Changeling: The Dreamingfor Mind’s Eye Theatre

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THE SHINING HOST:

Players Guide

THE SHINING HOST:

Players Guide

CreditsWritten by: Peter WoodworthJester’s Rules Bunk System original edition by: Steve GabaniaFiction by: Cynthia SummersDeveloped by: Cynthia SummersEdited by: James StewartPreviously published material has appeared in: The Shining Host, Laws of the Night, Changeling Players Guide, Kithbook: Nockers, The Shadow Court, The Enchanted, Nobles: The Shining Host, Inanimae: The Secret Way, Fool’s Luck: The Way of the Commoner, Denizens of the Dreaming, World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed TidesArt direction by: Aaron VossPhotographs by: Pauline BenneyFront and back cover design: Aaron VossLayout and typesetting by: Aaron VossPlaytesters: Russell Collins, Greg Curley, Dan DiFlavis, Kai Doll, Todd Erickson, Jim Fillmore, Matt Florentine, Alyson Gaul, Jody Gerst, Jeremiah Goldovitz, Steve Grabania, Lillian Horvitz, Amy Houser, Keith Jameson, Matthew Kaufman, Scott Laipple, Chris Loeffl er, Sarah McIlvaine, Suzanne Mlynarczyk, Kelly Niedzialek, Danielle Nordyk, John Passanante, Larry Puccio, Mike Rohner, Andy Scott, Cindy Silvestri, Victor Silvestri, Nick Simpson, Megan Strittmatter, Kathy Sykes, Jada Weaver, Andy Woodworth.

© 2001 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire, Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire

the Dark Ages, Mage the Ascension, Hunter the Reckoning, World of Darkness and Aberrant are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Werewolf the Apocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the Dreaming, Werewolf the Wild West, Mage the Sorcerers Crusade, Wraith the Great War, Trinity, Shining Host Players Guide, The Shining Host, Laws of the Night, Laws of the Wild, Changeling Play-ers Guide, The Enchanted, Inanimae The Secret Way, The Shadow Court, Fool’s Luck the Way of the Commoner, Kithbook Nockers, Axis Mundi, Rage Across the Heavens, The Spirit Ways, Changing Breeds, World of Darkness Blood-Dimmed Tides, Denizens of the Dreaming and Nobles the Shining Host are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fi ction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised. For a free White Wolf catalog call 1-800-454-WOLF. Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com; alt.games.whitewolf and rec.games.frp.storyteller

PRINTED IN USA.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS Faerie Tale: All Souls’ Night 4

Chapter One: The Nunnehi 10

Chapter Two: Inanimae 56 Chapter Three: The Shadow Court 90

Chapter Four: Kinain and the Enchanted 136

Chapter Five: New Arts 174

Appendix: Loose Threads and Lost Treasures 194

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FAERIE TALE:

All Souls Night

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Faerie Tale: Faerie Tale: All Souls’ NightAll Souls’ Night

Call this my last confession, if you want. It’s the events of the night, as I remember them — I’ve already had enough hooba-joo on my head to last me through three lives, and the story ain’t changing. Gimme that Basilisk Stone and let me get to work.

Lissa wanted to go somewhere more exciting for Halloween. Don’t get a stick in your eye about it, but this place does get too much “trick-or-treat.” So we look for bigger fi sh and come up with Franklin Street up in Chapel Hill. New Orleans was my choice, but too damn much wrought iron, you know. So we’re drivin’ up late on the 29th — fi gure we’ll get there, take a day to mess around and then get into things for real on the 31st.

I remember I had a buncha mix tapes, and Lissa was singing along in that blackbird voice of hers. She got to the one about Tam Lin, when Steeleye Span did it, and she stops when they talk about the tithe to Hell. “We didn’t really do that, did we?” she asks. I tell her I dunno — probably the Unseelie did back in the Auld Country. Some poor yutz walked out at the wrong time to take a leak on Samhain and you know the rest.

So we get to Chapel Hill, crash at a mom-n-pop motel for some sleep, and get up to prowl. It’s a college town, so it’s not too banal — it’s got its spots, but you can avoid them if you look. We were getting a bit of crap from the jocks, ‘cause they’re jocks and that’s the nature of the beast, but I knew they’d be at Lissa’s feet if they could see what I see — Lady Melissande ap Fiona, with shining hair that she asks me to braid for her and eyes as green as rose leaves, all in the crimson and silver colors of her house. She may not be jocks’ taste, but I remember Duke Isidore ap Gwydion staring at her all through Pennons like he couldn’t get enough of her. Why she liked being with a piss-n-vinegar cranky ol’ nocker like

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THE SHINING HOST:

Players Guide

me I’ll never know, but you don’t question the Dreaming if it’s got a present for you.

