The first snow of Winter - Changeling: The Dreaming chronicle by Fionacat
Onslaught - The chronicle as a story by Fionacat
There was a gentle pause in the air that night, it was calm and quiet with a quarter moon
hanging just on the edge of the sky. Owls hooted to each other and the trees rustled softly
whispering ancient secrets to any that would listen.
There was one who was listening, and she also understood what the trees where saying.
Her eyes wide she turned to her friends and repeated in the same whisper as the trees,
slowly, pointedly she spoke.
"We are the keepers." She said tuning into the natural waves of energy, her pupiless almond
eyes reflecting the pale moonlight back to it's source. "We have stood here for hundreads of
years."
The rest of the group paided attention now, huddling closer to the fire and to each other.
"We tire of standing here but can not fall, for to fall would be to lose all." The young Eshu
repeated sounding slightly confused looking around the group.
Each in turned shruged, except Ruhk who nodded as if she knew exactly what that meant.
"Continue Kamog..." The tallest group member said, his pale blueish skin glistening magically
in the fire light.
"I can't..." The Eshu replied, "They don't speak any more..."
There was a change in the wind, it stopped being a breaze and turned into a rather crueler
biting creature.
"They say we should leave..." The Eshu continued fighting the now maligant being. "They say
it's not safe here..."
Piles of dirt and leaves whipped up and around the group, blowing the fire madly out of
control.
The Eshu watched petrified as the fire took hold, jumping towards the trees and instantly
turning them into charred skeletons. She sat there looking around at her friends slowly wither
growing older as each second past until they to turned to bleached bones and then dust.
From all around she could hear the voice now, it was mocking her and calling to her but she
could not make it out, it was not a human voice.
She watched as a snowflake gently spun towards her landing on her foot and setting it on fire.
She leapt in pain as more snowflakes started to spin towards her, there was no where for her
to run now...
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Chronicle overview
This is a fairly freeform story, it's in five main parts and the players can if they really
want skip right to the end at some points (In doing this they "lose" big time...)
Theme and mood
Gads I feel like it's a WRAITH crossover, this is an incredibly depressing chronicle that
touches on the coming winter. Ideally the players will feel as if they have "lost" no matter
what the outcome is.
Background
Winter is coming and Baroness Jepson a minor noble in the service of High King David has
decided to take a much more miltant approach. She requests the players oathcircle/motley
on personal advice from King David himself! The players will then be sent head first into
the most deadly game of cat and mouse ever with Baroness Jepson sending them after
the direct cause of Winter...
Unfortunatly this is not what is really going on, Baroness Jepson was not a baroness until
three years ago when an argument flared up and her husband was killed. She blames the
Nunnehi for this incident and now seeks revenge. She has through subtle cantrips and some
major favours owed to other prodigals managed to convice those around her that she really is
out to destroy some major agent of banality, and not a (possibly) innocent Nunnehi settlement.
Or this is the story the players may figure out, it goes a lot lot deeper then even this,
but of course no-one get's to find this out until the resoultion...
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Act 1 - "I've heard some good things about you..."
Scene 1
The story starts somewhere, sorry to be vague but you'll have to work out exactly how to
get all the characters to meet up in Baroness Jepson's manor house but if ya want a hint I
would suggest telling the party of her upcoming garden party...
The baroness house in Fae seeming is rather shabby compared to what the characters will have
come to expect for sihde houses, it doesn't even have a swimming pool!
However in a more mundane seeming the house is rather pleasantly fitted with small knitted dolls
lining the windows and bannisters.
A servant will show them in, strangly he does not appear fae, or even enchanted.
(This is what we call "getting the characters nervous" if you want to be a lot worse have
the servant send them away first time and come back when as the servant will quote "The sun
shineth no longer." Any player worth their salt will go "Vampire, eeek....")
In fact he is enchanted to the baroness but will not act like it (ignoring troll's height,
redcap's features and pooka apperances.)
Baroness Jepson (Wendy Jepson (Nee Hartway))
Wendy Jepson was born not to far away from where the story is set (somewhere in a generic
town.) She was a nerd in school and even managed to win a scholarship which did not do her
popularity much good. After attending college for a few months she met Greg Hartway whom
she loved dearly the first time she saw him. Prehaps it was his incredible Sidhe beuaty that
attracted her but not long after first meeting him she started to undergo her Chrysalis.
She was amazed by the new world and fortunatly had someone to share it with, her and Greg
were married not long after and have lived in this area for quite some time slowly amassing
power. Three years ago her husband died after a attempting to initate contact with the
Nunnehi that live not around 20 miles away on a reserve. She has since then turned all
efforts into finding out exactly what happened to her husband and extracting revenge on the
ones that killed him.
Court: Unseelie
Leagcies: Wretch/Caregiver
Seeming: Wilder
Kith: Sidhe
Arts: Soverign 4, Legerdemaine 3, Soothsay 1
Realms: Fae 5, Actor 2, Nature 1
Backgrounds: Resources 3, Title 3, Contacts 4, Freehold 1, Treasure 1
Glamour: 1 (*** There is a reason for this )
Banality: 9 ( ignore these value and treat her as )
Willpower: 6 ( banality 2 with a glamour of 7 ***)
Treasures: Each knitted doll has a small amount of glamour so that when the doll is held
the memory of a loved one "floods" into you. This normally produceds inexplicable joy or
deep sorrow and remorse.
Image: In her mortal seeming she is a 32 year old seemstress short rather fat and quite
"mom" looking really.
In her fae form she appears as a not really all that impressive sidhe, kind of like a substitute
teacher after a hard day teaching fifth graders. She does however have a radiant smile (on the
rare occasions that she does) that more then overcomes the rest of her poor image.
Roleplaying hints: Let them think what they need to think, they wouldn't understand what
it means to have lost someone that close to you. Just make sure they aren't smart enogth
to figure out what's really going on, if they do however ensure they don't tell anyone else
about it.
On meeting the Baroness she will more or less ignore all the formalities and get straight
to business, declaring that the agents of banality are somewhere in this Duchy and that
she would like them to find out where they are. She believes the head of the agents is a man
called Greg Hartway and he was last seen on the Indian (Native American) Reserve 20 miles away.
She will allow the players to rest here for one night and give them $300 in various notes
for supplies and equipment she will also if pushed offer them a title but points that they
would be serving fae everywhere and would be better talking to High King David (who
incidently recommended you) after they have destroyed the banal ones.
The baroness will ignore most breeches of etiquette and indeed she will not really care what
the players are/do as long as they go off and find out where Greg Hartway is.
================================================================================================
Kamog sat up her heart beating fast, around it was dark but she could feel Ruhk's soft
furry body not far away, gently she prodded the Pooka hoping to arouse her.
Ruhk meefed quietly and Kamog instinctivly stifled a giggle relaxing slightly and taking
stock of the vision.
It was the same as last time she was thinking when a small voice said "no"
She concentrated thinking what was diffrent, snow was there, trees where there, her friends
where there...
The voice started again trying to help.
"Tiger tiger... tiger tiger..." it chanted in her head.
Kamog winced slightly, the fire it wasn't there last time, the fire had caused all of this,
because of it everything would be destroyed.
"It was a dream however, always with metaphors in dreams." the voice said gently coaxing her.
She agreed with herself, it probably meant nothing.
Ruhk rolled over slightly and with a large ferrety grin fell back asleep.
Kamog pulled the covers over Ruhk's body slightly, smiling as the furry child lay there
sleeping.
"Only a dream..." She repeated listening to the wind outside.
================================================================================================
Act 1 Scene 2 - Shop 'till you drop
The characters are escorted off the ground the next day (if they stayed!), the baroness will not
be able to give them any help or advice excpet that Greg maybe the key, he is the one that
most changelings have felt pain and despair around...
