Horatio chuckles, "C'mon, we could take four! But seriously, my idea to burn this place was simple. The flame within the oven looked at me. It's magical... I think it could burn other magical things. Isn't that how it works?" He looks at Titaani for confirmation. "If so... lets throw those soldiers' houses in, and Granny's. From there we could shovel out fiery debris and strew it about." 

"But there's gotta be at least..." Pud pauses, looking at each house attempting to keep count how many there are. "oh I dunno, I ain't good at math, but there's more than four houses there! All the doors are shut now so they might all be full of soldiers!"

Pud looks at everyone everyone else to see if his message is getting through. 

"Look. I know I just met you all and we don't really know each other all that well. But you guys and Brottor are the only friends I got. I don't wanna lose any of yous. But...but whatever you wanna do, I'm with you."

Ben:

"All of Nightshade's creations seem to be going into some kind of shutdown mode," says Ben, "So I don't think we are in immediate danger.  I would be in favor of continuing our search to see if we can find anything else of use or perhaps clues about missing items or beings.  Once we have cleared the place, I am not opposed to burning it all to keep Granny from coming back and making a menace of herself here again, but if we missed even one trapped child or imprisoned fey creature and killed it in the fire I would never forgive myself."

"Does anyone feel like the person or item she lost is nearby?  Maybe we can use our connections to aid us," he adds.

"Ok, fine," Titaani sighs, putting down the drummer dissapointedly. At Horatio's question, her ears perk up. "Huh? Oh, I don't know. But I have magical fire as well, if need be." 

The drum remains inert, the ten little doors still shut. All is quiet.

The party remains in Room L7 (the Tin Soldiers Barracks) even as Pud is edging back up the stairs into Room L9 (The Sewing Room).

No one in the party senses that they have anything belonging to them in this splinter realm of Thither, with the exception of Horatio, who feels satisfyingly complete ever since finding his reflection. 

Where to, next?

" Where is that rocking horse? Should we see if it is alive or just an item? "

"Ugh, let's leave the rocking horse alone," Titaani groans, moving to join Pud. "I tried to destroy it, but it's guarded by an angry tree who hates my guts."

Matilda pouts...if she can't rescue a unicorn a horse....even a wooden one...is the next best thing..

Ben:

Following Pud upstairs into the sewing room, Ben looks around, trying to see anything useful.  

Perception:  13

At Titaani's statement, he responds, "Hopefully the tree has gone dormant as well--we should check on both the dollhouse and the rocking horse on the way out when we are done searching.  I am also worried about Elkhorn--he was supposed to be here helping, and I haven't seen him at all."

"And if we're gonna be tossing things into the fire, we can add that jack in the box as well. The dragon thing that tried to take TItaani away uses those things to travel around."

While Ben searches the sewing room, Pud heads for the door leading out to the stairway and opens it up slowly. He peeps out through the cracked door and IF he doesn't see anything dangerous, he'll open it all the way and scope out the garden and surrounding area.

Perception check: 6 

Pud and Ben retreat back into the Sewing Room (L9 on the map). Pud opens the unlocked door connecting this room to a 5-foot-high wooden balcony that overlooks Granny Nightshade’s garden. He sees a woodland basin filled with plants and fungi, stretching out next to a steaming compost heap, with ramshackle pens for pigs and goats on his left. The bedraggled scarecrows hang quietly from tall wooden stakes in the basin’s wooded slope on his right. The cultivated beds full of mushrooms before him contain at least five or six types of toadstools and fungi in red, yellow, grey, brown, orange, and other colors, ranging in shape from tight hooded caps to frilly parasols, from hairy to spiny to scaly to smooth.

Inside, Ben sees nothing more than what Matilda and Titaani already raided. Mostly just impractical sewing supplies, at this point.

Pud looks around and this side of Loomlurch appears to be nice and quite. He looks back to the group and motions for them to join in.

”It seems okay out here. Next stop, textile mill? It’s upstairs to the north of here. We can go up to the dorms, pop out through the window and walking north along the treehouse roof and sneak into the windows of the mill. What do ya think?”

Quote from richgonehiking >>

Pud looks around and this side of Loomlurch appears to be nice and quite. He looks back to the group and motions for them to join in.

”It seems okay out here. Next stop, textile mill? It’s upstairs to the north of here. We can go up to the dorms, pop out through the window and walking north along the treehouse roof and sneak into the windows of the mill. What do ya think?”

 " Everyone. We're headed to the Mill."

"Ok!" Titaani follows the others. 

Pud knows that the route across the top of Loomlurch is not without its dangers. Climbing out and down from the dorm window isn't that hard, but climbing up the branches onto the mill balcony is a little tricky. If you fall (it's an Acrobatics check), you'll land practically on top of the rocking horse, now accompanied by a rather burly animated tree. And that presumes there aren't tin soldiers on the balcony, where they were found a bit earlier. On the other hand, this route bypasses the TIn Soldier Barracks, the Cupboards, and the Family Tree Room (and climbing branches can be, well, fun sometimes!) 

If you'd like to take Pud's suggestion, make an Acrobatics check (unless you have other means by which to navigate branches and height.)

(OOC: if anyone is not particularly confident in acrobatics, they can have Pud’s Elixir of Flight. It gives them a flying speed of 10ft for 10 mins

I’m heading into work now. I’ll post sometime this afternoon.)

Matilda isn't afraid....though she probably should be.

Acrobatics- 11

Ben:

"Shouldn't we just walk through the building?" asks Ben, concerned that he is not the most coordinated of people.  Climbing maybe, but balancing....eh.  Still if the others are intent on going that way, he will follow.

Pud shrugs his shoulders in uncertainty.

”I’m just tryin’ to avoid fights that’s all.  Some of you are still hurt and I ain’t the best at healing. If y’all don’t feel good about climbing we can sneak through the house. I’m okay either way.” 

( Matilda has 100% fallen off the house, she still has Second Wind though so she'll be fine...mostly...)