Mythic Russia playtest session 4

(From the Siberian playtest of the Mythic Russia game).

We started the evening with character generation.

At the start of the game, the heroes had all just met each other on the road into the fur-trading town of Novosibirsk. They noticed that the trees around the town (mainly birch) were still in full summer leaf, which was unusual as it was late autumn. Bear also felt a bit more awake than he had been. Just outside the town, a large bear crashed out of the woods and came towards the heroes. Bear tried to calm it down. Volk went into the woods to try to get around the back of the bear. Tengujin stayed on overwatch with his bow, while little Valvo stood and watched. Bear tried to snap the chain around the bear's neck and got a bear-hug for his troubles. In the woods, Volk saw a man in brightly-coloured and tassled clothes rushing towards the bear. Rather than attack the bear, Volk attacked this man. He was soon on the floor with Volk's jaws gripping his throat.

They examined the bear and noticed that he had burnt feet (from being made to dance). Bear also noticed that the bear was behaving slightly oddly, and not in the way that bears normally do. Both Bear and Volk noticed that the bear smelt more of human than it should; Volk thought that the smell might be familiar...

Bear took out his anger on the skomorokh for keeping a bear captive and ended up throwing him away. Bear's 10M strength meant that the skomorokh hit a tree and broke. Meanwhile, the bear had ambled away a bit towards town, waited for a while, then carried on into town.

The heroes debated a bit about what to do with the skomorokh and eventually decided that they ought to find a healer for him. The followed the bear's tracks into town. They noticed that the centre of the town smelt bad and some of the buildings in the centre were derilict. They saw the bear outside the gates of a small, new monastery on the hill over the town; some of the monks inside were throwing things to force the bear away. The heroes took the skomorokh and the bear into the monastery. A monk made the skomorokh comfortable but didn't hold out much hope for him regaining consciousness soon. Valvo went into the forest to try to find the local leshy, but it wasn't around.

The bear, meanwhile, was showing an interest in the church, set against the steep hillside at the back of the compound. Bear tried to enter the church but Fr Volkh, the abbot, prevented them, using the power of St Vladimir to order the pagans away. Bear left, but Volk attacked Fr Volkh. The monks that went to Fr Volkh's aid were held back by arrows from Tengujin. After much ordering and gnawing, and more than a few HPs spent, Volk finally overcame Fr Volkh and ate his heart. The monks then beat Volk and drove him away. While they were doing that, Bear and Tengujin went into the church...