Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)
 Foreword: Jeff Grubb
Lead Designer: Scott Gable
Designers: Wolfgang Baur, Dan Dillon, J Gray, Chris Harris, Victoria Jaczko, Amanda Hamon Kunz, Sarah
Madsen, Andrew Marlowe, Monica Marlowe, Ben McFarland, Shawn Merwin, Kelly Pawlik, Stephen Rowe, David
Schwartz, Christopher Sniezak, Joshua Stevens, Todd Stewart, Brian Suskind, James Sutter, Mike Welham
Additional Designers: John Bennett, Savannah Broadway, Clay Clouser
Developer: Scott Fitzgerald Gray, David N. Ross
Additional Developers: Robert Adducci, Jon Sawatsky
Editor: John Rateliff
Additional Editors: Tom Benton, Scott Gable, Micheal McArtor
Cover Illustrator: Julie Dillon
Interior Illustrators: Eric Belisle, Julie Dillon, Carolina Eade, Lizzy John, Domenico Neziti
Graphic Designers: Crystal Frasier, Scott Gable
Special Thanks to Michael Bauer and BJ Hensley
Tremendous Thanks to the support of our 315 Kickstarter backers
for making this all possible. You’re wonderful.

Along the Twisting Way and The Faerie Ring are trademarks of Zombie Sky Press.

Along the Twisting Way: The Faerie Ring Campaign Guide is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL).

Open Content for this product is identified as the new monsters and new magic items, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a. No
portion of this work other than material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission. Product
Identity for this product is identified as artwork, characters, dialogue, locations, plots, proper names (characters, deities, etc.), storylines,
and tradedress.

Content on the kitsune from Kobold Quarterly #9 not designated

as Open Content is used with the permission of Open Design, LLC.

© 2010, 2017, 2018 Zombie Sky Press. All rights reserved.

www.zombiesky.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-940372-36-5 (ebook)

ISBN-13: 978-1-940372-42-6 (hardcover)

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 table of contents
h
A BRIEF HISTORY:
THE FEY, FAERIE, AND FAIRY TALES vii
LIFETIMES OF REGRETS
Moaro 126
126

Zussael 128
IN DEFENSE OF THE FEY xi Darklings & Others 132
THE REALMS OF THE FEY 1 VENGEANCE, SWIFT ARROW 146
SCATTERED AND SCATTERBRAINED 14 Nemesis 146
Flibbertigibbet 14 Ramnus 149
Nibiru 17 Norns & Others 152
Bitterclaws & Others 20 GROWTH WITHOUT END 162
A LIFE IN SILENCE 32 Oleron the Cancer 162
Hob 32 New Pelora 165
Shambhala 35 Teras & Others 168
Matabiri & Others 38 DEATH, BY ANY OTHER NAME 178
The Sea of Rahab 45 Red Jack 178
A BEAST CLOAKED IN PETALS 50 Strangle Grove 181
Jasmine 50 Kitsune & Others 184
Aralu, the Gaol of Always 55 A HEAD FOR WAR 194
Far Darrig & Others 58 The Wild Hunt 194
The Elementals 67 Annwn 197
GREEN IN TOOTH AND CLAW 70 Fir Bolg & Others 200
Korapira 70 APPENDIX: FEY LORDS 212
The Green Expanse 73 Flibbertigibbet 213
Putti & Others 77 Hob 217
SHE SPEAKS OF DEATH 90 Jasmine 220
Mab 90 Korapira 226
Scáthbaile 94 Mab 229
Goodfellows & Others 97 Manitou 232
Moaro 235
ETERNAL WANDERING 108 Nemesis 239
Manitou 108 Oleron 243
The Bear Marches 112 Red Jack 246
Twilight Children & Others 115 Wild Hunt 250

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 APPENDIX: NPCS 254 Chittering Creeper 287
Attila, Savior of the Blood 255 Cu Sith 288
Baraehl Stillhorn 255 Cwn Annwn 289
Beloved of Rahab 256 Cwn Wybyr 289
The Bodie Politik 257 Daitengu 290
Cakurra, the Thorn 258 Darkling 291
Daughters of Mahri 259 Darkling Beast 291
Disala 263 Doldrum 292
Ennise, the Wolfmother 264 Far Darrig 293
Eolelo Ai 265 Faun 294
Grand Baron Fizzbert, Feyhound 295
the Ever-Hungry 266 Fir Bolg 296
Gray Twins 267 Flower of Sheol 297
Greta Sweet Tooth 268 Fury 297
Heliocilius, the Magpie 269 Gaunt 299
Jack-in-Irons 270 Ghost Fox 299
Lady Jaye 270 Gibbet Poppets 300
Mallt-y-Nos 271 Glaistig 301
Moondog Tumblebush 273 Goodfellow 302
Portia 273 Grue 302
Puck 274 Hagfish 303
Ren (Mokuren Kamura) 275 Kitsune 304
Slaine, the Gray King 276 Liminal Outland 305
Stillness Among the Leaves 277 Matabiri 306
Turtle 278 Membras 306
Unawd 279 Norn 307
Uno 280 Pipe Fox 308
Whisper 281 Pooka 309
Wintergreen 281 Putti 311
Zheddo, the Bluetongue 282 Shimmer Dog 312
Silent One 313
APPENDIX: SERVITORS 284 Star Sprite 314
Bitterclaw 285 Starveling 314
Black Hat 285 Terani 315
Bugaboo 286
Teras 316

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 Twilight Child 316 APPENDIX: SUBTYPES 334
Ur-Gremlin 317 Sovereignty Subtypes 335
Windscorned 318 Kith Subtypes 336
Yaksha 319 Racial Subtypes 338
APPENDIX: ARTIFACTS 322
Agate Throne 323
Athame of Change 323
Cloak of Seven Shapes 324
Dark Well 324
Death Bloom 324
Forgotten Idol 325
Golden Gag 326
Heartree 326
Hunter’s Horn 327
Hob’s Gate 327
Mab’s Tokens 328
Murder Stone 328
Pellowea’s Grimoire 329
Shadow Scepter 329
Shard of the First Oak 330
Shining Crystal 330
Silver Key 331
Sovereign Rings 331
Symbiote 331
Tumorous Club 332
(un)Locket of Nibiru 333
Wishing Well 333

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 A Brief History:

t The Fey, Faerie, and Fairy Tales

a foreword
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
h
By Jeff Grubb
Let’s go back to the earliest years, to before the roll of
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, dice, before the platonic solids, and even before Plato
And dance upon the mountains like a flame. himself. Way back to when the gods were responsible
—William Butler Yeats, for the lightning and the thunder.
“The Land of Heart’s Desire” The fey were there. They were unseen, spiritual
creatures—always present, always lurking at the
corners of our vision. They were responsible for effects
that did not seem to have causes. They haunted our
buildings and dogged our steps. They were always
watching . . . and waiting.
They went by a plethora of local names and had a
bevy of regional habits. Some washed their hats in
the blood of their victims. Some knocked the stones
deep within the mines. Many would lure the unwary
and unwilling to their dooms. Some of them gave
their names to other, more tangible, more terrestrial
creations—dwarves and elves and kobolds and goblins
and gnomes. Ultimately, in those earliest of days, the
fey could claim kinship with the Fates themselves,
and like the Fates, they could move among mortals,
working their deadly and capricious magics.
Indeed, Faerie was a place for the fey, much like a
nunnery was a place of nuns and a heronry was a place
for herons. It was where the fey were when they weren’t
here. It was where the fey lived, where they plotted, and
where they ruled. And if you happened to find your

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 The Faerie Ring

way there, well, too bad for you. prankish Puck. They had the wisdom of things unseen
We called them the Fair Folk and the Little People and the mercurial selfishness to get their way.
although their power was not little and their attitudes By the Victorian era, though, the fey diminished,
were often far from fair. They were not worshipped both literarily and physically. This was a time of rings
so much as they were propitiated. Bowls of milk and of stones or mushrooms ascribed to the power of these
small cakes were left out, not in hopes of reward but as people, and when portrayed (or even photographed),
payment, so these spirits would turn their attentions they were small and childish and winged and in no
elsewhere and leave those who believed in them in way a threat to the greater world. So they threatened
peace. They were little gods, masters of domains that to diminish into nothingness. They became cautionary
only extended as far as they could reach and for as long figures in old folktales and creatures to entertain
as they chose to pay attention. children. Fairy tales lost their fearsome edge, and the
These ancient fey were by turns both noble and word itself became a hallmark for the childlike and the
mischievous, both superior and stealthy, both wise imaginary. The fey entered the nursery and threatened
and capricious. This dualism has remained with them never to leave.
through the ages. Shakespeare JRR Tolkien sheered the elves clean off from the
presents us both with rest of the fey, hewing more tightly to noble Oberon
royal Oberon and than to flighty Puck. They were magical and mighty
Titania and and benign, and their time had come and gone. And
with they were disappearing themselves. Tolkien, though he
hewed the elves from the rest of their fey brethren, also
split them into twain as well: there were the wood elves
of The Hobbit and the high elves of The Lord of the
Rings, which would have repercussions further
down the line.
Fired by a growing interest in fantasy in
the 60s and 70s, Dungeons & Dragons
arrived with the central casting of
its player character races right
out of The Lord of the Rings.
Now, elf was different from
dwarf, and neither was
an ethereal spirit. The
dualism between high
and low, between the
noble elves and the
more arboreal versions
continued.
But the pucks, the
fairies, the little people
remained diminutive.
Griggs, sprigga ns,
nixies, pixies, leprechauns,
quicklings, dryads, and all
manner of other regional folktales
— ix —

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 were now catalogued and defined—and always in their lords rule their lands utterly and often cruelly.
smallest and most benign forms. They filled slots and And it breaks the shackles of European visions of
environments, but they were always more cute than the fey, for these spirits have been world-wide in our
dangerous, more irritating than perilous. Having mythologies, and they come from all corners of their
already been romanticized, the little people were now lands to seek proper respect and propitiation.
in danger of being quantified and demystified entirely. The kindly ones are back, and they are far from
And that changes here. The dark side of the kindly. The wee folk have returned, and they are not
fey—including the sídhe and the courts Seelie and as wee as centuries of propaganda would have you
Unseelie—has always remained as a shadow cast believe. They are as dangerous a group of lords and
by the encouraged brightness of the fey. They have ladies as you would ever care to encounter, and they
always been wonderful and awful in the traditional control their lands. Woe to any mortal who crosses
meaning of those words—brimming with wonder and them without their permission.
power, invoking awe in those who encounter them But of course, you have that chance. Go right in. I
(and survive). With this volume of fey lords and fey won’t stop you.
lands, the old straight paths are brought back up to the
surface, and the deadly nature of the fairies and their
rulers is made clear.
But indeed, where do the fey rule? The old Celtic
tales tell of sunken kingdoms and realms beneath the
barrows, but in the catalogued world of Dungeons
& Dragons, where would a truly fairy tale kingdom
belong? The organization of the Great Wheel of the
Outer Planes had a large number of advantages, but
it also had the disadvantage that it would be difficult
to add anything to it once it was in place. Yes, there
was an outer plane of Arborea, but the elven gods of
Arvandor were time-sharing with the Greek gods of
Olympus, and besides, its placement made it more
Good than Chaotic. It was a place of gods and faithful
petitioners, more solemn and less deadly, perhaps, than
the roads that the fey walked.
So that left the demiplanes—small chunks of
unreality, bits of extraplanar real estate where a
particular fey lord could manage some small kingdom.
A more fitting place for their wild craziness, but again,
the fey face the threat of being diminished, confined to
a lesser location in the greater scheme of things.
Yet in the Faerie Ring, we look at the fey and
their worlds in a different fashion. Now, those old
demiplanes are knitted together into a new fabric.
Here are Hob, Manitou, and Red Jack, and the lands of
Purgatory, the Eternal Twilight, and Shambala. Here
are empires worthy of the fey lords. More than mortals
but not quite gods, unfettered by mortal morals, the fey
—x—

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Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)
 I n Defense of the Fey

t a preface
[E]very time a child says, “I don’t believe in fairies,”
there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
h
By Scott Gable
We’ve never really had an overabundance of gaming
—JM Barrie, material for the fey. Of course, there have been a few
Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up standout pieces here and there, but they seem so few,
especially when compared to the quantities available
for the various humanoid races and outsiders. Why
should this be the case? At my table, for instance,
players and GMs alike would have eaten up more fey.
So was planted the seed for the Faerie Ring.
But how to start? So many questions arise . . .
What are the fey? In flavor and crunch, what are
they? How do they fit with everything else? Where do
they live? What do they do when they’re not tormenting
adventurers? Why do they torment adventurers?
What is their story? The fey must have a story just
as anyone else does. What is their history? Where have
they been, and where are they going? Who are the
important personalities of the fey? How do they relate
with the rest of the multiverse?
Where are the others? Most of our fey are currently
built from a very select portion of folklore and
mythology—primarily European, largely Celtic and
Germanic. This is great material, but what about other
sources of inspiration?
Well then. Done and done. Easy peasy. Time to see
what might be. Dragons are dandy, and fiends are fine;
but fey are feisty, ferocious, finicky, flighty, flirtacious,

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 The Faerie Ring

fractious, frenetic, frightful, furtive, and fussy—all at instance. It wasn’t as if any one culture’s ideas had any
the same blessed time. more sway over another’s.

