The Old Woman's Cottage

The Old Woman's Cottage is a building that can be found in Tympi's Forest. It is located on the western side of Tympi's Forest, north, and close to Spenolt's River. It is within one of the "darkened areas" of Tympi's Map, meaning it is not visible to her without physically going to the location. Tympi seemed to know little about this cottage or its owner as she had numerous question marks next to it on her map. The Old Woman that lives here is described by all that know her as "rough and laconic though kind" often responding to inquiries with nothing more than a grunt. She is apparently a collector or hoarder as the Page of Swords described her home as being filled with different jars, paintings, drawers that are jammed full of items and so on. A Catoblepas stands guard of this cottage and is also apparently utilized for milk. Along with this catoblepas there are a few adderfowl, a vegetable and herb garden, and the front yard is very well maintained with grass, flowers, and a hedge fence that is trimmed square with more flowers. An illusion of a bright sunny spring day is constantly on the property.

Strange Hoard

This cottage is full of many strange items. So far the items that have been discovered were all found during Hysteria's initial scouting on Nurend 14, 308. 1) A mannequin of a medium sized, female human. The back is hunched, but otherwise it is featureless, lacking even a face. It’s dressed in simple earth tone rags over a black gown with tangled branches wrapped around its head like a hat. 2) A Painting of a barn - Hanging on the wall is a painting of an old barn. It looks dilapidated, the red paint peeling from its sides... does this barn exist? Or perhaps it was painted from the imagination of some tormented soul. 3) Drawers full of tiny, child-sized shoes, creepy or normal, who's to say? One of these shoes seemed special to Hysteria: A pair of ballerina slippers. 4) Pulling aside the tarp on the shelves, Hysteria was able to see several purple sparks which dissipated as quickly as they appeared. Completely removing the tarp they saw that there was nothing that would have reasonably made these sparks, but there was a missing jar. 5) Several of the jars on these shelves had different butterflies and moths which reacted to the sudden light source after the tarp was removed. Most of the jars had powders likely used for baking or cooking, some of them had disgusting bodily fluids, organs, fingers, and so forth. 6) One of the jars was filled with darkness, they couldn't quite tell what’s inside, but they knew something was looking at them from within. They could occasionally see the darkness separate and swirl though no form was really visible even in those instances. 7) A life size wooden doll dressed in Voldaren finery and missing a hand.

History

Not much is known about this cottage's history beyond that The Writer was brought here after being rescued by an old woman on Nurend 13, 258. He was treated to meals, a room and shelter from a rainstorm. It was evident that some illusion cast on the cottage causes the exterior to appear as a pleasant day rather than the truly dreary weather.

During the evening of Nurend 14, 308, Hysteria decided to sneak off to scout ahead and learn more about this cabin while the rest of the Spiritual Travelers slept. They were able to sketch a rough map of the interior for Agave and look over some items that they found inside. They found the catoblepas, adderfowl, vegetables and herbs outside, windows looking into the kitchen and a bedroom. Nobody seemed to be home. Inside the cottage they found a variety of items, most notably a faceless mannequin, a tarp covering several shelves, a painting of a red barn, and drawers full of small, child-size shoes. A pair of ballerina slippers stood out amongst these shoes as cleaner and less damaged, they felt special in some way.