Summary 41

Before leaving Tairopolis, you had to persuade the Imperial Kislev River Navy boat (a bolskip) to transport you. You used the time to consider the details of where you were heading, and managed to discover the following from various locations:

• The main settlement is Baku, surrounded by forts to the east and the Barrowlands to the west, a mass of barrows used to bury the local populace since this area was first populated. Attacks here during 'the invasion' were barely beaten off, primarily by turning out the entire population. You discovered from two sources that the forts were not well garrisoned (although now the Navy does so!) and that the pride of the army - its War Wagons - is rotting away, in typical Kislevan style, due to a lack of horses. Kara also had doubts about the efficacy of the cannons mounted in the forts (see below).
• The Great Brown Lake is named due to its colour. Surprise! However, it is not uniformly brown and study together with stories from the fishermen led you to speculate that pollution was (in part?) responsible.
• Much of the pollution presumably comes from the Raskan shore, where the Vsevolod Communion have a number of industrial centres - producing graphite, sulphur, iron ore and sundry processed materials. That region is semi-permanently in a haze.
• The Vsevold Communion ("We Keep Our Promises") is a group of monks. General opinion seemed to suggest that they were more businessmen than religious men. Some told you that they bankrolled the entire Colonies and others that they paid off the invaders last year. Only Norrtalje in Raska actually fell. You do not know if this is true (though you had your own experiences of the Communion later!).
• The Gorodische Forts are built to defend from the Lake. You later saw work being undertaken to build rear defences under the supervision of two dwarfs. They are primarily platforms for cannon made of well-tamped earth and wooden supports. Some are of cut logs and one (the Geok Tepe Citadel) has a stone foundation. You learnt that there was a deal of political ill-will over the forts since they seemed to serve little purpose and were paid for through a levy said by the Colonial Administration to be to build schools.
• The Citadel is the headquarters of Governor Anastasia Demisovia. You ultimately gave her a despatch as per your orders. She seemed disinterested in you and your mission. Rumour suggested that she is not on good terms with Preslav.
• On better terms and an ardent Tsarist is Admiral Kolchak. He is regarded as the real power within the region; Wolf's nosing around suggested that this might not be true. Certainly the Admiral has lost face recently - even you made a number of disparaging comments about his non-existent 'navy' (all in "dry dock" for "repairs"). You presented his despatch and agreed to crew a boat to take supplies out to the wizards at Mishka's Tower.
• Mishka's Tower is one of a number of features within the Lake. "Isle to a Lost God" consists of a basalt block on an island (and you have agreed to escort Renko, the priest of Taal there in three days). There are two carved statues in the Lake too: one of a squat bulbous figure and the other to the "Chaos Hound" - allegedly imprisoned by another forgotten deity who was broken into the Ancient Spirits by the feat. The Hound occasionally tries to break his bonds and the earth trembles when he does. We will return to Mishka's Tower.
• The final aspect of the Lake is the 'ghost village' or 'pirate village' to the south, known as Sisimithrae. Homes and some (now broken down) chimney stacks were built into the rock face of the cliff that dominates that shore. No one has ever lived there (known to your informants anyway!). It is eerily run down, but officially believed to host the river pirates.

Back to the adventure, you surprised the GM by contradicting your decision at the end of the last session to completely avoid river travel, and take the boat. Taking the boat down river, you passed a 'secret' fortress on the banks of the river that you were instructed not to look at. You entered the Lake and spent the night anchored at Fort: The Vsevolod. Unsurprisingly, next day you were sunk, but apparently not by the supposed river pirates, but by a lake monster. The attack began when a strange mist appeared to arise from nowhere making visibility almost nil. Whys Parr did see a cylinder approaching the boat, which exploded on contact. A second similar device finished it off. As you were hugging the shore, you all managed to swim to safety but lost much equipment. A reminder, everyone lost pretty much everything except what you were wearing and carrying. This includes your missile weapons. Jakob thought he saw a creature swimming in the water pushing something in front of him. He thought this was the same type of creature as you all witnessed later.

