The Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapter 26 - Courts, Docks, and Other Swamps of Iniquity

General Summary

The following day, the members of the party, who have taken to calling themselves 'Dragonslayers', and the aggrieved peasants from Sitnitsa, are due to appear before the prince, who will pronounce judgment in the matter of the egg's theft. Prior to the opening of the proceedings, Agapia casts her magical die to see how things will turn out, from God's perspective. The die lands on its yellow face, seemingly indicating a sunny prognosis. When the audience opens, the peasants make their case, and then Yuri is called before the prince. At first, he delivers the speech he rehearsed before Trofim Andreevich the previous day - that he is not aware of any theft, and that upon waking, he conducted the peasants back to Ladeisk in order to appeal to the prince's justice. After concluding the speech, however, the cossack puts in that following his discussion with the prince after his return, he learned that his companions did in fact take the egg, which they later turned over to Trofim Andreevich. At this, the prince halts the proceedings (over the peasants' protestations), and says that Yuri is clearly unwell in the wake of the previous night's confrontation with dark powers. He indicates that the blame for this rests with the witch Cherniava, who, after clouding the Dragonslayers' minds, sent her servant Aberion into town to wreak more chaos. Trofim Andreevich is clearly furious with Yuri and the rest of the band, and orders them out of his hall. As they leave, the residents of the citadel turn away from them - they have clearly fallen from favor. Sensing an opportunity to turn the tide, Augusta approaches the ruler with a copy of her newly translated tome On Defensive Armaments, and offers it to the prince as a gift. After everything that has happened, the prince is in ill humor, and accuses the Friazina of trying to exploit his favor in order to advance her agenda, and orders her out of the hall as well. On her way out of the hall, however, she is approached by Zhadan Cheslavovich, the prince's major domo. Zhadan asks her to take a walk, and then tells her that just because Trofim Andreevich does not appreciate her work, there are others who would. When the priestess inquires as to who that might be, Zhadan tells her that the party arrived from the south with his representative, and that they should travel to seek him out. Now that their situation has significantly worsened, the Dragonslayers must decide what to do next. Yuri is obviously distraught, and seeks out Mother Feodosia's aid. The nun is willing to hear his confession, which she concludes by telling him that he did the right thing in the eyes of God, but he should also realize that the prince is a man on whom heavy burdens lie, and that he must be given the opportunity to do the right thing in the matter of the egg also, which she thinks he will do after she speaks to him. She also tells Yuri that he must begin to think of himself as a hero, and to begin to exercise his authority over his unruly companions. After Yuri departs to deal with issues connected with his family and his service, Augusta and Agapia come to consult with Feodosia also, They want to know if the Mother can do something about the evil energies that have gathered around the young girl. Feodosia says that what has happened is the result of the party's bad choices, though she sees Agapia as an innocent. She says she cannot help the girl, but tells them to seek out Ladeisk's archbishop (whom Yuri has already met). Though she blames the party in part for bringing evil to Ladeisk, and does not trust the foreign Augusta, she agrees to write a letter to the archbishop, entreating him to help or possibly exorcise Agapia. It is now clear that the party must prepare to leave Ladeisk - their welcome has worn thin, and evil follows them wherever they go. The decision is made to travel to Malinka - the archbishop's summer residence. With this in mind, Agapia and Augusta seek to buy some bread to prepare it for communion, as well as other foodstuffs and stationary, Lokan heads out to acquire some rope and bells to keep the party safe on their travels, while Yuri seeks to buy a horse and to sort out his affairs. takes care of his affairs. While at the market, Lokan runs into a nasty surprise in the form of Vanya and Vasya, who demand their share of the profits from the egg. After the vagabond tells them that the egg is in the prince's possession, and insults them, they attack him with cudgels, and only his timely transformation into a wolf allows him to, barely, escape with his life. Yuri has more mixed luck - he quickly finds that he is priced out of the horse market, and after a brief chat with the guardians of the prince's hall, decides that his own standing with the prince is such that he dare not risk summoning the nine riders under his command to escort the party to Malinka. His talk with Svetlana, which he feared the most, turns out to have a somewhat happier outcome - his bride is unhappy with his current predicament, and failure to procure a house in town, but she is afraid of staying at the convent if the walking dead have been breaking into it, and she wants to see her old house, and perhaps surviving friends and relations in the area.

