Hedge Flights: 50 Encounters in Arcadia, Part 1

System: New World of Darkness
Game: Changeling: The Lost

Part of fleshing out a character in Changeling: The Lost is deciding what a changeling's Durance was like, as well as their escape. I prefer to begin my Changeling games by having players roleplay through their escape back to the mortal world. But it can be a challenge to make such a prelude interesting. Here, then, are fifty sample scenes that you can drop into a character's prelude to make their trip back from Arcadia more memorable.

1. Ring Around the Rosie

The changeling walks into a field of small lavender and yellow flowers that stretches over softly rolling hills from horizon to horizon. As they stride into the meadow, have them notice what looks like snow falling from the sky. But the air is warm, and so they realize that it is not snow, but ash. In the center of the meadow is a clear space where a great mound of the ash has built up. Growing out of the top of the ash pile, the changeling watches a single red rose slowly open it's petals as if in stop-motion photography, the blossom glowing with a radiant red light.

The closer the changeling gets to the rose, the more ill he starts to feel. He begins to suffer the symptoms of the beubonic plague or Black Death. These include headache, fever, nausea. Then large, painful swellings appear on the neck, under the arms or inner thighs. They then turn black, split open and begin to ooze puss and blood. Black bruise-like patches begin to appear over exposed skin as well as they begin to bleed internally, and his every breath becomes fetid and utterly revolting. You might want to consult the rules for illness found on pg. 176 of the World of Darkness core book.

The field is a puzzle. One of the concepts I invented for Changeling is that every dead end in the Hedge is also a doorway. You only need to figure out the key to unlock the door. In this case, it is a riddle. The changeling is faced with a literal interpretation of the old nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie”. To solve it before they die, they have to stuff the flowers (posies) into their pockets and walk around the mound three times, then deliberately fall over. They will fall straight into the mortal world and find themselves cured.

2. Harvest Time

The changeling crosses a border in the Hedge and enters a beautiful garden, complete with sculpted bushes, fountains, and paved stone paths. Feel free to add wild and fantastical embellishments to the plants – purple twisted thorns, glowing toadstools, flowers that tinkle like tiny silver bells. The only rather odd or sinister thing about the garden is that it is utterly silent. Not so much as a bird or insect can be heard. As the changeling makes their way through the garden, they hears the sounds of frantic footsteps and another changeling bursts out of a nearby stand of bushes, bearing horrible, bloody wounds.

“...run...RUN! It's...harvest...time!” he will croak out before a steel beak slashes through the Hedge behind him and stabs him through the heart from the back. He is yanked back, screaming, into the bushes.

Players who try to escape from the garden will have to contend with its harvesters – giant ostrich or dodo-like birds made entirely of metal, like some sort of murderous lawn ornaments come to life. Their feet run on springs, their calls sound like the slicing of a scythe and their beaks are actually the blades of sickles.

Stats for Harvesters:

Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 5, Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5, Charisma 0, Manipulation 0, Composure 0

Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Stealth 1

Willpower: 5

Initiative: 3

Defense: 2

Speed: 11 (Size 5)

Weapons/Attack: Scythe Beak: 2 (L) Dice Pool: 6

Health (Structure): 10

Because they're made of metal, the Harvesters also have a Durability rating of 3.

3. The Labyrinth of Razors

The changeling enters a section of the Hedge where the thorns look as if they're made of prisms, crystal, or finely cut glass. Dappled light shines down brilliantly from some undefined source. The thorns are razor sharp to the touch, and grow slowly shut behind the changeling as they enter, sealing off that exit. The path ahead follows the pattern of a classic English garden labyrinth through the glittering thorns. The only problem is that the floor of the path is made of a single, continuous razor thin line of glass. This forces the changeling to literally walk on the edge of a knife, probably horribly wounding their feet in the process. The only alternative is to try to clamber along by the thorns, which will hurt even worse.

