The Wild Hunt

You hear the sudden growling of  a dozen motorcycle engines, the bikers seem driven by an otherworldly force, but the most frightening part is that they came out of the bushes.

This is actually an idea I took for my game, I started brewing it when I was listening to a Johnny Cash song a little while ago (Ghost Riders in the Sky, more accurately).

Most of the Freeholds near the Sonora-Arizona border speak of this gang as a ghost story more than an actual group. The stories abound, but they all share one thing: It's a group of bikers that appear right out of any sort of tall vegetation or gate, always at night, and always cause trouble. They target small communities and towns, causing trouble with the authorities, property, assault and rape. And just sometimes, they kidnap a hapless person, or someone that actually stood their ground against the bikers; and they always attack on places with changeling population.

The theories abound on the group; most claim that they're just a bunch of roudy bikers and that their attack on changeling communities are just a coincidence, others say that they're a group of ensorcellled mortal bikers led by an aggressive Gravewright or Stonebones ("I swear, I saw his mien! He was all bones and smoke, and his eyes glowed like the fires of Hell!"), another motley say that they're all changelings, and that the mobile motley is quite knowledgable on the trods of the Hedge ("I was walking this trod when I heard their Harleys roaring on that pathway, I swear I thought that trod was closed for good last Summer"), others claim that the Wild Hunt is group of hobs, or worse, The Legendary Fae Wild Hunt (in my game sessions this is actually a false rumor).

Now, this done. I've been meaning to do a Dia de Muertos game (the mexican version of Halloween... Sort of), and I have a few ideas:

1.- The gang is actually chasing a merchant of the goblin market, over a contract gone horribly wrong.
2.- The gang just heard that a cop that they thought they killed, has just reapeared and returned to service, and they want him dead for good. This cop is an ally of a local motley.
3.- The gang has taken a new crime on their list: Child kidnapping. And the funny part? They've kidnapped the daughter of a rather protective changeling.

I like the ideas 2 and 3, and I think I'll use them, but I want to give them and interesting twist, which I haven't found yet.

Also, a bit of threadjacking, but I really like to thank you guys on helping me out on my game, you're great :D.

ArqArturo:

1.- The gang is actually chasing a merchant of the goblin market, over a contract gone horribly wrong.
2.- The gang just heard that a cop that they thought they killed, has just reapeared and returned to service, and they want him dead for good. This cop is an ally of a local motley.
3.- The gang has taken a new crime on their list: Child kidnapping. And the funny part? They've kidnapped the daughter of a rather protective changeling.

Well, if you use number 2, it would be a perfect way to do a Geist cross-over.  The SinEaters conside the Day of the Dead to be one of their biggest holidays, and often throw massive parties.  The themes of death and life, and appreciating both, fit very nicely with it.  This Cop that was killed and returned would almost certainly be a Sin-Eater.  He may be trying to live his life peacefully, or he may have become some kind of Reaper, hunting down and killing the same people he used to "merely arrest".  Some sort of vigilante killer, who returned from the grasp of Death, and can do so again.

Plus, it'd be an interesting and good relationship to let a Motely have.  Even Gravewights don't know as much about death and the dead as the Sin-Eaters do.  He has entirely different powers than Changelings, and deals with ghosts regularly enough to be a good source of information "Yeah, I've heard of her.  She was the victim of a murder case I was assigned to, back before.. well.  Nowadays, she just haunts her apartment.  Want me to ask her a few questions for ya?"

Actually, if you want to combine 2 and 3, you could decide that the Cop shows up to try and solve the kidnapping completely unaware that it was perpetrated by the same people that killed him.  Of course, neither the Motley nor the Cop would have any idea that the other is a super.. until, perhaps, the shit starts hitting the fan.  The Wild Hunt would probably recognize him as the cop they killed, and at that point would not only be fighting the cop because they want to keep the child they kidnapped (Who might be going to the Goblin Market to pick up some goblin drugs, goblin motorcycle repair, etc), they would also fight him because they want him to stay dead this time.  Then, the Cop becomes amysterious figure.. the Motely would wonder why the Wyld Hunt believes that they killed him, and wonder where his powers came from.  Similarly,the Motley could enter into an Ensorcellment pledge--for the first time, the Cop sees the real faces of his killers, and also knows instantly that the child is in considerably greater danger than before (When he thought that these "monsters" were just human evils, with human desires and human motives).

Clever has some good ideas...  I like the idea of the cop being a Sin-Eater.  Both Sin-Eaters and Changelings are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary mortals except by their own, so both the motley and the cop would be completely ignorant of each other's true nature right up to the "What they hell are you?" moment.

If you haven't decided the exact nature of the bikers, I'd suggest perhaps it be something much simpler but no less terrifying than the rumors -- the bikers are a gang of hedonistic, psychopathic mortals (along the lines of Ashwood Abby from HtV) that get their kicks hunting supernatural beings.  Their revels include drinking the blood of their victims, and the blood of the Lost acts as a particularly potent psychedelic drug.  Perhaps a few of them are Ghouls, and perhaps a few are Ensorcelled from their regular consumption of fae blood.  They load their shotguns with pellets of iron ore and their handguns with silver bullets.  They've collected quite a few Fetishes, Tokens, and Imbued magical items.  They possess a number of Merits and abilities they've acquired in their dealings with the supernatural world -- at least one of them has the Unseen Sense Merit for a particular type of supernatural being.  Perhaps the leader of the gang is a Luciferge.

