Witches of the Howling Moon

What Is Happening Right Now?

The Unwanted Verse

An eastern messenger has brought Dole a variation of the moon-song that calls unwilling transformation a sacred duty. It bears the correct private closing note, so it cannot be dismissed as a tavern forgery. The Dole speaker wants the messenger questioned before anyone sings the new words. A younger Lorelei wants to know whether the Carpathian circle has truly changed its teaching; another proposes burning every copy. The characters can accompany a reply eastward, find the singer who first carried the verse west, or discover who has been adding its last line.

The Court Wants Names

Officers serving Countess Adeline are gathering testimony about the killings around Dole. The local coven might identify a genuine wolf-changer, but some witnesses fear that admitting any link to a moon-song cult will condemn the innocent with the guilty. Gilles Garnier is neither a proven member nor the cult’s agent. Evidence that a particular witch aided him must be pursued against that witch, not treated as proof against all five circles.

The Salt-Road Missing Singer

A courier carrying copied rites between Dole and the Jura has failed to meet the next singer. The last known stop was a provisions exchange used by salt carriers. The Salt-Road coven fears an official seizure; the Upper Rhine circle suspects that someone within the cult is intercepting messages that reject the Red Verse. A recovered satchel could settle the matter, but whoever opens it must choose whether to tell the authorities which villagers helped deliver it.

Winter Without a Common Answer

Each circle is preparing for its own Faunae Festival. Dole has invited representatives from neighbouring covens, not the entire continent. The Carpathian singers are weeks away, and no message can guarantee their arrival. If the dispute remains unresolved, each local gathering may swear a different oath: one protecting the right to refuse transformation, another treating refusal as disobedience to the moon.

The Five Circles and Their Roads

The Howling Moon is a chain of refuges and teachers rather than an occult kingdom. Five circles recognise one another’s moon-song, but they keep separate lodgings, food, candidates and enemies. Between them move itinerant singers carrying memorised verses, herbs, letters and news. An answer from a distant circle must actually travel by road or river; the song does not transmit orders magically across Europe.

Dole — The Woodland Circle

In the Free County of Burgundy, the existing cabin beyond Dole shelters the Lorelei-majority circle recorded in the older witch rules. It teaches the complete seasonal song, trains candidates, keeps a few supplies and guards the names of people who sought sanctuary after a curse. It can protect an individual for a night, but a magistrate with a lawful warrant or an armed crowd can break its secrecy. Its witches are presently divided about cooperating with the court over Garnier.

The Jura — The Salt-Road Circle

Witches along the tracks serving Poligny and the salt markets meet at changing outlying farms and woodland shelters rather than a permanent grand lodge. Their trade is practical: keeping travellers alive, remembering which shepherd saw what and passing messages with muleteers who cross the hills. The circle distrusts shapechangers who prey on livestock. Tales of the Werewolves of Poligny concern it directly, but those men are not members by association or simply because the same forests shelter both.

The Upper Rhine — The River Chorus

Near Strasbourg, the cult survives through a few trusted singers among travelling healers, copying houses and river carriers. They use the city’s trade traffic for correspondence and acquire manuscripts the woodland circles could never obtain. This is a clandestine circle, not a recognised city guild or an institution controlling Strasbourg’s magistrates. Their greatest fear is not wolves but a seized bundle of letters naming households far beyond the city.

The Northern Black Forest — The Fir Ring

Beyond Baden, a smaller coven serves woodland settlements, charcoal burners and people passing between the bath town and the higher forest. It takes omens from wolf calls but also understands real wolf behaviour and the cost of losing livestock. Members argue against deliberately spreading lycanthropy: a village cannot be asked to tolerate a predator merely because a distant priestess calls it blessed. Their weakness is isolation; they may learn of a persecution weeks after the refugees most needed them.

The Carpathians — The Night Chorus

In the eastern mountain country, the furthest acknowledged branch regards the wolf-change as a possible sacred vocation. Its elders preserve harsher verses than are sung in Dole. Most still require an initiate’s consent; a militant minority teaches the Red Verse, arguing that the moon may choose a person regardless of the person’s wishes. The branch is divided, not a nest of identical villains. Its proximity to other Carpathian occult powers is no proof of obedience to Dracula, the Scholomance or an infernal patron.

