Sprite

Ecology of The

Venture not into the Hierophant’s grove. They say that faeries dwell there. You laugh, but you
won’t once the sprites’ arrows put ye to rest. If they find you wicked, you may wake up in the den
of the Hierophant’s more dangerous creatures, or you may not wake up at all.

-Oswald Inverness, renowned sellsword

Introduction

Faeries, not fairies, the sprites are fierce protectors, judges, and warriors of their woodland and
meadow homes. With their innate invisibility, they silently watch as each individual passes near
or through their sacred territory, tiny short swords or shortbows at the ready. They tolerate only
those who are truly good and respect the forest. One wrong move and their poisoned arrows will
surely put the trespasser to sleep. From there the sprites have complete control. Those offensive
to their way of life are killed in their sleep, while those who are ignorant but have potential to
learn to respect the woods, are simply moved to a more or less safe area.

Physiological Observations

Sprites are tiny flying humanoids that sport a variety of wings. Most common are dragonfly
wings, in the standard 4-wing formation. Those sprites that dwell in the deep wood however
have moth-like wings in intricate patterns of white, brown, and grey. Archdruid Arenduil of the
Deepspawn Dredges claims that there are even subterranean sprites, which she describes as
having bat-like wings, but I have not been able to substantiate this report. Sea sprites are
wingless and flightless, and tend to keep to coral reefs.

All sprites have what may be described elf-like features (long face, high cheekbones, pointy ears,
all that). Although it may be more accurate to state that elves have sprite-like features as elves
have Fey ancestry, but sprites are Faeries.

Social Observations

For all creatures of the Fey, the figurative is the literal, and much thought goes into their naming
conventions. Sprites are not named in life until they have done something name-worthy. This
name determines a great part of their life’s path. For example a sprite that takes to running ahead
of her elders, will be named Quella, which is Sylvan for forward or scout, and will have the task
of scouting. If this Quella wanted to be a spear-wielding Sprite, she would need to earn the name
Elga or Oda which are the Sylvan words for spear.
Incidentally, only those Sprites named Averon, Wenric, and Oberon (for the males) or Averna,
Wenrid, and Obrea (for the females) can be the leaders of sprite tribes, for these names are all
variants on leader, king, or ruler in Sylvan.

There is a complex election ritual to determine who will rule each tribe. This ritual is always 1
contender against the 1 incumbent. The contender must publically register his complaints in the
form of free verse poetry. Each stanza thematically represents one formal complaint, and must be
matched by 1 trial. For example, if Wenrid contests the rulership of Wenric, and includes a
stanza on Wenric’s cowardliness, then there must be a contest of bravery. Legends tell of poems
with 101 stanzas and thus 101 different trials. From my own observations, I have determined that
the longer the ceremony the more sprites respect and follow the new leader, if she actually does
win the various trials. If there is a contest without a clear winner, a new tribe emerges.

For all this ceremony, a tribal leader has few if any real responsibilities. All sprites lead self-
determined lives. No sprite waits for a command to drive out violence and evil from their grove,
for such commands are not needed and are never issued. Instead, the leader of a tribe of sprites is
in charge of communicating with local druids and elven villages in times of need.

Like many Fey creatures, sprites love festivities. They can, if they want to, be seen on nights of
the full moon reveling in drink and song. It is considered an honor to be invited to another clan’s
full moon party. Their love of drink is indiscriminate. They love wine as much as elves, and ale
as much as dwarves. If a party has a good-aligned bard in their midst, a sprite is much more
likely to allow them safe passage through their meadow, but it may cost a song or two.

Behavioral Observations

Sprites spend most of their days perfectly invisible, following any intruders into their lands,
learning their heart’s desire. Once a sprite has determined the individual as an enemy, harmless,
or potentially helpful he acts accordingly. Enemies are put to sleep with their poisoned arrows
and immediately slain, harmless individuals are also put to sleep and then moved away from
their lands, while potentially helpful individuals may be contacted for help or left unmolested.

