# Faerie Encounters



## Raven Crowking (Apr 29, 2004)

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## Cheiromancer (Apr 29, 2004)

This is fascinating.

Did you get those encounters from the books you mentioned?


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## ElectricDragon (Apr 29, 2004)

I've made up my own fey complete with mythical backgrounds and such. Unfortunately, I submitted them to be published in an e-zine that hasn't come out yet. I also created some associated creatures (magical beasts and animals) to fully flesh them out. If you want I could send you the information I have; but I can not post it here.

Ciao
Dave


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 30, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Apr 30, 2004)

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## CombatWombat51 (Apr 30, 2004)

I know what you mean about fey (throughout the editions) being rather flavorless, or at least not the flavor I think of when I think about European fairy tales. And I'm sure there'll be lots of interest in your fey stuff   

ElectricDragon, I'd certainly like to see the work you've done! Send me an email at combatwombat51 at hotmail dot com, and I'll be your best friend forever


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 30, 2004)

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## RangerWickett (Apr 30, 2004)

I'm going to keep this thread handy.  Some nice inspiration.

Hmm.  What if my Underdark were to have faerie encounters like this?  Interesting.  I wonder if I can come up with any ideas that are nearly as good as yours.  It's 4am, so maybe the loopiness will assist me.

A man who is a river that tries to flow uphill, but he gets so tired doing so that he drinks himself, and has to rest to regain his body.  If the PCs steal his glass cup from him, he'll thank them for stopping him from drinking.

Three shadows, each of which insist it is darker than the others.  Of course, they've never seen light, so they have no way of knowing.  The party might offer a bit of torchlight, and depending on which shadow they judge to be darkest, they might gain a boon, a curse, or be attacked.

A tiny mischevious sprite that controls a maze of tunnels that have odd echoes to them.  The sprite is itself a creature of echo, and it repeats anything anyone says within earshot.  You can trick it into doing favors for you by saying something like, "I'm going to show you the way out," which it will repeat and think was its idea.  Just never say, "I'm going to kill you."

A pair of stalagmite pillars that sit on either side of a narrow passage.  As you walk through, they steal any wood you have on you, because they used to be dryads.  They have stats much like xorn.  They also collect the skulls of pretty women so they can carve faces onto themselves.


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## Raven Crowking (May 1, 2004)

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## Sniktch (May 1, 2004)

Very nice; I'll have to subscribe to this one.

I've been toying with the idea of a campaign where the characters are basically normal people (1st lvl D20 Modern), that get pulled in to the Land of Faerie, but I've also found myself largely uninspired by the MM fey.  Now that Grimm is out I considered just checking that out, but reading this has started the wheels spinning in my head again


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## Storminator (May 1, 2004)

Monsternomicon has a bunch of fey in it, and some of them are rather nasty, as fey should be.


Might be worth checking out.

PS


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## BSF (May 2, 2004)

I largely don't use the "by the book" MM fey.  So, it isn't just you.  I have tried to get my hands on "The Little People" with no luck.  Do you like it?  There are some Fey in Penumbra's Fantasy Bestiary, they are a tad nifty.  

I enjoy the encounters you have mentioned.  Very nice.    I'm not sure if my players have liked their encounters with Faeries, they haven't been able to figure out exactly what is going on.  As the campaign develops, I hope to bring in a bit more Fey influence.


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## Raven Crowking (May 2, 2004)

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## Tonguez (May 2, 2004)

I've used the MM Sprites plus a few scorcerer levels to give me the feel I wanted. 

The MM fey are a bit sad although with a few Scorcerer levels and free use of templates anything is possible - and I love the ideas presented. The three heads are going to get some use IMC...


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## Raven Crowking (May 5, 2004)

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## the Jester (May 5, 2004)

Man, this thread is great!

I love fae- I have a large 'faerieland' area imc.  I have an elven subrace that's fae, lots of wild fey creatures, etc.  There are also temporal distortions (ie come out a hundred years after you went in), issues with food and drink, etc.  The fey are not usually all that friendly.


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## Raven Crowking (May 18, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (May 18, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (May 18, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (May 18, 2004)

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## RangerWickett (May 19, 2004)

Raven Crowking, you have a great knack for presenting interesting information on fey encounters.  While we have already once before had an article in the ENWorld magazine about fey, I was wondering if you'd be interested in scribing an article that gives suggestions on using existing game material to create a fey flavor for a game.

Just a thought.


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## Raven Crowking (May 21, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (May 22, 2004)

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## John Q. Mayhem (May 23, 2004)

I'm looking forward to it.


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## Raven Crowking (May 31, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (May 31, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 1, 2004)

*Three Heads in a Well Setup*

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 1, 2004)

*Three Heads In a Well:  First Head*

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 1, 2004)

*Three Heads in a Well:  Second Head*

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 2, 2004)

*Three Heads in a Well:  Third Head*

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 2, 2004)

*Crossing Over*

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## Wrath of the Swarm (Jun 2, 2004)

It might be interesting for the characters to run into Robert Kirk.  Getting him out might be rather difficult - and the consequences would probably be somewhat unpleasant.  Taking someone who's been trapped in a timeless world into with normal time generally isn't healthy for the subject.


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## the Jester (Jun 2, 2004)

Raven, this is fantastic.  I have a funny feeling that you're a damn fine dm.


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## John Q. Mayhem (Jun 4, 2004)

Nice. I am enjoying this. Who's Robert Kirk?


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## Wrath of the Swarm (Jun 5, 2004)

A person with a peculiar fate mentioned in post #20 of this thread.

It had occurred to me that it might be interesting to steal an idea from the meeting at Glasscastle in Diane Duane's The Door Into Shadow and have travelers in Faerie meet the aforementioned Robert Kirk.


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 5, 2004)

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## John Q. Mayhem (Jun 6, 2004)

Wrath: Thanks, I can't believe I missed that.

Raven: You rock twice.


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## the Jester (Jun 6, 2004)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> Thank you, Jester.  If you're ever traveling to the Toronto area, let me know and I'll schedule a one-shot adventure.




You _do_ know that I once took several months to travel North America to game with such luminaries as diaglo, Olgar Shiverstone, alsih2o, Piratecat, Crothian, etc., right? 

I'll take you up on that one of these days!


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## anon (Jun 6, 2004)

Raven,

Might I suggest you move this to the Story Hour board and start anew there...  if you haven't already.


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 6, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 6, 2004)

*Bryne of Lig*

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 7, 2004)

*The House of Bone Part 1*

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## Arken (Jun 7, 2004)

Just wanted ot weigh in to say how useful this is.

Thanks RC .


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 7, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 7, 2004)

*The House of Bone Part 2*

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## the Jester (Jun 7, 2004)

Wow, this is great!  I'm gonna have to check out your story hour. 

Raven Crowking, you've done some great work with integrating fairy tale elements in here.  I take it some of the spells (_good luck, bad luck_) and creature stuff (high fey, fey-born) are either homebrewed or from a 3rd party source (I think you mentioned earlier)... I'm particularly curious about the 'aspect of the...' notations on some of these creatures, what's that all about?  (If you can specify.)  Is it just for reference, or does it have any in-game effects?

Thanks again for posting this stuff- it's awesome.  Though I don't currently have an opportunity to use this stuff in my game (other stuff on the burners, as it were) I'm gonna file it away for future reference and mine it for ideas, if nothing else, the next time I run a faerieland adventure.


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 7, 2004)

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## Suldulin (Jun 19, 2004)

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## Targeteron (Jun 19, 2004)

Your descriptions are very vibrant and touching. I wish i was that skilled! You can take one to the places you describe very easily. All the Faerie material will come in handy later in my campaign. Faeries could play a realtively big role in my campaign world, but more behind the scenes and it will take a while till my players will be able to figure that out. 

Since you are so incredibly knowledgeable about Faeries, could you maybe provide some suggestions about reading material? I do not know that much about Faeries yet, but always found that subject interesting. Thank you very much for sharing these encounters, they are great inspiration and a good resource.  

Also i wish you good luck if you would really go for the published adventures. I would love to see something from you, you have great writing skills


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 19, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 19, 2004)

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## Ravilah (Jun 19, 2004)

I just finished a session last night that used several of your faery encounters from these posts, Raven.  They worked great!  I varied things slightly to fit my setting, but the Old Bone Man amost ended up as a TPK.  They completely forgot the warning from the head in the well, and did not respond to the heavy clues that the place was evil and insanely dangerous. They WENT INTO THE HOUSE! I had the door (arcane) lock behind them, and after the Bone Man had finished toying with them (why truly barter for a cup of blood when four full bodies of it have waltzed in?) he attacked. The only reason they survived was that the wizard happened to have a Knock scroll. They managed to get outside, with the paladin and a summoned black bear holding him off.  Even so, the ranger got taken to -8 hit points and the squire got taken to 1. They failed to get the stick, and I didn't even reward them with much experience because of their foolish disregard for all the many clues (and direct instructions).  

And everyone had a great time!


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## Nifft (Jun 19, 2004)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> I had really hoped someone would say "I'll do the stat blocks if you write the descriptions and we'll split the swag."    I'm still not running 3.5, so figuring out the current stat blocks would be sort of a pain.  Still, that's more laziness than anything else.  Also, it's too late to write the *World's Biggest Dungeon*!
> 
> Raven Crowking




I've been told that I'm not so bad with mechanical stuff -- I'd be pleased to collaborate, if you're interested.

Some of my stuff for my homebrew:  http://klimt.cns.nyu.edu/~fishman/DnD/DHE/

 -- N


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## Raven Crowking (Jun 20, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 20, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 21, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jun 21, 2004)

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## snarfoogle (Jun 21, 2004)

This stuff is really great; keep up the good work. I think I'd buy a module if it was published.

You might want to think about moving to General, you'd get more responses and it doesn't really fit here.


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## Koewn (Jun 22, 2004)

Andrew Lang's works are available freely (The [Color] Book of Fairy). Several sources abound, but here is one:

www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang

And thanks for everything you've shared, RC!

Koewn


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## Raven Crowking (Jul 4, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jul 9, 2004)

*Ice Fae & Green Knight*

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## John Q. Mayhem (Jul 9, 2004)

I'm always up for some Arthurian legends  And the fact that Gawain and the Green Knight was translated by the great J.R.R.T. is an added bonus. Great job, Raven.


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## Raven Crowking (Jul 9, 2004)

*Final Encounter, Part 1*

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## Raven Crowking (Jul 9, 2004)

*Final Encounter, Part 2*

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## Krug (Jul 11, 2004)

Fascinating thread.  Keep it up!


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## Raven Crowking (Jul 11, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Jul 15, 2004)

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## the Jester (Jul 15, 2004)

Sigs now appear only in your first post of each page in each thread.


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## Raven Crowking (Jul 18, 2004)

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## the Jester (Aug 28, 2004)

Okay, so I ran an encounter that was based on the 'three heads in the well' and the pcs drop-kicked a head into the woods, ignored its warning to stay on the path and strayed away after the smell of baked goods...   

When I get to this bit, I will _have_ to stick a link my story hour here.


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## Raven Crowking (Aug 28, 2004)

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## the Jester (Aug 30, 2004)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> May I suggest that you wait a few months, and then throw the heads into another encounter....except that this time they are *angry*?




Heh... well, of course, the pcs, having left the path, pretty much have to apologize to the head in question to get back out of the fey realms...


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## Raven Crowking (Aug 30, 2004)

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## the Jester (Aug 30, 2004)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> Have you ever read the myth of Cupid and Psyche?  Or _East of the Sun, West of the Moon_?  Frequently, that apology includes a *lot *  of extra work!
> 
> RC




  Well, to get there they needed these spriggan guides, whose price was the party's gnome (who eventually agreed to let them eat him in return for their guidance) and then... well... let's just say that the party, um, had a lot of creative ideas and, er, character development last night.     

