Thursday 30 November 2017

Faerie War Zone Part 1 Forces of Fey


So i put up a poll on which war zone next and got 50+ replies with faerie winning by a shrinking margin to necromancers. So my format to the war zones is niceley established with a bunch of d10 and d100 tables. Some of these deserve mutation tables.

So Far
Dragonwar
-Dragon Gossip

Future Warzone Current Order
2 Necromancer Invasion - undead and return of the unholy wizards of the eldar age
3 Siege War - stuff to happen during sieges and modern army and merc types
4 Goblinoid invasion - humanoid hordes
Barbarian invasion
Insectoid Invasion - from comments
Chaos - you know the drill
Hell - also handy for my hells project
Old Ones - now your world is screwed
Giants - for when that wall players built in the mountains comes down...
Amphibians -sea monster invasion
Holy Crusade - angels sick of your shit come to punish you all with zealous paladins helping
Dark Eves/Underland - people you didnt even know under your feet
recommendations welcome... should keep me into next year
Xor Invasion

Current Projects into 2018
Currently editing shadel port to be bigger with a hardback book possibly by xmas
Xor mostly needs lots of spells written up (overly ambitious of me) then can get into edit
Shadelport hopefully will fund me art for Xor
Hells will continue to be worked on for my spiral path project at least a year off
Planet Psychon revisions - would be nice to licence some art
More mutations
Lots of elfland and adventures in the world tree stuff - yggdrasil meets magic faraway with dungeons
A revision of my EMO house rules - simplified slightly nasty oldschool clone BX+NWP
Mostly playing cthulhu and possibly a player in some dnd5 but slowly getting some more friends
If there is anything I should be doing let me know cause  recommendations often inspire me lots and can make me pump out stuff for days

Long term potboilers
Ive long dreamed of a babylonian historic BRP or DND game
-lease look and learn archives and historic clip art
A SF setting and a superhero vs cthulhu espionage setting
-id like BRP or someone pay me or a licence free version
-chaosium have stopped being embarsing even though i dont love all new decisions
Patreon with a monthly compilation PDF or adventure zine

War Zone Typical Descriptors
d10 What Started war?
d10 Objectives of invaders?
d10 What ends war?
d10 Factions/Goals/Events
Forces of the war
d100 Encounters - Combat encounters on the road or countryside during the war
d100 Wonders - spectacles, events and encounters but not necessarily combat
d100 Gossip - to cover wild stories of atrocities, failure and propaganda among the common folk
d100 Loot - particular goods flooding the market during the invasion

Faerie War Zone Part 1
All wars are a mess but faerie wars are the worst. Faeries are not nice, weap, puny or rare. They are spiteful, boil up hordes from nowhere, use magic and leave the land cursed and dangerous. When the faerie war ends the landscape is changed and unrecognisable. The human survivors are changed forever. You can't retaliate against infinity and it can vanish without a trace when it chooses taking all your children.

d10 What Started war?
1 Humans cut down sacred trees
2 A human hero stole a elfmaid
3 Humans killed too many unicorns
4 Humans settled on land belonging to elves withou knowing
5 Humans raided a elf farm killing and looting
6 Humans started a forest fire
7 Humans refused to return a elf relic
8 Humans attacked a elf castle out of ignorance
9 Human villagers killed changeling babies left in their care
10 Humans attacked a dryad grove and burned it down

d10 Objectives of invaders?
1 To punish humanity for greed and development
2 To make sure humans never cause trouble again
3 T0 restore the natural balance
4 To heal humans of their many maladies
5 To cull human numbers for they are a pestilence on nature
6 To restore ancient forests for sylvan beings
7 To relieve boredom
8 To take slaves away to fairyland forever
9 To conquer humanity and control their rampant overbreeding
10 To teach humans respect

d10 What ends war?
1 Faerie just vanish with no explanation 
2 Planted enough fast growing forests for now
3 Satisfactory amount of death and mayhem
4 Bored and end war on a whim
5 Left thousands of changeling babies among human kind
6 Their honour is satisfied 
7 A treaty is sworn by leaders
8 A great wasteland is left and faerie lose interest
9 Seasonal change and faerie moods change at a whim
10 Faeries have change of heart and sick of war

d10 Faction events1 Human commoners aid the faerie who treat them better than nobility
2 Human slaves escape elfland to aid and advise humans
3 Faerie use of werewolves spread out of control lycanthropes
4 Faerie factions help humans escape wrath of faerieland
5 Dark elves raise huge horde of undead that rampage mindlessly
6 Centaurs rampage from the forests and mountains to take advantage of chaos
7 Satyrs run amok stealing women and booze from both sides
8 Elven tribal differences fracture a major force over rivalries
9 A evil faerie lord tries to usurp power sending faerie into chaos
10 Local nature spirits revolt against faerie to support human commoners

Forces of the war

New Human Forces (see Peasant Revolt)
Humans forces are similar as to others in this series but humans have come to rely on rangers scout groups made up of hunters, games keepers, trappers and men of the forest. While not as good as elven warriors such scouts could give early warnings and performed well against beastmen and centaurs preying on the rural humans. In many cases rural humans, scouts and yeomen were reluctant to fight faerie the most as their ancestors had worshipped them and even had some common blood. Most urban humans fear the wilds and their disrespectful attitude to nature antagonises faerie. While human forces try to behave as disciplined modern armies these tactics fail against most faerie.

