Feywild guards&Petulant Archfey princess - I'm in dire need of some chaos advice

[HoboKnight]

So, Feywild... is a chaotic world. I'm usually good with representing law, order, evil and good, but goofines(defnitely not harmless goofiness) of chaos eludes me. Thus, I'd appreciate some help with certain NPCs, my PCs have encountered, when entering a Feywild trade city.

1.)

Trade city formed as a fluke. At certain point, an archfey took residence there, creating a massive hedge labyrinth there. Archfey is a perfect example of petulant, pouty little princess - with a lot of power. Trought time, she realized, creatures will venerate her if she helps them making their deals magically binding. Fast forward a few hundred years and Princess is a ruler of this bustling trade hub. All she cares about is attention, entertainment(which she gets by gifts and adulation because enforcing binding magical contracts) and for her hedge mage to be kept in pristine condition.

So, my PCs have entered this place, swarming with eladrin, gnomes, satyrs, making deals, having a debaucherous good time, like in Feywild one should. During all this time, there are hedge guards present. One of the PCs got set up with a murder and guards have all arrested the party(and some bystandards). At this point, I relized I made a mistake. It was just too Lawful reaction. Guards should not be there as a police, but as something far more feywildish... silly/cruel/uncomprehensible. At this point party is arrested and PCs think they are going to some sort of a judge. They are not. Here is where I'm in dire need of your Mad Hatter/Chesiree cat madness. PCs are lead by guards to "someone in charge". What does that eve mean? How do I instill chaos in all this?
Also, someone was murdered and her sister thinks it was PC Dwarf who did it. Party cleric just wants to cast Zone of Truth and be done with it. But will Zone of Truth even work here? (it will mechanically, ofc). How do I approach this in as Feywildish way as possible?

2.)

One of the PCs just moved to Archfey's high court. Just. Like. That. A teleport appeared and guy just jumped in. From this point on it was carnal rollercoaster of all kinds non stop. Also drugs. Also... well, just about anything one can imagine in such a setting. Player is having a blast(we do fade to black for these things, but basics are described) and at this point, I'd like to introduce not-good side of archfey. She is all over her new squeaky toy. And she loves it! And in her zeal ... maybe, she would want to reshape the toy a bit in a way that it suits her more? Maybe she gives him unbreakable stamina(what are the consequences?). Or she really likes a new name for her pet? What would she name him (and erase his initial name)? I want the point when absurd amount of pleasure turn into something harmful, but not evil or dark per se. This is not a Dark lord after all, but Archfey Princess, a very powerful creature with almost no limits.

I place this in 5e section, because it's 5e setting.

thanks

[stoutstien]

Maybe watch the first few episodes of trek:NG? Sounds like you view the feywild to be pretty close the what Q does with the crew. More of a mockery of law, justice, order and good/evil rather than a flat out subversion of it.

If you don't mind some light reading the ink and sigil series does a pretty good take on the weird crossover point of the inherently chaotic nature of fey with the order and binding nature of their love of contracts.

[HoboKnight]

@stoutstien
I appreciate your suggestions and I'm sure, they are a good read/watch, it is just that I'm working A LOT at the moment and try at the same time to provide my group with a good, fleshed out entertainment. I know it may sound cheap to someone with more time, but... I really ask for "out of the box" ideas. Also, because, as said - I'm good with Good/Evil and Law, but silly part... I'm just so uninnovative with this. Some simple concepts would be great, I can do a lot with a good pitch. :)

[stoutstien]

Maybe don't think out of the box or silly but warped and distorted. The reason why it seems so disjointed is in the similarities not the differences. Zone of truth works but the truth isn't important. The judge is in charge but the judge is just whatever NPC is in the tallest chair or is holding the judge's gavel. It could be 100% summary by mob rule where the only thing I'm that matters is justification of the murder regardless if they committed it or not.

[Segev]

I will try to make a longer response later, but for the court trial's princess is all about entertainment and attention and feeling important, right?

