Eithne's perception: 18

Eithne visibly winces as she hears, despite the noise of the other dolls asking their questions, one of the puppets worrying about what's going on in her head. She begins to turn her head slowly toward the puppet's owner, not knowing whether to be more sad or more angry... but the scene of the she-devil trying to keep shut the mouth of her puppet is too tender to be ignored! It is clear that Chara intended to express concern or compassion, not contempt. So the savage stranger forces her face into a tired smile, while Vlad declares in his usual solemn and vaguely threatening tone: "It is because I hope to be able to silence them, one day. They told me how to do it. And, believe me, I am working on it".

Lucian glances towards Eithne and Chara as their dolls speak... he isn't entirely sure what they are talking about. Sure, he heard Eithne's puppet spouting gibberish, but he'd assumed that was just her getting used to using the thing... perhaps he'd misread that entirely... Huh, looks like just about everyone here has their own demons their dealing with. With his free hand, he fingers the pocket watch hanging from his neck...eyes growing distant as he is momentarily lost in thought... then he shakes his head, suddenly remembering that his puppet might project those thoughts if he isn't careful. 

"I guess we all have our demons," the puppet says sadly, but resolutely. "Well, whatever you're dealing with I'll be here to support you through it."

Chara smiles warmly at her new friend as their puppets converse. Chara feels a spark of pride, knowing that she'll be fighting alongside this woman against the monster who ruined both of their lives.

Eithne feels she is about to be moved by the umpteenth demonstration of the she-devil's sweetness of heart.

Vlad begins again to try to pronunce many sentences all at once... No; not exactly so - because in reality the various sentences are always the same, so this time the result is not an incomprehensible cacophony, but a reinforcement and reverberation of the words, as if a badly coordinated choir were speaking through him: "YYYYOOOUUU you- you-you ... HHAAAAVE have-have AAAN AAANNGEEELL angel-angel SSSSOOOUULL soul-soul-soul CHHAAAARRRAA Chara-Chara-Chara"

Even the tone this time failed to be composed or threatening; the emotion of a whole multitude could be heard vibrating in the words.

Then, while on the face of the savage stranger the surprise is added to the emotion, the voice of the puppet becomes a single one again: "It doesn't often happen that we all agree! We really must be right, then!"

While they wait for all the puppets to finish asking questions or for the monkey to start answering, the last of the dusk elf maidens tends to the friend half of the pomegranate that she has started (and is continuing) to eat: "You want some?" she asks through Vlad "Try it! It's a bit tricky to eat, but not that much; you see? You pick one of the seeds, these tiny red ones..." (since, by the way, she is not speaking with his own mouth, Eithne in the meantime does what she is saying) "...you put it in your mouth... you crush it with your teeth... hmmm... and you taste the juice! It tastes not at all sweet and objectively a little strong... Either you love it, or you hate it (and I promise not to get offended if you discover you hate it)"

Chara blushes at the little puppet's words, her navy-blue cheeks turning scarlet.

"Well... th-thank you," Chara's puppet says, seemingly just as unsure how to respond to the complement as its mistress is.

Chara gratefully takes the offered pomegranate (only now realizing that she didn't have anything for lunch) and does as the elf instructed, the she-devil's sharp teeth easily cracking the seed. The flavor is unusual, to be sure... but Chara finds that she enjoys the odd taste. Strange, considering she usually can't stomach anything but undercooked meat. But the strong flavor just feels right on her tongue. As soon as the first seed is gone, she happily puts another one into her mouth.

"This is actually amazing," says Chara's puppet, as the she-devil wipes a bit of juice away from the edge of her mouth with her free hand. "Where did you get this from?"

A smile stretches across Onika’s face at the sight of the ritual circle. She is eagerly seated and produces the puppet out of some bizarre pocket. She sits in a chair surprisingly properly for one who seems so unkempt.

Her puppet’s voice is at first a clear one, not too far from her own but less raspy. It is a healthy and youthful voice. On occasion, one or two other voices speak up, but they are quieter, not quite her own. They are familiar to her clearly, but still not entirely hers.

“This magic is quite exciting, don’t you think? Indeed.”

