He has a positive attitude this one, let's hope it won't be crushed by the darkness of this valley.
Zirren lets out a small sigh at Nathaniel's words. Noticing the necklace on the corpse, he steps into the room to examine it.
Zirren realizes the necklace appears to be a tiny, shrunken dwarf head. After a few moment of examination he recalls hearing of such strange talismans... referred to as Soulspeakers... This grotesque, amulet-like shrunken head is said to contain the enslaved soul of its former owner. Forced to obey whomever carries it, once per day a soulspeaker can repeat a message as if the spell magic mouth were cast upon it. The owner must merely hold the 6-inch-in-diameter head and speak his message and the conditions under which the soulspeaker should repeat it. While it carries a message, the eyes of the stitched head stretch open, closing as soon as its message has been delivered.
During his examination of the amulet, Zirren also realizes that the wrapped corpse appears oddly mishapen and something about it seems off.
Belladonna is practically bound to Ruhk's leg. She looks around for any signs of movement, and sounds at all. This is less an active effort, and more of a hyper-alert reaction out of fear. Lucky stays at her side, but he also feels the unnatural and spooky feel of this place. His tail is puffed up and his hackles are raised.
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Zilka steps into the cottage and casts dancing lights to send torch - like lights into the dark corners of the room.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Bella's nervousness makes Ruhk decide to draw Bethany.
After a pause, he places his free hand on Bella's shoulder, doing his best to imbue some stability to her body.
She is shaking like a leaf, but then again, she came here with us, so she is already braver than she thinks.
Caine walked into the room with the others with a frown on his face. He looked around slowly, scanning for things that seemed particularly strange or out of place.
"So, if the witch is dead, who told us to come inside?"
"I believe it was this." Zirren said, as he reached over to pick up the Shrunken Dwarf head necklace.
Surprise Round!
As soon as Zirren's hand touches the amulet there is a horrible clanking sound from behind as the massive cauldron comes to life! With blinding speed the "mouth" of the cauldron clamps down hard on Zirren's waist and holds him tightly, eliciting a cry of pain from the half-elf!
Round 1
The cauldron begins thrashing violently while holding onto Zirren and opening the wide mouth of the cauldron at the same time. Suddenly Zirren finds himself sealed inside the cauldron as it continues to thrash about!
Belladonna stands for just a moment in absolute confusion. Questions that may be circling in her head are: What is it? How do I hit a cauldron? What the hell?
But anyways, Belladonna draws her dagger and moves around to the back in order to flank with someone.
Nathaiel leaps forward, shouting
Is this some kind of clever trap, or is this thing possessed of an evil intention!
And for the first time, he focuses his attention on something, staring it down with all of his thoughts and trying to see its true nature. he remembers a legend from the life of his Patron Saint, the Lady of Mittonwyr, and how she was said to be able to see good and evil in things that others could not, and he asks for her guidance.
You will set him free or I will be your ruin, foul thing!
"Huh, did NOT see that one coming..."
Ruhk swiftly moves towards the "enemy" imbuing Bethany with a touch of magic as he goes.
Ruhk winces in pain as the screeching of metal against metal.
"Geez, how do you find a weakspot on a thing like this?"
"What the crap?!" Caine moves in with the others, reflexively swinging a boot at the thing.
Round 1 Recap!
Belladonna moves into a flanking position on the cauldron with (whomever wants to take it). Nathaniel attacks the cauldron with his trusty halbred while attempting to decipher the intents of the object. Zilka, Ruhk, and Greyson rush forward to attack, surrounding the cauldron in the tiny hut.
Ruhk and Nathaniel both miss on their attacks, while Greyson and Zilka both strike true, breaking off large portions of rusted iron.
"Gaaah" Zirren screamed in surprised pain as his arm was crushed and he nearly blacked out before pulled inside the cauldron.
"Nnnnng g-get me out! Break it!"
With a momentary surge of adrenaline he yelled to his companions and the pony, as he struggled with all his might to get free.
The pony leaped over to the cauldron and began smashing at it.
Round 1 Recap
The cauldron viciously savaged poor Zirren's arm and then swallowed the Pathfinder! Nathaniel Detects absolutely no evil radiating from the cauldron before he attempts to smash it with his halberd, but fails to connect in his haste to attack. Belladonna moves into a flanking position. Ruhk, Zilka, and Caine all rush in to attack; Zilka and Caine's attack hit solidly, knocking off large chunks off rusted iron while Ruhk's aim is misplaced. Zirren attempts to escape the cauldron, but he is unable to fight out. The celestial pony also presses the attack; however it is simply unable to harm the hostile cooking accoutrement.
Round 2
The cauldron turns its attention to Caine now, after he delivered it a solid blow! Once again the object bites down hard, but is unable to keep ahold as Caine yanks his appendage free! Poor Zirren, still locked inside the wildly thrashing cauldron is tossed around violently and is promptly knocked unconscious!
Caine: 7/10 HP
Cauldron: -16
Great! How do you treat with a cooking utensil gone mad?
Maybe there is some command to call off its attacks, or something we can threaten to do that will make this thing spit out our associate?
Belladonna with follow Artegal's lead and try to attack the cauldron.
"Don't think! Attacks are working, and I doubt we have the time for anything fancy.
Sometimes brute force really is the answer..."
