Drovic cast the scroll of Finger of Death at Gregor but it fizzled at the end of his finger. Baru lunged forward to attack Dmitri. He recalled his inability to even scratch Gregor previously. The rest of the battle, hitting the ground unconscious, he didn't recall at all. Four more boyarsky entered the hall from the south end.
Arvien threw a fireball at the boyarsky, and the fell blackened onto the floor of the great hall almost before they entered. Drovic found his acid attack didn't have resistance and started flinging that at Gregor. Ralom and Seglun finished off the final boyarsky they were battling. Grunyar dug out the silver arrows and started firing away.
Meanwhile Varrid found herself invisible and flew toward Gregor to attack without fear. Seglun and Mikhail flanked the monster. Baru finished off Dmitri pretty swiftly and then used Varrid for flanking on Gregor. The battle was intense for a few rounds but the heroes silver weapons were inflicting damage on Gregor. He laughed at them, saying "I can't kill me. I am invincible!"
Baru invoked all the power of his sword, Oathmaker, and attacked viciously inflicting huge amounts of damage. Clutching his wound, Gregor toppled with a great cry. For a moment he glared wickedly, his blood pooling around him. "You have not defeated me," he snarled. "I will kill you all! Then he died, still cursing.
As soon as Gregor fell, an eerie mist filled the room, rising from the flagstones of the floor like the icy breath of some unseen monster. It swirled around the Boyar's body, and the image of a white, frost-covered wolf seemed to glare from the vapors. Then, as quickly as it had come, the mist dissipated, Gregor's body had vanished!
His sword began to sparkle, and it, too, dissolved into silvery mist that poured back down between the cracks in the stones. Arvien noticed a glow emanating from Gregor's chambers. Quickly she and Grunyar cut the ropes holding the door, while Seglun rushed to the secret door. As Arvien flung open the doors, she saw a pelt hanging on the wall begin to sparkle with the same silvery light as they saw around the sword. In a moment, it also vanished. Searching the room quickly, since the far corner was aflame, the party recovered a magic shield, longbow, a canvas bag holding eight arrows and a potion of healing. Fleeing the chamber apace they found Vladislav, the red headed boyarsky that Andrei had told them about. Running to the kitchen the party found the cooks, grooms and servants already fleeing the Boyar's Hall with their meager possessions. So out the front gate the party fled leaving the hall ablaze in the night sky.
Mikhail suggested they head to Gregor's cabin, he might reappear there he offered. So the party went forward with a new spring in their step.
The cabin was in poor condition as the party approached, it appeared to have been abandoned for quite some time. The wind moaned eerily a within the silent ruin of Gregor's home. The door was standing open, and the snow had drifted in to cover the floor. Few furnishings were left -- an old rocking chair by the cold fireplace, a battered trunk by the window, and a few hides hanging on the walls. The one room was silent and cold. Some odds and ends such as clay jars, iron pots and knives and needle and thread littered the earthen floor of the house.
The musty smell of long disuse was strong, and the place seemed dank and small. The wind moaned higher, and suddenly a terrible chill descended. There was another presence in the room.
The battered old chair by the fire began to rock, slowly creaking back and forth, and a faint cackling laugh could be heard. A chill ran down the spine of the the heroes but they managed to stand their ground.
In the rocking chair a ghastly glimmering of a white, crystal net of glittering ice took shape. A pair of pale hands appeared next, working the net, weaving it. In a moment, the rest of the apparition became clear. An ancient crone rocked back and forth, cackling and muttering as she wove the powdery snow into a spider's web of ice.
"Welcome, Mikhail, welcome," she whispered. "Come and give your grandmother a kiss, my boy"
Mikhail's face was slack with terror. "Bolzhoi moi! It is Antonina," he sighed as he moved toward her.
"Twelve years ago your father murdered me, Mikhail," the specter continued. Her voice was as faint as the wind in the snowdrifts. "There is a power in this land that sustains his curse, that gives life to him now. Gregor cannot be destroyed. If you kill him, his curse will only bring him back stronger than before. His curse must be broken if you are to finally kill him."
"The curse of the wolf-skin?" Mikhail asked, his voice tight.
"It is Gregor's source of power, and his only weakness. I know that you have already killed him in man-form. His curse has carried him away off to a secret cave int he forest. His cave lies three miles to the south, beneath a black and rotten oak."