GROWING A FAERIE RING

Give Them a Story: Just making the fey have more
monster entries, though, isn’t going to make them
The plan was clear: somehow, make the fey awesome. more compelling. For that, you need to tell a story. You
How to attempt that? What were the fey to us? need to paint a history as if these personalities have
Define the Fey: In defining the fey, we actually always been there. You need to introduce conflict, give
expand our options. A presumed definition for fey them a reason to exist. You need to tie them together,
might currently be “those little tricksters from folklore.” so they have a framework in which to live and breathe.
Unfortunately, there’s little room to expand beyond The accounts of Lafcadio Hearn, the folktales about
that. If given a more precise definition, it should Baba Yaga, the stories of the Brothers Grimm: this is
actually be easier to create new paths for the fey—not how a mythos is built.
excluding what came before but building upon it. It’s time for the fey. This is our “Feynomicon.”

USING THE FAERIE RING

First and foremost, it’s important to acknowledge
that the fey are different. They don’t think the same
way as we do. Theirs is not always a morality that The Faerie Ring is many things, mixing and building
we can understand. They are more than the chaotic a new, detailed world of the fey. We begin the
tricksters of legend. They are complicated. A lawful fey journey here, in Along the Twisting Way: The Faerie
should be just as valid as a chaotic one. There is just as Ring Campaign Guide, building initially around the
much variety in their personalities from individual to strongest personalities of the faerie realms, developing
individual as there is in humans—perhaps more. a new mythology with new fey options.
Some are utterly alien to us. Odd as it may sound, the Campaign Guide: At its core, this is a sourcebook
fey share more with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft, or even a mini-setting. What’s a mini-setting? In this
in some ways, than the majority of evil outsiders. The case, that’s a section of a larger setting. An expansive
outsiders of the game are defined by ideals: idealized and developing “cog” that you can slide seamlessly into
Good and Evil, Chaos and Law. The fey are not, instead place in your current favorite setting, providing new,
typically being viewed as completely amoral creatures. rich forays to the lands of the fey. It’s a corner of your
Lovecraft’s horror was always about our insignificance greater world devoted to the fey that you can pull from
in the face of uncaring, alien intelligence. That sounds whenever you desire: a growing world that can be tied
kind of feylike to me. Well, it’s time to unleash that into your own game, complete with new rules, NPCs,
overwhelming, amoral tide of fey! plot seeds, monsters, and more.
Broaden the Fey: The term fairy may have come Player’s and Magic Guides: There are other books as
from Western Europe, but that doesn’t mean that well, such as Along the Twisting Way: The Faerie Ring
other cultures don’t have equivalent notions. Call them Player’s Guide and Along the Twisting Way: The Faerie
fairies, spirits, yokai, peri; they’re all over the place. Ring Magic Guide, to expand with playable races and
And it only makes sense that all of these fey interact other character options—all centered on the fey.
with one another. A given humanoid culture may only Fiction: There is even an anthology, By Faerie Light
know of a handful of fey, but that doesn’t mean there (published by Broken Eye Books), of short stories
aren’t others out there. Just because a farmer has only inspired by the Faerie Ring.
seen a leprechaun doesn’t mean a kitsune is any less And if you’re feeling like something truly different, as
real. You can see this in such works as Neil Gaiman’s the Faerie Ring expands, you could adventure entirely
The Sandman, in which all myths can be connected within its boundaries.
(whether fey or not): Bast (let’s say an outsider or god) Ready for the fey? They’re ready for you.
freely interacted with Titania (a fey sovereign), for
— xiii —

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 T he Realms of the Fey

t an introduction
The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.
h
Perhaps, the best place to start would be discussing the
basics of this cosmos in which we must all share space.
—William Shakespeare, Let me build you a map . . .
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (V.i)

COSMOLOGY
The Outer Planes: Looking at the typical model of
the multiverse, we see the Outer Planes forming its
outermost sphere. These planes are held to be the
domain of the gods, of morality, and of final reward
and retribution. And they are of so very little use to
the fey. If they were smart, humanity would take the
same lesson.
The Inner Planes: Just inside the Outer Planes are
the Inner Planes. These are the very foundations of the
Material Plane, the raw material from which everything
else is forged. This is matter and energy churning to
a cosmic tune in service of all things material—the
bones and blood, if you will, of the Material Plane.
In this fey’s opinion, these planes are not terribly
welcoming . . . or interesting, for that matter. Let us
pass on.
The Material Plane: Arguably, the heart of the
multiverse. The Material Plane is commonly accepted
as the center of everything, and it is where you call
home. This all seems simple enough, but it gets
complicated very quickly when you consider that

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 there is more to the Material Plane than simply your separate as their own distinct category, recognizing
own world. Countless stars swarm the plane, and that these three planes have unusual characteristics
about each twirls a multitude of worlds. Beyond that, that set them apart. But really, what plane doesn’t?
speculation by many a reliable source says there are To be clear, from here on when I refer to Preternatural
alternate versions of your world and all those other Planes, that includes the Transitive Planes. Perhaps, it’s
worlds, continuously forking their way through time the perceived lack of utility in the other Preternatural
and space. Planes that have led to their obscurity to mortals. We
Without the Material Plane, the Inner Planes would fey know better.

THE PRETERNATURAL PLANES

have no purpose. Without it, the high-and-mighty
Outer Planes would have no future, starving from a
lack of belief, a lack of souls to feed them. Ah, the Preternatural Planes. A vast array of planes—
But above all, the Material Plane is a terrific source of countless in number and constantly changing—
amusement, and I can think of no greater purpose for sharing a complex relationship with the Material Plane.
its existence. I could go on and on, telling you things The Preternatural Planes are inextricably linked to
of this, your own plane of existence, that would shake the Material
you to the very core and melt your mind like wax. But Plane,
such is not our object just now. Later, perhaps.
Transitive and the Preternatural Planes: Finally,
we come to the point of our little tale. Largely
misunderstood and oft ignored, the Transitive and
Preternatural Planes are the playground of the fey. In
fact, they are often collectively known as the Realms of
the Fey. That’s not to say that the Material Plane isn’t
important to the fey, but really, you live there already,
and you hardly need me to provide a map to your own
backyard.

THE TRANSITIVE PLANES

The Transitive Planes are the Astral, Ethereal, and
Shadow Planes. A convenient grouping of planes based
entirely on the humanoid fascination with the concept
of utility, for these planes are known—and named—
for their usefulness in travel, both within the Material
Plane and beyond it.
Those more interested in essence than utility would
label these as part of the Preternatural Planes,
viewing the Transitive Planes as simply highly
specialized specimens on the spectrum that is
the wide variety of Preternatural Planes. After
all, many of the Preternatural Planes are just as
accessible to travel as the Transitive: Dream
itself comes immediately to mind. The more
traditionally minded, while perhaps aware
of these facts, keep the Transitive Planes
—2—

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 The Faerie Ring

Dear Titus,
Originally, I had no intention of responding to your query, let alone honoring your request.
There is certainly little love between the fey—my brethren—and humanity. And really, what
would it accomplish?
Needless to say, I’ve had a change of heart. I have come to appreciate that sharing my
knowledge and insight with you might go far. Not in the useless notion that you harbor of
bringing our peoples together but by instilling the proper perspective—and perhaps even a little
fear. Humanity knows so very little after all. I believe they need a glimpse of what is out
there in order to better appreciate their own insignificance.
More selfishly, I am limited by the scourge of time—though perhaps not as much as you. The
fey are so scattered and diverse that, even as one of their own, I could not hope to catalog them
all in one lifetime. Together, perhaps we can learn a bit more about the fey.
So where to begin? Perhaps by laying the foundations . . .

q —Zheddo the Bluetongue,

Most Knowledgeable Sage-in-Exile
of the Darkling Dominance

existing on its very edges and orbiting like moons. the Preternatural Planes created one by one, well after
Sheathing the Material Plane, they dance around it the Material Plane was spawned and in response to key
in complex patterns, each plane’s cycle as unique as triggers, spontaneously erupting from the Material
the plane itself. At one extreme is the Astral Plane, Plane itself? As a whole, it’s unclear. However, some
stubborn and still, content to fill its given role and never number of the Preternatural Planes have arisen in
budge its course. Others go so far as to periodically recorded history, seemingly created from nothing.
overlap and coexist with the Material Plane. And just Others have been annihilated, every trace of their
as the analogous moons, the planes are constantly existence obliterated. A pity that our information on
waxing and waning in relation to the Material Plane, both processes, and what triggers them, is woefully
advancing and receding in their influence. incomplete.
Were the Preternatural Planes around from the Some of the more daring scholars have even
beginning, born from the same events that shaped the suggested that the Material Plane as we know it is
Material Plane—sibling planes, if you will? Or were only one Material Plane of many—the current one.
—3—

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 According to this line of thought, eventually one of the significant emphasis on some force or characteristic.
Preternatural Planes will take the Material Plane’s place The Shadow Plane, for instance, resembles a Material
as the dominant regime while the current Material Plane engulfed and twisted by shadow. Planar traits
Plane falls into succession as the newest Preternatural can vary widely, of course, and some Preternatural
Plane—just as had befallen its predecessor—in an Planes are so bizarrely idiosyncratic that they seem
eternal cycle. Perhaps one of the fey’s worlds will one baffling and unsettling to those from more “normal”
day take over the realms currently dominated by your realms. Scholars busily try to make sense of it all, of
people. A delightful prospect, is it not? course, using science and magic to seek patterns to the
Whatever the case, the Preternatural Planes, with the mysteries, plotting the vastness of unlimited realities
exception of the Astral Plane, are entangled so closely on complex maps and in intricate orreries that seek to
with the Material Plane that they often behave as a mirror reality itself. Some secrets, however, may not be
single, highly complex plane. Perhaps the Preternatural coaxed away from the selfish planes so easily, and it can
Planes are simply layers in a vaster Material Plane be perilous to pry.
within which what we now call the Material Plane is A few of the Preternatural Planes follow.
but the dominant layer—for now, anyway. Aralu (or Gaol of Always): The endless subterranean
For the most part, the Preternatural Planes (or labyrinths of Aralu serve as a terrible, secret prison for
Preternatural Realms) are reasonably similar to the fey. No one admits to knowing its origins although,
the Material Plane, sharing many qualities but for a of course, one hears rumors. I’m told the chambered

Design Notes: The Preternatural Planes

Why is there a need for the Preternatural Planes?
There’s a twofold answer to this question as to why the Preternatural Planes should be deemed important
enough a concept to develop. The first reason is generic in scope. It’s nice to think that there’s a place somewhere
in the multiverse that is a suitable fit for any kind of story. That, no matter what kind of tale you want to tell in
your games, there’s a place for it within the rules system.
For instance, what about an insanely massive jungle with miles-high trees, no sight of land or sky, and cultures
that rise and fall without ever leaving its branches? You could try to shoehorn such a realm in somewhere—
perhaps a new continent? But then you may be concerned about how that would affect the rest of your world.
Perhaps as an outer plane? But suddenly you’re faced with a question of good and evil or order and chaos that
you may not have wanted. Perhaps a demiplane somewhere? But that may feel tacked on. The Preternatural
Planes were created to provide a place for a type of adventure that may be hard to place otherwise. Likewise,
concepts for planes of dreams and mirror worlds and similarly irregular locales never seem to find a solid place
to sit in the multiverse. The Preternatural Planes enable you to include these places in a way that feels more
natural to your cosmology.
The second reason is more about the fey, specifically. They just never seem to have had a place to call their
own. Where are the “Otherworlds” and “Underworlds” of fairy tale?
The idea of Preternatural Planes provides a place to have adventures that don’t fit comfortably anywhere else,
and it provides a home for the fey. This is a purely optional element that is not required to enjoy and utilize the
other elements in this book.

