Chapter 1: The Motherland

Prologue

Izolda, The Motherland, is home to striga (witches) and monsters, oppressive military forces, decadent boyars, and weathered, dark-humored, and fatalistic people in the muzhik (peasants). She was powerful once, in the days before the elves and the empire. And it seems the wheel has turned and she is powerful again, in these last twenty years rediscovering her tsarina Iggwilv Yaga, Mother of Witches, and reclaiming all her ancestral lands and then some. Izolda now consists of three mighty baronies over open steppes, vast taigas, rushing rivers, and unbearable tundra. Her capital of Lothet stands a growing port with aspirations of dominating eastern trade within the next few years. 

None of this sits well with the larger continent, yet war-weary leadership and ambiguous borders in the wake of the Emperor’s territorial surrender allowed for a very troublesome and volatile situation to develop. The nation of Etheria, a theocracy dedicated to benevolent gods, has been surrounded by the land grabs of the witch state. Both retain their autonomy, yet tensions rise as the Etherians have been forced up the Holy Mountain, most sacred point on Othyr. At each impasse, the Etherians receded, but no more. They are driven to the base of the mountain and will not surrender an inch of that holy earth. 

The mountain is visible from all points in northern Othyr, a snowy peak with white, silver, and golden facets reaching an impossible height through clouds and perhaps into the celestial realms. It was risen by The Radiant Mother in the last age, a beacon of hope, a symbol embodied in the spired temple-city of Etheria built near its apex. Hope is an uninvited guest in Izolda, and the feelings it stirs in the muzhik could lead to trouble for the striga if not addressed in good time. 

Foreseeing continental strife, the heads of state throughout the region have come together at Etheria to discuss terms. The continent waits with baited breath for news of the developments, praying for a lasting treaty, but quietly anticipating the calls to war...