The characters may try asking the servant some questions, he is quite civil and hasn't the
faintest idea what the characters are on about, if the baroness sees them doing this she
will admoish them slightly and explain he'll have to be "Reconditioned" now.
She will then take him off and refuse anyone further entry, possible threating to phone the
police if they don't leave. (She's kinda screwed up in the head is our baroness....)
From here the characters MAY want to go to the reserve, it's 20 miles East of where they
currently are. The $300 will more the cover a bus fare, car rental or hitch hiking costs
for the group.
If characters wish to walk then let them do so, the first 5 miles is mostly
generic suburbia with some shops and after that it's mostly desert, walking in the desert can
be done for around 3 miles before they will start to think "This is a bad idea..." if they
insit on continuing kill them off! Oh no wait erm have them picked up after losing 3 health
levels by a native american in his 4 by 4 off road jeep, he is heading into town and
can give them a lift back there along with some advice on how to get to the reserve safely.
If offered some money (around $100 will more then cover it.) he'll take the players
there himself.
The characters can also head 20 miles west which will take them out into a small tundra type
area with a road stretching out into the distance, if you wanna be nice have sign posts with
Native American reserve written on it and some chimerical by line of "Abandon glamour" or
equal intresting sqrawl on it.
The only intresting thing that can really happen is they meet an echo chimera or a totem
chimera (both describred oh here.) otherwise there is nothing to the west.
Heading North or South there is no road and players should be activly discouraged from
attempting to do so as if they do they will probably be attacked by a totem chimera.
Echo chimera
Ancient and probably beign chimera these poor critters echo out the last thing they saw,
unfortunatly most time the last thing they saw was pretty horrific, someone being killed or
the like always seems to plague an echo.
When they are not copying the doomed last moments of a traveller they are a very pleasant
light pink whisp, much like candy floss.
Glamour: 5-12
Willpower: 1-3
Health levels: Ok, -5; Dissipated
Powers:
Record - By spending one glamour the echo chimera can record forever and playback any time it
wishes (for free!) anything it sees, when playing back the Echo spreads out and becomes what it
saw before repeating the actions.
Totem Chimera
Hunting and practise spirits of the Nunnehi totem poles given life by false tales of them, the
totem chimera are rather odd in that the are neither full Nunnehi or normal fae but a mixture
of both. Reaction depends on the animal encountered.
Glamour: 2-5
Willpower 5-7
Health Levels: Ok, Ok, -1, -1, -2, -3, -5, -5; Dissipated
Powers: None known (Make some up depending on the animal, e.g Wolf - Mad howl +2 to intimidation
Bear - Chase +2 to all running type stats.)
Eventually the players will arrive on the outskirts of the Native American reserve...
================================================================================================
It was the wind, Kamog knew she had heard it before and shivered slightly, crying out gently
for Brian to come.
Ruhk was doing her best to confort the Eshu but even her natural abality to get people
talking was failing.
A tall shadow fell on the tent with the two girls inside.
"BRIAN!" Kamog screamed loudly.
From the end of the tent the blue skinned man appeared looking very tired and slightly pissed
off.
"Kamog, it's late what's wrong?" The troll asked.
Kamog shook nervously holding Ruhk tightly for security before managing to stammer
an answer.
"He's here Brian, I can feel him..." She said her voice quivering almost uncontrolably.
Brain raised an eyebrow and forced his way into the tent placing a muscular arm on Kamog
"He who?" Brian asked gently.
Kamog looked up at Brian, her eyes wide with fear.
A look that scared Brian as well.
"Winter..." Kamog stammered slowly in answer, "Winter is here..."
================================================================================================
Act 2 - Roots
The players will see as the approach the reserve a large chimerical fortress, from the
car park they can also make out three cars.
Two of these cars have no intresting features the third one has a slight chimerical presance
which if investigate will turn out to be a rather obnoxious dragon whelp (No stats for it
but assume it can fly for 1 glamour and has 4-8 health levels.) it will distract the players
by telling them a whole heap of lies about the residents of this area. No matter what
question the players ask the dragon it will tell them the worst possible answer
(For example, Players: Do you know If a Gary Hartway has been along?
Dragon: Gary Hartway, you can't mean him, you know the guy that (looks to players and winks)
you know...
Players: Errrm, destroys Glamour?
Dragon: (Slightly taken aback before continuning) Ooooooh Yeah I know him, evil one was he
tried to take me out he did but I bit him one and sent him off running I did!
Players: Where was this?
Dragon: I can't quite remeber now, see I've fought so many evil banal things that i've lost
track but I know it was around here somewhere...)
The other cars are a white transit van and a new blue Mercades-Benz.
If the players ignore the dragon (which can take quite some time to deal with if they don't)
they will find the fortress is not guarded, nor does it even have a front door anymore.
In fact it looks like someone has been through here with a cruise missile and taken out
the forts front door...
Once inside there are three large buildings and two small buildings in this chimerical fort
(In mundane seeming these buildings are reconstructions of native American tents put here
for the tourists except buildings 1 which is a small house and building 3 which is the
Guide's office. There is also a stable where the players can rent horses for $20/day.)
The buildings are listed at the end of this section.
The players can investigate them all but will eventually get the idea that none of the
Nunnehi are actually here, if the players ask about them (except in building 3) they will
be directed to the coral area deep into the reserve. Unsurprisingly no one will go with
them to meet the Nunnehi.
Really smart players may wonder what happened to the fort, in this case they will be
directed to the visitor in building 3 as the source of this and warned to keep away from
him (which is not that much of a problem...)
Once they have explored this town for a while they should head out to the Nunnehi settlement
(If there's a pooka they might wanna put a bannana in a certain car before going there but
I doubt anyone will ever come up with that idea unless they have read this before hand...)
The actual settlement can be quite clearly seen from here and the best way to it
would be horse. Again players can be stubborn if they decide to walk point out whilst they
will have no problems making it their getting away quickly might be very hard.
Buildings
Building 1 - House (Chimerical and Mundane) This is where the guide lives, he is attached
to the National parks and forestry commision and has been living with the Native Americans here
on this site for about 18 years now. The actually building is locked and no cantrips will
work on the door (It's protect by Nunnehi cantrips) if the players have something that
can somehow get them in (Slaugh could maybe go in the letter box, pooka shapechange and do
similar) they will find it it very plain and has a bedroom with nothing of intrest, a kitchen
with some unprepared vegetables in neat ordered bins and a sitting room with various maps
of the area pinned to the wall and some "really neat looking" Native American artifacts
in pyrex cases.
Building 2 - Tent (Mundane) Inn (Chimerical) In mundane form this is a large tent reconstruction
showing how the native american tribe would have first set up here with an actor inside
talking to any tourists but in chimerical form it is a small old western inn with the actor
being the barman.
The actor is a normal mortal that will not know what the heck is going on when people
ask him questions or order drinks. When enchanted however he becomes a well of knowledge
and can tell the players about what goes on in these parts and how to talk to the Nunnehi.
Building 3 - Office (Mundane and chimerical) This is a small office that appears
to be where the guide works from, currently he is talking to someone inside.
If the players try to get near the office (50 yards is close enogth) they will start to
feel rather uncomfortable, almost as if the office was made of solid iron. At 25 yard
the uncomfort becomes pain (1 chimerical damage / minute and 1 banality / minute) any player
trying to get closer is off thier head at 10 yards it's 5 damage and 5 banality a minute
if any player reaches the door they are instantly receeded to mortal seeming.
Why?
Well if anyone can listen in (Slaugh, Pooka are best bets.) they will hear the conversation
going on inside. Oh by the way, for some bizzare reason cantrips won't work on the office...
Voice 1 appears to be an older man of possibly native american origins
Voice 2 (to the players) to be blunt sounds like Satan.
Voice 1: "... are wanting them?"
