D&D General What Does an Archfey Want?

[LordEntrails]

A really good tuna poke bowl.

Or @Quickleaf answer since that was better

Long term, I like the placing the pearl idea. And it can turn devious later when the party learns (maybe) of why. She keeps having them place pearls in places to seemingly help people, but all the time it is to draw power from those with natural magical talent (sorcerers?) so that she gains their power/mana and they never manifest those powers. Maybe its not evil, maybe it is...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In my games, Archfey are confusing because they are both very alien and very “human”. Like an emotional and logical uncanny valley.

So the Queen of Air and Darkness is both a feminine figure you can meet, who wants fairly understandable things like power, defense of her realm, to undermine her sister Queen, or even to just get some, but she is also the darkness of long cold nights in the Fey and in the mortal world, she is the queen of secrets and magic, cold delight and stone-faced wrath.

So what does she want? Man…depends on what kinda story you’re telling.

 

[Stalker0]

She wants to resurrect a rare and extinct species of Panda.

I mean its the fey, they are nuts

 

[pukunui]

I asked ChatGPT. Here's what it suggested:

1. Protect her freshwater kuo-toa colony: The Queen of the Dark River may request that the PCs help defend her kuo-toa colony from outside threats, such as rival factions or creatures that have ventured too close to the temple. This could involve espionage, sabotage, or outright combat.
   
   
2. Gather rare ingredients: The Queen of the Dark River may have a particular interest in certain rare or exotic ingredients that are difficult to find. Perhaps there's a particular herb that only grows in the surface world, or a type of fish that can only be caught at a certain time of year. The PCs could be tasked with gathering these ingredients and bringing them back to the Queen.
   
   
3. Cleanse a corrupted water source: The Queen of the Dark River's powers are connected to the purity of the water in her domain. If the PCs encounter a polluted water source or one that has been corrupted by dark magic, she may request that they purify it. This could involve finding the source of the pollution, battling corrupt creatures or mages, or performing a ritual to cleanse the water.
   
   
4. Investigate a disturbance: If the Queen of the Dark River senses a disturbance in the natural order of things, she may request that the PCs investigate it. This could involve tracking down a rogue mage who is tampering with the flow of magic in the area, or investigating reports of strange creatures or phenomena in the surface world.

ChatGPT concluded by reminding me that "archfey are mercurial creatures, and their motivations and desires may be difficult to predict or understand. The Queen of the Dark River may have her own hidden agenda, or she may simply enjoy manipulating mortals for her own amusement. Whatever the case, make sure that her demands are challenging but achievable, and that the PCs are suitably rewarded for their efforts."

 

[Larnievc]

Does anyone have any suggestions?

What kind of encounters do you like to run? She wants something that involves a bunch of them. Fae are arbitrary and don’t need to make sense.

 

[aco175]

Why is magic leaching out of her underwater realm? She might want to stop it and keep it for herself. This leads to having someone like a group of drow or orcs doing something, but it could lead to another fey being trying to hurt her and gain power for themselves.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Somewhere on the surface world, in a place where the underground river either floes to, or perhaps comes from, fishermen or some other group are harvesting a species of giant shellfish to extinction (maybe to feed an army?), and the party has to stop them.
When they figure out who it is, the shrimp-queen's quest becomes secondary to defeating some really, really bad people, but the shrimp-queen is willing to help them in some fashion because it's in all of their best interests.
Maybe, if the party gets into real trouble and may TPK, the cavalry arrives in the form of a wave of giant crayfish charging up out of a nearby lake to attack their opponents or something.

 

[Flamestrike]

(The game is 5E, but since this is a story related question, I'm using the "D&D General" tag.)

A couple of PCs in my game have sworn service to an archfey known as the Queen of the Dark River. She looks like a reverse freshwater version of Blipdoolpoolp, having the body of an enormous pure white crayfish and the head of a beautiful woman. She lives in a temple complex situated on an underground river, where she is attended by a small colony of freshwater kuo-toa.

The PCs encountered her when they were searching for the source of magic that was seeping into the underground river, which flows into a nearby swamp and causes spells to misfire there. They also returned some "swamp pearls" that had been stolen from her. I kind of thought that was the last we'd see of her, and the storyling I have planned will take them to the surface world for quite a while, but the players seem interested in continuing to interact with her. It seems like I should have her make some demands on them as they continue their adventures, but I don't know what to have her ask for. Does anyone have any suggestions?

1) The swamp pearls are in fact eggs of some creature. Plenty of room for ideas there.
2) Help dealing with a Aboleth (underground river etc) or maybe some Duergar who live in the underdark and are damming her river for some construction they're doing.
3) Something to do with a curse (ties into the fey stuff)
4) Something to do with a Warlock, who once served her, but went renegade.
5) Court intrigue with the Seeliegh court (a rival)

Also when you described your archfey as:

having the body of an enormous pure white crayfish and the head of a beautiful woman.

I thought of:


If I was playing a bard in your campaign, I wouldn't be able to resist.

 

[Umbran]

Fae are arbitrary and don’t need to make sense.

Or, alternatively, fae know things you don't, and play games much, much longer than human lifetimes, so their motivations seem inscrutable.

 

[Quickleaf]

In my Homebrew, the Archfey live in the Feywild, and the Feywild is associated with the Positive Energy Plane. This is why the FeyWild is so full of life - and also explains why so many residents of the Fey Wild are fickle, playful and frivolous .... because they're literally high on life.

When I want inspiration for what an Archfey might want, I just think about the people I've known in my life that enjoyed a variety of illicit substances. Sometimes they want love, sometimes a good brownie, and sometimes a huge thrill. They tend to be very random - and to not make a lot of long term sense ... but whatever they want has to make sense in the short term.

That's a great touchstone for an easy way to roleplay fey that are often tricky to figure out how I want to roleplay them. Nice!

1) The swamp pearls are in fact eggs of some creature. Plenty of room for ideas there.

I love this idea. You could get really weird with this – egg of a sea serpent trapped in a dreamscape, the egg holds a river horse born from a dragon, the hopes of a city are within the egg, etc.

I think I would like to play in one of your games @Quickleaf, you come up with the best stuff!

You know what, I bit the bullet and decided to try running a play-by-post again (it's been years): https://www.enworld.org/threads/quickleafs-rime-of-the-frostmaiden-5e-osr-pbp-ooc.697664/