Bailey Ward

**Bailey Ward** is the protagonist of Switchcraft. The game starts during her freshman year at the magical Pendle Hill Academy with her best friend, Lydia Summers, disappearing during their first Faraway ceremony. After recovering Lydia from the Dark Hunt, Bailey investigates her strange behavior and former chancellor Mari Swan's scheme at the academy.

Bailey has the romance Dylan Blake, Greg Gilmore, or Naomi Wood.

## Background

Bailey lived with her father, Don Ward, and mother, Amelia Ward in Boston, MA, prior to attending Pendle Hill. She was close childhood friends with Lydia until high school when Lydia began spending time with more popular students. Although Bailey's family had financial difficulties, she had happy childhood and shared a close relationship with her parents. After her mother drowned when she was 11, Bailey's father continued caring for her as a single father. By the beginning of the game, Bailey has rekindled her friendship with Lydia and is also close friends with her roommate Rosie Perez.

## Plot

### Book 1

Bailey is disturbed by a sudden vision of Lydia trapped under the ice with a voice warning her about the the Faraway, a magical and non-physical space for witches to travel to. Consulting Chancellor Swan and Professor Shirazi about her vision, they tell Bailey that Lydia is hiding something from her past. Lydia reveals that she struggled in high school and needed therapy, and agrees not to attend the first Faraway ceremony. However, Bailey senses something is wrong when she sees Lydia at the ritual, but is abruptly drawn into the Faraway. She meets the Tree Spirit (or Fox Spirit), who tells Bailey to watch for "a murder covering the Monolith" and to cast the "beam of the moon" at the right time. Bailey awakens to see Lydia being carried by strange light but is unable to move. As the students return to campus, Bailey makes note of an unusual rose symbol on the ritual tree before leaving. She attempts to seek help from Chancellor Swan, Professor Shirazi, and Professor Wilson about Lydia's disappearance, but they dismiss Lydia as having "run away" due to her previous struggles with mental health. In the hallway, her classmate Dylan tells Bailey that Lydia was arguing with Shirazi at the Campus Café earlier. At night, Rosie and Bailey notice that the campus's Monolith replica is covered by crows. After realizing a "murder" meant a group of crows, they cast the "conjure moonlight" spell, which directs them to Lydia's backpack with a letter threatening Lydia to leave Pendle Hill.

While returning to their room, a messenger fox arrives with a letter from the Coven's detective, Deena Harrison, for Bailey to meet her at noon when a scream comes from Lydia's room. Finding the room ransacked with only a large boot as a clue, Bailey uses the messenger fox to track down the owner that leads to Dylan and his roommate Greg Gilmore's room. Dylan confesses to having searched Lydia's room, and warns Bailey not to trust the academy. At Harrison's meeting with Bailey about Lydia, she diminishes her disappearance as another "runaway case" and tells Bailey to perform a glimpse with her to find Lydia. They are thwarted by an unusual mind ward that blocks the glimpse from proceeding, and Bailey sees a vision of a gallows on fire before becoming unconscious. After awakening, Harrison tells her that that glimpse failed and that her vision was merely a result of the mind ward.

Following the assembly regarding Lydia's disappearance, Dylan informs Bailey about an important dream he had about Lydia where she showed him a triple moon. They discover that it is the symbol for dream walking when they are taunted by their classmate Shumi Lane, who asserts that only older witches are capable of it as it requires high amounts of magicka. Nonetheless, Bailey and Dylan risk psychosis by heightening their magicka with lunar gems and successfully enter Lydia's dream where she is trapped in a basement with a boy, and shows them a map before they awaken. After dream walking, Gilmore takes care of Dylan while he experiences psychotic effects while Bailey and Rosie follow Lydia's map into the woods. They discover a backpack with Dylan's belongings, including one of the letters threatening Lydian to leave. Dylan argues that he was trying protect Lydia as his brother had asked him to before he was arrested by the Coven for the illegal creation of spells. Bailey notices a radio identical from Lydia's room in a photo of Dylan's brother,, but find that the radio was stolen while they were gone. They track down the radio to Shumi at Choker's Lake, who admits that she took it under the belief that Lydia was learning advanced spells from the radio. Bailey challenges Shumi for the radio, who has also been taking bets on who can beat her nemesis mirror. Bailey wins against the mirror and takes the radio back to her room with Rosie, Gilmore, and Dylan. After following instructions from Lydia's voice, Rosie is supernaturally affected by the radio as the mysterious rose symbol from the ritual tree reappears. They break the radio and take Rosie to Janis Sullivan, a junior at Pendle Hill, who tells them that she has been hexed with the work of dark magic.

