Inire looks around slowly, eyeing the area around her for traps. The girl wasn't stuck, was she? She tilted her head slightly, then nods, and presses forward, quickly through the snow, easily outpacing her companions in an effort to get to the little girl. She draws scribe as she does, so that she can defend her from whichever creature is just around the bend, making her stay...
The girl remains sitting against the wall, not moving an inch or responding to the approaching half-elf in the slightest. Nothing emerges or materializes as Inire reaches the shaking child.
Eirikr and Ashen follow after Inire as she heads deeper into the maze. This all seemed so strange--like something out of a fairy story, in fact he was fairly certain he had heard a story about a maze made out of ice made by a wicked fairy queen before. He couldn't quite recall how that one ended--something about mirrors made of ice, broken into pieces--but he was fairly certain that it didn't end well. Still, he didn't protest when Inire headed further into the maze--if this was a trap, better three of them than one.
Once he reached Inire and the girl, he looked around, still trying to figure out what was going on--there had to be something that they were missing.
Tiferet enters the maze right after Inire and Eirikr, though careful – at least to the best of her abilities – not to involuntarily trigger any trap lying in ambush.
Seeing Inire suddenly darting ahead, as if she has glimpsed something across the icy wall, she's quick to follow at Eirikr's heels, weapon in hand. The view that greets her is not one she would have expected, despite confirming what she read in the journal.
She's blonde. Not a terribly common hair colour in Taldor.
Staying a couple of steps behind Inire, she falls down on one knee, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. She smiles as she reaches out to the seemingly frightened girl.
"Don't worry. You're safe with us. Who's your mum? We can look for her together if you wish..."
Morgraine remains near the back, uncertain what to make of this 'child'. She inspects the ice walls and the child both as the others approach and Kettu keeps watch.
Nathara comes with Lily a bit after the scouts to the entrance of the maze. She leaves Lily there - while she does not with to leave the horse alone, it would be too dangerous to take it into the ice channel.
She drops her own equipment next to the horse, but takes a rope and the grappling hook from the equipment. She attaches the grappling to the rope and hangs it over her shoulder to have her hand free. "We'll be right back, beautiful, don't worry. Sorry if I don't free you of the cargo, there is no time for that right now. Be a good girl and don't wander off, all right?" Hopefully nothing, such as a giant weasel, would attack from the outside.
As she catches up with the others and sees the little girl she speaks a "detect magic" instinctively without even thinking about it and focuses the girl. She holds her bow down and stays back as far as the range of the spell allows. Every bit of reason within her screams that this must be a trap and that there cannot exclude the possibility that not all of this is deception and that there is indeed a little girl about to freeze to death. Thus she covers Tiferet, hoping that the charming Skald would either see through the illusion or get through to the girl.
"Could Ashen or Kettu cover our rear? I don't want to be trapped in here." she whispers, not taking her eyes of the girl as she studies the aura. "Vosi, do you know anything about this?"
Evelyn tries to keep up with everyone without revealing their location, the idea of a maze interested her and she was almost a little disappointed when Vosi told them it was just a longer trail.
If Evelyn sees the girl she'll try to move past the others toward her but at hearing Eirikr warn of necromancy her heart drops at the realization that they were likely far too late to help her.
The little girl looks up at Tif and her face looks confused, like she doesn't know what's going on. Her eyes look clouded for a moment before they clear and she looks at the skald like she hadn't even realized there was anyone around a moment ago. She hesitates for a moment, then finally responds.
With that, her eyes go distant again. "No! Leave me alone!" She jumps to her feet and runs past Tiferet, her small hand phasing right through her body like it's not even there. She dashes down the path and disappears around the next corner.
"Nei! Bíddu!"
These are the only words Tiferet is able to speak before the girl dashes away. She silently gasps as she feels an incorporeal hand passing through her body, and almost falls back supine from the shock before barely finding her balance again.
For the first time in her life, she feels cold. A chilly, unnatural cold running down her spine. She searches for Nathara's hand to help her get back on her feet, her face deathly pale.
"She's a... ghost. Only... not quite a ghost. Different, somehow. She spoke to me in Skald, meaning she must have been from beyond the Portal... but it was like a single moment of clarity which immediately vanished." She turns back to see if she can catch a glimpse of where she went. Sometimes... the dead don't know that they are dead. She doesn't remember when she first heard this saying, but she's afraid it might describe the situation chillingly well. "She must be terribly confused. And lonely."
