Saternesdæg 1100 hrs High Sun

The companions leave the ancient monastery before the new sun breaches the horizon having gathered the few iron-bloom mushrooms needed to add to the brew which might save the people of Falcon's Hollow from the black scour taint. Now they have only to retrieve the last ingredient, a pickled root. According to Jhaelin's recount of his memories, the only source which might have such a thing locally is the old hag known as Ulizmila, a wise woman and practitioner of the old ways. While some have said she is a monstrous hag and great, great granddaughter of Baba Yaga herself, the Witch Queen of the North, others knew her as a harsh but wise sage willing to share her wisdom for strange and often morbid prices.

The early morning is cool with leaves and grasses heavily burdened with overnight dew. Birds chirp incessantly as the companions once again enter the forest known as Darkmoon Vale (sometimes referred to as darkwood vale). Travel is slow as the companions push through rough foothill terrain. There are no paths and the thick underbrush must be pushed aside or hacked through to make any progress.

As the sun arcs into the hours of high sun, five hands since leaving the dwarven monastery, the low clinging clouds have burned off and the heat of the day has well began. The morning dew is gone now and the humidity is high which in turn makes it feel hotter than it actually is. The air is hazy. The heat is stifling and annoying to anyone in armor heavier than leather. Every companion is once again drenched in sweat from the effort of hiking and strenuous work to get through the forest. Insects, if they are not biting, are buzzing about in annoyance.

The sounds of the forest become suddenly distant as the trees part, opening into a small, almost perfectly circular glade. The nearest stands of pine, eyln, and darkwood-- all typically sturdy woods-- twist away from the clearing, as if bent by some impossibly strong wind or seemingly in an attempt to flee despite their paralyzed roots. At the glade's center squats an ugly cottage, little more than a pile of twigs, shoots, and ivy stacked upon mud walls. From the thatched roof dangle bundles of gnarled roots, old dried beast carcasses, and knuckle-boned bangles, all clattering together like gruesome wind chimes from what little breeze there is. A dozen small thatched fetishes-- each shaped like a tiny man, imp, or rearing serpent-- stand propped in a yard of high grasses, keeping guard before a rickety plank door.

Perceptibly, it looks as if this place has been vacant a very long time...

---

The clearing is roughly 120 feet in diameter with a dilapidated, circular, 15-foot cottage at its center. The PC's stand on the west end of the clearing.

Upon seeing the dilapidated condition of the cottage, Jhaelin is dispirited. His brows wrinkle with worried thoughts.

"That's not encouraging." he says to the others.  He peers upward toward the high sun and wipes his sweaty bald head with a rag that he is using as a bandage around his arm. It still itches, even though he is returned to His grace.

Roxie looked at the props and hut, eyes taking in every detail and clucked her tongue. "Seems to me if someone exacted high prices for her help, she might go to some lengths to keep those with frivolous wants away. I'll check," she said quietly as she pulled a dagger free just in case. With careful steps, she started making her way toward the hut.

"Is she scouting around, gonna knock, or breaking in?" Karok asked quietly.

Fortunately, the terrain and vegetation make everyone's travel slow, so she is not left lagging behind. At one point, she takes her armor off and drags and hefts it along. The disruption that causes is made up by the removal of the discomfort wearing it had caused, so her pace remains about the same.

Reaching the glade, and seeing the condition it has been left in, she offers, "Maybe she's dead? That happens to old people, you know." She also enters the glade, but instead of following Roxie, she goes over and taps one of the knucklebone bangles, listening to the sort of music it makes. If it was less gruesome, she would take it for her one day inn, but as it is, it would scare away customers.

"We've seen, what? A half dozen or more perfectly capable, sensible people die on this journey?" Karok muttered amongst the main body of the group. "But this silligribbet deludes herself that I'm shooting obsidian shards out of my non-existent vagina, drags her armor throughout half the day, walks into a witch's clearing and plays with her knucklebones!"

"And she'll probably outlive us all." the dour dwarf grunts.

Roxie had meant to scout ahead, checking for anything that might be dangerous to the others but before she realized it she had a shadow. A noisy one at that! Any pretense of stealth was dropped as she stopped for a moment to run a hand over her face. "Sheka," she muttered and then continued forward to look around the entrance of the hut.

"It does seem she lacks any sense of danger." Jhaelin mutters, watching as the two approach the apparently vacant thatch cottage. He notes the lack of smoke coming from the very apex of the thatched roof where there should be an opening for smoke from a fire to escape. Of course, there may not be a fire pit within, but what witch's hovel wouldn't have a fire to brew upon?

"She might be dead, by now," Karok muttered, still quietly. "Or on a journey. There might even be a note, if that's the case."

A shadow creeps over the clearing as the sun becomes obscured by a passing thick cloud. There are very few of them in the sky, and when one obscures the sun it is cause for pause to enjoy the palpable relief the brief shade offers. The heat and humidity of the day is comparable to that of yesterday. Anyone with any sort of weather sense figures it very likely to storm again in the evening hours.

Roxie tippy-creeps toward the cottage, then gives up any attempt at stealth when Leah follows, her chain mail armor held in one hand ka-chink'n against her leg with every step. She ratttles some hanging knuckle-bones as Roxie peers through the moldering door that is rotting off its hinges yet still blocks the way within. The interior is dimly lit through a small smoke escape in the roof and from the doorway, revealing a small circular space filled with shadows. As the high cloud moves on, the sun once again beats down on the Ulduan region. More than five hands since breaching the eastern horizon it shines a shaft of light through the draft hole in the roof down at an angle onto the western edge of the cottage revealing the dusty floor to be mortared slabs of shale from the surrounding hills. In the center is a fire pit, occupied by a large squat iron cauldron. Too big to hang, it has four iron legs and sits over cold ash, charcoal, and charred wood. Normal looking spider webbing covers its rim and sides. There is something odd about the webbing around the sides of the cauldron.

Except for one area, the walls of the cottage are lined with shelves. The shadows prevent seeing what might lay upon them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:12, Sat 19 Nov 2022.

As Roxie looked in and saw the webbing, a shudder shook her shoulders and her grip on the dagger tightened. She wasn't normally superstitious but the dark shadow that crept overhead didn't make her mood any better. Motioning the others, she picked up a few loose pebbles. "Doesn't seem like anyone's been in there for quite a while but something doesn't seem right. There's an iron pot inside with webbing all around it but something seems off about those webs," she informed the others when they approached.

Durwe approaches the cottage. He too looks in above the leaning heavy rotting door that blocks the way in and is not impressed. Who would live in a place like this?

"Well, certainly no one is home. We can just go in and look around then."

With that said, he pulls at the door to get it out of the way. Dust falls and the wood groans at the hinges before splitting away. Durwe throws the door to the side and steps into the cottage to take a look around.

