Rot of Hiri Handia: Twisting the Knife

Hey folks,

Wondering how I could best weave to threads in my game to better twist the knife against their beliefs.

The wife of one of my character’s is an Elven Fey Queen. Her domain is a small Wilderland court called The Rookery. In the politics of the elves of the land she is kind of like a respected ancient Fairy Queen, rather then a powerful temporal ruler like the Elven Etharch from the Citadel. More Galadriel than Galadriel if you get my meaning. SHE HAS GONE MISSING.

I haven’t really figured out why.

I wanted to tie her disappearance to the Natural calamities facing the region at the moment. PLAGUE AND FAMINE.

The summer was one of drought. Then the human Sorcerer King tried to cast powerful magic to bring rain. The rain never stopped, leadings to flooding and crop spoilage. Rot led to rats, which led to plague.

In despair the Sorcerer King has holed himself up in his Palace tower.

What have we established about the Fey Queen?

  1. She is otherworldly and a little aloof. For example, the pc was Born Citadel >> Wilderlands Spouse>Sword Singer. Implying that she married a teenaged elven boy (the PC) from the citadel and brought him to her forest court. She is much older than he is. So its kind of creepy.
  2. She was abducted in a glade where she had planned to meet her friend Thindan, a noble elven swordsmith from the capital human city who is kind of a rebel. He is married to a dwarven blacksmith and his workshop is a multi-racial factory. Thindan received a messenger pigeon from her ordering him to meet at the glade with a small company of loyal retainers.
  3. She travelled alone. When Thindan showed up she was nowhere in sight and the only clue that something was wrong was that her Long Sword was found discarded in a thicket. He sent a rider to the court with the sword and he returned to the capital to see if she had ttravelled there.
  4. Later when the party was investiaging the glade where they were supposed to have met, a Song of the Arbors spell was cast by my player and the arch fey’s son, Fileg, and many success showed him that she was being dragged away by force by Roden Assassins.
  5. This kidnapping happened around the same time as when the Sorcerer King’s had Sealed himself of in his Tower with a powerful Wizard Lock.
  6. Soon after House Feketes, my other’s PC’s political enemies, took power of the city and declared martial law.
  7. She was not unfriendly to the Sorcerer King. My second PC has beliefs about being a loyal knight to the Sorcerer King and that he has been led astray by the conniving of House Feketes.

So Cool Situation right?

How to Twist the Knife?

Is the Arch Fey/Wife in no danger, and Fileg’s Song of Arbors vision only a half truth, a reflection of the ancient Oak Tree’s perception clouded by Fileg’s desire to strike at any target? I don’t think I should go with this since the intent of Fileg’s Song Of Arbors test was to know what happened and he got like 6 successes.

Or was she indeed abducted and is to be used in a foul sacrifice to try and appease whatever spirits that are causing the natural disasters?

Is House Feketes the villains with the grand plan to sacrifice the fey queen? Or are they ignorant of this kind of deep magical lore stuff about sacrifices and fey queens? I think that for a worldly house of wealthy lords magical lore like this is beyond their purview.

Or has a Roden Cult kidnapped her, because they did not want her to come to the aid of the Sorcerer King. They want to see society crumble. Men dwindle from disease. Elves die from grief and spite. So that they may come out on top?

Maybe they want to use her as ransom to a more powerful force from below like Great Spiders. Or Dark Elves? Or a combination of both!

My favorite angle is that the Roden want to sow chaos. They benefit from getting rid of the Fey Queen. They do not want to see her come to the aid of the Sorcerer King who is obviously in distress. I like that she has an ancient enemy like a Dark Elf who also wants to see the world burn.

For House Feketes, I like that they have nothing to do regarding the Fey Queen. They are very ‘real-politic’ and are just trying to grab power in this time of chaos and weakness in the throne. That’s a good twist for my player because he sees them behind every scandal.

Thoughts?

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I’d want to work out what was going on there. Is it a natural disaster or a garbled transmission? Did the Sorcerer King do this himself or did he fuck up a Summoning?

If you wanna tie the Queen’s abduction into the plagues and famine, the you’d probably want to know what actually caused the plagues and famine.

Yeah, don’t fuck over your player.

Maybe the rains also flooded the Roden’s fields, leading to a great Roden migration into Below and the Society. They might even see the flooding as a religious event, portending the right time to push into the lands of Man and Elf. Maybe they’re right, and the storm was caused by the spirit of a Prophet accidentally summoned by the Sorcerer King. Either way, the Society has pushed its recruitment big time, swiped a powerful political prisoner, and is getting ready to push on their biggest remaining enemy… House Feketes.

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