GMC Update

= Introduction =

Sources and Inspiration
(A list of stories that can inspire a Dream Catchers game. Things here should be specifically Dream Catchers and not generic Hunter or Changeling)

London Falling by Paul Cornell
When four police officers find themselves with the ability to see the magical world hiding beneath the ordinary, what follows is perhaps the quintessential Dream Catchers story. The heroes must use experimentation, guess work and investigation to understand magic; and they must use both their new powers and their old policing skills to overcome a serial killer who would fit in perfectly among the World of Darkness' faeries.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Just after midnight a Monster comes to visit young Connor, he will tell Conner three stories and in return Conner will tell him the truth. In Dream Catchers the fae are not always the enemies. They are wild chaotic creatures, and chaos brings the possibility for both alliances and conflict. The monster's help, though direly needed, is powerful and dangerous, often hurting Conner and those around him with the best of intentions. A fitting example of how a faerie might act.

The Stones Are Hatching
The Stoor Worm is hatching and for some reason everyone with a hint of magic seems to think that Phelim Green is Jack o'Green and it's his job to save the world. Led on by his Fool, his Maiden and his Horse, Phelim travels across 1919 England and a veritable encyclopaedia of folklore. As the stones continue to hatch people return to the old ways to find some defence from the monsters. This story could serve as inspiration for both faerie antagonists and the kind of superstitions that might resurface if a powerful faerie begins to fray the Masquerade - problems or origin stories for Hunters.

Grimm Tales by Nox Arcana
Described as dark, haunting and eerie. Grimm Tales is a music album held together by the concept of two mortal children lost in a cursed land of faerie who seek their way home. A fitting soundtrack to any game of Dream Catchers

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
While the portrayal of the fae in Hellboy does not match their themes in the World of Darkness - The BPRD certainly do know the rules - the visuals and artwork of this film can be an invaluable resource to any storyteller. The fae are portrayed with a stunning diversity and macabre beauty even when surrounded by signs of their decline and humanities encroachment. A fitting visual for faeries who make their home upon Earth.

=Chapter One=

I Want To Believe
May, 1964

“Can I take your order hon” said Flo.

“I’ll take a cheeseburger, coffee and a slice of apple pie to finish” replied Special Agent Bell, he hadn’t even looked at the menu. “and tell me ma'am, would you call yourself an American patriot?”

“Now what kind of a question…” Flo took a deep breath, and the implications caught up with her. She went pale. “Of course I am”.

“In that case I’m sure you won’t mind answering a few questions. Where were you between 8 and 9 o’clock on the third?”

“Well I was…” The waitress started to shake a little “I don’t rightly know. God’s own truth, I can’t remember”

Agent Bell put on his trilby then stood, placing a firm hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder. More agents carrying rifles and shotguns appeared at the doors. “No one’s in any trouble Flo, we just want to ask some questions.”

August, 1963

“Let’s speak freely” said Director Naylor, offering his lighter. Both men paused to savour the first draw. “The purpose of Project: ROSALIND is to acquire alien technology to further Uncle Sam’s interests. I don’t want you to get any ideas about being a hero, Bell, don’t engage the enemy. Leave that to the boys from Groom Range.” Naylor took another draw of his cigarette. “Between you and me the grunts won’t stand a chance if we can’t get them the tools they need”.

February, 1965

“I’m not going to lie to you”. Special Agent Bell tried to make his voice clear and dignified, it wasn’t easy when he was standing under homecoming decorations. “What you saw was extraterrestrial life. Aliens”. There was no point denying the obvious truth, it would just make him lose credibility. Most of them would convince themselves this night never happened but he had to, had to, get through to the others.

“The Aliens have left Earth. Uncle Sam saw to that, these were just a few stragglers. They wanted equipment in the school’s physics lab to get themselves home, nothing more. The threat is over, you can go back to your homes and sleep easy tonight. It’s what you want, it’s what I want, it’s what Uncle Sam wants. However, the security of the United States depends on your discretion. According to Section 18 of the Espionage Act I have unlimited authority to protect that silence, I hope it will not be required.”

Someone in the crowd shouted something. Young, blond, pretty, the hippies and their slogans were just a blur to Bell now. “Agent, arrest that woman”. Quickly and efficiently one of the bureau's finest took the woman in a fireman’s lift. On his podium Bell told himself the usual excuses, that one strong example now will save him from having to do so much worse later.

November, 1964

Special Agent Bell blacked out one final line of text. He put the folder on a trolley marked X, then he gathered the other files, put on his hat and stretched his legs.

Director Naylor was waiting by the furnace, necktie loose, shirt unbuttoned, he was a mess. “Bell, we did our best, didn’t we. There wasn’t any other way?”

“Not that I could see.” replied Agent Bell, feeding documents into the fires.

“What’s going to happen to you now Bell?”

“I’ve been reassigned, a few loose ends to cleanup. After that, maybe I’ll get back to chasing Iven? What about you?”

“Medals, promotions, the works. I might take early retirement, I think they’ll let me have that.”

Agent Bell looked at his last document. It was a photograph of himself stepping out of a helicopter supported by another agent, he was wounded but giving an “I’m ok” wave to Naylor. Behind him two agents were carrying an alien reactor. Everyone was smiling, they thought they’d just secured America’s future.

“I know it’s hard to imagine”, said Naylor, “but I was young once. I used to believe, before the job beat it out of me. I was a real patriot, America meant something to me. I thought, I thought this was my chance to really fight for that land of opportunity.”

“Think you can get me early retirement as well?” Agent Bell threw the photo after the others.

Independance Day, 1964

It still made Special Agent Bell uncomfortable to look at it; the UFO hovering above The White House. The boys in the lab weren’t sure how it was hiding itself, but some of the sensors they’d captured could see it. If only some of the weapon’s they’d captured could hurt it.

Speaking of things Agent Bell uncomfortable, the Symbology Professor had arrived and started inspecting the trucks. Bell caught up to him. “It’s all there, just like we promised, everything we ever got from them. If, if you can destroy that thing”.

The Prof gave Bell a curt nod and unslung a bow. Agent Bell stepped back in suprise. The older man took aim and fired something closer to a streak of fire than an arrow, it soared over The White House then gracefully looped back to land in the professor’s quiver. Cheers erupted from the direction of the sensors.

“Look” said Agent Bell, trying not to let his shock show. “You kept your end of the bargain and I respect that, but is there any way we could buy something back… just something. Imagine what this technology could do if it was turned towards peaceful purposes.”

“It doesn’t work that way, and no.”

“So, this is it. It all vanishes and life returns to normal. Please, at least tell me what it wanted. Why here, why us, why now?”

“You’re a young country, with young powerful myths. It wanted to be the star, nothing more.” The professor thought for a bit “If you want answers, we could always use men like you.”

Agent Bell just shook his head and watched as the professor and his associates drove off with America’s future.

Aliens. Abductions. Strange bodily forms. Things not of this world. Still think you know all the fairy tales?

Alien abductions in the modern era are generally attributed to Betty and Barney Hill in 1961, and the Antonio Vilas Boas incident in 1957.

Both cases have remarkable similarities. Both involved strange aircraft making impossible movements in utter silence. Both involved isolated individuals at night, and vehicles going dead. Their abductors wore strange uniforms, and seemed obsessed with human reproduction; Boas was “convinced” to mate with one of the alien females, while the creatures in the Hill incident tested Betty for pregnancy and took a sperm sample from Barney. Both cases had the abductees being shown strange languages, and being told they could not take any evidence of their encounters out with them back into the world.

While the general public felt that both experiences were just fantasy, the Hills and Boas adamantly argued their experiences were real. Both said their experiences left behind some kind of physical evidence, psychological trauma, missing time, or illnesses. Which many hunters also report when dealing with the fae.

Abduction myths stretch back millennia. There are stories of demons stealing humans that interested them to strange places only to return them later with little memories of what happened. The fae reportedly could alter the time and space around them, months or years would pass as a human watched for mere minutes. Humans interacting with faeries often had their memories wiped, only to suffer from nightmares days after that showed them what happened. Succubi and incubi assaulted sleeping humans to mate, only to vanish like a dream as soon as their task was finished.

Are alien abductors just the latest mask worn by the fae? Despite naturalistic images of dryads, nymphs, and flower faeries, stories of tinker gnomes and dwarven smiths show that fae are more than capable of making and using machines. Their powers allow the impossible after all, so why not make a craft capable of stopping on a dime at Mach 3, then zipping through the skies like a bouncing rubber ball?

