Village Witch

This is my first playthrough of Village Witch. It's not complete (ends near the end of Autumn) but I don't currently plan to finish it.

You can read my thoughts on the game (short version: I really liked it!) and why I didn't finish the story here: http://portal.mozz.us/gemini/rainywhile.net/gemlog/2025-02-15-village-witch/

Village Witch

A story about a witch named Fara. They excel in potion crafting and tending to plants. They still ride their first ever broom - it’s getting a bit unreliable but it has sentimental value. They completed their training under the coven in the Greywoods and are looking forward to helping a community, but also to spending time alone with their thoughts - their fellow witches-in-training were good companions, but after a year spent living in a cramped dormitory with lessons every day, a bit of peace and quiet seems like a great treasure.

Spring

Location: Seashore (a small cottage beside the beach, a short walk from the fishing village of Botleyport)

Introduction

It was sunny as I flew in to Botleyport, still quite a chill in the air as Winter is yet to fully release its grip on the world, but I’d take a bit of cold over rain while flying, any day. “Port” is rather a grandiose title for the tiny settlement, but that suits me down to the ground. I want to be able to get to know everyone who might come to me for help and the thought of meeting (and having to remember the names and faces of) hundreds of people after spending a year only talking to my five fellow trainees and the six teachers did not appeal! I landed in the little village square, as instructed in the brief letter I had received just a week ago, and found Frederick, the leader of the village council, waiting for me. We made small talk as he guided me past the neat lanes of colourful houses and out down a short, rocky path towards a stout-looking stone cottage by the beach.

It’s a sweet little home, with a walled garden on one side, and the beach, a good mix of sand and pebbles, on the other. The previous occupant had done a good job of leaving it in a clean and tidy state and all the furniture is good, solid stuff, a little worn but in a way that feels homely rather than tired. The ground floor is one large room, with the cauldron on a raised platform in one corner, a hearty fireplace in the centre of the back wall, plenty of surfaces around the edges and a mismatched selection of chairs in the centre around a large rug. Upstairs, the bedroom and bathroom nestle cosily in the rafters. The altar is in a little nook halfway up the stairs - I can already feel the energy from my home crystal filling the walls now it’s in place, but I’ll definitely have to gather some materials from the beach to get it up to full power. It looks so bare sitting there on the plinth all alone, but it’s glowing firmly, obviously as keen as I am to get to work!

9 of Wands
You spend some time strengthening your abilities. What are your strengths? What areas do you want to improve?

I spent my first full day getting settled in to the house and preparing items to strengthen my home crystal. It’s important to decorate the altar with charms made from local materials, to shape the energy into a form that better fits the area, and to allow my magic to properly cover the whole village. In a fishing port like this, most people’s life revolves around the sea and especially with my cottage’s location this means items from the beach are well-suited to the task.

The wind had picked up a bit overnight so there was a good range of driftwood and seaweed available on the sand. With my focus being primarily on plants and potions, getting a good variety of plant matter was definitely a priority, but it’s important to have some variety too. The seaweed would take a few days to dry and prepare into charms, so I made sure to get a few pebbles and, while animal magic has never really been my forte, I was pleased to find a few bleached fish bones tangled in some marram grass on a small dune.

After preparing the seaweed for drying, I arranged the pebbles, bones and wood on the altar. It still looked a bit bare, so I’ve added a few sprigs of dried herbs - they’re not local but they’ll help stabilise it for a day or so, until the seaweed charms are ready. The green glow of the crystal is still steady, with no signs of flickering, so I think it’ll do as a start. The cottage feels warmer already and I can feel my own energy lift. I’m excited to get started helping the people of this town!

The Lovers
Conflict arises between you and one of the villagers. Is it something that can be worked out or a relationship you need to avoid?

I had my first visitor today! Unfortunately it didn’t go well and I must admit it has knocked my confidence rather. It was mid-morning and I was just applying some fresh blessings to the seaweed charms on the drying rack when I heard the knock at the door. I rushed over and opened it, all smiles, and greeted the visitor enthusiastically, but he just grunted at me and practically demanded that I make him a charm for his fishing boat. I tried to shrug off his rather dour demeanour and explained it would probably take at least a couple of days as I was still getting set up, but his expression quickly turned (even more) sour and he started going off about how he needed to set out in the next two days to catch some favourable current or other. I have to admit his behaviour was making me quite cross, and I could probably have adopted a more conciliatory tone, but that doesn’t excuse the way he glared at me and stormed off when I told him that such short notice was a bit unreasonable given it was only my second full day staying here.

I suppose I should start working on his charm anyway - I doubt he’ll bother coming back for it, but it’s the sort of thing that’s likely to be quite popular among the locals. I do hope this fellow wasn’t representative of the whole community though. I had been looking forward to getting stuck in, but now I’m feeling like I’m out of my depth. The home crystal has started flickering too. It always reflects my own mood to some extent and without the seaweed charms it isn’t very well grounded yet. There’s no point starting a new charm in this situation, I’ll just have to put it off until tomorrow - the seaweed should be ready by then and hopefully a stable crystal will help bring me some calm too; the connection goes in both directions after all.

Temperance
You have been asked to help mediate a problem in the village and bring clarity to those involved. How do you help bring peace and balance to the situation?

