Baba Yaga

## Baba Yaga

* Character Art
* Battle Mini

## Physical Description

### Age

Ancient

> "*Can I, Emily Axford, meet the Baba Yaga? I love you. I'm a huge fan.*"
> ― Emily Axford
>
>

**Baba Yaga** is an ancient and extremely powerful witch that lives in a cottage on chicken legs in the Neverafter.

## Featured Episodes

* Episode 11: Big and Bad (mentioned)
* Episode 12: A Warm Heart and a Tombstone (mentioned)
* Episode 14: Daughters of the Crown (mentioned)
* Episode 17: The Last Wish
* Episode 18: The Trials of Baba Yaga
* Episode 19: The Ending of All Things (Part 1)
* Episode 20: The Ending of All Things (Part 2)

## Description

Baba Yaga is an ancient and powerful witch, known and feared throughout the Neverafter. She lives in a large cottage with chicken legs, and is able to fly riding a giant mortar and pestle. She knows about the existence of the Authors, and has lived through generations of them. She comes from Slavic folklore, where she appears in many tales as a villain, or as the Poser of Trials. She proclaims that she eats girls, preferring the pampered royals to stringy peasant girls. She says her secret is that she's always pissing a little bit wherever she goes.

## History

### Origins

The Stepmother goes to Baba Yaga to find out why she and her daughters' lives fell to ruin. Baba Yaga tells the Stepmother the truth of Neverafter, that she's a mere tool to make Cinderella more likeable in the story, and has no real control over the course of her life. In exchange for a favor from the Stepmother, Baba Yaga grants the Stepmother eldritch power. The Stepmother eats her own name, passes into the Lines Between, and tries to eat and scrub out the story of her past, but is unable to due to Baba Yaga not allowing her own memories to be erased.

### Daughters of the Crown

In exchange for a golden bridle, the sea witch reveals to the team why Baba Yaga rejected the plea to join the side of the princesses against the fairies in the coming war. Rapunzel, despite being uncomfortable around witches, had had a meeting with the Baba Yaga for help. In this conversation, Baba Yaga swore to snatch the tongue out of Rapunzel's mouth if she ever told a lie. After Rapunzel's imploring speech, Baba Yaga She then asked the princess, "If instead of threatening based on whether you uttered a lie, I had instead conditioned my statement on you telling the truth, would I now hold your tongue in my hand?" With that, Rapunzel curtseyed, and left without speaking, meaning that she wasn't being entirely truthful.

### The Trials of Baba Yaga

Destiny's Children arrive at Baba Yaga's hut, her pointing out the sins that they've carried through their journey (the red beads that Mulligan had given the players at specific parts of the campaign). When talking to them, she tells them that she isn't afraid of the Authors. She explains that she has watched many of them die. Despite that, she is still here, and further explains that if they are strong, any changes the Authors make to their stories can be changed back by them. When she then asks them why they are there, they reply a way to the Lines Between and, at her prompting, a name, implying the Stepmother's. She is willing to give it, if they're willing to pay the price, and goes off to dinner, only returning when overhearing Ylfa mentioning how she peed a little in the Auroratory. She then asks for help with the meal, tasking each of the team with something specific:

* Ylfa: Kill and bring back a bird from the chicken coop.
* Gerard: Check the nets in the lake for fish.
* Rosamund: Check a line of snares for rabbits.
* Pinocchio: Set the table.
* Timothy Goose: Pick some vegetables from the garden down the path for the soup stock.
* Puss in Boots: Find the best path for Baba Yaga's house to travel north of the sky after they finish eating.

The others that are with the group, Henry Hubbard, Tom Thumb, and Thumbelina, she forcibly keeps behind, insisting that she'd prefer their company when the others are carrying out their chores. Before they go, however, she tells the group not to bother with the gifts that had planned on giving her. To Ylfa, she mentions that there's no need to give her her wolf to eat, since the witch had already done so, indicating the wolf rug underfoot. Before they set out on the Baba Yaga's chores, she explains, with gifts, it's the thought that counts, and that she only wants gifts that would hurt to give.

