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The Witchbrook Oracle - Version 5 vs Version 6
May 25, 2026, 03:47 PM
Add issue-by-issue table covering Oracle #1 through #5 and named-residents table
Jun 8, 2026, 10:53 PM
Removed duplicate in-body wikilinks
11The Witchbrook Oracle is the illustrated periodical newsletter that circulates through Mossport and the student body of Witchbrook College. It sells for two coins an issue and mixes town gossip, festival coverage, classifieds, horoscopes, and lunar forecasts with the occasional reader confessional. In the hands of a player character, a fresh issue doubles as a living bulletin board: skim the right page and a new errand, a seasonal event, or a lead on a side quest can surface between the headlines.22Overview44The Oracle is framed in-world as a community publication rather than a college paper alone. Its beat covers Witchbrook College affairs, but it is edited and distributed out of town and reports with equal enthusiasm on shopkeepers, festival organizers, local dogs, and whatever is currently troubling the good people of Mossport. Issues run a mix of signed editorials, unsigned reader letters, sponsored shop notices, and classifieds, which makes the paper one of the most reliable in-fiction ways for the game to surface its world to the player.66Returning after a stretch without a printed issue, the paper has relaunched under a new editor, with each number opening on a signed letter from the editor and closing with a block of upcoming stories teased for the next release.88Location in Mossport1010The Oracle is put together and distributed from its own office in Mossport rather than from the college campus. That location is deliberate: the paper sits inside the town rather than inside the school, which lets it treat college news as one of many local beats instead of the whole point.1212Reader submissions, including craft ideas, classifieds, and tip-offs for the editor, are posted through the door of the editorial address, 2 Adelard Cross. The address doubles as the paper's public drop box, where students and townsfolk can push notes, sketches, and seasonal craft ideas under the door for consideration in future issues.1414Editorial Staff1616The current editor-in-chief is Eli Ivers, a postgrad student at Witchbrook who picked up the paper after the previous editor, Dusty Inkwell, stepped back. Eli is written as a friendly, slightly over-committed fixture on campus, a familiar face who is usually either working a shift at the school shop, tutoring a younger student, or hunting for the next headline. He is also one of the game's romanceable characters, which gives the newspaper a double function in the story: a town publication and a natural way to keep bumping into one of its writers.1818Eli signs the lead editorial in most issues and tends to open with a short, self-deprecating note to readers. In Issue #2, he frames his arrival as the paper returning after a hiatus rather than as a relaunch, and in Issue #3 he writes the cover feature himself, a piece on civic witchcraft that profiles a fellow student using magic to help around town.2020RoleStaff MemberNotesEditor-in-ChiefEli IversPostgrad student, current editor starting with Issue #2. Also works shifts at the School Shop and offers tutoring on the side.Previous EditorDusty InkwellCredited on earlier issues before the paper went on hiatus. Handed the editor role to Eli when the Oracle returned.ContributorsMossport residents and studentsThe paper relies heavily on signed and anonymous reader submissions for opinion pieces, confessions, and classifieds.2222Content and Sections2323Each issue of the Oracle is built around a rotating set of columns, with specific features promoted on the front cover and a longer table of contents inside. Recurring sections include:2525Announcements: seasonal events and town news, such as the annual Tulip Festival returning in spring with food stalls, artisan goods, and a competitive windmill souvenir contest.Opinion and confessionals: signed and anonymous reader submissions, from a student asking for broom-flying tips to a three-year Witchbrook student confessing they have still never been inside the library.Classifieds: short notices for goods, services, and requests, alongside craft submission calls for future issues.Horoscopes and lunar forecasts: astrological columns tied to the in-game season, used to flavor the week ahead.Editorials: signed pieces by the editor, often profiling a student or local whose story fits the theme of the issue.Sponsored notices: advertising from local businesses, including recurring placements for the School Shop's seasonal goods.Teasers: a back-page block of upcoming stories, used to set expectations for the next issue and to hint at characters the reader has not yet met.2727Past features have included pieces like Bursting in Blooms: Annual Tulip Festival Returns, Civic Witchcraft: Helping Your Community, The Dogs of Mossport: A Field Guide, and Evening Classes: Peaceful or a Nightmare?, along with upcoming columns on seasonal hat styles, the best snacks in Mossport, and homebrewed allergy cures.2929Role in Gameplay3131Inside the fiction of the game, the Oracle is pitched as a quality-of-life hub for the town rather than a purely decorative prop. Reading the latest issue is one of the ways Witchbrook signals what is happening in the wider world: festival dates, upcoming classes, community calls for help, and who has newly arrived or left. Posters and flyers associated with the paper are described as a way for players to encounter new questlines, pick up tips, and discover unfamiliar corners of Mossport.3333Because the Oracle leans on reader submissions, it also functions as a prompt for player activity. Issues regularly put out open calls, asking for seasonal wreath designs, craft ideas, or tips on topics like broom flying, any of which can serve as hooks for the player to contribute, follow up, or investigate further. The editor's door at 2 Adelard Cross acts as the in-world submission point for those contributions.3535Connection