Fey Tricks

[DireSickFish]

Going to run my players through a Feytouched area of the woods. Going to use constant fog, Will-o'-Wisps leading them from a distance all over the place. Possibly popping in to deliver a few hits and run away. The moon/sun always on there right, even when they turn around. Any ideas for tricks the Fey would pull on humans?

If they split up at any point in time I was thinking of having them run into each other again but with illusions (int saving throw allowed to see through it) on them so that the other group looks like an enemy making threatening gestures.

I think this is an opportunity to have some rather unique encounters but am struggling to come up with specific ones to have happen.

Thanks Much.

[Yagyujubei]

Accepting anything from a fey would count as taking a gift from them, and in turn would put you in their debt which is something you never want to happen.

as such, an encounter with seemingly innocuous food or drink that would be very, very bad to eat seems like something that might happen in the feywild.

A sphynx-like riddle game situation also seems like something that would happen there as well.

[micahwc]

Will o wisp leads adventuers through fog into a seemingly inescapable trap and then someone comes by and offers to help them out. Person offering aid is actually who trapped them but now the PCs owe him a solid.

[randomodo]

- Mess with time. It's traditional in these sorts of stories that time passes within fairyland at a different rate than outside of it. Your characters could return have been within for only a bare instant, or could return a year after they entered, or could return before they even enter the fey area in the first place.

- Give characters a reason to follow a will-o'the wisp. Sure, PCs might want to go towards light in hopes that it's a settlement, but if their first look at something glowing in the distance is treasure, they may be more likely to follow the second glowy thing they see.

- Fey with cantrip access can cause all manner of problems with Mage Hand. Entangled shoelaces (if your footwear has laces), wineskins the are opened and squeezed out, loose items pulled off belts, weapons removed from sheathes and dropped, etc

- Pixies with "confuse" can be entertaining, especially in the midst of a battle with something else

- A powerful fey creature offers power or information or a blessing. In exchange for...?

- Paizo's Kingmaker adventure path has a bunch of ideas for faerie tricks in The Stolen Lands.

Here's a thread that could be useful
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2kma8?Ooh-Those-Wascawwy-Fey-Prank-Suggestions#1
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pvu7?Fey-Tricks

[Stan]

In my readings of fairies, they vary tremendously. They're rarely evil (though things like redcaps and kelpies are, or at least predatory) but often capricious. For example, in one story, as part of a bet to settle who would be the next fairy queen/king, one of the fairies abducted an infant princess. A year later, she made it up to the princess' mother by giving her 9 babies, which were similar to the lost princess. These were actually the princess split into components of her personality which helped the fairy win the bet. But the fairy wasn't worried about the impact of having one's baby stolen. Instead of fairies being out to get humans, it's more like humans are often just things that happen to get in they way of the unfathomable things the fairies are doing; it's like Lovecraft but with more flowers.

The relative importance of things are whack and the ground rules should never be explained. For example, by showing up at a certain place and time, the characters have become part of a contest, the winner gets to kiss the king's cow, the loser is thrown into the darkness. Or you could put the characters in a Paris-like judgment, where they have to rule which fairy wins a contest, without knowing the ins and outs of it. Bribes and threats will be attempted, friends and enemies will be made.

[ambartanen]

Some suggestions:

* A fey confronts the party, demanding the return of a key they have stolen. Later they get to a door they need to go through and realize they need to go steal the key from the fey they encountered earlier.
* The party encounters a mirror image of itself with just a few small elements that are off. The "impostors" accuse the PCs of having stolen their identity. From there you can go into parallel dimensions or just a fey entertaining itself with illusions.
* The party encounters a giant gnome that's been lost in there for ages. The gnome thinks they are fairies and demands to be shown the way out. By giant gnome I mean it must be at least large, maybe huge.
* The party runs into a talking tree asking for help- apparently it has lost its dryad and needs someone with legs to go search for her. Some investigation reveals there never was any dryad but if confronted about it, the tree accuses them of killing the dryad and attacks (turns out it could walk all along).

[pwykersotz]

FYI, Will-O'-Wisps are undead.

[DireSickFish]

- Give characters a reason to follow a will-o'the wisp. Sure, PCs might want to go towards light in hopes that it's a settlement, but if their first look at something glowing in the distance is treasure, they may be more likely to follow the second glowy thing they see.


