The Land: The vast domain of Vorostokov is more than three hundred miles across. The land is locked in a dire, endless winder, and the tiny villages struggle to survive on scant food stores and the bounty of the hunters who roam the icy planes and frozen coniferous forests.
Impassible peaks form the border of this domain. Rumors tell of high passes that lead out of Vorostokov, but anyone who tries to trek out of the land finds snow storms and avalanches barring the paths.
Daylight is a precious commodity in this domain. The sun barely peeps over the horizon for about six hours before disappearing for the night. Sunrise and sunset are followed by periods of twilight lasting anywhere from one to two hours. The shadows are long and cold beneath the snow-covered trees.
About one thousand people live in Vorostokov, spread among more than a dozen small villages. Located near the center of the domain, the village of Vorostokov is the largest of these settlements, home to two hundred thirty people.
Most homes in the villages are low, one-room buildings. The people live in one end, and what little livestock they own (mostly sheep) are confined in the other end. The body heat of the animals helps warm the structure.
Travel between villages is difficult due to the powdery snow that covers the ground. Vorostokites make use of snowshoes when traveling or hunting.
Cultural Level: Dark Age.
The Folk: Vorostokov is inhabited entirely by humans, and demihumans are viewed as either freaks of nature or unfortunate beings who deserve pity. Vorostokites are of a sturdy build with dark hair and eyes. They are farmers, foresters, and hunters, with few craftsmen and little or no trade. The people get by with a system of barter and exchange. Very little gold exists here, and when found, it is viewed more as interesting decoration rather than coinage; after all, gold will not feed or clothe a person.
Men tend to do most of the trading and hunting. They usually dress in buckskin and wear thick fur coats. Heavy beards and mustaches are favored by all who can grow them, although they must be carefully tended when out in the cold - otherwise the breath condensation freezes through the facial hair and causes frostbite.
Women are generally found in the home, where they tend to household chores, the livestock, occasional crafts, and the children. They wear long, woolen or suede dresses, with several layers of underskirts, and small blankets are worn as shawls when outdoors.
Wood and bone carvings, colorful woven rugs, and music are the primary artistic expressions of the people. The illiteracy rate is almost one hundred percent, but Vorostokites have a rich oral tradition of song and folklore.
Central to the social life of every village is the sweathouse. Villagers gather here on a regular basis to discuss the events or trade stories and song in thick heat. A wide variety of beliefs and rules for social conduct govern the sweathouses, so that even though it is traditional to enter the sweathouse naked, men and women use the sweathouses simultaneously. Most villages also have an alehouse, which serves as a popular gathering spot as well.
Vorostokov has no active religions. When the eternal winter settled over the land three decades ago, the people could only conclude that their gods had abandoned them. Now, the churches in each village either serve as homes or are used as storage.
Native Player Characters: All Vorostokites receive a +1 bonus to their Constitution (to a maximum of 18) since they survive in an exceedingly harsh domain. This land has no native priests, but rangers are quite common. Wizards exist here, but they are feared by the normal populace and must have minimum Constitution scores of 15, in addition to meeting the normal class requirements.
The Law: At one time, each village was more or less independent, with the boyar of Vorostokov merely serving as an organizer of militias in times of crisis and as tax collector for the king. Since the eternal winter has seized Vorostokov and the mountain passes have closed, Oregor Zolnik, the mightiest hunter of the village of Vorostokov has appointed himself boyar. By recruiting some of the most vicious men (boyarsky) in the domain to enforce his rule, he has extended a brutal reign of terror. Some communities are trying to resist Gregor's iron fist, but their hunters are often murdered as a result.
Encounters: Zolnik's boyarsky are a constant threat, as are the packs of ravenous wolves who seem follow on their heels. Further, the spirits of those who have frozen to death roam the frigid woods, yearning for the warmth of the living.
Further Reading: Vorostokov is explored in more detail in the adventure module Dark of the Moon.