"If you are quick you can poison him and make him vulnerable to your weapons. You will need to make a potion of snow, wolfsbane and salt. Then dip your weapons into the mixture. When he is damaged by the weapon the poison will allow you to break his curse and finally rid Vorostokov of his rule."
"Will this break the curse that he passed to me?" Mikhail asked, desperately. But the apparition was fading again, already. The witch's laughter echoed like shattered icicles and was gone.
"Who would have wolfsbane and salt," Arvien echoed Ralom as the party stared at each other in disbelief.
"We should go ask Andrei," Drovic posited. "He will know who has the ingredients."
On their way to Andrei's cottage, the party saw several townsfolk standing out in the cold watching the Boyar's Hall burn to the ground. None seemed interested in trying to save it.
At Andrei's cabin they were told that Katerina the trader had salt and Mother Tasha Torbachek would have wolfsbane. He thought Marik the Mouse-eater might have wolfsbane also but Mother Tasha was a better choice. Marik was a little unusual, the town's hedge-wizard, having taken over for Elena and Natalya.
At Mother Tasha's the party was met by Ivinia and Grigori, bickering on the porch as they watched the hall burn. When asked about wolfsbane Ivinia ordered Grigori to get mother. He limped into the cottage and returned with a wizened old woman. She offered 5 springs of wolfsbane for 10 gp. The party thought this was a high price but she was firm. Grigori concurred saying he had to go collect it in the forest, which was difficult with his limp. Finally the group agreed to 10 springs for 18 gp.
At Katerina's the salt was more dear, one pound for 50 gp. Seglun, tired of haggling, just paid the piper and received the salt.
Arvien suggested that they sleep since she was about out of spells. Ralom indicated he could give everyone a nap, which would rejuvenate them in a shorter period of time. After a quick nap, the sun was up as the party left Vorostokov to find Gregor's cave.
The way was still difficult with snow drifts and wind hampering their search. After several hours of searching Summergale returned with directions to a small clearing, int he midst of which, growing from the side of a small hill, was a great, rotten oak. Beneath its roots a dark cave waited, just as Antonina said it would. The party made their mixture of snow, salt and wolfsbane and dipped their weapons in the concoction.
When the party approached, they found no tracks leading to or away from the lair. Suddenly the snow-filled entrance exploded outward and huge, powerful black wolf bounded out toward the party, snapping and snarling.
Seglun moved forward as Arvien cast haste, Drovic started his acid attacks again, while Baru joined Seglun in the lead. The wolf attacked them with vigor snarling and snorting all the time. As Seglun hit him with his sword and Grunyar's silver arrows hit home the great wolf looked stunned for a moment, shaking his head as if to clear it. Seglun, Baru and Varrid found themselves on a frozen river and had to work at keeping their footing as they tried to attack.
Baru's Oathmaker hit its mark again and as the damage intensified the party saw the moon rise over the horizon. Seglun, Baru and Grunyar hit the ground and began to transform into wolf creatures again. Varrid continued to attack as the invisible thief and Mikhail was flailing away trying to hit his father.
The party tried in vain to kill the wolf before their fellow adventurers completed the transformation. As Baru finished his transformation into werewolf the party held its breath to see who he would attack. It was Gregor, somehow his power over the wolfen characters had weakened. Seglun and Grunyar also attacked Gregor. The ice creaked and snapped as the black wolf bared its fangs and snarled savagely!
Varrid landed another set of blows to the wolf. As the killing blow struck home, the wolf let out a human-sounding howl of rage and pain before collapsing. He shuddered once, and where the wolf had been lying there was now a man -- the boyar, Gregor -- wrapped in a bloody wolfskin. The battle field fell silent as the boyar breathed his last.
Suddenly, there was an ear-shattering crack. Black fissures in the ice were opening, radiating from the place where Gregor lay. In the space of a heartbeat, the ice splinters into nothingness, spilling everyone into the dark , cold waters that rose to grab Arvien, Ralom and Drovic on the banks. The party struggled valiantly, but the waters drug then down farther and farther, until the light was gone and they were surrounded by black, numbing cold.
In the grayness that follows they saw a vision. The land of Vorostokov, beneath its silver blanket of winter, began to turn green. The white wolf of the mists howled and twisted about, this dissipated, surrounding the party and bearing them away from the dark and the cold....
DM's Notes: The party earned 2500 XP for the nights work.
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