"Lotsa books!" Will calls from the other room. He holds up another fat tome with an ugly bullfrog’s hide stitched into its spine like the first. "Can you read this?" (You cannot. It is written in a language none of you know.)

"Toy toad!" he cries, removing a tiny clockwork toad out of the rolltop desk drawer. He puts it on the floor, and it begins to hop randomly around the room, making a croaking noise with each jump.

Matilda keeps an eye out for trouble. All seems to be clear at the moment.

Ben:

Giving up on the dollhouse for the moment, Ben takes the book from Will.  As he squints at the unknown writing, a power heretofore unknown surges in him and the words unravel, starting to now make sense.

(Comprehend Languages)

Titaani does let Horatio hug her, her eyes also full of tears. "You won't ever lose us, Horatio. I promise."

Ben takes a closer, arcane look at the second tome Will holds up. (It's in Elvish. This book is titled "Pity He’s an Elf" and, flipping through it, it appears to be a collection of illustrated short stories about an elf adventurer named Aethyn who travels the Feywild and befriends dangerous creatures in surprising ways.)

Ben:

”Interesting,” says Ben about the Elvish book, picking up the frog tome that he was originally planning to look at.  Scanning the first few pages, he tries to figure out if it might give them clues about Bavlorna.

(That one is "Tales from the Gloaming Court" (Volume 11), an illustrated book filled with stories and imagery of Feywild intrigue – lots of gossipy tales from the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Nothing at all about Bavlorna or Hither or the hags that he can see on a quick skim.)

Pud slinks around the group looking at all the stuff they've stumbled upon. He tip toes and peeks over Ben's shoulder and says "Might wanna hang on to those books. Especially that Pity He's an Elf book. Could come in handy if we bump into any creatures in the book. Can I hang on to that one?"

Pud can't stop thinking about that magical multitool up on the doll house. Who knows what hey can tinker up if only he could get his hands on it?! He wanders over to the dollhouse and drags it into a corner. He scans all the sides and zeros in on the moldy panels. He thinks to himself "Maaaaybe that's a weak point? Hmmm.."

He looks back at the crowd and makes sure no one is in splash range. He points his magical multitool at the yellowing and fuzzy moldy side panels and casts Acid Splash on the side wall for 8 acid damage.

He steps back and listens for any tell-tale signs that acid might be taking affect on the house. IF he get's any sense that the acid is working, he'll jab the pommel of his dagger at the panel to see if it breaks.

Matilda looks around, " So are we barricading or going?"

Upon experimenting with arcane acid, Pud finds that the dollhouse seems to be completely impervious to all damage, magical or otherwise. It is fully unscathed by the acid.

The same cannot be said, however, for the mold. Pud's acid bath beautifully cleans one side of the scuzzy dollhouse.

"Oh well...at least that nasty mold is gone."

He walks back to the crowd, dejected and somewhat resigned to the the fact that he'll probably never get his hands on that tool.

"Yeah gang, what's the plan? Trapping this place is gonna take a lotta work. And time. Plus Granny knows this place pretty well, so she'd have the upper hand. My vote is to search for more useful items and get outta this place." 

Ben:

Ben goes into the study while his magical comprehension remains, reading quickly the spines of the books to see what if anything might be useful.

"Yeah, I mean, we don't even know for sure if Granny will come back here," Titaani offers. "Maybe we would be better off moving on. We still need to free the archfey queen, don't we?"

Quote from queen_of_ashes19 >>

"Yeah, I mean, we don't even know for sure if Granny will come back here," Titaani offers. "Maybe we would be better off moving on. We still need to free the archfey queen, don't we?"

" I think thats a great idea...where was she again?"