—4—

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caverns seem to extend to forever, no one knowing just has planted her roots here, utilizing her demesne, the
how far or the number of prisoners held within. Many Heartwood, to broaden this plane’s reach and connect
of the inhabitants are artifacts of forgotten ages. What to all forests everywhere. Imperceptible to most, the
secrets they must hold. influence of the Green Expanse is slowly driving all
Dream (or Dreamtime, Dreamlands, Plane of the remaining wild lands throughout the multiverse to
Dreams): A meandering but pervasive realm of dreams reclaim those lands stolen by civilization.
and nightmares, this plane connects all those entities Nowhere (or Plane of the Lost): Where do lost
with the capacity for dream. A constantly changing things go? Nowhere. All of the things ever lost can be
realm, whose natives flit along, following the currents found in Nowhere. And once things find their way to
of dream. Nowhere, they typically stay. This junkyard realm is
The Eternal Twilight: When many speak of the not an easy place to leave, for Mahu is the door, and he
“Faerie Realms” or some similar appellation, the Eternal jealously guards what he considers his—which includes
Twilight is what they truly mean. Considered by most anything and everything within Nowhere. It is not just
of my people to be the heart of the fey, its idyllic lands objects, though; creatures are caught within its borders
of gorgeous, untouched wilds call fey to its embrace as well, giving rise to odd ecologies as creatures of
like nothing else. As its name suggests, the plane is random races are forced to make do within the vast
eternally sheathed in the spectrum of muted shades fields of junk.
that make up dusk and dawn. Purgatory: A plane of lost souls, and not at all
In one way or another connecting to more a pleasant place. To many, Purgatory is thought
Preternatural Planes than any other plane, the Twilight inseparable from Sheol (see below), the latter existing as
serves as an important crossroads. Because of this, the Shores of Purgatory. In truth, Purgatory is a kind of
the fey deem it the center of their world. A massive soul trap and exists in an almost parasitic relationship
continent at its center known as the Embassy serves as with Sheol. Those souls that enter Purgatory (or
neutral ground where the various courts meet, whether are consumed by it, as some say) are trapped there,
in grievance or revelry, in accord with ancient treaties. prevented from reaching the Outer Planes to finish out
Those lands peripheral to the Embassy are claimed their journey. While there, they continue to behave as
by various of the more powerful fey lords and are if still alive. This has led to the development of a unique
anything but neutral ground, being typically strongly culture, a hodgepodge of all the various cultures to
contested. which those trapped souls once belonged. The plane’s
Forever Sea (or Isles of the Blessed): A sea not of most noted feature is the enormously vast necropolis of
water but of sky. A vast multitude of islands, each Perdition. Here, the resident lost souls are lorded over
teeming with its own rich and seemingly unique by mysterious fey, the so-called angels of death. Are
ecosystem, f loat in the wind. They cluster into they jailers—or are they prisoners, too? All the plane’s
archipelagos and drift in the complex airstreams. inhabitants cling to mythical claims of a path out of
Glassway: Made up entirely of seemingly living Perdition but continue in their unending unlife as its
crystal and glass, this plane is among the strangest of citizens.
the Preternatural Planes with truly alien vistas. And, Sea of Rahab: As if entrapping the darkest and most
perhaps, the most beautiful I’ve ever visited. Here, terrible depths of the sea, the Sea of Rahab is a watery
living glass trees cover crystalline mountain ranges nightmare created during the fall and rebirth of the
as the refracting light permeates the whole realm in Chaosbringer, Rahab. Forever, she occupies her throne
a dazzling cascade of color. An eerie and dangerous within, choreographing the chaos. Of late, her twisted
intelligence—slow, deep, and deliberate—seems to children stir more than usual and are beginning to cast
pervade the land. their gaze beyond the borders to which they had grown
Green Expanse: The greatest of all forests. Korapira accustomed.
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 Sheol: The front door of death, a brief rest for the sea of primordial chaos and cosmic order, from which
recently deceased before they move on. Call it a staging these very planes arose.
area for the afterlife, if you will. This is death in its Many of the fey’s own myths recount this creation
purest state, free of punishment or reward. Many souls as an intentional act performed by the planes. These
stay only very briefly, some longer—waiting for another tales paint the fey as the eyes, the fingers, and the
to join them, trying to complete some unfinished fists of the planes. It should be noted here that their
business, vainly hoping for resuscitation. It’s unclear personification of the planes is typically as an amoral
what decides one’s readiness to move on; perhaps and uncaring juggernaut, not the vague benevolence
merely accepting the inevitable. Some never do, instead held by many humanoid cultures.
eking out a monotonous unlife in the shadowed wastes, Other myths hold that the fey are merely by-products
a pale attempt at recreating a life once lived but now in the incessant process of change these planes go
never to return. Such deniers risk being drawn into through. In this view, sloughed-off planar debris from
Purgatory every day they malinger, but without the the earliest of times gained sentience as the first fey,
desire to move on or the ability to reclaim the living who proceeded to carve out a life for themselves as free-
world, there is little else. A few manage to claw their willed entities.
way back to the Material Plane to haunt the living. It had been all too easy to discount these myths as
The Wasteland: On the surface, the Wasteland is fancy, but our recent understanding of the sovereigns
a blasted land supporting nothing. Constant giant forces us to reconsider every shred of these myths.

PHILOSOPHY
hurricanes ravage back and forth across its cracked,
parched earth, pockmarked with craters and scoured
by wind. Beneath the surface, though, those who insist Frequently, the fey are mashed into just a handful of
on surviving here have secured themselves. And these archetypes, ranging from the stalwart defender of
Hidden People more than survive; they flourish in vast nature to the psychotic child-thief. Certainly, these
underground cities. traits exist in the fey, just as they do in the humanoid

THE FEY
races, but it’s just not that easy. Nothing related with
the fey is ever easy. I will repeat: we fey are much more
varied and complex than such simple portraits would
Most cultures easily recite stories of the fey. From suggest. Hells, any given fey has likely acted out both
region to region, the tales vary greatly but always those extreme personas at multiple points in their long
portray these creatures in the most colorful ways. life, along with a million other personas.
On the surface, the accounts seem little more than There are only two generalizations I will admit to
entertainment and whimsy with perhaps a moral regarding my people. The first is that we do not think
interjected here and there. Concrete details are in the same ways you humanoids generally do. By your
scarce and, more often than not, so contradictory or standards, the fey are completely amoral and alien. We
ridiculous as to be easily dismissed. However, those may follow a code of conduct within our own cultures,
most intent on their study eventually realize that but any basis we have for right and wrong exists entirely
the fey are more diverse and complicated than ever outside of the frame of reference of most humanoids.
imagined. For every truth you try to pin on the fey, Typically, we fey view you in the same ways that you
there is an exception—not so unlike you humanoids. view animals. Even those fey that favor humanoids

ORIGINS
likely view you as little more than favorite pets. Present
company excluded, of course.
The fey are tied inextricably to the Material and The second generalization is that the fey are very
Preternatural Planes—one presumes, even, they individualistic. That is not to say that we are the
emerged from the same churning vastness, the same completely random and reclusive creatures as so often
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 The Faerie Ring

portrayed. Quite a few of us, in fact, belong to strongly used to: they eat, sleep, breathe, breed, and exhibit
disciplined cultures and rigid social hierarchies. And, many other hallmark features of the natural world. Of
very much like your folk, we have beliefs and opinions course, again, these are merely generalizations; there
that are not identical to others of our race. We exist many exceptions. For instance, most fey are what
make choices. We do not necessarily share the same I believe you call “sexually dimorphic” and breed
philosophical and moral underpinnings. You never sexually, yet certain fey reproduce asexually. Of course,
know what you’re going to get with any given fey. That’s this is common in some of the simpler creatures of
what makes my people so very interesting . . . and so nature, but among humanoids, it’s unheard of—not so
very dangerous. for the fey.
The fey are never simple. I can say without pride but After the occasional difference in appearance,
as simple fact that we are among the most complex there also looms the fey’s propensity for astounding
entities in existence. supernatural powers as a most notable difference

HABITAT & SOCIETY

between fey and “natural” creatures. Where do these
powers come from? Prevailing theories suggest our
The sheer variety of fey makes it impossible to very nature simply makes us more capable of tuning
effectively generalize. Fey live in countless habitats into the warp and weft of reality, the planes themselves,
and are at home anywhere in the Material and in order to perform miraculous feats of magic. We are
Preternatural Planes. Of course, there are exceptions nothing less than conduits for the power of the planes.
in that some fey have an incredibly strong tie to a single Finally, we should not overlook the odd phenomenon
plane. The mogwoi, for example, share an extremely of fey adoption. Though normally not capable of such
strong connection with the Material Plane. Attuned feats, natural creatures occasionally rise to a similar
to the plane, they—and those others tied to their state of being, achieving wondrous ability. And, in so
respective planes—possess a level of kinship with doing, they become fey.

VARIETY
their homeland greater than most fey. Some say they
are merely extensions of the plane itself, a guess that
may come closer to the truth than generally believed. Various subtypes, or families, of fey exist, some of
Social structures of the fey, too, see incredible which are explored further within the chapters of this
diversity and cover all of the possible social structures volume. Others will be explored in future volumes. Just
seen in the humanoid cultures. Many fey follow paths a few of those existing are listed below.
wholly different from yours and exhibit behavior that Changeling: Changelings were once something
would come across as strange and even shocking in a else, such as humanoid, or came from mixed parents.
mere humanoid . . . sorry; I mean, in a humanoid such Twilight children are the best known of changelings.
as yourself. Devata: A devata is a unique fey that has taken on the

ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY

role of spirit guardian. They are typically individuals
from any given race that have been chosen for—or
Fey typically exhibit forms and features similar tricked into—this esteemed role; however, some races,
to those of natural creatures, whether humanoid, such as the lokapala, have given themselves entirely to
animal, or plant. Often, these characteristics mix in this devotion.
individuals in what, to you, must seem strange indeed, Dream/Nightmare: The dream and nightmare
creating beastly or plantlike mosaics of life. Though fey are a unique, dichotomous family that calls the
tantalizingly similar in ways to what you know, they Dreamlands home. They flit through the multiverse,
unsettle your sensibilities all the more for their traveling the dreams of sentient creatures.
juxtaposition to your expectations. Physiologically, Fata: The fata fey each possess an uncanny ability
most fey are very similar to the natural forms you’re to see through time and space—foretelling possible
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 futures, recounting distant pasts, viewing other worlds. are unable to leave the Material Plane—even for the
Norns, furies, and twisted Decade number among then. Preternatural Planes. These effects are less insistent for
Geist: We fey can be a tenacious lot, and even death younger mogwoi.
may not stop us. Rather than dying, some instead Peri: The peri are a family of fey that, in addition
transform into another state, called a geist, in which to its ties to the Material and Preternatural Planes,
they avoid—or postpone—their natural death. This has a link to one or more of the Outer Planes. This
can be a natural progression for certain fey races, a may be through heritage, such as with the nephilim,
unique occurrence for a specific individual, or a forced, or through some other process, such as those “fallen
artificial process (as with Red Jack’s ghost foxes). Geists angels” the Grigori and the Hagfish.
often form strong ties to certain creatures, objects, Sídhe: The sídhe have taken a darker path than most.
locales, or even concepts. (Technically, geists can form Their influence, typically unwanted, has reached far.
from any intelligent creature with a soul, but the fey Yokai: The yokai are fey that have an especially
seem especially attuned to the process.) strong association with nature—to the plants and
Gloom: A gloom is a fey that never should have been. animals, to the elements, to their environment, to each
These twisted horrors are remnants of tragic accidents other.
and horrible experiments.

HIERARCHY
Gnomekin (Elemental): Elemental fey are a family
that has, in addition to their ties to the Material and
Preternatural Planes, a link to one or more of the Inner All fey exist within a natural hierarchy of power.
Planes. There are few elemental fey left, for a great war Certainly, there is always power to be earned or taken,
ravaged their kind in which the salamanders violently with kings, dictators, and tribal elders willing to step
renounced their ties to the fey realms, destroying the forward to take it. Some power, however, is not so easily
ancient gnomes in the process. The sylphs and undines gained. This power comes from the blood, from the
remain, but only as a pale shadow of their former land, from the vagaries of fate. And it always chooses
glories. its own vessel.
Despite the tragedy of their past, with the destruction
of the ancient gnomes, gnomekin—such as far darrig, SOVEREIGN
black hats, redcaps, and cluracan to name a few—have Sovereigns are the natural lords of the fey. These entities
become quite prolific. possess incredible power that they wield at their whim.
Lost: The lost fey are a sad case indeed, one which They are not promoted from lesser fey but born directly
we don’t like to talk about. These fey technically no from the very fabric of the Material and Preternatural
longer exist, having been destroyed or in some other Planes. Bits of extraneous reality periodically slough
way lost and forgotten. But that doesn’t stop them off from the planes, and just as in our most ancient
from influencing the multiverse and, on occasion, fey creation myths, on rare occasions some of these
even appearing briefly as vagrants in time. The ancient bits take on a sentience of their own, becoming fey
gnomes are typically the first of the lost that spring to sovereigns.
mind. This process can be very violent: Korapira’s
Mogwoi: The mogwoi are an ancient family, perhaps birth left behind an enormous crater, though this
the oldest among the fey. While many fey have a particular sovereign birth is thought to have been
connection specifically to the Material Plane, the exceptionally destructive. Each sovereign is believed
mogwoi’s link is more profound: they actually grow to come into being in a different way: whether a
more and more dependent on the plane as they get devastating explosion, a fire from the sky, a virgin
older. Mogwoi exist on the Material Plane in remote birth, a coalescing of shadows, or any other number
regions, typically, away from prying eyes. The oldest of ways. However they come into being, sovereigns
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 The Faerie Ring

are fully grown from birth, or achieve that state Sovereigns can travel back and forth from their
with extraordinary rapidity. All of their great innate demesnes at will and seemingly even draw power
power is there at their fingertips (for those who have from them when needed. Each demesne can exist
fingertips) right from the beginning although they are either as a pocket dimension (a demiplane with
not always fully capable of controlling it at first. attributes according solely to its sovereign’s whim)
Sovereign births are quite rare with Korapira’s being or superimposed over part of another plane, again at
the only one recorded with any certainty within the the sovereign’s whim. For most sovereigns, this latter
last 1,000 years or so—perhaps within the last 10,000 method is typically only possible with the Material
years. It is also the only one to have been observed and Preternatural Planes serving as host planes
at the time (though most of the observers perished) although certain lords have been known to travel the
or to have been documented with conclusive, extant multiverse, latching onto whatever plane is available.
validation in non-fey races’ annals, the origins of other When superimposed, the host plane is pushed from
sovereigns being largely shrouded in myth. the demesne’s insertion point to its periphery, possibly
Most sovereigns are extremely old and many, creating an incongruous seam. Kept too long like this,
including all the mogwoi lords, predate the advent of the demesne risks becoming a permanent addition to
the humanoid races on the Material Plane. Luckily, the host plane: Manitou’s abdicated lands, for instance,
my people have been around quite a bit longer than have long since “taken root.”
yours, so we have been able to obtain a good deal of
information on our sovereigns that would otherwise
be lost. These entities are elusive and dangerous,
seemingly inscrutable and very, very powerful. It
is always wise to remember that even we do not
know everything about them.
Some see the sovereigns as embodiments
of various principles of nature. This may
be true; I really cannot say. Although it
seems a bit simplistic, so it must be wrong
since we fey are never simple. But even if
it’s true, I pity the soul that thinks this
knowledge will grant them any power
over a sovereign.
Demesne: Sovereigns possess a
connection with their demesnes from
birth. These demiplanes are an extension
of themselves: sovereigns are either
born in the demesne’s tender grasp or
immediately hear its call and seek it out.
Their demesne is specifically linked to
them. It is theirs. Its traits and landscape
are completely controlled and alterable by
the sovereign, slowly molding and remolding in
tune to each sovereign’s subconsciousness over the
course of a lifetime or rapidly shifting in response to
conscious manipulation.
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 Mogwoi sovereigns are alone in possessing no true Servitors: One of a sovereign’s earliest actions is
demesnes. However, they can form permanent links typically to create servitors, something they seem
with portions of the Material Plane; such a territory almost compelled to do. Sometimes these creations
acts as a surrogate demesne and, indeed, is typically are individuals, sometimes entire races, but always
called their demesne. These mogwoi territories are fey. Each servitor begins life as an autonomous entity
typically remote and dangerous. Though not as although it may choose or be forced into servitude
malleable as the true demesnes of other sovereigns, soon after. No matter the circumstances, all share a
they still respond and lend their power to their mogwoi spiritual link to the sovereign that created them. What
lords in a limited capacity. this means for a particular servitor is a personal matter.
Should a sovereign be permanently destroyed, his or Sovereigns typically perform this spectacular act
her demesne collapses if a demiplane. However, those of creation only once, for it takes much time and
demesnes that have bonded to another plane—and, expends much of their initial essence. Servitors tend
of course, mogwoi territories—remain but become to take on certain aspects of their sovereign. Raised
twisted and warped. and bred to serve the sovereign’s needs—whether out
Servitors and emissaries and other favored creatures of respect, fear, or force—ultimately (barring special
of a sovereign typically have free passage into and out circumstances), they are nonetheless free-willed and
of that sovereign’s demesne. Others, however, may have make their own decisions.
more trouble. Rogue servitors are usually unwelcome—and often

