Changeling: The Lost Questions

[:Serenity:]

I'm playing my first game of Changeling: The Lost. An NPC (former character gone crazy(er)) is entering my character's dreams and giving her nightmares. This is keeping me from regaining willpower and just not pleasant for my character RP-wise.

My character is trained in Contracts of Dream (2 ranks) and Fighting Style- Dream Combat (4 ranks). As far as I understand it, I can enter his dream and mess him up, which could make him temporarily crazier and reduce his willpower. That would probably just lead to him doing more heinous things which I don't want to do. Can I mess with him using dreams? How can I protect my own dreams? If I'm just sleeping normally, it seems like he's pretty much free to do what he wants.

Thanks!

[whydoibover]

An oneiroancer (dream mage) can always enter his own dreams, and therefore can always protect them, for free. He doesn't need to do anything special.

Otherwise you have to enter someone elses dreams via the dreamscape from a place with a connection to the Wyrd (Hollow or in the Hedge itself). And you have to be in a trance whilst you do it, your body remaining there (in full view of beasties if you were silly enough to do it in the Hedge alone)

Dream combat itself is like normal combat but with a few different rules and damage is done straight to willpower. If he's out of willpower he can't spend it to haunt your dreams.

There's more, it's all in the special rules part, except what dream combat does, it substantially boosts your abilities

[:Serenity:]

So my character can just go to sleep normally, be having a dream and decide to enter her dream? Or do I need to decide beforehand that she'll be riding her dreams that night?

[Lord_Gareth]

You're always in your own dreams if you're sleeping unless you're actively in someone else's. In fact, if your character has a living Fetch an easy way to avoid these assaults would be to start spending your nights in your Fetch's dreams. Sadly, you'll still be losing Willpower, but you'd avoid the nightmares.

So, this NPC is entering your dreams somehow. That means you either have a pledge with the Dreaming task with them, OR they're using the second dot of Dream contracts, OR they have a token that lets them do so. If it's the first one, tricking them into breaking the pledge can end the assault. If it's the second one, then destroying the photo or other physical representation of you they're using will end the assault. If it's the third one, smash the token.

Now, if you want to throw them out of your dreams you've got a few options. The first is just to wake up, which you can attempt to do with a roll (this is described in Chapter Three of Changeling: the Lost) that's penalized by the Intensity of the nightmare. The second is to find the intruder and engage him in dream-combat; if he has no Willpower himself, he can't enter your dreams (this is a bit of a zero-sum option, though). The best thing to do is to get your motley-mates in on your dreams through a pledge, so that all of you can enter a shared dreamscape that you can protect collectively. Detecting intruders in your dreams can be done by analyzing the dream (again, Chapter three), after which you're free to engage them at will.

Further questions?

[:Serenity:]

Thank you for the thorough answer. I think that explains my options of defending myself quite well.

I've decided that along with defending myself (most likely through a pledge with my Motley mates-once I figure out making pledges) I will try entering the NPC's dreams using a picture I have of him. Then I can use dream psychotherapy and try to fix whatever broke and turned the changeling murderous.

[Lord_Gareth]

Thank you for the thorough answer. I think that explains my options of defending myself quite well.

I've decided that along with defending myself (most likely through a pledge with my Motley mates-once I figure out making pledges) I will try entering the NPC's dreams using a picture I have of him. Then I can use dream psychotherapy and try to fix whatever broke and turned the changeling murderous.

Depending on what your character knows (as decided by mutual consent between you, your Storyteller, and your character's Occult skill) you might be able to enlist the aid of one or more Incubi (dream-beings; see Dancers in the Dusk) for the purpose as well. Some of them can be surprisingly positive in nature, or are at least not automatically and maliciously harmful (many Succubi, for example, refuse to kill).

If you don't use Dancers in the Dusk, there's still some other options. A high-Intensity dream, for example, is harder for ANYONE to shape, and if you simply want him out of your head then paying a friendly oneiromancer (or your motley) to create high-Intensity positive dreams can shut him out by simple force of psychic weight.

[:Serenity:]

Ooh, thanks! My character is a Hunterheart-Lion, so if I can't solve things any other way I'll try to contact the Cat incubus and make a pledge with it to protect my dreams.