The Witch

**The Witch** is one of **11** Devils currently featured in *Soul at Stake*.

She was introduced as the Devil of Frozen Village (DLC), a DLC released on 14 September 2018.

## Lore

In a remote snow mountain in Northern China there is a small village. The village was covered in snow most of the year. So it was easy to understand there were only a few families that struggled to live in this awful place.

Interestingly, in this village there seemed to be a single house that was isolated from the others, standing alone and shrouded in mystery.

Residing in that house was an old lady, Gran, also known as the "Witch" to other villagers. According to the rumors, she was able to summon spirits and bestow blessings. The villagers respected her as she was a special member of this small society.

To many villagers, Gran wasn't necessarily their closest acquaintance. Whenever someone needed an exorcism, they must ask for her help, so in this sense, she was an irreplaceable part of the community. However, most villagers tend to fear her and avoid her because of her relationship with the spirits. Gran was running a burial business in the village, and nobody wanted to be the neighbor of a businessperson whose only customers are the dead. In the end, Gran was always alone, and never really spoke to anyone.

The Elders in the village once unveiled Gran's past. She used to be a widow from the south. She came to the mountains with her daughter, but they got trapped in the snow and almost died. Fortunately, a villager, Crooked Ding was around and rescued them. She then married Ding because of his heroic deed. The new couple didn't get pregnant until a few months before Ding died of an accident. The newborn never even got to see his father.

Ding was very excited when he heard the news that his wife was pregnant and decided to share them with his daughter who lived in another town. But the weather was horrible when he was on the mountain trail, which caused him to fall off a cliff. Mysteriously, it is said that it was due to her husband's death that the ability to speak to the spirits was first bestowed on Gran.

The fatherless son grew into a strong and healthy young man and received much love from his mother and big sister. His sister invited him to town to become an apprentice when he was 12, and that was the last time Gran saw his son.

Gran was left in the village by herself. Managing the burial business, she barely left her house, with only the companionship of some wild cats she saved in the mountains. Every time it snowed, she would pause in her task to stare at the snow-covered mountain, seemingly lost in thought. When she was like that, curious village kids stared at her from a distance and would even throw some snowballs at her. No one dared to approach her though, as their parents specifically warned them not to get close to the "Witch".

The parents feared her for a reason - they always believed there was a weird glare of greed and avidity when Gran stared at their kids. In the end, the parents carefully kept their kids from the Gran, leaving her sitting alone in the everlasting snow as if she were a snowwoman.

One day, a couple of villagers passed by Gran's yard, yelling and chasing something. Gran took a closer look and noticed a black cat hiding under the fence, frozen in fear and wounded. He briefly nodded at Gran like he was begging her.

The villagers saw Gran pick up the black cat. They came up to stop her because black cats are an omen of misfortune.

The cat was pure black and was identified as the worst omen by the elders in the village. Folks never fed him, instead, they beat him with sticks. Naturally, they believed he would bring great misfortune to the village if the "Witch" adopted this cat.

Gran couldn't care less. She brought the cat in, fed and kept him warm. Interestingly the other wild cats in the room kept their distance and were noticeably agitated.

Little did Gran know how much trouble the newcomer would be dragging her into.

In the past, villagers invited her to cast exorcisms or host funeral events now and then. But ever since she adopted the black cat, whenever a bad thing happened, people would blame her for taking in the black cat. And soon the "Witch" became the "Devil Witch" in people's eyes.

Without her business, Gran's life turned even harsher. But no matter how hard it was, she never abandoned the cats. She never let the cats starve when her belly was full.

Fast forward to a few months later. The villagers almost forgot about the "Devil Witch" as they never cared about how she was doing. It was almost New Year and the villagers recalled that they needed her for a New Year convention. The question is - would she still agree to do the ceremony after how they had treated her?

Of course she would, otherwise what will she eat, someone asserted.

