Winter (Art)

Despite a long absence from the Dreaming, changelings remain bound to the seasons. Each of the four cycles creates powerful magic for the Kithain, but none so unyielding and frightening as winter. Winter harnesses the fae’s connection to frozen lakes, endless nights, and bitter winds. The cantrips of Winter deal with cold, ice, fear, and the loss of desire. Many view Winter as an Unseelie Art, but any changeling can learn winter magics.

## Unleashing Winter

Winter Unleashed manifests deep, instinctual fear (“make them flee”), mastery over ice or cold (“protect the motley with frozen armor”), or numbed hearts (“end the party”). Filtered only through the changeling’s kith, the glamour of Winter embodies the heart of winter: unyielding, uncaring, and unending.

## Winter Bunks

Bunks for Winter cantrips often involve discarding possessions, casting during moon phases or tides, and unflinchingly facing danger. Example bunks: Walk straight up to your enemy and kiss him on the cheek without hesitating, skinny dip in freezing waters under a blood moon, hold your hand in ice water, scorn someone you love, or drink an entire frozen beverage at once while a crowd cheers you on.

## Winter Cantrips

### Chill

The first and most benign application of Winter magics allows the changeling to lower the temperature of the target significantly over a short period of time. Chill does not cause injury or damage when cast on a living creature, but plants and objects may wither or break, respectively. Provided the Kithain can see the focus of the cantrip, she can usher in a deep and unpleasant cold.

A boggan barkeep keeps the drinks cool and refreshing when the icemaker breaks down. Jealous and vindictive, a scorned sidhe kills all of the plants in her ex-lover’s garden. Obsessed with becoming a vigilante, the sluagh chills her next criminal target before striking.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm determines the target(s), and the changeling possesses enough control over the Glamour to pleasantly cool a drink or cause someone to shiver and move as they futilely try to escape the cold. When used on something inanimate or non-sentient, the Storyteller should arbitrate the effects of the cold (flowers die, metal becomes dangerous to touch, rain turns to hail). When cast on a warm-blooded animal or creature, the target incurs a +1 difficulty to all rolls due to the distraction and discomfort. The number of successes determines the number of turns the cold persists.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Hardened Heart

Winter does not grieve for the lost traveler, freezing in the snow. Winter does not protect the prey tracked by wolves or caught in the hunter’s trap. Tapping into the heart of the cold, adepts of Winter mute emotion and insulate the focus of their cantrip from manipulation and influence. The target becomes unable to muster her own passion and will, a significant price for resistance to even the most powerful manipulations.

Facing a vicious baron in his court, the troll remains standing as every other subject is ordered to kneel. A boggan makes the duke’s favorite pet indifferent to its master’s commands. Ordered by the king to execute her own son, the sidhe knight freezes out any emotion to bring down the axe without hesitation.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm dictates the target, which then becomes unfeeling and resistant to mundane manipulations as well as supernatural mind or emotion control. Additionally, the target may not spend Willpower for the duration of the cantrip. A player may use Hardened Heart to prevent an object or other inanimate target from obeying a command such as from Dictum, but normally changelings use this cantrip on Kithain, mortals, prodigals, or chimera. The number of successes determines the duration of the cantrip:

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**Type:** Chimerical

### Terror of the Long Night

True winter dims light and swallows heat. Alone and cold, even the bravest feel a deep, existential fear when faced with an unending, frigid darkness. The sluagh knight causes his enemy to back down in front of the whole court. A pooka’s cantrip makes her mortal accomplices flee, leaving the fruits of their larceny solely for her. Slinking through backyards to escape a Dauntain, a nocker sends the resident German Shepherds cowering into their doghouses.

**System:** The Realm determines the target of the intense and overwhelming fear. The cantrip lasts for the current scene. The target must spend a point of Willpower to take any action other than run, hide, or cower during the cantrip’s duration. Changelings and other supernatural creatures can resist the Winter magic by spending a point of Willpower and then making a resisted Willpower roll (difficulty 8) against the number of successes scored on the cantrip.

**Type:** Chimerical

### Sculpt

Moving past basic invocations of cold, the changeling conjures ice with her Glamour and sculpts it for whatever her purpose. The creation cannot be mistaken for anything other than ice, and feels bitterly cold to anyone else’s touch, but the sculpture does not melt unless exposed to magical heat or flame.

Confronting the man who killed her brother, the sluagh forms ice in his mouth, suffocating him in minutes. A sidhe knight, surprised and under attack, forms armor and a sword to aid him in battle. Needing something beautiful to trade to the chimera for information, a boggan crafts an ornate ice sculpture of their city.

**System:** The Realm determines what the changeling sculpts with the cantrip. Sculpting the face of the motley’s enemy requires Actor, while sculpting a house would use Prop and Scene. Using Nature, a character could create a frozen garden filled with ice flowers. Once complete, the finished product is extremely durable.

The size and scale of the cantrip may require several minutes or even hours to form, but the changeling can create and form the ice anywhere within her line of sight. Once the character casts the cantrip, the ice begins to form and take shape. Each turn, approximately one cubic foot of ice will appear and take shape. The character does not need to focus on the magic beyond the turn she cast the cantrip.

Combat applications of this cantrip tend to be crude but effective (a sharpened icicle as a weapon, or misshapen boots of ice rooting a target to the floor), while, given time and space, a changeling can create scenes of breathtaking beauty. The product of Sculpt can never move or simulate life. An ice sculpture of a person does not animate or become a golem. Objects and items created with Sculpt function like their mundane counterparts provided they have no moving parts (ice armor provides protection, but an ice car cannot be driven).

The number of successes determines how long the product of the cantrip lasts before melting:

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**Type:** Wyrd

### Stasis

The final cantrip taught to masters of Winter allows a changeling to trap a target in magical frost for extended periods of time, keeping it exactly as it is but immobile and (if applicable) unconscious. Anything or anyone placed into stasis does not age, decay, break, or change. For the duration of the cantrip the target remains suspended in time. Breaking through the frost requires powerful magic, such as from a master of Pyretics or Spring.

A lonely redcap collects frozen mortals to keep in his home as a family. The duchess encases her poisoned daughter in mystic frost until she can find the antidote. A nocker places a complex chimerical device into stasis so he can bring it back to his workshop and get to work on reverse engineering.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm determines the target(s). Changelings and other supernatural beings can resist the effect of Stasis with a point of Willpower and a successful Stamina roll (difficulty 9). The subject placed into stasis cannot act, does not suffer damage, and becomes completely inert.

Supernatural powers or magic can thaw the magical frost coating the subject, but mundane heat or force does not break the barrier. Anyone attempting to undo the Stasis must perform an extended action using an appropriate (as determined by the Storyteller) power or ability. Attempting to undo the ultimate Winter cantrip requires five successes per success on the original cantrip roll.

The number of successes determines the length of the stasis, although the changeling who cast the cantrip can end it at any time.

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**Type:** Wyrd