Laurel steps in front of the others protectively. "We have already paid your toll." He opens his mouth to show the missing tooth. "We shall not pay the same toll again. For if we had to, word would spread of your disorganization and unfairness, and others would not come and pay your toll fairly. You wouldn't want that, would you?" He offers with a raised eyebrow.
Mithralline nods at Laurel's words, and swings her lance to rest on her shoulder, in easy position to bring it to bear if she should need to. Far be it from her to allow these little fairies to leave her toothless like an old grandma!
Aralah starts to slowly back down the steps as Luarel gets the fey's attention not wanting to be so close if they decide not to listen to his words.
One proclaims "Prince Uspid? He's the newest ruler of the Palace of Teeth! All hail Prince Uspid, ruler of the teeth!". They all raise their pliers, cheering in unison.
The fey shake their head at Laurel "No, no! You paid toll for yesterday! Today is no day, new toll! Prince Uspid demands fresh teeth each day, that is his rule!"
Still, Laurel's words give them pause as they look among each other. After some small chat between themselves, they offer "We will settle for one tooth per two people."
The teeth police do not seem to notice Aralah as she backs away from them, conversing with Laurel and Sam instead.
Laurel smiles, crossing his arms. "Ah, but you see, we never left. The toll is to enter. It is your own rules. How would anyone come to stay here for more than a few weeks if every day a tooth was required? Even if they were generous and gave all of their teeth, you would still be forced to kick them out!" Laurel shakes his head. "Now, think of how many teeth will be gathered if people know you are fair with your rules. Perhaps you won't get as many teeth per person, but with more people visiting you will get more teeth! Not to mention that they will be teeth from different people, diversity in molars must be important as well."
He leans in close, as if telling them a secret. "And also, we come from an entire village of people who have just arrived here. If we go back and spread word of your fairness, just imagine how many others will be persuaded to visit!"
The group converses again, huddling up as they try to come to a decision. After breaking their huddle, the one who has been doing the talking says in his high pitched voice "Okay. We will agree to a toll of one tooth now among you with agreement that you will send your village here to visit!"
The remainder of the fey all nod along in agreement, overjoyed at the prospect of dozens and dozen of teeth.
Likely the best we can do. "I will inform the villages, telling them of your location and the wonders here to see, as well as your fairness. I cannot promise all will come, for I cannot force them and Pharasma must be willing, but I will tell them of the opportunity they must avoid missing."
Laurel turns to Sarela, taking a deep breath. "Take one. The same side, if you will, I want to ensure I can still chew on one side without pain." He says solemnly.
Aralah is relieved when Laurel talks the pesky fey down and volunteers himself for the extraction. Her face tenses and she shivers a bit as she watches knowing what is to come but glad it is not happening to her.
Sarela carefully and quickly extracts a single tooth from Laurel. If they had to be here another day, maybe Sarenrae would grant them the ability to kill them with fire.
Mithralline frowns and shakes her head. Sure, it was effective, but so is her lance. She sighs.
"Might as well go see this Prince Uspid," she suggests.
Once they are handed the bloddy tooth, the fey fly off declaring victory and discussing all of the teeth they are going to get from the villages coming this way.
Once the fey are gone, Aralah once again ascends up the stairs and this time reaches the top uninterrupted. A narrow balcony surrounds the grand staircase and the fountain below. Stairs descend from the east and west and 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.
Aralah is moves along the western side of the balcony toward the stage and gives it a curious look, seeing the bizarre scene, though it doesn't surprise her all that much considering the propensities of their current 'hosts'. As long as the doll doesn't magically spring to life, she will leave it be and continue on her way up the hallway to scout ahead.
By this point she has given up on stealth since the pesky fey seem to see her every time anyway, but makes sure to keep an eye out for any traps or threats.
Sam pats Laurel affirmingly on the knee. "That was very smart and well handled. But I'm a little worried about these tooth fairies... How many teeth will they want? We might need to leave or..." she shudders in horror "It could come to a fight..."
Aralah studies the dolls from the opposite side of the room, waiting to see if they move or react in any way. The dolls both sit lifelessly on the stage, unmoving. After she feels comfortable that they are indeed not moving, she signals the group to advance and she begins to lead the group south along the western corridor. When she gets close to the stage however, something happens with the dolls.