And why the obsession with human reproduction? The typical Ufologist theory is that alien beings are curious about human genes and reproduction from a purely scientific standpoint, as we study other species on how they breed for clues on why they behave the way they do.

The fae are different. The fae, according to myth, are timeless beings. They are incapable of truly changing or creating something new. Imagine then, how fascinating human creativity must be to the fae, and is new life not the greatest expression of man's power to create? An elfin queen steels abducts musicians to play at her soirées, an alien scientist studies human reproduction to crack the mystery of creativity. They play different roles but the play is timeless and unchanging.

These modern stories themselves can take on lives of their own. The fetches the fae create to replace humans, are they really fetches? Or are these the pod people come to slowly convert the human race to their inscrutable thoughts and logic? Are the changelings really escapees from a nightmare world, or did they just return from a long jaunt in an alien’s ship as part of a long and painful bio-experiment? Who came first, the fae, the aliens, or the stories about aliens? Is there even a difference at all?

Perhaps the fae are taking cues from something that truly isn’t of this Earth. Who says mankind is the only species the fae visit? Maybe faeries have actually seen creatures from outside of our own solar system, and are using these creatures as a disguise to do these things to us, to play their twisted games and tricks on us. Who says the fae need a reason at all? If they exist, what would the real aliens think about their impersonators? Perhaps the fae themselves have made powerful enemies? Maybe an intrepid hunter could find this out.

If they aren’t abducted first.

Story Hooks
Recticula: Your contact with the local news calls you saying you need to get to his office ASAP. A man’s just taken the building across the street hostage, saying he wants the aliens to leave him alone and give his little sister back. The contact says she was taken from a nearby campground, and that the same campground was the site of a grisly ritual murder a few years ago; the victims each had their livers removed. It clicks in your head that a race of possible ETs loves to harvest the liver, but to what end? And why take this man’s sister whole?

At the Lord’s Table: Now you’ve heard everything. An eighty-something woman with coke-bottle glasses and a power chair just said that she’s been having morning sickness, and that in a dream she sat at the Lord’s table and saw beings of dazzling brilliance. Yep, she’s pregnant with the second coming. Not long later she miscarried. What’s worse, the fetus is nowhere near human, but looks like some hybrid creature. The second coming’s gonna have to wait until you figure out what happened, and while you're doing that, a martyred "angelic hybrid" foetus can do a lot for a fledging religion.

Pieces of the Puzzle: You've always known this town has a problem. There are strange lights in the sky, reports of missing time, people have been developing sudden addictive behaviour. All the signs point to aliens and you sure could use some help stopping them. Unfortunately the only other Hunters in town are new age hippies, too busy nailing iron to doorpost, trying to warn people about faeries, and imagining they might achieve some sort of cosmic awareness to conduct a proper scientific investigation. Both groups believe the others are blind fools, but if they ever realised they have different pieces of the same puzzle then they might just have a chance of protecting the town.

=Organisations =

Tier Two
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): (this does not cover our new organisations) I think the text needs to go into a bit more about what they don't know. Play up an air of mystery, things not going according to plan. Also, Fetches should be mostly unknown. The fiction should also have a bit more of things not going according to plan.

Ashwood Abbey
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven) - the Abbey is pretty good. I tried to tidy text a bit but I didn't make any significant changes - just additions. For the story I saw a great way for a hunter to win without things going according to plan so I dived right in.

''“Why did I come to this party?” Gideon asked himself for the third time that night. He knew the answer. Once he had been an up and coming musician with empty pockets who happily accepted a large cheque to play for a private party. The Abbey liked him enough to keep him around, and if he stopped coming around they'd assume he'd turned into a snitch. Snitches get a lot worse than stitches.''

''Today was even worse than usual. Normally he could join the musicians and hide backstage when he wasn't performing. Today someone had actually hired a band of elves, no one was going to interrupt them, which left Gideon hiding in a corner from the women who liked to grope and dance with him while telling disgusting stories of their hunts.''

''Not for the first time Gideon wondered if he could just run. Wonder the Earth and live of his music, but then Gideon was just as scared of being homeless as he was of the Abbey. With a sigh he looked at the band, if he was that good then he'd have nothing to worry about.''

“I'd kill to play like that.”

Later that evening a waiter came and presented Gideon a covered tray “Compliments of the gentleman on stage.” Inside was a photograph of Lady Spencer and a knife.

For the first time that evening Gideon smiled.

The Abbey is nothing but respectful of traditions, and faerie tales as proud a tradition as any. Even as an individual guest a faerie can be the exotic star of any party. What can top kissing living fire or sleeping with a man who's half horse where it matters most? As the gatekeepers to a proud tradition though, that's where the fae really shine.

A good many Abbey members often lead a “wild hunt” through their regions, riding through an area in sports cars and SUVs, or horseback with swords and bows, but if you could find the right faerie and afford her price. Wouldn't it just be grand to go on a real Wild Hunt, to tear across the sky on flying horses with howling wolves at your side and your terrified prey beneath?

Other clubs like to host “Cinderella Balls”. You find a lot of women, the more desperate the better, and hire faeries to paint them with youth and beauty for one night. Whomever gets the ball's prince can keep both her gifts (and the Prince gets to keep the girl, at least until they break up). “Cinderfella Balls” aren't quite as popular with the Abbey's ladies but they happen too.

Faerie tales have a special place in the Abbey's rotten hearts, for even the Abbey's hunters were once children being read books that begin with "Once upon a time". Now as rich adults the Abbey know that they can escape their ennui and recapture that childhood wonder if they can find the right faerie and pay it's price.

This love is unrequited. Faeries, especially those who live on Earth, often feel utter revulsion for the board solipsism that underlies the Abbey's lifestyle. The Abbey, par for the course, doesn't care one bit about what the plebeians say about them, their only concern is how this makes it harder to invite the fun party guests. At least, without applying just the right amount of violence or blackmail. Faeries don't break their contracts, and one doesn't get rich enough to join the Abbey without a legal team. The risks of an inadvertent loophole or a faerie witch cursing entire cells just make it interesting.

Story Seeds

A faerie your cell usually gathers with has recently been hanging around with other sorts of creatures, from vampires to witches. While the parties have certainly been more entertaining, you slowly noticed that you never saw your “friend” with any of his own kind. He says it’s just because he wants to protect you, but you smell skeletons in his closet. Who, or what, is he hiding?

The outing last week was amazing, the transition between drug-fueled soiree to bloodthirsty hunt flawless, and you cut down the freaks one by one through the mansion, as your vision shifted from room to room, from Victorian estate to primeval forest and back again. Then you noticed Harold acting differently the next week, shocked when you used the silver broadsword on the werewolf’s manhood. Harold was never a squeamish one, especially when it came to werewolves, and that probably means something changed Harold that night. What tampered with Harold’s head? Or worse, did Harold make a deal himself?

The Long Night
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): I think the Long Night could do with a bit of a rework. The impression I get is a bit... generic. Some try to kill monsters, others try to save them. The way faeries will swear a Pledge to renounce Satan without hesitation would probably be a good excuse to play up the schism heavy nature of Protestantism with lots of different theories. Talking about how they investigate faeries is also important, I imagine they'd use similar community focused methods to The Union.

For the story; I quite like the idea of an inexperienced cell lost in the Hedge (they were Hunting in a forest and it turned into the Hedge around them). The story ends with their priest saying that this is hopeless, telling everyone to blindfold themselves, hold onto each other, and trust god to get them out.

''"Reverend! Look!" shouted James, in the gap between two trees vicious thorny briars were growing before his eyes.''

''"There too!" shouted Destiny, "It's all around us".''

''Shots rang out. "Kayla, what was that?" said Reverend Demond.''

"I saw something"

''Whatever the something was, gunfire didn't scare it off. A creature like a mountain lion with antlers emerged from the briars as though the vicious wood was transforming into living flesh. It grinned, then it's grin spread down it's body until it had opened a mouth half as long as it was. With a flash of needle sharp teeth it pounced at Demond.''

''"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death!" With a shout Demond caught the pouncing creature by the jaws and threw it against a tree. While the reverend lay panting three volleys of gunfire pinned the creature in place, then it died. No blood came from it's wounds, instead ripples of beautiful plants grew out from it's injuries. Bright greens, reds and yellows lit up the forest. More than anything else, this frightened the cell. ''

"We are lost, we are strangers in a strange land" said Demond, "but we are not alone. There is only one way we're getting out of this, and that is with the Lord's guidance. Take my hands and close your eyes, all together now. Our Father, Who art in Heaven."

"Renounce Satan" says the hunter holding a gun to the faerie. "I renounce Satan, I swear it by the Old Power, the Middle Power and the New Power".