Inside, the cottage is dank, reeking, and filled with shadows. Haphazardly hung shelves line the walls, covered in all manner of clay jugs, clouded bottles, strangely cut rocks, rotted bunches of herbs, and a museum of other crude curios and remnants of a bone grinder’s artifice. A rusted iron cauldron, with a mouth nearly 5 feet wide and a depth of at least 3 feet, dominates the hut’s single room. Beneath its web and ash-covered surface is concealed a surface shaped with a relief of capering fiends and leering devils. Across from the door (previously hidden from view by the bright shaft of light), against the far wall, stands a high-backed chair made of wicker, the gigantic curved tusks of some monstrous beast, and thousands of blunt molar teeth. In the chair sits what looks like a corpse wrapped in filthy burial linens, its form padded with pungent herbs and sprouting patches of thick white mold.

To the right of the chair is an aged and ragged bedroll, a wooden chest, and a dilapidated wooden dresser drawer. The bottom of the two drawers is broken out. On the top of the dresser drawer sits a mortar and pestle, a large candle, a crude iron statuette of a serpentine figure, more dried herbs and ground rocks. Lying next to the dresser drawer on the floor is a kiln dried adobe pish pot and an empty bucket.

Hanging from several of the wood pole rafters are various dried and moldy herbs.

To the right of the doorway, leaning against the wall is tanning rack. A stretch of wolf hide is laced upon it, hardened and mostly rotted away. A small wooden chest lies next to it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:17, Sat 19 Nov 2022.

Leah frowns when Durwe removes the door. The woman may be dead, but that is still no reason to tear up the pea patch.

She looks inside with the others, but sees nothing of interest. So, she remains outside the door, pole in hand, keeping watch on the clearing in case anything approaches.

Though it was sweltering, Roxie shuddered as she looked inside fully. "It's like a tomb," she said quietly. "Does anyone know what this root looks like and maybe it's here? Though from the looks of things it might not be in good enough shape to help the people of the town."

Karok began taking a long, slow circuit around the cottage, to make sure and see the outside of all the walls. His sword and shield were held ready.

"I have a general idea of what it looks like from reading the tome. Basically, it looks like a rat's tail and is pickled, so most likely will be found in a jar of liquid."

Jhaelin is first to enter the cottage. He scans the room slowly, his eyes finally resting on what appears to be a corpse wrapped in burial linens. Is that Ulizmila? He next scans the walls that are lined with wooden shelves cluttered with all manner of things. This might take a while, he realizes.

"Okay, who's going to help me look? I need three people. Any more and we start bumping elbows."

"I will help." Durwe says, stepping into the cottage. He too scans the room; not for jars at first, but for dangerous creatures that would certainly have made the cottage their home. He finds none... which in itself is a curiosity. Why not? And...

"Why is everything still on the shelves if vacant so long? Why is there no animal or creature making this place their home?"

Durwe steps around the room and looks down on the burial linens, then throws a questioning glance over at Jhaelin.

"A witch's ill repute... and this hideousness might explain keeping the locals or bandits away. But animals?"

Roxie stepped inside and let her eyes adjust, the dagger in her hand poised for danger. "Can anyone see if this is an illusion?" she asked softly. Before going to the bookshelf, she approached the cauldron in the center. "What is it about these webs that seem so off?" she grumbled and stared at it for a moment. The rocks in her left hand clicked against each other as she rolled them around nervously. "I don't like disturbing resting places but I'm tempted to chunk a stone at the cauldron." And see if another damn spider comes out she thought to herself.

With the tip of her dagger Roxie pushes aside the webbing around the huge cauldron. Beneath is revealed a strange surface. A raised relief depicts capering fiends and leering devils around the cauldron's girth. Strange depictions of lurid acts and frivolity. The mouth of the rusty iron cauldron is easily five feet wide and it is at least three feet deep. Empty as one looks in...

Durwe taps the side of the cauldron with is sword tip. The sword meets iron with a metallic ding.

"It's real." Durwe states matter-of-factly. He walks over to one of the shelves and looks over its web coated contents without touching anything. Several glass jars containing nothing resembling a rats' tail. One resembling a pig... perhaps a fetus. A few implements or tools of some sort for cutting, skewering, and threading. He recognized a knife and an awl. The other two were a mystery to him. Some old quills were behind the tools with an inkwell. Two small skulls... maybe rats? A small box of finger bones. A wick and oil lamp. A bowl with a yellowish powder. Small antlers.

As the place is searched, Leah continues to stay on guard outside, alert and wary, although after a few minutes in the heat, she moves to stand guard in a shadier spot.

Karok picked up the small, empty barrel in the back of the hovel from along the outside wall and brought it around to the front.

"You never know," he said to no one in particular. "Might come in handy."

He put the barrel down and continued his slow march around the perimeter, about thirty feet in.

While Jhaelin and Durwe begin checking the shelves and whatnot, Roxie approaches the corpse in a wary and respectful manner. "If you knew something would be wrong in the future, would you keep what was needed close to you?" she asked in a whisper as she started inspecting everything (clothing, chair, hands, etc.).

Shandrilar leaned back against the porch beside Leah with an arrow knocked in her bow. She'd managed to finish mending her top recently. In the heat of the day, she stashed her red cloak in her pack.

Jhaelin rubs at the stubble atop his head and approaches one of the shelves that looks promising. It contains many jars with strange contents. One of them could be the pickled root they seek.

A cluster of items sit in front of the old wide topped glass jars. Each har is covered with a stretch of hide and bound with a leather thong. Several different types of spoons and ladles occupy a wide wooden plate. A thick candle sits on the edge of the shelf. A leather thong hangs from around the candle. A pendant dangles at the end of it below the edge of the shelf. The pendant is a gruesome looking shrunken head with leathery dark skin, stringy black hair, stitched eyes, wrinkled nose and mouth, and a leather stitch around the neck.

"eeeeeckkk! Jhaelin mutters, ignoring the gruesome thing.

Along the back of the shelf the jars are lined up two deep. This is where he will begin his search, taking the first and trying to identify it or at least see if it resembles the shape of a rat's tail.

Roxie searches the linen burial wraps that sit in the strange chair. She discovers there is no skeleton beneath the linens. Indeed no body at all, just some bramble and cloth. Apparently, someone tried to make it appear a corpse was present.

When Jhaelin touches the jar on the shelf a creaking pop comes from the center of the hut. The air there is suddenly saturated in a cloud of rust and those in the hut are startled to see the large cauldron move! It tumbles forward toward Jhaelin as if kicked hard from behind by an unseen giant foot. The cleric leaps to the side and the cauldron stops upright where he was just standing.

If a cauldron can look menacing... Jhaelin is feeling it.

As the seconds pass, the dust settles around it.

---

Begin combat round 1120.06 (rnd1)... maybe.

Magic in play...
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Sat 19 Nov 2022.

Karok paused in his orbit, sword and shield up. "You all well in there?" he called.

"Now I know someone's playing with us," Roxie said. "There's not a body here, just something to look like a corpse."
Then the cauldron decided to move about and she glared at it for a moment. "You must have been getting close to something." She started eyeing the shelves, wondering if she might be able to leap and find footing enough to rifle through without the cauldron getting to her. Then an idea came to her and she took a deep breath. "Oh great one, we come to you in peace seeking only to help the people of a town and were told you have something that would be of great help," she called out loud and clear.

