Intro: Once Upon a Time

Introduction: Tale as Old as Time

Nicht die Kinder bloss speist man mit Märchen ab.

It is not children only that one feeds with fairy tales.

– Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan der Weise (1779), III, 6.

You know the story. The big bad wolf stalks the little girl through the forest, watching as she skips merrily to Grandma’s house. He skirts ahead, killing Grandma and nearly kills the little girl.

Or maybe it’s the one where two kids get lost in the forest, you know the one, with the breadcrumbs. They come across a house full of candy. They at least got luckier than Grandma, they fought their way out.

What about the tale of the fish-woman who wants to fall in love? Not a bad deal she made, except for when the deal went south and she got turned into sea foam. What a bargain, right? Means you always have to get your contracts in writing, probably.

Fairy tales. The Grimm brothers compiled them. Urban legends continue to add to their numbers. Children fear them. Adults are fascinated by them. After all, what does it say about a culture when their stories involve child-snatchers and little old men fixing shoes, when another weaves tales of old hags stealing children in the cold night out on the tundra and maidens made of snow melted by love?

Hunters, by default, learn fast that the monsters in the night are all too real. So if ghosts and vampires exist, what stops other creatures from preying on humanity? Sure, a few hunters notice the witches in their town, and there are those who know that there are wolves indeed wearing Grandma’s skin a lot of the time. But surely that’s all, right?

No. You see it everywhere. A blood drinking fiend is brought into the sunlight, only to smile and kill more hunters before it’s put down. A woman using magic to make others less beautiful gets a bomb under her house, but the dental records don’t match with her identity. They match with a missing person’s case years gone cold. And none of the “friendly” witches your cell contacts can find her trace.

The Fair Folk. The Fae, The Seelie, the Sidhe, they go by many names throughout time and the cultures they interact with. Maybe they’re something not quite human. Maybe they’re something wholly different from our own reality. Whatever they are, they aim to use us and abuse us.

Theme: You Don’t Know the Rules

It's a fact of life, hunters get out of their depth. They didn't plan for a vampire that can turn into mist. No one told them werewolves hunt in packs. Hunting faeries is something different. Any hunter can screw up, fail to prepare properly but what do you do against the folk who laugh at the very notion of preparation? How do you prepare to hunt the folk who can change the rules with a spit and a handshake?

To hunt the fae is to be lost in an endless thicket, desperately seeking some reference point before you are gone forever. A way to navigate the Kafkaesque rules of etiquette before you are called out or sell your soul. A way to hurt the beast who's contractually immune to your weapons before it tears your throat out. A way out of an endless thicket before the thorny hedges tear you to shreds.

Those Hunters who chase the Fae are always marked by their time in that mad world. The Sons of Cú Chulainn draw their strength from warrior codes not seen since the iron ages. The Wilde Society, uniquely able to understand the fae on their own terms, have been driven mad by the beauty they've seen and delight in their madness. The men and women of Searchlight find themselves torn between two worlds, they are kind and gentle among humanity yet ruthless and terrifying among the fae. Even the sensible and grounded Lord Stewards follow nonsensical codes of behavior agreed to in long forgotten treaties.

Mood: Hysteria/Melancholy

Sometimes a hunter’s life is a battle of dualities. A hunter can be at the top of the world one second, then wallowing in self-pity and loathing the next. It’s just the way of the Vigil, because you have to do it, since no one else will, or even can.

Two moods may seem odd, but it’s what happens. A hunter sometimes needs to divide what they feel, their triumphs from tragedies. It’s essential to their lives, and even more so when the fae come into the picture. The fae feed off the emotions of a human being, it being nearly as valuable to them as water or air.

Sometimes though, it’s the hunters who are able to turn the tables, because hunters are just insane, sometimes even more than the monsters, and it shows. The hysteria shows when a hunter is realizes that killing human looking creatures has become a routine for them, usually after they’re done dismembering. The melancholy sets in when they have to come home that night to find their children already asleep, with their spouses telling them the excuses they had to make to explain why a parent missed an important event they promised their children they would be at. That’s the toll of the Vigil, and that’s why hysteria and melancholy go hand in hand.

Sidebar: Vigil and Lost

This fanbook is not meant to be a replacement for Changeling: The Lost, nor do you need that book to follow what is in this book.

'''However, if you have a copy of Lost, there’s some flexibility in what you can do. You can certainly use the groups detailed in this book as antagonists in a Lost story, especially considering they can see through the fairy Mask. (Or they can be valuable allies in fighting Loyalists and the True Fae). That, or you can mix and match what you think fits best in both, as long as your players don’t mind a little fan content.'''

Chapter 1: The Road in the Wood deals with the stories of the fae throughout the ages from the files of the hunters who have faced them. Just what are they? Where have they come from? Why do they seem so interested in humanity?

Chapter 2: Wyrd and Wooly details the methods in the madness used by the larger world of hunters to combat the fae. From the improvised tactics of a tier one cell to the high technology of VALKYRIE, it’s a firsthand primer on the fae menace, along with three more compacts and a new conspiracy.

Chapter 3: Cold Iron allows the player and storyteller access to Endowments, Tactics and other special Merits specifically tooled to deal with the menace the fae present, just like a piece of iron to their warped heads.

Chapter 4: Hedging The Bet Looks on the surface of the fae. Just who do they think they are? Where do they really come from? Do they ever tell the truth? Can they? And once more, Hunter pounds the pavement in Philadelphia, looking into the hidden freeholds and derelict court structure that resides in the city and surrounding areas.