Witch’s Hill
Table of Contents
Witch’s Hill
Other Appellations:
Cozy Ghost Ruins World (Alpha), Universe 112918 (Universe 161)
Fox Harmonic:
Alef-Beth-Resh
Astral Connection:
L1 D0
Witch’s Hill has a slight connection to the Astral Light which primarily manifests through ghosts.
Caution Rating:
0
Multiverse Activity:
Inactive
Keywords:
Sleeping, Observe Only,
Description:
Follow the path north of the city into the forest. You’ll come across a fork in the road, go left. Follow the path to a small boulder marked with a symbol. Look behind it to find the hidden path. Follow the path to wall, then walk around the wall until you find the marked entrance. Walk through the darkness, and on the other side you will find the Witch’s Hill.
The Witch’s Hill, which serves as synecdoche for this universe, is a flower covered hill owned by a mysterious witch. No one in the city has seen her besides the mayor who personally visits her to collect taxes. The hill is most known for the “witch’s bloom,” a time when the flowers magically turn a rainbow of colors. These flowers are collected by the residents of the city and used to make dye. Though there’s nothing obviously magical about them, they are vivid.
During a picnic at Witch’s Hill, a young girl named Amy is chased by a boar and falls through a hatch in the ground to find that the mystery of Witch’s Hill goes deeper than she thought.
Below the hill is a massive cave system, and in that cave system is a ruined city from a lost age with a moldering castle. The depths are lit by what seem to be phosphorescent mushrooms but are actually ghosts. The city of the dead is indeed inhabited by the dead, but these ghosts are far from fearsome.
The first ghost Amy meets is a little red ghost named Red, who likes to watch the stars and dream of what it would be like to be able to leave the ruins. Then she meets Blue, the guardian and leader of the ghosts, who shows her the way out of the ruins and begs her to promise not to reveal the existence of the ruins to the outside world. The ghosts live a quiet, albeit lonely existence, and do not want the outside world to intrude upon that existence.
Amy has kept the secret, and returns once every week to read to the ghosts and share them stories of the outside world. Little by little, she learns more and more about the ghosts and the ruins. Perhaps, one day, she will meet the Witch of Witch’s Hill. The ghosts know of her–and all the women that have been her.
The most recent witch showed up 15 years ago, but there was one before her, and one before her. The current witch keeps her distance, and the ghosts only see her once a month. The witch’s exact relationship to the ghosts seems unknown, but it is likely that she is a protector.
Manesological Observations of Witch’s Hill Ghosts
Manesology Report by Researcher Kind.
Their physical body (khet) is weak. The physical body is the ectoplasmic manifestation of a ghost, and the ghosts of Witch’s Hill have frail ectoplasmic manifestations that can be disrupted with a wave of a person’s hand. Their Astral body (sah) is moderately strong. When their physical bodies are disrupted, they reform quickly, and there is no noticeable gap between their thoughts and the movements of their bodies. In fact, they seem extremely expressive. But they cannot enter the minds of other beings. When Amy allowed them to try to possess her, they best they were able to do was to diffuse their ectoplasm inside of her and make her sick. They also do not seem able to telepathically contact individuals or dreamwalk.
Both their personality (ba) and doubling property (ka) are weak. Personality, in the context of manesology, refers to the memories of life a ghost have. The ghosts of Witch’s Hill retain little of the past. They do not even remember their names. The doubling property is related to the personality and determines how strongly a ghost resembles the person they were in life. The ghosts of Witch’s Hill resemble cute caricatures of people more than they do actual people, thus they score low in this category. Because of their low scores in ba and ka, their overall lucidity (akh) score is low. This conclusion is supported by their tendency to sleep and form into a little ball. Ghosts with low akh scores often enter into states of dormancy where their souls try to recall events about their lives. The less a ghost remembers, the more likely they are to sleep.
Their name (ren) is weak. The name is an extrinsic property of the soul and governs how a ghost’s identity interacts with other people. A ghost with a strong ren, for instance The Eternal Lady or her daughter Nedjes assert their identity on those that observe them. If they will it so, a person will know their name just by a glance and have flashes of their memories burned into their mind. If a person says the Eternal Lady’s name with intent and meaning, she will hear it. If they write her name, she will feel it. If she speaks her name in front of a person, she can gain power over them, her identity and her will superseding the victim’s own. But the ghosts of Witch’s Hill have weak names. Amy doesn’t know who the ghosts are just by looking at them. But their names are not as weak as they could be. Some ghosts have names so weak that individuals cannot perceive them. They are invisible physically and psychically, and at best their physical actions are observable–but that leaves a manesologist with the task of finding out why objects in an environment are moving.
