Black Market Ties(3) (1-5pt. Merit, Changeling: Second Edition, p. 166) You have special ties to an underground shopping network, ties that help you acquire hard-to-find equipment. This Merit adds one die per point to your Streetwise roll when trying, for instance, to obtain black market weaponry. Difficulties for such rolls are left up to the Storyteller (typically 7 or higher). The point cost reflects how 'connected' you may be. The Storyteller may allow you to use your black market connections during the game to provide you with needed or useful equipment. Such connections will not simply hand you whatever you want – those things don't come cheap! It is up to the Storyteller to determine the quantity, quality, and availability of the equipment. He may feel free to disallow it entirely if such connections would unbalance the game. ((Eadan has not used his contacts in the black market for a number of years but he still knows and talks to them from time to time just to stay current on things.))
-One point – Small Items: ammo, low-clearance ID badges, good software
- Two points – Average items: guns, hi-tech software, special ammo
Blood of the Rivers (5pt. Merit, Troll Kithbook, p. 63) The rivers, said to be the lifeblood of trolls, are living things, and as such have a distinct lifespan. The passage of decades may change the course, or even the flow, yet it takes centuries or a cataclysm to destroy on. So, too, with Trolls who possess this Merit. They age much more slowly than other normal fae, without running the risk of Bedlam incurred from dwelling continuously in freeholds. In game terms, so long as a troll is aware of the Dreaming, he ages at a rate of one-tenth that of his brethren. Should he be overtaken by Banality, however, he grows old and dies just like other mortals. Should he be saved from the Mists, he begins to age again at his reduced rate. Note that this does include troll childlings, who pass through this stage as quickly, if not faster, than other fae.
History
I was nine when the sidhe came back bringing with them glory and beauty and blood and terror. Not all sidhe are bad, or probably even were then, but to me it was more than I could take. I was young, very young and like many people newly awakened to what I was because of the bloom of Glamour all over the world because a man had walked on the moon. An entirely new society revealed to me and I was more than I ever dreamed I could be. I was strong and powerful, tall and imposing. I was a troll. But before I could even know more about me and my kind and my place in the world the sidhe were they, strutting back in like they owned the place.
During my fosterage I learned what I needed to know about my kind and our place in the grand scheme of things. But I also learned about the contempt the sidhe had for those they considered beneath them, which was everyone else. I learned of the years upon untold years that we had survived within the Autumn World without the sidhe there to guide us, so why did we need them now? I learned all too well what it meant to speak ill of those who thought themselves our lords and masters. When my time was up and I was free to make my choice in the world the man who taught me spoke of taking me before the Lord and Lady so I could swear fealty to them. I refused and I left.
It wasn’t long before I found myself in company that shared my opinions. Only little more than a year had passed since the return of the sidhe and there were many who did not like how they had comported themselves. How dare they who abandoned us to our fates think they could walk in and simply take over once more? They had to be taught this was not the case.
I joined their ranks and so began my years as a warrior, a freedom fighter striking out against the evils of the sidhe wherever they reared their pretty heads. Ambushes, booby traps, assassinations and a handful of other violent and not so violent means to tear down the sidhe or to uplift the commoners who deserved to rule. Yet it was a war without end it seemed. For ever pointy eared glory hog we tore down another came to take his or her place. The Gates of Arcadia had opened and let loose a nest of vipers.
Time slowly moved on as battle after battle was fought, at first it was intense and nearly constant but eventually things cooled down and the war turned very cold indeed. Tactics shifted to guerilla warfare and terrorism. Months of planning went into a single military action which all too often ended in our targets being removed as well as collateral damage. But our faith in the cause was strong, we told ourselves that those who clustered around the sidhe were just as bad as the sidhe themselves. Sycophants and kiss-asses the lot of them.
The seventies passed into the 80’s and now the war was truly frozen over. It was a cold and methodical hate that burned in the core of our little group. We called ourselves Ly Erg, soldiers who would challenge any to a fight even the great sidhe. Our right hands stained red from the blood of those we’d killed. The best course of action was to retreat from us, for to meet us in battle was to meet your death. There were bounties out on our heads, the four or five of us who were left of the originals. There were others in the group, younger boys and girls who longed to fight that good fight. The others who had grown up with me were showing their age but I still clung to my youth and that was a blessing.
The rumors that we made sure were circulated always spoke of me as being older than I was. Having a young looking bastard suddenly set upon you was great for the element of surprise. But it would not last. Too many people were vying for peace now wanting the bloodshed to stop. It pissed me off to no end. Was that all it took? Ten or fifteen years for people to forget how these bastards strolled back in and treated us all like dirt? They still did, they’d just gotten better at making it look like something else.
It wasn’t until I heard those words coming from a man who I had trusted my life to time and again that I knew things were coming to an end. The knowledge that the core of Ly Erg was weakened and failing gnawed at me. I made plans then. I would hold true to my beliefs and go out in a blaze of glory. The Lord who I refused to swear to was long gone by then but his son was in power now. I would take him down and die in the attempt.
