"Broul!" Alethea shouts in alarm, herself caught off guard by the doll's sudden violence. Still, she rushes in to support Frank's guardian spirit with a quick slash of her falcata.
Almost completely frozen on the outside, Broulnindre can't even shiver in her shock at the turn of events.
"B!"
Frank shouts.
He curses under his breath before a quick word and gesture sends Broulnindre home.
As Broulnindre's form fades away, a few no-longer-scale-anchored ice crystals fall onto the ground.
Hearing all the ruckus coming from inside the weird hut, both Barnaby and Anticipation begin to trudge through the snow toward the front.
Catching Alethea's shout from near the cottage, Lyudmilla pulls down on her jacket to straighten it out and begins trouncing through mounds of snow.
"We're coming!"
Dawrbrün moves into the hut to engage the murderous doll, swinging at it with his axe.
Hekla trudges forward through the thick snow covered ground, too far away to be much help.
Alethea brings her falcata to bear against the doll and smashes it with all her might. It must be magically protected because it barely even budges from the impact and only a single porcelain chip falls to the ground.
Brounlnindre disappears as she's sent back to wherever she comes from.
Dawrbrun swings but the axe goes high as the doll ducks down at the last second.
The doll pulls a tiny shiv and scrapes it against Dawrbrun's shield. The cold around the hut's entrance starts to get to the dwarf.
Alethea circles around the doll, trapping it between her and Dawrbrün before renewing her assault.
Dawrbrün presses the attack, taking advantage of Aletha's flanking position.
Frank summons a Celestial Eagle, which flies in and pecks at the doll.
He then approaches the hut, hoping for a better shot.
Barnaby and Anticipation continue to trudge through the snow and both enter the hut. Feeling the cold, the Hunter activates both of their Vermin Focus.
Barnaby commands the giant Ant to Flank with him before the Ant attempts to take a bite out of the doll!
In a flurry of attacks from our heroes all vying for a chance at destroying the doll Ant comes out triumphant holding her in it's mandibles. The doll does not look particularly worse for the wear.
The doll stabs Ant in the mandibles and numbing cold spreads throughout the formicidae's head.
Alethea keeps up her attacks on the horrible little doll.
Anticipation screams like he just got stabbed by a tiny dagger from a tiny doll in a creepy hut!
The Giant Ant winks at you...
Ant begins to pound the creepy doll into the floor!
Barnaby explodes with machete violence!
The Celestial Eagle pecks and claws at the doll ineffectually.
Frank decides to try and shoot the doll too.
The hut takes a nasty blow from the silver coated cold-iron ammunition.
Ant holds the doll down tightly preventing it from moving, except only very slightly.
Alethea detects no evil on the doll, but she knows that only means there's not a lot of evil on it.
Hekla remembers what she knows about this sort of construct. It is an Irrisen guardian doll. Dolls set across Irrisen's border to watch for any trespassing. Winter witches can use them as scrying focuses and vulnerable to fire and magical weapons.
Pausing her whispered chant of curses, Lyudmilla turns to Hekla hearing the fight escalate.
"They've got this...right?"
She sprints up the snowy hill regardless of the answer.
Hekla stares silently back with a grim frown, then keeps trudging onward. She yells to the others, "Magic or fire, else you'll barely scratch it!"
The doll futility struggles against Ant vice like mandibles.
Hekla trudges close to the entrance and concentrates furiously on her Axe, willfully drawing forth the power of its own small legends during its tenure serving her father, and imbuing that power back into the blade. It begins to glow slightly with power! She drops it in the snow next to Dawrbrun.
"Take it! Strike down the puppet!"
Alethea takes a single step back to steady herself, then surges forward, bringing her falcata down on the murderous little doll.
Barnaby watches Alethea carefully and with purpose cut the doll's throat.
Both he and Ant nod in appreciation.
Dawrbrün drops this own axe, picks up the one Hekla just enchanted, and slams it down on the doll as well.
Alethea brings her Flacatta to bear against the doll and shatters it, taking care not to harm Ant in the process. The doll falls to the ground in multitude of pieces, the magic binding it together fading.
Once it's clear that the doll has been neutralized, Alethea sheathes her sword and looks around at the others.
"Everyone all right? No worse for the wear?"
Creepy weather! Creepy doll! Creepy hut!
Anticipation chitters in agreement!
"A touch of frostbite, but at least that demon-possessed moppet failed to stab me," Dawrbrün replies. He hands Hekla's axe back to her. "Thanks, m'dear. It would have been of more use, had I been quicker." He gives a sidelong glance and a wink at Althea, then bends to retrieve his own axe.
"Everyone okay?" Frank says as he approaches the cabin.
"Broulnindre will be fine, by the way. She always... gets better." He explains, nodding to himself.
Hekla takes the axe back and shrugs. "Or if I'd been."
She picks up the very-expensive-looking gem and examines it for a while. She squints at it, holds it up to her ear, sniffs it, looks at it through her hand mirror, and eventually she drops it on the ground and smashes it with her axe.
"Hey, what was that for? That looked like it'd sell for more than a few coins..." Frank asks, his treasure hunting days getting the better of him.
"Hmm? Oh, the gem? Her soul was trapped in it, who was puppeting the doll. I let her out."
Frank looks confused at 'her' and looks for Thora in the ice crystals near the hut.
"'Her?'" Alethea says, her own look of confusion quickly washed away by sudden realization, then anger. "You did the right thing, Hekla. When we find the bastards who did this..."
Her voice trails off. The leather of her glove creaks as her hands ball into fists.
Hekla smiles sweetly. "I did, yes. I'll be right beside ya when we start the beheadings.
She looks around the hut.
"Any more to see here now?"
"The hut should burn." Frank explains as he gathers up the gem dust.
"A soul isn't just an- an arcane ingredient... unforgivable..." he adds, closing his fist around the blue dust with a mixture of pain and sadness on his face.
The hut easily burns to the ground hopefully providing closure to the horrible tragedy behind you. As you go to leave a weight seems to have lifted and an oppressiveness you didn't notice until it was gone, has vanished.
The trail continues through a narrow pass, descending south and east into an icy valley. An unusual pattern of lines is scratched into the fresh snow covering the trail at the edge of the clearing.
"well, someone doesn't want us to continue on this path," Dawrbrün remarks, as he looks at the words in the snow. "They know nothing of the stubbornness of dwarves."
"All the more reason to get to the bottom of this."
Barnaby and Anticipation walk through the snowy foliage as if a weight seems to have lifted and an oppressiveness they didn't notice until it was gone, has vanished.
I feel great! Fresh air! No creepy huts with creepy dolls! Great idea to burn it. Nothing bad could happen from us doing that...
Anticipation seems to be a bit concerned....
The gnome studies the unusual pattern of lines that is scratched into the fresh snow covering the trail at the edge of the clearing.
"Turn back before the winter devours you."
He smiles.
Nope. Probably just someone who doesn't want to share their finding of a house made of candy.