It has been a few days since that awful fisherman came by. He’s not been back for his boat charm, which I finished yesterday. I’m somewhat glad to be honest, I’m quite proud of my handiwork on this charm and I’d rather give it to someone with a bit more common courtesy. Unfortunately, my hopes for a more gentle introduction to the villagers have not been realised. I was just finishing my lunch when the knock came and I opened the door to Frederick, who was looking rather flustered. He apologised for asking this of me when I was still so new and probably still getting set up, but didn’t explain what he was actually asking! I was feeling rather worried but tried to appear calm to get him to explain what was going on. He eventually revealed that there was some sort of dispute between some shopkeepers and that he hoped I could tag along to help mediate their argument. This sort of thing has never been one of my main strengths, but it’s part of the job and so I didn’t have much choice but to agree.

He explained a bit more as we walked briskly together along the path into the village. Apparently there were two fishmongers with quite a long, and somewhat acrimonious, rivalry. To be entirely honest I thought it sounded a bit daft for a village of fewer than one hundred inhabitants to have two fishmongers - I get that fishing is pretty much the only reason the settlement exists, but I would expect that either the people catching the fish would sell them directly to the customers, or there would be a single store through which the stock would be sold. I suppose whoever owned that store would then have a lot of power, so maybe it does make sense, but all these thoughts just highlighted how little I knew about this place, and fishing, and shopkeeping, and really so much of what I was expected to deal with beyond my little garden. All these feelings were whirring around in my head and I was getting extremely nervous.

Upon entering the village hall, it was obvious who the two shopkeepers were. A short balding man and a tall stocky woman were dressed in aprons and glaring daggers at one another in the centre of the hall, with a small crowd of onlookers hanging around the edges, watching them. I wondered how many of the other villagers were there to help and how many were just in it looking for some form of grim entertainment. I hadn’t expected much of an audience and my heart sank even further.

I wanted to make a good impression. A witch is supposed to be an important part of the lives of their village’s population and if Botleyport is going to be my permanent home then it’s likely that everyone I met today will at some point be coming to me for help in some form or another. I introduced myself to the room and then moved closer to the warring shopkeepers before asking them to describe the nature of their argument. It took a lot of shouting between the two of them, but with what I’d been told by Frederick I eventually figured out that one of the fishmongers was accusing the other of stealing her shipment of fresh ice. Ice is obviously important for preserving fish and it’s not cheap, but the accused was adamant that he had bought it fair and square.

I find these sorts of situations difficult enough at the best of times, but the witch’s role as mediator in village disputes is really based on being an impartial outside observer who nonetheless knows their community well. I obviously don’t know anything about these people so I found it very hard to know what to do. After a full hour of arguing (mostly me trying to get a word in between the pair of enraged fishmongers) I eventually got them to agree that they would put the matter to rest if I could come up with some way of preserving their ice (and so their fish) for longer. I’ve got no idea how I’m going to manage that, but I think it should be possible. At least it let me get back to the peace and quiet of my cottage and away from the shouting! I‘ll have to start researching tomorrow.

2 of Swords
You spend a day tidying up your home and going through your belongings. What is something that means a lot to you?

I spent the day going through the various books and papers in the house, looking for something I could use to sort out this ice problem. I hadn’t brought much with me, but I did have several grimoires and spellbooks and these witch’s cottages always come with a few well-stocked bookshelves of their own. It looks like whoever lived here last didn’t have much use for the reading materials on offer, because they were extremely dusty! After going through a few I hadn’t found much of interest so I spent the rest of the day tidying and cleaning. While sweeping the floor, my old broomstick lost a few more twigs - I really ought to replace it but it means so much to me. Every time I use it, whether for transport or more mundane tasks like today, it reminds me of the first time I flew on it, on my way to the Greywoods, to follow my lifelong dreams of becoming a fully fledged witch. At times it feels like the majority of my magic goes in to keeping the poor old thing together! It was never an especially high-quality broom even when it was new, but now, more than ever, I needed something familiar and relatable, to counteract how out-of-place I was feeling in this strange little fishing village, with its seemingly short-tempered people.

2 of Cups
You somehow get injured. What happened and how do you respond?

I managed to twist my ankle today. I was out gathering materials around the rock pools and slipped. I had to limp all the way home, soaking wet (I fell straight into one of the pools…) Luckily nobody was around to see me humiliate myself; I worry that the villagers see me as a bit useless even without them watching me falling into rock pools like a careless child. I ended up using most of the minor healing salves I’d made up in advance on my ankle and all my various bruises, so now I’ll have to make some more. They are pretty much the only thing anyone comes to me for, I haven’t had requests for anything more complex since that grumpy mariner right after I arrived. He hasn’t been back either, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I hope that I can sort this ice problem out, I haven’t had much luck yet but it could be the thing to boost my standing in the village. Even if not, at least I’d have some ice to put on my ankle!

Ace of Cups
You find an injured animal and take care of it.

