CHANGELING the LOST 2e - GRAMARYE

[Erulasto]

CHANGELING the LOST – 2e
GRAMARYE

Spoiler: Gramarye

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Here they come, here they come,
Here they come and they might as well,
Too many birds in my confusion now.
Now they’ll circle over this house ‘til we take them in.

You show me a sign,
To rise up from the world we know,
And she’s strung out on life.
He soon rolls his teeth,
Spilling out from a mouth fit to overflow
Back into me.

She moves and it’s fire
Fire Underwater…
Speaks of its flame,
She speaks my name…
Well they all really want you
If only you had wanted them.
Lights move in the chalk lines
Chains that define who I am.
Here we go again
How could I have seen?
Always she’s driving…
How could I have known?
Right through the strangest calling,
Straight through the sound
Gramarye, I’ve found
See how she’s driving me down.

Straight from the sound
She is seen as a bright sun to anyone,
Hollow in mind.
With the weight of the world,
Trailing out ‘til the last stream discovers me
Alive on vine

She moves and it’s fire
Fire Underwater…
Speaks of its flame,
She speaks my name
As you move in a chalk line,
Change in the dream that I am,
Here we are the same.

I used to see something in the idea
But only one did my hands reach
Anything beautiful
Now she’s turned away,
And I…

We move in its fire
Show me a sign
Fire Underwater
Speaking its flame
It speaks my name.
She proves
Soon rolls its teeth,
The Liar.
On every one of them,
We are the same.
Lights move in a chalk line,
Change in the fire who I am.
Here we are again
How could I have seen?
Always she’s driving,
How could I have known?
Right through the strangest calling,
Straight through the sound,
Gramarye, I’ve found.
See how she’s driving me,
Always she’s driving,
Back through the strangest calling,
Straight through the sound
Gramarye, I found…
See how she’s driving me down.

– Gramarye, Remy Zero

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Spoiler: THE CITY

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Spoiler: City Map

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Population: 3.9 million
Population Density: 5244.6 per square mile
Government Officials of Note:
Mayor Kerri-Ann Calhoun
Duncan Alkirk, US House of Representatives
Gregory Sanders, Chief of Police

The major metropolis simply known as The City sits on the East Coast of the United States. It was founded in 1650 as a competitor to the more northerly City of New York. It was and has been a major trade hub on the East Coast, often supplementing its revenue and taxes from trade through fishing and logging in the states West of the city. It grew exponentially, becoming a major power in the Eastern United States until the Great Depression. When World War Two began, much of the fishing industry shifted focus and most of the harbours were converted into shipyards and many naval warships were produced at this time.

The fishing industry never truly recovered beyond some family-run businesses and independent boats. At the end of the War, many of the shipyards were decommissioned or sold off to private enterprise, and while the harbour is still frequently busy, by the mid-nineties it had not regained the industrial prominence it once held.

Despite still holding a strong economy from trade, much of the city’s own industries suffered and by the dawn of the new millennium, the City had begun the slow, winding decay that many other major metropolises in the East suffered.

Now, the City is a play on extremes – with areas like the City Center, Downtown and Gardentown being quite prominently rich while areas like the Sprawl and Mazetown being shanty-towns at best, crowding in the corpse of a once thriving city.

Spoiler: Neighborhoods and Districts

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Spoiler: Downtown

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The Downtown district is the economic and business center of the City, filled with skyscrapers and towering luxury apartments. The area is heavily patrolled by the CPD (City Police Department), and the street-level is bright and clean with many upscale shops crowding on the ground floor of the monstrously tall buildings.

Spoiler: Mazetown

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The poor district of the City, Mazetown is reminiscent of the old, decommissioned Kowloon Walled City in China. The area is packed with tall buildings, though most of them do not exceed ten stories. But they are tight and crowded and claustrophobic, with few streets being wide enough for more than a single car to pass through. These streets twist and turn as if a labyrinth, as city planners did not have much say in the organic – and chaotic – growth of Mazetown. In fact, many of the buildings were constructed haphazardly and it’s next to impossible to impose any sort of building codes on the district. Infrastructure sketchy in some areas and street vendors are aplenty. While Mazetown is nominally policed by a subdivision of the CPD called the Mazetown Enforcement Division (MED), they mostly keep to the outskirts to ensure that any trouble in Mazetown does not spill into the rest of the City.

Spoiler: City Center

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The area known as City Center is where the City began. It houses the Legislature Building, and many other locations of historic significance to the City. Heavily patrolled by the police department, it is the political and arts district of the City.

Spoiler: The Sprawl

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Once, the Sprawl was a district filled with ultra-modern (for the time) factories, industrial plants and warehouses, separated by sprawling fields, parking lots and undeveloped land. With the major decline of the City’s industrial sector, much – but not all – the factories have run silent and sit abandoned. The police rarely venture to this area, and the few factories that are still in operation maintain a well-trained and well-equipped private security force to warn off the various vagrant camps and gangs that make the area home. Small shantytowns have cropped up in the shadows of the old factories, and some of them even house large homeless populations.

