Session 1: Once upon a time

General Summary

We open in Vasilly's hut. Vasilly is sharpening his axe in preparation for the workday ahead, Baba and Greeb are watching the sunrise together, and Bogdan is bouncing around his room getting ready for his trip into the forest with Sergie.

There's something in the walls

Bogdan soon notices that there are more spiders in his room than is normal even for him. 4, then 10, then more than 10 and soon the room is filled with an entire swarm of spiders. Bogdan is thrilled ("SPIDERS!!!") but Vasilly hears the noise of thousands of tiny feet scuttling and comes running. Baboushka approaches too. She is slower to get there, but then she is trapped in a very old body. The party realise that there is something in the walls. Bogdan uses his affinity with wolves to sniff out the creature. Even though he sees nothing, he smells that the creature has feathers. Vasilly charges the wall and breaks a hole in the inner wall. Sticking his head through, he realises that the sound is muffled back here, but he still hears a squawk of surpise when the wall crashes in. Baba and Greeb together use their magical dectection abilities to discover that whatever is in the walls is invisible and has summoned all the spiders to them. They also are able to immediately tell when the thing vanishes.
The spiders are hurting Sergie and Vasilly with their poisonous bites. Realising that their weapons aren't doing much damage to the creatures, Vasilly strikes his axes together to create a spark, setting about half of the spiders on fire, but also setting fire to himself and the inside of Bogdan's bedroom in the process. Vasilly chops a hole through the outside wall as Bogdan scares the spiders with a summoned frog. Sergie attempts to roll around to get the spiders off him, but they just press into his fur and aren't harmed. As the fire spreads, engulfing Bogdan's bed, the flaming spiders are soon burnt to ash. Baboushka helps Bogdan and Sergie scare the remaining spiders out through a hole that Bogdan broke in the window with an arrow from his crossbow. Then Bogdan, Vasilly and Baboushka throw snow on the fire until it is out.
Discovering that the woodshed has been emptied and messed up overnight, Vasilly goes to chop trees to get more wood to board up the hole he created, while Baboushka makes a healing potion and Bogdan sets off with Sergei to see where the spiders go. After about twenty minutes of communing with Baboushka's patron over the nature of the feathered summoning creature in the walls, the Dweomer Cap on Baboushka's shoulder is able to tell Baboushka that the creature is probably a Kikimora, inverse Domovoi, who inhabit "dead houses", dark corners and cellars. They make mess, break things, tear holes in clothing and steal things for their hidey-hole nest. While vermin always follow a Kikimora, they can also choose to create swarms of vermin to annoy their victims. Baboushka and Greeb do a stock check of the house to determine what has gone missing and see whether there is an unknown cellar in the house. Missing items include:

• Bottles of Vodka
• A loaf of rye bread
• Particularly small books
• Blank sheets of paper
• Some animal feed

Show spoiler

Kikimora's cause minor banes, in the same way as Domovoi cause minor boons. The Kikimora has chosen items that are less likely to be noticed straight away (this is why small books). It was her aim to keep getting away with advancing her collection for longer.

Vasilly uses his axe to break a hole in the study trying to find a cellar that isn't there. Baba then communes with the trees, using Leshee, a summoned leaf leshy. She learns that the winters are getting colder, particularly decreasing in temperature within the last four years. She learns that the area under the cabin's stove is particularly cold, and the area under the cabin's hearth is particularly warm. Baba gifts Leshee with a pot of healing extract, and sends her off to find a stronger spirit who she can talk to about the missing Domovoi.

Meet the Mishkanaries

Meanwhile, Bogdan has been following the spiders, which he discovers are now normal spiders, one at a time breaking off from the pack as they travel through the forest and setting about normal spider life. As he is following the spiders, his wolf-aspect scent picks up the smell of canine blood, and as he follows it, he finds it leads in two directions. He sends an animal messager robin to alert Vasilly then sneaks with Sergei to investigate the direction from where shouting is also coming from. He comes upon a carriage on the road to Ketterpesh, where Gotyik Mishkinov and Lina Mishkina are fighting two Timber Wolves and a bored Tatyana Tolstaya looks on.
Although Gotyik does almost kill one of the wolves, Bogdan manages to intimidate both Mishkinaries into backing down, (and the gnome literally doesn't care). They attempt to prostelatise but it is one of their first pitches, so it doesn't go well. And Bogdan is far more interested in the wolf. They give Bogdan a pamphlet, but he is only half reading it and as soon as he can he heals the unconscious wolf and accompanies them back to their wolfcub, who has been injured by Gotyik when the mishkinary was attempting to find some breakfast. In return for healing her and her family, the mama wolf gifts Bogdan with one of the glittering stones from their cave.

Show spoiler

The stone is a Flint of the Malachite Maid, which indicates a nearby presence of an entrance into the Mines of the Malachite Maid.

The area in which their cave is located happens to be the glittering valley, where the mushroom kingdom and the pea kingdom (on either side of the bank) are at war. With no way to communicate with the mushroom leshys, Bogdan returns to where Sergie is guarding the mishkanaries to take one of the mushrooms to Baba.
In the meantime, Vasilly and Baba have gotten Bogdan's message and have reached the Mishkanaries. Gotyik and Lina try (and fail) their mishkinary patter once more, before Tetyana steps in and suggests that Vasilly just accept what is being offered so they can all eat. Vasilly agrees to help move the tree out of the way, and Gotyik immediately tells Tatyana to start packing up.
Bogdan appears at the forest edge and gives Baba the mushroom. The mushroom tells Baba a bit about the Mushroom Wars. The pair decide that they should go chat to the mushroom leshy while Vasilly accompanies the mishkanaries to the village in their fancy carriage to purchase a replacement bed for Bogdan.

The Mushroom Wars

Back in the glittering valley, Baba and Bogdan meet Captain Boris Mushroomcap, who commands the mushrooms in an eternal war against Tzar Gorokh. Boris advises Bogdan and Baboushka to keep away from the valley wishing well, which is home to the dangerous Samovila. Samovila are dangerous anyway, but this one is particularly deadly since she has tired of being constantly asked for boons by greedy peasant folk.

Show spoiler

She has also been Touched by Winter.

Baboushka manages to persuade each of the leshys (Boris and Gorokh) to attend a peace summit in the neutral valley territory, by convincing each of them that they are the ones arranging the summit. The two leshys, King Gorokh escorted by Bogdan and Captain Boris accompanied by Babushka meet in the centre of valley for the First Peace Summit of the Peas and the Mushrooms.
And that is where we will pick up next time.

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Rewards Granted

Experience

Spider swarms (265) + Fire (200) + Mishkinaries (135) + Leaf Leshy (65) + Injured Timber Wolves (265) = 930xp each

Treasure

Sparkling rock; 2 gold trinkets of the Church of the White God; 2 pamphlets for the Church of the White God, Mushroom.

Character(s) interacted with

The Kikimora
Leshee
Two adult timber wolves and 3 baby timber wolves
Gotyik Mishkinov
Lina Mishkina
Tatyana Tolstaya
Boris Mushroomcap
Tzar Gorokh

Campaign

Firebard

Protagonists

Report Date

07 Aug 2021

Primary Location

Forest of Frost

Plots Triggered
The Kikimora in the Walls
The White Church and the Black Church
The War of the Mushrooms
Touch of Winter