My ankle was feeling better today, so I went out for a short walk on the headland. As I was on the way back I spotted a large crow wriggling under some bushes. Something about the scene looked off, so I leant in for a closer look and saw that the poor thing had a nasty tear in one of its wings. It must have been in a quite a lot of pain. I scooped it up as carefully as I could and brought it into the house. Animals aren’t really my area of expertise, but spells and tinctures for healing wounds work pretty much the same on any creature at the end of the day. I found a book in the cottage with some modifications to my standard salves specifically for corvids though, so I’m pretty sure this unfortunate crow will be back in the sky in no time. It’s nice to feel that I’ve finally helped someone, even if it’s just a bird and not a villager. I suspect it’ll be more grateful than that fisherman.

10 of Wands
Someone comes for help on something you won’t do.

A young woman came by today to ask me if I could brew up a love potion. I refused, of course. I tried to explain that, even if I had the slightest idea how to do such a thing (and I don’t) then it’s simply not ethical to manipulate a person’s affections like that. She didn’t take it well; stormed off and slammed the door behind her. I don’t think she actually meant any harm, she just wasn’t thinking things through. I wish she’d stayed so I could try to give her some kind of support though, I feel bad letting her leave without doing anything to help. Why is everyone in this town seemingly so quick to anger?

5 of Swords
You perform a ritual. What is the purpose of it?

A young couple came by today looking for help finding a signet ring with strong sentimental value. They weren’t sure if it had been lost in a move, been stolen or just was buried in amongst other items in the back of a cupboard somewhere. I had to look up the ritual to remind myself of a few points, but it wasn’t too tricky. They were able to describe the item well, which always helps.

The first part could be done from the cottage. I cleared the kitchen table and, with their help, laid out a rough plan of the village with candles representing each building. They pointed out the most likely properties (their current address, obviously, but also where they had previously lived and family homes where some items had been stored) and I placed sprigs of Lady’s Mantle flowers around these to focus the spell. As I recited the words, the candles flickered out one by one, until only one was left - luckily it was the one representing their current home.

We travelled across to the house for the second part of the ritual, to locate the object itself. For this, I placed pebbles of various sizes in each of the rooms, then lit a row of candles and performed the same spell. What’s supposed to happen is that again all but one of the candles go out and then the position of the candle in the row tells you which size pebble it corresponds to, and so which room to go to. In this case, two of the candles stayed lit, the ones for the master bedroom and the kitchen. I tried again and the same thing happened. Very odd! I went into both rooms to take a look around and realised that the bedroom was directly above the kitchen. We all went upstairs and I asked where they would usually keep jewellery, which brought us to a tall cupboard. Poking around in there I realised that there was a small knot hole in the wood at the back of the base and shifting the cupboard (not an easy job!) revealed that the hole lead directly to a small gap where the floorboards joined the wall. The ring had fallen out through the knot hole and down into the floor, between the floor of this room and the ceiling of the kitchen below. We lifted the board and recovered the ring. The couple were both so pleased and it felt amazing to finally have met the expectations of someone from the village! This is why I became a witch, to use my powers to help others. I went home with a smile on my face for what seemed like the first time in ages.

The Hermit
A storm rages outside and you are alone in your house for the day. Do you enjoy the solitude or do you feel loneliness in the isolation?

The most awful storm blew up overnight and has been raging all day, with no signs of stopping. I had felt the build up for a few days now, a sort of tension in the air, disrupting the normal flow of magic. Storms interact strangely with magical energy, sometimes boosting it and then suddenly dampening it down so that even the most basic spells feel like a struggle. The key thing is to not get frustrated and try to roll with the fluctuations; that way you can take advantage of the boosts and increase the potency of a spell beyond your normal ability. Often, storms seem to subside just as you’re starting to get the hang of it, but this one has been going for hours and I managed to get a lot done. I’ve even made some progress on the ice problem. I tried an inversion of a heating spell that I’d poked at before with no luck, but the storm gave things the kick that I needed and the spell left a noticeable chill in its wake. It still needs a lot of work (and I can’t rely on this sort of weather cropping up very often) but for the first time since saying I’d do it, I really feel confident that it’s a problem I can solve.

The Wheel of Fortune
The village is affected by a major change. What is it and what are some of the effects of what happens?

The storm died down overnight, but it has left a major mark on the village. The harbour wall has been partially destroyed, most of the boats can’t get out but they’re also much more exposed to the waves and there’s a lot of damage. Frederick delivered the bad news to me this morning and I went out to see what I could do to help. Luckily nobody has been injured, but that also means that my skills aren’t really of much help. What this town needs right now is an Earth witch, someone with knowledge of, and considerable power over the soil and rock or a Sea witch to help tame the waves. I can do a bit, but this is a huge blow for the community and they need more than I can give.

Spring is coming to an end and it’s about time I was thinking about whether to move on anyway. I never felt a good connection to Botleyport and, although things had been looking up recently, this is the final sign that this isn’t somewhere suitable to build my permanent home. I have often felt over these last few months that I couldn’t provide what the villagers were looking for and now that’s more obvious than ever.

I had hoped to at least stay until I had perfected the ice spell, but there’s no time for that now. I wrote up what I’ve learnt so far about it, leaving one copy for my replacement and keeping the other for myself to continue working on - who knows when it might come in handy, even if it’s not to resolve a dispute among angry fishmongers!

