Freehold of Minuit

Dream a little dream

Research is underway for patients with chronic nightmares. A research study hosted by an Amber Trylline of the Dream Institute for Living pays 200 for a few therapy sessions and a single early night session of intensive and revolutionary 'dream therapy' techniques. All under strict NDA, of course. Specialists have been hired for the intensive session by Amber and her coworker to alter moods as the clients sleep by talking softly and other means necessary, just don't wake the client. Amber herself has been promised success in keeping her job, by becoming oathbound to the king of Autumn. She herself doesn't fully understand how the changelings succeed in changing mood and the king wants to keep it that way. Either way, the experiment is an easy source of glamour.

Based on court, determine what mood you wish to achieve in your assigned client. Roll a d10 to determine what their recurrent nightmares are of:
1- spiders
2-snakes
3-falling
4-humiliation
5-being followed
6-entrapment
7-being cannibalized/eaten by something
8- otherworldly horrors
9- starvation
10- bullying/harm from others(be careful writing this out)

If you are an Autumn courtier you are the control group, keep the client afraid. Anyone else, try and incite your court emotion.

Make a pledge with the client, as part of the signing of the contract. This counts towards the event. Then after they are asleep, enter the hedge and fall into a meditative sleep to enter the dream. Spend a point of wyrd and roll: resolve+composure+wyrd extended (5 successes)
This equals 5 minus number of turns to achieve dream points to a minimum of zero.
(Edit: only spend glamour once here)*

Scour the dream: The client's dreams are intensity 5 to start. They feel extremely realistic, describe the discomfort you feel. As intensity lowers it will feel more hazy and disconnected. To lower intensity, roll wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity if it hits zero they wake up. Gain a dream point for each success each success also lowers the dream intensity by 1

Dream psychotherapy: one night of dream therapy is worth a week of intensive psychotherapy. Roll wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity to help your client out. Each success is worth a dream point. A dramatic failure results in dream combat occurring.

Roll Manipulation+a social skill of your choice+wyrd and describe how you change the dream to your court's emotion or give them a different fear. Each success is worth a dream point

Finally, roll resolve+composure to wake up and report your findings. =a success or exceptional success results in 200 dollars pay.

All who participate gain 3 commendation points and the top two gain an additional point.

Dream combat start a separate thread. Willpower of opponent is 3.

Personal Attacks
Roll to attack personally in a dream:
Highest Power stat (INT/STR/PRE) + Attack skill + Equipment bonus equal to Wyrd

Environmental Attacks
Roll to use the environment to attack in a dream:
WIT + Empathy + Wyrd

No matter how many people the environmental attack seems to hurt, you can only actually harm a single target at a time.

Dream Defenses
Defensive stats within dreams:

Defense = Highest Finesse Trait (WIT/DEX/MAN)
Armor = Highest Resistance Trait (RES/STA/COM)

Dream Damage
Damage in dreams is normally dealt to Willpower, not Health.

Chantelle sat down with her subject, a young woman by the name of Rebecca, Bec for short. The egret shook Bec’s hand, smiling warmly, it was a genuine smile, if a little bemused, Chantelle wasn’t entire sure what they were supposed to be doing, but in the interests of fostering goodwill within the Freehold, she’d muddle through. They made some small talk before getting to the questionnaire about Bec’s quality of sleep, finally turning to the subject of her fears.

“I keep dreaming of snakes,” the girl confessed, “but, they’re, like, slimy...” Chantelle listened, nodding and making the appropriate thoughtful sounds, though she neglected to make any real notes for the researches beyond fear of snakes.

“Mais, Bec, all I nee’ is fo’ you to sign dis form ‘ere, an’ you can’ ma’ yourself comfor’ble an’ ge’ some sleep.” Handing over the form, “can you jus’ rea’ dis par’ aloud fo’ me?”

Bec looked at the form, “I hereby agree that I have been informed of all procedures and risks pertaining to this study, and that I am participating of my own free will with full comprehension of aforementioned procedures and risks. I agree to participate in this study to the fullness of my ability, and indemnify Dream Institute for Living against all claims of warranty or liability arising from my participation in this study.” Chantelle’s smile grew as she wove Glamour through the woman’s words, Sealing them and giving the promise over to the Wyrd.

