Faerie Adventure

[Nonei]

Hello folks,

Ever since I read about the Feywild it intrigued me. I decided to incorporate a jaunt into a fey plane of my own creation in the current campaign... We started last week. I have looked through a lot of boards and have found only a little on the fey or the Feywild, so I will post the adventure here as it happens, for those that are interested.

Note that this was moved over from the plots and places board. Also, I did try and explain storyline as needed, as this is only a portion of a larger campaign, but please ask if I mention something you are wondering about. Comments, suggestions, and feedback are always welcome.

We play D&D 3.5e, with very few houserules.
[sblock=House Rules]Dying: RAW to -9; at -10, instead of dying, the PC is 'mortally wounded' - continues to bleed (if applicable), loses 100xp/level, but can be healed/stabilized normally although they will be unconscious for 5 minutes.

Weapons: we use the weapon group rules from Unearthed Arcana, although we added slings to basic weapons.

Bleeding: If you go below 0 by bludgeoning weapons you are not bleeding. Not quite sure where that came from, but we've played that way since I started and everyone was surprised when we realized it wasn't RAW LOL.

Hmm... I feel like I'm forgetting something but that's all I remember right now.[/sblock]

Idea Sources
I read the fey entries in the MM and also the section on the Feywild from the 4e manual of planes and have drawn inspiration from them. I am mainly, however, drawing my ideas from the old fairy tales of sinister beauty and tricky fey, such as those found in Andrew Lang’s colored fairy books. I also have borrowed and stolen from Raven Crowking's faerie thread and I am reading the Complete Guide to Fey (SRD-compatible), which is very interesting - I haven’t used much of it yet but I plan to. I intend to keep the PCs on their toes.

[sblock=PCs]There are currently three PCs, although the third one missed Session 1 and the session just before it. Levels listed are their levels when they entered Faerie.

8th level Drow Paladin of Heironeous with a homebrew version of the Celestial Bloodline (ECL 11), fights with a large sized holy longsword, sheltered/naive in many ways (the character not the player)

10th level Hadozee (intelligent ape-like sailor from Stormwrack) druid with a homebrew version of the Blue Dragon Bloodline(ECL 11) and a huge-sized crocodile companion, prefers to fight with spells/bow and generally uses his wildshape only out of combat

10th level elan psionic warrior/psion (not sure how much of each TBH), with a homebrew version of the Blue Dragon Bloodline(so ECL 11); mainly uses psionic powers that boost damage/attack and dualwields bastard swords.

Note that all of the players are male, and all of the characters are female. So if I get a bit mixed up in the he/she thing, please understand LOL.[/sblock]

Index of posts:
Creature/setting Information
Background Story and pre-Faerie: Background, Storyteller, and The Hag
Session 1: Entering Faere and The Well
Session 2a: The Owl, Stone House, and The Bridge
Session 2b: Rose Dragon
Session 2c: Birch Trees, a Nighttime Visit, and The Queen
Session 3: Finding the Stone - and a Piece of History
Session 4a: Sunshine and Travel, The Clearing, The Rose Dragon's Cave
Session 4b: The Battle with Rose, The Seventh Door
Session 4c: The Way Home, Epilogue

 

[Nonei]

Creature and Setting information by session

Pre-Faerie and Session 1:
[Sblock=The hag, twilight, and the well]The hag was just a standard MM Annis Hag, and she drew the flock of birds simply through imitating their call - I figured they were used to her calling them and having something for them to eat. I used the locust swarm statistics.

Although in Faerie it remained twilight, note that I did allow them to regain spells every 24 hours (or so).

The well was basically straight out of Raven Crowking's thread here[/Sblock]
Session 2:
[sblock=The owl and the stone house]The creatures poking at the owl were members of the "horde" - members of an evil court from the Complete Guide to Fey. I don't want to post their stats as it is not open source - but basically there are several different courts, a few good, a few evil, and some neutral, and fey gain a few abilities related to the court they belong to. Their lands reflect their outlook - hence why the lands the PCs are in this session are twisted and dark.
The owl itself represents a common theme in many fairy tales - the talking animal, who, upon having their life saved, offers a feather or a bit of fur to use to call upon it for assistance in the future.

