Friday Encounter: Elvish Negotiations

Art by Zara Alfonso

This encounter is, admittedly, a bit specific to the Lunar Lands. It was in part created as a way to introduce players to how I run elves, and to introduce some exposition on what they're like in the setting. But it could also work in a setting where elves are of a similar quality (I make no claims that my take isn't heavily influenced by things like The Elder Scrolls, Dwarf Fortress, and Magic: the Gathering's Llanowar Elves). And it presents an interesting opportunity to use elves as antagonists - something I feel is all too underused.

Plenty of ink has been spilled on the trope of inherently evil races - if it's worth what it brings to the table, if it's too limiting, if it's necessary. But I don't see anyone talking about inherently good races. Let me ask you: when was the last time you've had random encounters where you had to fight elves, dwarves, or halflings? Humans show up as bandits plenty of times, but it seems like many DMs struggle to think of the traditional PC races in roles beyond those of helpful allies. To me, that's a missed opportunity. I think there's room for evil elves just as much as there's room for good orcs. If anything, elves should be antagonistic to the party more often - not only are they traditionally aloof and disdainful of other races, there's plenty of literary precedent in tales of the fair folk, with whims and customs utterly alien to those of humans, to say nothing of the Mirkwood elves in The Hobbit, who are just as dangerous as the goblins of the Misty Mountains. So let's forget about Legolas for a moment, and explore an encounter with elves that might not go so comfortably for the party.

Elvish Negotiations

This encounter is best used in a wilderness setting, preferably in a forest. If you wish to use it in other environments, you may wish to make adjustments to fit the terrain.

The party should come across a clearing where a band of elves is harrassing some human woodcutters. There are three men tied to the tree with animal sinews, surrounded by six elves holding spears to their throats. Another elf, Misleikkuri, stands overseeing them, his arms folded and an imperious glare fixed on the woodsmen.

If questioned, the elves will explain that the woodcutters were caught tresspassing near an elven glade and felled a few trees. The woodcutters insist that they did not know the lands belonged to the elves, but the elves refuse them any mercy. In fact, they are prepared to subject them to a slow and torturous death by sawing them in half with a dull blade, one by one, citing that it is what they did to the trees. After they are dead, they will tan their hides, devour their flesh, and sharpen their bones into knives. The elves show no emotion about this, viewing it as perfectly natural and relating it in as casual and nonchalant a matter as an elf's way of relating anything can be so called.

A DC 10 History or Religion check will reveal that elves commonly view the trees as their gods and ancestors, so killing one is viewed as a grave transgression. A character who grew up around elves (usually if they themselves are an elf, but not always; eg. an elf raised among humans would not necessarily know this) will know this automatically.

If the PCs attempt to bargain for the lives of the woodsmen, Misleikkuri will accept a deal. He will accept their ransom at a rate of 500 GP's value per man - he sees such foolish and short-lived things as humans as little more than commodities, and will barter them as such. However, he will not accept the payment in coinage, as the elves have little use for the shiny metals of humans. Mundane items will be accepted at their value in GP, uncommon magic items at a rate of 100 GP each, rare magic items at 200 GP each, very rare magic items at 300 GP each, legendary magic items at 500 GP each, and artifacts at 1000 GP each.

Additionally, the PCs can attempt to haggle with Misleikkuri to lower the ransom on a given man. A successful DC 15 Persuasion check will cause him to lower that man's ransom by 100 GP; elves have Advantage on this check, as Misleikkuri is more trustful of them than humans. However, if this check is failed, Misleikkuri will grow frustrated with the negotiations, and his attitude will grow more hostile. If any items he is offered are made of wood, or another plant product, he will also be insulted, as their existence is proof that a tree was felled to make them.

If Misleikkuri is insulted three times (either through a failed check, an offer of wood, or if the DM feels such a response is warranted to the PC's conduct - keep in mind, this should be warranted from the perspective of a being who thinks of himself as higher and above human morality, and who sees humans the way we see cattle), he will call off negotiations. Any woodsmen the PCs managed to free before this will be allowed to go, but any that remain will be condemned to death. For folkloric resonance and to give the PCs information to strategize with, Misleikkuri should make it explicitly clear, if the PCs enter negotiations, that he will only let himself be insulted three times. Each time he is insulted, he will remind the party how many attempts they have left.

If the PCs attempt to free the woodcutters by force, or if they continue to try and get Misleikkuri to release them even after he has ended negotiations, he will order the elves to attack. They have the stats of a scout; additionally, Misleikkuri himself has the stats of an archer (see Volo's Guide to Monsters). In addition to the six elves in the open, there are three additional scouts hidden in the trees; they are behind three-quarters cover, and any ranged attacks made at them from the clearing are made at Disadvantage.

Saga of the Ortegids: Races

The settings of the Dragon Quest games tend to be quite humanocentric. Almost all playable characters throughout the series have been human, and the ones that aren't tend to be cursed humans or tamed monsters rather than sapient humanoids. In the entire Erdrick Trilogy, there are only two nonhuman polities (three if you count Charlock), and nonhumans are not found in human realms. However, nonhuman races do appear in the Trilogy, and some play quite a prominent role in certain quests. Thus, there is room for discussion on what role the different playable races fill in The Saga of the Ortegids.

