"Well ok..we'll make an exception on this." Anton says, as Pavel gives him a dirty look, but does not counterman his orders.
"Yaaaaaaaaayyyyy!" The Russian soldiers cheer as they go badger their cook to get some vodka out of the cauldron.
Crummock nods.
"As Einar said so eloquently, it gave me a different point of view. As to why that was necessary... well... it is a long story, and one that does not matter now, since all of the players (including myself) are dead. I have a new life, now..."
In response to Mr Whiskers' comment about the size alteration, he shrugs apologetically.
"It was convenient, as it meant that I did not have to acquire multiple sets of equipment, and could continue to use all of my previous life's gear... Believe me, it was not meant as a slight upon those of a smaller-than-human size..."
"Yes sometimes its just good to look at things differently. And start afresh." Anton answers.
Pavel glowers at Einar, then sighs.
Greta is happy to have a Sake or several, while Anastasia looks at Einar dubiously, "You do know that alcohol is 7 calories per gram, right? It was in one of those books Mr Whiskers gave me. And too much drinking will give you a beer belly!" She chides Einar.
"Look if people want to drink, its their business and none of yours. So if you're not drinking, you can stop being a wet blanket." Greta growls at Anastasia.
Dimitri is no where to be seen, having joined the Vodka party...
"A toast. Then we have to start planning the next step." Mr. Whiskers begrudgingly acquiesces.
While the rest of the group was off shopping, Mr. Whiskers used the time to prepare. The jade circlet he packed away so it would be safe. So close, hopefully soon I will be able to cast the spell.
Each day he would spend some of his energy slowly recharging his staff and casting the private sanctum spell.
The materials he used to renew his permanent See Invisibility and Arcane Sight spells. He then set up a contingency so that if he was ever attacked with elemental magic and did not already have protection from that element it would cause the proper protection to come up.
He rearranged his equipment, testing out the use of the wrist sheath with a scroll. He also spent time scribing three scrolls; a protection from elements for Greta, Moment of Prescience and True Seeing for himself. He loaded his wrist sheathes with the breath of life and true seeing spells.
Finally, he spent time in Baba Yaga's library selecting spells, that he then would copy into his spellbook.
With some digging around in Baba Yaga's library, Mr Whiskers reads finds a copy of The Life History of Auburphex,and in it describes the battle between the white dragon and the Winter Witches, and what the winter witches used to bring him down.
He also finds several other treatises on Witches and Winter witches.
The party turns in for the night in Mr Whiskers's Mage Private Sanctum, while Dimitri goes out of Mr Whiskers room to talk with his Russian army buddies and does not return until much later, slightly tipsy.
The next morning Zorka serves the party a breakfast of eggs on toasted bread, with slices of honey baked ham, a grilled tomato sliced into half and a small heap of buttered mushrooms, and a kettleful of tea.
"I suppose we'd better take the Matryoshka doll out if we want instructions on where to go, since we're getting moving." Greta muses as she takes the doll out.
Immediately the party's minds are assailed by a loud screeching voice, "What do you mean by stuffing me into a sack like that without a word?! You should be more respectful of your elders!"
"Good thing you finally decided to take me out before Elvanna finished her ritual and caused the end of Golarion as you know it!" She nags the party at the top of her mental voice.
"Now stop lazing around while you've got Queen Elvanna to stop and me to free! Quick March!" Baba Yaga barks at the party.
"You know, I'm beginning to regret this. I liked the peace and quiet." Greta sighs.
Baba Yaga then directs the party to head towards the eastern side of the grotto.
"All the best. Come back safe. All of you. Your world depends on it." Anton waves farewell to the party as they head out into the unknown...
Beyond the waterfall, small streams of water flow from the pool and drain into crevices at the base of the cliff face. To the left, the canyon walls move closer together, bending along a curved path that narrows as it extends deeper into the canyon.
The canyon walls continue to narrow as they curve ahead, but just as it seems they must close together and come to an end, the path suddenly opens up into a box canyon on a warm spring night beneath unfamiliar stars glinting down from a cloudless and moonless sky. Dimitri asks the party for some light, as he can't see where he's going.
A wide pool glistens at the far end of the box canyon, its waters dark and still. The cliff wall beyond the pool has been crudely carved into a narrow stair that climbs out of the water straight up the bluff in a series of uneven steps. At the top of the stair, a dark opening with a great stone lintel leads into the cliff face.
