"Aye, ah can heal meself ah smidge." Finley answers, moving over to the hag's desk, "that could've been much worse, glad we made it as well as we did." He puts a hand on his chest to cast Cure Wounds on himself and then he begins to search through the desk for anything interesting or more importantly pertaining to the kids.

Cure Wounds: 8

Investigation: 16 on searching the hag's desk for anything on the kids or something that seems useful to them.

Aoife smiles as the keys return to normal size. "Much better."

She looks at Val. "Yeah, I got some healing magics, but like the rest of us, not a lot left after that bun-fight. Get it? Buns, oven, right? Heh."

She cackles at her own joke, then sobers. "Can heal if you need it, but then only one spell left today."

Finley finds the list of 11 kids but not their whereabouts. 

Where do each of you go next?

Quote from valeskah>>

Aoife smiles as the keys return to normal size. "Much better."

Valrieth looks pleased since that's the first time she has used that spell.  

She looks at Val. "Yeah, I got some healing magics, but like the rest of us, not a lot left after that bun-fight. Get it? Buns, oven, right? Heh."

She cackles at her own joke

Val laughs weakly.  That's probably because she initially thought that Aoife was talking about her.  When she was a kid, some of the other kids her age used to tease her and called her a "bun."

 "Can heal if you need it, but then only one spell left today."

Val says, "Oh, yes!  Thank you!  That would be very helpful.  It's hard to know what to plan for since we don't know what other nasty things the hag has lying around."

If Aoife can Cure Wounds on Val, then just she'll cast Goodberry and consume 9 of the berries for now, leaving 1 berry for use if they need to revive anyone.  As she chews on the berries, Val gathers any spare paper, ink, and pens from the hag's desk to replenish her own supply.  Val looks at the human skull with some distaste and asks, "I wonder -- do you think that's a real skull?"  In any case, Val proposes that they take the skull, saying, "It's always good to have some interesting items for trade with the other fey residents of Prismeer."  Val doubts that Bavlorna would be satisfied with a trinket like that, but if Val doesn't find diamonds just lying around Loomlurch, she needs to start building up a hoard that she can trade for them later, if they find someone who has any. 

If Finely would like some additional healing, Val can cast it again and split those berries with him.  Otherwise, she's ready to move on.  At this point, Val only has another 5 or 6 minutes left on her Archer Starry Form, and if they're going to end up in another fight, she prefers to do it while in that Starry Form. 

Val proposes that the whole party goes upstairs.  She says, "This tower seems like it's for the hag herself, and maybe her portrait is upstairs somewhere."  After they're done upstairs, they can come back down, through the kitchen, and start looking for children in all of the rooms in the center and south of Loomlurch.  After the recent fights with the redcaps, a dragon (!), and a hag (!!!), Val would prefer not to split up the group.  The one exception may be Elkhorn.  They could leave him down in the kitchen to guard their only known escape route.

Val reminds the others, "The fight with Granny Nighshade was quick.  If her minions didn't just collapse with her death, they probably don't know that she's dead yet or that we killed them.  If we meet anything that can talk, we could just tell them that we're looking for Granny Nightshade's portrait to bring it to 'the hag.'  Which is true, in a way!"  She looks at Aoife and says, "We'll explain the business with the portrait later, once we get all of the children out of here!"

L16

Almost everything about this bedroom is orderly, from the bed with the patchwork quilt to the ornamental pigs arranged in a neat row on the dresser. Such tidiness is at odds, however, with the decaying dollhouse sitting on the bedside table. This three-foot-tall edifice has seen better days and is now besmirched by peeling paint, mold, and rot.

Behind the dollhouse, by the window, moths flutter inside a large bell jar. Facing one another along the outer wall are a pair of doors. Next to the door closest to the staircase is a wooden rocking cradle with a neatly folded blanket in it.

Aoife smiles at Val and touches her lightly on the shoulder, casting Cure Wounds for 9 HP. 

She follows the others upstairs and helps to look. "So we're looking for a portrait, huh? This will help save the kids?"

She goes over to the dollhouse and looks in it carefully, (inv 13) trying not to touch it. "Ugh, this doesn't belong here."

“Ah’m fine for now.” Finley says while holding up the list. “Dunnae ‘ave th’ locations but ah got a list of eleven of them kids.” He follows to the next room. “aye well, th’ portrait will save me as ah made a deal with a hag for a very important reason and ah’ll lose basically me soul if we dunnae bring the portrait back to her.”

