Need help plotting revenge on my players

[Glass Mouse]

Hi there

I'm GM'ing an Ars Magica campaign (basic idea: the characters are mages in medieval Europe, and mythology runs wild), and my players just cheesed off a whole forest of fairies.
The only fairies I've actually statted out are some kinda homebrewed woodsprites - not very powerful, but pretty annoying. The players encountered three, stole their magic flowers, took one captive and burned one to death. Naturally, the fairies are not gonna like this.

The problem is, I'm not entirely sure how to do this. I'd like them to suffer the natural consequences for their actions, but I'd still like them to come out alive.
Basically, I'm in need of story ideas. If you were a forest full of fairies (or just the fairie king/queen), how would you exact vengeance?

I think right now I'm leaning towards curbstombing (but not killing) the players, then have the fairies give them an ultimatum. But I'm out of ideas on both the fight and the ultimatum.

The players' ressources:
- four mages; two specialised in mind manipulation, one thunder and lightning guy, and one animal-based mage.
- a few fighters (but wounds are really nasty in Ars Magica).
- their home; a mansion just outside the fairies' forest, with assorted servants, cattle, land, etc.

Thanks a lot in advance for any ideas

[WarKitty]

How are they at dealing with enchantments? Two things spring to mind right away:

(1) Shapechanging. The faeries curse them to turn into various animals.

(2) Enchantments. Your classic love or hate spell. Make them randomly fall in love with the bad guys.

There's also all the various mischief a bunch of small invisible critters can do. Spellbooks go missing. Cattle wander off and are never found. Servants report strange noises and events and eventually quit.

[oxybe]

cause great havoc.

don't go cutesy. go old-school: from stealing babes from their cribs, luring small children away with false promises, leading men to their swampy deaths in the middle of a fog, etc...

have the fae do generally nasty things to the people of the city and have it blamed on those wizards on the hill. even better: have the faeries be honest in that the humans killed some of their kin, so they are repaying the humans by taking some of theirs

disney made the fae cute. the original fae were badass.

effectively: think of the most horrible prank you could pull on someone. now crank it up to 11 where it could scar him for life.

you have your faerie's prank.

[OracleofWuffing]

The forest trees start pulling apart and uprooting (hah-hah!) the mansion, grabbing onto anybody that was still in there and holding them tightly ~50ft above ground level. Additionally, if the players sleep, next time they sleep, they get turned into bugs and are tortured by the fairies for a day.

[Jornophelanthas]

Faeries are notorious for a whole lot of mischief, including but not limited to:
- kidnapping newborn children and leaving their own spawn in the crib;
- causing people to go missing, only to return years (or decades) later, with no memory of the time in between. And not aged a single day;
- spooking cattle, making eggs disappear and causing milk to curdle;
- stealing or displacing small but valuable (and often shiny) items;
- making people fall asleep, unable to wake up;
- cause someone to be only able to speak in rhyme, or to always add the same (often inappropriate) words at the end of every sentence. (e.g. "After them! I'm a meanie. They're over there! I'm a meanie.")
- cause multiple people to share the same vivid nightmare;
- people who encounter faeries are struck by blackouts and memory loss and are unable to remember the events, even if prompted by others who were present and do remember. Sometimes this forgetfulness happens mid-sentence.

As for an ultimatum, you could have the players perform a geas or quest, or have them tithe according to an ancient druidic pact.

A geas could consist of demanding retribution from the humans, such as "three lives for three lives", requiring the players to sacrifice three human lives, or to turn over the next three children born to humans in the area to the faeries, and letting the players deal with all the consequences of that.

A quest could consist of defeating a dangerous threat to the faeries (such as a monster in a cave or a troll under a bridge), or preferably three ("Three lives for three lives" again.)

A tithe could require the players to donate a specific item of value to the faeries. This could be a single gold coin of a very specific type that has not been made for centuries, or the horn of a mythical creature, or something else that is very hard to find. If you're really mean, require the players to tithe such an item every year (or every seven years) for the rest of their lives, and passing this duty on to their descendants.

For inspiration and atmosphere, you can look into the RPG Changeling: the Dreaming (old World of Darkness).

[Glass Mouse]

Thanks a lot, guys! It's actually a great idea, throwing evil pranks at them rather than an all-out battle. Much more fairie-ish. And the players are probably not gonna be happy about it

I should take a look at the old "cool curses" threads for inspiration. Lasting consequences could be niiice.

Oh, and I'm still open to ideas! There are already a few here that I might use, but more is always nice

[Teln]

...I will not molest the faeries...

That clause is there for a reason, people!

[DeltaEmil]

However, depending on the power of the player characters and their behavior, don't exagerate it, or soon, forests will burn with all the magical critters inside it, and then it degenerates into a gm versus players-situation, which almost always sucks.

[kyoryu]

Have them lead the players into the realms of the Fae.

You know, where the Fae rule supreme, and the very world is an illusion created by them.

Read the Dresden Files for ideas of how to be really, really nasty.

