Changling Merits [A-C]

Age Reversal (•)
Book: Grim Fears, p. 84
Prerequisites: Wyrd 4
Effect: The changeling ages backward instead of forward: a 50-year-old man gets younger by the day —one year of life is equal to one year reversed (instead of turning 51, he turns 49 on his birthday). This has little mechanical effect, though certainly it’s possible that a player will seek to affect stats accordingly as a character grows younger — Willpower might drop, for instance, but Physical stats might increase a bit. (Why is this such a low-dot Merit? Ultimately, because in the day-to-day game, it doesn’t have a lot of effect. Maybe a year passes and the character appears a bit younger, but it’s only the type of thing that really shows itself over a long chronicle — and even then, it doesn’t have any huge systemic effect on the character,instead incurring a more narrative effect. Plus, the drawback is worth figuring into the cost.)
Drawback: Not only does the character still one day die (he’ll eventually be a baby and will continue to age backward until his frail infant body cannot support his life outside a womb), but in addition, the character does not find his life expectancy grown any more (according to Wyrd) once he purchases this Merit.


Arcadian Body (••••)
Book: Rites Of Spring, p. 87
Prerequisite: Three or more dots on the affected Attribute
Effect: Your character’s body was significantly changed by her time in Arcadia. Some combination of the transformations inflicted upon her by her Keeper and your character’s life in Arcadia altered one of her Attributes so that it can now be increased to an inhuman degree. The fifth dot in this Attribute costs only one of the dots you have at character creation, and your character can raise this Attribute to a maximum of six dots by spending experience points. Changelings can only purchase this Merit once. Available at character creation only. The basic form of a changeling’s body is set once the changeling comes back from Arcadia.


Arcadian Metabolism (•••)
Book: Rites Of Spring, p. 87
Effect: Your character adapted to Arcadia better than most changelings. Perhaps he was in Arcadia an especially long time, or possibly the faerie fruit in his portion of Arcadia was especially potent. Regardless of the reason, your character gains additional benefit from eating goblin fruit. He regains one point of aggravated damage, two points of lethal damage or four points of bashing damage for every goblin fruit he consumes. The worst damage always heals first. However, your character can heal aggravated damage in this fashion only once a day. Characters who possess this Merit also often possess the Long of Days Merit.
Drawback: Your character’s unusual metabolism is not an unqualified blessing. His body chemistry is subtly different from that of an ordinary mortals. Medicine rolls to help him all receive a –1 penalty. In addition, he can no longer survive without infusions of food touched by Arcadia. If your character does not eat at least one piece of goblin fruit every week, he suffers one point of bashing damage that cannot be healed except by eating goblin fruit. Your character suffers an addition point of bashing damage for every three additional days that he does not eat a piece of goblin fruit. However, eating a single goblin fruit cures this damage and has its normal affect upon the character. Characters with this Merit who are kept from goblin fruit for too long eventually sicken and die.


Archive (• to •••••; special)
Book: Rites Of Spring, p. 87
Prerequisite: Hollow
Effect: Your character maintains, within his Hollow, a personal collection of useful information that can help with natural and supernatural research. Whether it’s in the form of a musty collection of occult tomes, a talking skull with several lifetimes of information at hand or a Glamour-powered computer network, the archive includes reference materials that can help the changeling learn about the world around him. The archive also offers insight into supernatural and occult topics that mortals cannot comprehend. In both fields of knowledge — mundane research and occult lore — this collection relates to one or more fields of specialization. Each dot in this Merit represents one field of study or area of knowledge in which your character has a wealth of tomes or computer files (or perhaps a supernatural resource) and from which he may draw information. If he has Archive •••, his dots might be assigned to computer operating systems, medieval history and goblin fruits, respectively. Topics can include arcane lore that most people don’t know about or that has been forgotten since antiquity, as well as fae lore that humanity has never known. Gaining information from an archive is a research task, as described on pp. 55–56 of the World of Darkness Rulebook, except that a changeling spends only 15 minutes per roll when researching in his archive. (This time cannot be further reduced by the Brownie’s Boon Merit, below.) Success doesn’t guarantee exactly the information for which he looks. Archives aren’t all-knowing, and they don’t always provide one definitive answer to a question, since multiple authors may have different points of view on the same subject. The Storyteller is perfectly justified in saying that a particular archive simply doesn’t reveal something. A changeling may allow another changeling the privilege of consulting his archives, but unless this consultant puts points toward the Archive Merit, the standard 30 minutes per roll are spent researching his topic. Archive areas of study include but are not limited to Fairy Tales and Folklore, Herbalism, Trods,Tokens, Goblin Fruit, Hedgebeasts, Goblin Markets, Court History (with each Court being a separate topic),Local Changeling History, Orders and, of course, almost any mundane topic from Archaeology to Zoology. An archive is located in a Hollow and is protected by the Hollow’s wards. See the Hollow Merit on p. 94 of Changeling: The Lost.

