Chapter 4: Trip the Light Fantastic

Lauretta recognizes Myxlix as a korrigan. When the faeries fought a war against extinction by the trolls, not one korrigan took up arms. When mortals spread out to claim the lands lost by the faeries, the korrigans living there simply withdrew. Even when threatened by cold steel, korrigans would rather die than take up arms. To be a korrigan is to embrace nonviolence. They cannot even contemplate the alternative. The Faerie Queen cursed the korrigans for their inaction in fighting against the trolls, naming them cowards and fainthearts. If ever they draw blood, even in self-defense, they would become monsters.

As far as faeries go, korrigans are among the most benign you could hope to encounter.

Leaving Myxlix, you wander off into the strange enchanted woods. You walk through the forest for an hour or so before you come to a boulder standing in the middle of a clearing. Moss and lichen compete with each other to cover its surface. A door is set into the side of the boulder, sized for a dwarf or a halfling, perhaps.

Tzal can sense the auras of four faeries inside the boulder. A few moments after R3N-L3 knocks on the door, it opens to reveal a quartet of wizened faces peering out at you. The four faeries look like little old bearded men, all gnarled, bent, and crooked. Their eyes glitter beneath beetling brows, their small mouths crowded with yellow teeth. They each wear tattered clothing, heavy iron boots, and dark red hats.

"Eh? What's this? A metal man?" asks one of them

"And mortals beyond him!" another says with a little grin.

"Oh, my! It's been an age since we've had mortals visit us, hasn't it, me brothers?" the third faerie says.

"You must be hungry! Won't you all come in and have a nosh?" the fourth one says, eyes gleaming.

Lauretta recognizes these faeries as powries. Sometimes called redcaps, these faeries must keep their hats drenched in mortal blood or be destroyed by a curse that afflicts their kind.

The redcaps scowl at the offered cookies. When Lauretta focuses her dire attention on one of them, he hisses and snarls instead of answering her questions. "Bah! Why waste time bandying words with a keen lass like you? We just be needin' your blood to keep our caps moist!"

The four faeries reach to the long, wickedly sharp razors tucked into their belts, their faces twisted into eager sneers!

Lauretta only manages to weaken one of the powries with her castigation. Tzal blasts another one with acid before Wolfram moves in with and slices it with his dagger, setting it ablaze!

The burning faerie shrieks in anger and attacks Wolfram with his razor, scoring a horrid cut! As blood pours from the deep wound it soaks the powrie's cap, healing him. A second redcap moves in and delivers another horrible wound that takes the rogue down! The other two faeries rush up to attack Lauretta. One scores a devastating slice, but the last one fails to get past her armor.