Guild of Goldspinners

Rumpelstiltzkin, Goldspinner

Lords of Summer p. 130-133
Wyrd	●●
Court	Spring
Preqs	Crafts ●●, and Specialties: Textiles and Smithing Spring Mantle ●
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Even changelings need money. At first, it looks like quick cash would be no challenge to someone able to raid dreams or haggle with the elements. There's some truth to this, in that a changeling who pays no heed to the consequences can amass a great deal of wealth. He can steal, raid minds for ATM passwords, but he could lose his human qualities to fae-touched greed. The alternative is a normal job, but that's not easy; most Lost can't do 9 to 5. Whenever they leave a mark in the mortal world, enemies might follow it. Strange conspiracies could rip her from her desk or factory station. A freeholder's obligations might summon him away when he's supposed to be in a meeting. Worse still, every job is a promise made to one's boss, and in the world of the Lost, breaking even the most ordinary agreements bars changelings from the highest levels of Clarity.

Then again, Clarity demands human contact, too. The Lost need relationships that root them in a semblance of normalcy. That isn't free; normal people need to buy food, shelter and everyday comforts. To live among them, changelings need to mimic human appetites or provide for the normal folks they care about. The money problem's tricky, but there are solutions. The Goldspinners' Guild is one of them.

Mien

Senior Guild members dress conservatively, but display wealth in the form of designer watches, fine suits and gold jewelry. The tradition is to accent one's appearance with tasteful accessories. Younger Goldspinners usually dress like artisans -- or whatever they think artisans look like. They wear rugged work clothes, bandannas and heavy boots. A metal briefcase with a combination lock (and when the occasion demands, a shackle securing it to the changeling's wrist) is universal, as Guild members are often called on to carry cash and valuables. Goldspinners always wear their signature metal.

Goldspinners have the standard miens for their seemings until you look at their hands. They're weathered, strong looking and covered in sparkling flecks. It looks like the gold they make gets into the skin, pressed by hours of work on the Gildwheel. The stereotypical Goldspinner is Wizened, and it's true that a lot of them join the Guild, but there are members of all kinds, from Fairest financiers that swoop in to help with their noble words as much as money to Ogres who collect payment past due -- provided that the Gildwheel's magic doesn't do the job itself.

Privilege

The Goldspinners' privilege comes from their unique Tokens.

Gildwheel

A Gildwheel is an enchanted spinning wheel. Spinning wheels have been around for over a thousand years. There are many kinds: Indian charka of ancient design, the walking wheel for wool and others born of many times and cultures, all used to turn fibers into thread or yarn. According to custom, every Goldspinner carves his initials or personal sign on his wheel. Some old Gildwheels are covered in markings, but most only have a few, as they've more recently drifted from the Hedge in accord with the old, secret pacts that founded the Guild.

Other than these markings, Gildwheels look like normal spinning wheels -- tools or antiques, depending on who you are. A Goldspinner (or anyone else) claims a Gildwheel by touching it and investing a Willpower dot. Once he does so, he always knows where it is. He can take back the Willpower at any time, so the player can't spend Experience to replace the lost dot. Without this investment, the Gildwheel will not function and the Goldspinner can't locate it.

If someone destroys the Gildwheel the Willpower dot is lost forever, but it can then be replaced with Experience.

When a properly bonded changeling puts fiber to the wheel he can spin gold. It comes out in unnatural looking strands that the Guild calls "Sif's Hair." Sif's Hair is real gold, but its silky, light, flexible qualities make it useless for mortal commerce because it doesn't look like normal gold at all. Fortunately, any decent smith can melt and beat it into bars, coins and jewelry. Once the Goldspinner starts to work the wheel it puts out Sif's Hair at an exponential rate, producing one Resource dot's worth per day, to a maximum number of dots equal to the changeling's Wyrd. Other users are limited by equivalent supernatural traits such as Gnosis, Blood Potency or Primal Urge. Mortals can spin one Resource dot's worth of gold. Of course, these other users need to mind the Token's catch (see below).