4. The Cave Bear King

The changeling enters a series of low caves where the air is close, warm and musty. It smells like some sort of huge animal, and the caves are lit by primitive torches. Neolithic style paintings cover the walls. At the center of the caves is the huge throne of the Cave Bear King. Think of Conan the Barbarian as a giant, bronzed hulking muscular figure seated on a throne of bone and animal hide, his head covered by a dark hood to the neck, with a pair of bloody antlers rising up like a crown. His eyes glow a baleful red and never blink. He wears a necklace of bear claws. There is also a curious doorway or tunnel of rough stone, angled upward at a gentle slope. This would seem to be a way out, but wedged in the doorway is a massive stone gear with an axle in the center of it for someone to push with. The changeling is challenged by the Cave Bear King, who will demand a test to allow the changeling to leave. He will push the wheel and the changeling must run ahead , keeping ahead of the crushing wheel as the slope grows ever steeper and then slick with the blood of past victims, making it harder and harder for them to climb.

5. The Raven of Nevermore

The Hedge grows darker than a thicket at midnight until the changeling looses all sense of bearing. They then notice a faint, cold light shining above them. If they try to just blindly walk toward it, they barely avoid falling into empty space. Nothing – literally nothing – exists in this area except where the cold light shines. There are a series of these lights, and they form a sort of bridge of solid ground to another exit. However, guarding his roost in the middle of the cavern is an immense black figure with the head of a raven and fingers that end in huge black talons. He looks like a literal living onyx statue. He never speaks, but silently demands some sort of payment for passage. If the player chose a kith that would be appropriate as any sort of prey for a bird, especially something to do with insects, the raven-man will spread his wings and swoop down to try to capture the changeling to add to his 'collection' instead.

Raven of Nevermore

Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3, Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3, Presence 5, Manipulation 0, Composure 6

Skills: Athletics (Flying) 4, Brawl (Talons, Beak) 2, Stealth 5, Intimidation 5

Willpower: 9

Initiative: 11

Defense: 3

Speed: 15 (Size 6)

Attack: Talons 2 (L), Beak 2 (L), Dice Pool: 9

Health: 9

Wyrd: 5

Merits: Direction Sense, Giant

Contracts: Smoke 3, Darkness 5, Elements (Air, Darkness) 5, Fang and Talon (Raven) 5

Suggested Bans: Those who can recite 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe are allowed to pass freely through his realm, bright blinding light forces him to retreat.

6. When the Clock Strikes the Right Time

This scene is plagiarized from a scene out of “The Last Unicorn,” but it works well for a Changeling game. The changeling comes across an ancient, huge grandfather's clock with all sorts of morbid, gothic carvings on it. A giggling skeleton is crouched on the top of the clock,. His job is keeping it wound properly. Perhaps he's even another changeling slave with his own Keeper. This scene can be a bit tricky, to get the changeling to follow along the appropriate line of conversation. But for Storytellers who love to play up their NPC characters, the laughing skeleton can be great fun.

Step 1: The Offer – Have the skeleton make some obvious comment that tips off the player to the fact that it knows what they are and what they really want – a way home. Something like “I know what you are, I know what you want. But I don't think I'm going to give it to you!” (Said in a mocking sing-song followed by more hysterical laughter). Players who ask the skeleton what's so funny are just setting themselves up for this sort of line. Another adaptation taken directly from the film is “C'mon, (laughter) ask me how to find the way out. Even the True Fae don't know the secret way. But I do!”

Step 2: The Bait – If, or hopefully when the changeling asks the skeleton to tell them what he knows, he refuses and gets obvious, wild mirth out of doing so. More appropriate lines from the film:

“Say please.” Followed by “No.”

or

“Oh, it's so NICE to have someone to play with!”

or

“Try me tomorrow! Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow!”

If the changeling makes some mention about time or being in a hurry, you can also use the line: “I have time! I have time enough for BOTH of us!”

