This is a recap of a D&D 5E campaign that started in 2020 and wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. It was based on the Tales of the Old Margreve and Courts of the Shadow Fey campaign books published by Kobold Press. I'll also be posting my thoughts on those books soon.
A group or travellers meet on a coach to the village of Levoca, under the canopy of the ancient and strange Margreve forest: Cristoff, noble warrior in exile, Tepi, apprentice druid, Kyew, child of the forest, and Phillipa, changeling Nomad minstrel. In Levoca they free the town from the assaults of a cursed living tree and its head-stealing scarecrow servant, but Cristoff is killed by the tree. The group meets Taugh, a warrior from the Northlands, who joins them on their travels. On their journey they infiltrate a giant beehive to free a child from an endless sleep induced by magic honey, help a Shadow Fey hunting party chase down blood mages who have tricked villagers into trading their lives away, and meet a young girl with a strange connection to the forest. Taugh is also bitten by a werewolf and given its curse.
The group visits Tepi's home village of Braidwood. Tepi and her people are hedgehog-folk, and her mother is the druid who watches over this region of the forest. She teaches Taugh to brew a potion to weaken him during the full moon. While seeking to rescue missing villagers, the group earns the ire of their captor, a spiteful Pixie named Binia, who swears to get even, and Taugh and Kyew both depart, Taugh afraid of harming his friends and Kyew called by a power deeper in the forest. The rest of the group meet the diviner Eddie and the priest of the hunt Ash, and learn that the Pixie plans to seek out the Fey Lords for aid at the upcoming Spring Revel. Eddie eats a hallucinogenic mushroom and accidentally steps through a fairy circle which transports him to the fey realm where the revel will be held, but the rest of the group are unable to follow. At a loss, they call for the aid of the Shadow Few hunters they had met previously, led by Count Suzenga. Suzenga agrees to help the group follow Binia to the Spring Revel if they help their group hunt a shadow drake.
After slaying the drake they enter the Fey Realm and reunite with Eddie at the Revel. There Binia gains the aid of the King of Moonlight, a Shadow Fey monarch, who orders the hunters to assist her in hunting down the people of Tepi's village. Eddie trades his sight and service to the Monarchon, princess of the Shadow Fey, for Tepi’s village to be protected from the hunters. Phillipa offers her service to the King of Moonlight in exchange for a cure for Taugh’s curse. Returning to Braidwood, the group finds the area besieged by Suzenga's Shadow Fey hunters and the village itself drawn into the Realm of Shadows so that Binia, banished from that realm, cannot attack it nor can the hunters who follow her.
The group parts ways for a time. Taugh lives among werewolves and begins to come to terms with his curse, taking the name Canagan to reflect his new identity. Tepi travels the forest and meets a new companion, a giant toad she names Timothy. Ash also travels the Margreve and earns the friendship (and a hat) from a band of goblins blamed for a nearby village’s woes. Phillipa begins her service to the King of Moonlight, searching for a berry sweet enough to satisfy him. She eventually finds a flower that withers in the presence of dishonesty and malice.
The group finally reunites at the Bluebell Inn, a popular coaching inn on the Great Northern Road between the Free City on the forest's edge and the distant Northlands. Learning that they have earned some fame for their deeds, they take on the name White Lily Rovers. They also hear stirrings of discontent in the Free City, but are distracted by the entreaties from a large cat who is actually the enchanted Black Griffon Queen. The Queen was transformed by a wizard who led a group of bands that have taken over her roost and eggs. She asks the group to journey deep into the forest and rescue her eggs. This they do successfully, ensuring the black griffons will not die out and earning the favour of the Queen.
Returning to the Bluebell Inn, the group hears more of the chaos in the Free City, and Phillipa is ordered to report to the Shadow Fey Ambassador there as part of her service to the King. On the way, the group is chased by werewolves who serve the new King of Wolves in the Margreve. They manage to reach the city safely, but find the Shadow Fey have lain claim to it and are imposing their own laws, restricting passage in or out, releasing dangerous beasts to hunt within the city walls, and attacking priests of gods they don’t approve of. The group tracks down the ambassador, who hints that they could free the city from Fey influence by travelling to the Shadow Courts and petitioning the monarchs there. With this in mind, Tepi hoping to release her village from its siege in the Fey Realm, and Canagan (now going by the name Gwylm) hoping to get the cure that the King offered and escape the control of the wolves of the forest, they perform a ritual learned from the ghost of a fey assassin cursed by the Queen and walk the strange shadow roads to the court.
Upon reaching the gates they find the courts seemingly empty except for the empty suits of armour that guard it, but after some exploration, brawls with the guards, and favours done, they peel back the illusion and find the court as it is: a lively, decadent, complex, chaotic, deadly place.
