Changeling Homebrew Hedge Bounty

A resource for hedgey things for Changeling the Lost games by sup/tg/.

Hedge Bounty

Goblin Fruit

Archimedean Delight

These freestone drupes are shaped like Archimedean spirals four inches across, hence their name. Their translucent skin is bioluminescent, producing various colors of light with purple whorls. Each fruit contains a seed that can be roasted for sustenance. However, the pear-like flesh is practically oozing with glamour; eating an archimedean delight raw or otherwise grants 2 glamour as well as healing either two bashing damage or one lethal damage, whichever is more severe.

Common Hedge Poppy

The hedge has many, many different takes on the poppy but just like in the real world, the most common is the wyrd cousin to the opium poppy. Physically they don't appear much different from their mundane relatives, except for their more splendid coloration and blossoms. The latex obtained from scoring the seed pod is far more potent though, a single fruit producing enough to completely numb all pain allowing the changeling to ignore all wound penalties. Unfortunately the line between numbing all pain and numbing everything is very narrow, requiring a successful dex + medicine roll to get the proper amount, and if a Dramatic Failure is suffered on the roll the consumer suffers a -2 penalty to dex and wits rolls thanks to the tingling numbness that overtakes their body. The common hedge poppy can of course be refined into more potent products.

Crowfoot

Normally, crowfoot is a dark blue berry, the size and flavor of a grape, growing singly on long, thornless vines. It provides a single glamour point when eaten. The vines, however, require lots of water, so if there is a drought- as is wont to occur in late summer in many parts of the temperate hedge- then the vines- and the berries- will shrivel. These dried berries are the real prize, for though they resemble raisins, they contain a sweet, grape-flavored syrup that, when rubbed into the skin, adds one dot to the Striking Looks merit (most famously, for removing such imperfections as crow's feet- hence the name) until the next sunrise or senset- whichever comes first- in addition to the usual single glamour.

Additionally, this syrup can be crystallized for indefinite storage, although it loses its glamour bonus, and requires spending a single glamour point to re-liquify.

Dandelion Heart

Appearing as a cross between an artichoke and a dandelion at first glance, the flowers of these plants look like the busy mane of a lion, eventually blossoming from the tuft of golden fur to the guise of a lion proudly roaring. Of course by that point the fruit is useless, one needs to harvest the bud of the flower before the face peeks out and cut away the fur-like petals to get at the meaty red, if occasionally beating, heart contained within. Eating the heart of the plant grants 8 again on all composure and resolve rolls for the scene. The entire flower can be taken and brewed into tea, which reduces the effect to only 9 again but allows for it to be shared between several individuals.

Diceberry

Growing on small herbaceous shrubs, the fruit of the diceberry plant are highly sought after prizes by changelings, hobs, and the Gentry alike. The typical berries found on the bush are a pentagonal trapezohedron in shape, or 10 sided die, typically appearing as a golden tinged orange color with bright, firm skin and a tangy sweet almost honey-like flavor. Occasionally some berries will be a deep crimson, and these are the true prize. While the flavor remains mostly unchanged, when consumed there is a chance the fruit will swing luck to the favor of the consumer. Mechanically, the player rolls a single die with the 9 again rule in effect and if it comes up with any successes, the next roll the player makes automatically gains those successes.

While eating a hand full of these berries for a massive burst of luck seems like a great plan, red diceberries are horribly addictive when consumed in any real quantity. The player rolls stamina + composure - the number of berries past the first consumed in the past day for each additional berry eaten. Characters suffering from diceberry addiction do not benefit from the 10 again rule and to make matters worse, 1s subtract from successes. Eating a diceberry will clear the effect for half a day, though to become clean the character has to be clean for a week and roll stamina + composure and get at least one success with the withdrawal penalty in effect. Botching that roll ups the time period to be clean to an entire month. An of course, the diceberry's positive effects cannot be used on any roll relating to its addicting effects.

Giant's Mushroom

An absurdly large mushroom. standing easily waist high with characteristic red cap with white spots and often growing in odd corners of the hedge in difficult to reach places, at least not without some climbing involved. While it doesn't taste particularly different from most mundane mushrooms, when someone eats all of it, the giant's mushroom imparts a bit of its size onto the consumer, granting them +1 to their size, complete with the extra health level and a +2 to all athletics roll concerning jumping. Unfortunately, upon taking a level of lethal damage the effect ceases, returning the consumer to their regular size. Should someone have access to two or more of these at once, nothing comes from further eating them.