Step 3: The Change of Heart – This is the crucial part. Amid all the taunting, laughing and half promises you give the player, be attentive for some mention of something the changeling could use to barter with. Ideally it's something the changeling mentions or reveals casually, so that the opportunity sounds natural. It's best if you tie it to some sort of vice that a once-living person might have had. In the film, Shmendric the magician barters with an empty wine glass, which implies gluttony. Other possible objects to barter might include: gambling, cards or dice (greed), a portrait, piece of artwork, or mirror (envy/pride), books of naughty literature (lust), cigars (gluttony), anything that might serve as a bed or a chair or the ability to fashion such an object – a coffin would be most appropriate (sloth), some sort of club-like weapon (wrath, works especially well if the skeleton is, in fact, a fellow changeling still trapped in his Durance).

Step 4: The Bargain

When you notice something that would work for barter, have the skeleton fixate on it. Make it clear he's salivating for it and would most likely do anything the changeling wants to get it. Any savvy player will then propose a deal for the secret way out of the Hedge, and the exchange can be made.

Final Step: The Secret Revealed

The way out of the Hedge is through the clock. It's an old gateway the changeling can use to get back to the mortal world.

One last appropriate line from the film, adapted:

“To reach the mortal world, you have to walk through time. A clock isn't time, it's just numbers and springs. Pay it no mind, just walk on through.”

For reference and your own inspiration, here's the scene this is drawn from in the movie.

7. The Wicked Carousel

The changeling hears what sounds like calliope music from up ahead. It feels like night has fallen, and a full moon rises. He steps into a clearing in the Hedge that looks as if it's mid-autumn, with twisted dark bare trees and swirls of autumn leaves about.

Directly ahead is a carousel made of black, wrought steel. Players who know classical music can be told the song the calliope is playing is “The Danse Macabre” by Saint-Saens. The horses carved for this macabre carousel are made to look like skeletons.

If the changeling decides to ride the carousel, allow them to do so. But as soon as they get off again, they are wracked by an overwhelming pain. The carousel will age anyone who rides it by one year for each full revolution. Alternatively, if someone rides the carousel backwards, they will get younger by the same amount.

The controls for the carousel are located in the central hub, but unless the changeling has dots in Crafts, they should get only a chance roll to succeed on correctly operating the machinery. Even with Crafts, it's unlikely in a modern-day Changeling game that a given character would have any prior knowledge about how to operate an old-style carousel, which should be reflected in at least a -2 dice pool penalty.

8. The Unicorn

The changeling encounters a magnificent male unicorn with ivory skin, powerful muscles, a shimmering white mane, a gold horn, the works. The unicorn offers to guide the changeling back to the mortal world...for a price. Perhaps the unicorn wants a mortal child of his own to be the Keeper of. Perhaps the unicorn is a rebel of Faerie, working to free changelings from their Keepers. Or perhaps the unicorn appears to be an ally on the surface but has more sinister motivations.

9. The Crossroads of Doubt

The changeling comes to a place in the Hedge where the path forks in many different directions. The Hedge is wildly overgrown here, so the paths all seem like dark tunnels of foliage. As the changeling starts down one of the paths, they hear one or several disembodied voices all urging them not to take it. The voices all offer contradicting advice about which path to take, calling each other liars, promising the changeling will die horribly if the changeling listens to the wrong advice, and so on. Asking the voices for advice only makes the situation worse, the contradictions more wild. If you like, you can make this a riddle where one voice always lies and one voice always tells the truth.

10. The Hall of Doors

The Hedge starts to close in on itself until it forms a loose tunnel or hallway. As the changeling continues walking, he starts to see a wild menagerie of doors all woven into the surrounding Hedge. The doors come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Perhaps the doors lead to different places and times. Perhaps the doors are all locked and the changeling has to find the right key to unlock a specific door.