The travellers between them. A singer carrying news may belong to one circle, have been trained by another and owe shelter to a third. Such travellers keep the network alive but have no right to compel admission or levy taxes. Their reports are imperfect, delayed and vulnerable to forgery—the central weakness of a cult that relies on a shared song more than on written charters.

Membership and the Moon Moot

There is no crowned witch-queen and no secret priesthood that rules every circle from a single tower. Each recognised coven admits its own members, maintains its own refuge and appoints a song-speaker for dealings with outsiders. The speaker represents the decisions of that circle, not the private conscience of everyone in it. When two circles quarrel, an emissary carries the grievance; a seasonal Moon Moot of attending speakers may settle common questions, but its decisions work only while the circles choose to honour them.

Across the network, Lorelei singers carry much of the shared rite. Faerie witches bring enchantment and knowledge of strange neighbours; Craft of the Wise practitioners are often trusted with household charms, wounds and stores. There is no imposed racial or alignment test. The older random roster gives Dole 7–14 Lorelei, 1–4 Faerie and 1–3 Craft of the Wise witches (9–21 in all). Roll 6 + 1d8, 1d4 and 1d3 respectively if generating a variable local circle; these are not levels, all members are not equally powerful, and the numbers do not describe the wider cult. Other circles differ in size and skill, and itinerant members are counted at home rather than every shelter they visit.

The Two Teachings

The Keepers of the Answer, strongest around Dole and the Fir Ring, hold that the lunar gift carries the right to decline it. They shelter some afflicted lycanthropes, pursue dangerous ones when necessary and condemn the use of curses to force membership. They do not demand that everyone be peaceful: a witch who knowingly feeds a traveller to a werewolf can be cast out and brought before local judgement.

Adherents of the Red Verse argue that becoming a wolf can be a revelation too important to leave to ordinary fear. Some want to persuade willing initiates; the extremists have begun arguing for deliberate, unwanted transformation. Their teachings are strongest within a portion of the distant Night Chorus, although western sympathisers have copied its words. Neither camp has expelled the other from the whole network. Dole’s refusal to accept the new verse could split the cult and deprive travellers of shelters they have relied upon for years.

Joining usually begins with a travelling member’s introduction and a winter oath before the home circle. A novice learns to recognise a wolf without assuming every wolf is a curse-bearer, is taught the moon-song, and swears not to betray a guest’s whereabouts. Leaving the circle is possible, but a former member who sells route names or spreads an unwanted curse cannot expect continued sanctuary. Punishment is local and concrete: refused lodging, loss of a voice at the next moot, repayment for harm, or—if a crime has been committed—exposure to the relevant magistrates.

What the Cult Can Offer — and Demand

Its real strength is the chance of finding someone who knows a trustworthy traveller at the next river crossing or mountain road. A circle’s hospitality is conditional; a spoken welcome is not a free pass to every lodge on the continent. Goods, letters and injured people must still be moved by ordinary routes.

A party can work for the cult, expose one of its predators, persuade a circle to reject the Red Verse or protect a courier without joining at all. If a member turns someone against their will, the entire cult need not be guilty—but it must decide whether protecting the culprit means abandoning its own oath.

Patrons, Enemies and Unwelcome Neighbours

The cult survives through ordinary households: a forester willing to offer a bed, a boatman willing to carry letters, an apothecary willing to take payment after a patient recovers. Some are sworn singers; most are merely neighbours or clients. Helping one witch once does not make a whole village part of the Howling Moon.

The Free County’s court has a responsibility to investigate killings around Dole. A witness should be protected, but a claim of sacred song does not excuse murder. Gilles Garnier is an immediate danger to the Dole circle because his attacks invite searches; his association with the cult is unproved. The Werewolves of Poligny threaten the Jura circle’s roads, but their terrible bargains must not be mistaken for Howling Moon doctrine without evidence.

Elsewhere, the cult meets witch groups with different patrons and purposes. The Daughters of the Flame are neither subordinate sisters nor established allies. Carpathian powers, including Dracula’s household and the Scholomance, have their own interests; proximity to the Night Chorus is not proof of allegiance, sponsorship or control. The worship of a goddess of living song is a cultic belief, not evidence of an undisclosed infernal contract or command over every wolf in the region.

