"Just a couple old folks like me, whose families moved here to get away from the strife during the migrations. Mostly gone now," she says wistfully.
Hi, I'm Djack and... Djack. Just Djack, really.
And this is Quince.
He looks around for anything amiss, remembering a tale or a crazy old lady that ate children. Old wives' tales. Still creepy.
Rocko is looking around for signs of the zombies or signs that this place has been warded against them.
"You might not get many travelers, but I hope y'all are staying safe here. We had a run-in with several Dead Ones on the way here. Hope they haven't been botherin' you folks."
Djack notices nothing truly out of sorts outside the old building. There is some sort of charm or ward carved into the lintel above the door, but it's not a surprise that a superstitious old woman might have such a thing. It might even be protective, actually assisting in keeping the zombies at bay.
"Oh my lands! Yes, I've had contact with them before. Sometimes they come up on my patch of earth here and try to get in, but I've kept 'em stymied."
"Oh but you look so cold. Why not come in and get warm for a bit. I can make a spot of tea and you can tell me how the world's been working these days!"
"You are likely to know more than I. I've only recently started traveling outside my village."
Rocko is looking around for signs of the zombies or signs that this place has been warded against them.
Djack starts to go inside.
People come to you... for advice?
Rocko first checks to see whether the horses and donkey are skittish or calm. We can't really take them inside the house, and it's best if they don't run or wander off. As long as the animals are looking content, he'll be fine with going inside
People come to you... for advice?
"Oh, some might, from time to time. but mostly out they just come to get some herbs from my garden, or sell me some grain they got from the outsiders."
Djack steps into the cottage, which is built as a single 30x40' room, with a large shelf containing books and several flasks of oddly colored liquids dividing the living area from what is probably a sleeping area.
On one side of the room is a storage area with a kettle and a cauldron next to it. Sitting atop the storage crates is a sickle, such as would be used for harvesting edible foods in the wild.
Rocko is distracted by a sickly sweet scent that he realizes is coming from the ceiling. It appears the old woman's used some black goo to seal up her thatched room, though Rocko is unfamiliar with what it is.
Spizz is too in awe of all the "neat stuff" to notice much of anything.
While Rocko is looking up and Spizz all around, Djack, Quince, and Yoltzin all notice that some of the mud tracks continue into the house. Yoltzin also notices a helmeted figure standing taller than the bookself is standing behind it in the bed area, mostly out of view.
I see u have a sickle there, would you have a whetstone?
I'll gladly pay for the use of it. He slowly draws his blade.
"Certainly, deary. Let me go in back and get it for you." The woman wanders into the back area behind the shelf. You hear some rattling, and soon the woman returns with a well-worn sharpening stone. She hands it over to Djack cheerfully, and puts a pot of tea hanging a spit directly in front of fireplace.
Elias won't follow inside just yet.
Ostensibly caring for his horse, but really waiting for a chance to have a better look around.
When Djack and the old lady enter the house he takes his chance to have a snoop around the property.
Quince sees very little out of the ordinary outside the house. A bogger living their best life. He chuckles a little at the idea. But around back, he happens to look up, and in a rear window, sees something odd if not startling.
He cannot see the rest of the party from this angle, but imagines they must be on the other side of the shelf he sees. Standing in front of that shelf, however, is an armored skeleton. It's standing tall, and does not appear to be hanging from anything.
Yoltzin looks towards the figure that was only partially within sight, not quite making them out besides the helmet they wore. "Are they visiting as well?" She asks.
The old woman looks confused for a moment, then realizes who Yoltzin is referring to.
"Oh, that's just Raymundo. An old puppet of mine. Don't worry, he's not alive."
Instinctively, Yoltzin knows the old woman is being deceptive. None of the words she says are false, and she thinks that makes her deception less noticeable, but in fact it makes it more obvious, to Yoltzin anyway.
The words 'not alive,' and 'old puppet of mine' tingled at the back of her mind, truthful in tone yet somehow insidious in nature. It took her a momment longer to come up with her own conclusions, thinking back to the way some of the more dark-hearted of her fellow shamans referred to honored spirits. To her people, such arts were not so taboo. What mattered was your intent and the respect you gave to those who walked a second time more.
"I see... <Spirit-caller.>" She spoke the elvish word for what she suspected. In the time spent with him, she learned Djack knew her language as well. Yoltzin continued speaking, without malice or accusation. "Thank you for inviting us into your home."
Djack had relaxed when the woman offered a whetstone and had started to run the stone along the tip of his blade.
When he heard the Elfess' foreign words... he shrugged, understanding then literally but taking them as a term of endearment.
Yoltzin's nice. I don't care what anyone says.
Weird place to keep a statue, facing the window
Elias approaches closer, hoping to get a closer look at the armoured skeleton "statue" and get a glimpse at what might be in the back rooms
The rear of the cottage, which Elias can see fairly clearly despite the mildew growing on the window (bogs, after all), is very spartan. There is a simple bed, a shelf near the bed, a chamber pot, an open bag of grain, and a fairly large chest. The skeleton is quite well equipped, wearing a full suit of chainmail and armed with a shield and a very nice looking longsword and dagger. Elias sees the "statue's" eyes light up orange for a second, but it remains completely still, as statues should.