Great Point. I'll have them first show up over an island in the middle of a still pond. When they look over to the area I'll have them notice a half buried treasure chest. Put some coinage in there as loot.

Could go a variety of ways from there. Have there reflections making funny faces at them, jeering, and eventually getting angry. On the way back with the coins there reflections try and drown them.


I also liked the idea of tiny versions of themselves showing up and demanding they do something for them. Then later have them run into gigantic versions of themselves and have a reason to make the same demand of themselves and see how they approach it.

[EvilAnagram]

Have a fey, in the guise of a beggar, challenge the party to a contest, with the prize being an enormous jewel.

Perhaps it's a race, and he doesn't tell them it's to outrun the Wild Hunt. Or it's a contest of rhyming, but it takes place in a forest full of strangling vines. Perhaps it's a simple game of 20 questions, but the lower forfeits his greatest treasure.

[Steel Mirror]

I love fey tricks! Let's see if I can come up with any interesting ones.

-While the PCs make camp, a faerie slips a poison oak log into their pile of firewood. Allow a survival check from whoever is tending the fire. If they fail and burn the log, everyone in the area has to make a constitution save vs poison or suffer 1d4 poison damage, plus they do not regain hit dice from the night's rest due to discomfort and trouble breathing. Once the log is discovered, or people start coughing and itching from the smoke, a chorus of tiny laughs break out from the woods all around.

-A faerie casts a minor curse on one of the characters- any time anyone says his name, his pants fall down. It doesn't matter how many precautions he takes: belts will unbuckle, ropes will untie, buttons will pop off, and those pants will fall down. For the rest of the session, enforce this both in and out of game- any time someone says the player's name (e.g. "Eric, did you want a coke or a diet?"), the PC's pants fall down, potentially posing problems if they are in a vital situation.

-A fey trickster curses one PC to smell like rotten eggs. Really, really rotten eggs. The stench is so incredibly disgusting that they, and anyone standing within 10 feet of them, suffers disadvantage to all dexterity checks (recall that initiative is a dexterity check). The affected PC can get rid of this curse, by touching another person. Unfortunately, doing so also transfers the curse to that person, who can then transfer it to someone else by touching them, including back to the originally affected person. If your group is anything like mine, watch the world's smelliest game of tag quickly develop.

-The faeries make one PC (all of them?) invisible and mute, in a combat situation where the group is fighting a group of faeries that can make themselves invisible. Watch out for friendly fire!

-Order word reverse in sentence every say to cursed is PCs the of one.One of the PCs is cursed to say every sentence in reverse word order.

-One of the PCs gets separated from the group, by scouting ahead, seeking cover, getting lost in a fog, etc. One of the fair folk takes the opportunity to polymorph a pig into a perfect physical copy of the party member (without equipment of course), so that when the rest of the party "finds" their lost companion, he appears to have been enchanted by the fey, his equipment stolen, and his memory temporarily blank (and a bizarre new tendency to root around in the leaves for acorns). Of course, you'd have taken the player in question aside beforehand and told him what was going on, but asked him to RP as the polymorphed version of their character for a while. Hilarity ensues as a pig-in-adventurer's-clothing (or no clothing, if the rest of the party is super stingy) adventures beside the rest of the group for a while. Then, see how the party reacts when the real PC finally shows up again, roleplayed by the GM, and wondering what the hell that imposter is doing among their ranks...

-The group comes across a family of beavers arguing with a family of martens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marten). Somehow the party can understand the animals perfectly, as though they were speaking Common, and vice versa, and the animals act as if this is totally normal. There are some other forest animals and pixie types watching the altercation from the bushes and trees, occasionally cheering or booing as one side or the other makes their cases. Seems that the beavers cut down one of the trees in which the martens make their homes, and now the martens want compensation. If the PCs intervene to negotiate, they can settle things peacefully with some good RP or some Persuasion/Intimidation rolls, and everyone in the party gets 1 inspiration. If they ignore the altercation or, gods preserve, resort to violence, the animals leave but the journey through the forest becomes even more surreal and full of mischief.