Voice 2: "Ah you see I've found this flower to be quite potent in battling the Quitoxe
syndrome that is so popular amongst people just now."
Voice 1: "The Quitoxe syndrome?"
Voice 2: "Yes, believing in a fantasy world of Faeries and other imaginary creatures?"
Voice 1: "And what's wrong with that??"
Voice 2: "My friend, you've never seen one of these poor deranged ones hurting themselves
because of their total belif in the fantasy world, they are so far into the
belif of being a faerie that they often neglect reality around them."
Voice 1: (Confused) "I don't get it."
Voice 2: "Quite often just like in Peter Pan they don't eat real food for days, starving
themselfs. One recent case from this area in fact was on some foolish quest or
something and had walked out from the town. Almost died of dehydration poor lass."
Voice 1: "And you think this plant can cure them?"
Voice 2: "From my anaylsis I've found those caught up in the Quitoxe syndrome believe this
plant to be some form of poision. It "kills" their faerie nature and leaves the
real person. The plant itself is from what I understand quite harmless..."
Voice 1: "That's right Doctor, unless you eat it in large quantites."
Voice 2: "So how much can you deliver?"
Voice 1: "Well Doctor Stark, this plant isn't very common but I think 20 grammes a month
should not cause too much problems, I'll of course have to moderate this some times
I won't be able to provide the whole 20 grammes."
Voice 2: "And in exchange the Rock-Fishing tribe will be given back the 40 acres of land
from various consotriums as well as a healthy profit from the benefits of this
plant."
Voice 1: "Fantastic, would you care for a drink to celibrate?"
Voice 2: "Don't mind if I do..."
The voices will return in about 10 minutes mid-way in a discussion about the rock-fishing
tribe and it's heritage here.
Building 4 - Small house (Chimerical) Hut (mundane)
A small house with no one inside, it does however have an old newspaper dated the day
Greg Hartway visited the article mentions how Mr Hartway was saved from the desert suffering
delusions of mutiple sorts (some involving giant humanoid rabbits!) and taken to the
Anton Stark psychatric clinic for rehabilitation. This newspaper is actually dated 1803 and
appears to be the result of some sort of cantrip. (You _REALLY_ want to emphsise that part
by the way, it _IS_ a cantrip result...)
There is nothing else in the house.
Building 5 - Small house (Both)
This is a small shop that will sell food and water as well as tacky soverigns at overinflated
prices, it is however the only place that does sell food and water for at least 20 miles.
It also has a toilet outside which is only mentioned as i've never seen a toilet in the
world of darkness before.
A quick note about Dr Anton Stark
Unsurprisingly no cantrips work on him, or even within 25 yards of him.
Any chimerical object within 10 yards of him becomes undone, changelings trying to
talk to him tend to experience the same fate.
Dr Anton Stark will not approach the players, he just _IS_. The players may get some
"really neat" ideas about trying to kill him. Trust me now, they won't work (Shooting
him is their best option but our Doctor here wears bullet proofed vests since the last
time some deluded soul tried to purge the world of him.)
As a minor foot note if the players do come up with a really incredibly fantastic
plan that would result in Stark's death (Explosives or what not, i dunno...) then it
just doesn't work, Stark has a few fairly powerful allies on his side.
One is called the Weaver and the other is her lil' kid Banality, they for some reason
don't want Stark to die just yet.
================================================================================================
Brian leant down and conforted Kamog as best he could, not quite sure if the Eshu's visions
where accurate. Then again she had not been wrong so far.
Ruhk too was trying to keep Kamog from crying too loudly when she heard it outside.
"Van, there's a blue van just pulled up outside." Ruhk said quietly
Brain peeked outside the tent to see a large blue mercades-benz pulling up beside the guide
office sitting in the front seat was a writhing mass of spiders that seemed to shoot off
in every direction and shoot back again.
Brain turned away and smiled at Kamog, "Everything's going to be okay kid, we just hang here
and hope."
Slowly Ruhk followed the creature's footsteps as they left the car and entered into the office.
================================================================================================
Act 3 - Winter Time
By now the players as well as the characters may not be entirly convinced they want to
continue (I would not!) or they may believe they have found enogth details to return
with and hash together some story. This will be dealt with now and the rest of the
story (if they decide to go make contact with the Nunnehi) will happen in act 4
If the players run away
=======================
Okay firstly they do _ALMOST_ have enogth information, they can prove Hartway was here
and they can prove Stark has him now but that's about it. What they can not prove
is that Nunnehi had no dealings with Hartway and can not even prove the Baroness set them
up!
So they set off home, there are no problems (unless you want to make them up...) and on
arriving they shall see the most incredible entrage of horse drawn carridges for quite
some time, Troll's guard them and stop the players getting near.
The crest of High king David is quite obvious.
Inside the King is waiting patiently for the players to return, as they do so this allows
the Baroness enogth time to make her little plan work. This is where it gets "fun".
The players will of course _HAVE_ to show the proper etiqutte now, there's (1234567891011121314
yes 14 Troll's on duty and as many other Shide just standing by...) and well the players
report.
David will listen and not really react until Anton Stark is mentioned at which point his
mouth will drop a little and he'll be slightly phased.
After the players have told him as much as they can he and the other Shide enter discussion
leaving the players to sit in the main room, enabling them to just about see what's coming.
In the distance up the baroness's driveway is rolling (1234567 yes 8) eight white vans
with the nice black print "Stark Psycological Homes" imprinted on it. At this point
the baroness will drop her disguise and sweep into the room, her true form now showing
a burning grey form of a once Shide noble turned to banality.
I will leave it up to you to decide exactly what happens next, the players should be
encourage to create a distraction whilst Wayfare is used lots (quite hard as only
now does anyone realise the true purpose of the dolls, each memory in the doll is
created by a banal echo chimera.) and King David as well as anyone else there tries
to escape.
Characters will see outside snow flakes starting to fall and eat away at any chimerical
objects (think acid snowflakes...) whilst overhead the darkening skies start to blot out
the sun and making everwhere cold and in the first grips of winter.
Can you say "We're doomed..." Sure knew you could...
================================================================================================
Slowly following at a comfortable distance the ferret scrambled around the side of the house,
listening intently.
Meanwhile Kamog and Brian started out towards the settlement in the distance, fearing it may
already be to late.
The ferret yawned as the conversation went on and on, looking down at her small claws she
realised they were no longer there. Confused and upset she inspected her arms finding nothing
but fleshy pink skin all over. Panicing now she felt for her ears but they also where no more,
terror ensued in her mind. Every part of her screamed in pain as she found herself without
a tail and whiskers.
"run..." A dying voice cried to her, "run..."
Kamog steadied the horse as she and Brian looked over the battle scene, hearing the still
moans of the defeated Rock Fishers.
Tying up her horse Kamog gently brushed back the nearests hair to find a pain stricken face
staring back out at her, in shock she stumbled backwards recognising the face.
"Mr Hartman?" She asked probing him gently.
The body barely responded she looked to Brain for help but he was treating the chief just now.
"Mr Hartman who did this?" Kamog said shaking him gently, trying to arrouse what ever
might still be in there.
The sigh on his breath chilled her to the bone as he spat out her name,
"Wendy"
Kamog gently ran her hand through his hair making quiet noises to him, right up until the moment
his mortal seeming took over.
================================================================================================
Act 4 - The Nunnehi camp
On approaching the camp it should be quite obvious that something is very wrong, about
a half dozen strange looking creatures are lying on the ground in what appears to be
some pain. The characters will also notice a Shide, just clinging onto his fae seeming
with them.
On getting close the strange beings may be recognised as Rock Fishers (See Players Guide to
Changeling: The Dreaming) all of them have been injured, as has the Shide that they may
guess is Hartway (or if they have the newspaper clipping will recognise his photograph.)
What happened?
