Once Uproot's bit of impromptu gardening is done, he decides to play it polite - just in case - and knocks on the door before entering. As expected, there's no answer and so he gently swings the door open and peers inside. He and anyone else who peers in through the door is easily able to make out a mess of workbenches, tools, toys, and dolls, all in various stages of completion. Doorways lead off from this central workshop into what appears to be a small bedroom, a kitchen, and a washroom.
The scatter of belongings around the workshop as well as elsewhere isn’t entirely random. It appears that the occupant packed weapons, armors, and other items in a great hurry.
There's no sign of Amenira or anyone else.
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The two children look confused for a moment and then hesitant. "Um, we should stay here if you're going to Miss Amenira's," Caleb finally says, albeit reluctantly. "Our parents wouldn't like it if we got too far from home when, um...there's...visitors in town. Oh, but n-no offense, okay? You guys are really great!"
"Yeah," Joanna nods in agreement. "You're all really nice! And our house is over that way," she adds, gesturing to an unseen point on the opposite side of the square. "Maybe you can come over and play later! We can even build a clubhouse!"
Sticky fist-bumps the kids or shows them how.
"So where's this house party at again, man?"
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Vinter produces his corncob pipe and his thinking cap and begins to look around. Yes my dear Plumeria, this is one of the newer houses here. It seems that they may have built it for her.
He begins thinking about it and looking around.
he begins picking at the mess I think Amenira was running - no doubt screaming for her life as she discovered that they are all secret cultists. Those Blackmsiths were FREAKS by the way.
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"A newer home? That's interesting. Why would they build it for her? Why not move the more established families in the new home and let the newcomer live in the old one?"
She examines the room closely. "Other than she ran with her things, what do you think?" she'll move into the other rooms of the home and look around.
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Not really sure what half of everyone is talking about, Uproot moves into the room and starts tidying things up, not happy about the state of the place.
Once things are at least somewhat tidy, he starts moving through the place calling "Hello~? Anyone home? We're mostly safe!"
Giving the whole place over, he keeps his eyes peeled, not litterarly though.
As you filter further into the house, all the while having a rather lively and thought-provoking discussion about communes, cultists, and communists, the kitchen and washroom are quickly examined with nothing of particular interest turning up. The bedroom, however, is a different story. Though much less cluttered than the workspace out front, the bedcovers are thrown back and some of the drawers in the small wooden dresser are partially open. A quick search of the bedroom reveals a spellbook as well as a journal. Flipping through the journal you can see that it hasn’t been written in in some time and largely details the day-to-day life that Amenira led in Mercy.
Within the pages of mundane entries you come across something much more interesting - a collection of various quirks and unspoken rules of the town that Amenira discovered while living here!.
Amenira’s spellbook contains the following spells:
Alarm, Burning Hands, Comprehend Languages, Dispel Magic, Enter Image, Featherfall, Flaming Sphere, Floating Disk, Glitterdust, Hydraulic Push, Identify, Locate Object, Mage Armor, Memory Lapse, Resist Energy, and Sleep.
As you peek under the bed, you suddenly spy, back in the far corner, a doll...and as you look at it, it shifts slightly and you realize with a start that it’s looking back at you!
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As you filter further into the house, all the while having a rather lively and thought-provoking discussion about communes, cultists, and communists, the kitchen and washroom are quickly examined with nothing of particular interest turning up. The bedroom, however, is a different story. Though much less cluttered than the workspace out front, the bedcovers are thrown back and some of the drawers in the small wooden dresser are partially open. A quick search of the bedroom reveals a spellbook as well as a journal. Flipping through the journal you can see that it hasn’t been written in in some time and largely details the day-to-day life that Amenira led in Mercy.
Amenira’s spellbook contains the following spells:
Sticky sits down with big spellbook in his lap, and begins paging thorough it.
"AW! COOL MAN! There a spell in here that lets you light up a bunch of doobbies all at once, and one that lets you understand people who talk foreign and stuff, and one that helps you find your keys, and one that helps you get shut eye and another one that wakes you up. Oh and there was another one... Weird man. I just read the thing, but I can't for the life of me remember what it said. Hmm?" Sticky sets the book down and ponders for a moment then, absently, he opens the book again.
After a few moments of reading he shouts: "AW! COOL MAN! There a spell in here that lets you light up a bunch of doobbies all at once, and one that lets you understand people who talk foreign and stuff, and one that helps you find your keys, and one that helps you get shut eye and another one that wakes you up. Oh and there was another one... Weird man. I just read the thing, but I can't for the life of me remember what it said. Hmm?" Sticky sets the book down and ponders for a moment then, absently, he opens the book again.
