Greta moves up and stabs the goat, but she doesn't maanage to stab through its maggot-covered hide.
"Eto byl Polkovnik Lavrentiy - on sluzhil korolevskoy sem'ye s otlichiyem. Yego i yego lyudey razdavili, kogda oni uslyshali o zakhvate Korolevskoy sem'i, ot ruk bol'shevikov." Dimitri points out the Colonel in the photo.
That was Polkovnik Lavrenti - he served the Royal family with distinction. Him and his men were crushed when they heard the news of the Royal Family's capture, at the hands of the Bolsheviks, while they were fighting off insurgents at St Petersburg.
Mr. Whiskers stares at the lantern.
Mr Whiskers determines the lantern is part of the goats innate powers.
Mr Whiskers also determines Victor's soul is trapped in the lantern.
"It is Victor's soul trapped in that goat's lantern!"
In an absolute panic, Crummock teleports away...
Meanwhile, Dimitri unloads upon the goat.
Einar and Dimitri make short work of the lantern goat which on death spills out a bunch of maggots, that wiggle briefly on the snowy ground before freezing to death.
The party retrieves the lantern and Polina gestures for them to go to her.
Crummock ends up in a large cloud of smoke and hears two disgruntled voices cry out at the same time, " Oi! Τι κάνεις στο σύννεφο μαc!"
Auran=Oi! What are you doing in our cloud?!
Searching the large tent yields a chest containing a diary, labelled "Lavrenti" in Russian.
I have failed. The Royal Family has been imprisoned by the Bolsheviks while me and my men were away. The Bolsheviks are cruel and ruthless. I fear the worst for the safety of my charges.
Oh god in heaven why could I not have been there when they needed me most! I would face eternal damnation in hell if I could find a way to save them.
I returned to the capital - to raise an army to free them. All I found were contemptuous soldiers who now disavowed their previous loyalties. For all the Tsar had done for them, protecting them from the greedy jackals of the other European nations!
I returned to my homeland, crushed by the spineless spirits of the Russian soldiers. I was contacted by a man named Rasputin. He said he had some people in the capital that could help free the Royal Family. He didn't want me to be part of the operation as my well-known presence jeopardise the operation.
I told him I would pay any price to have the Royal Family safe. He asked for my help in taking the Ashkuyva prison camp and I gathered my Cossacks and helped him. I asked when he would fulfil his end of the bargain - he never did. Soon after - I heard the news that the entire Royal Family was executed. And he has been using the prison camp to summon supernatural horrors never seen before in this world.
I have led my men to bring a madman to power and may have doomed the entire world. I have failed my charges. There is nothing more to live for. I have told my men the truth on how we have been betrayed and deceived. We are in agreement that our honor stained can only be redeemed by our deaths.
Crummock flees blindly at top speed (which is to say, as per the rules for subjective directional gravity, he starts falling, reaching terminal velocity rather quickly in the 'endless' open air of the plane)...
Mr. Whiskers suggests "Я думаю, нам лучше подождать, пока Краммок вернется. Надеюсь, он не скоро."
While he waits, Mr Whiskers starts skimming the diary. "It seems Rasputin is like the witch queen, convincing others to take on tasks and then betraying them. It is a wonder they were ever able to work together! I wonder what sort of betrayal each has planned for the other."
Crummock runs out of the smoke cloud into an open space with some large air elementals sitting on metal spheres drawing cloud formations. "Hey - παρακολουθήστε πού πηγαίνετε! Είναι το έδαφος του Don Cho σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση και πρέπει να του πληρώσετε χρήματα προστασίας για να περάσετε!"
Auran = Hey - watch where you're going! It's Don Cho's territory in that direction and you need to pay him protection money to pass!
Crummock keeps running and he feels something slam into him but fails to grab him fast.
Crummock attains terminal velocity as he flees.
His unseen attacker speaks, "Koitáxte, aftí eínai i epikráteia tou Don Cho kai poté den tou chorigíthike eléfthero pérasma se káti san eséna. Eláte ME ME gia na deíte ton ídio ton Don." Crummock feels something windy charge at him, trying to slam him, still unseen.
Auran=Look, this is Don Cho's territory and he's never granted free passage to something like YOU. You're coming WITH ME to see the Don himself.
Then the effects of the panic subside.
...Plane Shifting back to the Hut.
He then Wind Walks, sheepishly, back to find the others.
A puffy Crummock-shaped white cloud lands besides the party, with a sheepish expression on his face.
Crummock's form slowly fills back in, his face red with embarrassment.
"I really be needin' to do something' about that... It seems these days that every time we be encounterin' somethin' even a wee bit scary, I run off! Glad to see ye dealt with the goat..."
Looking at the soul thoughtfully, he ponders.
"Do ye think it would be worth makin' sure we have pacified this entire section o' the camp before we bring him back? That way, we don't have to worry about him gettin' himself killed again, if we run into another combat..."
Mr. Whiskers ponders the question a moment.
"The fey looks a bit impatient." nodding his head in the direction of Polina. "Then again, I'm not really fond of that sort of fey. Do we really want it charging Viktor with an evil task just to bring him back to life?"
"On the other hand, the sooner we get Viktor back the sooner we can take out the world anchors. I really would like to end this and get back to someplace more sane."
