Dallid - The doll points to her painted mouth and then shakes her head. In answer to your question, she makes a tossing gesture with both of her hands and then marches on, she repeats this a few times, hoping that its message will be received.
Dallid - The doll points to her painted mouth and then shakes her head. In answer to your question, she makes a tossing gesture with both of her hands and then marches on, she repeats this a few times, hoping that its message will be received.
'I think she's trying to say that Baba Lysaga tossed her out?'Sandu offered as a possible answer. 'Because she can't talk and this Baba isn't a fan of pantomime, I guess?'
He stepped forward to take a better look at the doll. Sandu suddenly became keenly aware that an inanimate object moving by magic stood behind him and that he was about to talk to a smaller inanimate object moving around by magic. The world was a very strange place indeed.
'Why come to us then? Trying to get back into Baba Lysaga's good graces by capturing us?'It was a blunt, matter-of-fact question with no ill intent. It felt like talking to a child, really.
Sandu - Davian looks a little taken aback by your revelation. "Y' came toe't'toe wit' a Ban'er-obb? Serv'nts o' 'ers, alrigh'," he says, a hint of dread in his voice.
'A Banderhobb?'Sandu turned his head. 'There are more of them? 'Cause that one called itself the Banderhobb. Carried a sack around and paid us no heed. Can't imagine why.'
Cerio points at Sandu and then at his own skull. "That. Is a good question! So what's it want of us? If it ain't workin' for Baba Lysaga no more, that is?"
"I'm not sure Gal, but something seems off about this one... Hey how were you made? Do you remember a flame," ask Dormark seeing something different about this construct. What appears to be actually intelligence.
Dallid - The doll points to her painted mouth and then shakes her head. In answer to your question, she makes a tossing gesture with both of her hands and then marches on, she repeats this a few times, hoping that its message will be received.
Dallid thinks for a moment.
"There are other things in front of us to take care of, but we should consider a way to give this thing a mouth. If it can talk, it might help. Or read its mind? Whatever, we have druids to deal with. Let's deal with that. Reduce our enemies' allies."
Dallid - The doll points to her painted mouth and then shakes her head. In answer to your question, she makes a tossing gesture with both of her hands and then marches on, she repeats this a few times, hoping that its message will be received.
Dallid thinks for a moment.
"There are other things in front of us to take care of, but we should consider a way to give this thing a mouth. If it can talk, it might help. Or read its mind? Whatever, we have druids to deal with. Let's deal with that. Reduce our enemies' allies."
Sandu put down his backpack and retrieved a sheet of parchment, an ink pen and a bottle of ink.
'Perhaps you can write it out?'He knelt and offered the items to the doll. 'Or draw it if you don't know your letters.'
He stood up straight again. 'Yes, the druids are the more immediate problem.'
Having slumped off and sat beside the tree line, the doll looks up at Sandu and keenly accepts the writing utensils. Looking at the pen and ink in her hands, the doll seems confused. A shaky hand, unused to its own body, holds the pen haphazardly, dips it in the bottle of ink, and begins to scratch a message.
"𝐍𝕆Ŧ ⓔ𝓷乇𝐌¥," she writes, the writing barely legible. "т𝔯Ａ𝓟Ⓟ𝑒𝕕, ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ," she looks up at you through her button eye. "𝒹ᗩ尺кη𝐄𝓈ร... тĤ𝐄ᶰ 𝓁ｉ𝓖ℍт. sόή. 𝕤Ｏη 𝒾𝔫 β𝓐ŘＯ𝐯𝐢Ã. ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
The doll, struggling to continue, starts scratching numerous lines under the words, " ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
Cerio backs up a few steps as the doll begins to write. It was one thing to think about this thing as a mere wizard's trick, animated by a hand unseen. But this thing is actually alive.
"A-alright," he stammers in response to Dallid. "I can, erm, try to get a sense of its thoughts. Might be easier t'get a handle on things that way." Walking closer to the doll, he settles down to sit cross legged. He moves carefully, half expecting the doll to come at him with the tip of the quill. "Alright, critter, uh I'm gonna try t', uh, look inside yer mind. If ya don't care, just sort of think through what ya'd like us t'know... 'kay?" After a moment he relaxes, letting his mind reach out to try and detect thoughts and pick up what the doll might be thinking about.
Cerio - The doll's painted face stares out blankly at you. Her right-hand lifts in a 'thumbs-up' gesture. You reach out with your mind;
Initially, your mind's eye sees a blank surface - a room with white floors, walls, and ceiling. Huddled on the ground in the corner furthest from you appears to be a dwarven woman, she sits with her knees up, and her head buried in her arms.
"Hello?"her voice sounds distant and echoey. "Can you really read my mind? Long have I wandered, long have I been lost."
