Alexei Bodrashov
Old warrior who served Prince Alexander Nevsky?, and now works for the Cult of Loki.
General information
Bodrashov was the first member of the Cult of Loki’s inner circle whom the PCs met, and for most of the campaign he has been the party’s primary contact for dealings with that august group. It was with Bodrashov’s help and encouragement that Vasily was accepted into the inner circle himself (though it almost cost Vasily his life).
In demeanor the General is famously short-tempered and commanding, and has little patience for incompetence or failure. Nonetheless he is respected within the Cult. Frighteningly well-informed, and known for getting things done, the General is also one of the few members of the Cult leadership who—though he often expects a military level of obedience and discipline from the people he works with—seems to treat the Cult’s members as more than disposable instruments.
Alexei Bodrashov resides in a stout log cabin on a hilltop deep in the Valdai Highlands?. He lives alone (but for a horse and several well-bred hunting dogs), but on occasion receives visitors; and Bodrashov himself rides out often, either on business for the Cult or to hunt in the woods around his home.
Though he’s well into his 60s, it’s clear that General Bodrashov was an imposing warrior in his younger years. Tall and broad-shouldered; still heavily muscled; only a slight stoop and thinning grey hair betray Bodrashov’s age. He doesn't wear armor and usually carries no weapons, preferring to dress simply and practically.
Personal History
Service with Alexander Nevsky
A native of Novgorod, Alexei Alexeievich Bodrashov is a Russian warrior of Alexander Nevsky?’s generation. He served Prince Alexander as a junior member of his druzhina (a prince’s personal retinue of warriors and military advisors), and fought with the prince in many of Alexander’s battles and campaigns. Bodrashov distinguished himself as a capable warrior and a talented leader and organizer of men, and by the time of Prince Alexander’s death, he commanded a sizeable part of the prince’s forces and had a number of victories to his name as a general.
Not only did General Bodrashov win his prince’s favor by his victories, but earned himself also the friendship and respect of the people of Novgorod and other lands by his shrewd and fair dealings. He made a policy of carefully considering (and exploiting) the interests of those people who inhabited the lands in which he fought, and ensured that he and his men were seen not merely as conquerors and plunderers for their lord’s enrichment but as protectors and addressors of grievances. In doing so, Bodrashov made many friends across the Russian lands; but he also made enemies among those who envied him the prince’s favor (especially given that Bodrashov came from no wealthy family, but was the son of a guild craftsman of no great rank).
Dismissal from the new prince’s court
The members of a prince’s druzhina serve at their own pleasure and that of their lord; they can walk away, or be dismissed, at any time. Alexei Bodrashov would never have considered leaving Prince Alexander’s service, and after Alexander’s death he was willing and ready to serve Alexander’s son Vladimir as faithfully as he served the young prince’s father. But this was not to be. Soon after Prince Vladimir took the throne in Novgorod, he dismissed Bodrashov (and several others of his father’s most seasoned and capable druzhinniki) from his service. Though Vladimir cited no faults of the men he sent away—thanking them, rather, for their loyal service and saying that he wished to make his own way in the world—the message was clear; Bodrashov and the other generals were not in favor with the new Prince. (Some said that Prince Vladimir feared that the experienced warriors and generals who'd served his father would overshadow his influence with the people, whereas others whispered that this move was Vladimir’s concession to the boyars and merchants who endorsed his accession to princehood, and who wished no competition for their influence on the young prince.)
Unlike some of the other dismissed druzhinniki, Alexei Bodrashov chose not to enter the service of another prince. Nor did the civilian life of a land-owning boyar show much promise; though Bodrashov owned a decent chunk of land in the Valdai Highlands? of Novgorod, that land was largely unprofitable—sparsely settled, useless for farming, and too treacherous of terrain, with its densely forested hills and swampland, for good hunting. So Bodrashov retired from the public eye, moved into a house that he had built deep in the Valdai woods and, to all apperances, commenced living a quiet hermit’s life.
Recruitment by the Cult of Loki
Not long after the General’s forced retirement, he was contacted by the Cult of the Fallen Trickster. The secretive organization saw in Bodrashov the skills and contacts that they needed to expand their reach, to open new avenues in their quest for a way to bring back their dead god. The Cult’s overture was well-considered; despite his seemingly reclusive lifestyle, Bodrashov had carefully stayed in touch with his many contacts throughout Novgorod and the other Russian principalities, had kept a close eye on events throughout the Slavic lands, and had even managed to exert some minor influence on affairs, using nothing more than his connections, and the trust and respect that he'd earned, in many circles, during his time with Prince Alexander.
The Cult needed such men, badly; and it wasn't just his talents that made Bodrashov so attractive a recruit to the cause. To all eyes Bodrashov appeared to be a bitter man, disgruntled and bad-tempered—with good reason: betrayed and insulted by a snot-nosed young princeling; kicked out from the circles of power; stripped of the status and influence to which he'd become accustomed; having nothing and no one to command; no purpose in his life, no great deeds to do nor anyone to recognize him for the doing. To those who formed the Cult’s “inner circle”, Bodrashov looked to be ripe for the tempting.
When the invitation was made, Bodrashov grudgingly accepted; but he quickly warmed to his new task. He recruited people of all professions into the Cult’s ranks, and put the Cult’s agents in many places. Bodrashov demanded, and soon got, a place in the inner circle; by then it could not be denied that the General’s talents were indispensable. And the old warrior ignored, though he could hardly fail to notice, the patronizing attitude which the inner circle’s other members—the wizards, priests, and monsters who led the Cult—took toward him. (See this forum thread for more details.)
