A tall watchtower standing on rusted iron pylons stabs upward into the air like a deranged skeleton, its apex topped with a curiously levitating torus dancing with sparks of arcane energy.
Einar, Crummock and Dimitri head up the tower. In the tower itself there are 4 russians. Two of them are behind some sort of screens with a machine guns attached to it, and the other two are carrying rifles. They seem to be guarding a strange control panel.
One of them hails Einar boredly, "Yeshche raz, Vladmir? Vse sistemy funktsioniruyut normal'no."
Maintenance again, Vladmir? All systems functioning as per normal.
Now that Einar is close to the control panel, he realizes that at the bottom of the panel is written, "Viktor Miloslav, Akuvskiy monastyr', 1917 god"
Viktor Miloslav, Akuvskaya Monastery, 1917
He also realizes that the control panel controls the curiously levitating torus dancing with sparks of arcane energy. The levitating torus can be used to discharge a powerful lightning blast to desired targets. He suspects that besides controlling the levitating torus, the control panel can be used to perform another function - but what, he does not know. An activation failure for the other function would trigger a massive electrical discharge on the person who is attempting to tamper with the control panel.
Crummock nods noncommittally.
"Хорошо. Продолжайте, товарищ."
He then heads back downstairs.
The muddy trenches tear a gaping scar through a field of headstones and wooden crosses at the northwest corner of the prison camp. Upturned bone from centuries of burials crunch underfoot, hidden beneath the packed snow.
"Strannaya sud'ba. Ne pokhozhe na to, chto ya videl." The tombstone faery sniffs the air cautiously as she eyes the party warily."I vy chuvstvuyete zapakh stranno ... kak zimoy i smert'yu."
A strange lot you are. Not like any others I have seen.And you smell odd...like of winter and death.
Crummock nods politely to the creature.
"Это точное утверждение. В конце концов, мы привязаны к Великой Кроне. Мы, в конце концов, не отсюда. Скажите, вы знаете, где лежит тело Виктора Милослава? Мы ищем информацию, которую только он может предоставить, и полагали, что вы, возможно, знаете, учитывая, что у вас есть особый интерес к таким вещам."
"Akh..Izvestniki malen'koy babushki," The tombstone faery gives a wicked grin. "YA Polina. YA predvidel tot den', kogda kto-to zakhochet vzyat' tron Malen'koy babushki. I teper' ishchushchiye, kto stroil yakorya mira, i tot, kto skryvayetsya v tserkvi, no ne v tserkvi, daleko, daleko, mezhdu nami i zemley, iz kotoroy ya prishel."
Ah..seekers of little grandmother,
I am Polina. I forsaw the day that the one would want to take Little Grandmother’s throne. And now the seekers seek the one who built the anchors of the world and the one who lurks in the church-but-not-the-church, far, far away, between here and the land from which I come.
"Tot, kto postroil mirovyye yakorya, kotoryye prinosyat zemlyu, iz kotoroy ya prishel, mertv. I eto ne tol'ko vashe telo, kotoroye vy budete iskat', no i yego dusha." Polina answers, "Yego telo lezhit v rukakh golodnogo shakala,"she points in one direction, "I yego dusha lezhit s rogatym zverem," she points in the other direction.
The one who built the world anchors that bring the land from which I come is dead. And it is not only his body that you will seek, but his soul.
His body lies in the hands of the hungry jackal,
And his soul lies with the horned beast.
Crummock nods politely.
"Спасибо за вашу помощь."
Einar unlocks the wooden gate, then the partyfollows the muddy road continuous through it through a barbed wire fence into the prison camp's inner courtyard.
As the party steps through the gates, they see a ramshackle building housing several mechanical vehicles in various states of repair, and two massive armored vehicles with caterpillar treads. Then they hear a telepathic voice within their minds.
"Soldaty ne dopuskayutsya vo vnutrenneye soyedineniye. Ubiraysya ili my strelyayem."
Soldiers are not allowed into the inner compound. Get out or we'll fire.
"Oni dovol'no bronirovannyye - zabirayut mnogo patronov, chtoby nanesti im vred. O, i oni mogut sgladit' vas tozhe." Dimitri answers.
