Session 20 - Darkness at Midnight

After their discussion with the snake woman, the party starts to head back to Rurik's camp. They stop to discuss their upcoming plans on the way. Once they reach Rurik, they relay to him the snake woman's offer. The discussion then comes to be about whether people believe the woman is trustworthy enough to be making a deal with.   There is speculation about how the city is feeding itself. Vladimir suggests they might have resorted to cannibalism. Rurik says that if they are committing cannibalism, they are evil and cannot be trusted to negotiate with. Vladimir and Vasilii decide to count the camp fires in the city during the night and then in the morning to determine if there's been a drop in population since their scouting mission. They conclude there is no cannibalism, but don't know if city residents have a way to sneaking out to obtain food or are using magic to feed them.   Vadim takes a group of scouts to the location of the small gate his beast saw the previous night, only to find a perfectly normal gate the scouts already knew about.   Since the snake woman was not lying about having magic to feed the city, Rurik agrees to pay the 200 rubles up front if they are allowed to take a hostage in exchange. Hrefna is suspicious of the woman after her runes warned her of the "forked tongue" of the snake. Vasilii argues that the woman swore on her god's name and doing so would be a great offense she would not make as a priest. The snake woman reaches out psychically and the groups agree to meet.Vladimir disappears before the party leaves and is left behind.   At the meeting, the party hands over the rubles and ask for a hostage. The snake woman offers the choice between her two invisible companions (who now appear), a man and a woman. The man is asked to swear he will not disappear the moment he enters Rurik's camp if he is brought there. The man swears. Vasilii is unhappy with their vague phrasing and pushes for a more firm oath from him but arguing ensues. Eventually they accept the man as a hostage and return to camp. On the way, they learn, courtesy of Chrevougodnik, that the man's name is Veleslav and he has a distinct wolfy smell.   When they reach camp, Veleslav asks to be able to place his belongings in Vasilii's tent where he will be staying before speaking to Rurik. Vasili and Vadim are welcoming to Veleslav, who takes advantage of the situation to put them under a suggestion to kill Rurik.   As the three men are headed towards Rurik's tent, Vladimir and Hrefna spot them and Vadim announces their intentions as he was not forbidden from speaking. Vladimir attempts to put the group to sleep but only subdues Chrevougodnik (and then Vasilii). Hrefna attacks Veleslav and he turns into a wolf. However he injures himself a loses control of Vadim and Vasilii. Hrefna tries to wake Vasili with a spell and ends up injuring a significant number of camp members while doing so.   Veleslav summons a sphere of darkness and disappears. The party splits up, trying to reach Rurik before Veleslav and deal with whatever could be waiting in the darkness.