Hedgespinning is the ability to extract or create items from materials found in the Hedge.
Overview
Hedgespinning must take place within the Hedge, by binding tangible and intangible ingredients together with a focused effort. One does not 'craft' the item in the traditional means by stitching, hammering, and gluing; instead a hedgespinner massages the ingredients together as an act of the Wyrd.
The changeling must put his hands on the Hedge he wishes to shape, smoothing out knots and gnarls or wrestling stubborn branches into shape. Despite the Thorns’ implied resistance, the character’s strength is not necessary — the changeling’s own Wyrd is what provides the might necessary to shape unyielding Hedge. A changeling is in no danger of damage (and thus, lost Glamour) from barbs and thorns, as investing the Glamour makes the Hedge more acquiescent to the changeling’s presence — any barbs beneath the changeling’s grip shrink away from her hands, or simply fall away like petals from a dying rose.
Every hedgespinning effort draws the spinner (and possibly his friends) into a story that inspires or infuses the creation, and this story must reach closure before the item can be created. Interestingly, this ability seems to be inaccessible to the True Fae, so they procure other means to acquire such objects. Hedgespun objects are tokens of a sort, but not token as most changelings know them. Tokens have powers that mimic changeling contracts, and require drawbacks and catches. Hedgespun items have none of these.
The Act of Spinning
- You might also check: Creating a Token
Before this process can even begin, the changeling must first ensure two things: that whatever story must be told surrounding the Hedgespun has received some manner of closure, and that the changeling possesses all the physical ingredients necessary. Without these two factors in place, the reagents refuse to yield to the character’s touch. They do not become malleable. They will not ease together in a forceful hand. (And it is in this way that crafting a Hedgespun item, whether from an old recipe or an improvised design, lets the character know that it isn’t quite ready… perhaps something is missing, something intangible like a prayer spoken backward or a sigh of ecstasy uttered nearby).
Hedgespun tokens are not like real world objects in that they need to be precisely put together. Every thread in a floor-length gown does not need to be sewn and stitched by hand. The links in a piece of chain mail (formed perhaps of golden wedding rings stolen from a Keeper’s strange collection) do not need to be hand-linked together, one by one, over the course of many nights.
The process is instead magically facilitated — but that’s not to say that a changeling needn’t put her hands on the items. They don’t mysteriously float together and form the desired object. The character still has to fit the pieces together, massaging them so that they find whatever Wyrd sympathy can link the elements of the design. Threads must be pushed together, bone must be forced through stone, the backs of dark jewels must be moistened perhaps with saliva and fitted to a locket (a locket whose intricate scrollwork was maybe carved by a sharpened pinky nail or even a wet toothpick). Think of it like clay: while in the process of Hedgespinning, the materials become pliable; with a little effort, they slowly shift and slide in the changeling’s grip.
Creation Process
Hedgespinning must take place within the Hedge.
- Recipes and Blueprints
A Hedgespinner knows that every item requires Recipes and Blueprints, of sorts. Some changelings experiment to build a recipe to meet expectations. That said, old recipes still exist. Changelings can learn these old ways, perhaps even pilfering from others. Creating your own recipe from scratch is an extended Intelligence + Occult roll, with one day required per roll and total successes required of five per dot in the token. The researcher does not need to be the same person as the crafter.
- The Crafting
During the Hedgespinning, intangible reagents are made a part of a Hedgespun item by existing in the proximity to the crafting process. If the recipe demands a cry of pain, then that anguished cry must be within earshot of the changeling Hedgespinning the item while she crafts it. If she herself must give something to the item, such as a whispered promise or a lusty gust of breath, she can do so while her hands work to ease the materials together.
Cost: See below, under Action.
Dice Pool: Wits or Strength + Crafts + equipment
Action: Extended (successes necessary are equal to three times the token dots desired; each roll is equal to one hour’s worth of crafting and each roll requires that one Glamour point be spent or the process must be temporarily halted until more Glamour can be put into the object).
- Time
Hedgespun — whether creating it or simply finding it — is never so straightforward. A good rule of thumb is this: for every two dots a Hedgespun item possesses, finding it or crafting it then demands one game session in which the story diverts toward the procuring of said object. A one-dot Hedgespun token won’t take more than a game session to resolve, while a five-dot Hedgespun item might take two or three sessions of story. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, of course, just a guideline to represent Fate’s capricious demands.
- Wondrous Allure
A Hedgespun item boost a changeling’s allure in social situations. For each Hedgespun item visibly present on or near a character (and possessed by the character), that character gains a +1 boost to any Socialize rolls made among other changelings. Smart changelings know that such social potency wears down, and squandering such wondrous allure is a true waste, indeed. Hedgespun items do not create an actual bump to a changeling’s Status score any more than owning a Prada bag doesn’t guarantee a step up the social ladder.
Hedgespun Types
Below are some guidelines to consider when creating Hedgespun items of a particular type. Certainly tokens are capable of containing far more versatile magic than what’s listed here, but this should represent a good jumping-off point, as well as a watermark for any particular sorceries one wishes to invent and include in the token’s abilities.
Hedgespun Automatons
Creating automatons is a little different from creating other Hedgespun items. Mechanically, the process is still the same, though often some particularly unique ingredients go into the crafting of such a “creature.” Generally, some kind of “breath of life” is necessary, and this functions as the creature’s heart.
An automaton, similar to a Hollow, needn’t be created by a single changeling. An entire motley can contribute token dots toward the creation of a Hedgespun creature. Also, dots spent for such a token needn’t be limited at five. Because dots spent contribute to the automaton’s overall Attributes and Skills (at a rate of two dots per one Attribute point and one dot per one Skill point), a character could conceivably keep adding dots until the automaton has a wide variety of abilities.