Courtesan Seovin, an elf adventurer and mycologist with a strange connection to the archfey, has
published his research on the sprite’s sleep poison. Derived from the rare yellow-staining
milkcap mushroom (Lactarius vinaceorufescens), he calls it an “ointment” because poison is
something cruel and vile to the Fey. To make this ointment, the mushrooms must be harvested
and left to cure in the sun for one week and one day. Sprites either hide these mushrooms in tree
stumps in meadows, using some sort of basic illusionary magic no doubt, or high atop trees.
Once cured, sprites that specialize in ointment extraction then cook the mushrooms in a
mysterious concoction, making a sticky savory yellow syrup that causes a deep, dreamless sleep.
All arrows in a sprites quiver are coated in this ointment.

Inter-Species Observations

Shy toward other intelligent creatures, sprites mostly avoid contact altogether. They are most
contented among their own kind or among other fey. The notable exception is the noble treant.
Sprites have been known to form their groves around a willing treant. Druids of all races are also
highly respected by sprites, so long as they have good hearts. Some druids who are in the Circle
of the Land have reported that sprites are known to occasionally help aspirants and initiates learn
the druidic arts.

When the full moon coincides with either the solstices or the equinoxes, sprites join their
festivities with satyrs and pixies. These woodland parties are known to last for several days.

Although sprites are stout-hearted warriors, evil creatures with an immunity to poison –undead,
demons, and devils – strike fear into tribes. Robbed of their main defense mechanism, sprites
stay invisible, and seek help from elves, druids, or nearby adventurers.

DM’s Toolkit

Sprites can be added to a large variety of campaigns, regardless of setting or tone, or party
makeup.

Sprites as quest-givers

 If you have an archfey pact warlock, then a sprite might be able to indicate what the
patron wishes the PC/party do in a given situation.
 If you have a paladin of the ancients, then a sprite might be a sort of mysterious guardian
that gives the paladin quest information.
 If the PCs are traveling through some dense woods and are lost, the sprites could show
them the way, if they defeat a demon that is near their grove first.
 If you or your players want to explore the possibilities of the Feywild, I’m sure the area
sprites would know the best way to get in, and would only give this information to
worthy adventurers who collect their mushrooms for them in a dangerous part of the
woods.
 There are several examples in D&D lore wherein characters can use a special kind of
wish magic. For instance, if your PCs reach the Infinite Staircase, they can find their
heart’s true desire if they follow the path to their destined door. A sprite could tell that PC
what is truly their heart’s desire, for a cost though I’m sure.

Sprites as antagonists

 If you have characters who attack first and don’t engage with NPCs, then sprites could be
a revelatory encounter. First, they would be judged for their past actions, showing the
PCs that their actions have consequences. Second, they’d be put to sleep and brought to a
dangerous part of the woods.
 If your players are seeking an item or artifact in the woods, perhaps it’s sacred to the
sprites, and they don’t want to give it up. It would certainly be challenging to make
progress and then suddenly be put asleep, only to wake up in some unknown part of the
forest.
  If the sprites are doing a lot of mushroom harvesting, maybe it’s causing a problem with
the local myconid population.

Varieties of Sprites

 Deepwood Sprite: wings of a moth, harsher in their judgment, less prone to revelry
 Water Sprite: wingless, stay in coral reef areas, poisonous javelins (anemone poison
instead of mushrooms)
 Cave Sprite: wings of a bat, darkvision, armed with poisonous darts in their blowguns

Thanks to u/duskbrood who was an inspiration to this Ecology post. Definitely check out these
posts for more information on faeriekind.

Blue/Orange morality and RPGs: Thoughts

on the thoughts of Fae, Old Ones, Gods, and
Cats. Part 2: The Fae
Resources

“The noise was deafening, and no one could have heard me anyway as I let out my own battle
cry, which I figured was worth a shot. What the hell. "I DON'T BELIEVE IN FAERIES!” - Jim
Butcher, Summer Knight

[Blue/Orange morality] (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality)

is a particular thought in the field of fiction, particularly science fiction, which attempts to
explain the thoughts and behaviors of truly foreign entities. The idea is that some beings may
commit acts we consider heinous without batting an eyelash, because their morality does not
align with ours in any way, shape or form. To them, murder could be about as morally
incorrigible as tying your shoes, but raising your left hand when speaking is the most heinous of
crimes. Examples in Popular fiction include Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Reapers
in Mass Effect 3, and the society in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