I never felt that I’d made much of an impression here, or not a positive one at least, but I was heartened to see a few of the villagers come out to see me off. Frederick was there, of course, along with the young couple whose ring I helped locate, but there were also a few others there, people I had made potions for or just spoken to in the street. I felt bad abandoning the village in their hour of need, but my replacement would be arriving in a day or two and a witch’s cottage needs a few days for the energy to clear before a new witch’s home crystal can really start to settle in. Whoever was moving in would need to get up and running as quickly as possible to build up the power needed to help fix the harbour.

Summer

Location: Desert (a cave home built into the side of a deep rocky crevasse in the middle of the Gula Desert, the location of Sandmarket Village)

Introduction

Sandmarket Village is built into the sides of a narrow crevasse. It’s difficult to see from the air, until you are almost directly overhead. The Gula desert is a vast expanse of sand and rock, and in the summer it’s unbearably hot out in the open. The deep cut in the ground offers protection from the harsh sun and the thick rock walls of the cave-like homes insulates against not just the daytime heat, but the often cold nights too.

Calling them caves does the homes and buildings of Sandmarket Village a disservice. The walls are carved smoothly, flat and straight, and the buildings have multiple floors and windows. There is even plumbing, with water pumped from aquifers that sit not far under the surface down here in the rocky depths. Most dwellings also have large courtyards in the open air, with brightly coloured fabric canopies providing shelter, privacy, and style.

I was worried, when I read about the posting here, that I would have nowhere to tend to plants, but the witch’s home here has a good-sized garden, next to a spot where a small stream runs out of the rock face. A thin fabric canopy allows light in while protecting the plants from the sun’s full force. The home itself is comfortable, two storeys with the top floor slightly recessed, allowing for a small balcony that’s covered by the overhanging rock above.

Unlike Botleyport, I’m located inside the village itself. I’m still not sure how I feel about this, but the spot feels nicely secluded. Baro, the village elder, showed me to the site after I arrived, but then left me to unpack and poke around in peace. The village gets its name from the lively markets that spring up occasionally, when the nomads of the desert congregate to sell their wares, but today it feels peaceful and relaxed. I’m optimistic that I’ll have a better time here than in Botleyport.

I finished off the day by collecting a few flowers and cactus spines to place on my home crystal altar. I love the explosion of colour one sees in summer and I’m pleased to find that that extends even to this rocky crack in an otherwise apparently lifeless desert.

Ace of Wands
Someone comes to you for physical healing.

I had my first visitor today, a parent bringing their child who had slipped while climbing on some rocks and suffered multiple cuts on their arm. It looked bad because of all the blood, but once I got it cleaned up it was actually quite minor. The parent was swiftly reassured and the child quickly moved from tears to boasting about how high he could climb. They both stayed for tea and we chatted a bit about life here in Sandmarket. After they left I took stock of what materials and potions I had left. - I hadn’t been able to bring much with me from Botleyport and after treating the child’s wounds I was running quite low. That will have to be a priority over the next few days. Despite some worries about staying stocked up, I can’t help but feel relieved at the difference between my first visitors here and in Botleyport. I know it’s foolish to judge a village on the first people you meet, but first impressions do count and from what I’d learnt over tea the people here were a much more mellow lot than the constantly arguing inhabitants of my previous home!

6 of Swords
While walking outside near your house, you find a crystal in the ground, dropped by a previous occupant. You clean it up and cleanse its energy. What does it look like? Do you incorporate it into your own practice or give it to someone else?

This morning, I was exploring the area just past my house, which is located at one end of the village, looking for any interesting native plant specimens. I found a small fissure in the rock with some unusual mushrooms, and after picking a few I spotted a small shard of crystal half buried in sand, right at the back. It’s only a small piece, probably less than a tenth of the size of a typical home crystal, but it must have belonged to a witch, as it still had some residual energy. It’s a surprisingly deep red, with a kind of internal marbling that seems to shift when you move it around. The energy it had was weak, and slightly wild, so I suspect it has been tucked away there for a long time, probably multiple different witches have inhabited this home since it’s original owner left it behind.

It’s relatively rare to find a crystal like this, most witches take care to save even tiny shards of crystal as they can make potent additions to many spells, even if you only use a single chipping. They are a bit of a pain to work with though, because they deteriorate with time. I had to take some care when purifying this one; it’s not too hard to boost the power, but it’s very important to tame the magic first as they can be quite dangerous otherwise. I made sure to look up the rituals before starting and luckily it went without incident, although I’m glad I did it outside as it has left a small scorch mark on the stone where some of the wild magic discharged and the various smokes needed for the ritual left quite an acrid smell. I’m not sure what I’ll use it for yet. Given the age and how neglected it had been, it probably only has a few good spells left in it.

The Tower
Something happens to challenge one of your beliefs or preconceptions, whether about yourself, other people, or the world at large. What new realization have you reached and how does it affect you?

A young man from the village came by today with a problem that left me quite shocked. He had bought a simple gold ring from a travelling merchant some time ago, but had never worn it, until this morning. Shortly after putting it on, it suddenly became incredibly hot. He removed it quickly but was left with quite a serious burn on his finger. He had brought the ring with him, wrapped in a few layers of cloth, and after treating his finger I unwrapped the bundle to investigate the ring. It was cool to the touch now, but the innermost layers of the cloth were fairly well singed, so it had obviously retained some heat after being removed. I promised to let the man know as soon as I discovered the reason for the heating and he went on his way.

