Escalation of the Four Courts
Since time immemorial, the lands of the Dragonfall River Basin have been rife with fey creatures and feyesque creatures. Since time immemorial, the Sidhe have lived alongside mortals and fey, bridging the gap between the two worlds, while dwelling in a world apart from both, their strange mindsets and habit of making deals with mortals for all kinds of things, for reasons of their own. Since time immemorial, the Sidhe have organized themselves in their four courts - Spring, Summer, Winter and Autumn.
For reasons only the Sidhe understand, the Courts are always in conflict, jockeying for position. But not in overt war - not even overt fighting. That would be gauche, and ill-mannered. No. The Sidhe, fight through catspaws and allies and minions and indirect targets - through intermediaries and unknowing pawns against the unknowing pawns of their rivals in heir own and other courts.
Mortals are the key currency in these fights - each Sidhe has any number of mortals directly or indirectly 'theirs' and many more that they don't control even a little that they can still gain prestige for the successes of - in the complex politics of the fey, that is how it works.
But an indirect war is slow, and aggravating. Sidhe, while Fey, were all once mortal, and sometimes, their old traits leak through...and now, as the conflict between the courts escalates, the lives of mortals are at threat in large numbers. And in the city-state of Medios and its territory, that escalation comes home hard, to the mortals.
A series of brutal murders in Lowtown, the slum of Medios has the city guard baffled - but those who are familiar with the fey can see the hand of the fey at work - and a small party of adventures goes from a simple monster hunt to entering a world of fey conflict and fey politics rarely seen by mortals, as the Escalation of the Four Courts continues.
Escalation of the Fourt Courts is a campaign set in a world of my own design. A party of 5-6 adventurers at level 3 will find themselves marked by the Courts, pawns in a game much bigger than themselves. Will they join the game and play along, or will they attempt to smash the game and break the power of the Courts in the region? Will they help one Court rise to prominence, or will they bring a measure of peace to the Courts?
Only time will tell.
