Abandoned - Coven of Darkness - Story 22 NWS

[Abandoned]

Intro


  This is the 22nd story in the New World Series.  It tells of a group of dark elves who created a magic portal to escape the clutches of the witch hunters. They had no idea where they were when they emerged from the portal, but I can tell you they were somewhere north of Candlelit Castle, but unlike the happy people of Candlelit Castle, the Coven lived in darkness and fear of being discovered.  Things were not going well; it was as if someone or something had put a curse on them, even their dark magic was not working as it should.  The coven was glad that a group of wood elves followed them through the portal; the valley was densely forested, and wood elves knew how to survive in the forest.






Map seed  # 546186907        ValleyOne River,  Small,  Fair,  Disasters off,  Easy 8 seeds

 
Mods activated for this map and load order:


Map Changing and Starting Mods:   Banished UI Maps, Banished UI Town Names, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain, Fairy Pines terrain, override Map, Settlers Deco, Jinxie Natural Decorations, Kid Deco Tree Fall, Kid Tree Replacer Fairy Pines, New Flora Edit, Family Start

Tweak Mods:  Fishing Dock +25%, Hunting, Hunting Season, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative (Voeille), override Black Clothes, Rock Respawn, Tiny Smoke.

Major or Must Have Mods:    An Empty Square, Nomads (Kid), override Uneducated, Storage Crates, Kid Workshop, Kid Abandoned Places SE, Kid Fairy Garden, Kid Gothic Deco, Kid Gothic Fantasy, Kid More Houses Dark, Swamp Frog, Kid Workplace

Supporting Mods:   Creepy Cemetery, EB Natural Irrigation Deco, EB Natural Irrigation System, Kid Coven, Kid Deadwood, Kid Deco People, Kid Farmyard, Kid Forest Fellow, Kid Forester Fellow, Kid Hedgerow, Kid Houseboat, Kid Mist, Tiny Chopper

  I am surprised you found us here, eager explorer, although you are not the first to do so.  I trust you are not one of the witch hunters.  Yes, witch hunters; they are the reason we came here many years ago.  It was All Hollows Eve, just as it is today.  We just barely escaped with our lives from Summerset Swamp.  What?  What did you say?  Summerset Swamp is on the other side of the world!  A deadly giant frog invasion?  Oh no, it was worse than we imaged!  You must tell me more; come sit by the fire and I'll tell you what I know about the frogs.

[River]

Kinda wish you wouldn't use the word "Coven". I am a practicing Solitary Witch, and it is a bit offensive. Not going to make a fuss about it, just kinda rubs wrong is all. But whatever you will.
  

[Abandoned]

Nothing offensive about the word Coven.  It's in Webster's dictionary - an assembly or group of witches.  That's what the story is about.

Kid The Coven mod was released in October of 2019, don't recall any negative comments being made.  I used it in a Coven story then and several times since, and probably will again.  I'm rather pleased with how this story turned out.  Hope you enjoy it. 

[Glenn]

Kinda wish you wouldn't use the word "Coven". I am a practicing Solitary Witch, and it is a bit offensive. Not going to make a fuss about it, just kinda rubs wrong is all. But whatever you will.
  

River it might be best for you and your friends to think about people using the term coven as one of the cultural differences of life.
To give you an example -

When I watched a clip of Hegseth complaining about seeing fat generals walking the halls of the Pentagon the message I heard wasn't what he was complaining about.
The reason being was that when I grew up in Australia having a fat / a fattie / or cracking a fat was the slang name give to a man's erection.
So while Hegseth was complaining about seeing overweight generals what I heard was Hegseth complaining about seeing generals with erections walking the halls of the Pentagon.
To me it was a hilarious comment as what I heard was a weak man complaining about his own insecurity and envy.

Abandoned is correct  -  a coven is a term used to describe a group, just as is the word team, party, or cohort can be used to describe a group of similar like minded people -  it isn't a derogatory term and it certainly isn't meant to cause offence. 