This same kind of idea comes up semi-regularly in RPGs, but without much thought devoted to
it. Yet, more and more (especially with 5e Warlocks being so popular), it becomes necessary to
think about, and discuss how such beings would interact with humanity (also dwarfity, and
elveny). While it is up for much debate as to exactly what beings qualify, it will help to start with
3 common ones, and how we might be able to more effectively apply them in our games. We've
already discussed The Great Old Ones, and we'll leave the gods for a brighter day, so today we
will discuss Faeries (or Fairies, or The Fae, or The Fair Folk, or whatever you want, apparently,
so long as it starts with an "F").
It got cut off in the last post, so I'll put it at the beginning this time. The purpose of these is to
provide a foundation for discussion. There are lots of thoughts on Alien morality, and displaying
it in gaming, and I am just one DM. Also, note due to time/space limitations, I won't be writing
about Fae Courts or politics, just their morality. If y'all want, I can do one on Fae Politics, but it'll
be its own post entirely.

This write-up includes the following sections:

 History
 Morality / Worldview
 Typical Traits and Weaknesses
 References / Further Reading

History

Fairies are old. While the Fae we usually think of have their roots in [Celtic Mythology]
(http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/), particularly Irish, most civilizations have had
at least one being that had some resemblance to Fey ( Djinn, in Pre-Islamic Arabic culture, and
[Nymphs] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymph) in Greek mythology spring to mind). In the old
tales, Fairies were both revered and feared, having only a passing idea of human morality. They
were depicted as [Stealing children from their cribs and replacing them with changelings]
(http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/changeling.html), [messing with your timeline]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ois%C3%ADn), and God help you if you ever messed up a [Fairy
Fort] (https://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=DLmoKKkxAX0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA199&dq=%22Fairy+Fort
%22&ots=XAjNNLwfxm&sig=78D25tUjuU2r572ZmKsgl6FzgnE#v=onepage&q=%22Fairy
%20Fort%22&f=false). At the same time, they were known for helping those who helped them,
as in the story of [John Hanifin] (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/tfgw/tfgw03.htm).

After the Christianization of the old Celtic Ways, fairies began to soften. Probably starting with
[William Shakespeare] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream), Fae
began to be less and less malicious, taking on the appearance of the bright, happy figures who
generally wanted to help people. These are the fairy tales most of us were raised on. This is the
age of Tinkerbell, and will not be the fairies talked about later. As an aside, though you are
welcome to portray them as so, in the original tales, Fairies never had wings either.

Starting in about the 1980's, and popularized by their depiction in Neil Gaiman's Sandman
graphic novels, the Fae began to take back on their old form. This trend has continued through
the past 30 or so years, and a list of recommended modern novels/stories is included in the
references section.

A final aside on history. While we all know the PHB says Elves are Fey (Or at least have Fey
Ancestry), it is worth noting that the Elves are drawn from Tolkien, who drew them largely from
Norse mythology, where they have a host of traits different from the Fey we will be describing.
Morality / Worldview

At last, ~2,500 words later, we've reached the section I originally intended to write when I first
typed the words Blue/Orange morality into a Reddit post title. Fey morality is alien. Not
different, not difficult to understand, completely and utterly alien from our own. Too often, I see
DMs take one of two approaches to depicting Fae in their games. Either their actions are
completely random, having no basis in any sort of moral system, or else they're beholden to our
own morality, and Summer Court Fae are described as good, while Winter Court are evil (Quick
side note: If you want to base yours on the old Norse mythology, instead of the celtic, this is
actually pretty much the way to go). While this is fine, and works OK for short games and side
appearances, I feel you miss a lot of opportunity and depth by depicting them this way. They
aren't random, at least not to themselves, and the Summer Court is just as capable of committing
heinous acts as the Winter.

