Fey Encounters

[feng shui]

Fey has always seemed to be an underutilized component in games. I've been playing for quite a few years now and can't recall them ever coming up in a campaign. What experiences do you have with fey in your games? Whether it's a single encounter or a major part of a campaign what are your favorite uses of fey?

[AlanBruce]

As a DM, I just finished a huge arc with fey as being plot centric.

I had the party travel for almost a month in an ancient Fey forest strongly connected to the Summer and Winter Courts. That meant that both faction representatives lived there- with the Summer Court having predominance. The Summer Courts were represented by two elder dryads- both having some bard levels (to be able to tell the ancient fey lore) and then druid and wu jen levels, depending on their coven.

The Winter Court had a sole representative- a noble glaistig mindbender/sorcerer who was somewhat of a bogeyman in the woods and had become a recluse in her own lake, deep in the woods.

As far as the fey went, they were sometimes played as reclusive, trickster like, helpful, or, depending where the party was, downright aggressive.

The most common encounters the group had with fey (since animals and monstrous vermin also lived in this forest), were joystealers (I had a huge background foreshadowing story about why they were that way in my campaign), Redcaps, Forest trolls and the regular trolls (all with class levels and, although not "fey" according to the MM, they are part of faerie lore elsewhere).

Petals played a big part as well- as allies, except for one rebel Petal who is, so far, still at large and causing mayhem in the woods with her gang of goblins and giants.

Enchanted garden with flowers tended by the fey that give off status effects if the unwary PC wanders too close.

Swamps with mad druids and a few bog imps.

I threw all that at the party (not all at once, of course) with the woods being under salt mummy attacks. So the pcs had to deal with the undead threat and also deal with the mad fey that had taken the opportunity to cause mayhem of their own.

[JW86]

In our epic game, the other planes are being destroyed by an elder evil.

Our Elf Druid happened to know the fey, and sent messages welcoming them all to our world to take refuge.

Due to his thoughtless roleplaying, there are now literally hundreds of millions of fey on the material plane, covering half the continent in forest.

As an Orc, I disapprove..:smallfurious:

[feng shui]

As a DM, I just finished a huge arc with fey as being plot centric.

Thanks for the reply. Can you expand on the Petals that you used in the game? I'm unfamiliar with them either as a creature or in common fey folklore.

[AlanBruce]

The Petals are found in MM3. In my game, they held the Petal Court, one of many Summer Court factions in the Fey Woods.

Like the Petals in the MM, they were friendly to travelers, granting them rest, be it through magic sleep or by having the party wake up and find garlands of flowers on their heads.

Mechanically, most petals were as described in the book. The few important petal npcs had levels in bard, sorcerer, or druid.

[Broken Crown]

In the campaign I ran in university, there was a large, dark, magical forest close to the area I had intended for the early adventures to take place. The place had a bad reputation: Most people who went in never came back, or came back "changed". It was home to "faeries, and even worse things." I had intended it as a setting for higher-level adventures once the PCs had leveled up a bit.

Naturally, the PCs couldn't stay away from the place. (I probably made it sound too interesting.) Every time, they would end up misled, captured, cursed, poisoned, polymorphed, and/or robbed blind. Nevertheless, they kept going back.

I presume they were having fun with the fey encounters; I know I was. It did mean most of my plans for the campaign got sidelined, sometimes permanently.

[Pokonic]

I think the Fey work best in lower powered settings, because a lot of the mystique they have is lost if every other city has a mid-level spellcaster who can talk to them amicably over tea, or have heros regularly deal with them.

That said, remember that they would do everything the can to screw with the players before fighting them. Have the party wake up to a non-essential metal item rusted to uselessness, or there treasure from the last random encounter replaced with a small pile of rocks. Or teeth. Baby teeth, some with the gums still attached.

[Kol Korran]

In an older Pirate campaign I ran some time ago, I had a very special garden planned, an old refuge of the fey, now inhabited by some of their creations, and the mischevious shape shifting gardener. The "please help me design this" thread is here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14903485#post14903485)

[Azoth]

One campaign the DM had us running a mission and long story short, we had to make a "Deal with the Devil" with a Verdant Prince for our Monastery's sake. Several Nymphs had managed to captivate the party and entice us into obvious quick kill scenarios. The one person who made the deal was very much so willing to comply. One to get aid for our Monastery and Two to save our lives.

I have used them in a currently running campaign alongside elves and humans. The area was a forested mountain full of Dire/Monstruous versions of animals, mainly hunter/gatherer tribes of humans/elves/fey/and half breed galore. The PCs were trecking to get to a spire that sat at the mountain's peak. It was a bridge between the higher and lower planes.