"I remember standing outside of giant gates, flanked by twin towers of crumbling stone. Stone gargoyles stared down at us. We were there to..."the voice fades, struggling to remember, "rid the land of evil... a plague that had drained the place of all joy, happiness, and love. Except..."
Images flash of mists swirling around a tall castle, its shadow casts the surrounding area in impenetrable darkness. Many are gathered before the giant gates. A crash of lightning disturbs the image. Where there were once people, exist only brutalised corpses. Fear grips you then. The dwarven woman looks to her left and right, her face a mixture of fright and anguish. A figure, its face obscured by a cloak, steps forward. Their hands are a flash as they plunge their dagger deep into the dwarven woman's abdomen.
"My friend?! What have you done? When did you turn!"
The image fades and is replaced by the white room.
"I died... I must have. I do not remember. I remember being... trapped."
The dwarven woman looks up at you. Where you would expect eyes, there is a single button, and where you would expect a mouth, there is a painted smile.
"Trapped in this body... unable to escape. Made to serve her."
"I resisted, naturally. I will not evil rule me... even one as powerful as Baba Lysaga,"she utters her former master's name.
"She trapped me here. Then disposed of me when I would not serve."
Having slumped off and sat beside the tree line, the doll looks up at Sandu and keenly accepts the writing utensils. Looking at the pen and ink in her hands, the doll seems confused. A shaky hand, unused to its own body, holds the pen haphazardly, dips it in the bottle of ink, and begins to scratch a message.
"𝐍𝕆Ŧ ⓔ𝓷乇𝐌¥," she writes, the writing barely legible. "т𝔯Ａ𝓟Ⓟ𝑒𝕕, ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ," she looks up at you through her button eye. "𝒹ᗩ尺кη𝐄𝓈ร... тĤ𝐄ᶰ 𝓁ｉ𝓖ℍт. sόή. 𝕤Ｏη 𝒾𝔫 β𝓐ŘＯ𝐯𝐢Ã. ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
The doll, struggling to continue, starts scratching numerous lines under the words, " ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
'I see no reason why you can't follow us.'Sandu replied to the scribbles. 'Fair warning though: we do not trust you, not yet, and when the slightest provocation makes us believe you mean us harm, we will not hesitate to destroy you.'
His voice was flat and even. It was not a threat he stated, merely the logical consequences should the doll betrad them.
'Clamber on up on the armor, you'll have a better view from there.'
He positioned himself to give the doll a lift should she need it.
The doll bows low to Sandu and proceeds to clamber onto the back of the animated suit of armour.
In the meantime, the Martikovs, except for Davian, retreat back into the shelter of the woods. "If it's wine, wha' y' want. There's a few barrels on loa'ed on th' car' near th' stables. R'kon y' bes' avoidin' th' fron' o' th' winery, an' sneak 'roun' th' back."
The elderly man grabs the pen the doll was using and a couple of sheets of parchment. He draws a makeshift map of the winery, explaining its general set-up as he goes (see spoiler);
Davian explains that he believes that the bulk of the druids' forces were located near the fermentation vats in the large room at the front of the property; this can be accessed from both the ground floor and the upper floor. The last he counted, there were 4 druids and countless blights within the winery.
"Oh, an' I don' need ta tell y'," Davian says, frowning, "leave any ravens be. They're frien's."
Dadeveth has stayed back as the doll was questioned and then as it climbed up on to the armor. She waits then, wanting to see if the atempt to read the things mind got them any more details than the hard-to-read writing did. As she waits she keeps an eye on the winery, wanting to make sure no danger is moving in on them from that direction.
"Maybe we should help these folks reclaim their home, it would probably be good for us to help since they may be related to the allies we are supposed to find," says Dormark.
Dadeveth nods at Dormark's suggestion. "I agree." She says to accompany the nod. "Making friends of these people would likely aid us in the long run too, so I have no problem doing what we can here to get their home and winery back from these druids."
Cerio falls backward into the ground and crawls backwards away from the doll.
"It's... It's... horrors 'pon horrors,"he moans for a moment. Then he raises a hand in a halting sort of gesture. "It's fine. She--she's fine. Seems t'ave been a dwarf lass caught up in dark, dark magic. But she ain't evil, naw..." He then details what he has gleaned from the doll's mind.
Cerio falls backward into the ground and crawls backwards away from the doll.
"It's... It's... horrors 'pon horrors,"he moans for a moment. Then he raises a hand in a halting sort of gesture. "It's fine. She--she's fine. Seems t'ave been a dwarf lass caught up in dark, dark magic. But she ain't evil, naw..." He then details what he has gleaned from the doll's mind.
Sandu's ears perked up. 'Did you say the doll is a dwarven woman?'
He turned on his heels and addressed the doll perched upon the animated armor's shoulder. 'This is going to be a weird question but do you know a dwarf named Baern? Male dwarf, carries around this symbol.'
