Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Pixie

I could have sworn the Pixie was a Tiny creature and had a bunch of mental material prepared in order to make fun of their tiny toothpick arrows. After learning to read, we find that the pixie is a Small Fey creature of the Sprite variety. This largely just means they use Primal illusion-based spells, and taking a cursory look at their features, that's more or less what you get.

That isn't to say the pixie doesn't pack a punch. Their best tool is undoubtedly Sprinkle Pixie Dust, which basically makes a pixie a crowd-control-only ranged Magus (except it only does the effect instead of dealing damage, but you get me). Customize this feature a bit, add some other crowd control or mental/nonlethal effects and you've got a potent salvo of fey debilitations coming in from 100 feet easy.

If your party is full of murderhobos, this little trickster has a pretty good chance of getting away due to the sheer number of effects its Pixie Dust can imbue upon its arrows (assuming it gets a turn). That shouldn't be a problem, though. Did I forget to mention it's an intelligent creature that can fly? It can be permanently invisible, even when it's attacking. Oh, also, its default attack has a range increment of 100 feet. And it's a level-4 creature. You do the math.

The pixie is a potent combatant to be sure. If the pixie gets into a fight that isn't in an enclosed space, it's going to have a massive advantage. Make sure you take that into account before you pit a bunch of them against your party and make the murderhobos roleplay losing 5+ minutes of their memory.

- TJ

Hook 1 (Nemanja) - The Twins of Renwood

Two identical pixie twins reside in the Renwoods. One is extremely helpful and is happy to guide anyone who wanders astray through the woods, while the other is a sadist who enjoys feeding would-be adventurers to the many trolls, hydras, and hags that call the woods home. More experienced rangers have learned the trick to differentiate them—the good twin hates sugar and will refuse to eat it, while the evil twin is addicted to it. Hence, anyone venturing into the woods is instructed to bring a sweet roll or two with them...

Hook 2 (Max) - The Ancient Liberator

Towns and villages around Ghastwood are plagued by a curse most eerie. Children are going missing during full moons, and some claim to hear their laughter coming from beneath the dark trees of the ancient forest. None dare enter the wood, however, as no one has ever returned from it.

Some speak of spirits haunting the woods while others think that a ferocious beast lives there. Many say they've seen small eyes glinting in the dark, accompanying the ominous giggling.

Alas, there is no beast or ghost, but an ancient force that lies within Ghastwood, older than any city, one that does not comprehend the human notions of good and evil. The children are inevitably drawn to it, and it offers to free them, turning them into something... new. New, but at the same time very, very ancient. They retain their memories but are freed from the shackles of humanity, as the sovereign of the woods grants them their new forms.

Hook 3 (Reece) - The King of Thorns

The King of Thorns was of the most powerful within the Court of Dark Hearts. Before they were locked away behind the Fallowfield, the fey king reigned havoc both within The Infinite Garden as well as the material plane. His most dangerous skill—the one that gained him the status he held within the Dark Court—was his ability to twist both the ambivalent and beneficent fey into hateful, spite-fueled creatures.

Now, locked away from his access to the majority of The Infinite Garden and his access to the material plane, he instead has taken to corruption of the uncaring pixies that wonder too closely to the Fallowfield. It is said that his touch can already be felt across the land. While most pixies are mischievous though innocuous, the Thorn Pixies have taken to mastering the arts of memory manipulation, which they now are using to sow chaos across the land. From the highest of the nobility to the lowliest of peasants, their false memories have cascading effects that are quickly spiraling toward outright civil war. Families turned against one another, friends against friends and lovers against lovers, all on the falsehoods The King of Thorns instructs them to craft.

Biding his time, the chaos has created an opening from which The King of Thorns can escape—some villagers have begun to beseech fey beings for a reprieve from the chaos, and The King is happy to oblige... For a price.

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