The doll evades Yasami's strikes, like a fly refusing to be swatted.
Caiten recognizes the creature as a construct called a soulbound doll -- a plaything that has been imbued with a piece of a deceased mortal's soul. The soul usually resides within a gem embedded in the doll's chest, a gem which must be broken once the body is destroyed in order to free the soul fragment.
Such dolls are usually capable of strength beyond what one would expect of their small frames, including the ability to cast a single, powerful spell based upon the nature of their personality. Caiten also knows Sulee's hope is in vain, as they do not have a weakness to any particular type of damage.
Caiten and Oren both notice, as they enter the room, that the doorway right behind Yasami looks a bit off -- cloudy and shimmering slightly.
"... A Soul Doll. Pharasma would hate that. It is not going to be injured with Heal. Sorry Sulee, if you want to make it defecate you will have to try something else. My mental damage spells also aren't likely to do much to a construct. This one seems to be rather quick. Maybe Joran could hold it down."
Caiten notices the doorway is looking a bit strange, but doesn't have the time for analysis at the moment. He does comment quickly, "Yasami, you should consider repositioning. I don't like the look of that doorway behind you."
Cevendyl sends a dagger flying at the doll
Telekinetic Projectile
"Lisi's right, I think we just found our cube!"
Oren's Maul catches fire as he begins raging! He brings it down upon the doll, before taking a step to the south.
"Oooh there's a perfect idea Oren. Just shove the annoying thing into the cube."
Dario comes around the corner as quick as a blink, drawing both blade and gun in hand as he takes eyes upon the creature there before him. There was a terrible little monstrosity, a Soul Doll, and a grimace spread across his face as he lifted his pistol upwards.
"Oh, I hate that. I don't like that one bit." Dario mutters, aiming amidst the skirmish before finding a clear shot to fire.
The first shot sails over its head as it takes a swing at Yasami. He curses quickly in dwarven, reloading the gun once more before taking another shot. This one is far more accurate, aiming to nail the doll squarely in the back.
With a look of unbelief at the insanity of the evil doll, "Why you crazy, little, piece of...," Joran doesn't finish that sentence as his anger quickly rises and he strikes hard at the doll, hoping to smash the elusive and quite creepy doll.
Joran then sharply cuts his attention over by the door. Rolling his eyes, "Just freaking great. We've got a psycho doll and the blob to deal with at the same time. This is about to get real interesting," he says, the sarcasm undeniable.
"Is it immune to rocks, though," muses Lisi.
He casts a primal spell at the doll.
"If you clear the area near Ett, I can make it difficult to move through the area, by making a mud pit," he offers.
Oren and Joran continue to play a game of whack-a-mole in which the mole keeps winning, darting out of the way of their blows before they can land and frustrating both men.
Dario takes a shot and misses, then carefully lines up the next and scores a hit, chipping a shard off the side of the creepy face.
Lisi realizes it might be harder to dodge an entire rain of rocks from the sky, and he was right, at least one of his projectiles smacking into the doll and making the area around it tricky to stand it.
The doll has continued screeching its refrain while trying to pummel; Yasami, but upon being hit from behind, it turns to face Dario, his loud weapon drawing its attention. Shrieking with rage, the doll fires a ray of unholy, chilling darkness at him.
cold damage
The beam strikes Dario unexpectedly, a cold so deep it burned, reaching bone deep where it hit. The doll wasn't finished, tuning back to Yasami with another punch.
Cev runs into the room, firing a dagger straight at the doll. It lands true, skewering the doll's body and just scraping the crystal within, the doll momentarily shuddering from the blow.
Alak runs into the room, late to the show. As soon as the doll sees him it starts screaming even louder, ceasing to pay any attention to Yasami. "Oh I don't like that at all," Alak quipped.
He scores a glancing blow on the thing and mentally braces himself to be attacked by a child's plaything.
In the doorway behind Yasami, a perfectly rectangular block of clear gelatin begins to squick through the opening. It pours into the room, expanding as it does to it's full size, ten feet on a side, and moves to engulf the nearest targets -- Yasami, Cev, and the annoying little doll.
The doll avoids the cube as dextrously as it has many of your attacks, shoved away from Yasami and towards its new target, Alak.
Yasamina manages to BARELY move out of the way as the cube of jello appears in the room.