Karok had started for the cottage, but then stopped when he heard Roxie call out... in prayer?

So, next Jhaelin would steal something? At any rate, it did not sound like anything dangerous was immediately happening.

Karok resumed his picket march.

Like with Karock, Leah does not hear anything disturbing, nor is there anything visually troublesome she sees from here, so she continues to guard her shade patch fiercely from all enemies.

Jhaelin barely escapes the path of the iron cauldron, dropping the jar where he began to pick it up and leaping to the side quickly. His breath catches in his chest and he stares at the cauldron in wonder.

"Jorgundal's beard! Did you see that!?" he asks, looking at the others.

Just in case, he pulls his dwarven war hammer from his belt and backs away as Roxie begins her call to some unseen thing or being.

Durwe turns from visibly scanning the shelf he is at when the cauldron moves. His eyes go wide (well, wider than the normal elfen eye) and he pulls his sword immediately, ready to leap to the attack of whatever moved it. He pushes his sword through the air behind where the cauldron once stood in the hopes to cut through the unseen.

"Something or someone is invisible to our sight!" the elf calls out. "Karok!"

Cassius is studying one of the twiggy stick figures grown over in the yard. It appears to be an effigy of some animal, well formed yet grown through with crawling ivy and grass.

Jhaelin backs away from the cauldron. It does not follow him, nor does it move again. Durwe's blade slips through the air without any resistance and Roxie's call to the unseen goes without any answer. All seems quiet for the moment.

A heartbeat or two later, Karok is at the door, sword and shield ready. "Somebody call?" he asked.

Hearing Durwe's call, Leah is quick to respond. "YES, WHEN SOMEONE IS INVISIDIBLE IT MEANS THAT IT IS FOR SIGHT, OTHERWISE WE WOULD JUST SAY THAT THEY DID NOT MAKE ANY NOISE OR `WOAH, YOU DO NOT HAVE A SCENT, SO YOU ARE UNAPPETIZING' OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. INDIVISIBLE IS FOR SIGHT! BUT KARROCK IS NOT THE ONE THAT IS INDIVISIDIBLE, YOU JUST DID NOT SEE HIM BECAUSE HE WAS OUT HERE GUARDING WITH ME! SO THERE WAS NOTHING INVILID... NOTHING THAT YOU COULD NOT SEE BECAUSE OF MAGIC!!!"

"Uh... yeah... what she said," Karok agreed, vaguely, with a head cock over his shoulder. "So... are you being attack by something... undavisible, or something?"

Shandrilar stands about twenty feet outside the cottage, keeping a wary eye on the surrounding forest and sky for any danger. When something becomes amiss inside the cottage, she readies her weapon and focuses her attention on the doorway as Karok responds to a call. As he questions them, she then scans the clearing and the edges of the forest looking for strange movement in the grasses or bushes which might give away someone or something that is invisible through magic.

"Uhh... dunno for sure." Jhaelin replies to Karok. He raps his war hammer against the side of the cauldron lightly. The peel of metal against metal rings hollowly. "Something knocked this kettle from the fire pit at me!"

Durwe slides his sword back into its sheath. The hilt bottoms out on it with a resounding click! He looks over at the dwarf.

"Whatever it was is now gone I guess. Lets find this root, if its here, and leave."

Durwe moves to the next shelf and begins scanning it with his eyes.

Karock looks at the elf, askance. A month ago it was the kind of thing he would have expected from "the fair folk." Now, he decided, it sounded like it might be a joke, but probably wasn't. Probably.

He transferred the look to the cauldron and made it suspicious, as if to say, "Don't try that again," to the big pot.

Then he withdrew a few steps from the cottage, turned, and resumed exterior guard duties.

It was right about when Durwe made a pun statement that Roxie decided to avoid the pot entirely and leaped up onto the shelves. It was graceful like a cat for the most part but she'd started giggling so she landed a little too close to the edge. Flailing her arms, she tried to stay upright and it seemed for a moment she just might succeed.

Then one of the pegs holding the shelves to the wall popped ominously and Roxie knew her attempt had been pure folly. "Oooooh sheka!" she squeaked, flailing again as everything creaked and careened. Everything started to fall around her and though she lunged forward to try to grab for the wall she found herself skidding backward until suddenly there was nothing under her feet but air.

The next thing she knew she bounced off the damned cauldron and landed with a heavy thud onto the floor with jars and books falling on top of her. Some of the contents were loosed and she found herself surrounded by tiny eyeballs and other unidentifiable things that reeked to the high heavens. "That's gonna leave a bruise," she groaned sarcastically as she half-rolled onto her side and placed a hand on her backside.

Jhaelin kneels to help Roxie up from the floor when a jar catches his eye. It lies askew beneath Roxie's elbow, broken and leaking fluid. From his close scrutiny it appears to be exactly what they are looking for.

"Roxie! I think you found it!" he says, picking up the jar and looking closer. He rubs away some wet straw from the glass to read a faint charcoal mark.

"Moradin's Fortune!" the cleric exclaims while standing. The last of the liquid in the jar leaks out. "This is it! It's even labeled! I hope it doesn't go bad before we get back to Laurel."

"Glad I could help," Roxie half-chuckled though it turned into another groan as she made her way to an upright position. "Is there anything else we need or can we make haste back to Laurel?" Glancing around, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something truly bad was going to happen. The tale after all was that the witch usually exacted a morbid price and given there was no corpse, she felt a debt would still be requested.

Roxie's attempt at getting atop one of the shelves ends disastrously with her being sprawled on the floor amidst the contents of the shelf. As she is getting to her feet, she is whalloped from the side as the cauldron suddenly lurches forward as if kicked from behind! It flies the few feet and slams into the rogue, knocking her all the way out the front door (-4). It follows suit, bounding a few feet beyond her then stops upright where it is...

---

Begin combat round 1120.12 (rnd2)... maybe.

Roxie must spend the next round getting to her feet unless she wishes to take action from the ground at penalties. AC and saves suffer a four point penalty and attacks suffer a two point penalty.

Magic in play...
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Illiana has been reluctant to enter the witch's cottage after their tear through the heated forest. She stands outside watching the others watch whatever they are watching while pulling some irritating brambles from her long golden locks of hair. Interest in the conversation of invisible things draws her but Leah's outburst took care of that. She rolled her eyes and continued to look around at... well, nothing really. She was growing bored when suddenly the rogue and a large cauldron comes barreling out the doorway of the cottage. Her eyes fly wide with wonder and delight. An animated construct! How wonderful!

"That's a CONSTRUCT!" she says with more than a hint of excitement while pointing at the iron cauldron resting in the grass.

The commotion inside attracts Leah's attention, and she sees the follically-challenged girl barrel out the door, followed by a charging cauldron. She looks quizzically at the two of them, but the cauldron comes to a stop. Uncertain why Roxie would be fighting a pot, she asks... no, she does not ask anything at all. It would only be embarrassing to her to have to realize she was being beaten up by a giant kettle. It was best to not call attention to that fact. Instead, she looks at Illiana and shouts, "IT'S NOT CALLED A CONSTRUCT, IT'S CALLED A CAULDRON!"