They're rather armored - takes many rounds of bullets to harm them. Oh and they can flatten you too.
Mr. Whiskers asks "FIght or flee? The metal things seem like the same sort of wagon that hurt us so badly at the other location."
Fight: Wall of Stone to block off the tanks. Can make a wall straight across their front.
Crummock grins at Mr Whiskers.
"Ymladd, wrth gwrs. Rwy'n clywed bod y trobwll yn braf adeg hon o'r flwyddyn..."
One of the tanks begins to ram the wall down.
A 5ft section of the wall collapses.
The other tank moves behind the first tank, then fires it's large cannon.
As it attempts to fire, the cannon jams up.
Mr. Whiskers gives a small sigh at Crummock's reply. Sometimes I wonder why I even ask. Still, I don't want to abandon them. He then erects a wall of stone in front of the tanks.
Seeing the wall immediately get breached, Mr. Whiskers decides to try a different tact. I think someone said there were people in those things. Since they can see out there must be gaps in the wagons somewhere...
He casts confusion at the back of the first tank, encompassing both of the contraptions. Knowing how dangerous those things are, he spends a point from his reservoir to provide more power to the spell. He then moves in order to get out of the narrow field of fire created by the destroyed section of wall.
The tanks are completely unaffected by the confusion spell. "Chto vy pytalis' snova sdelat' v tanke?" Dimitri asks.
Greta moves forward while drawing her adamantine longsword.
Crummock casts Plane Shift, and attempts to send one of the tanks to the Maelstrom.
Dimitri then opens fire on whatever is left.
One of the tanks is sucked into the maelstrom. The other is damaged by Dmitri's attacks but is still up.
Einar walks up to the tank, growing angrier and larger at the same time before he smacks it with his hammer.
The tank is badly damaged by Einar's strike, though he thinks it is not as effective as it could have been.
The tank fires with its unjammed cannon at the ground between Einar and Geist, then tries to pepper Crummock with its machine guns.
The exploding sharpnel wounds Geist, but the rest of the party manages to avoid the worst of it.
One of its machine guns jams up, but the other two continue to fire.
Dimitri unloads his rifle onto the tank, and it falls apart.
Examining the remains of the tank – there is no one, but the interior smells of something strong and suffocating . Instead, there is only a glass vessel containing a human brain in some kind of fluid, plugged to multiple wires.
Dimitri blanches, turning pale and looking horrified at the discovery. ” Viktor byl zaklyuchen v tyur'mu dlya eksperimentov s lyud'mi - on utverzhdal, chto, yesli on smozhet sovershenstvovat' svoi otkrytiya, on mozhet sozdavat' tanki, kotoryye ne trebuyut, chtoby lyudi pilotirovali ikh. YA nikogda ne dumal, chto uvizhu, chto eto proizoydet ...”
Viktor was imprisoned here for experimenting on people - both living and dead – he claimed that if he could perfect his discoveries, that he could create tanks that didn’t require people to pilot them. I never thought I’d see this happen…
Mr. Whiskers replies to Dimitri "Я пытался повлиять на людей, которые, как я думал, должны были находиться внутри танков. Очевидно, я что-то не понял."
After the group examines the remains of the tanks, Mr. Whiskers notes Dimitri's reaction. "Так это были люди? Чем больше я это вижу, тем меньше мне нравится эта технология."
Mr. Whiskers spends a few moments examining the destroyed machines, trying to determine any potential weaknesses that might be exploited.
Looking around, he says "That caused a bit of noise. We best get moving soon!"
After some poking and prying of the destroyed tank, Mr Whiskers realizes Greta’s longsword works best on it.
” Tanki obychno pilotiruyutsya lyud'mi. My tak ne delayem. Vot pochemu Viktor byl zapert v pervuyu ochered“[/ b] Dimitri mutters darkly.
Tanks are usually piloted by people. We don’t do things that way. That’s the reason why Viktor was locked up in the first place.
[b]” Posmotrite - u kazhdogo iz nas yest' to, chto yest' mozg,
” Dimitri gestures at the brain in the glass vessel,” V nashikh golovakh. On kontroliruyet vse nashi funktsii. Eto mog byt' lyuboy iz moikh druzey!” He looks sadly at the brain in the glass vessel, but does not do anything with it.
