Region: The woods of the Gloaming
Status: Abandoned for generations; cursed
Taboo: Witches do not go there, and have not for a very long time
Overview
An ancient school of white magic, undisturbed for generations. It was cursed long ago, and it has been taboo among witches to set foot there ever since — a prohibition strong enough that Mathilda, who lives outside Marin’s Hold in open defiance of a village that crucifies witches, would rather hire strangers than go herself.
Mathilda believes the recent demon attacks originate from the Schola.
The Book
Mathilda wants a specific book of fey magic recovered from the school. Her stated reasons: to help protect the city, and to prove herself to High Inquisitor Morvath.
She posted this job before the party left for Count Demetrius’s castle. By the time they were due back, she had gone missing.
The way there (Session 4)
Mathilda left a book of folk tales open at her cottage to a tale of young women seeking training in witchcraft, with directions to “the place of learning”:
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 the “forest path” to be the Fairy Path — a line of old smooth stones running west from the edge of Marin’s Hold into the dark forest. None of the village’s hunters has seen the other landmarks. The party set out along it at the end of Session 4.
In Session 5 the party found the Hangman’s Tree, the Giant’s Playground and the Blood Falls in that order, just as the tale describes; full route notes are on The Fairy Path. They have not yet found the laughing stream.
Other threads that may lead here
- Mathilda went on “a brief journey” with her apprentice and has not come back.
- Egrid’s vision: a woman named Jane, trapped underground for a long time, who only wishes to rest — “some kind of student.”
- Inquisitor Morvath’s commission: a book of foul magic in “an ancient temple to foul gods,” the Threshold of Twilight, to be sealed unread in a witch-marked lead coffer and brought to him. The party suspects it is here and may be the same book Mathilda wanted.
- Randoah’s brother’s skull, asked about the Threshold of Twilight: a catalyst for transformation — a metamorphosis from one thing to the next. A doorway from this realm to another. A path through the Feywild. A gift and a curse.
Open Questions
- What was the curse, who laid it, and on what?
- An ancient school of white magic, in a region where magic is now a hanging offence — what happened to the order that ran it?
- Which book, specifically? Mathilda named one.
- If the demon attacks really do originate here, is Mathilda’s disappearance connected — or did she go there herself?
Compiled from Mathilda’s job posting. Nobody has confirmed the school’s location or condition.