Hopefully this correction will help the other girl not embarrass herself when she goes shopping for magic supplies.

Illiana blinks twice, looking at Leah condescendingly. She wants to give the girl quite the retort, but sighs instead. The girl is incredibly lacking in knowledge and experience. Of course, Illiana realizes, it could be that no one here, save possibly the elves, knows what she is talking about. Constructs are almost exclusively the creations of powerful magic users.

Illiana stretches forth her finger and mutters arcane words. "Solaise solatcuam!"

A magic missile erupts from her finger and streaks toward the cauldron.

"So, we're fighting cookware, now, are we?!" Karok roared, leaping towards the offending cauldron, his tone half outraged and half amused. "Well, we'll turn you into flatware, you quarrelsome pot!"

Jhaelin hesitates for just a moment, stunned to the spot at the bowling cauldron. Only when Illiana calls out does he fully understand the situation. The cauldron is animated! A protector of the cottage no doubt.

Regaining his composure, he drops the jar of root and his shield and pulls the large ogre club from his back before running from the cottage. He bounds through the doorway with his arms already in a wide swing with the club.

"LEAH! Hit it... the cauldron is ALIVE!"

Durwe exits the cottage behind the others with sword drawn. Seeing Roxie in the grass and prone, he moves to help her by grabbing her leather vest and pulling upward and back away from the cauldron.

"C'mon lass. Can't fight on yer bumm!"

Cassius pulls his war hammer from his belt and makes to attack the moving kettle!

Realizing what is happening when Illiana explains the construct, Tynia points her finger and utters her arcane words.

"Solaise Solatcuam!"

A magic missile flies from her finger toward the iron cauldron.

"No ... I certainly can't," Roxie gasped as she felt herself lifted off the ground. "Especially when my bum hurts like ..." Whipping out the dagger she opted for the moment to simply stay out of the cauldron's way while she looked for anything that would be helpful against the construct.


OOC: Looking for perhaps a ditch or sinkhole that it might get trapped in so couldn't harm them.

Durwe pulls Roxie up and they both back away a few feet. The elf watches the cauldron warily and pulls his sword while Roxie scans the surrounding clearing for any sort of divot they could use as possible shelter. Unfortunately, there is nothing that offers that kind of protection, save the forest itself.

Jhaelin passes the two of them and strikes at the cauldron with the ogre club.

Thonnggg!

The ogre club vibrates in Jhaelin's hands and the cleric looks dumbly at the animated kettle, wondering how in the gods they could kill an iron construct. As he watches, a magic missile from Illiana strikes it and another thonggg is heard. The construct seems unaffected by the magic.

Karok flanks Jhaelin and attacks the cauldron with his sword just as it tumbles forward, rolling and bouncing on its side toward Cassius.

Clang!

Karok's blade hits the cauldron hard on its side, marring it a tiny bit. Sparks spit from the blade as it skitters along the surface and the dwarf cant help but wonder if his sword will survive the attack. Cassius dodges the rolling pot and brings his hammer down hard on it. The clanging ring reverberates like a tower bell throughout the clearing and the cauldron sits upright once again. While hitting the thing solidly, Cassius' hammer does little, if any, damage to it at all.

Finally, another magic missile from Tynia hits the cauldron with the same results as Illiana's. That is, a ringing but no damage.

---

Begin combat round 1120.18 (rnd3)... maybe.

Magic in play...
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Karok held his ground, sword and shield defensively deployed in front.
"Do you want to try to flip it and hold it down until we dump enough things atop her to keep her under?" he asked dialogically.

Leah tries to make some sense of this, but nothing in particular comes to mind. So, instead she thinks she should do something to stop the cauldron. but what to do?

One option is to perhaps just grab it. She is not wearing armor, after all, so it would be easier to grabble, since she is not encumbered by metal. And if it was grabbed, then others could do the same. Since it des not have hands, it should be immobilized.

On the other hand, it is a cauldron. It has a large opening, and if she could stick her pole into it, it would be trapped, fixed in place. It is even more ideal to use a pole against a cauldron than a spider or a wolf.

So, with her internal debate completed, she rushes forward with her pole,. intending to spear the interior of the cauldron and hold the pot in place until someone else can figure out what best to do with it, perhaps locking it back inside the house if they have already recovered the root.

If Leah takes action with her pole, Karok will also rush forward and grab the cauldron, to immobilize it.

Watching the situaion unfold from near the forest edge, Tynia can come up with only one idea.

"The trees! Get into the trees and protect yourselves!"

She pulls her bow from her shoulder and lets fly one arrow after another at the thing, hopefully to draw it away from others. She really didnt think an arrow would harm it.

Shandrilar looks on from the edge of the clearing but does not fully comprehend what is happening at first, until the mage informs them that the iron cauldron is something living. How could an iron cauldron be alive? Strange as it is, she recognizes the danger and moves to attack with the others, drawing her bastard sword from its sheath as she moves.

Jhaelin regains feeling in his arms and hands. He had hit the cauldron so hard that the club had vibrated him to numbness. The club is useless against it, so what by the gods could he do? Then it hits him. That new spell he just learned.

"Karok! Keep it off me. Protect me while I cast a spell."

Jhaelin takes a stance, his feet planted wide and outstretches his arms, one palm forward and the other holding his holy symbol. He closes his eyes and utters an incantation. Then points at the cauldron.

"Ferruum Calidum Liquescens!"
"Ferruum Calidum Liquescens!"
"Ferruum Calidum Liquescens!"

After the first recitation, the cleric's clothing flaps forward as if a quick gust of hot wind hits him from behind. But there is no breeze in the clearing. The bangles and knuckle bone chimes are quiet. The grass at his feet does not move.

The cleric continues to recite the same verse over and over with a stronger conviction with every verse...

Then finally he is quiet, holding forth his holy symbol and breathing heavily.

Illiana is livid. She was first to cast the magic missile spell... then that elf had to copy her. Pathetic. Trying to outdo me are you? Well...

Again she utters the arcane words for the magic missile spell. Only this time, with a little more flare to her movements and voice.

"Solaise soLATcuam!"

The missile flies toward its target and Illiana glances at Tynia with distaste. Sure... run for the trees. Cowardess.

Durwe leaves Roxie's side and strikes at the cauldron again with his silver sword, silently hoping it would not break upon the surface of the cauldron.

Cassius once again brings his hammer down on the iron cauldron!

Roxie dances out of the way, shrugging off her pack and digging inside for some rope. "Get it toward the woods," she agreed. "It can't hurt if it's dangling."


OOC: Not attacking this round, instead taking the time to get a rope with intent to hang it from the trees.

"Got it!" Karok assured Jhaelin as he plowed into the cauldron, shoulder-first, grabbed one of the handles, then dug in to hold on.

Cassius and Durwe attack at the cauldron, hoping to damage it before it moves again. Durwe's blade just misses as Cassius moves in front of him. Cassius' hammer comes down hard on the iron surface with a loud clang!. The cauldron seems unaffected by the hammer's blow.