I could tell immediately that the ring contained an enchantment, but I couldn’t understand the purpose. After several hours and much consultation of my reference books, I was confident that I knew the full extent of the magic, but I was more confused than ever. The enchantment appeared to be nothing more than a curse. The ring would remain dormant until worn by a person, at which point it would activate and heat up rapidly. This isn’t simple magic and so must have been created by a relatively experienced witch, but despite various old legends and folk tales I had never heard of a real-life witch who would ever produce such a thing.

Performing magic requires you to tap into the powers of nature and to become a vessel for natural energies. Nature can at times seem cruel, but in reality it is merely indifferent towards humans; it’s not malicious and so it would be extremely difficult to direct its energy into something so obviously designed only to cause suffering. Additionally, the time you spend as a witch-in-training imbues you with a deep respect for nature, a distrust of those who seek power for their own ends and a desire to help those in need. I genuinely believe that it would be impossible for me to create such a curse, even in the most extreme of circumstances. The knowledge that, somewhere out there, there was someone who not only could, but was willing to create this ring left me feeling very shaken.

I wanted to destroy the curse, but I thought it wiser to send it untouched to be studied in more detail, in case the creator could be identified. I packaged it back up in the cloths that the owner had brought it in and gave it back to the young man, with instructions to send it off to the Greywoods along with any information he could give on how he came to own it and a letter I had written with details of my findings. It will take a while to arrive at the coven and they will no doubt take some time to investigate before responding, but I hope to hear back from them soon. I spent the rest of the day purifying the homes, first of the man and then my own, to ward off any lingering energy from the ring.

6 of Wands
You discover a new ability. What is it and how do you discover it?

I did it! My spell to reduce the melting rate of ice is finally working. I was picking cactus spines when the solution came to me in a flash of inspiration. I ran back home, made some tweaks to the incantation and added some juice from prickly pear and aloe vera to the potion. The resulting mix, when a few drops are added to the water before freezing it, will cause the ice to melt at a greatly reduced rate, adding days, possibly even a week or more, to the time it takes to melt, if stored in a cool spot out of the sun.

I sent the details off to my replacement in Botleyport, along with some small samples of the ingredients. I hope the bottles survive the journey. The warring shopkeepers have probably forgotten all about my promise, especially with everything else that was going on with the storm and the harbour, but it’s a weight off my mind to know that I’ve fulfilled it.

Sandmarket doesn’t currently get any deliveries of ice, as there’s no way it would make it across the desert, even with my potion. Making ice with magic is quite easy in small quantities, but magically produced ice doesn’t normally last very long. It melts much faster than real ice, but with my mixture it might last long enough to be useful for storage of small amounts of fresh meat and fish in the village.

Justice
You find relief from a situation where you have been treated badly, whether recently or in the past.

I received a letter from my Botleyport replacement this morning, thanking me for the ice spell and giving me an update on the state of the village. The two fishmongers were very grateful and sent their apologies for the way the village had treated me, which put a smile on my face to read! Apparently the two shops had merged together after the storm and the owners were now business partners, but that hadn’t stopped them bickering and the new witch was pleased to have something to distract them from coming to her with their petty arguments. It sounds like the village is getting back on its feet after the storm and the new witch is settling in much better than I did, which I’m very pleased to hear.

The Devil
You wake from a nightmare, and a sense of foreboding hangs over you for the day. What troubles you?

I slept terribly last night. My brief periods of rest were punctuated by a series of vague, unsettling nightmares. I kept waking in terror, then being immediately unable to remember the content of the dream. In the end I just got up and tried to distract myself with simple tasks around the house, giving up on getting any more rest. No matter what I did though, I couldn’t shake this unsettling feeling of an impending catastrophe. I never really had the knack for divination and in my distracted state I wasn’t able to see anything to explain the feeling - my crystal ball and scrying mirror both remained fuzzy and unclear, reminding me unpleasantly of the partially-remembered nightmares.

I spent most of the day performing various purification rituals around the house, to try and clear bad energy. I’d done the same relatively recently, after that business with the cursed ring, so I wasn’t sure it would make much difference. I considered going into the village to check up on everyone, but didn’t want to worry the other villagers by appearing concerned, especially when I couldn’t place the source of my worries.

I sat up until late in the night, scared to try and sleep and expecting at any moment to hear a knock on the door from someone reporting a terrible danger, but nothing came. It’s midnight now and I’m exhausted, so I suppose I’ll have to try and sleep.

Ace of Pentacles
Someone gives you a gift. Who is it and what do they gift you?

I slept surprisingly soundly last night, the nightmares and the sense of foreboding seemed to have vanished. I was still somewhat on edge though, so when I heard a knock at the door just after breakfast my heart started racing. When I opened the door though I was surprised to see the young boy whose arm I had healed shortly after I arrived here, smiling and holding a huge black feather. He told me he’d found it outside his house that morning and wanted to give it to me to say thank you for healing his arm. I got the distinct impression that the gift was actually his parent’s idea and that he was slightly reluctant to part with it, so I gave him a small heart-shaped pebble I had saved from Botleyport in exchange and he ran off happily.