=============
It appers that Hartway was asked by King David to meet with the Nunnehi, he did so and was
invited to stay for a few weeks learning their ways, during which time his wife apparently
decided to join him and was found by Doctor Anton Stark wondering lost in the desert, he
"rescued" her as he rescues most suffering from Quintoxe.
Hartway knew that his wife had been turned to Banality and hence tried to stop it but was
trapped with the Rock Fisher tribe by the now banal baroness arranging with the local
population of banality dwellers to move in (The fort was not to keep people out it was
to keep Hartway in!)
Only yesterday (whilst the players where staying with her?) she told Doctor Stark that
there was a flower that she remebers others in this fantasy dying after being touched by it.
Stark anxious to find an even more effective way of curing Quintoxe rushes to the camp,
meets with first the guide who introduces him to the chief. (Being Nunnehi Stark would
not normally harm them, HOWEVER his polution making research van with all it's technology
which was kept in the village whilst the flower was being tested did!)
What the players can do?
=======================
Nothing, Hartway will receed to his mortal seeming (but not without some "dying" words)
and the Rock Fishers will slowly recover, thanking the players greatly for any help
they could give. (*** Extra brownie points to any player that starts watering the local
plant life, espically that which had been damaged by the Stark teams. ***)
The players will now know EXACTLY what is going on and will probably wish to confront the
Baroness about this...
See all the grand finale action in the Epilogue!
================================================================================================
The brown dirt clogged her vision still, she could make out the large purple figure moving
towards her but could not do anything about it.
Brain gently picked her up, holding her tightly to his body and crying gently.
"Ruhk, it's going to be okay..." He whispered into her all too human ears.
Kamog looked up at her friends crumpled body weeping loudly, "She's not going to
make it Brain, I can tell..."
Brain smiled downwards to the Eshu, "If anyone can make it Ruhk can..."
Suddenly the bundle moved in his arms, struggling to escape.
"Ruhk?!" Brain asked placing her on the ground.
The startled human child looked around at the two strangers and began to cry.
"We've lost her..." Kamog said stunned.
The child smiled up at the crying teenager, "What's wrong lady?" She asked gently.
Kamog was about to reply when she noticed the slight fuzz on the young Pooka's face.
Rushing to hug Ruhk tightly she broke into a wide smile.
Confused and dazed Ruhk blinked as she saw Kamog rush towards her in a wide hugging motion.
Gingerly she opened her arms and recieved the hug looking up to Brian with a smile.
Grinning back Brain suddenly looked towards the car park where Doctor Stark's car was
pulling away.
Brain coughed loudly and stared at Ruhk who nodded, knowing exactly what that look meant and
breaking off the hug.
"We've got to go..." Brian said glancing back at the slowly disappearing car, "We were just
a distraction."
================================================================================================
Epilogue - Chilled but not frozen
Now the real ending, the players have proof of the Baronesses involvment and if they
check the newspaper clipping they may notice that it's not Greg Hartway but Wendy Hartway
that was placed into Doctor Anton's care.
So they set off home, there are no problems (unless you want to make them up...) and on
arriving they shall see the most incredible entrage of horse drawn carridges for quite
some time, Troll's guard them and stop the players getting near.
The crest of High king David is quite obvious.
Inside the King is waiting patiently for the players to return, the players will be quite
aware of the baronesses deception and have two choices of action
1 They just say it!
=================
This is a rather blunt and forceful option, totally out of protocol with the King being here
but it is rather effective and will result in everyone being taken back to the King's palace
before Stark's van even get close. This option is for players that are really quite clever
and realise how much danger they are in, however taking this option means the Baroness
does get to escape (as whilst everyone else leaves in a mad panic, she's contacting Stark.)
2 They play along a bit!
======================
The best option, not only should they _JUST_ get away (I do mean just, the vans are like
pulling up outside!!!) but the baroness is also taken and tried, her "cure" is slowly
reversed and she becomes one of the best sources of information that anyone can get on
Stark's ideas and treatments.
This is really the closest to "winning" the players can get.
3 They play along lots...
=======================
This is a risky option, they may get away, it's up to how nice you are feeling.
If they come up with an elibrate way of revealing her as a traitor to glamour let them do
it (it'll be fun to watch!) and in which case option 2 happens.
However if they are just dim and not sure of what they are supposed to say it's quite likely
Stark's team will show up and what happens in act 3 is more or less repeated here.
However unlike act 3 most of them can actually get away, being slightly aware that something
must be "up"
4 They forget or mess up...
=========================
It's possible they've forgotten (been receeded to mortal seeming prehaps trying to take on
Anton Stark...) what they where supposed to tell everyone or they just stuff up big time,
in this case of the former be VERY nice and at best option 1 happens (otehrwise it's
the "bad" bit of option 3)
If they mess up (trying to hurt King David or something equally stupid) the troll's will
stop them and act 3 will happen but a much higher percentage of changelings will not
escape (only David's "elite" crew will.)
If this is the case you get to put on the big evil winter chimera ending where it's not just
snow but a blizzard and they can see from the darkened sky a sorta dark figure sweeping
towards them...
================================================================================================
================================================================================================
Changeling: The Dreaming and all related material are copyrighed by White Wolf Inc.
It's use within this work is in no way, meant to infringe or steal that copyright,
nor to dilute the system itself. No profit on the part of the author is made from
this document, and this document is used only for entertainment purposes.
If there is any legal problems with this document, please contact the author to make
arrangements to amend these legal difficulties.
The mention of or refence to any company or products in this is not a challenge to
the trademarks or copyrights concerned.
This work may be freely distributed in any media as long as it is not; altered from its original
form, and that no money is charged for the document itself. It may be included on any archive
collection under the same terms.
Credits:
Written by: Fionacat (Fionacat@hotmail.com)
Developed by: ??????
Special thanks to:
Michael "Hacker" Ross, for showing how it should be done.
Greg "Wolf Boy" Kitchin, for resisting the corruption.
Mark "Maggots in the Uphill Field" Gardener, for not being Bill, Dan or a womble.
LGS, for creating the asslymn.
Andy "TGA" Wood, for being an elf.
Helen "Iceberg" , for finding the immortals.
Speedy, for the game of angels and demons (plugcoming to a shop near you!!/plug)
Jinxy, for Xavier and all his friends.
Jamie "I thought it was Helen" McIntosh, for SSADM.
Suzie, Steph and Claire, for being the best doorpeebs ever.
Steve "Thumper" Ferguson, for making me think about a Rabbit's ears.
John "Weasel" Goodman, "Okay you collapse...."
Colin "Cailean" West, "I'm a Pooka?!"
Jason, for launching from unknown devices
Steve "Galatic Crusader" Ironside, for beleving the beginning is the end is the beginning is...
Skitz, for melting me on both occasions.
Cloud and Squaresoft, for _WAY_ to many late nights.
My Parents, for almost being able to undestand
You, for reading this it helps.
My lawyers, for after White Wolf have read this.
B.J Zanibar, for giving me the idea in the first place.
A quick special thanks to all these speical "people" that gave me inspiration, hugs, support
or laughs: Alpha_X-Ray, Altimar, Bigears, Brenda, Cathal, Dakimov, Glis, Kimba, Ladrona, Masem,
Everguest, Entwidomela, MacX, Cabbit, Ia'Kat, Darkclaw, Allan, Foxina, Woof-it, StephenQuoll,
Nicky, Sparks, Miles, Ytaya, Unci, Annabel and Any that have been to the Park and I missed.
Babs, Dustbunny, Chilly, KinkyTurtle, Lola, Mel, Mr_Fu, Sylvia, Taperlass, David, Towi,
P3, Dot, Vakkotaur, Molly, Baz, WbWolf, Natte, Neucoyote, Nakko, Yakko, Rhia and Hobbes with
special NOTafish greetings to all others on #warnercafe (irc.wtower.net)
Onslaught - The chronicle as a story by Fionacat
There was a gentle pause in the air that night, it was calm and quiet with a quarter moon
hanging just on the edge of the sky. Owls hooted to each other and the trees rustled softly
whispering ancient secrets to any that would listen.
