A Hollow is a refuge for a Changeling. A location in the Hedge that they can retreat to, finding safety, rest, and resources. Every Hollow is unique, created or built by the individual Lost, typically tailored to their tastes and nature. Some, however, might be defunct, abandoned places that the Changeling discovers and claims for themselves. A fixer-upper, if you will.

The hideaways are always located in the Hedge, accessed through discreet doorways in the human world (Ironside). A Lost usually keeps their Hollow a secret, as Lings are nothing if not paranoid. Your personal bolt hole isn't very safe if everyone knows where it is.

Some Hollows are shared, by a motley or even a Court. The members of these groups pool merit dots to create a Hollow much greater than they could probably afford on their own. The Spring Court of Sacramento, for example, maintains a Hollow called the Tavern, styled as a medieval fantasy pub, complete with working bar and kitchen. It's existence is not a secret, and is regularly used for Court functions, inviting all the freehold to attend and enjoy. Motley Hollows tend to be secret, though, allowing only the Pledge-sworn members inside.

The Hedge is an insane, magical dimension, and almost anything is possible there. As a result, Hollows take a myriad of bizarre forms. Anything a Lost can imagine, they can build. It just takes time and investment. Castles, hidden caves, forest clearings, haunted houses, briar patches, pillow forts, live volcano lairs. The list is endless.

There are four basic aspects of the Hollow merit, and taking them in account is important for designing your Hedge refuge. Amenities, Doors, Size and Wards all start at zero, and you must allocate merit dots as you purchase them to some or all of these choices. How you invest the dots matters for representing how your Hollow functions. It might be tiny and bare but highly secure, or large and lavish but easily entered, or some other combination.

It is important to note, that for shared Hollows, if a member of the group leaves or dies, they take any invested merit dots with them. The shared Hollow will weaken and shrink as a result.

Not all Changelings have Hollows, and of those that do, not all have only one. Some Winter Courtiers are known to maintain several small, simple Hollows. These are easily abandoned if one or more are discovered, and the Onyx Courtier then just flees to another. Most Lost who have Hollows just keep the one, though, and secure it as best they can.

Each aspect has a maximum of five dots. This means you could have a Hollow with Size 5, Wards 5, Amenities 5 and Doors 5, but the experience point costs are going to be out of this world. Most personal Hollows will never reach those levels of grandeur.

Size

Without dots in Size, your hollow is only a single small space, with no room for more than one or two individuals to be comfortable, and nothing else. Investing dots into Size grows the Hollow, from small apartment to an enormous mansion. The biggest Hollows may take the form of hidden villages or vast meadows.

Wards

Perhaps the most important factor of a Hollow is Wards. Lost use these places for safety, and knowing it is secure against intrusion matters greatly. The Hedge is full of creatures, most not friendly. Various Hobgoblins, Hedge Beasts and worse may find your Hollow and look to invade and scavenge.

Wards has a dual mechanical effect: Each dot invested subtracts -1 point from dice pools used to break into the Hollow, and also grants the owner a +1 bonus their Initiative while they are inside.

What form does your Wards take? Are they the moat and thick walls of a stone fortress? Is your Hollow located at the center of a huge underground maze of tunnels? Perhaps your Changeling is aquatic, and their Hollow is at the bottom of a lake. Maybe they can fly, and keep a refuge high up on a mountain peak. There may be magic at work, bending space or perceptions to trick intruders into wandering off.

Amenities

No home is complete without creature comforts. With no dots here, the Hollows offers an occupant nothing except what they bring with them. Investment brings rewards. The more dots, the more lavish it becomes. A food supply, comfy furniture, games and entertainment. There's a list of options (CtL, pg 94), but these features are not permanently "bought" with Amenities dots, instead merely describing what is possible with certain dot thresholds (similar to equipment prices in Resources dots). Many more types of Amenities are out there, too, and you and your Storyteller can create new ones.

Doors

With no dots in this factor, your Hollow only has two doorways for access: One to Ironside, and one that lets outside to the Hedge. These locations are fixed when the Hollow is first purchased. If you want more points of access, more dots in Doors must be had. With enough dots, a Hollow can become a sort of hub for the Lost to get around a large region quickly, traveling even hundreds of miles in moments to many locations, on either side of reality. Again, once bought, these new doorways do not change. They are rooted in place.

Related Merits

Some merits are connected to Hollows, but are not directly part of it, being purchased separately. They do, however, have the Hollow Merit as a prerequisite.

Archives are magical libraries, assemblies of data and lore that a Changeling keeps in their Hollow and uses for research into all sorts of topics. While books and scrolls are common, Archives can be just as outlandish as the Hollow itself. A collection of old floppy disks that only work on the accompanying old PC from the '80s, a large worm that must be fed before it will sing to you on what it knows, a wall in your Hollow that displays information as fanciful carvings when asked a question. Anything is possible. The mechanical advantage of an Archive is any Research task taken using it only requires 15 minutes per roll in the extended action, instead of the typical 30. This only applies to Changelings who invest dots in the Archive.

Each dot in Archive represents one subject for study. Mundane topics (Medicine, Heraldry, Origami, The Politics of Lithuania, etc.) are possible, but most will cover Fae matters: The Hedge, Hobgoblins, Gentry, The Autumn Court, Tokens, Local Freehold History, Goblin Markets, Contracts, Pledges, and so forth.

An Archive's dots cannot exceed the Hollow's Size.

Workshops are facilities in the Hollow that allow the Lost an easier time with designing and building items. Each dot in Workshop is assigned to one type of Crafts, adding a +3 bonus to relevant Crafts rolls. If multiple dots are assigned to the same topic, the bonus increases accordingly (Workshop 3 with all dots allocated to, say, Basket Weaving, adds a +9 bonus to Crafts rolls for basket weaving).

Possible specialties include: Armorsmithing (both mundane and Hedgespun armor), Goblin Fruit Farming, Sculpting, Music Composition, Mapmaking, Cooking, and many more.

As with Archive, Workshop dots cannot be greater than the Hollow's Size.

In Conclusion

A Hollow is both a shelter from danger and a fantasy playhouse. It's a home away from home for those torn away from their homes. So much is possible with them, and the merit gives you the opportunity to design a small part of the Hedge and make it your own. Let your imagination run wild!