Rasputin Must Die! (GM Reference)

[Ben Ehrets]

In the earth configuration of the Hut, where are the cauldron teleport keys? I'm curious about all the inactive ones, but most need to know where to find the active keys to previous worlds, including the two-headed eagle and bearskin to get to earth.

I have considered placing them in the attic, or maybe in some of the coffins. Or should I just roll randomly? Or is it intentional that, on Earth, the keys are not readily available? I have not yet read The Witch Queen's Revenge. Is it covered in there?

[Frezak]

Probably going to be too late to help, but still want to ask:

"When the Dancing Hut appeared on the hill above Akuvskaya, Rasputin sent soldiers with a unique war machine—a lumbering Tsar tank—to capture the hamlet’s few remaining survivors and level the village to deny shelter to Baba Yaga’s would-be rescuers. Now little remains of Akuvskaya but the blackened bones of its cottages’ burned foundations.
The hut arrived during the night, giving Rasputin’s soldiers hours to prepare."

My PCs, having rested before inserting the bird and bearskin, will have cleared the Russia configuration of the Hut in maybe twenty minutes game-time. At most.

I haven't read that the Hut has any ... differential internal/external time shenanigans, so I don't know how to explain that this whole setup is... set up.

Short of: "Rasputin knows where the Hut appears in Russia, and has had these guys sitting here since he and Elvanna caught Baba Yaga. Which is something like a couple of months, very roughly.

[Sakul21]

Not sure if I'll be able to get a reply to this, but I was wondering if the watchtower ladders were accessed from the inside or outside of the electric fence.

Thanks.

[Tangent101]

As a quick aside, I just tried building Rasputin. Initially I couldn't do it, as he was a 26-point build, and wasn't given a CR boost for higher stats. But then I realized he had Miracle... and boosted his either Charisma or Constitution by 4 points.

Rasputin's starting stats were most likely:
Str: 8
Dex: 10
Con: 14
Int: 13
Wis: 12
Cha: 15 (+2 racial bonus)

Being middle-aged boosted his three mental stats by +1, and saw a decline in physical stats by -1. He then used Class-level Stat boosts to gain +4 points in some combination to Constitution and Charisma, while using Miracle for an additional +4 to those two stats. He also used magic items to boost his stats further (A belt giving +2 to all three physical stats, and a headband with +4 to Wisdom and Charisma).

[Marcovic]

We are getting close to the Akuvskaya prison camp and it's no-man's-land after a side stroll in the excellent "On the siberian line" module.

How have you played the no-man's-land? My players might just fly over it, but i'd like to prepare something, just in case. Did you do a theater of the mind encounter with the tanks? A kind of skill gauntlet for the barbed wires and trenches? Drew a huge battle map?

I'm thinking a gauntlet of mini-encounters mostly centered around skills, but i'd like suggestions. (party of fighter(archer), wiz, barb/ranger and oracle)

[Warped Savant]

I had a huge VTT battlemap ready to go so that we could all keep track of where the tanks were. (A player of mine literally can't picture things in her head (aphantasia) so theatre of the mind isn't an option for us.)
One PC was an Earth Kineticist so they created a tunnel from the tree line to the camp.

Stealth without being invisible shouldn't be an option so if they don't find a way to avoid it at least one group of tanks should see them and either attack or chase them (depending on how far away the group is from the tank), which would alert the camp, and then it would become the PCs looking like giant, invincible heroes as they take on most of the guards and (hopefully) they survive the onslaught. (But keep in mind, weird things / fighting happening in the innner camp are ignored by the regular troops.)

Hopefully the group comes up with a way to stealth in as it should look fairly impossible to not draw way too many attacks by walking up to the camp.

[randomtone]

I am thinking of having Hallit or Skald be related to Russian by the influnce of Baba Yaga forcing it on the people of Irrisen after taking the land. Any thoughts?

[Warped Savant]

Two of the PCs in my game were from Irrisen so I had... I think it was Hallit? be a form of "Ancient Russian." Using the rules in the Mummy's Mask Player's Guide with how Ancient Osiriani was close enough to modern day Osiriani I let them communicate with Russian-speaking people in this book.

[Solomani]

roll4initiative wrote:

Can anyone suggest some good 25-28mm miniatures of Russian soldiers for the scenario?

Wouldn't imperial guard unit work? That's what I am planing to use. Or you specifically wanted Russian ww1 troops?

Akiosama wrote:

Question to all you GMs out there - How do you handle the language barrier when your PCs come to Earth's Russia?

As I don't use Golarion but Earth (future Dying Earth) I just said Irrisian is Russian. Same language, though one would be archaic.

If you are in Golarion, you could assume that Irrasian is Russian as Baba Yaga brought Russian peasants with her to rule/run Irrisien.

[Solomani]

Has anyone used the occult version of Rasputin for the final battle in this adventure?

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo5li1q?He-Lives-He-Dies-He-Lives-Ag ain

Thematically it fits well but, I can’t gauge if it’s as suitable a challenge as the original. Thanks.

[Warped Savant]

Solomani wrote:

Has anyone used the occult version of Rasputin for the final battle in this adventure?

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo5li1q?He-Lives-He-Dies-He-Lives-Ag ain

Thematically it fits well but, I can’t gauge if it’s as suitable a challenge as the original. Thanks.

I did, and it worked great!

Mind you, I had a pretty experienced group (Reign of Winter was the 5th AP I had ran them through as a group). Occult Rasputin felt more on-theme for the character and (I'm pretty sure) was built stronger. It definitely was one of the harder fights in the campaign, especially with Anna Vyurbova exploding the head of a PC (he got better after the fight), so be aware as to how your group is doing during the fight just in case.

(My group was a dwarven earth kineticist, elven ranger, elven sorcerer, and a human cleric; 20 point buy, loot as per the books, nothing weird but the kineticist packed a mean punch.)

[Solomani]

Excellent, thanks, WS. We are finshing up book 2 so still a bit off and this is my players first Pathfinder adventure, so not playing optimally, though there are 6 of them which helps a lot :)

[Warped Savant]

With 6 players I'd be a lot less worried.
Are any / many of them ranged? (Anti-life Shell, which Book Rasputin has, sucks for an unprepared, mostly melee party)

Cult Master Rasputin has Anna Vyurbova with him somewhat helps to prevent the hero-huddle that anti-life shell prevents, but still gives melee characters something to do.

[Solomani]

Currently melee heavy, they depend on spells for range attacks, though the fighter (my wife a veteran D&D player) knows I will exploit weaknesses like this from years of playing with me, so her character is good with range as well (but not as good as melee). IE, she hasn't neglected range like most of the other characters have. But I am guessing Rasputin is probably 4 to 6 months away, so let's see how it plays out.

Did you have Anna with Rasputin from the get-go, or did she turn up as a reinforcement or some other setup?

[Warped Savant]

From what I remember, I ran the encounter as per the tactics listed in the blog.

[Solomani]

Nice, thanks.