So, how do we go about depicting alien morality? Much to our chagrin, as DMs we are still
humans, and thus incapable of thinking truly outside of a human framework. Well, I've been
working on this problem in my own campaign for months, so let's take a walk through my Fey's
moral development and eventually come to a conclusion of a moral system for them. The method
I've taken is a sort of reverse engineering, where we look at a few of the actions of Fae, and then
attempt to impose some sort of motive upon them.

I chose three popular Fae tropes, and analyzed them in order to create a bit of a moral system.
The tropes I chose were:

 Fierce guardians of Fairy Forts, usually described as natural places.

 Stealing children and replacing them with Changeling Duplicates
 Apparently arbitrary changes of allegiance or attitude, betraying centuries old alliances
on a whim, or siding with old enemies without a second thought.

(Sorry no links for those, they're all in the Yeats referenced at the bottom)

From these I decided Fairies had the following qualities:

 Fierce guardianship of Nature.

 A sense of fairness that doesn't need to be agreed upon by both parties
 Love of Spontaneity.

Which when translated into moral statements looked a little something like this:

 We are simply another part of nature, to do anything but accept your place on the food
chain is heinous.
 All deals and trades must be equal.
 It is best and greatest to do that which is dramatic for the moment, to stick to a plan or
side even when it becomes uninteresting is heinous.
So, I have my three moral qualities. Here's where the old school alignment system comes in
handy. While outdated for PCs or even NPCs individually because of variance, when describing
the general tendency of a race, it works perfectly, and is handy for making quick approximations
when I need to make a moral decision based on a morality that is so alien to me. Now, the second
one is more of a twisting of a supernatural Law fairies are bound by, so I decided to make Axes
out of the first two. The easiest to translate to an axis is the third, so we'll start there, replacing
Law/Chaos, with Spontaneous/Methodical. A spontaneous character would value doing whatever
is most interesting or dramatic for the moment, believing the future is an illusion and that
planning is an act of arrogance, assuming that you can control the future for farther than you
have any right to, while a methodical character would view the spontaneous as destructive and
risky, Methodical fae would more resemble those like Oberon, hatching thousand year schemes.

Finally we look at the first moral statement "We are a part of nature, another part of the food
chain", and come up with the following axis change from Good/Evil to Natural/Constructed. Just
as Law/Chaos is less wide than Good/Evil in terms of describing general action, so too is
Natural/Constructed longer than Spontaneous/Methodical. The Natural believes that everything
is simply another part of nature, and that we should exist within it's boundaries and find our own
place in the food chain. This does not preclude living in a city. A Natural aligned city-dweller
would simply see it as another habitat, and attempt to figure out their own place within the
habitat, not trying to upset the 'natural balance' of the city too much. At the other end of the
spectrum comes the Constructed. A constructed aligned character sees himself/herself as the
apex predator. Feels that we have outgrown the need for nature, and that now it is just another
resource for us to use. The constructed creature loves the artificial, both metaphorically and
physically. This comes down to almost a view of Destiny vs. Autonomy. The constructed will
always see himself/herself as autonomous, living in the same city, a poor born Natural aligned
will seek ways to fit into, and survive the situation of their birth, where a Constructed aligned
will always seek to rise above, and upset the order of the city in any way they need to to do so.

While this is just my interpretation, and my method, it's been quite effective in my games. Of
course, you could take any traits you want from the Fae, and reverse engineer them into a
morality, so mine is individual, and I encourage you to create your own, or post on your ideas on
how to do some Blue/Orange morality.

Typical Traits/Weaknesses

Before I go, I'd like to go on a small tangent, and discuss some of the common tropes/traits of
Fae for those planning to use them in their game who might not be aware of them. If you notice
that a lot of these seem to be the same as demons, please remember that a lot of the traits
Christians and others developed for demons were originally based on the Fairies.