Using a broken twig Sandu quickly drew a rough sketch on the ground of the symbol he mentioned:
Sandu - The doll's head slowly nods up and down. She points to the piece of parchment where she wrote, "𝕤Ｏη 𝒾𝔫 β𝓐ŘＯ𝐯𝐢Ã" and then points to the symbol you drew. She then points to the earlier part of her message, "т𝔯Ａ𝓟Ⓟ𝑒𝕕, ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
"Baern's in trouble as well? Moradin’s beard things are never easy. We should probably head through the back may give us the best chance not to alert the guard," says Dormark. As he waits for everybody to get ready for the raid. Dormark will take the time to ritual cast identify on the amulet, to see if could be of any use to them in the upcoming fight.
Dallid - The doll points to her painted mouth and then shakes her head. In answer to your question, she makes a tossing gesture with both of her hands and then marches on, she repeats this a few times, hoping that its message will be received.
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
'I think she's trying to say that Baba Lysaga tossed her out?' Sandu offered as a possible answer. 'Because she can't talk and this Baba isn't a fan of pantomime, I guess?'
He stepped forward to take a better look at the doll. Sandu suddenly became keenly aware that an inanimate object moving by magic stood behind him and that he was about to talk to a smaller inanimate object moving around by magic. The world was a very strange place indeed.
'Why come to us then? Trying to get back into Baba Lysaga's good graces by capturing us?' It was a blunt, matter-of-fact question with no ill intent. It felt like talking to a child, really.
'A Banderhobb?' Sandu turned his head. 'There are more of them? 'Cause that one called itself the Banderhobb. Carried a sack around and paid us no heed. Can't imagine why.'
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Cerio points at Sandu and then at his own skull. "That. Is a good question! So what's it want of us? If it ain't workin' for Baba Lysaga no more, that is?"
"I'm not sure Gal, but something seems off about this one... Hey how were you made? Do you remember a flame," ask Dormark seeing something different about this construct. What appears to be actually intelligence.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4
Dallid thinks for a moment.
"There are other things in front of us to take care of, but we should consider a way to give this thing a mouth. If it can talk, it might help. Or read its mind? Whatever, we have druids to deal with. Let's deal with that. Reduce our enemies' allies."
Paladin - warforged - orange
Sandu put down his backpack and retrieved a sheet of parchment, an ink pen and a bottle of ink.
'Perhaps you can write it out?' He knelt and offered the items to the doll. 'Or draw it if you don't know your letters.'
He stood up straight again. 'Yes, the druids are the more immediate problem.'
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Late Morning - Day 8 - A Doll To Remember
Having slumped off and sat beside the tree line, the doll looks up at Sandu and keenly accepts the writing utensils. Looking at the pen and ink in her hands, the doll seems confused. A shaky hand, unused to its own body, holds the pen haphazardly, dips it in the bottle of ink, and begins to scratch a message.
"𝐍𝕆Ŧ ⓔ𝓷乇𝐌¥," she writes, the writing barely legible. "т𝔯Ａ𝓟Ⓟ𝑒𝕕, ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ," she looks up at you through her button eye. "𝒹ᗩ尺кη𝐄𝓈ร... тĤ𝐄ᶰ 𝓁ｉ𝓖ℍт. sόή. 𝕤Ｏη 𝒾𝔫 β𝓐ŘＯ𝐯𝐢Ã. ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
The doll, struggling to continue, starts scratching numerous lines under the words, " ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
Cerio backs up a few steps as the doll begins to write. It was one thing to think about this thing as a mere wizard's trick, animated by a hand unseen. But this thing is actually alive.
"A-alright," he stammers in response to Dallid. "I can, erm, try to get a sense of its thoughts. Might be easier t'get a handle on things that way." Walking closer to the doll, he settles down to sit cross legged. He moves carefully, half expecting the doll to come at him with the tip of the quill. "Alright, critter, uh I'm gonna try t', uh, look inside yer mind. If ya don't care, just sort of think through what ya'd like us t'know... 'kay?" After a moment he relaxes, letting his mind reach out to try and detect thoughts and pick up what the doll might be thinking about.
Cerio - The doll's painted face stares out blankly at you. Her right-hand lifts in a 'thumbs-up' gesture. You reach out with your mind;
Initially, your mind's eye sees a blank surface - a room with white floors, walls, and ceiling. Huddled on the ground in the corner furthest from you appears to be a dwarven woman, she sits with her knees up, and her head buried in her arms.
"Hello?" her voice sounds distant and echoey. "Can you really read my mind? Long have I wandered, long have I been lost."
"I remember standing outside of giant gates, flanked by twin towers of crumbling stone. Stone gargoyles stared down at us. We were there to..." the voice fades, struggling to remember, "rid the land of evil... a plague that had drained the place of all joy, happiness, and love. Except..."
