Using magic to propel himself and the others forward Baub ferries everyone to the Hut in 2 trips. Jumping into the open doorway the Hut interior is as you remembered it before. The bouncing jostling motion outside is nullifies indoors as you all can ride in comfort and avoid a fatiguing and potentially exhausting trips through a broken and desolate forest. Eventually after an hour of travel the Hut stops on the outskirts of the forest.
The forest ends abruptly at a muddy field riddled with snow rimmed craters and punctuated by gnarled trees, twisted coils of barbed wire, and deep trenches. Beyond a high fence, cracked and blackened onion domes hint of a ruined temple reaching for the stormy sky, where dark clouds churn and boil. Eerie gray shadows dance and writhe across the dusky landscape, giving it the appearance of a maggot-riddled corpse.
The stronghold was an ancient thirteenth-century monastery built on older pagan sites of lost significance. It was abandoned for centuries, until the Imperial Russian government commandeered it for use as a prison camp for criminals and deserters during the Great War. Russia's new Bolshevik government then appropriated the camp to hold Imperial loyalists following the October Revolution.
Forming an open field nearly l,ooo feet wide from the forest's edge to the perimeter of the Akuvskaya prison camp, the muddy expanse of the no-man's-land surrounding the camp provides a formidable defense against intrusion. Strange machines run caterpillar-like through the snow, patrolling the grounds, as do Cossack cavalry, trackers, and corrupted servants and everywhere the foul stench of rot pervades.
As long as you remain in the forest you feel safe and the arrival of the Hut has not caused a disturbance as it not stands there unmoving on its 2 chicken legs.
"Perhaps. But before we try anything, how is everyone doing after that last combat?"
I'm ok. I have expended a little, but I have much more left. I can prepare several more spells today if we will need them. Is there battlefield control magic or support you will want?"
Titian can see that some of his new allies look quite badly beat up. Perhaps the question was more about physical ability to continue than magical...
Duardlara shakes her head. "I'm sorry, who are you again? How did you come across our merry band? I'm not sorry you found us, understand, just that I've been rude."
I'm still ok. Our butts would be swinging in the wind out there unless we use magic.
"I'm a freedom fighter from Irrisen. Descendants of the Ulfen left abandoned in the cold by our kin. I have been fighting the white queen all my life. Little did I think I find myself looking for her mother. I came across a black rider while I was searching for Baba Yaga who bated me into a deal for information at the cost of a gease that has compelled me to find you."
Cynehelm channels three times.
"Let the light of Sarenrae bring healing warmth to all!"
"Quick question, other than fire have you encountered any other elements that are damaging here?"
"We have actually been here for a very short time. You know more about this world than we do. As for our question, do you mean damaging to us? Or useful for damaging our foes?"
"Damage to you. But, it's ok I will stay an ice troll for now and hope we don't see any more fire."
”Prudence seems wise to me. I have flight and invisibility available to me yet, so I could scout if something interesting caught our attention, but going in as a group blind does not appeal to me.”
"Give me some time to pray on this," says Cynehelm.
He goes a little way off and sits on the ground. After a few prayers to unburden his heart, he lights a candle and stares into it for a time before finally whispering his prayer.
"Tell your servant, oh Dawnbringer, light of the east and the west, how best to come to grips with our enemy, Rasputin?"
Cynehelm is casting divination. He has an 82% chance of success.
Body rent and soul bound
Inventor’s both must be found
To reverse the Anchor’s flow
And into the dome you must go,
Cut the suture that binds the soul
To achieve your ultimate goal
Cynehelm continues to pray for a time, thanking the Dawnflower and her servants for their kind guidance. Wiping the incense from his hands, he returns to his companions.
"We have to get into that dome. I'm not sure I understood all that I heard but it sounds like there is a soul bound to someone or something where it shouldn't be."
He repeats the whole rhyme to the team so they can try to understand it, too.
"That doesn't tell us how to get into the dome. Nor does it tell us that these two inventors are both in the dome. They could be elsewhere in the camp. But I think we need to observe for awhile and find a way to enter the dome surreptitiously. We can't blast our way in there. Or at least, we shouldn't."
Inventors? LIke carpenters or blacksmiths?
"I can scout around as a small dino."
"Scout I can do. Let's consider this rhyme for a moment, though. Does anyone know of any folk tales or arcana that seems pertinent?"
Duardlara steps away from the others to ponder the rhyme and what they've seen.
Knowledge (arcana) +13, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +10, Knowledge (engineering) +10, Knowledge (geography) +10, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (planes) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10
If any are appropriate.
