Zephtyr floats away, bored and goes back to looking for more drink.
Perception -
"Mal, why are we here? Why did we come here if there is no drink."
Tsin watches as the blackbird is transferred from blue skin to blue skin, then settles back on her heels, waiting for the merchant to depart.
When Zilva departs, Tsin beckons the others to continue on.
"There is still plenty to investigate, if you're ready?" She leaves the building in short order, then heads to the NorthWest section of the garden, heading towards something stone-like at the end of the path.
The other room is also filled with various dusty piles of old furniture, mounds of moldering herbs, bales of cloth, barrels of fertilizer, clay pots, and trays of dried seeds. You also notice a series of iron rungs climbing up the chimney of a fireplace in the room.
"Maybe their 'shine is hidden up the chimney? Fly up there Hektir and see what's hiding up that ladder."
Zephtyr will check the chimney for fire-shine, or fire water, or anything good.
Perception w/darkvision
The rungs lead up to a trap door that opens into stone fireplace with a large mantel takes up northwest corner of a square room that appears to be a cozy wooden cabin. Shelves packed with esoteric knickknacks and strange ingredients line the walls. Opposite the room’s only door stands a simple wooden table on which rests a cracked clay bowl. A large blackened cauldron sits in the center of the room. The room’s windows look out over a snowy, mountainous landscape.
As you emerge from the trap door, Hektir, three ravens suddenly take to the air, cawing loudly as they fly about the room. They cry out, “Baba Yaga has gone on, off to see her only son. But a trail she left behind, if the breadcrumbs you can find!”
They then pick several items off the shelves and drop them in front of you: a stuffed two-headed eagle, then an iron spur and a drinking horn beside it. Next, they take an elephant tusk and a small hand mirror and drop them atop a bearskin rug. The ravens then disappear, cawing out once more, “Baba Yaga has gone on, off to see her only son. But a trail she left behind, if the breadcrumbs you can find!”
Pems groans. "More birds. WHat's this, a two-headed eagle, a spur and a drinking horn? Are these the breadcrumbs we need? Because here they are!" Pems holds them out to the birds helpfully.
For a split second, Tsin considers popping one of the ravens as they fly. She reminds herself that they are harbingers, and seeing them, she at least understands they are still on course to find Baba Yaga.
"Why in the hells can't she just suddenly appear, to accept our message?! Why must we be dragged over hells and creation, when we could locate ourselves... Hey! Zilva!!" She hopes she's not too late...
"Is there any way you can secure us one of these bird statuettes, which can be used to contact anyone directly, no matter the distance? We're trying to pass a message on, but we've already traveled too far in doing so."
The ravens then disappear...
However, as Pems and then each of you enter the room, they reappear briefly, picking up and redepositing the items while twice more cawing out their litany before disappearing again.
There's no response to Tsin's cry -- Zilvazaraat has already gone.
Malavarius mutters to himself as he ascends the ladder rungs, quite pleased with the exchange with Zilvazaraat, "What a splendid chap that mercane was. So helpful! If only that weren't such a rarity in the world." As the ravens crow and deposit their knickknacks, the old wizard frowns.
"More of these blasted riddles then? Zeno? Zeno! What did the ravens mean, hmm? You're a bird, after all! What's this nonsense about a son?"
Still grumpy about the wizard's jab about not being helpful, Zeno crosses his wings in front of his breast and thumps down into the bowl of Malavarius' hat with a
"Oh good heavens. Zeno! This is not the time for pouting!"
“Baba Yaga has gone on, off to see her only son. But a trail she left behind, if the breadcrumbs you can find!”
Zephtyr spits airily, looking around at the crows.
"C'mon up, guys. This looks promising," Zephtyr shouts below. "Might even be some crow shine around too."
Zephtyr will repeat the rhyme to whomever didn't hear it...then will about for things of interest with Detect Magic.
Perception
"Gotta be more drink around here someplace."
Hektir gets a splitting headache.
"Well the first part seems clear." Quinn muses as he points to the stuffed eagle, spur, and horn, "We're to get drunk and ride a giant eagle. But I just can't figure out what the tusk, mirror, and rug imply?"
Zephtyr thinks for a way to answer Quinn's question.
"Uh...well...the mirror you would hang on the ceiling above the rug. That way when you find a maiden or whatever, you can watch yourself when she is feeling *very* amorous after the ride on the giant eagle. Not sure about the tusk though, and not sure where to find a maiden around here, though."
Tsin moves to the window, overlooking the mountains. "Where are we, again? Yes, I know. A cabin, from a garden. The cauldron means we're still inside the Hut, right? Where is the hut, now?"
You don't recognize the landscape, Tsin.
Quinn moves beside Tsin and gazes across the landscape. "Still snowy, must be the northern lands still."
While you're not sure where you are, the differently shaped mountains make it clear you're no longer in Iobaria.
Malavarius scratches his beard and mutters to himself as he considers the surrounding environs from over Tsin's shoulder. "Should've asked Zilvazaraat if he'd know where to look for my good hat. Hrmmm. What have we here? Where the devil are we, I wonder. Hrmmmm."