[Abandoned]

Recap from Oct. 31st Intro



I am surprised you found us here, eager explorer, although you are not the first to do so.  I trust you are not one of the witch hunters.  Yes, witch hunters; they are the reason we came here many years ago.  It was All Hollows Eve, just as it is today.  We just barely escaped with our lives from Summerset Swamp.  What?  What did you say?  Summerset Swamp is on the other side of the world!  A deadly giant frog invasion?  Oh no, it was worse than we imaged!  You must tell me more; come sit by the fire and I'll tell you what I know about the frogs.



Chapter 1

Our coven of dark elves was fleeing from a group of witch hunters.  We met up with a group of wood elves with their forest fellows who had been planting trees further north when the witch hunt began; the elves fled south and met up with us.  The witch hunters were not far behind us.  We cast a few camouflage spells to escape them, then conjured up a magic portal to leave the area.  We hoped those that lagged behind would somehow catch up and find the portal.  Yes, eager explorer, we dark elves know a bit of magic; that doesn't make us witches.

  There were 12 of us dark elves with 2 children and 2 families of wood elves with 5 children that went through the portal along with 2 families of forest fellows.  The remaining wood elves stayed behind long enough to cover our tracks, roundup what tree forest fellows and stragglers they could find, and then followed us through the portal.  The forest fellows would be in danger from the witch hunters too, but they would guard the portal entrance and exit until we were all reunited on this side of the portal.

  We found ourselves and our supply carts out in the cold and snow.  We were from the southern swamp region; we never saw snow before but the wood elves had. They thought this was just an early autumn snowfall that wouldn't last long.  We were sure to have many pleasant fall days ahead of us to provide ourselves with food and shelter.  We got what coats we had in the carts and bundled up the children.  It stopped snowing before we were done checking what supplies were left in the carts.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 2


  The area was almost entirely surrounded by pine trees that would help conceal our presence here; there was one open area along the river but the elves said they could easily plant more trees there.  They got busy hollowing out 2 of the larger pine trees to form treehouses.



  While they were busy doing that, we thought to increase our supplies.  That was our first indication that something had gone wrong with our magic spells.  We conjured firewood but got logs, we conjured coats but got hides, we conjured food but got seeds.  Something was not right.



  The elves were much more resourceful.  There was a cache of mushrooms and herbs in the open area by the river.  There was also a small hedgerow with more mushrooms, a walnuts tree, wild oats, and duck eggs.  They caught some fish from one of the deadwood trees that extended into the river.  They planted the seeds we conjured by mistake and sprinkled them with fairy dust from the purple flower they planted. It did not take long before they were harvesting corn, pumpkins, Brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes, and sun seeds.  A small tree stump shed was built next to one of the treehouses.





  We began gathering resources from the forest and from the deadwood thicket near the stockpile.  There were logs, firewood, and branches to gather there, and there was an old apple tree growing nearby.  The surrounding forests were thick with pine trees but there were many maple trees as well.  The fall colors were beautiful, and warmer weather was most welcome.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 3


  The clearing was nice and productive but we dark elves would feel more secure farther from the river; we went to explore farther inland.



  We found a large secure valley with the same thick forest of pines, maples, and deadwood.  There was a lot of stone and iron as well.  We found 2 muddy patches with cattails, mushrooms, and frogs, not just any frogs, they were really big frogs.  No one wanted to pick those mushrooms.  When told about the frogs, the wood elves came to take a look, but they had never seen any frogs that big either and elves know a lot about animals and wild creatures.  The giant frogs did not seem aggressive, so we just left them be.  The wood elves enjoyed listening to the frogs on autumn evenings when the sun was setting.

  We were impressed with the valley; there were high mountains on 3 sides and a pass back to the wood elves' settlement.  There was a walnut tree, a thicket, a mushroom cache, and plenty of wild foods.   We decided this was where our coven would settle.  We knew the mild weather would not hold for long, so we got busy gathering building supplies; we started a stockpile near the thicket.  We began clearing land in the center of the valley.  We needed shelter and we needed to find out what was wrong with our magic spells, our lives could depend on it. 

