Revision as of 19:45, 16 February 2017

Handling Fetches

The information on this page relates to staff's stance on Fetches, on how/when/why they should be played, and on which of the optional rules from Autumn Nightmares we encourage you to use. We may or may not use all of them, and our stance may be different from other STs you have played with.

Rather than duplicate the entire chapter(s) being referenced here, staff recommends you check out the section in the CtL core book starting on page 251, and chapter 3 of Autumn Nightmares, starting on page 98.

What is a Fetch?

A moral dilemma. A big one.

In essence, when you are taken, the True Fae who steals you away will leave a double, a substitute, behind. This double, the fetch, steps into your mortal life, as the only life it has been given.

On the one hand, some fetches are psychotic monsters who deliberately wreak as much havoc as possible and work to destroy any vestige of a life you might have had.

On the other, a fetch is even more of a victim than the changeling it replaces. The fetch is garbage. It is string and twigs and an old slab steak bound together with magic and a snippet of your soul. It can't help being what it is. It was created with a purpose, and not all of those purposes are terrible ones.

Do you blame the fetch or the Fae who gave it life?

Do I Have to Have a Fetch?

Quick answer: no.

Long answer: in most cases, the True Fae who takes you WILL leave a fetch behind. In most cases. This is not always true (though exceptions are rare). If you come out of Arcadia and find no fetch, remember, it looked like you. It was living your life. It's entirely possible that your fetch got into an awful car accident and your entire family thinks you're dead -- thereby ensuring that your life is screwed over even without the fetch's deliberate choice.

Can I Play my Fetch?

Quick answer: yes.

Long answer: staff has made it possible for players to play fetches, so you could certainly play a fetch, and, later, after the fetch is slain/frozen, play a changeling version of that fetch, but you may not have both alts active simultaneously.

See the Fetches/Applications page for how to create a Fetch PC.

Can I Play Somebody Else's Fetch?

Answer to this one is also yes. See disclaimer above.

Unknowingly a Fetch

This can go two ways:

1. You and another player decide you'd like to make alts for each other. One plays the Changeling, the other the Fetch.
2. You check the +fetch/list and contact a player there. See explanation below.

In CG or out, any Mortal character (not Psychic or Thaumaturge) may volunteer to +fetchify and be added to a list of potential fetches for PC Changelings. Check the '+help fetch' file in game for more command details.

This means that, to the Mortal's knowledge, they are a totally normal person. They have no clue they are actually made of a few twists of chicken wire and eggshells with some straw on top.

Once the Changeling escapes Arcadia, however, that changes. Poor Fetch. Their life, it was all a lie.

The +fetch/list command will show a list of those players who have volunteered their characters for potential future Fetch play. Staff will NOT stop other players from attacking your character if you are playing a Fetch. ICA=ICC. You should always be prepared to die.

Granted, there are of course many, many types of Fetch stories which do not involve immediate murder, and staff has provided this opportunity in the first place because it will be worthwhile to explore them...

In terms of mechanics and +sheets, once you and your Fetch have agreed that you seem to be good fits, your Fetch must send up a +request with their altered +sheet details. Use the information on the Fetches/Applications page.

Knowingly a Fetch

This is basically the same as the first option above: you make a Fetch alt and play it with a Changeling friend.

PLEASE remember that you CANNOT, ever, buy an Echo with a Wyrd requirement higher than the Wyrd of your Changeling. At the moment staff has not locked this in the +xps code itself, but if it is abused, more paperwork hassle will ensue on your end of the equation.

Mechanics

Fetches come with a few unique mechanics and abilities, and a number of optional traits. See staff's HRed list below.

Echoes

Echoes are the fetch's version of Contracts. This is their magic, their weapon, their defense. Some of it is absolutely horrifying (and so cool!).

By the book, a fetch receives one free Echo per dot of Wyrd its corresponding changeling gains.

As we are making them playable by PCs in an environment where high-powered play will be somewhat inevitable, staff is allowing the player of a fetch to purchase new Echoes as though they were Contracts. This may be modified if every single fetch suddenly has every single Echo. Keep your purchases thematic to your fetch's personality/purpose, please.

An Echo's cost is determined by its Wyrd requirement. A Wyrd 1 Echo costs the same as a 1 dot Contract at Affinity price (dots x 6), Wyrd 2 is the same as 2 dots, etc.

