Session 72 - Drunk Rabbits. Creepy Dolls. Business as Usual

Thu 10th Aug 2023

In-game timeline: UNKNOWN (4th day in the Shadowfell)

Our "Heroes" close the door on the flying pots and pans and destroyed stove and turn their attention to the voice coming from the sink of water. Alwaith and Faith approached the basin and spoke to the young lady who appeared in the reflection - Poppy.

They finds out that Poppy was stuck in this 'other world', similar to Dracomere and Olivia whom they had spoken to before. Poppy said that shortly before she seemed to be transported to this world, Grace had come in and asked if the stove was likely to be lit in the near future. When she was told no, Grace had placed something into the stove and run out of the kitchen. Given our "Heroes" recent experiences and finds, this now all makes some kind of sense.

Whilst talking to Poppy, they hear the striking of a clock - sounding strangely close given that the nearest clock is supposed to be in the Great Hall.

After talking to Poppy for a short while, the group decide to head out to see if they can find more of the pebbles.

Upon opening the door into the kitchen they discover that the flames are no longer burning, the pans no longer flying around and the stove seems to be in full working order, as well as being re-lit! Worried that they may have to face the stove and pans again, they try their best to get to the doors on the other side without triggering anything. Unfortunately, as soon as Faith steps within range of the stove's belch, their fears are confirmed - the stove seems to be working again and belches fire at the dwarf. Solveig runs around the room to avoid the fire, but this brings him in range of the stove, and the stove tries to drag the Firbolg into its raging fire. Luckily for the druid, the stove misses its grappling attack. Alwaith, seeing what happened to Solveig, runs the other way, taking some fire damage, but reaching the door. They manage to all get out of the room, though not before some pans come flying in their direction and cause some damage to Alwaith.

They find themselves back on the landing. Faith places the pebble he got from the kitchen onto the idol statue - it seems to settle into the hand as if it belonged there. They heal up and head through a door…

…arriving in the Ballroom - this time with four humanoids on the dance floor looking like each of the party members - at least in facial features. Sanada's hand immediately goes to her veil - her 'doppelgager' is not wearing a veil and Sanada's facial 'abnormality' is exposed for her friends to see. Around the room are four groups of friends of each of the party.

They search the suits of armour as all figures in the room stare at them. Solveig decides to head across the room to the other suits of armour, but must step on the dance floor to do so. As soon as this happens, all the figures in the room seem to get up as one, as start to run over to the party with vengeful looks in their eyes!

Our "Heroes" decide to make a swift exit and head straight out of the nearest door. Only Solveig, who was on the other side of the room, is within range of an unarmed attack from one of the mysterious figures. He takes some damage but manages to get out of the door before more attacks come his way, though he notices that as the others each leave the room, their related 'apparitions' disappear from the room.

Upon leaving the room they all then find themselves in the same Ballroom, but via a different door. However, it is now obvious that the time between leaving a room and re-emerging in a new (or the same) room, is longer than it feels. By the time they re-appear back in the ballroom, all the apparitions are now re-seated in their original positions and combat is over. Rather than risk re-triggering the apparitions in the room, they all decide to leave via the same door they entered this time.

And appear in what seems to be a children's playroom, with toys and games scattered over the floor, and a very large chessboard embedded into the floor itself. Learning lessons from previous encounters, the group avoid walking on the chess board, though Alwaith spots what may be a pebble in the middle of the chess board. They hear children's voices coming from a small mirror held by a doll.

Talking to the children, they discover that Dracomere Jr hid a pebble under a barrel of beer in the cellar, and he had another pebble on him in this room when he and his sister suddenly disappeared and were transported to another place, where they are currently trapped.

Armed with this useful information, the party prepare to exit the room, and Solveig conjures a bird and sends it above the chessboard to fetch the pebble.

As soon as the bird enters the area of the chess board a strange, shimmering wall appears around the whole board and Solveig seems to lose his contact with his bird, which seems to have changed form to become a large, white chess piece - a king. On the opposite side, a black queen piece appears.

Whilst the party are trying to digest this strange turn of events, they are somewhat distracted by the fact that four of the toys lying on the floor suddenly enlarge in size and get up from the floor and start to walk towards the group!

As the clown, teddy bear, doll and tin soldier walk towards the group, Faith tries to send them to sleep - realising too late that they are in some form of dream/nightmare, so creatures are very likely to be immune to sleep!

Solveig drops his concentration, making the bird/chess piece disappear. He then tries to Polymorph Alwaith, but doesn't mention to Alwaith that he is about to do this, and Alwaith resists the spell, wasting it. Solveig, in a huff, goes out of the door.

The others are finding that these toys hit HARD. VERY hard. Worried for their limited health, they quickly follow Solveig out of the door.

Finding themselves back in the Great Hall, the group decide to have a short rest. During the rest, they struggle to stop themselves drifting off to sleep - even Alwaith - despite the fact that they were only relaxing, rather than trying to sleep - and they worry about what might have happened if they had fallen asleep in this dream/nightmare world. Luckily, however, most decided to use their Inspiration and the benefits from a Bless spell, to avoid dropping off to sleep, and they did manage to have an uneventful rest.

Back on decent health, and with many of their spells and abilities refreshed, the group are revitalised to continue. They are keen to find the cellar as quickly as possible. Heading through a door they have not used before, they *eventually* find themselves in a strange attic room - one which seems to contain a shrine to Vecna, which is a little worrying. They quickly exit that room before anything can happen to them and come out in their intended destination - a cellar containing numerous beer barrels.

It also contains a giant, drunk rabbit, sat on a stool. He welcomes the party and asks them to join him. The party ask after the pebble and the rabbit tells them that he hid it in one of the barrels. He also added some quippers to each of the barrels - just for the flavour. He refuses to tell them which barrel he put the pebble in, but does warn them not to spill any beer.

Solveig, somehow, decides upon one particular barrel of beer and convinces everyone else that the pebble is in there. He takes one of the water barrels and empties the water from it - an act which does not seem to incur the wrath of the rabbit - and refills it, using jugs, which takes some time, with the beer from that chosen barrel, taking care not to spill a drop.

When he eventually finishes, they look into the barrel from the top and see a few quippers flapping around in the bottom of the barrel, along with a coloured pebble! Solveig was right! They quickly reach in and take out the pebble. Woo Hoo!

Flushed with success, they bid farewell to the drunken rabbit and leave the room, finding themselves back in the Great Hall.

And so we leave our "Heroes" back in the Great Hall, with two of the three missing pebbles replaced on the golden idol, and the third pebble known to be in the playroom. Now it's just a matter of getting hold of it…