(to Yoltzin): "Oh, deary, it's all a humble old woman can do for nice travelers on a cold day light today. Now, I hear the tea pot whistlin'; let me get you call some mugs (where did I put those darned things) and you can relax, such as you can find room."
The old woman returns with several mugs and fills each one with tea from the teapot, handing them out in turn.
She nods to the woman, accepting it with grace.
Djack returns the whetstone, sheathing his rapier.
He then accepts the offered tea, asking... Was Raymundo fond of tea? Hard to tell, now... you understand.
Wide ranging imagination, apologies if that was rude.
He's yet to sip it.
Rocko didn't really notice it being cold, but then having a full coat of fur does tend to give him an altered assessment.
"If'n you're feelin cold, I can go grab some of that fine wood I saw you had stacked up outside. Glad you must have a nice stand o' trees nearby. I've had to burn blocks of bog moss afore when nothing else is around, and it makes for a smoky tent."
"Oh, it's fine dear, just relax and drink your tea," the woman says.
Yoltzin, despite her suspicions regarding the woman, finds no fault with her overall behavior thus far. She partakes of the offered drink.
Elias leans in close to the window and taps a finger lightly on the glass in front of the skeleton's face. His other hand is poised to draw his knives.
She partakes of the offered drink.
While it does taste odd to her, Yoltzin suffers no ill effects from the tea, that she can notice.
Elias leans in close to the window and taps a finger lightly on the glass in front of the skeleton's face. His other hand is poised to draw his knives.
Startled and yet not 100% surprised, Elias reflexively moves back when the skeleton does indeed move, drawing its sword and preparing for combat.
The rest of the party is immediately aware of movement in the back from the "puppet." They can see the very sharp blade of a well-maintained longsword now sticking over the top of the self containing the flasks of liquid.
Raymundo:
Old Woman:
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And before the 'puppet' started moving, Rocko would have declined the tea.
"Sorry ma'am, but tea is always makin' me sick to my stomach. You got some other stuff in here that smells right tasty, though."
Djack, having finished sharpening his blade, turns to see a fully armored skeleton moving toward the front door, weapon drawn for battle.
Djack's action.
Djack looks to the old woman. Where is Raymundo going? Are we under attack?
Djack looks to the old woman. Where is Raymundo going? Are we under attack?
Raymundo continues out the door apurpose as the rest of his action.
The old woman looks up from her teapot, confused as to what everyone was staring at. "Eh?"
Party may act. Raymundo has left the building.
The elf's brow pinches together, and she politely excuses herself to follow the animate skeleton out the door. More to see where it was going than anything else at this point.
Yoltzin has only to move just through the doorway (single move) to catch up to where Raymundo has gotten. He's turning map-West to walk toward the corner of the cottage. Yoltzin notices she didn't see Quince inside, yet he's also not out here with the horses.
The woman sees no sign of real intelligence in this being. Lifting her hands up, she invokes the will of her God in effort of commanding it back into the house.
Raymundo turns around and heads back toward the cottage, though it seems very conflicted, like a dog that's seen an intruder but been ordered to stop barking.
"What are you doing Raymundo? Is someone a scratching at my window pain?" she cackles a bit, and makes a move that Yoltzin quickly recognizes as an attempt to summon nearby undead.
In the rear of the building, Quince heres a gurgling noise behind him, and is quickly confronted by a quartet of zombies rising out of the bog.
To everyone's shock, the old woman now seems very vile, her skin a sickly gangrenous color and an evil orange glint in her eye to match Raymundo's.
Quince, Rocko, and Djack may act.
"What's going on? Spizz is confused!"
Djack replies to Spizz, Tea Time's over...
Rocko wracks his brain, trying to figure out what might be going on here. He's not too bothered by appearance just yet, but there's something about her tone that bothers him.
Rocko is in the same boat as Spizz, seemingly, having no real sense of what's going on, other than that a Skeleton is walking around and the woman's attitude, and skin tone, seem to have changed.
Quince may act. I'm treating Rocko and Djack as if they had held actions. They may use once hostilities start.
Elias takes a few steps back, preparing an ill advised heroic rescue leap through a closed window, when something makes him turn.
"We've got company! ...More company I mean!"
He makes a dash towards the front of the house, not wanting to be cornered on his own
"We've got company! ...More company I mean!"
Everyone who has acted in Round 1 is going to? Assuming this is the case,
Top of Round 2.Rocko and Djack are top of round, followed by Raymundo, then the rest of the party, and finally, the zombies and the old woman.
Djack be nimble... Djack be quick!
That's what Gramms used to tell me... You ain't nuthin' like Gramms, lady.
The young man deftly tries to circle around the witch and into a more advantageous position, drawing his blade all the while.
Djack manages to balance himself against the lowest shelf and stab the old woman, now displaying some very non-old-woman type claws, quite keenly. Amid her cackles she lets out an anguished wail.
Rocko, now flanking the witch with Djack, may act before Raymundo.