is served breakfast of Fava Bean Dip, Eggplant Dip, Olive and turnip pickles, Fried Nabulsi Cheese, Tomatoes and Garlic Poached in Olive Oil, and Hummous, with Pita bread.
Queen Esmyra and her entourage lead the party into the middle of the forest. Queen Esmyra then points out a gnarled old oak stands in the middle of the forest, slumped over a small depression in the earth."Be careful - foolish young Maftet's have, on a dare, tried to spend the night beneath the tree. They never returned. Many would say the tree is is cursed, for those who go close are never seen again."
Upon closer inspection, the small depression in the earth seems to form the sunken outline of an old grave.
The party approaches the tree, only to have it animate as they come close.
Both Mr Whiskers and Greta have no idea what the tree is.
--- After battle reports ---
Hearing that the enemy has fled, Mr. Whiskers spends some time looking over the damage to the cistern and the wall that was breeched. If any of it looks to be in danger of collapsing, he immediately uses a wall of stone spell to prevent further damage.
He then asks whom among the Maftets would be the best engineer or stonemason. He wants to talk with them about the repairs.
He compares notes with them and once an agreement is made, he will use his wall of stone spell to create the structural pieces. He is willing to use mending for any of the fine decorations that they may want to restore.
--- After identifying the items from the treasury ---
While examining the Absorbing Shield, Mr. Whiskers comments "I'm glad that none of the nuckelavee had this! They could have used it to get rid of the Wall of Force spell I like so well."
Looking over to Crummock, he asks "Any chance you have a use for it?" Gesturing towards Einar and Greta, he adds "I don't think either of them want to carry something like this."
--- Statuary everywhere ---
Mr. Whiskers appears amused at the number of statues being created of Crummock. He downplays his own part in what happened, encouraging the Maftet's in praising Einar, Dmitri and Greta for their parts in what happened.
--- This morning ---
Mr. Whiskers invests a portion of his power into recharging his staff.
--- Tree ---
Looking down at the tree, Mr. Whiskers asks "Greta, are you sure you wouldn't like one of the giant forms for this?" Looking over to Einar, he adds "I could do it for you as well."
"You could both wear your armor while in the form. We would just have to decide if there is a better form than Troll or maybe Stone Giant. Or I suppose I could give either of you the form of an elemental."
In addition to the normal spells, Mr. Whiskers brings up anticipate peril and greater heroism on himself and Greta.
Just before heading down, he casts a mirror image on himself.
--- Now ---
"Well, it seems this tree can move. Shall I test if it is evil? If this spell hurts it, it is evil."
With that, he casts burst of radiance on the area around the tree.
He then flies off to one side.
The Maftet engineers point to the hole in the palace caused by the water. And also all the vases that have been smashed by the water current. There was also some damage done to the city buildings by the Hezrous.
Queen Esmyra thanks the party once more for their help, then wishes them good luck with their quest. They promise the party will always have a villa for them and could even serve as the Queen's advisers, should they wish to return to the Golden City.
"I prefer gargoyle. More claws." Greta answers.
A root suddenly snakes out to tug Mr Whiskers in.
One of Mr Whisker's mirror images pop.
The burst of radiance spell is absorbed the tree.
"A plant that is resistant to magic?" Mr. Whiskers exclaims. He gives a chuckle and follows that up with the statement "Definately evil!".
It is pretty obvious he is jesting when he makes that declaration.
Greta moves up to the tree, preparing to smack it over the headtrunk next round.
Einar does some gardening and cuts a large gash on the tree. It oozes purple sap.
When the party gives the +2 holy lucene hammer to Greta, she thanks them, then returns the Adamantine longsword to Einar. "Since this is made out of adamantine, I won't need the longsword any longer. Just fair you keep it."
Each of the nuckelavees that attacked the royal palace had 1000 gp worth of coral ornaments and a masterwork longsword.
Crummock casts Divine Favor on Geist, and then meanders forward.
Geist pounces.
Dimitri then unleashes upon the tree.
Crummock grins inwardly when he sees the guardian statues being erected around the city.
Clearly, we left an impression...
When he has the chance, he approaches the Queen.