After Bailey, Dylan, and Gilmore help Janis retrieve several items to break the hex, Rosie recovers and confirms that it was another entity posing as Lydia on the radio. Intent on removing the dark magic symbol in her room, Bailey asks Shumi to help find the sigil as her parents are connected with the Coven in exchange for money. Though she successfully retraces the sigil in reverse and the rose symbol is removed from the floor, Bailey becomes branded with the symbol on her neck. In the meantime, their classmate Eve Tulsi tells them that she is moving into Lydia's unoccupied dorm. Bailey and Rosie search for connections to the symbol in Ipswich and learn from Mocha Mike at the the diner that the manager chose the rose symbol for their cups. Before they can return to campus, they are stopped by Ipswich police officer Naomi Wood due to accusations that they were seen vandalizing the town square. Bailey accompanies Naomi to the Ipswich Witch Museum to find the footage of the crime and sees the rose symbol framed on the wall titled as "The Brutality of Justice Sommer" due to his harsh punishments on women accused of witchcraft. Naomi confirms that Bailey and Rosie were not involved in the vandalism and apologizes for the accusation. Bailey returns to Pendle Hill to seek help for Eve, who is eventually put on trial by the Coven and found guilty. Upon returning to her room, Bailey finds a letter from Chancellor Swan to meet her in the morning.

Dylan and GIlmore nervously tell Bailey that they were also interrogated by Chancellor Swan. At the meeting, she inquires after Bailey's wellbeing and that the academy is handling matters with the Coven. In addition to noticing Lydia's file, Bailey asks Swan about a decorative crow which is revealed to be her anti-caterpillar charm. With Gilmore, Rosie, and Dylan's help, they contrive a "secret admirer" for Swan to steal Lydia's file while distracting her with a caterpillar. Bailey successfully takes the file from her desk and is unlocked with magical orbs from the the Observatory. Bailey discovers that Professor Wilson was a suspect in the case due to being expelled from another academy and begins following him. She discovers that Wilson and Rosie are concealing a highly illegal and rare plant called the Flower of Truth that only blooms for a short period and dies when someone utters a lie in its presence. Using the opportunity to glean the truth from Wilson, Bailey questions him about his past. He answers that he was not involved in Lydia's disappearance, but lies about the circumstances surrounding his expulsion from previously, causing the flower to die. With Wilson no longer as a suspect, Bailey discovers a note that was in Lydia's room addressed from Professor Shirazi. She follows him into the woods to see him feeding the messenger foxes and drop his wallet. She finds a business card from Lydia's mother, Vivian Summers, and calls her on a live radio show. Summers later tells Bailey that Lydia had recently used her credit card in Ipswich.

