The Skein

The Skein is every dream that’s ever existed and every dream that will exist, arrayed like beads of silver moisture along an infinite tangle of threads. They cross and twist when people have similar dreams or dreams that complement each other. Few mortals have the power and knowledge to cross from dream to dream, but a few Lost know the way and might journey through an endless array of dreams. Many changelings don’t even know this is possible and many who know it can be done believe it shouldn’t be done. It’s too dangerous and perhaps unethical, too, because the Skein gives changelings access to dreams for which they hold no pledge. Skeinwalking invades the most secret thoughts of others. It’s presumptuous — only the True Fae would do it.

Any changeling can travel the Skein, but it takes skill and bravery. The Lost make maps, use divining ways and, sometimes, follow a figurative trail of breadcrumbs to walk from dream to dream. Nevertheless, one cannot always anticipate what will await a changeling in the next dream over. There are no layers or huge, multi-dream realms that cluster in one part of the Skein or the other. There are trends, rules and connections, but not a stable, overarching geography.

To walk from dream to dream, you need an idea of where you’re going or some truly exceptional luck — good or bad. The Skein constantly reshapes itself to suit the whims of millions of dreamers, so traversing it with an eye to reaching a particular dream is a tricky job. There are at least three basic ways to do it.

Oneiroscopy

To purposefully travel the Skein, an ethical changeling begins by casting an oneiroscope: a divination designed to determine when one dreamer’s dream will align with others along one untangled thread in the Skein. The changeling selects a particular dreamer as the subject of inquiry and a target dream as her ultimate destination. Normal humans work best; for some reason their life-threads easily link to others. Supernatural beings are less bound to the whole Skein, but powerfully linked to select threads as they lead wonderful, terrible lives. Fate has plans for them.

Oneiroscopy is an Occult Skill Specialty. Without it, a changeling lacks the knowledge to cast an oneiroscope. Members of the Autumn Court traditionally teach the lore. Custom frowns upon them instructing anyone outside the Court without securing a pledge in return. Skeinwalking is dangerous, and Court scholars don’t want just any changeling with something to prove giving it a shot. There are many different ways to cast an oneiroscope. Dreamsages use lots, Tarot cards, and even electronic random number generators (though these must generate true random numbers and not just very unpredictable ones). There are only two constants. First, some element of chance must represent Fate. Second, the changeling must either know the subject’s name and appearance or possess some object that’s strongly linked to him — a few hairs or a photograph, perhaps. In game terms, this is an Extended Action that requires 30-minute intervals. Roll Intelligence + Occult and consult the following table:

Modifiers: The subject is a supernatural being (- dots in Blood Potency/Primal Urge/Gnosis/etc.), has exceptional knowledge of the destination dream (+1 to –3), has a poor knowledge of the destination dream (–1 to –3), is an Autumn Court member (+ Autumn Mantle dots).

Gate-Shaping

Impatient changelings resort to gate-shaping to force their targets to have an appropriate dream. This is a form of dreamscaping that twists the dreamer’s thoughts into a tale that resonates with the threads a changeling wishes to travel. To visit a distant general in his sleep, the changeling makes her subject dream of specific military matters. In all cases, there’s a certain brutality about exploiting another person’s dreams this way. The oneiropomp turns her target into a means to an end, battering away enough individuality to unveil the common elements that will guide her through the Skein. This induces nightmares, though these may not manifest until the Skeinwalker is gone.

Guides

The third option is to find a guide. Any Incubus can perform this service, though many will only do so after being beaten within an inch of their existences or paid in Glamour, dreams to order, or services in the material world. Incubi walk the Skein easily, through paths no changeling could find unaided. Some Lost believe this is because they are creatures of the Skein itself, bound to all dreams instead of a particular consciousness. A Morphean can also guide travelers, but rarely does so unless it suits its enigmatic agenda. No game system is required. The guide can even lead Skeinwalkers all the way to their destination, but the further they travel, the heavier the price.

The True Gates of Horn and Ivory

One way or another, the would-be Skeinwalker finds the first gate. It manifests as a traversable boundary such as a door, a bridge, or a wooded thicket. It always looks slightly out of place because it’s not only a product of the individual dream, but the thematic thread it shares with other dreams on the way to the changeling’s destination. If the changeling uses oneiroscopy or gate-shaping, she can identify it immediately. If she’s using a guide, that creature has to point it out.

Dream gates that changelings can perceive without assistance manifest spontaneously from time to time. Multiple gates are rare but not unheard of. They tend to occur during prophetic dreams, or on nights to which the dreamer gives religious or magical significance. Noticing one requires a Wits + Wyrd roll. On a failure it looks like an unremarkable part of the subject’s dreams. It can be so innocuous that a changeling might cross it accidentally. Any changeling can pass through even if he didn’t enter the dream looking to travel, but even though accidental crossings happen, they never happen without a reason — a seeming contradiction, if you ignore a subtle distinction. Even though the Lost might not want to journey the Skein, there’s always some purpose to it, even if it’s one known only to Fate.

However she got to the threshold, the Skeinwalker now has a chance to cross beyond a tasked dream, onto a thread of story and Fate that holds multiple dreams beyond her oaths.