Feondas Ideas

[Skywalker]

I have a concept of a scenario involving a Feond in the style of a White Lady from Celtic myth. Essentially, a terrifying being that is somewhere between a fae like being and a ghost. She would also likely be served by murderous and large black hounds.

For those that more familiar with Esteren, do you see any issues with such a Feond conceptually?

[Glass]

Great idea but no so much for a feond. They are often represented as dark beasts or monsters made out of tree bark and moss, not so much as white ghosts.

However, I heard rumors about ghosts, spirits, and witches in Tri-Kazel.

edit : oh, and you should check out this link I found a while ago, it might give you some ideas :
http://www.flavorwire.com/222406/10-ter ... -afraid-of

(I especially like the Leshy)

[iznurda]

Yes, as say glass it seems not correspond to a feond. But you can play on that and twist. I explain : on one side you have a feond, the murderous black dog (obsidian dog ?), on the other side you have a ghost lady with his black dog (not a murderous ones). People believe she is responsible for the deaths while she's attempting to prevent them. She was an old victim who's haunting the places to protect people.
Between superstision and the attacks you may have a good situation to scare your players.

iz

[Skywalker]

So ghosts are fine? Excellent, that works.

[Val]

Hello !

I don't know if you can easily understand french but there is some novel on the esteren blog, "La vieille Tour" written by Nico du dème de Naxos (one of the author). In this story you can find a good example of such a Ghost (The White Lady).

If you're good enough in french or if you know some friend who can read french, you should take a look at this story.

here is the link :

http://ombresdesteren.blogspot.fr/2012/ ... mment-form


Val

[Skywalker]

Thanks for the tip. I will Google Translate what I can

[JohnK]

Hullo, Skywalker,

I have a concept of a scenario involving a Feond in the style of a White Lady from Celtic myth. Essentially, a terrifying being that is somewhere between a fae like being and a ghost. She would also likely be served by murderous and large black hounds.

For those that more familiar with Esteren, do you see any issues with such a Feond conceptually?

This is the material for the scenario we've been talking about in the RPGnet stuff, right, "The Darkness Before Dawn"?

Bear in mind that we English speakers don't have access to some of the other material available for the game yet, but based on what I read of the Feondas as presented in Book 1 - Universe about them, Feondas take the form of animal or plant shape (or even that of some twisted amalgam. While some are said to be able to possess corpses or living people, this doesn't sound all that ghost-like to me.

That said, based on what I've read about the White Ladies from the adventure in question, they're more along the line of demonic entities, and there are demonic entities, based on the material about the Cursed Stones and the Temple belief that sorcerers learn their arts from demons in the game, though I'm not certain about demonic aspects or anything else about them in Shadows of Esteren. Perhaps some of the more knowledgeable people about the game will be able to shed light on this aspect of the matter.

[JohnK]

Hullo, Iz,

Yes, as say glass it seems not correspond to a feond. But you can play on that and twist. I explain : on one side you have a feond, the murderous black dog (obsidian dog ?), on the other side you have a ghost lady with his black dog (not a murderous ones). People believe she is responsible for the deaths while she's attempting to prevent them. She was an old victim who's haunting the places to protect people.
Between superstision and the attacks you may have a good situation to scare your players.

That is an excellent suggestion, Iz, and would work well to add another dimension to the scenario in question. Not sure about the statting up of the Black/Obsidian Dog, since it seems to me that the player characters will have to fight the creature, but might be easy enough to work out once I have a bit more familiarity with some of the game mechanical aspects.

Perhaps Skywalker and I can collaborate a bit on this?

[Skywalker]

The way she is presented she seems a ghost tainted by some unnamed demonic force which she opened herself to when she tried to use Oradh for revenge. That seems to work fine for my purposes.

[Skywalker]

As JohnK says, it's based heavily on Darkness Before Dawn for Dragon Warriors by Fraze Payne. For those interested, here is my summary of the scenario converted over to Esteren. It loses quite a bit of atmosphere in summary form, but it has some great horror moments, and Jon Hodgson did a couple of very creepy pieces of art for it of the White Lady and her home Names are subject to change.