Bailey discovers at Eleanor Barnes's Town Store that Lydia's card was used to purchase an expensive clam cream. They track the cream to Pendle Hill's librarian, Ruby Blue, who claims to have bought it from Espresso Joe at the café. Joe tells Bailey and Rosie that the cream was from Shumi, and confirm that she was the one using Lydia's credit card after following her. Bailey reports Shumi to Chancellor Swan, and is later confronted by Shumi at the café in a fit of rage. She is apprehended by Professor Shirazi, while Bailey remains suspicious of her unusually high magicka. Joe tells Bailey that Shumi owes her $500, which she uses to bargain with Shumi at Choker's Lake in exchange for information. Shumi agrees to a race across the lake during which she cheats and beats Bailey. However, Shumi suddenly collapses and runs away, leaving behind her belongings. Bailey and Rosie discover an unknown potion inside her bag that they take to Janis, who tells them that the potion is an illegal and addictive concoction called Blackswift that greatly enhances the user's magicka with severe side effects corresponding with Shumi's outbursts. Bailey confronts Shumi about her addiction and learns that Lydia was helping her with her substance use before disappearing. Shumi takes Bailey to Joe, as he had been selling her the potion. Joe admits to her that he was threatened by an anonymous sender to poison Shumi and that a new supply would arrive at the dropoff point that afternoon. Bailey follows the dealer into the woods and discovers it is Eve, who despises Shumi's parents for giving her parent's a life sentence in the Cube, the prison for witches. Eve attempts to kill Bailey but is knocked unconscious and brought back to the school. Bailey informs Shumi about Eve's reasons for poisoning her, and Eve is held on trial and denies being involved in Lydia's disappearance before being sent to the Cube.

While accompanying Janis to town they are pulled over by Naomi for speeding, and are required to drive with her to the station due to Janis's six unpaid violations. While at the town store, Bailey discovers Lydia's signature on one of the sketch pads. The store owner Eleanor Barnes tells Bailey that Lydia was seen previously buying a pack of cigarettes and that Tommy, her grandson, saw her with a "fox man". At the harbor she sees Tommy and the clam business owner Salty Mac, who confirm that they saw Lydia with a man preoccupied with the statue of Annie McGregor, a persecuted witch from the 17th century. Naomi approaches Bailey at the harbor to tell her about a witness who reported seeing Lydia jumping into the harbor. Bailey finds Lydia's phone and visits the Ipswich Witch Museum with Naomi to ask the owner, Betsy Sage, about the town statue. Bailey links Lydia to her ancestor, Justice Sommer, and discovers that Rosie and Lydia were fighting at the museum the day prior to her disappearance. Bailey and Rosie argue over Lydia, with the latter refusing to elaborate on her argument with Lydia. Later, Bailey notices an obscure figure in the surveillance photo of Rosie and Lydia. Dylan and Gilmore help Bailey reveal the magic used in the photo but are intercepted by Professor Shirazi, who subtly tells Bailey that he is aware of foul play in Lydia's disappearance and to stay away from Naomi to protect witchkind. Despite Shirazi confiscating the surveillance photo, it appears in Bailey's room, with the obscured figure now shown to be the "fox man" that Tommy described. Dylan informs Bailey that his brother's roommate and Shumi's ex-boyfriend, Jason Ashford, was obsessed with foxes.

Bailey discovers that Lydia has been kidnapped as part of an dark magic ritual in a Dark Hunt, where witches shapeshift into "hunters", with Lydia representing "prey" as the rabbit. While chasing Jason into the woods, she discovers an invitation to the Dark Hunt. In their disguises, Dylan, and Gilmore help Bailey cheat by toppling the boulder at Raven's Perch to join the hunt. Bailey manages to track down Lydia, but is knocked unconscious by her before she leaves with Jason. Before Bailey can follow them to Choker's Lake, Eve intercepts Bailey to kill. Bailey defends herself, resulting in Eve accidentally stabbing herself with the knife. After sending a messenger fox for help, Bailey proceeds to Choker's Lake to see Lydia being pushed by Jason into Choker's Lake.

### Book 2

Bailey stops the White Fox from killing Lydia and saves her from drowning Choker's Lake. With Chancellor Swan's assistance, Bailey revives Lydia with a mixture containing Justice Sommer's ashes. While happy to see Bailey, Lydia is inconsistent and vague with her story, which prompts Bailey to visit Clear View, where Lydia received therapy from while she was abducted from Pendle Hill.

Bailey meets the Spirit of Love, who gives her a brand over the Rose Symbol that she received after Rosie was hexed. This results in Bailey's brand bleeding each time the Spirit of Love's sigil activates and causes her to enter the Faraway.

Later, Bailey and Shirazi discuss Swan's treachery, which leads them to Sunrise Market in search of the illegal trader who has been creating the mysterious lunar gems radio. She mentions the Spirit of Love to him, who warns her that the Faraway being is not what she thinks it is.