I'll be sure to link to the series of updates detailing the group's adventure- it's about 4-8 games away in my Of Sound Mind the Halfling Way SH.


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## Raven Crowking (Sep 8, 2004)

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## the Jester (Sep 8, 2004)

I used the classic 'Nice elf lady turns out to be a witch who wants to stuff those tasty-looking halflings in the oven, and offers to let them go if they'll giver her "just the plump one"' encounter. 

It was rough, what with the poisoned tea and all.


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## Raven Crowking (Sep 11, 2004)

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## the Jester (Sep 12, 2004)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> Hansel & Gretel?
> 
> Care to post your encounter, or should I run up a 3.X H&G witch encounter of my own, for use in this forum?  I would point out, Jester, that you are unlikely to be able to use my encounter as it might be a smidgen close to one you've already used.
> 
> RC




I'd be interested to see your version of it- I'll post mine once the story hour for that group catches up to it though.


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## Raven Crowking (Sep 13, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Oct 11, 2004)

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## doghead (Oct 11, 2004)

Hey RC. 

I've been lurking on this thread for quite a while in the hope that I could slip some of these ideas into one of my games. Doesn't look I'll be able to for a while. So I thought I would surface to say "Lovely work."


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## Raven Crowking (Nov 1, 2004)

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## Shadow Dragon (Nov 11, 2004)

Beautiful work Raven,

Kind of stumbled into your story by accident.  I'm currently playing a pixie in a friends game and was looking for some new ideas for pranks to pull on the party and or npc's he throws at us when this thread came up.  Well, I was fascinated by your storytelling and the depth you went into to arrive at your encounters (not even close to that much work done in our little group) and kept reading even though it wasn't what I’m looking for.  I totally agree with jester when he said "I have a funny feeling that you're a damn fine dm". 

Before I go I know this may be off topic slightly (first time posting) however if you or anyone else that reads this has some ideas, knows good sites, or knows of some good book to get ideas for a slightly whimsical pixie for in game pranks let me know.  Depending on if there is any response I’ll go through some of the better ones that I’ve already done.  Well to rap it up Raven, Keep up the good work!


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## Angel Tarragon (Nov 11, 2004)

Faerie Fruits? This is pretty neat.


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## Raven Crowking (Nov 12, 2004)

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## Ry (Nov 12, 2004)

Hey Raven Crowking; fantastic work you do here.  Absolutely fantastic.  I'll be using much of it very soon, although I think I'll put a few more opportunities to just "get the out, but have to start all over again" by taking well-marked branches of the path leading out.

I have a very local campaign (that is, the setting is geographically small), and I was wondering something for using these characters and encounters in such a campaign:  How would you change them if they had to be vaguely reusable after the first adventure, or a possibly returned to by the heroes (not at the DM's plan)?  

For example, I was thinking that after I introduce the Three Heads in a Well within the context of the plot you've lined up, I'll want the players to be able to return there if they can retrace their steps.  So for a second hook for the Three Heads in a Well, I'm going to put the three wandering, headless bodies in other feytouched locations on my island setting.  I'll need something more convoluted than just bringing them back to the well, but do you see what I'm thinking?


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## Shadow Dragon (Nov 12, 2004)

Raven,

First of all thanks for replying,

I looked up info on the iambic pentameter as you advised and I see where your going, implementing it's use will take some time of course but I think it will help flush out my char.  As far as mid summer night dream goes, it's my favorite play by Shakespeare, seen and read it many times and i have to admit some of my play style with this char is based on puck.

I've been trying to keep with the meaningful pranks so far.  As far as ongoing pranks go our barbarian has a "magic intelligent" sword that keeps criticizing his bloodthirsty nature (due to a liberal use of ventriloquism) which he is also afraid to get rid of due to some quick note passing to the dm along with role-playing.  Our bard has also had a few bad run ins due to a few pranks relating to his womanizing.  Liberal use of the various illusion spells have also been used on greedy char's in and out of the party ranging from embarrassment to death.  I've got to admit some of the pranks have been kind of random especially since I’ve been running out of good ideas, yet none the less fun to play.  The victims idea is a good one for our barbarian which i just may use in the next game we play .  I never really thought about the whole "faerie "tricks" are actually help" concept and may also start using that too, he is considered good after all .  

Well thanks again raven, until next time
Shadow Dragon


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## Raven Crowking (Nov 15, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Nov 15, 2004)

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## Raven Crowking (Dec 10, 2004)

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## the Jester (Feb 11, 2005)

Hey Raven, my halfling story hour just reached the point at which they entered my fey lands... I was greatly inspired by this thread and thought I'd post a link.


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 14, 2005)

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## the Jester (Feb 14, 2005)

Well, the three heads was the primary encounter that I ripped from this thread, but if you checked out my link you can see that the pcs didn't react, um, appropriately.   This caught me rather off-guard, but hey, that's what pcs are for.


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 14, 2005)

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## the Jester (Feb 15, 2005)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> I did follow your link.  It amazes me that a PC would both groom _and_ drop kick the head, but there you go.  PCs do the darndest things.




>shrugs<  Hey, with a chaotic evil pc involved, I guess it all makes sense.  Err... as much as anything does.


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## Fieari (Feb 15, 2005)

Throughout these encounters, you make it clear that to stray off the path in fairyland is very bad news.  What sort of troubles would be appropriate to bestow upon PCs who make this mistake?  And how far off the path must they go to have calamity befall them?  In the Queen Beatrix encounter, it's suggested that just to place a single foot off the path is a bad idea (if it wasn't, why would the PCs insist on not giving way at all?)... what sort of thing should happen?

You also mentioned that you would wirte up a detailed encounter based on a premice given here.  If you're still doing that... 

I recall a fairytale involving helping some sort of gnome and cutting down trees.  Inside one of the trees (a huge, gnarled mass of knots and very hard wood) was a treasure of some sort.  I also want the encounter to involve some sort of opposition... a delema, such as a spirit inhabiting the tree which doesn't want them to cut it down.  Perhaps another "woodcutter" is also around who wants to cut down the tree... except that the woodcutter is not who he seems to be and is in fact the stereotypical "greedy man (greedy relaton?)" who overheard the gnome's instructions for finding treasure?  Something like that.


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## dwayne (Feb 15, 2005)

Have you seen the adventure THE GOBLIN FAIR fromairweaver games it has a gold mine of stuff in it to mine or run it the way it is here is there web sight www.airweavergames.com 

I ran this and was rolling when the party bought whacks for the stuck up wizard in the group who was wandering why the goblin kept hit him with the frying pan.


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## weiknarf (Mar 22, 2005)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> There was a faerie sourcebook for Ars Magica which was fantastic as well, but I can't recall the name.




weirdly enough, it is called _Faeries_ and it was published by Wizards of the Coast.    

and it's available at RPGNow http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=242&Src=EnWorld



This thread is fantastic!


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

*Faerie Article Part One*

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

*Faerie Article Part Two*

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

*Faerie Article Part 3*

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

*Faerie Article Part Four*

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

*Faerie Article Part Five*

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

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## Kid Charlemagne (Mar 24, 2005)

Raven Crowking said:
			
		

> Any comments would be welcome.




Great stuff, Raven Crowking!  I particularly like your ideas to make each fey special - that's especially useful to me.  I never ran fey encounters in my own game because I never quite got them - then I played in a game that had a great deal of interaction with the Seelie and Unseelie in a medieval Europe setting, and loved it.

In my own campaigns, I've taken a slightly different tack than yours.  Your approach is "the stories are real," while my own approach is more along the lines of "the stories are fables, but based on real beings," which makes the fey a little less fantastical.  However, I can still use a lot of your ideas.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2005)

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## Ry (Mar 24, 2005)

RC, always great work here.


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## Funeris (Mar 24, 2005)

Excellent articles.  Excellent thread in general.  I had been contemplating ways of incorporating traditional fairy tales into DnD over the past few months.  And magically this site just recently popped up.  

Thanks for the ideas.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 25, 2005)

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## Estlor (Mar 29, 2005)

I've read through this entire thread and I've been reading through the colored Fairy books to get more inspiration, but there's one thing I've been puzzling over...

What happens if the PCs leave the path?

I'm about to go read your story hour to see if I can glean some more info from that, but was there something specific and sinister you had planned if they left the path, or would they simply become lost in the Other Realm without a way to get back to their own world? (not that that isn't sinister enough)

EDIT

Well, now that I've read the story hour, I can see they get wisked away and hopelessly lost.  Was there a particular folk tale or myth you adapted this from, or was this your own invention for the sake of keeping the adventure moving without railroading the players?


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## johndaw16 (Mar 30, 2005)

Hey Crowking let me start off with saying that I've loved your hardwork detailing the fae.  Personally I find your treatment of them far more realistic and useful than any of the stuff in WOTC material.  I even incorporated a modified version of some of your examples in my modern d20 game.  It really went well as a change of pace from zombies and horror, and one of my players really got into it.  But anyways if you want to hear more about that I can tell you later.  

I'm going to need to steadily incorporate more and more of the fae into my modern campaign and I hoped that I could get some of your expertise.  It's an urban setting, with a fair mix of suburbia and a college campus so I think there are a lot of potential venues where fae could show up.  I like to keep them mysterious, slightly ominous and definately alien to what the PCs are normally used to.  Let me know if you'd be interested in coming up with an adventure or encounter or even just some tips and ideas.  You can respond to this post or contact me at jpreyn@wm.edu.   Thanks. Later.

John


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 30, 2005)

*Off the Path & Urban Fae*

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## johndaw16 (Mar 30, 2005)

Well RC the game has generally been a horror campaign with low-magic and a gritty feel.  So far most of what the PCs encounter is completely foreign to them and I put a lot of emphasis on the mysterious and unexplainable.  The campaign is what I'd characterize as suburban, its set in the Newport News area of Va.  I'm not sure if that helps you much, but Newport News is largely urban but theres still a large amount of rural/undeveloped land in the nearby area and the group travels around a lot.  But theres definately nothing truly urban in the area like NYC, Boston, or Chicago.  I really like the idea of pollution twisted fae, that sounds cool.  I've already had them encounter a number of pretty minor fae, most nature related spirits.  But these all had a really random feel to them, I'd be interested in something that was more than just a short one time encounter.  Hope some of that helps. Thanks again.  

John


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 30, 2005)

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## johndaw16 (Mar 31, 2005)

No they're not, they all have been introduced to the boards but they don't have much interest or time to devote to them.  I had one just join recently though so she could post a short piece for my SH about her PC.  But other than that they don't frequent the boards at all. 

John


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 31, 2005)

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## johndaw16 (Mar 31, 2005)

Like I said before the game takes place both in game and out of game in the greater Penisula area of Va.  This area is located in the South East of Virginia.  Not many people have heard of Newport News, but hopefully you'll recognize places like Williamsburg, Yorktown, Norfolk and Virginia Beach.  These are all the more notable locations in the area that the game is set in.  Newport News is mainly a mid-sized suburban blue-collar town, hence its anonymity.  In RL we game at the College of William and Mary.  

John


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## johndaw16 (Mar 31, 2005)

Sorry bout that. Double post.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 31, 2005)

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## Quickleaf (Mar 31, 2005)

I really liked the story of the Stagman that you crafted. Do you already have a backstory about the White Lady who haunts the stand of birch where the Red Bull is buried? I was thinking something like....