That's usually how it goes. The Long Night don't know that much about faeries but they do know that the Fae do not make promises lightly, yet they will forsake any ties to The Father of Lies without hesitation. All supernatural power comes from either God or the Devil, and few among the Long Night would consider the fair folk godly. So how do they explain their paradox?

Protestantism is no stranger to schisms, and The Long Night never had a unified theology. Some of The Tribulation Militia cut the gorden's knot and believe that the Fae can lie in a sworn oath, at least when it comes to renouncing their infernal lord. Equally unforgiving is the idea that the Fae have sold their souls for power. They can forsake loyalty with such ease because there was never loyalty, only a business transaction. A closely related idea is that somebody else sold the fae for power, the faeries seen on Earth were pure and so escaped the demon's clutches but they were changed by this experience. The hunters who believe this would be surprised to discover that the first member of their Compact to propose it was inspired by attempts to explain how the authors of Arthurian romances justified Merlin's magic (and yes, saved children of demons and mortals is another theory). The idea that faeries are the angels who remained neutral in Heaven's civil war has a long history in Christian apocrypha and thus it's adherents in the Long Night. Which theory a cell adheres to influences how militant or merciful that cell is, though it must be said that sometimes it works in reverse.

None of this matters unless the Long Night can actually catch a faerie, and The Tribulation Militia aren't he most knowledgeable faerie hunters. Their occult lore is limited and usually uses a Christian lens that can obscure useful information. When the Long Night do find faeries it's often from a social angle. Hunters spread the good word among the lost and the downtrodden, others live up to Jesus' example by providing for the needy. When the Hunters go among the leapers, sometimes someone points their way to someone a little different. Sometimes they're different because they're a faerie.

The Loyalists of Thule
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): I like the story, I did think about moving it to a planning session where they talk about all the things that can go wrong with a faerie deal but on the whole that's not a big deal. The loyalists are aloud to have something go according to plan. One thing I am concerned about is the bit about the Thule-Gesellschaft; I couldn't find anything that looked authoritative about the Thule-Gesellschaft's views on faeries with Google so I took it out and used the space to talk more about what they don't know. Though I'll put it back in without hesitation if that's what they actually believed. Flyboy would you know?

The Loyalists know more than the average hunter when it comes to the various types of fairies. Their archives contain rare texts: Roman treatises on Celtic and Germanic mythology, studies of folklore, even the unpublished journals and stories of the Brothers Grim. From these documents the Loyalists have learned the basics about what the fae are, where they come from, and how their strange magic works.

What they have learnt both tempts and frightens the Indebted. They know that every faerie from the littlest house-spirit to the burliest troll has weaknesses that can be exploited to bribe, bully or ultimately destroy the monster, but they know these weaknesses are unpredictable and defy categorisation. They know that faeries love to make deals and almost never break the letter of their word, but they know even the dumbest ogre is a crafty and devious lawyer. As it has elsewhere, caution has become the Loyalist's watchword. For every cell of neo-nazis cursed by a faerie in the Loyalist's employ, there are ten where the Loyalists decided mundane methods are safer. For every Indebted hunter who brought some magic from the fae there are five who were inducted into the loyalists to repay the debts of a botched trade.

When the faeries are coming out of their secret hideaways and causing trouble the loyalists can be among the first to know. When a mysterious death bears an uncanny resemblance to an old wives tale that only local historians know or care about, it's the Loyalists who have heard of those tales or are best placed to research them. When there are no clues at all, the Loyalists are among the best at bribing or blackmailing monsters to get their unique point of view. Getting good information is a challange even for the Loyalists, but they perserveer. Debts such as theirs were not meant to be paid of easily, and so every faerie must be researched individually to uncover it's abilities, weaknesses and most importantly: if it's innocent or guilty.

Most hunters would call bribing monsters collaboration, but when they uncover the faerie's banes other Hunters tend to shut up and listen. Those who wont often get themselves killed. Iron alone is only good if you can get a clear shot.

Network Zero
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): On the whole a very solid write up, but there is room for expansion in the last paragraph. One of Net0's weaknesses is that they aren't that good at scepticism to sort real supernatural from the false stuff. Making it clear that they've got lots of theories, some of which are total lies that faerie came up with then found a Net0 interviewer to spread to the world would help; maybe also moving that section to earlier in the text so it feels more important.

The story I think needs a rework. It seems odd that a faerie would give an interview, only to smash the tapes and be defeated by something as simple as a backup. I'd like to include aliens in the Net0 story. Maybe they could be filming some UFO hunter documentary, follow changelings into the hedge (where they can see their true form) but get really confused when the "greys" arrive at a faerie party. It ends with them congratulating each other for the video of a lifetime then asking "which way is out?"

"Well the cheerleader's story was heartbreaking" said Wallace looking straight into the camera against a suitably creepy backdrop "I can't tell if it's implanted memories or something in the water but there is a lot of unexplained events, and all the evidence leads here. To Cisco Grove."

"I'm going to pull out the Kirlian camera and look around" said Tom, "a Kirlian camera is primarily used by scientists for studying psychic energy but I'm going to look for anomalies that might suggest the presence of alien te.... Tom stopped when he noticed Jimmy making furious hide gestures.

''Three women walked into the clearing, quickly looked around, then after knocking on a hollow tree trunk vanished down a brightly lit path that most definitely did not exist moments ago. The film crew shared looks of shock before their minds caught up, they ran in pursuit.''

The crews of Network Zero believe, that much everyone can tell. They always come out with their cameras of all sizes, their little audio recorders and their EMF detectors, always searching for the truth, no matter what the truth looks like. They look for changes in the temperature, and say it’s a haunting. They see shapes in the distance and call it a spirit. They'll hear someone talking about missing days and shout UFO. But when the monster walks right up to them and claims it is what it really is, that’s when NetZo’s get all hot and bothered.

Why faeries, you may ask? To the Secret Frequency, the answer is simple; if a faerie willingly bares themselves for the camera it’s the shot of a lifetime. A vampire on film is just a blur, and a witch captured on video looks just like your or me. But a creature that has horns and vines and who knows what else growing from their very skin? Now that’s something the world can’t ignore, especially when you shove it in their faces and force them to see the truth. And when one domino falls, the rest will follow suit.

The issue is the insular nature of fae society. Nearly every faerie living on Earth seems to be some kind of refugee hiding out in the world of humanity, sometimes they genuinely want nothing more than to tell someone their story, but the very fact that a NetZo can even find a faerie, let alone get an interview, means something in the faerie structure of life has probably gone wrong. If that something isn't a danger to investigating Hunters, the faeries attempting to fix the situation usually are. Memories can be modified, hunters who have seen the fae's true form can be magically bound to a promise of silence, sometimes people just vanish. Even a willing guest star can be dangerous if wrong question triggers a traumatic flashback.

As for members of the Secret Frequency themselves, they mostly approach the fae like any other hunt. They take the best precautions that they can to protect themselves, and not much else. In many ways hunting faeries with a camera is safer than a gun, the fae are a little more likely to take your memories or your oath, and a little less likely to take your life.

The Secret Frequency's willingness to believe is perhaps their greatest weakness against the fair folk. Quite a few faeries have realised that the best way to spread lies and misinformation to hunters is to offer an interview to their closest NetZo. Irish myth, nature spirits, aliens, human cultists, demons, gods, if it's associated with abducting humans or making bargains there's probably a faerie, without her Mask, promoting it as The Truth on Youtube. The Secret Frequency lap it up.

Null Mysteriis
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): I think what this section needs is a bit more theories and dispute. Currently we have the Open Minds and Rationalists, but there's room for dozens of competing theories about faerie biology and faerie magic. If we were to remove the bit about Fetches (who should be mostly unknown to Compacts) and the solid discoveries of iron and kirlin cameras that should free up lots of space to talk about competing theories. The idea of seeking a cure should definitely stay, but perhaps with some problems in that it only tries to treat the physical and not the magical effects.

I'm tempted to make the Cottingley Fairies real, and the girl's memories of having faked it being magically implanted by Changelings.

The Organization for the Rational Assessment of the Supernatural loves a good challenge, it’s part of the mandate the compact has, as it were. No one wants to leave a stone unturned or question unchallenged. “Faeries” are perhaps the best challenge ORAS has come across.