Finally, the subject was asleep, and Chantelle stepped into the Hedge, a chill running down her spine; not even her Hollow, small as it was, felt safe. The prospect of falling asleep here was not an entirely appealing one. Arranging her limbs, the egret folded her wings and let herself slip into a trance, then deeper, into dream. Opening her eyes, she found a door in front of her, and stepped through it.

The eyes she opened were not her own, and yet they were. Her peripheral vision was fuzzy, almost as if anything she wasn’t paying immediate attention lost several shades of realness. The egret was aware that she was herself, and she was Bec at the same time, and it wasn’t the strangest thing she had dreamt herself being, looking through eyes that she only understood upon waking to not belong to her. They walked through a facsimile of the Little Miskatonic Community College, it was day, but the light was all wrong, slanting upside-down and dark as an eclipse. The campus was deserted, and Chantelle understood that the young woman’s mind returned here night after night, a source of so much of the woman’s anxieties that it had become a sort of shorthand for her troubled mind.

As she|they walked, Chantelle murmured soothingly, softly, so as not to wake the sleeper, gentle white noise that filled the aching silence that roared in her|their ears, banishing the whining, ringing sound at the far edge of hearing like the first onset of tinnitus. She|they continued to walk, but there was movement at the corner of her|their eye. The wind? or something more sinister?

There was no sun, but the trees cast shadows. It was cold, and the branches were naked. The wind blew, swaying the branches, making the shadows dance.

The wind fell still.

The shadows did not.

Snakes, black as tar, slithered from what had previously been the shadows of branches. Dozens, hundreds, thousands. Their mouths yawned and gaped, black as the depths of the Earth. Eerie light shone from their black eyes, and their ivory fangs dripped black venom. Lithe and long, they stretched out forever. The dirt hissed and smoked where their venom fell, and still more of the oily black substance seeped from their jaws, until their black bodies were slick with it. They were getting closer.

Chantelle could feel her|their fear coiling and writing in the pit of her|their stomach, as though her|their very innards had been replaced with a nightmare viper. Snakes had reached her|their ankles, they moved lightning fast, and yet the mere moments it had taken for the slithering fear to reach them had stretched out for hours. The venom was cold and slimy, it burnt like acid, leaving welts on her|their skin as the snakes wound about her|their legs. She gathered her will, seeking to turn the dream towards calm, to banish the dark and fear and pain.

Instinctively, she turned to that which was most familiar. Hadn’t the Gentry reached and grasped for her just like this? Hadn’t their cruel and longing hands pinched and hurt like this? Hadn’t she wanted them to? Yes, she could taste their longing, their desire, she could feel the weight of their eyes. She was radiant, in a golden cage, and she had supped on their lust like a hummingbird.

She|they raised a hand and cast back the clouds to reveal a purple moon. Lilac moonbeams fell across her|them, erasing the pain, healing the bites. It fell, also, over the snakes and burned away the black venom, turning it to cotton candy mist that evaporated from the vipers and revealed the beautiful peacock blue scales beneath. These snakes had no fangs, and their bellies were soft as velvet as they coiled around her|them.

Slowly, the snakes drew her|them down upon a writhing bed of their thick, muscular bodies. Scales glided over skin, wrapping her|their limbs, caressing and exploring. It was warm in the lilac moonlight, warm in the embrace of the reimagined snakes. Their forked tongues flicked, curious, slithering about and around and under her|them in endless motion. They were everywhere. Everything.

An alarm rang, jerking Chantelle from the dream.

She filled out the paperwork half-heartedly, bleary from being woken so suddenly, still thinking more about the dream than the study. Maybe I’m de one who nee’ dream terapy, she mused, leaving the facility.


——
1 Glamour spent to Seal Pledge.

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams - What is Your Fear?: 1d10 2 - Sneks!