*The Legend of the White Lady*
At the southern end of town is a bridge over the creek. Children often are seen lying down on the bridge trying to reach something underneath -- a white scarf. This scarf belonged to the White Lady who died fifty years ago. Maybell suffered from bouts of melanchoy since her mother's death, and the only solace she had was tending the sacred grove of birch trees a circle of druids had entrusted to her family. Then, Maybell met a young man and fell in love. The night before the wedding, Maybell learned that her fiance's uncle was blackmailing him to marry her. It was for the sacred grove. Legally, the property would become his, and then the wicked uncle would coerce his nephew to cut the trees down and sell them as religious icons and other "holy pieces of carpentry." What happened that fateful night, no one seems to know, but young Maybell died dressed in her wedding dress. Some folks say she tried to hang herself but she fell into the river, her scarf left behind. Others say she ran from her fiance in horror on learning the truth, and as she ran through a windstorm, her scarf was caught underneath the bridge. Everyone knows her as the ghostly "White Lady" who appears on foggy nights by the strand of birch trees to protect them from greedy businessmen. The White Lady is deeply connected to the trees, combining the features of a ghost and dryad. As the trees provide her solace thinking of her mother (her truest wish is to meet her mother, but alas she cannot move on to heaven until she feels the grove is adequately protected). She has sworn to protect any dead buried in the grove (the Red Bull), and not to harm anyone who looks upon the birch trees and remembers a loved one. Other protections from the White Lady include dressing as a bride, but wielding symbols of faith is uneffective as she was a faithful woman in life. Anyone returning her scarf to her will be mistaken as either her fiance (man) or her mother (woman).


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 31, 2005)

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## Raven Crowking (Mar 31, 2005)

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## Raven Crowking (Apr 1, 2005)

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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 1, 2005)

That's an excellent story arc, Raven, you have an excellent gift for tying various plot themes together.  I must admit, I've been rather inspired by your work (especially the new article), so I have decided to include a powerful fey creature in my own campaign.  I'm running a Forgotten Realms game and I'm using the Perilous Gateways supplements on the Wizards of the Coast website ( http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/pg20020605x ).  The characters have slain an evil druid (Thurghom) who guarded a portal of standing stones on an arctic island in the middle of a northern sea.  Amusingly enough, the party has been split up.  One group activated the standing stones portal and went through - unfortunately the portal went out after that and the other half of the group has been stranded on the isle.  They're pretty high level, but I'm going to throw them an unexpected surprise.  The standing stones are a location that is ripe for faerie activity.  Therefore, I'm crafting a faerie guide to emerge from the stones.  Since faeries represent natural things, I'm planning on patterning him after an arctic hare.  I'm thinking that he might be the rightful guardian of the island, but the druid has kept him at bay for many years.  Therefore, he's quite grateful that the party has slaughtered the druid.  I haven't worked out the full story arc yet, but I'm hoping to inject a dose of the fey into the game.  The standing stones surround a sinkhole, which I think fits the well symbolism quite "well".  One of the rangers in the party has expressed a distinct interest in the fey in her backstory, so it works out well for her.  The story arc ought to be fairly interesting, I'm hoping to send the party off to Faerieland for a little while.  It's an online game, so running split groups is manageable.  Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know some of the ideas that your work has inspired.  If you have any suggestions, they would also be greatly appreciated.  I'll probably draw heavily on a lot of the faerie tales you've referenced here, Raven.  

Once again, an excellent thread,

Josh


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 1, 2005)

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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 1, 2005)

Thanks, Raven - those are some excellent ideas.  I'll flesh out the trickster aspect of the rabbit and give him a more nefarious edge, which will allow for a great deal of roleplaying.  I'll let you know how things develop, it ought to prove an interesting encounter.


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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 2, 2005)

Well, I've been working out the story arc, and I decided that the sinkhole would serve as a Portal to the Land of Faerie under the proper conditions.  The hare/trickster faerie is a sort of faerie guardian of the gateway - he was bound there long ago because he was dangerous.  He tells the characters to call him Mistear, which is a Gaelic word for "cunning".  I gave him levels of bard as well and I'm going to use him as a plot device for a PC bard in the group.  However, in an unexpected twist, I've already had one character manage to activate the portal and come into the Land of Faerie.  However, I'm not yet sure how I will tackle an arctic faerieland.  I thought I might draw upon the books of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis, as I seem to recall that Narnia was once swathed in winter.  Any other suggestions for sources?


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 4, 2005)

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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 4, 2005)

Thanks for the suggestions, Raven.  I've been doing some research and that turned up precisely what I was after.  If it's okay by you, I'll post the work I do on my encounters and share my ideas in this thread.  I'm not very familiar with forum etiquette, so if I should post it elsewhere, let me know.


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 4, 2005)

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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 5, 2005)

*The Hare's Portal I*

Without further ado, allow me to begin.  This story arc begins on an island in Faerûn's Sea of Moving Ice, near a ring of standing stones.  The standing stones are the first of the Portals of the Frozen Wastes (see here).  The stones are guarded by Thurghom, who cherishes them as a sacred shrine inhabited by a great spirit.  Though they are actually the relic of an ancient civilization, they are indeed occupied by a powerful creature, though it is not quite pleased with Thurghom's presence.

In my campaign (which is an online game that can be found here , I increased Thurghom to 22nd level, as the characters are very high level.  However, his level is really irrelevant, as he merely serves as a means to introduce the "great spirit" of the Standing Stones.  

The sinkhole in the center of the stones is actually the dwelling of a powerful faerie whose true name is Beg Eolach Moidhach (it translates to Little Knowledgeable Hare).  However, he almost always goes by the name Mistear, as faeries guard their true names most carefully.



> Mistear, Male Faerie Kin Lightfoot Halfling Brd20: CR 20; Small Humanoid; HD 20d6(Bard); hp 73; Init +2; Spd 25 ft.; AC:12 (Flatfooted:11 Touch:12); Atk +15/10/5 base melee, +18/13/8 base ranged; RF: +2 Bonus on Saves vs. Fear, +1 attack bonus with thrown weapons; SQ Daylight Powerlessness; AL CN; SV Fort +7, Ref +15, Will +12; STR 8, DEX 15, CON 10, INT 16, WIS 8, CHA 23.
> 
> Skills: Bluff +29, Climb +1, Disguise +8, Forgery +5, Hide +29, Jump +6, Knowledge (Fey) +26, Knowledge (Nature) +26, Knowledge (The Planes) +26, Listen +1, Move Silently +27, Perform (Sing) +29, Spellcraft +26.
> 
> ...




(Mistear's stat block is rather haphazard, and I apologize if there are any errors in my calculations.  He can really be of any level, and in my campaign I am actually planning to revise his stat block and grant him levels of Seeker of the Song from Complete Arcane.  The Faerie Kin race is the creation of Raven Crowking, and I simply used it to make him a fey.  His base statistics are those of a lightfoot halfling brd20, with a few custom spells and abilities.  Mistear is based upon the snowshoe hare, which I have read to be active often at night.  Therefore, Mistear does not care for the sunlight.  His spells come from a wide variety of custom sources, but they really are not crucial to the game's progression and they simply serve as another resource for him to rely upon.  I granted him the Ethereal Sidestep feat from Ghostwalk for free as a means to enhance flavor - it simply allows short uses of the dimension door spell, which symbolizes a rabbit's "hop".  The Truename feat comes from a Dragon magazine article on truenames.  If you have any questions just ask me and I'll provide some of my sources.)

Though the majority of items tossed into sinkhole are long gone, the gear of an adventuring group sacrificed by Thurghom still lies at the bottom of the sinkhole, which is approximately two hundred feet deep.  The treasure consists of:  an ancient suit of thunder armor, boots of the sea, a celestial mace, a pixie bone flute, a white robe of archmagi, and a staff of rapture.  Concealed in the silt at the bottom of the cenote is the one of the group’s most valuable treasures:  a universal key, along with boots of the lost coast.  

(These items can be replaced quite easily--the characters in my campaign were very far behind the suggested wealth amounts for their level, hence the great amount of treasure.  Many of these items came from WotC's Far Corners of the World supplements, as I found those to be quite unique.)

The bottom of the sinkhole actually serves as a portal to the Plane of Faerie as well.  Anyone who falls into the waters of the sinkhole at twilight surfaces on the Plane of Faerie.  The portal will also function for someone who carries a key granted by Mistear (the universal key found above will also activate the portal if it is taken out of the sinkhole and then dropped in again.)

Mistear materializes from the standing stones at twilight to greet the characters responsible for slaying Thurghôm.  As seen in the encounters above, when dealing with fey, no good deed goes unpaid.  Mistear seeks to settle his debt with those who slew Thurghom, and, if possible, trick them into owing him favors as well.
-----
My next post will further elaborate the encounter and explain how it unfolded in my own campaign.  Feel free to use Mistear or any of these creations as you see fit in your own campaigns.  

So far there's been a fair amount of symbolism as well.  The sinkhole and the snowshoe hare faerie are strongly reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, a parallel which only grew stronger in my own campaign with the actions of the party.  

After I describe a few more specifics of the encounter and will also move on to the other side of the portal, in the Plane of Faerie.

Finally, any and all comments or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated on this.

Thanks, 

Josh


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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 5, 2005)

*Boots of the Hare*

These heavy boots are lined with beautiful white fur, and they greatly resemble the large hind feet of a snowshoe hare.  The footwear possesses a minor quirk – the wearer’s tracks appear to be those of the aforementioned snowshoe hare, though this effect is not readily apparent.  The user is permanently under the effect of a jump spell cast at ninth level.  These boots belong to Mistear – they serve as his fetish (see Dragon #317 p.40 for information on truenames and fetishes).    
	Moderate transmutation; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, jump; Price 36,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

(These are Mistear's boots, as you can see in the stat block above.)


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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 5, 2005)

*Scepter of the Hare*

This weathered rod is crafted out of hazel.  It bears few distinguishing marks, but in the hands of Mistear, it may cast baleful polymorph upon anything it touches.  It serves as a quarterstaff +5 of small size.

(I didn't give a price on this object as it may randomly manifest other properties as needed.  Mistear's scepter is very powerful and sort of serves an all-purpose function.  As you will see later when I post the development in my own campaign, Mistear has already used it to polymorph a druid's huge-sized animal companion into a much more manageable form.)


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## DM_Fiery_Fist (Apr 6, 2005)

*The Hare's Portal II*

In my campaign, the characters split up upon reaching the isle in the Sea of Moving Ice and two cohorts (acquired by the Leadership feat) went off to scout.  Cain, a mist elf druid, and Kahlan, a weretiger ranger, along with Cain's megaraptor animal companion, actually stumbled upon Thurghom while scouting.  An intense battle ensued in which the two of them barely managed to triumph over the lone druid and his polar bear companion after an extremely rough battle...both characters were quite worse for the wear when they emerged.  They slew Thurghom in the early morning, and the rest of the party arrived around noon.  Well, shortly after they arrived, Kahlan began experimenting with the Standing Stones.  She brushed her paw across the stones and activated the portal.  Undaunted, and curious as a cat, she stepped into the web of energy.  Unfortunately, she chose a rather poor time, for she entered just as the arctic wind picked up (as you can see in the article, there is a 10% chance that the portal briefly flickers out when someone steps in, due to its age and the effect of the elements).  I rolled an 08, so Kahlan plummeted into the icy waters of the sinkhole.  Above, Cain (who was also beginning a bit of a relationship with Kahlan), saw his comrade enter the standing stones and vanish.  Surprised, and fearful for her safety, he dashed in after her.  The portal functioned properly, and he was whisked away to the High Ice.  

