Tensions are running high in the Empire. While Balthasar Gelt travels the mountains to the East trying to find a cure for the Emperor’s leglessness, the Empire has known great suffering. Altdorf lies in rubble, the Capital has been moved to Nuln, The Elector Count for Middenland is dead, Averland was threatened by a vampiric invasion and most recently, the town of Essen in Ostermark was sacked by a Khornate army, resulting in the local hero known as Valten falling into a coma as a result of an incident with three Halfling chefs.
Following all these tragedies, the Imperial Grand Marshal, Kurt Helborg, has come up with a new strategy to prevent further invasions. Kislev, the famed Realm of the Ice Queen, has been under great strain as of late due to an Ungol uprising in Praag which forced the Tzarina to mobilise the Gryphon Legion away from the Northern border to quell the rebellion. Indeed, if the gryphon legion had been active in the North as they should have been, it may have been far more difficult for Aarbal and his Khornate army to cross into Ostermark in the first place. However, if the uprisings in Praag could be crushed once and for all, Kislev may be able to return to its original role as first bulwark against any future chaos invasions.
As such, Helborg dispatched Ludwig Schwartzhelm, the Emperor’s Champion now famed throughout the Empire for ending the Imperial Dragon’s rampage after the goblin Grabnatz Sourbelly released it during the Greenskin sacking of Altdorf, to travel to Kislev accompanied by the Knights of the Black Bear, who hail from his native province of Averland, such that the revolts in Praag May finally be crushed, at which point the knights will reinforce the Gryphon Legion on the Northern border against future chaos incursions while Ludwig will travel East into the mountains to assist Balthasar Gelt and Karl Franz in their quest to restore the Emperor’s legs.
However, for as clear as Helborg’s orders may be, nothing could prepare Ludwig and the knights for the journey ahead. From the moment they crossed Ostermark’s border and first stepped foot in Kislev, it was clear that no outsider could ever cross this wretched nation safely for a thick layer of snow covered all land just as the constant mist of blizzard’s hung before their eyes no matter where they went.
Weeks passed for Schwartzhelm and his knights as they went round in a circle for perhaps the eighth time. They figured they were near Bolgasgrad by now, although truth be told they could just as easily be as far behind as Lynsk or even Ostrody. They wondered about the nature of this endless unforgiving blizzard, of whether it possessed natural or chaotic foundations, of whether it would ever clear enough for them to see more than four yards ahead and most controversially, of whether this storm was under control of the Tzarina. Still they trudged through the harsh wilderness of the Dobryrion without any notion of whether they were still following the same path they had started on. Days passed and the weather only seemed to worsen. Food in their satchels went hard with frost, their beards were constantly filled by snow and their horses collapsed under the sheer weight of the cold.
But all was not yet lost for just when all seemed over, a beautiful maiden appeared in the distance. A lady of fair complexion dressed in a shimmering silver gown with long locks of hair whiter than snow and a circlet of icicles floating around her head approached. As she neared, the icicles emitted a magical aura which cleared the winds and falling snow from her advance, allowing her to save the knights as she neared.
The maiden professed to be an Ice Witch in service to the Tzarina who, having been stranded by this endless blizzard, was living in a nearby forest for the winter. She invited the knights to stay with her and showed them the way for her aura enabled her to travel through the wastes without becoming lost.
The lady took them through the blizzard into a nearby forest, still covered by snow but at least no longer afflicted by Kislev’s winds. She guided them through the forest and over a stream via an old, rickety bridge until finally, they reached the point she called home, a large shack based within a grove filled with twigs and stray branches, as if it were a bird’s nest, and surrounded by a ring of bones which the Enchantress claimed were to ward her home from Beastmen incursions.
She led Schwarzhelm and the Black Bear knights into her home, a surprisingly spacious building with a long dining table and two hog-roasts cooking on a spit over a fire. She invited the knights to sit at or stand around the table as she carved slices for the near-starving men, all while glancing and offering sultry smiles to their commander.
Once the food had been handed out, the knights dug into their meal while the sorceress took Ludwig’s hand and took him back outside where the two began to exchange long sensual kisses between one another before she pulled away once more. She proceeded to undress herself, removing her long gown and stripping down to her knickers and stockings while she motioned for him to do the same, claiming she would shield him from the cold, besides the cold never bothered her anyway…

• Love React: Ludwig removed his armour and joined her in the snow. They laid together atop its soft cushion as she sat above him and stroked his bare, muscled chest with her long delicate fingernails before proceeding to make love with him once again. As the knights gorged themselves on the Ice Witch’s sausages inside, Ludwig introduced her to his…

….