After disassembling the radio to find a secret box with the rose symbol engraved on it, Bailey, Rosie, and Janis find a substantial among of lunar gems and golden teeth. These teeth apparently belong to Annie McGregor according to Betsy Sage, whose skull is also on exhibit. This leads Bailey to the graveyard to find the magical academy McGregor taught at during her time, Fallow's Tree Academy. At the graveyard with Shumi, they find a secret passageway leading to the abandoned Tree Academy an find a child's drawing, an ancient idol, and an athame filled with memory gas. Inhaling the gas recovers the memory of a woman asking Justice Sommer to be branded by the rose symbol and hears her screams of pain. While Bailey begins to awaken from the memory, she realizes that Shumi has sealed her in the crypt. Infuriated, Bailey attempts to break down the wall before seeing the Spirit of Love's symbol by the underground tree, which transports her to the Faraway again. This time, the spirit requests that Bailey look inside a locker at Pendle Hill with a blue star sticker on it.

Bailey begins searching for Shumi which leads her to Salty Mac, Shumi's addiction sponsor. He concernedly comments that Shumi has not been attending their meetings and is displeased to see her back together with her ex-boyfriend, Jason, who has been searching for Annie McGregor's ashes. Much to Bailey's dismay, she discovers that Mac's ancestor buried the ashes in the underground tree at Fallow's academy, and that Shumi had taken the ashes for Jason. Bailey also begins to notice searing pain from her brand and becomes increasingly hostile, attacking Mac before losing consciousness again.

Bailey awakens to find Rosie, Dylan, and Gilmore rushing her to the dinner, and tells them that the Annie McGregor statue in the town's square now has glowing eyes in addition to changing positions; however, Bailey is the only witch who can see this.

In the Faraway, she encounters Goddess Annie, one of Annie McGregor's forms, and is burned in their fight. However, once Goddess Annie realizes that she branded Bailey in her guise as the Spirit of Love, Bailey tells her that Beatrice is still alive. Bailey enters one of Annie's memories, and eventually comes upon a house with Lydia as a child outside. Lydia leads her into the house where she, Jason, and Travis are all trapped in their forms as children. They tell her about Annie, who is locked behind a door in the house with a mysterious man upstairs they have never seen as Annie constricts bags over the children's heads and leads them below to the basement he goes downstairs. She learns that Lydia remains possessed by Justice Sommer, while Jason and Travis have been separately possessed by Jonathan and Fanny.

Lydia attempts to make amends with Bailey by preparing a surprise picnic, and breaks down after it is ruined by a skunk, recounting to Bailey how she was kidnapped by Jason and Travis who were already possessed by Jonathan and Fanny by casting a levitation spell on her during the Faraway ceremony. At the ritual tree, they also cast a Weaved Spell to allow Justice Sommer to possess her consciousness. Lydia still struggled against Sommer, and was still aware when Bailey was trying to help her.

    Bailey returns to her dorm when she is startled by a messenger fox delivering a message from Shirazi, who has been missing for several weeks, that says not to trust anyone with the briefcase. Inside is a vial of memory of her mother being murdered by a cloaked witch.

### Book 3

Book 3 begins with Bailey processing the newfound revelation that her mother murdered. She angrily calls her father to ask why he did not tell her that her mother was murdered. However, he insists that her mother's death was accidental, but admits that she died in Ipswich instead of Boston.

Bailey finds Detective Taylor's address, the head detective of her mother's case at the time, who tells her that Spud Biddle was a major suspect. While searching for information about Spud, she overhears him being reprimanded by Janitor Hank. Upon seeing his childlike behavior, Bailey begins doubting that he could have murdered her mother. However, she sees him and Clara Clapper exchanging feces from the campus's messenger foxes in return for money, with Clapper warning Spud to keep their meeting a secret. This visibly frightens Spud at the unspoken threat of the "Not Man" that would make Spud into "his slither mister". Janitor Hank tells Bailey that Spud is virtually incapable of murder, despite his craftiness. Bailey breaks open a locker at the Spirit of Love's bidding, and realizes that it is Spud's locker which contains a folder file titled "BULLY and FRAUD... Amelia Ward". He denies any connection to her mother and runs towards the auditorium where he vanishes. Following him, a student who tells Bailey that he went towards the basement through a trapdoor concealed behind the waterfall.