Spoiler: Vicetown

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The aptly-named Red Light District of the City, Vicetown appears classy and clean where it approaches the borders of Downtown, descending in cleanliness and class as it stretches East. However, looks can be deceiving, and Vicetown is like cancer – hidden and diseased. Beneath the polished veneer of legal gambling, strip clubs, bars, and nightclubs lies prostitution, dog fights, and a readily available drug trade.

Spoiler: Gardentown

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Gardentown is a district to the West that surrounds and includes many large natural parks and beautifully tended gardens. Most of the residential areas in Gardentown are more upscale, though not the richest in the city to be sure.

Spoiler: Harbourtown

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Settled along the shores of the Brine River that cuts through the city from the northwest and ends in at Metro Bay, Harbourtown is comprised of docks and warehouses where river and sea trade still ply their wares. The southern edges of Harbourtown, where it sits against the Bay itself is mostly the old decrepit ruins of the shipyards that once produced glorious warships for maritime battles in the second World War.

Spoiler: Southreach

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A residential area of lower to middle class population, it consists mainly of lower income housing tenements, trailer parks and small single story houses.

Spoiler: Northreach

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The high-end luxury residential district in the City, filled with million plus dollar condominums, mansions and penthouse suite apartment buildings.

Spoiler: Westreach

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Prototypical US middle-class suburbs, bordering on several acreages on the northern edges of the district.

Spoiler: Eastreach

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Prototypical US middle-class suburbs, however they tends to lean towards lower-middle class compared to Westreach, due to its proximity to the Sprawl and Mazetown.

[Erulasto]

Administrative Post

Spoiler: CAST DIRECTORY

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Spoiler: THE LOST OF THE CITY

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Spoiler: The SPRING COURT

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Spoiler: THE SUMMER COURT

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Spoiler: THE AUTUMN COURT

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Spoiler: THE WINTER COURT

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Spoiler: THE COURTLESS

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Spoiler: DENIZENS of the HEDGE and ARCADIA

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The Queen of Air and Darkness: Mother Stormcrow, She who Rides upon Thunderstorms, The Black-Crystal Sun, The Lady of Black Feathers. Nyx's Keeper, and imperious ruler of a realm in Arcadia composed of a dark, crystal palace, desolate beaches, sundered fields and a Hedge-choked forest. She paraded Nyx around during feasts, before setting her loose in her realm for her courtiers to hunt for sport.

Shimmer: A Pixie from the Grove of Twixt and Twilight encountered by Nyx in the Hedge during her escape from Arcadia.

The Kappa: A strange creature encountered by Nyx in the Hedge during her escape from Arcadia, fishing in a pool of lost dreams.

Spoiler: NORMAL FOLK

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[Bennosuke]

Character Sheet and Background

Spoiler: Character Background

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Character Background Stuff

Answering questions as per page 89

Who was she before she was taken: Before she was taken, Nyx was Nina. Nina was a Freshman college student at Syracuse, recruited to the school for her ability as a power forward in Soccer. Nina came from the suburbs outside a small city in upstate NY where she was a relatively popular and relatively academically successful high school student. She and her boyfriend, Matt, were accepted to different colleges and had begun doing long distance... which wasn't going well. Nina had been known for her outgoing, friendly personality, her no-nonsense work ethic, and her naive outlook on life (even by high school standards). Nina's first semester at college was going tumultuously to say the least; she was homesick, missing her friends and boyfriend, and having trouble excelling on a sports team where all the other athletes were just as good if not better than her. It was right before Nina's first vacation trip, when she should have returned home, that she was taken.

What purpose did Nina serve in Arcadia and what was her Durance like?: Nyx was first forced to run through the wild hedges of Arcadia till the thorns had stripped away her flesh to reveal a coat of fur, and ripped her memories and personality from her. Nyx became little more than a beast, constantly fighting for survival till she was finally captured by her new Master. Chained in iron and kept in a kennel of sorts, Nyx was only released into her captor's private garden to serve as a Quarry animal in the Fae's Wild Hunt. Fed on scraps and treated like a mindless animal, Nyx's durance was low and dehumanizing.

How did she escape?: The longer Nyx stayed in Arcadia, the stronger she became. Eventually a Hunt came when Nyx was able to escape her captors, escape the gardens, and tear herself back through The Hedge, following a scent oh so familiar till she found herself back in her hometown.

