Spring (Art)

Spring embodies the fae’s vibrant optimism, wonder, and affinity with nature. Spring cantrips channel Glamour into growth, new life, and protection. Though modern changelings favor Primal, Spring maintains a dedicated group of practitioners, primarily in the Seelie Court.

## Unleashing Spring

Spring Unleashed creates overwhelming foliage, cleanses curses and dark magics, and restores what is broken. Channeling Glamour through the Art of Spring, a changeling could cover a building in flora, temporarily lift a curse plaguing her motley, or heal the mortal wounds of everyone around her after an explosion.

## Spring Bunks

Spring bunks often involve nature, animals, circles, and sexuality. Example bunks: Take off all of your clothes and climb a tree in Central Park, make a sex tape that goes viral, tell the tale of the three little pigs to an audience of pigs at the petting zoo, run around your enemy in a circle three times, or tell an unrequited love how you really feel.

## Spring Cantrips

### Awaken

New life, a sprouting seed — at the heart of Spring is the promise of beginnings and awakening from dormancy or slumber. The changeling begins her journey into the Art of Spring by learning to call an end to hibernation and encourage growth. The changeling plants a seed of Glamour and then watches as it takes root and rouses the focus of the cantrip.

A courtly sidhe ensures that his liege’s crops begin to grow this season. A massive chimera slumbers in the Near Dreaming, but the satyr must rouse it and beg for its help. After watching the writer struggle to put words on the page, a helpful Troll plants a seed in the artist’s mind that may become the next great story of his generation.

**System:** Awaken gives new energy to the target, as determined by the Realm. Anything that is dormant or frozen will return; anything barren or void becomes the home of a new spark of life. The specific effect depends entirely on the Realm used and the context when cast, but Awaken’s primary function is to rouse anything inert. The number of successes determines how powerful the effect. One success would be enough to start an old car rusting in an abandoned shed, while five successes might be required to counter the effects of Stasis (see Winter).

**Type:** Chimerical or Wyrd (depending on target)

### Verdant Reclamation

All things from the earth, and to the earth all things shall return. Given enough time, nature reclaims everything, and with a little Glamour, the changeling casting a Verdant Reclamation cantrip can speed up the process. Useful as a display of power and to cause distraction, the plants and foliage that cover the target continue to grow and overwhelm for the entire scene.

A satyr causes a garden to grow in the middle of his apartment to impress and enchant a mortal. Realizing he is being followed, the duke causes vines and trees to cover and disable the car following him. In a strange turn of events, the sluagh calls a canopy of trees to block the sun and save the vampire caught out in the day.

System: The focus of the cantrip as determined by the Realm becomes the center of an explosive growth of plants. Even if nothing natural exists nearby, roots, flowers, trees, and vines sprout from the ground, or out of the target itself, and cover the surface. The foliage lasts for one scene, after which they wither and gradually fade.

If the cantrip targets a machine or object, it becomes unusable until someone removes the foliage from in and on the item. A person or creature caught in the cantrip must contend with the flora and do everything they can to pull and tear at the plants as they grow on her or risk being covered completely. A living target cannot move or take any other meaningful physical action until they accumulate more successes than the cantrip’s roll using Strength + Athletics.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Well of Life

Legends of the water of life, a mystic well or elixir that heals wounds or grants eternal life, appear in most cultures throughout the ages. This Spring cantrip does not reverse aging or grant immortality, but does infuse the target with Glamour that heals anyone nearby or in contact with the cantrip. The clurichaun watching two friends duel stands between them and heals both of their injuries. Despairing for the lives lost on both sides, a troll knight makes the rain restore life to the wounded on the battlefield. Hoping to provide comfort to a weary doctor, a pooka makes him a vessel for healing as he starts his rounds. After being ambushed, a redcap offers the flesh and blood of their bested enemy to heal his motley.

**System:** The Realm determines the source of the healing to anything near the target. Simply being in proximity of the focus of Well of Life restores a bashing or lethal injury during the scene. Touching the target of the cantrip heals a bashing or lethal each turn. Consuming all or part of the focus of the cantrip restores all bashing and lethal damage, and also heals one aggravated damage. Spending an extended amount of time near the Well of Life can also heal infections, counteract poisons, and reduce the severity of diseases. Healing effects of this cantrip do not distinguish between friends or foes, and will heal anyone who is near the target of the cantrip.

The number of successes determines the duration:

 2
 3
 4
 5

For example, a boggan casts a Well of Life cantrip on the stew she is cooking using Nature. As her friends stumble through the door, nursing injuries and ailments from their latest adventures, she insists they take a moment to eat the home-cooked meal. The boggan’s player rolled three successes for the cantrip, meaning that anyone who eats a serving of the stew during the current scene will restore all bashing and lethal injuries, as well as up to one aggravated injury.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Faerie Ring

Human legends tell of circles of mushrooms, wildflowers, or stones known as faerie rings — dangerous places for mortals because the fae who live and dance in the rings can kidnap or curse any interlopers. The folklore holds a seed of truth. The Faerie Ring is a Spring cantrip that allows a changeling to create a circle that offers protection and concealment from any outsiders, with serious consequences for anyone who intrudes.

A childling arranges her toys in a circle around her in the center of her room and watches the intruder look past her and continue searching the house. Shells formed in a circle on the beach remain in place through high tide, and the motley inside plots their next move in safety. The court magician curses her husband after his outburst to the king, so the satyr gives him a brief respite from the bursting boils within a faerie ring.

**System:** The bunk for this cantrip always involves a circle of some natural substance that defines the protected area. The Realm determines who or what can be protected inside. Anyone and anything the character allows inside the ring (and within the Realm(s) used) becomes invisible to the outside and protected from any sort of hostile magic.

The faerie ring lasts until the next sunrise, and the number of successes determines the strength of the magical protection. Each success on the cantrip adds one to the difficulty of any attempt to detect or harm those inside the ring. Additionally, the number of successes determines the strength of the curse that afflicts anyone who violates the circle of protection. A curse from a faerie ring lasts until the next full moon.

 2
 3
 4
 5

**Type:** Wyrd

### Renewal

Every year, Spring performs the ultimate miracle by thawing soil and resurrecting life in a landscape made temporarily barren by the winter. Masters of Spring magic tap into the cycle of death and rebirth to temporarily grant life to anything inert or dead. The circle closes soon after however, as Glamour only sustains the resurrection for a few precious moments

The brokenhearted king returns to his wife’s tomb every year on their anniversary to laugh, eat, love, and then kiss her again before another year’s return to death. Believing the battle lost, the troll general’s troops begin to flee until they see their slain brethren all stand and return to the fight. A piskey finds an inert and drained Treasure, but invokes Spring’s Renewal to activate the Treasure’s power again.

**System:** The player must spend a point of Willpower in addition to the required Glamour to fuel this cantrip. The character must target something dead or inert that she can recognize (a skeleton or husk of a building would suffice, but not the contents of an urn), and use the appropriate Realm. The target returns to life (if ever alive) or becomes restored. Renewal does not create a copy or an undead revenant; the focus of the cantrip temporarily revives and becomes as full of life as she was in her prime. Renewal grants no special protection or resistance to harm, mundane or mystical. If the target dies or is destroyed, she returns to death.

Every success on the cantrip’s roll grants renewal for one scene. Regardless of the number of successes rolled, the magic fades at the next sunrise. Because Renewal taps into the oldest magic of cycles, the cantrip cannot be cast on the same target more than once during the same lunar month.

**Type:** Wyrd