As soon as the party enter the box canyon, the spiraling path disappears, leaving a blank rock wall behind them. Mr Whiskers also realizes that the box canyon is also dimensionally locked.
The canyon’s cliffs tower high overhead, and the pool plunges precipitously to a depth of almost 60 feet at the rear wall of the canyon and its waters, fed by a hot spring, are comfortably warm. The carved stone stair begins just below the surface of the water and climbs 200 feet to the opening in the cliff.
"Go to the opening in the cliff!" Baba Yaga orders imperiously.
Before retiring, Mr. Whiskers casts the Private Sanctum again and uses his spell tinkerer to extend the duration.
"Baba Yaga, should we be able to reach Elvanna today, provided we move quickly?"
Before anyone leaves the sanctum, Mr. Whiskers brings out a scroll and reads a spell off for each of the people. He then uses his spell tinkerer to extend the duration by 50%, just to be sure!
Mr. Whiskers casts Overland Flight on himself. He then waits for someone else to lead the way into the opening.
"Probably...if you aren't being the usual lazy sluggards you are..." Baba Yaga answers nastily.
As the party approaches the pool, Dimitri notices some ripples like those made by an enormous creature on the surface of the pool and points it out to the party.
Heeding Dimitri's warning, Crummock immediately casts Divine Favor.
As the party gets even closer to the pool, an immense sarcosuchus over 40 feet long, with red batlike wings, black scales, glowing red eyes and a crest of red fur running around its head and running donw the centre of its back surges out of the water, into the sky, to attack the party.
Mr Whiskers recognizes it as a advanced, awakened half-fiend dire crocodile.
It has the following Spell Like abilities:
3/day - darkness, quickened poison, unholy aura
1/day - Blasphemy, contagion, desecrate, destruction, horrid wilting, Summon Monster IX(Fiends only), unhallow, unholy bight
Greta answers Einar, "May we all get what we desire, though our employer getting what she deserves...,"She gives a wry smile, "Not sure if that's going to happen."
Greta and Dimitri both thank Mr Whiskers for the Mind Blank. Greta grins sardonically back at Einar. Her expression seems to indicate, 'It's like walking in the rain, you get used to it after a while'
Dimitri on the other hand, just gives a long-suffering sigh. "You'd think that we aren't doing our best to get HER out." He complains.
Mr. Whiskers casts Glitterdust at the giant croc in hopes of blinding it. He then moves so everyone isn't bunched up in one area.
The crocodile is now glittery and blind! Since it can't see anyone, it decides to cast unholy aura on itself, then move into the water.
Then it shakes off the blindness, so it isn't blinded anymore.
Dimitri simply opens up on the beast.
Crummock then flaps forward, and attempts to pimp-slap it.
Dimitri's first shot goes wide, but the rest strike truly, causing the crocodile to roar in pain.
The crocodile tries to bite Crummock as he moves forward to pimp slap it!
Crummock dodges it's attempt to nom it, and lands his pimp slap!
It resists Crummock's pimp slap, but is badly injured.
Greta moves in front of Dimitri and readies to hit the croc if it comes in range. "I'm not wading into God knows how deep the water is. And I can't fly."
It is half-fiend, which means it is probably resistant to cold and fire. Most likely it also has some DR, but Dmitri's weapon would get past that. Einar seems to as well when he rages.
Mr. Whiskers casts Burst of Radiance on the creature, making sure to leave Crummock out of the area.
For a moment it appears as if a dark shield was shielding the creature from the radiance, then the light blasts through.
The crocodile is blinded. It ducks underwater since it can't see anything.
Crummock manages to stab it as it ducks under water, and it looks like it's going to fall over.
Greta delays as she does not wish to step into the water.
With a sigh of frustration, Crummock flaps back to Dimitri, and casts Freedom of Movement on the man.
Dimitri then tries to finish the croc off.
Dimitri shoots the crocodile several times, and it shudders, then dies, it's blood staining the water red.
"In Russia we shoot bears. I didn't think I'd end up shooting a crocodile.it is big and ugly though." Dimitri admits.
A through search of the cave yields no loot, and Einar sits the belly of the crocodile open only to find foul stomach juices inside, but nothing has survived the corrosive effects of the juices.
Now the crocodile is dead, the party manages to swim to the stairs at the bottom of the cliff and climbs unhindered to the opening in the cliff face, into a cave. They step through and the world shimmers briefly as they are transported somewhere else.