Meanwhile, Kahlan splashed down into the water and made a successful Spot check, allowing her to glimpse the glint of treasure from very far below (she had a very good modifier).  With her necklace of adaptation on, she swam to the bottom and began to unearth all of the various treasures that were found.  Meanwhile, her comrades had seen Cain vanish, and so Tyta (a brave female fighter from Mulhorand, whose cohort is Kahlan) leapt into the portal after Cain.  She told Virgil (a very old mist elf mystic theurge, whose cohort is Cain) to keep the party on this side of the portal until she returned.  Virgil nodded - most of the party was off exploring the island anyway, so all he had to do was keep Suran (a lawful good monk NPC) from following Tyta through the portal.  Suran was convinced by the wise elf's reasoning and waited impatiently.  However, after about a minute, the portal began to flicker out.  In a desperate effort, Virgil and Suran both leapt for the portal.  Virgil vanished, whisked away.  Suran, however, leapt as the portal flickered out, and therefore plummeted into the water, landing next to Kahlan, who had just surfaced.  He used his winged boots to bring them both out of the water, and then they discussed what had just happened with their comrades.  Kahlan debated for some time, then wondered if perhaps the key she found below (which was actually the universal key mentioned earlier) had something to do with it.  She tossed it into the sinkhole, but nothing seemed to happen (however, this had actually opened Mistear's portal to the Plane of Faerie).  Kahlan asked Suran to go and fetch her key, unaware of what had happened.  The monk dived into the sinkhole, and never returned.  Kahlan finally went after him, but found no trace of the key or of the monk (the portal closed after he went through).  

Meanwhile, Cain, Tyta, and Virgil found themselves in the cavern below the High Ice.  However, things had changed, and a group of four elite agents of the City of Shade had slain the Red Worm and occupied the cavern.  They actually managed to negotiate a bit of a truce, and the three heroes agreed to wait for nine hours or so until the shades could alter their memory and send them to a city in the North.

Back at the standing stones, Rizel (a female true necromancer from the far east) had cast analyze portal on the standing stones.  She glimpsed the destination in the High Ice and decided to teleport there, leaving her comrades behind.  After a few failed attempts (due to the effects of faerzress, the magical radiation that permeates the Underdark), she reached her comrades.  Rizel was less cooperative than her allies, but Virgil finally convinced her to have a seat.  

Twilight fell at the Standing Stones, and Mistear emerged from the portal to thank the party for slaying Thurghom.  He offered them a favor in return, and after a brief discussion, Kahlan asked him where Suran had gone to.  Mistear realized that Suran had entered the Plane of Faerie, and explained this to Kahlan.  After a brief decision, she decided that she wanted to enter the Plane of Faerie to search for Suran.  

One of her comrades, a halfling bard by the name of Kesef (a staunch ally of Tyta), decided to ask Mistear if he could meet up with Tyta.  Mistear told him that if he traveled through the Land of Faerie, he could eventually reach his comrade.  Mistear explained three rules of the Plane of Faerie (again, much of this has been inspired by Raven Crowking):

Even the most gracious of creatures can prove fell to the greedy or rude.  Tongues and manners should be minded here, for the Good People are not all Good, nor even all People.  Gifts and insults must be repaid in kind.

To taste the fruits of the Faerie Realm is to court disaster.

Stay on the path – the path will always go where one needs to go, though it will take its own time in getting there.

After hearing this, Kesef became concerned, and tried to outwit Mistear.  After a long and convuleted bit of banter between the two, Mistear taught the primal music to Kesef (this is for the Seeker of the Song prestige class from Complete Arcane, it was used as a means of character development for Kesef), but Mistear managed to trick the halfling (who had a rather low wisdom score) into agreeing that he would actually owe Mistear two favors.

Mistear then gave a tiny apple to Kahlan (this was a portal key for the Hare's Portal), and explained to her once again that the path would take them where they needed to go.  He told them that when the path forked, Kahlan and those seeking Suran should go right, whilst Kesef and those following him in search of Tyta should go left.  He then hopped into the sinkhole, and the others leapt in as well.  
---------------------------------------
This is how the events unfolded in my campaign.  My next post will cover the Plane of Faerie and our heroes' experience with the White Duck.


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## qstor (Apr 19, 2005)

Great stuff here!! I'm glad someone pointed out this thread.

Has the faerie ring material been developed?

Some of the russian fey were given official versions in _Frostburn._

Mike


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## moritheil (Apr 20, 2005)

Interesting stuff.  Has anyone read E. McCoy's "name me or I will bind you" fey encounters?


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 23, 2005)

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## DM_Fiery_Fist (May 7, 2005)

*The White Duck I*

Wayfarers who pass through the hare’s portal surface amidst tendrils of mist in a pool of water.  They are surrounded by evergreen such as spruces, cedars, pines, and firs; all drenched in snow.  Twilight is perpetual here.  Pools of water cloaked in mist are scattered throughout the landscape.  A well worn path winds through the trees.  Following it one direction eventually reaches the point where it is covered with snow.  In the other direction, the sound of a babbling brook can be heard from far away.  Those who make a successful Spot check (DC 25) glimpse tiny winged faeries (the evergreen cousins of petals) flitting amongst the boughs of the trees.

The path wanders amongst the trunks of the trees until finally forking at the base of a large larch.  The left branch seems wild and overgrown, while the right branch looks to have been traversed more recently.  

(I will cover the left hand path later.  The White Duck encounter occurred along the right hand path.)

The right hand path wanders amongst the trunks of the trees until finally coming to a bridge which spans to another island containing a beautiful garden.  The bridge is guarded by a giant knight in emerald plate mail.  He carries a great axe and steps out onto the bridge to confront any who would pass.  He offers passage, but only if the bravest delivers three strikes to his neck, which he returns in a year and a day.  The third strike decapitates him, but he lifts his head and steps off of the bridge.  

(As you can see, I borrowed Raven Crowking's Green Knight encounter and modified it very slightly for my own campaign.  It went over very well with my players, who loved the surprise twist at the ending whem he stepped off the bridge.)

The very stream which runs beneath the bridge babbles amongst the flowers and plants of the garden.  There is quite the commotion when the wanderers arrive… a white duck is being chased around the garden by an aged woman with long white hair, clad in white robes of fur, who carried two gleaming daggers (I used the statistics of a marzanna from Frostburn, as they fit her very well with only very slight modifications.  The aged woman is meant to symbolize the arctic fox, as will be hinted at later on by the white duck.)  A stately castle can be seen further along the path, which comes to its gate.  As they approach, they can hear the duck calling out in a human female’s voice:

"Quack-quack, my sons,
Quack-quack, my beloved ones,
In want I reared you,
With tears I suckled you,
You slept--I lay sleepless.
You ate--I went hungry.”

When the aged woman spots the wanderers, she cries out to them:  "Ho there, all! Drive the duck out of the yard!"  The duck begins to wing for the castle.  Children’s voices can be heard crying out from within:

"We cannot sleep for the thoughts that chill us;
We dare not sleep, for they mean to kill us--
Fires are being kindled,
Kettles are being hung,
Knives are being sharpened!"

The duck cries out in response:

“Quack-quack, my sons.
Quack-quack, my beloved ones!”

“The witch it was that put you to sleep,
The witch it was with her wicked ways,
For a fox is she and a deadly one...
From you she took your father own,
Your father own and my own dear spouse;
She drowned us all in the river swift,
She turned us all into white-winged ducks,
And herself she lives like a princess true!"

The characters are now faced with the white duck and with the aged woman.  The "arctic fox faerie" frantically urges them to drive the duck away or kill it, while the duck begs for their assistance and generally causes quite the commotion.  The white duck comes to the wanderers if they are friendly to her.  She beseeches them to save her children, two of whom the aged woman has put to sleep inside the castle (the third is the one that calls out).  The characters must save the ducklings, which the aged woman wishes to kill and eat.  During the fight, the lord of the castle (Lord Drake) descends into the kitchen from a staircase, shouting about the commotion. 

The death of the aged woman ends the spell—the two sleeping ducklings awaken from the dark spell, the duck becomes a beautiful maiden, and the lord of the castle becomes a man in his prime.  The beautiful maiden thanks the heroes who saved her.  She introduces herself as Lady Mergina, wife of Lord Drake, and offers a favor in gratitude, as does Lord Drake.  

Mergina heard the tiny fey seen amongst the evergreens speaking of a champion of the sun who was captured by the Morozko, a powerful wizard whom Mergina knows to serve Kashchej the Deathless.  
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As you can see, this encounter was only broadly sketched out in my notes.  My next post will cover how my players responded to the White Duck and will also reveal the next leg of the plotline:  the Morozko.  

The White Duck was based upon an old Russian fairy tale about a young princess who is turned into a white duck while her husband is on a quest.  You can find the story here.


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## Raven Crowking (May 9, 2005)

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## Raven Crowking (May 25, 2005)

*Complete Guide to Fey (Goodman Games)*

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## Munin (Dec 10, 2005)

Here I am, resurrecting old threads again....

RC..I'm wondering, what thought have you given to employing _The Hunt_ as a fairy encounter?


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## Raven Crowking (Dec 11, 2005)

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## Raven Crowking (May 12, 2006)

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## Aus_Snow (May 12, 2006)

No, but someone might.

Also, this is a cached version from sometime in January this year. Um, if that's remotely useful, I'll see if I can dig up a more recent one.

Good luck, RC.


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## aok (May 16, 2006)

*I've just now stumbled across this thread*

And am most pleased with what you're presenting. The difficulty with MM fey is not that they're particularly inaccurate, but rather that the MM utterly fails to convey any sense of their nature. As far as mechanics go, the stats are usable, but useless unless the Shanachie is capable of comprehensively realating Story of the Faeire Ffolke (which you appear to be doing extraordinarily well). Of course, the latter tends to make the former unecessary. Obviously, when dealing with Faerie, this is as it should be. . .

Have Fun, Play Well,
Arrak ramirea K'Ar


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## Raven Crowking (May 16, 2006)

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## Ry (Feb 23, 2007)

Performing a bit of thread necromancy, because this was one of the coolest threads on any topic.  

Also, I figure putting some links to resources others mentioned in related threads wouldn't hurt.



			
				Voadam said:
			
		

> I like the Avalanche press Little People one, and at $3.00 it is a very affordable download.






			
				Aus_Snow said:
			
		

> On the non-d20 side of things, GURPS Faerie is good, as is the forementioned AM book.






			
				sckeener said:
			
		

> WotC does have some retired Fey articles.  Take a look at these  articles by Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel and Faith M. Pricef.
> 
> Non - D&D, but I always liked Ars Magica's Faeries






			
				Psion said:
			
		

> Ari's Iconic Bestiary: Classic Fey is probably the closest thing that exists to a "big book of fey", but it's not exactly "big":
> http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5526&
> 
> Goodman Games' Complete Guide to Fey is more a "fey building" handbook. It has fey classes that can let you re-create most existing fey with pretty good success, and create your own:
> ...


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 26, 2007)

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## Raven Crowking (May 15, 2007)

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## the Jester (May 16, 2007)

Oooh, cool, thanks!


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## Evilhalfling (May 16, 2007)

The PCs in my game entered an area controlled by fay 
Any suggestions for the effects of plucking a toadstool from a faerie ring and eating it? 
- my players are nothing if not unpredictable.


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## Raven Crowking (May 16, 2007)

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## Evilhalfling (May 18, 2007)

That was pretty close, to my ruling, I went with the hallucinations of growing butterfly wings and the urge to get a running start, since they couldn't lift him directly. 

it only lasted 3 hrs (per the groups ex-recreational drug user.)

So having no real plans this week, and since th e 3 heads in the well got such rave reviews I'm going to throw it in.  Along with the house of bone. 
the faerie wisdom will be H1 - "neither eat nor drink anything from the queens table" as they are on the way to see the Faerie queen (an ancient elven bard/lich) 
this advice should  be obvious, but its a low challenge after all 
H2 - house of bone quote  - Less obvious but still winnable if they don't get it. 
H3 - Im not using the green knight, may use the crossroad, any chance of more info? 

also the heads may attack varrgoyal like instead of curses - my player like a bit o violence and it was short on that last week.