Dissecting the Fey

The various fey lords are analogous to the various lords of the outer planes. Just as demons and devils and angels
have their own lords, those incredibly powerful entities whose reach threatens the gods themselves, so too the
fey. The fey lords play the same “ecological” role as any lord of the outer planes.
The differences are largely the same as the differences between fey and demon, or fey and angel, or fey and
any other outsider. The biggest differences can be summed up by what the base creatures represent: demons
represent Evil and Chaos, angels represent Good, fey do not “represent” anything but themselves.
The fey are representations of neither Good nor Evil, Chaos nor Law, though any given individual fey may be
good or evil, chaotic or lawful. Not to put too fine a point on it, we fey are a great gray morass of morality and
ethics. And any given individual fey may espouse different beliefs and motivations at different points in his or
her life—or even at different points in the week.
The hallmark of the fey, if such a thing exists, is complexity. We are unpredictable. But this is not the same
as being chaotic, as is often presumed. Some fey have strict codes of honor or lead regimented or courtly lives
that favor a more lawful bent (sometimes known as the “iron silk,” those unwritten laws of courtly custom
and etiquette to which all courtiers adhere). But even those lawful fey have a certain unpredictability about
them—a certain feyness.
Simply, fey sometimes don’t do what others (especially non-fey) expect. It doesn’t change what they are;
in truth, this is what they are. Fey do good things for bad reasons and bad things for good reasons. They are
complicated and composed of a million, billion contradictions and motivations. In many ways, we fey are very
much like the humanoids. Perhaps “more humanoid than the humanoids” would be an apt description.

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 The Faerie Ring

enemies—in the lands of their former sovereign and entails either intense and painful emotion or
their own kind. Though sovereigns may also command tremendous violence, and the lives of quiddities usually
other creatures, they typically do not share the same follow similar patterns. Born of tragedy, they tend to
connection with them as with servitors. burn ferociously bright, even brighter than sovereigns
Emissary: Emissaries are powerful servants of over short periods, and they heavily impact those along
the sovereigns. They can be created, like servitors; their trajectory. But they often flare out just as fast and
transformed from lesser creatures, like the Hagfish bright, as one fey poet put it, “once they’ve said their
of Rahab; or be the sovereign’s own offspring, like piece.” It’s thought they’re impossibly focused and
Puck. Most emissaries serve their sovereign of their driven by something—greed, love, vengeance—and
own volition although some may have been pressed that this is the only thing keeping them going. Once
into service (details are usually unknown to all it’s gone, once their love is requited or their vengeance
but the sovereign and emissary involved). They are slaked or whatever purpose created them is served, they
a sovereign’s right hand, functioning as inspiring are finally released to oblivion. Or so the story goes.
lieutenants, trusted advisors, and wily ambassadors. If you remember that there has only been one
Mechanically, each emissary is a unique individual sovereign born in the last millennium, it might prove
capable of channeling a portion of the sovereign’s enlightening to know that there have been seven
power for their own use. It is similar to the connection known quiddities born in the last century alone. For
of a servitor to its sovereign but much stronger. It is some reason, this number seems to steadily climb
not unknown for high-level adventurers to be granted through the centuries.
emissary status by various sovereigns as a boon for
extraordinary services rendered.
Quiddity: Sovereigns are born in a seemingly
random fashion, apparently directed by the
planes themselves. Sometimes, though,
through incredible circumstances—
powerful and ancient magics,
reality-shifting cataclysms, intense
emotion—similar entities known
as quiddities arise (sometimes
known as artificial sovereigns or
accidental sovereigns).
Quiddities, unlike true
sovereigns, are always created
from a previous creature—which
is almost always fey. Unlike
sovereigns, they do not control
demesnes or create servitors
of their own, though they may
still take lands and command
armies as any normal creature.
Despite this lack of some defining
qualities of sovereigns, quiddities
are still always extremely powerful.
The birth of a quiddity typically
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 (Well, that did not . . .
. . . go as well as I’d hoped.”
“So what now?”
“Pfft . . . hells if I know.”
The mogwoi trinity clustered around the glittered amidst the embroidery. They’d
dim candlelight. He knew this particular stolen it from the altar of some grand high
dimensional bolt hole well, having discovered muckity-muck deity’s cathedral a century
it so so so long ago. It was ideal for recovery earlier. Or might it have been the tablecloth
after a collapsed plan, to flee . . . whoever, or of that one fat emperor that other time, or
just to be alone in this forgotten place. the coronation bib of that elf princess?
One of his selves threw his hands up in Flibbertigibbet—one of him—stuck out his
frustration. tongue and gave another raspberry, breaking
“Hah hah!” Second laughed, falling their collectively scattered train of thought
backward and gleefully kicking his legs in on the matter.
the air. Another of him checked the gag and the
Third shook his head solemnly before bindings, adjusted with an oddly, perversely
winking and issuing forth a soft snicker, reverent touch.
moments before first rejoined. “Now, what was I doing?”
Minutes, days, maybe even years passed “Was I hiding from Mahu?”
as he bantered, quarreled, and laughed with “Yeah, after I’d broken his favorite scepter.”
himself, recollecting recent misadventures “No, that was years ago.”
and those of eons past. This moment away “Wasn’t that yesterday?”
from it all in his place—their place—was Another murmur rose from the bound
special. party in their midst.
“Pfft . . . !” All three stuck their tongues Flibbertigibbet’s second self waved away
out and blew raspberries before taking turns the complaint. “Focus, Flibb, focus!”
hurling actual pieces of fruit into each others’ “We have to find her. We have to!” Worry
mouths. The game was fun, but all games and panic welled up in all of his eyes.
were fun, and really, that was the point of it “Remember, Flibb, remember!” Third held
all, wasn’t it? second’s head as if peering into a scrying
“Didn’t we steal these from Mahu?” First globe. “Where did I hide her?”
asked, holding up one choice berry to the The question was there, and then, it was
candle’s flickering light. gone, subsumed below the mental waters that
The others shrugged and grinned, exposing swam with all manner of irrational beasts,
teeth stained red with pulp. hungry for candy and clarity and rarely
“Mmmph . . . !” His unwilling guest angrily finding the latter.
murmured against the gag in their mouth.
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 closed behind him.
Watching his selves vanish, third opened
his mouth and crammed his hands and
feet in and down, noisily contorting and
“Hey, wasn’t it funny years ago when Modo
swallowing himself into nothingness with
fell off that cliff?”
little more than a gurgle.
“When I pushed him? Yeah! That reminds
The moment was over and Flibbertigibbet
me . . .”
was gone, vanished on another meandering,
“Mmmph . . . !” Their guest gave its loudest
fruitless pursuit. The candle’s light faded, and
yet complaint, kicking out at one of third’s
the cold returned. Silence descended, except
shins. Missing, of course, but making a
for a soft sigh of proud resignation and the
valiant attempt, nonetheless.
faint trickle of water on stone.
“Huh?” All three asked at once, turning
Alone in the gloom, once again, the Dark
to their captive in a singular moment of
Mother’s eyes glimmered.
lucidity. They stared a moment until the
candle sizzled and popped, dragging away
their concentration like an angry moon upon
the evening tide.
“Last one to Cockaigne has to juggle
beehives!” First shouted with glee as he
blinked out of existence with a loud pop.
“Material!” Shouted second as he scrambled
to his feet. Laughing, he traced the outline of
a door in the cavern wall and opened a very
real one onto a heretofore tranquil backwater
planet, dashing through and slamming it

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 S cattered and Scatterbrained

t Flibbertigibbet
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon
he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing
h
This did not improve their fortunes.
This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins
he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives
from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the
upon this downward path, you never know where you hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the
are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some poor creature of earth.
murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the —William Shakespeare,
time. King Lear (III.iv)
—Thomas De Quincey,
“On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts” The gremlins, of which you are doubtlessly already
familiar—in all of their various form and function—
Of flighty mind and ever craving attention and are a marauding, if not laughing, blight upon the
the thrills of new sights and new experiences, planes wherever they wander, congregate, and simply
Flibbertigibbet wanders the planes, both Preternatural amuse themselves. Ultimately, for all their potential for
and Material—his mad creations most certainly tagging mayhem, they remain self-defeating. Time and again,
along, wandering wherever their lord travels. they fall prey to their own short-sightedness, internal
Before he created the gremlins, of course, he division, and wanton self-destructive whimsy. In this,
wandered alone, so his mogwoi siblings were the they mirror their lord and progenitor, Flibbertigibbet.

MISPLACING MOTHER
primary targets of his devilry. Eventually, though,
enraged by his practical jokes and incessant prattling,
three of his mogwoi siblings grabbed hold of him and Amongst the many stories that the fey tell, there
tore him apart. are scattered hints of a Dark Mother. Considered
Flibbertigibbet finds it challenging to be alone apocryphal by most, these tales typically evoke her as
anymore. a progenitor of the fey and, more specifically, as the
mother of the mogwoi sovereigns. Strangely, for the
small amount of information there is about the Dark
Mother, it is all very consistent. She is said to have

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 birthed the Dark Ones, or the Dark Forty-Four— travel to the Preternatural Planes as long as one of his
those mogwoi sibling sovereigns, including Hob (the selves stays on the Material Plane.
oldest), Obidicut, Mahu, Modo, and Flibbertigibbet Having scoured the farthest reaches of the planes and
(the youngest). having gathered everything in place, Flibbertigibbet
The Dark Mother is, however, typically associated proceeded to create. Though lacking the finesse to
most closely with Flibbertigibbet, her youngest son, for instill great intelligence in his creations, his skilled
it is always with him that her story stalls. As the tales hands created the lively and fecund gremlins. These
tell us, from birth, Flibbertigibbet harassed his older playful creatures rapidly multiplied and proceeded
siblings incessantly. Small and chattering, the mogwoi very nearly to bring the multiverse to its knees.
never ceased his practical joking and ribald play. To him, The gremlins expanded throughout the Material and
it was just great fun, a chance to laugh with family. But Preternatural Planes, devouring all metal in their path.
to the others, it was endless torment. Always, mother To many, they were a horrible nuisance that threatened
would step in and prevent the impending retaliation. to plunge whole societies back into an age of stone. To
For whatever reason, Flibbertigibbet decided one day some, however, the gremlins proved cataclysmic.
to play a joke on the others by hiding their mother. Among the most greatly affected, the City of
When the others discovered this, they were furious. Gears—a massive city-plane of living, evolving
They could find mother nowhere. They pressed gearworks and clockwork automata—was almost
Flibbertigibbet for information, but this scatterbrained obliterated once it was discovered by the gremlins as
fey had actually forgotten where he had hidden her. they proceeded to devour the place. With the assistance
Without mother’s staying hand, the siblings could take of the matabiri, the Gear Keepers were able to push the
no more. Mahu, Modo, and Obidicut each grabbed a gremlins out and forever seal the plane from gremlins.
portion of Flibbertigibbet and pulled him apart, tearing In the millennia since, the city has been slowly healing
him into three pieces. Unfortunately, this merely the damage, but it is still a shadow of its former glory.
created three roughly identical Flibbertigibbets. The Under the pretense of goodwill toward Flibbertigibbet,
siblings held their hands from further abuse for fear of during the making of the bitterclaw, the matabiri were
compounding their problems even further with even able to limit the gremlins’ fecundity, greatly curtailing
more obnoxious Flibbertigibbets running around. their destructive potential.

