Welcome to what is probably the penultimate installment of my series on Miranbrück, presenting a German setting for Changeling the Lost. If you are new to the series, the previous articles are worth a look. Part one, two and three.
Last time, we took a look at the leadership of the Miranbrück Freehold. Now, each of the courts gets another representative. Together, these form the entirety of the NPC’s for Miranbrück, because the setting was originally designed for a play-by-post forum game with lots of participants. The background being supported by such a small number of changelings can also be beneficial to a kitchen table group, though. In case you need additional characters, I highly recommend “The Great Masque”, which is no longer available from its original source, but can still be found here for example.
Jonathan Povres
Background:
Jonathan‘s livliest childhood memories are of food stamps and hard work, the early post-war period being his formative years. Despite the trials of this time, his parents did everything to allow him to enjoy a good education and so Jonathan not only attended the Mira Boarding School but went on to earn a double degree in history and archaeology. He stayed at the university as a lecturer and finally received the call to the post of curator of the renowned Museum for Early History.
His personal life followed in all too common paths, a wife, who died far too early, an estranged son, who shows just enough decency to call him on holidays, and lastly his work as the center of his life.
In the end, his keeper snared him with tales of rare artifacts he needed help with cataloging. Arcadia was hell for Povres. While his keeper, the adventurer, went on adventures, he was forced to stay behind, sorting, describing and examining. Every little mistake was punished with mutilating injuries and surgeries, until he was transformed into the monster he is today.
When he was taken, Jonathan was already an old man. He was imprisoned for decades, yet not one month passed back in his home town. After his fetch died, he assumed his old life once more and became a valued member of the Autumn court.
As head of the Museum for Early History, he spends most of his time there. The freehold’s tokens are hidden in the labyrinthine cellar levels of the museum as well. Despite this, he ventures out into the hedge time and again, questing for new tokens, because never again he wants to be locked away.
Seeming: Darkling
Kith: Antiquarian
Entitlement: Bassoon / Swordbelt / Librarian / Defunct (Caretaker of Tokens)
Apparent Age: ~80
Mantle: Autumn 3
Appearance Mask:
An older spry man. His eyes still look young and awake but his bald plate and wrinkles make his age readily apparent. His choice of clothes is unsurprisingly old fashioned and sober. His somber voice betrays his knowledge and education.
Appearance Mien:
A completely smooth regular face without even a nose protruding. Two slits are located where his nose should be. Jonathan‘s pale skin does not appear human and his claws are outright monstrous. His most striking feature, though, have to be his eyes, which no longer reside in his head but are placed in his palms instead.
Character Traits:
Jonathan is calm and deliberate. He never acts impulsively and is the model of the scholar. If push really comes to shove, he lets others do the fighting. His wild years are over, though he never got the chance to enjoy them.
Salvo Pisani
Background:
Salvo grew up as Indro Cocci. While his parents came from a wealthy background, their son was seeking the acceptance of his more down to earth compatriots. He started shoplifting due to peer pressure but kept on with it out of his own volition. Sometimes he was spotted but he was always too fast to be caught. So fast, in fact, that he made himself a target for his Keeper. A wrong turn later and the young urban criminal became a snow white fox of the Arcadian forests. Endlessly was he hunted, caught, killed and reborn to be hunted once more.
He grew better, though, and one day he was fast enough. He made his escape back to Miranbrück. 5 years had passed. He couldn’t stomach the thought of facing his parents, his old friends, though, assumed he had just been released from prison. Soon enough was he part of the cities criminal underworld and funnily enough the exact opposite amongst the society of the Lost.
Seeming: Beast
Kith: Runnerswift
Entitlement: Contrabass/ Sabre / Hall Monitor / Slain (Sherriff)
Apparent Age: ~ 30
Mantle: Winter 2
Appearance Mask:
Salvo is unobstrusive. An Italian with short dark hair and an ever present three days stubble. He is neither especially tall nor imposing.
Appearance Mien:
Even though he isn’t a true fox in this world any longer, much remains of his Arcadian form. He retains the snow white fur, the bushy tail and the doglike facial features. He is more nimble and athletic than strong and ponderous.
Character Traits:
Salvo has lost confidence in all and everybody. Everyone is a suspect and the only ones around whom he can relax somewhat are those, whose dirty secrets he has already uncovered. Rumours abound, that Salvo is willing to ignore minor transgressions if there is something in for him.