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Resolve 2 + Composure 3 + Wyrd 1): 6d10o10h8 4
[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Resolve 2 + Composure 3 + Wyrd 1): 6d10o10h8 1
5 base - 2 attempts = 3pts
1 Glamour Spent

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Wits 3 + Empathy 2 + Wyrd 1 - Intensity 5): 1d10o10h8 1
1 pt
Intensity reduced by 1

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Wits 3 + Empathy 2 + Wyrd 1 - Intensity 4): 2d10o10h8 0
0 pts

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Manipulation 2 + Expression 4 + Wyrd 1): 7d10o10h8 1
1 pt

[D3 EN] Wet Dreams (Resolve 2 + Composure 3): 5d10o10h8 0
All that, and I didn’t even get paid
Taking a dramatic failure for a Beat.

TOTAL POINTS: 5

Also gain 4 Commendation points (3 for participating + 1 for basic Sealing)

(To be filled in when i wake up)

--------------------
D3 EN - randomizing fear: 1d10 7 - cannibalized/eaten, fun!

D3 EN - resolve+composure+wyrd: 5d10o10h8 1
D3 EN - resolve+composure+wyrd (roll 2): 5d10o10h8 2
D3 EN - resolve+composure+wyrd (roll 3): 5d10o10h8 3 = 5 - 3 = 2 pts

D3 EN - scour the dream: wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 1d10o10h8 0

D3 EN - dream psychotherapy: wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 1d10o10h8 0

D3 EN - Manipulation+persuasion+wyrd: 5d10o10h8 4 = 4 pts
D3 EN - Manip+persuasion: drawing glamour: 4d10o10h8 1

D3 EN - Wake up: resolve+comp: 4d10o10h8 2
= 6 dream points & $200
= 4 commendation points (3 for participating, 1 for basic sealing)

Marcus was assigned his patient, a middle aged, morbidly obese local man. The beast could recall having to eat a man much like him to amuse his captors, though that poor woman had been transformed to a half-sow, half-human. He could still recall her shrill cries echoing from his guts. The man explained that his problem, if you could call that, was that he kept dreaming of starving. That he was hungry, but there was no food to be found. That he had to drag his ravaged body across the town, with no food to be found and with hunger gnawing in his belly.

Marcus wasn't entirely sure why he was here - he was nightmares made flesh and not a therapist. Yet, if this helped the Freehold he was willing to try. Hunger he could understand, at least.

The patient awkwardly read out the form, with Marcus trying to make sense of the words on his copy. “I hereby agree that I have been informed of all procedures and risks pertaining to this study, and that I am participating of my own free will with full comprehension of aforementioned procedures and risks. I agree to participate in this study to the fullness of my ability, and indemnify Dream Institute for Living against all claims of warranty or liability arising from my participation in this study.” Marcus grinned as he wove Glamour around the words, sealing the man's words.

The large man laid down on the simple bed and sometime later, finally fell asleep. Marcus followed him, stepping into the Hedge. His Hollow took a form of a scaled wolf. As if the scales could protect him against the threats within the Hedge. Sighting, Marcus/wolf coiled into ball, laying his snout over his paws. Sleeping here wasn't particularly appealing, but wolf gotta do what wolf gotta do. Focusing once more, he sank into a trance and opened his eyes - seeing the town of Minuit with eyes that were not his own. It was if he could see less. The poor fellow was walking towards a KFC and when he finally reached the door, he found the door locked and no-one within. Turning around, the patient spied a Dunkin' and half-rushed, half-lurched in that direction. Marcus, unsure what to do or how to do it, was in for a ride. He could feel his hunger as his own, inadvertently feeding the nightmare. Welp...

Marcus tried to egg the man, to keep on chasing while he pondered his next move. But while the man was chasing his doughnuts, he had some time to think. Absurdly, as they got close to Dunkin', the joint grew legs and started to run away from the hungry man. Bloody hell. Talk about meal on a go. Marcus huffed. The hunger gnawed him as badly as it did his patient. Marcus gathered his will, warping the dream even as the man ran. Suddenly there was a baseball bat in his hands. Taste of blood in his mouth even as fury burned in the back of his mind. White, agonizing pain that left little room for anything else. Pure anger. Sacred anger. The anger that banished all other sensations. Now the patient was chasing the building with a mad gleam in his eyes.

