Novgorod is Calling.
The team get word from Novgorod that they have had a series of attacks by the Necrocult, and the latter is truly on the march now from the Dyatlov Pass.
Plot points/Scenes
The team get word from Novgorod that they have had a series of attacks by the Necrocult, and the latter is truly on the march now from the Dyatlov Pass.
Bushtail arrives in Eschbach looking to speak to the teaminforming that elements of the Necrocult has infiltrated the city of Novgorod, allowing entrance to a number of undead to appear as well as opening portals for hellhounds to appear too. The ruling nobles & Maria Mar believe it is to weaken & terrify the inhabitants for a full scale invasion to take place.
Word has reached them that spies & scouts have reported back saying that a massive army is being formed in the Dyatlov Pass, though only the vanguard are outside. Inside most of the enemy are there by the main entrance and he knows of a small cavern that can be used to bypass them. Most beleive that 2/2rds of the troops will be busy, and a small strike force may be able to attack the Necrocult's central command. If successful, they may stop the worst of the army setting it back centuries if not millennia.
They can use the hidden trails of the Feywild to get there quickly bypassing distractions and will go get other allies if directed. They can piont him to any others they wish to help.
The team find the city of Novgorod in chaos after a shadowy dragon appeared out of the storm clouds attacking the city with it's breath a few hours before they arrive. A good swathe of the city is damaged and people are fleeing across and up & down the Volga. Norse longships are arriving with Slavic troops are arriving by land. Many ships are pulling out with refugees.
When they make it in, they are greated by a Knyas (Noble) Rurik Kozlov. Acting as a local point of contact, he introduces them to Maria Mar, and possible troops including a number of Viking housecarls who are familiar with them after the Battle of Uppsala, and two (10 man) squads of Slavic infantry armed with shields, spears and swords).
They may also be told 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. 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 Bokk 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.
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. The most would be used round and in the castle at the centre, especially if they find the ruling Lich's chambers. They're warned if they attack it, which she names Shiva-Nergal, there is the chance of being killed outright by it. As long as they know what they are getting themselves into.
They then have the chance of going there and travel is harsh as they have to avoid refugees from communities outside the east of Novgorod, and patrols of undead. At any time they may be tracked down and fight off the undead patrols that can be made up of any number or type of undead.
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 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.
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