 Weakness to Iron - This is a big one that I generally recommend changing. Fae in
almost all Celtic myth are weak to Iron, or cannot pass over it. I'd recommend changing
this to a special type of Iron in your game, perhaps one that's difficult to get. Otherwise,
the party is going to be walking around essentially carrying Fae kryptonite all of the time.
  Inability to tell a direct lie - This one's fun. Fae cannot directly lie. This does not mean,
in any way, they have to tell the truth though. They are almost as famous as Djinn or
Devils for twisting words, telling half-truths, or bending interpretation.
 Dealmakers - Oh yes. The Fae are fond of deals with humans. Usually ones that human
thinks is beneficial to them, but actually winds up only benefiting the Fae do to a trick of
wording. These deals are usually magically bound, and hell will be wreaked upon the
human that doesn't uphold their end.
 True Name - Here's one pretty unique to Fairies. In a lot of the old tales, Fae have a
common name, and a True Name. Learning/Invoking the True Name will summon the
fairy to you, and usually bind it to your will. This could make a fun sidequest, or just a
way to set up a Patronship.
 Must be Invited - In the really Old Tales, Fae were like Vampires, they actually had to
be invited in.
 Curious - In many, many tales, the Fae aren't actually malevolent towards humanity, so
much as they are fascinated/confused by them. They want to know how humans work,
and have their own methods of getting about figuring it out.

Conclusion

Ok, I could write about Fae all day, but I tried to keep this as brief as I could. There's a lot I left
out, so please add to the discussion in the comments. How have you used Fae? What
traits/morals did you put on them? Any interesting stories about a Fae patron screwing the party
over?

References / Further Reading

Old Fairie Tales:

 W.B Yeats - [Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland] (http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tales-

Ireland-William-Butler/dp/0684829525) - The Holy Grail of Fairy Books, Yeats was one
of the most renowned poets in the world, and did a pretty comprehensive job here.
 Jeremiah Curtin - [Irish Fairy Tales] (http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/201246577042?
lpid=82&chn=ps) - A fantastic book full of unconventional stories told firsthand to Mr.
Curtin during his travels.
 Katharine Briggs - [An Encyclopedia of Fairies] (http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-
Fairies-Hobgoblins-Supernatural-Creatures/dp/039473467X) - Kind of like a Monster
Manual for real life. This thing is that comprehensive.

Modern Interpretations:

 Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files - Probably the most popular Urban Fantasy series of our
day, and for good reason. Check out the Book "Summer Knight" in particular for Fairies.
 Patrick Rothfuss The Name of The Wind - Bast is terrifying. Truly, Truly terrifying.
  Neil Gaiman Sandman Chronicles - A modern Classic, Gaiman is always a great resource
of interesting interpretations on mythology. Particularly check out the Collected Volumes
numer 3: Dream Country for depictions of Fae.

Blue/Orange Morality in RPGs Part 2.5: Fae

as Patron
Resources

What do you mean she won't take the flowers?

She asked for only the purple ones, you brought a bunch of yellow ones along with. She says
they're all tainted now. Furthermore, you forgot to count the petals, there are a bunch with more
than 4

Shit.... Anyone remember to bring that nail we picked up a while back? This is about to get
ugly... - Last exchange between my player and her Faerie Godmother

This is not a real post. This is only an interlude. Last post, we introduced fairies, discussed some
of their history, major qualities, and derived a sample morality for them. Well, that's great and
all, but how do we use the Fae in game? Do they work best as NPC, Villain, or just distant
patron?

The short answer is yes. Today, we're going to examine the Fey with a more practical focus on
putting them in game. Originally I was going to focus on all three uses of Individual Fey in the
Game (Patron, Villain, General NPC), but I've unfortunately come very close to character limit
in my typing out the Patron, so we'll save the Villains and General NPC parts for later.

Things I will cover in this post:

 Brief summary of the Morality and qualities of Fae assumed in this post.
 Use of Fae as Patron
 Further Further Reading

Things for later posts:

 Fae: History and Forms (Earth history, covering different forms/traits throughout
mythology in a few different cultures)
 Fae politics
 The Feywild
 Fae: Types and Hierarchy (In-game)
  Fae as Villain and NPC

Today, we're purely focusing on how a being possessed of the assumed qualities would interact
with the party on an individual basis. As always, please comment, discuss, and add.

Brief Recap

Last time, we talked a lot about qualities and morality of the Fae, so before we begin, let's recap.

Faeries here have the following qualities:

 Weakness To Iron
 Inability to Tell a direct lie
 A True Name
 Curious about Humanity
 Treat symbolic things (Such as courtesy, greetings, etc.) as tangibly real.
 Entrapment (Accept a gift from a Fae, you are either trap in that fae's land, or in some
way bound to it.