Heartfiber

Derived from the Filipino abacá, this plant appears similar to a short banana tree, large brown leaves with the occasional light red splotch hiding the fruit beneath them. The fruit itself appears as a firm, uniformly-colored red teardrop, hanging from its flowers and detaching itself once it's ripened, getting caught in the leaves below. Consuming this fruit hardens the changeling like the fibers of the plant, making him a bit stiffer but allowing him to move more freely through pain. Occasionally the plant itself is harvested for its fibers to make hedgespun materials and the fruit just replanted, but since heartfiber grows very slowly, harvesting only the fruit is much more commonly done.

Once consumed, the changeling ignores all wound penalties. The changeling also gains a -2 penalty to all dexterity-based rolls, and during combat takes his turn after the combatant he would normally precede. These effects last for one scene.

Henbane

This yellow flowered plant is a difficult one to pin down in the hedge because it tends to be mobile, not because it itself is mobile, but because it grows on chickens, or any approximation of one that can be found in the Hedge. While it certainly is interesting that the plant parasitizes chickens (though some would argue the chicken benefits too), the part that draws interest to changelings is that it allows the normally flightless birds to fly; a property that carries over to anyone who consumes the seeds, granting the consumer the benefits of the windwing kith for an hour or so (windwings themselves have the benefits doubled). Unfortunately this comes with the side effect of vertigo which causes a -1 penalty on all Wits or Composure rolls.

Lemon Grass

A tall broad leafed grass that grows in warm environments in the hedge, almost entirely identical to its real world counterparts, with the notable exception that some blades of the grass have the same waxy texture and color of actual lemon peels. While the rest of the grass is harmless, anything that comes into contact with the potent oils of the lemony blades becomes a lemon, in the sense of a defective product, reducing any equipment bonus and durability by 1.

A tincture made from the special blades take the effect a bit further, preventing the item from benefiting from the 10 again rule, with 1s subtracting successes. Of course making the tincture without ruining the equipment used is a task unto itself.

Oz Poppy

Often appearing in large patches, these poppies come with brilliant scarlet blossoms with seemingly deep pitch black centers and an alluring fragrance. Anyone foolish enough to think these flowers will be in for a surprise as just being near these flowers is enough to lull most into a deep slumber, requiring a stamina + resolve to stay awake, rerolling once every minute with a -1 penalty per minute (up to a penalty of -5) as long as they are around the flowers. Fortunately elementals don't seem to be bothered around these flowers and are completely immune to them and can gather the flowers with ease which have various parts that can be consumed.

The seeds, about small handfuls worth, when consumed induce a great feeling of fatigue, making the consumer feel as if they hadn't slept in twice as long as they have. This effect stacks for additional serving of them. The husk of the seed pod can be brewed into a tea, which provides a minor high but follows with an extended sense of calm, giving the imbiber a +1 to all composure -s but reduces their initiative by 2. Finally, like most poppies, the latex of the seed pod can be consumed which acts a powerful sedative, requiring a stamina + resolve - 3 roll to even stay awake when consumed.

Pear of Agony

This particular goblin fruit is thankfully rare in the hedge and looks like a riped fist sized pear with firm green skin with a ring of reddening at the widest with an pleasantly inviting aroma. Anyone lured into eating a pear of agony suffers a single point of aggravated damage. While generally avoided, pears of agony are sometimes used to make deadly jellies to smear over weapons, though the a great deal of potency is lost when they are cooked. Jelly or jams of pears of agony are toxicity 2 poisons that deal lethal damage.

Toadstone

More a rock than a goblin fruit, toadstones are vaugely toad shaped lumps of stone that can be found littering the undergrowth of the hedge where one would expect to find toads. Toadstones are highly valued for their ability to neutralize poison, though it's not without its own hassles. First the stone must be swallowed whole, which requires a successful resolve + stamina roll to even get down. Upon being poisoned, the toadstone will absorb it and come to life, causing whomever consumed it to begin with to vomit forth the toad, which will cause a single bashing damage unless a success is rolled on a Stamina + Resolve roll.

