Rasputin Must Die

Sweet Things

The members of the Party felt the by now accustomed gut-wrenching twist as the Dancing Hut reconfigured itself for it's next destination. The gazebo they had become used no now transformed itself into a rustic one-roomed cottage with rough-hewn wooden walls. A single exit led from the room and a window overlooked a dark snowy forest beyond the rusting remains of a strange metal cart. The room was filled with golden birdcages in which sat the mummified remains of stunted bearded men. Katya heard muttering in a strange language, seemingly not all of the captives were dead! She quickly located the source of the sound and Caedwallis cast comprehend languages to try an communicate but it appeared to be just gibberish about dolls, old ladies and gingerbread houses! The captive also proved extremely resistant to being rescued as Gulbrand discovered.

Eventually, they decided to head out through the door, which turned out to be some kind of portal. Casting invisibility, Sylziria was first through, finding herself in a room in which the room itself and everything in it was composed of cakes or candy! Suddenly she found herself consumed with an overwhelming urge to eat and when Gulbrand stepped through the portal he found the sorceress  stuffing her face with gingerbread stripped from a chair. Much to his revulsion Gulbrand could see the gingerbread was crawling with maggots and as Katya stepped into the room, he tried to restrain the sorceress, who suddenly slumped into unconsciousness!

As Katya went to help they were suddenly confronted by a horrible beast materializing in front of them. Frightened out of her wits, Katya turned to flee, just as two lanky, fanged humanoids, exuding an almost palpable aura of horror, dropped from the loft above and attacked. Fortunately Gulbrand manged to drag the unconscious sorcerer though the portal to safety.

They rested up, mainly waiting for Sylziria to recover. Legilmar identied their assilants as bogeymen, a malicious  type of fey, and Gulbrand sharpened her cold-iron axe. Finally, bolstered by protective magics, they  passed through the portal again. This time only Legilmar succumbed to the room's magic and launched herself at the licorice curtains and began scoffing. Sylziria cast a fireball up into the loft area but some bizarre magical effect in the room tuned the flames into candy floss which exploded across the area!

Gulbrand tried to drag the witch away from the curtains, which he noted were crawling with worms, but almost immediately was attacked by the two bogeymen. As battle ensued, the spell casters cast scorching candy-floss strands, and limeade sprays at the bogeymen while Gulbrand hewed away with his axe, aided by Katya. Legilmar meanwhile had slumped into unconsciousness.

Eventually the bogeymen were dispatched which gave Katya the opportunity  to disable the trap that was the room itself. Searching the room they found a tunnel inside one of the candy-cupboards and another exit in the back of the fireplace.

The Crucified Doll

Deciding the fireplace was a marginally more attractive offering that the tunnel lined with cracked and broken skulls, the party found themselves emerging through another fireplace into a darkened room illuminated by flickering flames that burned in the eye-sockets of the hundreds of skulls piled up there. As they entered the room the skulls began clacking their jaws menacingly. Caedwallis, still under the influence of comprehend languages could hear that they were repeating a constant refrain amongst themselves " Vasilisa... Vasilisa..."  Sylziria spotted what looked like a ragged doll crucified on one of the tables in the room with iron nails. For a moment it looked to her as if the doll strained against the nailed before sinking back, but on closer inspection the doll just lay there. Sylziria tried to persuade Gulbrand to free the doll, but when the fighter noticed everyone else backed as far away from him as they could when he went to the table, he decided against the attempt.

Eventually, leaving the doll to its eternal torment,  Katya unlocked a door in the far wall and they went through. In this room a single candle atop a wooden table to the north-east illuminated the area, though a hint of sunlight kissed the sill of a single window on the western wall from beneath heavy curtains. The only sound was the creaking of loose floorboards and the groan of aged walls . A single door, tightly barred with a hammered iron bar and stout lock, was in the eastern wall. As they entered the room Legilmar strode across and opened the curtains, flooding the room with light. Gulbrand went to search a wardrobe on the northern wall when the candle went out and the room was suddenly filled  by shadow-demons, rising out of their own shadows to attack them. The party were in dire straits initially, their weapons and spells proving of limited effectiveness against the demons, until Caedwallis saved the day by holding forth his staff and casting a daylight spell, utterly banishing the demons!