Have it be a trial. Have it have all the pageantry and formal grandeur of the highest high courtly proceedings.

She doesn't really care about the truth, so much as she does the drama and being honored as the Royal Magisterial Eminence, Justice Herself, Princess of the Hedge Maze and Arbitrix of Truth-Through-Beauty.

The rules have the style of grand formal court, and everyone is a stickler for them. But they are capricious and made up as Princess goes along. Not entirely without pattern: it is all about making things LOOK precision-planned and perfectly grand.

Watch a TV court drama or two. She will orchestrate the trial to have that kind of pattern and dramatic tension. If either side seems to be winning too hard too fast, rules will suddenly be revealed to have always been the case that stymie them in a dramic fashion. Zone of Truth will not be allowed as "too unreliable," but really because it reveals the truth too early.

Ultimately, winning the case will be about providing the most dramatic satisfaction from the case being won.

Maybe she even allows the party to defend by dramatically revealing their own investigation, which they must do in a narrative y enticing fashion to keep her attention. Let the players literally play out the investigation by narrating what they did, then cut-sceneing to it in a flashback to play it out. The opposing council can object to things to introduce complications or to call out how the dice are not cooperating with the players' narrative.

Is it fey magic, or just a narrative device? It could be the former, especially if this device lets them retroactiVely have conducted the inspiration for real despite the arrest happening before they knew to conduct it.

[Keltest]

Another good lens to view this through might be the aspect of pride. The chaotic fey dont care about law and order as such, but their ability to impose it, or impose the appearance of it, is a matter of pride to whichever authority figures you have in the area. They dont actually care about the murder, they care about the fact that you are now breaking their sham appearance of law by being involved at all. Whether any given person actually murdered somebody is besides the fact, what the real problem is here, is that you got fingered for it. You're guests in this town, and you are so rude as to let somebody openly finger you for a disruption? That is an unacceptable insult.

For bonus points, have the accuser be on trial too, but separately. How dare they disrupt the market with this murder accusation!

[HoboKnight]

Some really good advice in several answers. I can stitch things good together with this.

Now about nr. 2... got any help along those lines? :D

[Keltest]

Some really good advice in several answers. I can stitch things good together with this.

Now about nr. 2... got any help along those lines? :D

What kind of Archfey is she? What's her shtick? Thats going to inform the kind of behavior she would want to see more of and what kind of changes she would consider.

[HoboKnight]

She is about attention, hedonism, being entertained and feel good. Her new pet (PC high elf) is super interesting, because he is goofy, but also has a strong taint of Material Plane. W Inter court/Summer Court/Established canon don't really play a role here. Let's say generic archfey that reflects Feywild + things I have mentioned before.

[Keltest]

She is about attention, hedonism, being entertained and feel good. Her new pet (PC high elf) is super interesting, because he is goofy, but also has a strong taint of Material Plane. W Inter court/Summer Court/Established canon don't really play a role here. Let's say generic archfey that reflects Feywild + things I have mentioned before.

In that case, I dont know if you have to have her change anything about him. The rock star lifestyle will catch up to him real quick all on its own. She's immortal (ish) and has supernatural resistance to the Bad Stuff, but the PC does not. Frankly, that lifestyle will kill him pretty quickly if he doesnt get out relatively soon. She isnt trying to hurt him, she just doesnt really get that this stuff will kill him at the rate she goes.

[stoutstien]

She is about attention, hedonism, being entertained and feel good. Her new pet (PC high elf) is super interesting, because he is goofy, but also has a strong taint of Material Plane. W Inter court/Summer Court/Established canon don't really play a role here. Let's say generic archfey that reflects Feywild + things I have mentioned before.

Sounds ripe for a fey bargain. The Archfey wants to keep their muse around until they get bored so what would they offer the PC to entice them to stay on their own "free" will? It needs to be something nonpermanent because nothing to them is.