Character Sheet

Spoiler: Character Box

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Clarity: [] [] [] [] []
Willpower: 4/4
Glamour: 10/10
Health: [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
Beats/Exp: 1/0
Tilts/Conditions:
Aspirations:
1. Use her knowledge and or abilities to protect another Changeling from the dangers of The Hedge or the Fae
2. Discover her Fetch
3. Establish herself as a player in the Summer Court

[Erulasto]

”Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
-William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Arcadia.

The Land Beyond the Hedge.

Dwelling of the Gentry; the True Fae masters of all above, below and sideways.

The place where the Lost are held in durance, vile.

It was not a place easily described. It was not a place of whimsy and joy – or perhaps more accurately it was not only a place of whimsy and joy. It was a place where the whims were those of inscrutable creatures whose minds did not reflect the nature of human thought or emotion alone.

No….

Arcadia was a realm of madness.

Like Alice down the wishing well, or Sarah Williams through the Labyrinth, once you pass the tangled and gnarled brambles of the Hedge you are certainly not in Kansas anymore.

How much time had passed since Nina was snatched up by her Keeper?

Sure, there was some semblance of day and night in Arcadia, when the Keeper was inclined to have it be so, but it was quixotic and ephemeral enough that day and night could last an indeterminable amount of time and there was no truth to any of it.

Without time…without the ticking of the clocks, or the passing of day to night, what was there?

Simply existing, is all.

Nina’s keeper took her name, when the thorns took her identity.

It was the last, true thing she had that was hers.

But her Keeper gave her a new name: Nyx.

And so it was that Nyx was brought to heel in the great courts of her Keeper to be paraded before a sycophantic court of goblins and Fae. She was fed scrumptious scraps from the table like a favored pet each night to build up her strength and stamina.

But when the time came; when the great bells of crystal and thunderclouds chimed, Nyx was set loose in her Keeper’s surrounding lands.

These were gardens of luminous flowers, and colors so out of space that they scarcely could be named. These were desolate, windswept fields where naught but brambles and thorns grew. These were wild rivers that surged like thundering mares, or ran deeper than the goblin mines that fed the Keeper with precious stones for her palace. These were Hedge-choked woods of ancient trees with gnarled, bent branches. These were grey, soulless beaches where the sand-crusted bones lay alongside the seaweed covered rotting carcasses of many a shipwreck.

For Nyx’s Keeper was a mighty Queen of the Gentry, and her titles and names were innumerable and old.

The Queen of Air and Darkness.

She Who Rides Upon Thunderstorms.

Mother Stormcrow.

Maiden of Black Feathers.

The Black-Crystal Sun.

And many more.

She was imperious and imposing, with eyes that flashed like lightning and a crown of silver and crystal and moonlight. A mantle of stormclouds and crow feathers hung about her and she bore a scepter of living lightning and stars.

Nyx was set loose upon the lands that the Queen held in Arcadia. Let loose to run wild and desperate. For every time she was let free, the Queen set her riders and her knights and her huntsmen and her chevaliers upon her.

They hounded her through the gardens and across the fields. Over rivers and under boughs. They ran her down across the sand and the scrub and the brambles and the moss-caked cobblestones of the garden paths.

They shot her with barbed arrows meant to injure and pain, not to kill. To weaken her. To slow her.

They were accompanied by briarwolves and hounds of black fur and stormy eyes. They followed the mournful cries of the Queens crows, and when Nyx heard them she knew doom as hot upon her heels and felt despair.

Finally, when she had been run from one end of Arcadia to the other, the Queen’s hunters and riders would strike and she would be dragged back before the Queen and thrown into the dark, cold kennels where others like her were held.

Prey for the Queen and her courtly games. Where suitors and hunters and knights would seek to win her favour with a spurious chase or a swift end.

How long had Nyx endured?

There was no way of knowing.

Had she run ten times? A hundred? A thousand?

It did not matter, for the end was always the same.

Until, however, one fateful day came when the magic of Arcadia had something…different…in mind.

Cornered and bleeding from a half-dozen cuts and scrapes, backed against old stone ruins choked by the ever-present Hedge at the edge of Arcadia – once the domain of a Gentry-Lord from a time that not even the Queen could remember – Nyx finally fought back.

A single hunter had galloped ahead of the rest to corner her and win the favor of the Queen for himself alone.

When he dismounted the horse of clockwork brass and iron with a heart-fire of molten gold, and approached with but a dagger of slivered glass…

That is when Nyx struck.

It was over in only a moment. But that single moment was enough to bring some semblance of clarity to a damaged mind, and something inside Nyx remembered.

Remembered running across a field of green, the sun on her face and the wind in her hair. Running with a pack of her own as they chased an orb of black and white to keep it from their enemies.

And in that moment…Nyx remembered her name.

Nina.

And suddenly, the fog of existence pulled back as to curtains parting to allow the morning sun. The oppressive gloom of the Hedge-choked forest seemed less, somehow, with shafts of light spearing through the thick canopy overhead and the distant piping of music drifting through the branches. The ruins behind her were less blackened stone, and more dusty marble. And there, in the center of it all, was an old arched doorway that seemed to offer an escape.