The stone house is from Raven Crowking's thread as well, here. For stats, I planned on using leopard stats for the cat (with an extra bit of bonus to attack/damage to increase the CR from 2), and for old man Ishm I would have used the half-fiend cleric example in the MM (although with different fluff - he is evil fey spellcaster, and no wings), both with the fey template from Complete Guide to Fey. A little easy on the CR, but I ran out of prep time or I would have leveled the old man a bit more.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Rose Dragon]If it had come to blows, the rose dragon was equivalent to an adult black dragon, although with a different breath weapon (I hadn't decided what) and instead of water breathing and foul water, he could flesh to stone 1x/wk.

The Faerie game they play is mentioned as fluff in the Complete Guide to Fey, and intrigued me so much I decided to include it. The players seemed to really enjoy it.[/sblock]

[sblock=Birch Trees, a Nighttime Visit, and The Queen] The birch trees are based on another common theme in fairy tales, the lovers that are turned into trees after they die so they can spend eternity together. In this case, I had a jealous witch turning them that way while still alive. This would be a good way to have a spirit guarding a treasure buried under a tree too.

The 'tap three times with something magical' is pretty common in fairy tales as well. I created the part about requiring something of the person that cast it to undo the spell; however, the idea of something of the person remaining in a special item is consistent with fairy tales, as well as a special requirement to undo a curse of this sort.

I also pulled the "bragging evil guy is overheard" from many fairy tales. Think of Rumplestiltskin: the only way she knew his name was that he was singing and dancing around a fire that she'd never learn his name was Rumpelstiltskin. When I have a chance, I'll try to post the exact stories I pulled ideas from.

I didn't really flesh out the queen as much as I wanted to. As far as the King making the destiny: a 20th level Twilight fey in the Complete Guide to Fey has the ability to declare a destiny. The number of people it effects dictates how long it takes to come to pass (in this case, it only affected the actions of 3 people - the party - so it 'only' took 1000 years)[/sblock]

Session 3:
[sblock=Finding the Stone - and a Piece of History] The Turyny were simply re-flavored ogres. The 'test' was taken from a bazillion fairy tale stories - the answer is always the simplest box LOL.

As for the 'crux' that O'Lae suffered, that is straight from the Complete Guide to Fey and is kind of an interesting way to look at things. [/sblock]

Session 4:
[sblock=Sunshine and Travel, The Clearing]I had intended to let them find out in a smoother manner the previous session about the sunshine coming back but I kind of made a few mistakes in Session 3 from not feeling well. The clearing was based on the stories of faeries causing people to start dancing, and served to make a lighthearted distraction. I decided that it would cause them to want to dance (rather than be completely compelled despite not wanting to) simply to keep it lighthearted.[/sblock]
[sblock=The Rose Dragon's Cave, The Battle With Rose]I did end up using the stats for an adult black dragon, but with a breath weapon that was made of tiny abrasive thorns (a la the Sandstorm dragon which breathes out a blast of sand)[/sblock]
[sblock=The Seventh Door]The 'Seventh Door' concept is quite common in faerie tales, "don't do that or else". The full saying that I stole from is the "ancient Chinese curse" of "May you live in interesting times and may you find what you are looking for." (I have seen it represented as an "ancient Chinese curse" several places, but I have no idea if it actually is.)

I didn't stat out the little man, but if it had come to blows, I would probably have used a reflavored gnome that was easily defeated (mostly has spell-like tricks, not much for melee). I didn't use an actual spell to compel them to open the door (I suppose it is similar to 'suggestion'); I knew that they would not open the door otherwise.