Quote from valeskah >>

Aoife smiles at Val and touches her lightly on the shoulder, casting Cure Wounds for 9 HP.  

(OOC: Nice roll!  👍)

Valrieth's pinched and in pained face relaxes into a smile.  Her eyes go wide, and she looks impressed, saying, "Oh!  Thank you, Aoife.  I feel much better now!" 

Quote from Snievan >>

“Ah’m fine for now.” Finley says while holding up the list. “Dunnae ‘ave th’ locations but ah got a list of eleven of them kids.”

Val looks at Finley's list and takes out her pen to cross out one of the names.  She says optimistically, "Ten!", explaining, "We already freed Mishka from the kitchen."  She glances up the stairs from the study and says,  "I think that we should check for the portrait upstairs first before we go to the other towers. But before I sent her to find Will, Mishka told me that the other children were probably in the other two towers (L8, L12), the toy workshop (L4), or the room that Ilifir said had a balcony overlooking the gardens (L9)."  

Val follows Finley and Aoife up the stairs and takes a look around the bedroom.  She heads straight to the jar, thinking, "Of course, the hag has confined animals."  She says, "Hello, little things.  The hag is dead now.  You're free to go now unless you have something to tell us."  Then she lifts the jar and releases the moths.  Assuming that they just fly away, Val continues to search the room with the others.

Seeing the doors, Val examines the door closest to the top of the stairs and listens for sounds on the other side.  Perception 16  If she doesn't see any traps or hear anything on the other side, she opens the door and looks inside.

Val hears no sound and upon opening the door you see a balcony that is 20ft off the ground. The balcony is empty with no furniture of any kind. 

The moths have nothing to say and flies out the window

After checking the first door, Valrieth says, "It's just an empty balcony.  And it definitely looks like we're at the northernmost room in Loomlurch here." 

Val crosses to the opposite doors and does the same thing, checking the door and listening before opening it to see what's on the other side.  Bavlorna had a closet full of interesting items, and she wonders whether Skabatha has something similar in her bedroom. Perception 12

Quote from valeskah >>

 She goes over to the dollhouse and looks in it carefully, (inv 13) trying not to touch it. "Ugh, this doesn't belong here."

As she crosses the room from one door to the other, Val looks over at Aoife and says, "That's quite a big dollhouse!  I wonder..."  She pauses and tilts her head slightly, considering the dollhouse.  "We saw that Granny Nightshade could shrink herself down.  You were close to her when she was in her smaller size, Aoife.  Do you think that she could fit inside there?"  Val points at the dollhouse.

Val hears the sound of ticking of what sounds like several clocks. 

L17

Old, empty birdhouses are nailed to the walls of this cramped room, and a dozen birdcages hang from the ceiling. The cages are filled with tiny clockwork sparrows. As the birds’ gears turn, the air thrums with rhythmic ticking. Paper and quills are heaped on a small writing desk under the cages. A pair of open windows overlook the forest beyond. Carved into the wall above one window is the word “Hither,” and above the other is the word “Yon.”

"good call valrieth" ilifir says with a grin "that would be the perfect hiding place for a painting" at a telepathic command spike shifts into a large centipede again, and flies into the dollhouse, searching through it for any paintings, or anything else that seems out of place

The dollhouse is fully enclosed, rather than being open at the back as a normal dollhouse would be. A Tiny creature can enter the dollhouse through its front door or one of its windows and explore its interior, which has a gloomy foyer, parlor, kitchen, and dining room on the ground floor; two bedrooms, a sewing room, and a nonfunctional bath on the second floor; and a spooky, spacious attic.

In the attic

• A pair of embroidered velvet slippers (15 gp)
• A false eye made of solid gold (25 gp)
• A cracked hand mirror with a gaudy, bejeweled handle and frame (65 gp)

As Val speaks, Aoife looks down at her six foot frame, and then at the dollhouse, dismayed. When ilifir changes form and slides into it, she slumps back, relieved. 

Aoife moves over to the bed. She pulls the quilt from the top to check the mattress and kneels down to look under it. (inv 16)

After a thorough investigation Aoife does not find anything of note hidden in or under the bed. 

No portrait of any kind is found in the dollhouse either. 

Finley watches the centipede crawl through the dollhouse, “lemme know if ye find a portrait, aye?” He nods, pausing for a few moments before going to where Val went. “Do ye think tha’ ah we’re tricked into looking for a portrait that don’t exist?” Finley asks, while walking over to look out the window that is labeled ‘Hither’.