The first encounter between Null Mysteriis and faeries was in Cottingley, 1920. Though their numbers were drained by the Great War, a small cell made their way to the village to examine the case of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who had published photographs of themselves with faeries. Half the cell went to interview the girls, and soon unanimously agreed that they had faked the photographs. The remainder of the cell investigated Cottingley Beck, though they found no evidence of faeries one botanist, George Milestone, deduced that several plants had grown "as though this summer had lasted all of their lives". Milestone (who would be an Open Mind but for the fact his career pre-dated the term) concluded that faeries had worked their magic to erase all evidence of their existence, even the memories of young Elsie and Frances. The case was officially recorded as an unsolved mystery which, thanks to George's prompting, sired several more expeditions and experiments to discover the fae. George himself lived to see proof of the fair folk and eventually vanished on an ill-fated expedition through a looking glass.

Two questions surround the fae. The first is the question of faerie biology, the second is how faerie magic works. Complicating matters is that Null Mysteriis have not uncovered any reliable way to see through a faeries illusion of normality, much of what the Null Mysteriis has learned comes from faeries who claim to have once been human and are looking for a scientific cure to their condition, a therapist who'll be able to deal with supernatural patients, or at least cosmetic surgery to appear more human. By necessity these faeries grant The Sight to their case-workers. While this binds the hunter with both a faerie pledge and the sacred doctor-patient trust, there is often still room to publish discoveries and medical techniques.

However none of those questions excite the Null Mysteries more than one simple fact they have uncovered, faerie magic is unrelated to witchcraft. It may not sound so exciting but consider it further, there is a near infinite verity of witches and as far as O.R.A.S can tell none of them have combined faerie magic with any other method. Even those rare polymaths who've mastered several styles cannot create a simple spell that uses both faerie and other techniques. Some witches, including several that O.R.A.S considers competent and talented have gone so far as to say that according to their lore, faerie magic shouldn't even be possible.

There are many theories, there always is. At one extreme there are hard-line Rationalists still looking to find the connection between fae and terrestrial magic, just because nobody has found a witch combining both techniques doesn't mean no such person exists. In the middle, yes the middle, you'll find people hypothesizing that the fae operate according to the natural laws of their own world. If you have a grand romantic theory for what those laws might be you're probably Open Minded. If you think the faerie universe is gradually replacing our universe you're an Open Minded Cataclysmic.

Perhaps the majority of O.R.A.S. investigating the fae aren't even interested in the supernatural. The fae have access to a whole other universe and will occasionally allow a visit in exchange for Null Mysteriis' help. Experts come from around the world to see what they might learn about mundane science if they have a second universe to compare and contrast. There has been a couple of noble prizes as a result.

All this excitement has left the biologists, psychologists and medics, who's work helping the faeries is what makes this small but successful collaboration possible, feeling ignored and unappreciated.

The Union
Brainstorming (The Kings Raven): It's all good until it starts getting to fetches. Instead it could say that the Union's community links mean they often notice that when faeries are around some people are Changed. The Union know faeries often go with drugs and other stuff, and they don't like it when drugs or magic leads people astray. But sometimes people change for the better. What do they think of that?

The Union treats faeries like all the other monsters it faces; don’t cause trouble, and we won’t kill you. You would think the fae are a little more immune to such troubles, since their primary goal is to avoid attention. And it’s true, for the most part, a lot of fae could live their lives in a Union town without a problem. Some even seek them out for the safety and stability fostered by a successful Union cell.

But the Union looks out for it’s communities. When kids go missing, Union leaders are some of the first to organize searches. When crime goes up, so does the call for police action from Union cells. If the local kids start acting funny the Joes and Janes are the first to notice, if a strange new drug (or an inexplicable supply of regular drugs) hits the streets or a missing kid found in the woods is subtly but undeniably different. That's what The Union will call making trouble, and the fae are on the forum's list of freaks who might be responsible.

Only, sometimes the change is for the better. Sometimes the change is that little Johnny stops hitting girls during playtime, or Fred comes into work without alcohol on his breath for the first time in months. Even though no one can explain why so many locals have won money, they can see how it helps the local economy. If the faeries are keeping to themselves and supporting their community wouldn't that make them... good neighbours? The Union tend to like tidy safe communities where they can raise their families. The fae aren't always safe and they are rarely tidy; so while most of The Union doesn't like the idea of freaks living near their kids, some are willing to at least consider their point of view, even if they admittedly don't know much about it.

Sadly when the time comes to break out the shotguns, the Union knows little about faeries and fae lore in general, and often have to make do with what they can find on the forums. There are some subsections on types of creatures that are considered faeries, and the top of the list in bold, italics, underlined and in capitols, it’s, “BRING IRON!” Though few Union hunters put much concrete faith in their forum, the fact that it’s the single thread with the most hits and fewest flames gives credence to the post. If they're lucky a Cell might be able to call on another Compact, a local witch or even a friendly faerie for advice; but even witches and academic compacts find it hard to provide good information on the fae, and the fair folk are particularly troublesome to hunt without information.

Sometimes though, a good community lead is enough when occult lore is lacking, and if The Union can corner a fae then iron and grit is usually enough to take it in a fight. Like the group itself, though, the Union doesn’t have one set policy for what they'll do if they manage to catch a fae. Sometimes they'll take it off the streets, beat it with a pipe then send it out on a rail or arrest the freak and haul it before a kangaroo court. Other cells might be more interested in restorative justice, labour unions have lawyers too.

The idea of binding a faerie in a contract is usually discouraged on the forums. The fae are very good lawyers and when they twist their way out of a deal, quite often the Hunters end up reporting that faeries can break contracts. If that mistake leads to the Hunters actually breaking their side of the deal, well there's a reason a lot of people will loudly try to discourage making any bargains. Few cells of The Union try, a few more might give it a go if they need to deal with that faerie anyway.

The Cheiron Group
Cherion's write up is perfectly solid, I've made a few changes to the wording here and there but nothing substantial has changed.

Cheiron loves faeries, absolutely. They’re a grab-bag of new implants to dig through, and a new jumping point for new company expansion. It’s an uncharted area of study, and Cheiron wants to lead the way.

The research department hasn't even begun to understand how, but they've realised that some faeries are humans who've been... modified. Their fledgeling attempts to reverse engineer the process has led to breakthroughs in gene therapy, potential manipulation of human/animal genomes, and the bottom line. Further research is hoped to one day revolutionise medicine, replacing surgery and retrovirus treatments with something superior. The power of Cherion's agents and the profits of Cherion's subsidies would grow immensely. Yes, Cheiron loves faeries, especially on the operating table.

The trick then, is to find the faeries. Changelings are institutionally paranoid and often don't have the bureaucratic paper trails that The Field Projects Division can use to find monsters. So when they do get a lead the motto is "go big or go home". What Cheiron has tried to do is a strategy similar to what park rangers do with wild animals. It’s all about not spooking the prey. They follow at a distance, track it carefully and use one faerie as a lead to find more. They have to be careful, if a fae runs and hides it will probably escape, but if they're patient and lucky they can get a whole community of faeries at once. Science is built upon repeatable tests after all.

Over the years, Cheiron has started to learn the difference between the different creatures that fall under the term “fae”. The changelings are the ones that interest them the most, the humans changed in such ways that seemingly require no surgery at all. Whatever this method is, Cheiron is willing to go to great lengths to have it. Goblins and other creatures that were never human can go either way, though the possible implants to be gained do pique the interests of some of the higher ups, and the board has authorized limited collections.

The most powerful fae, however, are sought with the greatest interest, and the greatest force. After all, they are the ones who actually know the secret of transforming humans into Changelings. The Company handbook contains a highlighted section on the True Fae, detailing the enormous rewards offered for a live True Fae, though with little on how to actually capture one. Even though Cheiron has never successfully taken one of these beings alive the siren song of money continues to lure the Field Projects Division and hunters of a mercenary bent into trying.

Retrieval

They’re starting to get in hot water over in Retrieval. Cells tasked with bringing in fae have never exactly been great at meeting quotas, and it’s only seemed to get worse. The faeries almost seem to know when a Retrieval team is coming, and the second they do, it’s time to bail the hideout and go elsewhere. So Retrieval’s been making some desperate bids, but one takes the cake. They’re trying to get people kidnapped. Someone found a way to call up a faerie for sure, and now they’re gonna use all they have to grab what comes out. They think that as long as they plan out the situation, they’re always gonna come out ahead. Almost none of them see any problem with this.

Recruitment

There’s not really a reason for Recruitment to worry about the fae. After all, they’re looking for other hunters, not monsters. But every so often, one of their people goes off the handle about how they’re gonna be killed by their double or doppelganger or whatever. That’s when it hit that some of their people were already compromised. Now everyone is combing the records, trying to root the monsters out before things get really out of hand.