All fetches receive 'Attuned to the Wyrd' by default.

Construction Materials

Fetches may be made out of Hedge materials, mortal world trash, rocks, sticks, clay, discarded buttons, a rotten hunk of dead deer, etc.

For purposes of construction, staff is using the optional 'Ingredients' section in Autumn Nightmares, page 104.

In this section, materials are divided into four categories, which each influence the Fetch's personality and capabilities. Think of them as Seemings. Only the bonuses ('blessings' in our seeming simile) are described below. See the book for details.

Fetch Children

Staff is using both the "Fetch-children" and "Fetch-spawn" rules from Autumn Nightmares, pp.105-6.

Merging with Fetches

See Autumn Nightmares pp.106-7. This will require a PRP. It may be done by two PCs (i.e. you are a PC Fetch playing with a PC Changeling) or a PC and a storyteller (i.e. the storyteller is playing the NPC Fetch).

Wyrd Consumption

Holy flutternutters, YES. This is fantastic. And terrifying. See Autumn Nightmares pp.107-8. If you are a PC Fetch and do this, you will almost 100% be murdered horribly.* Just saying.

Devourers, Charybdians, the Ravenous

Fetches who perform this abomination are known as Devourers, and have special badass mechanics.

They are also 100% antagonists, which means they fall under the "limited play span" rule, and the right to play them must be purchased in the Ticket Arcade. They may be purchased as Plot Antagonists, and staff will work with you to make a suitably terrifying story for their horrific deeds and inevitable demise.

In game terms, Devourers:

• Do not suffer wound penalties.
• Suffer only bashing damage from bullets/bladed weapons.
• Use the higher of Wits or Dexterity for determining Defense.
• Lose 1 Glamour per hour.

  When Glamour is exhausted, they lose 1 Willpower per hour.

  When Willpower is exhausted, they suffer 1 Bashing per hour.

  Once a Devourer's health track is full of Lethal damage from hunger, it is too weak to move and suffers one point of Aggravated damage per hour (rather than per minute), until it dies of starvation.

• Can consume other fetches, tokens, or goblin fruits for Glamour, and cannot gain Glamour in any other way: they must devour it.

  Fetch: 1 point of Glamour per dot of the fetch's Health + Wyrd

  Token: 1 point per dot (immune to any damage, i.e. it can eat knives without harm)

  Fruit: 1 point per fruit

• If a Devourer consumes a changeling (or a hob), the Devourer adds its victim's Wyrd rating to its own.

  (This would be why Courts send weak changelings against Devourers...)

Doing so, however, does NOT refill any Glamour, and after eating a changeling, the Devourer falls into a coma-like state for a number of hours equal to its (new) Wyrd rating. Nice and easy to kill, then. Got any Wyrd 1 friends to sacrifice..?

To be clear, Devourers can have effective Wyrd ratings higher than 10. This is why they are absolutely insanely terrifying, broken things.

• Cannot have Intelligence ratings higher than 2, and Social rolls (except Intimidation) suffer a -5 dice penalty.

* The other fraction of a percent will be murdered less horribly.

Catches

Yes. While you do not NEED to have a catch, if you want your Fetch to have one, Staff is using this optional rule as well. See AN pp.108-9.

In essence, everything has a price, and the magic which animates a Fetch is, in a way, a much-amplified Mask. If a Fetch's catch is revealed, (AN p.109) "It might lose its powers. It might immediately understand what it is and why it was created. It might immediately flee to the Hedge, unable to stand the touch of the human world any longer. Or, it might immediately fall to the ground in its component parts."

Catches should be appropriate both to the Fetch and to the True Fae who created it. The book provides five examples. Please note that these, too, must be bought with XP. Any custom catches should match the general severity level of the example dot level the player is aiming for.

Reasons to Kill Fetches

Per AN pp.109-110, these are less altruistic reasons to kill fetches. These are all Changeling-only. Mortals cannot do this.

Freehold Opinions of Fetches

The Fate's Harvest Freehold wants information. Knowledge is power. Its overall theme revolves around getting as much knowledge as possible, consequently, to protect itself and enrich the lives of its members.

As a Freehold, it will be considered slightly wasteful to outright murder a fetch without acquiring any useful information about it, or about the Keeper who created it, and the Custodians may eye you for it.

Court Opinions of Fetches

By the book, only opinions for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are written. Dawn, Sun, Dusk and Moon are all house-ruled.