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Uproot goes around staring at the furniture and things, he even starts looking into nooks and crannies an crevices. After a bit he even takes a look under the bed. When he does though, he gives a small start, backin away for a second, before slowly looking back under it. He gives a small wave. "HI there little one. You gave me a start there. I'm Uproot Nacu Fen and you are? Also can I call you friend? I think I'm gonna call you friend. You can come out and meet everyone, friend. We won't hurt you I promise!"
As Uproot and anyone else that's curious peeks under the bed you see, back in the corner, a doll that looks just like the dolls you found inside the cave by the road. With one exception: this doll's neck hangs at an odd angle, broken.
For a moment, nothing happens. Then, the doll's arm slowly rises and its' fingers open to reveal a scrunched-up piece of parchment, as though offering it to you. Large, glassy eyes stare unblinkingly.
"I am...Nira," comes a small, shrill voice and with a start you realize that it came from the doll itself! "I do not...know you. You...are not from Mercy. You find...Mercy. You find...murder..."
This is a scroll of Enter Image.
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"AW! COOL MAN! There a spell in here that lets you light up a bunch of doobbies all at once, and one that lets you understand people who talk foreign and stuff, and one that helps you find your keys, and one that helps you get shut eye and another one that wakes you up. Oh and there was another one... Weird man. I just read the thing, but I can't for the life of me remember what it said. Hmm?" Sticky sets the book down and ponders for a moment then, absently, he opens the book again.
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Vintner takes the book from Stickys hand and flips it upside down on him before inspecting the scroll. He casts read magic .
,,¿ɯɯH ˙pᴉɐs ʇᴉ ʇɐɥʍ ɹǝqɯǝɯǝɹ ǝɯ ɟo ǝɟᴉl ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇ,uɐɔ I ʇnq 'ƃuᴉɥʇ ǝɥʇ pɐǝɹ ʇsnɾ I ˙uɐɯ pɹᴉǝM ˙˙˙ǝuo ɹǝɥʇouɐ sɐʍ ǝɹǝɥʇ puɐ ɥO ˙dn noʎ sǝʞɐʍ ʇɐɥʇ ǝuo ɹǝɥʇouɐ puɐ ǝʎǝ ʇnɥs ʇǝƃ noʎ sdlǝɥ ʇɐɥʇ ǝuo puɐ 'sʎǝʞ ɹnoʎ puᴉɟ noʎ sdlǝɥ ʇɐɥʇ ǝuo puɐ 'ɟɟnʇs puɐ uƃᴉǝɹoɟ ʞlɐʇ oɥʍ ǝldoǝd puɐʇsɹǝpun noʎ sʇǝl ʇɐɥʇ ǝuo puɐ 'ǝɔuo ʇɐ llɐ sǝᴉqqoop ɟo ɥɔunq ɐ dn ʇɥƃᴉl noʎ sʇǝl ʇɐɥʇ ǝɹǝɥ uᴉ llǝds ɐ s,ǝɹǝɥ┴ ¡N∀W ˥OOƆ ¡M∀,, says Sticky, a puzzled look slowly makes its way across his foliage.
Nira finally pulls herself out from underneath the bed with slow, jerky movements and climbs to her feet. She's silent as she seems to ponder Plumeria's question, then her wooden body gives a small shudder.
"The shadow...put out the light...Ame...nira's...light..." she finally responds, sounding rather disoriented. "Our...light..."
Now that you're able to get a better look at Nira, you realize that she's a soulbound doll - a small, sentient construct that contains a fragment of another creature's soul. You know that the process of creation strips away most of the individuality from the soul fragment, making the resulting doll an almost completely blank slate...but fragment's of the soul's original personality have been known to shine through just the same.
The doll then slowly turns to face Sticky, head swiveling on its broken neck until it hangs upside down. "¿ʍopɐɥS pɐW ǝɥʇ ʎq pǝɥɔnoʇ uǝǝq noʎ ǝʌɐɥ˙˙˙no⅄" she asks cryptically.
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Nira finally pulls herself out from underneath the bed with slow, jerky movements and climbs to her feet. She's silent as she seems to ponder Plumeria's question, then her wooden body gives a small shudder.
"The shadow...put out the light...Ame...nira's...light..." she finally responds, sounding rather disoriented. "Our...light..."
