Pledges part 03 - Bargains

Bargains

Human tales of the fae are replete with accounts of faeries performing tasks for people — spinning straw into gold, crafting shoes or other goods, cleaning houses, cooking fantastic meals, or otherwise using their supernatural acumen on behalf of humanity. The humans in these tales sometimes have to repay the faeries’ kindness, and sometimes are taken aback by the price. In truth, though, changelings make bargains with people because doing so disguises them. If a changeling has an agreed-upon function within human society, Huntsmen have a much more difficult time finding her. Of course, she has to keep up her end of the bargain — and in order to reap the benefit of the bargain, that bargain must be ongoing.

Changelings make bargains with human beings for another reason, though, quite apart from the increased ability to hide from the Huntsmen. Bargains make changelings feel like they belong. Ripped away from their families, forced into servitude and escaping through a nightmare of thorns, changelings are, as their sobriquet implies, Lost. A bargain with people requires contact with people, and forces the changeling to rediscover and interact with a world she thought forever taken from her.

In order to make a bargain with a person, the changeling has to reveal her true nature. She doesn’t have to be honest with the mortal about the particulars of her situation, but she has to appear to the person without her Mask and propose the terms of the agreement. She can promise anything she wants to the person, but in order to gain the benefits of the bargain, she has to be capable of making good on her promise. Changelings should therefore take care to bargain for services they have the Skills or Contracts to provide, though it’s not unknown for a changeling to bargain with one person to provide a service that another person she has bargained with is actually going to provide (changelings should beware, though — it just takes one misstep for the whole web to break).

Benefits

By making a bargain with a human being, the changeling gains a kind of camouflage with respect to the Huntsmen. This protection extends beyond the Mask — all changelings have some degree of concealment, but the magic that makes human beings see them without their fae features only extends so far. A bargain gives the changeling a place among mortals, and tricks the Wyrd into assuming that the changeling should be there. Huntsmen, therefore, see the changeling not necessarily as human, but as a natural part of the landscape, a faerie feature that is and has always been. A bargain isn’t fool proof, of course — Huntsmen and persistent and powerful, and have many ways to ferret out the Lost.

Consequences

Breaking a bargain with a person doesn’t carry a heavy consequence for the changeling in question, at least in comparison to breaking an oath. The changeling simply loses the benefits of the bargain, meaning that she is once again exposed to the Huntsmen. This is, of course, a potentially fraught situation, depending on who’s looking for the character at the time. Depending on the scope of the bargain in question, the changeling might also gain the Notoriety Condition.

The human participant in the bargain needs to live up to his end, as well, or suffer the wrath of the Wyrd. The most common punishment for a human being failing to honor his part in a bargain is being snatched away by a Huntsman. This isn’t because of specific wording in the bargain (most changelings wouldn’t wish being taken by the Gentry on their worst enemies, much less some hapless person who just forgot to set a pie on his windowsill), but because of the nature of the bargain. Just as a kept bargain shields a changeling from the Huntsmen, a broken one shines a harsh light on whoever would are cheat the Wyrd.

Systems

Changelings cannot swear bargains with other changelings, and prefer to do so with human beings. Magical beings unaffiliated with the Wyrd can agree to bargains, but doing so sometimes has strange side effects. No matter the nature of the other party, the changeling must appear to him without her Mask, and propose the bargain. Most changelings observe human beings for days or weeks, discerning simple tasks that they can perform in order to strike a bargain. The bargain is usually an ongoing task — a changeling might offer to clean the human’s house once a week, or sew her a dress once a month, or grant her pleasing dreams three nights a week.

Once per story, when the changeling devotes time and energy (at least once scene) to fulfilling a bargain, the player takes a Beat. The main benefit for a changeling, though, is that Huntsmen have a more difficult time tracking them down — to the Huntsmen’s sense, the changeling appears human. In game terms, for every active bargain that the changeling enjoys, all hunting or investigation rolls to find her suffer a cumulative -1 penalty. This penalty has no upper limit (though of course, the changeling needs to be careful not to overextend herself).

The subject agrees to provide something in return, but it doesn’t have to be commensurate with the service the changeling is providing (since the point of the bargain, from the changeling’s perspective, isn’t what the human can provide anyway). Some changelings simply ask for money or valuables, while others ask for goods they can sell or trade. Clever changelings word their bargains so that the subject has to provide a seemingly innocuous service sometime in the future, and build up a bank of favors. The game mechanics of such favors, if any, are up to the Storyteller, but an appropriate use would mimic the effect of a one- to three-dot Merit, once per story.