-The party comes across a forest brook that is somehow flowing uphill. The brook talks to them, and claims that it is in trouble and needs their help. If they agree to help it, they follow the stream uphill towards an idyllic spring being guarded by a pair of ogres (or other level appropriate brutish nasties). The voice claims that they are polluting and destroying its waters, and asks the PCs to defeat them and remove the stone that they have lodged in the spring. If the PCs agree, they fight the ogres. The spring repays them by allowing them to drink from its waters, which act as a healing potion so long as it is drunk directly from the pool of water-no taking away leftovers to drink later on! There is also a stone lodged in the spring's source, just as the voice said, about the size of a dwarf and covered in ancient druidic symbols and carvings. If the PCs remove it, there is a flash of light and the sound of triumphant mocking laughter, the voice disappears, and the river starts flowing downhill as normal. What might the PCs have unwittingly unleashed?

-The PCs come across a circular clearing with a single stone standing in the center. The clearing is surrounded by 12 massive, gnarly trees spaced equidistantly along the perimeter. Each tree is so twisted that you can sort of see a face in their bark, if you squint your eyes or look at them from the right angle. Every tree also has a huge beard made of moss adorning its almost-face. The trees won't do anything, and the clearing is silent, making a good meeting place for any plot-relevant events to happen for your adventures. After the PCs leave, if any PC tried to disturb one of the trees, or the standing stone, or initiated any sort of violence while in the clearing, he or she will grow a magnificently handsome green moss beard, which will regrow for 2d6 days any time it is shaved off.

-The PCs come across a part of the forest where every leaf and flower petal is made of glass. Even the butterflies are made of glass, and no other animals are to be seen. After wandering around for a while, they come across a beautiful fey that looks like a male elf, who asks if they like his handiwork. If they insult his art, or if he gets bored of their presence and decides he would like to see them bleed, he attacks, along with a swarm of butterflies with razorglass wings so sharp that you don't realize you've been cut until you see the blood pooling at your feet.

-The party is lured by the will'o'wisps to a burnt out clearing full of smoldering ashes. Suddenly, tree stumps begin to blaze with flame and smoke starts to billow down from the sky, as the clearing fills with fires burning in reverse, turning charcoal into burnt branches and then into whole tree limbs. The will'o'wisps attack the PCs in the confusion, trying to jostle and confuse them into bumping into fires (which still hurt, even if they burn in reverse). By the end of the confrontation, the PCs are standing in a seemingly normal forest grove, no sign of fire and no evidence that it is anything out of the ordinary.

Heh, hopefully something there was in the vein of what you were looking for. Sorry if I got carried away. I did say that I liked fey tricks! :smallbiggrin:

[hawklost]

I would take all the none deadly effects from the Wild mage and use them periodically on the PCs. If the PCs get violent, then start rolling up the whole table randomly instead of ignoring the deadly effects.

Wild Magic works great for Pixie Fun I think.

[Shining Wrath]

There's fey and then there's fey. Seelie and Unseelie, and also power gradients from Brownies peeking out from under leaves to Those With Whom It Is Best Not To Mess. It appears you're looking for ways for the (un)Fair Folk to mess with the party's minds rather than defeat them outright.

If the party tries to mark their trail, the marks disappear as soon as they are not observing that point. Similar marks appear to lead them astray.

Fast little buggers run up and grab things set down, even for a moment. They can't make super good time with a greatsword, but a wizard's wand is quite manageable.

Faces. Faces in the mists; faces in the trees. Different expressions, coming and going, fading and appearing.

Not-right animals. Not in the aberrant sense, in the sit and watch you without blinking sense. Occasionally one speaks, but not in a tongue anyone understands (it's actually gibberish, but do the PC's know that?).

Bushes that get up and walk away, but only at the corner of your eye.

[DireSickFish]

There's fey and then there's fey. Seelie and Unseelie, and also power gradients from Brownies peeking out from under leaves to Those With Whom It Is Best Not To Mess. It appears you're looking for ways for the (un)Fair Folk to mess with the party's minds rather than defeat them outright.


Yeah the Fey are going to be a complication not the whole encounter. The party will be chasing a werewolf or two and end up in the Fey part of the forest chasing them. It'll be a good chance to wear them down and mess with them a bit before they either run into the Druids for help or fight and kill the Werewolves.

[Logosloki]

The tale of two feys:
A fey in the guise of a girl entreats the party to rescue her kitty from the tree. The cat is actually another fey who attempts to bite the first person to try to rescue it (a smart player might use prestidigitation to move the cat, that is fine too). As a "reward" for rescuing the cat the players are given the option to receive the fey-girl's lucky coin which is actually a cursed item that allows the DM to once per long rest to re-roll a successful roll that person makes. The player can't be rid of the coin save for passing the coin onto someone else or by a remove curse spell. If they remove the curse though the fey takes offence to the person not liking the "reward" and will harry them especially for the duration of the adventure (have some fun).