The feather looked oddly familiar, so I fetched a few books down to investigate. It’s easily as long as the average adult’s forearm, jet black except at the tips which are an iridescent green-blue. I laughed with relief when I found the matching entry in a tattered old bestiary; all my worries last night were for nothing! It’s the feather from a rare bird called a Magewing. Magewings feed on magical energy. They have no effect on ordinary people, but cause fear and worry in witches as a side effect of their feeding. As a result they are considered a terrible pest in the witch community, but they don’t actually cause any harm and don’t take much energy before flying off to bother someone else. Nobody knows why they have such a profound effect on witches, but they aren’t evil or anything like that. By most accounts they are quite stupid birds, big but not especially strong or intelligent. Despite their magical nature and unusual appearance, their feathers aren’t actually all that useful most of the time, but there are a few spells that require them so I made sure to store it away safely.

3 of Cups
You find a letter while out exploring. What is it about?

I decided to use my broom to explore the higher parts of the crevasse walls today, looking for rare plants that might be growing on ledges or in natural caves. I didn’t find any interesting plants, but I did, rather unexpectedly, find a letter! It must have been blown up there by the wind or dropped by a carrier pigeon. The envelope looked quite old, but it had been tucked into a crack in the rock face and the dry weather here meant it had survived pretty much intact. It was addressed simply to ‘the witch of Sandmarket Village’, so I flew back home and opened it.

The contents were annoyingly vague, with no address and not much written , but I was interested in the final paragraph, which mentioned reports of magical items with unpleasant effects showing up in markets, warning the recipient to be on the lookout. No further details were given, but it sounded suspiciously similar to that cursed ring. The apparent age of the letter suggests that this has been going on for a while now, that and the lack of communication so far from the Greywoods left me wondering and worrying again on who could be responsible – surely they couldn’t have gone uncaught for long?

Although there was no return address, there was a relatively legible signature. Cross-referencing it against my (now slightly outdated) directory of witches, I was able to find the current address of the sender, a reasonably experienced witch named Sophie, who has spent the last few years in a village not far from the border of the desert. I wrote to her, enclosing her letter and the description of the ring that I’d sent to the Greywoods and asking if she had any further information. Hopefully either she or the Greywoods coven will get back to me soon with news that takes this weight off my mind.

6 of Pentacles
Tragedy strikes the village.

Sad news today, as news reached the village that Baru’s eldest daughter, Maria, has died. Maria left the village when she was a young adult, to join one of the many nomadic trading groups that inhabit the desert and surrounding areas. Over the years she had risen in the ranks and become the leader of a large group, but often visited the village on market days. A messenger arrived this morning to break the bad news. Apparently she had been seriously injured in an accidents while on a scavenging run in some ancient ruins, too far from any living settlement to get medical treatment quickly enough to save her.

I never got the chance to meet her, but she was popular in the village and there’s a lot of sad faces around today. Baro himself has remained in his house all day, but one of the other members of the council had been to see him and came to me with an incredibly old scroll containing instructions on how to make a burial charm, according to the family’s traditional practices passed down through many generations. The body will be brought home in the next couple of days, so I spent much of the day gathering the various ingredients required, to be able to manufacture it in time. One of the items needed is a “source of power, found in an unexpected place” That sounds like the perfect use for that crystal I found! Other ingredients are more tricky and required some careful foraging, but I think I have everything I’ll need to start working on the charm tomorrow morning.

10 of Cups
It’s a holiday. What sort?

Today is the last day of Summer, usually a day of celebration in Sandmarket Village. The traditional decorations are up, a huge variety of brightly coloured banners and flags with geometrical designs, but the mood is sombre and there are no other signs of festivities. Maria’s body was brought back early this morning and her family held a quiet burial ceremony in the small cemetery at the far edge of the town. The villagers all come from a mix a of different groups and tribes and, while the village itself has its own festivals and traditions, when it comes to funerals each family tends to continue the idiosyncratic customs of their ancestors.

Baro’s family tradition is to plant a flowering cactus on the site of their graves. The charm I produced has the effect of strengthening the plant, increasing its growth rate and protecting it from disease, so that it continues to honour the deceased’s memory for generations to come.

Summer has come to an end and it’s time for me to decide my plans for the coming season. Being a part of this village, sharing in both its joys and, like today, its sadnesses, I feel much more a part of the community than I did in Botleyport. I don’t yet know whether this will be where I settle down for good, but I do know that I’m not yet ready to leave.

Autumn

Location: Sandmarket Village

Introduction

It’s strange to think of, and experience, Autumn without the colourful leaves, or the changes in the fields, or the noticeable cooling of the air. Autumn here in this desert crevasse seems very much like Summer to the casual observer, but the changes in the natural rhythms and the energies are very noticeable to a witch. Magic becomes slightly less powerful, but more predictable, as the world settles down from the thrill of the Summer months. I spent most of today gathering materials to refresh my altar to help attune my home crystal to the new season.

5 of Wands
Write a letter. Who is it for and what do you want to tell them?

I received word from Sophie today, the author of that letter I found in the cliffs. She thanked me for getting in touch and expressed concern about my account of the cursed ring. Although she has not herself seen any such things, she did mention having heard rumours (much more than normal) about similar items showing up mixed amongst other mundane items like jewellery and decorations.