Never thinking she would be beaten up by a doll, she looks at her wounds, and spits out a bit of blood. "Could use some help, if anyone is available."
Immediately afterwards, she tightens the grip on the rapier and starts slashing at the cube, determined to cut it into little pieces.
Joran looks to the doll and then to the blob before deciding to follow the words of the poppet by attempting to shove it right into the blob.
He then takes a couple of more swings at the doll in case he wasn't able to quite get her in there.
Oren waves at Lisi, Caiten, Sulee, and Dario. "Stay away from the cube! Don't let it engulf you!"
And then he puts some distance between himself and it.
To avoid Engulf
To not be paralyzed
HP = 14 (26-12)
Caiten watches the cube come into the room and swallow Cevendyll. He takes a look at the structural cohesiveness of the Gelatinous Cube. "Well, that's going to be a problem. I don't think he will be able to cut himself free of that. I doubt that I would be able to either."
"Cevendyll, if you can hear me, don't cast anything with verbal components. If you need to, touch range Heal on yourself should be fine."
He turns to Joran. "Joran, I don't think you are doing so well with that mace. It looks absolutely tiny in your hands. I recommend using your normal flail. If it becomes damaged, I will repair it."
"Could use some help, if anyone is available."
Caiten looks at Lisi and then at the creepy doll. "Lisi, one of us needs to take care of Yasami since Cevendyll isn't currently able to. I think that your elemental spells have a better chance of damaging that doll than anything I could do."
Caiten Casts Heal on Yasami.
"Dario, it isn't what I had originally intended, but I can still do this for you." He Casts Stoke the Heart on Dario.
Hexes
Stoke the Heart
Phase Familiar
Needle of Vengeance
Cantrips
Shield
Forbidding Ward
Stabilize
Message
Guidance
1st
Heal
Magic Weapon
Magic Weapon
Lisi casts Scatter Scree again, targeting the doll and the gelatinous cube.
The cold burns deeply into his chest, his eyes closing tightly from the pain before he recovers again. Standing straight, he immediately reloads his pistol and takes aim once more.
"Is that the best you got?" Dario growls, cocking back the hammer of his pistol. The situation has changed drastically with the gelatinous cube having covered Cev and possibly the doll. With Caiten's magic, the pistol and blade begin to steam as the tips become alight with powerful magic. He lines up his shot against the targets that be and fires.
Yasami slices through a corner of the blob with her fan, the severed bit sloughing of and splashing in a liquid fashion on the stones at her feet, the part unable to rejoin the whole. Joran tries to shove the doll into the cube with very little luck, the nimble little brat still evading his strikes.
Oren swings his maul at the ooze and carves a huge rend into it, light refracting differently as the slime slurps back together behind his blow, a scar marking his hit.
Cevendyll, unfortunately, finds himself unable to dodge the unexpected arrival of the nearly invisible transparent cube. He feels a sharp burning all over as his flesh is exposed to the digestive acid, and every muscle in his body tenses painfully in a rictus fashion. Try as he might, he cannot move an inch -- not to swing a dagger, not to form the somatic components of spells, not even to speak. His senses still function, but only to feel the agony of being digested and to watch nearly helplessly as his friends carry on the fight.
He hears Caiten's words muffled through the slime, his advice about healing himself, and longs to shout back that he can't form the proper motions, but even his jaw is frozen in a grimace.
The cube moves so slowly that a multitude of Lisi's rocks splatter into its uppermost face, but the doll nearly avoids the rockfall entirely.
Dario's accuracy again saves the day as his bullet goes right through one of the doll's eyes. It's still mobile but it's moving more erratically and appears nearly destroyed.
The doll ignored the shot in spite of this, still screaming and attacking Alak with blind fury.
He holds a hand out as one might to hold off an angry child, but the doll runs up his arm and decks him in the nose, blood rushing everywhere as it breaks. "By hells' hairy sack, this thing needs put down!"
Alak takes a swing at it...
... And his sword cleaners the doll's head in two, leaving it motionless, lifeless, on the floor.
He turns his next two swings on the cube, careful to avoid slashing through Cev in the process.
Soulforging was, in its own ways, majestic ... and no one had seen Cev forge his armor before. The armor manifested as a tightly woven body suit which seemed to replace Cevendyl's clothing, but it gleamed with power. As the manifestation formed down his right arm and reached his Holy Symbol, the power surged: the reddness of his skin started to ebb as well.