There was one who was listening, and she also understood what the trees where saying.
Her eyes wide she turned to her friends and repeated in the same whisper as the trees,
slowly, pointedly she spoke.
"We are the keepers." She said tuning into the natural waves of energy, her pupiless almond
eyes reflecting the pale moonlight back to it's source. "We have stood here for hundreads of
years."
The rest of the group paided attention now, huddling closer to the fire and to each other.
"We tire of standing here but can not fall, for to fall would be to lose all." The young Eshu
repeated sounding slightly confused looking around the group.
Each in turned shruged, except Ruhk who nodded as if she knew exactly what that meant.
"Continue Kamog..." The tallest group member said, his pale blueish skin glistening magically
in the fire light.
"I can't..." The Eshu replied, "They don't speak any more..."
There was a change in the wind, it stopped being a breaze and turned into a rather crueler
biting creature.
"They say we should leave..." The Eshu continued fighting the now maligant being. "They say
it's not safe here..."
Piles of dirt and leaves whipped up and around the group, blowing the fire madly out of
control.
The Eshu watched petrified as the fire took hold, jumping towards the trees and instantly
turning them into charred skeletons. She sat there looking around at her friends slowly wither
growing older as each second past until they to turned to bleached bones and then dust.
From all around she could hear the voice now, it was mocking her and calling to her but she
could not make it out, it was not a human voice.
She watched as a snowflake gently spun towards her landing on her foot and setting it on fire.
She leapt in pain as more snowflakes started to spin towards her, there was no where for her
to run now...
================================================================================================
Chronicle overview
This is a fairly freeform story, it's in five main parts and the players can if they really
want skip right to the end at some points (In doing this they "lose" big time...)
Theme and mood
Gads I feel like it's a WRAITH crossover, this is an incredibly depressing chronicle that
touches on the coming winter. Ideally the players will feel as if they have "lost" no matter
what the outcome is.
Background
Winter is coming and Baroness Jepson a minor noble in the service of High King David has
decided to take a much more miltant approach. She requests the players oathcircle/motley
on personal advice from King David himself! The players will then be sent head first into
the most deadly game of cat and mouse ever with Baroness Jepson sending them after
the direct cause of Winter...
Unfortunatly this is not what is really going on, Baroness Jepson was not a baroness until
three years ago when an argument flared up and her husband was killed. She blames the
Nunnehi for this incident and now seeks revenge. She has through subtle cantrips and some
major favours owed to other prodigals managed to convice those around her that she really is
out to destroy some major agent of banality, and not a (possibly) innocent Nunnehi settlement.
Or this is the story the players may figure out, it goes a lot lot deeper then even this,
but of course no-one get's to find this out until the resoultion...
================================================================================================
Act 1 - "I've heard some good things about you..."
Scene 1
The story starts somewhere, sorry to be vague but you'll have to work out exactly how to
get all the characters to meet up in Baroness Jepson's manor house but if ya want a hint I
would suggest telling the party of her upcoming garden party...
The baroness house in Fae seeming is rather shabby compared to what the characters will have
come to expect for sihde houses, it doesn't even have a swimming pool!
However in a more mundane seeming the house is rather pleasantly fitted with small knitted dolls
lining the windows and bannisters.
A servant will show them in, strangly he does not appear fae, or even enchanted.
(This is what we call "getting the characters nervous" if you want to be a lot worse have
the servant send them away first time and come back when as the servant will quote "The sun
shineth no longer." Any player worth their salt will go "Vampire, eeek....")
In fact he is enchanted to the baroness but will not act like it (ignoring troll's height,
redcap's features and pooka apperances.)
Baroness Jepson (Wendy Jepson (Nee Hartway))
Wendy Jepson was born not to far away from where the story is set (somewhere in a generic
town.) She was a nerd in school and even managed to win a scholarship which did not do her
popularity much good. After attending college for a few months she met Greg Hartway whom
she loved dearly the first time she saw him. Prehaps it was his incredible Sidhe beuaty that
attracted her but not long after first meeting him she started to undergo her Chrysalis.
She was amazed by the new world and fortunatly had someone to share it with, her and Greg
were married not long after and have lived in this area for quite some time slowly amassing
power. Three years ago her husband died after a attempting to initate contact with the
Nunnehi that live not around 20 miles away on a reserve. She has since then turned all
efforts into finding out exactly what happened to her husband and extracting revenge on the
ones that killed him.
Court: Unseelie
Leagcies: Wretch/Caregiver
Seeming: Wilder
Kith: Sidhe
Arts: Soverign 4, Legerdemaine 3, Soothsay 1
Realms: Fae 5, Actor 2, Nature 1
Backgrounds: Resources 3, Title 3, Contacts 4, Freehold 1, Treasure 1
Glamour: 1 (*** There is a reason for this )
Banality: 9 ( ignore these value and treat her as )
Willpower: 6 ( banality 2 with a glamour of 7 ***)
Treasures: Each knitted doll has a small amount of glamour so that when the doll is held
the memory of a loved one "floods" into you. This normally produceds inexplicable joy or
deep sorrow and remorse.
Image: In her mortal seeming she is a 32 year old seemstress short rather fat and quite
"mom" looking really.
In her fae form she appears as a not really all that impressive sidhe, kind of like a substitute
teacher after a hard day teaching fifth graders. She does however have a radiant smile (on the
rare occasions that she does) that more then overcomes the rest of her poor image.
Roleplaying hints: Let them think what they need to think, they wouldn't understand what
it means to have lost someone that close to you. Just make sure they aren't smart enogth
to figure out what's really going on, if they do however ensure they don't tell anyone else
about it.
On meeting the Baroness she will more or less ignore all the formalities and get straight
to business, declaring that the agents of banality are somewhere in this Duchy and that
she would like them to find out where they are. She believes the head of the agents is a man
called Greg Hartway and he was last seen on the Indian (Native American) Reserve 20 miles away.
She will allow the players to rest here for one night and give them $300 in various notes
for supplies and equipment she will also if pushed offer them a title but points that they
would be serving fae everywhere and would be better talking to High King David (who
incidently recommended you) after they have destroyed the banal ones.
The baroness will ignore most breeches of etiquette and indeed she will not really care what
the players are/do as long as they go off and find out where Greg Hartway is.
================================================================================================
Kamog sat up her heart beating fast, around it was dark but she could feel Ruhk's soft
furry body not far away, gently she prodded the Pooka hoping to arouse her.
Ruhk meefed quietly and Kamog instinctivly stifled a giggle relaxing slightly and taking
stock of the vision.
It was the same as last time she was thinking when a small voice said "no"
She concentrated thinking what was diffrent, snow was there, trees where there, her friends
where there...
The voice started again trying to help.
"Tiger tiger... tiger tiger..." it chanted in her head.
Kamog winced slightly, the fire it wasn't there last time, the fire had caused all of this,
because of it everything would be destroyed.
"It was a dream however, always with metaphors in dreams." the voice said gently coaxing her.
She agreed with herself, it probably meant nothing.
Ruhk rolled over slightly and with a large ferrety grin fell back asleep.
Kamog pulled the covers over Ruhk's body slightly, smiling as the furry child lay there
sleeping.
"Only a dream..." She repeated listening to the wind outside.
================================================================================================
Act 1 Scene 2 - Shop 'till you drop
The characters are escorted off the ground the next day (if they stayed!), the baroness will not
be able to give them any help or advice excpet that Greg maybe the key, he is the one that
most changelings have felt pain and despair around...