I drafted a quick letter of thanks in return, then sat down to compose another to the witches of the Greywoods, reiterating my worries and asking for any updates. I had expected to hear back by now and I must confess that the lack of any response had been exacerbating my worries on the subject over the last few weeks. My initial hopes, that I would receive a swift message back with positive news and a happy resolution have very much been dashed.

2 of Wands
Enjoy one of your favorite foods. What is it? Do you prepare it yourself or did someone else make it?

I had a nice surprise today, to help take my mind off worrying about curses. A man from the village brought me a large pot of a local delicacy – a lightly spiced vegetable stew – to thank me for some charms I had made for his family’s home a few days ago. When I delivered them I stayed to chat for a while and I mentioned that, before I came here, the only thing I knew about Sandmarket Village was that they made this stew in the Autumn. When I was young I visited a restaurant owned by a former inhabitant of Sandmarket and have remembered it ever since as the best dish I’d ever had. At the time he had mentioned that he would like to cook some for me some time, but I had forgotten until he knocked on my door this morning.

I was slightly afraid that it wouldn’t live up to my memory, but it was just as good as I had remembered! He brought me enough for several meals and when I take the pot back after finishing it I will definitely ask for the recipe.

The High Priestess
You take a day of solitude, stillness, and self reflection. Care for yourself as you reflect on your life.

Although I haven’t been too busy with requests lately, I’ve still been doing various bits and pieces and so today I decided to take a full day to properly reflect and recharge. I hadn’t really thought too much, until now, about my decision to stay on here after the end of Summer. I definitely don’t regret it. Although I’m still not certain whether I will want to stay here permanently, I do feel like I’m settling in well to daily life, in a way that I assuredly didn’t back in Botleyport. That’s mostly due to the people, of course, but there’s something else about this place that feels like home. Despite pondering this point for some time, I couldn’t settle on exactly what causes this feeling, but it’s definitely worth examining as the season progresses.

I ended the day with a long bath, followed by a simple calming ritual before writing this entry. It’s so easy to forget to take care of oneself, but the benefits are extraordinary and I feel relaxed and ready for anything tomorrow.

Page of Swords
Wild card. Choose any prompt from this suit.
I chose the 2 of Swords:
You spend a day tidying up your home and going through your belongings. What is something that means a lot to you?

After spending yesterday looking after myself, I felt up to taking care of my home. I always keep the place relatively tidy and neat, but over time things get disorganised; reagents and components for spells get “temporarily” stored in increasingly large and varied miscellaneous boxes and drawers, instead of organised logically by use and it becomes that bit harder to find what you need when someone comes asking for a rare potion or something. I reorganised and tidied the only way I know how: spending the morning making the entire house look like a complete disaster zone as I fetch everything out and cover every surface in piles of stuff, then methodically packing it back away over the rest of the day. By sundown, everything was in its correct place and I was able to spend the rest of the evening before bed sitting in my comfortable chair and reading an intriguing old grimoire that I had found tucked away in some boxes at the back of a cupboard.

Judgement
It’s time to make a change in life, whether in your own habits and rituals or in how you relate to others. What is this change and how is it for the better?

I’ve been here for quite a long time now and I’ve met all of the residents at least briefly, but I worry that I perhaps have been keeping myself apart from them a bit much. I’ve decided to try and take a more active part in village life from now on. Rather than just sitting in my house waiting for people to come and ask me for help, I want to go round the village at least once every couple of weeks and actively ask people if there’s anything they want help with. This was mainly triggered by the last couple of visitors I’ve had, who have been people I don’t often see and whose problems, though still minor and easily sorted, could have been fixed ages ago and with little effort if they had felt able to ask for help sooner. I hope that by going to people directly they will be more likely to ask for help with what they might feel are small worries or troubles and this will enable me to help them before they become more serious. I went into this line of work because I wanted to be able to help people, so this is probably something I should have done ages ago. I think the poor reception I received back in Botleyport has perhaps affected me more than I realised and I have become a bit too insular and distant, which isn’t good for me or the villagers I came here to serve.

I started today, visiting five houses at the far end of the village. Three of those had requests that I was able to fulfil today (a mix of refreshing protective charms and mixing basic potions to help with aches and pains) and I have arranged to make a more complex charm to help protect the vegetable garden of one of the others. The final house I visited didn’t have any requests but were very pleased to see me and we had a lovely chat and a slice of rather delicious cake. All in all, I’m considering this plan a success! I’ll continue my visits over the course of the next week or so, until I’ve spoken to everyone at least briefly.

7 of Wands
You’re preparing food and someone stops by. You invite them to stay and eat. Who is it and what do you eat?

A fun coincidence happened today. I was cooking a batch of the spicy Sandmarket stew, when Alim, the man who gave me the pot of it a few weeks ago and who kindly supplied me with the recipe afterwards, walked by. I saw him through the window and poked my head out to say hi. He explained he was headed out on a short walk and I invited him to pop in for dinner on his way back, as thanks for the recipe. He was very complimentary about my cooking and claimed it was even better than his own, which we both know is a complete lie! I’ve made it a few times now and I’m definitely getting quite good at it, but I doubt I’ll ever reach the same level as him, or even many of the other villagers. Despite being a dab hand at potions, even if I do say so myself, cooking has for some reason never been a real strength of mine. I’m not terrible, but it’s just not something I’ve really ever had much interest in, beyond the basics. It always feels like it’s just the boring bits of potion making, without the fun of the magic!