"Mother of Magic, wisest of the gods, I need you. I need to release your font of healing within myself so that I can help my comrades. Guide me: my masters spoke of casters who used their mind & emotions to cast their spells without gestures or speaking: I desperately need to do this now."
Replace Somatic gestures in spellcasting
Replace Somatic gestures in spellcasting
"Kill it as fast as you can," says Lisitsei. "Oren, you need to close with it!"
Belatedly, he draws his rowanwood club.
"I think it was a good bit of repositioning. None of us will be doing much if we end up inside the thing."
You close your eyes to concentrate, shielding them from the stinging acid of the creature that has engulfed you, and you pray to your goddess with a clarity you've never felt before.
You have never before been so helpless. Always, you've had you magic to protect you, and now, unable to move, unable to speak, you know with absolute certainty that you are mere seconds from death, and there is nothing you can do about it. But on the other hand, there is nothing your goddess cannot do.
You feel it welling up from somewhere below you, a power beyond what you are normally capable of wielding. Like a rancher roping a wild stallion, you mentally, desperately grasp the strands of power that you know with certainty are emanating from the elf gate below you, and as your eyes flash open, they glow with the power of Yuelral's blessing, and you immediately harness the power to heal yourself.
The cube is indifferent to the suffering of the man trapped within it, and ever hungry, it moves to engulf more prey. It oozes northwest, attempting to engulf Joran and Alak.
Alak manages to say "Oh fu-" right before the cube overtakes him. In short order he is floating alongside Cevendyll and the ruined doll, helpless and motionless.
Joran manages to quickly sidestep his way out of the blob's path. But then he sees the fighter become engulfed. "Just great! Now it's got Alak. C'mon, people! Let's destroy this thing before it kills Alak and Cev!"
"I'll do what I can."
Caiten takes a closer look at Cevendyll trapped in the cube. "I didn't know Cevendyll wore armor."
"Thank you!", Yasamina shouts as some of her wounds close up. She attempts to slice a little more, to get access to Cevendyll, and then reaches into the cube to pull him out.
Bad cube! Let go!"
Heal 1
Heal 2
Heal 3
+1 HP for Fast Healing
Unparalyze Self
Unparalyze Self (Hero Point)
Unparalyze Self (Spend all Hero Points (3) to avoid "death")
Dropping the weapons in his hands, Joran draws his war flail - which feels FAR more comfortable - and brings it down hard and fast toward the massive blob of death.
Managing to FINALLY hit something, "OH YEAH! NOW WE'RE TALKING! C'MON, BLOB! I GOT MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" he yells maniacally.
"Well, we now have two allies in this Gelatinous Cube." Caiten looks at the sword he is holding. "I don't think attacking it myself is the best use of my capabilities." He looks around at the other people who are still free.
Caiten casts Magic Weapon and passes the magic to Sulee. "Sulee, go deliver this to Dario and his pistol." That will also get you into a safer position.
Caiten also Sustains the spell already in effect on Dario.
Sulee accepts the magical effect. "On it."
She runs over to Dario. "Dario, drop your pistol down here for just a second."
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Decided it would be dramatically appropriate for Cev to go "all in" on his Hero Point expenditure. GM: will 4 Hero Points be sufficient for Cev to break free?
Okay so I am not sure if this is a thing I can do, but why not try?
Joran heaves his flail back and forth and sends huge gouts off slime splattering away, leaving the cube a large concave indent and managing to avoid whacking Cev or Alak in the process. The ooze begins to quiver, its structural stability decreased dramatically.
Dario lowers his weapon for the poppet to transfer Caiten's magic over, his eyes focused on the mindless creature that is slowly consuming his comrades one by one. With the pistol reloaded, enchanted, and steaming with eldritch power, he lifts the barrel once more and takes aim.
"Here goes nothing..." Dario murmurs, firing the pistol off. He twirls it in his hand, popping open the loader and dumping another bullet and charge within. Snapping it close, he fires off another shot at the massive ooze, hoping the impact of his weapon will help blow the thing apart.
