A Year & A Day: Spring-Heels
Changeling: the Dreaming
Homebrew Rules
Character Creation Guide Download: Spring-Heels.pdf
Quoth the Spring-Heels:
“OOGEDY BOOGEDY BOO! Worry not, friend, for tonight you have the honor of being a meal for fear itself. Scream all you want, it makes the banquet sweeter.”
Kith Excerpt:
In the early 19th century, England was plagued by a new creature of the Night. From London streets to the Highlands of Scotland, sightings of this monster (or monsters) frightened, awed, and titillated the Victorian sensibilities. Appearing only at night, with slews of contradicting descriptions, the creature seemed to have no other purpose than to frighten mortals. Some scholars say the beast was a manifestation of the Victorian’s own realization of a forgotten fear of the unknown. After all, Mr. Stoker conquered Vampires, and Mrs. Shelley conquered death with her Dr. Frankenstein. The good Mr. Jules Verne even set sail for the Moon. After all, with the Sun never setting on England, what was left to be frightened of? Fae scholars of antiquity, however, had a different thought. This new monster didn’t stem from a mortal’s realized subconscious, but the Night itself, actively seeking to wreak havoc.
None was sure if it was but one mobile monster, or whole armies of diverse vigilantes. Some painted them as Gentlemen thieves with bright-glowing eyes and long-flowing capes. Others cited them as clawed demons. The most fanciful claimed that the beasts were a mixture of a ghost, a bear, and a devil which vomited white and blue flames. All versions had the monsters leap incredible distances, from roof-top to roof-top in the dark Victorian Nights. From the beast’s sprightly forms of mobility arose the name which the papers dubbed them, the Spring-Heeled Jack.
While the truth of this early mystery remains unanswered, a Kith arose from these dark fears. Based on Victorian Urban legends, and night-terrors, it was waiting just outside the gaslight. The Spring-Heels are a deceptively contemporary Kith, despite their more Gothic trimmings. They attend tea with the Sluagh, they go to fete’s with the Sidhe, and laugh at the Pooka’s irreverent jokes. If one were unaware of a Spring-Heel’s nature, then one might mistake him for any other Polite and well-bred English Fae.
When the time comes however, a Spring-Heel will launch himself into the dark, cackling with evil glee, and leaping through the dark-alleyways. It is important to note that no Spring-Heel attempts to hurt anyone. They wish only to cause fear, and to feed from it (see Birthright below). Many are under a self-imposed Geasa to never hurt the innocent. Though a few tourists with piss-stained pants shouldn’t constitute as hurt.
Flavor
“This here is Satan, -we might say the devil, but that ain’t right, and gennelfolks don’t like such words.”
London Labour and the London Poor — Henry Mayhew
