Black witch

Black Witch
BattleOverworld Default Default
Affiliation	God of the Depths, Gro-goroth

Inflicted phobias
Phobias	Rhabdophobia

Physical description
Gender	Female
Species	Human (formerly)

Spiritual Information
Worshipped God	God of the Depths, Gro-goroth
Soul	Black witch soul

Item drops
Search	Nothing
Steal	(Soul stone) (Purifying talisman)

Warning! Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

"I don't fear death. It's only one stepping stone in my path."

The Black witch is a unique enemy encountered in Fear & Hunger.

Lore

The Black Witch is a practitioner of magic, ready to spill blood within the dungeons. She was once a human, but her immersion in the dark arts caused her to become corrupted by the darkness. Now enslaved by Gro-goroth, she practices blood magic, much like the yellow mages, to carry out her deadly deeds. The Black Witch shows no fear in death, considering it merely part of her journey along her path.

The Black witch can either teleport or appear out of thin air by using a five-pointed star ritual circle drawn on the ground; though there's no official meaning behind the sigil, it appears in the Ancient book alongside known Old Gods, possibly suggesting the god it represented was influential in a time past. She also seems to have the power to pull her potential victims into a different realm within the dungeons. In this realm, they might even stumble upon their own body in a grave. It is unclear whether this realm is physical or just a trick of the mind, but defeating the Black witch will return her victim to the real world. This power is similar to that of another Old God.

Location

In Level 2 - Basement, there exists a pocket dimension accessible only by sinking through the floor, where the Black witch can be first encountered. The dimly lit area comprises a few small and vacant rooms. While the player is in this dimension, the Black witch will periodically encircle them every few seconds three times, and on the third time, she initiates combat.

The area is brief and contains very few containers to loot, making it easy for players to escape and avoid the encounter if they are fast enough. After the witch's defeat, her body cannot be searched or skinned, and the area cannot be explored further, making it more practical to avoid the encounter altogether.

However, if the player misses the chance to meet the Black witch in the basement, and they are in Terror & Starvation mode, there is a 70% chance she will spawn in the present-day Ancient Grand Library teleporting out of a five-pointed star ritual circle. From a gameplay perspective, it is better to confront her in the library, as her body remains on the map after her defeat, allowing the player to collect the Black witch soul, which makes regular attacks inflict poison with a 100% chance.

Battle

Stats

Body part	HP	Blunt	Slashing	Piercing	Fire	Otherworldly	Ev. Rate	Magic Ev.	Resistances
Head	20	100%	100%	100%	120%	100%	55%	40%	None
Torso	520 (1300)						5%	None
Left arm	20						5%	None
Right arm	20						5%	None

• Note: HP in parenthesis is only used for Damage-over-Time calculations.

Skills

Body Part	Skill	Effect	Condition	Chance	Success Rate
Left Arm	Black Orb	Deals 24-36 Otherworldly damage 3 times.	Always	100%	95%
Right Arm	Ritual Knife	Deals 24-36 Slashing damage, can cause Arm/Leg infection and causes Poisoned.	Always	100%	100%

• Leg Sweep destroys both arms.
• Cutting both arms inflicts weakness on the head.

Strategy

Her right arm uses Ritual Knife, a stabbing attack that has the chance to cause poison and infect the player, while her left arm performs blood magic and is capable of using Black orb. Even though her health pool is extremely low, this combined barrage of attacks makes her extremely difficult to face alone.

Maybe because the Black witch has no targettable legs, using Leg sweep against her will sever her arms instead.

Dialogues

Talk

• Player: “What is your origin?”
  • Black witch: “I am what your kind would call a witch! I've sold my soul to blood arts long ago.”
    • Player: “Blood arts?”
      • Black witch: “I channel Gro-Goroth. Or what remains of him. That is what people traditionally call blood arts. Of course that is simplifying the art to a toddler.”
• Player: “Wait. We don't have to fight!”
  • Black witch: “Hyah hyah! You are in my domain now.”
• Player: “Please don't!”
  • Black witch: “Hyah hyah! You are in my domain now.”
• Player: “Prepare to die.”
  • Black witch: “Hyah hyah! I don't fear death. It's only one stepping stone on my path.”

Interactions

“The monstrosity is down...”

Action	Result	Flavour text
Beat her	Nothing	“No reaction. The black witch doesn't seem to have much meat on his bones...”
Search	Nothing	“The black witch has nothing of value.”
Leave	Success	Nothing
Using a Soul stone	(Black witch soul)	“A lost Black witch soul wanders to you...”
Devour	Poisoned	“You devoured the remains. Unfortunately they were poisonous and tasted horrible.”
Demon seed	Demon baby recruited	“A baby sprouted out of your seed!” “You take the baby with you.”

Speculation

Found in Lever 2 - Basement on the floor is the same 5-pointed star sigil that The Black Witch comes out of in Mahabre, conjoined with a larger sigil belonging to Depths, alongside two other smaller, empty circles. It could then be theorized that there are several influences that transformed the Black Witch into what it became, and possibly it has a wide variety of magical spells.

Trivia

• The Black witch was referred to as male in earlier versions of the game; she is still referred to as male by the New Gods in The Hall of the Gods and in a corpse interaction, possibly due to an oversight.
• The picture used for the enemy is called "Dark Angel" in game files, possibly drawing a previously intended connection to the White Angel.
• The design of the Black witch may be inspired by the artwork from Hans Rudolf Giger’s artbook [H.R. Giger] Ahr+ A Rhesus Positive, page 37. Giger's image can be found in the gallery session below.

Gallery

• 

  Battle sprite.
• 

  Outdated battle sprite.
• 

  Overworld sprite.
• 

  [H.R. Giger] Ahr+ A Rhesus Positive, page 37

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