NPC: Ferellian

And now I'm back! I'm all moved in and settled into college, and I've finally got some time to get back to the blog. As I promised earlier, I will do two updates a day until I've caught up with all the posts that I failed to make. The delay was a bit longer than I had anticipated, but I'm back in action now. This post deals with an NPC that I doubt will ever see play, but the party is set up that they may encounter her later on. It helps me to establish NPCs like this early on in my mind so that I can use them should they come up later. Credit for the image to De_Vermis_Mysteriis.


Name: Ferellian
Race: Fey
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Description: This female is tall and lithe. She looks vaguely elvish, but is dressed entirely in plant material. Vines writhe around her body, and plants seem to grow under her feet as she walks.

Profile:
Ferellian is a fey tied to Spring. She is attuned to plant life moreso than animal life, and causes spontaneous plant growth everywhere she goes. She is a powerful spellcaster that is very similar to a Druid. 
Ferellian is unrepentantly evil to the eyes of mortals. She cares only for her own affairs, which are alien and incomprehensible to mortal creatures. She does not so much have "allies" as she uses pawns to gain power. She does not have the ability to have compassion for mortals, and oftentimes forgets that they exist. She considers other fey to be beneath her, even if they are technically stronger. Her plants are used as minions to accomplish whatever tasks Ferellian has need of doing.
Generally, Ferellian's actions all have the aim of expanding her own power. Her exact methods are not always obvious, but she is perpetually obtaining that one goal. Like all other fey, she is somewhat tied to her season. As a fey of Spring, Ferellian tends to be more active than other fey. This is also somewhat responsible for her goal of constantly expanding.
Ferellian's interaction with PCs would largely be through her other minions. She has plant creatures that have some form of intelligence to accomplish basic tasks without her micromanaging them at all times. It is fully possible that, should the PCs prove themselves capable, these minions would seek them out to obtain artifacts or materials to accomplish her goals. This would potentially tie into other fey plotlines if the party is involved with them.

Location: The Winter Castle

So I felt pretty uncreative about this name. I actually don't even really like what I've done with this in general, even though I did like the theme. Unfortunately, I forgot to copy the name of the person who posted this image to Reddit. This may be a post that I revisit in the future, since I'm unsatisfied with how I've done with it today.


Description:
The air is frigid and dry, and the sky is overcast. The castle lies on a thin spire across a deep chasm, connected to land only with a narrow, winding path. The stone is yellow and thick, and the snow slides off it easily.

Associated Knowledges:
History:

• This castle's origins are shrouded in mystery.
• The castle is rumored to be of fey origin.
• The castle is known to disappear and reappear as the seasons change.

Geography:

• There are very few castles this far north.
• The mountainous terrain around the castle seems out of place.
• Even this far north, the cold seems more intense than it should.

DM Info:
The Winter Castle is owned by winter fey. It is inherently tuned to the season of winter and the magical existence of cold. It appears in the mortal plane briefly during the winter, and disappears after about a fortnight. It is located very far to the north, such that few people live nearby it's appearance. The fey who live there make a habit of not interacting with mortals, and will torture anyone who passes by with their cruel games. The fey who live there are not all evil or all good. They exist on their own system of morality, that is alien to most mortals. Some of the fey can be benevolent towards mortals while others are vicious and brutal.
The entrance into the material plane is not through any conscious effort of their own, but just as a consequence of their own attunement to winter. They are very powerful spellcasters, and are attuned to frost magic. Magic that is performed near or within the castle can become unintentionally transformed into frost magic. There may be no actual effect to this beyond a contextual re-skin of spells. 
The castle does not only exist as winter. As each season changes, the castle cycles between each of them and appears in the appropriate location in the material plane. Not all of them might be known to mortals. The fey that live inside the castle also change along with the seasons, with their personalities and abilities changing along with them. The winter castle is the only one that mortals currently have even a passing knowledge of, and even that is fairly rare.
Adventures into the winter castle would most likely be a rescue mission of sorts, or an extermination. Either a hapless villager was captured by the fey, and is their current source of amusement, or magical creatures have been terrorizing the locals. It would be filled with environmental challenges from the icy structure, as well as dangerous combat encounters from the fey creatures. Most of the powerful fey would likely not even be aware that the PCs had entered. This is similar to the last post in the sense that it has the potential to either be a one-off adventure or it could open the door into a much larger story. Or even be a continuation of that story arc.

Location: The Creeping Forest

This is another theme of adventure that I particularly like. This has the potential to lead a party into a much larger story arc, or it could be left as an inconsequential side quest. Both options are completely possible, and each has their own merits based on whatever's already going on in the story. Credit for the picture to Reddit user Proteon.

                                                               Description:
What used to be a thriving forest stretches before you. The trees are withered and white, their empty branches grasping towards the sky. The ground is bare of life, and the air is dry. Deeper in, you can see remnants of trees, burned black and twisted.

Associated Knowledges:
Nature:

• Most natural life has left this forest.
• Parts of the forest have been burned completely. 
• No nature spirits still live here.

Arcana:

• There is a suspicious lack of magic in the area.
• The burned trees may have been burned magically.
• You can detect very small hints of necromancy around the area.

Geography:

• There are a lot of forests in this area.
• There is a distinct lack of settlements around this forest.
• You have seen some signs of people living here, but they are long gone.

DM Info:
The Creeping Forest was the site of a large forest fire that was started by a group of humans living in the area. They wanted to drive out the local population of centaurs, who were protected by the native treants. Their plan worked, and it destroyed the entire forest. The nature spirits who were harmed by this destruction cursed the entire area, making sure that nothing natural would ever live there again. They also reanimated the treants, but they are now burnt beyond recognition. The humans that lived here either starved to death or were killed by the unnatural guardians.
The forest still remains barren, and most of the spirits have left. The curse remains fully intact, and the treants still wander about, looking for more interlopers. The centaur have also left, and have become nomadic. The treants are different from how they were in life. They are slow because of their burned bodies, but have also become attuned to the fire that killed them. They are inherently evil and bear an undying hatred for any living who would come to their forest. 
Another group of fey don't believe that the forest should be kept barren. It was once a place of power for their people, even though it was damaged by the humans. They are unable to break the curse over the forest themselves, though they have begun a diplomatic conflict with the other spirits that cast the curse. The nature - pun fully intended - of the fey is that they do not take direct action against each other, but rather manipulate events and people to bring down their enemies. They are literally incapable of breaking the curse themselves, though they are fully capable of empowering others to do it for them. This faction is looking for outside help, such as a group of adventurers that could break the curse with the assistance of the fey. 
The goal of the Creeping Forest is to lead into a potential story arc involving a conflict between the groups of fey. It also has the potential to be little more than a one-off adventure, where the PCs go in and kill the evil fey, cleanse the forest, and move on. I personally like to have these types of adventures seeded throughout gameplay. If any one of five or six resonate with the party, then that is the thread of the story that they jump on and take to it's conclusion. The Creeping Forest could also lead to some minor allies and antagonists - if the PCs slight the evil fey by rupturing the curse, they might aid the PCs main enemies in the future. Or the fey that the PCs assisted might owe the party a favor, to be cashed in at the climax of another story arc.