They left this room by a secret door Katya found in the back of the wardrobe, emerging, not without some difficulty, through an upright travel trunk in a room completely covered in tangled vines. There they met Little Otik a hugely overgrown mandragora , who once Caedwallis cast tongues, was able, between constant demands for food, to tell a them a little about his "siblings"  a "queen with a heart of ice" and a "black bearded monk" who had given him a "fat tasty goat". After a few minutes of idle chitchat and the wild stare of its hungry, inhuman eyes, Little Otik gave an inhuman shriek and grabbed Sylziria and attempted to eat her. The sorceress used dimension door to escape and battle was joined. Little Otik was helped by four assassin vines but the Party proved too tough form him and he abruptly sat on the ground hands over his head and blubbing.   Sylziria briefly considered killing the wretched child but eventually thought better of it.

 The Window of Life Trapping

After Caedwallis tended to the wounds of those unable to heal themselves they went through the door to the next room. Katya scouted the immediate area for traps  finding none. However when Gulbrand went to look to the window, he vanished, his equipment falling in a heap on the floor.  Sylziria suggested that the fighter had been disintegrated or teleported away, so for a time they avoided going near the window, but eventually they summoned up the courage to look through and could see Gulbrand stark naked with his back to them staring fixedly at the forest in front of him. After examining the window in more detail, Sylziria and Caedwallis came to the opinion that the window was acting as a Mirror of Life Trapping , and raising her staff smashed the glass. This freed Gulbrand, but unfortunately also freed the derghodaemon trapped within.

There was titanic struggle with the daemon fighting back and forth between the two adjacent rooms. Katya was  hit badly by the daemon's Feeblemind Aura, but Caedwallis took charge of her ensuring she didn't come to harm. Little Otik  even joined the combat, not particularly helpfully, when he mistook an ankylosaurus summoned by Sylzira for lunch!

Eventually the daemon was slain, though they were sore pressed and they decided to rest overnight. Next morning they summoned Zilvazaraat and traded in some magic baubles for a scroll of Heal in order to restore Katya to normal. 

They then headed back, though the "Candy Room" to the crucified doll which Sylziria released, unleashing a Fire Storm from the skulls in the room  - to her friends considerable annoyance. After feeding the doll some trail rations the doll explained that her name was "Vasilisa's doll" and that she would help the Party, as she had helped Vasilisa, as long as they fed her a little food and water each day.

Finding a tunnel hidden inside one of the  barrels stacked in the corner of the room, the headed onwards.

The Burned Village

As they clambered into the barrel almost immediately they found themselves clambering out into another room, this one strewn with coffins. A gaunt horned figure with glowing eyes and clad in tattered robes greeted them wearily and bid them sit down. The thanadaemon introduced himself as The Coffin Man, and explained he wasn't allowed to let them past him to go outside until they had defeated him either in combat or some other test. He also observed that he wasn't sure why anyone would want to go out as beyond the door he guards waits a "world gripped by war, in a frozen country stillborn in bloody revolution." He offered them the option of a game of something called "five card stud", or offered them the challenge of drawing from "the special deck" . Not trusting their gambling, skills everyone chose to draw from the "special deck", which they did with seemingly little effect  save feeling a little weary and somehow a little older.

Outside the hut was the usual bone-chilling cold they were mostly used to by now. The hut stood on top of a hill, below them, a rutted, muddy road wound between still-smouldering charred cottages, fire-blackened craters marred the pristine snow-covered landscape. Crows squawked from perches atop a strange, gigantic metal wagon with spoked wheels mired among the smoking ruins. They began making their way cautiously down the hillside when Gulbrand was suddenly blown of his feet as a some kind to trap detonated beneath him, throwing metal shards into the air. The party scattered, an invisible Sylziria taking to the air, as a small metal canisters rained down and exploded round them coming from the cottages below, targeting the area of the original detonation. The metal wagon obviously contained some kind of catapult or ballista, belched white smoke and with a loud whistling sound a cannister exploded directly in front of Caedwallis!

As another round of incoming fire detonated around them, Legilmar retreated back towards the Hut, Caedwallis cast gaseous form on himself, and fighting the wind, began floating down the hill. Katya and Gulbrand charged forward as best they could trying to avoid any more traps that might be buried in the snow, Katya shouting "look out for slight depressions in the snow!" Sylziria cast summon monster and an anklyosaurus appeared and charged forward, triggering several traps before being obliterated in another barrage! The metal wagon  targeted a shot at the Hut, which squawked and headed westward at some speed seeking cover in the woods.

As Gulbrand and Katya moved though another barrage, Sylziria gained height and cast a fireball at the troop of men clad in grey she could now see sheltering in the right-hand cottage. Legilmar cast shadow walk and re-emerged under the shadow of the metal wagon, which belched another round of white smoke and the by now familiar whistling sound headed towards her comrades. As Caedwallis wafted by, Katya and Gulbrand finally reached the troops hiding in the cottages and engaged them, Sylziria helping as usual by raining fiery death from above!