By land, you managed to stagger to the Vsevold Communion monastery at Korsun. There you were helped (at a modest fee) and employed by Aksel Airo (their Head) to investigate and discover who was behind the attacks on the Lake - and provide reasonable information to enable them to stop said attacks. You all signed a very onerous contract, but negotiated a fee of 6,000 Marks plus a replacement of full armour for Wolfgang, who was very pleased to have won such a hard deal. The armour turned up the next day; the monks had simply sent a couple of slaves to swim down and retrieve it! Wolf then had to hire his armour back at 1 Mark per day (first 10 paid up) until the mission is complete. The Communion is to provide all reasonable equipment for the task, but only this task.

Completing your journey, you delivered the despatches and agreed to travel to Mishka's Tower on the Lake to deliver supplies. The Admiral thought this part of your duty, but Jakob, Morgan and Whys Parr found the thought of competent wizards a useful set of contacts in themselves. You arrived at the Tower with no difficulty, although the barge provided was worryingly leaky. As a safety precaution, Wolf left all of his armour in Baku. There were a lot of supplies (you would estimate around 12 months worth?), but then the Tower had not been re-supplied in almost a year. You tied up at a (very worn) stone jetty that simply seemed to descend into the depths.

The tower is made of 'giant stonework' and has no windows. All the light, you were shown, is provided by a large oil lamp on the roof whose light is reflected around inside by lenses. They were very pleased that you had arrived as oil was short - no oil, no light anywhere! The roof is protected by a wooden cupola, now cracked and in very poor repair. Entry is through a double-doorway, whose arched corridor is protected by murder holes. The Tower is a wizards' retreat and holy shrine to Mishka as could be seen by the inside. There are four floors plus a roof level, with levels one and two only as the more 'public' access areas. There is a lot of (empty) accommodation and even more (now full!) storage space. Stairs up and down are located inside the external wall, a rather claustrophobic affair. Below the first level the steps are blocked off.

Morgan's rather abrupt attempt at demanding to be made a full wizard was rebuffed, so you determined to investigate the missing apprentice as a means of currying favour. The wizards were not too interested, but you discovered 'knocking' sounds from below. You decided that the well was a suspicious(-ly obvious!) clue and Morgan volunteered to descend. You overlooked other downward access points, although the wizards can now inform you of these - the ovens and the refuse chute. Some 100' down, he ran into a creature that chased him back up the shaft, though a vicious dagger thrust disabled the creature. Next came the process of the party agreeing an appropriate response. The wizards confirmed that they could place a small snowstorm down the shaft or ice up the walls. Others were in favour of descending here or unblocking the suspiciously blocked off lower level(s). All such discussions were thrown into disorder by the remaining seamen (two had been slain) running in, and barring the door stating that you were under attack. Wolfgang and Whyss Par ran up the stairs only to discover the same creatures climbing up the outside walls and others at the boat. They ran back down the stairs bleating. This is where we restart; you are under siege and under attack.

The following NPCs are also present:

• Dimitri Ivanovitch, nominally head of the 'Order'.
• Jasko Halicsz, an ice wizard of equivalent power.
• Count Wolkonski, an alchemist that you have not met.
• Iwanko Suszyk, a junior ice shaman (ditto).
• Witold, the remaining servant, er apprentice!
• Krzon Ostrow, a new arrival (with you), an unknown who was seeking an apprenticeship.
• Kozli Rogowic, a useful looking first mate from the boat.
• Nikolaus and Lewis, two press-ganged seamen, hung-over and of very dubious loyalty or ability.

You have pitiful equipment (once again) and Wolf has no armour.

Experience (including carried over from last session)
Jakob  50
Wolf  45
Whys Parr  95
Kara  100
Morgan  105
Thomas  100