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Wolfgang · Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:25 pm Post subject:

Court of the Shadow Fey
by Wolfgang Baur
System: 4th Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Level: Paragon Tier
Length: 50,000 words minimum
Setting: Zobeck

The shadow fey have long been considered a threat to more civilized creatures: cruel, capricious, and utterly without remorse, they go where they please and do what they will with little regard for the consequences. Now the shadow fey ambassador has claimed the city as a fiefdom of the Shadow Court, and he listens to no one who claims otherwise. "Speak with the Queen if you must complain," offers the ambassador.

The party visits the Plane of Shadow and becomes embroiled in deadly slaughter, dueling, attempted assassinations, and infiltration of the Queen's bedchamber to defeat the Queen of Night and Magic and her Moonlit King. The two fey have threatened to vastly expand their hold on the material plane, and are gathering planar allies from demons to liches.

This planar adventure includes at least a half-dozen Shadow planar locations, new brute and lurker fey, as well as riddle and trickery encounters, and a shadow fey PC race.

Planar: At the patron's option, the opening sequence requires a bit of planar journeying – such as visiting the Sun God for help, smiting down a demon friend of the Court, or unraveling some planar wards.

Social: Other encounters involve disguises and court politics around figures such as the Blind Seer and the Black Prince. The party will find false friends and make uneasy alliances. ("Should we really be bargaining with this twisted servant of evil?"). The adventure includes direct combat as well as pure stealth, bargains, demonic binding, and other skill challenges.

Combat: A portion of it requires fighting the unique Shadow monstrosities that lie just behind every patch of darkness: the Snake-Godling of the Grave to the Black Crone and the million-footed Lord of Roaches (Akyishigal from Kobold Quarterly #8). Perhaps they are nightmares and illusions. They are certainly deadly enough…

Layers of dark fey nastiness present the party with some tough trade-offs throughout the adventure; they may arrive as ambassadors or attempt to achieve their goals by force, but either way, it's not always clear who to bribe to get the fey to relinquish their claim.

Finale: Duel with King and Queen
In the grand finale, the party defeats the Queen and her Moonlit King or their champion in a major dueling scene. The Moonlit King is a shadow fey master of the blade; his Queen is a shadow fey sorceress.

Having gotten the fey royals to relinquish their claim, the PCs then must flee the wrath and wreckage of the shadow plane, scarred by the price of the high magic they invoked.

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Wolfgang Baur is the founder of Open Design and the publisher of Kobold Quarterly magazine. He is the co-author of the Dark*Matter campaign setting, the Wrath of the River King patron adventure, the Empire of the Ghouls patron adventure, various Pathfinder adventures, and a number of Planescape and Al-Qadim sourcebooks.