[Skrum]

Seems like you've got a lot of good suggestions already and have decided on a few things, so I'll just add my 2 cents on what I do to play chaotic characters: I have them care about weird or seemingly random things (and not care about let's say objectively more important things). In the game I'm involved in right now, one of my characters is a fairy. He's very chaotic. Upon meeting a new character to the group, a goblin, my character immediately jumped off his chair and got right in this character's face, super aggressive-like. I then asked the player, OOC, how tall their goblin was....because it was very important to my character that "he was the short one in the group."

As a PC you need to be a little careful with this because you can derail the group in very annoying ways, but picking even 1-2 moments to care about totally random things can be super memorable and really define your character in people's minds. As a DM....well you're pretty free to do whatever lol.

In your situation with the elf in the archfey's court, maybe have the archfey "break" her own toy? Like maybe she realizes the partying is having a detrimental affect on him, so she casts a charm to make him resistant....but now he can't get inebriated by anything, and can't party.

[Segev]

Is the elf PC meant to use the "down side" as a reason to run away? Or does the player care?

I suppose I am trying to ask what necessity you are trying to facilitate with this revelation. Pure flavor of how daerous the fey are even when friendly? Or something met game needed to enable the PC to stay with the group? If the latter, what is the metagame problem you need this to solve?

[HoboKnight]

Is the elf PC meant to use the "down side" as a reason to run away? Or does the player care?

I suppose I am trying to ask what necessity you are trying to facilitate with this revelation. Pure flavor of how daerous the fey are even when friendly? Or something met game needed to enable the PC to stay with the group? If the latter, what is the metagame problem you need this to solve?

Archfey appeared, created a portal, sealed the deal between the PCs and a local fortune teller. Archfey found PC elf amusing and invited him into portal. Lol randumb PC as he is, bPC elf accepted. OOC player was super sleepy and loved the idea of being removed from the session for the time being.

With this I want to flesh out exactly, what you are saying: how dangerous the fey are even when friendly. I'd like for the fey to bestow some abilities/body/ability changes fey founds amusing/entertaining. How would fey improve her party pet to be ... better? More amusing?

[follacchioso]

You can have a better understanding of the Fey world by reading about the legends and traditions that inspired it.

Unfortunately, most of these legends really depicted people with mental illnesses and physical deformities. It is part of human history, but it is also very grim and insensitive; as a DM you have an opportunity to make your players learn about respect for the diverse.

For example, read about Changelings on Wikipedia and other sources. According to the legends, when a child started behaving in strange ways, people would say that the real child had been abducted and replaced with a changeling, for mischievous purposes. Sadly, what really happened was that the child had some sort of mental illness, such as autism, or other disease that were not understood at the time, so people invented stories to explain what was happening.

So, if you want to make the Fey world feel real to your players, you need to take that into account. It's a world of diverse people, excluded from society, who did not receive any help or treatment, and were not understood by their contemporaries; yet they have found a way to live together and coexist. Some of them will be lucid and approachable, while others will be aggressive or impredictable. Some will welcome strangers, and some will be wary of them.

It is a very hardcore setting for a DM; and ideally, you need to put something in the storyline that will make the players appreciate diversity, and respect for others. For example, your Fey Queen may have a sad backstory behind her, a chord that the players can strike to lead her to a moment of lucidity.

In your case, you are right that the whole plot of framing your PCs for murder could be too lawful for the Fey world, but it could still work. The creatures from the Fey world could react in the most disparate ways: some may be very upset about the violence, perhaps because they have suffered it, and they may ask for the PCs to be kicked away or put into prison. Others may be even interested in the matter, and they may ask the PCs how it feels to murder someone, and propose to them to kill them or to be killed by them just to go through the experience. Others may ask the PCs to sing a song in honour of the deceased. Others, may be completely neutral about it, or unaware of what happened.

For the second question, you really have lots of options there... have the player sing, jump, tell jokes, have tea, play games, otherwise the archfey will be upset and hurt them.