Furthermore, we're going to replace the good/evil axis with something similar to this (thanks to
/u/Gypsy_Cowboy):

FEY NATURE Spontaneous Methodical

everything is simply another part of
nature, and we should exist within
Natural Puck Oberon
it's boundaries and find our own
place in the food chain
sees himself/herself as the apex
predator,loves the artificial, both
Constructed Felurian Bast
metaphorically and physically, all
deals must be equal
value doing whatever spontaneous is
is most interesting or destructive and risky,
dramatic for the the long game is the
moment only game

Fae as Patron

Now, let's get into the meat. Let's talk about some ideas on how to work the Fae as a Patron.

At character creation

Make sure you're talking with your player. How are they involved with the Fae? Make sure they
recognize this as a dangerous proposition, but not without its benefits. Popular ideas include:
  "The Faerie Godmother" -the parents made a pact with the Fae to look after their child at
birth
 "The Binding" - the character stumbles upon the True Name of a Faerie, and in some way
coerces it into giving him a measure of its power
 "Clericlock" - the Warlock genuinely worships the Fae the way we would some sort of
nature god.
 "The Keep it in your pants" - Mortal falls for Fae because of unearthly beauty, Fae
reciprocates (as much as fae are capable of), bestowing power.
 "The Deal" - Kind of like a Genie deal, the Warlock agrees to do some services for the
Fae, the Fae agrees to grant a measure of the power.

The thing to remember here is that the Fae will always think they're getting out ahead (and
they're usually right), whatever the reward, the risks are never worth it.

After you've gotten your players side of the backstory, you need to create their Fae's side.
Ideally, your player doesn't know about this anymore than their character does.

Quick Guide to Fae Patron Creation:

1. Choose alignment (For any examples I'm need later, I'll be using a
Methodical/Constructed Fae)
2. Choose grand goal. This probably won't have anything really to do with your player. The
Warlock is just another piece in whatever game the Fae is playing. Usually, this will be
something to do with Fae politics, but it can be whatever you want.
3. Create 10 or more steps to get that goal. If you're using a spontaneous fairie, just 10 or
more things they want. These should vary greatly in size and difficulty.
4. Pick one at random and give that to player as first "Patron Task."

By doing this, you give the player the sense of how alien the Fae is. As in my introduction
example, it could be something that would seem completely arbitrary and nonsensical, because
they aren't seeing the whole plan. Leave the player confused and guessing at what it is the Fae is
trying to do, up until the last moment.

Taking advantage of your player

Ok, the title there sounds mean, but it's kind of true. Fiends make deals because they get the soul
in the end, GOOs make deals because either they don't realize it's happened, or it's their only way
to get what they want, Fae make deals because they'll benefit from it. If the player has a Faerie
Godmother, S/he will probably see the Player as property, to be used and disposed of at will, if
the Player bound a Faerie, she'll be trying to get free (Fae don't take kindly to having their True
Name used. Seriously, read the Yates from the last post. It never ends well.), if the Fae is a lover,
s/he will have odd ideas on what their responsibilities and duties to each other are, as well as
what a "gesture of affection" means. Don't be cruel or unfair here, but make sure the player feels
the weight of the deal they've taken.

Interaction
In my opinion, Fae are the most active of patrons. They're the closest to mortals, and tend to have
the most vested short-term interest in what the Warlock's up to. Seeing the Fae patron should be
a pretty regular occurrence. Popping up to make demands, offer "assistance", or just generally
make the party feel a little uncomfortable. If you say they see a shimmering begin in the air, and
the entire party collectively sighs, you're doing it right.

As a general rule, Faeries always show up at the worst possible time, when they need to make a
demand. Just finished a boss fight, everyone low on HP? Guess who needs you to go do
something.

Further, the Fae should always be looking to add more leverage, when the party doesn't have
much of a choice. Say everyone's out of spells, and the Fighter goes down. Have the Fae show
up, offer to heal the Fighter... and she's so nice about it, she'll just add it to the Warlock's tab.
Remember, these are smart creatures, and much more accustomed to deviousness than most
humans. They're not going in unless they have the advantage.

