Motley

[Imogen Baker]

She did have a car to bail if things got too hairy, at least.

Your character would be aware that bailing would constitute Oathbreaking, and know the penalties that come along with that.

I don't think the character would actually bail but I will keep that in mind!

[Jean Wellspeak]

I also come with a shiny dot to contribute! *polishes his dot and blows on it*

[Tiffani Noelle]

Aww, your dot is shiny? No fair. I got ripped off. I should've suspected a scam when the guy who sold me the dot said he was a Nigerian prince.

[Marlowe Phillips]

Motley Merits....

Hollow (• to •••••, Motley)
Workshop (• to •••••, Motley) – Requires Hollow
Token (•+, Motley)
Stable Trod (• to •••••, Motley) – Requires a Freehold?
Allies (• to •••••, Motley)
Contacts (•, Motley)
Library (• to •••, Motley)
Resources (• to •••••, Motley)
Retainer (• to •••••, Motley)
Safe Place (• to •••••, Motley)
Staff (• to •••••, Motley)
Status (• to •••••, Motley)

Hollow and Resources are probably the main ones we'd want.

[Jean Wellspeak]

Agreed on Hollow and Resources. ^^

[GhostWolfe]

MERITS - GM RULINGS

Hollow: Requires one timeslot per dot to create. Each person that helps in the creation reduces the time required by 1 timeslot, to a minimum of 1.
Workshop: Requires Hollow, and one timeslot per dot to create.
Stable Trod: Requires Hollow, and one timeslot per dot to create.
Resources: You may contribute dots up to the number of dots you personally have in Resources.
Safe Place: Requires one timeslot per dot to secure.
Staff: Requires an equal number of dots in Resources to hire staff.

Due to the ad hoc circumstances of the formation of this motley, the following Merits will not be available:
Token, Allies, Contacts, Library, Retainer, Status


MOTLEY BONUS EXAMPLES

• Motley members with the same Contract may make a Teamwork roll to use that Contract. Once per Session.
• Meditate for one turn and distribute current Glamour evenly between those present.
• Combine the best Social Trait, Skill, and Seeming and Kith Blessings for a roll. Once per Session.
• One member can suffer an injury on behalf of another member. Once per Session.
• One member can suffer a Condition or Tilt on behalf of another member. Cannot be used for Clarity Conditions.
• Swap Glamour or Willpower pools between two members. Once per Session.
• Members of the motley can always locate each other, no matter where they are.

[Marlowe Phillips]

Hollow (• to •••••, Motley)
A safehouse within the Hedge tied to a single, consistent physical entrance. While a changeling is inside the Hollow, any attempts to learn her personal information suffer the Merit’s rating as a dice penalty, as if she had the Anonymity Merit at an equal rating. Attempts to pursue or track her, both supernatural and mundane, suffer the same penalty. Only an entity whose Wyrd exceeds the Merit’s rating may force the entrance to the Hollow. Even then, one of the Hollow’s owners (even if no one is present) can attempt to resist the intrusion with a Clash of Wills (p. 126). A day and a night must pass before the intruder can try again if he fails. Additionally, your Hollow may have any combination of the following enhancements that adds up to its rating:

Hob Alarm (•): A group of somewhat friendly hobgoblins has taken refuge in the character’s Hollow. They react poorly to any sign of intruders. While within her Hollow, a character cannot lose her Defense due to surprise and adds her Hollow’s rating in dice to all actions during the first turn of an action scene. Maintaining the presence of these hobgoblins requires the character to accept one point of Goblin Debt (p. 162) at the beginning of each story.
Adding this to your Hollow requires at least one motley member to have the Hob Kin Merit.

