The Witches Festival | Elder Scrolls Online Wiki

The Witches Festival is a seasonal Holiday Event in The Elder Scrolls Online, introduced in 2016.

As the nights grow longer and the year slides into darkness, the denizens of Tamriel defy their superstitious fears during the annual Witches Festival. Join the fun as ghosts, demons, and evil spirits are mocked and celebrated by occult occurances and the donning of outrageous costumes, which are all the more convincing in a world where hauntings are real and the dead rise to walk again.  As spirits stir and the undead rise from their ancestral tombs, adventurers from all over Tamriel will be tasked with activities that will reward them with gruesome goodies, terrifying treasures, and awesome achievements, including a polymorph to become one of the walking dead, and earn a host of unique Witches Festival-themed items.

Witches Festival dates

The Witches Festival runs sometime during the Fall, near Halloween. 

• 2018: from approximately ~ 10:00AM EDT on Thursday, October 18th and will run until Thursday, November 1 at 10:00AM EDT.
• 2017: from approximately ~ 10AM EDT on Friday, October 20th and will run until Wednesday, November 1 at 10AM EDT.
• 2016: from approximately ~ 10AM EDT on October 13th to November 1st on PS4 and Xbox One, and to November 8th on PC/Mac.

How to begin the Witches Festival?

1. First, you'll want to pick up a (free) Crow Caller from the Crown Store, which is free of charge.
2. Then, start the quest “The Witchmother's Bargain” by using your Crow Caller.  The quest entails gathering a pumpkin and some guts, defeating any delve boss for its Essence of Death, and delivering them to the Witchmother.
3. When you complete the quest The Witchmother will give you the Witchemother's Whistle memento.  If you completed the quest during last year's event, you won't need to acquire the Crow Caller or complete the quest again – you can simply use the whistle found in your Collections menu from last year.
4. Use the Witchemother's Whistle (found in your Mementos) to summon the Witchmother's Cauldron.
5. The Whistle gives you the double XP boost buff when used, you do need to turn into a skeleton unless you want to.
6. You can use the Witchmother's Cauldron to turn you and anyone you are grouped with into an Undead (each use will last for two hours, but you can use it as many times as you like until the end of the event).
7. Once the event is over, you'll be able to keep the Witchemother's Whistle as a memento, but all of its supernatural powers will be gone.
8. During the event, all boss monsters (such as World Bosses or those found defending Delves, Group Dungeons, Public Dungeons, Trials, Arenas, and Dark Anchors) will drop Plunder Skulls. You do not need the XP buff or the undead polymorph active in order for them to drop.

Witches Festival Rewards & Achievements

Plunder Skulls can contain:

• Motif: Individual Hollowjack Motif Pages (1-14)
• Pieces of the new Apple-Bobbing Cauldron memento
  • Combine all seven to receive a runebox that contains the following holiday-themed memento:
    • Runebox: Scarecrow Spectre Mask (Gold)
    • Runebox: Pumpkin Spectre Mask (Gold)
    • Runebox: Hollowjack Spectre Mask (Gold)
    • Runebox: Thicketman Spectre Mask (Gold)
• Furnishings: Branches and other haunted furniture (Can also be furniture recipes)
• Hollowjack and Dremora Style Materials
  • Style Crafting Ingredient: Amber Marble (Hollowjack)
• Witches Festival-themed recipes
• Recipe: Sweet Sanguine Apples(Green)
• Recipe: Crisp and Crunchy Pumpkin Snack Skewer (Blue)
• Recipe: Crunchy Spider Skewer (Blue)
• Recipe: Ghasty Eye-Bowl (Blue)
• Recipe: Bowl of "Peeled Eyeballs" (Blue)
• Recipe: Frosted Brains (Blue)
• Recipe: Witchmother's Potent Brew (Purple)
• Recipe: Witchmother's Party Punch (Purple)
• Recipe: Double Bloody Mara (Gold)
• Bewitching Alchemy reagents
• Random: Loot that may contain "creepy" themed crafting items such as Guts, Spider Eggs, etc.

Brand-new Dremora Plunder Skulls (2018) 

Witches Festival Store Items

A host of supernatural selections will also be added to the in-game Crown Store during the event period, including the Zombie Horse mount, the Nightmare Daemon Mask Pack, and much more. Don't miss your chance to grab some of these unique and terrifying items!

Witches Festival Housing

Need someplace to practice your unholy sorceries away from prying eyes? The Exorcised Coven Cottage will be available for purchase with crowns in the in-game Crown Store for the duration of the event, and if you earn the Witches Festival achievement “An Unsparing Harvest" you'll unlock the ability to acquire this bewitching home for in-game gold!

To unlock An Unsparing Harvest, you must earn the following event achievements:

• Happy Work for Hollowjack
• Plunder Skull Enthusiast
• Pumpkin Pairs Well With Guts
• Reaper's Harvest

If you had earned these achievements in a previous event, you will not need to earn them again this year. To see which achievements you've already unlocked or to track your current progress, check the Holiday section of your Achievements menu.

Be warned: You will not be able to purchase this home for crowns or gold once the event ends, so don't miss your chance to own this “haunt away from home"!

Witches Festival Achievements

Unlocking all of the achievements for this event will unlock the "Sun's Dusk Reaper" title.