"For certain values of 'money', sure," Gabriella snarks as she picks up her backpack. "Although, given the reception we've received so far, I don't know how much good 'money' will do us."
Ellie shrugs, and gives Gabbi a hesitant smile. "I don't disagree, but, uh, they have something we need if we're going to get out of here before that skeleton lady comes back for us."
"Should we collect its tooth-studded hands? Money is money, right."
She helps Elka gather as many teeth as possible from among the shards of glass. "Good thinking - I'd rather use these than my own!" She flashes the changeling a smile.
A wide stair ascends to the north, splitting into two graceful arches leading to a balcony that rings this room. The banisters are all made of elegant wrought iron, with teeth jutting from the ironwork and affixed to the railing. Three hanging lanterns of cut crystal illuminate the room. An elaborate fountain bubbles merrily in the center of the room, spilling water down a series of stylized flowers into a wide basin below. Teeth have been scattered in this fountain, partially obscuring a colorful mosaic.
Five more tooth fairies flutter out to confront you as you enter. They chatter something in an unfamiliar language. When they realize you don't understand, one points to your mouths, then holds up four dirty fingers. The others giggle and clank their pliers eagerly.
Ellie looks thoughtful as she tries to remember what she knows about fey in general and tooth fairies in particular.
"Looks like they want... our teeth? Four from each of us, or four in total?" She frowns, and holds out some of the teeth they have collected, momentarily taking one hand off her flail to do so. Hopefully the fairies will accept them instead.
"I'm not keen on giving them our teeth. But I'm, uh, even less keen on staying here longer than we need to."
"If they want any of my teeth, they're welcome to come and try to take them," Gabriella says with a smile. She tosses her bag of teeth towards one of the fey.
The fairies scowl at the bags of teeth. They shake their heads disdainfully and point again to your mouths.
Ellie remembers tooth fairies are created when a willful child’s tooth (or, rarely, a whole child) is buried in a place with strong connections to the mysterious realm of the fey. Wicked and capricious, tooth fairies delight in spreading fear and pain, and have a perverse need to steal the teeth of humanoid creatures. These fey resist weapons not made of cold iron. They can paralyze with a bite and use their pliers to steal teeth and pinch fingers. When killed, they explode into clouds of sickening white dust.
"It doesn't look like they want old ones - only fresh is good enough. So I guess this is going to go the other way," Gabbi snarls.
She kicks the bag of teeth over towards the fairies and readies her crossbow in the same movement. She bares her extended incisors meaningfully.
Though taken aback by Gabby's snarl, the fairies swoop in to attack!
Gabby's shot sails past the diminutive menaces! Ulrich begins to cast a spell.
"Oh hell no!", yells Elká as she flies at the nightmarish fey. There's a hint of fear in her voice, but no fear shows in the way she engages the little menaces, intending to rip and tear, rip and tear.
Elka rips two of the fairies apart! They explode into clouds of sparkling white dust that stinks of rotten teeth. The remaining three reach out with their pliers! She fends two of them off, but one yanks a tooth painfully from her mouth! Blood flows as the creature chortles in victory!
Ulrich finishes his spell, but the fairies resist it!
"I'm going tho thoock you up!", screams an enraged changeling as blood gushes down her chin. She unleashes her inner hag upon the fey, spitting blood at them while shouting the foulest of profanities. The one bit about how she'll keep the fey alive long enough for them to be painfully aware of slowly being eaten by rats is one that might stick with you for a while.
Elka pulverizes another fairy, but the second dodges her swipe!
Ellie shouts her defiance at the winged creatures, swiping at them with her flail.
Another fairy explodes into stinky dust!
Alessandra grabs the last one and blasts it with negative energy till it pops! The enemies have been defeated!
"My footh! Pwease, hewhp!"
Ellie scrabbles around in the vile fairy dust until she finds the tooth. "Don't worry! A bit of healing magic and you'll be fine - I think..."
Kamosh flutters down and helps Ellie search for the tooth.
