After Brutrumukk finishes talking and barking orders to the animated armors, his gnome brain would scream a realization to him.

What he and Jub really need is an actor or a performer on stage to give an actual performance. What Brutrumukk just gave was a Director. Apparently these suits of armor do not react well to a director.

After Brutrumukk ordered Animated Armor 5, it simply stared at him for a good uncomfortable moment, before it directs its attention back onto Jub, and it manages to slam its shield into Jub!

The furthest Animated Armor dashes up to Brutrumukk, ready to attack, while another set of armor moves up to Brutrumukk and tackles into him.

A third set of armor moves up to Jub to try and attack him, but Jub manages to swiftly dodge his shield!

Brutrumukk is not as lucky as a third set of armor moves up to him and manages to hit him with more force behind his shield than the previous set of armor that attacked him.

The both of them can hear the macaw above advise them in a panicked tone, "If you're gonna go with that route of appeasin' them, then get on the stage!" After saying so, the macaw flies over to the stage, so he can be ready to help the performer.





@XxFellsingxX@rush99999

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After Aurora threw the creature away from her, it lands on the ground with a thud and a splat. It seems to react with weird sounds before it scuttles and scurries away from Aurora and her friends and out of the cottage. It seems like whatever this hat creature was, it was not willing to fight to the death.

Gabriel sighs and speaks, "I am truly tired of all of this fae trickery,"

Zavakri clears her throat and she suggests, "Perhaps we should continue onwards, carefully. I'd hate for us to encounter the same fate as Brutrumukk...wherever that brute went,"



@Lurking Krog@Dark Cloud

Aurora sheaths the short sword nodding in agreement to Zavakri. "Right, that was unpleasant to say the least. Cannot say that I ever really cared much for hats, even less so now... Lets try the rest of the rooms down here before we continue upward. Gabe any clue where the thing you lost is?" Aurora asks while going toward the nearest door, checking it carefully for anything suspicious.

Gabriel answers her, shaking his head, "I wish I could say so. But I'm afraid all I feel is that it's just here somewhere..." He and Zavakri follow Aurora's lead as she heads to a closed door.

Aurora's careful inspection of the door reveals that there are thankfully no traps here. She is able to open the door and reveal the room...and she might come to regret opening the door upon seeing what's inside.

A horse's head leers at her and her friends with glossy eyes, its lips drawn back from pointed yellow teeth. The head is affixed to a large, eight-limbed armature made of wicker and wire, situated so that it faces the doorway where you entered. Near it is a wooden crate.

Flies buzz about this disordered room, landing occasionally on animal carcasses that lie strewn in small piles. On a low table rests an assortment of tools—saws, knives, scrapers, a hand-cranked drill, sewing thread and needles, and awls—around several taxidermic subjects in various stages of completion. A shelf that looks on the verge of collapse leans against the wall between two windows and bears the weight of dozens of stuffed horrors. Each one is an artless combination of two or more animals.

Upon investigating the room, Aurora finds that the crate has Bavlorna's name scrawled on the side of it. When Aurora opens the lid, she releases a harmless swarm of flies. The crate contains the carcass of a curled-up, eight-legged reptile with spikes running down its back.

When Aurora reaches the worktable, she finds that along with the tools and specimens, the table has a small box with drawers that contain glass eyes. One of the eyes is strangely made of wood. It stands out among the other glass eyes.

It seems like the stag head isn't in this room.

@Lurking Krog@Dark Cloud

Aurora wrinkles her nose at the smell of the room. Following the strongest smell she opens a crate and finds a strange creature she does not recognize right away. The smell from it made her eyes water and she barely kept it together enough to close the crate. "By the gods, this thing reaks. I have not clue what it is, and judging by the smell I don't think I'd want to see it alive or dead."

The elf wipes away the tears and quickly goes around the room covering her nose. She stops briefly to look at the odd wooden eye that seems out of place. She looks at it carefully, not touching it incase it was some small creature waiting for an unsuspecting victim.

Gabriel followed Aurora, and he coughed and gagged at the smell of the carcass. He also follows her to the table and sees the eyes. He asks, "Why would there be a wooden eye amongst all of the glass ones? Odd choice," He then moves to pick up the wooden one and inspects it.

