Explore the campaign: Enemy Within: Death on the Reik
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay · From The Old World to 5th Edition · Mythveil Chronicles
Spooky October · Week 4 · What If We Named the Wrong Monster? · Kislev · Sean & Eljara
SEAN:
“They’ve tied a merchant to a post outside the village.”
ELJARA:
“Farid ibn Salim. An Arabyan trader. He arrived three days before the first death.”
SEAN:
“And apparently that makes him responsible for winter. In Kislev.”
ELJARA:
“The villagers say the road changed when he arrived. People have disappeared, and the dead have been seen walking beyond the palisade.”
SEAN:
“Farid says he tried to leave. Every road brought him back.”
ELJARA:
“Which could mean something wanted him here. Or that something has trapped everyone.”
SEAN:
“Yet they’ve decided he’s the problem because he speaks differently and prays to a god they don’t recognise.”
ELJARA:
“He also refused to take part in their offerings.”
SEAN:
“To the Mother of Winter.”
ELJARA:
“An old wooden figure beneath three pines. The villagers believe she keeps the worst of the cold outside their walls.”
SEAN:
“And we’ve seen her power. Last night, pale figures came out of the forest. One of them looked like a missing child.”
ELJARA:
“The child’s mother nearly opened the gate.”
SEAN:
“Then the shrine began to glow. The figures withdrew.”
ELJARA:
“So the protection is real.”
SEAN:
“Something happened. That doesn’t tell us who caused it.”
ELJARA:
“Darya, the priestess, says the village once stopped making offerings. The animals froze in their barns, and the elder disappeared.”
SEAN:
“Then they started the rituals again, and the deaths stopped. A convincing story, until you ask what happened to everyone who vanished before that.”
ELJARA:
“An old woman remembered another version. The shrine was brought from the forest by a man who had supposedly returned from the dead.”
SEAN:
“And nobody remembers the original bargain.”
ELJARA:
“Only that the Mother protected the village.”
SEAN:
“Until she demanded a child.”
ELJARA:
“Anya. Seven years old. Her father had disappeared into the forest.”
SEAN:
“And the voice beneath the shrine said she belonged to it.”
ELJARA:
“The villagers were terrified. Some thought surrendering one child might save everyone else.”
SEAN:
“That’s when I decided we’d heard quite enough from their bloody Mother.”
ELJARA:
“You were about to strike the statue.”
SEAN:
“And Farid told me not to.”
ELJARA:
“He began humming a lullaby his mother had taught him in Araby.”
SEAN:
“The light stopped moving towards Anya. And the voice asked who had taught him the song.”
ELJARA:
“Which is extraordinary. A melody from his childhood, recognised by something beneath an ancient Kislevite shrine.”
SEAN:
“Does that make Farid a sorcerer?”
ELJARA:
“No. It makes him someone who knows a song. We don’t yet know why it matters.”
SEAN:
“Then the offerings stopped, and the winter grew worse. Three villagers froze before morning.”
ELJARA:
“So Darya may have been right about the protection.”
SEAN:
“Or the thing beneath the shrine punished them for refusing.”
ELJARA:
“Both explanations fit what we witnessed.”
SEAN:
“And neither tells us whether giving it Anya would have saved the village.”
ELJARA:
“Her father appeared outside the gate that night. Or something wearing his face.”
SEAN:
“He told us not to give her away.”
ELJARA:
“Then he vanished beneath the snow.”
SEAN:
“By dawn, Farid was released. The elder finally apologised.”
ELJARA:
“But the shrine is still there. We don’t know whether the Mother is a spirit, a daemon or something else entirely.”
SEAN:
“No. We don’t even know whether the song protected Anya or merely delayed what comes next.”
ELJARA:
“So what have we accomplished?”
SEAN:
“Look over there.”
ELJARA:
“Anya?”
SEAN:
“She’s alive. Her mother’s holding her. And nobody handed her over to something they couldn’t even name.”
ELJARA:
“That doesn’t mean the danger is over.”
SEAN:
“Never said it was.”
ELJARA:
“Then what do we do tomorrow?”
SEAN:
“We keep the fires burning. We find out what that bloody shrine is. And we stop blaming strangers just because they’re easier to reach than whatever’s waiting in the forest.”
THE QUESTION
If an ancient power genuinely protects a community, does that justify whatever price it demands? When a stranger arrives before disaster, why is it easier to blame him than question the traditions everyone depends upon? And if saving a village means surrendering one of its children, what exactly are we trying to preserve?
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