You See a Dead Faerie

[Infiniti2000]

I had this thought pop in my head and I'm having trouble developing it further. The idea is that the party runs across a dead faerie, perhaps lying in the road or on the threshold to a particular establishment, or maybe floating in a fountain in the middle of town or on a noble's estate. The faerie is small, think Tinker Bell. My group in particular would find this quite interesting and would be extremely motivated to find out what happened. Can you help me flesh out some ideas behind it? Maybe her death isn't entirely an evil thing, too, maybe she did something bad?

 

[weem]

Hmmm... off the top of my head (have a little break here at work, hehe)...

1) I imagine them picking it up and holding it (inspecting it) and being seen with it (maybe by other Faeries) and then being held responsible for the death - "caught red-handed" etc. Maybe they are given X amount of time to prove they weren't responsible... hmmm...

2) Maybe as they look at it, investigate it, a faerie falls dead next to them... then another one in front of them... look up and it starts raining faeries (dead ones). They take cover somewhere as some threat enters the area from the sky. Some flying creature... maybe a flying creature with some kind of fire aura that hit a cloud of faeries. Something tough (maybe you make it with the monster builder) that they decide is best watched than fought. It eventually leaves. Maybe the follow it, investigate it via locals, maybe faeries approach them for help.

3) Maybe the faerie came there to die for some reason... maybe its a sacred place where they go to die when they had done something very wrong...



That's all I have for a brainstorm at the moment - maybe it will spark something

 

[kitsune9]

I had this thought pop in my head and I'm having trouble developing it further. The idea is that the party runs across a dead faerie, perhaps lying in the road or on the threshold to a particular establishment, or maybe floating in a fountain in the middle of town or on a noble's estate. The faerie is small, think Tinker Bell. My group in particular would find this quite interesting and would be extremely motivated to find out what happened. Can you help me flesh out some ideas behind it? Maybe her death isn't entirely an evil thing, too, maybe she did something bad?

When they touch the fairie, they get a terrible vision of its death that leads them to the first clue like an abandoned graveyard, an old forest, or a ruined estate.

The PC's take the fairie, have a funeral, say some kind words, and their act of kindness calls attention to the Seelie Court who asks the PC's to look into the matter of a threat they are facing in the Fey World. The death of a fairie was just a ruse to find noble heroes for something else.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I like weem's #3, possibly combined with kitsune9's. The faerie commited some act of unspeakable evil, which is almost unheard of for such Good faerie folk. To make amends she must perform some form of ritualistic suicide at the Holy Font of ___. Maybe the last time such an event occurred, the Holy Font was alone in the desert and it just so happens that the real history of this town is that it sprung up around this font. The evil act caused the font to stop giving water (the people didn't realize it was magical). The death of the faerie therefore was supposed to restore the magic but she was missing something or, better, was interrupted or sabotaged. The party gets a vision of this upon touching the faerie, her last magical gift (so not a divine vision, which I don't particularly like), and must avenge her death and complete the ritual for her.

 

[Gilladian]

A variation on some of the earlier comments;

The faerie had performed some evil act, or had allowed some evil to occur which she could have stopped. She set out to redeem her act/failure, but before she could fulfill her quest, she was attacked and slain by minions of the one who was behind her act/failure.

When the PCs find her, they see her death in detail through her eyes. She doesn't give them any info, though, so all they're left with is clues in the vision (ie race, uniform, words spoken, etc...). And a sense of deep despair, sadness, and final moment of hope. They can either take on the mission on their own, or other faeries can come to them and beg them to continue her task; "she gave her death vision to you - you are her chosen heroes".

The BBEG could be an unseelie, and the danger might be to the fey world only, or it could bleed over into the material world and cause great harm there as well.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Nice! One question: unseelie?

 

[weem]

From wikipedia...

In mythology and folklore, fairies are classified in a variety of ways.

Two of the most prominent categories, derived from Scottish folklore, are the division into the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court. William Butler Yeats, in Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, further divided them into the Trooping Fairies and the Solitary Fairies.

These categories are generally applied to any fairy-type creature, from elves, pixies and brownies to ogres and giants.

The Seelie Court is seen as more beneficent toward humans. Seelie means "Blessed" or "Holy" and is akin to German selig and Old English "sælig" - the predecessor of the modern word, "silly" (happy, harmless, beneficial). They are known to seek help from humans, to warn those who had accidentally offended them, and to return human kindness with favors of their own. Still, a fairy belonging to this court will avenge insults and could be prone to mischief.[1] The most common time of day to see them is twilight.[2] One of the most common type of Seelie Faries are Hobgoblins. Shakespeare's character Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most famous Hobgoblins. While, as part of the Seelie Court, they are most well known by their love of pranks and practical jokes played upon humans. However, they never take the joke too far and can be very kind and generous.[3] Some of the other most common faries of the Seelie Court are the Hobgoblin's Cousin, the Brownie, Ferrishyn, Selkies, and Leprachauns.

The Unseelie (Unholy or Unblessed) Court consists of the malicious and evilly-inclined fairies. Unlike the Seelie Court, no offense is necessary to bring down their assaults.[4] As a group (or "host"), they appear at night and assault travelers, often carrying them through the air, beating them, and forcing them to commit such acts as shooting elfshot at cattle.[5] .[6] Like the faries of the Seelie Court, neither are the faries of the Unseelie court always evil. However, when forced to choose, they will always prefer to harm—rather than help—humans. Some of the most common characters in the Unseelie Court are Bogies, Bogles, Boggars, Abbylubbers and Buttery spirits. [7]

In the French fairy tales of précieuses, fairies are likewise divided into good and evil, but the effect is clearly literary.[8] Many of these literary fairies seem preoccupied with the character of the humans they encounter.[9]

 

[Sigurd]

Perhaps the faerie body is a remainder from a spell where he\she was sacrificed. The spellcaster was too arrogant or careless to collect the body. It might be tainted by the type of magic in the ritual.


S

 

[Wycen]

Fairy wings are spell components, aren't they? I vaguely recall plucking fairie wings was something useful/fun/something to do.

 

[Umadin]

The Faerie was one of many who fled its homeland as it was overrun and ravished by some un-natural threat. It was not the only one who traveled a long way to seek the assistance of a powerful druidic establishment. And perhaps she was not the only faerie to die along her journey and was hunted down before it could reach help.