Friday, September 9, 2011

Brownie

It’s okay to have a “monster” the players never fight.  Helpful farmstead faeries, brownies aren’t martial like pixies or prone to turning evil like leprechauns (who morph into the grim redcaps when they spoil).  Use brownies as familiars, entrées into the faerie courts, or just as a vehicle for quiet domestic magic.  Let the PCs find saucers of milk set out by a stone wall, or catch a glimpse of a brownie as they reshoe their horses…then move on.  Small, simple details and folk customs evoking a world not centered on the characters make their experience more real.

Some familiars manifest magically; others are called.  When the Esmeralda Chase (N female human enchanter 5) gained her brownie familiar, she never expected the Gorse Queen to pay a visit, demanding her subject back.

Upon assuming his title, Lord Karsten Dent learned his bountiful fields were the result of a brownie gang’s kind labor—but he was not discreet about his discovery.  The fey departed in a huff, and soon Dent’s crops failed and fortune dwindled.  He seeks to win back their favor, but needs guides to help him find them.

In the wilds, some bands of brownies never took up with humans, keeping instead to the deep woods.  Their kindness to travelers is often just a strategy to keep strangers on the path and away from their burrows.  If not, brownie rangers, druids, and rogues employ snares, entangle spells, and loyal animals to harry interlopers until they flee.

Pathfinder Bestiary 2 49

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