Lady Hildegarde

## Show Appearances

**Lady Hildegarde**, also known as the Witch of Wittengen or simply informally as Hildie/Hildy, is a Recurring NPC and long-lived serpentes and an early ally of the Check Please! Party, who first appears in *Check Please!* season one in the episode "BEES" (C1 S1 E13).

## Description

### Appearance

As a serpentes, Hildegarde is vaguely humanoid, but has four arms and a large snake-like tail protruding from her lower torso. Her skin consists of green scales with black speckles, and she has a pair of small vestigial wings jutting out from her lower back. Her wavy, dark green hair falls to her chest, and her eyes are green with slitted, serpentine pupils. Hildie wears a purple dress and a "giant, very stereotypical witch's hat", along with thin gold hoops in both ears and a green snake eye pendant on a purple band around her neck. Hildie has long fingernails that are sharp enough to draw blood.

### Personality

Though first described as a "monster" by the racist miner Lothar (with additional suggestions that she deliberately poisons the townsfolk with her curative potions), Hildegarde is revealed to be a kindly and beneficent soul, whom the rest of the town view with fondness, appreciation, and respect as a "valuable ally". She is known to be on friendly first-name terms with Telilah (even calling her "Tallie"), the ruler of the local Fey creatures, who has been a neighbor to the serpentes for many years.

### Abilities

Hildegarde is a powerful spellcaster and maker of potions, and possesses a deep store of knowledge about Obeddore gathered over her long life. She is shown to be able to learn a great deal about a creature's true nature simply from smelling a drop of their blood.

### Habits & Traits

Hildie speaks with an accent that is unusual for Vil, and shows a particular fondness for sweet tea, preferring it to alcohol (from which they abstain). She has been known to smoke an unspecified kind of sweet-smelling herb from a long cigarette holder.

## Biography

### Early Life

Like most serpentes, little is known of Hildegarde's past, although she has a long-term acquaintance with Zel, the long-lived dragon steward of the Merry Valley. According to the bartender of The Broken Pick, Hildegarde has been in residence in a cottage near Wittengen and helping the town for three to four hundred years. Telilah, the Faerie Queene, hinted that Hildie may have been living in the area far longer, stating the serpentes had "been in these hills almost as long" as she had. In earlier days, she was known to occasionally visit Wittengen to provide assistance to its residents, but by 762 3E she had not made such an excursion within living memory of any locals, preferring that they come to her instead. She reportedly took up the habit again after encouragement from the Check Please! Party.[*citation needed*]

While traveling circa 682 3E, Hildie encountered a gnomish inventor named Desmond McKinney-Bodwin. Approximately eighty years later, in 761 3E, she met Desmond's son Seamus and Seamus's spouse Lilith as they ventured through Vil.

In conversation with Lovette, Hildie alludes to having lost someone important to them in the past, and being unable to find them despite their best efforts. They offer no further details.

### *Check Please!*

#### Season One

Hildegarde was instrumental in assisting the Check Please! Party with resolving the crisis at the Deepcut Mine near Wittengen and the magical corruption of the Fey creatures of that area. She assisted the Party again on several occasions.[*citation needed*]

Breaking her vow against taking life, she later participated in the ritual killing of the being known as Markus Cupshigh in an attempt to revive Lovette's beloved childhood friend Moira. This left Hiledgarde emotionally scarred, and she subsequently disinvited Lovette from her cottage, though Sol was able to maintain a more friendly relationship with her. She was later a guest at the public wedding of Sol and Gro'h.

#### Season Two

Hildegarde's attitude towards Lovette may have softened in the five year period after the Rending, as she permitted Lovette to occasionally visit Markus's garden gravesite to pay her respects. It is implied the two avoided each other on these occasions.

## Partial List of Appearances

### *Check Please!* Campaign One

* BEES (C1 S1 E13)
* Weaver Fever (C1 S1 E14)
* Oh Gnome You Didn't?! (C1 S1 E15)
* You did WHAT to my Fiance?! (C1 S1 E16)
* A Call to Eden (C1 S1 E50)
* It's Electric (C1 S2 E1)

## Source Citations

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 *Check Please!* – "BEES" (C1 S1 E13)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Check Please!* – "Weaver Fever" (C1 S1 E14)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Check Please!* – "You did WHAT to my Fiance?!" (C1 S1 E16)
4. ↑ *Check Please!* – "A Call to Eden" (C1 S1 E50)
5. ↑ *Check Please!* – "The Ceremony (Finale, Part 1)" (C1 S1 E64)
6. ↑ *Check Please!* – "It's Electric" (C1 S2 E1)