Autumn (Art)

The Autumn Art is among the oldest magic still practiced by the Kithain. Regarded by some as the most fearsome of the four seasonal Arts, this is the magic of the fall, of Samhain, of the turning from light into darkness. It possesses none of the creative energy or passion of the Spring or Summer Arts, nor the solemn dignity of Winter. Instead, it is an art of shadows and decay, of withering away, of death not yet accepted and doom still befalling its victims.

The Autumn Art is regarded by most Kithain as black magic of the most unwholesome sort. While many would like to believe such Glamour would only be wielded by the most dark hearted of Unseelie, the truth is that the Autumn Art has a long history among sluagh of both Courts, as well as certain satyr grumps and Unseelie boggans.

## Unleashing Autumn

Unleashing the decay of Autumn is an act of true desperation or wanton cruelty, and is useful for causing the massive breakdown of systems or weakening enemies. It is often invoked by desperate commands such as “rot away,” directed at an obstacle, “wither” howled at a group of enemies, or “come to ruin” uttered against a venture or system. The exact manifestation of Autumn’s decay is rarely predictable, and the eshu have many tales of woe far beyond the caster’s original desires brought into the world through such Unleashings.

## Autumn Bunks

Autumn bunks tend to involve the trappings of fall, funerals, harvests, and Halloween. Examples include: Crush a dead leaf, wear a scary mask, dress up as something you’re not, extinguish a lantern or candle, toggle a light switch rapidly, utter an eerie moan, design and construct a special costume, veil your face, stand vigil until the sun sets, pick a ripe fruit, spill mead on the ground, burn your wallet with everything in it, or get lost in a place you’re not familiar with.

## Autumn Cantrips

### Creeping Shadows

The changeling commands nearby shadows to bend to her whim. A satyr summons the shadow of a reluctant partner to dance with her. A sluagh curdles the nighttime shadows of a bully’s bedroom into a theater of menace. This Art may be used subtly, twisting or slightly manipulating shadows to grant a sinister aspect to the scene, or it may be used to commandeer shadows to become great leering things, utterly disconnected from the actions of those that cast them, or even to swallow the changeling (or another) up and hide the subject from sight.

**System:** The Realm selected determines who or what casts the shadows this cantrip manipulates. Subtle uses of this power lower the difficulty of all Intimidation rolls by the caster by one per success rolled. Overt uses of this power simply tend to announce the changeling’s power as a sorcerer to other Kithain and terrify mortals (at least until the Mists obscure the wildly leaping, monstrous shadows they witnessed). Used to swallow up a subject in its own shadow, an individual lowers the difficulty of Stealth rolls by one per success, while a shadowed object raises the difficulty to find it by one per success rolled (to a maximum of 9).

**Type:** Chimerical or Wyrd, depending on how overt the use

### Autumn Eyes

The duke leans forward, scrutinizing the wanderer before him, eyes burning with the orange light of Samhain. Glimpsing the great curse dogging his visitor’s footsteps, he withholds hospitality and sends the eshu on his way, igniting a flurry of whispers.

Infusing the Glamour of Autumn into her eyes, the changeling attunes her senses to decay and doom. She can see the illness and infirmity in those around her, recognize the weaknesses and stress points of objects, or even recognize those marked by some great or impending doom.

The changeling’s eyes always take on some unearthly characteristic when using this cantrip — her irises may become the orange of fresh-fallen leaves, or might glow white with ghostly limbal rings. Although every other element of this cantrip is chimerical, the change to her eyes can be spotted even by astute mortals (difficulty 8 to do so).

**System:** The Realm used determines who or what the character can scrutinize. If used on a person, the character learns the general state of the individual’s health (this can act as a diagnosis roll if the character has the Medicine Ability), gaining more detailed information the more successes she rolls. Alternately, the changeling might identify a weak point in an opponent, adding one additional die of damage to her next attack against that target for each success rolled. Objects may be scrutinized to similar effect to identify weak points. If the subject of Autumn Eyes is the subject of some curse, debilitating magic, or great impending doom, then this fact is revealed with three or more successes, along with the nature of the doom or supernatural malignance.

**Type:** Chimerical

### The Poisoned Apple

A young redcap brings a pan of her mother’s cookies to her third-grade class, enough for each student to have one. She’s very careful to hand the boy who throws rocks at her after school one very special cookie — one infused with all of her fear and anger.

This terrible cantrip has given generations of mortals ample reason to fear both the gifts and wrath of the fair folk. Condensing her ire into a deadly infusion of Glamour directed at something within arm’s reach, the changeling poisons her subject.

**System:** The Realm used determines who or what is poisoned. If used on a person, the target is simply struck down with poison. If used on an object, the object becomes poisonous to the next individual who uses it in a manner decided by the Storyteller and the nature of the object. (A poisonous apple would need to be eaten, while an envenomed book would likely deliver its deadly enchantment to the one who reads it.) This cantrip inflicts damage equal to the successes rolled, and is resisted as normal for a poison (see Poisons). Supernatural beings resist it as a category 3 poison, while for mortals it is resisted as a category 5.

**Type:** Wyrd

### The Withering

A legbreaker backs a satyr up against his door and draws a wrench from his pocket. But the satyr clenches his fist and leers across it and, in so doing, snatches away fifty years. The legbreaker is suddenly an old man, weak, tottering, liver spotted — and light enough for the satyr to push him over the apartment building’s railing with one hand. The curse abates as the tough falls, but it’s all in gravity’s hands by then.

With a vicious gesture, the changeling steals away a target’s vitality, leaving only the seeming of age and decay.

**System:** The Realm determines who or what is withered. Used on a mundane object, this Art’s effects are permanent. Otherwise, successes must be split between duration and severity of the withering inflicted by this Art. Each success ages the subject by one decade, or may be dedicated to the duration chart below. For every two successes dedicated to withering a living subject, it suffers a –1 penalty to all physical dice pools.

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5

Multiple castings have no effect unless they garner more successes than the curse already afflicting the target. No matter how badly this cantrip withers its target, it cannot kill it outright with advanced age.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Shivers

A quietly angry sluagh slips into the nursing home’s employee lounge. There — that’s the jacket belonging to the orderly who is too rough with his nana. He slips a fistful of crushed leaves into its pocket, and across this place of old age and despair, the shades of the dead stir to attention. The jacket’s owner will find little peace any time soon.

The changeling draws out her own dreams of death and darkness, and bequeaths them to a target. The person or thing so cursed becomes a beacon for ghosts, and suffers the attentions of the restless dead for a time thereafter.

**System:** The Realm used determines who or what is haunted. The exact effects of being haunted by ghosts can vary tremendously, based on the location, object, or person being haunted, the likelihood that any ghosts already have an interest in them, and so forth. At the extreme end, non-mechanical calamities may occur such as the walls dripping blood during an important business meeting. As general advice, the attention of the unquiet dead may produce results such as –1 penalties to actions requiring intense concentration, or to actions using a haunted object, or they may prevent characters from regaining Willpower when they sleep, as their dreams are haunted.

The haunting lasts for a number of days equal to the successes rolled times the caster’s permanent Glamour.

**Type:** Chimerical