A path into the thickest parts of the Hedge – where even the Huntsmen of the Queen feared to tread.

At her clawed feet lay the wreckage of her hunter. His blood, shimmering like oil in the new sunlight that had fallen upon the forest, stained her body and the mossy grass and was thick and wondrous upon her tongue. And far away, the horns of her pursuers were yet still there….though, it seemed for but a moment that Nyx could even smell the freshest of breezes from that path. It tasted like summer. Like fresh water and flowers.

Like freedom.

[Bennosuke]

The beast-thing called Nyx was struck all at once by many thoughts and as many emotions, like a chain of lighting bolts sent by the wrath of her master, Mother Stormcrow. First was confusion over the memories; How could she be this many legged, many clawed, furry monstrosity, and be the girl running at the same time? How could she be both? The second was fear; They were still coming for Nyx and she must run, must escape. But this time it was different, "escape" didn't mean 'try to stay away for just a little longer this time', it meant Nyx was getting the hell out of here... going HOME (whatever that meant)! Lastly, there was anger, not human anger like she remembered from before, but a burning all consuming epic fury; Nyx would get away first, but then she would have her revenge. Revenge for being starved! Revenge for being tortured and chased! Revenge for whatever happened to that mortal girl on the soccer field and whatever happened that took her and those memories away from Nyx!

So Nyx rounded the walls of the old stone wall (carelessly stepping over the mechanical oily wreckage of the hunter), to take a long stare at the bramble of bush and thorn before her. The scent was there though, the scent of home, and Nyx would follow it. With the blare of hunting horns and the rhythmic thud of horse hooves behind her, Nyx plunges head long into the Hedge, headless of the thorns that had shred Nina into Nyx, another memory that was coming back to the Beast with every paw pad.

[Erulasto]

With the staccato rhythm of hoof-beats still heralding the approaching hunters, Nyx fled past the old stone wall and into that narrow, thorny vista of the Hedge. Whatever thoughts and emotions were tumultuously turning in her brain, one thing was certainly clear – Nyx had to get out.

With each loping stride, the sharp barbs of the Hedge scraped against her furred hide. Some slipped through, nicking flesh and drawing stinging pain and small shreds of who she was once. This was not the first time Nyx had been in the Hedge. On more than one occasion she had sought to flee those pursuing her through the brambles, so she knew – at least in some deep, instinctual part of her mind – the thorny kiss it could offer.

But this time seemed different.

There was no twisty turns or alternate routes. This path was, if it could be called so, straight.

Beyond the tangled thorns and briars of the Hedge wall, there seemed to be polished black stone – like mirrored glass – and with each erstwhile glance, Nyx was able to – for the first time in as long as she could remember – see herself.

What the Queen had made her.

What she used to be.

Some strange amalgam of the two – like a patchwork creature brought to life under the tender mercies of Doctor Frankenstein – and yet, there was no ugly seams or stitches. Flesh flowed with an unnatural fluidity into fur, and despite the vibrant blood streaking her coat from the razor barbs of the Hedge, there was a primal beauty there.

Back through the beyond, the thundering hooves faltered as the riders slowed, to press into the briar-choked tangle she had fled into.

The hunters and chevaliers still came on, though their pace had slowed as they worked tirelessly to avoid the thorns themselves. For despite the mail and leathers they wore, even those were not protection against the Hedge.

Out of the corner of Nyx’s eye, she caught a flitter of movement through the brambles. A wolf, fur as white as untouched snow and eyes of bright, wintery blue, loped alongside her. Or at least – a reflection of it appeared to lope along – though in truth, Nyx was alone.

The brow of the wolf bore two branching horns like a stag, and a long tuft of white fur hung from its muzzle like a beard.

As she ran, the white wolf keeping pace, she heard a laughing voice in her head. Old and wizened, yet regal.

”You run like the wind, beast-child. But you are still pursued. As you have found your way – the first in an age – onto my old roads, I am beholden to offer you a gift. Would you like me to bar their way?”

[Bennosuke]

Nyx cannot even stifle her growl at the wolf-thing that continues at her side. How could she trust anyone after all she has been through? How could she trust someone from "this place"?

She could hear the pounding of the hunter's hooves, the call of their horns, but Nyx was too angry and too afraid to trust someone new. But there was still human intelligence buried within her bestial figure. "How kind of you," Nyx growls, her powerful legs driving her through the forest of vines, "but I will escape on my own. If you must owe me a gift, then I ask that you wait till I am truly free."

The image of Nyx's new body, of the body she was turned into filled her mind. What had she looked like before? What did it matter, she had so many powerful legs to run with. Nyx would escape. She was somehow more certain of this than she had ever been. And she had razors for claws. Nyx would escape, and she WOULD bring pain on her captor and Her servants.

