The Snow Queen (Vasilly's Route)
The Snow Queen
Will lead to revelation that the fire bird feather was stolen by Koschei the Deathless during the First Hoary War.
Snow Queen - truthful looking glass, hobgoblin, window and spectacles.
Mirror increases Int by 1 and drains one physical (DC 25 fortitude) and 1 mental stat (DC 25 Will) and take 1d4 point of damage (DC 25 Reflex) each time you look in
The sweet pea arch - water flowing on a pipe around them
The white bees - freeze bees (the snow queen is the queen bee)
Snow flakes look like flowers and castles.
Talking animals
Red shoes - give up what you love most?
Unpiloted boat
Cherry Orchard with rose flowers - 2 wooden soldiers, little red izba with stained glass windows in red, blue and yellow.
Witch with flower painted hat and crutch.
Magical hairbrush/comb of memory loss. Rose poultice cures.
Rose flowers sacrificed to the underground.
Bed with red silk pillows and embroidered violets.
Talking flowers.
Tiger Lily: "hark, do you hear the drum turn turn. There are only 2 notes always turn turn. Listen to the woman's song of morning/mourning. Hear the cry of the priest. In her long red robe stands the Hindu widow by the funeral pyre. The flames rise around her as she places herself on the dead body of her husband. But the Hindu woman is thinking of the living one in that circle. Of him, her son, who lighted the flames. Those shining eyes trouble her heart more painfully than the flames which will soon extinguish her body to ashes. Can the fire if the heart be extinguished in the flames of the funeral pyre?"
Convolvulus: "Near yonder narrow road stands an old knight's castle. Thick ivy creeps over the old ruined walls, leaf over leaf, even to the balcony in which stands a beautiful maiden. She bends over the balustrade and looks up the road. No rose on its stem is fresher than she. No apple blossom wafted by the wind floats as lightly as she moves. Her rich silk rustles as she bends over and exclaims, will he not come?"
Snowdrop: "Between two trees a rope is hanging. There is a piece of board upon it. It is a swing. Two pretty little girls in dresses white as snow and with long green ribbons fluttering from their hats are sitting upon it swinging. Their brother, who is taller than they are, stands in the swing. He has one arm around the rope to steady himself. In one hand he holds a little bowl and in the other a clay pipe. He is blowing bubbles. As the swing goes on, the bubbles fly upward reflecting the most beautiful varying colours. The last still hangs from the pipe and sways in the wind. On goes the swing, and then a little black dog comes running up. He is almost as light as the bubble and he raises himself on his hind legs and wants to be taken into the swing but it does not stop. And the dog falls. Then he barks and gets angry. The children stoop towards him and the bubble bursts. A swinging plank. A light sparkling foam picture."
Hyacinths: "There were three beautiful sisters, fair and delicate. The dress of one was red, of the second blue, and of the third pure white. Hand in hand they danced in the bright moonlight by the calm lake. But they were human beings, not fairy elves. The sweet fragrance attracted them and they disappeared into the wood. Here the fragrance became stronger. Three coffins in which lay the three beautiful maidens glided from the thickest part of the forest across the lake. The fireflies flew lightly over them like little floating torches. Do the dancing maidens sleep, or are they dead? The scent of the flower says that they are corpses. The evening be tolls their knell."
Buttercups: "The bright warm sun shone on a little court on the first warm day of spring. His bright beams rested on the white wall of the little neighbouring house and close by bloomed the first yellow flower of the season, glittering like gold in the sun's warm ray. An old woman sat in her armchair at the house door and her granddaughter, a poor and pretty servant maid came to see her for a short visit. When she kissed her grandmother, there was gold everywhere. The gold of the heart of that holy kiss. It was a golden morning. Gold in the beaming sunlight. Gold in the leaves of the lowly flower and on the lips of the maiden."
Narcissus: "I can see myself. I can see myself. Oh how sweet is my perfume. Up in a little room with a bow window stands a little dancing girl half undressed. She stands sometimes on one leg and sometimes on both and looks as if she would tread the whole world under her feet. She is nothing but a dillusion. She is pouring water out of a teapot on a piece of stuff which she holds in her hand. It is her body's. Cleanliness is a good thing, she says. Her white dress hangs on a peg. It has also been washed in the teapot and dried on the roof. She puts it on and ties a saffron coloured handkerchief around her neck which makes the dress look whiter. See how she stretches out her legs as if she was showing off on a stem. I can see myself. I can see myself."
Great crow - tells of intelligent princess, perhaps she has over used the mirror? Guards in silver, footmen in gold. Princess exudes an air of sleepy confusion, DC 15 check to speak own words rather than just repeat what the Princess says. Princess has a pearl as large as a spinning wheel.
Hall of dreams: hunters. Crows have an official palace position eating kitchen scraps.
Golden coach.
Little robber girl - "snik-snak snare" bogdan's sister? That would make Bogdan's mum the robber mother, who has a giant knife, a long beard and busy eyebrows. They have big goblin dogs guarding their camp. Robber girl bites. Reindeer called "Bar".
Spitzburgen is the home of the snow queen. Koroleva is her southern home. Bestows stolen gifts if befriended. Reindeer, bread, ham, cushion, goblin mittens.
Finland woman and lapland woman.
Northern lights shows the path through snowflakes that become spiky ice hedgehogs, soldiers and bears.
Frozen lake - the mirror of reason. Throne in centre of lake. Game of reason - puzzles of ice. Answer "eternity". Reward, pair of skates (that will get you across the lake and also help to climb the glass mountain?).