Legilmar meanwhile had clambered up onto the metal wagon and knocked politely on the hatchway she found there, the occupants declined to open the door but this defiance was rendered moot when Caedwallis finally arrived and seeped through the crack in the door and, dismissing gaseous form, opened the hatch from the inside. The occupants of the metal wagon were dealt with by a combination of confusion and scorching ray spells.

Abruptly silence fell over the battlefield!

The Cinders of Akuvskaya

After searching the bodies of dead troopers and retrieving a number of strange and unusual devices from them, Katya Gulbrand and Gunnar set off to find the others. A large pile of corpses burned in the centre of the ruined village, sending a plume of greasy black smoke into the air. As they approached they could see a slim man with an unkempt beard and a long black cassock apparently warming his hands at the fire. He tuned and looked at them, and somewhat surprisingly spoke in halting Common - "You have come for my mother" he stated matter-of-factly."But it is too late. Her Thrice-Tenth Kingdom will soon be mine." Katya tried to get more information from the man, guessing him to be the mysterious "Rasputin", but her enquiries were met mostly with silent, icy glares before he seemingly grew weary of the conversation and with a comment that they would soon die "like these poor peasants", he cast greater forbid action on them and simply faded away!

At the same time the pile of corpses seemed to animate, melting together in a grotesque symphony of charred flesh and blackened bone, this bizarre and disgusting creature, a corpse orgy, attacked. The Party found themselves initially unable to move as the creature slammed at them, but as soon as movement returned they withdrew, shouting for help. Inside the tank, Caedwallis and Legilmar fortunately heard their shouts and joined the fray unleashing what magic they could to help. Eventually the corpse orgy was defeated, with a combination of lightning bolt spells and repeated attacks by  Gunnar and Gulbrand. The battle almost cost of Katya's life, but fortunately Caedwallis was on hand to save her. Deciding they needed to rest, the chose the tank as better option than the burned out cottages, and spent a quiet if uncomfortable evening ensconced within.

Next morning Gunnar and Gulbrand searched for tracks, finding that the troops had seeming come to the village from the road to the north. As that was the same general direction the Hut had fled in, they decided that was as good a way as any, and began trudging along. The snow-covered muddy road led northward through the forest for several miles before it ended abruptly at a muddy field riddled with snow rimmed craters and punctuated by gnarled trees, twisted coils of barbed wire, and deep trenches. Beyond a high fence, the cracked and blackened onion domes  what seemed to be a ruined temple, surrounded by wooden buildings, reached for the stormy sky, where dark clouds churned and boiled. Eerie grey shadows dance and writhe across the dusky landscape, giving it the appearance of a maggot-riddled corpse. Huge strange machines running on caterpillar tracks patrolled the area, in the distance they could see cavalrymen patrolling further out. It was clear, by the occasional glimpse of a grey greatcoat that the trenches were manned by more of the troops they had fought in the village. Beyond the trenches, a tall fence bounded the camp and watch-towers loomed over everything, it was a forbidding and daunting sight. Fortunately after a some time observing from the cover of the forest, they spotted the Hut, across the way and made their way there to take refuge. Inside the hut, after being greeted wearily by the Coffin Man, who observed that he had "told them it wasn't pleasant out there"! They tracked down Zorka, who with Vasilisa's doll's help prepared them a warm meal while they discussed their options. Eventually Gunnar suggested they return to the village, get some uniforms and attempt to infiltrate the camp by stealth.

Next morning, after retrieving uniforms from the dead troopers and disguising themselves, they trudged up the road to the main gate,  attempting to pass themselves off as a returning patrol. Flanked by two of huge metal machines, Gunnar led them up to the gate, Caedwallis having cast tongues on him, so he could speak the language. As they neared the gate a challenge rang out from one of the watchtowers. Gunnar responded, but obviously not in the expected manner as the challenge was issued a second, then a third time.

An ominous silence fell, punctuated only by the sound of numerous rifle bolts being drawn back...

The Ruined Church

Reacting quickly, Caedwallis grabbed hold of Gulbrand and Katya and used dimension door to shift 400 feet north. They found themselves standing in the narthex of the ruined church. The smell of smoke permeated the air and huge pile of rubble was strewn around the interior where the roof had collapsed in several places and the remains of wooden fixtures and fittings still smoldered with an angry red glow and the entire area was suffused with crackling arcane energy.Nearby, the entrance to the tower beckoned and led by Gulbrand they headed up the narrow winding stairs.