The barber surgeon doll glass eyes glisten with unmistakable curiosity as it comes to life with a fluid grace. and calls out loudly in the room, "Next patient, please!" while the other doll rises from the chair, hand over its bloody mouth. A third doll rises from behind the curtain on the back of the stage also holding a hand over its bloody mouth and shaking his head at the surgeon. The surgeon looks to Aralah and shouts "Your turn!"
Aralah freezes as the dolls come to life, when the creepy surgeon doll looks to her and shouts she visibly shivers and shakes her head and exclaims "Nuh uh... not gonna happen!" She promptly moves away from the stage to put some space between her and the creepy dolls, pulling out an arrow to have it at the ready.
Sarela looks in the room and sees the dolls, then says, ”These dolls are sentient, containing a fragment of another living creature’s soul!”
A soulbound doll’s body is made from wood, stone, or porcelain, with one exquisite item worth at least 300 gp to serve as the soul focus. Creation requires a soul fragment from a deceased creature that must die at some point during the creation of the doll—as a result, most soulbound dolls are created by evil spellcasters. Other spellcasters can create soulbound dolls, but if the donor soul is unwilling, they may have alignment repercussions. An unwilling soul can resist the procedure if they are especially willful. Stripping a soul fragment from the dead does not prevent the rest of the soul from continuing on to the afterlife, nor does it prevent the body from later being resurrected or raised from the dead.
These tiny constructs can see perfectly in the dark and the weakened conviction of a soulbound doll’s soul makes it susceptible to mind-affecting effects, despite the fact that it is a construct. Their construction negates damage from everything but magical attacks.
The soul bound to the doll lives within a focus integrated into the doll or its apparel, typically one of the doll’s eyes or a gem embedded into its neck or chest. As long as this soul focus remains intact, it can be used to animate another doll, using the same cost as creating a new construct. Once bound into the soul focus, the soul continues to learn, and so if later it is put into a new doll body, the soul retains its personality and memories from its previous body or bodies.
Sam pats Laurel affirmingly on the knee. "That was very smart and well handled. But I'm a little worried about these tooth fairies... How many teeth will they want? We might need to leave or..." she shudders in horror "It could come to a fight..."
"Don't worry, I can handle these things. It wouldn't be much of a fight," Mithralline assures her halfling friend.
She looks at Sarela.
"So are these things evil? I mean, everything here is dead already, so could the rules be different?"
”No, but they also aren’t alive - they are constructs made of soul fragments. Typically an evil spell caster will create them. There is a focus containing the soul somewhere on them - likely a gem in the eye. Shattering it will free the soul. They are vulnerable to mental effects.”
Sam looks shocked "So you mean we would have to fight and destroy them to free those poor souls!?"
"Yes. I should, however, point out that the rest of the soul has journeyed onto its final rest and been judged by Pharasma. These are only animated by a fragment of the soul. There may be other spells that could free the soul fragment, but I do not of any off-hand."
The doll sees the others talking and shouts louder, looking at Mithralline. The tiny dolls puts its hands on its hips and looks at her sternly. In an authoritative voice it says "You! The bloody one! It's your turn! Don't make me come get you!"
Aralah calls out to the creepy doll wanting to pull more teeth "Hey! We've already given the fey teeth. You do not get any, why don't you focus on your little friends and leave us be?"
Sam looks quizzically at the doll. "And who are you? Prince Uspid?"
"What?! cries the surgeon, "I'm his dentist!. Fine, if you don't want to come, then I'll help you along!" He says as she moves to the western side of the room and starts chanting some type of incantation. The other two dolls move off the stage and move towards the party along the balcony.
Dolls? Now they had to fight dolls!? Could this get any more absurd?
"Your dentistry is unwanted, and your fate is already sealed. Ill fortune shall be upon you!"
Sarela then began giggling at the silliness of hexing a doll.
Aralah is more than happy to try and put an end to the creepy dentist doll. She looses two arrows hoping to kill the thing, or at least cause it to become distracted from whatever it is attempting to do.
HP 22/22
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 14, CMD 17 (+1 dodge bonus against Large creatures; +2 vs. Huge or bigger creatures)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +0
Challenge: 0/1; Tactician (4 rounds): 0/1
Effects: Bless, enlarge (+2 damage, 2d6 weapon dmg, -2 AC)?
Mithralline moves into position and jabs at the nearest doll.
"You were right! It is my turn!" she says happily.
Both of Aralah's shots miss, but Mithralline's lance connects with the tiny creature ten feet away. Her strike meets with some resistance due to the nature of what the dolls are made out of, but her damage is still noticeable as she cuts an arm off of the doll.