Entering the basement, Bailey is bombarded with a torrent of water and falls down the stairs. She finds the basement beaming with lunar gems charging in the walls and is unaware of the snake coiled around her. She charms his snake, Miss Hissy, and follows him into a room with a towering female figure made of plants representing Mother Gaia where Spud cries in her lap. When Bailey demands answers from Spud about her mother, he compares Bailey to that "rotten bitch" and tells her to look within the file, which contains an issue of the East Coast Enquirer (a "trashy gossip magazine" according to Bailey) with Betsy Sage on the cover. Spud rasps that Amelia wrote for the magazine and spread falsehoods that destroyed people's lives under the alias "Jessie Chatters". Written on the folder is Betsy Sage's name, as she was the one who told Spud to kill Amelia.

After Lydia departs for Boston, Bailey casts the Spirit of Love's symbol to heed Nurse Beaubien's advice about confronting it. Noting the flower's sickly sweet scent, the Spirit of Love approaches her and apologizes for being overly emotional and forgives Bailey for not opening the locker earlier. Noticing the spirit's eagerness to learn about her distress, Bailey concludes the spirit derives strength from her pain.

### Book 4

Bailey faces Deon Hicks at Viper's excavation site in Ipswich where Amelia is being held hostage. To save her mother, Bailey cuts herself over the stone to reform the bridge to the Faraway. The Predator Spirit enters earth and tears apart Deon. Before it reaches Bailey it is pushed back by Shirazi, and In their struggle the First Witch appears to dissipate the Predator Spirit. As her ancestor, the First Witch gives Bailey the critical option of choosing to live and maintaining the status quo for witches, or to die and gift magic to the rest of humankind in the process.

If Bailey chooses to live, she returns to Pendle Hill and graduates three years later.

If Bailey chooses to die, witches will no longer live in secrecy as all humans are now capable of magic.

## Relationships

Bailey is best friends with Lydia, whom she has known since childhood. She is also good friends with Rosie, whom she met at the academy. Upon meeting Dylan and Gilmore later, she strikes up a close friendship with them. Depending on the player's choices, Bailey's romantic relationships will also vary.

She has a close relationship with her father, whom she worries about at times due to his sometimes irresponsible behavior and his depression, which he tries to conceal from her.

## Personality

Bailey is an intelligent and level-headed witch that proves to be highly capable in stressful situations. Although she occasionally strikes up conflict with her friends and classmates, Bailey is typically charming and kind towards her friends depending on the player's choices. However, she can be stubborn and single-minded in pursuit of unraveling mysteries, sometimes to the point of causing conflict or neglecting her friends and relationships.

## Physical Appearance

Bailey has violet eyes, medium length brown hair with an undercut. She is usually seen wearing a red plaid shirt jacket over a gray v-neck top paired with black skinny jeans and red converse-style sneakers. She dons a black choker with a dangling crescent moon charm.

## Quotes

"It's brought me nothing but grief. I wish i'd never cast that dark magic spell." - Bailey to the Spirit of Love

## Trivia

* Bailey wins at Ipswich's annual pumpkin carving contest at Halloween hosted by Salty Mac.
* Her favorite spell is "conjure moonlight".
* Bailey failed her driving test three times before successfully getting her license.
* Her favorite food are grinders.
* Her hobby is drawing, although Bailey says that Lydia is the better artist.
* Bailey's sun sign is Aries.
* She has a fear of balloons popping.
* Although Bailey initially used Eve's attempt on her as a way to check in to Clear View, she realizes that she may be more troubled by the incident than she realizes.
* As the protagonist, she is the only character to appear in every chapter and book.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/SwitchcraftOfficial/photos/whip-smart-and-more-adventurous-than-her-hairstyle-baileys-ready-to-make-her-mar/1133374653813642/