Adventures with the Howling Moon

The Oath with a Missing Line

A Carpathian emissary reaches the Jura carrying two authorised copies of the winter oath. One contains the new line permitting unwilling transformation; the other lacks it. Both bear the correct answer to the moon-song. The Salt-Road circle offers shelter in return for a discreet investigation. The party can trace who copied the words, put the dispute before the Moon Moot, or publish the texts to warn potential victims. Public exposure may stop a forced turning—and destroy refuges used by innocents.

A Statement for the Magistrates

A Dole witch saw a real shapechanging attack but fears the judges will treat her testimony as a confession of cult membership. The characters can arrange a protected hearing, recover physical evidence or seek a second witness. The magistrates need a credible account, not an accusation against five covens. If the party fails, frightened villagers begin acting on rumours, and both dangerous werewolves and innocent neighbours benefit from the confusion in different ways.

The Ledger in the Market

A merchant acquires a bundle of winter provisions containing a travelling singer’s delivery ledger. The entries record separate stops in the Jura and on the Rhine, but someone has added a false signature authorising supplies for the Red Verse’s converts. The merchant wants compensation; a town clerk wants names. The characters may buy the bundle, expose the forged entry or follow the goods. A genuine informant will be uncovered if the deliveries can be checked—provided the party does not publish every innocent host’s address.

The Winter Assembly

Representatives from three western circles are due at a neutral clearing. A fourth arrives with an afflicted youth who claims that his change was forced. The accused singer insists the initiation was willing and offers witnesses of their own. The party can investigate before the oath, keep the factions apart or seek a ruling that each circle can enforce. Bloodshed would make the Red Verse martyrs of its harshest advocates; ignoring the boy would drive the Keepers of the Answer toward breaking the cult.

If No One Interferes

First moon: different versions of the song circulate. Dole bars an eastern messenger; one Jura singer secretly copies the forbidden line. Second moon: a forced transformation is reported along a distant route. The Red Verse’s advocates call the victim blessed; the Keepers demand testimony. Winter gathering: western speakers refuse the new oath, splitting safehouses and turning couriers into liabilities. People who once moved safely between circles have to choose allegiance, and the violent minority now operates without the restraint of any common judgement.

A party that finds the source of the altered verse can stop the split, persuade individual covens to reject coercion or expose an actual crime. Ending the Red Verse need not mean hunting everyone who sings under the moon. Equally, siding with the cult does not require defending every witch who uses its name.

Moon-Song, Oath and Older Magic

The cult’s recognised circles sing at each full moon, answering the night voices of their own country. At the first full moon of winter, each circle holds its Faunae Festival, receives candidates and renews its oath. Envoys may attend another circle’s gathering, but the entire network does not travel to Dole every year. The witches revere a goddess who gave creatures the gift of song; no particular named deity has yet been established as the patron of every circle.

At Dole, practitioners following the older d20 witch rules may pursue Astromancy and Knowledge (Astronomy). The original source’s 30% chance that an NPC witch is a lycanthrope applies to generating members of that local coven; it is not a fixed proportion across five circles and cannot prove any particular witch guilty. The source sets no alignment restriction.

The coven oath: I, (name), hereby solemnly swear to follow the path of the moonsong. At all times, I shall sing the song of the goddess, and I shall call out each moon when all of her creatures call out to her.

These are inherited rules from a distinct legacy witch tradition; see Witch and Witch Traditions for the playable classes and options appropriate to other editions.

Records and Further Paths

The woodcut below is later historical imagery associated with European werewolf stories, not the coven’s heraldry or a portrait of its members. The witches have no documented hereditary coat of arms.

Original Game Source

Liber Mysterium

The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks

By Timothy S. Brannan and The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks Team

The Dole coven’s original Lorelei, Faerie and Craft of the Wise membership, moon-song, Faunae Festival and Howling Moon domain are adapted from Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks. The additional Jura, Upper Rhine, Black Forest and Carpathian circles, their politics, the Moon Moot and the Red Verse dispute are original campaign-world expansion, not claims about that book’s contents. Its older game rules retain their own publication and licence context; modern editions should not be treated as mechanically identical. For a complete discussion of this work’s publication, see Timothy S. Brannan’s account of the Witch books.

For the surrounding campaign, explore Dole, the Free County of Burgundy, Gilles Garnier and Werewolf. The coven’s current disputes can be pursued without assuming that everyone nearby is guilty or every rumour is true.