Reign of Winter #41: The boy is actually a what?? Another building another daemon, undead giving a tongue lashing to a ghost in conference room A, headless riders, yeti, MelaDaemons and other strange stuff.

Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune:

Blocked by my friends from visiting the wonderous music, I do my best to hex them and put them to sleep. Still, their wills are strong and Dalomar tackles me and pushes my face to the ground. Such rude behavior.

Tauvum speaks to the lady of the well. Her concern seems to be if we are to bring harm to the children, which we do not mean. As he goes closer he sees all the bodies floating in her well and asks if her can have them as he is lonely.

Sadobras warns the lady of the well that he will kill Anastasia if she doesn’t stop her singing. She stops and so we begin headed back into the house. Tauvum, a bit drunk and upset, decides to seal the well, but his spell is insufficient. Angered by this, the singing starts again and again I am drawn to it. Sadobras takes no changes with me and tackles me quickly to the floor, again quite rudely. The siren also summons a large elemental while the boy, Alexi, turns into some kind of three headed dragon.

Somehow Tauvum manages to negotiate again with the siren and she leaves us alone. Not ready to fight a three headed dragon the party decides to gather and leave. With a final cloud-kill cast over the nearby soldiers for a bit of spite, we teleport back to the hut and rest.

Where to go next is a difficult decision. In the end, we decide that our best course is to investigate the body of Victor and see if we can learn more about what is going on. Appearing in the long building, we are quickly attacked by several Baycock Zombies while a MelaDaemon is beginning to consume what’s left of Victor’s body. In moments I’m once again shot by the strange weapons of this world, though I manage to use my Evil Eye on the Demon. Tauvum and the MelaDaemon disappear and we fear for the worst. When he comes back we manage to escape. We learn that Tauvum had taken the Demon to a plane of good and threatened to leave it there unless it gave him the body. Not willing to stay in such a place, the Demon quickly made the deal.

Tauvum casts speak with dead and we learn some more from Victors corpse, yet not all we would like as his soul is not in the body. Still, we do learn that the world engine is based on Tesla’s design. It is a trap from Baba Yaga and for Rasputin to rule. Rasputin killed Victor to keep secret how to stop the world engine. We learn that destroying the towers won’t stop it, only knowing how to work the control panel will. The chapel comes in and out because it is often between worlds.

Needing to find Victor’s soul we decide to go to Rasputin’s house again. This time though, we quickly encountered Rasputin himself. This is our first time to see the mad monk in person and there is a definite strangeness to him. Sitting there stroking a doll, he looks at us as if we are amusing playthings, fare beneath him. He tells us, “Too late. Her thrice tenth kingdom is almost mine. Look up on the hill, even her hut is saddened.”

With that he laughed at us, broke the doll, and released several animate dreams at us. Strong they were and some of us had to retreat for a time to one of the towers, but eventually Tauvum’s word of Chaos dealt with them. Back in the house, we found books on demonology, alchemy, magic, and more. Dalomar also found a strange room where 8 withered corpses with parchment like skin surround a woman floating above the table in their center, holder her in place with their long surreal tongues. This we decide better to leave for later. In another room, seemingly a bedroom, Victors notes on Tesla’s machine and the world engine awaited us.

Where else could Baba Yaga await? This question still drives us. Giving up for now on Rasputin’s house, we teleport to the graveyard so Tauvum can talk with the spirit there. A weird fey spirit it was, a tombstone fairy that seems like a little girl. A little girl she may look like, but a powerful one with the ability to call back evil ones from the dead. Tauvum made friends with the creature, so hopefully she will be of use. I imagine when we finally find Victor’s soul, she can help.

The Garage was our next stop. Filled with strange and broken vehicles, but not much else there.

Next, we journeyed to a building with a tree growing out of the center.

