Day 26-Are there any dramatic events from the campaign you can share?
Tell us about a moment of exciting action or tense thrills that has happened during your game. When and where did it take place?
Elowen's Journal
"Some stories are told softly, even when they involve blood and thunder.
When I first came to West Haven, I noticed Larina’s left eye. It is a different, paler blue than her right, and she has a scar that runs over and through it. I asked about it once, carefully. She does not like to talk about it.
She only said, 'That was the night Aisling came home.'
I could not believe the story when I first heard it. Not really. So I asked people who had been there. I listened to the ghosts. I believe it now.
Céline told me about the night the wards screamed and fell. Émilie told me about potions brewed so fast they cracked their bottles. The witch knight Rowan told me about fighting creatures out of nightmares, holding the line with sword and will alone. Rebecca swore she saw Strix witches tear enormous Olitiau bats out of the sky, fur, feathers, and blood raining down like black snow. The ghosts told me that Mara witches used them as soldiers to fight demons and devils against their will.
Cassandra and Celeste spoke quietly about the healing of a broken and near-dead Aisling. About how close they came to failing. About how Katrina took risks, channeling magics so powerful no one else would ever have dared.
But everyone told the same part the same way.
They say that Larina ran out of a Gate and into the night, carrying a broken girl in her arms, and called every witch in West Haven to her side.
They say the devil, who had claimed Aisling, came to take her back. They say he brought monsters with him. They say the sky burned and screamed.
And they also say Larina stood in the center of it all. Beautiful. Powerful. Terrible. Levistus struck her, tearing her flesh and eye with a claw. She fell back, and everyone thought she was down for good.
Then, the kind witch who sang in her kitchen and laughed too loudly was gone. In her place stood the ascendant Witch Queen, unbound. She rose up several feet off the ground to tower over Levistus.
They say she fought like a sovereign defending her own blood. Even the demons ran in fear of her wrath unleashed. She screamed, and demons died on the spot. She cast sheets of fire and caused lightning to fall from the sky like it was rain. Her hair exploded, crowning her in a halo of flame. She summoned the Old Magic, the magic that binds all witches together. The devil's claim on Aisling became the noose around his own neck. When he finally knew what was happening, it was too late.
When I asked what happened to the devil, Larina only said, 'He won’t hurt anyone ever again.'
Esmé and Amaranth told me the truth later on.
They said Larina had Unmade him.
Not killed. Not banished.
Gone. Forever.
I asked Esmé why the Hells have not risen up against us, and she said it was because 'Levistus was incompetent, and Hell does not reward failure.'
Aisling doesn't talk much about that night either. She just says, 'Witches bled for me. My own family never did that, so this is my family now.'
That night happened before I came to West Haven. But sometimes, when storms roll in hard from the mountains and the air feels tight, the ghosts remember it again.
So do the witches."
This was the defining mythic event of modern West Haven. I wanted something to firmly establish Larina as a new Witch Queen. Prior to this event, she had been largely the same, a very high-level witch in my world. I needed something to push her out of that role into something new. So I came up with the idea of having her rescue a new witch trapped in Hell. And I needed a big bad. My son and I jokingly said it should be Vecna. He is a fan of Critical Role's Vox Machina, and I am a fan of Stranger Things. Both featured a "Vecna." We laughed at that idea and decided that, no, as powerful as Larina is, Vecna is still way too much for her to deal with. I also like to think Vecna is the one thing that can still frighten her.
So I used Levistus. I never liked the guy, so I came up with the idea that he had been capturing young witches, feeding on their magic, and draining their patrons through their link to break free. Mespitopheles noticed it most, since in my worlds, he is the Archdevil with the most pacts with witches and warlocks.
Aisling was his last victim; she was "mostly dead." But Larina got there first and rescued her.
It establishes Larina not merely as powerful, but as fiercely protective. Her authority comes from action, not title. The coven did not follow her because she commanded them. They followed her because she ran first into the dark. Utterly destroying an Archduke of Hell also didn't harm her position any.
This event also anchors Aisling’s place in the world. She is not just a survivor. She is claimed, defended, and reborn through witchcraft and community. It also highlights the difference between my two "returned from the dead" characters. Aisling was born of blood and violence. Though she never lets that violence define her now. Why is this important? I typically don't have my characters come back from the dead. Dead is dead for my witches. These two are an exception, and even then, they came back before they were characters, really.
Larina also lost her left eye.
She has a replacement now, but the scar remains. This happened when painting a mini of her: my hand slipped, and I ended up with a streak of white through her left eye. It looked rather badass to be honest, so I kept it. It's also a nice, subtle tribute to one of my favorite R&B groups, TLC (I had a huge crush on Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes). We worked it into the game. That same mini fell off my shelf the weekend after the game and broke off her base. So I also said that she ended up with two broken legs. Don't worry, she had the best healers nearby, and I had plenty of super glue.
Mechanically, this event explains:
- Why certain extraplanar forces avoid West Haven entirely
- Why Katrina’s influence rose sharply afterward
- Why Larina bears lasting scars that cannot be healed (other than it makes her look badass)
- Why the coven reacts instantly to threats against their own
- Raises Larina from powerfu, but local, witch to cosmic-level Witch Queen
It is the moment West Haven stopped being merely a refuge and became a sanctuary that fights back. I picked this one because things in West Haven have been remarkably quiet since then.
In D&D terms, it also did a couple of things for me. It got rid of Levistus, which I have been wanting to do since forever. Glasya then used this to take over Levistus' layer of Hell. Mesphitopheles knows that Larina did this, thus protecting his own witches and warlocks, so he is actually rather pleased with this. Dispater, who in my mind despises impropriety of any sort, is pleased that Levistus was caught up in his own scheme and outmatched by a "mere human witch."
Glasya felt she owed Larina a favor. Yes. Larina has called in that particular debt. But that is a tale for another day.
I focus a lot on Larina in this particular tale, but all my witches had something to do. Larina may have rescued Aisling, but it was Katrina who really gave her new life. The Larina-Katrina-Aisling dynamic is a bit like divorced parents and their adult child.
Because nothing in West Haven should ever be clean cut.
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| Elowen and Aisling at Renee's Tea Shop |
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