Near the top they were confronted by a pair of Pale Snipers who nearly killed Gulbrand before being dispatched. From the top of the tower they could survey the whole complex, noting a number of the other buildings also appeared to be burned-out. Heading back downstairs they moved deeper into the nave of the church. Reaching the transept, they spotted two statues flanking a large stone font. The statues of blindfolded women had been wrapped in barbed wire. Moving forward they noticed that the temperature seemed to be rising and as Gulbrand approached, the statues started bleeding from where the  barbed wire cut into them  - much to their horror the Party also started bleeding almost as if in sympathy.

Things got much worse when the cracking energy surrounded the statues and they transformed  into stone golems. Thinking quickly, Caedwallis was able to trap the golems behind a wall of force, only to be rewarded by an ironic round of applause from Rasputin who suddenly appeared near the altar. As the Party moved to confront him, Caedwallis using air walk, Rasputin seemed unconcerned, casting Blindness/Deafness on Caedwallis while taunting them that they were too late to save his mother!

Realizing that without a spell-caster they had little chance against Rasputin, Gulbrand grabbed Caedwallis and began dragging him towards the doors. To cover their retreat Katya tossed a Bead of Acid at Rasputin - only to see it pass straight through him.

They crashed through the doors of the church out into the icy cold. Opposite the church was a large garage inside which were two of the huge tracked vehicles, whose motors stuttered into life...

Alexei and Anastasia

As the Animated Tanks revved their engines, the party dashed smartly round the corner of the ruined church, Sylziria casting invisibility first  as a precaution. As he was dragged away, Caedwallis's plaintive cries of "What's going on?" echoed in their wake. No one having access to teleport to get them back to the safety of the Hut, they took refuge in a burned out barracks, Katya upending a bed to give them some cover. Caedwallis, wrapping himself in his yeti cloak,
promptly  announced he was going to sleep! Katya and Sylziria decided to explore, trusting to invisibility rather than the Russian uniforms they all wore, and headed out, leaving Gulbrand to guard their snoozing cleric.  The barracs opposite was marked by a painted symbol of a red cross in a white circle, but they passed it by and headed northwards along the side of the church where the path had been cleared of snow.

The first building they came to was  partially ruined with a tree growing through it, but as they moved closer it revealed itself to be an advanced Lightning Treant attacking them and then using call lightning storm to  further harass them. Retreating hurriedly, Sylziria taking to the air, they moved to another building nearby. Katya moved to clear snow from one of the windows but as she did there was an angry bellow from within and three yetis emerged and attacked.

Tracking then by scent, one of the yetis leaped at Sylzira causing her to move higher, unfortunately into the beam of one of the ethereal searchlights and  a hail of machine gun fire a nearby watchtower. This drew the attention of the Lightning Treant who immediately cast call lightning storm again.  Retreating backwards Katya called on Gulbrand for  help as Sylziria lobbed a couple of fireball spells at the yetis and an acid splash at the Lightning Treant while she dodged crazily to avoid the searchlights and occasional lightning bolt arcing down form the sky. Once gulbrand arrived the yetis, softened up by the fireballs were made short work of and the Party retreated back to the burned-out barracks to rest. Strangely, although they set watches, no one came looking for them and their rest was undisturbed.

Next morning, after Caedwallis had cast remove blindness/deafness on himself, they decided to explore the building opposite with the red cross symbol on it. Within they found a scene of horror with dismembered and eviscerated corpses strung up on barbed wire, the perpetrator, an interlocutor kyton, was a formidable opponent but was eventually dispatched with the help of  a bralani eladrin  summoned by Sylziria.

Cornwallis meanwhile had found two survivors locked in a cupboard, a young woman who appeared to be in a state of severe shock and a bruised and battered boy who introduced himself as Alexei and and his sister as Anastasia.

Romanoff Dreams

The Party decided they needed somewhere safer to rest, especially dragging the children along with them, so Sylziria cast invisibility and went to scout the Yeti hut, while Gunnar sneaked along after him. While  dodging random lightning strikes from the treant, and jinking madly to avoid being exposed by the ethereal searchlights Sylziria used a series of spells  to lure out the last yeti who immediately attacked Gunnar - much to its cost!

Caedwallis meanwhile despite being pestered by Alexei, decided to cast flame strike at the nearest watchtower and watched in satisfaction and the crew abandoned the burning structure. Gulbrand meanwhile had got fed up of the treant's lightning strikes and charged it, being aided by Katya and then Gunnar once his yeti opponent was slain. Legilmar assisted the combat with a ray of exhaustion and Caedwallis with an enervation spell not to mention Sylziria's force punch deliverd via a spectral hand! Once the treant had been slain they party recovered a fair amount of religions artifacts stored there, as well a somewhat grisly collection of gold teeth, before going to clear out the bodies from the yeti hut where they rested.