Synopsis
Gent (August) 12th - 15th, 49 AS

• After two days of separate wanderings in the cool climbs of Northeastern Othyr, the party met in the wilderness somewhere between the tundras of Roam and a passable route to the Holy Mountain, namely Izolda. A reunion was had between Aiden and Cassie Waylan, and Nel recruited the monk and his companion Ilshana in a peace-keeping mission sanctioned by the queen of Saspien herself. Unfortunately, whatever proof they had of that sanction was torn up by the Iron Guard on the way in...
• This matter of queenly importance was a tough pill for Ilshana to swallow, that is until she discovered Aiden and Cassie's father just happened to be The Archdruid! Mighty company, indeed. Nel's ward, Roza, seemed less impressed with their motley crew. While this meeting could have been a wonderful coincidence (even with Nel, Roza, and Cassie tracking Aiden, it was a huge long shot across thousands of square miles of wilderness), Aiden suspected his father's hand in things. 
• The party was able to share a fire and mingle with one another, revealing an interesting and not altogether disagreeable chemistry. Each brought their own unique view and skill set, a promising collection Nel assumed was Isabella Il'spana's intention to assemble all along. Cassie and Ilshana got along particularly well, and Nel found someone nearly as reticent about his past as she was at his age in the young hermit...
• The unusual return of Keldean, Aiden and Ilshana's guide from the tundra, later in the night prompted a drop in temperature, a dying of the light, and the appearance of two giant-blooded Cold Sisters from the northern barony of Vox. They'd enchanted the man to aid in hunting the "infamous" Nebozhy Gang. Recognizing the party had illegally crossed the border, the sisters leveraged a possible recruitment. Cassie didn't like the women the minute they showed up and made as much known with her tone and questioning. Roza was in favor of the deal (which others thought a touch cruel), citing the mission at hand was more important that offending the native authority and compromising the entire reason they were in Izolda to begin with. After some verbal sparring, Ilshana was recruited directly and the others somewhat indirectly. Or perhaps they would simply appease the striga and continue their mission.The sisters released Keldean for the trouble and left, the guide himself fleeing early the next morning. The party was relieved, save Ilshana, who could sense something off after swearing her oath, a chill that wouldn't go away long and a numbness in her digits. 
• The next morning, travel was lively across stretches of flowering meadows, through stands of pine, linden, and hawthorn, over the snow-born streams and rivers, and turning upward into highlands. Roza considered doing a little side-trapping, the pelts of two passing forest martens worth good grivna (silver), while Cassie and Ilshana considered a suspicious quartet of wild pears. The bard's taste-test revealed they were a little unripe, but hardly cursed. Nel discovered something of much greater interest, however, a boy doing his best to hide, touched with frostbite and looking the type of poor, underfed muzhik that could be a runaway slave. She sat upon a nearby rock (her leg legitimately swollen given all the recent travel) and began to speak quietly to the boy. His name was Aleksi Nabozhy. He and his family had fled the hardships of the Vox Barony, but had become separated from each other in the desperate search for food. Fearing the wrath of the Cold Sisters when the party happened by, he'd hid, and begged Nel not undo him. She hardly had time to assure him of anything when it all fell apart.
• Aleksi's papa began calling out for him in a frightened cross between whispering and yelling, accidentally revealing himself to Aiden, Cassie, and Ilshana. He fled, driving what remained of his family into the forest beyond the ledge. Uninterested in chasing anyone down, the rest of the party turned attentions on Aleksi around the same time the temperature dropped and hoarfrost made the lichen crackle as it froze. Realizing the sisters had returned as the cold which plagued her fingers and toes abated with the feeling of a contract fulfilled, Ilshana recoiled from being used. She quickly used her magic to turn herself into the exact likeness of Aleksi and shooed the boy back behind the rock.
• The Cold Sisters returned with grim determination, wands drawn, sweeping in with a frigid blast. They froze Ilshana without breaking a crystallized sweat, encasing her in a sheath of ice and continuing on with little regard for the party beyond promising to return shortly. They pursued the rest of the Nebozhy's, their screams interjecting the following conversation between party members. They had to leave. Now. Aiden wrapped Ilshana in a bedroll and swung her over his shoulder, then moved south, about as far from the White Witch's barony as possible. After Nel casually suggested the boy seek asylum, and Aleksi was relatively certain asylum didn't mean painful death and agreed, she took his hand firmly and followed after, with Cassie and Roza guarding the rear. 
• Trekking alongside river-carved canyons and between wet, narrow ravines until nightfall. The light of the three-quarters moon to guide them, the party heard the sounds of howling, drums, and mad revelry. Firelight flickered ahead. The smell of burning pitch wafted downwind. Unable to circumvent the origins of the noise without hours of backtracking, almost to the point they last saw the sisters, Cassie led the way into the midst of a savage Krovi meeting. The brutalized corpse of a girl barely flowered swung from a noose from a twisted mountain ash, used as a pinata by a lunatic bunch of mountainfolk who mutilated, ate, and wore 'witches' (any woman not content to be used as the men see fit). Their attempts as mimicking the hate-filled Brotherhood of Man (common in the west) was more a scene of senseless massacre. It wouldn't have been a surprise if the orgies and blood-matches were dedicated to some demon or The Prince of Murder. The party, horrified and sickened, attempted to simply move through the celebration and hide in plain sight. Fate had other ideas...
• A beast of a man wearing a gruesome masquerade-like mask of leathery human flesh and a gore-stained beard took immediate offense to the cavalier look about Cassie and confronted her. Before big brother could make a move, the still-frozen Ilshana weighing heavy on him now, the explorer snapped. In a feral display, she leaped onto the man and dug her thumbs deep into his eyes. Once they pierced his brain, the fight was over, and he stumbled stupidly as she dug her nails into his throat and bare chest until he collapsed. The Krovi were as stunned as the party, Aleksi's mouth hanging open in shock. Then she tore off him and stalked away into the night, the party following without any opposition. In fact, the Krovi reveled anew, pouncing on the forgotten corpse to play in his entrails. Their cackling haunted the group further into the wilds, driving even the most fatigued an hour more.
• When the sounds of the revelry were far behind them and the maze-like ravines offered a way out, the party took refuge in a sheltering copse. Worried Ilshana had yet to thaw, looking paler than ever she had, Aiden flew into the woods. There he did something he never thought he would again, he prayed. He asked only to be given the speed to find the reagents required for a chance at saving his friend. It wasn't a particularly polite prayer. And it wasn't begging, either. Perhaps that's why Eilessa granted it. He moved like a cheetah through the woods, collecting what was needed and returning to mix a thawing poultice often used in the treatment of frostbite. Due to the curse, his sister had to administer the concoction, in the process feeling something -very- unexpected. Aiden was too distracted by the implications of Ilshana's health and, perhaps, just how deep his feelings of concern went to notice. Ilshana thawed gradually, leaping out with a ridiculous amount of perk- putting everyone at ease.
• Meanwhile, Nel was able to tend to Aleksi's frostbite and, more importantly, the growing hatred inside of him. The boy was only just coming to terms with the fate of his family. The death priestess offered her version of comfort in the reality of life and death, the virtue of living a good life, and that one's end was nothing to fear. It had a profound affect on the boy, perhaps too profound, and he took respite for the night slightly removed from the others to ponder the rest of his life...
• Tomorrow, they would press on toward the Holy Mountain, two seeking information for the mission, a third the smallest possibility of hope, the fourth new stories to tell, and the fifth answers to a question she's soon to ask.