The characters may try asking the servant some questions, he is quite civil and hasn't the
faintest idea what the characters are on about, if the baroness sees them doing this she
will admoish them slightly and explain he'll have to be "Reconditioned" now.
She will then take him off and refuse anyone further entry, possible threating to phone the
police if they don't leave. (She's kinda screwed up in the head is our baroness....)
From here the characters MAY want to go to the reserve, it's 20 miles East of where they
currently are. The $300 will more the cover a bus fare, car rental or hitch hiking costs
for the group.
If characters wish to walk then let them do so, the first 5 miles is mostly
generic suburbia with some shops and after that it's mostly desert, walking in the desert can
be done for around 3 miles before they will start to think "This is a bad idea..." if they
insit on continuing kill them off! Oh no wait erm have them picked up after losing 3 health
levels by a native american in his 4 by 4 off road jeep, he is heading into town and
can give them a lift back there along with some advice on how to get to the reserve safely.
If offered some money (around $100 will more then cover it.) he'll take the players
there himself.
The characters can also head 20 miles west which will take them out into a small tundra type
area with a road stretching out into the distance, if you wanna be nice have sign posts with
Native American reserve written on it and some chimerical by line of "Abandon glamour" or
equal intresting sqrawl on it.
The only intresting thing that can really happen is they meet an echo chimera or a totem
chimera (both describred oh here.) otherwise there is nothing to the west.
Heading North or South there is no road and players should be activly discouraged from
attempting to do so as if they do they will probably be attacked by a totem chimera.
Echo chimera
Ancient and probably beign chimera these poor critters echo out the last thing they saw,
unfortunatly most time the last thing they saw was pretty horrific, someone being killed or
the like always seems to plague an echo.
When they are not copying the doomed last moments of a traveller they are a very pleasant
light pink whisp, much like candy floss.
Glamour: 5-12
Willpower: 1-3
Health levels: Ok, -5; Dissipated
Powers:
Record - By spending one glamour the echo chimera can record forever and playback any time it
wishes (for free!) anything it sees, when playing back the Echo spreads out and becomes what it
saw before repeating the actions.
Totem Chimera
Hunting and practise spirits of the Nunnehi totem poles given life by false tales of them, the
totem chimera are rather odd in that the are neither full Nunnehi or normal fae but a mixture
of both. Reaction depends on the animal encountered.
Glamour: 2-5
Willpower 5-7
Health Levels: Ok, Ok, -1, -1, -2, -3, -5, -5; Dissipated
Powers: None known (Make some up depending on the animal, e.g Wolf - Mad howl +2 to intimidation
Bear - Chase +2 to all running type stats.)
Eventually the players will arrive on the outskirts of the Native American reserve...
================================================================================================
It was the wind, Kamog knew she had heard it before and shivered slightly, crying out gently
for Brian to come.
Ruhk was doing her best to confort the Eshu but even her natural abality to get people
talking was failing.
A tall shadow fell on the tent with the two girls inside.
"BRIAN!" Kamog screamed loudly.
From the end of the tent the blue skinned man appeared looking very tired and slightly pissed
off.
"Kamog, it's late what's wrong?" The troll asked.
Kamog shook nervously holding Ruhk tightly for security before managing to stammer
an answer.
"He's here Brian, I can feel him..." She said her voice quivering almost uncontrolably.
Brain raised an eyebrow and forced his way into the tent placing a muscular arm on Kamog
"He who?" Brian asked gently.
Kamog looked up at Brian, her eyes wide with fear.
A look that scared Brian as well.
"Winter..." Kamog stammered slowly in answer, "Winter is here..."
================================================================================================
Act 2 - Roots
The players will see as the approach the reserve a large chimerical fortress, from the
car park they can also make out three cars.
Two of these cars have no intresting features the third one has a slight chimerical presance
which if investigate will turn out to be a rather obnoxious dragon whelp (No stats for it
but assume it can fly for 1 glamour and has 4-8 health levels.) it will distract the players
by telling them a whole heap of lies about the residents of this area. No matter what
question the players ask the dragon it will tell them the worst possible answer
(For example, Players: Do you know If a Gary Hartway has been along?
Dragon: Gary Hartway, you can't mean him, you know the guy that (looks to players and winks)
you know...
Players: Errrm, destroys Glamour?
Dragon: (Slightly taken aback before continuning) Ooooooh Yeah I know him, evil one was he
tried to take me out he did but I bit him one and sent him off running I did!
Players: Where was this?
Dragon: I can't quite remeber now, see I've fought so many evil banal things that i've lost
track but I know it was around here somewhere...)
The other cars are a white transit van and a new blue Mercades-Benz.
If the players ignore the dragon (which can take quite some time to deal with if they don't)
they will find the fortress is not guarded, nor does it even have a front door anymore.
In fact it looks like someone has been through here with a cruise missile and taken out
the forts front door...
Once inside there are three large buildings and two small buildings in this chimerical fort
(In mundane seeming these buildings are reconstructions of native American tents put here
for the tourists except buildings 1 which is a small house and building 3 which is the
Guide's office. There is also a stable where the players can rent horses for $20/day.)
The buildings are listed at the end of this section.
The players can investigate them all but will eventually get the idea that none of the
Nunnehi are actually here, if the players ask about them (except in building 3) they will
be directed to the coral area deep into the reserve. Unsurprisingly no one will go with
them to meet the Nunnehi.
Really smart players may wonder what happened to the fort, in this case they will be
directed to the visitor in building 3 as the source of this and warned to keep away from
him (which is not that much of a problem...)
Once they have explored this town for a while they should head out to the Nunnehi settlement
(If there's a pooka they might wanna put a bannana in a certain car before going there but
I doubt anyone will ever come up with that idea unless they have read this before hand...)
The actual settlement can be quite clearly seen from here and the best way to it
would be horse. Again players can be stubborn if they decide to walk point out whilst they
will have no problems making it their getting away quickly might be very hard.
Buildings
Building 1 - House (Chimerical and Mundane) This is where the guide lives, he is attached
to the National parks and forestry commision and has been living with the Native Americans here
on this site for about 18 years now. The actually building is locked and no cantrips will
work on the door (It's protect by Nunnehi cantrips) if the players have something that
can somehow get them in (Slaugh could maybe go in the letter box, pooka shapechange and do
similar) they will find it it very plain and has a bedroom with nothing of intrest, a kitchen
with some unprepared vegetables in neat ordered bins and a sitting room with various maps
of the area pinned to the wall and some "really neat looking" Native American artifacts
in pyrex cases.
Building 2 - Tent (Mundane) Inn (Chimerical) In mundane form this is a large tent reconstruction
showing how the native american tribe would have first set up here with an actor inside
talking to any tourists but in chimerical form it is a small old western inn with the actor
being the barman.
The actor is a normal mortal that will not know what the heck is going on when people
ask him questions or order drinks. When enchanted however he becomes a well of knowledge
and can tell the players about what goes on in these parts and how to talk to the Nunnehi.
Building 3 - Office (Mundane and chimerical) This is a small office that appears
to be where the guide works from, currently he is talking to someone inside.
If the players try to get near the office (50 yards is close enogth) they will start to
feel rather uncomfortable, almost as if the office was made of solid iron. At 25 yard
the uncomfort becomes pain (1 chimerical damage / minute and 1 banality / minute) any player
trying to get closer is off thier head at 10 yards it's 5 damage and 5 banality a minute
if any player reaches the door they are instantly receeded to mortal seeming.
Why?
Well if anyone can listen in (Slaugh, Pooka are best bets.) they will hear the conversation
going on inside. Oh by the way, for some bizzare reason cantrips won't work on the office...
Voice 1 appears to be an older man of possibly native american origins
Voice 2 (to the players) to be blunt sounds like Satan.
Voice 1: "... are wanting them?"
