This is important information the group needs to know, so Dezső calls out and risks exposing himself: "I've read about these huts! Irrisen witches use them as guards. The doll has a soul bound to it -- maybe the soul of this poor girl. The doll won't leave the hut, but I think the hut will chase us down if we try to pass. I don't know what it can do, but you can hurt it with fire and I bet it likes the cold. Also, Yrja, because it has a soul, it can probably be affected by some of your... I think you or Mahb called them hexes... that don't work on the undead."
Upon communicating that information, and given the imminence of battle against such a mysterious foe, Dezső's tail emerges from his coat and brings an extract to his lips.
Caelum's eyes narrow when he hears of the Irrisen witches. Seeing the doll close in on Chiquq he moves opposite the doll and swings.
Chiquq steps out from behind her cover and looses an arrow at the creepy doll.
Annoyed at her awful shot, Chiquq whistles sharply, and Ila comes lumbering through the snow to stand beside her mistress.
Chiquq's shot bounces harmlessly off the threshold of the huts' door.
The doll's glittering eyes lock on Chiquq as its head swivels unnaturally to gaze at her, otherwise completely statue-like. Lo, the battle is joined.
Round 1 - The Valley of the Doll!
Chiquq + Ila
Caelum
Yrja
Doll
Imendri
Dez
Braegan
Bold, post your actions!
Chiquq takes a hopefully better shot.
Her arrow repeats the exact same trajectory. Chiquq blinks, then orders faithful Ila to stomp the abomination into smithereens... in the Hallit tongue of course. The mammoth trundles obligingly forward, her furry head lowered ominously.
Mom may not have hit, but Ila's head, with the stubby baby tusks, smacks solidly into the doll.
With the doll engage, Caelum moves to peek in the side window.
Witchery was clearly at work here. Well, time to pit her own against it. Rushing forward, eyes burning, Yrja flings a hand towards the doll, fingers crooked.
Ila's tusk tears at the doll, flinging one arm back out of joint, but it pops back in again. Caelum sees nothing inside the hut save for the doll.
The doll steps back mechanically and nods at the mammoth. Daggers of frost rain from just above the mammoth, piercing its hide.
Ila trumpets in alarm as the frost nicks her legs.
Round 1 - The Valley of the Doll!
Chiquq + Ila (Ila 6/18 HP, I think...!)
Caelum
Yrja
Doll -5
Imendri
Dez
Braegan
Bold, post your actions!
Imendri drops his pack and runs forward, swinging his sling and launching a bullet in the doll's direction.
Braegan rushes in to help. He's not sure what he's going to do to help, but when has that ever stopped him?
Dezső was a bit surprised by the timing of Chiquq's attack, and took a moment to gather his bearings. Seeing melee fully engaged, he first launches his prepared bolt at the doll.
It's miserable shot that hits the boulder ten feet in front of him. In frustration, Dez tosses the bow to the ground and moves forward, drawing his sword.
The doll opens its tiny mouth as if to speak or laugh, but no sound emerges.
Frost spikes continue to fall in front of the hut, threatening Ila with more hide-piercing darts of ice.
Round 2 - The Valley of the Doll!
Chiquq + Ila (Ila 6/18 HP, I think...!)
Caelum
Yrja
Doll -5
Imendri
Dez
Braegan
Bold! Post your actions!
"Ila! Get back!" Chiquq says sharply, and the injured mammoth lumbers back out of the frosty rain of icicles with a moan of pain, returning to her mistress's side. Teeth bared, Chiquq fires another arrow.
Caelum climbs through the window and swings at the creepy doll!
Chiquq's aim is true, splitting the doll's hair and lodging an arrow in its head with a wooden thunk. Caelum's bold maneuver pays off: he lunges into the hut, and with a cry of dwarven fury, smashes the mannequin into pieces with his hammer.
Caelum notes, with typical dwarven sight, that one of the doll's eyes is a blue gemstone. Caelum recognizes it to be a fine cut sapphire. The other is a shiny mirrored disk. For a split second he thinks he sees something reflected in the mirror--and then it is gone.