Gregor Zolnik
8th-Level Loup du Noir Fighter,
Chaotic Evil
| Armor Class | 2 (0) | Str | 16 | ||||
| Movement | 12 (15) | Dex | 13 | ||||
| Level/ Hit Dice | 8 (10) | Con | 15 | ||||
| Hit Points | 55 (60) | Int | 12 | ||||
| THAC0 | 13 (11) | Wis | 8 | ||||
| No. of Attacks | 3/2 (2) | Cha | 15 | ||||
| Damage/ Attack | 2d4+4 with bastard sword +3 (2d12) | ||||||
| Special Attacks | See below | ||||||
| Special Defences | Spell and weapon immunities | ||||||
| Magic Resistance | Nil (20%) | ||||||
| Bloodline | Azrai, minor, 18 | ||||||
| Blood Abilities | Animal affinity (minor; serpents and wolves), heightened ability (Charisma) | ||||||
Gregor Zolnik is a barrel-chested man with powerful limbs and an arrogant, commanding manner. He has a thick beard and heavy brow, and his eyes burn like coals when he is angered. Gregor is a shapechanging werewolf, or loup du noir, and his wolf-form is a huge black wolf weighing over one hundred fifty pounds. (The statistics in parentheses are for Gregor's wolf form.) He can assume this form whenever he wants to, but he must disrobe first or become tangled in whatever clothes or armor he was wearing at the time of the change.
Background: As a young man, Gregor was a proud and skilled Vos hunter in Orovinekevic Forest in the northern provinces of Cerilia. One year, winter came early to his tiny village of Vorostokov, and the crops were ruined. Stores were low, as the harvest had been poor the previous year, and four months into the hardest winter anyone could remember, the village was on the verge of starvation. The hunters, even mighty Gregor Zolnik, were having a difficult time securing any game.
Near midwinter, Gregor was returning to the village after a fruitless search for game when he came upon a black wolf that had been injured taking down a bull elk. He watched the dying wolf, considering the speed and stamina of its kind, and wished that he had those gifts. Surely he would be able to feed his family if he did.
Gregor recalled a legend his grandfather had told him. It was a tale of men who would dress in the skins of wolves and become like these creatures by calling on magic. Near the end of his strength, Gregor decided to see if the legends were true. He slit the wolf's throat, used its blood to draw arcane patterns in the snow, and then skinned it and donned its bloodied fur. At first, nothing happened, but then Gregor felt his body changing. Slowly and painfully, he became a wolf.
Gregor used his newfound powers to secure food for his village through that deadly winter, secretly assuming lupine form every night and hunting the largest elk and caribou within thirty miles of the village. When spring came, Vorostokov was the only village that had not lost over half its population to starvation.
Duke Andrei Vladamir personally came to thank the man who had singlehandedly saved Vorostokov. During this visit, Gregor met the duke's third daughter, Ireena. The two fell in love and were married. Gregor was given an estate and a title, and the couple took up residence in the duke's castle.
Still, Gregor found it easier to speak wedding vows than to give up the life of a hunter. He hid the magical wolf pelt in a cave near the duke's castle, and every night, he would steal away from his wife's side to live the thrill of the hunt. Ireena soon discovered his absences and assumed he was dallying with a peasant girl, so she took a lover of her own to avenge her shattered pride.
Ireena's betrayal drove Oregor into a bestial rage. Gregor assumed wolf form, slew her lover as he left her bed chamber, and then burst into the chamber and tore Ireena to shreds where she lay. Now mad with the scent of blood, Gregor stalked through the halls of the castle and eventually killed every single person within it.
In the morning, Gregor awoke to find himself in Vorostokov. Winter had returned, and the village was again starving. Gregor found that the forest was empty, however. The only prey he could find lived in the other villages and walked on two legs.
When Gregor murdered his wife, the duke, and all his retainers, the dark powers had claimed him. For a time, he wrestled with the anguish over having become a murderer and for continuing to perform heinous murders in order to feed his village - although he never told the citizens of Vorostokov what they were eating - but eventually Gregor accepted what he had become. He decided that he had been granted the opportunity to serve as a mighty hero to the people of Vorostokov.
He approached other skilled hunters and warriors, offering them the opportunity to rule Vorostokov at his side. With those who accepted, he shared his gift of shapechanging. Those who refused him fell victim to his vicious fangs and claws. After forging this unbreakable pact, he had a great hall constructed in Vorostokov and began ruling it as boyar with his boyarsky at his side. He and his men fed Vorostokov and whatever villages allied themselves with them. The others were considered sources of prey.