Voice 2: "Ah you see I've found this flower to be quite potent in battling the Quitoxe
syndrome that is so popular amongst people just now."
Voice 1: "The Quitoxe syndrome?"
Voice 2: "Yes, believing in a fantasy world of Faeries and other imaginary creatures?"
Voice 1: "And what's wrong with that??"
Voice 2: "My friend, you've never seen one of these poor deranged ones hurting themselves
because of their total belif in the fantasy world, they are so far into the
belif of being a faerie that they often neglect reality around them."
Voice 1: (Confused) "I don't get it."
Voice 2: "Quite often just like in Peter Pan they don't eat real food for days, starving
themselfs. One recent case from this area in fact was on some foolish quest or
something and had walked out from the town. Almost died of dehydration poor lass."
Voice 1: "And you think this plant can cure them?"
Voice 2: "From my anaylsis I've found those caught up in the Quitoxe syndrome believe this
plant to be some form of poision. It "kills" their faerie nature and leaves the
real person. The plant itself is from what I understand quite harmless..."
Voice 1: "That's right Doctor, unless you eat it in large quantites."
Voice 2: "So how much can you deliver?"
Voice 1: "Well Doctor Stark, this plant isn't very common but I think 20 grammes a month
should not cause too much problems, I'll of course have to moderate this some times
I won't be able to provide the whole 20 grammes."
Voice 2: "And in exchange the Rock-Fishing tribe will be given back the 40 acres of land
from various consotriums as well as a healthy profit from the benefits of this
plant."
Voice 1: "Fantastic, would you care for a drink to celibrate?"
Voice 2: "Don't mind if I do..."
The voices will return in about 10 minutes mid-way in a discussion about the rock-fishing
tribe and it's heritage here.
Building 4 - Small house (Chimerical) Hut (mundane)
A small house with no one inside, it does however have an old newspaper dated the day
Greg Hartway visited the article mentions how Mr Hartway was saved from the desert suffering
delusions of mutiple sorts (some involving giant humanoid rabbits!) and taken to the
Anton Stark psychatric clinic for rehabilitation. This newspaper is actually dated 1803 and
appears to be the result of some sort of cantrip. (You _REALLY_ want to emphsise that part
by the way, it _IS_ a cantrip result...)
There is nothing else in the house.
Building 5 - Small house (Both)
This is a small shop that will sell food and water as well as tacky soverigns at overinflated
prices, it is however the only place that does sell food and water for at least 20 miles.
It also has a toilet outside which is only mentioned as i've never seen a toilet in the
world of darkness before.
A quick note about Dr Anton Stark
Unsurprisingly no cantrips work on him, or even within 25 yards of him.
Any chimerical object within 10 yards of him becomes undone, changelings trying to
talk to him tend to experience the same fate.
Dr Anton Stark will not approach the players, he just _IS_. The players may get some
"really neat" ideas about trying to kill him. Trust me now, they won't work (Shooting
him is their best option but our Doctor here wears bullet proofed vests since the last
time some deluded soul tried to purge the world of him.)
As a minor foot note if the players do come up with a really incredibly fantastic
plan that would result in Stark's death (Explosives or what not, i dunno...) then it
just doesn't work, Stark has a few fairly powerful allies on his side.
One is called the Weaver and the other is her lil' kid Banality, they for some reason
don't want Stark to die just yet.
================================================================================================
Brian leant down and conforted Kamog as best he could, not quite sure if the Eshu's visions
where accurate. Then again she had not been wrong so far.
Ruhk too was trying to keep Kamog from crying too loudly when she heard it outside.
"Van, there's a blue van just pulled up outside." Ruhk said quietly
Brain peeked outside the tent to see a large blue mercades-benz pulling up beside the guide
office sitting in the front seat was a writhing mass of spiders that seemed to shoot off
in every direction and shoot back again.
Brain turned away and smiled at Kamog, "Everything's going to be okay kid, we just hang here
and hope."
Slowly Ruhk followed the creature's footsteps as they left the car and entered into the office.
================================================================================================
Act 3 - Winter Time
By now the players as well as the characters may not be entirly convinced they want to
continue (I would not!) or they may believe they have found enogth details to return
with and hash together some story. This will be dealt with now and the rest of the
story (if they decide to go make contact with the Nunnehi) will happen in act 4
If the players run away
=======================
Okay firstly they do _ALMOST_ have enogth information, they can prove Hartway was here
and they can prove Stark has him now but that's about it. What they can not prove
is that Nunnehi had no dealings with Hartway and can not even prove the Baroness set them
up!
So they set off home, there are no problems (unless you want to make them up...) and on
arriving they shall see the most incredible entrage of horse drawn carridges for quite
some time, Troll's guard them and stop the players getting near.
The crest of High king David is quite obvious.
Inside the King is waiting patiently for the players to return, as they do so this allows
the Baroness enogth time to make her little plan work. This is where it gets "fun".
The players will of course _HAVE_ to show the proper etiqutte now, there's (1234567891011121314
yes 14 Troll's on duty and as many other Shide just standing by...) and well the players
report.
David will listen and not really react until Anton Stark is mentioned at which point his
mouth will drop a little and he'll be slightly phased.
After the players have told him as much as they can he and the other Shide enter discussion
leaving the players to sit in the main room, enabling them to just about see what's coming.
In the distance up the baroness's driveway is rolling (1234567 yes 8) eight white vans
with the nice black print "Stark Psycological Homes" imprinted on it. At this point
the baroness will drop her disguise and sweep into the room, her true form now showing
a burning grey form of a once Shide noble turned to banality.
I will leave it up to you to decide exactly what happens next, the players should be
encourage to create a distraction whilst Wayfare is used lots (quite hard as only
now does anyone realise the true purpose of the dolls, each memory in the doll is
created by a banal echo chimera.) and King David as well as anyone else there tries
to escape.
Characters will see outside snow flakes starting to fall and eat away at any chimerical
objects (think acid snowflakes...) whilst overhead the darkening skies start to blot out
the sun and making everwhere cold and in the first grips of winter.
Can you say "We're doomed..." Sure knew you could...
================================================================================================
Slowly following at a comfortable distance the ferret scrambled around the side of the house,
listening intently.
Meanwhile Kamog and Brian started out towards the settlement in the distance, fearing it may
already be to late.
The ferret yawned as the conversation went on and on, looking down at her small claws she
realised they were no longer there. Confused and upset she inspected her arms finding nothing
but fleshy pink skin all over. Panicing now she felt for her ears but they also where no more,
terror ensued in her mind. Every part of her screamed in pain as she found herself without
a tail and whiskers.
"run..." A dying voice cried to her, "run..."
Kamog steadied the horse as she and Brian looked over the battle scene, hearing the still
moans of the defeated Rock Fishers.
Tying up her horse Kamog gently brushed back the nearests hair to find a pain stricken face
staring back out at her, in shock she stumbled backwards recognising the face.
"Mr Hartman?" She asked probing him gently.
The body barely responded she looked to Brain for help but he was treating the chief just now.
"Mr Hartman who did this?" Kamog said shaking him gently, trying to arrouse what ever
might still be in there.
The sigh on his breath chilled her to the bone as he spat out her name,
"Wendy"
Kamog gently ran her hand through his hair making quiet noises to him, right up until the moment
his mortal seeming took over.
================================================================================================
Act 4 - The Nunnehi camp
On approaching the camp it should be quite obvious that something is very wrong, about
a half dozen strange looking creatures are lying on the ground in what appears to be
some pain. The characters will also notice a Shide, just clinging onto his fae seeming
with them.
On getting close the strange beings may be recognised as Rock Fishers (See Players Guide to
Changeling: The Dreaming) all of them have been injured, as has the Shide that they may
guess is Hartway (or if they have the newspaper clipping will recognise his photograph.)
What happened?