Field Research

Field Research has been doing just the opposite. They’ve actively been looking for fae to come in and help Cheiron with it’s “research” on their fellows. So far, few takers, but they’ve encountered a group who seem to share Cheiron’s interests, a large group of changelings who are willing to work with Cheiron to unlock the secrets of the source of a faerie’s power. Field Research hasn’t taken the offer up yet, but if they feel there is some very real gain to be made, they’ll take the chance and start up relations. Like in Retrieval, the Directors aren’t very happy at Field Research’s progress with the fae.

The Lucifuge
A solid write up on changelings, I want to put a little more information about how they can befriend fae. The first paragraph is also repeated by the second so I think they should be merged. I think Fetches and True Fae need a little work; As a Conspiracy the Lucifuge will know what a Fetch is, but they're so hard to find that I think the Lucifuge wouldn't put so much effort into them. As for the True Fae; I think they just need to be portrayed as a lot more threatening.

The Lucifuge knows what it’s like to be hated for who you are, what it's like to be forced to a life you didn't choose, what it's like to be tied to a powerful and evil being. It’s little wonder, then, that the Lucifuge are merciful towards those beings called changelings. Despite the fear and paranoia common to both hunters and changelings there's a kindred spirit between the two groups. The Children of the Seventh Generation will often go out of their way to understand the changelings, and sometimes even get them away from the bright lights of other hunters. This is not to say that they'll trust any strange changeling who gives them a sad smile, rather, contracts are common to both faeries and demons. Trust is easy, it can be forged on the dotted line. Friendship comes later, sometimes.

Not all the fae deserve mercy though. The Lucifuge endeavours to understand changelings, sometimes they come to understand that they're talking to loyalists who are attempting to help their fae masters, privateers who decide they’re better suited selling their services doing evil, or just a true monster. The Lucifuge know what it is to be forged in hell's furnaces, they rose above their origins to become part of something higher. They know others have that same potential to better themselves, so when they fail and fall to their lesser natures, the Children of the Seventh Generation show that they truly are hunters. It is as old a tale as the Lucifuge, and they pity those in the same fate.

The Tithe Sidebar goes here

The True Fae are another class of faerie who do not deserve mercy. They are as terrible a creature as the “parents” of the Lucifuge and any among the Seventh Generation would gladly consign then to their father's kingdom. A pity then, that a faerie lord can rival an archdemon in power. If the Children of the Seventh Generation will draw weapons against the True Fae, they do so only with every possible advantage, and with full knowledge that striking first surrenders all defence against the monster's counter-attack. Therefore it is more common for the Lucifuge to turn, not to hellfire, but to the other half of their heritage. Temptation, treacherous-truths and contracts become their weapons. It is a tactic with as much danger and as much potential as any iron bullet, and one where the Lucifuge's unique situation can play to their benefit rather than their doom.

The similarties between demons and fae has led several Lucifuge hunters, especially those with access to the Lady’s special libraries, to take an interest in combing through records and lists of names, discerning just what is demonic and what is fairy. Sometimes there’s a lucky strike in particularly old tomes, and discovering who's really who has led to a successful change in tactics. None know that The Lady herself is among this small company.

The Children of the Seventh Generation make new deals, as well as research old ones. After years of spying, trailing, and many lost hunters and allies, the Lucifuge found out about the goblin markets sometime in the 12th century. Lucifuge hunters can be found among the stalls turning their hereditary knack for dark deals to haggling, it's one of the many edges that let an Conspiracy with 666 hunters play at the big leagues. Yet many Goblin Markets also deal in slaves, human or fae, slavery is still heinous, and so the merchants watch each Lucifuge with weary eyes. They never know if the Princes of Hell come with a sword or to spend "daddy's money".

The Denial

There’s a reason the Lady Lucifuge wants to negotiate with the faeries that every other member of the Lucifuge doesn’t know. Lady Lucifuge believes that the fae can't do much of anything without some sort of agreement. Their habit of stealing men, women, even children, well she thinks whoever negotiated on behalf of mankind the first time around is a serious screw-up. So she's directing her hunters to make contact with the True Fae and to dig through ancient lore to try and find the original contract. Who better to match the faeries at negociation than the daughter of demons? Her plan is to trade the fae's right to take people for the right to take monsters. Vampires, werewolves, as a princess of Hell are they not all her's to do with as she pleases?

The Reconciliation

It's not easy to free the Devil himself from his own mistakes. The Reconciliation wish to eliminiate evil, all of it, but when they hear the faerie hosts are as large as the legions of hell; well it's enough to make a faction of The Reconciliation wonder if there might be a faster way. They think they've found a hint in the tithe the fae pay to hell. It's not the war itself, sure they'd like to see two mighty evils fight each other but they don't know how to achieve that, rather it's the treaty which ended the war. Is it sealed by a demonic pact or a faerie pledge? Because no demon would ever sign their name carelessly, but a demon's tongue is far looser. If a faerie could turn a demon's lies into an unbreakable promise, then what would happen if a demon was eternally bound to doing good?

The Truth

Members of the Truth are, above all, interested in the secrets about themselves. Because of this they are drawn to study how the True Fae transform humans into changelings. Understanding one transformation might lead to understanding others, like how a mortal soul is transformed into a damned soul, or how a damned soul might change back. Admittedly, it's a long shot. The Truth don't have many good leads to work with. Some among The Truth have even decided to bite the bullet and negotiate employment with the fae. The changeling's stories of torment give them pause, but with the right contract... better to be fae than damned right?

Task Force: VALKYRIE
VALKYRIE knows there’s more out in the world than just vamps and wolves, that sometimes those things don’t even obey any kind of natural laws. They are creatures not meant to be in this world, things that, if revealed, could upset every basic tenet of human existence as man knows it. So VALKYRIE holds it’s Vigil with as much conviction as it can, damn the torpedoes and monsters from another dimension.

Until 1947, TFV’s mandate was to handle simply the monsters and madness that lurked in the darkness, but something happened. Everyone knows about New Mexico and Roswell and the like, but that was the cover up, of course. VALKYRIE just got lucky when that weather balloon went down and the farmer who found it didn’t know a thing about what he saw. The real bodies turned up a few miles east of his property, and the government went to work on obfuscating the truth. They drummed up false stories about aliens and flying saucers and metal sheets that couldn’t bend because hyper-advanced technology is a much more comforting story for a jittery public than technology that operates according to the rules of a different reality. They even went the whole route of making a secret base to draw attention away from the real work on Extra-Terrestrial Entities at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

Despite the suicides and rates of defection work continued, VALKYRIE's paranoid cold war generals feared they were facing a possible invasion force. Abductions were nothing new, vampires, faeries, it was a sad fact of life that monsters took good honest Americans. A flying saucer abducting people was different, a machine like that would need maintenance, fuel, supply lines, whatever god damn science it used. So VALKYRIE searched every town in a thousand miles, they found the monsters disguised in human form, and made them talk. Enhanced interrogation is an imprecise science, VALKYRIE didn't believe the aliens claiming to be faeries but they did consider the possibility of two kinds of monsters teaming up. The brass are glad they did.

To the Men in Black faeries are chaotic elements in a nation that needs order. No one understands how they think, but the fate of a whole town can twist on a faeries word. A gift of untold wealth for a crust of bread sounds nice, but enough faeries spinning straw from gold can destabilise the economy. And those politicians who "broke their campaign promises", making sure monsters don't try to control the government is the very reason VALKYRIE was founded. But you know what? You can say similar things about any monster. VALKYRIE still hunts faeries because after all this time, they're the best lead anyone has on the UFOs. Maybe there's no invasion coming, but maybe somewhere in Middle America a dear old superstitious apple pie baking granny has the one clue that will save the world.

So how does VALKYRIE handle the faeries? How they handle domestic threats of every stripe; observations, report, and containment. Ever hear about Van Eck Phreaking? TFV has. Hell, they practically pioneered the technique. Cell phones have become a boon to TFV, and not just because of the Patriot Act. DCSNet? It wasn’t all VALKYRIE. But that black budget was a big bonus. Fairies have never had it worse. Laser microphones bounced off windows, drones over American airspace, it’s all there. They only keep the black vans because sometimes you need to make a perp sweat, and those vans are still packed full of observation equipment.

Finding faeires is the hard part, though. Once they find the faeries with certainty, TFV finally gets to break out their tools and get to the real work. Materials that would normally be wasted is finding new use on the front against faeries, and sometimes it's just nice to point a gun at freaks who's first response is to panic and run. Maybe there's more spying and less shooting than certain cells would like, but just because you can’t always make a problem explode doesn’t mean it can’t be solved with good old fashioned intelligence and paper-trails.

