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Pulp Cthulhu · The Long Winter · November 2026 · Week 2 · Mara & Chibi

The Winter Has More Than One Face

December 4, 1935. Felsenbrück, a small village in the Austrian Tyrol.

Chibi had discovered something disturbing.

Almost every man in the village seemed to own a pair of horns.

There were horns hanging outside workshops, horns beside farmhouse doors and horns attached to enormous wooden masks.

CHIBI: “Mara, do people here grow horns when they get old?”

MARA: “No.”

CHIBI: “How do you know?”

MARA: “The baker hasn’t got any.”

CHIBI: “Perhaps he isn’t old enough.”

The children were standing outside Josef Kofler’s workshop.

Inside, the carpenter was preparing masks for the following evening’s Krampus procession.

Some had enormous teeth. Others possessed twisted horns, long tongues and faces that looked positively furious.

CHIBI: “How do you eat soup wearing one of those?”

JOSEF: “You take it off.”

CHIBI: “That’s disappointing.”

Josef laughed.

Then he lifted one of his largest masks and put it over his head.

He bent forward, raised his shoulders and took a slow step towards them.

The horns nearly touched the ceiling.

Chibi immediately retreated behind Mara.

CHIBI: “I don’t like that.”

Josef removed the mask.

JOSEF: “Then we stop.”

Suddenly, the frightening creature was merely a friendly carpenter again.

Mara examined the hollow wooden face.

MARA: “But we knew it was you.”

JOSEF: “Of course.”

CHIBI: “Then why was I frightened?”

Josef smiled.

JOSEF: “Because knowing something and feeling something aren’t always the same.”

That afternoon, the village was full of preparations.

Heavy bells rang outside the workshops. Young men tried on fur costumes. Families discussed the coming visit of Saint Nicholas and his fearsome companion.

Everything seemed cheerful.

Until the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

The streets emptied.

Shutters closed.

Snow began falling.

And the familiar village acquired a different face.

At the inn, Josef’s sister Anna was preparing supper.

Chibi watched a dark shed through the kitchen window.

CHIBI: “That building looks angry.”

MARA: “It’s a shed.”

CHIBI: “An angry shed.”

Anna smiled.

ANNA: “Winter changes how things look. And darkness makes us imagine what we cannot see.”

MARA: “Is that why people tell stories about winter creatures?”

Anna put down her spoon.

ANNA: “Perhaps. Long nights, dangerous roads, storms and strangers nobody can recognise. People have always found ways to give their fears a face.”

CHIBI: “But what if winter already has one?”

Before Anna could answer, the bells began.

Deep iron bells, carried by men practising for tomorrow’s procession.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

Then silence.

The storm strengthened.

And later, from somewhere near the little chapel above the village, another bell sounded.

A smaller one.

Ding.

Chibi looked up.

Ding.

CHIBI: “That isn’t Josef’s bell.”

MARA: “Perhaps somebody is still practising.”

CHIBI: “Then why are they walking towards the forest?”

Mara listened.

The sound seemed to move farther away.

A few minutes later, somebody knocked urgently on the inn door.

Josef stood outside, his coat covered in snow.

His eleven-year-old nephew Matthias had gone to the chapel before supper.

He had not returned.

The village organised a search.

Lanterns appeared along the road. Neighbours gathered with ropes and blankets.

The adults told Mara and Chibi to stay indoors.

CHIBI: “We should help!”

ANNA: “You can help by staying somewhere safe, where I know exactly where you are.”

Chibi disliked this answer.

Unfortunately, Mara agreed with it.

They watched the searchers disappear into the snow.

Then the little bell sounded again.

Ding.

From near the chapel.

Another note followed.

Closer to the old woodshed.

MARA: “Anna! The bell is ringing behind the chapel!”

Anna heard it too.

She called to a neighbour, who passed the message to the search party.

Minutes later, a shout rose from the darkness.

They had found Matthias.

He had slipped, injured his ankle and taken shelter in the woodshed.

Cold and frightened, but alive.

Soon he was resting beside the inn’s warm stove.

MATTHIAS: “I heard the bell too.”

Mara looked at him.

MARA: “Did you see who was ringing it?”

He shook his head.

MATTHIAS: “No. I thought somebody was looking for me.”

CHIBI: “Did the person come inside?”

Matthias stared into his cup.

MATTHIAS: “I don’t think there was a person.”

Nobody knew what to say.

Later, Josef mentioned that a small brass bell had once hung beside the chapel door.

People used it when they needed help.

But it had been taken down years earlier.

Its clapper was broken.

The following morning, Anna showed the children the old bell.

Chibi shook it.

Nothing.

He shook it harder.

Still nothing.

CHIBI: “Could the wind have made it ring?”

ANNA: “Perhaps you heard another bell.”

MARA: “Or somebody was ringing one outside.”

ANNA: “That’s possible too.”

The explanations were reasonable.

But none established what had happened.

Outside, preparations for the Krampuslauf continued.

A young man emerged from Josef’s workshop wearing a terrifying horned mask.

Chibi stepped backwards.

The man removed it.

It was Franz, the baker’s son.

FRANZ: “Don’t worry. Tomorrow you’ll know it’s only us behind the masks.”

Chibi looked at him.

CHIBI: “Yes.”

He hesitated.

CHIBI: “But will you know it’s only you?”

Franz laughed.

He thought it was a joke.

Mara wasn’t entirely sure.

That evening, the village would put on its frightening faces.

The bells would ring.

The streets would fill with creatures made of fur, wood, leather and human imagination.

And perhaps something else.

But for now, Mara and Chibi knew only one thing.

The most frightening part of winter wasn’t always what they saw.

Sometimes it was what they couldn’t explain.

THE MYTHVEIL QUESTION

CHIBI: “If something looks frightening, does that mean it’s dangerous?”

MARA: “No.”

CHIBI: “And if it looks friendly, does that mean it’s safe?”

MARA: “Not necessarily.”

CHIBI: “Then how are we supposed to know?”

Mara considered the question.

MARA: “I suppose we have to discover what’s behind the face.”

CHIBI: “Even if it doesn’t want us to?”

She looked towards the snowy village.

MARA: “Especially then, we should be careful.”

ENTER THE LONG WINTER

The winter changes familiar places into frightening ones. But in Pulp Cthulhu, the question is not only what hides behind a terrifying face. It is whether the thing wearing that face wishes us harm.

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