"A ghost," says Eirikr, a shiver running up and down his spine. More dead things. An Ustalavan shouldn't find the undead so unnerving, but still. Dead things should stay dead. "We should keep moving forward. Try to figure out what it wants. Or if it's a trap. It still might be a trap. Be wary."
Inire huffs. She didn't see anything dangerous ahead... nor behind. The girl spoke northern tongue as Tiferet had suggested. And was apparently a ghost. That could have ended, much, much worse. One day, young adult half-elves won't go streaking in, trusting stealth to protect them, when they try to save little girls from harm. Today wouldn't be that day. It turned out significantly better than in the other story she'd read, though. Besides, it wasn't sunset, and now wasn't the time to share that particular story.
"Should keep moving. Try to set her free if she isn't some sort of trap. Not sure if I should be in front if it's something spooky... I can't do much with spooky."
As the party rounds the next corner, they see the spectral girl cowering against one of the ice walls, shaking with fear. "I don't want your stupid doll! I want to go home! Take me back!"
"Wait," says Eirikr, holding his hands up to indicate that he wasn't going to hurt her, stepping closer to her as he speaks. "How did you end up here? What happened to you?"
"No. Not a ghost." Morgraine says, eyeing the girl with a pitying glance, and watching carefully as Eirikr approaches. "I think we're seeing a soul - split off from its whole and forced here. Or simply being projected here perhaps. I think the child is currently the victim of some powerful spell."
The girl blinks and her vision clears again. She looks around, just as disoriented this time as the last.
Her form shimmers and her eyes glaze over again. She screams in fear and turns and runs down the path further, once again disappearing from sight.
"She said a witch took her away from her family," says Eirikr, looking back at the rest of the party. "So there's a witch here; she must've come through the portal. She might already know that we're here."
Inire nods to Eirikr. "You can go on ahead, I'll be right behind you." she responds, keeping her voice low, still and eyes wide (wide enough to see her brown irises!). It was becoming clear that she wanted very little to do with ghost children. Ghost families just seemed a little worse.
"Right. Just follow me. It's just a ghost--not even a ghost. Right," says Eirikr as he takes Inire's place at the front of the group--but not before surreptitiously making a Pharasman sign to ward off evil and reaching underneath his shirt to clutch something hidden there.
Evelyn draws her sword."Maybe if we kill her it will free the girl."
Tiferet nods at Eve's suggestion. "Destroying whatever is binding her soul to the Material Plane might allow it to pass on into the afterlife."
She sets off again right after Eirikr and besides Inire, determined to do anything that could grant that poor, tortured soul a modicum of peace. "Not even a ghost" she whispers, repeating Eirikr's words. "An echo. The by-product of something terrible."
"Perhaps she's trying to lead us to the source of her torment. So even if it isn't a trap after all, we should be very careful. For our sake, and hers too."
The party follows the path again, rounding the last corner of the maze. Just ahead, they can see the little girl standing at the exit to the maze. She still looks a little dazed and she's utterly still and silent.
On the bright side, Inire was still focusing on the walls moreso than the path ahead, so it didn't go unnoticed when everything shifted.
"Something's different. she pauses, to look at her surroundings, "The wind is different, and the shadows are wrong." she shares quietly with the others.
Tiferet nods. "Yes" she whispers, her voice terse yet filled with apprehension. "I saw that too."
Without saying a word, Eirikr leans down and gathers some snow into his hand, which he quickly rolls into a ball. He then softly tosses it forward, towards the walls Tiferet and Inire seem concerned about.
Nothing seems to happen for a moment as Eirikr throws the snowball at the walls. Then the girl turns back toward you, her eyes completely clear and focused for the first time. "I have to get away! And you should too, before they see you! Run!" The shadows shift across the ice and a the girl screams the most heart wrenching, terrifying scream any of you have ever heard.
Eve, Mouse, and Nathara feel utterly overwhelmed with terror as the specters seem to swell and dance around them, forming images of a strange distorted woman with empty, heartless eyes. There is only one place to run, straight ahead toward the cabin beyond the ice path. Eirikr, Morgraine and Tiferet feel disturbed and shaken, though they're able to avoid fleeing in terror.
