I nt r o d u ct i o n

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Rumours

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Whispers and Rumors
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The fae dabble in half-truths, misleading statements
and omission of facts. These creatures rarely lie outright,
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though, lest the Wyrd punish them for their falsehoods.
While the Lost have learned to navigate the often-mis-
leading river of truth, even the sharpest among them will
still fall prey to hearing what they want to hear, or be-
lieving things that might be true even if they cannot be
verified.
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As such, any freehold is going to have its share of

urban legends, campfire tales, Hedge myths and fairy sto-
ries. Some of them are harmless, and some of them are
traps, but you often can’t tell which is which until it’s too
late.
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The following rumors are things you can use to fill in

the background of your particular chronicle, or you can
use them as jumping off points for things your players
need to investigate. None of these rumors are required
to be true, however; the only thing that’s certain when it
comes to the fae is that nothing is permanent, and every-
thing changes. So it really is up to you, as the Storyteller,
to decide if any of these things are true, and if so, how
your players discover that truth.

100 Rumors To Hear at The Freehold 7


100 Rumors To Hear at when one crosses over into the Hedge. Accord-
The Freehold
1. Somebody is leaving open gateways to the
Hedge in high-traffic areas where mortals are
likely to trip and fall into them. While most of
the local Lost figured this was due to careless-
ness at first, suspicion grew when they asked
around and couldn’t find who was responsible
for making all these gates. Whether it’s hobgob-
lins causing problems, or loyalists setting traps
to ensnare the unwary who might step through
the wrong door at the wrong time, freeholders
are getting nervous the longer this problem goes
unaddressed.
2. Rumors are always circulating about what
glamour harvested from other supernatural
creatures feels like. There are some changelings
who state with absolute confidence that they can
always tell what the true nature of a creature is
based on the flavor of its emotions. Many Lost
roll their eyes at this, viewing these statements
regarding harvesting emotions as about as reli-
friend, who claims they’ve made contact with
enough other shadow communities that they
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able as the palate of a self-professed wine con-
noisseur, but everyone has a friend, who has a
can say with certainty how it feels to harvest
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glamour from them.
3. Local trods have been less reliable than
normal, but no one quite seems to know why
that is. There are some theories among the Au-
tumn Court regarding what could be causing the
paths through the Hedge to come unmoored,
but the freehold is urging those who don’t need
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to travel into the Hedge to avoid doing so for
the time being. Because while the trods aren’t
disappearing, there is no telling where these old,
familiar roads might lead you to these days.
4. According to tales told by some of the
Lost, the Hedge doesn’t actually tear your soul.
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Instead, the True Fae steal your soul, and use it
to fashion the core of your fetch. While some
changelings say this is why you need to kill
your fetch to reclaim that part of yourself, oth-
ers claim you need to form a bond with your
fetch to persuade your soul to come back of its
own volition. They say it’s only by learning to
see yourself in this creation of the Gentry that
you can truly become whole once again. Neither
proposal is exactly safe, however, since fetches
might have traps buried inside of them, ready to
go off without warning if the changeling they’re
tied to gets too close to them.
8 100 Rumors To Hear at The Freehold
5. Old superstitions are powerful things
ing to some of the Lost, wearing an iron nail
through your top buttonhole wards off ill luck,
as well as the gaze of the True Fae while one is in
the world between. Some Lost say that the nail
needs to come from somewhere specific, such
as an old church, or a place you call home, but
others say that it’s the iron rather than the loca-
tion the nail was harvested from that gives this
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little charm its power. While doing this can be
uncomfortable for many Lost (particularly those
with a higher-than-average Wyrd), there are
many who swear by this superstition, and won’t
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leave home without an iron nail unless circum-
stances are particularly dire.
6. Fetches seem to be congregating in the
area. None of these fetches are locals, according
to the whisper stream, which means they’re com-
ing in from afar. What no one seems to know,
though, is why. Whether the fetches have a plan
of their own, or they’re being controlled by some
outside force, there are all kinds of theories.
The local Lost are starting to get antsy about it,
though, and some suspect that if the freehold
doesn’t do something quickly then it’s possible
individual Lost will begin taking matters into
their own hands.
7. Law enforcement has become a serious
problem of late. Even worse than normal, if one
can believe that. Cops seem to be targeting the
Lost and their allies, almost as if someone is
feeding them inside information about who’s in
the community, and where they can be found.
Whether there’s a traitor in the freehold’s midst,
there are loyalists attempting to use mortal forc-
es as a cat’s paw or one of the other supernatural
communities is playing dirty and trying not to
show their hand, this is a problem that needs to
