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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay · From The Old World to 5th Edition · Mythveil Chronicles
November · Week 2 · The World Beneath the Snow · Kislev · Stacy & Caelwyn
THE STORY — THE WITCH WHO HELD BACK WINTER
The snow had stopped falling three days ago. Unfortunately, it had not stopped in the usual sense. Thousands of flakes hung motionless above the northern ridge, suspended like dust in glass. Behind them a blizzard raged, lightning flickered without thunder and black clouds rolled against a gigantic translucent wall of ice. Below it, the Kislevite village of Vysokaya sat in an unnaturally calm valley.
“Blizzards usually move,” Caelwyn observed. “This one has been stopped,” said Stacy. “Impressive,” he replied. “Terrifying,” she added. “Both can be true.” The woman responsible stood nearby: Darya Serebrova, an Ice Witch whose traditional power was strongest when Kislev’s winter was deepest. Three days earlier, with roofs being torn away and roads vanishing, she had climbed the ridge and raised the barrier. Two hundred villagers were alive because of it.
Inside the communal hall Stacy noticed a little girl whose fingertips were white and dangerously cold. The child barely felt them. Others reported the same strange indifference to freezing weather. The villagers had called it a blessing; Stacy recognised the danger of losing the body’s warning signals. Darya admitted that her magic might be responsible, but bristled at questioning. She had protected the village. Surely that should have been enough? Stacy asked where the storm’s wind and snow had gone. Darya had no reassuring answer. The barrier could only hold for a time, and she was already exhausted.
Then a courier arrived, nearly frozen, his horse spent. Seventeen travellers were trapped at an old tollhouse in the eastern pass. The blizzard had abruptly changed direction and buried their road. Examining an old map, Stacy and Caelwyn discovered what Darya had done: she had sheltered Vysokaya by forcing the storm away from the valley, but diverted the worst of its force towards people she could not see. She had known the wind would turn. She had not checked who might lie in its path.
A crack appeared in the wall. Snow had been accumulating against the ice for three days, layer upon layer, like water behind a dam. A section broke loose, and the resulting avalanche swallowed a stretch of forest. The entire village stood below the great barrier. If it failed at once, it might destroy the very people it was protecting.
At a village meeting, a hunter remembered an ancient cutting through the ridge, once used by winds to blow snow into an abandoned quarry. It had been blocked by an avalanche years before. The quarry was deep, but a granary stood beside it. The villagers would have to move their precious grain and clear the passage before Darya deliberately weakened the wall. There was no perfect plan, merely a chance to avoid a greater disaster.
First they went to rescue the stranded travellers. Varya, an experienced Ungol guide, led them through snow that had swallowed every visible road. She remembered rock formations, trees and dangerous slopes. At the tollhouse they found all seventeen people alive but cold and starving. Darya helped clear the entrance. Hungry wolves followed the rescue sledges; the witch frightened them off with a line of ice spears. Moments later an avalanche broke from the ridge. She raised a new wall to stop it, even after the travellers had reached shelter under the rocks. Stacy called to her to let the snow pass. At last Darya released it, and the avalanche thundered away without swallowing the people she’d been determined to save.
Back in Vysokaya the villagers stopped waiting for the witch to solve everything. They moved the grain, reinforced the roofs, cleared the old storm cutting and marked evacuation routes. Darya climbed the ridge again with Stacy, Caelwyn and Varya. When the Ice Witch opened a gap in her barrier, the storm surged through with far more force than expected. She could no longer close it. Instead, with the others securing ropes and shouting warnings, she changed the angle of the ice and guided the torrent towards the quarry. The wall shattered. For several minutes the village disappeared behind swirling white darkness.
At dawn, Vysokaya still stood. The lower granary had been destroyed. Houses were damaged, people injured, and the landscape had changed. The rescued travellers were safe; most of the grain had been moved. Darya remained to help with repairs and to tend those whose sense of cold her magic had dulled. Some villagers forgave her, others did not. Their gratitude and anger could both be justified.
On their last evening, Caelwyn asked whether she would ever raise such a wall again. Darya answered that she might, if people needed saving. But next time she would first ask where the storm would go. She would tell the village what she knew, what she suspected and what she could not predict. Stacy reminded her that commanding ice did not make the snow, wind or their consequences cease to exist. Winter could be held, delayed and redirected, never simply erased. The wall had bought three precious days. What saved Vysokaya afterwards was what the villagers did with that time.
THE STORY RETOLD IN DIALOGUE — STACY & CAELWYN
CAELWYN:
Stacy, there’s something wrong with that mountain.
STACY:
That’s not the mountain. That’s a blizzard.
CAELWYN:
Blizzards usually move.
STACY:
This one has been stopped.
CAELWYN:
Snowflakes hanging in the air, lightning without thunder. Impressive.
STACY:
Extraordinary.
CAELWYN:
Terrifying.
STACY:
Both can be true.
CAELWYN:
Who did it?
STACY:
Darya Serebrova, an Ice Witch of Kislev.
CAELWYN:
Of course. When winter isn’t enough, employ someone to arrange it personally.
STACY:
She saved Vysokaya. The storm was tearing off roofs and burying roads.
CAELWYN:
Two hundred people survived because of her.
STACY:
Yes. But something unusual has happened to the villagers.
CAELWYN:
Apart from living under a mountain of frozen weather?
STACY:
Some have stopped feeling the cold.
CAELWYN:
Rather convenient in Kislev.
STACY:
Not when a little girl has frostbitten fingers and scarcely notices.
CAELWYN:
So the cold could still harm her.