Dezső nods in satisfaction at his colleagues' success and does a quick investigative circle of the hut, returning to pick up his crossbow and then joining the others in the hut.
Yrja inches cautiously forward, avoiding the icy daggers now embedded in the snow, some of them still bearing droplets of Ila's blood. "Calum... Ila looks badly hurt, can you help her?" She points helpfully at the baby mammoth.
She peers into the house, looking intently at what is left of the doll, but not touching it just yet.
"I will see to Ila," Chiquq says, looking warily around at the unnatural presence.
Chiquq frowns as her prayers seem to barely ease the mammoth's injuries. The mammoth nuzzles unhappily at momma's shoulder.
Braegan hustles over when the doll is smashed. "Aska," he mutters as he stoops low over the remains, "Take watch, okay?"
The bird explodes into motion, circling high into the air and making a slow circuit of the area ... watching for additional threats.
Meanwhile,Braegan looks at the hut and the doll remains, specifically the gem and reflective eye. "This is weird," he grunts as he considers.
Yrja has a feeling that both the gem and the mirrored eye are magical.
Chiquq is unable to glean anything further about the haunt; clearly something must be destroyed to dispell it, and it wasn't removed by 'killing' the doll.
Aska circles over the scene and cannot see anything else in this valley. There is a trail that is clearly used, heading over the next pass.
Crouching on the floor, Yrja peers more closely at the remains of the doll. "There's clearly magic here, but what kind...?" She stretches her fingers out and closes her eyes, trying to will the arcane residue to take a recognizable shape.
She mutters to herself as she does so: "Perhaps the girl was trapped in this. In the eye, maybe. Or the gem. Her soul bound to this.. this construct."
Dezső joins Yrja in the hut and gives the hut a thorough search through. He also contributes anything he can to her attempt to figure out the gem and mirrored eye.
Yrja's guess is confirmed by Dez. There is a fragment of a soul bound to that sapphire. It sits within the gem like a dull little worm, prevented from moving on to the Boneyard--a truly obscene act by a spellcaster.
Yrja also realizes with a shock that the doll's face is carved as a twisted mockery of the little girl's face.
Dez also notes that there is a divination aura on the mirror. It begins to fade, slowly, as if a spell has ended.
"I can smash the stone with my hammer. Is that enough to release her?"
"Divination?" Braegan asks when that tidbit is revealed, "So, like, someone could have been watching us this whole time?"
He keeps himself from giving a shiver as he stares at doll, "I don't like this at all."
Not sure what else to do, he rushes back out into the snow, looking for the apparition. "Little girl! Are you here? The spell is broken. Can you tell us more about who did this to you? And what they want?"
Caelum reckons he can smash the gem easily enough. There is no answer to the sorcerer's query save for the murmur of icy wind in the pines.
Braegan waits a few moments for a response, then whispers to the icy wind in the pines, "Gods rest your soul, little girl."
Then he turns back to the group, "So I guess we assume someone knows we're here, huh?" He shrugs, "Nothing for it but to search the hut and move on, I guess."
Does Dezső think smashing the gem will release the soul to the boneyard? Need another roll?
Did he find anything else in the hut?
At Caelum's question, Yrja looks doubtful. "I don't know if smashing the stone would release her soul, but we should try it. How awful it must be, trapped like this..."
There is absolutely nothing else in the hut.
Dez is certain that smashing the gem will release the girl's soul, but no one knows what will destroy the haunt.
"Maybe if we destroy the doll and hut it will destroy the haunt? We could burn them, but that might attract too much attention."
Imendri walks up slowly, raising his hand to give a little room. Methodically he begins raising his sword, then bringing it down on the mirrored eye and the gem repeatedly until and unless they are destroyed.
Imendri proves once again why he is a barbarian of the North, as he grinds the mirror and gem into powder almost instantly. In a matter of moments, they are no more.
You all feel something akin to a bone-sapping chill, then a comforting warmth, in rapid succession, moving rapidly away from the fragments of the sapphire. Before the feeling even registers, it is gone. The soul has been released and is off to the Boneyard, and onwards.
