Church of the Witches

The native religion of Orathos's witch-council — the "just over a dozen" witches (variously the Twelve or the Thirteen) who traditionally vote the island's ruler, including the named Witch of the Lake (Session 25). Worship treats the witches not as a market of gods to be appraised but as mysteries "to discover, learn and understand"; the creed runs "the witches are the island and the island is the witches." Three crones are said to have birthed the original witches; the witches' forms vary (one or two are believed to have wings). A village church holds a central stone statue worshipping all thirteen equally, ringed by wood carvings of a handful of locally-favoured domains (e.g. a Life Witch for those opposed to all killing). To outsiders the locals are dismissive of "witch lovers."

So far the party's group has met no witches in person; the parallel "red" group has met three (one sent them to a second, and they summoned a third).

Session 32

• The party visits the Ponterford church in the town square (the biggest building, by the marketplace and pyre), staffed by a horse-folk witch-priestess — wide witch's hat, white cloth-wrapped forearms, prayer beads, a witch's holy symbol, and running red mascara.
• She explains the religion to Silithane and Lash, and strikes the arc's central bargain: she knows things about The Snatcher but will not help until the party proves its good intentions through deeds, having watched too many adventuring groups burn a building and die on the guards' spears.
• She gives a first test — a frog-folk family near the lumber mill (across the far bridge) has lost something; find it. (Jex blurts "Goopo!" at the mention of frog folk.)
• Names Yuko as the town's actual smith (distinct from the woodworker Big Finn).

Session 33

• The sermon, attended. In the Ponterford church the Covenite preaches on the witch Rhiannon ("the Night Witch"), telling two contradictory legends (a war-heroine who rose commoner-to-witch and rides into battle on horseback; a child-stealing night-conjurer who boils children to eat their unlived years) and insisting the witches are just people — the stories say more about the teller.
• The treasonous doctrine, stated plainly. The witches are the life-force of the island, predate everyone, and vote the island's ruler — and Laewendas was not chosen by them. Said openly here it borders on treason; weeks of these sermons have the village (and its guards) quietly questioning the crown, marking Ponterford as anti-crown.
• The service used no magic — just repeated dissent adding up over weeks.

Session 34

• The first good-deed test, passed. The frog-folk family errand is completed — the party slays the crocolion menacing King Ringo's frogs and (via Lash's pox con) turns the lumber mill off their grove. With the tomato extermination, that's two good deeds banked toward earning the Covenite's snatcher knowledge; Big Finn's granddaughter and more remain.
• The Covenite/priestess does not appear on screen this session, but Abely of the Speakeasy is revealed to be a secret private worshipper at the church — where Valmora first befriended him.

Session 39

• The bargain paid off. At a midnight meeting (church empty but for the two Covenites and a statue hung with the day's prayer-notes), elderly Covenite Moroko pours a cyan oil into a swaying chained lantern, sparks a blue flame, and raises the ghost of a murdered kobold boy — letting the party hear, first-hand, of Laewendas's cave and its child-sacrifice shrine.
• A face-to-face introduction. The Witchkeeper Covenite then opens the church's hidden door to admit the Varian spy Timothy Leisten, brokering the alliance the church needed but could not act on itself. Moroko also quietly knows Old Common, confirming Silithane's read of the shrine's purpose.

Session 44

• The bargain's bill comes due. The party reports the cave cleared of bandits and murderers; the witch-keeper is thrilled — and, on Lash's glowing account, smitten with the hero Pimothy. But she learns there were no children to save (empty cages), and grieves the naïveté of having believed they could be. She will decide herself whether to tell the ghost boy the truth, judging the wider news "not safe to be shared just yet" until Laewendas is off the throne.