STACY:
Yes. She’d lost the warning, not the danger.
CAELWYN:
The villagers thought it was a blessing.
STACY:
They believed the witch’s magic made them stronger.
CAELWYN:
Did Darya know?
STACY:
She suspected a connection but underestimated the consequences.
CAELWYN:
And you asked her questions.
STACY:
Naturally. Where did the storm go? How long can the wall stand?
CAELWYN:
I imagine she loved that.
STACY:
Not particularly. But she admitted she couldn’t maintain it forever.
CAELWYN:
Then the courier arrived.
STACY:
Half frozen. Seventeen travellers were trapped at a tollhouse on the eastern road.
CAELWYN:
The wind had suddenly turned into the pass.
STACY:
We traced it on the map. The barrier had redirected the storm.
CAELWYN:
She saved a village and endangered people she couldn’t see.
STACY:
Without intending to. But consequences are not cancelled by good intentions.
CAELWYN:
Pavel the headman was furious with us.
STACY:
Because he heard questions as accusations against his rescuer.
CAELWYN:
Were they accusations?
STACY:
No. We needed to understand the danger before choosing what to do.
CAELWYN:
Then the ice wall began cracking.
STACY:
Three days of snow had collected behind it, like water behind a dam.
CAELWYN:
And the village stood directly below.
STACY:
If the wall failed suddenly, an avalanche could bury Vysokaya.
CAELWYN:
A magical wall with a very unfortunate warranty.
STACY:
We needed a safe place for the snow to go.
CAELWYN:
The old hunter remembered a quarry.
STACY:
A deep hollow fed by an ancient storm passage, blocked years ago.
CAELWYN:
Only the granary stood beside it.
STACY:
So the villagers had to move their grain and reopen the cutting.
CAELWYN:
And we went after the stranded travellers.
STACY:
With the Ungol guide Varya. She could read a landscape buried in snow.
CAELWYN:
I couldn’t see any road at all.
STACY:
She remembered the ridges, rocks and old markers.
CAELWYN:
We found smoke coming from the tollhouse chimney.
STACY:
Seventeen people inside, cold and hungry, but alive.
CAELWYN:
Then wolves followed our sledges.
STACY:
Darya frightened them away with spears of ice.
CAELWYN:
A good thing. We already had enough trouble.
STACY:
Then an avalanche broke from the slope.
CAELWYN:
Darya tried to hold the whole thing back.
STACY:
Even when the travellers were already safe beneath the rocks.
CAELWYN:
She thought letting go meant people would die.
STACY:
So I told her she didn’t have to hold the entire mountain.
CAELWYN:
She released the barrier. The snow passed us.
STACY:
And we brought the people back alive.
CAELWYN:
But Vysokaya still had its wall.
STACY:
Yes. This time the villagers helped prepare for its collapse.
CAELWYN:
They moved the grain, strengthened houses and cleared the old passage.
STACY:
Darya climbed the ridge with us, exhausted but no longer alone.
CAELWYN:
We secured the ropes and you watched the cracks.
STACY:
She opened the eastern end of the wall to let the snow into the quarry.
CAELWYN:
Carefully, in theory.
STACY:
In practice the pressure was greater than expected.
CAELWYN:
Half the mountain tried to come through at once.
STACY:
Darya couldn’t close the gap, so we changed the plan.
CAELWYN:
She stopped trying to hold the storm and guided its course.
STACY:
Angled ice barriers directed the worst of the avalanche into the quarry.
CAELWYN:
Then the entire magical wall shattered.
STACY:
For minutes we could not see the village.
CAELWYN:
I thought we’d lost it.
STACY:
But when the storm passed, Vysokaya was still standing.
CAELWYN:
Not untouched. The lower granary was destroyed.
STACY:
And houses were damaged. People were injured. But the village survived.
CAELWYN:
Did the people forgive Darya?
STACY:
Some did. Others were angry that the risks had been concealed.
CAELWYN:
Both responses made sense.
STACY:
Yes. Her power saved lives and caused harm.
CAELWYN:
So was raising the wall wrong?
STACY:
Not necessarily. It bought time during a terrible emergency.
CAELWYN:
But she assumed that holding the storm meant ending it.
STACY:
Exactly. And she should have explained what she knew and didn’t know.
CAELWYN:
Did she learn anything?
STACY:
Next time she’ll ask where the wind will go before stopping it.
CAELWYN:
And tell the village the risks?
STACY:
Even when those risks frighten them.
CAELWYN:
It’s easier to trust a witch who promises everything will be fine.
STACY:
And dangerous to mistake protection for certainty.
CAELWYN:
Darya can command ice and blizzards.
STACY:
But she cannot erase their consequences.
CAELWYN:
So winter is stronger than the witch.
STACY:
Strength isn’t the important question.
CAELWYN:
It never is when I find a simple one.
STACY:
The important question is whether power helps people understand the world or stops them trying.
CAELWYN:
The storm has moved on. The winter hasn’t.
STACY:
And next time the villagers will need their witch, their hunters, their guides and each other.
CAELWYN:
Less spectacular than a mountain of ice.
STACY:
Considerably more reliable.
CAELWYN:
If winter ever becomes something I can hit with a sword, tell me.
STACY:
You’ll be the first to know.
CAELWYN:
Finally. A problem I understand.
THE QUESTION
When someone has enough power to protect an entire community, does that mean they understand every consequence of using it? What happens when saving one group endangers another, and who remembers the dangers hidden behind apparently permanent protection? Darya’s magic, courage and the lives she saved were real. But the storm had never ceased to exist. It had only been held back, and the consequences grew behind the wall.
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