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Yasami reaches into the small slash she cut in the slime and clamps her hand down on Cev's collar. Immediately she can feel her arm going numb and her muscles freezing up -- but they freeze with the fabric of Cev's attire in her grasp. The paralysis is spreading quickly, her face, her other arm, her torso losing feeling. With the last bit of effort her legs can manage, she throws herself backwards and Cev's form follows her out, birthed onto the ground covered in clear acidic slime. He still lies paralyzed, half strewn across her as she finds herself in a similar state, prone on the floor.
Dario and his weapon are both aglow with Caiten's magic, and his shots blow holes in the cube, carefully aimed to miss Alak. By the time he's done, the cube is more of an abstract art piece, huge pieces missing from the barrage of attacks, barely holding itself together.
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Yasamina barely manages to pull out Cevendyll, and a stream of drool trickles down her cheek as she joins Cev in a paralysed state.
Lisi moves up and swings at the cube with his rowan club.
"Unnatural thing," growls the half-elf, with understated vehemence. "This should do you in, you wizard's folly."
Caiten prepares to cast Stabilize on Cevendyll, but realizes that he doesn't need to. "Cevendyll, you look to be in remarkably good condition for having spent that much time in a Gelatinous Cube."
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Cevendyll is extremely quiet as he first shakes off the paralysis of the cube ...
”Friends, this is not good fortune, and it is well beyond a blessing. I did not think I would rejoin you, but I prayed to my goddess to deliver me, as she saw fit, yet as her servant, she showed me I have much to learn.”
His smile widens
”I prayed very simply, for what I understood might be possible, yet Yuelral in her Wisdom, opened doors for me. In her grace, she created a conjunction; she joined nature, the divine, the arcane, and the occult to connect me to the Aiudara below us and allow me to pull its power through me. With my mind alone, I soulforged my armor, and I cast enough healing on myself to eliminate all of my wounds.”
Cev bows and also shakes his head …
”I know you know I am priest and servant to a goddess. I know you know that with all humility, I am actually accustomed to having my prayers answered; it is what we do. This is not that. Only The Wise could forge a Creative Intercession like this, at the same time connecting me with the ancient magic she gifted to my people eons ago.”
He looks up, smiles again, and shakes off the reverie … a little
”Maybe now is a good time for us to check on Alak!”
Lisi's club splats into the center of the cube, splitting it messily in two, and it loses what cohesion it still had. The remainder splatters onto the paving stones, a few fist sized chunks all that remains of Ett.
Alak's fingers twitch first, then he manages to move his jaw. "...ck me," he finishes his earlier statement. Slowly, he and Yasami regain the ability to move. He and Cev are both soaked head to toe in a thin film of go, hair plastered around their faces. Fortunately the small amount is no longer potent enough to continue burning them.
"I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but I'm really glad I ran into you people. That would have been a rather ignoble death, assuming I could have even made it past the birds, which I doubt."
Caiten watches the cube collapse and notes that everyone appears to still be breathing. He walks over as Cevendyll is speaking. "That is very cryptic. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean."
"Alak seems to be in decent condition." Caiten looks at Cevendyll's new armor. "Is the armor going to be a permanent addition?"
He walks over and picks up the soul doll. "I'm not sure that this is fully destroyed. I think they often have a core to them." "Though I am not entirely sure what to do with it even if I do find it."
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"That is very cryptic. I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean."
"That is because you aren't the one doing all of the work. I know exactly what he is talking about."
"Good to see that you are still with us Cev."
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Well, this is boring. I hope I am not missing something. How long should this take, anyway? It's been a few minutes already. Or hours? Crap. Is this permanent? Well, there goes the good life. No more dancing, no more swordfights, no more ... Well, anything. Great! Honestly, just slice my throat now, guys. Please?
Yasamina's eyes race across the room, looking at whoever is closest. Her eyes water, and a tear rolls down her cheek.
Joran. He seems calm. Maybe they destroyed the cube and the doll? At least the others are alive. That's something. Okoay, Joran can probably crush my skull in one hit. Hey, at least it won't hurt. I mean I'm pretty sure the hands were stinging when I was pulling Cevendyll from the cube. But that stopped. So yeah... Hellknight! Look armiger! Mercy kill me, just like the wolfmother. A quick blade to the spine. Yeah, that could do.
