Notes:
arboria
Magnus Dynamo
Baba Yaga
Riddles
"I don’t have eyes,
But once I did see.
I once had thoughts,
Now white and empty."(skull)
A father’s child,
a mother’s child,
yet no one’s son.
Who am I? (The daughter)
Pronounced as one letter,
And written with three,
Two letters there are,
And two only in me.
I’m double, I’m single, I’m black, blue, and grey,
I’m read from both ends,
And the same either way. (Eye)
Intro
Part-1; The Snows of Summer
The adventure begins in the village of Heldren on the border between the nations of Ammarind and Marundi. A blizzard appears out of nowhere, blanketing the nearby woods in snow. The villagers urge the PCs to investigate this unseasonable phenomenon. At the center of this pocket of winter, the PCs find a magical portal to the Northern Wastes, guarded by creatures of cold. As the PCs arrive at the portal, one of Baba Yaga’s Three Riders, this figure emerges from the Portal, wounded and dying. A battle ensues, and after the monsters are slain, he tells the PCs that Queen Elvanna has captured Baba Yaga. With his dying breath he pleads for the PCs to find Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut and use it to rescue Baba Yaga, as she is the only one who can defeat her wayward daughter and save Corwyn. After accepting this quest, the PCs venture through the portal to the Northern Wastes, where they meet a local named Nadya on the road. She brings them to her village, but when the Iron Guard arrives in search of the Black Rider, the PCs learn that the source of their troubles lies in the Pale Tower—home to Elvanna’s apprentice, a powerful witch named Nazhena. The heroes go to the Pale Tower, defeat Nazhena and close the portal, but in the process become trapped in the frozen Northern Wastes.
Part-2; The Shackled Hut
With the help of their friend and guide, Nadya, the PCs travel across the Northern Wastes to the village of Whitethrone, where Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut is currently being held. On the city’s
outskirts, the PCs meet a smuggler who can help them get into the city, which is under martial law and patrolled by members of Queen Elvanna’s Winter Guard. To get inside, the PCs must navigate Whitethrone’s Howlings district, populated and guarded by winter wolves, to obtain forged documents so they can move freely throughout the city.
The PCs find shelter with the underground resistance movement called the Heralds of Summer’s Return, who operate a hidden shrine in Whitethrone. The PCs learn that the Dancing Hut is heavily guarded, but if they infiltrate a clock tower housing a white dragon commander of the Winter Guard, the ensuing chaos should allow them to get to the hut.
Chaos ensues once the PCs kill the dragon, as the city’s former Iron Guard rises up against the Winter Guard, pulling the extra troops away from the Merchants’ Quarter, where the Dancing Hut is chained. Upon entering the forest that has grown up around the Dancing Hut, the PCs find that though much of the Winter Guard has been pulled away, the woods are infested with fey. Three primal beings known as dawn pipers are siphoning away reality itself to bring the hut to the First World. Once they are stopped, the PCs must defeat the White Witch Nazhena, mistress of the Pale Tower, to claim the Dancing Hut for themselves and hijack it out of the heart of Whitethrone.
With the portal to Heldren closed, the PCs travel to Irrisen’s capital of Whitethrone in search of the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga. The PCs make their way to Whitethrone across the supernaturally frozen wilderness of Irrisen with the aid of their friend Nadya Petska, a guide from the village of Waldsby. Arriving at the capital, the PCs discover the city is under martial law, and as foreigners, they must sneak in. Nadya introduces the PCs to a relative, who is actually a member of the Heralds of Summer’s Return—an underground resistance group of Ulfen nationalists fighting against both the White Witches and Irrisen’s supernatural winter.
To avoid Queen Elvanna’s Winter Guard, Nadya’s uncle takes the PCs into the city through the Howlings, the district inhabited by Whitethrone’s winter wolves. Once in the city, the PCs meet the leader of the local resistance cell. The revolutionary can tell the PCs where Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut is located, but reaching it will be difficult, as Elvanna has posted numerous guards around the hut. To deal with this problem, the PCs must create a distraction to draw guards away, so they may approach it in relative secrecy. Once the PCs reach the hut and defeat its guardians, they gain access to it and make their way inside to explore the device. By using the keys given to them by the Black Rider, the PCs claim the Dancing Hut and can now follow Baba Yaga’s trail
Part-3
After stealing the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, the PCs find themselves in the land of the Northern Wastes. The PCs exit the hut only to find the chicken-legged artifact surrounded by an army of frost giants sent by their centaur leader: Vsevolod, a cleric of the demon lord Kostchtchie. Vsevolod knew where the hut would arrive and stationed sentinels there waiting for it to come.
The PCs must make their way to Deeprfit Canyon, where there are three massive monuments known as “The Three Sisters.” Inside, they encounter allies and guardians left behind by Baba Yaga, as well as a few new inhabitants that have made their way inside.
Part-4
The PC enter the Hut and are transported to the farthest eastern region of the Northern Wastes, and the ruined fortress of Sol-Kathad. There they must defeat the evil forces now inhabiting the ruin, and obtain three keys left behind.
Part-5
While exploring the hut, the PCs find that Baba Yaga’s “trail of breadcrumbs” ends—perhaps the PCs have finally caught up to the missing Queen of Witches? They must find the ancient Monastery which holds the Magnus Dynamo. There, the PCs discover Baba Yaga’s fate, finding the Queen of Witches imprisoned inside a matryoshka doll.
Part-6
The PCs return to the hut to find a way to free Baba Yaga and confront Elvanna. They must delve deep into the hut until they reach Baba Yaga’s inner sanctum.
Entering the hut’s inner sanctum, the PCs face more guardians, both old ones and those introduced by Queen Elvanna, before discovering that Baba Yaga’s life is tied to Elvanna’s own life. As long as Elvanna lives, Baba Yaga remains trapped inside the doll.
To free Baba Yaga, the PCs must kill Queen Elvanna. Provided the PCs defeat her, they can stop the ritual and close down the winter portals that have opened throughout Corwyn. If they fail, Corwyn will soon be blanketed in eternal winter, and Elvanna will rule the frozen continent from her icy throne.