Eventually he caught the Dunkin' Donuts and brought down the bat down with a vicious strike, smashing the mechanical ankle that kept the building upright. There was a brief moment of silence and then, the building began to collapse with the metal screeching in protest as it did so. Smiling, Marcus withdrew from the patient's mind, bringing himself back to the Hedge and then, to the real world. As he opened his eyes, his patient laid on the bed, sleeping with his fists clenched.

Job almost well done, I guess?


____________

1d10 to determine nightmares!: 1d10 9
Starvation?

Spend one Glamour!
D3 EN resolve+composure+wyrd roll 1: 7d10o10h8 2
D3 EN resolve+composure+wyrd roll 2: 7d10o10h8 0
D3 EN resolve+composure+wyrd roll 3: 7d10o10h8 3
2 points!

D3 EN wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 1d10o10h8 0
0 points

D3 EN wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity (dream psychotherapy): 1d10o10h8 0
0 points

D3 EN manipulation + Intimidation (Stare Down) + Wyrd: 6d10o10h8 1
1 points

D3 EN Finally, roll resolve+composure: 6d10o10h8 2
200$ gained..

and all of 3 points.

Also gain 4 Commendation points (3 for participating + 1 for basic Sealing)

"You're the specialist?"

"Yes. My name is Jack."

"But, you're a child. Should you even be up this late?"

He chuckled. "I've had sleep issues myself. It gives me what they called unique insight. I can help, really."

"What about your family?"

"They don't have an issue with this."

"Did somebody hurt you?"

Jack looked down at his bandage. "Oh, no. I scratched myself up climbing an apple tree."

"It looks bad."

"My mother wrapped it up. Worried about infection, you know?"

"Okay, that's good..."

"She is a wonderful woman. Now, what can you tell me about your dreams?"

"I.... No... I don't really remember them..."

That was a lie, but Jack chose not to pry further. "They wake you up?"

There was a nod. "And, once I wake up, I can't get back to sleep."

The man was young, a college student with a smaller build named Tim. He seemed relatively average, but Jack detected a few hints of awkwardness and wariness. He had a few ideas, but he wouldn't be sure of things until the dream. He had the man go over the agreement, sealing it before directing him to lay down and try to sleep. Once the client was sleeping, Jack did his part, entering the hedge and, eventually, the dream.

They were in a house. Jack watched unseen, as a younger Tim happily played with his toys. Them Tim's fear appeared, a brutish man, towering over the boy, seething with rage. The father, Jack thought. The toys were kicked away and the beast bellowed at the boy, who cowered in fear.

What came next was difficult to watch. As bad as Jack's years with the Gentry were, he had never been physically harmed, not like this. The fear was overwhelming. But, there was something more. He could taste a regret kin the air and that certainly didn't belong to the nightmare father. Jack tried to find it, but it became clear that doing so meant confronting Tim about whatever he was hiding. He wasn't ready to do that.

Instead, he played a hunch.

The dream changed, as dreams do. Tim was older now and he was the one watching. Jack's small form had taken his place, being yelled at and threatened by the bestial parent. He cowered and braced himself, but the blows never landed on him. Tim was holding him, shielding him from the abuse. The fear was gone, replaced by a need to protect and the regret of not doing it sooner.

As the dream faded, Jack woke himself up. Tim was still asleep, a tear running from one eye as he murmured quietly.

"I'm sorry Anna... I'm sorry...."

- - -
Glamour Spent to Seal Pledge

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Client's Fear: 1d10 10 bullying/harm from others

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Seal Pledge, resolve+composure+wyrd: 6d10o10h8 1
(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Seal Pledge, resolve+composure+wyrd, 2nd turn: 6d10o10h8 2
(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Seal Pledge, resolve+composure+wyrd, 3rd turn: 6d10o10h8 3
5 - 3 Turns
2 pts

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Scour the Dream, wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 2d10o10h8 1
Intensity Lowered to 4
1 pt

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Dream Psychotherapy, Roll wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 3d10o10h8 0
0 pts

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event), Changing the Dream, Manipulation+Expression+Wyrd: 7d10o10h8 3
3 pts

(D3-EN)Dream a little dream(event),Waking Up, Resolve+Composure: 4d10o10h8 2
$200.00

6 Dream Points
4 Commendation Points

"...sooo, this is supposed to help right?"

