Reading about fetches in Changeling: The Lost gave me an interesting idea for a massive scenario for the new World of Darkness. The basic scenario is that the Fae start abducting a massive amount of people, many orders of magnitude greater then previous abductions. The reason for this is up to the storyteller, it may be unknown or Changelings may bring back the news. Whatever the reason is presents a truly epic problem for humanity: within a century all of them will be slaves in Arcadia.
The Fae are playing this very smart though. They have started making fetches who are actively in on the scheme. They cover up the abductions through whatever means their daily lives allow. With a massive increase in fetches the Fae soon have their hands in politics, the police, the press, Hollywood, the church, and just about any other influential organization. The general public will remain in the dark until it's far too late.
Supernaturals on the other hands will become aware of it. Changelings know all too well since they are escapees from that very prison. In fact the number of Changelings may likely surge a huge amount as the number of humans in Arcadia balloons. (Or they might not if the Fae have a need for humans
other then as servants.) Either way Changelings are the first to sound the alarm. It's likely it will take Changeling society a long time to organize themselves and that presents many stories in and of itself.
It's possible, even likely, during this time that other supernaturals will encounter fetches. A lot of them won't know what to make of these odd soulless constructs. Reaction will be on a local scale as each type deals with the fetches in their own way. Encounters will inevitably become more common though and soon the local supernatural communities might do some serious investigation. It's until they probably get in contact with Changelings that the full scope comes together.
At the same time as supernatural entities begin encountering the problem some hunter groups may encounter fetches. It's likely that they will just find their initial fetches as another hidden monster lurking among men. There's not much left over to dissect or examine so some of the more research/sample mind conspiracies and compacts don't have much to go on. Many of them may encounter resistance from various parts of their organization that have quietly been compromised with fetches eager to bury the evidence of their dead fellows.
At this point Changeling society has now roughly unified in an attempt to deal with the threat to their, and everyone else's, existence. They already made some tentative alliances with other supernaturals and now as those groups become aware of the problem they begin to attempt to unify themselves as well. At some point hunter conspiracies get pulled into the fray. Things are not harmonious. All of these groups have their own antagonists and these have not gone way. Additionally all of them are fractious and wary making a stable alliance amongst each other a challenge much less with creatures that are huge unknowns to them. The going is slow with many setbacks and dustups.
The Fae soon hear of this attempt at a grand alliance and take steps to deal with it both through the subtle lens of human society (though they are unwilling to pull the wool over human eyes as a whole lest they are seen in the unveiling as well) and by influencing various supernaturals of their own. They work to subvert or co-op many of the existing enemies over to their side. Soon their enemies are being provided with either overt or subtle assistance furthering sowing the seeds of discord and confusion. The Fae keep working at subversion of these groups eventually taking outright control of several conspiracies and compacts, nominal control of VII, and striking cautious alliance with the Seers of the Throne. The Pure remain wary of the Fae but many packs are pragmatic enough to take some limited assistance if it will help them to finally crush their hated Forsaken brethren. Similarly Belial's Brood's vampires will gladly use information to cause additional mayhem and destruction but they lack the overall organizational structure to be completely subverted. Banishers may be pointed to obstinate mages the same way a hunter unleashes hounds.
Tactics vary. Up to this point the Changelings have been playing a delaying game. They lack the numbers and strength to do much more then police limited areas. Given past attempts to invade Arcadia but some of the more zealous they are also wary of an all out invasion.
With a vast array of supernatural beings aligned for the first, and likely only, time the variety of stories is huge. Researching why the Fae are abducting mass amounts of humans, uncovering fetches who've infiltrated key human establishments, leading scouting missions into the Hedge, diplomatic missions to keep the tenuous alliance together, bug hunts against Fae & their servants in the world, raids into the enemy camp, and strikes against their servants and allies in the world are just some of the missions that crop up for a group.
Some connections to pull different types:
Vampires discover fetches when they try to feed on one. Naturally it doesn't work. Worse some of their minions are being replaced. The Masquerade will soon almost certainly be breached by the fetches leaving them vulnerable.
Werewolves discover people who are being ridden very easily by spirits. Or are they trapping spirits and then using them for their own means. Investigation leads to the discovery that they aren't people at all.
Mages run into these odd soulless creatures and investigate. There seem to be a lot of them. What are they and where are they coming from?
At first Prometheans might mistake a fetch as a kindred spirit if they realize their construction but it's quickly obvious they work by different rules. They already act as if they are human and in fact are treated as such by people. Can Prometheans follow this path. When they later realize the true nature of fetches the truth will be the most horrifying to a Prometheans: their entire existence trying to become a human only to have that snatched away!
Changelings are self-explanatory. Like it or not they are the frontline of this war long before anyone else is aware what's going.
Hunters may discover fetches only to realize very quickly that they are everywhere in human society including their own organizations!
Sin-Eaters may learn about the issue in an odd way. The Fae stealing massive numbers of people may disrupt souls in a very specific way. Souls of people who in Arcadia are unlikely to be able to reach the Underworld due to the nature of the Hedge, Sin-Eaters may be enlisted in rescue missions to bring souls back from the far side of the Hedge. Their Geists may also realize that the Fae intend to take away their only means at interacting with the world!
Finally regular mortals with second sight or just everyday Joes may eventually get pulled into this through encounters with supernaturals engaged the war. Some may actually be able to handle the forthcoming information overload and be willing to help out as best they can. Lightweights in a super-heavyweight bought they still can contribute in unique and interesting ways.
Labels: changeling, geist, hunter, mage, promethean, vampire, werewolf, world of darkness