Roxie begins digging in her pack to retrieve a rope. Jhaelin calls for protection and begins chanting while the cauldron suddenly leaps to attack. It flips forward head over end and rolls along the ground straight at Leah. Not quick enough to get out of the way, the girl is knocked back several feet by the impact (-3) which leaves her breathless. Luckily, she held onto her pole. As it continues to roll in a circular arch, Shandrilar swings at it as it passes her. The bastard sword clangs heavily against the iron and sparks fly. The side of the cauldron actually dents inward a little bit with the blow, but it keeps rolling and tumbling.

Karok leaps after it and manages to grab one of the handles while it was rolling on its side. Karok is nearly thrown over the cauldron by the inertia of the thing, but digs in with his heels. A tremendous tug-o-war begins to ensue...

Jhaelin finishes his spell and the cauldron begins to become uncomfortably warm for Karok and Leah pushes her pole into the wide mouth of the cauldron, pressing its side down to the ground.

Tynia lets fly her first arrow and it strikes the cauldron with a solid plink! The arrow does not harm it by all appearances. Her second arrow takes Leah in the leg nearby (-1). Leah drops to one knee and loses her concentration on keeping the cauldron pinned with the pole.

Illiana finishes her spell and another magic missile strikes the cauldron. Karok can feel the impact through the iron and a muted gong is heard. Otherwise, there is no damage to the thing.

---

Begin combat round 1120.24 (rnd4)...

While grabbed, the iron cauldron can be attacked with a +4 bonus to attack rolls. Another WR roll is required between Karok and the Kettle. Success by Karok will be a TAKEDOWN but not pinned. Meaning the cauldron can still attack, if it has some form of doing so. Anyone wanting to help (up to three more) will add one additional bonus to Karok's WR score for determining success.

Problem is... it is becoming more and more uncomfortable to the touch as it heats from Jhaelin's spell.

Magic in play...
Heat Metal on Cauldron, 7 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Karok continued to wrench at the cauldron which was, apparently, growing warm from exertion.

"If we can hold it long enough to tie a handle," he called to Roxie, "The bunch of us might be able to drag it to a tree and hang it! Good thinking!"

"Might-might not work," Roxie grimaced as she chomped down on the rope and dove in to help Karok pin the construct. "Damn ... schtoofawt ..."

Leah spent so much time trying to decide if she should use her pole or wrestle the cruel cauldron that she completely forgot to do either. Of coourse, when it charged and knocked her heels over head, her mind was brought quite back to the action. Spearing the pernicious pot with her pole, she grins at how easy it was to defeat the enemy...

Until one of the callous kettle's allies shoots her with an arrow! Her leg buckles, and she drops to a knee, but cannot let this stop her. Karrock must live to see her babies again! fighting through the pain, she thrusts forward, trying to put all her weight into holding the calamitous kitchenry in place.

Durwe sheathes his sword and leaps to help Karok hold the cauldron in place while trying to avoid Leah and her pole.

Jhaelin steps up to help hold the kettle in place and sighs when he feels the warmth building in the iron. It is a good idea to rope it, but unfortunately, that won't work now because of his spell. Had he known a moment sooner what they planned, he would not have cast it.

"We have to back away from it! It will soon be searingly hot from my spell, hopefully enough so to destroy it. Your rope will be burnt before you can pull it."

"Back away into the trees!"

Jhaelin makes for the edge of the forest and the protection of the trees at a sprint.

Roxie at first thought it was just heat from the struggle and adrenaline but she'd noticed the steady build of heat so when Jhaelin said what he did, she started to laugh. Whatever she said was muffled by the rope between her teeth but she backed away and pulled it from her mouth. "You heard the man, time to dance with the trees." The rope flipped and flopped in a trail behind her as she sprinted to a tree near Jhaelin. "Let's hope it melts soon ... won't explode will it?" she asked him.

Jhaelin laughs, "I dont think so, but Im not sure. The spell is new to me by the grace of Heironeous."

Karok wrenched his hands away from the cauldron in exasperation, raising frustrated fists to the heavens. He grabbed his sword and shield back up, but delayed his flight until he had established that nobody else in the group had been trapped or too badly injured to flee.

Leah had already thrust forward to pin the cauldron, and thus was already committed to her attack when Jhaelin calls for the general retreat. Perhaps it was of no matter. With an arrow in the leg, she'd likely not run quickly as it was.

Karok has the cauldron grabbed by a handle. It tries continuously to tumble or roll away from the dwarf, but Karok digs in his heels and holds fast.

Leah strikes out with her pole. With excellent skill in timing and aim, or just plain luck, the pole slips through the other handle and she presses the end against the ground, aiding in holding the cauldron in place. (+1 to Karok's WR roll bringing it to 18)

Cassius, Shandrilar, and Durwe grab the cauldron to aid in immobilizing it so that Roxie might tie a rope around a handle. (Adding +3 to Karok's WR roll for a 21 total) The idea was to drag it over to a tree and hang it.

Unfortunately, Jhaelin states he had already cast his spell which will ruin that plan. The thought is that it will suffer severe damage from searing heat that it can not nullify. Searing heat that will burn away a rope in an instant. Already, those holding onto it can feel the iron heating quickly.

At Jhaelin's request the companions back away toward the trees, except for Leah and Karok. Leah continues to press the pole to the ground with the cauldrons handle caught.

The cauldron tumbles, flipping the pole out of Leah's hands. The pole flies end over end and sticks into the thatched roof of the cottage at an angle. The cauldron, as if kicked from behind, flies forward and strikes toward Karok full on. The dwarf brings up his shield and twists, deflecting himself away from the impact path. The cauldron continues to roll, bounce and tumble in the clearing. This time, it does not come to a stop upright but keeps moving, circling around. As it moves, smoke follows it and the air around it begins to waver and distort from heat.

---

Begin combat round 1120.30 (rnd5)...

Cauldron's WR roll, 25. Karok's, 21 total... Cauldron broke free.

Everyone is near the trees, except Leah and Karok.

Magic in play...
Heat Metal (very hot) on Cauldron, 6 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Illiana backs into the forest's edge. The cauldron tumbles at Karok and he twists out of the animated construct's path. The mage admires Jhaelin's idea and wondered if she could produce such a spell one day? She would have to research it. That could come in real handy against a heavily armored opponent. A physical alteration of material items. Interesting...

The cauldron keeps moving, tumbling and bouncing along the ground. It is a strong enchantment on that one. Its no wonder there were no monsters or someone else living in the empty cottage with that thing protecting it. But what does it protect? Just the cottage?

Illiana smiles. If that spell kills it, maybe she will have the opportunity to find the research or the spell for creating the construct within the cottage. Now that would be worth something.

"Take cover!" Karok called to Leah, as he, himself, ran for the door to the cottage. He leapt inside and grabbed the door up from the floor, ready to hold it in the threshold against the cauldron guard, pausing only long enough to let Leah in if she chose to run that way.