The background 
[sblock]In my world there have been rare sightings of standard D&D Fae ie. 1 dryad, a sea nymph, and a few hags, but no history of Faeries as presented here/in legends, the (mad) queen wants to change this, as she has visited other primes.  My cosmology does have a plane of dreams, and the queen wants to carve a piece of it off  to be a faerie world, transferring her long haunted forest over as the seed for this new demi-plane.  Can she succeed? well she is a 850 yr old lich, (Bard/wild soul PrC) and insanity is just a bonus with plans like this.
[/sblock]

Ill let you know how it goes.


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## Evilhalfling (May 20, 2007)

* 3 heads in a well. *
first of all one the characters drinks from the well and is shocked when I tell him the water tastes pure and clean, with no saving throw or ill effects.  
(He has had previously characters turned to stone and permanently cursed after drinking from wells/pools/fountains.)
He did feel a little nausea when the first calcified head floated into view. 
he and the druid cleaned the heads, while the bard cleans, the house? ... I'm not sure why. 

they managed the first, got cursed by the second, for the third they asked for the bards help -  but were still not competent enough. Crying for revenge he starts biting them, and the second head joins in as well, the first head is contented and just sits happily in the grass. The party has fun hacking at them, and carefully bury the pieces after the battle. 



> The Bard then picks up the first head and stuffs it in his bag of holding!
> I have no idea how this will turn out, a day later he hasn't checked it yet. any advice?




They pass by the House of Bone, and since this isn't actually Faerie land, only the land within about 100' is in winter.  This bothers the druid alot. Its midnight and they decide to come back and check the house later. 
*
The Queen *
They go on to meet the queen and her retinue at dawn, (2 goblin knights, 3 ladies 1 with butterfly wings.)   The queen hospitably offers breakfast and lays out a feast. 
The characters try various reasons and explanations for why they are not eating, and the queen at one point tells her goblin knights to "take that one out into the forest and cut bits off him"   Before being flattered out of it by party diplomats. 

Finally one of the goblin knights throws food at a PC to get him to eat it, and a food fight breaks out. The queen dismisses the feast, and after telling the PCs to go fetch something for her rides off, leaving them with 3 pure white faerie steeds that will take them to the edge of her lands. (actually Phantom Steed) recognized as such by adventures (4/5 of party are spell casters)  

The parties conclusion - that the queen was the least sane royal they had ever met. 
just what I was going for a little Narnia, a little of Black Adder's-  Elizabeth I 

*
the Bone House II *
 Riding the steeds back past the house in the daylight, the party stops and goes to knock at the door.  With no instructions, the party moves carefully, trying getting the hang of faerie rules. The text was perfect - and when they got the old man to come speak with them at the door rather than going in, he came muttering " now where is that trusty staff of mine.. ah here it is" and for a while he kept one hand out of sight behind the door. 

The Old man kept asking for a glass of red - and when the PCs complained they had given all their wine to the queen, the perfect reply was obvious 
"I don't drink ........wine" 

They managed to figure out were dealing with 'Old Man Winter' when asked if he could leave the house, he stuck his head out the door sniffed the air and said yes, in about 3 months.   Although tempted by a jeweled lire or the ash staff itself, the PCs decided they didn't like the odds and fled on the horses.  - a reasonable choice.


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## Raven Crowking (May 21, 2007)

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## Evilhalfling (Aug 31, 2007)

Thread Necromancy for a good cause - 
I need your help again RC 

My players are heading back into the Fae Queens land to ask her for help.  
This is not destined to go well - and the PCs should end up opposing her.  Of course it has to be suitably mythic - So instead of being able to challange her directly they will be advised to take on the "seasonals" Fae who personify the seasons.  They have already beaten fall (a ruin chanter from MMV) Old man winter will be taken/modified from here, and spring is an elven girl who the queen stole (and left a changling of course) in an earlier session.  

What kind of Fae works best for summer?  The only legend I found was Bride, held captive by a fae queen of wind & storms, and rescued by the King of summer. 
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tsm/tsm05.htm


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## Raven Crowking (Aug 31, 2007)

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## Evilhalfling (Aug 31, 2007)

I have at least 2 weeks - since they already met winter they will probably go after him first.  

as for CR 10-13 for a fight, but she could be a captive or require tricking out of her power, rather than just killing.  Its the story quality that Im missing, but since this is one of three challanges to stop the true threat, it can't be a journey to the ends of the earth problem. 

duskblade8,
Beguiler5/master of masks3, 
Druid 8 & earth Ele companion
Cleric7(victory), 
Fighter8 (merciful blade, won't kill) 
and a cohort C5 

in a previous game the cohort promised to marry the changeling - who is 8yrs old equivalent (as 60 elf) later explaining he would perform the marrage as soon as she was old enough, and found a husband.


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## Raven Crowking (Sep 2, 2007)

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## evilbob (Jan 23, 2008)

*thread necromancy*

It's been some time since this thread has been alive, but I wanted to post my own experiences with this excellent material.  I came across this thread ages ago and immediately liked it; I've been dying to try it out since.

I started a new game this past weekend with level 6 characters - all played by new or relatively inexperienced D&D players - and ran the faerieland encounters as their first foray into the game.  It was great!  Everyone had a blast, and even though they generally didn't do the "right" thing it all came out right in the end and a good time was had by all.


First, I made a few modifications to the material.  My characters were higher level, so I tried to make some of the encounters a bit tougher, and since I more closely follow the DMG treasure guidelines, the loot was toned down a bit.  The main changes I made were:

- The ogres in the first encounter were taken straight from the MM1.  "Papa" ogre was the 4th level barbarian (CR 7) and "baby" ogre was the standard ogre (CR 3).  This was still pretty big for a 6th level party, so I nerfed the ogre slightly by having him be out of rages for the day (since he'd already battled the crone) and removing his +1 greatclub and +1 hide armor (replaced with mundane of the same - this also helps with treasure).  If it is still a bit much, you can always make him "wounded" as well, although that wasn't a problem with my group.  This should give you a nice EL 6 to EL 7, depending on how the players encounter the ogres.

- Since loot wasn't specified, made the treasure in the bottom of the tower near the ogres be 15 MW sling stones and an ancient helm worth 200 gp.  (Idea stolen from the story hour.)

- Completely left out anything about a paladin joining the party (obviously - different campaign).

- Changed the +1 keen longsword (~8000g) reward from the second head to a MW longsword with a scabbard of keen edges (normally 16000g) with the limit that it only works for 5 minutes a day with each use (this is ad hoc, but according to the DMG this would make the price something more like 3000g; it normally should last for 50 minutes).  This made it easier for the group to use and reduced the treasure total.

- Changed the third head's main clue entirely.  Since I figured my players weren't going to eat the turnips (they never did), and since I didn't want to worry about keeping up with the Green Knight later in the adventure, I devised an entirely new challenge for the players.  The third head said, "When challenged by the green guardian, challenge him instead to his favorite game.  But be mindful of thy own self-worth."  In other words, when the green knight challenges you, challenge him to a different game.
The idea for the "game" was stolen directly from Shakespeare's _Merchant of Venice_.  The knight offers a game of "chance," in which the characters can choose a coin that is either copper, silver, or gold.  (I was going to get a penny, quarter, and gold dollar coin for props, but ran out of time.  The copper coin could be bronze as well.)    The face on the coin becomes the face of the character once it is chosen.  The idea is that you flip the coins, and whoever gets heads wins.  You play until someone has won 2 out of 3 (ties are replays).
The trick is, the coin flips have nothing to do with the game:  the coin you choose determines how well you do.  The copper coin will always come up heads and the gold coin will always come up tails; the silver one is random but largely irrelavent, since the Green Knight will only pick a coin that has better odds than the one you choose, if possible.  The trick is to "mind your own self-worth" and choose the copper coin.
However, the reward/penalty isn't so bad:  I decided the reward was that you just got to go on your way, while the penalty was that you had to face the "three blows" challenge as before.

- The "crossroads" mentioned by the third head became a place in faerieland since my campaign had no boneyard or anything like it; plus, it was nice and neat that everything applied to areas inside faerieland (although it tends to tip your hand about them leaving faerieland when all the clues are done).  The item dropped was an Eyes of the Eagle, straight from the DMG (2500g).

- The old man winter's stick was a custom runestaff based on the runestaff items in the Magic Item Compendium; its value is probably around 8000g.

- Since I don't have Savage Species, the old man's cat became a standard tiger from the MM1 that had its size changed to small (without a strength or dex change) and type changed to undead (~CR 4 or 5).  The additional monsters with it were imps (MM1 devils, CR 2) who were altered to be ice foxes.  This was about an EL 5, but hopefully it would come at the end of a long road with fewer resources.


The rest was pretty much the same or as close as I could get.  So how did they do?


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## evilbob (Jan 23, 2008)

*the results*

The group started by encountering the crone.  They were extremely warey (what's this old lady doing out here in the middle of nowhere?) but decided to help find her Henry and easily found the ogres.  Since the group had just started playing and were eager to try out their stuff, they quickly laid waste to the two poor ogres after having used the better part of their resources for the day.  Only one player caught that the donkey was Henry - the rest kept looking for the "guy," who they thought would be her husband or son.  Eventually they got it, though, and accepted the turnips and advice for a reward (they never ate them).  They completely missed/ignored all hints about the crone being strong or powerful, although they did take her advice on searching the tower, and they found the area below it.  The funniest part of the whole adventure was them trying to figure out the well at the bottom of the tower.  They probably spent 30 minutes discussing it, throwing things into it (including one of the newly discovered MW stones), and finally sending a character down into it to check it out.  It was hilarious how long it took them to figure out it really was _just a well_, although it almost had a negative effect on a later encounter...  My guess is that they weren't used to so much descriptive text.  

Later, they encountered the farm house and rested there (and dried out from the previous harrowing well experience!).  They noticed the comb on the farmhouse's well, and took it to be an ill omen:  they were convinced that between the comb and the ribbons some little girl had drowned there, and that the cover was not to be moved or else!  They very nearly left the well alone entirely - especially after their last "well" experience - but I think I managed to drop enough hints that they finally convinced themselves to open the well.  They expected the worst, and so they never even got any water from the well and were hardly surprised when a head floated to the surface.

The encounter with the heads went pretty smoothly; for some reason they never really heavily questioned the orders of these non-undead-but-still-animated heads.  (The fact that they were not undead puzzled them quite a bit, however.)  It took them only a few tries to get the skill checks, and they only needed one Diplomacy check to get some bonus information (the checks were only 2 higher for 6th level characters - this made the encounter possibly too easy).  They got the bag of gold easliy, although the "wrong" character went after the sword - not through greed; it was just more efficient that way.  I had to drop a few more hints in order to get them to understand the situation; otherwise they were assuming that the head had simply lied and that was that.  Maybe one brother only tells lies?  (I'm sure they've never encountered a quest that was "person-specific" before.)  When finished, they dutifully noted everything they had been told, and when the heads bounced back into the well they covered it up and left the comb(!) for anyone else who came along.  (I thought that was such a nice and unexpected gesture I gave them a small XP reward.)

They passed into faerieland without much todo - although in my campaign as well I had one character who preferred to stay far away from the others (he hated how loud they were when he was so good at being sneaky).  When I passed him a note that said "you are hopelessly lost" he laughed - he knew his stand-offish practices had come back to bite him.