As the discussion continues, Onika’s puppet makes many quiet remarks on the workings of this magic and the thoughts of the others in this room. She also seems skeptical about the whole process of putting a soul into a body where it wasn’t before. “Seems like it could be helpful in the future, doesn’t it? This magic doesn’t seem like what we used. By the time we got this to help us at all we might as well wait to reincarnate. Shh… Listen to the monkey. So you don’t fail this too.”

The puppet goes almost silent, having called itself to focus with a discipline that you wouldn’t have expected out of the otherwise chaotic Onika. The puppet and Onika await the further explanation and answers to this groups’s questions.

"Indeed," Vlad replies for Eithne to Chara "the pomegranate plant is rare here in Barovia... because it favors places that are not too cold... and preferably sunny. While here in Barovia the sun shows itself so timidly and so infrequently... But in the garden of a house in Vallaki I found a plant that had managed to grow and bear fruits. The owner was not using all the fruits: many had already fallen to the ground... So I picked up as many from the ground as I could. I love pomegranate..."

Chara licks a bit of the pomegranate juice from her lips with a smile.

"That sounds like a beautiful place," Chara's puppet says in a somewhat dreamy tone... the she-devil has travelled a lot, but everywhere she went with her father tended to be more gloomy and inhospitable than the last. "It sounds like the kind of place I would love to see one day... maybe we should visit that place once we've done our part to free Barovia of its curse..."

Chara continues her conversation with Eithne for a few more moments, drawing out the pleasant talk perhaps a little bit longer than she really should considering the importance of the meeting at hand. But eventually she lets her puppet fall silent to hear what the toymaker and the monkey have to say to them.

During the interlude of pleasant conversation with Chara, Eithne realizes that Onika seems to have a few more voices than normal...

'Really each one of us has her own problems' realizes the savage stranger - who has remembered to disconnettere from Vlad, so the puppet remains silent.

Nikolai watches the others experiment with their puppets.  This is bizarre, he thinks.  A resistance movement led by a talking monkey and that communicates via magic puppets?

He studies his mini-vampire.  Looks more like an Alexei to me.  Hey, Alexei, he thinks.

Then, through the puppet's mouth he says, "I think I must have had something spoiled in my dinner, and this is all a crazy dream.  But on the small chance it isn't, I also await the answers to my new friends' questions.  Where will the new souls come from?"

Lucian watches quietly as Chara and Eithne converse, staying quiet as he isn't really sure what to say... he also takes off his puppet in the meantime, not trusting himself to keep his thoughts under control. He seems interested in the pomegranate, never having seen one before... but he doesn't inquire about it.

When Onika's puppet speaks, he is surprised to hear another individual with multiple voices... What a group...he should fit right in.... hopefully. 

Let's see if Chara notices that Lucian is interested in her conversation with Eithne

Perception: 19

Chara notices that Lucian is listening in on her conversation with Eithne and seems interested in the pomegranate.

As much as Chara wants to devour her half of the pomegranate without pausing, she decides to be polite.

"Do you want some?" she asks Lucian through her puppet, offering him a couple of the seeds.

(OOC: And they say that we women are curious... 😉)

Trying to fend off the assault that the voices usually launch every time they realize or remember that there is a dusk elf near, Eithne, forces herself to fetch a second fruit and offer it to Lucian, while Vlad says: "Forgive..." ...gibberish... "my manners, did not think..." ...gibberish... "that you might have wanted some!" ...gibberish... "Take this one, if you wish to try. If you'll not like it, Chara and I will finish eating it in your place"

Lucian is a little surprised at the offer, and fumbles with his puppet as he accepts the seeds. Once the puppet is back on his hand, he says, 

"Oh, uh... thanks!" The puppet's voice still sounds rather intimidating, but it is clear by Lucian's expression that he is extremely grateful. 

He puts one seed in his mouth, closing his eyes for a moment before he says through his puppet, "Wow, thanks a ton! This is really good! I've never had anything like it before." He smiles widely at Chara and then at Eithne before continuing to eat the seeds one by one. He does so slowly, clearly used to having to ration anything he wanted to savor. 

