Session 33 — The Night Witch, the Honest Wizard, and the Tomato Rebellion

Session Recap

A second slow day in Ponterford, picking up inside the witches' church as the party kills an hour before the sermon. The Covenite preaches on Rhiannon, "the Night Witch" — the witch of the Thirteen closest to home, who roams Rivalon — telling two flatly contradictory stories about her (a heroic commoner-to-knight battle tactician, and a child-stealing night-conjurer who boils children to eat their unlived years) before insisting the witches are just people and that the stories say more about the teller than the witch. The deeper point lands quietly: the witches vote the island's ruler, Laewendas was not chosen by them, and weeks of these sermons have the village's commoners — and even its guards — asking openly treasonous questions about why she sits the throne. Magra listens for any whisper of the missing children and hears nothing: no condolences, no recent gossip, and not a single child to be seen anywhere in town — perhaps because there are none left to take.

Most of the day is spent up the hill at the abandoned wizard's tower, which turns out to be a thriving, scrupulously legal Mage's Society magic shop run by Renforth the Wysand, an owl who has never had a bad day in his life. Asked outright about the missing children, the owl gives the session's most chilling line almost in passing — they aren't missing, he corrects: they've "all been returned in slightly less good condition" — before primly declaring himself too socially inept to discuss the subject further (a clue the party largely lets slide). Admitted past his ghostly butler and a sign of twenty banal rules, the party goes on an armour-class shopping spree — rings, pants, boots, gloves and belts — dropping ~2,000 gold and leaving most of the group around 20–22 AC ("immune to rats"), and idly muses with the lonely wizard about one day founding a settlement of their own (laws, fair wages, an accountant and a steward). Silithane trades spellbooks with Renforth, learning the spell to conjure a tower in exchange for his Shadow Blade, and the wizard explains the local oddity in the field below: the walking tomatoes are platypus-farmer Doug "Duck" Dillinger's prize crop, magically over-grown into sentient monsters against Renforth's explicit warning. After the break the party visits Dillinger, and Thalia's Speak with Plants uncovers that the eyeless "Tom" creatures want only eyes to see their victims and vengeance on everyone who has ever eaten a tomato — Dillinger first. Judging them dangerous pests, the party exterminates the tomato uprising (a fight the recording barely catches), then moves on to begin the witch's good-deed test: the frog-folk family by the lumber-mill docks, and something with human bones lurking in the water there. (The session's last ~90 minutes transcribe very poorly — long silences and crosstalk — so the combats and the dock errand are only partly recoverable.)