They accepted Bryne of Lig without incident and figured out the clue about feeding him.  No one ever took the bait about eating the forbidden fruit in faerieland, especially after they had been warned; maybe my players have all seen _Pan's Labyrinth_ or something...  (Also, food and water are generally de-emphasized in my campaigns because characters have ready access to magic that can provide them.)  They also took the advice about staying on the path VERY seriously; I think it may have traumatized them!  Then, after only a couple of hints (did I mention they were all fairly new players?) they realized they hadn't seen the sneaky guy in a while.  They had to burn one "use" of Bryne to get him back, and honestly it was one of the best interactions I've seen in the game:  the stand-offish player learned his lesson well and has stuck with the group ever since (even after leaving faerieland).

They later came to the house of "stone" and burned a _detect magic_; they quickly discovered it was actually made of bone.  They tried to heed the head's advice, but the character who knocked on the door stated after trying to parlay with the old man:  "Come to the door and I'll give you what you want."  To which the old man replied, "Done!"  Much head-hanging was done at that point.    Needless to say, the character was frustrated when he realized the bargain he'd made, but to his credit he decided he would make it good and he did.  He tried to offer the old man more of the good red wine - which a successful Diplomacy check helped a great deal - and then I came up with a good idea that used the character's abilities well.  The old man offered the stick only for a "large quantity" of blood - and when asked how much, he presented a bucket.  (Yikes!)  However, this character had an ability to heal a small amount of damage each round once he fell below half HP.  So, the way it worked was:  he bled.  And he bled and bled and bled.  The bucket (magical, of course) wasn't going to be full until it held over three times the blood of a single human, and so he continually used his ability (slowly losing ground each time) to heal himself to have more blood to give.  Finally, when the group's other healer had to use some of their abilities to keep him from unconciousness, that was enough.  I figured this was pretty justified, so they got the staff.

(Continued below...)


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## evilbob (Jan 23, 2008)

*more results*

They moved on through the mountain pass, and were attacked by the imps and the old man's cat simultaneously.  They fought them off without much trouble, although the hardest part was just staying literally -on- the path in order to fight.  The cat was turned to dust once they discovered (via spot checks) that it was undead (I figured the cat wasn't trying -too- hard to disguise itself) and the imps were chased away.

Next they hit the "crossroads" which was there partially as a plot device and partially as a place for the third head's treasure.  They almost had the wrong character grab the loot again - again, not due to greed but efficiency - and so another hint was dropped to help them recall what had happened last time.  They successfully grabbed the item and continued on their way.

This next encounter was particularly interesting because one player immediately recognized the character of the green knight from the tales of Sir Gawain.  However, none of them picked up on the clue to use only the copper coin (even the guy who had been _in_ Merchant!).  The way it went was:  they quickly deduced the head's clue, and asked the green knight for a game.  He said, "Ah, so you too enjoy a good game of chance?  Very well.  The rules are simple:  we both flip a coin; the side with a visage wins.  Three times we flip, and he who wins the most flips wins the game.  If you win, you shall receive a prize worthy of the coin you pick.  If I win, then you must accept my previous offer.  Since you have issued the challenge, I shall allow you to choose your coin first.  You may choose from the humble copper, the stately silver, or the kingly gold coin.  Choose your coin, and accept that which fate plays you."

Even with all that hinting, they still went for the silver coin - partially because they fell for the "prize worthy of the coin you pick" bit which was specifically there to distract them.  Needless to say, they lost.  This caused them to get rather worried; they figured out that he was angry due to the "turnips" they carried (they hadn't eaten any, but they still had them) and the knight was not being persuaded otherwise.  They REALLY didn't want to trade blows with this fellow.  So, they decided to call Bryne of Lig again to help them out.  I considered this a fair usage, so I had them make another Diplomacy check with his help.  I said that Bryne added a choice word here or there, eventually suggesting whole phrases, and by the time the speech was done he had somehow managed to make it sound like the players had specifically brought these heads here to give them to the green knight in order for him to properly bury them, while they would of course try to hunt down the crone responsible.  The green knight accepted their gift gratefully, and allowed them to continue on their way.  (I thought that was pretty fair, as Bryne is specifically there to give them "outs" when they need them - so I just ruled that they didn't get any XP for this encounter and counted it good.)

The players quickly caught on about the longstones, however.  They recognized - partially because the "clues" were all done - that these were the gates of faerieland, or at least they _strongly_ suspected.  However, this didn't really dilute their desire to stay on the path.  But they were confident enough that they called Bryne of Lig one last time in order to identify the staff.  I figured that was fair enough, so when he came he examined the staff closely all over for several minutes and then promptly said, "I have no idea."  However, he did say that he had _heard_ that such a staff might do X...  And so they got the information they wanted.  However, they knew they had used up all their opportunities with Bryne of Lig.

They continued through the stones and met the party of bees.  Even though they were very sure they were out of faerieland at that point, the "off the path" experience from before was so heavily stuck in their heads they did not want to leave it and discover they were wrong - so there was still an encounter to be had.  However - and again, this comes more from the characters' level - it was easily overcome.  The arcane caster simply cast "rope trick" and the characters climbed up into an extradimensional space and allowed the party of bees to move through.  They had not "left the path," but neither side had to cede or fight.  (They were a bit worried about fighting at that point, because even though they suspected they could heal their wounds, they had not.)  In the end, I thought that was such a good use of a spell to avoid an encounter they received full XP for defeating it.

Later that evening it got dark and they were very happy to have left faerieland.  However, the funny thing is that even days later - in another part of the country far away - there was a battle where one of the characters was still very apprehensive about leaving the path.  Talk about a pavlovian response!  


In the end, everyone had a really good time and they enjoyed the heavy role-playing and "puzzle-solving" aspect of the game quite a bit.  The entire thing was probably a bit easier for them, due to their higher level, but overall it scaled pretty well - and many of the challenges are effectively "level neutral."  Overall:  a great bit of storytelling!


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## Lord Zack (Dec 3, 2008)

I know this thread is dead, but I have some questions I'd like to ask if anybody wants to answer them. I'm creating a new campaign setting and I'm wondering how to fit faeries into the world. I'm thinking of mixing in some Eastern traditions like Kitsune and Kappa. There's a lot of cultural diffusion between different parts of the world due to the fact that there are such magics as portals and airships. Similar to the modern idea earlier they may have "brought they're spirits with them". Also I'd like some opinions on the idea of Fey becoming mortal, like Pathfinder's Gnomes.


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## Raven Crowking (Dec 3, 2008)

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## Lopke_Quasath (Dec 10, 2008)

*Good fun, thank you!*

Raven Crowking, I just want to say a big thank you for writing your encounters up. I used them with my group when they were 2nd level and it was a blast!

One night we only had 2 players show, so I decided to do a one-shot adventure using Paizo's "Hollow's Last Hope". The players had 2 characters each. We had so much fun playing that we decided to continue with that story and characters when we could. I already had your encounters on file for a while, and I decided now was a good time to bust them out. So I made the villains of Falcon's Hollow the "Dark Fey". This was before I knew anything about Paizo's actual fey storyline regarding Falcon's Hollow, so it was an awesome coincidence. 

So, the dark fey had poisoned the town, and the group decided to follow up stories of small winged creatures seen near the poisoned well. They entered the forest and soon enough they met the old crone. I made her Ulizmila, the Witch of Darkmoon Vale. Her house was abandoned because she has been in Faerieland and time played havoc with her return. She was still tired of her journey from Faerieland so the ogres got to do some damage to her when she appeared. The group doesn't really trust her, but they fight the ogres to get the 'donkey'. She's happy she got her servant back and tells the group about the abandoned farmhouse with the well.

At the well they manage to make the first head happy, and find the pouch of gold. The second head gets angry the first time and the paladin gets dirt in her eyes. The sorceress calms him down, and after a successful 2nd try (the paladin tried again) he becomes happy. The paladin gets her magic sword (i don't care too much about wealth levels, so the keen longsword was fine). The third head only gets satisfied, but the group leaves it at that.

The cross-over was done by entering the lake in Darkmoon Vale. It was autumn. They enter, and figure out they have to submerge themselves completely to be taken to Faerieland. Once in Faerieland they meet Brynn of Lig and give away all their rations and some regular meat they had hunted. They recall the head's story of the red-headed man. Brynn tells them where they are and the rules, and how to call him. The group goes on the path. I tempt them off the path, but they don't take the bait. Good for them!

Soon enough they reach the House of Bone. Again they recall what the 2nd head said and approach warily. They decide to knock and try for the 'stick'. The paladin knocks, while the dwarf ranger decides to 'flank' the door, to get the drop if things go bad, as it were. Well, beyond the door was off the path, so he vanishes. The group panics and call on Brynn, who brings back the dwarf safely. Breathing relief, they knock on the door. A voice tells them to open the door and come in. They open the door, but don't enter. I can't remember their excuses, but they were alright. So, the old man hobbles from around the kitchen and invites them in again. The sorceress had some red wine in her inventory (from the previous adventure) and offered it. The old man said it was the wrong red wine. The paladin clued in and offered an exchange. One bite on her wrist for the 'stick'. The paladin was trying to follow the rules of the land. It turns out later the group thought they HAD to get the 'stick'. Or else they would have avoided this  

Anyway, so the deal is struck and the old man hands the stick over. Then, for some reason, the paladin WALKS INTO THE HOUSE to offer her wrist. With a look of glee the old man slams the front door! There's some grappling as the old man starts gobbling blood from the struggling paladin. The dwarf breaks down the front door, only to have the freaky cat jump on his face, draining his body heat. The dwarf panics and fights off the cat. In his feverish retreat, he goes off the path again! The cat follows him! Meanwhile the cleric lets out burst of Channel Energy (Pathfinder rules) and the sorceress also goes in the house to help drag out the paladin. With some luck, the paladin escapes, but is in horrible shape. Running out the front door, the pair escapes as the old man can't leave the house. But I made it that he can target those who entered the house, so he fires off magic spells at the sorceress. Meanwhile the dwarf is still fighting the cursed cat! Luckily the cleric called for Brynn again who brought the dwarf back...with the cat. With the help of Channel Energy, the feline is finally destroyed. They escape, everyone except the cleric is in very bad shape. The 'stick' turns out to be a magical (unique) staff whose powers grow with the wielder. The sorceress now has a special Staff of Cold who manifests new powers as her own powers grow.

Next I had the group go to the Faerie court, as the group wanted to find our more about the Dark Fey, their weaknesses, and permission to hunt them. So, I made up a fun encounter attending the court and the group trying to follow the rituals and etiquette of faerie nobility. Their excuses for not eating and drinking the food from the feast were greatly entertaining. At one point the dwarf just chocked up and all he could say was that as a dwarf he only ate dirt and drank his own urine. So he had to 'perform' that for the court, at the request of a noble. They also danced (that almost proved deadly), had a food fight, avoided a duel, and made the Queen smile. The Queen apparently already knew the group and dropped hints they had met before. That puzzled the group. Once the feast was done they had an audience with the Queen, who talked about the Dark fey and how they no longer had any ties to her court. The group had permission to hunt them. They also found out some weaknesses. The group left to find their way home.

The found the gate (though they didn't know it was a gate) guarded by the Green Knight. I can't remember the exact offense, but one of the players had broken a rule of Faerieland. The Green Knight demanded payment. The paladin accepted the challenge and lopped his head off. He picked it up and promised he would return in a year and a day to fulfill the bargain. The paladin player was in a panic for the next few sessions about dying  

They crossed they gate and returned to the real world. Of course they didn't know that. The season is now summer. They meet the Faeire entourage with the Queen. She doesn't recognize them, and the group clues in, introducing themselves 'for the first time'. However, they didn't clue in that they were outside Faerieland yet. The cleric accepts the challenge of the duel, and pumps herself up with spells. They fight, and though Humm-a-buzz has an advantage, the cleric keeps managing to heal herself. The group tries to help with healing too (giving a clw potion), but are swarmed by the bees, and they back off. The cleric wins narrowly, with only 2 hp remaining. The Faeries applaud and the Queen announces "time tarries not". The group clues in about their location. 

