I had a hag make an exchange literally *for* a character's thanks. Like, "thank you" is so valuable that in exchange for the service provided, the character would "give her their thanks"-that is to say, they would never be able to say "thank you" again anymore because she now owned it. I'm preparing to run Chains of Asmodeus and I love the difference between how a fey can casually make a binding agreement with just spoken words that characters can accidentally fall into without realizing it, but clever characters can wiggle around them with novel interpretations; meanwhile devils make binding agreements that must take the form of writing-you *know* you're getting into them and exactly what the terms are, but then once struck the devil will often engineer some kind of situation that will make it impossible for you to fulfill your end so that your soul is forfeit as part of the deal. The goal of a fey bargain is to fulfill the terms and make an exchange while the goal of a devil pact (for the devil) is to make you *fail* to fulfill the terms.
Just recently finished the campaign -- My players were smart enough to generally not make a bargain with the hags of Witchlight. However, running the Lost Things hook for all the players, one player's Lost Thing was with Bavlorna, the first hag. The book says that she may make a deal with players to steal a portrait from Skabatha (the convenient next hag), but in the interest of not having to backtrack, had her give that player 3 days for him to break her magic mirror, and I was explicit in the wording that he do it -- still, the rest of the party kept treating it as a collective party quest, despite my clarification, but it was strictly his thing to accomplish, and is it nitpicky to be that specific? Sure! But the hags would be the exact sort of people to catch the players up in that specific language. Anyways, that player shook on it and they went on their merry way, and near the end of the 3 days, the party is in combat with Skabatha in her lair, chasing after her as she tried to flee as it was going bad. A different player broke the magic mirror while that deal-player was in another room chasing her (he was a monk, after all). And at the end of that timeframe, the player's curse -- a monstrous slow polymorph curse from an Arcadia issue (5, I thnk?) -- went into effect. He'd get to undo it after the final battle with the coven, but I was happy with how it turned out.
I love these. There is an Eladrin in my campaigns party who has been reluctant to make deals, but has found them necessary to accomplish some goals. The player takes them very seriously, and I used the "Future Favor" deal in exchange for information he was desperate to get. Ended up having to hand over one of the McGuffins later, in secret so that the rest of the party didn't know what happened.
I would like to see more deepdives on the topic of Fey contracts, gifts, promises, reciprocity and such. In my own game all these things fall under the topic of "Fey Law" and are a big part of the setting. Host-right and guest-right as well.
Started running witchlight this month and I cannot wait to one day have watched every video on this channel! You are an excellent presenter and have great advice! Keep up the good work!
I love this and was taking notes the whole time! I really appreciated that everything is based on this inherent balance it really shows how the fey isn't just a crazy land of pure chaos but that there's this weird sort of order to the chaos. Thanks so much for making the video I suggested! So, although my campaign is in schedule purgatory right now that just gives me all the more time to plan mischievous deals
Alright this brought on many ideas: one is if some feywild creature is given a gift by the players and has to repay the debt it could do it like Dobby from harry potter. Try to help but have it's help be more of a setback than a boon. And two ideas from my own campaign to get players into making bargains. The party wanted to cross a river but didn't know what was dangerous about it. They met a plant and asked it if it new what the danger was. In how they worded it it became clear that the party valued the information highly and because they valued it the plant now wanted something in return. Had they been more casual about it he might have given the information just to be able to talk with them but now it was a bargain. My second one is a mentor of the parties wizard was missing in his backstory. So now he is kidnapped by a fey who won't release him until they make a deal for it. The classic extortion method of holding something the party wants :D. Thanks so much for all the good ideas definitely using them in my feywild campaign i'm starting tomorrow.
@@feywildfiend the plant just wanted some water haha so no mayor drawback but it was fun seeing the party trying their best to not make a bargain and in the process making it absolutely clear that they really wanted the answer. And thanks it's gonna be a lot of fun!
My GM got my fighter in debt to an archfey. He had found out that a romantic partner he had believed dead was alive but hidden by powerful magic and might need rescue. " My character being rather emotional about this went straight at a hag that was big in the lore of his homeland and was prepared to fight it out if he had to (he had a number of trump cards that gave him a chance, not a huge one but a chance). The Archfey in question intervened because she needed both my character and the hag alive. She gave my character the information he needed but he owed her 3 favors. Paying those favors back was painful but actually was profitable in the long run. That said, did end up fighting the hag later, she got a while minus a hand and running into a coven of witches who were in conflict the archfey and wiped them out... Meanwhile my character? Ended up tearing down a temple of evil aligned priest who were also opposed to fey in general. It was almost as if it was all according to plan...
this is starting to bite me in my campaign. but, because everything i'm doing is homebrewed with an emphasis on in-world folklore, and i'm drawing on every possible fey mythos, the PCs don't know what to expect. Perhaps the biggest surprise I can give though is for everything to be fine, and nothing underhand happens at all. Building "it's too quiet" anticipation by doing nothing.
You also have the option for deals to go in their favor! The thing they lose/trade might be nice to get rid of, whether the fey wants an ugly mole or a personality flaw.
I had a hag make an exchange literally *for* a character's thanks. Like, "thank you" is so valuable that in exchange for the service provided, the character would "give her their thanks"-that is to say, they would never be able to say "thank you" again anymore because she now owned it. I'm preparing to run Chains of Asmodeus and I love the difference between how a fey can casually make a binding agreement with just spoken words that characters can accidentally fall into without realizing it, but clever characters can wiggle around them with novel interpretations; meanwhile devils make binding agreements that must take the form of writing-you *know* you're getting into them and exactly what the terms are, but then once struck the devil will often engineer some kind of situation that will make it impossible for you to fulfill your end so that your soul is forfeit as part of the deal. The goal of a fey bargain is to fulfill the terms and make an exchange while the goal of a devil pact (for the devil) is to make you *fail* to fulfill the terms.