Witch's Butter

A gelatinous mushy fungus resembling a lump of colorful brains, typically yellow though it can range from burnt oranges to golden brown shades, that grows on fallen branches and dead trees in the hedge, most often in autumn. It tastes like butter with musky and pungent spices mixed in and can very easily be used like butter. Consuming a slice of toast's worth of Witch's Butter grants a +1 to all occult rolls for day. Eating more than that it isn't really recommended as the wyrd properties of the goblin fruit gnaw away at the eaters sense of reality, imposing a -1 to all clarity rolls for the next two days for each additional +1 to occult.

Wolfsbane

Almost identical to its mundane cousin, the wolfsbane that grows mountain meadows of the hedge actually does carry with it some of the powers ascribed to it in legend making. Most of the time it is a powerful repellent to wolves, be it actual wolves, briarwolves, wolf-like changelings, or even werewolves. If simply worn wolfsbane repels anything wolfish within a 10 yard radius unless the affected individuals can pass a resolve + stamina - the wearer's presence to resist being overcome with nausea, the roll being made once every 5 minutes. Wolfsbane can be made into a more potent salve with several choice pickings of the plant's leaves and such with 10 successes on an extend crafts + int check that increases the range from 10 yards to 50 yards. This salve lasts for a day or until washed off.

If applied directly to anything with a touch of wolf, wolfsbane acts as deadly poison that is mechanically identical to hydrogen cyanide (which can be found on page 125 of Armory). A more portent tincture can be made from the plant with 15 successes on an extended int + crafts roll, which boosts the toxicity to 8 and completely nullifies the effects of werewolf regeneration, not that any damage caused by wolfsbane can be healed by a werewolf's regeneration.

To anyone with the proper occult knowledge (15 or so success on an extend occult + int roll), wolfsbane's effect can actually be reversed to imbue wolfish properties when properly prepared (5 successes if the process is known, 20 otherwise). The prepared mixture grants the imbiber a temporary blessing of 2 dots to the Contract of Fang and Talon as related to wolves (or +2 if they already have it) and the benefits of the Hunterheart kith. If a changeling has brownie's boon, this can in some rare cases turn a mortal into a wolfblooded or in even rarer cases, an actually werewolf.

Fortunately, wolfsbane is very rare in the hedge and typically only found on the side closer to Arcadia. Nor does it take to transplant very well, requiring a gift of one's own wyrd and sanity to do so. Though wolfsbane on the real world side of the hedge rarely develops into its mature form, appearing more often in its less potent form known as Woman's Bane.

Woman's Bane

The more common and far less potent form of the wolfsbane goblin fruit, woman's bane does exactly as advertised, by making anyone who wears it completely and utterly repugnant to anything female. The flower itself or anything repels women within a 10 yard radius unless the affected individuals can pass a resolve + stamina - the wearer's presence to resist being overcome with nausea, the roll being made once every 5 minutes. If applied to a woman directly she'll have to make the same roll to avoid becoming nauseated, levying a -2 penalty to all rolls until washed off. Woman's bane often finds use as a punishment to particularly scandalous male courtiers of the Spring Court for their indiscretions.

Like wolfsbane, the adverse effects can reversed with the proper knowledge, though this requires quite a lot of the plant to process. This requires an extended int + occult roll requiring at least 15 successes, at which point the finished product can be produced with a simple extend crafts roll requiring around 5 successes. The end effect results with the imbiber gaining +3 bonus dice to all social rolls in which the recipient is female (with the exception of intimidation) for a day. Furthermore if character using the refined form of the goblin fruit is a woman, she gains a temporary point of willpower each scene till the effect ends 24 after being applied.

Goblin Fruit Hybrids

Yes, goblin fruits can be hybridized! The hybrids can either be created intentionally, by accident in the freehold, or by simple fate around a freehold. In all cases, the effects of doing so are unpredictable; however, the following is generally true:

-they exist only around either the freehold or the hollows where they were created or planted, and only there. If a freehold or hollow is abandoned, the hybrids will disappear -they are more delicate, or harder to grow, than normal goblin fruits, hence why they're rare -they combine the effects of the hybridized plants

Exceptions to all of the above rules exist! The rules for doing so can be found in the sourcebook Rites of Spring. All fruits not mentioned in this document are not homebrew.