If they had made their saves, I wouldn't have 'forced' them to open the door (in fact, I set the saves so they'd make it over half the time so it was likely that none of them would fall for it). It was an attempt to rationally re-create the impulse that is described in fairy tales in terms of "Well, I know I really shouldn't but I just have to see what's inside..." and it seemed to work OK.[/sblock]
[sblock="The Way Home, Epilogue"]Evol's background had been determined pre-game (being a drow paladin b/c of being rescued by a paladin of heironeous and raised by his parents). I had not decided what 'evil' would befall them when they let the little man out, although I had thought of several options.

When Evol said 'we just want to go home' that was exactly what I was hoping for (in terms of being something specific that could be intentionally twisted). She had established that she didn't know exactly where she grew up (other than in this general direction) b/c she was so young when taken - so I simply decided it happened to be inside the volcano that they were heading for, and that the evil fey had enough power to 'redirect' the teleportation. This fit nicely in the story, in more ways than I can explain concisely here.[/sblock]

 

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Pertinent Background Information

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

Up to this point they’ve been gradually helping Bahamut and Heironeous in a struggle to keep Tiamat banished to a pocket plane of the abyss. This has so far included a few dragon fights of increasing difficulty at each stage, along with many half dragons and dragonblood creatures.

They acquired a map from one of the half-dragons, and came into this forest looking for ruins that were marked ‘power’ on it. They’re hoping to find a power stone (such as they’ve encountered before) to help them.

The Storyteller
The session before they enter Faerie (although they didn't know it), they came into a walled town near the edge of the forest. The water from the spring had dried up recently, along with the game, and most of the half beast-looking villagers thought it was caused by faeriefolk and were now afraid to go in the woods. They found out that the villagers were tasked to guard these power stones, but had failed at the task and several generations had been trapped in this area because of that.

They paid a visit to an old storyteller, who regaled them with stories of faeries, and the "rules" of fairylands based on the stories she knew.

She told of a fey that became insulted by a town and so drank all the water from the spring that led into the town until she was placated. There were also stories of fey that preferred the taste of mortal’s blood (animal or person) and a three little pigs style story except the wolf was an old hag that could control the wind.

She also warned them of the rules of faerie folk, namely an insult is always repaid as an insult and a favor the same. Stay on the path. And don’t eat faerie food – a mortal who does will find the taste of mortal food becomes like cardboard and will crave only faerie fruits. However, it has no sustenance and so people have been known to starve to death this way.

(If it comes up, I will likely use the rules in this post of the abovementioned thread, with a will save to be able to stomach mortal food each day until the addiction is overcome.)

The Hag
As they entered the forest heading toward the spring, they came upon an old human woman who approached them, limping and bleeding, carrying saddlebags full of turnips, asking for help for her donkey who she said was taken by green-scaled creatures.

The druid wanted to help, especially after talking to the donkey who was panicking and out of sight behind a rise, even though he was very suspicious of her. But, between her showing as evil to the paladin and the storyteller’s warning to stay on the path, they decided not to help and the paladin actually insulted her several times.

[sblock=Fastforward]
After going through several battles with dragonblood creatures (MMIV), they eventually arrived at the spring which used to run to the town, and found that it was being diverted toward the main encampment for the dragon and his helpers. They (correctly) deduced the lack of game in the forest was due to the hunger of the dragonbloods and the dragon, rather than fey, and filled in the canal to re-divert the water back to the town. [/sblock]

At the spring they defeat the hag along with a swarm of magpies that she calls down. The hag had been waiting to ambush them in return for the insults to her and their refusal to help her donkey. As they pull the turnips out of her saddlebags, they find out they are not actually turnips – they are the heads of pixies that have been magically preserved. As soon as they are pulled out of the bag, the illusion is gone and the heads quickly age and turn to dust.