=============
It appers that Hartway was asked by King David to meet with the Nunnehi, he did so and was
invited to stay for a few weeks learning their ways, during which time his wife apparently
decided to join him and was found by Doctor Anton Stark wondering lost in the desert, he
"rescued" her as he rescues most suffering from Quintoxe.
Hartway knew that his wife had been turned to Banality and hence tried to stop it but was
trapped with the Rock Fisher tribe by the now banal baroness arranging with the local
population of banality dwellers to move in (The fort was not to keep people out it was
to keep Hartway in!)
Only yesterday (whilst the players where staying with her?) she told Doctor Stark that
there was a flower that she remebers others in this fantasy dying after being touched by it.
Stark anxious to find an even more effective way of curing Quintoxe rushes to the camp,
meets with first the guide who introduces him to the chief. (Being Nunnehi Stark would
not normally harm them, HOWEVER his polution making research van with all it's technology
which was kept in the village whilst the flower was being tested did!)
What the players can do?
=======================
Nothing, Hartway will receed to his mortal seeming (but not without some "dying" words)
and the Rock Fishers will slowly recover, thanking the players greatly for any help
they could give. (*** Extra brownie points to any player that starts watering the local
plant life, espically that which had been damaged by the Stark teams. ***)
The players will now know EXACTLY what is going on and will probably wish to confront the
Baroness about this...
See all the grand finale action in the Epilogue!
================================================================================================
The brown dirt clogged her vision still, she could make out the large purple figure moving
towards her but could not do anything about it.
Brain gently picked her up, holding her tightly to his body and crying gently.
"Ruhk, it's going to be okay..." He whispered into her all too human ears.
Kamog looked up at her friends crumpled body weeping loudly, "She's not going to
make it Brain, I can tell..."
Brain smiled downwards to the Eshu, "If anyone can make it Ruhk can..."
Suddenly the bundle moved in his arms, struggling to escape.
"Ruhk?!" Brain asked placing her on the ground.
The startled human child looked around at the two strangers and began to cry.
"We've lost her..." Kamog said stunned.
The child smiled up at the crying teenager, "What's wrong lady?" She asked gently.
Kamog was about to reply when she noticed the slight fuzz on the young Pooka's face.
Rushing to hug Ruhk tightly she broke into a wide smile.
Confused and dazed Ruhk blinked as she saw Kamog rush towards her in a wide hugging motion.
Gingerly she opened her arms and recieved the hug looking up to Brian with a smile.
Grinning back Brain suddenly looked towards the car park where Doctor Stark's car was
pulling away.
Brain coughed loudly and stared at Ruhk who nodded, knowing exactly what that look meant and
breaking off the hug.
"We've got to go..." Brian said glancing back at the slowly disappearing car, "We were just
a distraction."
================================================================================================
Epilogue - Chilled but not frozen
Now the real ending, the players have proof of the Baronesses involvment and if they
check the newspaper clipping they may notice that it's not Greg Hartway but Wendy Hartway
that was placed into Doctor Anton's care.
So they set off home, there are no problems (unless you want to make them up...) and on
arriving they shall see the most incredible entrage of horse drawn carridges for quite
some time, Troll's guard them and stop the players getting near.
The crest of High king David is quite obvious.
Inside the King is waiting patiently for the players to return, the players will be quite
aware of the baronesses deception and have two choices of action
1 They just say it!
=================
This is a rather blunt and forceful option, totally out of protocol with the King being here
but it is rather effective and will result in everyone being taken back to the King's palace
before Stark's van even get close. This option is for players that are really quite clever
and realise how much danger they are in, however taking this option means the Baroness
does get to escape (as whilst everyone else leaves in a mad panic, she's contacting Stark.)
2 They play along a bit!
======================
The best option, not only should they _JUST_ get away (I do mean just, the vans are like
pulling up outside!!!) but the baroness is also taken and tried, her "cure" is slowly
reversed and she becomes one of the best sources of information that anyone can get on
Stark's ideas and treatments.
This is really the closest to "winning" the players can get.
3 They play along lots...
=======================
This is a risky option, they may get away, it's up to how nice you are feeling.
If they come up with an elibrate way of revealing her as a traitor to glamour let them do
it (it'll be fun to watch!) and in which case option 2 happens.
However if they are just dim and not sure of what they are supposed to say it's quite likely
Stark's team will show up and what happens in act 3 is more or less repeated here.
However unlike act 3 most of them can actually get away, being slightly aware that something
must be "up"
4 They forget or mess up...
=========================
It's possible they've forgotten (been receeded to mortal seeming prehaps trying to take on
Anton Stark...) what they where supposed to tell everyone or they just stuff up big time,
in this case of the former be VERY nice and at best option 1 happens (otehrwise it's
the "bad" bit of option 3)
If they mess up (trying to hurt King David or something equally stupid) the troll's will
stop them and act 3 will happen but a much higher percentage of changelings will not
escape (only David's "elite" crew will.)
If this is the case you get to put on the big evil winter chimera ending where it's not just
snow but a blizzard and they can see from the darkened sky a sorta dark figure sweeping
towards them...
================================================================================================
================================================================================================
Changeling: The Dreaming and all related material are copyrighed by White Wolf Inc.
It's use within this work is in no way, meant to infringe or steal that copyright,
nor to dilute the system itself. No profit on the part of the author is made from
this document, and this document is used only for entertainment purposes.
If there is any legal problems with this document, please contact the author to make
arrangements to amend these legal difficulties.
The mention of or refence to any company or products in this is not a challenge to
the trademarks or copyrights concerned.
This work may be freely distributed in any media as long as it is not; altered from its original
form, and that no money is charged for the document itself. It may be included on any archive
collection under the same terms.
Credits:
Written by: Fionacat (Fionacat@hotmail.com)
Developed by: ??????
Special thanks to:
Michael "Hacker" Ross, for showing how it should be done.
Greg "Wolf Boy" Kitchin, for resisting the corruption.
Mark "Maggots in the Uphill Field" Gardener, for not being Bill, Dan or a womble.
LGS, for creating the asslymn.
Andy "TGA" Wood, for being an elf.
Helen "Iceberg" , for finding the immortals.
Speedy, for the game of angels and demons (plugcoming to a shop near you!!/plug)
Jinxy, for Xavier and all his friends.
Jamie "I thought it was Helen" McIntosh, for SSADM.
Suzie, Steph and Claire, for being the best doorpeebs ever.
Steve "Thumper" Ferguson, for making me think about a Rabbit's ears.
John "Weasel" Goodman, "Okay you collapse...."
Colin "Cailean" West, "I'm a Pooka?!"
Jason, for launching from unknown devices
Steve "Galatic Crusader" Ironside, for beleving the beginning is the end is the beginning is...
Skitz, for melting me on both occasions.
Cloud and Squaresoft, for _WAY_ to many late nights.
My Parents, for almost being able to undestand
You, for reading this it helps.
My lawyers, for after White Wolf have read this.
B.J Zanibar, for giving me the idea in the first place.
A quick special thanks to all these speical "people" that gave me inspiration, hugs, support
or laughs: Alpha_X-Ray, Altimar, Bigears, Brenda, Cathal, Dakimov, Glis, Kimba, Ladrona, Masem,
Everguest, Entwidomela, MacX, Cabbit, Ia'Kat, Darkclaw, Allan, Foxina, Woof-it, StephenQuoll,
Nicky, Sparks, Miles, Ytaya, Unci, Annabel and Any that have been to the Park and I missed.
Babs, Dustbunny, Chilly, KinkyTurtle, Lola, Mel, Mr_Fu, Sylvia, Taperlass, David, Towi,
P3, Dot, Vakkotaur, Molly, Baz, WbWolf, Natte, Neucoyote, Nakko, Yakko, Rhia and Hobbes with
special NOTafish greetings to all others on #warnercafe (irc.wtower.net)