Wyrmbeetles

An attempt to hybridize the rare fruit wyrmthumb (RoS) and diceberries, in order to get a plant easier to transplant, with the effects of the wyrmthumb. The hybridization took well, the plants grew with minimal fuss, they fruited in gold and crimson... and the berries themselves took flight, scattering about the hollow where they were grown. Worse, the golden bugs produced had deleterious effects, consuming the plants scattered about the hollow, weakening both defenses and garden plants both. The crimson insectoids seem to eat them, and other small Hedge denizens; the problem is that they don't seem to stop growing...

Wyrmberries

A second hybridization of wyrmthumb and diceberries, albeit with a different (and possible more disasterous) result. The herbaceous perennial that resulted produces black berries resembling those of the diceberry, flavored between the two parent plants, but with a distinctly mealy (though sticky) texture. The berries added a bit of luck towards any attempt escape either bonds or a pursuer (the player rolls a single die with the 9 again rule in effect and if it comes up with any successes, the next pertinent roll the player makes automatically gains those successes). Better yet, the effect works on mortals AND the berries are not addictive.

Instead, they're alive. Wormberries are filled with hundreds of egg cases, each of which hatch into mosquito-like larvae if conditions are right- such as a puddle that the berries fall into, or in the stomach of anything that eats the berries a day after doing so. A single berry can have over 100 eggs, whose larvae grow to the size of maggots and are resistant to most treatments, eating all the more- characters who consume them are at risk of malnutrition (see nWoD rulebook on intestinal parasites). Additionally, they require 1 glamour per day per 100 eggs to grow, starting 2 days after they hatch. In changelings or hobgoblins, this can be provided by eating one goblin fruit daily; if not, it's not too hard to sup some from the lining of the stomach. In mortals, however, the only way to get some is to harvest it from the pain caused by burrowing into the stomach- this risks serious infection, incapacitation and possible death. Worse, the worms don't need to harvest the pain of their host; the disgust of a medical examiner or the horror of a doctor do just fine, and the worms are perfectly capable of storing glamour if they think it'll be sparse.

The worms are resistant to most treatments, both mundane and magical. Between 7 and 56 days after the eggs hatch, depending on the diet (both magical and mundane) of the host, the worms will pupate and exit the digestive tract. Large numbers of worms will cause diarrhea at this stage. Each "die" that can be rolled for successes requires at least 50 worms to be in the gut; once they're removed, or if the berries are cooked (killing the worms), then neither glamour nor the effects are gained.

Once released, the pupae will hatch into an insect akin to a large mosquito, despite having two extra sets of legs, both knobby and feathery antennae and being as tough as a tick. This insect is perfectly capable of surviving in the mortal world, and is able to create hedge gates for itself, according to rumour. They usually have a difficult time escaping a closed sewage system (and often die down there); however, they can escape most sewage systems in the Hedge, and the diarrhea sometimes solves the problem of escape in the mortal world. Like a mosquito, they also spread disease, both among mortals and the lost; most seem to let mortals see past the mask, fact which doctors have noticed.

When a mosquito has collected enough nutrition, it finds a nice patch of soil to grow an and grows a new plant. This, thankfully, seems rare; alarmingly, however, it may have happened in the mortal world as well as the Hedge.

Jennystabs

A hybrid of Jennyapples (RoS, and itself a hybrid of Jennystone and Stabapple) and Stabapples, the results of this attempt was much different from either parent plant. Jennystabs shoot up to 8 feet tall in spring, like a stiff blade of grass, before thickening and putting out twigs with leaves and flowers in early summer and crabapples in autumn. The crabapples grow in bunches of seven and show none of their Jennystone heritage; each bunch is too woody and astringent to eat (1 glamour to digest, but give 1 glamour, net gain.loss of zero), but can be cooked or turned into (hard) cider to get the glamour. When the leaves fall, tall, wooden, sharp stakes are all that's left, which can themselves be harvested at this point, giving either swords or spears. The plant needs all 4 season in order so that it can gain this state. However, the plant always for a lethally-sharp hollow defense.