After a few tense moments and looking at it, he asks Aurora, "Seems fine to me. Should we take it?"

Aurora is able to answer him if she so chooses, and for Gabriel to act on it, before something else catches her attention: She hears the sound of another door opening from the Preservation Pool.

Someone else is here....!

@Lurking Krog@Dark Cloud



You have been stuck in Hither for a long time, Rearden. During that time, nothing much really changed from the usual drudgery in these swamps, and the Dog-Eat-Dog nature of many of the beings here.

But...today is different! Something has changed!

You could feel that change in the air, in the swampy waters, and in sodden earth...

You made your way into Downfall, where the residing bullywugs told you of the changes that had taken place!

Another coup had taken place, but that was not as surprising: A coup among bullywug royalty was always happening.

No, there were more surprising changes to hear!

Newcomers were brought to Downfall by Agdon Longscarf and his goons! Thankfully, they managed to escape. One of them died by the merrow in the waters, but they somehow came back to life as a gnome! That was according to one bullywug witness.

Darklings had come and gone with their shop, and after their visit and the newcomers departing from the Hut, Bavlorna Blightstraw had fled!

Naturally, now was the perfect opportunity to explore the Hut, without worrying about encountering the terrible hag and getting yourself into danger.

So, having taken a skiff of your own to cross the waters to this hut, you climbed up the steps, and enter the first room of the Hut:

A recessed pool lined with moldy clay tiles takes up most of this large square room. Stagnant water fills the depression to a depth of one foot. Rising from the pool's center is the head of a stone well that gives off an unpleasant, pungent odor. In one corner of the pool stands a tall, dirty, freestanding mirror in an oval frame, and floating on the water is a large lily pad.

Creaky wooden floorboards are arranged in a ten-foot-wide raised walkway around the pool. This walkway is crowded with shelves, tables, and stools in all shapes and styles. Almost every available surface is littered with stacks of dirty plates, scraps of food, and old junk. Dressing dummies are pushed together in one corner, and a wooden staircase spirals up from another corner.

Four closed doors lead from the room, but a fifth doors is open!

@ctrlsaltdel

"I'm not sure. It does seem out of place among the glass eyes and that's about it. If you want to grab it go for it. I'm not entirely sure what we might need it for." She half turned when replying to Gabriel's question.

At the sound of another door opening, she completely turned around to face the the door back to the pool. "I thought this place would be empty." She whispered to Gabe. We probably should keep quiet and ready ourselves. I'll move over to the door and listen to where they are heading. Hopefully they ignore the open door and us if they are not friendly."

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Rearden didn't know how long she had been stuck in the swamps of Hither. Part of that was a natural result of being in the Feywild; its relationship to time was less regular and linear than the Material Plane, just as a matter of course.

The other part was that she really didn't want to think about it. Technically, bogs and wetlands and such were still the domain of Eldath, and her tutors in the temple had emphasized that they were beautiful and worth of appreciation in their own right. Rearden had never really managed to internalize that lesson, though. The whole reason she had set out to wander the countryside was that she learned better by experience than through scrolls and lectures--and experience had taught her that, beautiful or not, swamps were not enjoyable places to be.

So when she learned the hag Bavlorna had, at last, left her hut, Rearden had wasted no time making her way over. The witch herself was too powerful, she had learned, for her to confront on her own, but her abandoned home might contain something Rearden could use--maybe even a hint to a way out of this place.

She popped up through the door of the hut, glancing this way and that. An utter mess, but no more wretched in its own way than the rest of the realm. Hard to sort out what was actually interesting from the trash, but the pool occupying most of the room seemed like a good start.

Before Rearden could follow that train of thought too far, though, her ears pricked up, and her eyes tracked to the one open door. It appeared empty, but senses honed by training and experience told her better. She considered trying to sneak up on who--or what--ever was behind the door, but thought better of it. One of the things she had learned since waking up here was that trying to hide from the Fae was a fool's game. If the witch had left some kind of guard behind, it would be better to find out now, while she could still run back down the stairs and make her escape.

"Um. Come out. P-please," Her tone was tentative, but her voice carried across the room clearly enough. "I mean no harm, and I, uh, give you my word of peace. If you do likewise, I mean."