"Once we have left this place, it will be difficult for us to come back; but I do not revoke me blessing, upon ye or yer lieutenants. I may not be able to provide physical aid, but I will be able to contact ye, and offer advice."
He then pauses thoughtfully.
"That said, I may be able to offer some permanent assistance; I will need to cogitate upon that..."
"What permanent assistance could you offer? I know it would be churlish of me to ask you to stay, after all that you've helped us with. But with all of you around, no one would ever dare to invade us again!" Queen Esmyra replies.
Geist pounces on the tree and one of his claws miss, and the fire on his claws does not seem to be effective.
Dimitri however happily blows the tree up, though the tree is unaffected by the holiness of his bullets, sending showers of purple sap on the entire party.
The party hears Baba Yaga’s voice in their minds. ”Dig…grave”
As the party digs up the old grave, they see a large figure buried in earth 8 feet down. The figure is almost 10 feet tall, wrapped in burial cloth and appears to be made of stuffed human skin stitched together with cloth, rags, leather and human hair, its body pierced with large pins and needles. Once it is unearthed, the figure lunges out of the grave and attacks the party.
Mr Whiskers recognizes the creature as an advanced witch-doll golem. It has 10 DR/adamantine and the following abilities:
A witch-doll golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells function differently against the creature, as noted below.
A confusion spell slows it (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds, with no saving throw.
A mending spell heals 2d6 hit points.
When a witch-doll golem successfully establishes a witch-doll link, any damage taken by the witch-doll golem from any source other than the linked target deals half its damage to the golem and half its damage to the linked target as long as the golem and the linked target are within 60 feet of each other. Only the linked target can successfully attack a witch-doll golem and not take “linked damage.” Attacks that don’t damage a witch-doll golem (because of its immunities or its damage reduction) likewise deal no damage to the linked target. Attacks that damage the linked target do not damage the witch-doll golem (the link it establishes is one way). Healing (or repair in the case of the witch-doll golem) is not passed through the link. A witch-doll golem cannot attack itself in order to damage its linked target.
A witch-doll golem gains a +8 bonus on all saving throws against any spell or spell-like ability or effect cast by its linked target (provided the effect gets past the golem’s immunity to magic).
With a successful melee attack, a witch-doll golem can establish an invisible link between itself and a chosen target. The target must succeed at a Fortitude save to resist the link. A witch-doll link is broken if the witch-doll golem is destroyed or the linked target dies. A witch-doll golem can only have one witch-doll link at any given time. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.
Mr. Whiskers shouts "Adamantine needed for this golem!" and then casts haste on those around the doll.
He then moves over towards Dmitri.
It whacks Einar with its fists.
Two of Einar's doppelgangers pop.
Greta steps backwards then trips it and starts battering it to the ground.
She smashes it into bits.
Crummock nods appreciatively.
"Aye, well, it looks like we gave the weapon to the right person!"
He then sets about looking for something unusual...
After the witch-doll has been defeated, Einar finds a small iron coffer can be found within the golem’s chest. Einar realizes the coffer is not trapped but locked, and "persuades" the lock to yield. Secured within the coffer is an old and worn masterwork cold iron athame, a ceremonial dagger used by witches.
"My...death is...within...athame. Bring...grandmothers cauldron. Release me. Go...cave. Guardian..." The party hears Baba Yaga's voice in their minds, as well as a projection of a cave leading into a cliff.
Following Baba Yaga's empathic instructions leads the party to a cliff of broken slate slabs rising from the sands of the southern beach, crawling with many varieties of ivy and numerous ferns. Hidden at the base of the cliff, barely visible in the shadows, is a narrow cave opening leading into the cliff itself.
The tunnels beneath the cliff are a part of a natural fissure in the rock that ranges in height from 7 to 15 feet.
Medium creatures must squeeze to navigate these narrow passages, and larger creatures must succeed at DC 30 Escape Artist checks or use some form of magic to fit inside.
A constant dripping of water seeping from the cliff above slicks the walls and floors of the tunnels.
The party enters the tunnels and sees it fork into two. The sounds of dripping water echo through the cave and they hear no other sounds except their own footsteps.