Hedgespinning

RoS p.139 - Specialties in Crafts.Hedgespinning or Occult/Survival/Investigate.Locating_Ingredients

Hedgespinning

Hedgespun items are tokens of a sort, but rather than being a mundane item infused over time with Wyrd magic and Faerie strangeness, hedgespun are consciously, deliberately made by Changelings themselves. True Fae cannot create them, and Changelings may very well have been Taken specifically to spin such wondrous items for their Keepers' whims.

Fate's Harvest uses the expanded rules found in Rites of Spring p.138, with the occasional House Rule.

Getting Started

It's fate itself you use to weave your hedgespun designs into reality, and fate, the Wyrd, is what binds the world together, the interconnections, the chance meetings which change lives. Changelings, already tied into the Wyrd, shouldn't be surprised to learn that links can go both ways.

Fancy words to say that any hedgespinning or acquisition of hedgespun will be wrapped up within a larger story. You're doing it in the Hedge, sure, with Hedge ingredients, but you're not spinning the Hedge. You're spinning a story out of the vagaries of Fate.

Even if you have all of the ingredients in your pockets, or your spifftabular Hollow of Holding, maybe something interrupts you on your way there and steals one or more of them, or maybe you find that the ingredient is doing something strange, or maybe you run into something much, much more interesting to use as part of your item on the way...

There is ALWAYS a story.

NOTE: if you are a High Wyrd character, remember that you ARE High Wyrd. Your actions and your story ARE influenced far more easily by fate than those of folks who aren't so deeply a part of it. You're FAR more likely to find that what seemed like a simple task is spinning wildly out of any semblance of your own control, and if you're wandering around the Hedge, remember, you're a bright light in the dark. A really, really tasty bright light. Staff WILL expect proof that your ST is taking your Wyrd level into account. This doesn't mean combat every time you turn around, but it does mean you will probably be treated differently by the hobs and beasts you meet (or worse, Loyalists/Privateers/True Fae). Play it up! Wyrd is weird!

Hedgespinning Instructions

After you have decided what you will be making (Armor, Art, Automaton, Raiment, Weapon) and know the stats you want on it...

STEP #1

Get staff permission for your idea. Send up a +req/fae to get the magical stamp of staff approval on it.

STEP #2

Find a ST willing to run your story.       1-dot Hedgespun: 1 scene       2-dot Hedgespun: 1 scene       3-dot Hedgespun: 2 scenes       4-dot Hedgespun: 2 scenes       5-dot Hedgespun: 3 scenes If you have certain story elements in mind which would be important to your character (or, on the flip side, certain things which make you OOCly uncomfortable), let your ST know, but by and large, it is the ST's responsibility to come up with plot tailored to you and guide you through it.

Not Building Your Own?

Maybe you've decided you'd rather purchase one fully made from the Goblin Market. Hedgespun doesn't come cheap. The scene requirement is the same, but in this case, perhaps the hob in question requires you to serve its interests for a night and a day, and those interests happen to be fetching a slime-soaked pearl from a ravening beast's wet belly. Alternately, they may require you to spy on someone, or steal something from a rival, or start a morally questionable smear campaign which could get you in deep, deep doodoo if anyone ever found out. It's up to your ST, but again, pounding it into heads here, Hedgespun items come with story attached, no matter how you get them.

If you do purchase an item in this way, the creation rules below won't apply to you. Instead, you will want to:       1. +req/fae and get staff approval on your idea.       2. Find a ST to run your scenes for you.       3. Add a note to your +job when the scenes are complete, with logs of each scene.       Add a +note to yourself with the name, stats, mien and mask of your hedgespun. At that point, staff will add the item to your +sheet and approve the +note. Voila! All done.

Creating a Masterpiece

Once your idea is approved and you have your ST all lined up, it's time to get to work. The actual rolling won't be done until A) after the scenes are done or B) at the very end of the third scene.

You may or may not choose to include Step 3 below as part of your first scene.

STEP #3 (OPTIONAL)

Research!

Before you can start spinning that Direwolf-fur cloak or gremlin-leather armor, you have to have a plan. Which part goes where? Will the acid from Hedgebadger bile dissolve the giant spiderwebs before you can spin them together? This step is not mandatory, but including it will give you a +2 bonus when it comes time to roll for your fancy new item. This is where research comes in, or deep pockets. There are two ways to go about getting a pattern.       1. Make it yourself       2. Use one somebody else premade

Building From Scratch

So you want to work out a new design. If you have any specialties in Design, Hedgespinning or Hedge Lore, or even Hedgebeasts/Hedge flora, they could all apply here, depending on the materials you have in mind to use for your design.