11. The Path of Dream and Memory

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy returns to Kansas by focusing on thoughts of home. Have the changeling enter a particularly ominous section of the Hedge and give them clues that focusing on what they remember of their former human lives will be their only salvation. Maybe there are long lost childhood items strewn about the thorns, and the changeling recognizes one as theirs. The more they focus on it and the happy memories it embodies, the brighter and clearer the path forward becomes. The more they focus on their current surroundings, the darker and more treacherous the path becomes. Play up the dream-like qualities of childhood memories with ghostly visions of favorite child haunts or the echoes of children's laughter, or maybe even the changeling's mortal mother calling them home for dinner. Or perhaps, like Dorothy, the Hedge is all just a dream that the changeling can work to wake up from.

12. The White Queen's Sledge

Inspired by The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. The changeling is tramping through a snow-covered area of the Hedge and hears distant carriage bells approaching. Eventually an elaborate white sleigh comes into view, being pulled by a team of horse-sized goats. The sleigh can be either occupied or empty. Yet another opportunity to introduce the player to the Pledges system of Changeling, bargaining for a way home.

13. Willy Wonka's Boat

The boat from the original movie, not the Tim Burton remake. The changeling comes upon a ferry boat propelled by a water wheel at its stern. If they get into the boat, it begins to move down a crooken waterway amid the thorns, gaining speed rapidly until it's impossible for the changeling to get out without risking serious injury. The boat enters a Hedge tunnel and the changeling is subjected to nightmarish visions. Depending on how the player reacts, you can invent some innocuous trigger to get the boat to stop, at which point the boat will emerge from the tunnel at a normal, slow speed and appear to be in a completely different environment from the one it was in when the changeling bordered, or on a canal in the mortal world.

14. Shelob's Lair

This makes a great perilous Hedge encounter. The changeling is moving through an area of the Hedge where the thorns grow black as pitch and the light starts to fade. Up ahead is a long dark tunnel, and if the changeling enters, they immediately become lost in a maze of identical tunnels covered in cobwebs. Corpses of other changelings hang wrapped in silk from the ceiling, and if the changeling isn't careful, they become trapped in sticky webbing themselves, until the huge Hedge spider arrives to claim its newest victim. The spider can be either a True Fae or simply a denizen of the Hedge.

Here are some suggestions for powers the spider possesses:

Webbing: The spider's sticky webbing requires a Strength of 4 or higher to break free without a weapon. It severely inhibits movement, rendering all Dexterity dice pools into chance die rolls without the use of a Contract to enhance it.

Stinger: The spider's stinger deals as much damage as a spear or a short sword, and delivers a sedative poison. The changeling gets one Resolve+Stamina roll to remain conscious per round, and each round the poison isn't treated, they take a cumulative -1 penalty to the roll.

Contracts: If the spider is one of the True Fae, possible contracts could include Smoke, Darkness, Fang and Talon (Spiders), or Fleeting Autumn.

15. The Thorn Bush

Inspired by the rose bush from The Rats of NIMH, the Hedge completely blocks out the sky above, taking on the aspect of a labyrinth in which the light is dim and ever-shifting, like twilight. Random flickers of colored light pocket its depths, and if you want to make things more suspenseful for the player, include a hungry human-sized rat warrior with a cape, armed with a serrated spear to attack and chase after the changeling. Use the stats for a brairwolf as given on page. 275 of Changeling. Substitute Weaponry (Spear) for Brawl.

16. Do Not Open Until Halloween

The changeling comes upon a tall set of double doors made of violet wood. A massive canine head knocker rests in the middle of the doors as a locked seal. It continously utters the phrase “Do not open until Halloween,” in a ghoulish, growling voice. It stares blankly ahead, and does not respond as a sentient being. The idea behind the door comes from the legend of Tam Lin, where the Faerie ride out into the mortal world on Halloween. The changeling must convince the door somehow that it is, in fact, Halloween. This may be an opportunity to introduce the idea of time flowing differently in the Hedge, so that it really will be Halloween night when the changeling emerges in the mortal world.