be handled sooner rather than later.
8. Coded messages have been found spray-
painted on the walls down various alleys all
across town. Every one of these locations has
been near a site of violence that was directed to-
ward one of the Lost. While the Winter Court
has made some oblique, non-committal state-
ments that they are looking into the matter, no
one can figure out what the messages even say,
much less whether or not any translations would
have an even deeper meaning to those who un-
derstood their significance.
9. Remnants of Hedge duels have been found
around several local trods. There’s always blood
and broken brambles in the arena, but never a
 body left behind. No one in the area is willing
to admit to taking part in these duels, or even
witnessing them, but speculation is beginning to
spin out of control. Is there some kind of fight
club among the local Lost? Are differences be-
ing settled outside the rules established by the
monarchs and the freehold? Or are these duels
taking place between beings who are far deadlier
than even the most dangerous of the local free-
hold members?
10. A local reporter named John Cutter has
been making a nuisance of himself among the
Lost. A muck raker with a body of work that’s
mostly made up of tabloid nonsense, he thinks
there’s some kind of conspiracy going on, and he
seems to have dialed-in exactly who’s part of it...
even if he isn’t sure precisely what “it” is. While
many of the Lost think he’s comical, there are
others who are saying he needs to be thrown off
the scent (or dealt with in a more permanent
way) before he ends up finding out something
that will become a problem.
11. Fringe religions are a dime a dozen, and
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according to the statistics most of them are
started by old white men who are looking for a
shortcut to getting laid. However, the Lost tend
to monitor these cults to make sure they aren’t
being used as fronts by loyalists who can then
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kidnap more mortals to feed them to the True
Fae. And if you ask some of the stranger mem-
bers of the Autumn Court, they’ll tell you this
practice has been going on for centuries. Which
gods in particular were masks for the Gentry
will vary depending on who’s telling the story,
but all agree this is an age-old tradition that nev-
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er seems to quite go away.
12. The most valuable commodity you can
trade at a goblin market is something they sim-
ply cannot find in the Hedge, and which would
be too risky for them to acquire on their own
out in the mortal world. While many among
the Lost may take this to mean something like
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souls or children command the highest prices at
a market, the truth is that one will usually get a
far better result by offering a 12-pack of brand
name soda, bolts of rayon cloth or even a bag of
crystal meth. For all of the magic and possibil-
ity of the Hedge, truly artificial things are hard
for them to conceive of, much less create... or so
some Lost claim.
13. Cats seem to be unusually favored within
the Hedge. If you find a cat in the Thorns, and it
tries to get you to follow it, you should definitely
do so. While some Lost claim that cats can lead
100 Rumors To Hear at The Freehold
one to gateways back to the mortal world, oth-
ers argue that these rumors were started by hobs
(or potentially even loyalists) who want to ensure
that changelings put themselves into dangerous
situations when they’re at their most vulnerable.
14. Never enter the Hedge during a storm,
or so the local gossip claims. Whether the storm
draws the Wild Hunt, or the presence of this
gathering of Lords and Ladies causes atmospher-
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ic disturbances on this side of the barrier, none
seem to truly know. However, if there are strong
winds blowing, rain pounding down from the
sky and thunder rolling, most local Lost will stay
firmly planted on this side of the boundary. Be-
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cause this rumor might be complete nonsense,
but it never hurts to wait for clear skies before
venturing into danger.
15. The Autumn Court, according to the
grapevine, is responsible for funding an out-
sized amount of fearmongering propaganda.
While the effect of all these dishonest radio sta-
tions, crank social media channels, hand-waving
megachurches and ever-present conspiracy theo-
rists who paint a world full of chaos and terror
is causing serious harm to the fabric of society,
it is also creating a free-flowing river of glam-
our that’s pouring into the Court of Fear. While
it might be possible to dismantle the operation
with enough facts and logic, it’s also possible
that this monster may have grown out of any-
one’s control, given how large these operations
have become.
16. Someone is sharing keys that open gate-
ways into the Hedge by laying out the steps in
ritual-style creepy pasta stories found on the
Internet. Often described with the tagline “oc-
cult games,” it’s impossible to tell if this is being
done by a Lost trying to code their information
in an innocuous way, if it’s a trap set by loyalists
hoping to catch fresh prey when someone tries
out the ritual or if this is something else entire-
ly. Some of the technologically-inclined wizened
have been trying to crack the codes and track
down who is posting these “guides” online, but
if they’ve found anything concrete, they haven’t
said anything about it yet.
17. Minor articles have been showing up
regarding what the media is referring to as
the Plague of Nightmares. While this incident
mostly affects children, all the individuals who
have fallen under the shadow of this months-
long incident reported seeing shadowy figures in
the corner of their vision, and they were para-
lyzed for minutes on-end whenever they awoke.
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