Hoping to gain the notice of the Queen and get an audience, the group begins building their reputation, meeting the haughty and deadly Raven Prince, the mysterious Grey Ladies, the Goblin King who commands the servants, and many others. They find their old friend Eddie is at the court and has joined the Lord of Light, followers of the angel Revich, who seek to rid the court of Akyishigal, the Demon Lord of Roaches. They also learn that the King is missing under strange circumstances, and his long absence is causing disturbances in the Shadow Realm. Akyishigal is using his absence to claw at power.
At a feast in the Grand Hall, Phillipa talks to the Monarchon, who claims that Phillipa will kill the King. The group also meets Baron Suvid there, an arrogant fey rumoured to be the next ruler of the Free City. With some well placed insults, Ash makes a fool and an enemy of Suvid.
As they deal, charm, fight, and barter their way through the court, Gwylm finds himself the unlikely leader of The Ravens, a group of hotheaded duellists; Tepi’s way with animals makes her friends among the keeper of the Prince's hounds and the hounds themselves; Ash fends off threats from Baron Suvid; and Phillipa learns the secret of her changeling origin: she was a fey child crafted by the King of Moonlight to be his daughter without the Queen’s knowledge, and when the Queen discovered the deception she had Phillipa switched with a Nomad child in revenge. They also learn the truth about the King: he was a mortal man, once ruler of the Free City, who warred with the Shadow Fey until he won a truce and the heart of the Queen. A spell keeps him immortal, but his mind has begun to fail with age.
Having risen fast and far, the group is invited to hunt with the Prince in the Margeve. At the Prince's lodge they are visited by the King of Wolves, a teenage boy who demands Gwylm join him on a campaign of vengeance against the villages in the Margreve. The Raven Prince refuses him.
The group takes the opportunity of being in the Margreve to try to deal with Binia before she can do more harm to Braidwood. Their divinations reveal that she has entered the service of the vampire lord Zorgan Grimbold. While chasing Binia, the group is assaulted by Lord Zorgan, and Gwylm is killed. Ash is able to use the blessing of his god and a diamond given by the Prince to bring him back to life.
Back on the hunt, the group helps the prince pursue the Firebird, a prize the Queen has been seeking, and they capture the bird themselves but let the Prince take the credit. In return for their help the Prince joins their hunt for Binia, who in desperation consumes the blood of a long-dead dragon and transforms into a Dragon of Rot. With the help of the Prince and his followers they finally slay Binia.
Returning to court, Gwyl is knighted by the Prince, and the group is finally granted an audience with the Queen. They impress her, and she offers each of them a position of some authority, along with other boons they wish for if they will seek out the King and retrieve his Orb of Rule, an object the Prince and Akyishigal also seek. With the Queen’s consent they are allowed entry into the Spiral Maze where the King is exiled in his tower. Finding the maze bathed in moonlight, Gwylm is overcome by his curse, but Phillipa kissed him, helping him to keep his head. They brave the dangers of the maze and reach the tower and the King inside. The King's mind is disconnected from reality, a consequence of his overlong life and a curse placed on him by Akyishigal. Still, the group is able to convince him to remove Gwylm's curse, literally pulling the wolf out of him. By answering his questions they return him to a more rational state and he recognizes Phillipa as his daughter. He agrees to abdicate and give them the orb if they will deal with Akyishigal. He also warns Phillipa to think carefully before claiming the orb for herself. On the way back through the maze, the group runs into Akyishigal and a horde of roach minions. They fight, and Akyishigal discovers that Phillipa has the orb. With Akyishigal pursuing her and Gwylm on the verge of death, Phillipa claims the orb and hears the voice of the First Moonlit King whose spirit resides in it. Through the orb the King destroys Akyishigal's manifestation in the Shadow Realm with rays of moonlight.
Once out of the maze, the group is immediately summoned to speak to the Queen. Upon seeing Phillipa with the Orb of Rule, the Queen demands it returned to her, and on the advice of the First King, Phillipa refuses. Furious, the queen sends them away. The group decides to convince other important factions at court to support them in their aims, and begin gathering support. Phillipa convinces Princess Ripple of the River Court to marry the Raven Prince, gaining their support. Tepi gains the support of the common people of the Realm, and is tasked by the Monarchon with protecting the Margreve from a mysterious threat. Ash offers the Grey Ladies his true name, and offers protection to the remaining followers of Akyishigal. Gwyl offers to lead the Prince’s campaign against the King of Wolves, who has threatened the people of the Margreve, a task which will keep him away from his newfound romance with Phillipa for months or years.
Having swayed the court to their sides, the group is summoned for one final audience with the Queen. The Queen acquiesces to their demands. At a festival to celebrate the capture of the Firebird, Phillipa is recognized as the Moonlit King, Tepi becomes Countess of Braidwood (now returned to the Mortal Realm), Gwyl is declared Keeper of the Seals and granted his wish for immortality, and Ash is appointed as Statthalter of the Free City, giving him the authority to end the Shadow Fey occupation there. The Uirebird is killed, and this breaks the final spell placed King’s mind by the Queen, which also removed Phillipa's past from the court’s memories. The group is titled, respected, and positioned within the hierarchy of the court.