TERRIBLE BEAUTY A Guide to the Faerie in a Land of Shadow Writing, Design, and Art Direction: Robert J. Schwalb Editing: Kim Mohan Proofreading, Layout, and Graphic Design: Kara Hamilton Cover: Jack Kaiser Interior Illustrations: Jack Kaiser, Todd Wilson, and Britt Martin CartographySample: Cecil file Howe Brush art: indodreamin and chain Terrible Beauty: A Guide to the Faerie in a Land of Shadow is ©2016 Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. Shadow of the Demon Lord, Terrible Beauty, Schwalb Entertainment, and their associated logos are trademarks of Schwalb Entertainment, LLC. SCHWALB ENTERTAINMENT, LLC PO Box #12548 Murfreesboro, TN 37129 [email protected] www.schwalbentertainment.com Terrible Beauty 1 Chapter 1: Alfheim ...........................................................................29 Faeries .............................................................3 Elysium ........................................................................... 31 The Nature of Faeries ....................................................3 Isle of Forever ................................................................32 Children of Magic ..........................................................3 Maze of the Goblin King ............................................32 Forever Young ..................................................................3 The Midnight Lands ...................................................35 The Hidden People ........................................................3 Rewards ...........................................................................35 Iron Loathing ...................................................................3 Favors of the Great Fey ...............................................35 Faeries and Mortals .......................................................4 Enchanted Objects .......................................................36 The Great Fey, Lords and Ladies ................................4 Faerie Steed ....................................................................37 Free Faeries ......................................................................4 Relics ................................................................................37 Characters and Faeries ..................................................5 Chapter 3: Professions .......................................................................5 Creatures of FAerie .............................39 Starting Equipment .......................................................5 Asrai .................................................................................39 Faerie Backgrounds .......................................................6 Banshee ...........................................................................39 New Interesting Things ................................................6 Bean-Nighe ...................................................................40 New Ancestries ............................................................... 6 Cu Sith .............................................................................41 Elf ........................................................................................7 Elf ......................................................................................41 Hobgoblin ........................................................................9 Fachen .............................................................................42 Pixie ...................................................................................11 Faun..................................................................................43 Expert Path ........................................................................... 13 Imp ...................................................................................43 Avowed ............................................................................ 13 Jabberwock .................................................................... 44 Master Paths ......................................................................... 13 Kobold ............................................................................ 44 Beguiler ...........................................................................14 Lares .................................................................................45 Cat Sith ............................................................................ 15 Merrow ........................................................................... 46 Eternal Guardian .......................................................... 15 Nymph .............................................................................47 Harbinger ....................................................................... 15 Pixie ................................................................................. 48 Keeper of the Flame ....................................................Sample16 fileSatyr ................................................................................ 48 Morrigan ......................................................................... 16 Unicorn .......................................................................... 49 Muse ................................................................................. 17 Chapter 4: Nightstalker ................................................................... 17 My Father Left Forever .................. 50 Spellweaver ....................................................................18 Troll Hunter ...................................................................18 Background ......................................................................... 50 Magic ...................................................................................... 19 Getting Started ................................................................... 50 A Thief in the Night ......................................................... 50 Chapter 2: Lands of the Faerie ............................ 23 Befriending Tyna ......................................................... 50 Exploring the Woods ........................................................ 51 Faerie Sites .....................................................................23 The Lady’s Servants .....................................................52 Faerie Rings ...................................................................23 Keyed Locations..................................................................53 Hollow Hills ...................................................................23 The Group’s Camp .......................................................53 Islands of the Fey ..........................................................24 Trappers’ Moot ..............................................................53 Secret Roads ..................................................................24 The Pleen Shack ...........................................................54 Stones, Boulders, and Monuments .........................24 Animal Traps .................................................................54 Trees and Forests ..........................................................25 The Troll Cave ...............................................................54 Stray Sod .........................................................................25 Faerie Portal ...................................................................55 Borderlands ....................................................................25 Jealous Dryads ..............................................................55 Hidden Kingdoms .........................................................26 The Lady of the Wood ................................................55 Crossing Over ................................................................26 Conclusion ...........................................................................55 Hidden Kingdom Features ........................................27 Index .................................................................56 Denizens and Details ..................................................28 Exploring Hidden Kingdoms ....................................29 2 Terrible beauty All things are possible when it comes to the faeries. others sometimes take mortal lovers and then abandon A diverse people, strange and wonderful by human or kill them once they have served their purpose. standards, faeries take a variety of forms—from the Faeries squander their immortality on beauty, luxury, captivating nymphs, whose beauty is so striking that a and excess. They live in the present, unconcerned by mere glimpse can make slaves of mortals, to the fi lthy the future, uncaring about the past. So long as they goblins that make their homes in the sewers and can feed their appetites, they are content. When faeries rubbish heaps of human cities. Faeries are the ghostly don’t get their way, they become sullen, spiteful, and fl ames that drift over the fens, the merrow that rise wickedly vengeful. from the ocean depths to lure sailors to their dooms, queer fungus people that turn to watch passersby The Hidden People moving through their lands, and so much more. This supplement describes the faeries that live in and When the faeries travel into the world, they prefer to adjacent to the world described in Shadow of the Demon stay out of view of mortal people. Many benefi t from Lord, giving players and GMs the tools they need to tell natural invisibility, though children, animals, and stories involving them, as allies