If you have a druid in the party who owes a fey a favour the fey might ask for them to wildshape into a particular form, which they will supply if they don't know it - they are stuck like that until the end of the next combat encounter.

Some fey show themselves and make like they are frightened of a spring of water, pretending to go close to it and then run quickly. If the players believe it is safe and take a drink they lose their ability to speak all languages apart from one you roll for them (make a table of the languages in order and roll it).

Some fey follow anyone wearing metal and drop garlands of flowers on their heads.

If someone is not wearing gloves a fey rubs a poisonous leaf onto the hilt of their weapon.

If anyone shouts some fey pretend to be the echo but change some of the words on each "echo"

Reverse the loudness of the party (shouts become whispers, people moving quietly clang loudy, etc)

A fey transforms themselves into the image of a party member and tells the person at the rear that they are stopping. Or just stands and walks behind someone until they are noticed.

Jump scare.

The party meets some fey on the road eating a fresh kill. The fey offer them to join in. It counts as owing.

Any Evil party member has a halo bestowed on them.

Nothing fits back into a scabbard unless it it twirled around twice.

Petals fall during a short rest which transforms into snow when they touch the ground.

The sun is shining but the entire party gets wet as if it were raining.

The fey attempt to break into the tent of anyone who has a spellbook. They write in a spell in the book and take 2gp off that person, or if they can't find 2gp then an item at random (any sort of item, quill, belt buckle, one earring of a pair, etc). To cast the spell the player needs to know Sylvan but must always add "for the queen".

The air smells of bacon and campfire but when the pass by the smell changed to Rafflesia.

If an Archfey warlock is in the party then their patron grants them the noble background (themed for fey) as a boon for the duration of the adventure. They gain a fey as an attendant for the journey. They must perform various tasks along the way as directed by their patron. If they complete their tasks they gain the noble background for the purposes of dealing with fey. They can only speak Sylvan and write in the Elvish script.

[INDYSTAR188]

Awesomesauce

MOAR! This is great!

[Bohandas]

I believe counterfeiting money is traditional

[Naanomi]

Lie to the players. Have the fey maze-master explain that attempts to cheat by climbing over walls will result in dire consequences, but then make it so the only way to solve the maze is to cheat in that way or so on.

[DireSickFish]

Guys, this is thread necromancy. The original thread is over 2 years old. This game is long past played and buried.

[Laserlight]

Lie to the players. Have the fey maze-master explain that attempts to cheat by climbing over walls will result in dire consequences, but then make it so the only way to solve the maze is to cheat in that way or so on.

There are some traditions that the Fey don't lie. You have to pay careful attention to exactly what they say vs what they omit or imply, but if they say it, it's true.

In some cases, agreeing to the thing can make it true. There's a nice bit in The Last Guardian of Everness where the good guy needs a particular leaf--ash tree, let's say-- to break an enchantment binding his relative. But there aren't any ash trees around, so Good Guy hold up an elm leaf and says "Do you agree that this is an ash leaf?" Enchanted relative is a city guy and say "I dunno." Good guy says "You do not deny it, therefore, let the power of this ash leaf break your bonds!"

[Bohandas]

There are some traditions that the Fey don't lie. You have to pay careful attention to exactly what they say vs what they omit or imply, but if they say it, it's true.

In some cases, agreeing to the thing can make it true. There's a nice bit in The Last Guardian of Everness where the good guy needs a particular leaf--ash tree, let's say-- to break an enchantment binding his relative. But there aren't any ash trees around, so Good Guy hold up an elm leaf and says "Do you agree that this is an ash leaf?" Enchanted relative is a city guy and say "I dunno." Good guy says "You do not deny it, therefore, let the power of this ash leaf break your bonds!"

I think that particular example is of a kind more likely to be solved by clever wordplay (ie. burn the elm leaf)

[Naanomi]

There are some traditions that the Fey don't lie. You have to pay careful attention to exactly what they say vs what they omit or imply, but if they say it, it's true.
True, but there are also a fair number of faerie stories where the moral is more like 'think outside the box' or 'don't believe everything you are told' and the like