* Gerard gives up his name and humanity in exchange for his wife, Elody's, giving her her own story instead of having her be a part of his. This turns him fully into a frog.
* Rosamund gives up the hope of true love with her Prince Charming, and makes the choice to be alone.
* Ylfa gives away the memory of her grandmother, embracing her new role as the Big Bad Wolf.
* Pinocchio gives up his chance to be a real boy again.
* Timothy gives the Baba Yaga one of the pages of his book, though he doesn't know if the page she took is blank or not. For this gift, the Baba Yaga exclaims that she will be coming to the Lines Between with the group.
* PiB gives Baba Yaga the book of his story.

After they eat dinner, the Baba Yaga approves of everything that has been given to her, and all of them ride within her chicken-legged hut down the path PiB had found into the Lines Between. When they arrive, it's clear that she is really into whatever challenges that are to come.

### The Ending of All Things (Part 1) & (Part 2)

Despite the fact that she arrives to the battle with Destiny's Children, it's unclear whose side of she is actually on. She seems to be more on her own side of chaos, screaming, "Everybody but me going die here!" before casting Cone of Cold on the top of the ziggurat structure of the room. After seeing the brutal death of Thumbelina by Rosamund's briars, the Baba Yaga puts her head in the game a bit more, and, in an act of clarity, slaps Scheherazade in the face, dispelling the coersive enchantment placed on her, and breaking her free from the influence of the Daughters of the Crown.

Later, when Cinderella, the last remaining Daughter of the Crown and holding Scheherazade's magic book, tries to turn invisible, the Baba Yaga is able to grab her, and hold her in the air against her protests. Once Ylfa is able to get the book back to Scheherazade, she freezes the invisible knight, and tosses her somewhere across the room.

Baba Yaga's first kill is that of the Red Fairy. When Bella destroys the protective construct placed around Aesop by Pinocchio, Baba Yaga slams the fairy into the ground with her flying mortar and pestle, killing her instantly.

Once the Stepmother arrives to the fight, she tries to do something the Authors' inky hand. First the first time in the battle, Baba Yaga stops laughing. She says, "Some things must not be allowed," and puts herself in the line of fire. This causes Baba Yaga to vanish, the Stepmother's spell banishing her to a different place. However, when Pinocchio calls the Stepmother by her real name, Baba Yaga's laughter can be heard even from that different plane.

Sometime later, Timothy releases his spell in the inkwell of the Canonade to give the story characters their autonomy from the Authors. PiB's dagger, having been dipped in the ink, flies through the air. The Baba Yaga's arm shoots up from out of the pages, and the ink covered dagger hits the page Timothy had gifted her during his trial. Puss in Boots comes over to her, calling her his favorite witch. She picks him up and snuggles with him, and, in her embrace, goes to steal back everything that the Destiny's Children had given her. It turns out to be very easy to grab as all of it is written in that initially blank storybook page Timothy Goose had given her. He reveals to her what he had done, to which the Baba Yaga replies that, for her, little clever people are always stealing from her, and for him, he is always stealing from people who are more powerful. She then adds, "That's why I like you. It's why I like you. You and me, in our story, we don't learn anything, and we never change." At this PiB replies, "I'm either a trickster spirit, or I'm nothing at all," taking the page with him.

## Spells

* Cone of Cold
* Counterspell
* Hold Person
* Dispel Magic

## Trivia

* When she first meets him, the Baba Yaga immediately takes a liking to Aesop. He just seems very confused as to what her deal is.
* Baba Yaga was one of Emily Axford's pitches for her Neverafter PC. Emily is a long time fan of the Baba Yaga, constantly mentioning her on 8 Bit Book Club.
* Her mini was sold as part of the Dimension 20 Neverafter Auction for for $3,270.69.