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| Koschei the Deathless as a baby with the Spirit Pups and Cernunnos' Horn |
A Russian necromancer in the hands of a Celtic Winter King ... what could go wrong there? Naturally, the action spawned a sequel, which was "Hound and Horn."
This year's program assistant is Oliver Van Soest -- the owner of the Cernunnos amulet that was used last year. With some help from the Raven King, Oliver assembled a team of detectives to investigate what happened to the baby Koschei.
The team started in Wistman's Wood in Devon, England -- a short, stubby wood known for its ties to the Wild Hunt. The woods were full of pesky brambles and adders, and even a couple of ornery dwarves, but the detectives managed to make their way through the challenges.
An encounter with the Hounds of Annwn (the underworld spirit hounds) soon confirmed that the group was on the right track. Cernunnos requested a demonstration of the group's targeting skills before allowing them into his summer home, deep inside an ancient oak tree.
They soon learned that Cernunnos had sent the child into the care of a nurse. A swift roller coaster ride on the backs of spirit hounds led to her home. A squirrel's offer of jewels was turned down, due to suspicions about its character. This may be the first offer of jewels ever turned down--but several of the detectives in the group have had trouble with chaos jewels given by a "friend," so their caution is understandable.
The team turned themselves into bats with squirrel tails--a perfect disguise for entering the cave where the nurse lived. The sleuths proceeded with great caution -- a few among them were convinced that the nurse would turn out to be the Baba Yaga or some other witch who would try to eat them.
The nurse seemed perfectly lovely, taking care of baby Koschei in a cradle. He was playing with spirit hound puppies and his skeleton knights. He was not happy to see the heroes of the Dragon's Eye and tried to warn the nurse, but she could not understand his baby talk.
The team tried to explain why they needed to take Koschei away, but the nurse was reluctant to part with her little ward. She was trying to fatten the little guy up--a challenge, given that he's basically a skeleton with a few scraps of flesh.
When the detectives resorted to trapping the nurse in a serpent trap, everything went awry. They ended up caught. She turned into a blue-skinned hag named Black Annis. She had iron claws strong enough to dig out her own mountain cave, and long, stringy hair and a hideous face. Sure enough, she planned to feast on their bones, and she started to prepare the broth for soup.
Fortunately, the team had a group of detectives hidden in the tunnels, still disguised as bats. A little troll magic turned the broth Black Annis was stirring into a whirlpool. Another spell trapped the witch into a lightning cage and banished her to the nether realms.
In all of the chaos, Koschei the Deathless escaped. He hooked up his little spirit hounds to his cradle and flew off into the sky. He left behind a drawing of his plans. He was headed to Ceridwen's Cauldron, to dip his Skeleton Knights into the cauldron.
Once the detectives escaped their cages, they dove into the whirlpool.
Whirlpools are time and space portals used by trolls to travel around the world from one whirlpool to the next. When you use such clever troll magic, it is wise to tell the whirlpool where you wish to end your little travel. Our detective forgot to do this, which means we had to toss a coin and roll the dice to find out where the detectives would land. We've visited multiple whirlpools in Dragon's Eye Adventures, and no one wanted to revisit Charybdis and Scylla, or the Naruto Whirlpool in Japan.
We ended up at Old Sow in Downeast, Maine. She's a lovely pig with a golden star, friend of dragons. When she heard the detectives' story, she sent them to the Corryverckan Whirlpool off the coast of western Scotland. Two of the detectives had been here, one for "Midcoast Trolls" and the other for "The Winter Queen."
The Summer Queen (Brigit, Brigit and Brigit -- she's a triple goddess) welcomed the detectives into her golden hall of summer. She revealed the mysteries behind Koschei's plan to visit Ceridwen's Cauldron. He wasn't going to the one in Lake Tegid, which gave poetic inspiration. He was headed for the one in the heavens, that brought spirits back to life again in the cycle of life and death and life again.
Brigit, Brigit, Brigit explained Cernunnos' role as the Winter King, otherwise known as the constellation Orion. The Hunter rises at dawn on Samhain, Nov. 1, to take over the night sky during the winter. The Summer King is the Serpent known as Scorpio, who takes over the ruling of the sky at Beltane (May 1). With Koschei the Deathless in the Celtic Realms, the world would have two Winter Kings vs. 1 Summer King, upsetting the balance and bringing Winter year round.
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| The Cave Bear |
I'm happy to say that their little ruse succeeded. Koschei was overjoyed to find such ruthless villains to join his army. Pictures of the ruthless villains are on the Facebook page.
The final battle was spectacular, with yarnballs flying, healing spells rolling and Koschei ranting about the ruthless army that never showed. The group finally subdued the little tyke (he was tougher than one might imagine). A little kazoo magic summoned the Summer King serpent for help, and a pair of well-crafted glasses hypnotized Koschei into telling the truth about his diabolical plans.
The detectives devised a plan for returning Koschei to the Russian realms of myth. They sent him back to the Isle of Buyan, where his soul is kept underground. They forced him to become a lime on a tiny tree that would grow all summer, keeping him contained until the proper time arrived. He would be released to play his role as a winter king of sorts, maintaining the balance in the Russian realms, but each summer, he would resume his shape as a lime.
Congratulations to the team for a week of funny antics and escapes, and a most unexpected ending. Lime magic is a rarity among the varieties of earth magics. Almost as rare as kazoo magic, which is almost as rare as a ladybug that swells up and squishes the enemy.
Pictures of the adventure are on the Facebook page.
