Module 1
At the beginning of this adventure, the party is introduced to Amalthea the Druid, effective head of the Fey Council. The Council had known about the fey disappearances in the region around Spirit Lake; now they have evidence that human hunting parties are responsible for the capture and/or killing of the pixies, sprites, and other lesser fey. While some of the Fey - and some of the Elves of the Feywood - think that they should simply drive the humans out of the Feywood entirely, Amalthea is more pragmatic. It would help to know why the humans are doing what they're doing.
The party is tasked with journeying to the area around Spirit Lake to find out what's really going on. And if it is possible to stop whatever is happening without launching a major war between humans and the denizens of the Feywood, so much the better.
Along the way to Spirit Lake, the party will encounter evidence of the poaching operation and begin to understand what the purpose of the poaching is. This will happen in one of two ways:
- If the party travels by established roads, they will encounter a merchant in an inn in the city of Dryad Falls. The merchant will be boasting about the haul of sprite wings and pixie dust that he is bringing north to Endmere, where the fashionistas will pay quite well for these decorations.
- If the party travels directly through the Feywood to approach Spirit Lake from the forest, they will encounter a poaching party not far from their destination. If they listen to the party, they will overhear a discussion about what the wings and dust are for, and one will explain that the rich folk way up north in Endmere like to decorate themselves with sprite wings and pixie dust.
Either way, the party should also learn that there are several poaching "teams" working for the mysterious guy at the top of the chain in Spirit Lake. They will NOT learn the identify of that person from any of these people - though they may get some hints. The party should decide how they are going to proceed once reaching Spirit Lake once they hear this information.
Module 2
The party will begin by finalizing their plans for dealing with the whole poaching ring operation. There are really only two ways to do this: attempt to police the forest, sweeping it to find poachers and dealing with them as they are found, or attempting to infiltrate the operation to find out who's in charge. Both possibilities should be planned for.
In the second Adventure of the series, the party should definitely encounter poachers. Either they are combatting them actively in the forest, or they are infiltrating them - and dealing with them when they decide it is time to act. Two parallel scripts will be needed to cover either eventuality. In either case, though, this first poacher encounter should NOT reveal the true ringleader in Spirit Lake. The party needs to know when they're done that they have NOT solved the problem.
Module 3
In the third encounter, the party needs to face the ringleader of the poaching operation -
Amaric Duncanson.
While they won't get a chance to actually deal with it at this time, the party should also discover, after defeating Amaric by whatever means they choose, that he is not the true mastermind. The bigger boss is elsewhere, and it is entirely possible that another poaching operation will start up to replace the one just defeated unless they decide to take further action.
Components
Hooks
Information discovered in this series of information could be used to further develop a plot that brings the characters to the Free City of Endmere. It is possible that, besides a simple profit motive related to selling off things like pixie wings to meet high fashion needs, there is a darker ulterior motive behind all this -- a motive involving the resurgence of the Dark Gods and their followers.
Stakes
Failure to address this problem will ultimately result in two major outcomes. In the short-term, as the Fey cease to populate regions of the Feywood nearest to Spirit Lake, the gremlins will move in. Furthermore, the Elves (and the rest of the Fey) will not tolerate the continuance of theis problems. They will start dealing with it in a much broader-brush method than the party is likely to.
Moral Quandaries
Not a true moral quandary, but any humans in parties should be made to feel "uncomfortable" by the role their race-mates have in creating this problem. (This began with the lizardfolk chieftain making it clear that he believed the humans must be enemies of the elves and fey already.)
Relations
Allies
Amalthea the Dryad is the questgiver for the arc, but will not provide any material support during operations.
Lesser Dryads, Naiads, and Limoniads may be available in the forest to provide NPC assistance in various manners.
Sprites, Pixies and other lesser fey (the "victims") may also provide some help in guiding characters.
The townsfolk of Spirit Lake are aware of the poaching problem - they've been approached by Amalthea (whom they are somewhat afraid of). They would like the problem dealt with, but the town officials are not aware of who's in charge - and they're reluctant to start any sort of witch hunt within the town.
Adversaries
The main opponent is Amaric Duncanson, the unassuming shopkeeper in Spirit Lake who is also the poaching ringleader. He will have a couple of lieutenants, and a number of poachers - some of whom may not actually be aware of who he is.
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