They party find themselves standing in the midst of a lonely, frigid steppe with a bitter wind howling out of the north. The sky is an endless leaden, overcast dome above a brown plain of frozen mud and dry grass. There is no sign of the cave that brought them there. Mr Whiskers determines that this is yet another demiplane and it is dimensionally locked.
"This demiplane mimics my homeland in southern Russia, where I found an ancient burial mound called a kurgan and took it as my abode in the time before I constructed my Dancing Hut." Baba Yaga informs the party. " Later, I transported that kurgan inside her hut to serve as my sanctum. The sanctum will be where my wayward daughter, Elvanna will be performing the ritual. Whichever way you travel, you will get there in 4 hours."
Rising from the bleak plain like a beacon stands a huge earthen mound. It is clearly artificial, protruding prominently from the otherwise flat steppe, but it is just as obviously thousands of years old, as its contours are the natural result of long years of wind and rains, and the brown grasses of the steppe grow in an unbroken blanket over its sides.
What is more worrisome, however is blocking the way to the mound are four muscular giants with dark gray skin and fiery red hair, each riding upon a towering armored herbivore resembles a hornless rhinoceros, but with longer legs and a longer neck, with composite shortbows aimed at the party. One of them begins to speak, "Tell us why we should not shoot you where you stand, midgets, like what your kind has done to us."
Mr Whiskers recognizes the giants as Taiga giants, and their mounts as giant baluchitheriums.
Taiga giants have the following ability:
Once per day, a taiga giant may perform a 10-minute ritual to tap into the power and insight of his ancestral spirits. These spirits provide a +4 deflection bonus to AC, immunity to enchantment and illusion spells, and one of the following spell effects: bless, endure elements, protection from evil, protection from good, or see invisibility.
Baluchitheriums have the ability to trample.
Four hours?
Mr. Whiskers asks "Do you want a fly spell for the rest of the trip? Otherwise, I will use the energy for other spells."
Looking to the group, he says "I would suggest we stop in about three to three and a half hours. Cast a few of the longer lasting buff spells at that time, so we aren't caught without them."
"I could just barely cover the whole group with the heroism spell, or we can just do a few select people. What do people say?"
Mr. Whiskers uses his rod of extend and casts a Heroism and Heightened Awareness on himself.
Mage Armor (without need to extend) goes on Dmitri and (if she wants it) Greta.
Stepping forward, Mr. Whiskers asks "My kind? That is rather unexpected."
He pauses a moment, giving them time to respond.
"In any case, our quarrel has nothing to do with you." Pointing with his paw past them to the kurgan, he adds "We believe the one we seek is in there. Will you allow us to pass?"
"You're all midgets to us. One midget is like another. Granted, they didn't have fur like you. But such a thing is inconsequential. Their bodies lie over there,"Their leader points at a heap by the side.
"They started using ice magic and steel on us so we killed them. " A dark look passes over his face. "They killed Menetius."
"If you have no quarrel with us, we have no quarrel with you and you may pass." They move to the side to let the party pass.
The party finds a pile of bodies, clad in Winterguard outfits, and one in blue robes, pierced by multiple arrows. Searching them yields a +2 returning spear, two masterwork longswords, 3 +1 banded mail, a horned helm of brilliance, a +2 headband of intellect, and an enormous diamond worth 25,000 gp and a deep brilliant, blue sapphire worth 4000 gp and they have 2000gp on them in all.
Fur! Right, I almost forgot!
Before entering the kurgan, Mr. Whiskers pulls out a bottle and drinks it down. His fur starts changing, turning white and coarser. He holds out his arms and looks at them for a moment.
"Well, not as nice as my own but it does have some advantages."
Crummock nods companionably.
"My colleague speaks the truth; we have no quarrel with you, unless you have a quarrel with us. Please, depart in peace; I have no wish to shed more blood than I need to."
He then moves to check the bodies, before heading for the mound.
"Not really that much but we lived on the outskirts of the city. So civilisation is what reminds me of home. But we've certainly marched across steppes like this." Dimitri answers. "I didn't even realize Baba Yaga formerly came from Russia."
A low, dark entrance, little more than a cave opening, leads into the mound near the bottom of the south face, framed by two mammoth tusks. Two squat, lichen-covered female statues flank this opening but the details of whatever they once depicted have long since been erased by the years.
Crummock nods.