Look – each of us has that – which is a brain
In our heads. It controls all our functions. That could’ve been any of my friends in there!
The blackened remains of a long wooden barracks building threaten to crumble to ashy ruin in snow,. The haphazard pile of burned timbers resembles a mound of charred and tangled bones. An emaciated humanoid with the head of a jackal about to feast on a hunchbacked body with a prosthetic leg.
Mr Whiskers recognizes the creature as an advanced Maeladaemon. As personifications of death from starvation and thirst, Maeladaemons spend their time destroying resources and spreading hunger.It has 10 DR/good.
” Telo, o kotorom idet rech', yest' Viktor. YA by uznal, chto hunchedback b @ stard gde ugodno!” Dimitri exclaims.
The body it’s about it eat is Viktor’s. I’d recognize that hunchedback b@stard anywhere!
The Maeladaemon is so intent on its up coming feast that it does not notice the party.
This ramshackle building houses several mechanical vehicles in various desrepair. Thee only functional vehicle looks like a horsewagon, except it has a machine gun on its back.
Mr. Whiskers decides to try and end the battle before the creature even realizes there is one. He moves towards it and attempts to dismiss it back to it's own plane.
The Meladaemon growls at Mr Whisker's attempts to banish it, then gets turned into an icicle by Einar. Then three of the charred bodies rise with rifles in their hands. The first begins shooting at Geist and the ice.
The gun jams up and doesn't fire. The second one starts shooting at Crummock and the ice.
Crummock feels the bullet's icy chill and is paralysed for
The ice shatters and the Meladaemon is free. The third one starts shooting at Einar.
Einar manages to fight off the paralysis.
Mr Whiskers realizes the risen bodies are variant Baykoks.
Infused bullets
These baykoks create magical bullets when firing their rifles – they do not need to carry separate ammunition. These bullets do normal damage, but gain a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls. In addition, each bullet deals an additional 1d6 negative energy on a hit. Further, the first creature a baykok successfully shoots each round must succeed at a Fort save or to avoid being paralyzed for 1d3 rounds. This replaced the baykok’s normal infused arrows ability.
Dread Howl
Once per day, a baykok can unleash a blood-curdling howl. Any living creature within a 30-foot-radius burst becomes paralyzed with fear for 1 round unless it resists with a Will save. Any creature that makes this saving throw is instead shaken for 1 round.
Geist snarls, and pounces forward onto one of the creatures.
Meanwhile, Dimitri opens up on the middle one.
Dimitri finishes the first one off with a single shot to its chest then helps Geist deal with his, by pumping it full of bullets until it falls over too, then puts 2 rounds into the third one. Greta moves forward and gets ready to strike anything that comes into her range.
The meladaemon tries to bite Geist, but its teeth clang off harmlessly off Geist's armor.
Einar gives the Meladaemon a good clobbering, injuring it.
Hoping that Einar can survive the daemon, Mr. Whiskers moves up so he can see the remaining undead rifleman and tries to create a pit beneath it.
The baykok dodges out of the way of the appearing pit.
The remaining Baykok tries shooting at Einar.
Einar is not paralysed by the bullet.
The meladaemon takes to the air to prevent itself from falling into the pit.
Geist does not manage to bite the meladaemon. Einar manages to hammer up the demon more.
The injured meladaemon flaps it's way into the sky.
Then it begins to cast a spell. Mr Whiskers recognizes it as horrid wilting.
Einar, Crummock, Mr Whiskers, Greta and Dimitri feel the moisture being drained out of their bodies.
Then it raises one of its arms and arcane missiles streak towards Dimitri. Mr Whiskers recognizes it as a quickened magic missile spell.
Greta walks up to the Baykok and tries to trip it, but fails to do so.
Einar's first blow splatters the undead rifleman. Einar, Crummock and Dmitri have a feeling their actions are being watched.
Mr. Whiskers moves away from the daemon and watches for any signs of it casting another spell.
Geist pounces...
...whilst Dimitri attempts to blow the daemon out of the sky.