Marionette Monster¶

2022-Oct-02

• As the group walks along, Rulkorf’s compass starts spinning wildly and he calls for a halt
  • A thick, humid fog begins to form among the adventurers, and Kleb fails to return to the ground before his followers disappear
  • The rope goes slack, and Rowan sees that it was cut at roughly the height of the top of the mirrors. Kleb rushes down to try to assist the others, but can’t judge distance well to the ground and crash lands his broom into Rowan
  • Rulkorf looks to his left and sees a reflection of himself reaching outwards from the mirror, but it freezes when the dwarf catches sight of it. He screams (in a very manly way), scaring off the mirror dwarf, who flees into another pane and out of sight. Kleb comes over and confirms that there is in fact no mirror panel in the pane of interest
• Beezer mentions that he also lost his staff to the woman in the carnival, so he can’t cast
• They notice a general buzzing noise, seemingly coming through the ear-rings
• The fog grows thicker. Rowan tries to pick a lucky direction by tossing a ball bearing, which plinks around and rolls back past the party towards the mirror portal/hole. Rowan follows it in, and Rulkorf and Oz notice that the bearing is rolling in the opposite direction of its movement, as if it were being pulled unnaturally or magically towards the mirror
• After some investigation, Rowan wanders off a bit and bumps into an animated skeleton. He makes a very high-pitched scream, alerting the group, and illuminates his mace
  • The paladin and druid ready themselves for the skeleton’s approach, while Kleb uses a torch of his own, revealing multiple figures coming from the other side of the mirrored hallway
  • The party makes quick work of the skeletons, and Kleb notices certain gaps in the swirls of fog. He thinks there is someone or something very large and invisible that is manipulating the skeletons and standing above them
  • Rulkorf manages to illuminate the figure with shimmering violet light, revealing its form: three pairs of legs supporting a thin body, and arms and hands holding strings
    • The strings are revealed to be connected to Rowan the way a marionette master supports a puppet
    • Realizing the danger, Kleb rushes to Rowan and tries to cleave the strings with his sword, successfully cutting through almost all of them. Seeing a few remaining on Rowan’s mace and arm, the fighter pins that arm to Rowan’s side
    • Rowan tries to slice the strings attached to his arm but misses and hurts Kleb by accident. The latter however manages to yank the strings down
    • The creature, bombarded by poison and crossbow bolts, flees across the tops of the mirrors