Noteworthy NPCs

Keldean the Trapper- An experienced trapper from the Lands of the Bastard Kings; Hired as a guide by Ilshana in Walderman's Grove on the edges of the tundra/taiga border of Izolda; Enchanted by Cold Sisters in the hunt for the Nabozhy Gang, but released into the party's custody; Fled from Izolda the morning after

2 Cold Sisters (names unknown)- Elitist and fiercely patriotic granddaughters of the White Witch; Mistresses of ice magic; Frightening to behold, standing about 6'5" a piece with clear frost giant blood in their veins; Frosty lips, eyes frozen in their bald heads; Charged with hunting the Nabozhy Clan and any other fugitives out of the Vox Barony; Captured all but one of the Nabozhy (whom Nel spirited away), leaving their relationship with the party in serious question; Capable of freezing people solid and casting scrys through their badges

Aleksi Nabozhy- The last of the free "Nabozhy Gang" (little more than an escaped peasant family from the Vox Barony, in truth); A muzhik boy of 9-11 years suffering acute frostbite; Dealing with the loss of his family and a growing hatred for the striga; Was given a life-changing talk by Nel, resulting in eschewing a weakling's fear for a fool's heroism....


Noteworthy Factions

The Iron Guard- The Izoldan Army serves the baronesses of the state with unquestioned loyalty, and holds the Mother of Witches above all as tsarina and beloved Matushka. Their patriotism is often fanatical. They're willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure the protection and security of Izolda. Their numbers range from the very bright, who move up the ranks at accelerates speeds to fill commanding and elite unit positions, to the very dim, who feed the vanguards, border guards, and in times of war the front lines. Zoldani comprise the majority, humans who can trace their lineage back through the ages to the people once ruled by Iggwilv Yaga during her previous reign many thousands of years ago. They are supplemented by barony-specific troops: troll-men and drow of Tsojcanth, hobgoblins of Lothet, winter wolves and goblins of Vox, and ogres, werewolves, and bugbears of Arcouth. They also employ a dangerous variety of beasts, including dogs, wolves, bears, and in the Arcouth the famous owlbear and wolfspider.

The Barony of the White Witch- Rumored the harshest of the baronies, both in climate and in rule, the Vox and its holdings are overseen by the White Witch, Baroness Imprela Carnast, a half-giant striga of considerable power and one of the three reigning daughters of Matushka. Apparently no one is allowed to leave without express permission from the barony, and those who flee are hunted down by Cold Sisters and dragged back for trial and sentencing (torture and public execution). As Aleksi put it, "You were born in the cold and you will live in the cold, or else you will die in the cold."

Klan Krovi- An aberration of society, modeled off the more successful Brotherhood Lodges of the west, but far cruder and completely degenerate. They're little more than a collection of grisly mountainfolk performing improvised rites and nauseating orgies of death and blood. These sadists and serial murderers identify women as witches, torture, then mutilate, wear, and eat them. Male chauvinist in the extreme, they are a neanderthal reaction to the overwhelming matriarchies of Izolda. If these clans make too much noise, they are hunted down and exterminated by the servants of the presiding baroness.


Zol Vocabulary Lesson 1

• muzihk- the poor peasant class of Izolda
• striga- witches of Izolda, part of the highest social caste
• podzal- useless/idiot, (aimed at Cassie after her rudeness to a Cold Sister)
• kiska- a derogatory usage of the female genitalia, (also aimed at Cassie in her brief talk with the Cold Sisters)
• dermo- shit, (used when the Cold Sisters murmured to one another how full of shit Ilshana was in her initial diplomacy)
• da- yes, (used throughout the session)
• spasibo- thank you, (used when Aleksi thanked Nel for her bandaging)
• babushka- grandmother, (as in Aleksi's babushka)
• Matushka- Zol name for Iggwilv Yaga, Mother of Witches, meaning "Mother"

Zoldani Wisdom

• "The falling leaf is a reminder to living men." ~ Aleksi's Papa
• "You must learn the lesson all Zoldani learn: Life is cruel." ~ Aleksi's Babushka