Role: Hedge-witch — “Mathilda the Mauve,” a hedge witch of some renown
Status: Missing, as of the party’s expected return to Marin’s Hold
Mathilda lives just outside Marin’s Hold’s palisade, in a hut strung with dreamcatchers and wicker charms. She deals in tea, gossip, and small kindnesses despite the village’s official ban on magic — tolerated, if not exactly welcomed, likely owing to the genuine value of what she offers those willing to make the walk to her door.
When Randoah visited her before the party’s trip to Count Demetrius’s castle, Mathilda brewed her a calming tea and warned her, in the roundabout way of her kind, that the fey of the Gloaming have never forgiven humanity for stealing magic from them — and that whatever haunts the forest now was not always there. As Randoah left, Mathilda slipped a healing potion into her pocket. That same potion was later blessed by Ivek and used to save Brielle’s life in the castle’s kitchen.
The Job at the Schola
Before the party left for the castle, Mathilda sent a raven asking to speak with them. She believed the recent demon attacks originated from The Schola in the Woods, an ancient school of white magic that has lain undisturbed for generations and has been taboo for witches to enter since it was cursed. She wanted a specific book of fey magic recovered from it, offering a reward.
Her stated reasons were twofold: to help protect the city, and to prove herself to High Inquisitor Morvath. The party did not take the job. They took the Count’s invitation instead.
Disappearance
By the time the party was due back in Marin’s Hold, Mathilda had gone missing. Villagers are complaining they have nobody to get basic remedies from anymore — which is how the village noticed at all.
The party has taken this job. Investigating her disappearance is what they chose off the second board.
What the party found (Session 4)
Her cottage is not a hovel but a quaint place — trellised growing things up the walls, a garden, a cat or two, and the old smell of cinnamon, cloves and unplaceable flowers. No fire. The door was shut but not locked, and no one was inside.
- A note pinned to a post, addressed “R of O” (Randoah of Oak): she has gone on a brief journey and taken her apprentice, and will be back soon. If I don’t return, take the red jar and destroy it.
- The red jar on her workbench: red clay, corked, bound shut with ritually tied twine, as if to keep something in. Randoah has it.
- A flask beside it with a white tag also reading R of O. Randoah has it, unopened.
- A book of folk tales left open to a tale of young women seeking training in witchcraft: Follow the forest path into the wood. West to the Hangman’s Tree. South to the Giant’s Playground. West to the Blood Falls. Then follow the laughing stream to the place of learning. The party takes this to be the way to The Schola in the Woods.
- A pressed flower in the same book, labelled moon lily — almost certainly the moonlight flower behind the tincture she made for Ysolde Brack’s sickly granddaughter. No recipe.
- A black raven’s feather drifted past the window while they searched. Mathilda sends messages by raven.
Other sightings: a refugee woman from Orlaine says an old, friendly — “suspiciously friendly” — medicine woman whose name “had something to do with a colour” hired her husband and son as guides, for two chickens, and they have not returned. That is very probably Mathilda the Mauve, but it is unconfirmed. Inquisitor Morvath says he had been watching her closely but let her pass as one of the last healers, has heard dark rumours, and does not know where she went.
The party has decided to follow the route to find her before investigating Bittermold.
Open Questions
- Who is the apprentice? The note does not say.
- What is in the red jar, and why must it be destroyed if she doesn’t come back?
- What is in the flask she left for Randoah?
- Did she go to the Schola herself when nobody took the job?
- Or did the ban on magic finally catch up with her — the road into Marin’s Hold is lined with crucified witches, and she lives outside the palisade alone.
- She warned Randoah that the fey have never forgiven humanity for stealing magic, and that whatever haunts the forest now was not always there. She then went looking for a book of fey magic. Those are the same thread.
- What did she actually know about the demon attacks, and who else knew she knew it?