Anyhow, so there we are in the old bookstore, and this guy makes a play for her. He calls her “lady” and that perks me up, so I give the guy a once-over. He’s good-looking, I guess, if oversexed goat-leggers turn you on. He’s making small talk and all the while he’s staring at Lissa, and it’s not the usual damn-baby-you-look-hot stare that every furkin’ satyr seems to radiate. There’s hunger in his eyes, like he’s the Big Bad Wolf and Lissa’s an unlucky lambie. Lissa and I weren’t oathsworn as lovers, but all the same I put my hand on her back, he and I catch eyes, and that unspoken little cha-cha of “Yours?” “Mine!” happens like it does, and he tones down the act. That should be that, but I get the feeling the fi re’s only banked, not out. He called himself Phillippe.

He told us how great it was that we came up to visit Chapel Hill at Samhain, and the usual playa bullshit. Lissa’s giving him the time of day, which I wish she wouldn’t, but if I try to drag her out, I look jealous, so I suck it up. Then he invites us out to his freehold for the afternoon. I manage to talk fi rst to decline, saying we’re just in town for the party, but no, he just comes right back and says we’re welcome to come to the freehold’s Samhain party tomorrow. Lissa accepts the second invite, and again me, trying not to look jealous, sucks it up.

That night, after pub-crawling a couple of the local haunts, we get ready for bed, and I see Lissa standing by the open window in her night-gown. Something about the way the moonlight hits her all over — the way the wind is moving — the smell of the air crisp with fall leaves and smoke and night — gets me in all the wrong places. She looks beautiful, but I’m afraid of that beauty suddenly. She turns to look at me, and for a brief second, something shines in her eyes that shouldn’t be there, and just as quick, it’s gone, and she’s the same old Lissa, wondering why I’m staring at her. All I can do is suggest she shut the window and come to bed.

I’ve already told you about Halloween day. I know, I know, you wanna hear about the night. I’ll tell you what I remember, and if you make me eat another friggin’ rosemary sprig, you’ll get it through your hemminge-murgytroid heart, understand?

So we get dressed in our gear and masks — Lissa had on this long blue dress with a tail so she looked like a peacock— and we hit Franklin Street. That’s one of the big highlights of this place, the street fair and parading up and down Franklin. In the late afternoon, it’s just families with kids, but as the sun starts heading west, the crowds get thicker, the people wilder. The Glamour’s so thick you could almost swim in it. We’re out there with the rest, but the night’s starting to work its magic early. Lissa moves past yet another Wizard of Oz quartet, and I see the people gazing at her as if she’s a queen. When they start staring like that, the Glamour’s

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FAERIE TALE:

All Souls Night

getting wild, enough that even the mortals who aren’t enchanted can see something of us, and what they see is Lady Melissande ap Fiona, all silken hair and green eyes and pure dream. I remember how I’d joshed her about going as a peacock, ‘cause she’s anything but stuck up, but she seems to be getting into the role all right. She looks beautiful, but there’s something in her eyes like Phil’s — dangerous, proud — and it refl ects a little of how I feel. The mortal men are gaping at her like slack-jawed apes, their hands like crude paws desperate to touch this starlike woman, and if you’d asked me then what I thought about mortals, I would have spit on them for even daring to look at her.

Phil’s there on the curb, wearing only a heavily embroidered loincloth and sweat with his goat-legs. He looks struck by the change in Lissa, and the hunger is back in full force. “Hail, Queen of summer,” he says and kisses the hand Lissa extends to him. I feel the fl ash of jealousy again, and I slip my hand into her free one, but it feels different, looser and chill.

We took our offerings of candy and booze, and headed out for the freehold — they called it Ash Hall, but damned if I could show you where it is. I’m sure that’s why Phil offered to drive us.

We get there, and there’s more changelings there than I can remember seeing in one place — I see boggans out with the picnic tables, trolls with huge armloads of fi rewood, satyrs messing around with music, and pooka driving everyone crazy. There’s nockers discussing how best to put a bonfi re together, and the redcaps are swappin’ the old “No, shit, there I was…” lines. Childlings, grumps, wilders and everyone in drop-dead costumes. It was the makings of a real, honest-to-Dreaming Samhain party.

