Help me with a fey adventure for 4th level PCs

[RangerWickett]

I'm trying to plan my game for this Saturday, and I've been short on time lately. What the basic premise is, is that the PCs are all from the same town, located in a remote wilderness, and over a year ago a group of older and more experienced townsfolk went out to try to find other people, since right now the town is isolated. They were supposed to have been back by now, so the PCs got a town mage to tax herself in order to scry on the travelers, and now they're setting out to rescue them.

The nearest of the missing travelers is Itana, a warrior skilled with horses, who according to the divination is in dark woods to the south. The PCs are going to go look for her, their first long-term expedition outside the town.

All I have thought up so far is that while the first group was traveling, things went awry, one of their number was killed, and they scattered. Itana tried to make it back to the village, but got off course a bit, and ended up in a fey-controlled woodland where she was captured by a cruel dark fey with a sick sense of humor. This fey (for whom I need a name) creates animal-human hybrids, one of which the PCs already ran across. It was something like a minotaur crossed with a centaur (so the PCs are calling it, tongue-in-cheek, a senator), made when the fey crossed a bull with a humanoid demon. It attacked the town and was killed, and the PCs assume it was some weird type of demon.

Itana got captured, and was transformed into a centaur, but one where the horse intelligence struggles for dominance. She wanders the woods to the south in despair, unable to bring herself to return home and seek help.

Other ideas I have are a medusa-like fey whose gaze slowly turns people to wood, and a man who wanders the dark forest with a lantern that holds his soul, which glows like a flame.

I'm looking for ideas, scenes, and plots to help me brainstorm how to craft this adventure. The party is 4th level, and big, consisting of a necromancer, a craftmage, a bard/paladin, a monk/ranger, a monk/rogue, a spooky rogue, and a fighter. The spooky rogue is actually something like a vampire, though he doesn't fully understand it, and I want his hunger to take over him during this adventure.

I'm shooting for a bit of fey horror and a bit of silliness, with at least one awesome fight scene. Any suggestions?

 

[Raven Crowking]

I'd name the BBeG Sceadrau, a combination of an Old English word for "darkness" and "Moreau" from the H.G. Wells story (due to her hybrids).

 

[ZSutherland]

Rod of Wander: This rod appears to be an exact duplicate of the Rod of Wonder (DMG 3.5 p. 237). When picked up, it requires a Will save (DC 16) by the bearer. If the save fails, the bearer must walk at his normal movement rate each round and cannot stop. He cannot drop the item or otherwise rid himself of it. He can change directions as he will but must remain on the move constantly. After eight hours of walking, all subsequent hours follow the rules for hustling beyond one hour (i.e. the character takes 1 subdual the first hour, then doubles the subdual damage each subsequent hour). If the character goes unconscious due to subdual damage, he collapses until he recovers enough resume his trek.
Each day allows the character a new Will saving throw, but the DC increases by one cumulatively as fatigue and hopelessness take their toll. A remove curse spell instantly ends the effect. If the item is thwarted either by a success on the initial or any subsequent save or a remove curse spell, it instantly shatters dealing 1d4+5 damage to the bearer. The item will reform in 1d4 rounds at a random location within a 100 miles of its destruction. Any creature with the Fey type or subtype is immune to this item, and the item never destroys itself for failing to effect them.
Strong enchantment; CL 11th: Create Wondrous Item; geas; creator must be fey; Price: 25,000 gp.

I came up with this item a few weeks ago while reading one of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels. It just strikes me as a very fey cursed item, for evil fey anyway.

 

[Stormborn]

The fey king should probablly only have a title, since he would hide his true name, something like the King of Twisted Flesh, although in historic myth a faerie known as the Amadan, or fool, had a touch that would cause mortal flesh to twist. A possible explination of the word "Stroke" is "Amadan's Stroke". So perhaps the dark fey is actually the Amadan, escaped from the High Court and running his own little twisted prank kingdom. He should have no other agenda than his twisted sense of beauty and humor.

Twig Blights, from Sunless Citadel or MM4 (IIRC), would fit well in your scenario. Apply the fey template to large fish and let them swim in an empty well, giving strange portents to the PCs, maybe leading them to a treasure, or attacking them, or all of the above.

In the process of looking for the missing people perhaps the PCs could go on a side-quest: a small village much like their own but completly enthralled by the Amadan. He comes through occasionally and makes them do strange and disturbing things to themselves and their homes. The village is mostly made up of a group of settlers seeking the PCs town who were diverted here and augmented along the way by lost travelers. The settlement in surrounded by a mist covered cemetary home to warped dryad like creatures that can walk from tombstone to tombstone. These...Gravemaidens (let's say) serve as guards and don't let anyone out. When the PCs arrive their is a masque going on that culminates in a mock battle where they cut and stab each other, drawing blood but doing no permanent harm. If the PCs intervene and prevent it the villagers are actually pleased, but afraid that it will lead to dire consequences if the "master" comes. In responce perhaps the Amadan sends another of his twisted creations.