[sblock=Fastforward again]
They defeat the encampment that had diverted the water and travel to the ruins, where they find the green dragon that was in charge along with a ring of tall stones and a stone 10x10 building in the center with a small door on the east side and a slit on the west side. The druid gets lucky, and the dragon fails his save vs. baleful polymorph and turns into a nice chicken (ok, raven) dinner for the crocodile.

They talk with their mentor, a gold dragon herald of Bahamut, who arrives shortly to talk with them as he has each time they‘ve defeated a dragon. He tells them that the portal to the Feywild will open only for those who can fulfill the prophecy, and if they are able to open it they need to follow the path to the well and there they will receive further instructions.[/sblock]

As the sun is setting, the light comes through the window and falls on a small stone pedestal set into the center of the building inside.

[sblock=The prophecy]The prophecy that they have encountered states in part:
The last rays of sun
Fall on Tiamat
Scarred by a child
Old secrets help new storms

They also find the same prophecy written in ancient language carved onto the pillars, although that reads ‘Secrets kept safe by the faeries” in place of “old secrets”. [/sblock]

After trying a few things, they remember that they have a holy symbol of Tiamat that was gouged by a child half black dragon earlier as her way of showing she would help them.

As they lay the holy symbol on the pedestal, energy ripples out to the stones outside. Their surroundings don’t change, except that all but one path closes up with growth.

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

 

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Session 1

Entering Faerieland

They travel up the remaining path, feeling like they are being watched. They keep catching small movements out of the corner of their eyes. Gradually the trees become more and more twisted and gnarled, and then are only black husks sticking up from the ground as though a fire came through the forest.

They do notice that it has remained twilight for the past several hours.

Eventually they come across a pretty little cottage, bound by a picket fence, with a lush lawn and garden… and a well beside the house. After a brief discussion as to whether going to the house counted as leaving the path, they approach. The gate swings open for them and they see that the well is capped by a stone top, with a well made intricate comb laid on top.

The Well
They struggle a bit with pushing the top off and find clean, clear water underneath. As they gaze down into it, they see movement and a bodyless head rises to the surface. Its hair is matted and its skin is calcified and grotesque. It says
Wash me, Comb me, Pleat my golden hair.
Lay me gently on the green bank to dry.

They successfully combed the hair of that head, and then the two that followed, with no failures (darn it) and in return each gave them a clue before bouncing back into the well.
The first directed them to look under a squeaky floorboard in the house, where they found a bag of gold and a long thin sword that looked to be made of obsidian.

The second head directed them to speak to the old man in the house of stone, but do not enter no matter how he pleads, as he enjoys the good red wine, but ask him to come to the door and do not leave until you convince him to give the stick he keeps behind the door.

The third I kept the same as the one in Raven Crowking's thread at the time, but ended up changing it to "If you help the creatures, they will help you in return."

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

 

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Session 2

Here is a partial update from our second session - I will add more as I can.

As the party leaves the cottage with the well, a surge of wild magic suddenly causes the third party member, previously 2 inches tall, to grow back to full size.
[sblock=Explanation]That’s how we handle when someone misses a few sessions: a surge of wild magic causes them to shrink to 2 inches and enter a state of suspended animation, although they are aware of everything around them – that way we don’t have to remember who knows what or risk a PC getting killed when the player is gone – and then when the player returns, a surge of wild magic causes the character to grow big again. Don’t remember where we got that from, but it works well.[/sblock]

The Owl
The characters – Evol (drow paladin), Anett (hadozee druid) and Menolly (Elan Psi warrior/psion) travel along the path for a little ways, feeling like they are being watched still. Before long, they hear an owl calling out in pain. On the other side of a grove of twisted trees, a few little folk are dancing around, poking at the owl with sticks.

A spirited debate about leaving the path follows, but in the end they cautiously approach. The little people are fat and skinny, big noses or tiny noses – almost grotesquely disproportioned. They flee as the party approaches, and the owl speaks to the party in common, asking for help. The druid touches the owl with a cure light wounds, and in return the owl pluck his own tail feather and hands it to him, saying: “Because you saved me, I will help you - I know many things about this land. Twirl this between your fingers if you need help, and I will come. I can help you three times.”