"Oh, good idea, Karrock!" Leah exclaims as she runs with him into the cottage. Once there, she looks for the pot's cover as he suggested. Maybe it just needs it's hat back to be a happy cauldron once more, or perhaps they can bargain with it, holding the cover hostage until the pot calms down.

"Yeah, ---wha?" Karok did a double take, and then thought about it. "Yeah, I DID say 'take cover', I guess."

Indeed the gods do take care of such as she, he thinks.

"Sure, find the lid," the dwarf allowed, "But then help hold the door!"

Roxie wasn't about to put herself out there for the thing to try to bowl over again. She did spare a wince for Leah getting whomped and then an arrow ricocheting. "It's just not right when pots fight back," she chuckled as she recoiled the rope and tucked it back in her pack.

With everyone else watching from the edge of the clearing among the trees, Karok and Leah sprint for the cottage doorway. The cauldron continues its rolling, bouncing and tumbling in the clearing. The cold iron black metal begins to glow orange within its depths. The smoke no longer comes from the cauldron, but does drift in the air from its path. Singed dry grasses and leaves send curls of smoke to the air.

With a deliberate turn, the cauldron strikes out at Leah. She just manages to dodge it, a hot wind sweeping over her as it passes. Then she leaps for the doorway where Karok is pulling the unhinged old door from the grasses where Durwe threw it earlier. It had landed on one of the twiggy effigies and flattened it.

---

Begin combat round 1120.36 (rnd6)...

Everyone is near the trees, except Leah and Karok.

Magic in play...
Heat Metal (searing hot) on Cauldron, 5 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Illiana continues to watch the cauldron with bewilderment as it stalks its prey across the clearing. She slowly sidles her way over to stand near to Jhaelin. She offers a worried whimper and puts a hand to her mouth when the cauldron nearly bowls over Leah. She notes the discoloration in the cold iron metal.

"Jhaelin. That is quite a spell," she says in a cooing voice. "Fascinating really. Almost as much as whatever animated that cauldron."

Jhaelin ignores Illiana's comments. He continues to watch the scene unfold before him, his mind wrenched with worry and fretting over not being able to do anything. Not only that, but he has worsened the situation greatly. If the cauldron hits anyone, they will suffer burns from his spell. Why did he not wait!

"There is nothing I can do." he says. "NOTHING. We can not contain it. We can not halt it because of my spell. It will continue attacking until we are dead."

Jhaelin shakes his head and spits to the ground.

"GET OUT OF THERE! GET TO THE TREES!"

Durwe's expression is stoic and emotionless. "Perhaps your spell will damage it enough to destroy the enchantment. Destroy it, I mean."

Tynia shoots Illiana a dagger filled look as she speaks to Jhaelin.  Vixen, she thinks before commenting.
"Perhaps its magic is limited in area of effect. I notice it has not once deviated toward any of us not in the clearing."

"Just be ready to heal Jhaelin. That is what we do."  Like Jhaelin and some of the others, he watches from just inside the ring of trees.

"It's okay, Jhaelin," Roxie offered quietly and offered a reassuring smile. "Some things take a little time and like Durwe says, if the metal starts breaking down then it won't be a threat anymore. You did fine."

Leah's leg buckles from the arrow wound as she runs for the door, but fortunately, that sudden stumble throws off where she might have been, and the angry pot just misses her as she tumbles her way into the hut.

Recovering she takes a quick look about the cottage and exclaims to Karock, "No wonder it's mad! There's no lid anywhere!" She looks about again, and adds as she goes to help Karock with the door as she requested, "Do you think I should throw it my shield? Maybe that would make it happy. It's ~sort~ of lid-like..."

She continues to hold the door for a moment, and wonders if she could reach the roof...if she climbed up on the table and then try to cut her way through. Not for escape, but because her pole of wondrous use is stuck there.

"I don't think the cauldron has feelings," Karok explained with as much patience as he could muster. "I think it's like a trap for such as we, set by magic rather than mechanical skill."

"I think the plan is to see whether it melts enough to stop it with Jhaelin's spell and, if not, go back to holding it down, tying it into a tree or something."

The cauldron continues rolling and tumbling in a circular path and eventually settles into a tangent line straight for the cottage doorway. Karok and Leah brace against the wooden door, awaiting the inevitable attack. The cauldron slams into the door with a heavy impact. One of the cauldron's handles breaks through one of the doors boards, splintering it just above Karok's head. Karok and Leah both grunt, exerting everything they have to brace against the heavy iron cauldron. An intense heat fills the doorway. Then the cauldron tumbles away from the door to circle again.

---

Begin combat round 1120.42 (rnd7)...

Everyone is near the trees, except Leah and Karok.

Magic in play...
Heat Metal (searing hot) on Cauldron, 4 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

"It's beginning to break down," Karok says, noting the broken spot in the door. "If it gets through, we'll want to run for it; it might be moving slower, I'm hoping. If you can make the roof, go for it. I'll be taking a turn around the cottage to see if I can lose it, then running for our friends in the tree line."

"Best thing, though, is to hold the door until it collapses. If we can."

Roxie watched the cauldron continue trying to batter the door and get to Karok and Leah and she couldn't just let the thing burn through the door and hurt them. "I'm a damn fool," she said shrugging off her pack so she'd be free of any encumberments. "Get ready to heal me," she said to Jhaelin and Cassius.

Sprinting out into the clearing she hoped to distract it from the building so the other two could make a break for the trees. "Hey ... potbelly! I bet anything cooked in you tastes like offal," she taunted the cauldron. It was her intent to make it chase her toward the tree line away from anyone else and stay just out of it's heat range.

"Why animate something if it doesn't have feelings?" Leah responds to Karrock as she leans with all of her not-considerable-at-all might against the door. "Everything has feelings and desires. People want love and acceptance. Animals want food and safety. Plants and elves want water and sun, unless they are mushrooms, then they don't want sun, but shade. Halflings want lunch, and dinner, and breakfast, and teatime, and mid-afternoon and midnight snacks, and perhaps something to gnaw on inbetween meals. I don't need to tell you what dwarves want, I guess. Zombies want brains, and maybe the cauldron just wants a hat. But I guess I should save my shield right now. It's not big enough to serve as a proper lid, and it might think we're trying to mock it if I throw it to the kettle."

She looks back to the roof. "That's a nice roof," she says. "It looks well-built. I wonder how an old witch built it?" she muses aloud. "But we could probably get through from the table. Maybe in fifteen or twenty minutes." And then she adds depressed, "But I don't think the table will last that long if the pot attacks it. So, I'll just run with you. Good thing I'm not wearing armor right now! That would only slow me down."

She continues to hold the door with him until there is no more door to be held, or until he begins to run.

While Leah and Karok continue to fortify the entrance to the cottage with the unhinged door, Roxie enters the clearing taunting the animated cauldron with barbed words. Perhaps wounded by her words, or perhaps just the nature of the beast, the cauldron deviates from its path and heads right for her. Quick as a mouse, Roxie reverses her direction and heads back to the woods at a sprint with the cauldron hot on her heels (pun intended). Roxie enters the edge of the forest with a leap past the trees rounding one quickly to keep it between her and the cauldron. The cauldron comes to a complete stop at the edge of the clearing smoldering and glowing a deep orange with heat.