This gives you a mortal population to tempt the spooky rogue. An abandoned chaple, built by the first settlers but boarded up long ago by order of the Amadan, could be rumored to hold spells to tempt your necromancer.

 

[Matchstick]

After the party advances deep into the dark and unnaturally quiet forest they encounter Itana, who seems confused and disoriented. She remembers a battle, then nothing, then waking up in this new body. In her initial panic at having foor hooves and a tail she bolted blindly from the location at which she awoke, and into the forest. She has not been here long, and she feels as if someone or something is following her. Itana is still overthinking her new body, and can't move terribly quickly.

As she finishes her scattered story a thick fog drops into the forest. It is quite obviously out of place and magical. Almost immediately there is a faint ominous clinking, and a light moves around the characters. Oddly the fog does not obscure the light at all, but everything around and possibly containing the light is essentially invisible.

Let the tension mount as the characters either circle the wagons or attempt to slowly leave. The light appears and disappears. It is on the left, then behind. It is closer and farther. Weapons cast seem to have no effect. The appearances begin to happen closer together chronologically, then the light disappears for a couple minutes. When it reappears it is a ways away, but still clearly visible. This time it doesn't disappear, but begins to make its slow steady way toward the party.

As the light gets near there is a commotion behind the party as two "restored" hybrids of appropriate types (bat, boar, something unsettling) appear from the fog. One is a tracker, the other it's handler. Think of the orcs in Return of the King. The tracker is not a fighter at all. They are tracking Itana.

If the party attacks the two "restored" flee, with the handler blowing wildly on a whistle to summon reinforcements. The fog is thinning, visibility is returning slowly. If there is a fight, the Walker (see below) may try and reclaim Itana in the confusion. Should this happen the party will discover Itana's completely human body lying next to the completely equine body of a horse.

Should the party hold back, and parley the hybrids attempt to communicate that they are looking for Itana, and they want to take her with them. The party is allowed to accompany them. A perceptive character might notice that the weapons carried by the handler are all made of wood, oddly, looking closer, it's green wood as well.

The fey, Margit, has a town of her hybrids in the forest. The town might be a regular town, it might be in a hill, or in the trees. Regardless the town is bounded in green growth of some kind, perhaps thorns. It is this live barrier that keeps the Walker out.

Margit herself is a fey, possibly a druid. She believes that by "restoring" deceased animals and humans in whatever combination she can manage she is reclaiming life from the hands of death. Sometimes the restoration causes insanity in the restored (witness the senator), sometimes it is very successful. Itana can fall on this scale where the DM wishes. Margit believes what she is doing is right, the characters can make their own judgement.

Itana was the member of the party that was killed. She was restored but in the initial panic left the town, creating a breach in the boundary that is already patched. The residents of the town are not well fed, but aren't starving, and seem passably happy. They stay in town not only due to the Walker but because they feel the outside world won't accept them, or have a place for them.

The Walker in Darkness is an emmisary from the underworld that has been tasked with returning the "restored" to their rightful places in death. He is of course the light in the fog, and the creator of the fog, he was stalking Itana. The clinking is the chain on his lantern. He has a weakness to green and living wood (which might make the "living in the trees" thing a good choice. He is quite powerful, but very focussed on his mission. The Walker's soul will be his reward for good service at some point (not necessarily after this mission, but it could be) and he is forced to carry it as an (almost literally) carrot on a stick, as a taunting reminder of sins that need restitution, and to make his job more difficult due to it's clearly seen properties. The rulers of the Underworld enjoy making their minions jobs more difficult.

- The party could judge that Margit is doing wrong, and try to destroy her and possibly the town. This could be done by enlisting aid from the town, or even the Walker. Alternatively the party could simply sabotage some of Margit's equipment or components that she uses in the restoration (possibly a modified reincarnate). Depending on the availability of the items destroyed the party could delay more restorations by varying amounts, or even stop it outright in the case of a unique component.

- The building/lab where Margit does her restorations would almost have to be bloody in some ways. An enclosed area where a LOT of blood has been spilled might be overwhelming for your party's rogue.

- Margit may ask the party to help her deal with the Walker. The Walker is nigh-unkillable at their level, but what if they could find someone that could turn the Walker into green wood (like your Medusa)? It might not kill him, but it could confine him.

- Note that a party member could actually become one of the restored. If so, the Walker could be a recurring problem for a restored that leaves the safety of Margit's town.

- The Walker could ask for help being released from his servitude (though the characters might tick off some fairly mighty presences). In fact, it might turn out that Margit can help the Walker be "restored" (maybe into a party member's corpse).

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I know I turned some of your stuff on its ear (like your "cruel dark fey"), but I found myself questioning the assumptions in your story and that took me where I went.

Edit: hmm, I don't have a big fight scene. I'd maybe suggest starting with a fight scene, or maybe the players rescue Itana rather than just finding her. Perhaps the players first see the back of a bandit bowman as he draws and shoots at her after the rest of his band have cornered Itana. The players should be able to recognize her and jump in to help, even if the scruffy appearance of the bowman doesn't reveal his bandit origins.

