Inspirations from "The Village and the Witch"

     The Village and the Witch (by Davide Pignedoli et al) is a 16-page toolbox to easily and quickly develop a settlement with secrets, tension, and adventure. The process begins by rolling an entire array of six dice (d4, d6, d8, 10, d12, and d20) on a blank page. Each die termines a feature in the village and the spot on which it lands on the page its relative location in the village. Each feature, chosen from a table, is a seed of an idea to flesh out the overall underlying plots surrounding a witch and the village. 

    The witch is a central character and must be developed in more detail. Age, influence, beauty, gender, social, class, number of connections, goal, and a unique witchy feature are all framed by random tables. Then, with your imagination, these features evolve to flesh out the details of the witch.

    To tie it all together, the booklet provides some ideas for bringing the Village and the Witch to life. There are examples of what the witch may want, how her allies may help her, and how her opposition may operate, succeed, or fail.

   Below is what I developed by following the procedure in the booklet.

* * *

  The Village of Riverside was established next to the only bridge that allows easy, safe crossing of the turbulent Madeira River. As a funneling point for travelers, Riverside quickly became a trade center. Here, one may find characters from all corners of the map and the most specific and esoteric goods.

by seedling
  Amongst the goods sold at Riverside, herbs and plants are the greatest commodity. Riverside is very close to a contained jungle called The Eden which grows the highest diversity of flora throughout the land. It was this that first attracted the founder and current Lord of Riverside, Tegesta de Monroe, and the witch, Caldera Minigstem.

  As Riverside continues grows at an unprecedent rate, the initial wooden bridge has seen more boots and cartwheels that Tegesta ever imagined. Thus, the worn wooden bridge served its purpose and must be replaced with a sturdier and wider stone bridge. 

 Tegesta had been procuring a huge pile of gold to build the new stone bridge; a pile of gold as tall as herself hidden away in a cellar under her own shop. Recently the entire savings were stolen. Not a single coin was left behind, and it all happened in the span of minutes while she was attending her store. Tegesta believed that the job could only have been accomplished by a skilled thief with magic at their disposal.

  Amongst the few magic users in the village is Caldera is a young, androgenous, but ugly Satyr. Like Tegesta, Caldera settled here for access to unique herbal components needed for witch brews and spells. Caldera is the village's magic user and divinator, cleansing cursed objects, brewing simple potions, producing balms for trivial manners like for treating baldness, and reading people's fortune.

  During one of her divination sessions, reading the ashes of divination fires, Caldera saw a terrible vision of the village’s future. A terrible greedy dragon, attracted by the fortune hidden in Tegesta's cellar, would destroy and massacre Riverside.

by Gordy Higgins
  Caldera was one of the first people in the village that Tegesta recruited to find the thief and gold. The other was the reeve of Riverside, Marcus Oblerion. Unfortunately for Tegesta, all leads are cold for it was Caldera and Marcus that stole the gold!

  The players may be drawn to Riverside by rumors that a big payout is to be collected there by anyone that slays the terrible dragon of the west; or by a private letter from Tegesta recruiting the famous adventurers to her cause. How will the players tip the scales of the conflict? Will the dragon be slain and the crime forgotten or will the mystery be solved to unravel tensions in the community? 


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