A young, beautiful girl outwits the dreaded witch of the woods.

A prince rides a grey wolf, hunting down the elusive firebird.

Drowned women dance upon the river's surface, seeking to sate their eternal hunger and sorrow by eating the flesh of those gullible enough to follow them.

The most benevolent and kind of the gods becomes the avatar of evil and darkness for half a year.

A mad sorcerer cheats death itself by hiding his soul in a place where none may reach it.

Cold, dark tales from a cold and dark land, where only the strong and the merciless may survive. Where nothing is ever as it seems, where even the great kings live in fear of the all consuming winter. A wild place, a violent place, a barbaric place, a beautiful place.

Have you ever considered how to integrate some of the more famous slavic fairy-tales into the mostly German world of the Grimmlands? Most of these legends are already horrifically twisted and dark as it is, but how do you think we can make them even scarier, hmm?

I believe the style fits very well.

I was actually planning on using Baba Yaga in my next session from Slavic folklore. My players are already in the previously described Croaking Bog in search of Slightly, the conceited lost boy, just outside the gates of the Croaking Village. Once inside all rumors and advice will point them to a conspicuous tent of faded orange and purple claiming that the Fortune Teller Baba will surely point them in the right direction. Turns out Slightly was their king but has now gone missing. When the kids enter Baba will immediately recognize the one female player and proclaim to be waiting for a long time for her, as has Slightly who is now cursed to take on the form of a nasty toad. Baba will tell the players where in the Croaking Bog they can find Slightly, but warns the players of the Bog Witch. She gives them a magical charm that activates with a special rhyme explaining that if they encounter the witch, they can mutter some phrase (undecided yet) and the witch will be turned in her tracks, unable to withstand the terrible sorcery. But of course...this is all a lie. Baba herself is the Bog Witch, and the charm will, surprise surprise, put the players under a charm spell when it's activated. There will be Imagination checks, pluck checks, cool and seek checks all along the way to detect her trickery. If the players manage to fail them all and are caught under her spell, they are taken back to Baba's log cabin deep in the Croaking Bog. There she will be preparing a boiling concoction and the players will awake in individual cages. One of my players has the magic marker as a possible escape route, but there are various ways they could get out. Once out they'll have to sneak their way around the house and follow the croaking to capture the toad (a.k.a. cursed Slightly) and get out of the house. In order break him of his curse, I chose for my female player (a normal kid) to have a royal heritage for her unusual heritage making her a princess and kissing the toad will return Slightly to his natural form. They'll be able to return to the Croaking Village and Slightly will take up position as King once again.

Edit that, and make it Nibs, the debonair lost boy. The significance is that this suave child is returned to his normal state of mind after someone frees him from his toad like status. Once he realizes it is possible that he can lose everything that is great to him, he no longer takes advantage of his charm.