Dungeon23 (Bonus): The Deep Fey of the Underwilds

Deep Fey

Ennan (left) and eunshiel (right) deep fey (adapted from AI images courtesy of Bing Image Creator.)

 

Eunshiel

Armor Class (AC): 4

Hit Dice (HD): 1+1

Move (MV): 120 ft. (40 ft.)

Attack (ATK): 1 weapon (1d6+1 short sword, or 1d4+1 winged knife)

# Encountered (#): 2d4 (4d10)

Save (SV): Elf 1

Morale (ML): 7-9

Treasure (TR): E-type or by HD

Alignment (AL): Chaotic

Experience (XP): 60 (or HD + two specials)

 

Ennan

Armor Class (AC): 4

Hit Dice (HD): 2

Move: 60 ft.  (20 ft.)

Attack (ATK): 1d6+1 (hand axe or short sword) or 1d6 (crossbow)

# Encountered (#): 1d4 (3d10)

Save (SV): Dwarf 1

Morale (ML): 8

Treasure (TR): G-type or by HD

Alignment: Neutral or Chaotic

Experience (XP): 60 or (HD + one special)

 

Deep fey share common ancestors with demihumans and other surface fey.  Whereas the surface fey rebelled from servitude to the dragons, the clans that would one day become the deep fey remained loyal.  As the rebelling fey hunted their draconic masters, the ancestors of the deep fey sought to defend them, creating a centuries-long enmity with their cousins.  Alas, the surface fey succeeded in their rebellion, and their civilizations ascended to great heights while the deep fey fled to shelter underground; either following their fleeing masters or as refugees after these dragons were slain.  The deep fey have changed and adapted throughout the centuries to life in the unique and dangerous environment of the Underwilds.

Eunshiel

The Eunshiel (OON-shayl) are ancestors of modern-day elves and halflings.  They are slightly shorter than surface elves and much thinner, with delicate features, and pale, violet-tinged skin and hair (from a lifelong diet of violet shrieker mushrooms.)  Their ears are long and slender, and their eyes dark and near pupilless; well-suited to the lightless environment of the underwilds (90-ft. darkvision,) but bright light bothers them (-1 to hit.)

Eunshiel warriors are harnessed in arms and armor crafted by the ennan.  Their form-fitting chainmail functions as +1 armor, but it is far too slender to fit even surface elves.  They carry scalpel-sharp, short swords that have a +1 bonus to damage, but are difficult to wield without extensive training (non-eunshiel using these can cut themselves accidentally on an attack roll of “1”.)  They also carry throwing knives with a winged, draconic design that they are able to throw with extraordinary accuracy.  Once per combat, an eunshiel that surprises an enemy may throw a winged knife and strike unerringly as a magic missile spell (1d6+1 damage.)  For every five HD, an eunshiel may throw an additional winged knife simultaneously.  Eunshiel like to coat these winged knives in myconic poisons native to the Underwilds.

All eunshiel have sorcerous training and can typically cast darkness or sleep once per day.  A favorite tactic is to envelop enemies in magical darkness and slay them with their winged knives.

The example above is the typical eunshiel warrior or scout.  Other eunshiel may have additional HD, abilities, or spells of unique or greater power.

The eunshiel worship Tiama’at the Many-Faced and serve all Chaotic dragons.  Their art, architecture, and clothing tend to have draconic motifs.  Despite their Chaotic nature, they pride themselves in remaining loyal to the dragons, and hate the surface fey and demihumans with fanatical passion.

The eunshiel live bizarre lives of cruelty and decadence, enjoying bizarre and depraved pastimes when they are not busy serving their masters' needs.  They are subservient and obsequious with dragons, and snake-men, but consider all other beings beneath them, even their fellow deep fey.  They are deeply jealous of the snake-men’s favored status with their dragon goddess, but bite their tongue when around them.  They believe the snake-men have turned from Tiama’at and if they could but prove it and slay their aberrant Snake God, it might be their chance to elevate their status and take over the snake-men’s cities as their own.

In the Underwilds, the eunshiel are found in bands that hunt and patrol the domain near dragon’s lairs.  For every 20 eunshiel encountered, there is a leader with 2d4 HD, additional spells and possibly magic items usable by elves.  Eunshiel fighting alongside their leader have morale scores of 9.

Ennan

The Ennan (EH-nahn) are evolutionary ancestors of dwarves and gnomes.  They are almost completely hairless save for tufts on their head and/or short beards, with pale gray skin tones like the underground stone, and large ears.  Like their cousins, the eunshiel, their eyes are large and dark, and can see well in the dark (90-ft. darkvision,) but also suffer -1 to hit in bright light.

The ennan are masters of toil and creation.  They can work for hours on end without exhaustion.  Their idea of a good time is to engage in crafts such as smithing, stone-carving, or engineering with singular focus.  Indeed, their labors are greatly prized by the denizens of the Underworld.  Although hard-pressed to do so, the snake-men would grudgingly admit that their magnificent cities would not be possible without the ennan’s expertise.

While the ennan are not as passionately hateful as the eunshiel, their crafts have a penchant for the sinister: exotic weapons, mechanized siege engines, intricate traps, and sadistic torture devices.  Ennan don’t mind their lower status among the other beings of the Underworld: their work is all that matters.  However, some younger ones have begun to question their subservience to the eunshiel, dragons, and snake-men.  They wonder whether their distant cousins above had the right of it, and whether they should leave these ungrateful masters behind to pursue their work unmolested.

In combat, the ennan’s work-hardened strength and endurance make them fearsome foes (+1 damage.)  In addition, their weapons tend to have ingenious features.  For example, their shields may have spikes or blades that grant them an additional, 1d4 damage attack, an axe or sword may a have a serrated edge that causes terrible wounds, which take twice as long to heal, or a crossbow might fire two, or even three bolts at the same time.

For every 15 enann, there is a leader with additional 1d4+1 HD, which may possess better armor (AC 2 [17]) and/or magic items.  Enann fighting alongside their leaders have a morale of 10.

 

 

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.