Upon hearing Roxie's call, Karok and Leah sprint from the cottage door heading for the forest. Leah's long strides outpace Karok and she enters the trees first. Karok keeps a wary eye on the far side of the clearing and can see the cauldron sitting at the edge of the wood. Suddenly, it lurches backward and there is no doubt it comes for him. Luckily, the cauldron has much ground to cover and Karok leaps into the woods passing several trees with plenty of time to spare. The cauldron makes a sudden change in path and disappears into the cottage. From Roxie's position, she can see it sitting where they found it. In the fire pit glowing orange with the heat from Jhaelin's spell.

A sudden flare of flame erupts from near the cauldron. A flash of light and what was a small flame quickly spreads as if fueled with bog gas. Flames lick the burial linens of the fake corpse sitting in the chair of teeth.

---

Begin combat round 1120.48 (rnd8)...

Magic in play...
Heat Metal (searing hot) on Cauldron, 3 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Karok's voice boomed across the clearing to the more distant party members: "DO WE HAVE THE THING WE NEED FROM HERE? IF WE DO, LET'S MEET UP AND LEAVE. IF WE DON'T, WE'D BETTER GET IN THAT HUT AND PUT OUT THAT FIRE."

Jhaelin, standing near to Roxie, winces at the spreading flames within the hut. That could NOT be good... and the jar of rat tail was still in there.

Karok's voice booms across the clearing. Jhaelin shouts back, "I DROPPED IT INSIDE THE HUT!"

Damnation and bulldoggery!

Only he knew where it was on that shelf. Only he could retrieve it. Grimacing, he leaps out into the clearing at a run for the cottage. There is no time. Mayhap, his spell has run its course and destroyed the cauldron. If not, well... injuries would ensue. They could NOT let that reagent be destroyed.

"Cassius. With me!" he shouts over his shoulder.

Cassius sprints from the edge of the wood, following close behind Jhaelin with the words of a healing prayer and the wand of healing at the ready.

The flames already were spreading and as they run, something in the hut near the cauldron ignites. Probably something from the contents of the shelf Roxie fell from. Shards of glass and spewing flaming liquid cascades out the door in a shower. The grass in front of the cottage catches fire and smolders.

"Have you lost your senses?" Cassius huffs behind Jhaelin while shielding his eyes by an arm. "You will get torched in there. Perhaps this root can be found somewhere else."

From the verge of the trees Karok saw the clerics break cover. "Oh, ferslugginer," he growled, under his breath, and took off running towards the hut, as well.

"MY POLE!!!" Leah shouts as she sees the fire begin. "IT'S NOT IN THE HUT, IT'S ON THE HUT!!!"

With several of the others, she runs back to the cottage, pleased they are all intent on helping her to retrieve the enchanted Pole of Remarkable Use from the roof of the cottage.

"You should have let me lure it out again," Roxie shouted as she sprinted right alongside Jhaelin. "Maybe I can still lead it away for you to get to it ... if you spread out to the sides and I'll go straight for the door," she suggested. She felt a bit of guilt that the place had caught fire, even if the person had died. "Too bad no one has a water spell to put out the fire ..."


OOC: Oh for a wand and the Accio spell! If the others concur, Roxie will take the path to the door to get the thing moving out after her again and ala Captain Jack Sparrow run around the clearing trying to stay just out of the burn range.

(DM) RE:OOC... this is possible, but will depend on success by movement rates and initiatives. Roxie has a good chance of outrunning it due to her very high dexterity (hence better initiative at -2 to the roll), but bad luck on a roll could hurt.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:11, Sun 20 Nov 2022.

Jhaelin, Cassius, Roxie, Karok and Leah all race back into the clearing. Jhaelin and Cassius acknowledge Roxie's plan and fall back a few steps, letting the rogue advance on the doorway while Karok and Leah approach the cottage from a perpendicular angle to the doorway. The fire is spreading quickly among the more flammable materials in the cottage. Linens and wood are especially susceptible and ignite quickly. The fake burial linens and what they covered is fully engulfed in flames that lick the top of the ceiling. Hanging dried herbs catch fire and then spread quickly into the thatch of the roof in a manner of seconds.

The cauldron does not sit still. As Roxie approaches the cottage it rolls onto its side and squeezes through the doorway before tumbling toward her head over end. Roxie sprints away to the left with the cauldron following. Jhaelin reaches the doorway with Cassius at the same time Karok and Leah do.

A jar explodes within the cottage. A smelly, foul liquid spews from the open doorway onto Karok and Jhaelin. Some kind of tentacled thing splatters against Jhaelin's face and something resembling slimy seaweed spatters into Karok's beard.

The inside of the cottage is an inferno. There is a path to the shelf Jhaelin was at and where the jar of pickled rat-tail is. It is yet to catch fire but woe to anyone trying to get to it.

---

Begin combat round 1120.54 (rnd9)...

Magic in play...
Heat Metal (searing hot) on Cauldron, 2 rounds (not including this one)
Armor on Illiana, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Shandrilar, AC6, 9 points remain
Armor on Tynia, AC6, 9 points remain

Jhaelin brings his shield up for protection, but too late. Something wet and icky splatters against his face. He spits to the ground and looks down at some once preserved tentacled thing.

"Ughh!" he murmurs.

The heat coming from the cottage is overwhelming. The stench reeking from the doorway, nearly as bad.

"I'm going in. I'll be right back."

Jhaelin gives Cassius a knowing look and nods, then darts into the cottage with his shield in front of him.

OOC: Jhaelin attempts to locate and retrieve the jar of pickled rat tail.

Cassius dumps the remainder of his waterskin on Jhaelin just before he plunges into the cottage. Its not much, but could help. Then, he laces his fingers and offers Leah a hand to the roof.

"I'll help you up there. Get your stick and be quick."

Illiana races from the trees. They do not think of me, she thinks crossly. They do not ask me what I might be able to do. They think me only a petulent brat without power. A witless mage perhaps. They will see.

A fire... now THAT she could deal with. As soon as she gets to a spot near enough that her spell will work, she begins reading from a scroll. Words begin burning away from the parchment as she chants the incantation.

"Insol-volati n'bereftomonus!"

Finished with the incantation she extends one arm out with fingers on her hand splayed wide. Then, with deliberate control, she closed her fingers into a fist...

Leah looks for a window, where there might be a sill close to where her pole went, so she might climb up before the roof is lost. As she tries to decide the best approach, the storyteller offers her a lift to the roof. With a smile, she accepts his help and says, "This will be a great tale for you one day!"

Her intention is to grab the pole and drop back down to the ground if possible, rather than climb on the roof itself, but she is willing to do what she must to regain her weapon. Ten foot poles do not grow on trees, you know!