People felt slightly more confident - right, she was a lonely widow. She had to answer their requests to make a living. Although they had no idea how she survived the past few months without their business.

A few persuasive women were selected to invite Gran. They came to Gran's house with some greeting gifts - some potatoes and pastry.

Gran's yard seemed deserted and covered in thick snow, indicating nobody walked in or out for quite a while. On a second look, the only footprints were from cats.

The group of women approached the front door, and obviously, they had to dig it out of the snow so that they could speak to Gran.

All of a sudden, the first few in the group yelled and rushed out of the door, followed by a bunch of cats chasing them.

One bold lady was not scared off but became rather intrigued. She held the door frame and peeped through the seam, which soon revealed to be a terrible idea. There was no Gran at all but her skeleton lying against the wall. The flesh was almost eaten up. The heavy coat was torn into pieces. A darkened nightmare was on her chest. A bloody hole exposed her missing heart. Next to the body were some more wild cats, while the omen-of-misfortune black cat lay weakly in front of Gran, covered in blood and seriously wounded. He was guarding Gran's body against the hungry wild cats.

Yes, Gran had been devoured by the cats.

With this most horrifying news, it really put a dark shadow on the next year, reckoned the villagers.

Evidently, this would be an awful holiday season, and people blamed the black cat for it. So they decided to finally remove him.

Otherwise, how would they lose the cursed fortune and go into the new year?

So, the story ended up with the villagers getting rid of the unwelcome - both the creepy old Gran and the black cat of misfortunate. Everyone was happy to embrace a bright new year.

That was the most festive New Year’s Eve in the village. People spent a lot of money to invite mages from the city to cast exorcisms, as well as performers and dancers to elevate the joy.

However, after that night, the village was always surrounded by eerily mournful cat yowling at midnight.

A couple of days later, random visitors passed by the village and was surprised to find there was nobody there but many dead bodies. The victims' necks were broken, and all of their hearts were missing. The visitors hurried to report the case to the police, but the police only made a brief investigation around this remote tiny village and found nothing but piles of wild cats. It didn't take long before nobody worries about this case anymore.

There were many versions of the truth about the massacre. Some said it was Gran, who bore a hatred from being mistreated by the villagers, came back to murder them after she died. Others said it was the black cat that got bullied by people who possessed Gran's body to get his revenge. Another saying was that Gran starved to death, and the black cat was her representative to eat children's hearts as compensation.

No matter what was the truth, many people affirmatively believed that Gran's story is real.

## Overview

Gazing at a Gambler can turn their body into a cat, and their body will suffer when it returns to human form.

## Abilities

### **Curse**

The Witch's gaze can turn a Gambler into a cat for a short period. A cat can't be attacked and other Gamblers can help them remove the spell. But if the spell is not lifted in time, it will hurt the afflicted once it returns to human form.

#### Ability notes

* **Curse** has a cooldown of **10** seconds.
* Gains **6** Stakes each time **The Witch** turns a Gambler into a cat.
	+ Gains **12** Stakes each time a Gambler takes damage after the curse ends.
* The duration of the curse is **45** seconds.
* This ability ignores **Voodoo Dolls**.

## Cheats

*Can be drawn at Level 20.*

## Tips

Playing as The Witch
* **Curse** can be activated early, so you can catch a Gambler at the end of the charge time and transform them instantly. This has great ambush potential at most ranges.

Playing against The Witch
* **Curse** has a very obvious audible warning, which signals for Gamblers to remove themselves from the Witch's line of sight.

## Notes

* **The Witch** is the second female Devil.
* **The Witch** is the first Devil to be introduced as a DLC.
* **The Witch** is the first Devil to use a walking stick, especially to attack with.
* **The Witch** is the first devil to be old, in her case, an old woman.
* **The Witch** is the only devil to not have her own vaulting animation, but instead, her black cat vault through the Windows then she teleport through them.
* **The Witch** is strongly ressembles the Cat Face Old Lady.