Gregor eventually married a beautiful woman named Sasha, who bore him two sons. When Alexei, his oldest son, reached the age of eighteen, Gregor decided to bring him into the ranks of the boyarsky. However, Gregor's mother, Antonina betrayed his secret identity to Sasha, who followed them into the woods. When she saw her son's transformation, she was horrified and fled into the woods. The boyarsky bounded after her, chasing her to a steep ravine, where she slipped and fell to her death. When Gregor came upon the broken body of his wife, he realized that she must have been encouraged to spy on him. He then raced off to track down his mother. When Gregor found Antonina, he was unable to contain his rage; he tore out her throat with his fangs while Alexei howled in grief and rage behind him.
Gregor's sisters, Elena and Natalya disappeared after their mother's death. These powerful witches live together in the woods and are feared by the common folk. More than anything else they hate Gregor for the murder of Antonina.
Current Sketch: The boyarsky has been able to find prey in the woods for a while, so attacks on nonallied villages have grown more uncommon. As it appears the eternal winter on Vorostokov may be lifting, Gregor's conscience is starting to plague him again. In order to sate it, he has busied himself with attempting to bully the villages outside his control into submission.
Closing the Borders: When Gregor closes his domain, snow storms howl around the mountains. Those who manage to survive the storms discover that the passes leading from the domain are choked with endless avalanchesone after the other roars down the side of the mountains, killing all who would attempt to traverse them.
Combat: It has recently been revealed that Gregor is actually tainted with the blood of Azrai (a deceased Cerilian god of evil and shadow), giving him two blood abilities, His heightened ability resulted in his current Charisma score of 15, and his animal affinity allows him to speak with his totem animals. On Cerilia, this included only serpents, but upon becoming a werewolf, this ability extended to include wolves. Gregor can empathically communicate with any wolf or snake within sixty feet. He will never be attacked by these creatures unless they are magically controlled. (However, very few serpents actually live in Vorostokov.)
In human form, Gregor wields a bastard sword +3 named Ilyana ("reaver") two handed, though he may also fight with a spear or bow. Ilyana has the power to cast heal on its wielder once per day. Gregor also has the following ranger abilities: hide in shadows, 49%; move silently, 62%; and tracking, 10%. He shuns armor in order to facilitate a quick change to wolf form if necessary.
Gregor can transform into a wolf at any time, as long as his pelt is with him. (Since he has had the pelt worked into a sash, it almost always is.) The process is acutely painful, taking one full round. Changing into a wolf heals all wounds he has suffered, but changing back does not cure him of any injuries suffered in wolf form.
As a wolf, Gregor may attack twice per round with his bite, inflicting 2dl2 points of damage with each hit. On a natural 19 or 20, Gregor seizes the victim by the throat, inflicting an additional 1d12 points of damage. When this happens, the victim must roll a successful saving throw vs. death magic or suffer a mortal injury (a torn throat or broken neck). The victim immediately drops to 0 hit points, dying within 1d4 rounds unless aided by healing magic.
In wolf form, Gregor is immune to charm, sleep, hold, and other mind-controlling spells. Only weapons of pure silver that have been blessed can injure him normally, but magical weapons inflict one point of damage per plus. (A long sword +2 would inflict only two points of damage to Gregor.) Damage-causing spells do not effect him, although nondamaging spells may. (For example, Gregor can charge heedless through wall of fire, but if he fails a saving throw, cause blindness will rob him of sight.)
If killed in human form, Gregor's body instantly vanishes, taking his pelt and sword along. Exactly 1d6 hours later, he reappears fully healed in the cave where he once hid his pelt. Should his wolf form be destroyed, he reappears in the cave twenty-four hours later, also fully healed, He has survived death both ways before and now has almost no fear of being killed.
The only way to truly destroy Gregor is to sprinkle his wolf pelt with salt and wolfsbane while he is in human form. The next time he transforms, he will be vulnerable to all weapons and spells, and if killed in this state will be truly dead. Getting wolfsbane in Vorostokov, however, is virtually impossible.