I will be using the PCs from the main book, except Joris.

- Maorn, Ansailéir of Dearg, asks his son Eoghan to accompany Finn to visit his second cousin Anani. Anani is married to the Ansailéir of the nearby village of Meddu and about to give birth to her first baby. Finn is medically capable and was suggested by Loeg, the Demorthen of Dearg. Sid, Adeliane and Masha accompany them.

- On arriving at Meddu, just before night, they PCs see the village looks abandoned. On the edge of the village, a Dàmàthair called Serra is hanging from gallows, bound by her waist, surrounded by a pack of wolves. The wolves seem to exhibit a slightly higher than normal intelligence in the way they taunt her, but devolve back into an animalistic state when the PCs try to free her.

- Serra explains that Anani gave birth to her child two days ago on the full moon. However, this activated an ancient curse that has afflicted the village for generations. A ghostly white house appeared in the forest that night and the child will be taken away by the White Lady before three days have past. The Ansailéir immediately went into the forest to confront the White Lady but he has not been seen since and is presumed dead. On the same night, the Ansailéir's brother, Caxtos, uncharacteristically claimed his brother's position. He threw Anani and her baby out and is now holed up in the Ansailéir's hall surrounded by 10 mercenaries from Reizh. He also strung up Serra after she confronted him about his behaviour. During this time, she saw Caxtos cradling something in a blood stained cloth.

- The PCs enter the village and meet with Sethrun, the Demorthen, how is now keeping Anani and her baby safe. However, time is running out. He implores the PCs to go and find the Ansailéir and, if possible, stop the White Lady. If they agree, he tells them an ancient tale of the White Lady. She was once, Fhionn, gifted in Sigil Rann and the daughter of the Ansailéir of Meddu who married the Ansailéir of a neighbouring village. However, a vicious warlord called Senorix killed her husband, and three days later her child, to take over that village. Lost to grief, she gave her soul to curse Senorix, maybe even awakening some demonic spirit. Senorix and the village were destroyed by fire. Ever since that time, the White Lady repeats the act by taking any child born on a full moon, three days after its birth.

- The PCs venture into the forest (at night) and become aware than Caxtos has sent some of his men to ambush them. They meet a madmand called Erkiss, but he is scared off by the ambush. The PCs presumably fight off the ambushers, who flee into the forest. Then the survivors can be heard to scream as a ghostly white shape is seen floating between the trees. The PCs get one glimpse of her as she takes the survivors away, obviously enslaved somehow. The PCs also see the Ansailéir.

- As the PCs follow, the meet Erkiss again who offers them a chance to rest at his log house (dangled between two cliffs of a ravine). He reveals through his ramblings that he was enslaved by the White Lady but managed to escape. He found an old rusty sword that the White Lady detested. This is the sword of Senorix that killed her husband and child. When Erkiss escaped, the blade crumbled and the hilt alone stopped the White Lady from following. When Erkiss reached the village, he was stopped by Caxtos who took the blade from him. As he did so, he seemed to become possessed (by the spirit of Senorix). This is what drove him to take power and what he cradles in the white cloth. The blade stains the cloth in old blood.

- The PCs approach the White Lady's house. Its very creepy. The enslaved survivors and Ansailéir are contained behind rock walls and appear like chalk scrawling. The souls of the children she took are in clay pots around an underground lake. A cradle is prepared for the baby to come. The PCs confront her, her slaves and two twisted spirit hounds that are reminisicent of the wolves they met earlier (I like the idea that the demonic force that Fhionn awakened has an affinity for wolves and though its never confirmed in the scenario, there are continual hints at some other force at work). The PCs may find the hilt to get an advantage as it strips her of most of her abilities. The Ansailéir likely dies in the fray.

- Just when things seem resolved, the Fhionn appears one last time with a warning that with her gone, Senorix who possess Caxtos is now free to take over Meddu. His first act will be to kill his rival, being Anani and her baby. The PCs race back to Meddu and stop Caxtos and his men.