Their shadow (shut) is strong. The shadow is another extrinsic property of the soul and governs how objects and environments related to the ghost’s memories interact with the ghost. A ghost with a weak shadow does not exhibit any notable reactions to, for instance, a precious book he or she wrote in life beyond recollection of the fact. But a ghost with a strong shadow may feel something in the back of his or her mind when the book is read. Ghosts with particularly strong shadows can even be summoned simply by gathering together objects of emotional importance. They can even be bound by objects, as in the case of the Witch’s Hill Ghosts. They cannot leave the ruins, even though ghosts like Red deeply wish they could, and the brick and mortar of the ruins is as solid to them as they are to beings of flesh and blood. Amy could put her hand through Blue, but a falling brick pinned him to the ground. They also demonstrate an aversion to their corpses and the places they reside, even if they don’t understand that this is the reason they feel an aversion to certain areas of the ruins.
Their heart (ib) is strong, though this conclusion is partially conjectural. The heart is the least understood and most difficult to describe extrinsic aspect of the soul. It is commonly conflated with the name, but it is not the name, though it does deal with how a ghost’s personality interacts with the outside world. The heart is often described as the empathic component of a ghost. When a person feels a chill while walking through the halls of a ghost’s old home and doesn’t understand why, they are feeling the ghost’s heart. It is a ghost’s humanity. It is sometimes thought of as a ghost’s true will, particularly in the Thelemic tradition. As the ghosts of Witch’s Hill adopt progressively more human forms as they interact with Amy and change their speech so that she can understand them, it can be assumed that they have strong hearts.
Their power (sekhem) is very low. It’s a common manesology maxim dating back to the time of Carnacki that “the living have no defense from the dead,” but in this case it doesn’t pan out. Blue is correct in believing that his friends have more to fear from the outside than the outside has to fear from them. Perhaps this is why the mysterious Witch of Witch’s Hill watches over the ghosts. She knows that they need protecting.
Manesology In Witch’s Hill
Most of the books in the ruins are illegible, insect-eaten scraps, but Amy did manage to find a book that demonstrates that the world of Witch’s Hill knows manesological concepts.
The Ezner shell seems to correspond to our concept of the khet and the Groma field to our concept of the sah. The Groma field is intangible and creates the physical Ezner shell, which is permeable to physical disturbance unless it to has a Groma field. This indicates that the ruins have their own Groma field similar to a shut.
Of particular interest are notes regarding using “mana” to create an artificial Groma field to trap spirits. This artificial Groma field sounds similar to gaetite, which is able to bind ghosts by manipulating the odic layer.
Individuals of Note
Amelia “Amy”
When Amy first found herself in the ruins beneath Witch’s Hill, she was frightened. The only thing she wanted to do was leave. But once she was out, she found that she had grown stronger from her
she found that she missed the ruins. She missed her ghosts friends, she missed the mystery, and so she came back, and once every every week she sneaks down to the ruins to read to the ghosts and learn more about how they function.
Raw Power 1
Durability 2
Speed 2
Sanity 6
Intelligence 4
Skill 2
Red
Red was the first ghost Amy met in the ruins. Cheerful and curious, Red loves talking to Amy and listening to her read to her and the other ghosts. Like the other ghosts, she can’t remember much, but she wants to know everything. She can’t leave the ruins, a force prevents her, but she gets as close as she can every evening to watch the stars come out.
Raw Power 0
Durability Semi-intangible
Speed 3
Sanity 2
Intelligence 2
Skill 2
Blue
Blue is the leader of the ghosts of Witch’s Hill. He’s not as friendly as Red, and at first he only wanted Amy to leave the ruins, but he gradually warmed up to her presence. Blue is highly protective of his fellow ghosts and fears what would happen if Amy told others about them, thus he comes across as very cautious, but though he won’t admit it,, in his own way he’s just as curious about the world as Red. He follows her every evening when she goes to watch the stars. Unlike other ghosts, Blue does not sleep, he instead watches over the other ghosts as they sleep. Could he have once ruled over the ruins? It is possible.
Raw Power 0
Durability Semi-intangible
Speed 3
Sanity 2
Intelligence 2
Skill 2
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