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For a moment, Eirikr thinks about running too--he feels a pit in his stomach as every ghost story he had ever heard becomes real--but it's not a ghost, not really--just a fragment, a piece of something, a piece of a ghost--and just the ghost of a child--if it could hurt them, it would've--or, if it could hurt them then running away was probably what it wanted. He steels his resolve and plants his feet firmly in the ground--and then he sees half of the group turning to run. Damn.
"Wait!" he shouts, grabbing at Inire, who was standing closest to him before the ghost manifested, trying to stop her from running to the cabin--and falling short, the half-elf was much too quick for him to grab.
Inire's eyes widen somehow a bit more, and her pupils dilate. She takes off at a full sprint, only to be snatched almost immediately by Eirikr as she starts to bolt. She twists and writhes in his grip, trying to get away, even still. "No, no. Let me go. Stop, please..."
But all she manages to do is flail uselessly and somewhat hysterically.
"It's not real--it's not real," says Eirikr as he pulls Inire back, trying to keep his grip tight enough to keep her from escaping but not too tight to hurt her. "Remember what Morgraine said. Not even a ghost. Not even a ghost."
"Ashen! Stop them!" Eirikr says, looking back at the wolf. Ashen bounds off in the direction the other two are running, trying to cut them off before they reach the cabin.
Tiferet freezes in her tracks and staggers as the unnerving danse macabre swirls around the group. Every muscle in her body clenches and begs her to run away, but she barely manages to get a grip on herself, grinding her teeth almost until it hurts.
And yet, out of the corner of her eye she catches a glimpse of three of her companions darting in panic toward the exit and into the eerie hut. As she sees Eirikr managing to catch Inire and hold her steady into his arms, she knows what she must do. She tries to grab Nathara's arm before she flees away, but she's either too slow or too weak from the ordeal to prevent her from slipping away.
She curses her luck and her inadequacy which have prevented her from helping her friend in her time of need, and with no other option left, she follows her companions into the cabin.
Suddenly trapped in a nightmarish world Nathara screams up and runs away from the claws grasping for just beyond her field of vision, the mud that strives to swallow her, the talons trying to tear her apart. And these eyes that haunt her.
Then, the moment ends. She realizes that she has screamed. "Oh, not again!" she mumbles as she looks around, making sure that she's still holding the bow and trying to re-assess the situation.
Evelyn flees screaming at herself in her mind to regain control, when she is able she will try to return to the group as quickly as she can.
Half expecting something to happen in the presence of the ensorcelled girl, Morgraine clenches her teeth and willfully drives the welling fear rising within her back down. Hearing Evelyn's screams from nearby, she attempt to grab her before she could run away. The way this place is designed, it's as if those spells are trying to drive people towards the hut...
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Eirikr tries to grab at Inire, but he's so shaken up from the scream that his reactions slow. He gropes helplessly, his hands narrowly missing her arm as she bolts toward the silent hut. Nathara rushes out of the entrance to the maze just as quickly, though Morgraine manages to grab Eve's arm before she follows suit. The irrational panic only lasts and instant, leaving Mouse and Nathara standing confused at the doorway to the hut with the rest of the party at the maze entrance. Inside, they can see the hut is nearly empty, save for a child sized doll sitting in a chair.
The doll has a light blue dress, much like the specter, and long blonde hair, though her face is wizened and twisted instead of young and frightened. As the two frightened adventurers approach, the doll begins to move, looking up at them with mismatched eyes. One looks like shining glass, while the other glitters like sapphire.
Initiative
Doll
Eirikr
Morgraine
Evelyn
Tiferet
Vosi
Nathara
Inire
The doll hops down from it's chair and steps out of the house, looking around at the people coming toward her. She waves her hands and an icy wind lifts her into the air, levitating her high above their heads.
Eirikr is up!
Morgraine frowns, her eyes narrowing upon the doll as it rises above her head. How could I not have seen this coming before? To the others, she barks "I recognize it - It's a soul-bound guardian doll. There is a living soul stolen and trapped within it, bound by spell and acting at the command of its captor. You know who would create these things. There is a soul, it is susceptible to magic, even mind affecting spells even though it's technically a construct."
