Hag Witch

*"Oh Great Spirits, grant me your sight, so I may see what dangers lie in my path."*

## Advanced/Special

(RotIQ) Few Ungol women develop magical powers without first demonstrating “the sight.” Thus, most hag witches – women who can invoke the spirits of Kislev – were wise women first. Their powers are said to be a blessing and a curse, for although the hags can undoubtedly aid their local communities, the spirits demand a high price for their compliance: premature aging. Because of this consequence, most wise women dread the possibility of the spirits answering their call. As well as the wise women, those who suffer a great loss – such as the death of a husband or child – may also be chosen by the Ancient Widow and gain an intimate understanding of Kislev’s tormented spirits. Hag witches who come to power in this way often live alone, grieving for their lost loved ones and fading youth.

**Special Requirements:** You must be an Ungol female to enter this career.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Academic Knowledge (History or Spirits) (Int), Command (Fel), Common Knowledge (Kislev or Troll Country) (Int), Consume Alcohol (T) or Perception (Int), Heal (Int), Intimidate (S), Magical Sense (WP), Prepare Poison (Int) or Trade (Apothecary or Herbalist) (Int), Speak Arcane Language (Magick) (Int), Speak Language (Ungol) (Int)

**Talents:** Fast Hands, Hardy or Strong-minded, Lesser Magic (any three), Meditation, Petty Magic (Hag)

**Trappings:** Hag witches are gifted healers, so they always have at least one antitoxin kit, a healing draught, a healing poultice, and a skin of koumiss to fight the cold. They are also quite superstitious and, thus, carry a number of small charms that include bits of bone, locks of hair, unusual stones, and so on. They mark their station with the tell-tale shawl.

## A Long Expected Party

Zoya moved towards the window. They had been chattering all evening, and the noise of the spiteful bickering had gradually got closer. She could see them. Usually they played on the ice of the brook or sat in the line of trees that bounded the yard. But now they approached the house, making lines in the snow with their stick-like bodies.

She knew this would happen, one day. She knew they would come, ever since she was a young girl, ever since the first glimpse she had ever had of them. She tried to keep it a secret, not just from the villagers, that was easy enough, but from herself.

And now they were scratching against the shutters. Zoya steeled herself, opened the latch and pushed the shutters against the wind. And she could see them clearly. They danced in staccato movements upon the sill, their black and green bodies like twigs and their teeth like ivory.

They called to her. Like the winter wind howling through bare branches, their voices sang through her mind. ‘Do you want it?’ they demanded. ‘Do you want us?’

Zoya knew she did. All her life she had wanted this, but all her life too she had been scared, afraid of the price she might have to pay.’

‘Yes,’ Zoya said slowly and deliberately. ‘Yes, I do.’

‘And what shall you give us?’ the voices sang.

‘Whatever you want,’ said Zoya. “Whatever you want.”

## The Road

Take the road to Erengrad in the cold of the sea storm, and talk there to sailors of a hundred distant islands.

Take the road to Bolgasgrad with the bitter frost biting at your heels, and talk there to the hunters of the secrets of the bear.

Take the road to Praag in the deep snows of mid-winter and talk there to the soldiers of shadows that claw at the walls.

But, do not take the road to the troll country where the earth curls and spits and the trees are broken, and do not talk there to old women.

– Traditional Kislevite song