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Zorina, a hunter from a distant storozh lodge near the Western Sea, has been staying in Ladeisk for about a month. She has been wandering around the Land of Nor' for quite some time, looking for someone to help her free her cousin from bondage for a crime he didn't commit. Recently, she had finally met a young man who pledged to help her, and swore his undying love for her as well. But they were captured by Kochmaki, and impressed into service, raiding frontier Noriki villages. While doing this, her suitor mysteriously died - likely, poisoned by his captors - and Zorina took the opportunity to take one of their horses and flee north, to Ladeisk. Here, she entered the service of a local boyar as a bodyguard, and through him, met Zhadan Cheslavovich, who promised to double her current pay if she agreed to help conduct some people on a trip to the northwest. Given the slight improvement this signified for her fortunes, Zorina agreed. Zhadan introduced them to the group, and they agreed to let Zorina guide them, provided her horse could be used as a mount for Yuri's betrothed, Svetlana, who was not used to traversing the wilds. Lokan voiced his plans to leave a dead animal on the doorstep of his recent assailants, but the rest of the group decided that they had caused enough trouble in town, and took Zorina's appearance as a fortuitous sign that it was time to get on the road early next morning. Lokan attempted to sneak out of the citadel at night all the same, but ran into an upyr' trying to sneak into the convent, and alerted the nuns, who drove the foul thing off.

* * *

As the group heads out at dawn the following day, Alden limps over to join them. Svetlana is outraged, and complains that Yuri didn't let her know he would be accompanying them, but there is nothing to it - Malinka was his home for a while, and perhaps the archbishop can somehow help his predicament as well. The party makes good time, traveling past the neighboring villages and fields, before entering the woods. Zorina helps the group avoid some dangerous brambles that could have stymied their progress, and finally, toward evening, they find a good place to camp near some pools with fresh water. Suddenly, Agapia feels Terentii getting agitated, and crawling under her hair. He transforms into a person, and excitedly waves his arms up and down, saying that they are coming. And indeed, a mass of frogs emerge from the pond, and begin to hop toward the party. Some of them are quite large, and transform into scaly, googly-eyed, and repulsive beings with pointy heads, which charge the group, saying that they will drag them down into the pond, to meet the Netherworldly Tsar, while the other frogs croak, egging them on. While Yuri sends the horse, with Svetlana astride, away, out of danger, Agapia utters a prayer of protection, and Augusta steps forward with cross held aloft, demanding that the beasts return from whence they came, or face divine judgment. Most of the foul creatures retreat and fade from view, but a few are unaffected, and fling themselves at the group. Unfortunately, the priestess' rebuke affected most of her companions as well - Agapia, Lokan, and Alden all flee. Zorina seems to be unaffected, or, perhaps, she was too far away from Augusta to be affected. Now, the priestess and Yuri are left alone to face the three slimy creatures that did not flee, as well as the second wave, which emerges from the pool after them. The two humans are soon surrounded, and beset by the claws and sharp, ram-like heads, as the repulsive nechist' fling themselves at them with abandon. Though they are very short, their heads open up deep wounds on Yuri's thigh as he fights back to protect Augusta. He slays several of the creatures, but soon, the might cossack himself goes down. Zorina desperately fires arrows at the remaining nechist' to drive them back, and Augusta, using her reserves of strength, holds the cross aloft again, and sends most of the rest scurrying. Zorina's own prayer rescues Yuri from certain death, and he finds his feet, plunging his spear into the remaining amphibian, though his leg is clearly damaged.