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The Athelbarn Hunt is an enigmatic, region-specific kith (based on their behaviour, goals and actions, almost definitely Thallain in nature) located exclusively (or at least mostly) in central Great Britain, specifically along the Welsh/English border. The collective title 'Athelbarn Hunt' is mostly used by non-fae, and the term that they use for themselves is unknown.

Overview[]

The Fair Folk that destroyed Athelbarn are still there. Not many of them — there are far more exciting places to be than a barren ruin — but a few, and they continue to harbor a grievance against the Masters of Stonecrop. That extends to their students and colleagues; the fey creatures don’t much care for the niceties of who is and isn’t one of the Masters. Stonecrop House is warded against their presence and intruding on the rest of the campus risks drawing the Masters’ attention, but any Stonecrop students, staff, or alumni elsewhere are fair prey.

The Masters of Stonecrop believe the scattering of Fair Folk who watch over Athelbarn are the only ones they need to worry about. That’s an optimistic belief when local legends tell of whole cities of strange beings under hills and on the far side of mirrors.

The eponymous Boggart of the local Boggart Hole is, despite the name, more likely to be a member of this kith than an actual Boggart, though more likely than either possibility is that it is unrelated to either, given its unique abilities.

Behaviour[]

Like many of the Fair Folk English folklore warns about, the fey creatures of Athelbarn love artists and storytellers. Love is the wrong word; they crave their company. Even if they didn’t have a powerful grievance with the Masters of Stonecrop, they’d still prey on creatives and dreamers and steal them away to wherever they hide when they’re not in the ruins of Athelbarn.

As their name implies, the fae of the Athelbarn Hunt gather Glamour by capitalizing on the fear of mortals who know themselves to be prey. The Fair Folk of Athelbarn, unlike most fae, ultimately want to be found: They make efforts to lure ignorant mortals from Stonecrop and the areas surrounding Athelbarn into their hunting grounds. From there, they stalk isolated mortals through the moors, subduing them and abducting them in order to bring them back to their freeholds and further harvest their terror. On very rare occasions, these lost mortals return to the Autumn World, having been set free after swearing to never practice some artistic pursuit of theirs again, a deal which the Athelbarn Hunt enforce by making them physically incapable of being reneged on (breaking musicians' fingers, cutting singers' tongues out, etc.) - a crude yet effective form of Ravaging.

Appearance[]

The Fair Folk of Athelbarn look a little like humans — if humans were loping predators with long limbs, sharp claws, and crowns of antlers — but they graft the scorched stones of Athelbarn to their forms like trophies. They’re hard to see, partly because they’re adept at camouflage but also because they etch their bodies with flickering patterns that make it nearly impossible to look directly at them. They’re artists in their own right, whispering secrets plucked from their prey’s hearts and wielding them as weapons.

Endowments[]

Birthrights[]

Partial Invisibility: As mentioned in their appearance, the Athelbarn Hunt possess powers of camouflage and disorienting patterns across their mien, which come together to produce a near invisibility-like effect. Any attempt to detect them is done at +3 Difficulty. The invisibility cannot hide overt interaction or violent acts such as direct attacks, and any such action immediately renders the changeling visible.

Words Like Knives: The Athelbarn Hunt pluck secret truths out of humans’ hearts and wield them to cause pain — literally, not figuratively. In social combat they can choose to inflict Health damage instead of Willpower.

Frailty[]

What frailty the Athelbarn Hunt possess, if any, has not yet been determined by outside observers. So far, the universal aversion to cold iron is the only known way to put the creatures in their place.

References[]

Changeling: The Dreaming Thallain

Aithu · Athelbarn Hunt · Beastie · Bodach · Boggart · Bogie · Ghast · Goblin · Huaka'i Po · Kelpies · Lurks · Mandragora · Murdhuacha · Nasties · Night Hag · Ogre · Sevartal · Skinwalker · Spriggan · Weeping Wights

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