The party — I’d tell you more if I could remember it. I suspect it’s one of those things that, deep down, I’m better off not remembering. I remember food, and the booze fl owing like a river. I remember fi re ev-erywhere — candles, jack-o-lanterns, bonfi res — but it seemed to be for making shadows instead of lighting up the place. I remember dancing around the fi res, and sounds of passion in the shadows. At some point, I think Lissa went to dance with another sidhe — I must’ve been okay with that, ‘cause I went to hang with a coupla other nockers. I remember talking with a group of folks, and everyone getting friendly, and then there was fi re-dancing, and after that, it all turns into mush.

I woke up cold and wadded up like an old newspaper under a park bench. I had a hangover, but nothing worse than I’ve had before, beyond a head gone fuzzy with Samhain Mists and some damn fi ne homebrew. I unrolled myself and headed back to the hotel, thinking all the way. Anytime I tried to put my fi nger on last night, it skittered away like a roach in the light — just mixed-up pictures of a woman in white, of people dancing around bonfi res, masks, calling the dead, and the fevered dreams of… of… I don’t know.

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THE SHINING HOST:

Players Guide

I let myself in quietly, thinking that Lissa would be asleep, but the beds were empty. I checked all over the room, and then downstairs, and there was no sign of her. Her stuff was still there, and my heart accelerated like a race car. She went out with me last night, that much I can remember, and we were down on the street, and the rest is a huge blur.

I showered as fast as I could and charged out into the street. I went every place we went before, I went a bunch of places we didn’t, and I even went to the furkin’ police, and all the bastiches said was, “Guess she found her own fun last night.” I settled for sugaring their gas tanks, much as I would have liked to blind them for that insult.

I grab some lunch in a bistro-type — a chicken sandwich, roasted with rosemary. I’m chowing down, and suddenly, I started to think about things, and for a few moments, the Samhain Mists cleared.

Lissa was standing at the biggest bonfi re, wearing a white gown I’d never seen before, and that gorgeous hair bound only with a wreath of greenery. The Kithain were chanting something around her, almost singing, reaching out to touch the hem of her dress and her hair, like she was something holy or wonderful. She was smiling, but it was the smile of someone who’s trippin’ or not quite with us, y’know. Phil’s stood behind her, with a masked sidhe wearing green armor and two sluagh in black. “Hail, daughter of Summer!” Phil calls. “Behold the Bright Path, the way of all things! Walk it now — return to us the long summer of our birthright, and be forever a shining beacon to guide us home!”

Lissa’s smile turned radiant, damn near holy. A door opened into the Dreaming, but it wasn’t a trod I’ve ever seen — the place beyond was dark, and the path might have been a Silver Path, but there’s a coldness to the light, fl at and pale. She stepped forward, but something made her pause, and in that pause, her face lost the radiance. I don’t know if we saw each other, but suddenly, she was out of her trance, and awake, and scared. She managed only to lean back before Phil, the sidhe and the sluagh surged forward and pushed her into the dark portal. Her scream was cut off by the portal closing and the crowd going crazy, and the Mists slammed the door just as quick.

The Dreaming must’ve meant for me to fi nd the joint again, or the Willow-wisp wouldn’t’ve worked. In the daylight, the bonfi res were just blackened ground, the freehold a tumbledown shack. No one said boo to me all the time I was there. Was this ever really the Ash Hall Freehold? Something in me said no, not with the gravestones scattered under the dead leaves. The place felt cold, but not banal cold. There was something in the air that wasn’t there last night — a feeling like hunger sated, even gorged.

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FAERIE TALE:

All Souls Night

I kicked through leaves, looking for something, anything, of Lissa, and I saw green. A wreath of holly with blood-red berries. Caught in the leaves — strands of hair the same shade as Lissa’s.

Did I say no one said boo to me there? I lied — the wind in the trees overhead, it had the sound of a thousand voices, whispers and moans, and through them all was the sound of a woman’s scream being dragged high across the sky.

I don’t know where Lissa’s gone. I’m sure I had something to do with it, but Samhain won’t let me remember it. All I know is that my darling is gone. And I hope that tonight I’ll be able to follow her.