Remember Fae are curious, and generally don't quite understand humans. For added fun, have
the patron talk to other members of the party, asking questions about everything they do (In
particular, my Fae at least can't wrap their heads around the idea of "Gods", and think most
Clerics and Paladins are off their rocker). This should be further reinforced by a strict adherence
to greetings. To a Fey, Symbolism is reality, so one party member not bowing in greeting could
feel like a literal slap in the face, and displaying Iron around them would be like sticking a
loaded gun in someone's face. Players should always be on their toes when the Fey is around.

Time flows differently in the Feywild. Play with this both ways for maximum effect. Have the
Fey say she'll "be right back" when agreeing to help with something, only to have her return
months later, and later on have her give them a quest, only to return moments later enraged it
hasn't been completed yet.

Finally, a note on speech. Fae don't speak simply, or else they speak too simply. This is what
makes them a little difficult to NPC. Every word out of a Fae's mouth can be interpreted 3 ways,
and it's up the party/Warlock to figure out which one she meant. They also cannot lie, but this
doesn't mean they should ever be truthful. I'm going to recommend the Butcher books
recommended in the last post again here, especially for learning this kind of doublespeak.

None of this is to say that your players shouldn't be able to figure out the Fae. This is why it's
important to have a morality, and remain consistent in your depictions of them. The players
should slowly be able to piece together exactly how to act around the fey, and the exact words
they need to use to get them out of hot water. This is always a great moment of victory for the
players, and let them have it. When, at last, the Fae pops up and the players are on point: Iron put
away, words at the ready, deal followed to the letter, rather than the spirit, they should feel good.
They might even begin to gain their Patron's respect.

Unintended Consequences
Making a deal with a Fae means more than simply the Patron. It means the character is now tied
to the Fae as a species. This means a link to the Feywild, the WildFey, and whatever rivals their
Patron may have. The Fey can now get to your player, so it's always fun to add Fey encounters to
your random encounter tables for travel and whatnot. A few ideas:

 Run into a group of displacer beasts fighting a pack of blink dogs. If the players defeat
the displacers, the Dogs look at our Warlock and wag their tales expectantly.
 "Why hello there. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Sylandria of the Winter Court. I've
heard you had the terrible misfortune of making a deal with my sister. Allow me to
help....
 Human just escaped from the Feywild. He claims he's been there three weeks, but after a
few moments of discussion, it's clear it has been 300 years.
 "I don't remember this road being so long before... Wait, I don't remember there being
trees inside the city walls either. And why on Earth are they blooming, it's the middle of
winter?"

" A voice comes from behind you 'Welcome home, [WarlockName], I'm so glad you could
finally join us."

Further Further Reading

 Lev Grossman's Magician's Trilogy - The Fey don't really show up until book three, but
there's plenty of Blue/Orange Morality in the First two to warrant the entire trilogy
 Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy - To quote /u/Phosphor_reading "is probably the best
fantasy novel you've never heard of, as well as being one of the best roleplaying sources,
including for Fae, that I have come across in forty years of reading this stuff. If you don't
dive into this and come out the other side wanting to roleplay for about a month straight,
there's something wrong with you."
 Arrowsmith's A Field Guide to the Little People - /u/Phosphor_reading again had to
remind me, but this one's almost as important as the Yates I keep going on about.
 Edmund Spenser's [The Faerie Queene]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene) - Not quite what we're talking about,
but very important, and an interesting take on a nicer Faerie.
 Grimm's Fairy Tales - The most iconic bunch of Fairy Tales, and offers the German
interpretation of Faeries.
 Changeling: The Lost RPG - Can't Beat Old World Of Darkness for juicy setting
information.
 Eoin Colfer's [Artemis Fowl Series] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_Fowl_(series))
- Fantastic read, more of a kid's book, but an interesting idea of Fairy society.
 Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter - One of the most influential pieces of
Fantasy, The depiction of slowing time in this one is absolutely amazing. Recommended
by William Butler Yeats, and our own Hippo.