Sticky looks up from the book and blinks. He looks at the nearest oil lamp.
The doll then slowly turns to face Sticky, head swiveling on its broken neck until it hangs upside down. "¿ʍopɐɥS pɐW ǝɥʇ ʎq pǝɥɔnoʇ uǝǝq noʎ ǝʌɐɥ˙˙˙no⅄" she asks cryptically.
"Whoa, dudette! How didja do that? Were you like touched by a shadow?"
Sticky stands up and moves up next to Plumeria. Indicating the leafy follower of the Green Faith as if she were a sort of stick figure, he says "Okay now show me on Plumeria where the mad shadow touched you."
Nira hesitates. "We do not remember clearly...just binding shadows and pain, pain, pain..." she answers, sounding uncertain. "Words..our words...my words. Then...a shattering, pieces swirling away to the other side of the sky! But a splinter, one splinter for the vessel...just one."
The doll falls silent and for a moment you think that that is all she's going to offer on the matter, but...
"And then...we woke up. I woke up. Changed forever..."
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Uproot stares at the doll, amazed she's actually speaking. It takes him a moment to start moving again, but he moves up to her and asks "Mind if I touch you? You're really interesting! You aren't a leshy right? you must be carved wood, but how are you moving and talking to us? Did someone take you and stuff you in the doll? That's terrible!"
Nira's head rolls quite creepily around on her shoulder and you realize that she's trying to shake her head - but can't with her neck broken. "Not sure...Amenira and Nira...one and the same? Maybe. I...can't remember. Not clearly."
While the rest of you crowd around and ask questions of Nira, Vintner quickly ducks into the workshop and returns with another doll - this one only partially completed, yet to receive a face or clothing or hair, but with all its limbs whole and unbroken. As the leshy casts the spell written on the scroll she'd handed to Uproot, there's silence from Nira. Then, a small laugh.
"He sees, now. Dolls see why children hide..."
Nira turns to regard Plumeria. "Amenira...came to learn...to watch...to see why the children hide. Dolls are windows, windows to see."
Slowly, Nira raises her wooden arms and her head lolls on its broken neck as she seems to consider her form. "And now...Nira is home for...for Amenira...yes...a vessel for the soul! To carry on..."
"You...not from Mercy. Avenge me..."
"The Mad Shadow...he dances along the rooftops at night, heralded by the sound of beating wings," Nira answers, her voice suddenly strong - this, you feel that Nira or Amenira or whatever she is, is one thing she recalls clearly. "Murder in Mercy...cannot stand!"
Nira's head lolls on her shoulder once more. "No more souls...just this one. But yes...stop the Mad Shadow...before more lights are put out for good..."
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"Waiting in vine form sounds like an interesting idea. What about this onion skin thing I found and the rotting smell? I say we wait there for him. He might be the source of the smell."
"We're going to need to be locked into our quarters like good little guests so the locals know where we are at sundown."
As all of you attempt to hash out a plan of sorts, mostly agreeing that breaking the curfew in some manner is in order, the sun sinks lower into the sky and begins casting long shadows over the town. Though you haven't heard the tolling of Mercy's bells just yet, you know that the beginning of curfew can't be too far off...
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Uproot gives the doll a blank stare, not quite processing everything it has been saying, but interested none-the-less. "So we are going to wait for this 'Mad Shadow, and leave the onion skin out in the open surrounded by vines? Sounds good to me, as long as we can keep the skin for dinner later!"
He then gives the somewhat unsettling doll a pat on the shoulder that isn't next to the cut claiming, "We should be able to avenge you!"
He then trundles out of the house in search for Prickles, not enitrely sure that the big oaf hasn't been getting into trouble.
As all of you turn to leave Amenira's empty home, the little doll begins to toddle along after you.
"I will...go with you. Amenira...Nira...we will...I will help. Help watch for the Mad Shadow," she explains.
With your strange new companion in tow, you all return to the guest house which thankfully isn't too far of a walk. And right on cue, just as you reach your destination you hear the tolling of the bell that signals the beginning of curfew. The time is right before sunset, just as yesterday. Prickles appears to be right where Uproot left him, too.
(Or is he?)
Having at least an hour until the sun actually sets and it gets well and truly dark outside, everyone settles in for dinner while you plot and plan the grandest of ambushes. As you discuss and eat, the sun sinks lower and lower into the sky and the shadows deepen further as the sky slowly grows darker. The hour is twilight when, from somewhere outside, the air is suddenly split with the sound of terrified screams!