BEING FLIBBERTIGIBBET
Millennia have passed, and the Dark Mother remains
hidden. On those rare occasions Flibbertigibbet
remembers she’s lost, he goes off looking; he still cannot So many names a fool: Divided Sovereign, Fool King,
remember where he put her. As the only mogwoi, along Scattered Prince, Triune Folly, and several rather
with his servitors, that can easily leave the Material obscene ones that shouldn’t be repeated here.
Plane, he spends several decades at a time searching Flibbertigibbet cannot help but annoy others and play
until inevitably forgetting what he’s looking for. jokes on them. His incessant chattering alone is usually

MOGWOI NOT FOR SALE

enough to drive others away. He takes great pleasure
in executing his practical jokes and has a talent with
It was the sundered Flibbertigibbet that visited Hob complexity (which likely explains his fascination with
the day the matabiri were created. Flibbertigibbet all things mechanical) that often manifests in overly
had never realized that he could create life, and he convoluted jokes, requiring several decades or more
left Hob’s demesne with a new goal. He scoured the to reach their conclusions. Unfortunately, his memory
Material and Preternatural Planes for everything is fleeting, and he often forgets about many of his
he would need: because of his being sundered and ongoing jokes. As counterpoint to this love of intricate
having his consciousness divided among three pieces, interactions and logical dependencies, his daily life is a
Flibbertigibbet, unlike the other mogwoi, can actually study in buffoonery, and he is just as likely to fling feces

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 at anyone near him, as example. gremlins. As opposed to their squat, fuzzy forms, he is
Interactions: Driving others to distraction with entirely hairless, possessed of exaggeratedly long arms
his antisocial behavior seems to be his sole reason for and spindly legs. Only his big ears and razor teeth
being. Even his siblings are not above his attention, and show the family resemblance.
they seldom tolerate his antics for long. It should be But sure enough, Flibbertigibbet more than makes
noted that, of all the siblings, Hob has never been the up for his relatively mundane appearance by way of
target of Flibbertigibbet’s jokes and buffoonery. his reckless behavior and haphazard apparel. Ever
Characteristics: Flibbertigibbet, or rather all three in motion, he fidgets, hops about, and rambles on at
Flibbertigibbets share an identical appearance as a frenetic pace, made all the worse when more than
well as a unified consciousness, despite the violence one of his bodies is present. They finish one another’s
of his siblings when they tore him apart. Lean, lanky, sentences, talk amongst themselves, and repeatedly
and nearly always possessed of a leering, idiot grin, ramble on over each other, prattling on about three
Flibbertigibbet bares minimal resemblance to his completely different topics.
Flibbertigibbet’s apparel is no
different from his speech.
Dressed in stolen clothing
The Divided Kingdom of clashing colors, splatters
of paint, or frequently
If it had grown up . . . it would have made a dreadfully ugly child; but it absolutely nothing at all,
makes rather a handsome pig, I think. he continually defies any
—Lewis Carroll, sense of conventions, taste,
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or decorum, even when
attempting otherwise—even
A tripartite demesne for a tripartite sovereign, the Divided Kingdom on his best behavior.
contains three distinct realms, each a miniature kingdom of its own. Each Strateg y & Tactics:
realm is ruled by one of Flibbertigibbet’s bodies, whomever he appoints in Fighting Flibbertigibbet is
his absence, or whomever happens to be the unlucky sod on the throne and an exercise in frustration.
kept there as a royal prisoner by a dozen grinning gremlins. He rarely attacks directly,
As distinct from each other as Flibbertigibbet’s bodies are identical, c ho o si n g i n s t e a d to
each of the realms are quite literally grown from a “seed” of another land inf lict embarrassing
from the Material or Preternatural planes, torn free from its moorings transformations or cause
and transplanted into place. The resulting kingdom patterns itself after op p one nt s to l au g h
that originating location, though never quite without awkwardness as the hysterically. When he does
haphazard process tends to warp them well before Flibbertigibbet or his close in melee, he often steals
gremlins get their claws involved. Sometimes, the seed includes living things from foes, switches
things. Other times, it’s something like a bit of castle stolen and carried away, items to odd and irritating
anything from a few bricks to a whole tower lifted in the night, or perhaps but mostly harmless effect,
eaten brick by brick and later vomited up for reassembly. Understandably, or manipulates opponents’
the resulting harvest rarely gives a wholly faithful representation, but it clothes to blind or entangle
amuses Flibbertigibbet and his followers to no end. them. The best strategy when
Once they grow bored, however, the other two realms declare war, and combatting Flibbertigibbet is
the denizens of the out-of-favor realm revolt and tear their own kingdom to wait for him to forget why
to pieces, burn it, eat it, or however else seems appropriate at the time. he’s there in the first place
and let him wander off.
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 The Faerie Ring

from which they and every other pathway originates.

Nibiru Every go-between, forgotten path, out-of-the-way

h egress, and secluded place is touched by Nibiru’s paved

tendrils, but its heart is where all these paths converge
on the only sort of kingdom fit for a divided king.

ABANDONED KINGDOM
May he hold the Beginning and the Future, may they

OF WOODEN CHICKENS
pay homage unto him,
Saying, “He who forced his way through the midst of
Tiamat without resting, Remaining now as only a frost-shrouded realm of
Let his name be Nibiru, “the Seizer of the Midst”! evergreen forest, it seems to have gone awry from the
For the stars of heaven he upheld the paths, start. Originally intended to model itself on the dark
He shepherded all the gods like sheep! forests of Slavic mythology, something went wrong in
—Enûma Eliš the bitterclaws’ understanding of the source culture,
(trans. LW King) their implementation of it all, or something else entirely.
Their attempts to create the occasional spooky chicken-
Atop a secluded, cloud-cloaked tepui in a forgotten legged hut to wander the forests only resulted in a
corner of the Material Plane, sandwiched between the species of gigantic and carnivorous wooden chickens,
prosaic and the obscene, Flibbertigibbet’s demesne of as well as the occasional animated mortal and pestle
Nibiru is both impossibly far away and just over the flying about to menace the peasantry. Flibbertigibbet
next wall or through the nearest hedgerow. Described blames the bitterclaws both for the realm’s failure from
as the invisible alleyways behind reality, the Fool the start and its continued existence.

CONFLUENCE
King’s bastion of power literally frays reality at its
edges, bleeding out into an unending warren of tunnels,
passageways, and alleys. Each ends in a door, chimney The meeting point between the three kingdoms at
flue, well, sewer grate, arch, or fire escape landing, Nibiru’s heart centers upon a confluence of pathways
perched somewhere insubstantial between Material from those nations and, likewise, all outside paths from
and Preternatural, overlooking a very real place on the the outer mazes. Sometimes, the Confluence takes the
Material Plane. appearance of a country road merging three main paths
It is by way of these invisible connections and invisible and a number of smaller trails; sometimes, a landing
wounds in reality through which Flibbertigibbet and of two stairwells, a door, and a few dumbwaiters; other
his gremlins occasionally appear to come tumbling times, a paved courtyard with three archways and a
out of, heralding unintentional doom to wherever they scattering of minor side doors or bolt holes in the walls.
happen to emerge. These invisible pathways are also The only constant is a trio of statues of Flibbertigibbet
the same way by which the occasional traveler happens himself. Perpetually mirrored by a copy of one of the
to find themselves lost in Flibbertigibbet’s demesne. By three in each of the three kingdoms, they stare and
its nature, most often such wayward travelers simply leer at visitors, always with a smug, mischievous smile
find themselves wandering a maze of oddly familiar plastered across their faces.
but twisting, winding paths before being deposited The Confluence is the nexus of the three current
back whence they came, sometimes a day earlier and kingdoms and more.
sometimes a year later. Not every such traveler ever Alpine Wonderland: This domain is dotted with
returns home, however, and the sad, doomed farmer flowering meadows, quaint villages, and dozens of
stepping out into his own rows of corn only to vanish glittering castles pulled from old Germanic myth. The
into thin air might end up not wandering a maze of latest craze of the kingdom’s inhabitants is dressing as
unnatural corn but instead find himself in the place wolves and preying upon villages populated entirety

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 by sheep stolen from whatever kingdom originally All told, though, a fireworks factory explosion is
seeded the domain. The previous gremlin obsession certainly an event to behold.

GLEAMING SPIRES
was crafting human villagers out of cheese or chocolate,
though this passion was rapidly eclipsed by drowning
one another in beer or ale, before moving on to the The pathways take accidental travelers anywhere, and
latest bizarre trend. the bitterclaws are not exempt from this caprice. They
Cliffside Castles: This parched and desolate domain do try to make as much of their random trips as possible,
is built on the side of a winding cliff overlooking though, returning with seeds and knickknacks from
parched grassland and desert. Individual tribes of other lands. One such journey took them to a wondrous
settled gremlins fight off the depredations of marauding city full of towers reaching to the heavens where all
nomadic gremlin tribes before switching dynamics to manner of magnificent machinery performed amazing
a reverse where the cliff tribes conjure spirits to pray tasks. The bitterclaws marveled at the snakelike beast to
upon the horse-riding lowlanders or drag them back which sacrificial victims voluntarily offered themselves
for elaborate and bloody rituals. The precise tide of it as it moved about the city. While they were unable to
all is dictated by Flibbertigibbet himself—or his proxy wrestle this amazing city back to Nibiru, they managed
of the moment. to take part of the metal snake as a seed. The so-called
Pagoda Kingdom: Rising up from a comically Gleaming Spires is not quite as majestic as the city they
haphazard sprawl of bamboo forests and flooded rice witnessed—as it is currently a mere trio of towers and
paddies, the third kingdom contains a fantastical city standing only five feet tall. They did manage to get the
of elaborately colored pagodas decorated in polished metal serpent to wind its way around the towers, but it
brass and surrounding a towering central palace carved doesn’t devour anyone . . . yet.

GRAND VISTA
entirely from jade. Semi-domesticated foo animals run
rampant, and the lacquered wooden buildings face
perpetual catastrophe where the hands of gremlins and The top of Nibiru’s tallest peak, the Grand Vista, is
bitterclaw-crafted fireworks meet. Still, this kingdom is a location that moves from kingdom to kingdom at
Flibbertigibbet’s current favorite, so it remains the least whim. From this peak, one can reportedly see the whole
devastated by his children, despite their efforts. of reality. It is certainly possible to see the transits of

FIREWORKS FACTORY
every road and river as they fade into and out of the
demesne. Rumor also has it that one can fling oneself
This is the third fireworks factory, built by bitterclaws off the mountaintop and land in the reality of one’s
after the first two were utterly consumed in flame after choosing with absolutely no harm. The body of anyone
the inadvertent setting off of all the fireworks within making the attempt disappears just before it hits the
the building—both times. Rather than wood, like the surface, so there may be some truth to this rumor.

TIMELOST ALLEYWAY
previous two buildings, iron was used to frame the
new building, and the bitterclaws are certain there is
no way a fireworks mishap can bring down this newest One of the oddest passageways in Nibiru is the
building, even if all their lovingly crafted fireworks are Timelost Alleyway. When someone stumbles upon it,
destroyed yet again. reaches the alley’s dead end, and turns around, a mirror
There is no thought to ever stop creating fireworks, image of the alley greets them, seemingly leaving no
which they use to keep pesky gremlins at bay and to exit. The mirror alley appears either much cleaner or
sell to visitors who have never seen them before (at considerably more run-down to the new arrival, and it
exorbitant prices, of course). When they have an excess is possible for the person trapped in the mirrored alley
of fireworks thanks to lack of sales and lack of pests, to take the appropriate steps to exit the alley and find
they put on grand displays over the factory. themself in the distant past or in the far future. In rare

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 The Faerie Ring

cases, they can time a trip to the alley and meet past the water’s edge and falling to the ground. Boats stay
selves, allowing them to convey important information upright when they enter Nibiru, but sailors must
about personal futures or remember that forgotten. keep their wits about them to avoid drifting toward a

THE VEINS
riverbank and plummeting to the earth.
A group of entrepreneurial bitterclaws have claimed
Not all passages leading to Nibiru are roads and a portion of the Veins as an amusement park. Rather
alleyways. The Veins are a confluence of different rivers than waiting until everything is finished—and safe—
that flow through the demesne in midair. Gremlins everything in this park is forever a work in progress, a
visit frequently to capture disoriented fish breaching grand experiment in fun. (Medics get in free.)

Flibbertigibbet’s Demesne
Nibiru is a chaotic realm where reality, time, and distance obey no laws but their own.
Endless Pathways. Nibiru connects to locations across the multiverse, though it is all but impossible for
anyone but Flibbertigibbet or a creature bearing the (un)Locket of Nibiru to use the random paths of the
demesne with any degree of certainty. Entry into Nibiru is completely at random, and any (un)lucky travelers
might find themselves there. Exiting Nibiru is a different matter entirely.
Creatures wishing to leave Nibiru along its pathways must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma check. On a
successful check, the creatures appear in a random location on a random plane, though their arrival point
is usually not immediately dangerous. If any creature rolls a 20 on the check or succeeds by 5 or more, the
creatures return to the exact location they entered the pathways from—or anywhere else in the multiverse they
wish to go. On a failed check, the creatures cannot make the check again until having wandered Nibiru for 1
hour—which might account for any amount of time on other planes.
Seeds of Nibiru. A portion of Nibiru can take on the form, appearance, or aspects of another plane if any
of the three kingdoms is ever destroyed. The resulting new realm is formed by a seed taken from some other
plane and gains some of the traits of that plane as determined by the GM.
Shifting Environs. The landscape, objects, and creatures of Nibiru shift and alter constantly—sometimes in
reaction to the thoughts of sentient creatures; sometimes in response to powerful magic; and sometimes for
no discernible reason at all. The degree to which the plane transforms itself and the effect that has on creatures
on the plane are determined by the GM.
Shifting Time. Time in Nibiru speeds up and slows down relative to the rate at which time passes in other
realms. Creatures who spend a month in Flibbertigibbet’s demesne might return to their home plane to discover
that only a minute has passed there. Other creatures that make use of Nibiru’s pathways for just the briefest
moment realize that, from the perspective of those they left behind, their journey has taken years. The GM
determines the effects of shifting time on Nibiru.
Wild Magic. Spells, innate spells, and other magical effects can function differently—or not at all—in Nibiru.
Any creature attempting to cast a spell in Nibiru must succeed on a concentration check or the spell goes wild.
The DC is 10 + spell’s level. The GM determines the final outcome of any magical effects on the plane, typically
by having such magic rebound on the wielder, fail completely, affect different targets, produce the opposite of
the intended effect, and so forth.

