The WitchCrafters are a female guild of witches based in Pentamarone, a walled artisan city on the Endymion Empire–Artmegia border. They combine spellcraft with artisanry, producing much of the art and crafting supplies traded across the continent, and they effectively run the city.
Their sigil — a hammer, shears, and a needle — flies over Pentamarone’s gates and over their own walled guild compound inside it.
Mission / Purpose
The guild’s craft is exactly that — crafting: magically-made goods, art, and supplies distributed far beyond Pentamarone. What sets them apart is where they do it: Pentamarone is the only place within Endymion Empire borders that is not under the Empire’s jurisdiction, despite the Empire’s otherwise strict control over all magic (registries, approved schools, Keystones).
Their reputation travels. Per a trader at the Pentamarone docks:
“A little too artsy fartsy for my taste, but they make good stuff. Quality. Especially anything made by a WitchCrafter herself — it’ll last your lifetime, if not more.”
Members
The full roster of masters was convened in Session 11, and the party’s first impression was a rainbow — a room of witches, each with a different colour of hair.
| Member | Craft / Post | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Madame Verre | Head of the guild — glass | Effectively runs Pentamarone, inherited from Rellyona herself. Appears as a little girl on a floating glass throne. Glass staff as arcane focus. Paralyzed the entire party in Session 10 and made a deal with them in Session 11. Her youth is an accident of eternal-youth research — not undead, still aging (Session 12) |
| Genni | Knowledge-seeker — the guild’s scholar; her study doubles as the guild library | Deduced the Golden Chalice’s nondetection is self-generated. Grew up near the Citadel; her staff and her safe bear the Endymion Empire’s magic symbol. Second most senior. Presented the chalice report (Session 12) |
| Marka | Calligraphy, cartography, documentation | Believes how a spell is written imbues magic of its own. Drafted the party’s contract. Read Snorri’s notebook and placed its language in the War Rock Mountains |
| Haine | Master witch; keeps Verre’s schedule | The guild’s voice of reason. Openly argued against the deal. Knows what Verre is chasing. Most senior — about a decade directly under Verre |
| Edel | Gems, ornament, magic stones | The only master with an easy backstory: “I always just liked pretty things.” Verre found her |
| Schmietta | Smithing and weapons — keeps the forge | Fled a crafting village inside the Endymion Empire when the army came; worked up from apprenticeships. Treats and presses the gunpowder for the fireworks |
| Pittore | Master witch | Assigned to the conjured-materials study. Handles the chemistry of the fireworks’ colors |
| Seed | Botany and horticulture — the only master who works with living things | From a line of druids in a forest up north; left after something she won’t describe. Keeps the courtyard garden |
| Ceramia | Master witch | Also appears to be a small girl — and, unlike Verre, really is one (Session 12). The newest master; Verre took a liking to her promise |
| Dolly | Receptionist / commoner staff | Cheerful, allergic to cats, walked the party back to Genni |
Session 11 — The Contract and the Research (September 9, 2026)
Madame Verre released the paralyzed party, heard them out, and proposed a trade: the guild’s full effort at identifying the Golden Chalice in exchange for her own undisclosed use of it, the chalice returned afterward, housing and meals, and a guarantee of no harm. Aren had the party’s warning about the Academy written into it; Marka drafted the document and Asha read it before anyone signed. Verre’s estimate was one week, less with help.
The Four Lines of Inquiry
Verre assigned every master in the guild, in under a minute:
| Team | Question |
|---|---|
| Edel & Schmietta | What the chalice is physically made of — metal, set jewels — and whether either can be dated to an era or place in Astrodia |
| Haine & Pittore | What the conjured objects are constructed of, and whether a copy fully replicates its original |
| Seed & Ceramia | The living copies — what they’re made of, whether they’re truly alive, and what animates them. (Test subjects: the cats.) |
| Genni & Marka | Records — any account of the [[The Seeker of the Sinful Spoils |
The Fallen embedded themselves across all four: Úlfr at Schmietta’s forge, Leif with Haine and Pittore, Drolta with Seed and Ceramia, and Aren and Asha in the books. Two days of work cut Verre’s seven-day estimate to three days remaining, with no findings released yet.
Their Method
This is the guild’s real distinguishing feature, and Verre stated it plainly:
“Everyone thinks they rely too much on divination. As soon as your Identify spell doesn’t work, everyone just assumes it’s impossible. But this is grassroots magic — getting to the core, to the essence of things, without having to rely on a pre-existing spell.”