Next day, they wisely decided to avoid the compound full of roiling greenish fog in which Gunnar could see masked figures moving around, and headed for a large stone building. Entering through the back door, they found Rasputin waiting for them in the library. Rasputin invited them to sit down for a while and chat, offering to let them go free, before suddenly seeming to get bored and releasing four animate dreams from a  matroska doll  and vanishing.

The animate dreams had taken the appeared of for people, thee women and a young child all riddled with bullet holes and slit throats. The animate dreams initially proved troublesome before the Party ultimately triumphed against them.

The Forbidden Library

Searching the books on the shelves with the aid of comprehend languages the Party located several interesting looking tomes including a greater book of extended summoning and one titled The Book of Eibon, to which Caedwallis was particularly drawn. Searching the rooms nearby they discovered a blessed book, a cursed cloak of etherealness, as well as several notebooks belonging to someone called Nicolai Tesla, and a set of drawing and schematics for a strange alchemical/magical/mechanical device called The World Engine. They also found a personnel file relating to someone called "Viktor Miloslav", his work for the Russian military, and his subsequent imprisonment in Akuvskaya for failing to cease dangerous experiments to tap into other dimensions. The file also included drawings for an intricate prosthetic leg, and contained a photograph of Viktor himself short, hunchbacked, with a bushy moustache, and with the blueprint's realized prosthetic leg attached at his thigh.

The final room in the Abbot;'s Hose contained a strange sight indeed. Thick velvet curtains hung from the walls of this dining room. A large table dominates the centre of the room, around which were eight finely upholstered chairs. Eight desiccated corpses dressed in the finery of Russian nobles were seated around the table, their parchment-like skin pulled tight over their bones as if they had been here for many years. From the mouth of each issued an ectoplasmic tendril stretching from that corpse to wrap around the ghostly form of a terrified woman of regal bearing and dress that hovered in the air above the table. As the Party regarded this sight the ghostly figure mutely pleaded with them to aid her.

Gulbrand was first to enter the room, as he did, spectres emerged from six of the bodies and attacked, mobbing the members of the party, with their draining touch. Most managed to free, but Gulbrand found himself surrounded and fell beneath the mass assault. Sylziria cast a fireball and then invisibility, hoping to avoid the spectre's attentions, while Gunnar dashed round to the outside of the building. Caedwallis meanwhile hustled the children to safety and handed them over to Katya for safekeeping. Gunnar smashed one of the windows of the room, and drawing aside the heavy velvet curtains noticed that the two spectres remaining imprisoning the ghost cowered back. As Caedwallis joined him, he advised that spectres were powerless against natural sunlight, so Gunnar smashed open another window, letting the light flood in. Hearing the shouted instructions from  the cleric Legilmar and Sylziria dashed round opening curtains throughout the house, and causing the spectres to flee underground. Caedwallis then confronted the ghost, who now able to speak, revealed herself to be the Tsarina Alexandra. She begged Caedwallis to look after her daughter, to which when Caedwallis agreed, her ghost faded away to the ether.

Traumatised by this encounter the Party decide to return to the Dancing hut, using a combination of invisibility and air walk. Legilmar suggested that with their main fighter dead they might be in trouble, and after a somewhat heated discussion, Caedwallis cast speak to dead and ascertained Gulbrand's willingness to return tot he  fray whereupon Legilmar retrieved Gulbrand's equipment and a finger! Once safely in the hut, some of them noticed Zorka's curiously deferential attitude to Anastasia, but not her brother. When asked Zorka replied she was of the Blood, but he was not. They summoned the mercane trader and traded in many magic items for a scroll of true resurrection and a couple of teleport scrolls. While they waited for the mercane to return, Caedwallis perused the mysterious Book of Eibon and with Zorka's help they attempted to decipher the purpose of the World Engine which appeared to be a device to shift large structures between Planes.

Next morning, after Gulbrand was returned to the land of the living they used one of the scrolls of Teleport to return back into what the now knew was a Prison Camp.

The Burned-out Barracks

Gunnar suggested that they investigate the barracks block with the locked door, so they headed that way, Katya easily dealing with the padlock. Within they found emaciated prisoners restrained in their bunks. Legilmar and Caedwallis notes strange puncture marks in the prisoners necks and speculated on the presence of vampires. Most of the prisoners seed to have been driven hopelessly mad by their predicament, however one, Dmitri, still clung to some vestige of sanity, and after Legilmar administered some healing was able to tell them that they had been imprisoned here in the camp by the military and then about a month ago  Rasputin and "the Brotherhood" arrived when things things got much worse. The prisoners were used as forced labour to help construct strange devices in the four corner watchtowers. When the devices were activated, purple fire swept the camp and the monastery disappeared building and was replaced by the burn-out version standing today. The prisoners were restrained in the barracks and fed on by the Brotherhood. When asked about Misroslav they were told that "the cossacks"  had taken him shorty afterwards and he did not return.

