#spring coutnryside

[sanseterrer]

All day with sunlight, with fleeting stops in warm forests; then make your way to night through the treacherous cold under the crackle of someone's campfire, having listened to a deep, nostalgic March song performed by a blackbird and a grouse thrush, with intrusive but appropriate introductions by a raven

March 28, 2025

[actiniaria]

And of course, the bluebells. The famous bluebells that carpets the woods in spring.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Ally: Yurik Krivenko, the Seditious Scholar (To Wed the North Wind, Part 1)

( Hey, this is the first entry for a multi-part adventure prompt, the rest of which you can find by clicking on the “To Wed the North Wind” tag below, or by clicking HERE)

Setup: Needing his expertise as the foremost expert on an artifact they require, the party seeks out Yurik only to find him having been imprisoned by the crown for treasonous writings and a not insignificant number of murders as he attempted to escape arrest.  Needing his knowledge more than they need to maintain good relationships with a foreign monarch, the party hatches a plan to spring him. 

Adventure hooks: 

Diplomacy is still an option, while the sovereign cares little for the party’s plight or their quest, they could be cajoled to release the scholar by means of a hefty bribe, or a bit of palace politics. 

Yurik’s prison is the preeminent spot for political captives, a well guarded fortress of ancient infamy intended to stand as much as a symbol of the petty monarch’s power as it does to keep captives secure. Built into a promontory that overlooks a clashing, reef filled bay and supplied only by a single road cut into the seacliffs, The place may be invulnerable to direct assault. That said, a cunning party may be able to plan an infiltration, or to use a dangerous set of sea caves to sneak inside the ancient fortress’s foundations. 

Background:  When one hears “sage of ancient lore”, often they will conjure the image of a white bearded wizard pouring over tomes, or a one eyed oracle dispensing the knowledge of the cosmos. While Yurik may be both bearded and one eyed, he bares little resemblance to the classical notion of “ sage”; an old soldier toughened like leather after a lifetime of campaigns and harboring grudges like a porcupine has quills. He is a drunk, violent, and foulmouthed guide on the party’s journey, with few qualms about expressing his opinion through colourful curses or threats of harm to any who get in their way. 

Over years of work as both an enlisted soldier, mercenary, and brigand, Yurik developed a great love of fables and folktales, as listening to them around the campfire proved his only true reprieve between the long days of his grisly vocation . He can recount dozens from memory, speaking with a true storyteller’s elegance and passion, for a moment letting the visage of grizzled psychopath fade and instead resembling a whimsical and eccentric grandfather doing voices to entertain children before bed. 

After taking his pension and share of plunder after winning a particularity nightmarish battle, Krivenko bought a manor house outside a town famous for its book trade and set to work building a vast library of his people’s history and customs. Publishing and circulating many anthologies himself, It was just one of these volumes ( an unflattering history of the monarch’s dynasty which included several asides dealing their direct ancestor’s comical indiscretions with livestock) that landed him in prison for nearly a decade ago. 

Outcomes and Rewards: 

Freeing Krivenko means the party has made an enemy of the monarch who’s territory they must search for the Grail of winter. They can Expect armed patrols combing the coutnryside for strangers matching their description, and the crown’s elite agents looking to ambush or capture them at every turn. 

The Sage may just be worth the trouble he causes, as his familiarity with the vast archive of lore required to both find and safely use the chalice of rime can cut down their search from weeks to merely days. 

Veteran of more wars than most men his age have remaining teeth, Kirvenko can teach maritally inclined characters the skills they need to live as long as he has. A true savant when it comes to fighting dirty, the old man will instruct the heroes on ways even the weakest of them can fight like as fiercely as a mad dog.