The Warlock | Blood Moon Goobie

[Caeleesi]

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username: Caeleesi

goobie name: Dovian
goobie pronouns: He/Him

prompt:
Practices Witchcraft.
*Studies the Stars
*Lives in a modern house, but has a basement pathway that leads into an old, nature filled cavern.
*Pagan
*Maker of Medical Balms & Reciter of Ancient Rituals

[Caeleesi]

In a densely packed city, there sat a thousand houses, one for each citizen and more being built as they were needed. There were old houses, houses that needed fixing up, and plenty of shiny new houses. One of these newer, modern houses... housed a secret. I'm sure plenty of houses held secrets, but no secrets in this city were like this one.

Buried deep within this particular pristine-looking household was a basement... and inside this basement was a spiralling staircase that led to a place that oozed with magic. There was ivy hanging from the ceiling and crawling along the walls, and plantlife of various types covering the floor around a naturally drawn, rocky path. To the left, it led towards a bench with many draws that sat next to a tall dresser with no doors, vials and glasses and different types of herbs packed in different slots, small labels stuck underneath for easy identification. To the right, the pathway led down a long hallway where the stone path gradually gave way to grass and revealed a large cavern outside of the city. It opened into a large field of flowers and herbs that were widely used in medicine - a gold mine of health.





Upon the glistening dark oak bench lay an assortment of tools: a mortar and pestle, a couple of wooden spoons, glasses, vials, mixing utensils, and a collection of bowls. Some vials carried liquids, and others were empty. It was primarily a workplace for alchemy and medicine, though it had a secondary use. In each draw, there were different artefacts and strange items that could be used in rituals: bones, fur clumps, salt, chalk, and vials of different coloured liquids, from green to blue to red. These drawers each had a lock on them, and the key was hidden away at the bottom of the stairs, tucked into a slot in the wall that appeared as one of the golden cracks along the cave.

[Caeleesi]

Warlocks are most commonly associated with witchcraft or the occult, but they have also been known to be powerful healers and protectors in certain cultures

a month

It had been a month since Dovian had found this place. He didn't originally understand why he was so drawn to it but as he had looked around during the inspection, he had found himself lingering in the basement. There wasn't much there, just a feeling that sparked his interest and encouraged him to stay. That was all the push he had needed to make the purchase and buy the house for himself. He had set to work right away, decorating his new home with all the things he had collected over the years, things he had previously been keeping in storage which finally had a use. Little statues for the shelves on the walls, a big bookcase with a growing collection of all sorts of books: things like herbology, gardening, astrology, and most interestingly... "Witchcraft for Dummies". This book had felt like it was staring holes at Dovian when he had first picked it up, and something about it had made him bring it home with him. It felt right now, sitting on his shelf. He had read through it a couple of times and had even started practicing some of the smaller rituals inside it, things like house protection spells and luck spells. He wasn't sure if he had done them successfully, but it certainly felt like his luck was increasing, and his house hadn't had any unwanted visitors yet.

Dovian leaned back in his comfortable armchair, stretching his neck to either side and relaxing his body. He wondered just how far he was going to delve into this new and exciting hobby of his. He had even begun planting herbs in his front garden to use, and purchased a large telescope that he had tucked away in his backyard. He had seen his neighbours watching him with a strange curiosity in their eyes, but had never introduced himself and felt too nervous to do so, let alone talk about what exactly he was doing all the time.


6 months

Dovian's herbal garden was out in full force now, growing strong and tall as he took care of it every day. It had been a whopping 6 months since he had moved in, and his house had become a home. His telescope now had a larger deck dedicated to it in the yard, and Dovian had a desk enclosed in a protective bubble behind it, to protect his writings from any types of weather that may occur. His home was now fully decked out with decorations and functioning items (paintings, things to cook with, glassware, etc). In the past couple of months alone there had been some big changes, namely the one in the basement... Where there used to just be a boring, plain back wall, there was now more. The wall was painted a deep red, a different colour from the rest of the house, and there now sat a grand oak door in the middle of it. If you were to open the door you would find a set of older stone stairs leading straight down, further into the heart of the land. The walls surrounding as you descended would be a natural black marbled stone, flickers of gold visible as yellow resin wall torches leading down into the depths lit up to show you the way. At the bottom of the stairs lay a mostly flat stone pathway, decorated by a water pool on the left, and grass and all different flowers lining the path. The pathway continued down the right and eventually opened up into a large cavern that extended into the outside world, and to the left there was a nook large enough for a grand table covered in a variety of plants/herbs, a couple empty glass vials, and a mortar and pestle - presumably to mash up ingredients with. This is where Dovian was spending most of his time.