For months I planned and planned, alone having forsaken the rest of Ly Erg. If I couldn’t trust a man I had known all my life, how could I trust the new blood. I heard from a boggan that Ly Erg had finally fallen and been captured and routed though one of the founding members still remained unaccounted for. When I was ready I made my preparations, planted the explosives and moved to my spots. The explosions in the freehold caused mass panic and a scrambling of the guards. Of course it drew the Lordling out to see what the problem was. I struck then. I did not kill him, but I surely crippled him before the guards set upon me and I fought them. It was a long battle and in the end I lost it.
I remember my fingers not wishing to hold my sword any longer and I remember falling from the castle walls into the swift river than ran beneath It and through the town. I remembered drifting down through water, my vision going black. When I woke next things were different. I could not remember anything of my life as a troll. I was only a young boy bereft of home or family. I wandered then for years through the countryside of England and into Europe. I moved without goal, without purpose as I grew and aged.
Life spent surrounded and muffled by the Mists was not a pleasant or easy one but I was quick on my feet and strong for a lad so I made do. There were those who I had run into from mortal society who remembered me and knew that I once was a part of a criminal group. There were inroads there that allowed me to take on jobs and earn cash far beyond what a normal boy would warrent. A strong back and a quick wit were good to have in this business. It wasn’t until I was a man fully grown that I returned home to Ireland and managed to get a place of my own. But I was so shrouded by the Mists and my own Banality that even my own people managed to overlook me. But one girl did not.
This sun-headed girl child thrust herself into my life without my asking and proceeded to make all sorts of trouble and annoyance in it. She was stubborn and wily, but beautiful as well. I wanted to pull her close as much as I wanted to push her away, and she was having none of the latter. It took her months to hammer away at the shell I’d unconsciously built around myself and to crack it. She’d been flirting with me for a time now and while I would have loved to have taken her to my bed, something stopped me. She’d had enough of waiting and all but threw herself onto my lap and kissed me soundly. It was a shock to be sure but it also made me laugh and with that laughter came all sorts of other thoughts and feelings. The shell around me cracked more and more and shattered. My life before came rushing back to me but it was like a life lived by another man. I was a good fifteen years older and more mature than that fiery boy of back then.
And sitting on my lap was a girl happy at seeing the real me, and the beauty in her smile was something that I’d never seen before. In that moment I realized that back then I had been responsible for the death of so much beauty, not only sidhe but moments like these that others did not get to experience. It changed everything in how I looked at the world. I did take her to bed that very night and we enjoyed each other’s company for the weeks that followed. I got my head in order and I went into the woods and before the full moon, before the island that birthed me and before the Dreaming itself I made a vow, a solemn oath to protect and watch over her.
And it was accepted and I held purpose again. A purer and more true purpose than I held before. Did I regret what I had done then? No. I believed in my actions at the time. My beliefs now are not the same as they were then. That man died many years ago. Let him stay dead. I am a new man and I will not make the same mistakes the old man did.
Notes/Misc Info
Chimerical Items
Sidhe Plate - This set of armor is actually composed from three sets of sidhe plate taken from fallen sidhe in his past exploits. It was taken to a powerful smith who managed to rework the metal into armor that would fit a troll and yet maintain its properties. Sadly he was unable to obscure the maker's marks on the original armor so those who are in the know may recognize the marks and know the armor was not originally made for a troll, and perhaps who the armor originally belonged to. Armor rating: 6 / Dexterity Penalty: 2
Loadstone - This is an arrow shaped loadstone that has been imbued with Soothsay level 2. Upon a successful Glamour roll it can be held out like a pendant and the arrow will lift and point in the general direction of the target the wielder seeks.
Warhammer - A large warhammer of sturdy design, one side of the head is curved and smooth while the other tapers to a point. Either way in the hands of a troll it is a potent weapon. Difficulty: 6 (7 if one handed) / Damage Str + 5
Dagger - A simple dagger of Celtic design though sized for a troll. Difficulty: 5 / Damage: 1
Treasure
Highland Blade (Level 2 Treasure) - These enchanted blades are growing increasingly rare, for the means of their construction are either lost, or the nockers aren't talking. Most common among them are claymores, though other edged variants exist. So long as the wielder possessed even one point of Glamour, he will not suffer any ill effects on account of terrain. The blades themselves can store from one to three points of Glamour within themselves; so long as they are empowered by even one point of Glamour, they will neither dull nor break, except by magical means. This blade is a trollish Greatsword six feet in length and a foot wide. Characters with a strength below 5 cannot even think of using it effectively and character's under six feet in height can do little more than thrust with the point. Difficulty: 6 / Damage Strength + 6 / Conceal: Impossible to hide
Oaths
"I pledge myself from this day forth
Until my heart no longer beats within my chest,
Until my mind is consumed by madness
Until my very bones are as dust on the ground
I will be shield and shelter for Fiona Rowan Castleden.
Her battles are mine to suffer
Her victories mine to partake of
Her joy will warm my heart
Her sorrow will drown the fires of my hearth
Without her I shall not be
She is the mountain source
That fills the dry river bed
So to her forever I am bound."
Code of Dagda & Seelie Code
Protect The Dreaming
Respect Those of Higher Station
Never Abuse Your Strength
Accept an Honorable Surrender
Death Before Dishonor
Love Conquers All
Beauty is Life
Never Forget A Debt
Freebie point spending
3 freebies spent to buy "Black Market Ties" merit
5 freebies spent to buy "Blood of the Rivers" merit