As Ellie grasps the tooth Alessandra marches over, her canines extended. She bites her own thumb, grabs the tooth and smears her own blood over the root.
"Head back." She says, all business. "I'll try to make sure this doesn't hurt too much." Then she carefully slides the tooth back into the hole, one hand holding Elka hard around the jaw to stop her moving until the tooth wriggles into its hole and settles.
"There. It should stop hurting in a minute. I'm not a full vampire but our blood still has some useful side effects!" She says, smile returned.
"So from now on we just jump them? They seem to want all offerings fresh..."
Gabriella watches her sister's ministrations with flared nostrils and heavily lidded eyes. Those same eyes follow the lines of blood down the changeling's jaw. She bites her lip and turns away taking a steadying breath.
"Hopefully we'll be able to deal with these fey without too much more trouble," she says. "We're going to need to rest soon and replenish some of our resources."
And the call is so much harder to resist when we're tired.
Alessandra shares a glance with her sister, sucking on her finger as she does so - not the one she bit but the other one that she used to swipe a streak of blood from Elka's chin as she replaced the tooth. She sucks on it like a child with a treat, as she nods.
"Yeth. Go, quicklhty!"
Elká gags when the healing takes effect and turns around to cough. She gathers a ton of phlegm after the worst of it is over and then lets go of something in between barfing and a sigh of relief. "By Rovagug's dingleberries, this brings me back to the day I partied with a bunch of Orcish traders. Tip, never ever drink their home-made moonshine - unless you like the experience of barfing out of five holes at once."
Ellie nods in agreement about the need for rest, soon. "It's been a long day." Her own muscles are aching slightly: the flail is not a finesse weapon. But, it sure is effective.
She reaches round with one arm and rubs at a knot between her shoulder blades. As she does so, she catches the look the two sisters exchange. What's with them?... oh. Oh. Right. Blood.
Blushing, and pretending she hasn't seen anything, she laughs a little bit too obviously at Elka's story. "Ha, ha, homemade moonshine!"
She clears her throat. "Uh, right. Let's move on, shall we?"
Moving to the front at least means that she doesn't have to catch anyone's eye.
"I wish I could do that, though not necessarily in the same manner." Says Ulrich, more to himself than anyone in particular. He reloads his crossbow and sighs. He was about to dip into another negative spiral of thoughts when Elka mentioned Rovagug's dingleberries, which makes him snap out of it and look at her with curiosity. "Partying with Orcish merchants? I understand you come from the wild lands, Elka, but this sounds like a tall tale to me. You also did not go blind by their concoctions." Still, Ulrich says this in a more humorous tone, rather than dismissal.
Elká shrugs at Ulrich to dismiss the notion she might be lying. "I used to hunt and sell whatever I managed to catch. Hides, meat, the works. And this might surprise you, but there are plenty of honest orc merchants out there and yes, some of them make their way to trading spots near the Coffer. Those orcs like to trade away gold for actually useful goods and hey, who am I to deny them that? They say 'gold is trouble's mating cry'. Hrm, come to think of it, I sure hope they weren't talking about me ... oh well, that's all over now, what with us being 'dead-not-dead' and the Coffer being, eh, vacant."
"What killed em, or us, or them, again?"
"Honest orc merchants?" Asks Ulrich as he starts to follow Ellie's lead. "Well, I suppose stranger things have happened."
"Hey!"
Ellie spins round at the Doctor's comments, her gaze aflame as she speaks, furious and rapid.
"And when the Twisted Nail, or whatever they call themselves, invaded Roslar's Coffer twelve years ago you should know that the friendlier tribes helped defend the town. I've read the reports. It didn't help much, but that's not the point. They stayed, they fought, and they died alongside my brother."
"So take your prejudice and, and, and... well, take it somewhere else, OK?"
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards. Not all of them are subtle.
She glares at him, defiantly; although doubt is creeping in about the wisdom of her outburst.
The stairs lead up to a narrow balcony that surrounds the grand staircase and fountain below. Two hallways lead south.