And the worst part is, they're not necessarily all that bad.  Sure, they break the law, they kill and rape, but their victims are monsters.  They're doing the world a service, right?  They'd never do those things to a real person.  Well, maybe the traitors that betray humanity to work for the monsters, but not an innocent person.  And what does it matter that it feels so damn good?  At least that's the way they see it.  They generally treat the mortal populace well, at least comparatively.  They don't like it when the authorities start poking around in their business, but they don't turn their violent attentions on regular folks, and even see themselves as the good guys, protecting the weak and innocent from the things that go bump in the night.  Of course, to kill the monster, sometime you have to become the monster.  And they're just fine with that.

mb_webguy:

If you haven't decided the exact nature of the bikers, I'd suggest perhaps it be something much simpler but no less terrifying than the rumors -- the bikers are a gang of hedonistic, psychopathic mortals (along the lines of Ashwood Abby from HtV) that get their kicks hunting supernatural beings.  Their revels include drinking the blood of their victims, and the blood of the Lost acts as a particularly potent psychedelic drug.  Perhaps a few of them are Ghouls, and perhaps a few are Ensorcelled from their regular consumption of fae blood.  They load their shotguns with pellets of iron ore and their handguns with silver bullets.  They've collected quite a few Fetishes, Tokens, and Imbued magical items.  They possess a number of Merits and abilities they've acquired in their dealings with the supernatural world -- at least one of them has the Unseen Sense Merit for a particular type of supernatural being.  Perhaps the leader of the gang is a Luciferge.

And the worst part is, they're not necessarily all that bad.  Sure, they break the law, they kill and rape, but their victims are monsters.  They're doing the world a service, right?  They'd never do those things to a real person.  Well, maybe the traitors that betray humanity to work for the monsters, but not an innocent person.  And what does it matter that it feels so damn good?  At least that's the way they see it.  They generally treat the mortal populace well, at least comparatively.  They don't like it when the authorities start poking around in their business, but they don't turn their violent attentions on regular folks, and even see themselves as the good guys, protecting the weak and innocent from the things that go bump in the night.  Of course, to kill the monster, sometime you have to become the monster.  And they're just fine with that.

Oooooh, I hadn't even thought of that.  Thats genius!  The joys of Hunter, and how the humans slowly turn into monsters by saving the world from other monsters.  And the Ashwood Abbey (A specific cell dedicated to faerie depredations--kill the pod people, get high.  Stop a baby doppleganger from growing up and becoming a full-fledged Changeling.  Scare the shit out of these clones, make them see that SOMEONE is here to stop them from stealing people's lives).. them or someone like them would be good.  The Wyld Hunt as a cell of humans that do the world a favor by getting their kicks, abandoning the law, and enjoying the fruits of their labor.. it'd creep the changelings out (Especially if they assume that the creatures have something to do with the Fae) to wonder exactly who these humans are, considering they don't have a Mein (They probably don't have Endowments either).

Cleverest of Things:

(They probably don't have Endowments either).

i could see a Cell using spare parts from Fetchs that they or the Changelings have killed to use against Changelings as a whole.

These are really great ideas. It'll definitely flip some of the players (especially since there's a Wizened Oracle that has gone to the "I pity humans, they're so gullible" neighborhood).

I'm not familiar with Geist, but I'll definitely have a look at it, seems interesting. And, I just got Hunter, so, I'll look into the Abby.

ArqArturo:

I'm not familiar with Geist, but I'll definitely have a look at it, seems interesting. And, I just got Hunter, so, I'll look into the Abby.

It's exactly what you want for that Cop, I think.  Geist is a great game in general, but for this case, it is especially appropriate.  A man that is killed, and is driven by his unfinished business (Or at least his desire to keep on living) back to his body with the aid of a strange, nearly inhuman death-spirit.  Though he would be fully alive (Though, oddly, fully dead as well, or at flavoured with death), he would have lots of ghostly powers.  Almost anything you'd expect a ghost to be able to do, Sin-Eaters can do as well.  They also gain power by helping ghosts pass on (Or devouring them), and are also permanently able to see and hear ghosts--thus, they are as likely to have wraiths as friends and allies as they are to have humans.  Sin-Eaters also can return from almost any kind of death, but at a cost of their morality (Synergy, which represents how well you and your Geist get along).  They are some of the "good" supernatural creatures out there, and are human enough to produce glamour.  However, they don't really have a big or organized society.  The cop might feel very alone, and would love to have some friends that are not as ignorant as vanilla humans.

What if they are fetches?

Mister Knightshade:

What if they are fetches?

Well, while it would be an interesting turning point for the Motley (and it would be the cherry in the cake for the Summer Court), I don't think a group of Fetches might be interested in hunting down changelings. Not all, but, some would instead create a little niche in which the place they live is "filth free".