"It is supposed to help de doctors figure out how to help better."

"...right. Sooo, sorry I just got to ask, you're not going... I mean it's only going to be used for science, right? You're not going to publicize any like, videos of this or anything?"

"Right."

"Right, as in you are or..."

"Dere is none of dis 'video' being kept."

"Uhh... okay. Well, I guess all the info is in the forms already. Can we, start now? I'd really like for these nightmares to just be over."

She was, of course, not here to wish away nightmare. She *was* the nightmare. Or at least, she was the shadowed outlines between the center of the stage those areas of the dream the subject's mind had not bothered to fill in. It started innocently enough; disjointed scenes coming together to form a haphazard narrative, people wandering in and out, setpieces in a play that made no sense. The conversations they had, the actions they took, were incoherent at first. But slowly, it started to coalesce into something that was taking a darker turn; something that Samantha could piece together and understand.

'You are nothing', came a voice. Big and strong, the noise emerging into the dreamscape from somewhere up above. A parent, perhaps a teacher, talking down to a child.

'You'll *never* be more than nothing. I don't know why I even bother. You're pathetic. A waste of my time.'

There they were; smiling mouths on inhuman faces. Watching. Enjoying. Transfixed by the way he was being put on display.

'Isn't that right kids? Isn't he pathetic? What do we say to children who can't do as they told?'

As a creature of fear, Samantha tended to have few moral qualms about inducing it in others. But she found it somewhat distasteful, when there wasn't a *lesson* to it. What was she really doing here? Reinforcing a fear like this, a childhood trauma that's grown and twisted in the decades since. Where was the *payoff*? What lesson could this teach? His fear was meaningless, too deeply rooted for him to dig it out himself. Well, that being the case, perhaps she could both serve her court, *and* help him. Help him by changing the fear to a more *useful* one.

All in unison, the smiles on those inhuman faces turned upward.

"Burn her. Chop up de remains. Put dem in a stew."

'What? No, no, no...' the voice from above came. 'Not *me* children... wait, what are you doing? Stop that at once!'

They had grown in size. Joined hands and then bodies as they morphed into the literal stuff of indescribeable nightmares. They were every dark and creepy monster the tv shows had ever used whenever they wanted the sort of mind-warping abomination that ought not be described for fear of rendering the reader insane. They were every bad rubber suit, every excquisitely realistic CGI creation, every Jim Henson creation, and every actor hidden underneath layers of hideously monstrous makeup. They were the multi-limbed, tentacled horrors. And they were the impossibly normal-looking cannibal from that article that gave him the chills. And they were Samantha too. The mask she wore, and the mien beneath.

They ate the voice whole, and they... it... she... turned their gaze toward *him*, next.




1 glamour spent to seal pledge.

Random fear: 1d10 4 (humiliation)

Resolve + Composure + Wyrd: 6d10o10h8 2
Resolve + Composure + Wyrd #2: 6d10o10h8 0
Resolve + Composure + Wyrd #3: 6d10o10h8 4

5 minus 3 attempts: +2 points, 1 glamour spent?

Wits + Empathy + Wyrd -intensity, WP: 2d10o10h8 0

1 WP spent.

Wits + Empathy + Wyrd - Intensity, Chance Die: 1d10h10 0

Manipulation + Intimidation + Wyrd: 6d10o10h8 3

+ 3 points, turned fear to Otherworldly Horrors

Resolve + Composure: 5d10o10h8 1


5 points total, 200 dollars gained, 4 commendation points gained?

"Oh dearie, you're such a nice young man. You're just about my son's age, but he couldn't bother to come to stay here with me." The little old lady looks plenty cross at her absent son.

Gray offers an easy smile. "Well, I'mma younger than I look, but I'll consider that a compliment from such a young lady as ya self."

"Oh you~" The lady primps her hair, looking around the room and adjusting her hospital gown.

"So, are you ready? I have 'ta read out the standard legalese here. You're doing this of your own free will, you understand the risks of being in a sleep study about fear, and ya can't sue 'em for anything. In exchange, you get money for your time and assistance. Does that sound alright?"

