What Are Witches/Warlocks?

Witches and warlocks are mortals who live convincingly as ordinary people but wield actual magic through pacts with spirits, ancestral rites, and the careful use of circles, names, and offerings. In Baltimore the Coven recognises three broad paths:

• Path of Spirits (Hedge): mediums, psychopomps, and charm-singers who parley with crossroads keepers, house spirits, and the restless dead; they call guides, bind malice, and broker safe passage.
• Path of Craft (Hexwright): makers of talismans, wards, and hexes; they inscribe circles, write true names, steep inks and oils, and lay protections that bite when crossed.
• Path of Circles (Moon): ritual magi who work the sky-tide and ley seams; they call weather’s veil, stitch luck, cleanse blight, and anchor sanctums where the world feels thin.

Common traits: second sight (trained), disciplined rite-work, familiar bonds, and a working knowledge of names, offerings, and taboos. Limits & taboos: magic costs—blood, breath, time, or favour; names spoken carelessly bind the speaker; spirits must be fed and dismissed correctly; no binding without consent; spectacle breaks the Veil and draws predators. Most witches pass as human and keep to boundary etiquette to avoid turf friction.

Overview

The Coven of Seven Ways is a circle-of-circles: hedge-walkers, hexwrights, and moon-workers who keep Baltimore’s subtle places clean. They tend house spirits, quiet graveyards, un-hex kitchens, and set circles that hold when tempers rise. They trade in favours and protections, not politics, and they take on work that keeps the Veil intact: haunt clearances, oath stitchings, ward renewals, and crisis circles for the frightened and newly-touched.

Maxim: “Name it rightly. Feed it properly. Dismiss it clean.”

Leadership & Faces

• Mistress Rowan Hale (Elder; Moon Path) — Maps the city’s ley seams; keeps the Circle House ground true; speaks softly, binds surely.
• Kofi Mensah (Hedge Speaker; Spirits Path) — Medium with a good laugh; pours the first sip, hears what the dead won’t say twice.
• Evie Tran (Hexwright; Craft Path) — Talismans and true inks; every pin, thread, and copper nail accounted for.
• Father-of-Cats (Familiar; house spirit) — Old rowhouse genius loci; keeps thresholds polite; hates cheap incense.
• Jabril Stone (Warden of Names) — Holds the sealed book; witnesses bindings; asks three times before the chalk goes down.

PC/NPC hooks: Need a rite? Ask Rowan. A haunting? Kofi. A charm or counter-hex? Evie. Paperwork for bindings? Jabril. Threshold trouble? Appease Father-of-Cats.

Structure & Circles

Order (circle-led): Elder → Path Wardens (Spirits • Craft • Circles) → House Circles (neighbourhood covens) → Sworn Guests

House Circles

• Remington Circle: studio witches; fast counters and gallery blessings.
• Old Goucher Circle: graveyard keepers; quiet psychopomp work.
• Lauraville Circle: kitchen charms; community wards; storm-veils.

Protocol & Customs

Ritual Courtesy

• Offerings first (bread, smoke, copper, or milk), then names, then asks. No bargains hungry.
• Circle closed is circle safe: do not break chalk, salt, or thread without leave.
• Witness your bindings: one Warden or a neutral elder must hear the words and mark the seal.

Boundary Etiquette

• No rites inside Free Court salons, Harbour red rooms, Iron Belt tracks, or Lodge slips without written invitations.
• Notify Meridian if a working risks exposure; they prefer a quiet ward to a loud incident.
• Do not poach house spirits; ask the keeper, pay the tithe.

Coven Law

1. Consent binds. No compulsion workings; no bindings of mind or body without the bearer’s clear, witnessed consent.
2. Pay the cost. If a rite demands a price, state it, split it, or refuse it.
3. Hide the wonder. Veil your circles; no public spectacle; no camera bait.
4. Respect neighbours. Honour territories, treaties, and the dead.

Resources & Fronts

• Circle House: warded cellar, moon room, herb loft, sealed book cupboard; kettle always on.
• Charm Bench: inks, oils, pins, copper, bone needles, clean linen; Evie’s ledger of what was made for whom.
• Ancestor Wall: candles and names; a place to ask for help or forgiveness.
• Crossroads Posts: marked corners where messages and offerings pass between covens and spirits.

Relations (Boundary-respecting)

• Meridian Commission (Baltimore FO): Practical accord; ritual containment on request; paperwork for consent-heavy cases.
• Crimson Harbour (vampires): Cold civility; counter-hexes on red rooms by contract; no meddling with donors.
• Iron Belt (werewolves): Moon-night courtesy; circles at park edges only; run-times respected.
• Free Court (fae/spirits): Careful cooperation; the Court hosts masks, the Coven mends oaths—by appointment.
• Highland Concord (djinn): Friendly; clause language exchanged for ward patterns; hospitality observed.
• Glasswrights (mirror-folk): Joint work on glamour repairs; never open a Door without a Glasswright present.
• Lodge (water-folk): Weather veils over slips during rescues; no storms as theatre.

Emerging Rumours (GM Guidance)

• Hot Ink: A travelling peddler offers “gold-threaded” ink that claims to halve circle time; Rowan calls it bait.
• Thin Veil: Two separate house circles report rites feeling too easy for a heartbeat, then backlash chills.
• Hungry Names: Kofi hears a crossroads keeper ask for a new tithe: “one drop of gold.” The circle refuses—for now.
• Policy: Verify twice, act once. No “gold” components, no sped rites, no spirit bargains changing terms mid-year.

Known Sanctums & Working Sites

• Circle House (Remington): main seat; moon room; herb loft; sealed book cupboard.
• Old Goucher Yard: graveyard gate-circle for psychopomp work; lanterns only.
• Lauraville Kitchen: hearth-altar; charm bench; community tea on Thursdays.

Membership (Sample NPCs)

• Rowan Hale — Elder; tastes the weather in her tea.
• Kofi Mensah — Hedge Speaker; laughs with ghosts, not at them.
• Evie Tran — Hexwright; threads blessings like buttons.
• Jabril Stone — Warden of Names; three questions, then chalk.
• Father-of-Cats — Familiar spirit; sheds on everyone equally.

Open Slots: 2–4 house witches, 1 apprentice medium, 1 mortal ally who remembers offerings.

Hooks & Episode Seeds

• The Fast Circle: A client begs for a rushed protection rite; price is wrong, time is short, and something keeps asking for “gold”.
• Kitchen Hex: A neighbourhood run of bad luck smells like spite; Evie needs a team to find the buried jar without offending three factions.
• Lantern Walk: Kofi leads a midnight psychopomp through a park edge—Iron Belt howls are close; boundaries matter.
• Borrowed Name: Jabril finds a name used in two bindings; which one breaks clean, and who pays the cost?
• Rain That Isn’t: Rowan asks for hands to hang a weather-veil over a harbour rescue; the Lodge wants no theatre and Meridian wants no cameras.

GM Notes (Backstage)

• Tone: folk mysticism, spirit diplomacy, practical miracles; danger is the price you didn’t see.
• Pressure Dials: Exposure □□ • Rumour Heat □□ • Spirit Favour Debt □□□
• Escalation Path: rumours → first clean artefact → offers to “speed the work” → divided vote on whether to test or condemn.
• Fail State: a binding done fast and wrong on camera; spirits offended; neighbours angry.
• Win State: proof gathered quietly; a measured stance; coven keeps wonder hidden and debts balanced.