Creating a pattern is one roll, and must be done to your hedgespinning +job. Acceptable Rolls:       Intelligence + Crafts      You're more familiar with mechanical design.       Intelligence + Occult      You're more familiar with myths or the Hedge.

Using a Pre-Existing Pattern

Creating things from scratch is all well and good, but there's always the risk that something will go weird. You want something tried and true! Maybe you're recreating a legendary sword, or maybe a friend wants a copy of that ring you made yourself, or, hey, maybe you're cribbing notes off of the Queen of Summer for a copy of that super hot armor.

You have a few options here.

• If you ARE reusing an old pattern (i.e. you're making another of an item you've already made before) just let staff know the name of the previous item so they can verify you have it. • If a friend is being kind and giving you a pattern, CC them and have them add a note to your +job with permission and the name of the item THEY own, again so staff can verify that it exists. • If you are going to steal a pattern you know about from a hob or, you know, True Fae you've lured out into the Hedge, make sure that escapade is part of your first story scene. • If you plan to use a library/archive and research that baby up the hard way, any relevant library/archive bonuses and specialties apply.

Research Roll: Research is a single roll. You must have A) an Occult specialty in Hedgespinning or Research or B) access to a Library/Archive with specialties in Hedgespinning.       Roll:       Intelligence + Occult (including any specialties or bonuses/penalties) Modifiers: • (-1) Distractions while researching. • (-1) Inadequate research material. • (+*) The rating of your Archive (Hedgespinning) merit. • (+2) You have Encyclopedic Knowledge. • (+2) The item is from or similar to an item featured in a well-known story. • (+3) The item has been previously made from a similar recipe, and you are following most of the same steps. This assumes that you are going through the entire library. If you are successful, you found what you were looking for. If not, that particular recipe either wasn't there or you just couldn't find it.

Note: You do not need to research your recipe yourself. If your character is a research dunce, but knows a librarian friend and bribes her into doing the work for him, you can still claim the +2 bonus on the crafting roll. Just have your friend do the research roll to your +job instead.

Should you choose to forgo the research (maybe you only have a day and a night to get this done before an enemy arrives), there are no penalties for improvising your creation on the fly; you just don't get the bonus.

The following is a direct quote from the 'Rites of Spring' sourcebook, page 140:

Creating Hedgespun
      The act and art of Hedgespinning is an intuitive thing for many, the pushing and pulling of elements together, weaving and warping items so that they come together in a new and unusual way.

Note that a character must be in the Hedge while creating a Hedgespun item. The items will stubbornly refuse to yield if manipulated outside the Thorns. However, once crafted successfully, the Hedgespun token can be taken and used outside the Hedge (though just as all tokens, Hedgespun’s genuine mien is concealed beneath the Mask).

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.

...Which brings us to our third step!

STEP #4
Creating your Hedgespun Item.
All rolls must be done to your +job.
Cost:	See below, under Action.
Dice Pool:	Wits (or Strength) + Crafts [+ Equipment modifiers][+ Additional modifiers]
Action:	Extended: You need to roll 3x the number of dots to successfully create the item. (A 2-dot Hedgespun item requires 2x3=6 successes.) Each roll takes 1 hour of work and requires 1 Glamour. Spend your Glamour to your +job.
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure:	Your attempts to work with your ingredients are unsuccessful: one of them is destroyed in the process.
Failure:	The items just don’t come together. They refuse to yield to your ministrations.
Success:	You make progress at your work. Once you reach the required number of successes, hurra! You have a hedgespun item. Cosmetic tweaks are just as possible as they would be on any other object. You can paint it, scuff it up a bit, and its magical abilities will be unchanged.
Exceptional Success:	For a sliver of an instant, you touch the magic of hedgespinning more deeply than before, and it briefly leaves its mark. Other fae/ensorcelled can see this as a faint dusting of glittering rust or a golden, almost liquid sheen upon your hands. Your next Crafts roll is made at a +2 bonus, after which this clinging magic effect disappears.
Applicable Modifiers
Penalties:
(-3) The recipe demands an intricate design. (-2) There are distractions around you (you are not in a Hollow, people are talking loudly, there is combat nearby). (-1) Your clarity is 8-10 (-1) Cumulative: each ephemeral/intangible ingredient in the recipe gives another penalty.
Bonuses:
(+2) You have Clarity 5 or lower. (+2) You have a researched/elsewise-acquired pattern/design for the project. (+1) You have Contracts of Artifice/Forge at any dot-level. (+1) You have any kind of tool (hammer, awl, sewing needles, etc.). (+1) Your Wyrd is 6+.