Aurora mutters to herself as the person called out. It seemed she was not as quiet as she thought. Then again it could be the fact of the open door. "Well I suppose I'll go out. You two stay here for right now. Better not let them see how many we are just yet." She whispers to Gabe and Zavakri.

Cautiously, Aurora first peers through the door to see where the person was and to see if anyone else was there. Falling to see anyone else in the area, she looked back at the person. "Hello there. Please excuse my initial want to make sure the room was relatively safe. It's been a long day with many troubling events in it. You have my word, I will not bring harm to you." Aurora stepped out of the room fully while she was talking to the new comer. They did not seem to aggressive by any means at this time. "If you don't mind my asking, you are not here out of service to Bavlorna are you?"

---

---

The person who stepped out of the doorway was, frankly, kind of a mess--her face was red with exertion, her hair askew, and her manner more than a bit wary. Rearden let out a long breath, and some the tension dropped out of her shoulders. This was a real person, in all likelihood, rather than some faerie trick.

"Gods, no," she responded. "I'm not here out of service to anyone, least of all the witch! She shook her head as if to ward off the thought. "I got sent here..." She trailed off for a second. What was she going to say--sent here somehow? Been here for some time? "...and I thought that the witch might have something here I could use to get back. To, uh, the normal world. Oh!" She suddenly went straight, then bowed deeply to Aurora. "I should introduce myself. My name is Rearden. I am a wandering acolyte of Eldath, mother of the waters." She straightened, regarding Aurora with a smile. "Forgive me if I presume, but... are you in the same situation?" The smile turned into a frown. "Uh. Trying to escape Hither, I mean, not worshipping Eldath."

Aurora relaxed slightly when the person, who introduced themselves as Rearden, denied working for Bavlorna in a way that showed disgust at the thought of working with the hag. She looked back into the room and motioned to the others that it seemed safe enough for the moment.

"Right then, um just so you are aware I am not the only other person here. My companions, well two of them anyway, and I were looking for a stag head for a scarecrow named Clapperclaw. We are in a similar situation of sorts, though different still. We came here on behalf Mister Witch and Mister Light. They have not heard from their patron in many years." The elf paused for a moment shaking her head. "Sorry that is not necessarily relevant at the moment. I do believe there is a way to return to the prime material here, I do not know where or how. Clapperclaw says they can get us out of Hither and to Thither, where I believe Bavlorna has gone in an attempt to flee."

She paused again to try to straighten out her appearance some. She had failed to notice how poor it had become over the course of the day. "Please excuse my rudeness, this day has been dreadful with waking up in a cage here, watching a companion perish, and nearly being smothered by a creature that looks like a hat. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Aurora."

---

---

Rearden shook her head. "Consider yourself excused, Aurora. I can say from firsthand experience that Hither has a way of wearing on the nerves." Softly: "Though I am sorry to hear about your companion." She turned to look around the room, considering the still-closed doors. "In any case, it sounds like our goals are basically the same. And... to be honest, it has been a while since I saw a friendly face." The awkward smile returned. "I understand if trust is a precious currency here in the Feywild, but I'd like to propose an alliance. At least a temporary one, so that we're not each running past each other tearing the hut apart. Once we've had a look around and gotten out clean, we can talk some more."

Aurora smiled some in response to the offer of an alliance. It was a relief to find someone helpful around the hut. "I do believe that would work for us. As I said before we are looking for a stag head. If you find anything that might be useful it might be worth taking as well. I know I am looking to replace a set of tools that Agdon Longscarf stole from me. It contained a series of picks, turners, small blades, and some other small odds and ends. There wasn't much in this room, aside from some creature in a crate and some false eyes. I'm not sure what the creature is but it smells awful."

Aurora started to head to another door, this one near the dummies the hat creature was one. She kept one hand on the hilt of her shortsword while walking past the dummies incase the creature found another place to lie in wait. "I will add there is some creature around here that disguises itself as a hat. If you see a hat not being worn by someone already, be careful around it." She said to Rearden before slowly opening the door.