Key Events

• Killing the hour before the sermon. Valmora spends the gap ingratiating herself with the townsfolk (a Charisma 23), earning the GM's gift of two "this person is my friend" tokens — pre-made friendships with two random commoners she can cash in this session. Thalia (bored of sitting) and Fenric head off to wander; Magra and Silithane stay for the service.
• The sermon of the Night Witch. Each villager takes a candle from the altar; the Covenite preaches on Rhiannon, "the Night Witch" (the silent K optional). She tells two opposite stories: Rhiannon the heroic commoner who rose squire-to-knight-to-witch and rides into battle on horseback, inspiring poor children to dream of knighthood — and Rhiannon who conjures the night, steals the day, creeps into houses to steal children, and boils them to eat the decades they never lived. The moral: the witches are ordinary people, and the stories you tell about them reveal you, not them.
• A sermon that borders on treason. The Covenite reminds the congregation the witches are the life-force of the island and choose its ruler by vote — leaving unsaid that Laewendas, who rules this village, was not chosen by them. Weeks of this have commoners and guards openly asking "why is she on the chair?" — Ponterford is markedly anti-crown, having been punished for resistance before.
• No children, no gossip. Magra eavesdrops the departing crowd for any trace of the missing children and finds absolutely nothing — no condolences, no recent talk — and the party notes they have not seen a single child in town. The horror reframes: perhaps the snatching has stopped because the town has run out of kids. The sermon itself used no magic — just repeated dissent adding up. (Later, Renforth complicates this theory — see below.)
• "Returned in slightly less good condition." Pressed by Lash about the missing children, Renforth gently corrects the premise: missing isn't quite right, he says — the children "have all been returned in slightly less good condition," before declining to discuss it further ("I lack the social capabilities to handle such a topic"). It is the session's darkest clue and the party, mid-shop, lets it pass almost unremarked: the children may not simply be gone but come back diminished — a thread that sits oddly against The Snatcher's drowned-in-the-river reputation.
• Dreaming of a settlement. Taken with Renforth's flawless, above-board operation, the party muses with him about one day founding a settlement of their own — turning over laws, fair wages (he insists a child's labour is worth an adult's), and the need for an accountant and a steward to run it. Idle talk for now, but the first time the group treats building something as a goal of its own.
• The honest wizard's tower. At the "abandoned" tower the party meets a ghostly invisible butler who presents a bell on a silver platter; ringing it (and pantomime-agreeing to a sign of ~20 banal rules) admits them to the shop of Renforth the Wysand, an owl Mage's Society member. Everything is scrupulously above-board: identification slips, notarized cross-signatures, and a full pedigree/creation history under every item. Renforth, naturally gifted and born to lesser nobility, has had "the easiest life imaginable."
• The AC shopping spree. The party offloads loot money into protective gear: half-AC and 1-AC rings, leather pants (+1 AC), boots, gloves (incl. 10-gold smith gloves that cut bludgeoning), belts (a +1 Arcana belt for Silithane), and plate chausses for Magra. Most of the group climbs to ~20–22 AC ("you're immune to rats now"). Lash buys commoner's pants (to look less suspicious) and Forge Master flame-resistant goggles.
• Silithane learns to conjure a tower. Renforth offers to teach Silithane the spell to summon a permanent tower in exchange for copying Silithane's Shadow Blade into his own book (a few hours each). Renforth — multitasking the shop, two or three unseen servants, and the copying by hand at once — proves an extremely capable wizard; he warns Silithane to only raise a tower on land he owns, lest it be trespassing.
• The tomato confession. Renforth explains the walking tomatoes: Doug Dillinger, a platypus everyone mistakes for a duck ("Duck Dillinger"), rents the field behind the trading-company house. Beaten to second place at the Ponterford Vegetable Fest, he begged for bigger tomatoes; warned that magically enhancing them risked sentience, he bought a generic plant-growth charm and used it on the tomatoes anyway — and "up they pop: teeth, legs, arms, they scream in the night."
• The accidental dinner date. Jex casually invites the lonely Renforth to dinner; the socially-inept owl consults a colour-coded "how to socialize" grimoire, reads it as a date, and — after much flustered back-and-forth — agrees to dinner at 8 at his own house. The party leaves having made a genuine friend (and ~2,000 gold lighter, worth +1 town reputation).
• The three "Speak" taverns. Renforth lays out the local geography: the Speakeasy sits across the road from the Speak Loudly, and the long-defunct Speak Moderately is now the home of a rude rival wizard, Malgamar, who couldn't keep customers and shut up shop. The Speakeasy is the place for a bounty board — and the party still owes Caressa's letter to the Aberforth Speakeasy there.
• Doug Dillinger and his cows. Down at the field the party meets Doug Dillinger (a hunched ~5'2" platypus farmer) and his two cows — twitchy Milkshake (who licks and instantly adopts Lash) and Mary Mel (favouring a tomato-bitten leg). Dillinger considers the monsters his children ("I made them... but they're just so violent") and has fenced them in rather than kill them.
• Speak with Plants, and a tomato revolution. Thalia climbs the fence and casts Speak with Plants on the eyeless "Tom"-creatures. They want eyes to see whom to bite and vengeance for every tomato ever eaten ("for thousands of years the people have bitten the Tomflinks, now we bite back") — and claim to see everyone's lifetime tomato-kill count. Told Dillinger has grown ~50,000 and eaten ~25,000 tomatoes, they mark him as their first kill. Thalia has "started a rebellion."
• Genociding the Tom Toad Revolution. Judging the tomatoes dangerous pests (and fearing they'd grow bigger on blood), the party agrees to wipe them out. The fight that follows is barely captured by the recording — Silithane is heard Blade-Dancing, Booming-Blading, and using his Wiggly Dagger across multiple creatures ("this stomping takes 23 total").
• On to the frog-folk and the water. The party turns to the witch's first good-deed test — the frog-folk family near the lumber mill. In badly-garbled fragments the party finds a baby frog by the docks, asks after a sheriff, and works to fish something out of the water with a grappling hook ("I'd rather take care of it on land than in the water"), amid talk of human bones and aquatic creatures at "the bottom." Silithane sits down to ritual-cast something for the job. (What exactly happened here is unclear from the recording.)

