Rogar steps back, "They're all yers." he says to Wulfram. "Any idea wha' they are?"
Karla recognizes the creatures as fey called atomies. Atomies perceive themselves as larger than they actually are. Like pups standing up to a full-grown cur, atomies never back down from aggression, and take tremendous pride in defeating and humiliating foes larger than themselves.
They can speak with animals, turn invisible, and shrink enemies down to a more reasonable size to fight. They are chaotic and whimsical, but not inherently good or evil.
"Are they any dangerous?" Rogar whispers to Karla, "Will mah skin protect me from them?"
"Ha ha! See how they quiver with fear! You are wise to yield in the face of our superior might! Thus, I win the duel by default!" the atomie proclaims.
"Huzzah!" the other three cheer.
"I am Grulber," she says, "and these are Arpellion, Brooten, and Dart. The villain you seek dwells in the tower below this floor. He demands privacy while he works on his bizarre experiments, and thus has sealed off access to his chambers. If you wish to confront him, you will have to go down to the first floor and take the stairs up from there."
"I am Wulfram," the shaman said, bowing to the tiny creatures. "I am very sorry for our mistake; we will do as you suggest. Good day."
"Well, my brethren, it seems we will need to find a new door..." Grulber says as you depart.
Wulfram leads you back downstairs, using his pearl of power to increase his strength again. You return to the first floor of the southeast tower and approach the stairs. Before you can get close, however, the poorly taxidermied grizzly bears lurch to life, moving to attack!
"Try to cut the stitches if you can!", Wulfram shouted. "Too bad my only slashing weapon's a dagger!"
He stepped forward and tried to stab the first stuffed bear.
Eustoma pulls out her fancy human sized dagger, and moves up to try and cut the stitches.
Sia bounds up to the other one and bites at it.
Karla casts grease under the closest bear, but it barely manages to maintain its footing. Nik'o attacks it from the cover of the doorway, tearing at its loose stitching with her claws.
Eustoma moves in to slice the bear with her oversized dagger. Meanwhile, Sia bounds up to the other bear and sinks her teeth into its poorly stuffed body.
Wulfram stabs past Rogar, driving his spear into the closest bear's side.
The badly damaged bear attacks Eustoma, while the other tries to maul Sia. Each manages to land a lucky hit.
Wulfam dropped his spear, and moved in to try to finish off the battered bear with his mace.
Rogar, hearing Wulfram's advice, pulls up a pair of large, jagged stone blades and sends them spinning at the less injured bear, trusting his allies to finish off the damaged one.
Rogar hurls jagged stone blades at the further bear, tearing apart its stuffed body and spilling sawdust out on to the floor. It sags and lies still.
The bear on the grease slips this time, crashing to the floor. Karla blasts it with a magic missile, then Nik'o tears into it. Badly damaged, all it takes is a powerful thrust of Wulfram's spear to finish off the construct.
"Everyone OK?", Wulfram asked. "We're going to be confronting Bristle Billie when we go up the stairs, so now's the time to heal up!"
He looked at the remains of the bear constructs while he waited for the others.
As soon as everyone was ready to continue, he cast a spell, before ascending the stairs.
"I'll use my want Wulfram. It's fine. She looks around, and picks up her bow. [b]"I'm ready. She sneaks up the stairs, and takes a look.
Eustoma creeps up the stairs, the rest of you following a bit further in her wake.
The stone of this room has been smoothed and reshaped like soft clay. A door stands to the north, but the stone wall flows over the jamb, blocking it shut. Stone rods crisscross arrow slits in the southern and eastern walls. A staircase descends on one side of the door, but the ascending staircase has been completely sealed at the ceiling.
Beakers and woodworking tools cover the low stone tables lining the walls, while the center of the room is filled with a six-armed wicker mannequin stretching from floor to ceiling. A wooden puzzle box the size of a footstool rests in an opening in the mannequin's chest.
A squat korred with thick, wiry hair that sticks out from his head and ears pokes at the box. His animated hair shifts the pieces of the puzzle around. This must be Bristle Billie.
Despite Eustoma's efforts at stealth, the perceptive fey notices the halfling. "I said absolute privacy!" he shouts, hurling a handful of rivets in frustration. "Go away!"
Wulram could hear the shouts from above, and new that the element of surprise had been lost. He hurried up the stairs to confront the infamous "stitcher".
When Wulfram runs up the stairs and into the room, Bristle Billie snarls and reaches into a pouch!
Bristle Billie cries out in surprise as the glitterdust blinds him. "My eyes!" he shouts. "The goggles do nothing!"
Nik'o seizes the advantage and pounces on the korred, scoring a critical hit as her teeth tear into the fey!
The korred backs away from Nik'o and pulls out a piece of cured leather from his pouch. He focuses on it as he casts a spell, and the air around him shimmers briefly. He rubs at his eyes, wiping away the glitter.
Rogar places a hand against the wall, and the smooth stone ceiling 'drips,' a decently sized boulder falling from directly at the korred's head .
"Bristle Billie! Your depraved 'experiments' stop now!", Wulfram roared. He rushed into the room and thrust his spear at the immoral korred.
Sia bounds into the room with a growl. She bites at the fey.
Eustoma stays her ground and fires two cold iron arrows at the creature. "We'll give you privacy." What is wrong with these walls. It looks like something Rogar would do if he has time on his hands.
Rogar smashes Billie with a chunk of stone, wounding him. The rest of your attacks fall short, skipping off his mage armor.
The nimble korred hops off the grease, then leaps up and smashes his wrench directly onto Wulfram's skull!
Rogar sends another drop flying down. This time, it angles, trying to push Billie back into the grease. Unfortunately, the blast skips off the fey's mage armor.
"Aargh! You little #%*&^!", Wulram cursed. Wary of the possibility of animated hair, he backed up and stabbed at the korred again.
Rogar's and Cirieo's attacks skip off Bristle Billie's mage armor. Karla's magic missile sputters against his spell resistance. But Wulfram lands a good hit with his spear, and Eustoma echoes her performance against Halk Grundlechar as she drives a cold iron arrow deep into Billie's chest, a critical hit!
"Arrgh!" the hairy fey howls in anger, glaring at the halfling. He tries to cast a spell defensively. He succeeds, then starts to blink in and out of this plane of existence.
Wulfram was baffled by his foes' random disappearances and reappearances, and contacted nothing but air with his spear.
"What's he doing. Is he a specter?" Eustoma decides to try something she hasn't before. She concentrates on Bristle Billie's wrench and casts a spell to heat it's metal.
Rogar narrows his eyes at the blinking fey, and suspends a stone in orbit around him, sending it off at what he hopes is the right timing to strike the mage as he's casting a spell.
Wulfram tries to stab Bristle Billie with his spear, but the korred blinks out before the weapon can make contact. Likewise, Eustoma's spell fails to affect the wrench as it temporarily vanishes to another plane of existence.
Rogar gathers power and watches the korred's random fluctuations. As Billie begins to cast a spell, he hurls a powerful blast of stone at him. The blast connects, and the fey's spell fizzles as he groans and crumples to the ground.
After searching the room, Wulfram examined the magic items.
"Hopefully the rest of the fey will disperse, now that the leaders are dead," Wulfram remarked. "Shall we make an announcement from the balcony? We could tell them to go home, or we could tell them to open all the remaining kegs of wine, finish them, and then go home!"