Her eyes look around once again. Okay, I can't see him. Nevermind. Joran, come on. One fine slam and it's the sweet embrace. My head on the stone floor, your hammer on the opposite side. DO IT! Her fingers twitch. WAIT! NO! NO! NO HAMMERS! Not just yet. My hand hurts again. OW! Stings like hell! Okay, nevermind, it's just pain now, put the hammer down. SLAM MY HEAD WITH THE DAMNED THING! END MY TORMENT! JORAN!
Yasamina slowly regains control over her body, she speaks faintly, barely a whisper, and the voice slowly raises. Eventually, you are able to hear her: "Kiiiiiillllll meeeeeeeeeeeeeee...", as her fingers twitch in pain, the rest of her body remains limp. She slowly starts moving her limbs, and stops pleading for death's embrace. "NO! No... Don't do it. I think I will be fine. Just give me a moment to assess the situation. Just keep pouring water for now, please..."
She finally regains control of her body, clumsily stands up, picks up her things, and starts to open her first aid kit as soon as she gets dexterity back in her fingers. She immediately goes for something with a grease-like look, and pulls out a massive chunk. She rubs it all over her hands, and exhales.
She looks at Cevendyll and Alak, and somewhat hastily moves in their direction. She gives each of them a small jar of it, then reconsiders, and gives each two.
"Probably just rub it all over wheatever stings. It helps. A bit."
She puts her back to the wall, and slides down. "Good job, everyone, but I need a moment. Everyone okay? And what was that ... doll?", she starts to bandage her hands.
Yasamina slowly regains control over her body, she speaks faintly, barely a whisper, and the voice slowly raises. Eventually, you are able to hear her: "Kiiiiiillllll meeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."
Caiten, thinking that the sound is coming from the doll he is currently inspecting, nearly drops the thing in surprise. "Oh, Yasami. Good to see you are coming around too."
"That doll is vile and extremely evil magic: can one of the smashers, Oren or Joran, please destroy that gem? The risk is too great to carry it around."
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A breath of relief escapes Dario after the battle ends, his weapons stowing away in his sides. He moves in towards his paralyzed companions, grabbing what water he could to wash away the ick from the massive, gelatinous monstrosity.
"Hell of a fight down here. Breachill was lucky to have all of us come." The gunslinger mutters softly, wiping away the bit of muck away from Alak's face. "Usually, back home, we'd go and get the cavalry at this point. Guess that just means us. You're looking well for having been chewed on."
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Oren moves towards the gem as Cevendyll calls for its' destruction. "Sure thing. I couldn't connect with the thing once, I'll at least destroy the gem that kept it going. Hopefully. The doll proved pretty tough, this might prove so as well."
And he brings his maul down on the gem, trying to smash it into a thousand tiny bits.
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Caiten gladly hands the doll over as oren approaches. "Just pound the entire thing into powder. That should take care of it."
With the blob finally dispersing into a pool of goo, Joran moves over to Yasamina and Alak and checks on them. He looks curiously upon Yasamina as it appears she's trying to say something. When she finally gets a word out, Joran finds himself relieved and just shakes his head. "No, no, no, now hold on there, darlin', nobody dies on my watch. You'll be fine. Just shake it off." Then with a smile, "You two have been slimed," he jokes, giving a wink. "Looks like snot. Might want to get that cleaned up. Probably gonna take more than Dario's spit to get that cleaned up though," he jokes again, grinning mightily.
As the others are being tended to, Joran moves to pickup the mace and his javelin and puts them up.
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"There is a soul in that gem? That sounds sinister indeed. Why would someone make such a thing and then...leave it here? Another mystery."
Lisi pokes through the remains of Ett, looking for anything it may have failed to digest.
He calls out to the warglets. "Rocco! Shadow! It's safe. Don't lick anything, though."
He turns back to Alak, Yasamina, and Cev. "Are you all good to journey on, or do we need to rest? That was traumatic."
Alak nods his thanks to Dario for the bit of wash water. "Lucky for me it didn't have much in the way of teeth. Burned like hell, though. Do I still have eyebrows? Tell me I still have eyebrows." He winked.
When Oren brought down his maul on the gem, a loud, high pitched keening suddenly filled the room, and a wisp or green smokey energy swirled out of the pulverized stone. It spun rapidly around the chamber and then dissipated, the sound ending. Whatever soul the crystal had contained, it was now Pharasma's problem.