The doll is willful enough to ignore Sarela's gigglging.
"I do not like dolls," she says as she pulls an arrow from her quiver. Angrily adding "Be a good girl and play with your dolls. Good girls don't run around like a hooligan with the boys," as she draws back the bow to shoot.
"I am not a good girl!" she says with intensely as she shoots at the doll.
Sam looks at the deteriorating situation hopelessly. "Oh do we have to fight them? That might be a really bad idea..." But she decides she has to stick with her friends anyway and lifts her necklace.
Laurel sighs. Foul creatures made of twisted spirits. Sarenrae, please grant them your mercy. He moves up alongside Mith, scimitar coming down.
[dice=Crit Damage]1d6[/dice
Laurel moves up in front of Mithralline and buries his weapon into the doll, only barely injuring it.
The surgeon finishes doing whatever he was doing and slides his hands sideways across each other. Rose, Sam, Aralah and Sarela all suddenly find themselves extremely sleepy! The surgeon moves to the other side of the stage.
Meanwhile, the doll in the center also starts chanting like the surgeon just did, looking at Mithralline and Laurel this time.
The doll in front of Laurel moves into his space, trying to attack him with dagger.
Though her eyes start to feel heavy Aralah shakes off the effects of whatever the doll had just done.
She takes aim at the other doll now casting a spell hoping to stop it in its tracks, loosing two arrows.
Sarela barely keeps herself from falling asleep, shaking off the effects of the spell. She moves forward to try and keep the other two dolls in sight, pulling out her crossbow as she does so. She then fires a bolt at the one casting a spell.
HP 22/22
AC 16, touch 10, flat-footed 14, CMD 17 (+1 dodge bonus against Large creatures; +2 vs. Huge or bigger creatures)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +0
Challenge: 0/1; Tactician (4 rounds): 0/1
Effects: Bless
Mithralline, assuming Laurel can handle his foe, moves past him to take care of one of the other dolls trying to cast a spell. She jabs as she gets close to it.
Mithralline and Laurel combine together to put down the first doll that tried to close the gap between them. As the doll drops, a small red gem bounces from its head and falls out of its eye socket onto the floor.
Though both attacks hit, only Aralah's second attack causes damage to the tiny doll. It staggers back a half step from the blow, momentarily causing the creature to strain to continue its casting. The damage is further compounded with Sarela's strike also strikes the doll, once more causing injury to the creature. Just as Aralah's shot is, her damage is also reduced on the tiny doll.
Rose sees that her arrow had some effect and shoots it again, "Go away foul doll."
Sam casts guidance on Aralah and stays ready to wake anybody up.
Sarela moves forward behind Laurel and reloads her crossbow.
Rose's crossbow hits, but once again doesn't do enough damage to injure the doll.
The damage that Aralah and Sarela inflict on the doll is sufficient to cause interrupt its casting and make it lose the spell it had intended to use on your party.
With no more spells at their disposal, the tiny dolls are forced to enter melee combat with the party which is devolves into a complete slaughter. As they creatures approach, Mithralline and Laurel keep damaging the as they try to get withing striking range while Rose, Aralah and Sarela all continue to fire projectiles which further slow the down. In another ten seconds, both dolls are down on the ground.
Each of the three dolls has a red gem that falls out of their eye and there is a strange looking rod up on the stage.
"Devil dolls, tooth fairies, what's next?" says Rose with a hint of exhaustion in her voice.
Aralah nods to Rose's words "I wonder what this Prince Uspid is going to end up being. This is all very, very bizarre." She goes to work retrieving any of her arrows that are still salvageable and then moves up the hall and around the corner when the others are ready to check the last remaining door.
Poor unfortunate souls. "Rose, did you say we should break these gems? That is where the soul fragments are held, yes?"
Sarela says, "Yes, that is the focus for the construct's spell, and where the soul fragment is bound. Breaking them should release the fragment."
Suiting words to deed, Sarela stomps on one of them.
It has no effect.
Mithralline shakes her head.
"It's not a wedding, girl," she says in mock reproof. "You need to put some muscle into it."
She goes to stomp on it ... and misses entirely, letting out a loud laugh at her own mistake.
"There, like that!" she says as she finds her mark the second time.
The gem shatters under Mithralline's second attempt, scattering the expensive jewel fragments across the floor. There are two more unbroken gems left.