Luxury Goods (•): A variety of mundane supplies and Hedgespun treats fills the Hollow, which allows a changeling to hold out for the long haul. Few modern conveniences work in the Hedge, but it’s not uncommon to find crystalline televisions that play unaired, unrecorded episodes of canceled TV shows, or jukeboxes that play music only the changeling can hear, or iceboxes overfull of off-brand colas that never saw the light of day. Whatever the case, once per chapter the player may roll her Hollow rating as a dice pool. Success allows the changeling to have one mundane or Hedgespun item on hand in her Hollow, with an Availability or dot rating equal to or less than the rolled successes. This item lasts for a scene before sublimating back into the Hollow’s latent Glamour. These items have minor oddities, like the jukebox that plays only for the changeling’s ears. The Storyteller is the final arbiter of what constitutes a minor oddity.

Shadow Garden (•): The Hollow has a patch of trembling soil, a deceased nightmare’s fertile belly, or a rose garden of painted flowers. Any goblin fruit consumed in the Hollow reappears in the garden an hour after its consumption. The resulting fruit provides none of the benefits of a goblin fruit, but resembles it to all senses. Any hunger these shadow fruits sate returns in full force an hour after they’re consumed. A week of staving off hunger in this manner constitutes a breaking point.

Phantom Phone Booth (•): The Hollow has an ancient phone booth, mounted boar head, or singing pool that allows the owner to make calls outside the Hedge. A character may call any phone with a public listing without knowing the exact digits of the number, and attempts to trace the call or read phone records show the call as coming from the recipient’s line. The phantom phone booth has no number for incoming calls, though it occasionally receives calls meant for out-of-service numbers.

Route Zero (•): A length of trod with a one-dot rating bisects the Hollow. It juts awkwardly from a wall, plunges down a tunnel of impenetrable darkness, or disappears over a foggy bridge. Its beginning and end are troublesome to determine. Any character traversing the trod makes a Hedge navigation roll (p. 200) to ensure they do so safely. At the end, anyone who makes the journey ends where they began, and regains a point of Willpower. A character may only take this journey once a day. If players purchase Route Zero for two or more different Hollows, it may pass through all of them. All owners must agree to this at the time of purchase, but once done it cannot be undone.

Size Matters (• or ••): Without purchasing this enhancement, the Hollow is only big enough for two changelings to sleep comfortably. With one dot, a motley of five to six changelings has enough room to stay without immediate cabin fever. The second dot turns the Hollow into a vast estate or small town, and members of a motley might not even see each other for the duration of a stay.

Escape Route (• or ••): Hollows normally only have a single exit into the real world. This enhancement creates a second emergency egress. Whether someone invades the Hollow, or a clever Huntsman waits for a changeling at the Hedge entrance to her den, sometimes it’s important to be able to bug out. At one dot, the one-way exit is a secure, stationary place within the Hollow’s borders. At two dots, the Escape Route can appear reflexively anywhere in the Hollow. Either way, only characters who have contributed Merit dots to the Hollow and those to whom they give permission can use the Escape Route.

Hidden Entry (••): When all members of a motley who have contributed Merit dots are inside the Hollow, the entrance evaporates. Rolls to find it or force entry while it is visible, including Clashes of Wills, suffer a two die penalty. The entrance reappears when one or more members of the motley depart.

Easy Access (•••): The Hollow has no permanent entrance. Instead, the character can access it by spending a single Glamour. This usually takes the form of a particular whistle or knock, but it works on any unlocked door in the mundane world. A changeling exits her Hollow at the same location she entered from.

Home Turf (•••): Either the changeling has spent long enough in her Hollow that she knows its every secret, or she simply resonates well with it. The changeling gains the Merit’s rating as a bonus to Initiative and Defense against any intruders that manage to make it inside.


Workshop (• to •••••, Motley)
The Motley maintains, within the Hollow, a variety of equipment and tools that can help with the creation of natural and supernatural items. Whether in the form of a forge with metallurgy tools, an artist’s loft, a laboratory filled with beakers and crucibles, or an orchard outfitted with the best gardening implements, your character’s Hollow is outfitted with precisely the right things she needs to have on hand to create.
Each dot in this Merit represents equipment for one particular Craft Specialty. Thus, a Hollow with a three dot Workshop Merit might include equipment for blacksmithing, weaving, and goblin fruit farming. Whenever a changeling uses the Workshop for Building Equipment (p. 196) or other Crafts rolls with one of these Specialties, she gains a bonus equal to her Merit dots to her rolls.


