Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapters 41 and 42 - The Return to Ladeisk
General Summary
Svetlana will not be swayed to return to Ladeisk, and after much wrangling, Yuri decides that he cannot leave her fate to anyone else - he must take her to Omena, find a place to put her up, and then, make his way back to Ladeisk to rejoin his companions. He calls for his horse, loads his bride and Mira on it, and then rides off to the north.
The rest of the group mounts up as well. Stavr and Dunai call their own mounts, as does Misha. Fortunately, the warhorses are huge, and are capable of taking three people, along with the loot that has been carried out of the Cave of the Sleeping Bogatyrs. Misha Rzhevsky has only Malina to carry, and Stavr rides with the diminutive Agapia and Zorina, but Dunai must contend with two wolves - Alden Gravenitch and Lokan - the latter still recovering from having been brought back with the Water of Life and Water of Death.
Light rain falls as the group rides to the south. Despite their late start, they manage to put in a good half-day's ride, and by Zorina's estimation, they have covered nearly a fifth of the distance to the city. If they keep up this pace, and do not run into any wolves, they should be able to arrive in the capital after another two days. Fall has begun, Malina observes, and the days now grow short, though she and Zorina are still able to locate healthful berries that have not felt the bite of first frost.
At the end of the day, the Serpent Slayers break camp in the vicinity of the area where Lokan recalls having met a group of bandits during the party's first foray south at the start of summer. They do not seem to be anywhere around. During the night, however, Agapia spies a campfire off in the distance. Unsure whether they are wandering into a trap, the group decides to check it out, and discover a group of roughly 20 peasants, with livestock and belongings, sleeping and trying to stay warm. Once roused, the peasants say they are from the village Babkino, which was just raided by wolves , who burned it down, killed most of the inhabitants, and turned out the survivors, apparently to send a message. The Serpent Slayers decide to take them under their protection and to convey them to Ladeisk, though this will slow them down significantly.
Once dawn breaks, the Slayers see a smoke cloud rising up from an elevated spot in the woods, and decides to investigate, leaving Stavr behind to guard the peasants. The village has indeed been raided and burned, and piled corpses lie between the houses, just as they did in Vladykino. The wolves seem to have moved on, and after some talk about following them and punishing them for their predations, the party decides that their duty is to the survivors, and to their prince.
The group trudges slowly through the woods, as the rain picks up and the ground becomes sticky with mud. Bedraggled and sniffly, the travelers' spirits begin to fall, though Zorina manages to find a relatively dry path through the forest. Toward midday, the terrain begins to change. Lots of dead, prematurely leafless trees, covered by a sickly fungus stick up out of sod which is covered in a sickly green liquid. The further they go, the more noxious the environment becomes. The cause of this sickness isn't clear, and while the guides among the companions seek to discover its source, Alden changes into a wolfman and spooks about a quarter of the peasants, who flee headlong into the afflicted area. Chasing them down seems counterproductive, so the group presses on, following Zorina in trying to skirt around the blight to the east.
The weather remains bad, and intermittent rain causes more misery, forcing Malina, Misha, and Agapia to expend efforts to maintain health and good spirits. The eastward swing takes the group into thicker territory, so that even Zorina cannot find her way easily, and the party loses half a day going around in circles. The puddles of standing water attract Nor's fearsome insects, who belabor the travelers even more. Finally, on the evening of the fourth day after leaving the caves, the Serpent Slayers and their charges come across six heavily armed riders in the woods . They display no obvious insignia, but their leader identifies them as servitors of the Prince of Omena, who are returning from their tribute-paying trip to the court of the Khan. The riders relate some news of Udyn, saying it is still quite damaged, and that the Khan is quite angry with Trofim Andreevich about this. They ask about the the happenings in the vicinity, and the Serpent Slayers reveal that the whole principality is under the attack of large numbers of shapechangers, led by Grey Wolf, and that they have destroyed and taken over numerous villages, and driven out many people. The riders promise to convey this information to their prince, and to see if he can send aid.
That night, after breaking camp, Alden detects the scent of carrion. After searching, the Serpent Slayers discover the grotesquely savaged body of a large volot, dressed in flee-bitten furs. He was almost certainly attacked by wolves. The next night, another body - of an elk - is also found, similarly mangled, but not entirely picked over. The wolves are certainly in the area, but are not showing themselves for the time being.
The wondrous berries continue to sustain the party and its charges for several more days, though Agapia has taken to wandering off and seeking more food. After six hard days of travel, she does so again, and discovers a strange, large animal looking like a large elk, with mottled gray-golden fur, with heavy, almost tangled antlers. The creature stands, drinking from a stream, and appears not to notice her. Agapia comes close, coos to it, and touches its antlers, which then give off a small shower of multicolored stars. When the girl lets go, the creature looks her in the eyes, and then bounds away.
The rest of the way to Ladeisk is trouble-free. Two more crisp, sunny fall days pass without obstacle, not even in the vicinity of Sitnitsa, which last was overrun by navii, and on the ninth day after leaving the cave, the group and their charges arrive safely in the capital. Informed by the watchers on the walls that the prince wishes to speak to them, they proceed to the citadel, where they are summoned in front of Trofim Andreevich . The ruler is a bit upset about Yuri's absence, though the travelers try to placate him by telling him that two storied bogatyrs, rescued from the cave, have come with them. Overall, Trofim Andreevich is quite anxious. The wolves have been devastating the countryside, and though no attacks on Ladeisk have occurred, refugees have been streaming in, and overcrowding the city. From the south, there are rumors of the Kochmaki marshaling forces against the city as well, and the prince fears that he will be surrounded, and all trade along the Udena in both directions halted. When told of possible aid arriving from the north courtesy of the Prince of Omena, he becomes especially agitated. The riders the party encountered in the woods were not from Omena, he insists, but Kliakvite spies, there to ascertain the degree of devastation. The Grand Prince himself employs numerous wolf shapechangers as part of his retinue, and he would not be surprised that his hand is behind the recent predations of Grey Wolf. Ladeisk is alone, and must prepare for the siege to come.
Missions/Quests Completed
- Peasant refugees escorted to Ladeisk
Character(s) interacted with
- Peasant refugees from Babkino
- Six armed riders in the woods, possibly from Omena, possibly Kliakvite spies
- Strange elk creature with golden fur
- Trofim Andreevich, Prince of Ladeisk
- Dunai Ivanovich
- Stavr Godinovich
- Svetlana
- Mira
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