[Erulasto]

The wolf-thing shuddered bodily, shoulders shaking as its head dipped low. Nyx could have sworn it was laughing, but no sound came from the winter-furred beast.

”Very well, beast-child. You have a fiery spirit. If you so desire, come seek me out when you have found your freedom.”

The white wolf slowed its loping pace, and Nyx soon left the ethereal reflection behind as she continued down the Hedge-worn path. Ahead, the sound of rushing water was heard and a faint light appeared at the end of the path – where the tight confines of the path led out into a wider area.

Over the rushing waters, Nyx heard the distant voice of the wolf one final time.

”Be wary of the waters, beast-child. You are not free yet.”

And with those words echoing in her addled mind, Nyx suddenly found herself upon a rocky plateau. Behind her, the narrow trod through the Hedge still stood. The rocky outcropping loomed high above a raging river of frothing white water. It carved a winding path through a high-walled gorge, where the jagged rocks were wet with accumulated moisture from the churning waters below.

High above Nyx, at the crest of the gorge, the sky was blotted by a thick canopy of leaves. They were a dark, emerald green, but the edges glowed with a quicksilver luminescence and bathed the gorge in a sort of ghostly moonlight. The illumination was enough to reveal long, sinuous shapes sliding gracefully through the water.

Eels, or snakes, perhaps. Whatever they were, there were dozens of them coiling and squirming in the raging riverbed. And they were easily as long as she was in this unseemly beast-shape.

A steep, uneven path led down to the water’s edge, though choked with moss and slick with water, Nyx was aware of how perilous this path truly could have been even in her maddened state.

No…

The better option – such as it could be called – was a narrow tree that had fallen across the gorge and led to another small winding path that led along the upper reaches of the gorge and out of sight around a bend.

The tree would be a tricky crossing, for it was rotted and old and narrow, but it also wasn’t strong enough to support the massive destriers that her pursuers rode. Not only that, but Nyx was sure she could dislodge or move the tree if she put her back and mind to it.

[Bennosuke]

As the wolf-thing departed, Nyx called after it, "Thank you! And what should I call you when I see you next?"

Nyx could barely contain her rage when she came across the river crossing, but her growl subsided when she found the fallen tree. She raced toward it, and used all her grace to cross to the other side.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Assuming you want an athletic roll for this Dex/Str + Athletics =7d10 (7d10)[8][5][10][3][8][5][4](43) and 10 again (7d10)[8][5][4][2][8][8][2](37)

[Erulasto]

”I am the White Wolf. The Walker in the Maze. The King in White. But you, little beast-child, may call me Oah.” The voice tickled in her mind, faint and distant as if speaking through an old tin can and twine. But audible, none the less.

The name meant nothing to Nyx, but given how many of the Gentry and the otherkin who dwelt in Arcadia took honorifics and titles with pomp and majesty, it wasn’t a surprise at all.

The log rocked under her paws as she sped across, though there was no fear of falling in. Her claws and paws found ready purchase on the old, rotten wood and soon enough she found herself on the other side.

But with a crashing clamor, one of her pursuers broke free of the tangled briar-path she had fled through. He, if truly it was a he, was tall and imperious looking. With skin like polished glass catching the luminescence of the leaves above. Eyes like opals were levelled upon Nyx, and the small hole where a mouth should be expanded to show a lamprey-like maw, save filled with jagged bits of bloody glass instead of true teeth.

Hefting a great axe over his shoulder, the twin-moon blades glinting with burnished silver and electrum, the hunter took a first, tenuous step onto the log.

The winding path along the edge of the crevasse was still there, calling her to freedom. But the hunter was vulnerable while crossing, and that burning summer bonfire in her heart; the rage and the frustration called her to action.

Never had Nyx felt the tear between fight or flight so strongly.

Spoiler: OOC

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Those are great rolls! I should have probably mentioned I wasn’t planning on needing you to make any rolls during the escape, as it would be a short campaign if you didn’t even make it out of the Hedge.

It was one of the recommendations in the book about playing through an escape. So going forward, feel free to just ad-lib your successes going forward until the prelude ends. Throw in any complications you want, but this is more to set the scene than have any real trouble.

My bad!

[Bennosuke]

The tree had been shaky under Nyx's feet, not well affixed into the muddy soil on her side of the gorge. She would either shake the hunter off the log, or if she could, truly dislodge the tree to remove the passage across the river all together.