A Gildwheel's bonded owner can't spend Gildwheel gold. If she tries, it dissolves into thread and dust immediately.

Action: Standard

Mien: The Gildwheel takes on a golden shine, as if it's been well-polished and is just the right color to reflect rich, yellow light.

Drawback: Unless it's sanctified with the pledge, the gold (in the form of Sif's Hair or anything else) turns into crudely painted and glued yarn about an day after it's sold, used as collateral, or otherwise affects any economic transaction. The Wyrd has a way of drawing a swindled merchant's attention to the "gold" he just bought, so most victims of such scams find out about them quickly.

Catch: Anyone can use a Gildwheel by soaking the fibers to be spun in blood, freshly wrung from a human (or changeling) heart at midnight. The fibers need a generous coating, so someone who wants to spin a lot of gold will probably need to kill a number of people. Furthermore, anyone using a Gildwheel by way of the catch needs to know how to use a real spinning wheel. Characters with the Crafts skill can pick it up with a day's practice, but anyone else needs lessons, or else they'll churn out tangled chunks of fiber -- or thread that isn't Sif's Hair, but might have unpredictable and dangerous supernatural properties.

Gildwheel Pledges

Goldspinners also use Gildwheels to create permanent gold, but only by way of special pledges. There are many different kinds of Gildwheel pledges, but they all have the following conditions. Once it's been negotiated, the pledge must balance out as usual.

Type: Corporal Oath upon the Gildwheel, a Title Emblem.

Tasks: Endeavor, Lesser (-1) for Gildwheel's user; creating the pledge's boon is the Goldspinner's task, so it's pretty easy. Both parties agree to transfer a set amount of spun gold, measured in Resource dots. This gold does not show false after it's used -- it lasts forever unless the Goldspinner spends it, in which case it turns into the same dull muck as it normally would. (Giving the gold to the other party in the pledge doesn't count as spending it.) The other party negotiates her own task with the Goldspinner. This task must have a value at least equal to the Resources dots' worth of gold she's getting from the deal.

Boon: Blessing (Resources dots in gold only -- variable). This takes the form of enough Sif's Hair that, when worked into a saleable form, would bring in money equal to the negotiated Resources dots. It's up to the recipient to sell the gold to get the negotiated Resources dots. These dots are not added to the recipient's current Resources, so bargaining for less gold than one's Resources dots is usually a waste of time, unless the recipient plans to give it to someone else. As a courtesy, the Guild customarily works the Sif's Hair into saleable form, but anybody with the requisite skill could do it.

Sanction: Variable. Desperate clients have been known to accept terrible sanctions to drive down the value of the task they need to perform. Goldspinners try to minimize their risks whenever possible.

Duration: Variable, though the payout in gold is immediate and is not replaced if lost or stolen.

Invocation: 1 Willpower (both). By investing a Willpower dot in the Gildwheel, the Goldspinner avoids Willpower dot costs, should they arise.

Joining

The Guild of the Goldspinners is very cautious about potential applicants. It takes a certain amount of greed to be interested in the Guild in the first place, but too much greed and a member would be more of a detriment than a boon. Their first criterion is membership in the Spring Court, largely because a potential Goldspinner needs to have a strong understanding of the pull of desire -- and preferably mastery over the same.

The common challenge given to a potential applicant is "Show me what riches are worth to you." There are many potential answers to this question: some offer to do whatever it takes for riches, others destroy something valuable as a sign that wealth has no power over them. But the proper answer is to show the Goldspinners an investment. It might be as simple as giving a homeless person enough money to get back on her feet; the real trick is picking the person who will get back on her feet given the chance and determining what sort of favor one might gain in return. To be a member of the Guild, one must demonstrate that the purpose of riches isn't to have things, not that things themselves are worthless -- riches are valued by the changes they can effect on people and the favors they can buy.