Mr. Whiskers casts Grand Destiny on Crummock. "Hopefully that will allow you to resist the urge next time!"
"I agree, we be wantin' to finish things as soon as possible... but I presume that," he says, gesturing to the north-east corner of the camp, "be another anchor, and I don't really want to take this guy through an unexplored area, where he might be a liability..."
Einar looks into the prison yard with his ring finding it filled with a brownish-yellow fog. Ill-defined shapes shuffle slowly through the murk.
Hearing the description, Mr Whiskers says "Sounds like poison gas. We should put on the masks and suits before we enter."
He gets out his rod and casts Alter Self to turn himself into a dwarf and dons the gear before entering.
An old stone building sits buried in snow, its wooden door hanging ajar. An old tree, lightning-scarred and twisted, juts through the roof, its drooping branches hanging like a curtain over the entrance.
Crummock nods, and heals Einar.
He then starts healing himself.
Crummock then looks around thoughtfully.
"Before we start searching through the gas, I wouldnae mind lookin' for Geist..."
Crummock finds Geist hiding behind the divan in the library.
Einar opens the door of the prison yard. He sees two large patches of noxious mustard-colored vapor hangs low over the ground, concealing the lurching forms of dead soldiers, leaking sulfurous fumes from beneath its acid-burned, peeling skin, and bristling with the armaments it possessed in its horrifying death.
Mr Whiskers recognizes what the mist is - it is a trench mist.
Trench mists are created anywhere that deadly gas attacks are used for the wholesale slaughter of troops, whether attacks of a mundane poisonous nature, or from the magical effects of spells such as acid fog. Under mysterious circumstances likely born of the horrors of war and the final throes of young soldiers dying before their time, these mists linger over the battlefield, absorbing the departing souls of the slain. This commingling of loosed life energy and strange chemicals grants the miasma a sly, malevolent sentience. Once so born, the trench mist then seeks only to impart misery and share its singular fate with those fortunate enough to have escaped the poisonous attacks that birthed the creature in the first place.
They have DR 10/magic and are immune to acid, electricity, sonic, and can engulf.
A trench mist can engulf foes (see the engulf special ability). A creature engulfed by a trench mist does not gain the pinned condition and can move normally—such a creature is not in danger of suffocating, but as long as it begins its turn engulfed, it takes the trench mist’s touch damage. A trench mist’s vapors obscure sight as per the spell obscuring mist. The save DC to avoid the engulfing mists is Constitution-based.
Mr Whiskers recognizes the dead soldiers within as trench zombies - they are like juju zombies except their immunity to magic missile has been replaced with an immunity to acid and they have 5 DR/slashing and magic.
Looking around, Mr. Whiskers asks "Is there anything we can do to help you find him?"
As they are trying to find the cat, Mr. Whiskers asks Einar "It wasn't clear to me, after this were you in favor of investigating the fog or the building with the tree first?"
Einar and Greta both strike at the mist as it comes close.
Both strikes land on the easily hittable mist.
The other mist flows up and touches Einar.
Geist attempts to jump out of the way, as does Mr Whiskers.
Geist manages to get clear, but Mr Whiskers is stuck in the mist.
Crummock manages to get out of the way too.
Einar damages the mist but it is still up.
Crummock experimentally stabs at the mist...
Geist then full-attacks the mist.
Dimitri then opens fire on whatever is left.
Crummock and Geist make short work of one mist, though Crummock notices Geist's acidic claws do nothing to the mist.
Einar stabs one of them twice and it explodes in a cloud of acid. He stabs at the next one he can reach.
The rest step back (out of 20ft AOO-5ft when possible) and open fire on him.
One of the guns jam but the creature continues firing.
The gun also jams.
Einar feels a hail of bullets perforate him and the whole world turns red, then black as he goes down in a barrage of rifle fire, and the remaining move and turn on Dimitri.
Greta walks in and stabs one of them.
Dimitri desperately attempts to thin the herd, as quickly as possible...
...whilst Geist pounces forward over Einar's corpse, moving to engage one knot of zombies.
Meanwhile, Crummock sighs.
"Einar, mae angen i ni weithio allan ffordd o atal hyn rhag digwydd drwy'r amser!"
He then breathes golden mist down upon Einar, forcing the tiefling's soul back into his body...
...but leaving him only *just* this side of death's door.
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Moving up, Mr. Whiskers peers around the corner and casts create pit on three of the riflemen, pumping in some of his reservoir in order to create the pit faster.
Dimitri blasts up the two that are in his sight, while Geist rips apart another, which explodes.
Two of them fall into the pit, but one manages to balance on the edge.
All 3 take a step back. One fires at Geist, the other two at Dimitri.
The first shot hits Geist but does him no harm, the other two nick him slightly.
A bullet grazes Dimitri's shoulder.
Then the gun jams.
Dimitri dodges the other two bullets, Matrix style.
Despite the creatures pulling the trigger - the gun does not shoot anything else.
Greta double moves and moves behind one of the trench zombies.
Dimitri unleashes hell upon the zombies that he can see...
...whilst Geist claws-up the ones attacking him.
Wincing, Crummock then pours healing energy into Einar, causing small wounds in the shape of bullet holes to starting bleeding, like stigmata, all across his body.