"Ow!" Caine grunted, yanking his arm back. "Let him go you overgrown stewpot."
Caine moved to the side to flank with his allies.
Round 2 Recap!
Zirren falls unconscious from the violent thrashing of the cauldron as it attacks Caine . A terrible clanging racket fills the air as everyone lays into the animated kitchenware with reckless abandon, in hopes to free their friend! Artegal's halberd once again fails to connect with the bouncing pot. Belladonna's dagger pricks, but she lacks the strength to do more than simply scratch the iron. Ruhk, Zilka, and Caine have better luck!, Caine's kick leaves a large dent in the side. Zilka's sword opens a large gash in the iron. Ruhk's trusty axe, Bethany, rips out a large hunk of rusted iron along the back, causing Zirren's unconscious form to tumble out to the ground!
Round 3
The cauldron ignore's Zirren and continues to focus its attack on Caine, clamping down once again upon him this time keeping hold upon him!
Caine: 2/10 HP
Cauldron: -28
Are we even hurting this thing?
Well, I guess even though it has no eyes, ears, or, whatever, surrounding it does give us an advantage
Nathaniel's blow is the telling strike; his halberd cleaves through the remaining hunk of rusted iron and splits it in two!
"Huh-weeeeh! That took some doing!"
Ruhk wipes the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and exhales sharply.
"Right, someone see to Zirren, the sooner he is on his feet, the sooner we can get what we came for and get out of here."
Looking around the hut, Ruhk frowns, it wasn't exactly what anybody sane would describe as "cosy".
Friend, Zirren, say something. Are you alright?
Zirren did not respond...
His breathing was strained but it did not seem as though he was in mortal danger at the moment.
Meanwhile, the pony continues to smash down on the cauldron before stopping and turning to look at the fallen caster.
Caine winced and finished prying the thing free of him. He took a knee next to Zirren's body and started looking him over. "It's not really up to me. Let's see if He's still listening."
"Oh, he is listening alright, but it looks like you are a little out of practice.
Let's hope you don't need to strain your connection too fast and too far.
Less hurting is a good goal to strive for, eh Bella?"
"I can agree with that! Is our damsel going to be okay? I'd like to get our stuff and then get out lickity split before the forks start swarming."
Zirren is brought back to consciousness thanks to Caine's healing skills. He still feels unsteady on his feet, however, thanks to once again nearly being brought to the brink of death!
Now that the immediate threat is over, the group remembers their reasoning for coming to the witch's hut; to find the rat tail root. What do you want to do?
"Thanks for the help." Caine said a bit sarcastically to his God.
"Alright, my turn now..."
"Bella, you wanted to learn, come hold up this mirror for me..."
Caine spends a good portion of the next hour cleaning, packing, and wrapping Zirren's wounds. This time Abadar seems to listening, or perhaps He wanted Caine to prove himself, only the deity knows, but Caine does an exceptional job. Zirren finds the pain from the wounds greatly diminished and feels almost back to full strength. What do the rest of you want to do in the meantime?
By the time he finished Caine was looking a bit haggard. He was clearly hurting too. "Alright, Zir, you're good. Bella, how about we patch me up next?"
Nop, Belladonna doesn't know what to do
Zirren nods his thanks to Caine for the assistance he'd received.
He then stood up and adjusted his body. He was still a little sore but the majority of the damage had been well taken care of from Caine's administrations.
He began to stretch out a bit and let out a sharp hiss as he felt a twinge of pain while adjusting his left arm where the Cauldron had clamped down on it.
"Going to have to be easy on that for a few days." he muttered to himself.
Due to the clutter and disorganization of all the contents on the shelves within the hut, it takes nearly 30 minutes of searching before the group locates the rat's tail root! During the search they also locate a small ivory statue of a werewolf worth 15gp and a handful of rare stones worth 15gp. The search also reveals a pouch containing a strange smelling salt... There is also the strange amulet which caused all the problems with the cauldron.
It's close to 7:00 PM, fully dark, and the party has already traveled nearly 8 hours today. Do you want to continue on? Sleep here in the hut? Or find a different campsite?
actually only a bundle of branches, mud, and linen, left by Ulizmila to distract trespassers from her home’s actual guardian, her pet cauldron. Who knows where Ulizmila is or if she's even alive someplace. One thing is clear, however, and that is the witch has not been to this hut in many years.
Ruhk holds up the rat's tail root so all can see it.
"Well, this is what we came for, and now we're two out of three down.
As soon as everyone is ready to go, I suggest we burn as much daylight as possible and continue travelling.
Pretty sure we have a good idea where to go next.
To the mountains!"
Zirren turns and scoffs at Ruhk's announcement.
"Mmhmmm. And what daylight do you think we might be burning here, Ruhk?"
He then paused for a moment and began murmuring to himself.
"Actually, I suppose a torch is actually just wood that has absorbed rays from the sun. So therefor, burning daylight is possible."
"Either way, I think we should just find a place to sleep. This hut is in horrible disrepair but it might be better than sleeping in the woods, now that the cauldron is no more."
Ruhk looks a little crestfallen at first, then he merely smiles and shrugs before blowing Zirren a raspberry.
"Way to steal my thunder there Zirren, and worst of all, you did it by being...Ugh...Sensible!"
Nathaniel draws back his shoulders and lifts his head
We are not staying the night in this hut.