(OOC: let's cut the boy some slack... he's currently sitting next to a devil in a meeting with a monkey using telepathic talking puppets 🤣)

Chara smiles contentedly as she continues to munch on pomegranate seeds, enjoying the moment with her new friends as they wait for further instruction from their hosts.

(OOC: lol :'D.)

Lucian is looking forward to getting to know this group even more. He would continue to talk, but he realizes that further conversation should probably wait until after the meeting is over. Oh well, at least then they can speak with their own mouths instead of having to do so through these... puppets. He glances down at his puppet as he chews on one of the pomegranate seeds, then reluctantly removes it again to keep it from voicing any stray thoughts. 

Eithne, while continuing to enjoy her pomegranate in pleasant company, realizes that it has been a while since no puppet has been asking questions... yet Rudolf continues to be silent.

'Did we trouble him with our questions?' she thinks to herself 'Or is he waiting for us to offer him a banana, to answer? I really hope not, for I don't have any...'

The monkey says, "You ask about the souls. It is a good place to start, but I must explain who I am for this to make sense. My name, as I said before, is Rudolph van Richten and I am, I believe, the greatest vampire hunter of my generation. I have come to Barovia with the express intent to kill the ruler of this land. I am also, unfortunately, currently trapped in the body of this monkey."

"Barovia, as you likely have guessed, is not a happy place. It is, in fact, one of the realms of dread created by the Dark Powers in the Shadowfell for their own twisted amusement. Each of these realms is a land trapped, under the influence of a great evil, doomed to repeat cycles of violence and despair forever. I am from a land like this where a family tragedy led me to pursue my life of facing evil in all the dark corners of the universe. I have traveled the Dread Realms, doing my best to bring some light and hope into these trapped realms. But I am mortal; my time is limited. Before I leave to my fate, I want to attempt to rid this realm of its dread lord, as I believe it may be the best way to strike at the Dark Powers that keep the Dread Realms trapped."

"When I am not traveling to other realms to fight the darkness, I live in yet another Dread Realm named Mordent. The dark lord of that realm is a ghost, a suicide who killed everyone who loved him and who now is surrounded by a horde of ghosts that despise him. As such, he is one of the less malevolent dark lords, seeking oblivion for himself and his victims. He is still dangerous and not to be trusted, but it is possible to live relatively well in that land. Just not to die well. But I digress. The lord of that land is obsessed with the existence of the soul and, in particular, how to warp a soul out of existence. To that end, he is ceaselessly working on a device called The Apparatus, which can transfer, remove, or establish souls into mortal bodies. He arranges the kidnapping of great wizards and engineers, forever altering the Apparatus in an attempt to use it to achieve his goals. The device is wildly powerful, extremely dangerous, possibly world-ending. I have stolen the most recent iteration from the dark lord of my land because this time it may actually work."

"Using the apparatus, I have been able to review the average soul to person ratio in Barovia (it is 3:10). I have also determined that it can affect soul transference because, well..." He points at himself. "Unfortunately, I don't currently know how to transfer my soul back into my body, but my friend Blinsky here has secreted my person somewhere in town and is making sure he is fed and watered while poor Piccolo gets used to his temporary home. As to where the missing souls are, I cannot say. But the Shadowfell is the land of the Raven Queen, whose servants collect the souls of the dead. I believe that the Dark Powers have agreements with her regarding the disposition of souls in these Realms. We may be able to restore souls to bodies through use of the Apparatus. But there is much that we do not know. Blinsky and I are working with others in order to understand how best to use the Apparatus, how to appease the Raven Queen, how to drive out the Dark Powers, how to restore the fettered."

"You may wonder why you are here. Barovia is the oldest of the Realms and, we have reason to believe, that it was here that the dark bargains between nightmare lords and powerful entities began. There is word of a temple of amber, where information on the rites, the covenants, and the sacrifices can be found. But you are not yet ready for that challenge I think. I'm afraid that I require you, for now, to fetch a book for me. I have it on good authority that a tome, giving the history of the events leading to the Count's damnation, is to be found in a grave, in a small graveyard, found along the road to Barovia from here. It should take you two days to get there and another two to return. If you keep to the road, you should be relatively safe. I'm afraid that we need the information in that book if we wish to destroy the Count. Gadov here will give you a map to the spot. Can you go and get it for us?"