So, the owl flies off, and they make their way back to the path… which, to their dismay, is a little farther away than where they left it.

The Stone House
Soon they come to the house made of stone, with a large cat lounging on its doorstep. The cat watches them approach, flicking its tail. They knock on the door, and an old man’s voice entreats them to enter, but they remember the head’s warning about not entering the house. Instead, the druid cautiously opens the door (without entering) and they see the old man sitting on a chair.

He invites them in again for supper, and then pleads them to come in, as his bones and joints are hurting him too much to stand. But they do not, and eventually he approaches them at the door. He offers to trade the stick, when they ask for it, for a pint of the good red wine. He gives his name as Ishm.

They decline, but offer him instead the walking stick they have been carrying for some time. “A stick for a stick”… he tests out the walking stick (walking stick is homebrew: +10 feet of movement/round while carried, and if set on end and the magic word spoken will remain upright). He likes this new freedom of movement, and agrees to the trade.

As they leave, the cat watches them go, its tail flicking.

The Bridge
From the stone house, they are not quite sure what to do, and so they simply continue on the path. Eventually they arrive at a small bridge crossing a river. The forest on the other side of the bridge seems fresh, green, and healthy. Anett conveys to the others that in the natural world this would be unusual; however, she has heard stories that in the realm of the fey their owned lands will reflect their personality, and so this likely means they have crossed a boundary from one fey's rule into another.

Menolly checks under the bridge, but there is no troll - only something glinting in the sun just out of reach. Though tempted, they decide not to leave the path to see what it is. Just on the other side of the bridge, two birch trees stretch up out of the ground - the druid, Anett, looks at them curiously, as the other trees are all maples and oaks (as far as she can tell).

The Village
They cautiously travel over the bridge, and soon come to a small village. They debate about leaving the crocodile behind while they enter, but decide that as mortals they are probably just as unusual. And, indeed, the village folk are much more interested in them, peering at them cautiously from the safety of their homes. The faeries in the village are of various sizes and colors, but are united in their handsome looks and gentle bearing - although, indeed, they do not seem very happy today.

A gentleman (if you can call him so) approaches the party and introduces himself as the leader of the village. Evol introduces the party, and the village leader comments that he has not seen mortals here for 1000 mortal years.

He states that the destiny was made that the mortals that came would be the ones to restore to them their prince and princess which had been turned to stone by an evil witch just before the twilight came. Their mother, the queen, was able to change the spell so they were birch trees instead, but she was not powerful enough to return them to their form. For a spell like that, an object belonging to the witch would be required.

On questioning, they began to realize that the staff they had bartered for was one that the witch had owned, when she was still alive. They were determined to try and change the trees back, but first they wanted to find out why the village was sad.

Each mortal year, the elder said, because of an agreement with one of their leaders which had since passed, one of their children must be given to the rose-colored dragon in exchange for it's protection (from itself as well as from any other thing). The dragon was due in about four hours.

One of the party asks, "Do you want to be free of the dragon?"

"Oh yes, but if we ask to be released from the agreement, then he will flatten the town. And we must keep our side for him to keep his. If you help us in this, then I will be grateful, but I cannot give you anything in return."

The party agrees that they cannot leave and let an innocent be hurt. They ask many things about the dragon, and find that it carries off the children, rather than eating them there, it's as big as four men put together, and also it enjoys a good game of wits.

They position themselves around the girl,who has been tied to a stake, and wait for the dragon. The village people lock their doors and for a while it is dark and silent. The dragon banks in a circle and lands on the other side of the fire from the girl.

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

 

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Session 2 cont

The Rose Dragon

"Well hello mortals, are you here to interfere with my agreement with the town?"

"They did not ask us to help," responded Anett, "but we cannot allow you to take an innocent."

