The mists folded in, the vaguely threatening forest collapsed into the dreamscape. I kept moving, consciously staying physically relaxed, yet mentally vigilant. Where I was going was not important, and if roiling images kept coming up and trying to unnerve me, it didn’t work.

Not being afraid of anything was rather… liberating.

And then I took a step, and was somewhere else.

The room was gigantic. I seemed to be in a cage… no, an oversized crib. The air was remarkably light… and outside shadows stretched out behind the light streaming in through a huge window. The walls were papered, the light blue tone and design seeming to alter to the hue of a frozen corpse as it drifted into the shadows, and the flower turning into skulls.

I glanced at the workmanship of the crib. Nothing looked machine cut, all done by hand. If this was taken from the Hagborn’s observations, not a high tech level. The pattern on the paper was pretty simple, and the roof was whitewashed and painted timbers.

There were a couple dressers, a closet, and a stiff wide seat with folded clothes nearby. The door going out was sized for a Jotun, huge and dark.

Above me was hanging a mobile, swirling around by itself as it hung there, with horse, lion, griffon, and hippogriff carved crudely from wood chasing one another.

And their eyes seemed to turn down in my direction.

Oh, yeah, I didn’t see this coming, nope-nope.

The horse was the first to break free, plummeting from the strings holding it up as they snapped loudly, falling down on the far end of the crib-cage, where a massive pillow took the impact squarely. The wooden horse snorted rather stiffly, and with rickety, yet very strong movements, headed for me.

I was already counter-moving to meet it. I did not want to be trampled on a charge by an oversized merry-go-round ride.

Wood, hardness 5. It was going to eat up all my damage bonuses… unless it wasn’t really made of wood, but a phage transformed to look like it. A d4 of damage was going to take a while to take this down, especially since my To-Hit was only something like +8.

I’d find out soon enough.

Damn, I missed not having a shield. And lots of Damage Reduction. And more AC. Grrr…

Okay, I was going to need damage. The key thing was going to be keeping moving so it couldn’t trample me with all four hooves, and/or take a bite of me.

If it was a construct, it had no working intelligence. It was programmed, and would only have a set number of moves. It would be like fighting a computer game, it couldn’t respond to or invent new tactics.

If it was a phage, it could think… but it wouldn’t be as tough.

Test its mindlessness first.

I veered towards the pillar-like bars of the crib-cage, just thick enough not to get through easily, and it swerved to keep me in line as I ran towards them.

One, two…

Great Dexterity modifier for the win, as I planted a foot on a pillar; on two, jumped up and over, and the massive weight of the wooden horse pounded past me and crashed into it.

It was like two tree trunks hitting, the pillar broke away from the pins holding it in place and went spinning away, and the wooden horse went with it. It was at least twenty feet to the ground, and I definitely heard the crash as it landed there, hard.

Large construct, 3d10 (3-30), +20 Health… I was looking at needing 37 points of damage, and with 5 hardness, the 2d6 damage from the fall did little more than loosen some seams on it.

Of course, now it was down there, and I was up here. Which might be useful, if there weren’t three more things even more dangerous than it up here.

I did not want the lion dropping in on me while I still had to get rid of the horse.

I ran to the opposite end of the crib, and squeezed through the gap between the wooden pillars at the corner, swinging out to the corner. My black nails reached out, sank into the wood, and I had a grip worthy of an ice axe.

Ignoring the drop, I swung out and latched on with fingers and toes. The legs of the crib seemed to be stylized with carvings, rather too much effort for something so mundane in my opinion, but it made it easy to descend, with convenient ledges there.

I dug in with nails from all four limbs, glancing over slightly to make sure the horse wasn’t coming this way and seeing me, or didn’t have some ability to home in on me… unlikely, since I was a Null, but possible.

It was clattering around in a circle, looking upwards for me. I carefully yet quickly made my way down, making as little noise as possible and staying on the opposite side of the column from it, watching as it turned perfect circles mindlessly, painted eyes shifting up to look at the hole above.

Righto, construct.

I would’ve cut the blankets above and made myself a rope to get it off its feet, where it would’ve been meat on the plate, but I didn’t really trust any of the substances hereabouts at this point. Still, I was a good sixty feet away from the thing

Plank floor, each plank six or more feet wide, a doll in a world of people. Baby’s perspective of heights, maybe, affecting the curse…

Was I even wearing anything? The thought came out of nowhere and I found myself amused by it. I supposed if I imagined myself clothed, I’d be clothed…

Loose black would work just fine. Although constructs normally had infravision.

I looked at the window, and the shadow-forming sunlight streaming in. They weren’t immune to glare, however…

I withdrew to the shadows along the wall, while the single-minded construct kept circling around klakity-klak. Moving quickly just beyond its effective visual range, I circled around behind it, and stood there out in the open, screened by the too-bright sunlight coming down. I backed up a few steps, timed its circles, and burst into a run.

It always looking up at the hole was a godsend. It took a second to register the motion with its painted eyes, and for its head to reorient on me, make the judgement that I was a foe – and I came in with a flying sidekick, ki flowing for my heel as I aimed for the joint of its right front leg.

The wood shattered under our combined momentum, the impact going all the way up to my teeth. Its momentum sent it careening right over me, its rear leg knocked me away and tumbling as it over-balanced and went sprawling behind me.

Ah, charge bonus and no Dex bonus from surprise plus Sundering, always a good combo. I could feel my Soak evaporating as I got back to my feet, and charged at it while it was down and trying to get back to its feet.

Somersault to a full lay-out vertical axe kick, and I did full splits for the first time ever. Joint of right rear leg.

Wood cracked, then split and shattered as the wooden horse tried to push off with it, sending it crashing back down.

Okay, it wouldn’t be moving, but I hadn’t exactly killed it. It was gouging its legs on the wood, single-mindedly trying to get to me.

I circled around it faster than it could spin around, and jumped up on top of its side as it tried uselessly to flail at me. Reach is useless if you don’t have the range of motion…

There, the central join in its main body. I held on as it spun around in a circle, trying to reach me, tearing up the wooden floor, and I brought my fist down.

Chok. Chok, chok, chok, chok…

My fist was like an axe… a hand axe, maybe, but repeated applications tore the join open, and its own motions helped open the gap wider, wider…

It took me ten hammering blows to rend it open, and whatever forces held it together abruptly fled. I whooped in surprise as all the seams gaped open, and the thing fell apart like a disassembled toy beneath me, leaving me sitting there in the middle of a bunch of wooden horse-pieces.

There was a precious moment for me to catch my breath. I reached out and grabbed the intact lower left piece, just about the right size for a club.

A patently artificial growl from above raised my eyes as I got up, and sidled sideways.