Combat & Encounters

• The Tomato Uprising — the party exterminates Doug Dillinger's field of sentient, vengeance-seeking "Tom" creatures (the Tomflinks). The encounter is mostly lost to the recording: confirmed beats are Silithane's Blade Dance + Booming Blade + Wiggly Dagger sweeping several creatures at once, and a "stomping" hit for 23. The eyeless tomatoes attack on a "bite back" instinct and could grow stronger if they ever feed on blood.
• The dock/water encounter (frog-folk errand) — a second, even-more-garbled fight or hazard at the lumber-mill docks, involving human bones, something aquatic at the bottom of the water, and the party trying to hook it onto land rather than fight it submerged. Silithane begins a ritual; details are unrecoverable.
• No level-up or pip total was stated on the recording; the party presumably remains level 6. Shopping with Renforth earned +1 town reputation.

NPCs & Factions

• Renforth the Wysand (new) — the owl wizard of Ponterford's tower; a Mage's Society member running a scrupulously legal magic shop, served by ghostly unseen butlers. Socially inept, profoundly lucky, and now the party's friend (and Silithane's spell-trading peer). Dropped the unsettling aside that the town's children aren't missing but "returned in slightly less good condition," then refused to elaborate. Has a standing dinner date with them at 8.
• The Covenite — the witch-priestess (the horse-folk priestess of Session 32, or her assistant Covenite) who preaches the sermon on Rhiannon. Still the gatekeeper of the snatcher knowledge the party must earn.
• Rhiannon (new) — "the Night Witch," the witch of the Thirteen most tied to Rivalon; the sermon's two contradictory legends (war-heroine on horseback / child-stealing night-eater) eerily mirror both The Snatcher and the whole arc.
• Doug "Duck" Dillinger — the hunched platypus tomato-farmer (everyone mistakes him for a duck) whose jealousy at the Vegetable Fest birthed the walking tomatoes he now can't bear to kill; keeps cows Milkshake (twitchy, now devoted to Lash) and Mary Mel (tomato-bitten leg).
• Malgamar — a rude rival wizard who failed to make a go of the old Speak Moderately tavern and now lives in it; mentioned only.
• The Tomflinks — Dillinger's sentient, eyeless tomato-monsters, exterminated this session; they sought eyes and vengeance on all tomato-eaters.

Locations

• Ponterford — further explored: the hilltop wizard's tower (not abandoned after all — Renforth's shop), Dillinger's tomato field behind the trading-company house, a Baelheim-style house (the trading-company clerk's, built like a sunken triangle, the only non-Rivalonian architecture in town), and the lumber-mill docks where the frog-folk errand begins. Still: no children anywhere.
• The Speakeasy / Speak Loudly / Speak Moderately — the town's three "Speak" venues: the still-unvisited Speakeasy (with the bounty board, and Caressa's Aberforth Speakeasy contact) sits across the road from the Speak Loudly; the dead Speak Moderately is now Malgamar's house.