Bodrashov’s true purpose
"this guy seems the least capable of guile that I've seen in a while"
Unbeknownst to all (with only the recent exception of Vasily and his friends), General Bodrashov had expected (something like) the Cult’s invitation, and agreed to join them and work with them not out of a belief in their cause, nor for any selfish pursuit of power and glory—but because he had been given a mission. Before he died, Prince Alexander Nevsky? had explained to Bodrashov what he foresaw, and what he had already seen happening, in the future of Novgorod and All-Russia: the infiltration by dark forces and monstrous beings, the corruption of all that was honest and righteous in Russian society, and a fate of suffering under the heel of evil wizards, demons, and the gods only knew what other sorts of villains. So Alexander had given Bodrashov a secret task: to find and infiltrate whatever evil conspiracy or dark power would come out as the mover behind the darkness that was descending on the Russian lands—and to ensure their evil plans would never come to fruition.
It was a task of daunting scope, but Bodrashov was a patient man. He behaved exactly as he knew he must, to seem like the perfect ally for any would-be evil conspiracy of the sort he sought. He accepted the Cult’s offer when they made it, and worked diligently to expand the Cult’s reach and influence, to put Cult agents in many places—while ensuring that it was his people that these agents were. Bodrashov took his place in the Cult’s inner circle, though he knew that Chernovsky, Ileana, and the others considered his elevation to that group to be a nearly meaningless gesture, given his lack of magical power or scholarly knowledge. And so Bodrashov searched for an ally: someone young, like-minded (or who might be persuaded to his side), ambitious, resourceful, clever and guileful, and learned in arcane matters and in the lore of the strange and dark powers that were the Cult’s playthings and instruments. He did not have to search long. In Vasily, Alexei Bodrashov found his answer. (See this forum thread for more details.)
Dealings with the PCs
Settling down in Novgorod
The player characters first encountered General Bodrashov after successfully recovering the Journal of Zmei Gromovoi from that great dragon’s lair in the Kara-Kum Desert?. The Cult of the Fallen Trickster had long sought to get their hands on that invaluable tome, and when Vasily reported his successful heist to his Cult superior, Lev Gurov, the latter introduced the party to the General. Bodrashov praised Vasily and his friends for their resourcefulness, and made them an offer: he would set up a well-protected, hidden research base, to be run by the Cult, where the Journal could be studied in depth, and its secrets plumbed. The PCs would leave the precious book there, and take part in the research efforts as they saw fit. Bodrashov offered, in short, a secure base of operations and significant resources for studying the Journal; in exchange, the party would surrender exclusive access to the Journal, and allow the Cult to gain the knowledge it contained.
The PCs, knowing that their prospects of deciphering and fully understanding the immense book on their own were poor, and trusting in the selfish (thus comprehensible) motives of the Cult, agreed to the deal. Bodrashov kept his end of the bargain, and arranged (though it took some effort from both the PCs and the Cult) for the promised research base to be set up in an old abandoned dungeon in the Valdai Highlands, created long ago by Vladislav Chernovsky? as a site for arcane experimentation. Thus began in earnest the party’s long-standing relationship with the Cult of Loki. (See this session log for more details.)
The voice of caution
Bodrashov continued to be the face of the Cult leadership, as far as the PCs were concerned; he directed the Cult’s operations, and dealt with problematic situations. Again and again he urged the PCs to care and subtlety in their behavior, and when this advice conflicted with the party’s direct approach to matters, Bodrashov would take the PCs to task for their actions (sometimes, perhaps, unfairly, as Vasily and his friends often found themselves embroiled in violent confrontations which they could hardly be said to have invited). Nevertheless, the General often took it upon himself to clean up the chaos that the PCs left in their wake, acting always with the aim of protecting the Cult’s secrecy and the integrity of its mission.
Greybeard’s Fortress
When the PCs journeyed to the Shadow Realm? to rescue an expedition that had been sent there by Vladislav Chernovsky? to mine shadow-iron, they clashed with a group hired by Isidor for the same purpose. The PCs emerged victorious, but had taken prisoners—Isidor’s employees—whom the party lacked the resources to properly incarcerate. General Bodrashov stepped in with a solution; calling in some favors, he secured for the Cult’s use an entire cell block of the fortress? of Olaf Greybeard, where the PCs could house prisoners whenever they needed to do so. (The party would later use this well-secured dungeon to imprison more of Isidor’s henchmen, including a party of adventurers which included a certain pixie?.)
The Key and other troubles
When the Cult discovered, in Zmei Gromovoi’s Journal, a recipe for the creation of a strange magical construct/phenomenon that would work some great magic upon the Shadow Realm, they at once set about constructing it. This device, which came to be known as “the Key” (in reference to a prophecy, relayed by Astrid, about Loki’s return), turned out to have several worrying properties. First, after being built, it needed to be “fed” with magical energy before it could be activated—and its nourishment came in the form of living spellcasters, whose bodies and souls the Key consumed. And if that were not enough, there was also the fact—uncovered by the Cult researchers who studied the device as it was being constructed—that the Key’s activation would be felt... by all spellcasters, everywhere.
Vasily was greatly troubled by these facts, and even more troubled by the fact that Vladislav Chernovsky (it had become clear by then that among the Cult’s inner circle, it was the lich who was taking the keenest interest and the closest supervision of the “Key project” and of the other work of the research base) viewed the matter with what seemed like a blasé indifference to dire consequences. General Bodrashov agreed with Vasily’s concerns, and revealed that he was becoming increasingly worried about the motives and methods of the Cult’s leaders. Bodrashov did what he could to prevent the Key project (especially the acquisition of spellcaster “fuel” for its activation) from turning into a fiasco; however, said Bodrashov, the real problem was that those who made up the Cult’s inner circle were (unlike himself and Vasily) not true believers in Loki’s cause, and their alien motives and lack of concern for consequences could bring about chaos and destruction on a large scale.