Stable Trod (• to •••••, Motley)
Effect: Your Motley has secured and maintained a trod with a rating equal to the Merit dots in Stable Trod. The trod bestows two additional advantages to those who have Hollows along it or travel it frequently:
• Hollows along the trod gain an extra one-dot Hollow enhancement (p. 116). The enhancement is the same for all such Hollows. This can benefit a number of Hollows equal to the Stable Trod Merit rating. This enhancement can bring the number of Hollow enhancements above the normal maximum a Hollow’s rating allows.
• Goblin fruit trees cultivated along the trod produce additional fruit. You may roll your character’s dots in Stable Trod as a dice pool once per story. Each success produces one additional generic fruit, which contains a point of Glamour.


Safe Place (• to •••••, Motley)
Your Motley has somewhere in the mundane world they can go where they can feel secure. While the may have enemies that could attack her there, they’re prepared and have the upper hand. The dot rating reflects the security of the place. Equipment represents the actual location, the luxury, and the size. A one-dot Safe Place could simply be out of sight, out of mind, or feature minor security systems. A five-dot could have a security crew, infrared scanners at every entrance, or trained dogs. Each place can be an apartment, a mansion, or a hidey-hole.
A Safe Place gives all owners an Initiative bonus equal to the total Merit dots while inside. Any efforts to breach the Safe Place suffer a penalty equal to the Merit dots invested. If the character desires, the Safe Place can include traps that cause intruders lethal damage equal to the Merit dots, or bashing damage equal to twice the Merit’s dots. The traps may be avoided with a Dexterity + Larceny roll, penalized by the Safe Place rating. Each instance of this Merit reflects a different place.


Resources (• to •••••, Motley)
This Merit reflects the Motley’s disposable income. The dot rating determines the relative amount of disposable funding available. One dot is a little spending money here and there. Two dots is a comfortable, middle-class wage. Three is a nicer, upper-middle-class life. Four is moderately wealthy. Five is filthy rich.
Every item has an Availability rating (p. 322). Once per chapter, you can procure an item at the Resources level or lower, without issue. Obtaining an item one Availability above the Resources reduces the effective Resources by one dot for a full month. You can procure items two Availability below the Resources without limit (within reason). For example, a character with Resources •••• can procure as many Availability •• disposable cellphones as she needs. Resources are available to the entire motley collectively if purchased as a group. If one character makes an extravagant purchase during a chapter, it reduces available Resources for the rest of the group.


Staff (• to •••••, Motley)
The Motley has a crew of workers or assistants at their disposal. They may be housekeepers, designers, research assistants, animators, cheap thugs, or whatever else makes sense. For every dot in this Merit, choose one type of assistant, and one Skill. At any reasonable time, the staff can take actions using that Skill. These actions automatically garner a single success on minor, mundane activities. Note that you may have employees without requiring the Staff Merit. Staff simply adds a mechanical advantage for those groups.

[Tiffani Noelle]

Okay then, I spent my 1 glamour for the motley and noted it in my Day 3 timeslots. We should pool all our merit dots and see what features we want in the Motley hollow.

[Jonathan Whitford]

I have already set aside a merit for a workshop, though it's only for metallurgy. In addition, Hob Alarm is open to us, since I have the required merit. I also have Resources 2 and I'm willing to share 1 of them for the Motley.

I guess that would take on allowing you to use my nice deluxe room.

My hope is we can get it to reach Hollow 3 so we can reach it anywhere.

[GhostWolfe]

You cannot “share” your existing dots in Resources with the motley. While you are free to spend your money however you like, mechanically speaking you cannot allot existing merits to the motley.

Due to the ad hoc nature of the motley, I am capping the number of Resource dots you can have as a motley. You still need to spend dots, however, as this provides resources above and beyond your own personal funds.

Unless you plan on making an expensive purchase (an item with an availability of 3 dots or greater), Resources is not going to be particularly helpful to your situation.