Family of Silent Nights

The Family of Silent Nights is an entitlement dedicated to protecting others’ dreams.

Background
"When chaos rages within, I will bring calm. As hope fades, I will bring quiet. When the night holds terror, I will chase it back into the mists from which it came. I am the Silent Night, in which all things find peace."

The Gentry and other such beings threaten the Lost from more than just the physical realm. The Family of Silent Nights safeguards the dreams of the freehold. They use the powers of their entitlement to steal away dream-poisons and undo nightmares, turning the weapons of the Fae against them and their minions. In spite of this, unannounced arrivals from the Family are often distrusted in a freehold, fearing the costs of their help; fearing that the dreams the order steals away will be used against them, as well.

Organization
There are two known tiers to the entitlement, with rumors of a third. On initial entry, a member of the Family is known as a Brother or Sister, working on their own but reporting their actions to the Family as a whole. Those who are more skilled (Wyrd 5, with ratings of 4-5 in Intelligence, Wits, and Empathy, with a decently high level in Contracts of Dreams) are named Fathers or Mothers; at most, two of these operate in a given freehold, dealing directly with Court leaders and deciding the Family’s course of action in a region. Rumors abound of a tier known as the Grandparents, who, if they exist, recognize global trends, ordering branches to attend to a freehold before a problem has even become known.

Joining and Membership
Prerequisites: Contract of Dreams 2, Empathy 2, Wyrd 4 Title: Brother or Sister

Generally cautious about those joining its ranks, the Family of Silent Nights keeps an eye on those accomplishing feats of oneiromancy and those interested in and dedicated to the concept of dreams. The Family will test prospective members by unleashing a horrible nightmare upon them, which they must weather alone. Rumors of the lingering trauma of these applicants keeps the number of potential entrants low, which the order prefers.

Those within the order tend to fall into one of two camps: Those who focus on nightmares, battling and stealing them away (commonly from the Autumn Court); and those who focus on their aftermath, restoring peace in nightmares’ wake (commonly from the Spring). Mental and Social Skills (particularly Empathy) are often high, and high Composure and Resolve are common.

Mien
In terms of dress, members of the Family tend to use ensembles that are deliberately slightly off-putting, leaving others uncomfortable without knowing exactly why. Under the Mask, the Brothers and Sisters have dark, shadowed eyes, in which one may see faint sparkles of light that come and go. These sparkles appear more frequently as Wyrd rises, and occur in colors unseen outside of dreams.

Privileges

 * Dream-Prison: The changeling crafts a hole into which a dream can fall using the normal rules for Dreamweaving; this prison, upon its creation, is made for a specific kind of dream (e.g. “nightmare” or “dream infested with a Wyrd 3 Incubus”). This prison will then capture an appropriate dream from a nearby sleeper, provided the Intensity is lower than the successes rolled on the prison’s creation. The creator is instantly alerted when a dream-prisons is activated, and may enter it and interact with the dream trapped within without needing a pledge.

If the dream being captured was woven by another oneiromancer, she rolls the die pool used to create the dream (e.g. Wits + Empathy + Wyrd) against the Intelligence + Empathy + Wyrd of the Family member who crafted the prison, ruining the prison on success. If the Family succeed, the dream is caught as usual.

If the dream-prison attacks a dream that actually contains an Incubus, it may roll to reduce the Intensity of the dream-prison as though Dream-Riding. If they reduce the Intensity of the prison to 0, it shatters and it is released. If the Family member enters the dream-prison before it is broken, he can engage the Incubus in dream-combat; an Incubus reduced to below 0 Willpower is pushed into passivity, and cannot recover Willpower or affect their dream-prison. If the dream-prison is later broken, the Incubus will be freed. Dream-prisons cannot hold the minds of any being with a form outside of dreams. Such beings will leave the prison as normal when they awaken.

Any oneiromancer who is present at a dream-prison may interact with the dream inside as though she had a pledge with the original dreamer, but she must sleep next to the prison itself. An oneiromancer who does so may alter the prison with a single success on a Wits + Empathy + Wyrd roll, weakening it enough to let the dream inside slip out at a later date. If this happens, the dream-prison becomes a normal dream vessel, and will open into the dreams of the next person to sleep next to it. This will release any Incubus or dream-poison contained within the prison.