This section begins on AN p.110.

Where opinions differ from the text, please use this page as your reference. This is what the Courts in Fate's Harvest think of fetches, so this is your guideline to how the NPCs will react.

Spring

The Spring Court here often chooses to ignore the fetch entirely: their focus is on moving forward, leaving the terrors of the past behind, and spending so much time delving into the horror of a doppelgänger living out their human life is not a desirable outcome.

While some Springs feel that the indignity of a mockery living out their life must be destroyed to let them be truly free, only a small portion of the Court will truly support them in that. It is more common for Springs who want their fetches dead to 'outsource' the duty. The Duchy of Truth and Loss gains plenty of favors owed in this pursuit...

Dawn

The Dawn Court seldom focuses on killing the fetch outright. Rather, members are encouraged to assist other members in determining whether the fetch is willing to work with the Court. Everything changes, and as the Court of Sacrifice, the willing sacrifice of your previous life for the betterment of the freehold is seen as a noble act worthy of deep respect. And sympathy.

Not all fetches, however, are reasonable, and not all fetches are willing to work with changelings. For those fetches too bitter, or too psychotic, the only real choice is a swift death. While the Court will study the creature, it respects the fetch's powerlessness over its own life, and tends to frown upon dismembering the eventual body for ingredients.

Summer

The Summer Court is in a state of internal tug-of-war over their policies regarding fetches in the Freehold area. They all agree that fetches should be put down like the rotten Gentry-pawns they are, but some members, especially those vocal few who used to belong to the LAST local freehold, firmly believe that killing your fetch, or anyone else's fetch, is a valuable rite of passage to prove your commitment to the Court.

Needless to say, there is a constant, low-level friction there, rebellion against the standard policy of the Freehold.

Sun

The Sun Court is not in any form of internal distress over their personal policies. Fetches are enemies. They are abominations in the light of any sensible power, and they must be destroyed to truly purge their changeling's life of Faerie's taint. The irony is, at times, lost on their courtiers.

Courtiers of the Found Path take matters a step further, and go out of their way to undo the life work of the fetch, to change what it has wrought, and bring their members' human lives back into balance with the path they would have taken.

Autumn

The Autumn Court is not a fetch's friend. The Court of Fear knows full well how powerful the magics of Faerie can be, and even in Fate's Harvest, keeping a fetch alive for longer than it takes to study it is rare. All fetches are fair game for inquiry, vivisection, behavioral and social experiments.

A fetch who can explain itself clearly and who willingly betrays its maker may live longer, but it is operating all the more on borrowed time.

Dusk

The Dusk Court supports its members, regardless of which path they choose. The end is coming. They know this. What they do between now and then is up to them. Some members prefer to wipe the slate clean, to rid themselves of the fetch and claim their lives. Some members don't give a bean, and let the Autumns have a field day.

Some members feel a certain measure of sympathy toward their doubles; it's a sure thing that Fate has taken an even bigger dump on them than it has on their changeling counterparts, and their lives are even less likely to have a happy ending.

Winter

The Winter Court, while not as extreme as Summer, also agrees that fetches should die sooner rather than later. Beyond the obvious realities of retaking their mortal lives to quietly blend in, there is the simple fact that having a double is an unnecessary risk to their security. Anyone who spots the 'twins' has an all too potent clue toward the changeling's nature, when attention is the very last thing they desire.

Practicality sometimes demands keeping a fetch alive, but no Winter would leave a fetch unmonitored once it has been revealed.

Moon

The Moon Court's attitudes pair well with those of Dusk, to an extent. Both Courts are supportive of their members' choices, but where Dusk believes in a modicum of restraint, Moon has no such compunctions. Moon revels in disgust, after all.

Moon would be the Court to laugh at awful vivisections for the fun of it.

Moon would be the Court to thrill in quasi-incestuous relations with your twin sister's fetch.

Moon would be the Court to leave the fetch quite unharmed, for no reason beyond a whim. Needless to say, these attitudes are yet one more infuriating thorn in the Sun Court's hide...

Fetches & Other Supernaturals

While players will not be interacting with PC supers, there are still NPCs in the area, and it is possible that changeling characters may have knowledge of how other supernaturals react to fetches.

With that in mind, staff points players toward Autumn Nightmares pp.112-3.

Only the "game system" notes are summarized below. Please see the book for full explanations of social opinions and likely actions.