Sandra “Alder” Kreidolf
Background:
Sandra was taken in the early 80ies. Whatever made her Keeper select her is still beyond her.
In the middle of the woods, come rain, come snow, she was forced to fend off intruders, defend herself from predators and keep the small pathways open for her master’s hunting parties. Her life in Arcadia was hard and unfair, though it probably was still better than the fate of most other Lost.
Only when chance led her to witness the capture and skinning of the white fox, his not-death, rebirth and the renewed hunt, did she realize that she had to help him.
She destroyed the little path, that her Keeper used to overtake the fox, and so allowed the fox – Salvo – to escape. Though she followed him to Miranbrück, she has not yet told Salvo that it was her, who made his escape possible.
For some time, she lost sight of him and only found him again when he had already joined the Spring court.
In Miranbrück, she is known for her experience of the hedge and even was granted an entitlement for it. She supplements her Hartz IV welfare by selling goblin fruits to the local Lost – if she can find goblin fruit that is. When all else fails, Red lets her work at the club, though Sandra isn’t keen to be amongst that many people.
Seeming: Elemental
Kith: Woodblood
Entitlement: Bugle / Spear / Custodian / Starved (Hedgewalker)
Apparent Age: ~ 24
Mantle: Spring 2
Appearance Mask:
Sandra is a young pretty woman. Not a breathtaking beauty, but a solid 7. Short brunette hair, brown eyes and light skin. In private, she dresses in a practical natural style. Only when helping out at the club, does she dress up some.
Appearance Mien:
Alder, as she is also known, is a typical woodblood. Her skin becomes woodlike, more akin to fresh green wood than hard dark wood, though. Her hair blends together in myriad tiny branches with clumps of small leaves scattered throughout.
Character Traits:
Sandra is a nice folksy person. She sometimes lets herself be pushed into doing the work of others for them. It’s an open secret that she is head over heels in love with Salvo and would do practically anything for him.
Borut “Ribcoat” Janša
Background:
Borut is the son of two Slowenian immigrants. His parents both worked menial jobs for long hours and so the little boy had a lot of leeway early on, growing into an adolescent punk. He drifted from one party to the next, got into countless fights and molested women.
All of that came to a sudden end when the huge claw of his Keeper reached out of a side street and swallowed him up whole. He wasn’t alone within the Fey. The others were one by one robbed of their dreams and slowly digested. Borut stayed alive. To keep hunger at bay, he finally started to eat the sour flesh, reeking blood and sharp bones of the Keeper from the inside.
He became a monster himself and even the other prisoners began to fear him. That was when Borut decided to make an end o fit. He grabbed hold of a corner and ripped into it, continuing to rip and gnaw and gnaw and rip. Bones skewered him and melded into his form, surrounding him like a protective shell. His hands grew ever more clawlike. And then he was through. He had gnawed a tiny, ogre-shaped hole into his Keeper and ran home.
In Miranbrück, he quickly hooked up with Erwin and joined the Summer court. He was even made a warrior of the Freehold before most of the local Changelings vanished.
Seeming: Ogre
Kith: Gristlegrinder
Entitlement: Drums / Flail / Assistant / Fallen
Apparent Age: ~ 35
Mantle: Summer 2
Appearance Mask:
Borut is robust and strong. He sports a short trimmed goatee, which he dyes in strong colors from time to time. His hair always appears like he missed both his last shower and the last trip to the barber shop.
Appearance Mien:
Ribcoat resembles his mask, though his skin is redder and he appears even more brutish. His most striking feature of course is his eponymous bone armor, which pierces his skin and tightly wraps around him.
Character Traits:
Borut is nicer than one might think – if he wants to. His mood swings are near legendary, though, and no one can quite tell what will next provoke his ire.
Changeling the Lost and related names are the Intellectual Property of White Wolf and protected by Copyright. These items have been used unofficially and quoted exclusively as reference with no infringement on any associated rights intended and without implying endorsement by the copyright holder. Other contents of this article are published without permission or license.
Changeling the Lost und alle damit verbundenen Namen sind Geistiges Eigentum von White Wolf und urheberrechtlich geschützt. Diese Elemente wurden inoffiziell und ausschließlich als Referenz zitiert ohne die Absicht damit verbundene Rechte anzufechten und ohne eine Billigung durch den Rechteinhaber zu implizieren. Andere Inhalte dieses Artikels werden ohne Genehmigung oder Lizenz veröffentlicht.