The Act of Hedgespinning

Hedgespinning must take place within the Hedge, by binding tangible and intangible ingredients together with a focused effort. One does not 'craft' the item in the traditional means by stitching, hammering, and gluing; instead a hedgespinner massages the ingredients together as an act of the Wyrd.

The changeling must put his hands on the Hedge he wishes to shape, smoothing out knots and gnarls or wrestling stubborn branches into shape. Despite the Thorns’ implied resistance, the character’s strength is not necessary — the changeling’s own Wyrd is what provides the might necessary to shape unyielding Hedge. A changeling is in no danger of damage (and thus, lost Glamour) from barbs and thorns, as investing the Glamour makes the Hedge more acquiescent to the changeling’s presence — any barbs beneath the changeling’s grip shrink away from her hands, or simply fall away like petals from a dying rose.

Every hedgespinning effort draws the spinner (and possibly his friends) into a story that inspires or infuses the creation, and this story must reach closure before the item can be created. Interestingly, this ability seems to be inaccessible to the True Fae, so they procure other means to acquire such objects. Hedgespun objects are tokens of a sort, but not token as most changelings know them. Tokens have powers that mimic changeling contracts, and require drawbacks and catches. Hedgespun items have none of these.


The Act of Spinning

Before this process can even begin, the changeling must first ensure two things: that whatever story must be told surrounding the Hedgespun has received some manner of closure, and that the changeling possesses all the physical ingredients necessary. Without these two factors in place, the reagents refuse to yield to the character’s touch. They do not become malleable. They will not ease together in a forceful hand. (And it is in this way that crafting a Hedgespun item, whether from an old recipe or an improvised design, lets the character know that it isn’t quite ready… perhaps something is missing, something intangible like a prayer spoken backward or a sigh of ecstasy uttered nearby).

Hedgespun tokens are not like real world objects in that they need to be precisely put together. Every thread in a floor-length gown does not need to be sewn and stitched by hand. The links in a piece of chain mail (formed perhaps of golden wedding rings stolen from a Keeper’s strange collection) do not need to be hand-linked together, one by one, over the course of many nights.

The process is instead magically facilitated — but that’s not to say that a changeling needn’t put her hands on the items. They don’t mysteriously float together and form the desired object. The character still has to fit the pieces together, massaging them so that they find whatever Wyrd sympathy can link the elements of the design. Threads must be pushed together, bone must be forced through stone, the backs of dark jewels must be moistened perhaps with saliva and fitted to a locket (a locket whose intricate scrollwork was maybe carved by a sharpened pinky nail or even a wetted toothpick). Think of it like clay: while in the process of Hedgespinning, the materials become pliable; with a little effort, they slowly shift and slide in the changeling’s grip.
Creation ProcessEdit

Hedgespinning must take place within the Hedge.

Recipes and Blueprints

A Hedgespinner knows that every item requires Recipes and Blueprints, of sorts. Some changelings experiment to build a recipe to meet expectations. That said, old recipes still exist. Changelings can learn these old ways, perhaps even pilfering from others. Creating your own recipe from scratch is an extended Intelligence + Occult roll, with one day required per roll and total successes required of five per dot in the token. The researcher does not need to be the same person as the crafter.

The Crafting

During the Hedgespinning, intangible reagents are made a part of a Hedgespun item by existing in the proximity to the crafting process. If the recipe demands a cry of pain, then that anguished cry must be within earshot of the changeling Hedgespinning the item while she crafts it. If she herself must give something to the item, such as a whispered promise or a lusty gust of breath, she can do so while her hands work to ease the materials together.

Cost: See below, under Action.
Dice Pool: Wits or Strength + Crafts + equipment
Action: Extended (successes necessary are equal to three times the token dots desired; each roll is equal to one hour’s worth of crafting and each roll requires that one Glamour point be spent or the process must be temporarily halted until more Glamour can be put into the object).

Time

Hedgespun — whether creating it or simply finding it — is never so straightforward. A good rule of thumb is this: for every two dots a Hedgespun item possesses, finding it or crafting it then demands one game session in which the story diverts toward the procuring of said object. A one-dot Hedgespun token won’t take more than a game session to resolve, while a five-dot Hedgespun item might take two or three sessions of story. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, of course, just a guideline to represent Fate’s capricious demands.

Wondrous Allure

A Hedgespun item boost a changeling’s allure in social situations. For each Hedgespun item visibly present on or near a character (and possessed by the character), that character gains a +1 boost to any Socialize rolls made among other changelings. Smart changelings know that such social potency wears down, and squandering such wondrous allure is a true waste, indeed. Hedgespun items do not create an actual bump to a changeling’s Status score any more than owning a Prada bag doesn’t guarantee a step up the social ladder.