The center of the south wall contains a small stage, raised two feet above the ground. The backdrop of the stage is a grimy city street, with a red-and-white striped pole. The stage contains a doll-sized reclining chair. A doll lies in the chair, its bloody mouth open wide. A second doll stands over the first, clad in a blood-spattered white smock like a barber-dentist, triumphantly holding aloft an extracted tooth
When you approach, the barber surgeon doll calls, "Next patient, please!" while the other doll rises from the chair, hand over its bloody mouth. They look at you expectantly.
*Chirp* "Holy f$&~."
Ulrich watches Ellie and waits for her to finish. A look of worry crosses his face. Not fear so much, but sadness. He casually bats Kamosh off his shoulder and waits for Ellie to say or do something. He offers no words himself.
Gabriella gives her sister a meaningful glance with a raised eyebrow and a smile as Ellie begins berating Ulrich angrily in Varisian.
~~~~~
"Oh, hell no!" the inquisitor says with a shake of her head. She raises her crossbow, takes aim and fires at the barber doll.
The crossbow bolt sinks into the barber doll's face. Undeterred, both dolls advance on you!
Gabbi's excitement at actually hitting her target is short lived as she reloads her weapon and fires again.
And the balance of her excitement vanishes entirely as her second shot flies completely over the top of the wooden dolls.
While their discussions and arguments might be grounded in reality, what they encounter here in the Great Beyond is anything but. Elká reels back in horror when dentist doll approaches her, mouth still aching from recently inflicted trauma. Fight, you coward!
And she does.
Gabby shoots the doll again, and Elka moves in to slash it with her claws. Though badly damaged, it still stands, as does its companion. Both dart under Elka's legs, dodging an opportunistic swipe, and stab tiny daggers at her. One plunges its blade into her thigh!
Soul bound dolls resist nonmagical weapons, but they are vulnerable to mind-affecting effects.
The dhampir steadies her aim and holds her breath as she pulls the trigger on her weapon, hoping to avoid hitting her comrade.
Ellie is thoroughly disconcerted by the Doctor's lack of a reply. Oh gods, I have seriously ticked him off. She lowers the finger that was pointing at him and takes a deep breath.
"Well, uh, well. Glad we've, uh, that we've..." she trails off, biting her lip as she resumes scouting the place.
Ellie rushes in to the room of horrors, glad of the distraction from her earlier blunder. She swipes at the nearest doll.
Gabby's sharpshooting takes down the barber doll. As it falls back on the stage, the striped barber pole wobbles and falls. Ellie rushes in and smashes the other one with her flail, leaving it badly damaged, but still fighting!
Creepy dolls however are not her idea of a good time and Alessandra steps in. "Stop that, before you hurt someone!" She says firmly, attempting to grasp the small thing.
Alessandra snatches up the doll, but the negative energy from her grasp doesn't seem to harm the unliving construct.
The tiny dagger finds its way through her armor and causes the changeling to lose her marbles. "AHHH! That hurts!!", Elká yells. Blood seeps from the wound and Elká eyes her damaged thigh before glaring at the remaining doll. "I'm going to screw your head off!!!"
Elka makes good on her threat, grabbing the doll by the head and twisting it off of its body. The doll falls limp in Alessandra's hands.
Each doll has a small onyx gem embedded in its chest. The gems are worth 300 gp each. The barber pole radiates strong magic.
"It's magical." Alessandra says, studying the pole. "Something about enhancing spells. Doc, any ideas?"
The doll head then flies through the air before hitting a nearby wall. The result is a soft thud that fails to fill Elká with a sense of satisfaction. She hisses and groans and slides down to the ground, clutching her blood-stained thigh. "I'd like to say that the system here in Pharasma's realm really doesn't work!"
"Do you need more healing?" Alessandra asks, squinting at the wound, although she doesn't come close enough to touch. Her hands open and close spasmodically at her side. "I could heal it, but there's only so much power in our blood - people become immune quickly."
"Hmhm," the changeling moans as pain causes her eyes to roll up. "That tiniest of daggers got me good."