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 were below a certain threshold. The matabiri pushed

Bitterclaws the threshold down to 1,000 specimens, so there

should never be more than 1,000 gremlins alive at a

& Others
time. Additionally, the matabiri wanted to disrupt the

h
Though ravening gremlins delighted Flibbertigibbet
for the primal chaos they brought, after a few of his
natural gremlin tendency to congregate and were able
to limit the amount of time a gremlin could tolerate the
company of another of its kind. The matabiri’s efforts
took decades to come into full effect, but gremlins
now appear to be much less of a threat to the “civilized
carefully laid schemes were inadvertently foiled by lands” of the multiverse.
gremlin antics, the mogwoi sovereign relented to A gremlin’s physiology is unique and rapidly evolving,
matabiri requests to intervene. After all, they did however. The limits that the matabiri engineered into
promise to make gremlins more intelligent. the creatures were the best they could do against
And how could that not be a fabulous idea? these rapidly evolving creatures. Their very natures
are in constant conflict with these limitations (and

BITTERCLAWS
others from the natural world), and they are evolving
to compensate. It is only a matter of time until all
Oh, certainly, I’ll inevitably miscalculate the elasticity gremlins surpass their limits and become the terror
of the physical world, misjudge the social connectivity they once were—or worse.

A CHANGE SO BITTER
of my subjects, or “screw something up,” as you say. And
something will explode, someplace will set itself on fire
and sink into a swamp, and someone will chase me To appease Flibbertigibbet, the matabiri took advantage
halfway across the planes—not necessarily in that order. of the gremlins’ incredible metabolism and created
How could I honor my creator by doing any differently? the bitterclaws, an evolved form of gremlin. Though
At least, I won’t eat half the things I find. Hey . . . ! related to gremlins, these larger creatures are quite
Stupid gremlin . . . get my sword out of your mouth! different. They possess a much greater intelligence than
—Sir Remolio Redondo Randostan VI a gremlin and none of the frenetic behavior. As a race,
(bitterclaw engineer) they are calm and thoughtful, but they still display a
high degree of antisocial behavior.
After the near destruction of the City of Gears, the The decline of the gremlins has not gone unnoticed
matabiri suddenly viewed gremlins as a threat. In by Flibbertigibbet, but instead of placing blame with
line with their own best interests, they convinced the matabiri where it belongs, he tends to blame the
Flibbertigibbet to allow them to study the gremlins bitterclaws.
and “fix” them, making them smarter. (Flibbertigibbet Environment & Society: Bitterclaws abound within
has always been inexplicably trusting of the scheming the Divided Kingdom, taking leadership roles and
matabiri, perhaps due to their tie to Hob.) doing their best to organize gremlins and their own
The matabiri were only too eager for the chance kin toward whatever fancy strikes them. Most of them
to experiment on these amazing creatures. With are solitary, however, going about their own schemes
difficulty, they gathered remarkable information on in Nibiru or beyond when tasked by Flibbertigibbet
gremlins’ unique physiology. Without Flibbertigibbet’s himself. More often they adventure on their own, doing
knowledge, however, the matabiri went a step further what pleases them.
and engineered limits into the gremlin life cycle: Most of their pursuits are self-limiting affairs with
their reproductive rate was greatly reduced, enabling little broader consequence, unlike the examples set by
existing gremlins to slowly die off until their numbers Flibbertigibbet and his thousands of trailing gremlins.
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 The Faerie Ring

However, ever resourceful and certainly

retaining their creator’s grandiose yet petty
ambitions, there are times when a solitary
bitterclaw’s schemes come either to
fruition or fail in such spectacular
fashion as to make the matabiri pause
and ponder if they didn’t simply
compound their original gremlin
problem.
Ty pi c a l Characteristics:
Bitterclaws are small, lanky
creatures with large mouths and
ears, often compared to larger,
stretched out gremlins. While
gremlins are covered in fur,
bitterclaws retain this feature on an
irregular basis, varying heavily from
individual to individual with many
trimming it to suit their own sense of
style or removing it entirely to more
resemble Flibbertigibbet himself.
Primarily bipedal, like gremlins, they
occasionally drop down on all fours
when particularly irritated or curious.
Being the end result of the matabiri’s
experimentation, the bitterclaws lack
their cousins’ rabid and destructive hunger
for metal. The nearly indestructible, shark-like
teeth, however, have remained. As a result, the
ostensibly more civilized and reserved bitterclaws tend tasks
to smile without showing their teeth, reserving that by the sovereign in his unending schemes. At the same
display for actual aggression or moments of extreme time, they are expected to be eminently competent and
happiness. Given the deadly utility of their teeth, responsible, the latter of which at the very least isn’t
those unfamiliar with their emotions find a pleased a trait possessed by their creator himself. Bitterclaws
bitterclaw to be unnerving at the very least. grudgingly accept this dichotomy of favor and burden,
Relationships: Bitterclaws are both Flibbertigibbet’s doing their best while also exploiting the sovereign’s
pride and also the object of his blame for virtually any favor to indulge their own wanderlust and spin their
of his own failures or those of his other creations. The own schemes in devoted mimicry.
Scattered Prince views the bitterclaws, despite their Strategy & Tactics: Each bitterclaw is unique from its
comparative youth, as collective elder siblings to the kindred, depending on how they advance in character
gremlins and their other myriad offshoots. Bitterclaws class. Whatever path they choose, they benefit most
are beloved and favored, allowed use of Nibiru’s paths from their size and dexterity. Given the opportunity,
as they choose, granted authority within the Divided they try to live up to Flibbertigibbet’s expectations and
Kingdom, and frequently chosen to perform specific likewise seek to enact convoluted plans of their own.
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 discarded draft and unique specimens before they
succeeded. An evolved form of gremlin, the
doldrums were an attempt to slow down
the former’s fecundity by manipulating
how they interacted with time
itself. The resulting creatures—
blessedly few in number—live
within a bubble subtly time-
shifted from standard
reality. Viewed from
the outside, doldrums
appear slug g ish
and slow-mov ing,
surrounded by
ephemeral, twisting
tangles of warped
reality. Moving
inside of their
bubble, however—
l i ke ste ppi ng
into a sovereign’s
demesne—other
creatures stand on
doldrum turf and
suddenly must
play by their rules.
Inside the bubble,
doldrums move
with a frightening
a lacrit y while
outsiders now sharing
their isolated temporal
bubble are equally slowed

DOLDRUMS
down. Thankfully, what few
doldrums exist primarily dwell in isolation, wandering
Day after day, day after day, Nibiru’s pathways and only occasionally stepping into
We stuck, nor breath nor motion; the Material Plane.
As idle as a painted ship Environment & Society: Doldrums largely exist
Upon a painted ocean. in isolated solitude, normally lacking the numbers
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and interaction with their own kind to develop any
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner social structure to speak of. Almost without exception,
doldrums dwell within the myriad pathways of Nibiru,
When the matabiri created the bitterclaws for where they seem content to wander, surviving as
Flibbertigibbet, they went through more than one opportunistic predators or scavengers of things stolen
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 The Faerie Ring

during brief forays into the Material Plane. Curiously, one of the matabiri’s stopgap attempts on their
they display a fearful animosity toward other gremlins way to creating the bitterclaws. Or possibly, they
(though not bitterclaws), only further isolating them were the result of errant, scattered bits of sundered
within their native space. Flibbertigibbet developing free will. Or perhaps, they
Typical Characteristics: Though often heavily were one of Flibbertigibbet’s attempts to create another
obscured, in part, by the twisting strands of warped set of servitors less prone to foiling his own plans.
reality surrounding them, doldrums resemble gremlins Though, even if the latter origin holds true, they most
as if some mad anatomist had tried to assemble one certainly don’t fit their sovereign’s intent.
from the mismatched pieces of other gremlins. Every Gibbet poppets are swarms of tiny pseudo-gremlins,
doldrum appears to have body parts of wildly different vaguely tethered together in the sense that they can
stages of age: an infant’s arm, an adolescent’s gangly never stray more than a few dozen feet apart from the
legs and feet, and a face gnarled and elderly with bulk of their collective numbers. Possessed of a shared
thinning, patchy fur, and missing half of its teeth. Each intelligence, the gibbet poppets lack the gremlins’
doldrum varies in which portions of their body have appetite for metal but possess their own bizarre and,
aged at different rates (and some even age in bizarre frankly, more grisly obsession: corpses. It isn’t so much
retrograde manner), though this seeming affliction the dead in and of themselves that fascinate gibbet
poses them no difficulty whatsoever. poppets as it is their empty, gruesome shells’ capacity
Relationships: Doldrums deeply respect their creator, to serve as fleshy vessels within which to play and
regardless of how far they might have wandered astray, reanimate like jittery marionettes in their own comical
and that respect often turns to outright worship. The grotesquerie.
Scattered Prince, however, takes little notice of the Environment & Society: Gibbet poppets take their
doldrums except on those rare occasions he stumbles errant creator’s delight in scheming and in convoluted
across one and receives a shower of ego-stroking plans, but they run with it in an entirely macabre
praise. When this occurs, Flibbertigibbet indulges his direction. While relatively small in number, each gibbet
wayward creation’s desires for a time, usually tasks poppet swarm obsesses about toying with, taking apart,
them with something, and promptly abandons and reassembling, and as is most often the case, inhabiting
forgets about them. The doldrum in question, however, and possessing a humanoid corpse. Each swarm acts
remains obsessively devoted to that task until finished, as a single creature, though with often comical ability
even years or decades later. to maintain their farce, especially once a corpse begins
Strategy & Tactics: Doldrums prefer to avoid combat to decay. Gibbet poppet swarms exist scattered about
or any other interaction with others if they can avoid the Preternatural Planes, especially in locations where
it. When sufficiently motivated by hunger or anger they gain easy access to their favorite playthings. Of
or in self defense, they prefer to immediately engage course, the poppets aren’t above grave robbing or
other creatures within the bubble of altered time that simply jumping and killing the first creature they
surrounds them for the advantage it provides. Only come across should a supply of easy corpses otherwise
rarely do doldrums advance by character class, though be found lacking.
when they do, they tend to gain cleric levels and operate Typical Characteristics: Individual gibbet
as reclusive heralds of the Scattered Prince. poppets resemble tiny gremlins, but when generally

GIBBET POPPETS
encountered, they exist as a swarm, blurred around
the edges and often hard to differentiate from any
other portion of their collective whole. They retain the
Gibbet poppets are yet another branch off of the terrible teeth of gremlinkind, and what they lack of
gremlin family tree, though none can precisely pin that terrible hunger for metal, they more than make
down their origins. Maybe, the tiny menaces were up for it in their gruesome and often farcical obsession
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 with corpses. It is while inhabiting corpses, fresh part, long after he traverses a spot on those planes
or otherwise, that they’re most often encountered, where the dead are found.
doing their best to act the role of their dead vessel but Strategy & Tactics: In their native state, gibbet
often guessing wildly as to the victim’s behavior and poppets prefer to overwhelm enemies by sheer force
personality in life with ever more bizarre quirks and of numbers in their capacity as a swarm, especially
improvised details and behaviors added over time. when given the opportunity to kill and inhabit a fresh
Relationships: Gibbet poppets are very much their body. When in possession of a corpse, however, they
own creatures, largely ignored by both gremlins and avoid combat so as to prolong their charade as long
bitterclaws and likewise left to their own morbid devices as possible, only breaking character once their true
by Flibbertigibbet himself. For whatever the reason, nature is discovered or once decay sets in.
they exist scattered across the Preternatural Planes

GREMLINS
rather than in any close association with Nibiru, lending
credence to the notion that their existence predates
the matabiri tinkering with gremlinkind. Perhaps, The first—and some would say worst—of
they arise spontaneously, an unconscious act on Flibbertigibbet’s creations combine both a deceptively
Flibbertigibbet’s adorable appearance with a
penchant for wild