Zephtyr snorts and goes as high up as he can to better look around.
Perception
If there is nothing there, Zephtyr will fly to examine the two trails that seem to end (12 o'clock and 10:30 on the map).
"Alright. Shall we step outside, then?" Tsin doesn't wait, taking to the door, and opening it, half-expecting to deal with more frost giants attacking their little cabin. She gives a long look around the surrounds of the cabin first.
Leaving the cabin, you're hit with a blast of cold air as you exit into a somewhat dimmer environment than you're used to. The sun is much smaller than it should be -- it’s not much more than a pinprick of light, though still blindingly bright to look at -- and stars are visible in the sky despite the daylight.
Mal has the sudden realization that you're not on Golarion anymore, though he's not sure exactly WHERE you are .
Jagged peaks jut up all around you, descending into deep valleys, all of which are covered with snow. The wind whips bitterly across the peaks, alternating between keening and moaning.
"Gadzooks! This.. this isn't Golarion! The stars, the sun - it's all wrong! Blathering blatherskeit, where the devil has that blasted hut brought us now?!"
know (geog)
Zephtyr spits as he rises into the sky (300') to look around: any habitations? Trails?
Tsin watches hot air waft forward from the old man, watches hot air rise roughly three hundred feet into the air, and somehow doesn't feel any warmer. She steps back into the cabin, soaking up the last bit of warmth she believes she'll have in a while. She waits.
Pems shudders and pulls his cloak around himself. "Wait, this Hut can leave our world?!? his keeps getting stranger and stranger..."
Hektir, you see no tracks; however there seems to be a large crowd -- massive considering you can see it all from your location -- on a far mountain peak, probably about 10 miles away, a day's walk through the mountains.
Zephtyr describes the people he saw in the distance as he comes back to earth [s]golarion[s] the ground.
"Well? What now?" Zephtyr spits.
The landscape is snow-covered mountains and little more than shrubs at your elevation, and with the temperature certainly below freezing. You don't see any nearby villages or buildings, though the snow and mountains certainly don't make it easy to tell, especially if the buildings are camouflaged.
"Maybe there's something back in that garden we might have missed, hmm? Some clue as to where the devil we've landed this time."
"Why can't we animate the Hut again, and simply continue our march, from the comfort of our interior?" Tsin seems loathe to return to the garden, and says as much, if pressed.
Quinn meanders about looking for anything the party missed as Hektir floats skyward.
Pems nods at Tsin. "That's a good idea. Isn't there some sort of bowl thing that makes it go?"
Pems nods at Tsin. "That's a good idea. Isn't there some sort of bowl thing that makes it go?"
Zephtyr spits, of a mind to go fly out to scout more while the others try to get the hut working.
"Yeah, you guys do that, I'll go take a look. I'll meet you back soon enough, probably."
Malavarius looks back at the horizon and sky and shakes his head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. Zeno? Look at that. Just look. What a strange wonder."
There's not much to notice. You're in the middle of a snow-covered mountain range. There doesn't seem to be much for miles around you, though the terrain obviously makes it difficult to see far.
Pems heads back inside the hut and searches for the egg and bowl control thingy. If he finds it, he does the trick and tries to make the Hut got a-marching.
The bowl is sitting on the table, right where it was when you entered. As you try to manipulate the egg, you feel the hut jutter a little but you don't think you have any sort of actual control over it.
As you prepare to take flight, you can't resist looking back to see how your companions do without you. You see the hut lurch to its feet. It then seems to leap up, extending one chicken leg out straight as it lands on the other, which bends in half. Then it repeats the action, switching legs, several times before coming to a half again. Look at the 10-second mark.
Malavarius ducks in alarm as the hut nearly kicks his winter hat from his head. Hustling back inside wide-eyed, he looks at Pemsworth as if the halfling had just swung at him. "Good grief! Pemsworth! Let me have a try at that before you punt someone's head from their shoulders!"
Pems looks shocked and nearly drops the bowl and eggs. "WHat? I WAS MOVING THE PLOT FORWARD OLD MAN. DON'T JUDGE ME!"
Wut? Dancing? No. Not dancing. Dancing? No, not dancing.
Zephtyr spits, pausing only momentarily to watch the hut dance and flicker before continuing on to scout.
Tsin considers the likelihood of actually getting the Hut to do their bidding, then remembers how the Hut came to life, largely on its own recognizance, to defend itself against the giants. Not wanting to find themselves in the same situation, she waits until Malavarius has had his try at manipulating the controls of the hut, before readying to leave the Hut a second time, and begin marching in the direction of another settlement. The Hut wouldn't have brought us out into the middle of nothingness. It follows Baba Yaga, so must we.
After a few seconds of smooth movement, the Hut suddenly lurches to a stop as Mal seems to have lost control, it taking all of his dubious concentration to maintain the desired action.
You zip away from the Hut, which seems to have a mind of its own as it lists slightly to one side and stops. Ahead of you, though, is the open air and you make your way toward the distant mountain.
After a mile or so, though, you see something large approaching through the air from your side. At your present courses, it will certainly intercept you miles before you reach your destination.