Where the Academy casts a spell at a problem and declares it unsolvable when the spell fails, the WitchCrafters take the object apart. Nobody at the table had seen anyone do that before.
What They Told the Party Over Drinks
- On Madame Verre: she has been a child “for a very long time”; not the mind of a child but “the smugness of one”; wise beyond her years; bored by everything except whatever is currently interesting; and she keeps her word.
- On Genni: she came alone from near the Citadel, won’t discuss it, and is not a spy.
- On the White Forest: they know the curse (it threatened Pentamarone before it receded) and know a coven lived there, but nothing of its fate. One recalled a witch near the forest who worked with Rellyona — i.e. Morgana, whom Session 10 placed alongside Verre instead.
- On Empire law outside the city: all unregistered magic is illegal and requires power stones; registration is possible; whether a warlock can use patron magic at all under that system, nobody knows.
- On the city: nothing to worry about. Shops, restaurants, temples, nature. A temple to Venus, none to Pluto.
The Fireworks Festival
A newer Pentamarone tradition, falling at the end of the week as of Session 11: every guild in the city competes to stage the most breathtaking firework show. No limits on materials, spells, or method.
The winning guild runs the city.
The WitchCrafters have won every year since its inception, which is why they run it. Asked whether that comes down to magic or effort: “Magic is effort, as I’m sure you know.” Asked whether they fear the competition: “No one’s ever really provided any.”
They invited The Fallen to enter. Marka was cagey about the guild’s own plans, and let one thing slip about whatever Verre intends with the chalice:
“If it goes how we want it to go, it’ll be a beautiful unveiling.”
(The festival was held in Session 12. Verre ultimately declined to use the chalice; whatever “unveiling” Marka meant remains unexplained.)
Session 12 — The Report and the Festival (September 23, 2026)
Fireworks Prep and Tenure
While the rest of the party was in the alley with Aleister, Aren and Asha were put to work on the fireworks — an informal tour, each witch showing off her part: Schmietta treating and pressing the gunpowder, Pittore explaining the chemistry behind the colors.
Every master was open about why she came to Pentamarone except Genni. The shared story: traditional schools of magic felt too strict and not artistic enough.
- Haine is the most senior — directly under Madame Verre for about a decade. Several of the others knew the guild by reputation long before joining.
- Genni is second most senior.
- Ceramia is the newest — really a young girl (“unlike her boss”) who “showed a lot of promise.”
Faith
The masters practice to varying degrees, but most honor Venus, because they understand their crafts as channeling the Agent of Creation. Marka asked Aren what had brought her to the group (“a holy mission” against the undead — “We love a girl with a mission”); the guild knows of no undead trouble in the city, only tall tales of haunted ruins or a haunted mansion nearby, and promised to keep an ear out. Seed asked Asha about the copy of her mother.
Offers
- Supplies for the White Forest, if the party is set on going.
- “Kind of crazy how it just happened that y’all came across this seemingly very powerful item. So, maybe it’s fate.”
The Truce, Per Verre
Relayed by Genni: Rellyona and the Emperor parted after the Great Cataclysm with deep mutual respect, and the Emperor has never encroached on the city, to honor her legacy. See Pentamarone.
The Report
On the fourth night Genni presented the findings in Verre’s office. Headlines — full detail on Golden Chalice:
| Section | Team | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| The chalice itself | Edel & Schmietta (with Úlfr) | Indestructible; gold too pure to be of this earth — “the idea of the pure essence of gold”; age undeterminable |
| History | Genni & Marka (with Aren, Asha) | Best match: a white-dragon-worshipping clan’s ritual object from the Great Ravine of Caelwyrm, lost a few centuries ago |
| The magic | the whole guild | Undispellable; all schools at once; nondetection covers the holder |
| The copies | Haine & Pittore (with Leif); Seed & Ceramia (with Drolta) | Objects: perfect, non-magical duplicates. Living things: hollow husks. The cats were put down |
| The cost | — | Repeated use breeds grandeur, superiority, a god complex — cumulative, scaled to the request |
| Something from nothing | — | No components, no ambient magic, no siphoning (unlike the Alchemy Jug). A violation of Venus’s domain — “that is what makes it sinful” |
Verre Withdraws
Genni argued the chalice shouldn’t be used for Verre’s goal. Verre agreed — “I think the risk is too great. And I don’t want what we’re working on to be tainted” — and returned it, honoring the contract without exercising her right. The goal remains undisclosed. She also revealed she knows Simone’s sand-map spell; the guild will look for the other Spoils with it.