[Abandoned]

Chapter 4




  The builders laid out the basic foundation for our dark castle complex.  A stone entrance arch and a small shed were built first and then the conjurer's tower.  We needed to work on our spells as soon as possible.  Sedric was our master magician and my husband, Sergil, was and still is the head warlock; he's skilled in the dark arts.  I'm Anna, and Sergil and I had a one-year-old son at the time.  You want to know if I'm a witch, eager explorer?  How do I know you're not a witch hunter?  What?  There are no witch hunters on this side of the world?  Well, that is good news.  Let's just say I know a thing or two about herbs and potions.

  Sergil and Sedric were already at work in the conjurer's tower.  They tried conjuring more food but again got seeds.  They did manage to make a counter spell and then were able to summon iron tools, hide coats, apples, walnuts, and wheat. 



   A large house on either side of the conjurer's tower was soon finished; Sedric and his family moved into one and another family into the other.  Our house was also completed.  A family with a young child and 2 adult males came through the portal soon after we did; the boys moved into the 2 corner towers and would keep a look out from their upper windows.  One of our coven couples were still unaccounted for.

  Two more towers were completed as well as 2 cabins and more of the wall before the snow began to fall again.  The foundation was laid for another large house.  Building would continue as long as weather permitted.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 5


  The wood elves had been busy too.  They built a tailor's hut to make hide coats from the leather they got deer hunting.    They built a couple of wooden ladders to place against 2 large deadwood trees near where large herds of deer were spotted, 1 was not far from our conjurer's tower.  The wood elves used enchanted bows and arrows to spare the animals pain.  Some of the venison was put in our storage shed.



 There was a shortage of firewood as the weather got colder.  We were out gathering deadwood branches.  The elves set up two tiny chopping stumps, one by their stockpile and one by ours.   They planted a hedgerow with some of the corn and sunseeds we mistakenly conjured, and hazelnuts bushes transplanted from the wild.  The hedgerow was planted in front of their stockpile to help hide it from view. 
 




  They sent one of the forest fellow families into the clearing in the forest that was equal distance between our stockpile and theirs.  The large forest fellow would act as a forester fellow and plant a tree for every tree he brought down.  He would also collect stone and iron from the area.    We needed the stone and logs; there was a lot of building left to do.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 6




    Another small cottage and another large house were almost completed in the coven's dark castle when a wood elf came to tell us that the last of the wood elves and those they rescued from the swamp came through the portal in Spring. 



They brought the forest fellow portal guards with them.  It was then we had another problem with our magic.  It took 3 attempts to successfully cast a portal removal spell; we wanted no witch hunters coming through to find us.  However, we soon discovered that the portal had not been removed, it was only moved to a different location.  We found it on the way back to our castle.

  The remove portal spell failed again and again but then we realized that the portal was not only moved, but it was also reversed, the top points of the frame pointed in the opposite direction.  What was a one-way portal exit was now a one-way portal entrance, back to the swamp we assumed.  The wood elves posted a family of forest fellows to guard the entrance until we could board it up so no one, especially one of the children, could enter the portal and be unable to return.  Sedric the magician would have more spell testing to do.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 7


  The wood elves built 2 treehouses, 1 for each of the 2 couples that had returned.  One couple had 2 children but 1 was an adult who wanted a place of her own.  The other couple had 2 adult sons, so 3 nice little cottages were built for the young adults.  The cottages would go almost unnoticed among the fall colors of the settlement. 



  Our missing coven couple also returned, they had a newborn daughter with them.  The baby's birth was the reason they lagged behind the group.  They moved into one of the front castle towers that had recently been completed. 

  The 2 remaining couples that returned through the portal were swamp dwellers, both wives were herbalist healers and were now considered witches.  They and their families fled west when they learned the witch hunters were after them.  They were very happy that the wood elves provided an escape route for them. 