Project: TWILIGHT

TWILIGHT is the closest thing TFV has to “ground pounders”, the go-to faction when it comes to the heavy lifting. TWILIGHT agents are called up for every kind of problem imaginable, including the fae. So TWILIGHT is constantly observing, tracking, and eliminating fae hideouts. There have been casualties, but the agents of TWILIGHT have had more difficulty finding the fae than fighting them. Since they win most direct engagments TWILIGHT actually feel something is being done against this threat. Busting markets, breaking up fae gatherings, it’s makes you feel good to bat for team humanity.

Operation: ADAMSKI

ADAMSKI almost finds the fae laughable. No one believes in them any more, or if they do, that they’re just little women flitting about, little gnomes working mountains for gems and singing. Parents buy it for their little girls. It's never been an area ADAMSKI had to worry about, until recently. Fantasy authors have discovered the old faerie myths and are spreading them into popular culture. So far it hasn't gone further than nerds, and the brass plan to keep it that way. They've partnered with some of the biggest entertainment companies to make sure that when people think faeries, they think of little winged woman prancing on flowers.

Project: FORT

FORT, however, knows the fae aren’t something to laugh at. VALKYRIE knows about the abductions, the curses, all the nasty little things faeries can do to people. FORT have been studying enough mythology, experimenting with psychedelic drugs in faerie hot spots, and even talking to faeries, to get some idea of why they're doing it. They loose some agents, they get wide eyed, start talking about pretty colours and vanish into faerieland or a mental asylum. The rest, they're scared. Really scared. VALKYRIE are used to having bigger guns than the monsters they fight, but the faeries on Earth are the weakest of them. The ones back home, this might not be a fight the USA can win. At least not with it's current weapons. So FORT is trying it's best to convince the brass that a faerie lord is as much of a threat as a UFO bristling with ray guns, and might possibly be the same thing. So could they please stop provoking the faerie lords in their hunt for aliens, at least until someone has a cue what's going on.

=Equipment=

Brainstorming (The Kings Raven) - Iron weapons are a must and while we're at it the Sons should get to use their Endowment with guns too. Apart from that, I'm thinking of focusing on supernatural equipment and social equipment. For social equipment, disguises and other dirty tricks, as well as uniforms and other symbols of authority. If the equipment section could even do a little bit of "who can be trusted" that would be really cool.

Anaphrodisiacs
Durability 0, Size 0 or 1, Structure 1, Availability: • to •••, Dice Modifier: -1 to -3

The faeries like to brag that among their number is the fairest of them all and there are indeed faeries who can stop a hunter mid battle as easily as opening their shirt. Lesser fae might merely have a supermodel's looks and no shame in using them.

So some hunters take Anaphrodisiacs to quell the libido. The potency of the drugs used varies, the weaker options are easier to acquire and are safer to use but if a faerie can get inside your head and dial up the lust then you want the strongest pills you can get. Hunters who don't have or don't want pills might grab a porno before the hunt, but it's far less effective.

Effect: While under the effects of Anaphrodisiacs all attempts to seduce the hunter, mundane or mystical, take a -1 to -3 penalty depending upon the potency. Stronger verities may cause side effects.

Double Check
Durability 0, Size 0 or 1, Structure 1, Availability: •, Dice Modifier: +2

One of the simplest but surprisingly useful tricks used by faerie hunters. The Fair Folk have many ways to deceive the mind or the senses, so prepared hunters constantly double check to make sure they haven't fallen for a trick.

The device itself varies, but is typically a discrete item that can get the hunter's attention. Getting a smart phone to vibrate at semi-random intervals is a simple and cheep solution, but bespoke equipment such as ear-buds is available for hunters concerned that their prey might notice. Some hunters believe that a mildly painful reminder is more effective than a painless one.

Effect: When the reminder triggers the hunter takes a moment to consider if they may be under some deception, stop and think about their next move, or recite a memorised plan. This alertness provides a +2 dice bonus to prevent falling under a faerie's spell.

Second Point of View
Durability 0, Size 0 or 1, Structure 1, Availability: •••, Dice Modifier: Special

Monsters can get inside your head. They can make you think things, or see things. Fortunately though, there is an Achilles' Heal to making hunters see something. It doesn't work if someone tells you it's an illusion. Therefore some Hunters have started having someone watch remotely, getting a good quality real time feed is a lot easier than it used to be but it still requires some technical skill, an encrypted feed requires far more, and for many small cells recruiting an extra member is a security risk - which can limit the potential of this rather useful trick.

Effect: You are essentially immune to illusions that won't show up on camera. Illusions that do show up on camera or mental illusions that force you to believe in them are another story. Against the former this provides no benefit, against the latter you may use the rules for teamwork to resist the magic.

Snacks
Durability 0, Size 0 or 1, Structure 1, Availability: •, Dice Modifier: +1 to +5

In a lot of faerie tales, eating someone's food puts you into their debt or their power. In other stories the fae will ask strangers for food, rewarding those who share and punishing those who won't.

Hunters investigating the fae often like to travel prepared. Snack bars, being long lasting, light, portable, and good for quick energy if you get hungry, are popular with practical minded hunters. Milk, honey, or salted baguettes are used by hunters who put their faith in the traditional foods of faerie tales or hospitality.

Effect: Sharing food can give a general social bonus, often a surprisingly large one if you're sharing with the fae. Other faeries may have frailties or codes of behavior relating to food, these are unpredictable but can be of enormous benefit to the hunter who exploits them.

Door Seals
Durability 3, Size 2, Structure 4, Availability: •

Experienced faerie Hunters say that if you want to stop a freak from escaping you ambush it in the middle of an empty street. If you corner it in an alleyway it will jump into a trash-can, and it's gone. Burst into it's bedroom and it will roll under it's bed, and it's gone. The fair folk can escape into the hedge through any portal at all, and once they do it's best to accept that they've won this round.

Sometimes though, Hunters can't rely on a featureless field to ambush a faerie in. Therefore a prepared hunter will seal off the doors and windows to prevent the fae from using them as a passage into the Hedge. The most common methods involve: Locking a door then filling the keyhole with glue, placing thick metal spikes to hold a door shut or chains and padlocks. Used well Door seals can provide a few vital seconds while a faerie smashes a window or plenty of time as a lithe elf desperately hammers on a solid door.

Particularly paranoid hunters might use this to protect their safehouses. If the fae can escape through any portal, can they also invade just as easily? Though really paranoid hunters tend to find or create safehouses with no interior walls in the first place.

Effect: Before a fae can use the Dread Power Knock Knock on this particular portal they must first get past the seal and open it. Brute force is always an option, roll against the stats provided above or the stats of the door or window. Whichever one is weakest. Lockpicking is an option against padlocks, and some dread powers might bypass the issue entirely.

Butterfly Net
Die Bonus +1, Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 1, Availability •, Minimum Crafts 1

Some faeries actually are thumb sized people, sometimes they even frolic in flowers. This doesn't mean they're not dangerous.

When hunters want to capture a little pixie alive they often use butterfly nets made from iron wire, sometimes with an iron frame too. While not available on the open market, the components are cheep and easily assembled.

Effect: Roll Dexterity + Weaponry + 1 - Defence, on a success the faerie is trapped in the net and cannot escape without tearing through iron wire. For most teeny tiny faeries this is impossible (a Strength of essentially zero) though for some who's strength is supernatural, at least in proportion to their size, this is easy.

While trapped in the net treat the faerie cannot apply Defense. It may however be able to fight back with magic or verbal trickery.

Bows
Once the most common ranged weapon in the world, bows have been made obsolete by guns which are faster to fire, easier to learn, and just as deadly. So why do hunters still use bows?

Well honestly, not that many hunters use bows (faeries on the other hand). There’s a few who took up archery as a sport before joining the vigil and it’s the weapon they know, a few use bows because they’re the best ranged weaponry that works reliably in the Hedge. Some of the Aegis Kai Doru wield Relic bows and many Hounds were master archers before they first saw a gun.

Bows depend upon their wielder to a far greater extent than guns, you can’t really call a bow “one size fits all”, instead a good bow is tailored to the strength of the archer. A bow’s damage is equal to the required strength -1. Typically speaking even when the archer is superhumanly strong the damage rating never goes above four, not unless you’re talking about Relic weaponry or the inhumanly skilled crafting of the Fae. Arrows are good at penetrating armour, a bow has an armour piercing rating equal to the required strength -2.

