”I can’t believe that we’re letting a bloody pot beat us. A pot! People are dying and our arses are the ones getting cooked.” He didn’t want to retreat, but he certainly wasn’t about to stay by himself.
You manage to crowd outside the door between the hut and the whirlwind. Although the wind doesn’t lessen, the cauldron is unwilling or unable to follow you out, giving you time to formulate a new strategy.
”Bloody Fookin’ Abyss! Wish the witch would just talk to us.” Bolkvar shouted into the wind. ”Maybe we need to break the pot to break the spell?”
"Maybe. I feel a strange connection to that yellow glow, but have no idea why. I am concerned about that pot. It redirected my last attack to Mathine. This is some dark magic. I gotta admit, this hut is scaring the bejeezus out of me. Kali, I am willing to watch the fox if you can see if you can hurt that pot."
”I don’t think that’s the witch sitting in there in that chair,” Mathine says. ”I touched the shoulder and it didn’t feel like a person—even a dead one—and when the wind started blowing around in there, it twitched the blankets and I saw sticks like those supporting those flying fetishes. The yellow glow from the head, though, I don’t know.”
Kali turns and hands Oryn the fox, then walks inside and starts looking for the rat tail. She completely ignores the pot.
While Kali may be ignoring the pot, the pot doesn’t return the favour. As soon as she enters, the cauldron moves on her and chomps.
The cauldron latches on to her leg and doesn’t let go.
"Quit it you jerk. I'm trying to save lives. You're naughty."
Oryn sees the cauldron grab Kali and says to Rao "Here, hold the fox. I am going in to try and save Kali."
Unable to establish a good grip, Oryn's hands slip from Kali's and fails to pull her free from the cauldron.
"Shoot! This darn thing has really got a hold of you."
Unable to pull Kali free, Oryn attempts to stab the cauldron again with his spear. He is not sure it is safe to use his Kinetic ability on the cauldron
"Can't even dent this thing."
Bolkvar, Rao, care to take some shots at it or help Kali escape? Others can also try to assist Kali in escaping by making Grapple checks or Escape Artist checks of DC 10 to give her each a +2 bonus to her attempt to get away.
"Please let go. I don't want to hurt you."
"Please let go. I don't want to hurt you."
Escape Artist or Grapple check to try to get out?
”I’ve had bloody ENOUGH!” Bolkvar roared. A boulder coalesced into his hands, starting as pebbles and growing larger and larger. With fire in his eyes he lifted the rock over his head and sent it flying towards the pot.
Wham! Bolkvar’s boulder makes a massive dent in the side of the cauldron.
Mathine reaches in to help pull Kali free.
Kali has a +2 bonus to her check to escape.
Kali, with Mathine’s help, pulls her leg free and retreats to outside. The cauldron doesn’t follow.
”It’s not bloody down?!” Bolkvar yelled in disbelief. ”Well if it won’t follow, then let’s blast it from here!” Another stone formed in his hand, which he launched at it, from his (perceived) point of safety.
Bolkvar’s second boulder slams into the cauldron again, cracking it in two. As the cauldron’s pieces settle on the floor of the hut, the circling winds die down to nothing.
As Bolkvar's boulder breaks the cauldron, Oryn gasps "Wow! That's quite a powerful blast you've got there. We really needed it."
Looking around at the group, Oryn claims "We all need some bandaging. Let me see if I can help everyone with their wounds."
The grass fetishes return to the ground, all of them dropping pole first into the ground. You’re not sure, but you think they may have returned in the exact same configuration that they started in.
Searching of the hut, examining the bundle in the chair, or combination of the two?
Oryn will search the hut
”Just got lucky. I’ll help ya search this place right proper. Remember everyone, we’re only here for the medicine. If it ain’t that, we leave it.”
Kali starts moving into the cabin as soon as the cauldron drops, looking for what they need.
As folks start poking around the shelves, the thin voice comes again from the bundle in the chair. ”Be gone thieves! Vandals! Be gone with you!”
"Be quiet murderer." responds Kali to the voice without stopping what she's doing or looking towards the chair. "You're losing so NOW you want to try and negotiate? I don't think so. We tried to talk to you nicely, but clearly that's not something you're interested in. You'd rather just allow alot of people to die painfully because of your ego."
Impressed with the words Kali has spoken Oryn adds
"Yeah, time for talking is over. When we find what we are looking for we will leave behind what we think is a fair trade. Whether you think it is fair or not is no longer our concern."
Oryn resumes his search for the elusive Rat's Tail.
”Guys, I don’t know what it is, but I really don’t think that’s a person under those blankets,” Mathine says.
"I'm sure it's a fey of some kind." said Kali distractedly.