Human Rangers - elite scouts with bows and experts at tracking and foraging but can act as regulars

Faerieland Forces
Elves will have armies that fight humans slightly more traditionally. Many faerie are skirmishers, raiders and don't differentiate human soldiers from civilians. They will accept human surrender or worship or even let humans ignore them. Fighting or resisting faerie doing as they please can make trouble. Faeries will take strongest, prettiest and the young and often leave the old, the sick, the mad and the infertile. Faerie use humans as labour, wet nurses, servants, soldiers and even change humans to suit their whims. Humans are able to be turned into beastmen, plantmen, lycanthropes and other uses. Humans are also good for breeding. Faerie mothers often die of find giving birth distasteful or dangerous.  Faerie may give birth to non faerie children some produce goblins instead which have uses but makes the elf mother ashamed. some birth animals and other creatures. Faerie children are weak and many never mature. Human mothers are more resilient and their children stronger. It takes a few generations to breed out the human but these part elves help to bolster the faerie races.

Faerie with log term plans over human lands will plant rapidly growing trees, stelae, crystal fountains, hills and other objects that allow faerie reality to overlap and overtake human reality. Faerie rings and stone circles and strange mists act as gateways for faerie to come and go as they please. Intelligent talking animals increase. Tree and other spirits awaken. Spirit folk come out of hiding in their secret places. Many beings can spy on humans and walk among them. Humans have little hope of gaining any comprehensible intelligence but a few pro human elves, hybrids and former slaves might talk. The highly addictive food of fairy land is a big threat and is used to entrap and enslave human, attuning them to faerie land. Faerie forts might just appear and while small might hold thousands of fey warriors. A seeming easy victory might be a deathtrap. Faerie magic makes them unpredictable. Nothing is certain and everything is turned on it's head.

As war progresses more and more evil creatures are used as faerie grow more angry or desperate or committed. They dislike death and will often retreat when injured to fight another day, preferring to use non immortal troops to suicidal actions.

Faerie armies are often swarms mixing all their troop types mixed and irregular or chaotically swarming around a core of disciplined regular elves in the middle. Magical leader types often support the elves also. Faerie leaders are more willing to fight than human leaders.

Wee Folk
Halfling Slingers - light sneaky woodland folk irregulars
Halfling Warriors - chain, javelins, clubs or shortswords, regulars
Brownies - near invisible, able crafters and use magic, skirmishers
Leprechauns - guards and scouts not good fighters but good saboteurs and spies
Nixies - aquatic highly magical, charm humans and sabotage water transport
Pixies - skirmishers with magic drugged arrows, invisible and polymorph selves to spy
Sprites - scouts and skirmishers with dugged arrows
Buckawn - drugged dart hurling scout type irregulars, more willing to fight and kill
Korred - humanoid bestial folk, elite irregulars with magic and boulder throwing
Dwarf Mercenaries - elite regular sappers and siege troops, elite regulars with chain, axe, crossbows
Gnome Mercenaries - often with animal friends and magical, but otherwise like smaller dwarves
Quicklings - scouts and messengers, fastest moving beings known
Redcap - bloodthirsty killers change from gnomes to ogre size
Spriggan - small gnome size with thief and magic abilities or giant size hate humans and gnomes
Flower Faeries - coin sized can be invisible and steal coins or grain, linked to a type of flower
Gremlins - tiny prankster goblins who spread bad luck, steal goods and breed into plagues

Nature Divinities (dislike moving from home or war, often act as leaders)
Dryads - often awakened in forest as obstacles highly revered by fey as goddesses
Nymphs - often dominate waterways and prevent crossings, with powerful magic
Sirene - aquatic or on land, able leaders and fighters, often lead charmed forces
Swanmay - were swan women rangers skilled in woods and waterway actions
Neried - water faerie with magic power can hold water ways
Sylph - powerful magicians often with pet or air elemental
Hags - various types and power, witch like mostly malicious with magic and shape shifting
Lanah Shee - vampiric beauty atracted to bards mostly but inspire them to great short lives
Banshee - undead elf maid who's scream kills

