I need some help with an adventure with Faeries set under water or possibly on an island.

Background: In 492 my PKs baron (Sharp Hill, Jagent County) ended up with Gorlois. He also ended up dead at the Battle of Terrabil. Shortly before the battle, he made two PKs and one NPCK to taken an oath to "take care of my wife and daughter if I should die, and make sure that Evelune gets a honorable marriage. Basically, he saw the writing on the wall and wanted to protect his wife and daughter from the abuse of Good King Uther.

Now, as they were women, the wife and daughter (and the mother of one PK to boot), they were with Igraine at Tintagel, not with the PKs at Terrabil, and the escaped in a ship that has not been seen since.

Now the oathtakers must find the wife and daughter. That will be the main event of 493.


I could just say that they were shipwrecked and taken by an Irish warlord, King Idres, a robber knight or an ill-tempered giant, for a simple adventure with lots of combat (or court, if they are taken by Idres or another powerful nobleman). I might do that, because it's simple and I don't have much time to plan.

But I would prefer to stun my players with an awesome adventure in Faerie, since my campaign so far has been very mundane.

So, the basic premise would be that the Jagent women somehow ended up in Faerie and needs to be rescued. Since Tingagel is close the Isles of Scully and the place were Mannanan has his home in Celtic Mythology, some kind of underwater adventure would be cool. Problem is, I don't have any ideas, nor do I know anything relevant about aquatic Faeries.

Any ideas?

the first aquatic fae that springs to my mind is the Selkie. According to Wikipedia these are mainly in romantic stories. Could be they were seduced by a male selkie, or a husband selkie lost his wife to human male and he kidnapped the wife and daughter as compesation. The PK must find the female selkies skin in order to get the wife and daughter back.
Or maybe to complicate things. The wife is in actuality a selkie.

You could introduce some of the Lovecraftian mythos here, if you had a mind. Maybe some Deep Ones took them for human sacrifice. Of course, to the PENDRAGON mind, these villains would certainly be faerie. That would be a pretty stunning development.

The Isles of Scully could host a community of Deep Ones.

You could lay on the Mythos aspect heavily, or not at all — just use the stories for inspiration and have a really light touch about the origin.

Good luck, and tell us how it goes.


T.

You could introduce some of the Lovecraftian mythos here, if you had a mind. Maybe some Deep Ones took them for human sacrifice. Of course, to the PENDRAGON mind, these villains would certainly be faerie. That would be a pretty stunning development.

You could lay on the Mythos aspect heavily, or not at all — just use the stories for inspiration and have a really light touch about the origin.


This is interesting, because at first glance, the ethos of Arthurian and Lovecraftian literature seems incompatible. That said, I'm intrigued.

I think, were I to work something Lovecraftian in, I would do it in an Arthurian style, which to me is largely allegorical. I would maybe cast the community of Deep Ones in the light of some moral failure. The degeneration of their souls is the reason for the degeneration of their forms (which explains the physical transformation as they reach an age where they have learned right from wrong). I think making a salvation story out of it would detract from the Lovecraftian side of it, but I think there's a lot of potential there.

the first aquatic fae that springs to my mind is the Selkie. According to Wikipedia these are mainly in romantic stories. Could be they were seduced by a male selkie, or a husband selkie lost his wife to human male and he kidnapped the wife and daughter as compesation. The PK must find the female selkies skin in order to get the wife and daughter back.


Good stuff. I was thinking on something more epic, but I will add this to my list of ideas.


Or maybe to complicate things. The wife is in actuality a selkie.

Actually I have been toying with the idea that the wife, which is a sister of Igraine and friend of Ninve, is a selkie/mermeaid/aquatic female entity. But I might want to save that for later (I thinking of a swan-maiden as a wife for a PK).

You could introduce some of the Lovecraftian mythos here, if you had a mind. Maybe some Deep Ones took them for human sacrifice. Of course, to the PENDRAGON mind, these villains would certainly be faerie. That would be a pretty stunning development.

The Isles of Scully could host a community of Deep Ones.

You could lay on the Mythos aspect heavily, or not at all — just use the stories for inspiration and have a really light touch about the origin.

Good luck, and tell us how it goes.

T.


Well, I say - I have been looking at the Scully Ilses - and thinking on Deep Ones. Seeing you write about it, well, I may go this way. I will have to be done quite subtle, or the crossover may become more humorous and scary. Hmm

I think, were I to work something Lovecraftian in, I would do it in an Arthurian style, which to me is largely allegorical. I would maybe cast the community of Deep Ones in the light of some moral failure. The degeneration of their souls is the reason for the degeneration of their forms (which explains the physical transformation as they reach an age where they have learned right from wrong). I think making a salvation story out of it would detract from the Lovecraftian side of it, but I think there's a lot of potential there.


Well, or perhaps it is some kind of Faerie Curse that can be set aright by some moral (say four) upstanding knights? (I have a Heathen PK, so I may not want to make it a Christian Story).

Personally, I would be more inclined to make it a Faerie story than a Lovecraftian one, but that is a stylistic choice; Pendragon is more about the Celtic Mythos than the Cthulhu Mythos for me. :)

Couple of things to consider...

1) Aren't the isles of Scilly supposed to be what is left of Lyonesse, Tristram's homeland?

2) Are you going to treat the underwater world a mere reflection of what lies above (i.e. making it a normal environment by magic) or do you wish to play up the water buoyancy and resistance (maybe use Swimming instead of DX, halve damage unless a thrust while braced)? Faerie knights riding dolphins or even orcas?