"It is a perfectly fair agreement. This is what they agreed to many of your years ago."

The party thought for a moment.

"What can we do to convince you to release them from the contract?"
The dragon surveyed them silently.

Evol spoke up: "I am Evol, what is your name?"
The dragon smiled "You can call me Rose."
He laughed as the mortals had trouble holding back snickers. "That is a very... masculine name," remarked Menolly.

As they spoke, the dragon mentioned that he might consider dropping the contract - if they found him a finely carved statue of something new, like a dryad. He already has 537 statues of boys and girls.
"I'm afraid that's not an option," replied Anett
"So... you carry them away and turn them to stone?" asked Evol.
"Yes," came the reply.
"Umm... how do you do that?" asked Menolly.
With an evil smile, the dragon stretched a claw out to her. "I can demonstrate, if you like."

Menolly declined.

"I haven't had a chance to match wits with mortals in 1000 years," the Rose dragon said. "I'm eager to do it again, your minds are so.... intriguing."

The party agreed that they could play a game of wits in exchange for the dragon's agreement that if they won, he would leave the town alone. But what equivalent could they offer in return, in case they lost?

So the agreement was made: If the adventurers won the battle of wits, the contract would be dismissed and the dragon would leave the town alone. But if the dragon won, the party would serve him for a year and a day.

They convinced the dragon to allow them to respond as a group, then used the feather of the owl, with the dragon's agreement, so that they could have an impartial judge.

The rules were as follows: The first person starts with something natural that is relatively simple, the next person responds with something that defeats it. They go back and forth until one person is stumped. (Note: if I do this again, I would be sure to specify: it is defeat, not necessarily destroy, and also no repeating something that was already said.)

The dragon gave an example, and then began.

Dragon: I am the bramble, that scratches you
Party: We are the fire, that eats the brambles

D: I am the rain, that douses the fire
P: We are the desert that soaks up the rain

D: I am the wind that blows the sand off the desert
The party discusses various options briefly, then remember fairy tales told to them as children about the four winds trapped in a bottle
P: We are the bottle that traps the wind

D: I am the rock that smashes the bottle
P: We are the ocean that turns the rock to sand

D: I am the moon that pulls the ocean to its whim
P: We are the earth that restrains the moon

D: I am the dwarves, that pierce the earth with mines
P: ...
-Dwarves are easy to defeat
-Yes, but what should we choose?
-I know!
P: We are the rose colored dragon, that eats the dwarves

D: I... I am Ishm's cat, who is the only one who knows the secret of defeating me
P: We are time, which eventually defeats all

D: ...

The Rose colored dragon concedes defeat, and flies off in a huff.

They untie the girl, and the rest of the village comes out and thanks them as well. The party makes sure to thank the owl as well even though they ended up not needing him.

(more to come from Session 2)

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Session 2 cont

The Birch Trees
The party leaves the village and travels back down the path to the bridge with the birch trees. They debate for a little about what exactly to do with the witch's staff, but figure they might as well try tapping. On the third tap, the birch trees shrink and swirl down into a prince and a princess. They thank the party profusely for rescuing them. The party asks the princess about the power stone they are looking for, but she isn't aware of it. She does, however, invite them to her castle, as her mother the queen knows much more about happenings in Faerie.

Princess Amalda asks them where they are headed next, and they mention they are going to speak to Ishm's cat.

"Oh!" She exclaims. "He was sitting under my branches just the other day, bragging to one of his friends about how he knows how to defeat the Rose Dragon. But his friend didn't believe him."

"What did he say?" asked Evol.

"He said that Rose's strength lies in a cave in the mountain near his lair. Inside that cave is a bear, inside the bear is a boar, inside the boar is a dog, and inside the dog is a sparrow. The sparrow holds the rose dragon's power."

The party and the prince and princess travel down the path toward the queen's castle until the party gets tired. The prince and princess, eager to get home, continue on and the party sets up on the path to rest.

