As the druid enters the ice maze, he sees the eerie child appear in front of him once again, just out of reach around a corner of the ice block maze.
"Please don't keep me here. It's so cold. I miss my mother." the voice cries again as she rounds the corner.
Ruso continues to slowly and deliberately make his way through the maze. He has yet to spot the young girl despite the fact that she has obviously gotten behind him somehow.
Irina follows her group through the maze. "We can help you find your mother little one. Come out where we can see you please."
She looks at Wraak, and tells him to Seek.
Wraak slinks off to as requested.
Ruso sees no sign of the girl. No footprints in the snow, nor any sign of her person or passage.
Wraak drops to the ground, sniffing and turning this way and that, but he cannot get a good trail to follow on the girl either. He seems a bit confused, wanting to comply, but not really knowing how.
Ruso continues to try to navigate his way through this ridiculous maze of giant ice. He continues to hunt for whomever he can hear his fellow party members talking to.
Irina continues to look for the girl. "Where is she?" Keep looking Wraak.
In response to Vigfus' question, the girl responds: "I was taken to the Pale Tower to meet with the White Lady, the Jadwiga. She took me away from my mommy. I want my mommy!"
The girl briefly appears at the corner of Irina's eye, dodging behind an ice block to the southwest of her position. "I don't want your stupid doll! I just want to go home! Take me back to my mother!" the girl cries in tones nearing panic.
Irina dashes forward to the southwest. "What doll? We don't have any dolls. I know a little about the White Lady. I've been to the north as a child myself. I'll see you get home."
"What is that shouting about?" Ruso continues to pad through snow as he makes his way through the ice maze.
"Child, what is your name?" Ruso hollers out as he continues to traverse the maze. Thank goodness I managed to catch that bit about there being a child in here somewhere. Perhaps if we address her by name she can get out of here.
Asking the next question, Ruso just spies the girl wander behind an ice block near him, headed to the west. "My name is Thora. Thora Petska. My mama says, I am supposed to say 'Pleased to meet you' and curtsy, but I just want to go home." says the girl mournfully. A few seconds later her voice rises in pitch and volume. "I have to get away! And you should too, before they see you! Run!
The voice seems to be coming from the clearing that is nearly between all three of Ruso, Irina, and Vigfus, but none of you can quite see in there to spy her.
Ruso tries to follow after the girl. "Miss Petska where is home?"
Irina hears the voice and also enters the clearing at the bottom of the maze. When she and Ruso enter, they glimpse the child standing in the middle for just a second before she disappears entirely. Next, the transparent blocks of ice all around the maze fill with sorrowful images of the child being torn from her mother and made to stay alone in a tower of ice, while being questioned and dominated by a lovely, ice-cold, white witch. The emotions and fear the girl feels are projected by this haunt into all of you, filling you with a fearsome dread. Once the fearsome images show, all grows quiet and still around the maze.
Ruso takes off running in the direction that they entered the maze from just as fast as his snow shoes can carry him. You can easily hear his loaded backpack jingling and jangling as he flees the area.
Irina hits her knees as visions of what was a brief period of her past run through her head. No, no, no. Not again.
She shakes as she stands and looks around for her companions.
AS the haunting images appear across the maze, the effect frightens all the men, who run off as quick as they can away from the ice maze. Unfazed by the fearsome images, Irina only thinks of another little girl who was held by an evil winter witch like she was. The woman falls to her knees weeping for her own lost childhood and that of Thora Petska, whom she doesn't really know.
Eventually the fear effect wears off, and the boys come back around, sheepishly and carefully, but no sight nor sound of the little girl is evident this time around.
She gives the boys a silted smile as they arrive back in the clearing glad they didn't see her break down at the memories that assailed her.
"She's gone for the moment. We should move on, and see if we can actually find her. I'm afraid it was just a memory." She'll head to the west again.
Ruso slinks his way back after having let his own fear overtake him. "If it was just a memory of her how did it get here?" Ruso gives a shake of his head. "I have never heard of a storm bringing visible memories with it. Is there anything we can do to try to prevent this from becoming a recurring problem?"
As Ruso slinks back through the maze and Irina explains her theory of what happened, they both look up at the strange hut on the hillside, wondering if that structure holds the answers they seek.
As they climb the hill, with the others, they can see just how strange the ut really is. It stands atop the hill on four legs, each a single tree trunk whose gnarled roots resemble the toes of a giant chicken. The hut is constructed of heavy logs with a patchwork roof of shaved bark shingles. Inside the hut's open doorway, a small figure sits on a carved wooden chair, staring across the clearing at the trail on the other side.
Ruso leans in close to Irina and whispers. "That is just creepy looking. Who or what do you expect is sitting in the doorway?"
Ruso makes his way slowly and carefully towards the oddly tall, chicken legged hut. He surveys the area and keeps a keen eye out for danger.
As Ruso closes in he can see that the tiny creature sitting in the chair is in fact a doll. It has the same flaxen hair as the phantom girl, but this one is clearly just a doll. The face, instead of a young girls, is the crease-lined face of an old crone. Most disturbing are the mismatched eyes of the doll, which stare at you unblinking. One is a blue gemstone, the other a round mirror the size of a coin, which reflects your own image as you near her.
"It is just a doll. A creepy one but still only a doll. We should be safe to approach." Ruso ventures closer trying to see if there is a way up.
Not noticing any traps here, Ruso can easily climb up to the hut using one of the tree-trunk "legs". There are no traps or other foes here.
Ruso scrambles up a "leg" and unto the porch. "I'll set a rope to make it easier for everyone else to climb up."
Soon the group is all at the top of the hut, which looks down over the ice maze and allows a full view of the entry to the Somir Valley. It is them and the disturbing-looking doll which sits still in the chair, strange eyes peering into the distance.
"Have any of you seen anything like this before? Is it perhaps magical or maybe poisonous?" Without waiting for an answer to any of the questions he has asked Ruso moves towards the doll. "I am going to move it out of our way."
Ruso moves to grab the doll...and nothing happens. It just happens to be a very odd, very lifelike doll it appears --except for the strange eyes.
Ruso tosses the doll down off of the hut and into the snow before entering the hut. "Well that was a whole lot of nothing." He begins to look around for anything of interest or danger.
"I honestly don't know but I think the little girl was some kind of magic or spirit that was sowing confusion among us." Ruso replies.
No sooner are the words out of the mouth of Ruso when a haunting moaning sound fills the strange area, followed by the quite evil-sounding laughter of a little girl.
Ruso raises his eyes heavenward and lets out a whispered invective. "Oh, cow crap!" At the same time he grasps the hilt of rapier.
There is no immediately visible threats, just the sound, which is spooky. From below you, a girl's voice says. "You should not treat me this way! I will have my revenge on you!" The voice seems to come from the doll discarded by Ruso earlier. If you scramble down to look at the doll again, it appears just as mundane and harmless (though very odd) as it did before.
Detect Magic cast on the doll detects no magical auras on her or within a 30' radius.