Moving on to the next building, another burn-out barracks, they found a meladaemon chowing down on the burned bodies, one of which, judging by the prosthetic leg was Miroslav.   Sylziria initiated combat with a scorching ray spell which seemingly drew the meladaemon's ire, who immediately  teleported next to the sorcerer and attacked. As her friends rallied round Legilmar and then Katya  fell foul of the meladaemon's consumptive aura. Things got worse when three of the corpses were revealed to be baykoks and attacked Gunnar and Gulbrand.

Having dispatched the daemon and the undead the Party returned to the Yeti hut to rest. While the others rested Gunnar and Syziria examined the nearest corner tower closely noting for the first time that the purple light that suffused the area originated from it and the other three corners of the compound.  A fireball from  Sylziria took care of the guards and Gunnar shinnied up with the help of a spider climb spell, discovering a strange control panel in the twisted wreckage with writing on it - "Виктор Мирослав, 1917". Prising off the front of the panel with his dagger he returned to Syziria who using comprehend languages translated the writing as being the name Viktor Miroslav and the date 1917.

Lantern Goat Gruff

Heading towards the Cossack encampment in the south west of the compound, the party stopped short when the noticed six riders sitting silently in the middle of the tents and Katya pointed out that they all seemed to be missing heads, and noted the lead rider's mount appeared to be on fire! This obviously limiting their option to have a chat with the cossacks and possible share some of Gunnar's looted vodka, they diverted to one of the nearby burned out barracks and considered their options. Unusually, Caedwallis precipitated action by casting a flame strike from the window at the assembled riders, swiftly followed by a fireball from Sylziria. Sylziria cast greater invisibility and took to the air with a fly spell while Gulbrand began creeping down the side of the building. As the headless Cossacks scattered, their leader vanished onto to reappear inside the hut and attack them with his sword. Caedwallis cast wall of fire between them and he and Katya dodged out the window while Legilmar took to the air courtesy of a fly spell. As the Cossacks charged Katya and Caedwallis, Sylziria began casting scorching ray and Gulbrand leaped to the attack. Inside the barracks the lead rider  tossed a dimensional grenade after them before vanishing again, to reappear outside with a series of charge-by attacks. In a protracted battle, one by one the Cossack dullhan were eventually despatched, the leader being the last to go.

Afetr Legilmar and Caedwallis healed the wounded and looted some of the corpses, they headed into the camp. Near the command tent a goat was tethered, round its neck was a lantern which shone with a sickly yellow light. As he approached Caedwallis identified the goat as a rare form of undead, a Lantern Goat. he just had time to observe that they had the ability of absorb the souls of the dead into their lantern, when it attacked him. As  Caedwallis withdrew, his friends rallied round and drove the Lantern Goat off. This unfortunately  meant, as they suspected the goat might have Miroslav's soul captured , they had to chase the pesky thing round the camp! Fortunately Katya's superlative observations skills enabled them to find the creature and a couple of acidic spells from on high from Sylziria soon finished it, and its lantern off!

They returned to their teempraty base in the Yeti hut where with a speak to dead, established  Miroslav's soul was now free, however they realised that none of them actually had the ability to return him to life as he had been dead too long!

All Along the Watchtowers

Following the advice of a divination spell cast by Caedwallis the Party headed to the cemetery, where they met a tombstone fairy called Polina. Caedwallis, with some hindrance from  Sylziria, managed to persuade her to help them by raising Viktor from the dead. Following a somewhat bizarre, and often interrupted ritual, the deed was done and the engineer, though somewhat confused was restored to life. Viktor struggled with the concept of being alive again and seemed to think he was in somewhere called "Purgatory" being called to atone for his evil actions. Caedwallis, again exhibiting hitherto unforeseen diplomatic skills, managed to persuade him to help them thwart Rasputin's plans by instructing them how to repair and recalibrate the World Engines.

Over the next several hours a plan was hatched and executed flawlessly - not!

Sylziria rather pre-empted things when her "scouting mission" to one of the southern watchtowers suddenly turned into a full blown assault when she unleashed a bralani azata by a summon monster  against the soldiers within. This was rapidly followed by a chain lightning or two. The others neither expecting or ready for the assault, hurried to get themselves into place to lunch their own attacks!

