Mountains to Climb
The team get to eventually meet Vladimer whilst avoiding the worst of the Necrocult.
Plot points/Scenes
The team travel to contact a Mansi shaman that lives nearby called Vladimer. He has loose connections to the rulers of Novgorod and will supply them with any intel. They are to check Kholat Syakhi the mountain.
They have to avoid or deal with a couple of hazards. The first is they are hunted by a creature called Guntomor and hill hellhounds after he picks up on their trail. A Zombie Fog may be present nearby too, that can be moved around but they still have to be careful off.
A river will need to be crossed, and the team will have to cross it. If they wade they may get hypothermia, so they will have to find a way across.
Vladimer will be camping in the Dyaltov Pass. He has an encampment near a raised bit of ground beside a stream. Wards & small traps will be set up too, in which to protect him from anything coming near him.
Vladimer can show them the way to the entrance of the Fey Cavern.
He may warn them that a Khanty shaman called Okbar was seen heading in the duirection of the Pass a swell, chanting unholy prayers to the spirits of the ancestors. If they can find him too, then he can be returned too, if alive. If not, then they may inform Vladimer and he'll lt them know what happened to Okbar.
He has information to share. If the team strike out for the cavern, they will avoid the worst of the army but the Necrocult city will still be well-defended with the ruling class raising as much of the dead as they can. The castle at the centre of the undead city is where the power resides and if they manage to penetrate it, they may be able to strike at the ruling hierarchy. The latter has came into a book a few months ago called The Book of the Risen Flesh. It is a damned book with it being sought by many others including the Order of the Gash for it's Necromantic & Evocation spells. Witten in the time of the First People it is ancient, once thought lost and rumoured to be bound in the skin of the First Mortal Humanoid to walk the planet.
Vladimer is also able to tell them that the caves once were larger aeons ago, and at the edge of a set of caverns that connect to an ancient Giant city, and an old dragon's lair. The latter rumoured to be the first white dragon in the world & the physical mother of all white dragons.
Maria Mar will inform them too if they make it in, a good 'salting' of many areas will damage the Necrocult activities though they will need about 2/3rds of a fistful of Mistletoes Blood Clot for it to be truly effective.
When doing this they may find that Okbar has gone insane and became a necromancer in the service of the Necrocult, and they can kill him if he's by himself. At the same time he may turn up dead at the hands of a roving undead army.
They have a slim chance of finding him alive and quite insane. It looks as if he had managed to tap into the Necrocult's leaders power and had been damaged mentally & spiritually. He may be questioned into supplying information that in some ways there is a literal skeleton force of undead in the main city as Shva-Nergal believes no-one can get down in. This in part is due to the nature of the undead being incorporeal undead, undead knights of his personal guard and the harnessing of a purple worm as a safeguard to bring down ways in & out, as well as booby traps. He also believes that there is at least one lesser death dragon somewhere too kept to catch out any who is foolish to think they can stroll on in, and sometimes both it and the purple worm are looked upon as pets by Shiva-Nergal.
At the same time, as long as the majority of the forces are missed, they may be able to get within half a mile of the city proper. They just have to be careful not to arouse anything in gerat numbers or too powerful to make it to the centre to the castle / keep.
What may be mentioned is a series of paintings on some of the walls on the way in to the city proper. Thes show what looks like Romanesque paintings done two or three centuries ago, and a small group of Tieflings & Dragonborn passed through recently but none were seen since. The remains of their packs are strewn around near this part. The paintings show a Tiefling with purple parts to he hair and golden eyes, along with a strange baby, and horrific demonic creatures too.
The packs will show notes saying that they were there investigating a story of an old Roman legion that vanished two / three centuries ago and were headed to here. They worshipped Orcus & the Underworld. At the same time, they believed that in the early years of the 9th Century, on the 6th day, of the 6th month, of the 6th year the Antichrist would be born. The pictures are similar to ones found down below the Vatican and believed to be linked to a group that follows the Black Pope, and the 'mother' they refer to as the Whore of Babylon. The latter is meant to be a Tiefling that will help to bring down a powerful undead & take powerful artifacts from it. The Black Pope may be referred to as the Anti-Pope.
Mentioned too is that the followers of the Black Pope are now looking for any information concerning this as they want her to join them below the Vatican.
At the same time, the team may find a journal entry saying that she may be protected from this by others who will oppose the Black Pope, including a a leader of men in the Holy Roman Emperor, a Furry Man from far to the south, a Dark Lady who is pure of heart from another world, and a metallic being from a shrouded sphere. There is a mention that by following the spiral found in many deep caverns they can also find Ancient Carcosa. If searched for, the team may find the spiral painted on cavern & building walls that lead deep into the Underdark and the older Giant & Dragon lairs.
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