Eirikr curses under his breath as Inire escapes as his grasp; he had been certain for a moment that he had managed to catch her but something had apparently happened in that intervening moment and she had gotten away. He looks up in the direction of the hut to see the little doll begin to float in the air. So, not a ghost--not a ghost but something worse, a doll, like the ones the children back in his village would've played with--but wrinkled and decrepit, like an old crone, and now it was flying, just like he imagined a witch would do.
He hears Morgraine's warning--a soul trapped in a doll--doubtless the not-ghost they had been chasing through the maze of ice. A child, younger than he had been when he had lost his parents, murdered by witches and now locked in slavery in a body that seemed to mock them--
So this is the kind of monster Irrisen will send against them--well, he can be a worst kind of monster. Eirikr closes his eyes, images of biting fangs and ripped flesh flooding his mind, his body shifting and growing as he does--and when he opens his eyes again they've changed as well, his irises red the color of curdling blood and his corneas black the sky at dusk--he was ready, ready to be a monster.
Eirikr changes to his more bestial form and sends Ashen in to the fray. Morgraine recognizes the creature and with her insight, learns how to better fight against it.
Evelyn is up!
Evelyn Delays this round.
Eve holds back a moment, considering her options.
Tiferet is up!
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Tiferet remembers when she was little, and the stories her mother used to tell to scare her. Do you know what happens to young misses who don't behave? she would ask after one too many escapades through Oppara's alleys, getting into fights with her male cousins. The Witch comes, and syphons their souls away, leaving only empty, withered husks behind. Many dolls the Witch has in her hut far, far North; and each one contains the soul of an unruly girl who wouldn't listen to her parents. They scream and beg, but no-one can hear them, oh no. And sometimes, the Witch picks up one doll and carries it away into the dark, cold wilderness, and she's never heard of again.
So terrified had Tiferet been of this horrible fate, that once she'd grown up, she dug up every information she could about Irrisen's Soulbound Dolls. The truth, as it happened, turned out to be even more chilling than the tale. I should have thought about it when she mentioned the doll. Hers must be the soul fuelling this abomination. She was trying to lead us here so that we could destroy her prison.
"They're imbued with cold magic and only vulnerable to weapons infused with arcane energies" she elaborates on Morgraine's warning as she channels her own eldritch power into the arrow she's nocking. "Their powers are both telekinetic and psychic in nature, and what they see, the Witches know" she adds, the unsettling memory of the Irriseni mirrors coming back to her mind.
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Tiferet's arrow flies wide, missing the doll by quite a bit. The doll turns to look at the skald for a moment, but then turns away, not looking impressed or worried. Though it's hard to make out an expression on a doll's immobile face.
Vosi looks at the doll and flies in close, unleashing a burst of light an color into her face. Vosi's power manages to penetrate the constructs innate resistance to arcane energies, but the doll's mind casts off his attempt to stun her.
Nathara is up!
Nathara has only vague memories of stoires of the white witches and would certainly not have a recognized if Inire and Tifieret hadn't mentioned it.
Her voice is surprisingly calm, yet the demon's fury, a cold fury is awake in her: "Then see the fire free the soul within puppet and hear my vow: By the Dawnflower, the same fire shall burn you out of the face of the world, forever and ever." Alright, she did not necessarily intend to fulfill this vow literally, but fight this winter witch she would.
With the grace of the arcane dancer she slips around the creature but instead of simply coming to a halt she lets puts all the force into her claw tops, from which an arch flames shoots out against the doll.
Nathara's power cuts straight through the dolls defenses, spraying fire into the air and igniting her clothes for a moment. The doll shudders, desperately patting out the flames before she outright catches fire.
Inire is up!
Inire looks around. There was no way she could realistically affect the doll directly from where she currently was. She casts a quick look into the hut. With nothing she was actually capable of doing, Inire ducks into the hut, her well-trained eyes quickly scouring the hut for anything dangerous or useful. "If we get into cover, it will have to come down to affect us!" she calls to the others.
The doll looks down at Inire hiding inside, but doesn't move after her yet. Instead, she points at Nathara and a blast of frigid cold erupts all around the tiefling.
While the cold is extremely uncomfortable for her, it's not strong enough to inflict any significant harm. However, the icy blast makes it hard to move and the impact force leaves her reeling after just a single blow.
Eirikr is up!