[Flickerdart]

When they sleep, replace their articles of clothing with stuff that will randomly dissolve at the most inopportune times.

[Glass Mouse]

That clause is there for a reason, people!

Haha. My players seem to think the Code is just a collection of moral suggestions. Always looking for ways to bend or break it. One of them is long-term planning an all-out war against the Christian church.
Yeah, I don't expect any of them to ever make a single age roll.

I toyed with the idea of having the fairies go to the Order and have the players executed, but nah... Fairies are more fun (and... in a strange way... probably more reasonable).

[FelixG]

An eye for an eye is a good one.

When they return home they find 1/3 of their family/friends burnt and hanging from the front of the house

All of their stuff has been ransacked and traps with curses left in their stead

the rest of the people are missing but alive.

The fae left a note saying that if the players agree to release their prisoner and never return to their forest they will release the remaining 2/3 of the prisoners they hold, otherwise they suffer the same fate of the first third if not worse!

[Nero24200]

I'd be willing to the surgest the standard "steal babies from the crib" idea...with the amendment that you then frame the party for it. Why have the fey kill the mages when they can get torch-weilding mobs to do it instead? Better yet, use these tricks on other mages so that they can't as easily just cast spells and escape.

[Myth]

Four wizards: steal their spellbooks. And their spare spellbooks.
Fighters: Curse their weapons with Backbiter.

Go to this page. Apply liberal use of these items. Have a high level sneaksy-sneak or magically buffed Fey put these on the party.

Take their magic loot the hard way. Have the party goaded in to attacking the Fairy Queen, only to get themselves under attack by metamagicked Disjunctions. Bye bye shiny swords.

Also, if they are high enough level don't be afraid to kill them of, death is nothing in DnD. But.. If you would soulsteal them...

[Malbordeus]

have the faeries invade the PC's mansion whilst the PC's are out and nick everything and make all the plants grow. thye return home to an empty abandoned overgrown mansion...

[Glass Mouse]

@FelixG: Hmm. The only characters who have visible family are very new and technically not involved. The others are just powerhungry, evil munchers.
But I might take your advice and simply kill off a bunch of their servants or something.

@Nero: That is an AWESOME idea! There's a village just nearby, and a character actually lives there. If I'm smart, I can make him have him be one of the torch bearers!

@Myth: It's Ars Magica, not D&D, so death is pretty permanent. But cursing their stuff is a nice idea. Thanks for the link :-)

@Malbordeus: Nice. That'd really piss them off. They actually made it back home before the fairies received news of their assault, so it's not really possible (unless they're stupid enough to leave the safety of their home). But I might simly overgrow their mansion anyway. "You wake up. There's a tree in your bedroom. What do you do?"

[Tyrrell]

Are you using the RoP: Faerie rules or going just from the core book? (I've got to know my options)

Faeries are about people have the faeries manipulate the heck out of the coven-folk and then watch the ensuing chaos from the outside as you have some of the companions trying to screw over the covenant instead of the relatively fragile low-might faeries.

Faeries can offer a chest of gold and a night with a nymph to a cook for those few little flowers that the magi have honestly wrongfully stolen.

The holy knight who stays at the covenant will certainly be moved by the story of the poor nun (disguised faerie) who was (fill in appropriately vile act here) by (fill in blatantly gifted magus here).

[Tyrrell]

Reading further I've got to ask if they have an Aegis of the Hearth spell up. If not then things are different again.

[Tyrrell]

Going from Nero's idea and adapting a story hook from lords of men:

The Faeries attack a different more powerful covenant (they're faeries dying is just part of their story) and leave lots of clues that the PC covenant was clearly molesting the Fae and therefore committing a marchable high crime.

[Kirgoth]

Up the challenge rating of the forest.

Have the fey and many of the animals in the forest and a few of the neighbours and servants go feral. Apply the feral template. Drop in a liberal supply of were-creatures as well and the odd awakened evil tree creature. Make the forest go dark and become very scary for the pc's.

Have the staff and villagers nearby become fearful and/or leave spreading stories of the dark wizards and their evil spells.

Now the players live by a really dark nasty place which will suit them much better.

Player death by feral chicken ftw

[Glass Mouse]

@Tyrell: We go by the core rules and, honestly, we stick a bit loosely to the rules.
They don't have Aegis of the Heart up. Honestly, I'm not even sure I know the spell.
Haha, I like the idea of the poor, poor nun. Turning the convenant's own inhabitants against them - I like it! I'm a bit more hesitant about the "start a wizard's march" idea. As already stated, I'd like them to come out alive

@Kirgoth: Nice. The fairie queen is a true protector type (I've given her a story and such), and it'd suit her to turn the forest into a living booby trap. If the stories start spreading, the place may even gain a slight infernal influence. Mwahaha.

[Shademan]

and if they try to solve it by killing ALL the fae in the woods... have Auberon come and whoop their asses

[Doomboy911]

Sovereign glue their hands together.