3 of Pentacles
Someone tells you their house is being haunted and asks you to help.

A family called round early today to ask for help with a haunting. They’ve had a ghost living in their chimney for as long as they have lived there, but it’s usually no bother at all and they see it like a sort of pet. The last few days however, it has been making a real nuisance of itself, keeping them up at night with noises and spreading soot around the kitchen. Witches don’t really have much power over ghosts. Nobody really knows where they come from, or what they are, they aren’t actually magical themselves but can be affected by magic – there are various charms and spells to keep them out of places where they aren’t wanted, but they don’t always work. Usually the best way to deal with them is to give them what they want, something that’s much easier said than done, as they aren’t able to communicate verbally, don’t appear to have much understanding of the human world and often their desires seem to be either incredibly specific or oddly vague, such that you can never be quite sure whether you’ve met them or not.

In this case, the family were quite attached to their ghost (or at least, to the version they had lived with up until now), so they didn’t want me to try to get rid of it, just to understand what was distressing it and causing it to act out. We sat down and started by tracing back to when the problem first started, then compiled a list of all the things they had done around that time that were different to before. This wasn’t an easy task and was made considerably more difficult by the sort of odd caterwauling noise that the ghost was making inside the chimney, that reverberated throughout the house, but eventually Karina remembered that she had gathered fuel for the cooking fire from a slightly different part of the mushroom caves (there’s not many trees to speak of here in the desert, but there’s a deep system of caves not far from the edge of the village where some odd species of fungi grow – when exposed to the sun, these dry out and make a good, odourless fuel for cooking).
We travelled to the caves and as soon as I stepped into the chamber where Karina remembered harvesting the mushrooms, I could feel a tingle of magic. She had told me she spotted the side passage into the chamber due to the glittery sand and indeed the floor was coated in a thin layer of deep blue crystal shards, which seemed to be naturally occurring and contained a spark of magical energy. I gathered a small pouch full to do some analysis on, then we went back to their house and took out all the fuel. I gave them some of mine to keep them going and as soon as we lit the cooking fire with my clean fuel, the ghost calmed down. The mushrooms growing in that cave must have absorbed some of the raw magic and traces of it in the smoke they produced must have acted as some kind of ghost irritant! Karina was worried about what effect the magic might have had on the food cooked over the fire, but I assured her that it was unlikely to be dangerous, although I’ve put up a sign in the caves warning people not to harvest fuel in that chamber.

I’ll definitely have to investigate the crystals further and write up my findings to share with other witches. Ghosts are fairly rare and it’s not often you get a chance to learn anything about them, so it has been a very interesting day.

3 of Swords
Someone comes to you in need of counsel.

A young man came by today, ostensibly to ask for a healing salve to keep in a medicine cabinet. While I was fetching it he asked if he could have some advice. From his demeanour and tone I’m pretty sure this was the actual reason for his visit, so I told him to have a seat and brewed up a pot of tea. He explained that he enjoyed living in the village, helping his father to farm vegetables and his mother to make musical instruments to sell at the markets. Despite this, he had been thrilled by the idea of the nomadic way of life, ever since his first market day as a young child, seeing the people from the desert tribes who congregated in Sandmarket from far and wide.

For several weeks now, he explained, he had been distracted in his tasks by thoughts of this childhood dream. A small market day will be held next week and there will be representatives from several nomadic tribes present, and he was seriously considering asking one of them to take him on. I told him he sounded quite convinced that he wanted to follow his plan, and asked why he sought my advice. He told me he was mainly concerned about leaving his parents without help, as well as worrying that, if he found that he hated it and came back after only a few weeks or months, he would feel like a fool. I told him that I couldn’t make the decision for him, but that I thought he should firstly talk to his parents about his worries and his dreams and that they would probably be more than happy to let him pursue them – it’s not like he would be abandoning them on their own, the whole village is still here and everyone helps each other when they need it. Secondly I pointed out that nobody would make fun of him for trying something new and finding that it wasn’t for him! He seemed much more cheery and promised to go home and talk to his parents right away and I wished him luck on his adventures.

10 of Swords
You take a spell bath, using herbs, crystals, and maybe even some fruit to prepare the water. What comfort or healing do you hope to receive from the ritual?

The young man I mentioned previously headed off on his nomadic adventure today. I joined his family in waving him off and gave him a protective charm for his journeys. Afterwards, I felt myself wondering about my own life journey. Winter is fast approaching and I will need to make a decision about whether on not to stay here, or move on elsewhere. I prepared a spell bath, with various herbs and potions to help me focus and explore the possibilities. As I lay in the water my thoughts turned to the cursed items and the lack of any resolution from the elders in the Greywoods. I don’t especially want to leave this village, but part of me feels obligated to travel and investigate the mystery for myself. I didn’t settle on a direct answer, but did decide to write to the Greywoods coven again and express my feelings, in the hope of getting a satisfactory reply. I wrote the letter this evening and will send it off as soon as I can. I also made a copy to send to Sophie, in case she had heard anything more on the matter, or had any specific leads I might follow up on.