The Chronicles of 'Team B" - Chapter 3 - All Roads Lead Back to Malinka

Yuri departs the mill after spending the night outside its fence with the archbishop's riders. He agrees to leave markings for his companions to follow once they have returned from Malinka, and rides off in hot pursuit of the Kochmaki. At noontime, he finds a child's corpse, apparently whipped to death by the marauders, and continues to follow the raiders. He finally catches up to them around sundown, and looks down at the encampment from the top of a small bluff. Hundreds of raiders, and more captives, have set up a camp below. The raiders' whips crack as they force the captives to light fires, and the sounds of wailing reach him at his observation point.

Kochmaki - too many to fight!

Eager to spot his loved ones, Yuri lingers too long at the outcropping, and is spotted by some of the guards. He draws back into the woods, hoping the Kochmaki will not follow a lone rider. His assumption proves mistaken, as two (or probably more) riders soon appear, yelling at him to dismount and drop his weapons. Yuri rides out to meet the lead pursuer, but his first real fight does not live up the heroic lays about the bogatyri. His spear grazes off the rider's silken shirt, while his opponent, likely more experienced, manages to catch Yuri off-balance and bloody him. Hearing reinforcements approaching, sense wins out over heroism. Yuri turns his horse, and flees. The riders pursue, but horses tire quickly, and with darkness approaching, the riders turn back. Yuri rides deeper into the woods before concealing his horse and retiring for the night.

* * *

Back at the mill, Kesha, Fedor, Alden and Zoya decide to return to Malinka with their prisoner - Zbigniev the miller. He is tightly bound and gagged, and draped over Fedor's horse. Shortly after going past Vladykino, Zbigniev breathes fire out of his gagged mouth, catching Zoya and Alden, but more importantly, burning through his gag and ropes. He then hisses out that his assailants will all burn, and once again succeeds in putting everyone except Kesha and Fedor to sleep. Fedor succeeds in skewering the miller, while Kesha then lifts his veil and suggests that the miller take a nap. After a short debate, in which Fedor insists on finishing the "monster" off, Kesha insists on bringing him back alive. They bind Zbigniev again, Kesha heals him, and then, ensorcels him to follow along quietly.

After two days, while the group is approaching Malinka, they are joined by Yuri, who has decided to ride back to the archbishop's estate to seek more help. He tells them about his encounter with the Kochmaki, while they tell him about the fight with Zbigniev at the mill, and his second attack against them on the road back.

At Malinka, the group turns Zbigniev over to one of the archbishop's attendant priests, Father Oleg, and is the invited to take refreshment in the rectory (in the meantime, Zoya wanders off to look for more thistles). They inform the priest of the miller's evil deeds, and the true function of the mill, and then, Kesha and Fedor spy on the archbishop's conversation with Zbigniev behind closed doors. They overhear Zbigniev claim they attacked him, and used sorcery against him. Later, the archbishop visits the group while they are eating. Yuri entreats him to send people to free the captives from the Kochmaki, but the archbishop demurs, saying he has at best 50 people, who cannot fight hundreds of raiders. In any event, he is responsible for the lives of those who live on his lands, and he will not risk them to free the prisoners. In response to Yuri's plea for aid of some sort, he suggests that he is free to recruit any helpers he might find, track the Kochmaki, and attempt to buy them out of slavery. He will not help materially, however - all available funds must be spent on rebuilding.

Kesha, in the meantime, asks the archbishop to tell him more about the mill and the miller. He also shows him a document that stipulates his mother owns a piece of land, and asks where it might be. The archbishop replies that the land is that on which the mill stands, but recommends that Kesha forget about it, as trying to claim it will only bring trouble. He tells him that he is now free, and that he should use the opportunity to get away from Vladykino.

A new group of captives is brought to the estate. They were apparently sent back by the Kochmaki as a goodwill gesture - or perhaps to demonstrate that the incident with Vladykino is best considered closed. One of the captives - an Irii merchant named Konstantius Azovos - wanders into the rectory, looking for the archbishop, and for something to eat. He is introduced to the rest of the group, and tells of his brief experience as a captive - perhaps a case of mistaken identity.

All five companions tell their stories before Fedor and Alden retire to their homes to sleep. 

The Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapter 2 - The Archbishop's Mission

Wounded by the vasilisk, Fedor wants to return to return to the archbishop's residence at Malinka, and beg the priests to heal him. Yuri, however, burns to follow the Kochmaki and free the captives, and does not want to lose two days by traveling in the opposite direction. He tells his companions that he will leave marks along the way so they can find him, while they promise to look for more volunteers to rescue the captives among the archbishop's servitors. Fedor and Kesha, along with Sen'ka and the rest of the archbishop's riders then leave the mill and ride toward Malinka, bypassing Vladykino, and fording the stream to its north.

