Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
Because that isn't fun enough for me
Across the Siberian Tundra: No SV, You Are Not Here to fight for the Revolution, You Are on an Adventure Across Revolutionary Russia
- Thread starter Magoose
- Start date
- Action Historic
- Pronouns
- Reader
Magoose wants high stakes action. I'm with him on this 100%. 😎👍👍
[x]The Aerodrome Theft – Getting Vlad His Wings A plane could change everything—allowing them to escape Petrograd, scout enemy movements, and even conduct airborne raids. The problem? The Bolsheviks control the city's aerodrome, and stealing an aircraft is no easy task. However, The count has a plan. He wants to… quite literally, bring you to the Reds. and then escape.
- Location
- Puerto Rico
[X]The Art Heist at the Hermitage – Funding the Escape: The Hermitage Museum holds priceless works of art, now at risk of either destruction or being sold off by the Bolsheviks. Rostov thinks that with a few choice masterpieces, they can finance anything they can use.
[X]The Aerodrome Theft – Getting Vlad His Wings A plane could change everything—allowing them to escape Petrograd, scout enemy movements, and even conduct airborne raids. The problem? The Bolsheviks control the city's aerodrome, and stealing an aircraft is no easy task. However, The count has a plan. He wants to… quite literally, bring you to the Reds. and then escape.
- Location
- France
[X]The Art Heist at the Hermitage – Funding the Escape: The Hermitage Museum holds priceless works of art, now at risk of either destruction or being sold off by the Bolsheviks. Rostov thinks that with a few choice masterpieces, they can finance anything they can use.
The Empire is dead. Good ridance.
What will come will be little better.
Suck to be Russia.
Let's make some money and leave this cursed land.
The Empire is dead. Good ridance.
What will come will be little better.
Suck to be Russia.
Let's make some money and leave this cursed land.
[x]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia: The Bolsheviks have seized the Winter Palace, looting its treasures for redistribution or sale. Rumors spread that the imperial regalia—crowns, scepters, and priceless Fabergé eggs—are locked in a secret vault beneath the palace. Since they have you, you can lead them through it.
[X]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia:
I kinda want the audocity
I kinda want the audocity
Duke William of
I really need to finish my quests. :V
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia: The Bolsheviks have seized the Winter Palace, looting its treasures for redistribution or sale. Rumors spread that the imperial regalia—crowns, scepters, and priceless Fabergé eggs—are locked in a secret vault beneath the palace. Since they have you, you can lead them through it.
[X]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia: The Bolsheviks have seized the Winter Palace, looting its treasures for redistribution or sale. Rumors spread that the imperial regalia—crowns, scepters, and priceless Fabergé eggs—are locked in a secret vault beneath the palace. Since they have you, you can lead them through it.
[x]The Aerodrome Theft – Getting Vlad His Wings A plane could change everything—allowing them to escape Petrograd, scout enemy movements, and even conduct airborne raids. The problem? The Bolsheviks control the city's aerodrome, and stealing an aircraft is no easy task. However, The count has a plan. He wants to… quite literally, bring you to the Reds. and then escape.
I kind of want to play as an Anastasia who simply wants to leave it all behind. No ambitions of revenge or for monarchist restoration. Just a girl who wants to be left in peace after the chaos of the war and the revolution.
I kind of want to play as an Anastasia who simply wants to leave it all behind. No ambitions of revenge or for monarchist restoration. Just a girl who wants to be left in peace after the chaos of the war and the revolution.
[X]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia: The Bolsheviks have seized the Winter Palace, looting its treasures for redistribution or sale. Rumors spread that the imperial regalia—crowns, scepters, and priceless Fabergé eggs—are locked in a secret vault beneath the palace. Since they have you, you can lead them through it.
Just to give Lenin a big middle finger.
Ah, a Quest to desperately escape Russia. I'm sure many can relate.^^
Jokes aside, this is a very interesting period of History, and who knows how much or little impact our Actions will have on it? I, for one, am eager to find out.