Loot, Items & Rewards

• Armour-class gear, bought from Renforth — the party spent ~2,000 gold cleaning up their defences: half-AC and 1-AC rings (Ring of Minor Warding ~100g; Ring of Clean Protection ~450g), +1-AC leather/hide pants (~10–40g), boots (+1 AC or +1 Dex saves), gloves (incl. the 10-gold smith gloves that cut 1 bludgeoning), a +1 Arcana belt for Silithane (15g), plate chausses for Magra (100g, +1 AC and slashing/piercing resist), and (for Jex, after weighing a half-AC cloak) two Rings of Minor Warding (100g each, 1 AC across both slots) plus +1-AC leather pants and +1-Dex boots. Most of the party now sits at ~20–22 AC.
• Lash's disguise kit — commoner's pants (1 silver, to look less suspicious as she plans to pose as bait) and Forge Master flame-resistant goggles (1 gold, head slot).
• Spell trade — Silithane learned the spell to conjure a permanent tower; Renforth copied Shadow Blade into his own book in return.
• +1 town reputation for pumping ~2,000 gold into the local economy via Renforth.

Decisions & Open Threads

• "Returned in slightly less good condition." Renforth's cryptic line is the session's biggest unfollowed lead: are the snatched children not merely drowned but brought back changed/diminished? It cuts against the river-bodies rumour and may point at what The Snatcher (or Laewendas's curse) actually does to them — worth pressing the owl on at the dinner.
• Earn the witch's trust. The arc's spine continues: rack up good deeds for Ponterford to unlock the Covenite's knowledge of The Snatcher. The tomato extermination and the frog-folk errand are the first deeds; Big Finn's snatched granddaughter still awaits.
• The frog-folk family. Begun this session at the lumber-mill docks — something aquatic amid human bones that the party means to hook onto land; the scene is unfinished/unclear on the recording.
• Lash as bait. The plan to have Lash pose as a child to test whether the snatcher still operates (and learn whether the town has simply run out of children) remains live — hence her commoner's-pants purchase.
• Rhiannon the Night Witch. Her twin legends (battle-heroine on horseback / night-stealer of children) sit uncomfortably beside the snatcher's own profile ("rides in on horseback, takes the children at night") — possibly a lore thread, possibly a red herring.
• Renforth's dinner date at 8, and the standing Aberforth Speakeasy lead (still unvisited; across from the Speak Loudly).
• The anti-crown town. Ponterford's sermons are quietly turning the populace against Laewendas — a potential ally-base for the Reclamation, and a reason the town is watched/punished.
• Carryover: the war-critical sawmill feeding Cathalon's war machines; Otto's undelivered package and Thalia's oath; the red-candle tomb / 14-ft coffin (Session 24) and Valmora's dead-gods quarry; the missing mothers; the imprisoned Caressa and the cave's deferred loot/prisoner decisions; the Veilwood as the longer heading; and the eventual assault on Laewendas.
• Roster. On-screen: Thalia, Fenric, Silithane, Lash, Magra, Valmora, Jex — plus Salamandine and Silithane's crow. Ashlyn remains recalled to the Veilwood; Draak is gone. No level-up stated; presumed still level 6.

Memorable Moments

• The two Rhiannons. One sermon, one witch, two stories — the war-heroine children pretend to be, and the night-thing that eats the years they'll never live — and the Covenite's shrug that neither, either, or both might be true, because witches are "just people."
• The wizard who's never had a bad day. Renforth, sweating gently under Fenric's "inspection," running a flawless above-board shop, and earnestly over-sharing a stranger's entire divorce — "Let me know if I'm ever saying too much. They say I'm socially stunted."
• Reading the date wrong. Renforth flipping through a colour-coded "how to socialize" grimoire to its DATE section after Jax suggests dinner — "Hold on a second, let me consult my texts."
• "Tom, Tom, Tom." Thalia negotiating an entire tomato civil-rights uprising in a language consisting of the single word Tom, then breaking the news to the farmer that his ~25,000 lifetime tomatoes put him first on the kill list.
• "I'm my cow now." Milkshake the twitchy cow licking Lash's forehead and instantly defecting to her.
• Immune to rats. The GM's running gloss on the AC spree — "all it means is you're immune to rats; a rat can't hit you anymore" — the party's quiet graduation into the mid-game.