• Wow React: Ludwig followed the Ice Witch’s lead by removing his armour before approaching her. The two lovers embraced each other once more in intimate lovemaking when suddenly, the enchantress removed her icy crown. The temperature dropped by almost 40 degrees in seconds as the blizzard winds set in once more, causing Ludwig to freeze to death before he could even stand, let alone dress himself.

With Schwartzhelm lying frozen in the snow, the Ice Witch returned to her shack where the knights had all been turned into pigs, all ready for her next feast! ….

• Sad React: Ludwig remained cautious to undress himself so the witch approached him instead, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him once more. “I just-“ the enchantress placed a finger on his lips before redirecting that finger to point towards her shack. Ludwig stood in utter shock as he watched the witch’s home sprout two legs akin to those of a chicken and stand up! Ludwig ran towards the shack to save his men but it was too late as the house turned and ran from him at incredible speed with his men inside. Still he ran after the mobile home, even removing his greaves so he could run faster but to no avail.

Alas by the time he caught up it was too late, for the shack had dumped his men in the freezing river, causing all of them to die from a combination of drowning and hypothermia as their heavy suits of armour prevented them from swimming to safety. He later discovered that neither a single trace of the home, nor its nest, nor the witch nor even the ring of beastmen bones remained, leaving him alone in this empty forest as the winter winds rode in……………

Despite following along until now, Ludwig had been lured into similar traps before and so decided to drop the act and unsheathe his Sword of Justice, a magical blade adorned with Dwarf runes handed down to the Emperor’s champion across the generations. The Ice Witch feigned ignorance, asking what the matter was but he saw through her; for despite her pretence her kisses betrayed her. The witch may carry the guise of a beauty, but her breath concealed her true status for it reeked with the stench of garlic, mushrooms and slugs.

Ludwig ran toward her and so with the imminent threat to her life, she discarded her veil and revealed her true form as Baba Yaga, the horrifying Hag of the Forest.

• Laugh React: Yaga fired a shard of ice magic towards Ludwig which he sliced in half before advancing towards her once more. The two clashed in melee as his sword clanged against the shaft of her staff which much like its owner, turned out to be as strong as iron rather than the comparatively weak staff of birch wood it appeared to be. The two exchanged strikes until Ludwig’s runes finally enabled his sword to break the enchantment on the witch’s staff, allowing him to slice it in two and stab her through the heart.

While Yaga bled out onto the ground, Ludwig returned to the shack just as his peers were about to dig into the cursed food. He instructed them to pack up and move on, this wasn’t a safe place to stay. …

• Angry React: Ludwig ran towards his foe with haste only to be blindsided when Baba Yaga projected an icicle straight through the left side of his jaw. The frozen shard tore through his skin, causing him to yell in agony as Yaga intensified her attack by tapping into the lore of dark magic to cast a Word of Pain on her enemy. The knights heard their commander’s yelling outside and rushed to the door to protect him only to find the door to the shack frozen from the outside.

With no means of aid available to him, Schwartzhelm attempted to stand only to receive a punch to his face from the witch whose fists collided with his face like a ton of bricks. The knights all slashed at the frozen door with their blades but by the time they finally got out, it was too late to save their master who’d been savagely beaten to death.
The knights prepared to avenge their master only to cower at her sight as she began to cast an avalanche spell. “Go!” was all she had to say to them as a mountain in the distance began to crumble.
And so as the Knights of the Black Bear fled for their lives from the Forest Hag of Kislev, the moral of the story was clear. No outsider can seek to cross the Dobryrion of Kislev and survive!

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