Quote from willow_ivyleaf >>

"good call valrieth" ilifir says with a grin "that would be the perfect hiding place for a painting" at a telepathic command spike shifts into a large centipede again, and flies into the dollhouse, searching through it for any paintings, or anything else that seems out of place

"Thanks!", Valrieth says, pleased with herself.  She was sure that the painting would be in the dollhouse, so she's a little disappointed when Spike returns with the other items from the dollhouse's attic but did not find any paintings.  But she is still complimentary, "How clever Spike is!"  

(OOC: @Willow_Ivyleaf - I don't remember whether Spike is always invisible, but I'll pretend here that he's not.)

Quote from valeskah >>

As Val speaks, Aoife looks down at her six foot frame, and then at the dollhouse, dismayed. When ilifir changes form and slides into it, she slumps back, relieved.  

Val almost laughs when she sees Aoife looking as though she's going to try to squeeze into the dollhouse somehow.  Val was just asking whether the ranger thought that Granny Nightshade could fit in the dollhouse, not whether Aoife could fit.  But then Spike slips through the dollhouse window and Val decides that it's better to say nothing.

(OOC: @valeskah - Ilifir still looks like a fairy at the moment.  Spike is his familiar.)

Quote from Snievan >>

Finley...[goes]...to where Val went. “Do ye think tha’ ah we’re tricked into looking for a portrait that don’t exist?” Finley asks, while walking over to look out the window that is labeled ‘Hither’.

Val considers this question for a moment before responding, "No, I don't think so.  From what my parents told me about the Feywild, I believe that the fey take these bargains quite seriously! The hag was probably trying to trick you or give you a task that's impossible to complete in the allotted time, but I don't think that she'd be 'allowed' to ask you to fetch an item that doesn't exist.  Don't worry!  We've barely started searching Loomlurch, and this time, we don't have to worry about the hag finding us.  If we don't find the painting soon, I will try to divine where it is through magic."

Val suggests to Finley, "Could you lay out the portable hole so that we can just put things in it for later?  If Loomlurch collapses, we won't have another chance to come back."  

If he does so, she asks Aoife to wrap the ornamental pigs and the bell jar in the patchwork quilt and put them in the portable hole.  They can put the things Spike found in the dollhouse in there too.  She doesn't think that they should try to take the dollhouse itself because she's worried about possible interactions between the magic of the portable hole and whatever magic may be present on the dollhouse itself.

(OOC: I think that we've searched everything in the bedroom other than the dresser.)

Quote from Weathervision >>

 

Old, empty birdhouses are nailed to the walls of this cramped room, and a dozen birdcages hang from the ceiling. The cages are filled with tiny clockwork sparrows. As the birds’ gears turn, the air thrums with rhythmic ticking. Paper and quills are heaped on a small writing desk under the cages. A pair of open windows overlook the forest beyond. Carved into the wall above one window is the word “Hither,” and above the other is the word “Yon.”

Val finally turns her attention to what's on the balcony.

Val asks Finley, "Does this room remind you of that room in Bavlorna's hut?  The one with all of the birdcages?  In that case, I think that they were taxidermy creations of Hither's hag instead of wind-up toy birds."  She glances at the paper and quills and the signs above the windows, and she can practically visualize birds arriving and leaving.  "Could this be how the hags send messages to each other?"

Val goes to the desk to gather up any blank paper and extra ink. She also looks through the papers to see whether there are any with writing on them.

There are 3 letters on the writing desk

Quote from Weathervision >>

There are 3 letters on the writing desk

Valrieth gathers up the extra paper and ink and then picks up the three letters. She says, "Ooh! Listen to this!" She reads out the letters, commenting as she reads:

• "It sounds like they're arguing over who lost the alicorn."
• "The first and third are from 'Lorna.' That would be Bavlorna Brightsraw, the hag who rules Hither."
• "This one is from 'End.'  That must be Endelyn Moongrave, the hag who rules Yon."
• "I don't know what a Jabberwock is. Oh! It's sounds like it's another dragon!"

Val puts the letters in her notebook so that she can add to her notes later. They're not really relevant to their current task of finding the portrait and rescuing the children. 

Aoife checks the walls, running a hand along them to see if there is anything invisible there. (inv 4)

(edited)

Aoife looks up at Val's words. "They had a unicorn? Wow. Haven't seen one of those recently."