- Basic Construct
Every automaton begins its mockery of life with the following Attributes already in place: Intelligence 1, Wits 1, Dexterity 1, Stamina 1 and Strength 1. The automaton’s creator builds upon these base stats. Unless points are purchased in Resolve or Composure, an automaton has no Willpower. All automatons can begin life between Size 1 to Size 3, and can only be given greater Size through Merit dots (+1 Size for each dot spent accordingly).
An automaton does have limitations, though. No Mental or Social dice pool can ever exceed four dice and it must be fed one point of Glamour per week, or the automaton becomes inert, though it again awakens when fed Glamour by the creator. Automatons do not possess Wyrd, Glamour or Clarity of their own.
Hedgespun Art
Art spun from the dreams and nightmares of the Thorns is often quite strange. Even when inactive, such art carries a veneer of the bizarre such as how the eyes in a painting seem to follow you across the room or how the shape of a sculpture is impossible in the same manner of an Escher design. Such art rarely affects a single witness, instead spreading its effect to all who gaze upon it, or even everyone within a certain radius (base radius is 50 yards).
For the most part, Hedgespun art is much like clothing; it’s a way to drop a Merit dot on something memorable and cosmetic for the simple purpose of showing off. If the Storyteller is willing, further dots spent on a piece of Hedgespun art could go toward:
• Increasing the radius of effect (each dot could add an additional 50 yards of effect).
• Adding to or subtracting from the dice pools of all nearby (Mental and Social Skills are more common than Physical). Simply by being near, the piece of art may have a kind of caffeinate effect, or even a soporific effect. Those around the art may feel energized in conversation or sluggish of mind. One dot is equivalent to +1 or –1 to a given dice pool, and this could even be mixed (if one wanted to invoke a kind of drunken aura, the art might incur bonuses to Social rolls but minuses to Mental pools).
• Leeching from those who look upon the splendor and strangeness. One dot allows for the piece of art to leech a point of Willpower from those who look at the art. An additional dot might allow the art to store these points so that the changeling owner of the art could draw upon this reserve of Will at a later date. Glamour can be leeched, as well, but that would require two dots (two to leech, another two to harvest said Glamour).
Hedgespun Machines
Spinning machines from within the Hedge is no easy task. For the most part, simple machines are generally doable. A doorknob is just a wheel and axle, and maybe when such a knob is placed on a hard surface, the doorknob opens a door into a character’s Hollow. A handheld trebuchet is just a lever, and maybe that token flings Hedge pebbles that never miss.
The creation of complex machines is far more difficult, however, incurring a –3 to the Wits + Crafts roll made to build such a token. (Note that something like a car is not just one complex machine, but a series of them. Making a Hedgespun vehicle actually requires the integration of several tokens.)
It is very difficult to create Hedgespun items that are electronic in nature: computers, phones, televisions, etc. Again, it’s not impossible: any attempt to make such complicated electronics causes a –5 penalty to the Wits + Crafts roll necessary.
A single dot in a Hedgespun machine represents a basic functionality similar to an ordinary machine that could be attained through mundane means, but with a distinctly fae appearance or quirk. With the Storyteller’s approval, below are a couple of ways that dots can be spent when one is creating a Hedgespun machine:
• The item provides an appropriate equipment bonus at a rate of +1 dice for each dot spent. This can apply only to a single Skill. A little clockwork caterpillar that plunges into a lock and tries to open it with twitching mandibles would add to a lock-picking (Larceny) attempt. A series of optical lenses (taken perhaps from the actual eyes of cat-faced goblins from the Goblin Market) worn around the head might automatically determine what would best clarify or magnify what is in the character’s view, adding as such to Investigation rolls.
• One dot can be used to increase the machine’s Durability rating by one. (Alternately, dots could be spent to provide the item with the ability to pierce Durability the way a mortar bit on a drill might do — for each one dot spent, the item can ignore a point of an item’s Durability. Think of a turnscrew drill made from a basilisk’s head — the creature’s spiraling tongue might be the point that could pierce, say, the heavy steel of a reinforced safe).
Hedgespun Raiment
- Main Article: Hedgespun Raiment
Hedgespun raiment is any kind of clothing or armor spun from elements found amongst the Thorns. Such items can be crafted, otherwise they are treated as a merit.
Hedgespun Weapons
A Hedgespun weapon starts off with a +1 equipment bonus, and its type of damage is determined by the type of weapon. Dots purchased in a Hedgespun token weapon could go toward the following:
• Adding to the equipment bonus. Each dot spent can increase the equipment bonus by +1 (two dots would give a weapon a +3 bonus, then, since each Hedgespun weapon starts its existence with the +1 bonus already in place). If the weapon’s only benefit is this equipment bonus, the weapon likely doesn’t require activation.
• A dot can be spent to increase the weapon user’s Defense — perhaps a blade with moonlight trapped in its metal is dizzying to those who make incoming attacks, or a grotesque rifle made of moldering bones attracts so many fat flies that the swarm of it occludes the shooter in a haze of insects (thus making him harder to hit). Defense cannot be more than doubled with a Hedgespun weapon’s dots in most cases.
• Dots can add to the weapon’s Durability or be used to reduce the Durability of objects that end up the target of the weapon. A frail blade made of delicate crystal may see its Durability increased supernaturally (+1 Durability per dot spent), or an object may suffer –1 Durability per dot spent if the crystalline blade has the keen sharpness to cut through even the toughest of materials.
• The weapon delivers poison or another toxin (an axe edged with biting spiders, a bow whose envenomed arrow tips ooze with a basilisk’s ichor). Each dot spent toward this adds to the Toxicity of the weapon by +3 (three dots therefore means that poison delivered has a Toxicity rating of 9).
References
- Rites of Spring, p. 138-144