So, they appeared in a different season from their departure, so they try to figure out where they are and WHEN they are. 

The adventure continues with another series of encounters made by me, then I mix with Paizo modules (Revenge of the Kobold King, Return of the Kobold King, Carnival of Tears [nice seque with these encounters])

So, all in all, we had a blast. The players said they were truly scared of disobeying the faerie rules and had a great time working within them. 

Thanks a bunch, Raven Crowking!


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## Raven Crowking (Dec 10, 2008)

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## Lord Zack (Dec 12, 2008)

What are you're opinions on the Feywild?

In the history of my world the Titans discovered the primordial Material Plane and shaped the worlds to suit they're needs. The Titans crafted or birthed many races, including the Oni, the Giants, Nymphs and certain Abominations. The Titans and some of they're creations became the first Gods. Some of these creatures like Nymphs are traditionally Fey. But in my campaign they are connected to the Gods. Could these creatures still be considered Faeries?


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## Raven Crowking (Dec 12, 2008)

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## MythMage (Dec 14, 2008)

That was my thought as well regarding 4e's fey.

Personally, what I initially define fey by is their link to nature. But then, there's always room for interesting interpretations of just what "nature" encompasses...

I can't believe I never saw this thread before. I intend to take a good hard look at it. In the meantime, let me just say I'm glad to see someone else around as interested in using fey as I am. I've been doing some serious work on a webbook for fey (link in my signature) and I hope you'll take a look at my stuff while I take a look at yours.


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## Raven Crowking (Jan 13, 2009)

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## Raven Crowking (Apr 7, 2009)

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## Raven Crowking (Apr 7, 2009)

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## Drowbane (Apr 11, 2009)

A fascinating thread Raven, I envy you your DMing talents.

I shall be making copious notes...


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 12, 2009)

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## Nonei (Feb 25, 2010)

Since I just found this thread, I am raising it from the dead  I found all of the comments very useful, and we just began our jaunt into the feywild/faerieland that it inspired (we play 3.5 but I am taking some cues from the description of feywild in 4e's Manual of the Planes). 

In our first session I mainly borrowed and stole from this thread actually (I wasn't completely ready; we played longer than I expected and got there quicker besides)

I posted an account of our adventure so far on a thread over on the D&D forums

EDIT: D&D forum post deleted, moved post here

One of the posts in this thread refers to a different thread that the entire adventure/storyline was written and so it would have more information... but I couldn't find it. It was apparently in Raven Crowking's sig at that time, but no more... Does anyone have that link?


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 25, 2010)

Please do not include my material on the WotC boards, as there was an implication that WotC gained rights to said material by your so posting it the last time I checked their Terms of Service.

Thank you.


RC


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## Nonei (Feb 25, 2010)

Sorry!!  You're absolutely right, of course.  I had not thought about their TOS lately - usually I post only comments rather than content.  I have deleted the content in the thread on WotC and reposted it here on EN World.


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 25, 2010)

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## Nonei (Feb 25, 2010)

I really appreciate it.  My two concerns right now about the faerie adventure is that my players are really really good at following directions, especially right now b/c they know the fairy tales about what happens if you don't.  Of course, all the fun lies in when they don't follow directions. Also, many of the fairy tales revolve around "do XYZ and then you get the reward" - i.e. follow somewhat nonsensical directions from someone you may or may not trust instead of figuring things out.

So a few things I have thought of:
Have a little "do XYZ", but occasionally throw in a twist - maybe they're asked to cut down a tree but it starts bleeding and begging them to stop, or the fey they helped is giving them directions to a treasure but it also will free the fey from a bond/allow the fey to do something evil

Have spirits (good or bad) try to tempt them off the path to get their assistance or just mess with them (I have a feeling they won't go of the path though)

I think I'll include a "you can open any of the doors besides the 12th one" type of situation... but if they get within, say, 50 feet of the 12th one the creature behind it that can convince them to open the door (i.e. require a will save or the temptation is too great).

A situation where they are informed a fey friend is in trouble - but not how or why - may also work i.e. "I will shoot an arrow into the tree, and if you check on it and see that there is blood coming from it, then I have died"

Any comments or other suggestions?


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## Raven Crowking (Feb 25, 2010)

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## Raven Crowking (Feb 28, 2010)

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## Nonei (Mar 1, 2010)

Raven Crowking said:


> Here are a few links that might have material you can use:
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/112911-lakelands-six-adventure.html
> 
> ...



Thanks!

I'm working my way through the threads.  I especially like the kids' adventure - looks like you put a lot of thought into it in terms of how it is structured as an introduction.


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## Lord Zack (Mar 20, 2010)

Recently I've been planning a new campaign, which, if everything goes according to plan should start next month. I've been giving some thought to how to implement faeries in my campaign and I have a few ideas that I want to see what you're opinion on is.

One thing is that I've been looking for an opportunity to use Rob Kuntz's Dungeon Sets that I purchased a while ago. I was recently looking them over and thought about the "dome" in which the first level is inside of. Fey are often associated with hills and mounds right? So I was thinking that this dungeon should be primarily inhabited by Fey. But I'm not sure exactly how populous the Fey should be. It doesn't seem that there should be hordes of Fey, however weak so close to the surface. Perhaps in the lower levels, where the connection to the shadowy realm where they come from (since these are evil fey) is stronger there might be large numbers but there should probably be only a few in the upper area.

I'm also considering having this dungeon be home to a cult devoted to the primordial, chthonic gods of the Elves. Would it be appropriate for these gods to be associated with the fey? I'm seeing it as being like the Tuatha Dé Danann being considered in later times to be Faeries.

I've also been considering how to stat Faeries in my campaign. Faeries are quite diverse. There are many stories about many kinds of Faeries. Yet there are some general kinds. So I'm thinking of coming up with some base stats for various types and then modifying them, applying templates for the desired result. Here's the kinds I've come up with:

Sidhe (may be under the banner of Elves)
Sprites (Two base stats, diminutive and tiny, or perhaps just tiny and then apply the "Young" simple template. May also include some small creatures like Gnomes, but I'm thinking the Fey Gnomes might be tiny, unlike they're mortal (and playable) descendants, and I'm also not sure that gnomes should be sprites, and perhaps they should have they're own category, along with similar creatures like Brownies, Lepreacauns, ect.)
Ogre/Troll (also Fomors, Oni, Ghuls, Rakshas, ect, I'm not sure whether these should all be big creatures, or there might be some room for smaller trolls, there might be some overlap with the Bogie category)
Nature Spirits (Nymphs, Fossergrims, ect. as well as some elemental creatures, in fact I'm considering using elementals as the baseline creature in this case, dwarves may be descended from Earth-based Nature Spirits)
Animalfolk (these won't have one set of base stats, but rather be modified versions of the animals in question, includes the Japanese Hengeyokai and maybe Lycanthropes)
Bogie (Small, ugly, evil fey, goblins (though that name may also apply to orcs, I'm considering having the mortal goblinoids descended from the fey), boggards, ect.)
Elves (Again there's mortal elves, the sylvan and high and also a fey version, which again may be associated with the Sidhe. There's also the Eladrin, not technically Fey but Celestials (then again there maybe some overlap), which I'm associating with the Light Elves of Norse Mythology. I'm considering having Drow be the same thing, fiendish elves)

Something I've noticed in my research on Fey is that because Fey can mean so many things and are theorized to have so many different origins (fallen angels, elements, the dead, old gods) Fey might not be such a useful term. Perhaps the word "Fairy" is just used by the common folk to describe many different and diseparate supernatural creatures. Sure there are the winged Sprites that fit the common image of Fairies, but beyond that there are many other things associated with them that might not actually be related. Maybe demons and elementals and gods associate with Faeries and so are often confused with them.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 20, 2010)

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## Lord Zack (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm using Pathfinder.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2010)

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## Lord Zack (Mar 24, 2010)

There have been at least two civilizations in the area the game will be set in. One is a very ancient civilization that attained much arcane and scientific knowledge, another is the Empire that the "Conqueror" created 500 years ago, but the current civilization is pretty much directly derived from that one. There also may have been some elvish civilization in the area.

As for theme, well as I said before I was considering associating them with the old gods of the Elves. These are chthonic gods associated with the earth. The domains associated with them are: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire, Healing, Madness, Rune, War.

Certainly some kind of association with the earth would be a possibility. I was also thinking of maybe having "the unknown" be a theme, since my campaign is about exploration. But the fey in general are associated with the unknown aren't they? The fey inhabiting the mound-dungeon will certainly not be friendly so perhaps an emotion  like "hatred", or "anger" could work.


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## Raven Crowking (Mar 24, 2010)

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## Lord Zack (Apr 2, 2010)

So how will you be handling Faeries in you're fantasy game?


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 5, 2010)

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## Ambrus (Oct 15, 2010)

_Thread of yore, rise from thy grave..._ 

I was a big fan of this thread years ago and, upon searching for it, discovered that you'd continued to update it periodically. Since I've just started a Pathfinder campaign which features a fair bit of fey involvement I figured I'd try to pick your brain in hopes of better incorporating the mythic feel colourfully describe herein.

Raven Crowking, might you be familiar with Paizo's Kingmaker adventure path? If not I could give you a spoiler rich summary if you've any interest in helping me and other DMs running it...


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## Raven Crowking (Oct 15, 2010)

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## Raven Crowking (Oct 20, 2010)

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## Ambrus (Nov 24, 2010)

Raven Crowking said:


> Give me the skinny.




Sorry for the delay in posting; real-life issues intruded.

*WARNING: KINGMAKER SPOILERS AHEAD!*

In brief, Kingmaker is a six module sandbox-style adventure path that revolves around the PCs' explorations of an untamed wilderness and their efforts to found a new kingdom therein. Although there are many many possible story threads to play-through, the main protagonist of the campaign is an evil nymph from the "First World" (i.e. Faerieland). Her backstory includes a liaison with one of that realm's primordial faerie lords; a relationship which granted her immense magical powers. Insane with power, she upset the other faerie-lords by proclaiming herself to be their equal. As punishment they banished her paramour to the plane of shadow, stripped the nymph of her ability to love (transforming it into a magical blade) which they then hid in the mortal world where she could not find it. Since then she's hatched a plan to retrieve the blade (which has been prophesied to be the instrument of her destruction) by enacting a ritual which will rip free the part of the mortal world in which the sword is hidden and draw it into the First World. This will allow her to regain her love while providing her with her own realm to rule over; which she hopes will propel her into the ranks of the godlike lords of faerie. At the climax of the campaign, the PCs are intended to find the blade and confront the nymph in her palace in the First World lest their fledgling kingdom be torn away from the mortal realm.

Before all of that however, the PCs are simple adventurers heading into the wilderness which, along with a variety of typical challenges is noteworthy for its "rumours of sinister fey". The adventure path indeed features a smattering of fey interactions; some related to the main story, others not. Most fey are in keeping with their writeups in the Bestiary which, although interesting, is largely devoid of the sort of depth and mystery that this excellent thread seeks to highlight. Here's a summary of the A.P.'s faerie encounters:


• One early encounter is with a grig and faerie dragon team who chooses to discreetly follow the PCs around, taking turns secretly pranking the party as a sort of competition (the exact pranks aren't described). If the PCs prove to be entertaining and good sports they can eventually try to win over the fey with gifts and diplomacy. If successfully befriended, the pair will reveal themselves and share what they know of the surrounding area with the PCs.

• An encounter with a slain unicorn; its horn having been taken by the evil nymph BBEG in preparation for an epic bit of magic she's planning.