Special: Characters who share a Hollow can also share Archive dots, with each contributing to its area of knowledge. These characters each receive the full benefits of the Archives. It may happen that changelings suffer a falling-out, in which case one or more might be asked to forfeit their research privileges by the others. Those who are banned lose whatever dots they contributed, unless an agreement is worked out to split the Archives, allowing outcasts to take their areas of knowledge with them. Shared Archives should be marked with an asterisk (*) on your character sheet. See the description of the Hollow Merit for details on how to allocate dots.

Bastion (• to •••••; special)
Book: Swords At Dawn, p. 108
Prerequisites: Must belong to a motley, Wits Specialty in Oneiromancy.
Effect: A motley must have at least three members to construct a Bastion. Like a shared Hollow, a Bastion is created through experience point expenditure by the troupe as a whole rather than a single individual. The general shape and look of the Bastion can be decided by the motley as a whole, but the details depend on the changeling with the highest Wyrd rating. A Bastion is psychoactive in the same way as the Hedge and adapts itself to the highest Wyrd present. A changeling of the Autumn Court might cause the Bastion to decorate itself in gold, red and brown of fallen leaves, and the walls take on the look of burnt wood. Bastions are created by dreamscaping the shared dream of the motley (see Changeling: the Lost, p. 195). This creation process is an extended action instead of a contested action and is performed as a Teamwork action with a target number of 20. Each roll of the extended action represents one full night of work. Once constructed, the Bastion is a permanent addition to the dreams of the motley, even dreams they don’t share with each other. No matter what the dream is about, the Bastion will always appear in some way, either as a prominent feature or just a misty image in the distance. Mechanically, a Bastion is built in basically the same way as a Hollow and the maximum rating of any single feature is 5 dots. Bastion Size and Amenities both follow the same rules as those presented for Hollows(see
Changeling: the Lost, p. 94). Unlike a Hollow, Bastions only have one external door, which acts more as a useful point of reference than an actual portal in and out of the Bastion. Only members of the motley that created the Bastion may enter it (peacefully anyways) and they may do so simply by picturing themselves inside as an instant action. Once inside, a changeling may not leave the Bastion until the dream has ended. In place of Wards, Bastions have Battlements. Each dot of Battlements is worth 10 points of damage that a besieger must overcome to win entrance. Only environmental attacks (see Changeling: the Lost, p. 198)have any effect on Battlements. Once a single dot of Battlements is reduced to zero, the dot rating of the Bastion Battlements is reduced by one. Repairs can be made to the Battlements either instantly with experience point expenditure (new dots x2), which represents the changeling putting a bit of herself into the Bastion or through the same sort of extended action Teamwork roll that created the Bastion in the first place. Repairing a single dot of Battlements requires 10 successes and each roll is equal to one night. In addition to increased protection, each dot in Battlements past the first allows more changelings the opportunity to strike back at their attacker from arrow slits or other similar defensive positions. Only Personal Attacks that take the form of ranged weapons may be used from the Battlements.

• No attacks are allowed
•• Allows one changeling to attack
••• Allows three changelings to attack
•••• Allows five changelings to attack
••••• Allows the entire motley to attack


Bloodied Ground (Milestone)
Book: Autumn Nightmares, p. 103
Circumstance: The changeling must kill his fetch on the “human” side of an open gateway to the Hedge. Both the Hedge and the mortal world must be visible to the changeling when the fetch dies.
Effect: The site where the fetch died becomes a special, even sacred, place for the changeling. Whenever the changeling is in the Hedge and trying to find his way out, he can picture that spot and instinctively find hi sway to it. The player receives a +3 to Hedge navigation rolls to find the place where the fetch died (see p. 219of
Changeling: The Lost).


Broken Mirror (Special)
Book: Changeling: The Lost Core, p. 259
Type: Milestone
Effect: Regardless of the fetch’s true nature, whether the fetch is capable of genuine compassion or is become as solipsistic as the Other that spun it of wood and shadow and rusty wire, killing a fetch isn’t easy for a changeling. Destroying the duplicate of a changeling (or, worse, one’s own) feels entirely too much like destroying the changeling in question, or like destroying a part of yourself. Such a task is a breaking point for changelings of Clarity 5 or higher (p. 92). However, the act of personally destroying one’s own fetch is also a turning point of sorts. The killing may erode the changeling’s sense of self, but it also places him in a greater mastery of his own fate. And as Arcadia’s orphans, fate is more than a simple abstraction to the Lost. The player may invoke the Broken Mirror Merit once per story to gain three additional dice on a roll, just as if he had spent a Willpower point. This Merit does not count as a Willpower expenditure, and can in fact be used on a roll that is also augmented with a Willpower point, for a total of six dice. A changeling who personally kills his own fetch gains this milestone Merit, without having to purchase it with experience points. This Merit can be gained only in play; it cannot be given to a character during character creation, even if his fetch died during the course of his prelude. Players who want to simulate killing their fetches as part of back story may choose to purchase extra Resolve or Composure at character creation instead.


