Three days before a total solar eclipse passes over Oberlin, five strangers in town invite you to an exposition in Peters Lobby, where they show off the benefits and applications of witchcraft! Meet:
- P.B., a charismatic Sound witch who’s brought this team together;
- Juliana, a rocksteady Sound witch and P.B.’s partner in crime;
- Marley, a sweet Herbal witch and best friend of P.B. and Juliana;
- Fern, a stoic Celestial witch who’s an outsider to the group; and
- Goliath, an eager-to-please Crafting witch who’s a sentient cloth puppet.
As the group presents, you learn that the eclipse has brought them here; solar eclipses supercharge magic to unpredictable levels, and most witches don’t dare practice magic during them. These five are breaking that taboo, and as the eclipse hits on April 8th, they’ll be conducting groundbreaking experiments to show just how eclipses change magic.
The eclipse hits, and the sky opens up, and the next day the team presents their findings. Juliana and P.B. demonstrate a newfound power to read each others’ minds, and Goliath hijacks their and Fern’s more formal, scientific presentation to show off a fortune teller that, unexpectedly, affects what it predicts so it’ll be right. Then, Marley shows off her project: with instructions from the Text, the highest compendium of spells and witch knowledge, she’s brewed a potion that should allow P.B. to fly.
It doesn’t allow P.B. to fly. Instead, it kills him in front of everybody. Marley, unable to explain that to everybody, flees the scene.
Juliana, Fern, and Goliath ask for your help figuring out how Marley made the potion, and the three of them are left to plan P.B.’s funeral, which is held in Tappan on Saturday. The three of them eulogize him, and then an uninvited guest interrupts the ceremony.
Regan the Spellbinder, editor of the Text, heard of P.B.’s passing and has words she wants to say. She laments the preventable death of such a promising witch, caused by a misuse of power, and she alludes to a secret plan she has to ensure nothing like this happens again. Without disclosing details, she invites the trio to help her realize it.
Fern and Goliath angrily tell her to get lost, furious that she would crash P.B.’s funeral to soapbox. But Juliana, secretly in on the plan, begs them to reconsider Regan’s offer, especially when Regan reveals she’s brought P.B. back from the dead to her side.
Or, wait. It’s not P.B. In his body is a long-dead witch, powerful and fearsome, or so Regan implies- but she declines to say just who, and leaves with Juliana and not-P.B., leaving Fern and Goliath betrayed and in Regan’s way.
Who has Regan brought back from the grave? What’s her secret plan? And can you help Goliath, Fern, and the still-missing Marley save magic from falling under her control?
Winners
Congratulations to our winning teams:
- The Oberlin Obertones
- Feral Hog Post-Apocalypse
- thwug
Game Materials
- Read the Witch Text (plaintext version here), and decode Regan’s terrible poetry to identify who she’s brought back from the dead.
- Read Regan’s Tumblr account and uncover more of her secrets!