I kinda feel for them thinking back now. That entire arc was primitive traps, constant guerilla warfare, being chased by giant blood thirsty animals, and then they ran into the fey. It started with a seemingly friendly Satyr luring them to a pond with some water nymphs. When the party closed in, attracted by the sound, the satyr and nymphs vanished. Enter 3 pissed off Dryads coming from the tree...they nearly died.

I used various fey as nature's guardians. If the PCs went through the forest peacefully, the fey left them be. Throw around some Alchemist's Fire or enter a sacred place univited and you got visited by some angry people dropping SoS and BFC on you as an opener from the surprise round.

Took a while, but the party did make peaceful contact with the fey and managed to bargain (at their loss) for safe passage and protection from the waring tribes of the mountain to the spire. They learned respect for nature and not to underestimate beings based on size or appearance. The Druid also got several earfulls from the fey in regards to traveling with those who would disrespect so much and in such brazen ways.

All in all, the entire group enjoyed the arc, but there was much cursing and dice/book dodging to be had during those sessions.

[some guy]

I've ran an adventure in which a village was terrorised every seven years by a bloodlusty redcap who murdered 7 victims every time. Redcaps are fun.

I've also ran one campaign in which a fairy disguised himself as fire giant to lead an army of goblins, hobgoblins and gnolls against civilization.

Edit: and when travelling near or in forests at night one of my random encounters is a satyr, but my players are smart enough to not investigate music at night.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by AlanBruce
I had the party travel for almost a month in an ancient Fey forest strongly connected to the Summer and Winter Courts.

This sounds like a really cool story arc, especially with the competing Faerie Courts. Were there any particular sources you relied on to build your faerie mythology?

Also, I'd love to know more about your backstory for the joystealers. For some reason I find them some of the most unnerving of all the fey in 3.5.


Originally Posted by Broken Crown
Naturally, the PCs couldn't stay away from the place. (I probably made it sound too interesting.)

Yeah, kind of the way Harry, Ron and Hermione pretty much lived in the Forbidden Forest. :smalltongue:

.

[Afgncaap5]

There was a fey a DM of mine built for an Eberron campaign. It was a psychic creature that was kidnapping people from a tiny town. We trailed it to the clearing of forest that it had established as its home, and discovered that all the people had been turned into trees that resembled terrified people. Each one had a hollow where its chest would be, and in that hollow a fruit was hanging where its heart was.

During the fight, the fey's psychic powers messed with us as it leapt like some kind of frog-instect person from place to place. When we finally hurt it significantly, it was able to whip its tongue at one of the tree-people, where it ripped out the fruit in its chest and quickly consumed it, causing the transformed person to die and it to regain its lost hitpoints. So, keeping him away from those people became a big priority...

Most fey encounters I've had aren't that memorable because a lot of DMs don't really know how to use them. Having said that, I always remember that one fondly.

[AlanBruce]

This sounds like a really cool story arc, especially with the competing Faerie Courts. Were there any particular sources you relied on to build your faerie mythology?

Thank you! I based the fey mythos mainly on Northern european lore, but I also referred to the d&d cosmology so that seasoned players could relate.

What it acme down to basically was that these Woods had once been jurisdiction of an Unseelie Court fey- a Frostwind Virago and her Winter Court, appointed by the Queen of Air & Darkness. During a tremendous battle called the Eternal winter, the Virago was defeated (but not slain) and the Verenestrian pact was signed, stating that the woods would belong to the Summer Court and preserve balance, but for that to happen, one Unseelie royal had to remain- the glaistig, who is the Virago's sister.

As a fail safe, the Summer Court appointed a magical creature- a fey stag, to roam free through the woods. Should the stag ever be slain, the pact breaks, and the Winter Court would be allowed back in- it's more of a subplot to the main campaign, but it did cause much tension to the party when the paladin was tricked into hunting the stag to near death.


Also, I'd love to know more about your backstory for the joystealers. For some reason I find them some of the most unnerving of all the fey in 3.5.

The joystealer in my campaign were a third faction of fey who sided with neither Summer nor Winter during the Virago's reign.

Attempting to hide and recluse themselves, a sinister force took notice of their potential and took their entire Court away, twisting it and turning them into what they are now, according to the MMIV.

[tadkins]

Had an idea for a villain; a fey-blooded gnome sorceress who specializes in illusion and enchantment spells. She'd be very whimsical but cruel, with most encounters involving fighting her mind-controlled minions. She'd also make very liberal use of teleportation and flight spells to harry the party.

As the story progresses the party would find her lair in the middle of some dark, twisted woods somewhere, and it would be revealed that she is a vassal to the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Would probably be a lot of fun to play as, from a DM perspective.