D&D 4E The Wild Hunt in 4e

[Quickleaf]

The Wild Hunt has always been in the background of my games, but recent events IMC are propelling it to center stage. How is the Hunt handled in 4e as far as already existing monster & adventures? And how have you run it or house-ruled it in your game?

[sblock=About My Adventure]
I'm working on an adventure where the PCs are investigating disappearances associated with the Wild Hunt, and would love to have a challenge involving escaping the hunt (both the charm magic & physically escaping).

The Wild Hunt isn't the central antagonist, its actually someone who escapes from the hunt after many years riding with it. He is using the appearance of the hunt to conceal his involvement.

It'll be a good chance for me to introduce the Horned King/Master of the Wild Hunt, who will be reappearing later on.[/sblock]

[sblock=About My Group]
We were a large group but lost 3 players to moves/new jobs. We were a big group before but hopefully were picking up an extra player to get the party to 5. The disappearance of one of the departed PCs strongly suggested they'd been abducted by the Wild Hunt.

The current PCs are (just hit 11th level):

Ser Gwayd (M/shifter (longtooth)/paladin 11/unaligned), gruff and tumble lord revering the avenging aspect of Pelor
Miraeces (M/human/invoker-wizard 11/lawful good), a philosopher and man of faith who serves as a court attaché and supernatural investigator
Lieke (M/gnome/artificer 11/good), tinker gnome whose family oversee the king's treasury he specializes in explosives and alchemy
Hairi (F/half-elf/sorcerer/good), runaway from neighboring magocracy she is one of the few dragon sorcerers left in the world after pogroms[/sblock]

 

[mudbunny]

I am not sure if it helps, but here is the info in the Compendium on the Wild Hunt:

Firbolg Master of the wild hunt - L22 Elite

Wild Hunt Hound - L21

Wild Hunt Acolyte - L21 Elite

The above just has the stat blocks, so you would need to look at Dungeon Delve, Monster Manuals 1 and 2 and Dragon Magazine issue 160 (p 97) for any fluff included.

 

[Quickleaf]

I don't DDi, under the influence or no.

But I have read the MM sections on the firbolgs and wild hunt hound. Not much to go on, but I extrapolated these tidbits:

* Firbolgs act as mercenaries to eladrin and fomorians both.
* Wild hunt hounds are often in the company of eladrin nobles.

 

[Mentat55]

I think the firbolgs are actually THE Wild Hunt -- the Master of the Hunt wears the stag antler helm that I've seen in other depictions of the Wild Hunt. Furthermore, firbolgs like to hunt worthy prey.

I'll admit that the few bits of info on the Wild Hunt make it sound less sinister than I would normally envision it. I actually really like the depiction of the Wild Hunt in the Witcher computer games -- which, to be quite honest, is not far from sinister eladrin coming from the Feywild to the Material Plane to steal people.

 

[Quickleaf]

I think the firbolgs are actually THE Wild Hunt -- the Master of the Hunt wears the stag antler helm that I've seen in other depictions of the Wild Hunt. Furthermore, firbolgs like to hunt worthy prey.

I was thinking firbolgs might only loosely be described as mercenaries, being a barely controllable lot whose temporary service comes at a high price - but never in gold. Few mortals can distinguish when the Hunt rides wild or if it rides for one of the eladrin or fomorians lords.

Also most legends depict the Hunt as flying through the air or hovering just above the ground, and mounted on dark steeds. What if it was these steeds which hovered and planewalked? What if they were reimagined Nic'Epona from the Planescape campaign setting box?

I'll admit that the few bits of info on the Wild Hunt make it sound less sinister than I would normally envision it. I actually really like the depiction of the Wild Hunt in the Witcher computer games -- which, to be quite honest, is not far from sinister eladrin coming from the Feywild to the Material Plane to steal people.

I agree, it makes sense that there would be an archfey master of the hunt, perhaps Cerunnos the horned Celtic deity. I like the sinister eladrin lord idea too, and it would give the Hunt a stronger identity.