Modern bows use pulleys and advanced materials to augment the strength of the user, these bows still have a Damage rating of one to four but the required strength is one lower, equal to the Damage rating. The armour penetration also increases to the required strength -1.

For many archers, shooting is a sport and not a weapon. Bows can be used with both Athletics and Firearms, however the Firearms skill includes more than just pointing a gun. It covers things like lines of fire and battlefield awareness that sports shooting does not. Archers using athletics to fire bows in battle take a -1 penalty.

Sidebar: Ironwood Bows
The Sons Of Cú Chulainn can become better warriors by swearing an oath upon iron. If that iron is a sword you’ve got no problem, but if the iron is an arrowhead you have one shot before you’ve lost the iron and the power it grants you.

The solution is “ironwood bows”. The ancient celts were amazing metalworkers, and the Hounds apply this skill to bows. They cover the bow with delicate iron filigree - so that swearing upon the iron is swearing upon the bow itself.

In modern nights the Sons have had little trouble adapting this technique to guns, since a gun doesn't need to bend it’s a much easier task. The trick is to make the work delicate enough that it won’t weigh the gun down and slow the Hound’s reactions while including enough iron to make the gesa take. Since the Hounds started crafting Ironwood guns much later they don’t have much of a stockpile, and the demand is much higher, consequently there is a waiting list. As a rule of thumb, a Son with a Status + Firearms equal to the gun’s size + 4 will quickly be issued his first Ironwood firearm.

If the Son isn’t willing to wait, rough and ready modifications that apply a -2 initiative penalty are quick and easy to prepare (Crafts 2 is sufficient) and easily available on the Hound’s supply network.

Iron Weaponry
As the bane of all fae no hunter should be without a good iron weapon. While iron has been replaced by steel iron weapons were once the unchallengeable lords of war. Armour may have advanced, but flesh hasn’t.

Mechanically iron weapons function identically to their modern equivalents but require more maintenance and are harder to craft. Only when against modern armour does iron show it’s age - it’s damage is considered to be two points lower against modern armour (faerie armour or protective magics, on the other hand, might as well be paper).

Battle ready iron equipment is generally not on the open market, if a hunter cannot acqure faerie-bane weapons from her Compact or Conspiracy she'll have to get it custom made or make it herself. The following chart lists common weapons by the availability of a good blacksmith and the Crafts needed to forge it, a specialty decreases the Crafts requirement by one dot. Using hand-forged iron (iron which has never been heated by human hands, and deals damage to the True Fae) increases both the Availability and Crafts requirement by one. For convenience the weapon’s combat statistics are repeated:

Horseshoes
Size 1, Durability 2, Availability N/A (buying them nullifies their supernatural properties)

In many cultures a good horse shoe is considered lucky. In some folklore the horseshoe must point up so that the good luck will remain inside while in others it must point down so that the luck will flow out onto the occupants. Some folklore says that the horseshoe must be used, and it must be found rather than purchased.

Hanging a horseshoe above a portal bars entry to ethereal beings and if all the portals are protected by horseshoes then ethereal beings cannot pass through the walls either (it’s like a more durable less portable version of salt). For some reason infernal demons are particularly affected, one single horseshoe above a door can protect an entire building. Despite what stories say, the reason is probably far more complex than St. Dunstan hammering a horseshoe onto the devil’s hoof.

The fae are not ethereal creatures, but many of them have Bans related to horseshoes.

= Tactics =

I'm no longer so fond of Fate's Champion, or Offer of Refuge. So

Checkmate
\textbf{Prerequisites:} All: Wits 2, Dexterity 2, Firearms 2.

\textbf{Requires:} 2, up to 5

\textbf{Dice Pool:} All: Dexterity + Firearms

\textbf{Action:} Instant

\textbf{Description:} They say that Samuel Colt made all men equal, but some monsters can dodge bullets. Be it precognition or supernatural speed the solution is a checkmate; a firing pattern in which every possible move still ends with the monster full of lead, silver or cold iron as the case may be. One Hunter shoots, the monster leaps out the way and the second hunter nails it in mid air while he can't dodge. Another cell fires in tandem, each Hunter targets a different spot and together they fill the air with so much lead than even if a supernaturally quick monster ran it could never escape the killzone in time.

The secondary actors make their roll without subtracting the attacker's defence. Then the primary actor makes his roll, the monster's Defence is reduced by one for every Success scored by the Secondary actors in addition to the usual penalty for multiple attackers (assuming that the monster looses defence for multiple attackers).

The secondary actors' successes only reduce the monsters defence for the primary actor's roll, the penalty for multiple attackers stands as normal.

\textbf{Organizations:} The Sons of Cú Chulainn fight as brothers, and with the superhuman skill provided by their geasa they can pull of elaborate synchronised firing patterns as quickly as the officer can call them. Taking inspiration from the Greek Heroes of old, The Ageis Kai Doru favour quality over quantity. Their well trained cells work together to line up a target for a finishing blow with a Relic weapon.

\textbf{Potential Modifiers:} Secondary actor has dots in the Firefight merit (+1); primary actor has dots in the marksmanship merit (+1); secondary actor doesn't use a medium or full burst (-2); secondary actor(s) has a lower Initiative than the primary actor (-3 to all participants).

= Endowments =

Luck
Perhaps you found a four leaf clover, maybe you were born under a lucky star, but you certainly have fortune to spare. Once per roll, when the results will result in unmitigated disaster for your character, you may do one of the following:

Sacrifice dots in Luck to increase or decrease the Successes at a 1 for 1 ratio. Sacrifice one dot to force a reroll.

Luck can affect other people's rolls or your own.

Drawback: Once dots are gone, they're gone. The Sanctity of Merits rule does not apply to dots of Luck sacraficed on the vigil (it would apply if a faerie somehow stole your luck).

Sidebar: Bulk Buying  While anyone might find a four leaf clover daily life on the Vigil can burn up your store of good fortune fast, and spending hours looking for clovers isn't the same as just finding one by luck. The only way to get a reliable source of lucky escapes is to buy it from a Goblin Market.

Like any businessman a Goblin marketeer is always happy to see someone who has a burning need for their wears walk through the shop door. While the marketers are ruthless and unashamed profiteers they still must compete in a free market and understand the value of a stable long term profitable relationship over a quick buck, if you're look like you might be willing to offload those vampire fangs with a large purchase every month the vendor might be willing to invest in the relationship by offering "wholesale rates" or "discounts on luck in battle, cheaper".

This isn't something players should get for free, it should take good negotiation, but if they pull it off the rewards can be significant. Two dots for the price of one is about right.

Damned Wealth
Throughout all of history scions of the rich and powerful have been reputed to spend their parents wealth like water, born to privilege they have little idea of the true value of money. The Lucifgue are also born to the rich and powerful, and though a demon is less likely to be generous even hell has it's doting parents and wastrel princes.

A Hunter with this Castigation gains dots of Resources equal to their (8 - their Integrity), to a maximum of five. They just open their wallet or reach into their pocket and out comes cash and credit cards. The wealth of hell comes in all forms, and if legitimate currency won't suffice the Lucifuge may instead discover themselves to be offering gold, precious gemstones, illegal contraband. A Hunter bargaining with a warlock might discover himself offering deeds of ownership to damned souls.

Mechanically, when attempting to leverage someone by offering bribes or even haggling at a market, the hunter gains a bonus equal to the dots of Resources they have from Damned Wealth. This bonus represents how hell's wealth naturally chooses the path of greatest temptation, but it is still limited to things money could reasonably buy with minimum investment of time and energy. A token redeemable for a night of passion with a succubus isn't that different from cash and directions to a local brothel, so that is acceptable. A Relic, while probably available for sale in a secret occult marketplace, would still require time and effort to track down and so a Lucifuge hunter could not find one in their wallet.

The unusual source of the Lucifuge's wealth does not protect them, or their trading partners, from Braking Points. If you bribe someone with a brick of cocaine, you're still dealing drugs. Following their personal ethics may require hunters to use less effective bribes. In addition, like all Castigations Damned Wealth can ensnare the user's soul. For this purpose the Castigation's dice pool is considered to be equal to the Resource dots used in a transaction.

Sidebar: Damned Wealth at Goblin Markets

The flexibility of Damned Wealth makes it exceptionally useful in the unpredictable economy of a Goblin Market. However it is inappropriate for a Castigation to provide free experience points. Therefore, at the Market Damned Wealth provides it's usual bonus to haggling, and "willpower points" equal to the Resource Dots provided for spending at the market. These refresh every Session. The Castigation may also be used to represent experience points the players have spare.