  One couple was quite a bit older but had a four-year-old son; they built a nice house not far from our castle near the clearing the portal had been moved to.  The younger couple had an adult daughter and a son the same age as the other couple.  They built another nice house back behind our castle by the mushroom and herb cache, the wife would gather them.



  So, eager explorer, our Coven of Darkness settlement increased by 18 citizens, 13 adults with 5 children.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 8



  Our Coven of Darkness castle was soon finished, and the coven was secure within the castle walls.  There were 4 tower houses, 4 large houses, and 3 smaller cabins.  There was a storage shed behind the coven hall that was built at the front entrance and a gatherer's hut was built along the west wall closer to the back entrance.  Along the east wall by the back tower, we set up an herbalist workplace and a kettle to cook up some herbal witches' brew to celebrate the completion of the castle and the return of our missing couple. 



  We decided the castle wasn't quite finished; it needed a mote, only then would we feel truly secure.  It did not take long to dig the mote; we had several builders digging the trenches around the castle. Two of the builders quickly constructed 2 bridges to cross the mote, one at both entrances; the bridges could quickly be drawn up to secure the castle.  Wild plants soon sprouted along the fresh turned soil. It looked quite nice and seasonal.





  The wood elves had been busy laying wood tile roads between their settlement and ours.  We all got along quite well but they thought that after all that time, we need not fear the witch hunters.

[taniu]

@ Abandoned   Thank you for your concern and for remembering me. My wife and I are very happy with every kind word. Autumn has arrived – as we know, during this time we are attacked by various viruses, especially the flu – and now my wife and I are feeling well after a course of antibiotics. I don't understand what @River meant; in our country, it also means a gathering of witches. We really like your story about witches and elves. This story is very relevant now, after Halloween. I like the houses connected to the castle, and the witches' residence in the castle; it looks very nice. We are very curious to see how the story about witches and elves continues. Surely the witch hunter won't catch them? Best regards.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 9


  Two black dragon statues were carved at the front entrance; they were quite impressive.  The dragon lords would approve.



  We decided to build a cathedral in honor of the Lord of Darkness.  Certainly, it was he that saved us from the witch hunters.  The foundation for the cathedral was laid just before the first snow of the season.   It was cold and we were short of firewood, but the laborers had little time to sit before the fire; we were short of stone too. 





  It was mid-summer of the following year before the cathedral was completed and work began on the fence to surround the cathedral and the cemetery next to it. The cathedral was magnificent.  We performed several dark rituals in the cathedral asking the Lord of Darkness to remove any curse that may have been cast upon us.  Black ritual candles burned late into the dark night.

[Abandoned]

Chapter 10


  If there was a curse on us, it was not removed.  There was another problem with our magic that came to light late that summer, at least we thought it was magic related.  It involved the older couple in the nice house between our castle and the wood elf settlement.  They planted a garden with a pear tree and were growing oats.  They made some hide coats and had an anvil to make some iron tools; she gathered herbs and wild foods whenever she could.  The couple had a baby girl earlier that year. 

 The couple had not been seen for a few days.  Upon investigation, their boy was found alone in the house with the baby and 2 goats. The boy said his parents were arguing because his mother said she would like another baby.  His father said they were too old to raise another baby and his mother called him an old goat.  The boy left the room to escape the arguing.  When all was quiet again, he returned to the room to find the 2 old goats.

  That sounded like a magic spell that backfired on the caster, but we knew of no such spell, and we had no inkling that the swamp herbalist knew any magic.  The other swamp dweller family knew nothing about it either. 





They took the goats out to the garden and fenced it in.  Their adult daughter came to stay to take care of the boy and the baby. The elves would come daily and take care of the old goats.  Our master magician set up a table outside the castle to study his spellbooks, it would be safer there then inside the castle walls to test any spells.  No magic would be taught or practiced, and there was to be no name calling of any kind.