There was a stack of books on the left side of the table, each relating to herbs and witchcraft. Dovian had grown much more fond of this hobby and would even go so far as to call it a lifestyle change with how often he found himself down here, mixing up different concoctions. He had so far succeeded primarily with healing herbs and small rituals of protection, but he could feel himself growing ever more powerful the more knowledge he unlocked and the more practice he put into witchcraft. He always tested these things on himself so sometimes when he appeared in the yard to water his plants, his neighbours might notice that there was a tuft of fur missing from his tail one day, and the next day it had come back as if nothing had happened. Dovian had begun to pride himself on the capabilities of his healing products, but was not quite confident enough to advertise them yet; unsure of any potential long term side effects they might have.


1 year

The rest of the year had simply flown by as Dovian lost himself in his study of witchcraft, and what it meant to be a Warlock. He had grown confident in making healing concoctions and was almost ready to present them to the world, hoping only that they didn't see him as some sort of... strange guy selling slime in a jar. He spent a fair chunk of time preparing welcoming advertisements that he hoped didn't come across as too shady, labelling his business "The Moon's Concoctions" and putting out a few signs outside his house with a couple of small samples for goobies to test on themselves. He would only sell healing balms for now, but had plans to broaden his income later on, perhaps through protection rituals or offering star gazing nights, as he had begun to look more into astrology now as well. He could often be found going out on his deck at night to examine the stars and moon, and see what sort of alignment everything was in. Rituals were pretty demanding when it came to when they had to be performed, after all.

His basement work room was now thriving with plant life as well as Dovian had taken it upon himself to plant his most used herbs down there by the pool of water, which was constantly flowing somewhere beneath him, always providing icy fresh water for his tinctures, or just to wash his hands and tools in when he was finished for the day. Vines had sprouted from cracks in the ceiling and hung down around the cavern at random lengths. Dovian always trimmed them when they had gotten too low and were getting in the way, but otherwise left them alone, only keeping an eye on where they had sprouted from in case the stone ceiling were to become loose.

[Caeleesi]

The Moon's Concoctions ran on an interesting timeline... simply put, it was usually open in the mornings, but if Dovian had accidentally slept in or not filled up on a fresh batch of his products the day before, the store would not open until around lunchtime.
Goobies didn't generally seem to mind though, apart from a few disgruntled customers on a "tight schedule".
Though he didn't have the best time management, Dovian always made a point to deliver every order by the time it was needed. He had never been late for medicine delivery as he knew how vital it could be, depending on the condition of the patient.

Dovian had spent a year in his new home saving for this little shop and was now proud to call it his own. It was a gorgeous corner shop decorated with warm colours to make it feel more welcoming. He had a couple of diffusers running, usually with light floral, coffee or chocolate scent. He tried never to make them too overpowering in case of goobies with a sensitive sense of smell entered.
There were only two shelves in his shop so far, one with the balms and tinctures he made at his workshop, and one that he used to advertise other goobies products. He had signed an agreement with other small shops in the area and they now all had a dedicated shelf for each other's items for sale, as well as business cards from each of them.

Now that he was a proper business owner, he had to watch what he was able to publicly advertise. While healing was looked upon with praise and enthusiasm, his side gig was generally looked at with more disdain and concern. He offered services for things like protective rituals and star reading. He had also begun to take up bone reading, finding an interest in more ancient and powerful things, and collecting strange artefacts that seemed to simmer with hints of power.