[OOC: The character depicted here is Anastasia Frost, one of Skadi's daughters. She is 10 years old here, but her basic features are in the current family section of my profile. I use a mage companion sub for her here.]
While the Goddess of Depths battled on in the holds of the Abyssal Trench, the rest of Arania continued to function around her. Many adventurers poured in from the outside now, flocking to the arachnid golem that stood upon the world stage. With their arrival, Skadi was no longer alone, even if she was too preoccupied to notice her guests.
That said, it is worth noting that these adventurers, like most mortal men and women, were anything but immune to the wiles of the mansion. Arania was, after all, still a beast beneath its spooky veneer, and no amount of human motivation could change that. Pride, greed, misguided bravery: it mattered not what guided these poor souls who ventured within the mansion. They flirted with danger of their own accord, assuming themselves capable of overcoming any hardship. Like so many others before, though, they underestimated the things that lurked within and were found wanting.
Even something mundane could be dangerous in Arania: a door, a mirror, a floor panel… even a doll. There were in fact seven dolls within this place: lost souls doomed for various reasons. It was not common knowledge that they existed, and so the people who came across them often assumed they were only children's toys. The first group of adventurers to happen upon one actually treated the doll like a common toy, mocking it much to their immediate misfortune.
"So far so good." The adventurers were three in number, and composed the typical archetype of any adventuring party. First to speak was the rogue who had just disarmed a trap and went by the name of Finn. The trap in question was a trip wire on a door lock, one that could have killed all of them at once had they opened the door without care. The warrior of the group, Thobold, hadn't noticed this, and so was quite happy with his companion's actions.
"Good job, Finn," he boasted while heartily patting Finn on the back. His enthusiasm was swift to die, though, because his expectations did not mirror the reality of the room the door had been guarding. The three men had expected to find treasure inside, having spotted the glimmer of gold from underneath the door. But, upon entering, they discovered that there was nothing inside. No gold or jewels stood in the empty room; just a doll dressed up in a soldier's uniform that was monogrammed with the initials 'BS.'
"Too bad there's just this dinky doll in here," Thobold continued, his face now sullen. The mage - whose name was Radone - had been quiet thus far, and was, apparently, not all that good at his role. When he saw the doll that Thobold had pointed out, he didn't instantly recognize it as a possessed artifact. Instead, he looked at the doll and chuckled.
"Well, I suppose it is a child's treasure. Still I'm surprised the creator made his sword so dinky." T'is at this point that I must remind my readers that wisdom is not the same as intelligence. While this wizard knew many spells and was quite intelligent in the field of combat magic, he did not possess the foresight, the wisdom to avoid insulting a very temperamental doll. No sooner had the words left Radone's mouth before he found himself gasping for air. He been impaled through the throat with a rusty nail that one would find in an ancient mansion like Arania. He could barely mouth words past the blood for a moment, but quickly collapsed thereafter.
"Oi, Radone!" Finn was the first to look around once his friend was murdered in cold blood, and he was quick to see that the murder weapon had come from a plank next to the toy knight. That plank hadn't been there a few moments ago, and there was an obvious gap in the wall behind it. It was as if the doll had torn the plank from the wall, pried the nail out barehanded, and then threw that nail with perfect accuracy at the man who had just insulted him. But, of course, that was impossible, right? So thought the rogue, and he was about to insult the doll again before he heard footsteps from the hall.
"Shush, someone's coming," said Thobold while drawing his sword in anticipation. When little Anastasia came round the corner in a fancy, purple dress, however, both surviving men just looked down on her in befuddlement rather than aggression. "What the hell? What's a child doing here?" Thobold and Finn looked over this little girl with white hair and gray eyes, each trying to figure out why he felt so uneasy around her and also where she came from. 'She can't be more than 10 years old,' the warrior thought. He and his coworker were prepared to ask more questions almost immediately, but their chance to do so was interrupted when Skadi's daughter spoke up in an eerie warning.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said young Ana, her grayish blue eyes staring straight through both men like they were ghosts. A smart person would have listened to her despite her age, but Thobold, being one of those arrogant mortals I mentioned earlier, just laughed off her concern and retorted with the same demeaning nature that is often common between an abusive parent and a child.
"Do what, girly," he asked, fully expecting Anastasia to cower in fear beneath his mighty height? But Miss Frost just continued to regard him the same way she had thus far.
"Insult the doll," began her matter-of-fact explanation. "Your friend died because he insulted the doll's pride. Mr. Knight doesn't like it when you do that." So ended Ana's ominous and child-like warning to Thobold and Finn, even if both men failed to heed it.
"Oh really," Thobold laughed almost instantaneously as if to mock both Ana and the doll?! He turned back to the latter afterward, and then hurled the last insult he would ever make. "With a sword that puny, I'll take him on any day. He couldn't cut butter let alone go toe to toe with a real warrior." Thobold and Finn were about to leave after that foolish outburst. They both moved toward the door, with the latter cursing one final time.
"Lose to a child's toy my ass. Get out of the way, bitch!" But Anastasia didn't move. Instead, she patiently watched as the toy knight behind her insulter suddenly sprang to life, her expression never changing in the slightest.
"Child's toy?!" Warrior and rogue alike were startled by the sudden demonic voice that permeated the room. Finn could barely turn around from Ana before the doll jumped up and grabbed his collar. "You think it's easy being this small," the lost soul continued? "I am the greatest warrior this world has ever known! An upstart pup like you and his bitch of a guard have no business even challenging me!" The doll stabbed the rogue's eyes out with his toy sword before the man could even issue a response. Apparently it was made out of actual steel and not cloth like it first appeared. The sword was an actual knife that could be wielded, and it pierced flesh well enough to permanently blind poor Finn.
Thobold tried to retaliate to save his friend after surprising assault, but the doll was too quick for him. BS grabbed his "puny sword" and began stabbing the warrior through gaps in his armor. He went for the underarms, the groin, any place he could really. Thobold survived the encounter, managing to throw off the doll before he was wounded too badly, but the damage was significant by that point. Both Thobold and Finn were mauled by the time their toy assailant had been thrown into the wall. The latter would quickly bleed to death if he was lucky, whereas the former's adventuring days would definitely be put on hold for a month at least.
"I told you not to do it," Anastasia reiterated after the slaughter concluded. Some of their blood had flecked onto her face, but she was ultimately unperturbed by the development. It was like spooks and murder had no effect on her whatsoever, for the girl just stood emotionless while men in front of her were bleeding to death. She made no move to help them or to retreat. She just waited there outside the door until a ghostly pair came to fetch her: a cat and dog that brushed against her legs in playful tandem. Until then, she watched, curious about what it was like to bleed to death.