Nighttime Visit
As the other two sleep, Anett looks around, then watches as a glow travels across the sky. Soon she realizes that the lights are horses flying toward them, with manes and tails ablaze. She calls to the others as three nightmares swoop down with their riders.

The riders swoop past them, landing several blows on Anett, whose fur becomes matted with blood. The others wake quickly and jump up to intercept the nightmares. Now protected a bit by her friends, Anett begins casting and the twilit skies cloud over and lightening flashes (call lightning). The nightmares land a few solid blows with blade and hoof, and the air fills with cinders and ashes. Two of the mares land near the party and the third swings around for another fly by.

Within a few minutes, the party is bleeding heavily but the foes are laying on the ground. Exhausted, they heal as much as possible then sink back into their bedrolls to rest.

When they wake, they bundle their things in the still-twilight, and continue on the road to the queen's palace. They pass some tress that seem to have chittering underneath, but when they pause a hedgehog scurries out and scolds them for waking the rootbabies. She carries one in her arms, a germinating seed in her arms that is flailing its limb-shaped roots. They apologize and continue on.

Soon they reach the queen's castle, and are welcomed regally. They are ushered to luxurious guest rooms, and given hot baths and their armor is cleaned for them. As they exit the baths, they find that beautiful gowns have been laid out for them.

The Queen
They aren't quite gown people, but they decided for the queen they would wear them. As they put them on, they realized that they could alter the form and color of the gown. Anett chose a simple purple gown, Menolly a simple black gown, and Evol a black gown with threads of silver in the shape of spider webs.

They then were called to the meeting with the queen and prince and princess. As they start to ask about the stone that they seek but the queen informs them she knows exactly what they are looking for.

Just after the witch changed the prince and princess into stone, a half-canine mortal creature (one of the race from the town outside the forest) appeared in their realm, and requested to hide his stone here for safekeeping. Convinced that they were assisting the survival of the mortal realm, they closed all the portals. Disconnected from the mortal realm, they have been in twilight ever since.

The King, who has since faded away (as fey sometimes do), then made a destiny: in 1,001 years, the next mortals who enter the portal will change the prince and princess back to their natural forms and be the ones mentioned in the prophecy.

Unfortunately, as soon as the uninviteds (evil fey) realized that those who fulfilled the prophecy were here, they gave notice that they would attempt to capture the stone. Despite being under strict guard, the stone had disappeared the night before.

The queen had given the uninviteds notice of a retaliation in 24 hours time, and her seer, Jamilla, would try to locate the stone. On that note, the feasting began. Two of the party did eat and drink on the reassurance from the queen that it was mortal food.

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

 

[Nonei]

Session 3

[sblock=Note]Session 3 was very short, only played for an hour instead of our usual 5 as I wasn't feeling well.[/sblock]
The next morning, Menolly shrunk back down to two inches and was tucked safely away in a backpack.

Finding the Stone - and a Piece of History
The gowns were gone, but the party's armor and clothing was well mended and shiny clean. Anett and Evol met with the queen in a side chamber. Jamilla was unable to determine the exact location of the stone; however she found generally where it was, and it had not yet reached the main castle of the uninviteds. She had spoken to Skrogg, the Turyny that guarded the gate, and as long as the party answered the question he would let them pass without a fight. Jamilla would teleport them to a spot near the entrance.

Though they asked, the queen declined to give the party any knowledge of the question or answer out of respect for the laws of the fey. She then stated, "Do not overvalue yourself. Sometimes the simplest packages contain the greatest gift." The party took a little offense to that, but thanked the queen and let Jamilla know they were ready.

They found themselves in an unfamiliar part of the dark twisted wood. Jamilla indicated toward a small hillock, and then teleported away. The party cautiously moved forward and saw a large stone wall set into the hillside, with an 8-foot-tall creature standing outside that was just about that broad as well.

He squinted at them and then said, "There are three chests here. One contains the key to open the door. Which chest do you pick?"