Caedwallis quickly cleared his tower, though the guards managed to summon the help of the nearby animated tanks which proved unfortunate for the bralani which had been sent by Sylziria to help the cleric. Meanwhile Gulbrand and Katya quickly assaulted and took out the third tower.

Legilmar however was having problems as she desperately struggled to restrain Viktor from attempting to take out the fourth watchtower single handed armed only  with a pistol given to him by Sylziria. The witch  eventually resortedto a confusion spell to stop the over-enthusiastic engineer.

Eventually Sylziria used dimension door and a couple of more chain lighting spells to secure the fourth tower.

The Monastery Returns

Everyone took their place in the watchtowers and desperately tried to remember Viktor's instructions about the repair and operation of the Wold Engine. Eventually switches were thrown and the wild cracking purple energy that suffused the area redoubled its intensity! With a palpable wrench in the fabric of reality, the First World counterpart of the Akuvskaya Monastery-which was currently hovering between worlds was called down to Earth and merged with the dilapidated ruins of the monastery chapel, presenting an image of the monastery fully restored. Its bulb-shaped domes rose toward the heavens, and pulses of arcane energy flashed through the chapel's stained-glass windows, casting eerie silhouettes on the snowy ground around it. Perhaps most disturbingly, soul-piercing shrieks cut through the air, echoing throughout the prison camp and into the empty wilderness beyond.

Cautiously the individual members of the Party made their way towards the monastery's entrance, to find a small figure waiting there - Alexei. With an almost regretful air the boy said "I am not permitted to allow this!" and suddenly his form shifted into that of a huge three-headed dragon - a gorynych! As gouts of fire from it's breath weapon flashed over them, the Party deployed for action. Gulbrand immediately charged, while Sylziria and Legilmar both unleashed a series of lightning bolt spells. Sylziria following up with spectral hand through which she delivered a force punch! It was another brutal combat with Gulbrand being sorely wounded as all three heads concentrated on him! But it was a combat that the Party prevailed in.

While Sylziria used up most of what was left of her wand of cure light wounds to help Gulbrand, Gunnar and Legilmar moved in closer to the monastery entrance, peering through the magical purple glow at the huge wooden doors. Nailed to the cruciform crossbars of the monastery's front doors was an emaciated corpse. It was stripped bare to the waist, its body marked with crude tattoos, and a long moustache drooped over the macabre grin that only rigor mortis can bring. Suddenly Legilmar felt a ghostly touch and collapsed to the ground as her soul was wrenched from her body and suffered the torments of being crucified, her life force ebbing away!

Shouting a warning the others charged forward, but Legilmar appeared dead. Gunnar moved forward to the door, drawing a crowbar from his pack and beginning the ghastly task of prising out the nails that fixed the corpse's hands and feet to the doors. Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eye, Gulbrand spotted a ghostly figure, and attacked it, calling a warning to Slyziria who peering into the purple glow cast scorching ray and then  force punch at the spirit. This only caused the spirit to turnits attention to her and she shortly found her soul keeping Legilmar's company, both wracked with the agony of crucifixion, their life force draining away. Fortunately, as Gunnar removed the last nail, Gulbrand destroyed the spirit, allowing the tortured souls to return. Even more fortunately Sylziria still had some restoration scrolls available!

The intricate and beautifully tiled mosaic floor of the chamber beyond the doors, the narthex, was weathered with web like cracks. Numerous alcoves held statues of saints and martyrs, each with fresh blood dripping from its eyes, running Legilmar noticed, up the walls to the ceiling overhead. The thin air smelled stale, as if the room had been sealed for thousands of years.

Moving forward cautiously they could see a figure, an aged crone, rise unsteadily to her feet. "You heard my call, and you have come," she croaked, barely above a whisper. "My son, he is destroyed, his chapel beyond in ruins. Come, children, take me to my Dancing Hut." Legilmar called out to her friends not to believe a word the crone said, and moved forward cautiously. Seeing that her ruse had failed the crone revealed her true form, and attacked, casting a quickened crushing despair on Legilmar and enervation at Gulbrand. Given the previous two encounters, this battle was mercifully short with no one in the Party seriously hurt.

They moved through into the nave, where the heads and limbs of several shattered statues littered the floor. Two spiral staircases led upward into darkness. Dozens of thick wooden pews were piled to the apex of the chamber's partially collapsed vaulted ceiling and across the width of the nave, totally obstructing any view to the transept beyond. Gunnar led the way up the western tower finding fifteen emaciated men chained to the wall in a room at the top. As Gulbrand borrowed the crowbar to lever the chains off the bolts that held them to the wall they noticed that each of the men had numerous puncture wounds in the neck. Sylziria speculated that this room was the vampires they head heard about larder!