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 The Faerie Ring

destructive whimsy. At first blush,

these frenetic fey are innocent and
fascinating creatures. However, metal
is what gremlins truly crave. They
have a burning hunger for metal
and a mouth filled with rows of
indestructible, shark-like teeth
ready for action: the teeth are
laced with adamantine and enable
a gremlin to eat their way through
the strongest varieties of metals.
Rich enough sources of metal
can actually trigger the strange
transformation of a single gremlin
into a frenzied swarm of gnashing
teeth intent on devouring all
metal in sight.
As if that wasn’t enough,
gremlins also have a strange
effect on both other creatures and
machinery. Creatures simply appear
clumsier around these fey, and
machinery (from the simplest hunter’s
bow to the grandest clockwork creation)
tends to break or malfunction more readily.
Cursed are the city dwellers who try to make
pets of the gremlins that they stumble across in their pyrotechnic, and typically of their own doing.
travels. Within the Divided Kingdom and throughout the
The matabiri-engineered gremlin aversion to remain meandering pathways of Nibiru, they endlessly cavort
in close proximity to one another has, over time, had in whatever whimsy strikes them. They don’t have a
an unfortunate side effect. When content with their society so much as a vague, irrational propensity to
own kind, gremlins enjoy exploring Nibiru and blindly listen to Flibbertigibbet or, more frequently,
trailing in Flibbertigibbet’s wake across the planes. bitterclaws acting like elder siblings attempting to
But they have been dispersing more readily since the place some semblance of (often irrational) social order
matabiri intervention to the Material Plane, and that in place. Left to their own devices, gremlins are most
is where they are most quickly evolving beyond the often simply destructive, even as they seek to emulate
matabiri’s carefully tailored controls. These divergent Flibbertigibbet or his later, more intelligent creations.
evolutionary branches have since become their own Typical Characteristics: Gremlins appear simply to
species with their behavior and appearances often be fuzzy, little creatures with curiously large mouths
radically different from the original stock. and ears and a perhaps too-developed sense of curiosity.
Environment & Society: Limited in number by the These cat-sized creatures are equally comfortable
matabiri, most gremlins reside within Flibbertigibbet’s walking on two legs as on all fours as they gambol
demesne, matching their profound fecundity with about sniffing at the air. When triggered by their own
an equally spectacular rate of attrition, often bloody, ravenous metal gluttony, they grow significantly more
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 fearsome in both demeanor and size, both as a result of by the matabiri, gremlins still congregate in small
their fur standing up and an actual degree of physical groups, finding bravery in large numbers or when in
enlargement that varies to a wildly cosmetic degree the presence of a mother lode of metal. They aren’t
between individuals. Most striking, however, are a physically imposing combatants, but their ability to
gremlin’s teeth. Virtually indestructible, they line a make even the simplest mechanical items fall apart or
gremlin’s maw in layered rows like those of a shark, to inflict strange mishaps on their opponents evens the
and while most adapted at ripping apart metal, they playing field.

. . . AND THOSE NOTABLE

work equally well at doing the same for anything else
that gets in their way.
Relationships: Gremlins remain near and dear to
their father Flibbertigibbet, even in the face of his own The fey are everywhere and each has a story all their own.
subsequent creation of the bitterclaws, and as such, While some might lend a hand, some others might lend a
he expects virtually nothing from them nor does he knife . . . blade first and between your ribs. And many
burden them with any responsibility. Intentionally or might offer both.
not, Flibbertigibbet always seems to attract a gaggle It’s dangerous to go alone. It’s also dangerous not to.

THE BODIE POLITIK

of gremlins when he travels beyond the bounds of his
demesne. While most of them either perish in some
destructive catastrophe (usually at their own hands) Gremlins aren’t the only ones prone to evolve! For a
during his scheming forays or return to Nibiru at his troupe of gibbet poppets, change came in the form of
side, like ravenous puppies, all too often he carelessly distributed thinking. This seemingly small boost in
leaves one or two behind elsewhere, abandoned to their their mental processes was a enough to drive a desire
own devices. for more knowledge, for learning, and as a result, they
Strategy & Tactics: Although greatly limited are quite a bit more intelligent than the average swarm
of gibbet poppets. And it was the siren’s call of
the stage that drew them in.
They would sit enthralled watching
The (un)Locket of Nibiru performance after performance—plays
that mixed comic and tragic forms were
This curious piece of jewelry is little more than a crude there favorites—and they collectively chose
tangle of silver and copper wire, misshapen in places from to follow the path of those bards they so
the impressions of gremlin teeth. At its core, the (un)Locket admired. They started an acting troupe,
holds a piece of one of Flibbertigibbet’s claws, broken and The Bodie Politik, and traveled the planes,
fallen to the side from when his siblings tore him apart. playing for all that would watch.
The locket was subsequently gifted to one of his now long- Characteristics: The Bodie Politik are
deceased bitterclaw jesters—a rank of highest distinction— a gregarious bunch, portraying a wit
but it was lost at that year’s Jester’s Tourney, a big deal in the and intelligence beyond all other gibbet
community. (Different planar locales vie for it each year. No poppets and even most other mogwoi. Their
one made it out alive that year.) increasing pool of friendly connections
The (un)Locket allows its wearer to access the hidden doors have made it far easier to access books and
and pathways of Nibiru itself, including transit to and from instruments appropriately sized for them.
the Divided Kingdoms at their leisure. The very fact that The plays they perform of others are the
Flibbertigibbet ever created the object, much less gifted it, current favorites with their audiences, but
says something about the mogwoi sovereign’s foresight. the troupe’s starting to intersperse original
performances to largely positive reviews.

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 The Faerie Ring

Relationships: For sure, they had a lot of false starts Kingdom, where his position as one of Flibbertigibbet’s
as “spectators” would frequently run screaming from favored creations affords him a life of power, influence,
the “hideous zombies” on the stage or try to purge their and luxury. Often appointed as ruler over a portion
“wicked blasphemy,” but the poppets kept at it. They of Nibiru, he doesn’t precisely rule so much as enjoy
practiced and toughed out the hard times, and now, the benefits of that nominal rulership. It typically falls
they’ve established a following, small and . . . strange in to the bitterclaws acting as his advisors to actually go
their own right, the public is starting to recognize the about the real job that their elder brother studiously
troupe’s enthusiasm, if not yet their blooming talent. ignores day in and day out.
For their part, it did a world of good when they These same bitterclaws uniformly loathe Fizzbert for
stopped attacking people and robbing graves for their what they see as his unearned favor from their mutual
“costumes.” They have been quite successful at growing creator. Not a day goes by that they don’t scheme to
their corpse outreach programs, taking donations from depose him, make his life miserable, or just try to
overstretched communities. And a large contingent of contain the damage he can cause when afforded a level
patrons have begun to bequeath their bodies to the of authority. Luckily for the bitterclaws, Fizzbert has
troupe upon their demise, a chance for celebrity in yet to discover that his unending hunger and unsettled
death. craving is for nothing other than themselves.
Strategy & Tactics: Practically pacifists, the Bodie Characteristics: Fizzbert looks like a cross between
Politik have almost zero interest in conflict—unless it’s a particularly large, misshapen bitterclaw with some
staged! Of course, they still have to think twice to pass elements of gremlin to his appearance and a child’s
up a free corpse. But they’re working on it. potato doll into which various sets of clay or metal

GRAND BARON FIZZBERT,

features and appendages are then attached.

THE EVER-HUNGRY
Relationships: Fizzbert’s overly long and ever
grandiose titles change nearly every day, usually
The frequent proxy ruler of one of the Divided into something just as pompous or obnoxious as the
Kingdoms of Nibiru, Grand Baron Fizzbert the Ever- previous one. The grand baron revels in his favored
Hungry is perhaps Flibbertigibbet’s favorite mistake, status and does his best to keep his portion of Nibiru
at least among the ones he’s firmly aware of having running just as dysfunctionally as when Flibbertigibbet
consciously made. himself sees fit to take the throne. Flibbertigibbet, of
The bitterclaws were actually the matabiri’s second course, is perfectly happy to see Fizzbert rule in his
attempt to cull the gremlins’ fecundity and provide stead as it allows him the freedom to cause trouble
the Scattered Prince with servitors unlikely to ruin the elsewhere without having to worry about running
cosmos in their wake. Fizzbert was their first attempt his own demesne, not that his rule exactly implies
and the result when Flibbertigibbet simply couldn’t any sort of royal responsibility. Since his creation is
resist “helping” the matabiri in their work. It didn’t gleefully happy and equally irresponsible, when given
work out as intended—for the matabiri at least. the chance, Flibbertigibbet is of no mind to disabuse
Flibbertigibbet was enthusiastically happy, even him of the notion that taking the throne is anything
though Fizzbert was a singular creature, rather than other than a joyous reward for being such a wonderful
a race of them, and devoid of reproductive capacity. servitor.
The one element of the gremlins that Fizzbert most Strategy & Tactics: Fizzbert is a pompous coward at
retained was an insatiable hunger although, unlike heart. He makes threats at the drop of a hat, but unless
their taste for metal, Fizzbert isn’t sure what he hungers he has gremlins or others at hand willing to actually
for and spends a considerable amount of time trying to carry out those threats, he’s not inclined to actually
discover his craving. He has yet to discover it. stand up and do anything on his own. Despite this,
Fizzbert rarely leaves the confines of the Divided when sufficiently angered or pushed into defending
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 himself, Fizzbert is more than capable. Staying at range mouth, any metal at all turns soft and dissolves away
if at all possible, he prefers hurling bombs, poisoned like a peppermint candy.
darts, or really anything else at hand. If cornered, he Greta isn’t entirely sure what to make of her taste for
reverts to his base nature and quite literally attempts metal. Even more so, she’s not sure what to make of the
to eat his way out of danger, grabbing and swallowing gremlins that occasionally show up to follow her, watch
his enemies whole. her, get her out of most any danger, but sometimes end

GRETA SWEET TOOTH

up causing her more trouble than the tiny creatures
might be worth. In her mind, she manages to get into
Greta always knew she was different, even if her enough mischief of her own, but since they—to some
parents never told her that they found her abandoned degree at least—do what she tells them to do, they’re
in their fields on a cold autumn morning. The baby useful excuses for her own schemes. At the very least,
was there, all alone, surrounded by trampled corn they do leave her gifts every year on what she assumes
stalks, tiny footprints, and bits of metal scraps that had, is her birthday.
much to their annoyance, once been their plow head Characteristics: Greta is a young human woman
and the fittings of the harness they strung upon their just now in the prime of her life with a shock of grey
workhorse. Still, they raised the girl as their own, and hair, unreasonably yellow eyes, and ears just a touch
she grew up much as any normal child would, albeit too large to be normal.
one with a short attention span and a propensity to Relationships: Greta isn’t precisely Flibbertigibbet’s
wander. willing servitor. More properly, she’s a bit of a wayward
What Greta most certainly is aware of is her curious mistake and an awkward beneficiary of the Scattered
taste for metal. Whatever the substance, be it an iron Prince’s curious benevolence. To be honest, he isn’t
nail, a silver serving fork, or a gold coin, each tastes entirely sure what to do with his daughter or if indeed
oddly sweet to her tongue. Given a few moments in her she is in fact his daughter at all.
Unbeknownst to Greta, whenever she finds herself
in the company of enough gremlins, she acts as a
living surrogate for Flibbertigibbet’s requirement

Gremlins of Distinction to retain one of his bodies on the Material Plane

in order to go gallivanting into the Preternatural.
Whenever this occurs, Greta has the uncanny
There is countless variety of gremlinkind. The gremlins
ability to know precisely where her—maybe!—
detailed here are those that Flibbertigibbet created.
father happens to be. It also stands to reason that
But since then, despite the tinkering of the matabiri,
if any of the Scattered Prince’s enemies were to
gremlins have been spreading . . . and changing.
discover this fact, killing her while he was on
The mutation rate, the sheer speed at which gremlins
another plane might reasonably allow them to
evolve, is ridiculous. They are constantly being born
trap him there.
slightly different (or very different!) from their parents.
Strategy & Tactics: Greta prefers to avoid
Many individuals don’t survive long, but enough keep
any conflict whatsoever. On the other hand, the
going. New species of gremlin seem to arise almost
gremlins that accompany her—and the larger
every day.
numbers that often shadow her out of sight—
No matter what happens to the original line of
gleefully assault and mangle anyone or anything
gremlins—the ur-gremlins—that Flibbertigibbet
that threatens or even causes her the slightest
created, gremlins as a whole will do just fine. Until they
inconvenience. Greta stops them when able, but
destroy the universe, that is.
they have a habit of doing things behind her back
and just out of view.
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 The Faerie Ring

TURTLE one’s especially problematic with simply the occasional

impassioned burst of nonsense in an otherwise endless
Sometimes, it’s of the utmost importance to watch
stream of incoherent babble. But he’s devoted...! Oh, is
what you say. It would be nice to say that the Scattered
he ever devoted.
One has learned that lesson, but . . . maybe some day.
Relationships: There is only one thing that matters—
There is a certain doldrum known only by the
apparently, that is, since no one can really make sense
moniker Turtle. And this awkward little guy is
of Turtle. The doldrum carries out his mogwoi lord’s
probably Flibbertigibbet’s greatest crusaders, whether
commands (whether they were intended as such or
he wants him or not.
not), and Flibbertigibbet goes on oblivious to anything
You see, Turtle acts upon every word of his sovereign.
amiss and without the awareness to realize what’s even
Very long ago, before there was even a Kingdom of
happening.
Wooden Chickens (actually leading into the latter as
Strategy & Tactics: Tough to say. It really depends on
you’ll understand momentarily), there was Chicken
Turtle’s presumed mandate. His lord’s proclamations
Wood, a portion of the Confluence where chickens were
are all that’s important (though even Flibbertigibbet
granted sanctuary. (Why? Well, I wasn’t consulted, so
couldn’t tell you what those are since they are just his
I can’t begin to guess at the rationale.) But the mogwoi
random spoutings that Turtle happens to be around
prince was crazy about it! That is, until he was mobbed
to hear). And how the doldrum interprets those? Well,
by the feral buggers. Cursing and tending his wounds
let’s just say that Turtle will do whatever it takes to
after fleeing his chicken oppressors, he must have
honor his lord’s words.
said something to the effect of “Die chickens!’ Well,