to the Player3737For the player character, the Oracle is one of the most persistent ways the town makes itself legible across the academic year. New issues arrive as the seasons roll over, so catching up on the paper is a natural way to mark time, learn which festival is next, and spot the names of characters the game is about to introduce. Several dev communications have flagged that Oracle subscribers are being given early glimpses of characters who have not yet appeared in the main game reveals, reinforcing the sense that the paper is where Mossport gets spoken about first.3939The editor also gives the Oracle a social hook. Because Eli Ivers writes, edits, and signs a significant share of each issue, reading the paper is effectively a way of spending time with one of the game's bachelor characters, picking up on his voice and interests before any direct conversation. Features such as the Issue #3 profile of Hana Sato, which spotlights her work at the Calico clothing shop, show how the Oracle is also used to introduce and flesh out the wider cast.4141Confirmed Issues4343Chucklefish has published five issues of the Oracle ahead of launch, each dated to a specific in-world day and pegged to a season in Mossport. The earliest issue uses Dusty Inkwell as the masthead editor; from Issue #2 onward Eli Ivers carries the byline. The five issues taken together act as a public canon for the town: every named shop, festival, recurring resident, and seasonal event in the early reveals can be traced back to a specific Oracle column or feature.4545IssueIn-World DateEditorLead Stories#128th AutumnDusty InkwellAnnual Pumpkin Growing Competition coverage with student gardener Fenkel Blomgren's twenty-stone entry, an organised Mossport trick-or-treat walk leaving the promenade at four-thirty in the afternoon, the Dear Dusty advice column, horoscopes, and the year's first lunar forecast.#221st SpringEli IversBursting in Blooms: Annual Tulip Festival Returns at Meadowlark Farm, plus the Meet the Editor column in which Eli introduces himself as a postgrad student, School Shop cashier, and occasional tutor. Issue #2 is the return of the paper after a hiatus and the first to carry his byline.#3Spring (post-Tulip Festival)Eli IversCivic Witchcraft: Helping Your Community, a cover feature profiling Hana Sato styling customers at Calico Fresh Threads. Includes a confession column from a student who has avoided the campus library for three years and a call for student-made seasonal wreath submissions, addressed to 2 Adelard Cross.#41st SummerEli IversSummer Boardwalk, a tourist-season feature covering the high street, the Briny Brush gallery, Sal's running nautical commentary, and the fish-and-chips stand on the boardwalk. Includes a reader question from an Amateur Snapper about Snippy Snaps cameras and a missed-connection note about a witch in yellow sandals. Lighter material on broom parking on campus and sand contamination in ritual circles closes the issue.#520th SummerEli IversThe Quiet Side of Summer, an editorial built around Eli's chance encounter on the beach with Pip Marin while she tests a seaweed-collecting and foot-exfoliating contraption. The essay argues that occasionally more practice means doing less, and uses the encounter as a teaser for Pip's later character spotlight.4747Recurring Features Across Issues4848Several columns surface across multiple issues. The Dear Dusty advice column predates Eli's tenure and continues to publish under the same banner. Horoscopes and a lunar forecast appear in every issue and are pegged to the in-world calendar rather than a fixed schedule. The classifieds section runs short notices for goods, services, and craft requests, and seasonal craft submissions are routinely solicited (winter wreaths, allergy cures, seasonal hat styles).5050Front-page teasers also run regularly. Issue #2 teases this season's hat styles, ranking the best snacks in Mossport, and a homemade allergy-cure brew for Page 7. Issue #3 closes with a forward look at the upcoming tourist-season summer issue. The teaser block keeps each issue functioning as a bulletin board for the next one rather than only as a self-contained newsletter.5252Named Mossport Residents in the Oracle5454The Oracle has surfaced a small roster of named Mossport residents and businesses across its first five issues. Each one connects back to a specific corner of town, and the appearances together form the earliest in-world map of who actually lives in the city.5656NameRole or BusinessIssueFenkel BlomgrenWitchbrook student and gardener; works part-time at Wild Flower; winner of the Annual Pumpkin Growing Competition with a twenty-stone entry#1Wren PasternakOwner of Wild Flower, the town's flower and gardening supply shop; hosts the pumpkin competition#1Dusty InkwellOriginal Oracle editor and the agony aunt behind the Dear Dusty advice column#1, ongoingViolet MacEnzieTen-year-old competition entrant at the Pumpkin Growing Competition; Justin's daughter#1Justin MacEnzieMossport resident, attended the pumpkin competition with Violet#1Mrs. BaileyMossport resident with a lost-item notice in the Post Office classifieds#1Lorena P.Anonymous advice-seeker writing about broom-flying anxiety#2SalOwner of The Briny Brush; retired fisherman who speaks in nautical puns; converted his old fishing shack into the art gallery and supply shop#4Professor BardotWitchbrook College faculty; referenced as a fixture of campus tours#45858Visual Design5959The Oracle is presented as an illustrated periodical: a front page with a masthead, a lead feature, a short contents block, and interior pages mixing columns of type with pixel-art spot illustrations. The art style matches the town's warm, hand-drawn look, and layouts are arranged so that headlines, classifieds, and sponsor notices all share a single page without losing the feel of a readable small-town paper.6161Issues are numbered and dated to in-world seasons, for example 1st Spring or 21st Spring, which anchors them to Mossport's calendar and ties each edition to the events it covers.