Making the men as comfortable as they could, thogh none were in any condition to escape under their own power, they went and searched the eastern tower as well finding three coffins and more bodies - dead this time. They spent some time pulling down the heavy curtains in this room, and once more deploying  the ever useful crowbar, removed the boards that sealed the windows from the light outside.

The World Engine

Once determining, with some trepidation, that the coffins were empty save for some earth and a single black candle. The Party decided to disrupt the vampire's eternal rest by tossing the coffins out through the tower's window, watching in satisfaction as they smashed into the cold earth below.

Heading downstairs they pondered for a while how to deal with the precarious looking pile of pews and rubble that blocked their progress, Gulbrand being keen to try dismantling the pile.Sylziria decided to try and go round the obstruction by smashing one of the nearby stained glass windows, however as she struck out at it, it transformed into a stained glass golem. Fortunately for the sorcerer her friends quickly  rallied round and she escaped with only minor wounds before they destroyed it. Gulbrand then reverted to his favoured plan of dismantling he pile - only for the whole lot to come crashing down on him!

He barely had time to brush himself off when he was attacked by one of the Brothers Three clambering over the wreckage, the nosferatu attempting to sink his fangs into his neck. As the others moved to help they were attacked by the two remaining Brothers - one targeting Gunnar and one Sylziria. Legilmar rose into the air using a fly spell and supported her friends with hexes until the vampires were destroyed.

Moving across the wreckage into the transept of the church they could see the  where coils of insulated wires snaked forth from mechanical cylinders and
batteries standing in the apse beyond, their ends terminating in rows of strange machines arranged like technological standing stones along the walls of the chapel 's presbytery. Between them, the copper- plated floor pulsed with engraved runes that writhed like tortured living things. Above this levitated the figure of Rasputin his whole body suffused with magical energy. They barely had time to take this in when they were attacked by their own long-lost shadows!


As the Party frantically defended themselves, the whole area was consumed in flames as Rasputin cast a fire storm spell. Fortunately for the Party this instantly slew the shadow demons, but unfortunately most of the Party, save Gunnar were badly hurt, Legilmar close to death. As Sylziria moved to help Legilmar, using one of Caedwallis's wands to save her. Gunnar and Gulbrand moved to attack, quickly they realised that they  couldn't get to Rasputin as, not only was he levitating 20 ft up but protected by an antilife shell!.  With a distinct lack of fly potions the two fighters reverted to ranged attacks firing arrows and chucking daggers. The spellcasters in the Party began casting heir rapidly dwindling spells as Rasputin retaliated in kind, pausing only to cast a greater forbid action on Gulbrand as she moved to to attack some of the components of the World Engine, before casting destruction on Sylzira - which somehow she survived. The unequal battle raged seemingly interminably, but somehow the Party prevailed and Rasputin's body crashed to the ground.

While the others attempted to work out how to disable the world engine variously bashing components - to little seeming effect, Sylziria went to check Rasputin's corpse. As she leant over it, suddenly the eyes sprang open and, his hand reaching out to grasp her by the throat, he said in Russian " I am not so easily killed, as you will find!"

Slyziria struggled to gasp out a warning to the others as Rasputin choked her. Fortunately the others rallied round and attacked, just as Rasputin cast stormbolts, huge gouts of lightning expanding out from his body hitting all of them - even Gunnar this time! As the Party reeled from this latest assault and Rasputin was just about to cast another fire storm, Legilmar stepped up behind him and cast stone to flesh. After recovering their breath, and passing round the healing wands, Gunnar and Gulbrand methodically smashed the stone Rasputin to bits.

They then headed into the apse, Gunnar taking one of Rasputin's stony eyes as a souvenir, where Legilmar spotted wires snaking up from the World Engine to the bell tower. The followed the wires up. Like the bell towers off the nave, the windows in the bell tower over the apse were boarded up. The floor of the tower was covered with dozens of wooden matryoshka dolls each surrounded with tiny, glowing sigils and connected to the others with ropey strands of insulated wiring plugged into the dolls. One of the dolls was larger than the others and adorned with the picture of a crone.

Consulting the blueprints provided by Viktor, Gulbrand advised it might be unwise to unplug anything here while the Wold Engine was still operating. They headed back downstairs and began methodically destroying everything they could. Heading back up to the room they unplugged the crone doll, only to reel as a prismatic spray was unleashed in the room! Fortunately they all survived the effects!

The crone doll resisted all efforts to open it, and Legilmar suggested they return to the Dancing Hut with it. Before they left Sylziria asked that they destroy the other dolls, which she had identified as akin to soul gems, so they might free the souls trapped within to pass on to the afterlife.