ADDING COMPLICATION
impressionable ears were about. Next thing you know,
Turtle is single-handedly dispatching all the chickens.
(This, of course, led to the attempt at wooden chickens.)
He’d probably still be on his chicken rampage across Complication is the hallmark of the fey. They would
the ’verse had not Flibbertigibbet triggered, yet again, likely shrivel and die without it. The following odds
another inadvertent crusade by offhandedly lamenting and ends can be used to inspire plotlines for use in
his lack of toys. Turtle subsequently went scouring far your game:
and wide, slowly bringing all the toys he could find, ❖❖ All’s been quiet from Flibbertigibbet for
stealing them as needed. Flibbertigibbet immediately decades. Trusted accounts say he’s been
moved with his concerns, not even remembering uncharacteristically focused and hard at work.
what he had said, but Turtle kept going. Not stopping He’s been making oddly specific journeys to
until the next “royal proclamation.” (To this day, out-of-the-way Preternatural Planes of late but
there’s still a mountain of toys at the center of the always alone—even without gremlins—and
Confluence, literally—Mount Floppy Bear, named for always in and out, never lingering. What’s he up
its preponderance of stuffed animals.) to?
This has gone on and on. Turtle is always on some ❖❖ A group of gremlins “lost” Greta down a
quest for his lord. Currently, he is very focused, heading Bigmouth hole. It was a gremlin game of . . . it’s
across the Material with some specific yet inscrutable complicated. The point is, in desperation, they’re
destination seemingly in mind. However, Turtle is now capturing random people and tossing them
taking extra time and going out of his way to slaughter down into Nowhere in the hope they’ll rescue
any gnomes he comes across along the way. (The gods her.
only know what the mogwoi sovereign might have said ❖❖ What if Flibbertigibbet remembers where the
in passing this time...!) Dark Mother is and releases her? Will she be
Characteristics: Turtle is unintelligible. It’s always angry with her son? Proud? What might that
a challenge to communicate with doldrums, but this mean for the mogwoi—and the rest of reality?
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 ( Legends tell that when. . .
. . . everything in the Material Plane was younger mogwoi would constantly look to Hob for
still new, before the worlds were populated guidance—support, chastisement, anything—but they
with humanoids and beasts and before even were constantly disappointed. Hob never spoke a word.
the fey had a strong presence, the mogwoi Hob would sit motionless for years, seemingly dead
were old. And among the mogwoi, Hob was to the world. His siblings, the other mogwoi sovereigns,
honored as Eldest. In those earliest days, the busied themselves with their own great works, leaving
Hob to his thoughts. Periodically, some of the siblings
returned to share their discoveries and stories, but
always, Hob sat silent. Secretly, four of the siblings—
Flibbertigibbet, Mahu, Modo, and Obidicut—
wagered a boon to the sibling that could
draw the words from Hob.
Countless centuries passed
without success for the
siblings. Eventually, they
grew bored of their
fa i led at tempt s ,
turned to their
own worries and
pursuits, and
gradually

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 forgot about Hob. The Material Plane was fast becoming normally chittering Flibbertigibbet was struck
rich with life and intelligent non-fey creatures began to dumb with confusion. As he resignedly sat
arise, distracting the mogwoi from old concerns. within the mucky fen and simply watched, he
Always the most impulsive and unpredictable of could now see that Hob was in a frenzy of activity.
the mogwoi, Flibbertigibbet had long ago developed a Glancing around, Flibbertigibbet saw for the first
curious fascination with Hob and could not stay away time hundreds of little mud statues and realized
for long, returning again and again to spill out his that Hob wasn’t playing but creating.
tales of the world and the amazing creatures he kept Fascinated, Flibbertigibbet watched for days,
discovering in it. On one such return, however, the elder as Hob shaped the mud without ever, seemingly,
mogwoi was nowhere to be found. Flibbertigibbet’s acknowledging the intrusion. Flibbertigibbet
curiosity took control of his actions as he determined continued to watch as Hob time and time again
to discover where Hob had gone and why. performed the ritual to bring each individual
After many decades of searching, Flibbertigibbet sculpture to life as a living fey and realized
finally found Hob in a lush, secluded valley surrounded that he had previously seen these creatures
by impossible mountains. He was sitting quietly in the in his mind among the images transmitted
middle of a swamp playing in the mud. Flibbertigibbet by Hob. Was Hob communicating with him?
approached him and began to rattle off all the tales Unfortunately, the images had gone by too fast
that he had bottled up, but no words came out. Instead, and were seemingly too random to convey any
images appeared in his mind—a whirlwind of images sense of a narrative. Flibbertigibbet eventually
that bore little meaning for him—and simultaneously left Hob to his work, secure in the notion that he

hob
he felt thoughts being pulled from his own mind. The had won the bet.

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 A Life in Silence

t Hob
Both stile and gate, horse-way and foot-path.
h
As it is told, the mogwoi sovereigns were birthed
right alongside the Material Plane. They were the
Poor Tom hath been scared out of his good wits.
Bless thee, good man’s son, from the foul fiend! mere castings of unused fragments of the very stuff
Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once—of lust, of reality, coalescing and gaining sentience over time.
as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; They predate all other life in the Material Plane, leading
Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, many to consider them the progenitors of all fey and
of mopping and mowing, who since possesses even natural creatures. But there is no direct evidence
chambermaids for this, and their often alien natures would suggest
and waiting-women. So, bless thee, master! otherwise.
—William Shakespeare, Within the mogwoi, Hob appears to command
King Lear (IV. i.) some measure of status. He is recognized as the eldest
of all mogwoi. Given Hob and his progeny’s natures,
The mogwoi are not as other fey. They share similarities, the available lore is scarce, though stranger, darker,
but their thought processes are more alien. They were wilder tales about them emerge—primarily from
shaped in a different time. Their points of reference, Flibbertigibbet and his progeny, so given the source,
their basic assumptions, are all a little different. Their who can judge what’s mere farce—than are told of any
interactions with reality are a little different. Their other mogwoi lord.

OF GREAT WORKS
goals and motivations are a little different.
And Hob is their king.
There is no record of Hob’s activity after his
disappearance from the other mogwoi and before
his arrival at the secluded valley that he would make
his own. Driven by unknown cosmic equations and
occult guidance, once there, he proceeded to create
three hundred little sculptures from swamp mud and
painstakingly brought each one to life as the matabiri.
Finished, Hob sat in his swamp, silent, for nearly a

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 century, much to his new servitors’ dismay. of the process. Now, they simply make way and watch,
Confused and frustrated, the matabiri continuously hoping to gain some spark of understanding into what
tried to contact their lord, their master, their god who their creator, the being who was very possibly the first
sat before their very eyes unflinching and unheeding. living creature, is doing. Most matabiri presume that
Gradually, they came together in their efforts to contact every action Hob takes is deliberately calculated and
Hob and began to develop a rudimentary society. all tied into an elaborate endgame eons in the future.

HOLE IN THE WORLD

Throughout the valley, they shaped the land and built
as they needed—both on land and underwater. Always,
though, someone had the role of recording the ever- Hob’s most recent project has been the construction
present images projected by Hob: while in his demesne, of a portal. This round, glyph-inscribed stone gateway,
all can witness the images. fifty feet in diameter, lies flush with the ground. It is
When Hob roused again, suddenly and without continuously open, appearing as a large pool of inky
warning, he immediately set to work on another black liquid. Hob has remained active for longer than
great project. Disappearing for weeks at a time, he’d usual this time and has spent months seemingly just
returned from each trip only to, at some particular staring into the blackness. Just recently, a massive
spot on the periphery of the valley, spend long hours creature has emerged from the gateway as if in
in ritual raising massive, iridescent monoliths from the response to a calling. This enormous entity, known
earth. as a Hagfish, often lumbers partially from the pool
He performed this act at seven different locations, and bellows with an eerie wailing reminiscent of
bounding the perimeter of the valley. Finally, a bizarre whale song. By all appearances, Hob and the Hagfish
crystalline structure was pulled out of the earth itself are communicating on some level. The matabiri
by unseen hands to rise and hang pendant in the believe that this portal leads to the Plane of Rahab—a
sky a mile over the center of the valley. The surface Preternatural Plane thought to have originated when a
of this crystal cascades with color, coruscating in the portion of the Elemental Plane of Water breached the
moonlight. As if it were alive, it changes form and Plane of Shadow, creating the dark, cold, dense waters
dimensions constantly in complex patterns that are of the Sea of Rahab.

BEING HOB
more than a little disconcerting in its implications. The
crazily angled stone is known simply as the Shining
Crystal. Its purpose—and that of the monoliths—is Hob is inscrutable. He seemingly takes no counsel
unclear, but they occasionally crackle with bolts of nor shares his intentions with others. Mute, he has
otherworldly energy that sometimes spark from stone never uttered a word. However, those in his presence
to stone. With his alteration of the landscape complete, often “see” images whirl unbidden through their
Hob returned to his torpor. minds as strange, new thoughts enter. At the same

LOOKING AHEAD
time, memories buried in their own minds are
pulled to the surface and sometimes escape from the
This process continues. Every fifty to three hundred individual’s memory altogether, presumably taken by
years, Hob rouses for a time to perform some part of Hob. Whether the exchange of telepathic images is a
his grand design. Despite long stretches of inactivity, form of communication or simply thoughts bleeding
over the millennia Hob has reformed his demesne, from and absorbed into his mind is unknown, but
birthed countless new mogwoi, built incomprehensible such exchanges are experienced as a whirlwind of
arcane devices, and disappeared in travels to the far alien images with no narrative structure and only the
reaches of the cosmos. And always, goal achieved, he briefest glimpses of recognizable forms.
returns to his solitude and silence. The greatest irony is that his own creations—the
Over time, the matabiri have become more accepting matabiri—do not really understand him either.

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 Relationships: Hob rarely takes physical action the stump while the old drains into the earth.
against anyone or anything unless it is a part of Typically, Hob appears as a long and lean humanoid
his unfathomable agenda. Those foolish enough to with a hunched back and disproportionately long arms
have attacked him directly or blocked his path were ending in long clawlike fingers. The liquid composition
met with a response always without emotion and of of his body makes it smooth and featureless, without
supreme efficiency: like the swatting of gnats buzzing even any apparent eyes or mouth. Occasionally, he
about his face. Of utmost importance to Hob, always, takes on weird distorted proportions owing to his
is the goal at hand, but only he knows what that goal is. form’s shifting nature. He is able to increase his mass
Characteristics: Hob consists entirely of a tarry by drawing more of the tarry fluid from the earth, at
liquid. This shadowy substance literally bubbles from such times giving his body unusual and asymmetric
the ground, floating upward to meld into Hob’s form, proportions. Similarly, Hob can release material back
which continually shifts, shrinking here and elongating into the earth and travel vast distances this way.
there as if there is a tidal pull on his very essence. Strategy & Tactics: Unless a group of attackers
Should a limb be cut off, a new one simply flows from overcomes Hob’s considerable defenses, he ignores their
existence. If his interest is drawn
by particularly persistent,
unusual, or challenging

The Dark Ones

foes, he connects to their
minds, reading their
thoughts and giving them
. . . that never an unhappy fellow in the company showed so much unhappy wit,
a glimpse into his own.
as to offer to take a knife and pare away the devil, lying in the dead of the nail;
Most foes collapse under
and throw him into the fire, for acting his part so baldly: but I nothing doubt,
the sheer immensity and
but the devil-master priest would have had an eye to this, least he, or some of his
strangeness of his mind.
brethren, at the next exorcism holden, should for want of a devil, have spoiled
Should an opponent
a good play.
actua l ly cause him
—Samuel Harsnett,
significant damage, Hob
A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures
might actively engage
in combat, using his
Amongst the many stories that the fey tell, there are scattered hints of the
malleable body and innate
Dark Mother. Considered apocryphal by most, these tales typically evoke her
magic to quickly end the
as a progenitor of the fey and, more specifically, as the mother of the mogwoi
battle. Or he might meld
sovereigns. Strangely, for the small amount of information there is about the
into the earth and escape.
Dark Mother, it is all very consistent. She is said to have birthed the forty-four
Or he might summon
siblings, or the Dark Ones—the mogwoi sovereigns.
the whole of the matabiri
The siblings are all quite different with their own unique goals and agendas.
race to war for him while
Among them, the five eldest seem to hold status, and there is considerably more
he returns to his grand
known about them: Hob—the eldest of the eldest—Obidicut, Mahu, Modo, and
designs. He might even
Flibbertigibbet.
let himself be seemingly
While many remain unknown, a few names have surfaced throughout the
destroyed. Only Hob
years of the remaining Dark Ones, including Delicat, Frateretto, Hiaclito,
knows why Hob does
Killico, Lustie Jolly Jenkin, Malkin, Nur, Philpot, Pippen, Portorichio, Puff,
anything, and everything
Purre, Smolkin, and Tocobatto.
seems in accordance with
his arcane plan.
— 34 —

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

 (
Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)
 OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a
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You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

 BY FAERIE LIGHT presents 18 original faerie tales. And
just like the tales of old—told to ward off the darkness—there
are no happy endings.

The fey are different from you and me. They don’t think like
us. And they are everywhere. We are insignificant in the face
of that strange, uncaring intelligence. Until we catch their
eye, that is.

“A charming anthology of dark fantasy tales about faeries.”

—Ellen Datlow,
The Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 6

SUMMON YOUR COPY TODAY!

www.BrokenEyeBooks.com

— 342 —

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

 The Faerie Ring

— 343 —

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)

Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)
Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)
Juan Blanco (Order #26463779)