[KorvinStarmast]

So, Feywild... is a chaotic world. I'm usually good with representing law, order, evil and good, but goofines(defnitely not harmless goofiness) of chaos eludes me. Thus, I'd appreciate some help with certain NPCs, my PCs have encountered, when entering a Feywild trade city.

Have you read either Alice in Wonderland or Alice Through the Looking Glass? Both of those have twisted / warped / partly sensible activities that you might want to borrow from in terms of approach.

See also the Blue/Orange (Bacon/Necktie) morality / alignment axis for inspiration.
Ye who walk the Path of Bacon shall be with dinner blessed.
Yet ye who walk the Way of Necktie shall be for dinner dressed.

How to deal with the murder charge against the PC dwarf.

PCs are led by guards to "someone in charge".

Someone in charge is either
(1) someone who lends money or who is in debt (word play on charge/charge account)
(2) a mad night who rides around on a donkey tilting at windmills / trees / shrubbery (word play on charge / charging)
(3) a warlock or sorcerer who randomly sets off charges of either lightning bolt or shocking grasp (word play on electrical charge)

Or, to get a bit sillier...

(4) The Inch Arge is that person who is the custodian of the holy measuring stick made of pure silver (the inch argent, word play on "inch" and "argent" which is silver but its custodian has been abbreviated to "inch arge" by the locals).
That person uses the holy measuring stick (a yard stick) to measure the guilt or innocence of whomever is brought to them. Why 36 inches? Obviously, because everything happens in threes (yesterday, today, and tomorrow) and a dozen is the standard unit of doughnut purchase.

To make this a bit more chaotic, roll a 1d36 to determine guilt or innocence.

A d36 is where you roll a d6 and a d12;

• if the d6 reads 1 or 2, read 1-12 from d12;
• if d6 reads 3 or 4; add 12 to d12 result (13-24
• if d6 reads 5 or 6, add 24 to the d12 result (25-26).

How to parse the result:

1. If the result is a prime number, they are guilty.
2. If the result is divisible by 6 (since that's a standard unit of beer sales) they are let go with a warning and a fine (which needs to include them performing some silly or inane act to amuse the court).
3. Any other result is "Innocent, for today but I've got my eye on you!"

At which point the court clerk takes out a rubber stamp and stamps a Capital "I" on the back of the dwarf's hand.

[Segev]

Archfey appeared, created a portal, sealed the deal between the PCs and a local fortune teller. Archfey found PC elf amusing and invited him into portal. Lol randumb PC as he is, bPC elf accepted. OOC player was super sleepy and loved the idea of being removed from the session for the time being.

With this I want to flesh out exactly, what you are saying: how dangerous the fey are even when friendly. I'd like for the fey to bestow some abilities/body/ability changes fey founds amusing/entertaining. How would fey improve her party pet to be ... better? More amusing?

Okay. The first thing that comes to mind is, she wants her party pet available at her convenience. Fortunately, elves don't sleep; they just need reverie for 4 hours a night. Of course and unfortunately, 4 hours a night straight? That's still not convenient for the Princess, who doesn't like being kept waiting for her whims. If you're willing to hand out Invocations for semi-free, she could impose Aspect of the Moon on him if he complains that he needs the rest. Now he doesn't! The fact that he might need the benefits of a long rest for mechanical purposes other than fighting exhaustion will fall on deaf ears: he doesn't need rest now that she gave him the ability to stay up at all hours!

If/when they party leaves town to go adventuring, she also should keep trying to pull the elf away for whatever purpose she's come up with this time. If the player is up for it, you might go so far as to tell him that he's now playing a Changeling, not an elf. His character has been replaced. Other than race, the changeling has the same class and subclass and feats, stats, etc. (maybe stats modified for the difference in race, depending on whether you're using TCE's allegedly-optional rules). His job is to pretend to be the elf ex-PC, and keep the party from inconveniencing Princess, in particular by taking away from her time with her pet. Maybe this switch happens after a few times where she tries to interfere (or successfully interferes) with adventuring activities, and the elf PC explains to her why this is bad. The changeling is her solution for this.

