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"Does anyone know what it was saying? I hope it wasnt something like... "Hi welcome to wherever we are im am your friendly tour guide."
He lightly quiped shaking off the plant juices from his blade. He was trying not to look too pleased with himself, though he was wondering if perhaps he was in the wrong line of work. Perhaps a gardener would be a nice pasttime.
He was screaming about feeding him. Definitely a monster of some kind. She shrugs and looks around for loot.
Abrasax looks a little appalled and tucks her wings in a bit at the sight of the impromptu salad. Oh my. You purple are terribly effective, aren't you...
"Yea, I'd like to think so."
"Only when it's called for." Sigrun says with a smile.
Neverhome nonchalantly nods. ”Da.”
Loot
"Little Otik's toothpick"
2500gp
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Passing through the wardrobe, you find yourselves in a dark chamber. Inside, you find hundreds of skulls, each with flickering flames peering through the eye sockets. As you enter, all the skulls begin clicking their jaws menacingly, and you hear a faint refrain in the air. "Vasilisa ... Vasilisa ... Vasilisa ..." There's a solitary window in the room, which reveals a bone fence topped with fire-eyed skulls and a black horse grazing near a fire-scorched forest.
Set against the east wall of the room is a wooden table. A tiny doll lies crucified atop it, pinned there by four rusty nails. Its dress is torn, and its frame is marred by hundreds of cuts and burns. You see it briefly strain against its bonds before falling still.
Percy creeps into the room. This was just a little spooky, and all the fire about was not than a little menacing.
”Vasi... lisa?” Neverhome echoes.
Bristling from the praise the silly felinerai noticed next to nothing besides well the dark look of the room.
"This place is bad yes yes? Why so many skulls i wonder?
He mused aloud his tail swishing as her glanced about...not touching a thing.
There's magic in the room. After a few more seconds, you identify it as Strong Evocation.
There's painful magic in this room. The kind I use for my flame spells. We need to be careful.
She approaches the doll for a closer look.
<-- is that enough for the spoiler if I'm inspecting the doll?
"Don't touch those. They explode. I'll take care of it." Hobbes takes out his tools and gets to work.
Hobbies deftly dispels the magic.
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Sigrun looks on, angry at the3 thought that some other little girl probably died to empower this doll.
Hobbes will go up and examine the doll.
”... hello? Can you hear us, little one?” Neverhome tentatively calls out to the doll.
The doll moves slightly before once again falling still.
"Is it suppose to do that?"
Hobbes picks up the doll.
Once the nails pinning her to the table are removed, the doll can be easily picked up. Oddly, it appears to be severely malnourished.
Sooo... How does one feed a doll? Percy asks.
Do you play with it? Abrasax asks innocently.
Hobbes takes out a piece of bread and puts it next to the doll's mouth.
The doll weakly eats the bread, and a tiny bit of color immediately fills her cheeks. She jerkily sits up and smiles at you. "Спасибо, что спасли меня, добрые незнакомцы. Я кукла Василисы. Хотя я не могу оставаться живой навсегда, если вам понадобится от меня в будущем, дай мне немного поесть и немного выпить, и тебе на помощь придет."
And what kind of assistance can we expect when we do that? I want to be sure to not feed you for good reason. Percy nods.
Abrasax scrunches her twig-like eyebrows. Huh?
"I can't believe that worked." Hobbes blinks a few times at first. "Yea, what can you do?"
"And to think this isn't the strangest thing we've seen today." Sigrun mutters.
"Я могу сделать много полезных вещей: варить и чистить, стирать одежду, разделить семена мака с почвой, что-то вроде этого."
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Percy nods. Sounds good. And you don't mind working for food?
”Why were you put here, Little Vassilisa?” Neverhome asks the doll.
The doll shakes her head. "О, я не Василиса! Я просто кукла Василисы. Я помог спасти ее от Бабы Яги, так что она могла убежать от своей злой мачехи и выйти замуж за царя. Как наказание, Баба Яга взял меня из Василисы и с тех пор держал меня здесь."
Neverhome nodded. He had no reason to believe she was lying, but he knew these dolls... weren’t just dolls. ”You are brave Doll, to stand up to Dearest Grandmother.”
You enter the coffin and find yourselves in a room filled with rows and stacks of coffins. A dusty fireplace sits to the south, and an ironbound door stands in the eastern wall. Resting atop a table by the western wall, you see a familiar hen's egg sitting in a cracked clay bowl. Through the outside windows, you can see a snowy hilltop overlooking a burned and ruined village next to a wide, ice-choked river.
Sitting in a dusty stair blocking the door is a skeletal figure dressed in strange dark robes and crowned with a tall fur hat. Unlike the other creatures you've encountered in this particular Hut configuration, it addresses you in Common. "Sigh ... greetings travelers from a distant world. I am the Coffin Man, bound here to guard the - " He stops abruptly as Neverhome enters the room. "Hello Lyosha. I am wondering if you are remembering your first cousin ... twice removed, I am thinking. How's life?"
"Kid, you know this guy?"
Neverhome wasn't that put off when he saw skeletal creature, after all it was sitting in a chair and politely greeting them. When it spoke to him however he titled his head.
"My deepest apologies, but nyet, I remember only bits and pieces from Marzanna's home." he says while bowing and thinking, worrying now about offending someone by forgetting them. Trying to dive into his memories he tried his hardest to remember anyone that matched this Coffin Man's description.
"Life is... getting better, bit by bit. How is... guarding room in enchanted hut?"
The daemon shrugged. "Eh, is okay. Better than dying in cold and snow, yes? You here on mission from Dearest Cousin?"
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Neverhome nods in agreement. "Da. And da. We are looking for Dearest Grandmother."
And a way out of this infernal hut... Percy mutters.
"The way out is through this door. But be warned: is not so nice outside. This world lost magic long ago and is now gripped by war. The land is frozen and stillborn, in bloody revolution."
"Ah, then you will be looking for her son Grigori. People here did not like his magic, so they murdered him. But his soul was - how you say - stitched, so he came back. Was the plan, see. He and his sister. They used it to lure Cousin Babushka here and ensnare her with magic and technology. Now they be using big machines to merge place with fey world. Maybe your small friend can feel it if you go outside. We will see, yes? But if you do, please be careful. This world is ugly, so people call it 'Dirt.' No magic, but their machines are strong. I am thinking you have not seen before, but are very strong. Make much death."
The daemon opens the lid of a nearby coffin, revealing a cache of treasure. "Other people pass through here over the years, but they are not family like Lyosha,so I was ... not nice. If you are needing supplies, can use their stuff."
flame tongue x1
sword of the planes x1
elixer of hiding x4
Potion - good hope x4
Scroll - chain lightning x1
Scroll - iron body x1
Scroll - mage's sword x1
Scroll - mass hold person x1
Scroll - reincarnate x1
Scroll - wall of stone x1
3,000gp
Pery's head cocks to the side. No magic? How is that even possible?
"Yea, that sounds awful. Who would want to live there?"
Neverhome bows gratefully to the Coffin Man. ”Many thanks, Dearest Cousin, for information and supplies.”