Then have the fog drop when the bandits are over half dead. As the Walker's light appears around the party have it be accompanied by squishy sounds and screams as the Walker systematically picks off the remaining bandits (they don't remain a group like the PC's hopefully do). As the PC's pick their way slowly through the fog they encounter the occasional savaged bandit body. This would heighten the tension and danger of the fog encounter.

If the party does separate, then the fight will be even more fun. Things will bump into the characters in the fog; might be allies, might be foes. Someone might even get a fleeting glimpse of the Walker before a terrified bandit barrels blindly into him and the no doubt messy results get obscured by the fog. Play this for all the tension you can, the fog will begin to dissipate when Itana is killed or the other hybrids arrive.

 

[RangerWickett]

So . . . how to mix all this together? Lots of good ideas. I'm very thankful for the help.

Name is good. Sceadrau. I'm probably pronouncing it wrong, though -- sort of like 'skid row,' only it rhymes with cow, not crow.

The rod I'll probably make into a staff, since it feels better for a wandering item, but I think it would make an interesting concept. I should give it some beneficial effect so the group doesn't think it's just completely a burden. Heck, maybe I could make the lantern-bearer actually have a lantern on the end of a stick, and the staff protects the wielder's soul? Or maybe it grants mobility bonuses, like letting the bearer always find fresh water and food each day.

I like the imagery of giant talking fish in a well (I'll make it a small deep lake, though, since I want the area to be wild). What to have them talk about, now?

I think I'll make matchstick's idea the main thrust of the adventure, but I suspect this will take at least two sessions, and it won't be easy to find a single woman in a forest, so they'll need to have encounters along the way. I think I'll include the wood-medusa here, and maybe partially hurt one of the PCs so they'll be in the mood to ask for help later on. Tombstone dryads are a great idea, and it would be interesting for there to be a village that died long ago and was since reclaimed by the forest. However, I'd need to think of how that would fit into the rest of the setting.

Thanks for the help. Any more ideas are welcome.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Have you considered cribbing from UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave? It has a lot of ideas that might help.

 

[smootrk]

I really gave our group a hard time by throwing a Gray Jester (heroes of horror book) teamed up with a Redcap (mm3), both quite evil fey who prey upon the unwary. In the end, both the bad guys got away, and are likely to become recurring villians in our campaign.

It would at least make for a decent evil Fey encounter, if not extrapolated into a whole small scenario.

 

[Stormborn]

So . . . how to mix all this together? Lots of good ideas. I'm very thankful for the help.

I like the imagery of giant talking fish in a well (I'll make it a small deep lake, though, since I want the area to be wild). What to have them talk about, now?

Thanks for the help. Any more ideas are welcome.

You are very welcome, glad to help.

I realized after I got off line that I should have clarified that in my mind the well was large, ancient, and dry. That basically these were either fey spirit fish or the ghosts of fish long dead. However a tiny hollow with a small but deep, dark pool works well.

As the PCs approach, while seeking Itana, they hear voices, to distant to be made out clearly. Perhaps they approach the pool as a source of water, perhaps looking for the voices. From the depth a glow comes, red and blue and yellow swirling together. The voices get louder. Soon they can see the fish.

The fish continue to rise, and are now obviously the source of the voices (perhaps they have beautiful human faces). The continue to rise until they are floating in the air above the pool, still swiming as if in the water. The fish are talking to one another of world events, some of which the PCs should recognize (an event in their village, things from their back ground, or major events from the capaign world). They speak to each other in a bable of languages, shift in mid sentence from one to the other. When one of the PCs speaks or moves the fish notice them and begins to move around them, always staying out of reach.

Now the fish begin to talk to one another about the PCs. If asked questions they are ignored, but the conversation of the fish remains in common, or another language they all know, and does adress the subject of the questions. Such as how Itana may be found.

After a little bit of this, once the fish have conveyed some useful imformation, and possibly some very cryptic information about the future of the PCs, they suddenly all stop and speak as one "The fisherman comes!" and dart back into the depths of the pool. At that point something comes out of the wood to attack the PCs for messng with "his" or "her" fish. You can insert one of your monsters here, or an insane hermit/mage who long ago found the fish and became obsessed with them. He now seeks to catch one but never has.

From this point the PCs should have a clearer idea of where Itana can be found and can proceed to the penultimate encounters.

 

[Matchstick]

So . . . how to mix all this together? Lots of good ideas. I'm very thankful for the help.


I think I'll make matchstick's idea the main thrust of the adventure, but I suspect this will take at least two sessions, and it won't be easy to find a single woman in a forest, so they'll need to have encounters along the way. I think I'll include the wood-medusa here, and maybe partially hurt one of the PCs so they'll be in the mood to ask for help later on. Tombstone dryads are a great idea, and it would be interesting for there to be a village that died long ago and was since reclaimed by the forest. However, I'd need to think of how that would fit into the rest of the setting.

Thanks for the help. Any more ideas are welcome.

No problem, this is fun!

I like the idea of running across the wood medusa first. If you go with the green wood weakness that means you're providing the characters with a way to possibly change the Walker, but you're not just sending them on a side quest. If they don't think of the medusa, then so be it.