”No, it’s like the things outside,” Mathine replies. She grabs the musty blanket and pulls, sending a grass and stick fetish tumbling out of the chair. A desiccated, shrunken head falls out of the fetish and bounces along the floor of the hut. The strange yellow glow that tugs at Oryn emanates from its mouth, the mouth that moves as it continues to berate you in that high-pitched voice.
Bothered by the talking head, Oryn kicks it towards the hut's door in hopes that he can get it out of the hut.
"Keep looking, I am going to see if this head and those things around the hut are somehow connected."
Oryn continues to kick the tiny head until it goes out the door and looks to see what, if anything, happens to the fetishes outside the hut.
”Ahhhh!!!” the head screams at the first kick. The yellow glow from its mouth grows stronger. The head puckers its cheeks, like it’s ready to blow out a candle, and blows a strong gale right at Oryn. It looks exactly like one of Oryn’s air blasts.
The blast of air goes over Oryn’s shoulder and slams into the hut’s roof, blasting sticks, mud, and dried thatch to dust that rains down on you.
Oryn picks up the head with the face pointing away from him and moves to leave the hut.
"Nice trick. Everyone get out of the way. I'm taking this thing out of here."
Once outside the hut Oryn looks to see if he can find a rock or something heavy that he can stuff into the mouth of the head all while carefully keeping the mouth facing away from himself and everyone else.
”Gods above and below, I hate this place...” Bolkvar muttered, glad to let Oryn deal with this threat.
As Oryn prepares to stuff a rock in its mouth, he sees the source of the yellow glow: a platinum ring with a yellow topaz the size of his thumbnail. Something about the ring is so familiar, like the memory of something he once owned. Though he knows he’s never owned anything so fine before, just as certainly he knows that this ring belongs to him.
Oryn reaches into the mouth and carefully removes the platinum ring.
"Would you look at that."
Oryn recalls a story his grandfather told him about an heirloom that had been in their family for many generations.
"Our family heirloom was originally a piece of yellow topaz encased in some granite. When the local jeweler was given the stone by a woodsman who found the stone after a thunderstorm.
The jeweler hired the best gem cutter in the region to extract the topaz from the granite and cut it into a gem worthy of the best setting the jeweler had in his shop. After several days of getting everything just right, a gorgeous platinum ring with one of the largest topaz stones was made.
He originally planned on selling the ring, but instead just built the best display case he could for it. For years, customers would come into his shop and admire the ring. His shop prospered until one day a rogue of great infamy heard about the ring and decide to steal it. During a stormy night the rogue's plan was executed flawlessly. He poisoned the guards and dogs and disabled all the locks put in place to keep the store and ring safe. Thinking he was free and clear with his prize, the rogue was knocked free from his horse when a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. The fall knocked the rogue unconscious and he was arrested the following morning.
The jeweler passed the ring down from oldest son to oldest son for several generations until it was given to me. When I bought our farm here in Carpenden Plains, I had to travel through Falcon's Hollow. The nearby river was overflowing from a heavy rainstorm and the road through Falcon's Hollow was flooded. We took a detour around Darkwood Vale when our caravan was attacked by bandits. Our caravan guards were overwhelmed and the thieves took off with everything I had - ring included.
That is the last time I saw the ring. It is a shame you never got to see it."
A smile came across Oryn's face as he looked at the ring. A strange curiosity came over him, similar to the one he had with the tornado. In spite of some internal mental resistance, Oryn placed the ring on his right hand.
With the removal of the ring from the shrunken head, the fetishes instantly deteriorate and rot away, as if extreme age have finally caught up with them. The iron cauldron similarly disintegrates into a pile of rust.
With the seemingly end to any immediate threat, you’re able to thoroughly search the shelves. You find what you assume to be a few hundred gold pieces worth (to the right buyer) of magical reagents, all necromantic in nature, a few fragile and musty books in a small chest devoted to herbs and diseases, a hand-sized crystalline carving of a tree leaf that feels lighter than it looks, six small bottles with liquids that look suspiciously like potions, a slender wand of poplar wood, and, among several vile jars of things the stuff of nightmares, one jar with tree roots that exactly match the description of Rat’s Tail.
With the discovery of the jar containing the tree roots, Oryn shouts:
"I think we found it! Take a look at this jar."
As the group looks over the jar, Oryn breathes a sigh of relief.
Still dubious, Mathine steps carefully back into the hut, examining its contents with slight distaste. "I was never much of an herbalist, and this isn't exactly changing my mind," she says half to herself. "None of these look like something a priest of any holy religion would approve much of. Although, the leaf is pretty. And at least we found this rat's tail."
"or something. The head had this nice ring."
Oryn puts out his right hand and claims
"The ring is magical and was causing the winds. Ulizmila is nowhere to be found, but I think that old witch is somehow responsible for the attacks. We have been lucky so far, maybe we should count our blessings and move on. What do you think Bolkvar? Time to go find your ancestral ruins?"
Kali checks the jar and confirms whether or not it's what the group is looking for.