Just to give Lenin a big middle finger.
Ah, a Quest to desperately escape Russia. I'm sure many can relate.^^
Jokes aside, this is a very interesting period of History, and who knows how much or little impact our Actions will have on it? I, for one, am eager to find out.
- Location
- California,USA
Our Pilot: I see we are being chased by the Airforce.
Ana: All like...twelve of them in the city.
Our Pilot: It will be a few less when I'm done with them.
[x] [x]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia: The Bolsheviks have seized the Winter Palace, looting its treasures for redistribution or sale. Rumors spread that the imperial regalia—crowns, scepters, and priceless Fabergé eggs—are locked in a secret vault beneath the palace. Since they have you, you can lead them through it.
This quest is going to be utterly chaotic and I'm going to love it.
Russia is in turmoil, run by the Bolsheviks who are both evil AND stupid and led by a bald revolutionary who thinks it's a brilliant idea to hang all the skilled farmers in Russia and then later wonders why there are food shortages, and I just know it's going to be a hell of a headache trying to keep our party of misfits from turning on each other.
They all have their own motivations and goals, and it is clear that none of them trust each other at all.
The Count seems to be the unofficial leader, but something tells me that if she wants to make it through this, Anna is going to have to find a strength and resolve within herself, and to become a leader in her own right.
Russia is in turmoil, run by the Bolsheviks who are both evil AND stupid and led by a bald revolutionary who thinks it's a brilliant idea to hang all the skilled farmers in Russia and then later wonders why there are food shortages, and I just know it's going to be a hell of a headache trying to keep our party of misfits from turning on each other.
They all have their own motivations and goals, and it is clear that none of them trust each other at all.
The Count seems to be the unofficial leader, but something tells me that if she wants to make it through this, Anna is going to have to find a strength and resolve within herself, and to become a leader in her own right.
[X]The Winter Palace Gambit – Stealing the Imperial Regalia
I feel that this story could turn out to be one of the most simultaneously wacky and horrifying ones that you have written, Magoose. It's Russia. A country whose national motto might as well be "And then it got worse."
Listening to Russian classical music as I start this review.
This is going to be hilarious and sad.
Also, I picture all the adventuring party members being introduced like this.
There is a very good chance that the shenanigans that our gang will get up to may change the course of history not only in Russia but the rest of the world. Oh my God, Ana, you just killed Lenin! What, says Ana, all I did was accidentally set the house on fire. Yes, that was Lenin's house, and he was inside it, you just burned him alive. Oh. Blyat. (Russian guards are showing up to try to put out the fire) Well, time to go.
Ah, the Russian Tsarist system. What started as a larping of the imperial Chinese system turned into a larping of the Prussian monarchy. And now that has fallen apart and a bunch of revolutionaries intend to impose more German ideals created by Engels (not Marx, that guy never wrote a damn thing)
Being a Russian autocrat is an extremely perilous role. For some weird reason, Russian leaders have always needed military wars to stay in power. I find that fascinating; dictators in other countries like China, Venezuela, North Korea and Eritrea don't need to invade their neighbors in order to hold onto power.
When the Bolsheviks moved to overthrow the Provisional Government, the people did nothing to stop them.
The Provisional Government is unable to consolidate its power and to restore the Russian economy (the First World War is likely still ongoing at this point)
Russia reached the pinnacle of its power and influence under Catherine the Great, and has been declining ever since.
Despite Tsar Alexander presenting himself as the new master of Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in my opinion the real winner was the British Empire.
Russia did not participate in the 1848 Revolutions.
The French Revolution spread throughout Europe, but not in Russia.
I do not see Ana seizing the imperial Russian throne as a good ending for her. Maybe she would somehow find a way out of all this, or maybe she won't.
But no matter what, I suspect that she would need to become ruthless in order to survive.
