What does the Faerie Queen want? IGNORE if you're in my Hibernia game

Yes, that means you George, John, Niriyu, and Van Silke. Stop reading now.

I said stop reading.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
For everyone else, I'm hoping to crowdsource suggestions for an adventure I'm running for my group and the question I need to answer is "Why did the Faerie Queen of Bright Winter (Cierella for anyone who can glance at the 4th ed. supplement but that's mostly immaterial) want with her child, an about 20 year old son of two magi, one of which is now the son's master?" About two years ago (almost 20 years in game) another SG ran the faerie contest story from the 4th ed. Faerie Stories book and one of the results of drinking the faerie wine was a child between my maga character and another PC who is no longer alive. In a subsequent meeting with the queen she spoke of Ercc, the boy, as "her son" and wished for him to be brought to her and now she's connived for another apprentice to another magus at the covenant to abscond with Ercc* and bring him to the her. The older apprentice is just starting his Magnimartha (sp?) so shouldn't have much blowback from this, definitely won't be "depriving power" or whatever the offense is.

`* It really didn't take much convincing on either part, paraphrases: "bring him to me and you will be rewarded" and "Hey Ercc, wanna go to a party?"

Several options:

  1. She wants something from the Magus, and getting hold of his apprentice is a good way to get it. It could be for him to set on a mission that would hinder one of her foes.
  2. She wants to test the boy, and see if he can be influenced. maybe she wants to give him Faerie Blood, or this is a manifestation of his Plagued by Supernatural Entity, or similar Flaw.
  3. There might be a 'prophecy' that her 'son' can release an enemy of hers, and she wants to prevent that from happening.
  4. She is protective, and doesn't want him 'corrupted' by Hermetic Magic.

Can’t really do the that one, the mother/maga/master involved is my character.

The others might work in some form or another. Thanks.

Then maybe something your Maga is doing at the time is something that would have some negative effect on the Faerie Queen, for some obscure reason, and she's asking the PCs to either make sure your Maga fails, or, to direct it at someone else, so that the side effect of it, will not impact her negatively.

If I was a faerie queen and my son had been born out of two magi, I'd want him to meet his real father.

The son could be a pawn in a war between mother and father, or could be a desperate attempt at saving their relationship.

Bonus points if the father doesn't know he has a son.

1 Like

Well, she's a queen, he's her son, so a prince.
It stands to reason that he should have a proper education in order to, one day, be able to rule properly.
He also has responsibilities. Would it be okay if, say, the prince of France ran with some muggers? It also poses a great risk. He may be captured or killed by her enemies. Maybe they're already after him. Anyway, he need to be put to safety.

So she wants him at her court, learning diplomacy, and will give him more and more responsibilities, to better prepare him for when he'll inherit the throne.
Which, obviously, will happen quite soon. Maybe she is dying, maybe she'd bound to leave her realm, thus her need for a successor. Nothing too difficult here.

In short (and yes, I know you're playing 4th Ed, but the 5th framework is really useful here), the goal is to have the son engaged in all kind of faerie-kingship-related stories. Think of the stories a faerie heir could be dragged into, and from that, you have her motivations.

4 Likes

We are playing 5th ed., just using characters from that particular 4th ed. book.

1 Like