Tongue of Treacherous Truths
a large bonus to lieing. cannot be used when using Deal with the Devil.

Warrior Code
I'm thinking about giving the Sons an additional ability - the ability to see/sense when someone has broken a Geasa (not other vow magic, just Geasa) and tell the difference between breaks that have been atoned for and those which haven't.

My thought is that the sons have a strong theme of brotherhood and trust in each other, the ability to see that a fellow Hound hasn't broken their promises of loyalty to the brotherhood will reinforce that.

Condition: Oath-Breaker (Persistent)
Your character has violated the standards expected of a warrior, a terrible stain upon his honour. Your dots in The Warrior's Code are effectively reduced by amount invested into the oath you broke. If you broke the Son's code of conduct you loose all dots in The Warriors Code until this condition is resolved.

In addition a Hounds can sense when one of their own has stained their honour. You take a social penalty equal to your forfeited dots with other Hounds.

Dots of The Warrior's Code forfeited: _______

Beat: Your character’s ostracism or attempts to redeem himself cause him a significant problem.

Resolution: Your character’s superiors agree that he has redeemed himself.

Beautiful Madness
I want to rename points of Beauty to points of Inspiration. I used the current name to avoid reusing a word from Genius, now in retrospect this seems pointless.

Condition: Fixation

Like all the Wilde Society, your character's mind is drawn to the beauty. The first time you something fae or a fantastic piece of artwork in a scene roll Integrity. On a Success you suppress the condition for a scene. On a failure you take -1 to all rolls unrelated to the fae or art for a scene as your mind fixates.

Resolution: Fail an Integrity roll to resist fixating on beautiful things. (Like all Conditions caused by Beautiful Madness, Fixation will reappear the next scene unless your Inspiration pool is low enough.)

= Faerie Stuff =

The Hidden Folk
Brainstorming - The Kings Raven: I don't see any need to change much here, but the sidebar which includes a weaker version of the mask for action games should be merged into the main text.

Monsters walk among us, blending into humanity like a wolf in sheep’s clothing: To the naked eye a witch appears like you or me, a vampire’s network of minions and slaves can allow it to interact with human society and a werewolf is human whenever it wants to be.

The fae also walk among us, but among monsters it is they who have earned their title of the hidden folk, for the fae may be the monsters with the greatest interest in living a normal life, and because the fae protect themselves with the Mask. A protective glamour that disguises the fay as ordinary people.

By default the Mask is one of the most potent illusions a hunter is ever likely to encounter. It is a fully comprehensive illusion that covers all five senses and more, the fae’s aura covered by an illusion of humanity, as is their appearances to other mystical perceptions. Yet even the Mask is not perfect; there are three ways to see the truth behind the Mask:

The Sight

For some lucky, or unlucky, people the Mask may as well not exist. The fae themselves can see each other for what they are, but in the right circumstances so can ordinary humans. A Merit, The Sight, exists for hunters who can see the fae and some Endowments can artificially induce The Sight.

Supernatural perception

Against all natural and technological senses the Mask is impenetrable but against supernatural senses the Mask is only almost impenetrable. When someone with a Dread Power or a mystical Endowment that grants supernatural senses or penetrates illusions looks upon the fae, the Fae rolls 11 - Wyrd. If the fae succeeds then they appear completely human, no exceptions. If the fae fails their roll then the Endowment or Dread Power works as normal, and the fae cannot Resist or Contest any rolls to determine their supernatural nature.

The corner of your eye

Ordinary senses cannot hope to defeat the Mask, but sometimes they catch a glimpse of the truth. Such glimpses are always from the corner of your eye, when you’re half asleep, or for some other reason not paying attention. Such glimpses can be next to impossible to tell from your mind playing tricks, at least, impossible to tell with the surety a Hunter should have before they decide if someone not actually human. Experienced hunters are the worst affected; the more you look for monsters hidden in the corner of your eyes, the more you see them even if they’re not actually there. Some hunters wonder if the Mask was intentionally designed to make them start double guessing what should be their most potent tool, their intuition. Given how the fae operate, it’s a possibility.

Lifting the Mask

Now the Mask as presented here is nigh impenetrable without the Sight, and maybe you like it that way. A game where the only way to notice the fae is if you catch them talking about something only faeries could know presents an interesting and unique set of challenges, but it might not be the game you want to play. Here are some options for weakening the Mask:

The Straightforward Option

The players all have access to The Sight. Perhaps their Endowment provides it or perhaps the story begins with all the PCs acquiring The Sight.

The Mystical Option

Instead of the fae's nearly unbeatable roll to counter mystical sight the fae merely get a +3 bonus. If the Endowment or Dread Power is Resisted or entirely unprotected the fae can contest the roll with Resolve + (7 - Wyrd). This means that the True Fae may have penalties for a Wyrd of eight or more.

The Material Option

With the right equipment a Hunter can see through the Mask. Perhaps when the ancient fae created the Mask it never occurred to them that technology could ever see auras and so a kirlian camera - perhaps combined with exposing the fae to iron - is surprisingly effective. Perhaps it requires supernatural equipment instead of rare Endowment to grant The Sight. A druid's egg for example. It's not something you can mass produce, but it's still something you could buy on the internet.

The Hunter's Sight

In this option Hunters can see through the mask, simple as that. Maybe existing on the edge of normality fulfils some ancient bit of small print in the mask, maybe the tenacity needed to fight werewolves protects the hunter's mind against illusion. Either way, there's no mask to get between the Hunters and good fight in the name of humanity. Of course, everyone else is affected by the Mask which can lead to a lot of awkward questions.

Sidebar: The Cottingley-Leontyev Test
One of the dafter ideas some hunters use to try and find faeries hidden among the mortal population is the Cottingley-Leontyev test.

Examinees are given tasks such circling all the real animals in a picture containing real animals, mythological animals and optical illusions of animals; or selecting historical kings from a list with real, made up and famous mythological kings.

The success rate of uncovering faeries with the Cottingley-Leontyev test is near zero. It's too easy to fool, it only works if you can get an actual faerie to take the test, and lots of faeries will score almost as well as the average human.

The test was actually developed by a Null Mysteriis psychiatrist, Dimitri Leontyev, for diagnosing mental health issues in Changelings. Therapists who work with Changelings rate the test highly.

= Philadelphia =

The section summarising each org is missing the Wilde Society, Searchlight and the Lord Stewards. Here's my proposal for those three:

The Wilde Society: Scarpered. With the faerie population scattered in 1964 and the constant dangerous fighting between hunters and monsters of all stripes, The Wilde Society have mostly fled Philidelphia entirely. Only a few hold outs remain, mostly clustered around the famous magic garden.

Searchlight: Aloof. Searchlight's small presence hold themselves apart from Philidelphia's conflicts. They make their base in uncontested suburban territory and focus their efforts on their own personal quests. However the increasingly violent and unstable behaviour of key Searchlight hunters could attract unwatned attention from both Philidelphia's hunters and monsters.

The Office of the Lord Stewards. Absent. Doing their jobs a continent away, the Lord Stewards have no formal presence in Philidelphia and no desire to create one.

= Epiloge =

Brainstorming - The Kings Raven: I realised that the book just stopped so suddenly with a stat block for Garvin McCallister; so I thought an Epiloge might fit. I had so much fun writing the Stewards opening fiction that I took the excuse to do something else in the same style. As an excuse, given how important Britannia is to the Stewards having her appear once in the text is a good idea.

When Sir Terrance Pemberton-Hawtrey, GCB, CVO, GCJD, lay upon his deathbed he gave a most curious final request: To be lain outside in the spring sunlight with a single acorn from an oak tree.

In silence Terrance thought back upon his long career in service to Queen and Country, until, on the very edge of death he saw something. A twist of the senses: A small tree caught in the wind made him think of a woman's body. A bird posed just right for a second was her hair. Her face was a cloud in the distance. Most curious of all, she moved towards him at a walking pace. Always just a trick of the light, always clearly a woman tall and regal.

Britannia reached out and Terrance took her hand gladly. Together they walked, slowly at first until Terrance's old strength returned. Soon they were moving faster, then faster still. Single steps traversed entire cities and hills.

Faster and faster, they walked the entire length of the country until they stopped at the peak of Sgurr Dearg and looked over the United Kingdoms. Terrance saw the ancient forests and the mighty rivers, he saw the sea endlessly battering shining white cliffs, he saw millions of people living their lives.

“A life spent protecting it, I had a good innings”.

Awkwardly, as though she didn't entirely understand the gesture, Britannia shook his hand and watched as Terrance walked across the sea to parts unknown.