Fey thread

How do you like your fairies, Veeky Forums? Cruel and deceptive? Spiteful pranksters? Helpful green-clad midgets? What roles do they play in your campaigns?

Generally, I forget to include them at all in my campaigns until I'm reminded that they exist.

My setting has them open portals in woods to get people to their realm. Their realm is a chaotic, nightmarish place to those not used to it, and most die from not being able to adapt to new terrain. The PCs are trying to get out now, and after they do they finish.

Pretty much this for fairies, and when I AM reminded they exist... I still don't include them.

As for "fey", I just sorta use that as a catch-all phrase for beings from other planes/realms who aren't necessarily as well understood or catalogued as things like demons.

Proud

>How do you like your fairies, Veeky Forums?
I don't.

Fey are insectoid in my world.

Faery faeries are like little swarms of humanoid wasps. Ouch.

Why not?
Not looking to argue. Just curious.

Really like a pans labyrinth or any Guillermo Del Tor type. Cant figure out how to do it in a game though.

Not the person you're asking, but as a fellow dis-liker of Fey, it's because they seem pretty randumb to me alot of the time. Very few settings even define what they ARE other than that they're from a mysterious realm of mysterious things.

Interchangeable with DEMONS

weird, I generally prefer them to using angels since I can be a bit more free in my interpretations of good, essentially players always expect angels to behave perfectly and to everyone's (by which they mean their) benefit. Fae on the other hand while generally good are still allowed to do questionable things and occasionally screw with people. So when I have to fill the role of 'good-aligned magical being allies' I prefer using them to divine stuff.

Generally I'm a fan of fae who value life but humans don't necessarily rank any higher than anything else. They'll fight alongside humanity when there's a demonic army trying to destroy the world and once that's over they'll burn those same humans' cities down to keep the population at a sustainable level.

All of the above.

Pretty much what the other user said.

I don't generally introduce fairies, as they inhabit magic suffused woodlands and most such areas are inhabited by elven settlements or somesuch.
In the rare enchanted forests that are more no mans' lands, however, malign fae try to decieve travellers. They are rather classical in how to deal with them, so a wise adventurer would make them repeat promises 3 times, refuse any gifts they offer, and never give them their true name.
However, the fae can be won over, and if you amuse them in some way they can bestow small kindnesses, such as safety on your current journey.

>How do you like your fairies
Belligerent, hate-filled, evil little people. Kind of like midgets in RL, but less fugly.

The campaign I'm running is currently in Rashemen, so the Feywild seems like the next natural step. I was thinking of my players having to rescue a Pegasus refuge from a Lamia that has corrupted the local Pixie guardians, and is in the process of harvesting Pegasus wings for some dark purpose. Any good ideas to add flavor?

Cruel, deceptive and amoral creatures that kidnap children, eat people and and terrorize whoever they come across

Don't talk to strangers.

Every time I see that fucking picture... They all look the same, asshole. And in a swamp no less! Yes, this is going to end well for you.

Like your picture. Thistledown was one based fey.

Agreed. I used him because he's probably my favourite fairy character. And because that series is one of the best things I've seen recently, as well as being (I've just realised) a great source of reaction images.

Waifus.

I read Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a long time ago. Been watching the adaptation recently.

Forgot how...fickle and amoral the gentleman with thistledown hair is. Really like it so far. (Segundus x Honeyfoot OTP)

They are a neutral analogue to evil demons and good angels.

Or, if I try playing D&D... Yea, they are Chaos. And they hate modrons. Yea. Sounds about right...

In 5e, nightmares are just pegasi that have had their wings torturously removed. Maybe run with that? Could be supplying war horses for a demonic/undead army.

>How do you like your fairies, Veeky Forums?
Burned alive and impaled on iron spears as a warning to the rest of their kin to stay out of human lands.

Kinda like:

>Don't step inside the standing stones up on the mound. Those are the teeth of greedy, sleepy old Grandfather Ogre

>That cabin out by the woods, the man who lives there loves dogs. He has a dozen or more, feeds them from his own hands. He's raising the pups of the Great Hound deep in the forest, tree-high. He's not a man at all.

>You'll catch her sometimes if she's quiet, loping along with that awkward gait, watching the birds. When she whistles the men follow her and they never look at her mouth. Her legs alone must be twice their height, but they never mention it when they come back. If they come back.

>Always two of them. Man and woman. Husband and wife maybe, but they always wear the same face too. They love to measure - if you stand still by them they'll measure every part of you, down to the fingerbones. They love smaller things. They'll make things for you if you let them, from the junk they carry, but they always make them too big. They especially love children.

>Sometimes you see them flit by at night - bright-winged, butterfly-free. At a distance you can mistake the little ones for fireflies. But when you see the broader glow coming over the curve of the hillside you must remember to look away.

>The whole bottom of the river is covered in shells and they rattle when you cross the bridge. Shellycoat loves distracting travelers and getting them lost - down her gullet, if she's hungry.

>You find them in churches - abandoned ones - torturing themselves. They've a fascination with the crucifixion. Sometimes they'll come close to a village, inching along on those long fingers and toes, and try to lure out a priest to talk to them.

>You have to understand is it's not your wife, your husband. The thing gets into the ground and inside of them, makes them move again. It's not hair - how could hair grow that long? You have to cut it out of the corpse. Get that long strand and follow it back to the beast in the earth.

For the most part, the very basic fey creature is almost indistinguishable from an insect as the most numerous are the faeries and nymphs which usually measure no longer then a person's hand at best.

The oldes fey creatures do tend to gain human like intelligence but have utterly alien minds and there fore can easily twist and misundertand things that they learn and come across which is only exaggerated by their powers of manipulating perception and illusions. In this case they can and do mold themselves on things they find interesting or simply resonate with hence the varied appereances they assume

The unseelie are cruel and delight in making mortals suffer while coming up with thinly veiled reasons to mock their seelie brethren and see if the mortals will try to pay amends.

The seelie are benevolent as long as you don't offend them in some way and will punish mortals in ironic ways.