The Spook's Bestiary - By Joseph Delaney Page 0,30

witches is greenteeth, because of the green slime that sometimes forms on their lips and teeth. Children are often warned by their parents to

keep away from all places where greenteeth might be lying in wait.

Their noses are sharp and without flesh, while their canines are elongated into immense fangs. They hook their prey using razor-sharp taloned forefingers. Sometimes they strike into the cheek or ear, but their aim is to pierce the upper neck and wrap a finger around the teeth, taking a firm grip upon the jaw. That grip is almost impossible to escape from, as water witches are extremely strong. They drag their victims into marsh or water and drain them of blood as they drown.

A Greentooth

MORWENA

The oldest and most powerful of all the water witches is Morwena. She may be more than a thousand years old, and her father is the Fiend, her mother a witch who dwelt in the deepest and dankest caverns of the earth.

In addition to the attributes of a common water witch (with even greater speed and strength), she has a blood-filled eye with which she is able to paralyze her victims. There are limitations to her power, however: That eye can only be used against one person at a time. She must also conserve its strength, and when she isn’t using it, she pins her top and bottom eyelids together over it with a piece of sharp bone. A further weakness is that, even more than other witches of her type, she may not stray too far away from her element—bog and water—or her strength begins to wane.

For the definitive account of this water witch, refer to Bill Arkwright’s book, Morwena.

Morwena

Romanian Witches

What sets these witches apart from those in other parts of the world is twofold:

1. The ability to project their souls far from their bodies while they sleep. These meet up with other souls in forest dells, taking the form of small orbs of flickering light that move together rhythmically in a dance. These disembodied covens are not always thirteen strong, which is usual elsewhere, but they are always odd in number, most frequently dancing in sevens, nines, or elevens.

2. If humans see the moving lights, they are drawn toward them and are soon in thrall to the witches. When the dance ends, the humans die, the witches having gradually absorbed their vitality.

Romanian witches use animism magic; which means that rather than using blood or bone magic they draw out the life essence of their victims and use it, along with rituals and incantations, to gather power from the dark.

They worship Siscoi, the Romanian Old God, and have the power to bring him through a portal into our world at midnight—though he can stay only until dawn. They also form alliances with strigoi and strigoica, vampire demons, and can control Transylvanian elementals known as the moroi as an aid to draining humans of their life force.

The dark magical power gained is used primarily for the following:

1. To summon their vampire god, Siscoi, from the dark.

2. To kill their enemies.

3. To scry the future.

4. To control the humans who live within their chosen domain.

5. To gather wealth.

Romanian witches are very rich and live alone in big, isolated dwellings. They do not form clans, and the only time they meet is when they send forth their souls to combine temporarily in covens.

WITCH GROUPINGS

Clans

A witch clan is composed of family groups. Not all members of such a clan will necessarily be witches, but they will support those who are.

The three main clans in Pendle are the Malkins, the Deanes, and the Mouldheels. Witches often migrate to places that are a source of power or have the right ambience for performing dark magic. It was the brooding presence of Pendle itself that drew the clans to that area.

First came the Malkins, who now operate from their stronghold, Malkin Tower. They are not only the oldest, but also the most powerful clan. The original tower was owned by a local landowner called Benjamin Wright. He was a strong, stubborn man, and it took the witches three years to drive him out, using curses, poison, and finally the abduction of his eldest son. Once Benjamin Wright vacated the tower, his son was released. Unfortunately it happened too late: The boy was already insane and died within the year.

From then the building became known as Malkin Tower. The witches extended it—mainly downward, where deep dungeons and an escape tunnel were excavated. The mortar that binds the stones of