The Festival
The festival went ahead that night. The WitchCrafters’ show played as an animated sequence, and the guild was out mingling with the town. The competition’s results weren’t covered. Verre, in a very good mood, invited the party back for when “maybe we’ll be done with our project.”
Structure & Access
- Open classes are taught to the townsfolk of Pentamarone in each master’s respective craft. Show sufficient skill and you can begin studying under a master witch — “but not all are capable of getting to the level of skill that the witches require.”
- The guild market runs once a month, and is the only place to buy genuinely magic-infused goods. Everything in the city’s ordinary market circle is the work of novices and junior members — beautifully made, entirely mundane. (Next guild market: roughly two weeks after Session 10.)
- Audiences with Madame Verre are effectively unavailable. Commoners deal with other guild members. The party’s persuasion attempt to be taken to her failed; she came to them instead.
The Mystery
Simone’s map of the fourth magic shows an anomalous spike of green magic at Pentamarone — one of only two spikes that don’t sit at a major capital. Aren speculated the WitchCrafters may have learned to harness the fourth magic — perhaps as leverage to keep the Empire at bay. The Fallen spent two days in the guild’s own city, walked through its guild hall, and never asked.
What They Want
The single largest unknown about this guild is now its head’s motive. Overheard by the party as Haine argued against the deal:
“Are you sure this is a good idea? You don’t really know these people, or this chalice.”
“I have a good feeling about this group. And this chalice. It’s the best lead we’ve got.”
A lead toward what has not been stated to anyone. Verre will say only that she has one goal, that the chalice may help her reach it, and that she will hand the chalice back once she has. (Session 12: she handed it back unused — the risk too great, and she didn’t want the project “tainted” — and still won’t say what the goal is, “until I’m certain of a few other things.”)
Ties Worth Watching
- Morgana — and Rellyona. A Freedale refugee said Morgana worked with Madame Verre; the guild’s own masters say she worked with Rellyona, Verre’s dead predecessor. Both accounts passed insight. Morgana also steered fleeing Freedale families toward Pentamarone as a safe haven, implying a long-established relationship with the guild.
- Two child-shaped masters. Madame Verre and Ceramia both appear to be small girls. Ceramia acts like one; Verre very much does not. Nobody in the guild questions either. (Resolved in Session 12: Ceramia really is a young girl; Verre’s youth is an experimental accident — see Madame Verre.)
- They know about The Fourth Magic now. Leif told Verre. Her answer about the guild’s own magic was expertly noncommittal — natural magic, “whether that be arcane, whatever it may be” — and Úlfr’s insight said she was meeting him exactly where he stood and no further.
- The Empire’s symbol inside the guild. Genni’s staff and the safe under her desk both bear the symbol of the magic the Endymion Empire uses. The party’s benign reading: this is where the guild stores the Keystones its members need to cast legally outside the city. The less benign reading is that the guild’s independence is a front.
- On the Academy, Genni was diplomatic — mutual respect, magic as academic study versus creative expression, “some say they have radical overreach, but they’ve also held out against the Endymion Empire.” On the Empire itself she said only: “Yes. But I would know.” She left before anyone could ask what she meant.
- Glass as an arcane focus. Madame Verre channels through glass, which bears directly on Leif’s recovered glass orb and on Úlfr’s plans for the Nithing Pole.
Related
- Pentamarone — the guild’s home city
- Madame Verre · Genni · Dolly — members met in Session 10
- Marka · Haine · Edel · Schmietta · Pittore · Seed · Ceramia — the masters, met in Session 11
- Leif’s Glass Orb — held by Verre for study, returned in Session 12
- The Fourth Magic — the anomalous magic present there
- Rellyona · Magistus — the city’s founder
- Endymion Empire — the power that does not control them
- Golden Chalice — the artifact the party brought to their door
First Appeared
Discussed in Session 7 (July 15, 2026). Met in Session 10 (August 26, 2026), when The Fallen walked into the guild hall in Pentamarone asking for an appraisal. The full roster of masters was met in Session 11 (September 9, 2026), and the party signed a research contract with the guild. The report was delivered in Session 12 (September 23, 2026).