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Blood on the Ice

Barbarian Suppression Campaign RY572

By Tepet Tilis Nohoka-toku

Blood on the Ice: Barbarian Suppression Campaign RY572 details a grueling Imperial Legion campaign against the Varajtul cannibals in the North.

The text describes the Varajtul, painting a picture of inhuman horrors tainted by the Wyld. They have the appearance of humans, but stand eight feet tall, though the move stooped over rather than at full height. Their mouths are large and filled with sharp teeth capable of rending flesh and breaking bone, and they hunger for human flesh: they devour the living and the dead upon the battlefield, and take captives back to their camps to perform terrible cannibal sacrifices. Their hands and feet have sharp claws, and their bodies are covered in tufts of blue and blonde hair, appearing almost as fur. They are stronger, faster, and more resilient than a Legion soldier, can shrug off wounds that would fell any other mortal, and seem immune to all but the harshest forms of cold weather. They fight naked, sometimes clad in cloaks of human hair covered in strange patterns, and prefer to use their hands for combat, though they are sometimes armed with weapons of bone or scavenged from dead opponents.

The text states that the Varajtul have no society as such, but exist in hordes that travel the interior of the Isle of Seven Stormwinds, fighting with the local Fair Folk and more human tribes, raiding the more developed coastal settlements. In harsher winters, the cannibals swarm across sea ice to reach the mainland or neighbouring islands, endangering larger Realm satrapies there. To keep the threat under control, the Imperial Legions are called upon occasionally to reinforce local defenses or to actively suppress Varajtul activities by advancing to slaughter them before their numbers become too great.

According to the text, the Varajtul are not a complex force militarily: while each warrior is potent, they are not thought to organize in units and formations, their tactics consisting of frontal charges and stealthy ambushes, sometimes with traps laid around their camps to catch passers-by. The great risk is that they are difficult to rout, for they are driven by their lust for flesh and seem willing to fight and die in large numbers in order to overwhelm a foe.

The text details that the officers of the 9th Imperial Legion’s 2nd Dragon, under Dragonlord Tepet Tilis Mallon, were able to use the simplistic cannibals in order to practice various maneuvers and approaches from the Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier, Mallon using the opportunity to train his troops in tactics for use when a more crafty opponent was met. While most tactics proved successful, it was found that skirmishers were quickly overrun. The best tactics were use of auxiliaries and slingers to bombard charging cannibals who could then be held by a shield wall while Exalted officers proved themselves slaughtering attackers en-masse until they were eventually routed. The text conveys that the offering of rewards for the most kills will motivate both officers and men to accumulate significant bodycounts. It is also suggested that the Varajtul are averse to fire, and use of fiery missiles and pits can cause fatal hesitation when they attack.

Blood on the Ice: Barbarian Suppression Campaign RY572 can be used to 
train the War Specialty ‘Varajtul’ by characters with 
War minimum ●, maximum ●●●.