Ravenloft · The Winter Within · Week 2 · Shortform 3 · EN · Mara & Chibi
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The bell did not ring.
Morning had come to the little Barovian village, although the sky remained the colour of wet ashes. Snow covered the rooftops, and the Balinok Mountains stood dark beyond the houses.
Beside the village square rose a small stone chapel.
Above its door was a carved sun.
Its bell tower stood silent.
MARA: “Why aren’t the bells ringing?”
CHIBI: “Perhaps they’re sleeping.”
MARA: “Bells don’t sleep.”
CHIBI: “Then perhaps they’re on holiday.”
MARA: “Where would a bell go on holiday?”
CHIBI: “Somewhere warm. I wouldn’t blame it.”
Mara noticed the old footprints leading towards the chapel.
MARA: “People used to come here.”
CHIBI: “Perhaps they stopped liking stairs.”
MARA: “Come on.”
Inside, a few candles burned before a painted image of the rising sun. An elderly woman was straightening the candleholders.
CHIBI: “Good morning!”
WOMAN: “That remains to be seen.”
CHIBI: “Oh. You don’t trust mornings either.”
The woman gave a dry laugh.
WOMAN: “My name is Ilyana. I look after this chapel.”
MARA: “Are you a priest?”
ILYANA: “No. Just someone who remembers where everything belongs.”
CHIBI: “That’s useful. I forget where I put things all the time.”
MARA: “Usually because you’ve put them somewhere ridiculous.”
CHIBI: “An unfair accusation.”
Mara approached the painted sun.
MARA: “Who is that?”
ILYANA: “The Morninglord. The people here have long prayed to him for dawn, renewal and the hope that darkness will not last forever.”
CHIBI: “Then he has a problem.”
ILYANA: “What problem?”
Chibi pointed towards the grey light beyond the windows.
CHIBI: “Have you looked outside?”
Ilyana smiled.
ILYANA: “Every morning.”
CHIBI: “Because if that’s his morning, I’d hate to see his afternoon.”
MARA: “Chibi!”
ILYANA: “Let him ask.”
She sat on an old wooden bench.
ILYANA: “Barovia is a difficult place in which to believe prayers are heard. People pray for the sick, for travellers, for children who never came home.”
MARA: “And do their prayers help?”
ILYANA: “Sometimes people recover. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the missing return. Sometimes we never learn what happened to them.”
CHIBI: “So why keep praying?”
Ilyana looked towards the candles.
ILYANA: “Because I haven’t decided that the darkness knows everything about the world.”
MARA: “But could you be wrong?”
ILYANA: “Yes.”
The answer surprised Mara.
ILYANA: “Faith would be a strange thing if I had to pretend I could never doubt.”
CHIBI: “Do you ever get angry with the Morninglord?”
ILYANA: “Sometimes.”
CHIBI: “Does he mind?”
ILYANA: “I haven’t heard him complain.”
Chibi considered this.
CHIBI: “That’s more patience than most grown-ups have.”
MARA: “Then why doesn’t the bell ring?”
Ilyana’s smile faded.
ILYANA: “Thirteen nights ago, it rang in the middle of the night.”
CHIBI: “Was someone in danger?”
ILYANA: “That’s what we thought. But the chapel was locked, and the bell rope had been cut.”
MARA: “Who rang it?”
ILYANA: “We don’t know.”
CHIBI: “Perhaps the wind?”
ILYANA: “There was no wind.”
She lowered her voice.
ILYANA: “Three men searched the churchyard. They found footprints leading from a grave towards the chapel.”
MARA: “Who was buried there?”
ILYANA: “A man who died seventeen years ago.”
CHIBI: “Perhaps someone was visiting him.”
ILYANA: “Barefoot? In the snow? In the middle of the night?”
Chibi fell quiet.
ILYANA: “After that, everyone was afraid. I stopped ringing the morning bell.”
MARA: “Did the frightening thing ever come back?”
ILYANA: “I don’t know.”
CHIBI: “People say that a lot in Barovia.”
ILYANA: “There’s good reason.”
That afternoon, the children found Sean and Eljara beside the inn.
MARA: “The bell used to tell people when the chapel was open. It called them together for prayers, weddings and funerals.”
CHIBI: “And apparently very frightening things in the graveyard.”
SEAN: “The graveyard is the part I find least appealing.”
ELJARA: “Did the bell only call people to worship?”
MARA: “No. People came to ask for food or help. They learned when someone had died and when a neighbour needed them.”
ELJARA: “Then its silence has changed more than the chapel.”
MARA: “That’s what I thought.”
SEAN: “Though I suspect we ought to investigate before anyone goes ringing it again.”
CHIBI: “I volunteer to supervise.”
SEAN: “From the ground.”
CHIBI: “You’re terribly restrictive.”
That evening, the villagers gathered at Marta’s inn.
Some wanted the chapel reopened. Others believed the bell might attract whatever had walked out of the graveyard.
Stacy insisted that nobody should be forced to take unnecessary risks. Caelwyn proposed examining the tower in daylight.
An elderly farmer spoke quietly from beside the hearth.
FARMER: “My wife went to that chapel every morning, even after our daughter died.”
MARA: “Did she still believe?”
FARMER: “She said she was angry with the Morninglord.”
CHIBI: “Then why go?”
