Courts of the Shadow Fey Session 2 – Winter’s Kiss

Courts of the Shadow Fey was the third 4th Edition Open Design project from Kobold Press. I ran the adventure in 2011 as part of the same Parsantium campaign as Wrath of the River King and Halls of the Mountain King.

This is a really fun but tricky adventure to run so hopefully these write-ups will prove useful to other GMs.

Begin here with Session 1 – A Chill in the Air.

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20th November (contd.)

The sinister shadowy creatures move to surround Khuma, Krivinn and Saethus – the characters work out they are fey creatures from the Shadowfell, vulnerable to radiant damage. The shadowy beings take the place of the characters’ own shadows and teleport annoyingly out of the way of attacks. One of their number is a more powerful creature known as a passing darkness which uses its power over the sun and the moon to conjure two replacements when a character manages to kill his cloying assailant.

At the end of the first round of combat, an old friend, the elf ranger Ella, appears and rushes to her companions’ aid, firing unerringly accurate arrows from her bow. After a few rounds, the characters are able to destroy their foes and daylight returns. The passing darkness leaves ashes behind when it’s slain – if eaten, says Saethus, these will work like a potion of vitality.

Asking around town about Winter’s Kiss is getting the party nowhere so Saethus purchases the Consult Mystic Sages ritual from the Esoteric Order of the Blue Lotus and performs it. The spirits reveal Winter’s Kiss to be located in the counting house of the spice merchant Enneas Thel in the Emerald Ward. Surprised by this information, they visit Parsantium’s prefect and ask for a warrant to enter and search the counting house which Bardas is happy to give them. That night, Saethus’ meditation and Khuma’s sleep are troubled by strange visions and dreams. Neither gains the benefit of an extended rest.

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21st November

Krivinn goes to check on his shrine to Bahamut to find it’s been closed “by order of the Queen” and his two acolytes are nowhere to be seen. The characters head over the bridges to the Imperial Quarter and knock on the door of the address they’ve been given for Winter’s Kiss. When a shadow fey footman answers the door, the characters say they will return tomorrow, happy they’ve got the right location.

They hire a messenger snake to send word to Bardas that Enneas Thel doesn’t seem to be living there anymore. Expecting trouble, they visit the Mercantile Quarter to buy more potions of vitality.

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22nd November

Krivinn goes to visit the Celestial Bastion in the Grand Ward to find it locked shut, also “by order of the Queen”. There is no sign of the Platinum Knights of Bahamut and local residents can’t provide any information as to their whereabouts. Rumours are also rife that shadow fey have replaced the City Watch on the Victory Gate. Meanwhile, Khuma goes shopping and purchases some very showy white and gold clothes and an ostentatious jewelled gold turban for the party’s meeting with the Hidden Ambassador.

The characters return to Winter’s Kiss and are admitted by the footman, Canderminne Tallowglass. They are shown in to see Hidden Ambassador Thelamandrine who is sitting talking in elven to a white owl. Krivinn, Saethus and an unusually eloquent Khuma manage to impress His Excellency enough for him to reveal a few key pieces of information, although the paladin comes very close to upsetting the shadow fey.

• The Queen of Night and Magic’s claim to the city dates back to the time before its conquest by Corandias the Magnificent, when the shadow fey ruled the lands from the Ironcrags and Margreve Forest to the Griffin Water.
• As far as the scathsidhe are concerned, the city’s title reverted to them when Corandias’ dynasty fell and Parsantium was conquered by the hobgoblin king Kalgroth Ironheart.
• The Queen is sometimes amused to meet foreigners
• The Moonlit King is the one who declared the claim to Parsantium is both valid and of interest to the Court
• The Queen and the King are not always of one mind where affairs of state are concerned.

Ambassador Thelamandrine goes on to subtly suggest that the characters might want to travel the Shadow Road so they can meet with the Queen. They would need a ritual to open the Shadow Road – experts on arcane magic in the city might be able to shed some light on how to perform such a ritual.

The conversation is then over – parting gifts are brought by the footman and the white owl polymorphs into a female shadow fey, the sorcerer Freja Owlsdaughter. Freja promises Saethus “a visit from her tailor”. Somewhat confused, the characters are shown out into the street.

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