Before Aurora went to speak with Rearden, Gabriel does indeed pocket the wooden eye. He and Zavakri leave the room to meet Rearden at Aurora's cue. They quickly introduce themselves to Rearden as well, before following Aurora's lead to the next room.

Aurora finds that the door is not locked or trapped as well as she opens the door. Scraps of cloth and bundles of yarn are piled throughout this small room. Upon searching the room, the group would find two 1-foot-tall pincushions sewn into humanoid shapes. One of the pincushions is mounted on a tiny wooden rocking horse; the other has a pair of wooden wings.

@Lurking Krog@ctrlsaltdel@Dark Cloud

---

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Rearden considered the room at large, then the dolls specifically "There's a lot of... stuff here, isn't there?" She frowned, touching the tip of one of the little wooden wings. "I know we're talking about faeries, but this is... obsessive behavior." She frowned at a stack of poorly-rolled skeins of yarn in one corner; it was piled almost to the ceiling, and it leaned precipitously, threatening a slow and plushy avalanche. She batted another ball of yarn on the floor towards it with her staff. "I hope we can find something useful in this mess." It bounced off of the pile, and a couple of skeins fell off the top, rolling down like boulders. "...probably best not to mess with the junk more than we need to, or it could be dangerous."

Rory looked over the room, noticing the pin cushions and the mounds of yarn amd cloth. Rearden had knocked one of the loose balls of yarn into one of the piles and a few skeins fell from their place. "It seems that would be the best course of action. Though judging by those pin cushions, I'd would say some of these things are made into figures representing people Bavlorna does not like." She gestures to the two figures. "I'm not sure there will be much here that will be of use to us in here. Shall we move on or should we try and look for anything useful?"

---

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Rearden shook her head. "Let's not waste time looking through her cross-stitch, at least until we've surveyed the rest of the place." She regarded the two figures; if Rory didn't swipe them, Rearden surreptitiously placed them in her hip bag on the way out of the room. "Three more doors down here; might as well pick one at random." With her staff, she pointed towards the door at the end of the wall they were already on.

After Rearden points at the door with her staff, the party moves to the door. Whether Rearden or Aurora open the door themselves, or the let Zavakri or Gabriel open it, they find the door creaks loudly as it swings open into the room.

After the door is fully opened, the party sees a large cupboard standing alone in this dark room. Fine scrollwork frames the cupboard's two doors, which are bridged by a circular panel of dark wood. The panel is inlaid with a silver hourglass sigil; The sands currently resting at the bottom of the hourglass.

Other than the cupboard, there doesn't seem to be anything else here. It wouldn't be too far of a leap in logic to think that anything of interest in this room is in this cupboard.

@Lurking Krog@ctrlsaltdel@Dark Cloud

Aurora nodded, not making any move to grab the pin cushions. She started to make her way to the last door. "On to the next room then."

Once in the room Aurora cautiously went to check out the cupboard. "Looks like there might be something useful here." She looks over the cupboard and tries to open it to no avail. With no apparent lock she looks to the others and shrugs. "Whatever is locking this seems different than what I'm used to. It could be something magic or made to look less obvious."

---

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Rearden squinted at the cabinet, examining it closely. "Faeries love tricks and toys," she asserted, with rather more confidence that Rory had heard from her to this point. "Maybe if we just..." She leaned her staff against the wall, stepped past Aurora, and pressed her fingertips against the hourglass. She twisted experimentally, then with an "Ah!" turned it in its setting until it was upside down; the sand began draining into the empty side.

Upon twisting the sigil until the sand is on the upper end of the hourglass, both Aurora and Rearden hear a click from the cupboard. It has been unlocked!

Should they open the cupboard, they will find that the inside of the cupboard is divided into rows of small compartments, each one stuffed with pouches or other tiny containers. Among the items is a teacup sized ceramic cauldron. Opening this ceramic cauldron reveals a slip of paper with one word written on it, "Spittlespew"

They also find loose buttons of various shapes, colors, and materials, stray cutlery from different sets, unopened love letters not written or addressed to Bavlorna, coiled-up belts that are old and frayed, pressed flowers and loose dried petals, a horseshoe, feathers from various birds, and a chipped teacup.

@Lurking Krog@ctrlsaltdel@Dark Cloud