Spoiler: OOC

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I know you said no rolls, but as long as we are working collaboratively towards the same basic "ending", I have no problem with them. Rolling Nyx's Strength 3 + Athletics 4 to try to shake the tree. Use whatever modifier you want. (7d10)[3][10][2][7][7][6][6](41) and 10 again (7d10)[2][7][2][10][7][6][9](43)

[Erulasto]

The hunter stood firm on the log as Nyx shook the length of rotting wood, his feet shifting minutely to keep the brass-soles of his boots sedentary. But Nyx was fueled by fury and perhaps a hint of panic, so when the hunter took another step further out across the gorge, the Beast heaved with all her might. The log groaned and creaked, and the hunter sped up his pace as realization seemed to dawn on him.

But before he could even get half-way, Nyx’s efforts bore fruit and with a final grunt of frustration, the log teetered and came loose.

The hunter made no sound as he plunged down with the log, splashing into the torrential river below. Almost immediately after, he surfaced with a howl of anger.

It seemed the water was only up to his chest, though still deep enough that Nyx would have been fully submerged.

Yet, this was not the danger of the river.

For moments after his howl shook its way up the crevasse walls, the strange eel-shapes in the river swarmed him with flashes of oily black scales and gnashing, razor-sharp teeth seen amidst the surging waters.

His howl became a scream, and soon his body – bound and entangled by dozens of wormy shapes – slid under the waves while a blossom of rich, vibrant red blood began to spread in the water before washing downstream.

It didn’t take long for the thrashing in the water to still, and Nyx watched the rest of his blood flow down river, leaving her – for now – alone.

Though she could still make out the shapes of others traversing the path.

At least with no bridge, her pursuit would be slowed.

Spoiler: OOC

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That works for me!

[Bennosuke]

Nyx allowed herself just enough time to shiver at the gruesome sight taking place in the river. Then Nyx turned and continued her flight. The horns of the hunters were not far off, and somehow, somewhere Nyx was chasing something called home.

[Erulasto]

Nyx made her way along the winding path that led a meandering route atop the crevasse, eventually eking out a route away from the horrid river and further into the Hedge.

The path eventually turned sharply, disappearing into a cleft in the face of the rock itself. It was narrow and black as pitch. But the rock face was covered in the brambles and thorns of the Hedge itself, and some of the vines coiled into the cleft. Even in the strange form Nyx now called her own, it was a tight squeeze and she felt the razor-sharp thorns biting into her furred hide with every shifting movement.

Soon enough, however, the tight cleft widened into a large underground grotto of sorts. She found herself on a pebbled beach, with clumbs of large, phosphorescent mushrooms of varying colors sitting at the edge of the water. The pool in the center was mirror-still, and reflected the light of a hundred bright fireflies dancing around the roof where a number of small cracks allowed thin beams of light to filter down and shimmer on the surface of the water. There was no solid path around the pool, but at the other side there was a much larger cave opening.

In the center of the pool, a large crystal jutted up from the water. Atop the crystal sat a small creature, with overlarge hands holding a rickety old wooden fishing pole.

It was about the size of a human child, if Nyx’s fragmented memory served, but its skin was wrinkled and fish-belly pale. Tufts of black hair poked out from under a Japanese-style Kasa made of reeds and wicker. It had a noticeable overbite with several jagged teeth poking up from its lower lip, shadowed by a long and spindly nose.

The creature puffed on a long-stemmed pipe, and the smoke that wafted up from the embers within had a sweet scent. Like oranges and honey as it drifted past her nose.

”Dun find many a guest ‘ere these days.” The creature muttered in a voice surpisingly deep for such a little thing, ”Yer on yer way up’n out?”

[Bennosuke]

Nyx's attention is first stolen by her reflection in the mirrored water surface. Though her complexion was contorted by the unsteady shimmer of the cave fungus and flitting fireflies, Nyx does not immediately recognize herself. How often had she had a chance to examine her new body during her Durance? Probably never! The alien nature of her reflection causes a serious pang of grief, more painful than any lashing she had received in captivity, and nearly takes her breath away.

Then Nyx's attention is drawn to the strange creature atop the crystal and again at first she struggles to stifle a warning growl. But the thing seems friendly, not that Nyx was ready to trust anyone; so she replies to its question. "Up and out? I... I don't know. I'm going home." She was not sure what this meant, but she felt it was a satisfactory answer; it was the only truth Nyx knew.

[Erulasto]

”Ah yes.” The creature said as it tucked the fishing pole between overlarge feet with what appeared to be opposable toes. It took a moment for Nyx to realize that the feet were actually hands as well. With the pole gripped comfortably therein, it pulled its kasa off and scratched at the patchy black hair on his head.

Now that the top of his head was visible, Nyx noticed that the hair – sparse though it was – encircled his head and yet did not cover the top. In fact, the top wasn’t all that normal either. Instead of a bald spot, the creature had an indent on the top of his skull. Like a bowl.

And it was filled with the same strange water that was in the pool he sat around.