17. Circus Goblin Market

The changeling comes upon a large clearing in the Hedge that is filled with all the buildings and paraphernalia of a big top circus. But this circus is actually a goblin market, and the goblins will want to turn the changeling into part of the show – trapping them in the Hall of Freaks, forcing them into a highwire trapeze act, having them ride a nightmare through a ring of fire or face off against a Hedge lion in a cage with only a chair and a Hedgespun whip for defense.

18. The Hop Scotch Riddle

The changeling comes upon what looks like a young girl playing hopscotch with herself and singing a children's song or nursery rhyme. She ignores any attempts to speak to her. If the changeling tries to cross the hopscotch clearing by any means other than playing the game and singing the song, the thorns of the Hedge attack and strike the changeling back to the place from where they entered.

19. The Frozen Waterfall

The Hedge appears to be made of brittle frost crystals. Up ahead the path ends at a turbulent-looking pool being fed by a tall waterfall. But the pool and the waterfall are all made of solid ice. The ice moves exactly like water, only four times slower.

20. Little Red Riding Hood

The changeling encounters a walking, talking handsome wolf dressed in the clothing of a Victorian gentleman. This creature is actually a Nappera-Bo (See Changeling: The Lost pg. 276).

21. The Witch With the Bone Fence

The changeling comes upon a small stone cottage with what looks like a picket fence and a gate out front, except that the fence and gate are made from the bones of children. Inside the house is the Bone Witch, a True Fae who lures mortals in with promises of a good night's rest and a hot meal and then kills them to add more bones to her collection.

Bone Witch

Attributes: Intelligence 6, Wits 4, Resolve 2, Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Charisma 4, Manipulation 4, Composure 4

Skills: Crafts (Cooking, Herbs, Potions) 6, Medicine (Herbal, Potions) 5, Occult 5, Athletics 3, Stealth 3, Empathy 3, Intimidation 4, Persuasion 5, Subterfuge 5

Merits: Eidetic Memory, Holistic Awareness, Hollow 2

Willpower: 6

Initiative: 7

Defense: 3
Size: 5
Speed: 11

Health: 8

Wyrd: 6

Contracts: Darkness 5, Elements (Bone) 3, Eternal Autumn 2, Fleeting Autumn 2, Vainglory 1

Suggested Bans: Cannot harm someone with the fur of a black cat, is repelled by soap or salt, the prick of a needle will put her to sleep, can be slain by a bone-handled knife.

22. The Path of the Secret Word

The changeling notices that the path ahead is shattered into a patchwork of stone sections, each with a letter carved into it. Those who wish to cross the path are presented with a riddle, and must spell out the correct answer using the stones. If they guess wrong, the stone collapses beneath their feet and threatens to plunge them into a cavern far below.

23. The Leap of Faith

The changeling comes across a huge chasm in the path ahead. There is no apparent way across, but they can see the mortal world through the briars on the other side. A stone lion's head justs out slightly across the canyon. Written on the top of the lion's head are the words: This Way Home and an arrow pointing across the chasm. The changeling must step into apparent mid-air, and will find a camouflaged bridge supports them as they walk across to freedom.

24. The Iron Horse

The changeling finds the path ahead blocked by a gushing waterfall of liquid fire. Standing facing the waterfall is a solid iron horse. The horse tells the changeling that what he seeks is just on the other side of the fire. It tells them to mount its back and to trust it. If the changeling does, the iron horse slowly carries them safely through the fire unharmed. This encounter works best if you play up the visceral details of the slow walk through the fire – the growing heat, the sizzling of the fire across the horse's neck and head, etc.

25. The Cave of Wonders

The changeling finds a vast treasure house of unimaginable wealth in the midst of the Hedge. On the other side is the exit to the mortal world. If the changeling touches any of the treasure, dire consequences ensue. Perhaps all the treasure changes to fire, turns into flesh-eating golden insects, or slowly starts to change the changeling into gold herself. 

Stay tuned for the last 25 encounter ideas!