By the way, how do you like my new background? I promise the bookshelf isn't about to break!
Just recently finished the campaign -- My players were smart enough to generally not make a bargain with the hags of Witchlight. However, running the Lost Things hook for all the players, one player's Lost Thing was with Bavlorna, the first hag. The book says that she may make a deal with players to steal a portrait from Skabatha (the convenient next hag), but in the interest of not having to backtrack, had her give that player 3 days for him to break her magic mirror, and I was explicit in the wording that he do it -- still, the rest of the party kept treating it as a collective party quest, despite my clarification, but it was strictly his thing to accomplish, and is it nitpicky to be that specific? Sure! But the hags would be the exact sort of people to catch the players up in that specific language. Anyways, that player shook on it and they went on their merry way, and near the end of the 3 days, the party is in combat with Skabatha in her lair, chasing after her as she tried to flee as it was going bad. A different player broke the magic mirror while that deal-player was in another room chasing her (he was a monk, after all). And at the end of that timeframe, the player's curse -- a monstrous slow polymorph curse from an Arcadia issue (5, I thnk?) -- went into effect. He'd get to undo it after the final battle with the coven, but I was happy with how it turned out.
That is so good! And classic D&D behavior on your players' part
I love these. There is an Eladrin in my campaigns party who has been reluctant to make deals, but has found them necessary to accomplish some goals. The player takes them very seriously, and I used the "Future Favor" deal in exchange for information he was desperate to get. Ended up having to hand over one of the McGuffins later, in secret so that the rest of the party didn't know what happened.
"I grant you a single Wish. Use it for the benefit of another, but woe betide they find out you did so."
I'm trying to run a wild beyond the witchlight campaign as a brand new DM and this channel is like perfect it's uncanny thank you for existing
I'm also running WBtW as a brand new DM! Twins.
I would like to see more deepdives on the topic of Fey contracts, gifts, promises, reciprocity and such. In my own game all these things fall under the topic of "Fey Law" and are a big part of the setting. Host-right and guest-right as well.
I'd love to dive into those more!
Started running witchlight this month and I cannot wait to one day have watched every video on this channel! You are an excellent presenter and have great advice! Keep up the good work!
Thank you SO much!!
I love this and was taking notes the whole time! I really appreciated that everything is based on this inherent balance it really shows how the fey isn't just a crazy land of pure chaos but that there's this weird sort of order to the chaos. Thanks so much for making the video I suggested! So, although my campaign is in schedule purgatory right now that just gives me all the more time to plan mischievous deals
I'm so glad it was helpful! I always tell my players: the longer we go without a session, the more time I have to plan chaos.
Alright this brought on many ideas: one is if some feywild creature is given a gift by the players and has to repay the debt it could do it like Dobby from harry potter. Try to help but have it's help be more of a setback than a boon. And two ideas from my own campaign to get players into making bargains. The party wanted to cross a river but didn't know what was dangerous about it. They met a plant and asked it if it new what the danger was. In how they worded it it became clear that the party valued the information highly and because they valued it the plant now wanted something in return. Had they been more casual about it he might have given the information just to be able to talk with them but now it was a bargain.
My second one is a mentor of the parties wizard was missing in his backstory. So now he is kidnapped by a fey who won't release him until they make a deal for it. The classic extortion method of holding something the party wants :D.
Thanks so much for all the good ideas definitely using them in my feywild campaign i'm starting tomorrow.
How fun! I hadn't even considered a Dobby-like scenario, but that is so fey. I'm also curious what the plant wanted! And good luck for tomorrow!
@@feywildfiend the plant just wanted some water haha so no mayor drawback but it was fun seeing the party trying their best to not make a bargain and in the process making it absolutely clear that they really wanted the answer. And thanks it's gonna be a lot of fun!
My GM got my fighter in debt to an archfey. He had found out that a romantic partner he had believed dead was alive but hidden by powerful magic and might need rescue. "
My character being rather emotional about this went straight at a hag that was big in the lore of his homeland and was prepared to fight it out if he had to (he had a number of trump cards that gave him a chance, not a huge one but a chance). The Archfey in question intervened because she needed both my character and the hag alive. She gave my character the information he needed but he owed her 3 favors.
Paying those favors back was painful but actually was profitable in the long run. That said, did end up fighting the hag later, she got a while minus a hand and running into a coven of witches who were in conflict the archfey and wiped them out... Meanwhile my character? Ended up tearing down a temple of evil aligned priest who were also opposed to fey in general.
It was almost as if it was all according to plan...
This is a wonderful, useful, topic for a vid!
Thank you!
Great video
That's 350 years for the conversion of the contract. According to old lore one day equals a week.
this is starting to bite me in my campaign. but, because everything i'm doing is homebrewed with an emphasis on in-world folklore, and i'm drawing on every possible fey mythos, the PCs don't know what to expect. Perhaps the biggest surprise I can give though is for everything to be fine, and nothing underhand happens at all. Building "it's too quiet" anticipation by doing nothing.
You also have the option for deals to go in their favor! The thing they lose/trade might be nice to get rid of, whether the fey wants an ugly mole or a personality flaw.
I am quite curious about how fairy politics work
(I haven't read 4e books) so don't know much
What do you record on? Ur video is so clear
Sony ZV-1! It’s technically a vlogging camera
Great video