”Home. Such ‘n odd word. Gots a lotta meaning for such a lil’ word.” The creature continued, as the string on its fishing pole began to jerk erratically. It fastened all four of its hands to the pole and in quick fashion, was pulling something out of the water.

It looked human. From the waist up, at least. A tiny, naked human woman with opalescent green hair and green eyes. But from the waist down, it had the body of a fish. A trout, or bass, maybe? The hook on the end of the line was barbed, and it had pierced the tiny, wriggling fish-woman through the abdomen. Tiny rivulets of black ichor dripped from the wound, soon gushing as the creature pulled the hook out and tossed the little thing into its strange maw.

With the sound of crunching bone and a tiny howl filled with the pain of finality, it licked its lips and tucked the pole down beside it before returning the hat to its head.

”Eh, sorry! Did ye want one?” It asked, pointing a long finger to the pool below it.

[Bennosuke]

Nyx flinches at the gruesome scene, withdrawing one step away from the goblin thing. Her mind draws momentarily towards memories of playing Mario on the Super Nintendo for some reason, but the absurd thought vanishes as quickly as it came. "Uh, no thank you," Nyx says with confusion at the thing's courtesy and its offering.

Regaining her composure, Nyx begins to circle the pool of water, making her way around the body of water and the Kappa, trying to instill confidence in her words as she says, "Is there another way out of this cave? Perhaps in this direction? I really must be going."

[Erulasto]

"Suit yerself." The creature said, shrugging spindley shoulders while it slowly rose on knobbly-kneed legs. "Path runs back o'er there." It said, pointing with an overlong finger to another towards the larger tunnel on the other side of the grotto.

Much to Nyx' dismay, there was no viable path to the otherside that wouldn't carry her into the placid, mirrored water. Now closer, she could see flitting fairy-lights in the dark depths. Mirrored by the fireflies above the pool. A myriad of them, in every color of the rainbow. Dancing, drifting, rising or sinking. For all that movement, however, the surface of the pool didn't so much as ripple.

"If yer gonna swim, best b'careful. Th' Mirrormere, s'called. S'full o' memories, it is. They trickle down from Arcadia." The Kappa upturned his pipe, tapping on the bowl to scatter ashes around him.

[Bennosuke]

Nyx continues her trot around the pool, towards the path indicated by the Kappa. "Thank you my friend," she says with a courteous gesture of her head. "Do me a kindness and tell any who come chasing after me that I took that path," Nyx says, indicating one of the trods that led into the mirrored water. Then The Beast was off, racing as fast as her legs would carry her so that the Kappa did not have time to bargain or argue with her request.

[Erulasto]

If there was any sort of rebuttal that the Kappa had intended to make, Nyx’s hasty departure washed it away. She passed along the narrow edges of the shoreline, trying not to stare too hard into the black depths, until finally she found herself slipping into the much larger and more spacious tunnel on the other side of the grotto.

It was strange, as all things in this realm were. The walls of the tunnel were ribbed with calciferous growths and it was entirely circular from floor to ceiling. As if a massive worm had wriggled through the solid stone.

As Nyx sped along the tunnel, which veered slightly left or right at times, but ultimately ran fairly straight, she could hear soft laughter and music from ahead.

Bells and flutes and harps and singing voices.

And a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Bennosuke]

In the long circular tunnel, Nyx slows her pace at the sound of laughter and singing. Were the voices familiar? Was this some trap? The flight had been so sudden and so desperate, and now Nyx was not so certain what it was she was running to. If only she could remember more of what this home was!

She approaches the exit of the tunnel cautiously.

[Erulasto]

As Nyx cautiously approached the exit of the tunnel, the bright light that heralded the egress grew at once both brighter and dimmer paradoxically. When the tunnel ended, it opened into a vibrant, beautiful garden.

The grass was neatly trimmed and symmetrical across the entire clearing, which was surrounded by tall hedge-walls that rose dozens of feet into the air. Small winding paths of white polished stone coiled like a spiral around a table sitting in the center of the clearing. Bright, colored streamers and paper lanterns were hung from lamp posts and the occasional willow tree.

In the center there sat a large round table covered entirely by food and drink in fancy dishes, with pure silver cutlery. The smell was overpoweringly delicious and it tugged at the hunger Nyx had been half-denied during her stay in Arcadia.

Dancing and singing and laughing about the table were a dozen small pixie-like figures, barely large enough to hold the cutlery themselves. But they were doing their best to enjoy the feast while the previous owners partially decomposing bodies sat in a rancid pile off to the side of the small party.

As Nyx approached, she saw a pair of the pixies having a tug of war with a chicken leg, while another was sitting on the rim of a wine-filled pewter goblet while using a hollow acorn cap to help themselves to the contents within.

It was something of a surreal experience, to be sure.

Across the clearing was a tall stone archway that was entangled with the Hedge briars, but opened to a wide path of stone walls.