He tapped on the wall and revealed an inset with three chests: one copper, one silver, one gold.

[sblock=Note]If I were going to do this again, I would probably use wooden chests: a rough wooden box, a sturdy well made box, and a polished and intricately carved box. That fits better with the Faerie/natural IMO. It was also a little too obvious which to pick: there needed to be more of an interruption between the queen's statement and the test; perhaps a battle when they arrived.[/sblock]

After a brief discussion they chose the copper one, which revealed a small smooth oval stone. Skrogg stepped aside and revealed an impression in the rock wall. They placed the stone in the impression and it slid back to reveal a passageway.

Evol made sure the hallway was clear, and they entered. The wall slid closed behind them, and Anett switched on her watchlamp that rests on her shoulder. As they quietly discuss which way to go, Anett feels a tap on her shoulder.

She turns to see a translucent hand that beckons to her and then moves off down the corridor, waiting at the next corner. Evol sees nothing. They agree to follow the hand, but as they approach the next corner, they hear movement down the crossing corridor. This corner is torchlit.

They stop where they are, weapons drawn. The sound stops just shy of the crossing and they hear the steps retreat. Anett puts out her light, and Evol peeks around the corner. Two Turyny are strolling away down the corridor, apparently oblivious to the party. They wait for them to turn the corner, and then follow the hand down the hallway through turns and passageways. Then, as they approach a hallway, the hand disappears.

Anett relays this to Evol, and they cautiously move down the indicated hallway. Soon, down a hallway to the right, they see flashes of light coming from a room and hear wails of agony.

They see in the room a humanoid folded over, with lightning flashing over him and occasionally streaking out, although it doesn't seem to harm them. Evol looks at his aura, as paladins are wont to do, and sees it drop from moderate to faint as he looks up at them. He seems relieved to see them.

"I'm glad you're here, I concentrated on the hand for as long as I could. I have the stone for you." And he holds out a hand, in it is a teardrop-shaped red gem - the stone they are looking for. In the flashes of light, they see that he appears to be half-canine, like the villagers outside the forest.

As they hesitate in taking the stone, he seems to be getting weaker and weaker. "Please, take it before I fade away!"

Evol takes the stone from him, and he sits up weakly. The lightening fades, and in the torchlight they can see that while he is definitely of the race of people from the village outside the forest, he also has fey touches.

"When I realized that it would take so long for the promised ones to come, I became discouraged. One of the uninviteds came to me and offered to help me become fey in exchange for many things, and so I came to this area. I heard that the mortals had come after so many years, and regretted my decision. I helped to steal the stone back, knowing you would come and get it. I suppose that was selfish; it was the only way I could be sure to do a good deed at the right time."

The party spoke for a time with O'Lae (for that was his name) about what had happened, and the party learned that any time a fey goes against the True Cycle, which is the cycle of the world, or their court's cycle, they go through a crux - a painful withering of power - until they restore the cycle. When a fey wishes to abandon their current cycle (court) they must suffer until they are at their weakest before doing a good (or evil) deed and starting over again in the new court. Not every fey who suffers a crux survives it.

O'Lae led them to a room in the complex that took them to a storage room in the basement of the Queen's Castle. They made their way up the stairs and despite a few curious looks, were able to speak to the queen again. She welcomes O'Lae back into her court cautiously, and gave Evol and Anett access to the guest rooms again so they could rest.

And that is where we left off.

Look here for more detailed Creature/Setting information by session

 

[Nonei]

Looks like I'm getting a number of hits but no replies yet. Anyone finding this interesting or helpful? I would love suggestions or critique! I'm having some difficulty with having the Faerie part of the adventure be too linear; I will try to break that next week.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I've found the SH highly entertaining and inspirational, though I don't have any specific comments thus far.

I may try to shanghai my players into a trip through faerie in the X-Crawl campaign I'm planning. That'll certainly serve to shake up the pace for a bit.