[HoboKnight]

Okay. The first thing that comes to mind is, she wants her party pet available at her convenience. Fortunately, elves don't sleep; they just need reverie for 4 hours a night. Of course and unfortunately, 4 hours a night straight? That's still not convenient for the Princess, who doesn't like being kept waiting for her whims. If you're willing to hand out Invocations for semi-free, she could impose Aspect of the Moon on him if he complains that he needs the rest. Now he doesn't! The fact that he might need the benefits of a long rest for mechanical purposes other than fighting exhaustion will fall on deaf ears: he doesn't need rest now that she gave him the ability to stay up at all hours!

If/when they party leaves town to go adventuring, she also should keep trying to pull the elf away for whatever purpose she's come up with this time. If the player is up for it, you might go so far as to tell him that he's now playing a Changeling, not an elf. His character has been replaced. Other than race, the changeling has the same class and subclass and feats, stats, etc. (maybe stats modified for the difference in race, depending on whether you're using TCE's allegedly-optional rules). His job is to pretend to be the elf ex-PC, and keep the party from inconveniencing Princess, in particular by taking away from her time with her pet. Maybe this switch happens after a few times where she tries to interfere (or successfully interferes) with adventuring activities, and the elf PC explains to her why this is bad. The changeling is her solution for this.

OMG man, Changeling idea is AMAZING!

[NecessaryWeevil]

Trial by Ordeal. They must prove their innocence by solving the Hedge Maze.

[Pixel_Kitsune]

The important things in my experience are wierdness vs goofiness. And Consistency.

The Feywild HAS rules and structure, it's just alien to what we would normally expect.

WBtWL does a lot of this, there's a series of rules in effect in Prismeer that are 100% enforced at all times.
1: The Rule of Hospitality. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger enters your home, you are expected to be gracious and accommodating to them until such time as they prove, by their words or actions, undeserving of such hospitality.
2: The Rule of Ownership. You must not steal from a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. To take something that doesn’t belong to you without the rightful owner’s permission is a crime and an unforgivable breach of etiquette.
3: The Rule of Reciprocity. When a friend, an enemy, or a stranger offers you a gift, you are obliged to accept it and offer something of comparable value (be it a gift or a service) in return. Such reciprocation need not happen immediately.

Now on the surface that seems simple, be nice to people in your home, don't steal, don't take gifts without receiving them. But... These rules are absolute. You show up at the house of your archenemy who's sister you killed and they HAVE to be gracious and accommodating. In contrast to that, Reciprocity applies here too. These people took away the life of the villain's sister, so it's perfectly fair that said villain kills a sibling of one of the heroes, etc.

Another good research is the Aelfinn and Eelfin in Wheel of Time. They're a whole cluster of fey weirdness. One group will grant three boons, the other answer three questions, but unless you enter in very specific ways there's a NASTY set of costs. Also, their entire world is a maze that fails by our laws of physics but makes sense for theirs. (ie the geometry makes it possible that you could walk down a hallway into a room, turn and walk back out that door you just came in and end up somewhere else.)

Lastly, look for creative but not automatically bad interpretations of what happens.

To again use the Ael and Eel finn above. At one point a character enters their domain not understanding they grant boons and trying to demand answers. In a fit of anger the character says "If I had my way I'd be free of (wizard) meddling. I'd have these holes in my memory filled and I'd be AWAY from you people!"

The result was that they filled the holes in the character's memory with battles and tactics from a thousand years of wars, not with the memories he actually lost. They made him free of (Wizards) by giving him an anti magic amulet. And they put him back in his own world... hung from a tree and would have died if someone didn't arrive and save him.

And so he thought those were the three answers. But in reality it was two. He was hung from a polearm. He kept it and never thought about wondering why he had it, since he never asked for a weapon. 8 books later it turns out that weapon is able to make doorways out of the Finn's world. They never bothered to tell him that though.