Roxie keeps a pace in front of the cauldron, leaping over twiggy animal-like effigies that get in her way. The hot cauldron follows her with grasses smoldering in the path behind it. Luckily, it rained heavily the night before or the whole clearing might have already been burned away and spread to the neighboring forest. Roxie is on the other side of the cottage when she hears a heavy thumpf behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she sees the cauldron lying against a tree at the edge of the clearing. It no longer glows orange, but heat still emanates from it.

Jhaelin enters the inferno with his shield raised. Cassius dumps water over the cleric's head as he enters, the last from his water skin. Inside the cottage the fire roars from the burning linens and chair. The walls have caught fire and the ceiling is hidden from view by black roiling smoke and flame. Several shelves are on fire, including the one he seeks. Jhaelin chokes and coughs while pushing his way to the shelf he had been standing at before. The jar is there within flames and he grabs it, then drops its as it burns his hand. He grabs the disgusting pendant he saw earlier that hangs by a leather thong and wraps the leather around the jar. Twisting it tightly for a good grip, he then snatches the jar from the shelf and turns to get out of the cottage.

Another jar explodes nearby, showering Jhaelin with shards of glass (-2) that cut his face and a smelly unidentifiable icor that has a consistency of fat reduced to a gelatin. Then, to his amazement, almost all of the fire dies down to nothing but smoke and he leaps from the cottage with the jar in hand.

Leah puts a foot into Cassius' offered hands and he lifts her to the roof. She easily grabs her pole and it pulls free. A successful retrieval of one of her most valued possessions.

The companions regroup near the edge of the forest. After a short time, the fires reignite and the cottage begins to burn to the ground. A thick column of black and grey smoke boils into the sky.

---

End of combat...

"If that wasn't the Hag laying in there already," Karok observed. "She's going to be ticked when she shows up..."

Responding to Kharock, Leah nods. "If she needs a place to stay, perhaps I can offer her a room when I have my inn."

She had successfully recovered her pole from the roof, so she now goes and gathers up her armor. Fortunately, it was out in the clearing, so it should be an easy task, although, at the moment, she does not don it. It is still too hot out here for metal armor.

She is not too certain of what the purpose of coming here was, or if it was a success, or much of anything else, but the cleric seems satisfied, so perhaps something good happened. Maybe it was a haunted house. The poor girl did say something about the cauldron being possessed, after all.

When the others are ready, Leah is prepared to move on, wherever the next destination might be.

"A sound reason for not hanging around here too long I think." Jhaelin says in response to Karock's observation. "We have all the reagents. Now, to get back to Falcon's Hollow. Laurel will be excited to discover we were successful."

The cleric wiped bits of gunk from his armor, then places the jar with the pickled root in his pack. "And I would welcome a good bath."

Jhaelin takes out the crumpled map and studies it. A furrow creases his bloodied forehead as he ponders the route. Thick forest all the way and they would have to skirt the lake. It would be much shorter to just swim across the river straight south.

"We might be able to make it back to the cut by the turn of new moon (6p.m.) We will have to spend the night there, or in the forest. Should make Falcon's Hollow by the turn of high sun (10a.m.) tomorrow if we skirt the lake to the east."

"Or..." he says, sighing. "We could make for the river to the south and swim across it. Then, we might make it to Falcon's Hollow by nightfall. Dangerous yes, but quicker. The river is known for its giant moor snakes and the largest gators in the realms."

Durwe kept an eye on the cauldron resting on the other side of the clearing against a tree. Jhaelin's spell must have destroyed the magic animating it. Thick smoke rolls across the clearing toward the east, impairing his sight of the cauldron a bit but, he keeps an eye on it just in case. He glances away just enough to respond to Jhaelin's words.

"If we truly want to save as many lives as possible, we should swim for it."

Illiana sighs, an anger roiling in her gut. Was she to forever hinder this group?

"I can not swim. I have never learned."

Roxie had finally stopped running and leaned over with her hands on her knees as she panted and wiped the sweat from her brow. "Please don't set the trees on fire," she muttered. "The little furries would be mighty unhappy to lose their homes." Then she looked as the hut seemed to flare and was quickly consumed. "And worse is an elderly magical woman who now no longer has a roof."

She wasn't normally one to worry that much about things like that since she had always been on the move but she was changing on the inside as much or maybe even more so than all the changes on the outside. Her conscience had always been there but she'd gotten good at ignoring Jiminy Cricket. As she rounded the corner, she saw the reason and smiled.

"Mission accomplished?" she asked Jhaelin and placed a hand on Karok's shoulder. Looking at the map, her eyes were riveted to the blue of the lake. "There's as good a bathing place as any until we can get to town." The longing for a good soak, a tasty meal and drink, and soft bed were tempered by her task of telling a certain man that his kin and his lady love were gone.

Tynia laughs at Illana. No surprise there...

"Even so, we should swim for it. I can pull Illana to the other shore with me. I have saved more than one from drowning before."

On some level, Tynia relishes the idea of having Illana cling to her. Depend upon her for her very life. And if the mage happened to let go...

Tynia purges the thought from her mind. What was she becoming? Such thoughts!

Illiana glares at Tynia with a look filled with loathing.

"I am sure I can manage on my own. How hard can it be after all."

Leah considers. She just recovered her armor and donned her pack. It's heavy, and it is a struggle to carry even that, much less try to swim with such encumbrance. And crockagators would be attracted to the smell of the delicious food. However those are not her prime concerns. Karrock is a dwarf, and made of earth. Everyone knows dwarves dissolve if immersed in water. And then what would happen to the children?

But it is best not to embarrass poor Karrock. So, she says, "We should walk instead. We can't swim and fight crocagators at the same time, and all the armor would rust when it dropped to the bottom of the river, maybe with us in it. Well, not all of us, just the ones actually in the armor itself if you tried to wear it while swimming, or if you did not let go when it tries to pull you underwater if you carry it. Armor doesn't float you know, unless you make it out of wood, but we don't have wooden armor."

She pauses and thinks. "That would be a good thing to use against rust monsters. Maybe if we got enough ten foot poles..." She drifts off, considering the possibilities.

"Is there a ferry or something similar to get across the lake without having to swim? Seems to me there would at least be some fishermen who might be willing to take us across and at the very least we could rig up a couple of rafts," Roxie opined. She didn't mind going for a swim but given Iliyana's temper she was trying to find a way to make a little peace.

Jhaelin offers no comment on Leah's rumination. He smiles at the one-day innkeeper, then answers Roxie's question.

"No. No ferry, and as far as fishermen go, there are some. Loners that live near the river who fish for market, but usually hunt gators and snakes for hide. We might run across one of them along the river if we skirt it."

Jhaelin folds the map and puts it away, satisfied with the direction they had to take.

"Lets head for the river to the south. If its too wide or too deep to cross then we can skirt along the bank around the lake and follow our previous path back to the cut."

Leah nods at Jhaelin's words and gives him a knowing look. It seems a perfect way to avoid embarrassment. Pretend to look for fishermen, and then walk around things until they get back. That should allow Karrock to save face and stay together. "That's a good idea. I agree. It's just what the stinky cheese man should have done too," she adds with a subtle wink to Karrock, so he will know they are looking out for the welfare of dwarves.