Digging through the bookshelf in the study, Ben is able to read the titles and skim the text of all the books. They are all books of Feywild lore, all written in Elvish, each of which has a withered frog’s body stitched into its spine. In addition to the ones Ben already perused, they include such books as:

• All Things Sticky, Slippery, and Sweet (written for children; illustrates and describes substances that would fascinate them, such as boggle oil, troll spittle, and various flavors of tree sap.)
• Fantasma Demento’s Codicil of Conundrums (a lavishly illustrated book of fey puzzles and riddles. The answers to the puzzles are blank.)
• gobliN eht fo hguaL tsaL (a thin, illustrated book describing nilbogs, who are capricious fey spirits that possess goblins, foment chaos in goblinoid society, and use their magic to drive others to do the opposite of what they desire. All the book’s writing is backward.)
• The Queen’s Gowns (depicts and describes famous gowns worn by the Summer Queen, with asides written by the gowns’ equally famous designers.)
• Tales from the Gloaming Court (Additional hefty, green-covered, illustrated books from this series on the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Volumes 3 and 8 are missing.)
• Three Rules to Rule By  (a thin, dog-eared book that describes the rules of hospitality, ownership, and reciprocity in detail.)
• Twilight Tides (a fat, wrinkled book about navigating the oceans of the Feywild.)

Shelved among the books are hundreds of scrolls; they describe encounters with individuals who struck bargains with Skabatha, and the horrible curses she put on each of them for failing to uphold their end.

Quote from Damian_May >>

Quote from queen_of_ashes19 >>

"Yeah, I mean, we don't even know for sure if Granny will come back here," Titaani offers. "Maybe we would be better off moving on. We still need to free the archfey queen, don't we?"

 

" I think thats a great idea...where was she again?"

 
The party recalls hearing that the archfey Zybilna once ruled Prismeer. Her rule was overthrown by the three hags of the "Hourglass Coven" (Skabatha Nightshade, Bavlorna Blightstraw, and Endelyn Moongrave). Prismeer was then divided into splinter-realms by the hags. Rumor has it that Zybilna is still trapped in her stronghold, the Palace of Heart’s Desire. 

According to what the unicorn Lamorna told Matilda, the Hourglass Coven captured her mate, Elidon; stole his horn; and used its magic to imprison Zybilna in her palace. Lamorna felt that Elidon’s horn might be needed to free Zybilna, but she did not know where it was. She also warned that a dragon-like creature called a jabberwock still lives in Zybilna’s palace and frequently prowls the forest. Lamorna had urged you to seek out "Amidor the dandelion" in the mountains of Yon, somebody who could lead the group safely to the bridge that leads to the front gate of the Palace of Heart’s Desire.   (See page 85.)

Horatio, snapping out of his emotional state, wipes his eyes and says, "Wait. Here me out guys. We keep bumbling from one terrible danger to another. If we are not staying then we should take everything useful from this place and burn it down. Leave her no stronghold to reclaim... No workshops to enslave children within anymore. We take everything metal and all the valuables and return to Will's place. There I can build a forge, smelter, and anvil and make us proper equipment... Is that okay?"

Ben:

”If we are not staying here, Horatio, that sounds reasonable other than Little Oak’s possible resentment of a forge in his grove,” says Ben, though he is somewhat distracted.

Picking up the “Three Rules to Live By,” Ben leafs through it and reads carefully, thinking about how this realm, when operating properly, lives by these rules.  He feels a deep connection he doesn’t quite understand with these fey concepts and keeps the book, but puts the others back.

”What room next? Have we fully searched here?” he asks, taking one last crowbar-leveraged attempt on the dollhouse attic roof.

Athletics with Crowbar: 24

" Your really set on this whole Smithy thing aren't you?", Matilda grinned. " Guess you do need a hobby in your dottage to keep your mind from turning to mush."

" Very well.  If I get killed by tin soldiers while looking for knick-knacks for you or Granny comes back and murders the lot of us its your fault."

" Back up to where we found Pud and work our way down?"

"Okay then. If we're gonna do this, we should get goin." 

He turns to Matilda and with a shrug of his shoulders says "Sounds like as good a place as any. Shall we?"

Pud straightens his artificer's apron and with a snap of his fingers his hummingbird homunculus awakens, buzzes around the room and lands on his shoulder. 

"Let's burn away all the horrible memories, shall we?" Titaani grins. She readies a flickering purple flame in her hands, ready to cast create bonfire at the rest of the party's signal.