By Darkhawk (darkhawk@aelfhame.tfs.net)
Rereading it, now that I've learned Changeling, I've decided that the story might be readable as a story about a triple-Chrysalis -- three friends all driven into an understanding of their fae natures at the same time.
Identifying the kiths of two of them was fairly straightforward -- one is a Sidhe, though I'm not certain which House I'd peg her as. The second is a horse Pooka. The third, though, has been giving me trouble, because while he's an animal shapeshifter, he's most definitively not a Pooka.
This is my first-draft writeup of his Kith; I'll accept suggestions if anyone wants to give them to me. If nothing else, I hope it generates some good spin-off ideas.
The Kith is something of an unholy amalgamation of Troll, Redcap, and Pooka....
The Hounds are strongly loyal creatures, relentless in the pursuit of their target and protective of their masters. They are slightly more likely to be Unseelie than Seelie, however; the Hunt is dangerous, and when the Hunt rides, what matters is that the prey is caught, not the niceties of the procedure.
A Hound bound by an Oath or by his own form of loyalty will uphold that Oath with a devotion that a Troll could respect. However, should a master prove incompetent or unworthy of the service of the Hounds, the Hounds may well turn on him before any other.
A Hound in human form will most often apepar to be a very directed, meticulous person, occasionally with a concealed violent or vicious streak. To the fae, their eyes have a faint luminous cast, their ears are pointed and slightly furred, and their fingers are tipped with blunt claws. They also have pointed teeth. Some may grow slightly more bestial in appearance, depending on how deep into the Wild Hunt they delve, gaining a wolfish muzzle or furred limbs and body.
Wilders: Wilders are prepared to meet the world head-on and take its throat in their teeth if need be. They can grow obsessed with particular goals, trying always to beat the record by a little bit. Some grow introspective, testing themselves against internal standards, while others test themselves loudly and triumphantly against the accomplishments of others.
Grumps: The Hunt needs its great leaders, and the Elder Hounds are that to the lesser ones. As those who may have set the records against which the younger ones strive, they perpetually guide and train the youngers, growing to set the accomplishment of the Pack above individual prowess.
Gift of the Hunt: A Hound, when tracking, cannot be diverted from his target, gaining +2 Willpower to resist distraction or misdirection. He gains the ability to locate his quarry when hidden with a Perception + Kenning roll, which can give a direction even whent he quarry is out of sight. If the quarry is utilizing magical defenses to conceal himself (such as Veiled Eyes), this becomes a resisted roll. Less literal quarry, such as a solution to a problem, can also be pursued with this birthright. The +2 Willpower is the same, but to gain any sort of insight into a more metaphoric quarry has a difficulty on the Kenning roll of +2.
A Huntsman's Hound cannot botch Athletics rolls.
If betrayed by an Oathmate or loyal companion, the Hound will consider that to be a Challenge not merely to the Hound's abilities, but to his integrity, and cannot make the Willpower roll to avoid taking up the gauntlet. At the very minimum, the Hound will attempt to dissociate himself from the betrayers, but may consider the offense to be equivalent to a Challenge to the Death, in which case he will act to redeem his integrity by working against the betrayer, preferably challenging to a Duel.
If a gathering of the Wild Hunt is called in the vicinity of the Hound, all Hounds within earshot must attend, or gain a point of temporary banality. They must run with the Hunt in their Hound form, or gain banality as well; all Hounds must spend at least a part of Samhain and Midsummer Night in their Hound form, regardless of whether the Hunt rides in their vicinity -- these are the traditional nights for the Hunt to ride, and to deny that is to deny what it is to be a Hound.
Eshu: They accept no law but their own, and give their loyalty only to the road. Having no goal, they wander without purpose. They will accept the challenges their road gives them, though, which can make of them acceptable packmates.
Nockers: They see only the challenge of incomplete creation, but they strive to master that challenge above all.
Pooka: Undirected, foolish creatures, who attempt to distract their betters from more important tasks with their frivolity.
Redcaps: They understand conquest, but not devotion.
Satyr: Of those few who manage to reach beyond the unfocused hedonism of their kind, some understand the worth of constancy and focus. The others eat shamelessly of what the Hunt brings them and rut in the grass beside their unearned feast.
Sidhe: Those who are worthy of service, serve well. Those who prove themselves incapable, take the throat. Those who claim to rule should have the strength to earn respect and keep it.
Sluagh: They do not hunt. They are not of our world, unless it is in the ghosts the Hunt might bring them.
Trolls: An Oath is a living thing, not a stone. Devotion is a virtue, but foolish devotion to that which has gone is not. I pity them their inability to strike back at those who treat them with less than their worth while still keeping the the letters of promises made.