Knowledge (arcana) The inventor will have needed to know about multiple arcane principles to perform any magic in this mostly magic starved world
Knowledge (dungeoneering) nope
Knowledge (engineering) all inventors have journals. If you could find it that may help if you can’t find the inventor
Knowledge (geography) nope
Knowledge (history) nope
Knowledge (local) without the name of the inventor it is impossible to ask around to find more information even if you found someone that could help
Knowledge (nature) you have seen few to no animals and especially no dinosaurs around to aid in your espionage
Knowledge (nobility) Nothing to be learned
Knowledge (planes) nope
Knowledge (religion) The suture may refer to something similar to a lich phylactory
You look out over the compound and realize you see no dome. There is a building that looks like it might have once held a dome but it looks abandoned and the dome has collapsed.
Titan you would know as well that you have not seen much for wildlife in the area. At most you have seen a bird or two and nothing flying over the compound. Insects are plenty around you but you don’t know about closer. Outside of the destroyed village you see no signs of other settlers in the distance. No chimney fires, no roads outsides of the one leading to and from the compound.
"I can send in insects scout if we need more information or we can just try to get in there without being seen and start exploring."
Scouting sounds good
Titan will prepare and cast insect spies. He will give them orders to check out one area each, and count the number of people with weapons and without weapons. He will then follow up with questions about the area getting descriptions looking for rooms that could hold the inventers.
6 insects to each location for redundancy
C2
D2
D6
E
E1
E2
D3
G
"As a team, we can check out the trenches and see if we can find away in the bigs will be back soon."
Gotta get me a spy bug.
1-10 % something happens to a bug... all good...
C2. WATCHTOWERS
A covered watchtower looms over the prison camp, standing stiltlike on high metal legs. A ladder climbs up to a trap door in the tower's floor, and the barrels of machine guns protrude from behind low walls of sandbags.
Each watchtower is 30 feet high, accessible by a wooden ladder that climbs to a barred metal trap door that opens in the floor ofthe tower's guardroom. A searchlightis mounted in each tower, able to shine into no-man's land or the prisonyard. A large, hand-cranked alert horn is mounted on the building's frame. Inside each tower, beneath a corrugated metal roof, cases of ammunition, dirty tin plates and cups, and personal effects littering makeshift furniture are the only other accoutrements. The towers' sandbag walls provide improved cover to all within.
D2. GARAGE
This ramshackle building houses several mechanical vehicles in various states of repair.
D3. BURNED-OUT BARRACKS
The blackened remains of a long wooden barracks building threaten to crumble to ashy ruin in the snow. The haphazard pile of burned timbers resembles a mound of charred and tangled bones. The skeletal remains of many people, some still strapped to their beds, can be spied among the ruins. There is a dog headed creature amongst the bones.
D6. MACABRE SURGERY
Every wall in this long building is splattered with gore, and eviscerated bodies are strung up with barbed wire, their flayed flesh stretched taut to expose raw muscle and their disemboweled entrails draped like limp clotheslines over the high rafters of this horrific chamber. A creature with foreign limbs, gnarled branches, and barb wire moves around here. The careful perception of the insect does reveal sound coming from a closed cabinet as far from the creature as possible.
E. COSSACK CAMP
The flaps of a dozen canvas tents whip stiffly in the cold wind. The ground in this yard is churned by the passing of heavy horses, and the fire pits dotting the area have long since grown cold. Six headless Siberian Cossacks (and their fiendish mounts) are headquartered in this camp. familiar shadows flit among the mounted, headless Cossacks, and the beetle can discern the unmistakable whispering of your names from behind lifeless, shadowy lips.
El. Goat Gruff
A ragged-looking goat with rotting, maggot infested flesh, stone-like hooves, and dead white eyes stands silently chewing its cud, staked to the ground with a worn rope in a muddy circle in the middle ofthe Cossack camp. A lantern with a sickly glow hangs from the goat's neck.
E2. Polkovnik's Tent
The flaps of this massive yurt flap in the breeze, its roof partially collapsed by the weight of heavy snow. This traditional Cossack military tent looms over the others, marking it as the quarters of someone of great distinction.
G...the bug does not return
"It seems we may want to take out at least one tower before going in. Any thoughts?"
That sounds like a solid plan
Duardlara listens to the report as translated by their new companion. "I could take a pass over the camp. Which what we know currently, which tower do you think would make the most sense? I assume you mean the people manning the tower as opposed to the physical structure, of course. Did your summons indicate how many are in each tower?"
Cynehelm sighs. "I would love to sit here and understand their routine for a full day, but I fear that our quarry would get away while we delayed. I think we must act as soon as we are able. I agree that we would be better off eliminating the guards in one of the towers. Who among us is silent enough for that?"
"Can we make ourselves magically quiet? Man clerics have that ability."
If can cast silence I say we get near, cast silence and hit hard (but no bright spells).
Well, I can try and shoot them down, but can't say how quiet my bow is.
"I cannot make them quiet, but I can assure you, they will not know I am there until it is too late."