The farmer smiled sadly.
FARMER: “She wanted him to know.”
Ilyana lowered her head.
ILYANA: “Prayer isn’t always gratitude, Chibi. Sometimes it’s grief. Sometimes a question. Sometimes anger.”
MARA: “And what about people who don’t believe in the Morninglord?”
ILYANA: “They are still our neighbours.”
CHIBI: “So they’d be welcome?”
ILYANA: “Of course.”
CHIBI: “Even if they don’t like bells?”
ILYANA: “Then they needn’t stand beneath one.”
Sean raised his cup.
SEAN: “A remarkably practical theology.”
The villagers finally agreed to examine the tower, repair what was safe to repair and decide together whether to ring the bell again.
They would not pretend the supernatural danger had disappeared.
And no one would be obliged to attend.
The following morning, Sean and Caelwyn inspected the tower.
The bell was intact. Its supports were old but repairable.
Near the belfry, they found deep scratches in the stone.
Much too high for any ordinary person.
CHIBI: “Did you find a monster?”
SEAN: “No.”
CHIBI: “Disappointing.”
SEAN: “An entirely satisfactory result, from my perspective.”
The villagers repaired the rope.
That night, however, the bell rang again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Mara woke to find Chibi staring out of their window.
CHIBI: “It’s still dark.”
MARA: “I noticed.”
The tower stood black against the falling snow.
No one was visible.
From somewhere beyond the chapel came a sound like stone being dragged across stone.
Below, Sean was securing the inn doors.
SEAN: “Nobody goes outside.”
The bell stopped.
But nobody slept easily afterwards.
By dawn, several villagers wanted to abandon the plan.
VILLAGER: “Something answered us. What if it comes back?”
MARA: “Then you should be careful.”
VILLAGER: “So why ring the bell?”
Mara looked towards Ilyana.
MARA: “Because if you never ring it again, whatever frightened you gets to decide what the bell means.”
She hesitated.
MARA: “But nobody should have to climb that tower alone.”
Sean nodded.
SEAN: “On that point, we agree completely.”
So they prepared carefully.
Villagers stood watch near the chapel. Sean accompanied Ilyana into the tower. Caelwyn checked the repaired rope. Stacy and Eljara remained with the others.
Those who preferred to stay home were free to do so.
No one entered the graveyard.
No one pursued strange sounds into the Mists.
And when the pale morning light finally reached the village roofs, Ilyana rang the bell.
Once.
A single clear note travelled over the square.
Over the snowbound houses.
Over the road disappearing into the forest.
Some villagers opened their doors. Others remained behind their shutters.
One woman bowed her head in prayer. A man who no longer believed simply listened.
The clouds did not part.
Strahd’s castle did not fall.
The Morninglord offered no unmistakable answer.
But neighbours began speaking to one another.
Marta brought warm food.
Someone asked after a sick child.
And a woman whose brother had disappeared on the eastern road found people willing to listen.
CHIBI: “That’s all?”
MARA: “What were you expecting?”
CHIBI: “Sunshine. A miracle. Possibly Strahd announcing his retirement.”
MARA: “That’s a lot to expect from one bell.”
CHIBI: “I have high standards.”
Ilyana came down from the tower, her hands trembling.
CHIBI: “Did the Morninglord answer?”
ILYANA: “Not in any way I can honestly claim.”
CHIBI: “Then why are you smiling?”
She looked at the villagers.
ILYANA: “Because I can hear other people.”
CHIBI: “That’s not the same thing.”
ILYANA: “No. And I wouldn’t want you to confuse the two.”
Mara looked towards the chapel.
MARA: “But it still matters.”
ILYANA: “Very much.”
That evening, the children sat on the chapel steps.
The snow was falling again.
CHIBI: “I think I’ve worked something out.”
MARA: “What?”
CHIBI: “The bell doesn’t make the morning happen.”
MARA: “No.”
CHIBI: “And it doesn’t frighten all the monsters away.”
MARA: “No.”
CHIBI: “But it tells everyone that another day has begun.”
MARA: “Yes.”
CHIBI: “And that there are still people here to share it with.”
Mara smiled.
Then a bell rang.
Not from the chapel behind them.
From somewhere beyond the eastern road.
The sound was distant, low and strangely familiar.
It came from the direction of an abandoned chapel whose bell had been removed generations ago.
CHIBI: “Mara?”
MARA: “I heard it.”
CHIBI: “Should we stop ringing our bell?”
Mara looked back towards the village.
Warm candlelight shone through the chapel windows. Inside, neighbours were speaking, praying or simply keeping one another company.
MARA: “I think we should tell the others what we heard.”
CHIBI: “And if it’s something terrible?”
MARA: “Then we’ll face that question together.”
The distant bell sounded again.
The Mists gathered beneath the trees.
Barovia had not been freed.
But tomorrow morning, if the villagers chose to ring their own bell, the sound would still belong to the living.
Not because they had defeated the darkness.
Because they had remembered that morning was still worth greeting.
THE WORLD REMEMBERS
In Ravenloft, even a bell can become an act of courage.
Discover Ravenloft: Hunting Evil, where faith, fear and the choices of ordinary people can change a world that remembers.
Ravenloft: Hunting Evil — StartPlaying
Real TTRPG. Real story. Real choices. Real consequences.