At first, we were filled with joy at seeing the piles of treasure waiting by the tree. However, soon we found that the tree was a lightning bolt throwing Treant. As we fought it, Alexi made an appearance in his dragon form. Still, we managed to take the treasure and chase him off. As we were readying to leave with our loot, once again Rasputin made an appearance, bringing us some of his friends. Yetis, fearsome, but we held our own. Held our own till Rasputin came back. Seeing our success against his minions he called forth a spell of blasphemy to aid them. Many of us were paralyzed and I was weak beyond measure. One of the Yeti’s managed to knock Sadobras down, another missed his target due to misfortune I called upon him. Frantic with desperation, I split my next hex and managed to put two of them to slumber.

In time we finished off the remaining Yeti and retreat once again to the hut. With him, Tauvum has brought one of the Yeti which he asks the Fey to raise. After we interrogate the Yeti and lay a geus upon him, we use the epidemic spell to try to even the odds in the compound a bit. Sending the Yeti back we hope it will disable some of its friends.

When all is in doubt, sometimes it is right to call upon a higher power. After rest, I cast the bones in hope of divining some guidance. Asking, “If we go to the camp to look for Victor’s soul, where should we look?” I am told to look where the headless horsemen are. Thinking the soul must be with the head Dulahan, we set an ambush in the woods for him the next time he rode out. Fearsome he and his companions were. He rode upon a Nightmare and was covered in fire. His companions blistered us with cold. Chain lightning cast by me was enough to take out many of their mounts and damage most of them. They responded with Deaths Calling, which managed to stagger some of us. Their leader did also shoot Yoska in the arm, forcing him to drop his weapon. Yet in moments, Dalomar used a spring attack to critically wound the lead Dullahan. Tauvum channeled positive energy at them. Yoska then picked up his weapon again and imbuing it with holy power sent the leader to his final rest. Once the rest are finished, we searched, but find no evidence of Victors soul, just some strange dimensional grenades.

Thinking this meant the Soul was back at the camp, we teleported into a partially collapsed Yurt near the remaining headless Kazaks. Gold, treasure, more grenades and a picture of Alexi and Anastasia we did find, yet no soul of victor. Dalomar searched the surrounding buildings but no luck. All we find besides the headless warriors is a strange undead Lantern Goat.

Moving on to one of the other remaining buildings, we find what seems to be a place of healing that has gone horribly wrong. Inside the place is an Interlocutor Kyton. A creature of nightmare and horror stands in a room surrounded by bodies of soldiers in pain and dismemberment. Though alive, their organs and flesh had been twisted and hung from the walls. Massive and fearsome with claws and otherworldly gaze, I felt my flesh crawl. In one attack it almost killed Tauvum, but luckily Snori manages to wound it heavily as well. Still, Snori had moved into danger and if not for his forthought and preparation, would be dead. The Interlocutor quickly rips him to shreads and destroys his astral body. As all seems desperate, Yoska lunges forward, grasping the creature and sending a massive blast of shock through it, killing it instantly. The remaining soldiers are beyond sanity and repair so we light the building on fire and retreat once again to the hut for rest.

The next day, we decided to change tactics. The plight of the prisoners has been weighing on our mind and especially as it has taken days to do what we have, we decided the time was ripe to free them. Teleporting in to where they had been tied to the beds, we find that there are unfortunately only about 20 prisoners left. Freeing all of them and taking them to the hut, we begin to help them recover.

As there are less prisoners than expected, we decide to also investigate the snipers tower by the church. Within we expect to once again use the tactic of mass suggestion of neutralize the soldiers. However, we find that this tower is different than the others. Within are undead snipers that attack us with not only weapons, but fear and madness. Yoska is so struck with fear he attempts to flee the tower, but luckily is unable to escape. Snori is struck by one rifle three times. Tauvum bursts positive energy towards the undead, damaging them. Dalomar moves up and with a mighty blow kills one. Tauvum removes Yoska’s fear allowing him to move up to the attack. Little Snori manages to kill one as well. Yoska is sore wounded and his lifeblood splatters out onto the floor. Calling upon my most powerful spell of healing, he is quickly brought back to full strength. In moments the battle is over and once again we control one of the towers.