"This place is indeed ancient..."
He then heads inside, after casting Greater Angelic Aspect, and Divine Favor.
A vast chamber has been dug out of the mound, the ceiling overhead supported by stout wooden posts and shored up with rough timbers to prevent the packed dirt from collapsing. A large alcove in the middle of the chamber holds a strange statue depicting a humanoid with a head of a hippopotamus, standing on air and clutching a double bladed greataxe in its massive hands. Although dark stains smear the statue's features, it has been beautifully preserved form the passing ages by its sheltered position inside the mound. To the eastern side of the statue, is Rasputin, also standing on air, 5 feet above the ground. He looks visibly startled on seeing the party, as if he had expected some forewarning...but recovers his aplomb quickly. "You have something that I want, and you can either hand it to me, or I will take it off your dead bodies."
The interior walls and floors are composed of hard-packed earth and stone. The ceiling of this chamber is 30 feet high and its dark in here.
Both Rasputin and the statue have 1 moderate transmutation aura on them, while Rasputin has an additional 2 moderate abjuration auras, a moderate divination aura and a weak transmutation aura on him.
The statue is an Advanced bipedal stone idol behemoth hippopotamus. It is a construct and has hardness 8, takes half damage from ranged attacks and energy attacks and is vulnerable to sonic attacks.
Crummock responds by frowning, and rushing Rasputin!
Dimitri then opens fire, hoping to finish Rasputin off.
Greta asks for Heroism on herself and thanks Mr Whiskers for providing. Dimitri also requests for Heroism on himself.
Crummock manages to touch Rasputin with his hand, causing his flesh to wither under his touch, and Dimitri finishes him off with a few well placed shots.
As Rasputin goes down under gunfire, Mr Whiskers sees a tiny little green eye wink out.
Greta, seeing that Rasputin has been taken care off, goes to hammer the statue.
But as she approaches the statue, something about the statue makes her nervous. She shakes it off, though.
Greta makes quite a nice dent in the statue.
Everyone does not find the statue scary.
Einar seriously bashes up the statue. One more whack and it'd probably fall apart.
Seeing Rasputin go down and his magics end, Mr. Whiskers realizes that must have killled him. At least those scrolls caused someone to be surprised. I hope Elvana will also depend on magic to warn her!
Then Mr. Whiskers turns his sight to the statue, attempting to determine if it has any nasty tricks in store. Best check that the statue isn't something weird. Never know when Rasputin is involved.
The statue starts smacking Einar with its great axe.
The statue cuts apart one of Einar's doppelgangers, but Einar is unharmed.
Greta smacks the crap out of the statue, reducing it into a pile of rubble.
Remembering what happened last time, Crummock casts Breath of Life on Rasputin....
Dimitri, with great gusto, then promptly tries to kill him again.
Crummock then makes an irritated gesture in Einar's direction.
"Einar, rhowch eich ass drosodd yma!"
Crummock channels life energies into Rasputin, but sees no sign of life in the body.
Then without any warning, the bullet wounds mend by themselves and Rasputin sits up. He steps back, looks in Dimitri's direction and shouts, "See you in hell."
Dimitri is struck by unholy fire , but manages to withstand it.
He then finishes Rasputin off a second time.
When the silver brooch is rubbed, the party sees a scythe wielding knight in silver armor appear, the very same one that stood beside Thora at Enda's funeral, except that on her armor and scythe are now runes that glow a bright eldritch blue. She handcuffs the spectral form of Rasputin. "Finally!" Mierul glares at Einar, "What took you so long, you had a perfect opportunity to do bring him to justice, and instead you tried to solve the problem with your sword!"
Then she turns her attention back to the cuffed Rasputin. "Grigori Rasputin. I am arresting you for 60 charges of creation of undead, 2 charges of consorting with daemons, 3 charges of summoning and dealing with undead.
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you say may be given in evidence."
Then she turns to Crummock and points her scythe at him, while keeping one gauntlet Ed hand on Rasputin's cuffs. "We do not approve of vigilante justice, and we do enforcement fine." She states coldly.
Crummock is suddenly assailed by a vision.
You see the petitioner forms of Nazhema and Granny Nan being pushed into a dark portal showing a bleak expanse of cold mists, where they are devoured by a horde of orb-like creatures with ever-gnashing maws, filled with row after row of mismatched teeth.
Then both Mierul and Rasputin dematerialize from the demiplane.