Less than an hour later, Kesha hears chimes in the woods that no one else seems to note. They remind him of his underground home in the Svora, so he tells his companions that that he will catch up to them, and goes to see what it is. It turns out to be a chud', vaguely familiar to him. The chud' tells him that he has come to see Kesha off on the next stage of his life, and to ensure that he moves toward fulfilling his destiny. The age of his enslavement is over, and he should somehow convince the archbishop to give him his freedom. Just then, Fedor comes riding up to look in on his companion. But somehow, he fails to see the creature, and then forgets about the incident entirely.

At the end of the day, the riders arrive at Malinka. After stabling the horses, Sen'ka goes off to report to the archbishop, while Fedor and Kesha wait their turn to supplicate him. Inside the church they encounter a man himself Alden Gravenich - a distinctly lupine-aspected servitor of the archbishop, who eagerly awaits to hear the news that the riders have brought back from Vladykino. Soon, Fedor and Kesha get to see one of the archbishop's priestly assistants. The priest has been briefed on the basics, but asks more in-depth questions about the mill, and the encounter with the vasilisk. He seems relatively unconcerned about the captives, and fears that any action against the Kochmaki will only provoke them further. He is concerned about the miller, and will allow Fedor and Kesha to recruit volunteers to find him and bring him back to Malinka. In exchange, he is even willing to heal Fedor's wound free of charge, and to give Kesha his freedom. Kesha also turns over the book he was working on and salvaged from his cellar.

The main church at Malinka

As they begin their search for helpers, Fedor and Kesha once again encounter Alden. The latter was brought to Malinka by a mysterious benefactor who freedom him from servitude to a Garip merchant, but now he seeks to adventure and to prove himself, and accompanying the pair to Vladykino seems like a good opportunity. None of the archbishop's other servitors seem willing, but a strange visitor, named Zoya, richly but incongruously dressed, and covered with a rash from nettles that she is trying to sell in front of the church, wants to come along. The party of four finds shelter for the night in Fedor's residence, and heads out the following morning.

The way back to Vladykino is longer than the journey to Malinka, as Alden refuses to take a horse from the archbishop's stables, saying that the beasts fear him. With one only one horse between the four of them, the journey back takes two days. During the first night, while camping in the woods, the group is set upon by a lynx, which hopes to make a meal of Fedor's horse. But the soldier successfully spears the cat, and Kesha, adept at working with leather, successfully skins it and takes the pelt. Zoya keeps the ears, and attaches them to her hood.

The following day, the group arrives back at Vladykino. The village is still smoldering, but no one is around. The foursome head toward the mill, where Kesha once again tries to detect arcane energies. There is definitely magic connected to changing one thing into another coming from within the mill. The companions climb over the gate, and approach the mill. The mill wheel is turning, and it sounds like something is being ground inside. The chain lock is off the front door, so everyone except Kesha quietly walks in. The leatherworker circles around the mill, seeking other entry points. Inside, the three hear the sounds of coins, which are clinking down the chute, and into a sack. There is also a hissing chanting in an unfamiliar language coming from one of the upper floors of the mill. 

The companions rush upstairs, and find the miller Zbigniev Dragutinovich - dark-haired, mustached, and with distinctly large, pointy teeth. Zbigniev utters a spell, and Alden, Zoya, and Zoya's cat fall asleep. Fedor is left alone to face the magician alone, and rushes into battle. He swings wildly and misses, though by then, Kesha has managed to climb the stairs and ladders to the third tier of the mill. The miller calls forth arcane power and makes pain erupt in three places in Fedor's chest and legs, and the soldier falls to the ground. Zbigniev flees upstairs, but Kesha follows, and succeeds in enchanting the miller before he jumps out of the upstairs window.

Zbigniev Dragutinovich, surprised while hard at work milling bones

Kesha attends to Fedor's wounds, and the soldier rises up, but now moves with difficulty. Then he questions the miller, who is now more favorably disposed toward the group. He explains that the mill grinds bones into coins, and that has made it into the lifeblood of Vladykino's economy. He claims never to have killed anyone, but to simply collect the corpses that the Kochmaki left behind. After Kesha directs a heavy gaze toward the miller, and suggests that he accompany the group back to Malinka, Zbigniev says he would be glad to explain everything to the archbishop. Tying the miller up, the group settles down for a rest inside the mill.