"Ehhh... okay. I guess we can keep going." Imendri says, looking around as baffled at his success as he is at the idea of a spirit stuck in a couple tiny objects.
"...dey's supposed to be free. Moving. Det's just wrong." he mumbles, mostly to himself and, assumedly, the other spirits in the air.
Yrja nods vigorously at Imendri's assertion. "Yes! To trap a soul like that is beyond cruel. If I get my hands on whoever did this..." Her tail lashes from side to side in angry agitation.
Then she brightens a little. "Do you think the little girl is gone now? Let's check!" She bounces outside, looking around for the ghost.
Like a cat hearing a noise, Imendri perks up at the idea of running around looking for a ghost. All the while he mumbles a prayer to give him second sight, occasionally rattling his sword against the icy boulders in the area.
There's no sign of the little girl. The haunt still shimmers uneasily in the air.
Imendri doesn't detect anything besides the haunt, which looks like faces of the frozen dead to his spirit sight. It is too unnerving to look at directly for too long. He does sense the fact that fey have been here in the last few days, but the aura is faint by now and doesn't point to a particular direction...except....perhaps...onward.
As Imendri and Yrja wander the area in front of the hut, Dez paces in the hut as if in a trance or lost in memory, muttering "We need to burn it down. Burn it down. That's the only way to free them..."
He then piles the remains of the doll on the floor in the center of the hut and sets them on fire (barring any intervention), tearing any kindling material he can find off the hut itself.
Chiquq offers Caelum a bow at his healing of Ila's wounds. "Thank you. I could do no more praying myself. Ila also thanks you."
Seeing what Dezso is doing with the hut, Chiquq nods-- this is definitely the sort of thing SHE thinks ought to be done with evil spirit huts. She tethers Ila a safe distance away, then helps him by hunting some dry-ish twigs at the bases of existing trees in order to help the hut burn.
"Perhaps the evil can be purged by flames," she agrees, while keeping a wary eye in case the chicken-legged hut tries to... move.
Dez builds a merry fire out of the hut. Its 'chicken legs' are also wood, being roughly carved into that shape. As it burns, the haunt begins to imperceptibly fold in upon itself, until it is gone completely. You all feel a sense of peace.
Of course, the smoke drifting in the wind now let's anyone...or anything...know that you are here.
Braegan sits uneasily as the fire burns. He stands close enough to feel its warmth, but is unwilling to get much closer than that. Finally, he looks in the direction they were already marching.
"So, we move out? And any special precautions?" His shrug indicates he has none as he signals Aska to take a scouting role ahead of the group.
Dezső stares at the fire until the hut is no more, still in a trance. He then seems to snap awake and looks about. "Good, the evil spirits have left this place. I shudder to think what awaits us ahead, but we could not just leave this hut and those restless spirits behind. I am ready to move forward."
Aska returns empty-feathered. There are traces of the giant weasel's tracks, but they disappear in the shifting snowdrifts.
Braegan leads the way to the rise to the higher part of Somir Valley--a cold wind blows across its expanse, dotted with trees and hummocks and a creek that looks ready to freeze. A spray of sleet and broken ice is carried by the wind, cutting your faces. The sky ahead roils with thick gray clouds, and the sun is only a dim glow somewhere in the mist.
Imendri and Chiquq wisely note that it would not be a good idea to step near the creek. The ice is thin and cracking.
Yrja gives one last lingering look to the dying embers as the others prepare to move on. She is definitely glad that the little girl's spirit is now free, but can't shake a feeling of apprehension. That was some twisted magic, and she doesn't think that whoever is behind all this will stop at a chicken-legged hut and soul-binding magic.
As they crest the rise, away from the shelter of the valley, she feels the wind's bite sharply and pulls her furred hood almost closed in an attempt to shield her face from the razor sharp ice. She peers at their surroundings with slitted eyes, trying to make out shapes in the frozen wasteland.
As they walk away from the hut, Dezső walks alongside Yrja, to keep her company and see how the young witch is doing. So much has happened in the brief time since she emerged from her isolation and joined the group. "It feels good to be accepted and to have purpose, does it not?"
As they arrive Dezső too tries to take in the landscape before the group, bow in hand.