Session 47 - A Dog From the Shadows

General Summary

Alone in the woods, Groump hides from the young revelers and their various loud noises. He only means to see to the well-being of his freshly hewn plow, but when he nears its hiding place he hears a couple making a love-nest of it.
At Piotr Bulatovich's house, Marina and Dukh contemplate an erie clay figurine. A solid black dog, five-legged and alien. Marina forbids Dukh from taking it, but Dukh does as he likes and keeps it, feeling he has seen such a depiction somewhere before. He tries to use it as a lantern for Agnessa, but discovers that the thing resists what light he charms onto it.
Gathered together again, the group agrees to seek Groump by the plow in the woods - they cannot stay in Potustoronka anymore. After locating the volot, they will escape downriver towards Aleksandrovka. Ivan reminds the group that a mob will lynch them as sorcerers after Khoma's workings confuse the villagers' minds; he's seen it done before. Agnessa and Marina split off to tell Agnessa's brother about his son's canine troubles. After telling her brother she must leave right away, she promises to remove this curse from Emil for a second time and warns her family to watch out for Khoma and any dog-headed monsters. But on the way to the woods, none else but Khoma and posse cross their path. Agnessa has the presense of mind to make nice with Piotr's sister, but Khoma's glare still follows her when they leave.
They all reconvene in forest, save for Ivan, who gives the others a chance to flee, but at the cost of allowing himself to be accosted by a swarm of tenacious maidens on the way. The rest speak of ways to retrieve Ivan, their plans growing ever wilder. Groump, for his part, insists his plow should be the centerpiece of any such plan. Busy arguing, Dukh sees it emerge from the dark just before it tears into Agnessa. Pinning her to the ground is the clay dog figurine come alive, only the size of a good horse, and illuminated by Dukh's light-stick, it seems only as solid as a deep shadow.
Everyone springs into action as the beast swipes at Agnessa. Groump swings his spiked traveling anvil mightily, but few blows land squarely on the beast, and only narrowly miss Agnessa. Dukh darts through trees, half of his arrows sail cleanly through the beast. Marina has run off for Ivan. As Emil snaps his teeth at the beast's legs, Agnessa finally fights herself free. She scrambles away from it, turns back, and with a thought - sends the beast flying into Groump. The giants fall out of the halo of the light-stick, and the beast disappears as Groump rights himself.
Cautious, Groump searches his senses for an evil presense, pale glowing eyes tracing over his new companions gathered in the clearing, in the end landing on Agnessa. He'd sensed a foul presence moving toward her and then past her, but he can still detect a foulness around Agnessa. Groump hurries everyone after the beast's trail, it seemed to have gone in Marina and Ivan's direction, and he worries how much it resembled the horror from his dreams who will swallow the world.
They catch up to the beast soon enough, when the light reveals its location, and resume their attack. Emil launches a fierce campaign against the thing's shins and suffers for it when the beast easily claws off his little dog body, throwing him several meters into a tree. Groump douses the beast in holy water, after which it appears to have been banished for good. Marina and Ivan arrive as Dukh is doing all he can to heal Agnessa and Emil's wounds. Emil, though healed, has a limp that points to another sort of injury.

* * *

Once resting safely in the forest a ways outside of Potustoronka, the group discusses what should be done with the cursed figurine. Destroying it is the surest option, but they soon learn it's much tougher than any old clay, and no amount of hammering will dent it. Pouring any kind of blessed water on the figurine makes it hiss and boil, but leaves no lasting mark. Since leaving it burried in an unmarked hole in the woods is a terrible idea, Dukh argues, they will return to the task of destroying it when they reach Aleksandrovka.
On their second day traveling along a river, they hatch a plot to borrow a boat so they can cross the wide breadth. The scouting party of Nadia and Marina, led by Dukh, find a fishing shack complete with a fishing boat. Their unsubtle approach by the light of day is interrupted by the dutiful barking of a guard dog.

Report Date

17 Mar 2024

Primary Location

Potustoronka