Gimmerling

 The Gimmerling is a creature that sees use in many different ways. As with other creatures that have shape-changing capabilities, you may be drawn to use a gimmerling (or more than one) as a "gotcha" while your players are on some higher level adventure through the fey world. Unlike many other fey creatures, a gimmerling is threatening enough to serve as a final boss of sorts for lower level parties. Its battlefield control through Treacherous Aura and Trip Up can wreak havoc on melee characters.

Even against as a (-2) or more creature, the gimmerling can be employed with traps, snares and the like in order to take full advantage of Trickster's Step. and remain relevant after level 15. Their powerful handcrossbow attacks and jaw poison are great ways to harry a group down while always staying just far enough out of reach to remain a nuisance.

Although they are evil, they may serve as an equally interesting narrative counterpart as well. High Crafting, Deception, Stealth, and Thievery skills can make a gimmerling a crafty and devious foe. Should you find something sufficiently worth their interest, though, you could find yourself with a powerful (and more-than-likely dangerous) magical item or ally.

Hook 1 (Max) - Merchant's Trappings

Great treasure lays in the ruins of the nearby castle. Allegedly. A lot of people went after it and never came back, so there's probably at least their possessions to be taken. Most likely.

The merchant who talks of the riches sits in the local tavern, a hearty man of middling age, who wouldn't hurt a fly.

It seems.

He is, in fact, the reason why no one comes back from the ruins. Not that he dirties his hands, not directly. He just... Appears, typically as a scantily clad woman, baiting intrepid adventurers into a labyrinth of carefully lain traps that only he can navigate. There's a lot of traps there. A ridiculous amount, quite honestly. Most of them don't make any logical sense. Like, why would you fill a room with water every time someone steps into it? Or make a twelve lever puzzle that sends you into a spike pit after you solve it? Or a chasm that you can walk over, but only if you do it backwards while dancing, and the only reward on the other end is an invisible skeleton?

It could be that he just enjoys making traps. It is a strong possibility. Probably.

Hook 2 (Nemanja) - The Coward's Way

The Snickerjaws, a local tribe of Kobolds, have grown from a minor nuisance to one of the most prolific factions in the lawless Tricrown Hills area. The change wasn't a slow one either; it seemed to happen practically overnight.

The Snickerjaws were always regarded as good trappers. While they were once effective, their tactics became common knowledge among neighbouring people, at least until a recent dramatic increase in the quality and ingenuity of their traps. The reason for this is simple; The Snickerjaw chieftain entered a partnership with a gimmerling inventor. The gimmerling is a coward who enjoys the pain his complex and brutal traps cause, though he is afraid of going out into the warzone to set them up, as it is contested by at least five different factions, in addition to one very spiteful demigod. The kobolds, in turn, are well versed in setting traps right under their enemies' noses, so they are delighted to be given a new advantage in the unfolding conflict.

Hook 3 (Reece) - Devil's Conundrum

It is said that Fegerdal Fingermaster is one of the greatest magical smiths across any known plane. Even among his gimmerling kin, the blades he forges are imbued with powerful fey magicks. Though he is a master craftsman, he is equally prone to outbursts of anger which make him incredibly difficult to work with. Should one be able to enlist his services to forge a weapon, any small slight or misstep can result in Fegerdal deciding to forgo his end of the bargain, noting the contract for his service has been voided.

A dispute of this kind is what requires your express assistance. Shybrandila Shiver-Tongue, a contract devil of some importance, bartered on behalf of her lord for a new powerful blade. When the gimmerling smith took offense at some minor slight during the final transaction, Fegerdal stated their business was concluded and had his apprentices escort her from his realm.

Too embarrassed to tell her lord what has occurred, Shybrandila has asked for your help in retrieving the blade by any means necessary. Infiltrating the fey workshop could prove difficult, especially given Fegerdal's penchant for devious and murderous contraptions.