We have a lot of accounts of the western front of this war, but I'm more curious about the eastern front. Apparently there was far more movement in that front, instead of the static trench warfare of the western front.
"Russia has a large, modern military, but the large part isn't modern and the modern part isn't large."
- Perun
The millstone around Germany's neck - one that is still there even to this day - is that Germany lacks resources. Lack of oil.
Prussia, and later Germany, designed its military to fight and win short, sharp wars with quick strikes and decisive battles. Germany does not have the resources to fight long attritional wars.
But in the context of the First World War...Jesus Christ Almighty were the Russians incompetent. There were moments of brilliance here and there, but that's it.
I should watch the The Great War series by the TimeGhost team some day.
Have to give him credit, he has courage for doing that.
Russia's economy depends on those railways...
Would it be more dangerous for our party to move through the countryside or the cities?
Maybe the party could find aid and help from these people. Or hostility. The Magoose dice would decide that.
Yep. Welcome to Russia.
Again, I'm assuming that the war is still raging at the start of this story.
The Germans helped Lenin get from Switzerland to Saint Petersburg. They saw him as a useful idiot. They were correct.
And then the Bolsheviks lost an election to the Social Revolutionaries and decided to do another coup.
Tsar Alexander the Second tried to end serfdom, but his actions barely improved the lives of the common Russian people.
By the way, he also encouraged Finnish nationalism and autonomy. In Finland, he is known as "The Good Tsar."
To this day, even now, with everything that is happening, a statue of him still stands in Helsinki.
Statues of Lenin however are now nowhere to be seen in Finland. Can't imagine why. Lenin was such a wonderful and kind person who definitely didn't murder and imprison everyone who opposed him nor referred to the abduction and enslavement of women as "collectivised resocialization."
Yeah, I'm not a fan of Lenin. Though him perishing in a burning building in this story would probably be more merciful than the strokes he suffered in real life.
A Soviet Superman?
Say what you want about the Soviets, but they made some damn good songs. Farewell of Slavianka is one of my favorites.
The Soviets did have a genuine idealogy.
It was a terrible idealogy that didn't work at all, but it was at least real.
I cannot say the same about the current regime in Russia, which waves and displays Tsarist and Soviet flags right next to each other (if the Bolsheviks could see such a thing, they would be livid)
I'm unfamiliar with bars, since I don't drink. Just don't see much fun in sitting in one spot slowly drinking a beverage.
Now I'm curious of what the best bars in Europe in 1917 were.
Places where people can get together and talk and discuss. It may not seem like much, but they are very important in maintaining a nation.
The First World War will change so much. The world is never going to be the same again. And who knows what the actions of our party would bring about. Maybe they would make things better, or make them worse, or both.
A Jewish Englishman of Russian descent meets the Romanovs.
"You people. You hunted my mom. With dogs. Through the snow."
Cossacks are terrifying to me. We know of the effect that they had on the French invasion in 1812.
Stay alive. You won't be able to do so alone. None of these six people would, and they know it. They have to stick together.
The vote decided that this story's protagonist would be the youngest of the six. That makes everything more difficult. She is not an ace pilot, nor a military officer, nor a cossack, nor a nobleman-slash-thief. She is a princess who has grown up in a life of luxury.
I suspect that all five of her companions believe that she wouldn't last a week, with or without their help. One or more of them may even see her as a liability who would get them killed.
Irish: "Why'd yeh want to fly planes, anyway?"
German: "Because it looked to me like the most wonderful thing on Earth. And I was right. Nothing holds you back. You are completely free. There is no black bread or cabbage soup, no gloomy little house in a Hamburg backstreet. No poor, sad mother with her piles of laundry. No poppa. The first time they let me loose in a Messerschmitt one-oh-nine, I could not believe my luck. It felt to me like falling in love. It was only as an afterthought I realized, 'Well, it seems I have become a soldier after all'...and I didn't care a bit. It is a good way to go to war. The best way, I think. A duel between warriors, decided by skill and daring. It is war fought cleanly, with respect for an opponent. With mercy, with decency, and with honor."