[Bennosuke]

Nyx suppressed a whimper. She was out of the cave, but she was still not home. Doubt creeped further into her brain. What was this home that she was searching for? Where was it?

The clearing was undeniably beautiful. Everything in this strange land was. But Nyx new that did not mean it was safe, nor friendly. She approached the pixies cautiously, padding silently on soft paws as she studied the strange creatures. Pangs of hunger seemed to draw the poor lost animal closer to this feast, even though she new the danger. As she begins to draw attention from the pixies, Nyx makes sure to stand tall and growl fiercely, feral instincts kicking in. "Which way is home?" she snarled at the party goers, not sure if this was a question they would help with.

[Erulasto]

Up until Nyx broke the spell of their revelry with her snarled words, the pixies made no show of even being aware of her presence in the clearing. They danced with silverware, cavorted across floral place settings, played hop-scotch with sliced cheeses and sang songs that were half-bawdy tavern fare and half-exquisite opera.

When Nyx finally spoke, there was a startled snapping sensation that rippled across the clearing and in that instant all the pixies were gone.

Not gone gone. They were there, but hiding. Two peered out from under the lid of a tea pot. One even crawled into the cavity of a roast chicken.

All but one.

It was barely a foot tall, with a slender waifish figure of skin like pale moonlight and dotted with sparkling starlight. Her body was swathed in diaphanous, gauzy silks and two great dragonfly-like wings fluttered nervously on her back. Too-wide black eyes were framed by vibrant rainbow-hued tresses.

And when she spoke, her tiny voice rang like bells.

”What is home?”

[Bennosuke]

Nyx approaches the small figure cautiously, padding closer as if she were an explosive that may go off any moment. It was a good question, one that hurt Nyx's head if she thought about it too hard. What was home. Struggling to find the words Nyx says, "I'm not sure. It's where I'm from I think, or where I am supposed to be... I was taken from there... and it's where I am trying to go now." She looks into the tiny pixie's eyes, suddenly finding herself pleading with the thing for help.

[Erulasto]

”I see.” The pixie said, rather matter-of-factly as she placed tiny hands upon her hips. ”My home is the Grove of Twix and Twilight. Maybe that is your home? But I have never seen you before.”

With a furious flutter of her gossamer wings, the pixie rose from the table to flit around Nyx while looking the Changeling over with those too-wide eyes. Eventually, she plopped down on Nyx’s shoulder.

”No, no, no. You are not of here, nor are you from there.” She said rather abruptly, tiny fingers petting through the fur on Nyx’s head. ”You…you are from Beyond here. I can show you!” She said with a cheerful tinkling of bells before pointing to a hollow log that lay half-buried by the Hedge.

”Through there!”

[Bennosuke]

Nyx approaches the fallen log carefully, sticking her snout down to sniff at it. Was it even big enough for her to crawl into? What did it smell like?

[Erulasto]

The log was barely big enough for Nyx to fit through; it would be a bit tight, and likely dirty as the log was damp and covered with an overgrowth of moss. Even from here, Nyx could see the scuttling of beetles and the wriggling of the occasional wormy thing inside.

It was revolting.

But...on the other side, Nyx saw light.

More brambles and briars and Hedges, yes.

But light. And if she strained, she could almost swear that she heard the sound of voices talking. Not voices like the Fey, or the Hobgoblins and other dreaming creatures that dwelt here. But people.

How was the weather in Miami?

What did you get Tony for his little one's birthday?

God, that dumb bitch couldn't make a latte if her life depended on it!

The pixie upon Nyx's shoulder pointed again.

"Go on. Through there, left past the topiary garden and up the spiral stairs. You can not miss them. I am Shimmer. I am not able to follow past this log, unfortunately."

[Bennosuke]

Nyx's eyes go wide with an anxious terror. These voices sounded familiar somehow, not of friends or family, but simply of a half remembered reality. Was this the way home, or was this some trap? Perhaps this Shimmer worked for her Master!

Nyx takes a few cautious steps backwards on all fours, leaning back and away from the log like a puppy fighting its leash. She says to the pixie, "How do I know it is safe that way? How do I know it will take me... home?"

[Erulasto]

"You do not." Shimmer said, before her face split into a mirthful smile. [b]"It is called a Leap of Faith for a reason, silly. The pixie slid from Nyx's shoulder, wings fluttering furiously as she darted out to pass by the log tunnel in several sharp sweeps.

You wish to go home. How badly?" Shimmer asked, cocking her head to the side curiously. "You can come to my home if you wish. My sisters love new toys to play with." The manner in which it was said was playful and light, but Nyx had been the plaything of something in Arcadia and part of her recoiled at the thought of doing it again. Even if the pixie literally did mean play. With toys, or a game like tag or hide-and-seek.

Which something in Nyx thought that is exactly what Shimmer meant.