3) My players have found that challenging a Faerie King/Queen in his/her own realm is STUPID. So the focus ought to be in finding out how they can get the wife and the daughter back. My first idea whilst reading the premise is that the wife, being connected with Ninive, may have prayed Manannan to save them from a storm. And the issue would be more like convincing Manannan/Faerie King that they are trustworthy people with good intentions (one PK is the son of the wife? That ought to help). And probably that they are powerful enough to protect the women from the wrath of Uther (if any). Maybe a series of tests of character traits and passions, along side with Courtesy and other courtly skills to avoid offending the powerful host?

Personally, I would be more inclined to make it a Faerie story than a Lovecraftian one, but that is a stylistic choice; Pendragon is more about the Celtic Mythos than the Cthulhu Mythos for me. :)

Well, for me too, but they are not species apart in my mind. The Celtic Mythos can be pretty weird, and personally I'm not very fond in the more "elvish" kind of Faeries, the ones who are like Tolkien Elves (or is it the other way around. I want Faerie to be strange and unpredictable and very, very dangerous (for mind and/or body).


1) Aren't the isles of Scilly supposed to be what is left of Lyonesse, Tristram's homeland?

I guess so, but I think there are legends of even more lands further west being drowned.


2) Are you going to treat the underwater world a mere reflection of what lies above (i.e. making it a normal environment by magic) or do you wish to play up the water buoyancy and resistance (maybe use Swimming instead of DX, halve damage unless a thrust while braced)? Faerie knights riding dolphins or even orcas?

Can't decide. The first one is less ridiculous but a bit boring.

One idea I have, is that there are some days the Fairies are over-water and looks beautiful while they are under-water and ugly other days. If there is some curse going on.



3) My players have found that challenging a Faerie King/Queen in his/her own realm is STUPID. So the focus ought to be in finding out how they can get the wife and the daughter back. My first idea whilst reading the premise is that the wife, being connected with Ninive, may have prayed Manannan to save them from a storm. And the issue would be more like convincing Manannan/Faerie King that they are trustworthy people with good intentions (one PK is the son of the wife? That ought to help). And probably that they are powerful enough to protect the women from the wrath of Uther (if any). Maybe a series of tests of character traits and passions, along side with Courtesy and other courtly skills to avoid offending the powerful host?


Well, I would like something on those lines, but I don't have much time to plan this, so I might go with a more violent solution (i.e. fight the hordes of water-goblins/deep ones).

I'm thinking that the Faerie King might have fallen in Love with the wife and/or is enchanted by her singing (I have portrayed her as a frail, sad women who sings like i Siren). In that case the adventure would become one of convincing him to let her go, or that he bargains with them and ask them to do a Deed for her return.

Well, I say - I have been looking at the Scully Ilses - and thinking on Deep Ones. Seeing you write about it, well, I may go this way. I will have to be done quite subtle, or the crossover may become more humorous and scary. Hmm


I did it in my campaign. I had a mound on my wife's PK's estate, that needed some "investigation" after some brigands lead by strange Roman captain in a silver mask tried to break into it. Of course there are tales of buried gold, etc. so it's assumed that's what they were going for. My PK got in and found an ancient tomb, with traps (that had mostly already been tripped by the bandits), a room with grotesque glyph-covered walls and a sarcophagus. The far wall looked like it contained a door that lead deeper into the mound, but the PK wisely decided NOT to go there. PRUDENT check.

But the PK house moved that same year to his new estate, leaving his brother behind as steward to the family manor house. The brother has a 16 Greed and he believes there may be treasure behind that door. I'm rolling on his Greed vs. Prudent every year to see if he'll go down and investigate himself...

I've given my wife every opportunity to prevent something bad from happening — make him swear an oath not to investigate, have the mound sealed up, etc. and she's not taken the hint. Oh, well. I have said that her character's dreams are haunted by that damned door in the Mound.

So, that's it. My wife loves Lovecraft, so she "got it." I don't see it as being particularly antithetical to the Arthurian mythos since Faerie can be just about anything one wants it to be. Lovecraft's mythos can certainly be in that mix, IMO. One doesn't have to be heavy-handed about it. I won't do anything else with this for some time, but it's nice to know this little bit of Mythos can raise it's blasphemous head very now and again if I want it to.


T.

So, that's it. My wife loves Lovecraft, so she "got it." I don't see it as being particularly antithetical to the Arthurian mythos since Faerie can be just about anything one wants it to be. Lovecraft's mythos can certainly be in that mix, IMO. One doesn't have to be heavy-handed about it. I won't do anything else with this for some time, but it's nice to know this little bit of Mythos can raise it's blasphemous head very now and again if I want it to.

Well, that's sums up my own views on the topic pretty well, I think.

I just ran the Adventure of the Deep Ones. It went very well, so thanks for the input.

I have very little time, but will try to write a rapport of the session and post it on the forum.

[quote author=Taliesin link=topic=2132.msg17204#msg17204 date=1388941551]
I just ran the Adventure of the Deep Ones. It went very well, so thanks for the input.

Damn, that was quick!


I have very little time, but will try to write a rapport of the session and post it on the forum.


Aw, man, I'd love to see that. Please do.


T.

Damn, that was quick!


I should probably have mentioned that this help was for my upcoming monday-session. I finished the adventure 18.10, helped my wife to bath the baby (made Child Birth last Winter Phase) and was just in time for the session at 18.30 (it helps having a friend with a good aparment living a three minute walk from home).


Aw, man, I'd love to see that. Please do.

I'll see what I can do :)