Spaniard: "...and now you have come to fight your 'clean war' here, in Spain."
- War Story: Condors
I personally do not agree with the German. Not exactly easy to find decency and honor in that sort of a war when you are trying to fly your plane while covered in your co-pilot's remains.
Forgive me, but it seems to me like this is a drug to him. He just wants to fly again.
Hm. Could Ana convince him to put his faith and loyalty in her, that she would help him to achieve his dream if he helps her to achieve hers?
It seems that Oleg is - or was - a true believer who wanted to build a better world, a better Russia.
But unfortunately he is in the minority of Russians, it seems.
The French Revolution prevailed and its legacy lived on, because of the people of France and the rest of Europe.
Unfortunately for Oleg, he learned the hard way that the majority of Russian people aren't interested in freedom, nor in the rights of the man and the citizen.
Would Ana be able to win Oleg over? It would certainly be difficult, considering that she is a member of the royal family.
I'm worried about him. In my opinion he may be a wildcard. Unpredictable. Who knows what he might do.
Alina is currently separated from the rest of her people. What is she doing in this bar in Russia? What brought her all this way?
Imagine if Ana were to convince and then earnestly work to help Alina achieve the dream of her and her people - to become a free and independent nation at last. The war is still ongoing, and Russia is losing horribly.
Also, the Ukrainian War of Independence lasted from March 1917 to November 1921.
In real life, Ukraine lost this war to the Bolsheviks, who forcefully turned it into a Soviet SSR.
In this story, who knows what could happen.
Alina is a proud fighter, a warrior and a swordswoman. Ana would have to do a lot to earn her respect, never mind her loyalty.
Also...Alina is undoubtedly dangerous. She may get ideas in her head on whether Ana could prove to be useful to the Ukrainian cause.
...was it a coincidence that she just happened to be at this bar when Ana showed up?
Yep, definitely a Russian nobleman.
"The main, persistent belief in Russia has been, for centuries, that you can get rich through theft."
- Konstantin Samoilov
Alexei is no helpless pampered noble. He is capable in his own way, otherwise he'd be in a mass grave alongside many other Russian nobles by now.
So Alexei is taking a huge risk. He could try to flee Russia now, but he will not be reduced to the life of a commoner, and is determined to steal as many riches as he can before he leaves.
Of Ana's five companions, he is the one whom I trust the least.
He always was a thief. That's the whole point of being a Russian elite. He's now just more honest about it.
This is Russia. Everyone steals from everyone. More so now that everything is falling apart.
Makes me think of Dean Domino in Fallout: New Vegas.
Alexei would undoubtedly be useful, but Ana should never turn her back on him.
I'm glad that the vote for her won, because it ups the difficulty and also, well, she's probably the most interesting one protagonist-wise. She's the youngest and least worldly-experienced, which provides a lot of room for character growth and development.
Will she survive, or will she perish? Or will she not only survive but triumph?
In my opinion, she cannot walk around calling herself Grand Duchess Anastasia anymore. She must become someone else.
"Who am I? I could be anyone."
This quest is going to be fun, isn't it?
Whatever else you can say about Nicholas the Second, he was a loving father. His last words in real life were a plea to the Bolsheviks to kill him but to spare his family.
Whatever the crimes of her parents, Ana is innocent. But she may need to do terrible things in order to survive. As she is now, she will not last very long. She must find a strength within herself.
Last edited:
Vote closed
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Magoose
SV's Questing Fanatic
- Location
- California USA
- Pronouns
- He
the winter palace won.
Time to rob the Bolsheviks of some of their greatest Trophies.
Oh, to be a fly on the Wall when Lenin learns the News...
Oh, to be a fly on the Wall when Lenin learns the News...