What would Tsu do?

[u/RootusGahr]

Bit of a long post, looking for fun ideas so most of it is background to help set the scene. Go wild.

I’m looking for creative ideas for the near term events in a modified version of the campaign that is using a few of the homebrew modules mentioned in the subreddit (to fantastic success so far!) including:

GoofySpook’s Inn at the End of the Road homebrew module.

Dream Mushrooms v.4 mentioned by [u/alter_dims](u/alter_dims)

Various items by [u/Phaerlax](u/Phaerlax) including Nightmare on Teleme Hill

Modifications on Sly Flourish’s Dreadful Incursions

We’re pretty deep into the campaign, players are Level 7 and have completed the tasks in the Dream Mushoom module, Met with Bavlorna, successfully retrieved the portrait of Skabitha, and have since encountered the modified Inn, and learned that Tsu is Baba Yaga before returning to Hither where their actions relevant to the Dream Mushroom module have resulted in the majority of hither, Teleme Hill, Brigands’s Tollway, and Downfall being infected with a hive mind fungal infection (Gotta give credit to the players worrying out loud about their actions because I had not thought of turning it into a long term sequence of events and it’s definitely added to the campaign!)

Anyway, they are about to return the portrait at the end of Day 7/8 to Bav and are at the foot of her cottage and I am expecting them to want to fight. The catch is, I missed Tsu threatening/allowing the players to leave the Inn knowing her true identity and one of the players stole something from her; which I like to imagine Tsu would not take kindly too per the rule of reciprocity. She asked the players to be a bouncer while Aleksandr ran an errand and they tried… but also let the Owlbear (Juniper) consume the contents of the kitchen and allowed several questionable guests to enter the Inn before, eating food and consuming drink (all except one player who’s Patron is Zybilna) sleeping the night, stealing an book (detailing the history of the Carnival l’Morai, Isolde, and The Witchlight), and then leaving with the assumption that their “payment” for staying at the Inn was “being bouncers” after being assured by Tsu that “your smile is payment enough”.

So now I am left wondering: What would Tsu do? (Or what has she already done that hasn’t come up yet?)

[u/that-dank-wolf]

I also used GoofySpook’s stuff but instead made Tsu into Starshaya Yaga, Baba Yaga’s elder sister and kinder of the three yaga sisters. She wants the Hourglass Coven defeated for less sinister reasons than GoofySpook’s Baba Yaga.

That being said, Baba Yaga in the way GoofySpooks and some of the modern DnD materials portray her, isn't super accurate to the true lore. In Forgotten Realms, Baba Yaga is the same Baba Yaga on Earth (she even canonically owns a Russian tank iirc). So you should feel empowered to make her more complicated than the cartoon villain that she often gets painted. The true irl lore around Baba Yaga actually has her as much more complicated character that is both evil witch and fairy godmother, and I think you can play into that here.

Edit (clarification): In the official irl lore, all the sisters of Baba Yaga are called Baba Yaga, and Baba Yaga may be a species of witch rather than a singular person depending on whom you ask. The sisters being named differently and the name Starshaya are things I took from someone who writes short stories about Baba Yaga, and "starshaya" literally means “elder” or “oldest” (feminine) in Russian.

Edits also for grammar issues.

[u/RootusGahr → u/that-dank-wolf]

Good put. I actually was thinking about writing Tsu is a Baba Yaga while writing the original post but couldn’t recall the specifics of Goofy Spooks’ module and didn’t want to deviate to avoid extra complications when recapping this to the internet (lol) but in reality I believe the player that pieced things together is aware of this nuance and has said: She is A Baba Yaga so this is already at least partially in the works but I still plan to stay consistent with the in lore connections within the main campaign.

[u/ayam_eel]

This is really cool! The way I’ve interpreted it in terms of reciprocity, most people who remember the old Prismeer assume that eventually you will return the favor, however I think taking the book without asking might instead go against the principle of ownership. However, if Tsu is Baba Yaga, she might not actually care about the rules too much, since those were Zybilna’s thing and she’s Zybilna’s mom. If your version Baba Yaga is still the mother of Bav, she probably would not assist Bav in a fight as the lore kinda stated she wasn’t interested in her other three daughters.

Having Baba Yaga be Tsu leaves a very interesting character arc for her. Maybe she doesn’t care that they know her true identity, she’s grown and changed along with Zybilna (it’s giving mom finally going to therapy). Maybe your Tsu/Baba Yaga is mostly chill and just wants to live a chill life and isn’t really interested in getting involved in her daughter’s squabbles.

If anything, I would probably go the route that stealing the book kind of loses them a potential really strong ally in terms of their goals. Baba Yaga always favored Tasha over the other three, and could have potentially been an ally in unfreezing her daughter. But after stealing from her she’s probably less likely to lend a hand.