Images flash of mists swirling around a tall castle, its shadow casts the surrounding area in impenetrable darkness. Many are gathered before the giant gates. A crash of lightning disturbs the image. Where there were once people, exist only brutalised corpses. Fear grips you then. The dwarven woman looks to her left and right, her face a mixture of fright and anguish. A figure, its face obscured by a cloak, steps forward. Their hands are a flash as they plunge their dagger deep into the dwarven woman's abdomen.
"My friend?! What have you done? When did you turn!"
The image fades and is replaced by the white room.
"I died... I must have. I do not remember. I remember being... trapped."
The dwarven woman looks up at you. Where you would expect eyes, there is a single button, and where you would expect a mouth, there is a painted smile.
"Trapped in this body... unable to escape. Made to serve her."
"I resisted, naturally. I will not evil rule me... even one as powerful as Baba Lysaga," she utters her former master's name.
"She trapped me here. Then disposed of me when I would not serve."
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
'I see no reason why you can't follow us.' Sandu replied to the scribbles. 'Fair warning though: we do not trust you, not yet, and when the slightest provocation makes us believe you mean us harm, we will not hesitate to destroy you.'
His voice was flat and even. It was not a threat he stated, merely the logical consequences should the doll betrad them.
'Clamber on up on the armor, you'll have a better view from there.'
He positioned himself to give the doll a lift should she need it.
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
(Cerio are you sharing what you learned from your detect thoughts with everyone else?)
The doll bows low to Sandu and proceeds to clamber onto the back of the animated suit of armour.
In the meantime, the Martikovs, except for Davian, retreat back into the shelter of the woods. "If it's wine, wha' y' want. There's a few barrels on loa'ed on th' car' near th' stables. R'kon y' bes' avoidin' th' fron' o' th' winery, an' sneak 'roun' th' back."
The elderly man grabs the pen the doll was using and a couple of sheets of parchment. He draws a makeshift map of the winery, explaining its general set-up as he goes (see spoiler);
Davian explains that he believes that the bulk of the druids' forces were located near the fermentation vats in the large room at the front of the property; this can be accessed from both the ground floor and the upper floor. The last he counted, there were 4 druids and countless blights within the winery.
"Oh, an' I don' need ta tell y'," Davian says, frowning, "leave any ravens be. They're frien's."
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
Dadeveth has stayed back as the doll was questioned and then as it climbed up on to the armor. She waits then, wanting to see if the atempt to read the things mind got them any more details than the hard-to-read writing did. As she waits she keeps an eye on the winery, wanting to make sure no danger is moving in on them from that direction.
"Maybe we should help these folks reclaim their home, it would probably be good for us to help since they may be related to the allies we are supposed to find," says Dormark.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4
Dadeveth nods at Dormark's suggestion. "I agree." She says to accompany the nod. "Making friends of these people would likely aid us in the long run too, so I have no problem doing what we can here to get their home and winery back from these druids."
Cerio falls backward into the ground and crawls backwards away from the doll.
"It's... It's... horrors 'pon horrors," he moans for a moment. Then he raises a hand in a halting sort of gesture. "It's fine. She--she's fine. Seems t'ave been a dwarf lass caught up in dark, dark magic. But she ain't evil, naw..." He then details what he has gleaned from the doll's mind.
Sandu's ears perked up. 'Did you say the doll is a dwarven woman?'
He turned on his heels and addressed the doll perched upon the animated armor's shoulder. 'This is going to be a weird question but do you know a dwarf named Baern? Male dwarf, carries around this symbol.'
Using a broken twig Sandu quickly drew a rough sketch on the ground of the symbol he mentioned:
William Brackwater: Human Fighter - The Windward Isles
Tyrgram, the Butterfly Knight: Dwarf Warlock - Secret of Greenwold
Iòlinder Corrach: Half Elf War Cleric - Allansia Adventure
Valerius Sergius Publius: Dhampir Paladin - Vae Victus
Sandu - The doll's head slowly nods up and down. She points to the piece of parchment where she wrote, "𝕤Ｏη 𝒾𝔫 β𝓐ŘＯ𝐯𝐢Ã" and then points to the symbol you drew. She then points to the earlier part of her message, "т𝔯Ａ𝓟Ⓟ𝑒𝕕, ᵖ𝓁ᵉａ𝐒𝔢 Ｈέㄥｐ."
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
"One thing at time. Fix winery, then everything else", Galqarin opines sagely.
"Baern's in trouble as well? Moradin’s beard things are never easy. We should probably head through the back may give us the best chance not to alert the guard," says Dormark. As he waits for everybody to get ready for the raid. Dormark will take the time to ritual cast identify on the amulet, to see if could be of any use to them in the upcoming fight.
Dormark Calling of Strahd (warforged cleric) 4