"Well..."

Gray's eyes narrow and his smile becomes a bit more strained. "What is it?"

"Would you hold my hand until I fall asleep?"

Gray's smile and becomes more genuine again. "Of course, if that's what you need to say yes."

"Oh, well alright then."

Gray sends a pulse of Glamour following those words and settles in next to the woman, holding her hand. His breathing slows along with hers as she begins to drift off.

It's time.

Gray invokes a contract, one which should have let him bypass all that silly Hedge nonsense about going into a dream. Should have. The woman's thoughts swim, throwing up barriers far more potent than he had expected. It take time, valuable time pushing through them, leaving Gray frustrated before he even arrives in.

The dream is taking place in a Church, the faces of old friends, lover, rivals pronounced and vivid.

"I can't believe she has the gall to stay around here. I hear her husband left her for his secretary."

"I hear he left for her sister."

"I heard it was for another man. So scandalous."

The woman's face flushed, and her hands began to tremble. How could they all know? How could they all know here?

"But you weren't the only one abandoned Mommy." She whirls to see her son next to her.

"I know my child, he abandoned you too."

"That's not what I'm talking about." The voice seems...a little off someone, fading back and modulating. The little boy in front of her stares deeply back, unblinking. "You. You abandoned me mommy."

She lets out a horrified gasp and moves to grab him. "Don't say such a horrible thing! I never left! I took care of you!"

"Oh, did you?" Her little boy is gone now, full grown (so much like that young man from earlier) "But you did. You cared more than what they were saying, how ashamed you were that you let it consume what you could have given to me. You were in the same home, but your mind lived in their thoughts. You cared more what the others thought, than what I would become."


"You weren't there to stop me." Her son's hands lash out, grabbing one of the gossiping ladies, strangling her neck. "You didn't care enough to keep my close." The whispers around her turned to gasps as he son devoured each of the figures, one by one, until the church was empty, save her and her son.

"And now...you're all alone. And I'm gone."

She jolts awake, her heart hammering. The nice young man from earlier is gone, leaving her all alone in the dark room, save the blips and beeps of the machines around her.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dream a Little Dream-Fear of choice: 1d10 4: Humiliation


1 Glamour to invoke Simple Binding pledge (, 1 commendation point)
Entering the Dream
Glamour spent to invoke Dreamsteps (Hold on, this was a doozy)
Dream a Little Dream- Dreamsteps Contact: Intelligence + Empathy (oneiromancy specialty) + Wyrd vs Bastion: 7d10o10h8 0 Turned to Dramatic Failure for a Beat. Fortification Increased to 4

Dream a Little Dream- Dreamsteps Contact Take 2: Intelligence + Empathy (oneiromancy specialty) + Wyrd vs Bastion: 7d10o10h8 1 vs http://orokos.com/roll/762864

Failure. Turned to Dramatic Failure to earn beat

Dream a Little Dream- Dreamsteps Contact Take 3: Intelligence + Empathy (oneiromancy specialty) + Wyrd vs Bastion: 7d10o10h8 2 vs vs Bastion: 5d10o10h8 2

Failure

Take 4: 7d10o10h8 4 vs vs Bastion: 5d10o10h8 3

Pass! 4 attempts needed, 1 Dream Point

Scour the Dream
Dream a Little Dream-Scour the Dream-wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 4d10o10h8 0 0 Dream Points

Dream Psychotherapy
Dream a little dream-Psychotherapy: wits+empathy+wyrd-intensity: 4d10o10h8 2 Dream Points

Change the Fear
Dream a Little Dream-Change the Fear-Manipulation+Empathy (oneiromancy)+Wyrd: 10d10o10h8 2 Dream Points

Feed on the Emotion for Glamour
Glamor Feeding (Fear): Manipulation+Empathy: 6d10o10h8 2 points of Glamour

Wake up
Dream a Little Dream-Wake Up: Resolve+Composure: 5d10o10h8 2

FInal Tally: 5 Dream Points, 2beats, 4(+?) Commendation points, 3 Glamour gained (favored emotion), 5 used for -2 balance