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CHAPTER ONE:CHAPTER ONE:The NunnehiThe Nunnehi

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Spirits Between Earth and Sky

Nunnehi Character CreationStep One: Character Concept— Choose concept, Camp, Legacies, tribe, seeming and Family (kith)Step Two: Select Attributes— Prioritize the three categories: Physical, Social, Mental (7/5/3)— Choose Physical Traits— Choose Social Traits— Choose Mental TraitsStep Three: Select Advantages— Choose Abilities (5), Backgrounds (5), levels of Arts (3) and Realms (5) Step Four: Finishing Touches— Record beginning Glamour, Willpower and Banality, as deter-mined by seeming— Record kith Birthrights and Frailties— Record Ravaging/Musing Threshold, if any— Choose Negative Traits, if any— Purchase Merits/Flaws, if anyStep Five: Spark of Life

Chapter One: Chapter One: The NunnehiThe Nunnehi

Chapter One: Chapter One: The NunnehiThe Nunnehi

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THE SHINING HOST:THE SHINING HOST: Players Guide Players Guide

Nunnehi LegaciesSummer (Dogwood) Legacies• Chief — A born leader, your ideas give shape to the lives of oth-ers.• Grower — All things come in cycles, and you are patient enough to nurture them.• Healer — Pain distresses you, and you live to ease the suffering of others.• Hunter — Hunting is both your trade and your way of viewing the world.• Maker — Building and creating give the world meaning, and you joy.• Scout — Explorer and pathfi nder, you constantly seek out new horizons.• Spirit Guide — Spirits are always speaking, but it seems that only you are listening.• Storyteller — Life is a series of tales, and you burst with eagerness to tell them.• Warrior — Soldier, protector and avenger in one, you live for the test of battle. • Wise One — A teacher and mentor to the Family, you love shar-ing your wisdom.Winter (Rock) Legacies• Cannibal — Anything that opposes you must be destroyed and consumed. • Fool — Life has a point? Life is fair? Where are these things writ-ten?• Forked-Tongue — For you, lying is both a habit and a passion.• Hoarder — Let Winter take the world, as long as you have enough for yourself.• Outcast — A true lone wolf, you neither want nor need others to survive. • Raider — Those who can, take; that is the only law in life, as you well know.• Scalp-Taker — Wreak vengeance and take trophies; all other justice is weakness.• Spoiler — It’s easier to pull others down than to climb up yourself.• Troublemaker — Why leave things be, when causing havoc is much more fun? • Witch — Powerful and aloof, you barter with dark spirits to get what you want.Midseason (Laurel) Legacy• Trickster — A coyote at heart, you use laughter to fi nd your way in the world.

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CHAPTER ONE:CHAPTER ONE:The NunnehiThe Nunnehi

Nunnehi Seemings Youngling: Sheltered by the arms of your tribe, you are full of dreams and fascinated by the world around you. Tempers: Glamour 6, Willpower 1, Banality 1Brave: Courageous and full of life, you are the leading force of the Nation and the wellspring of energy that keeps the tribe vital. Tempers: Glamour 5, Willpower 2, Banality 3Elder: A treasure of wisdom and stories, you may have lost some of the fi re of youth, but in its wake you have learned much to pass on to the next generation. Tempers: Glamour 4, Willpower 3, Banality 5

Nunnehi BackgroundsNunnehi characters may take all of the regular Kithain Backgrounds

described in The Shining Host, with the following exceptions: Patron, Political Connections, Remembrance and Title. Save for Remembrance, these are not banned outright, but simply very rare for the Nunnehi; these Backgrounds require Storyteller permission to purchase. In ad-dition, the following new Backgrounds are available exclusively to Nunnehi characters:

Household — Mortal relatives who know your secret and will stand by you.

Infl uence: Tribal — Control over the affairs of an actual native tribe.

Spirit Companion — A friendly minor spirit who offers you aid and advice.

Totem — A greater spirit that grants special powers in return for loyalty.

Vision — Powerful insights regarding the chimerical world.

A History of Sorrow and TriumphThe Nunnehi (a term meaning “people who live anywhere”) are the faerie

folk indigenous to Concordia, having lived here long before the fi rst Europeans or their Kithain cousins ever set foot on it. Like the Kithain, the Nunnehi are torn between two worlds, the Earthly realm and the Higher Hunting Grounds (the Nunnehi equivalent of the Dreaming) and struggle daily to preserve the old ways in a world that pushes them ever closer to the brink. To keep faerie

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