• A meeting with a mated dryad and satyr who need the PCs' help to deal with a sort of evil treant which is threatening the forest and the dryad herself. They ask (and then attempt to magically compel if refused) the party into hunting down and defeating the treant.

• The party come upon a group of loggers and a nixie sorcerer who are currently at an impasse. Angry at the loggers for having cut down five trees near her pond, the nixie has charmed two of their number and is having them defend her grove against the remaining loggers. She refuses to let the loggers continue or leave until the cut trees are somehow replaced. The solution to this dilemma is to have the dryad from the previous encounter provide them with a handful of tree feather token to regrow the sylph's grove.

• The PCs stumble across the shack of an old fey-blooded crone witch. She can be won over with diplomacy and is willing to share what she knows of the area if befriended.

• An ancient elven fort in the wilderness has become the home of a mischievous quickling, a murderous grimstalker and their "queen"; a blood-drinking baobhan sith known as the Dancing Lady. The three work together to secure victims to sate their vile appetites.

• A neighbouring village has been emptied of its human residents by a an ancient cyclops lich who was recently awakened in its underground tomb by the townsfolk's trespasses. Using foul magics, he enchanted the townsfolk to pick up and follow him back to his lair where he has trapped the lot of them in soul gems to use as a source of information so as to learn about the modern era. Since the townsfolk's disappearance the town has been overrun by a clan of fey spriggans intent on looting whatever they can find.

• A run-in with a band of nasty pixie pranksters intent on impressing the nymph BBEG with their cruel antics.

• The discovery of a nereid trapped in a water clock by a half-mad cleric obsessed with her beauty who succeeded in stealing her shawl. The nereid was originally the guardian of an enchanted sword prophesied to slay the BBEG nymph.

I'm curious to pick your brain for your thoughts concerning the fey as presented and how you might tweak the campaign to give it more of a traditional faerie tale feeling. Your ideas would be well appreciated.


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 21, 2011)

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## Raven Crowking (Apr 21, 2011)

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## Ambrus (Apr 24, 2011)

Woo hoo, a response! I had long since given up on this thread. I'm certainly glad to read your suggestions. Thanks!



Raven Crowking said:


> While you probably long ago ran these encounters in some manner of your own choosing, here’s my take.  Perhaps if you run the adventures again, these ideas might be of some use.



These encounters are scattered over six modules so no, we certainly haven't played through all of it yet. The group role-plays a lot, so we progress at a rather leisurely pace. As is the party has only encountered the pranking grig and  faerie dragon. The grig started with a pyrotechnic smoke cloud which spilled out of their campfire when one PC tried to douse it in the morning. The faerie dragon tried to best his friend by using his open spell-like ability to unbuckle the PCs' horses' saddle belt; causing a few to roll off their mounts' back onto the ground. Unimpressed with these antics, the group correctly guessed that the fair folk were likely responsible and so left them a gift of food before leaving the forest in hopes of appeasing them.

The next time the group ran into the pair on their return trip to the forest, the fey used their magic to first make the PC on night watch fall asleep followed by an entanglement spell to cover all of the slumbering PCs with roots, grasses and vines. They had to pull themselves out of the overgrowth upon waking in the morning. Again the PCs left a gift of food behind but are growing resentful of these "good neighbors".

As written, the party is meant to appease and finally befriend the fey by offering them significant gifts or by succeeding on a DC 23 diplomacy check. As is, the party would be hard-pressed to succeed on such a check and I suspect they won't be inclined to keep trying if thing persist along these lines. Can you recommend a good way to build upon what's already occurred?

I like most of your suggestions a great deal except that, although your proposed scenario for the grig and faerie dragon sounds appropriately fable-like, it would seem rather lethal and malevolent for such lighthearted fey. I imagine the party would interpret it as an attack of sorts and respond in kind.







Raven Crowking said:


> Depending upon the party’s actions, some members see only the rotting carcass of a white horse, while others see the unicorn for what it is.



What sort of actions would affect who could see it? Are we talking about virginal female PCs only?

BTW, I particularly like your take on the nixie/logger confrontation. I can just imagine the PCs encountering some of the woodsmen's bloody remains in the forest, followed by their coming upon a pair of manic, paranoid, sleep deprived woodsman trying to outmaneuver each other as they endeavor to kill each other. I have to remember to foreshadow this by having the PCs encounter the happy-go-lucky team of loggers before they set out for their fateful encounter.


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 25, 2011)

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## Ambrus (Apr 28, 2011)

Thanks for the suggested outcome for the faerie dragon/grig encounter. I've read similar suggestions over on the Paizo boards. Having the pair help the PCs out during a tough encounter seems to be a preferred means to redeem the fey following their wanton pranking. Your suggestion that the PCs' enemies are targeted for being poor sports is an interesting take on the reasoning for it however.

While prepping for our next session I found yet another fey encounter which I'd originally missed in my initial summary. My group will likely be dealing with this encounter next session.

• A war in miniature is playing itself out in a lonely corner of the highlands. A tribe of mites who lair in a hollow hill beneath an old sycamore tree have run afoul of a tribe of kobolds who claim territory some four leagues further south. Hostilities have broken out with raids, counter-raids, ambushes, hostage-taking and wanton violence occurring throughout the disputed area. Although the PCs are free to involve themselves however they wish and possibly oppose both groups, it's hinted that it may be to their advantage to ally themselves with the kobolds against the mites.


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 28, 2011)

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## Ambrus (Apr 28, 2011)

Hm. You've given me food for thought. Another factor to the mite/kobold war I hadn't mentioned is that the kobolds's shaman is secretly out to destroy the kobolds seeing as how he isn't a kobold at all but rather a bitter gnome who died at the hands of kobolds and was subsequently reincarnated (via the spell) into a purple kobold. Shunned by his kinsmen, he took to infiltrating kobold tribes and engineering their destruction. This war is likely a result of his machinations.

Another important fact about the Golarion game-world—gnomes are kin to the fey; having migrated from Faerieland to the mortal world in ages past. I'd be happy to change the relevant story elements to make it more fable-like. The key figure seems to be the fey-gnome-turned-kobold. Perhaps he's some sort of changeling who's infiltrated the kobold tribe, or possibly some sort of fey-trickster (like Robyn Goodfellow) who happens to have it in for the mites because of some perceived slight he hopes to avenge...


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 28, 2011)

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## wcpfish (Apr 29, 2011)

How about one of the baddest fey of all time?  Baba Yaga is here for 4e D&D....check her out....Baba Yaga: Queen of the Wicked Fens - Escape Velocity Gaming | DriveThruRPG.com

Great thread by the way!

William C. Pfaff
President of Escape Velocity Gaming


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## Raven Crowking (Apr 29, 2011)

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## Ambrus (Apr 29, 2011)

Setting aside the background of the war for the moment, I'm presently more focused on the player's impending explorations of the mites' subterranean lair. There's a fair bit of lore surrounding the fair folk's halls within hollow hills (called _raths_)and the dangers involved in venturing inside.

The first such difficulty often involves finding the hidden entryway into the rath. The most common method often involves discreetly following a faerie as they go inside. Another means of gaining entry involve ritualistically circling nine times around the hill beneath which a rath is located beneath the light of a full moon.

Once inside a rath, visitors often stumble into a lavishly decorated hall filled with lords and ladies dressed in finery and dancing to lively music. The unsuspecting visitors are then entreated to join in the dancing or to feast upon the fine foods and wines of the fey; accepting any of which will doom the visitor to eternal enslavement beneath the earth.

However, although they are faeries, mites are more of the misshapen-and-grotesque-little-old-men type of fey than the resplendent faerie lords of the underworld such as the Irish sidhe; they simply don't have the magical oomph needed to pull off such elaborate tricks. Still, it would seem possible to retain some of the classic elements which mortal visitors must contend with when venturing inside a faerie rath. Having the mites playing lively folk music on makeshift instruments and inviting the party to dance in hopes of using their distraction to pick-pocketing some of the party's equipment and then surrounding the PCs for an ambush sounds sort of fable-like. Perhaps they could even use their paltry prestidigitation cantrips to disguise rotting or poisonous food as savoury confections with which to tempt the PCs could be another tactic.

Any suggestions are of course welcome.


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## kitcik (Apr 29, 2011)

Raven Crowking said:


> EDIT: Actually, let me open that offer up. Do you have a fey-related product you think does a great job of capturing the right "feel"? Email me a copy, and I'll be happy to tell everyone if I agree, and why. Any product, any publisher, any system. I'll be utterly honest in my review, and if my review is favourable you may absolutely quote it to advertise.




This is not a gaming related product, but rather a series of novels which I find excellent for fey-related gaming ideas. The Rhymer and the Raven by Jodie Forrest (and its two sequels).


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## Raven Crowking (May 5, 2011)

wcpfish said:


> How about one of the baddest fey of all time?  Baba Yaga is here for 4e D&D....check her out....Baba Yaga: Queen of the Wicked Fens - Escape Velocity Gaming | DriveThruRPG.com
> 
> Great thread by the way!
> 
> ...





Before I jump into this review, here are some disclaimers:

(1)  I am not a fan of 4e D&D.  Specifically, the emphasis on defining things by their combat prowess.  Of course, this was also a problem with 1e and 2e.  IMHO, 3e does the best job with non-combat creatures.  YMMV.

(2)  As a direct result, I am unlikely to notice any small error vis-a-vis the 4e rules.  So, I am not going to focus on the "crunch" side here.  

(3)  I greatly dislike giving any product a poor review.  I greatly enjoy, OTOH, telling people what I like.  Sharing good stuff is always more fun than stepping on someone else's efforts.

With those things in mind:

WHAT I LIKED:

* Lore.  There are some good bits of usable lore in the product, although they are not given a full treatment.  I was glad to see Baba Yaga's servants being fleshed out in the product.

* Skill Challenges.  The product includes two skill challenges that are appropriate for Baba Yaga.  One is getting info out of the old bony-shanks.  The other is brewing azure rose tea.  Both are appropriate for the folkloric Baba Yaga.

* Combat Powers.  Some of the combat powers are interesting.  I particularly liked the image of an angry Baba Yaga smashing foes with her pestle.  The three versions of Baba Yaga given all would make interesting combatants, IMHO, but I am not completely certain how they stack up against PCs.

WHAT I DISLIKED:

* Interior artwork.  If you liked the very early TSR and White Dwarf artwork, your mileage will vary.  The preview in the link allows you to see the artwork  if you want.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SEEN

*  More Skill Challenges.  Few creatures offer the wide potential for skill challenges that the folkloric Baba Yaga does.  I would like to see an "Escape the Bony-Shanks" skill challenge, for example, that allows the PCs to acquire various objects that, when thrown down, impede her progress.

* Iron Teeth and Skeletally Thin (or Bony Shanks) worked into her description or powers.  Baba Yaga is a cannibal spirit that represents (IMHO) Aging and Time.  Some of her combat powers reflect this, but not explicitly.

* Baba Yaga's Fence included in the pdf.  It is mentioned as a freebie on the web site, though, so anyone who is interested ought to check it out.

* Campaign Use:  A section about using Baba Yaga in actual campaign play.  How do you use the old witch, apart from fighting her or trying to get information out of her?  A section on this would be useful.

* Folklore of Baba Yaga:  A section about the folkloric Baba Yaga, as well as sources used.  

Overall, I would guess this pdf would be useful to 4e DMs, but only of moderate interest to others.  

YMMV.

EDIT:  Since EVG sent me a review copy, I feel duty bound to leave this review up, or it, too, would be removed.

RC


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## Raven Crowking (May 29, 2011)

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## Ambrus (May 30, 2011)

Raven Crowking said:


> Sorry I haven't gotten to the rest of the Kingmaker fey encounters yet.



Now worries. We're progressing slowly and I'll welcome your ideas whenever you have a chance to post them.


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