Cloverdice

A hybrid of diceberries and the four-leaf clover found just inside of a Hedge gate, cloverdice form sweet-smelling bushes of mostly white (occasionally red) clover flowers with mostly white (occasionally red) cubic (d6) berries. Again, the red berries are the prize; however, they act very differently from diceberries: for each berry eaten, the next (unaffected) roll will recieve an exception success with 3 successes instead of 5; however, the 10-again rule no longer applies, and 1s AND 2s subtract. The white berries still supply glamour, and the red berries are not addictive. The foliage resembles clover, and is technically edible.

False Cloverdice

When the cloverdice were made, the grower made a little mistake and included wood sorrel in the mix as well. Thankfully, the luck of the clover held; the false cloverdice somewhat resembles the cloverdice, but has distinct, 5-petaled yellow flowers and yellow cubic berries. The foliage is copious and delicious, going well in a salad (and tastes like wood sorrel at it's finest) and as much nutrition as a similar serving of kale, while the berries have a hint of lemon to them. Neither the foliage nor the berries confer any magical benefit, however, not even glamour.

Hedge Game

Lichenback

This species of fish is about nine inches long, with a diphycercal tail, four lobed fins and a catfish's head, its dorsal fin bearing a venomous spine. Silver in color and salty in taste, their backs and fins are green with lichen; they stay near the surface of the water where the sun is brightest. They heal whoever eats them like any other goblin fruit, but one alone contains enough nutrients to count as a whole meal - a trait that very few changelings know about.

Oddments

Flower of the Elements

Sometimes the natural beauty of the elements concentrates enough to blossom into wonderous flowers deep within the hedge, creating floral displays of fire, ice, and so on. Aside from looking very pretty, changelings that know elemental type contracts can extract a further benefit by plucking these flowers; a +1 to elemental contracts of the specified element. If the wear benefits from an elemental contract but it does not match the elemental of the flower, the changeling is then considered to have a single dot in that particular element. Flowers of the elements don't last long however, disappating a day after being plucked unless replanted and cared for properly with a point of willpower and a dab of Glamour.

Narcissus Pitcher

A large, cone-shaped lily-like flower filled with faintly-sweet nectar. Drinking this adds one dot of Striking Looks, but also imposes the narcissistic derangement.

Upas Arrows

Not arising from any specific Hedge plant, these are the silver-gray tips to some Hedge swamp reeds, cattails, and other plants. Rarely, these can also be found in other environments as well, from plants such as Hedge lilies. By rolling wits+dexterity, these tips can be broken off, along with the leaf vein, and parts of the leaves, to form functional arrows. These arrows break after being shot, and hitting something; however, the shafts have a tendency of breaking before the arrowheads can be removed, necessitating a more complex surgery.

Trifles

Hunter's Book

A mostly empty book or journal, with tattered pages, coming in various shapes and sizes, that aids in avoiding detection when activated. Effect: If a changeling (or several, traveling in a group) write their own names, and only their own names, in the book, anyone tracking the group gets +1 on any rolls to track or detect them. If the book is burnt (this takes 2 turns/name), this turns into a -2 penalty for a scene, with a -1 modifier to direct tracking while the book is burning. While the smell and flames can be smelled/seen normally, the flame is not abnormally bright, and it takes a wits roll at a -1 penalty to link the fire's smell to the quarry, in addition to smelling it in the first place.

Hollows

Hollow Amenities

Hollow Gardens

Whether a few vines growing through the hollow's thorny walls, an actual garden, or a full field, a hollow garden can be used to grow hedge plants, both for their beauty (The Hedge is not entirely nightmarish) and for their goblin fruits.

Hollow Wards

Woven Walls

The thorns of the hollow's walls are woven in amongst each other, to create a virtually-impermeable barrier (in direct relation to the toughness of the thorns). Creating this takes an extended action, Wyrd+Dexterity vs. strength, and the successes needed are in direct proportion to the size of the hollow and the stiffness of the thorns. Once completed, the walls take years to degrade. Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character injures herself (1+ lethal damage), and is unable to continue.

Failure: No successes are accrued.

Success: Progress is made towards creating the walls.

Exceptional Success: Great progress is made.