Brownies Boon (•)
Book: Rites Of Spring, p. 88Similar to the legendary brownies or shoemaker’s elves, you possess the ability to complete mundane tasks in record time. For any long-term work project of mundane (not supernatural) nature, you may halve the required time to complete a task as long as you are not being watched by anyone. Thus, a character with this Merit could repair a car in half the time but could not shape the Hedge more quickly. In addition, you may spend a point of Glamour to halve the time again, to a maximum of three points of Glamour and 1/16th of the normal time for any particular task.


Charmed Life (••)
Book: Rites Of Spring, p. 88
Effect: While in Arcadia, your character gained some minor measure of the enchantments that many of the True Fae use to protect themselves from harm. Once per scene, if your character suffers damage from an attack that would kill him or even just inflict one or more points of aggravated damage, your character has the option of spending one point of Willpower to cause the attacker to have to reroll this attack. The second roll is the one that affects the character. This Merit may function even if the character is unconscious, but does not function if the character has no more points of Willpower to spend. Also, this ability can only function once for any single attack roll.


Court Goodwill (• to •••••)
Book: Changeling: The Lost Core, p. 93
Effect: This Merit reflects how well liked and respected you are in a Court other than your own. While members of a given Court will always be true to their own members and agendas above all, they are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt in a dispute, or come to your assistance if it does not undermine their own position. Unlike Mantle, which represents a supernatural quality as well as a political one, Court Goodwill is entirely a social construct, and depends entirely on the opinions of the members of that Court. Mistreat them, and Court Goodwill can disappear in a flash; cultivate their friendship, and they might rally to your defense when no one else will. Court Goodwill adds to dice pools for social interaction with members of the Court in question (though not supernatural powers based on Social rolls). Each two dots (rounding up) add a +1 die bonus to relevant rolls with members of that particular Court, so a changeling with Court Goodwill (Autumn) •• adds a +1 die bonus to Social rolls with a member of the Autumn Court. The Merit also allows one to learn some of that Court’s Contracts, though the highest levels are generally reserved for members alone. As with Mantle, loss of Court Goodwill does not prevent the changeling from using any Contracts that she no longer meet the prerequisites for, though she suffers the usual penalties (see p. 124). This Merit may be purchased multiple times,representing a character’s relationship with a different Court each time. A player cannot purchase Court Goodwill (Courtless); the Empty Hearts are not a social entity in their own right. Lastly, a character cannot purchase Court Goodwill with his own Court that is the province of the Mantle Merit. Because Court Goodwill is a purely social construction, a changeling may choose to ignore an attempt by another character to apply Court Goodwill to a roll they are involved in, essentially snubbing him despite his reputation in their Court. For example, if an Autumn changeling tried to apply Court Goodwill (Summer) ••••to a roll against member of the Summer Court, the target could declare that he was ignoring the character’s reputation and thus deny the Autumn changeling those two bonus dice. However, such disrespect is a serious insult. Unless the snubbing character can prove there was a valid reason to do so the outsider was throwing his weight around in a supremely petty fashion, for example, or trying to use his leverage to get the character to act against the best interests of the Court more often than not, the momentary satisfaction of the slight costs the character dearly within his own Court. It might even result in a reduction of his Mantle rating as his reputation as a member of that Court slips, not to mention earn him the ire of the Court whose member he snubbed.


Cuckoos Egg (Special)
Book: Autumn Nightmares, p. 103
Type: Milestone
Circumstance: The changeling kills his own fetch with absolutely no witnesses, including animals. The character must then carry a piece of the fetch with him at all times to retain this Merit.
Effect: The character can step into the fetch’s life more easily with this Merit. Any rolls made to recall details about the fetch’s life, recognize people close to the fetch or otherwise behave as the fetch would receive a +3 modifier. Over time, of course, the character can gradually integrate the fetch’s life with his own goals, desires and mannerisms, but the Cuckoo’s Egg (as the piece of fetch-matter is called, regardless of what form it actually takes) makes this transition much easier.
Drawback: Other changelings, Mirrorskins especially, prize Cuckoo’s Eggs because any changeling possessing the Egg enjoys the benefit. A rival might steal the Egg and try to take over the changeling’s identity, even for a short while.