Need some help with fey pact warlocks

[Asmor]

The Burn the Witch thread got me thinking a bit about Warlocks and the roleplaying implications of playing them.

In particular, I've got an Eladrin Fey Pact Warlock in my game I've just started.

Unfortunately, the fey are not something I've ever been terribly comfortable with. I have this very vague sense of what I want them to be, but when I say vague I mean vague. I don't even understand exactly what I want.

I like the idea of fey being inspired by European folklore, even though I don't really know what that means. I like the idea of fey being mysterious tricksters, tied to the natural world, with a slightly sinister bent.

Getting back on topic a bit, I also like the idea of warlock pacts literally being just that: pacts. Deals made with other entities. It's simple enough to figure out how to do that with an infernal pact, and not much more difficult to come up with a star pact, but I don't really get fey.

Just to give you some idea of what I'm looking for, an infernal pact offers power with the price of your soul. A star pact offers power in return for being allowed into our world (and perhaps a touch of insanity as a side-effect). What does a fey want? What are fey motivations? More importantly, how do I make it unique and costly without overly hampering the character or stepping on the infernal pact's toes?

About the only thing I can really think of is a Rumplestiltskin-like deal, where you promise your firstborn. That could work for some characters, but for others it's of little consequence without some serious railroading by the DM (i.e. you wake up with a headache next to the barmaid. Nine months later you have a son... but he's kidnapped by a faerie).

 

[Fallen Seraph]

The cost of a Pact with Feyfolk should be erratic and unknowable. They think in a manner that is wholely unhuman, and have little to no sense of morality, right or wrong. They simply act on their whims.

As such, a Pact with a Fey, should convey that. One could simply ask for a strand of hair, another to always have a jar of water in your pocket, some may ask for things you can't give... Such as, the "the tears of the stars".

The things that are originally given and signed/agreed on, should appear odd to the Warlock and won't unravel its meaning till much later. Perhaps the "tears of the stars" are your dreams, and the Fey comes to collect its part of your dreams when their fulfilled.

Perhaps there is no consequence, but beware stepping into the Feywild, least that Fey try to persuade you otherwise.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In a Doctor Who episode of the 3rd season, there were some fey-like beings that stole children to become fey like them. That can be what fey want.

Other fey might want their forest/swamp/lake be left undisturbed - or worse, they want it to expand and encompass a settlement, have wild animals hunt in a village. ("The Wyld Hunt")

Other fey might want the dreams, emotions or the imagination of people.

I think the first and the third are closest to mythology and folklore on feys. The second seems more modern (but I might be wrong), and related to seeing creatures of nature as "ecologist".
If I am not mistaken, the German word for nightmare "Alptraum" is related to "Alpdruck", and the idea is that an Elf (Alp) (not a Tolkien or D&D elf) is sitting on your chest and causing the pain and fear in your dream.
Changlings just as stealing children also belong into the realm of "fey activities".

 

[Fallen Seraph]

If your willing to shell out a bit of cash too, the Changeling: The Lost books by White Wolf are a wealth of good fluff for Fey, and a damn good game in general.

Also, if a Warlock tries to get out of his Pact, he shouldn't be surprised to find his neighbour is actually a Fey (or Changeling) disguised by illusion to keep tabs on him, or that the Wild Hunt has been declared on him.

Fey are random and odd beings, but they detest being crossed.

 

[Asmor]

The cost of a Pact with Feyfolk should be erratic and unknowable. They think in a manner that is wholely unhuman, and have little to no sense of morality, right or wrong. They simply act on their whims.

As such, a Pact with a Fey, should convey that. One could simply ask for a strand of hair, another to always have a jar of water in your pocket, some may ask for things you can't give... Such as, the "the tears of the stars".

The things that are originally given and signed/agreed on, should appear odd to the Warlock and won't unravel its meaning till much later. Perhaps the "tears of the stars" are your dreams, and the Fey comes to collect its part of your dreams when their fulfilled.

Perhaps there is no consequence, but beware stepping into the Feywild, least that Fey try to persuade you otherwise.

I like your ideas, Seraph. Particularly the idea of a seemingly innocuous and bizarre price which later turns out to be very costly.

Of course, now I have the problem of coming up with such a cost! Ah well, something to sleep on... Thanks!

 

[Tonguez]

Other fey might want the dreams, emotions or the imagination of people.

IMC I set fey up so that their realm and the creatures themselves are literally formed from 'Dream-stuff' (Phantasm) and yet are themselves unable to dream.

Because of this they require the dreams of mortals for basic survival as well as to 'empower' their illusionary abilities. Fey take children so that they have a 'dedicated dreamer' whom they can have 'on tap' and when these fey-touched children grow up them become powerful Erl-Kings able to shape the Fey realm. A Fey who gains power over all mortal dreams (say be stealing the teeth of small children) would be truely unstoppable (and one such being an Erl-King named Lord Autumn was the major BBEG in that campaign)

Being formed of dreams Fey are emotional, whimsical and ephemeral creatures with no set form or purpose and pacts they make will be inscrutible but will in the end involve someway of accessing and harvesting ones dreams (be it by using that strand of hair as a fetter or by claiming the tears of the stars in the form of your dreams)

 

[Masquerade]

Seen Pan's Labyrinth? Ofelia is the inspiration for fey pact warlocks in my world. I won't say any more to avoid spoiling anyone.