Elves (most common and disciplined and most human like)
Elven Archers - longbow, leather and spell wielding elite regulars
Elven Rangers - composite bow, sword, leather, elite irregular skirmishers
Elven Warriors - with chainmail, spell, spear and sword elite regulars
Elven Halberdiers - with plate, halberds and pikes for anti cavalry in huge phalanxes
Elven Mounted Archers - with composite bows mostly irregular skirmishers, ride elk or horses
Elven Knights - with plate, lance and sword on faerie horses elite regulars
Elven Griffon Riders - often elite scouts and skirmishers who target heroes or horse cavalry
Elven Pegasus Riders - mounted rangers used for scouting and skirmishing
Elven Unicorn Riders - elite cavalry and healers
Dark Elf Assassins - with poison arrows from shortbows and sabres, elite regular skirmishers
Dark Elf Fungi Herders - drive basiron before them in battle and plant shriekers and dangerous fungi
Dark Elf Driders - spider centaur dark elves use bows and magic
Sea Elf Marines - use advanced ships and attack coastal areas, can breathe water
Sea Elf Mounted Marines - ride dolphins, giant sea horses, lobsters, sea serpents and other creatures

Goblin
Goblins Irregulars - bred by elves to guard borderlands, irregulars with slings and spears
Goblin Regulars - more trained regulars with shields, maces, swords and axes or some with spear Goblin Phalanxes - regulars with spear and shield in phalanxes
Goblin Archers - irregular or regular elites with shortbows
Goblin Wolf riders - elite skirmishers and scouts use shortbows and swords
Goblin Bat riders - skirmishers with shortbows especially by night

Other Races
Orc Mercenaries - used when desperate by elves, spear and shield regulars
Orc Archers - regular shortbow troops but fight with swords up close and good morale
Wildmen Berserkers - irregular scouts but fearsome and fight to death for faerie gods
Wildmen Druids - magical priests often guarded by berserkers
Beastmen - strong fierce warriors, irregular mostly goat, wolf, lion, rabbit, elk, deer, bear, panther
Centaur Cavalry - use shortbow, lance and clubs, might transport halflings or others, irregular
Hybsil - deer centaur small but use sleep poison and mostly skirmishers in large mobs
Faun Warriors - regularor irregular scouts with bows, spears, javelins and clubs
Satyr Warriors - brave but drunken lechers, morale high discipline poor, irregular , mostly with clubs
Charmed Human Soldiers - many faerie beings can charm humans,* any human troop type
Animal Spirit Folk - shapeshifting animal to human forms, magical, often fox, cat, hawk, lynx
Nature Spirit Folk - shapeshifting to human forms, magical often tree, river, rock types
Faerie Spirit Folk - change from palm size tiny faeirie to human size, with insect wings
Kobolds - small mine goblins who drive miners away, others are drunken lecherous and friendly
*or that's what they said after the war

Giant Animals (often ridden by naked feral elves, wildmen or wee folk)
Beavers - might dam water or flood regions or build wooden forts or walls
Bears - heroic berserker warriors, bear cavalry is frightening
Boars - heroic berserker mounts
Eagles - aerial troops who often carry smaller races and spies or archers
Frogs - in wetlands like swamps or waterways
Lynx - possibly ridden by small fey folk
Owl - night scouts and transport spies and assassins
Dog (cooshee) - faerie dogs will transport smaller folk or accompanied by elven ranger
Porcupine - fire quills making good missile troops
Ram - mountainous areas often ridden by gnomes
Goat - popular mounts with wee folk in mountains or forests
Elk - or Irish deer giant deer often used as cavalry
Crow - ridden by dark elves mostly scouts
Swan or Geese - ridden by elven female archer fly and aquatic
Lion - fierce huge roaring king of beasts, will lead animals and roar causes fear
Fox - sneaky thieving cunning, experts at luring pursuers to danger

Magical Beings
Werewolf Pack - sometimes led by elf huntmaster  but increasingly wild and out of control
Other Lycanthropes - bear, boar, panther, lion, weasel, elk, shark, crab, horse, owl, raven
Elementals - often summoned by druids and wizards and priests of fey folk
Faerie Dragons - are very powerful magicians who lead and advise leaders
Treant - often used as siege artillery because of size
Will-o-the-wisp - powerful dangerous magic scouts and often obstruct roads by night
Firbolg Giants - magical elites often act as independant heroes
Formarian Giant - mutated hideous giants who claim human land, act as elite heroes
Troll Mercenaries - horrible chaos trolls devour everything and hard to kill
Merrow - aquatic troll race that might be unleashed on coastal areas
Selkie - aquatic will hold coastal and waterways
Fachan - one legged one armed hopping fiend usually with a mace
Dragon - rare flying mounts for heroes, often coloured to suit terrain or metallic types
Phooka - shape shifting faerie beast often black goat, pony, eagle or beastman form, like cruel jokes
Nuckelavee - hideous aquatic rotting horse like beast with glowing eyes live in stagnant pools
Waterleaper - like a tadpole almost on frog from with a tail and glider wings that eat a person whole
Mermaids - aquatic race which may aid faerie war against coasts and shipping

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