In general, nonhumans have their own kingdoms, and there is little overlap in demographics between them and human states. Mixed settlements are rare to unheard of. This is clearly a world closer to Middle-Earth than Faerun. This doesn't mean that nonhumans should never be found in human settlements - I think there's something to be said for leaning into the Blacksandliness of Ashalam and having some beastmen there, for instance - but this should be rare, and worthy of comment.

• Elves are your typical willowy magically-inclined forest dwellers. From what we see of Elvenham in Dragon Quest III, they don't have much in the way of permanent structures, which may imply a semi-nomadic lifestyle, or else they live in the trees and we can't reach their dwellings. I'd be inclined to rule them as wood elves, rather than high elves, but they do tend to be fiercely xenophobic and look down upon humans. They have one kingdom, Elvenham, located in the forests in the far north of the Romalian Empire. I would give them multiple such realms in wooded areas throughout the worlds. In particular, I think it makes sense for them to have a heavy presence in the Worldforest.

• Hobbits appear a few times in DQ3,mostly as one-off NPCs. Of note, the series consistently uses the term "hobbit" rather than "halfling," and I'm going to be keeping that - this project is already an act of copyright infringement anyway, so Tolkien lawyers can't stop me. Curiously, these hobbits tend to be quite solitary; the only two with significant dialogue both live alone in the wilderness, in contrast to the typical bucolic villages we expect of halflings. For The Saga of the Ortegids, I would run hobbits as typically being loners and hermits dwelling far from civilization, leaning into a more fey vibe. Ironically, more Tom Bombadil than Frodo.

• Dwarves do not actually appear in the Erdrick Trilogy, but it feels weird to have elves and hobbits without them, especially if translating the setting to D&D. I would add dwarven strongholds to the mountainous regions of the worlds, likely as self-sufficient and isolationist holdouts that trade little with the outside world to explain their absence from the games. The fact that the world is hollow does have some interesting implications with a subterranean race. There may be dwarves who maintain tunnels linking Erdland and Torland, allowing for travel between the two worlds - though this would, of course, require gaining the trust of the dwarves involved. There is a considerable overlap with hobbits here; one of the hobbits in DQ3 lives in a cave in the mountains, and some translations of the game use the term "dwarf" instead of "hobbit" for these characters. However, the term "hobbit" is used in the GBC release, which is what I'm most familiar with, and the Japanese script specifically uses the word "hobitto," so I'd like to keep them as halflings.

• Beastmen, also referred to as Orcs, would take the place of orcs, goblins, and other monstrous humanoids, and would be represented by their stats. This is a catch-all term to encompass the various humanoid monsters encountered in the Erdrick Trilogy (at least the ones that don't appear to be actual humans, and there's far more of those in earlier games than one familiar with later entries would expect). The series uses anthropomorphic animals more than it uses humanoids with odd skin tones and bestial features - orcs are consistently pig-faced, for instance. So if the Caves of Chaos exists in Torland, it's inhabited by wolf-men, swine-men, bird-men, ape-men, rat-men, and lizard-men instead of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears - which is quite satisfyingly pulpy anyway. There aren't as many of these sorts of monsters in 3 compared to the first two games, so I'd say that beastmen are native to Torland, but they've no doubt established populations in Erdland as well from past excursions. Beastmen tend to be brutish, barbaric, and degenerate, but in the interests of portraying a more realistic ecology than what's in the video games, they would have some degree of society, with villages and fortifications scattered throughout the worlds.

• Dragonborn, or Dragovians, actually fit pretty nicely into the setting. The Dragon Quest games have a number of NPCs who are dragons capable of taking human form, and having dragonborn be playable would represent similar characters. In the interests of game balance, these would have to be lesser descendants of dragons that cannot take the form of a true dragon, but still possess draconic powers. They look mostly human, but may have horns, patches of scales, unusually-colored eyes, or other such features. Their primary realms are Charlock in Torland, and a small kingdom north of the Worldforest in Erdland.

• Tieflings aren't specifically present in the games either, but I would allow them as a playable race anyway. A number of villains in the series have monstrous features that are never really explained, and the amount of demonic incursions into mortal domains would make it quite believable that some interbreeding would occur. Tieflings would be very rare, appearing only sporadically and often being shunned by society, and would not have much in the way of their own civilizations.

• The Drokkarim are something of my own creation. In DQ3, the villain Baramos looks like some kind of saurian humanoid. He's probably supposed to be some kind of demon, but due to technical limitations, they reuse his sprite a few times, including as a generic monster in Zenithia. And one boss, though portrayed in recent releases as Baramos's ghost due to a mistranslation, is actually supposed to be his brother seeking vengeance. Based on this, I've interpreted Baramos to be a member of an entire race I've called the Drokkarim. These creatures are twice as tall as humans, with dragon-like heads and wings and three-fingered claws. They were originally created through the experimentations of the mad wizards of Old Aliahan by breeding humans, demons, and dragons together, and the knowledge behind their creation is long since lost, but scattered populations of them still live on. Drokkarim would be very rare, solitary creatures and would not be available as PCs.

Elves of the Lunar Lands

It is the deepest and darkest of the forest that the mysterious and inscrutable elves call their home. Ageless and ethereal beings, they are held as creatures of bewitching beauty and great wisdom. However, they are held just as much with fear. Travelers passing through the forest are wise to beware the elves as much as they fear orcs, bandits, and wild beasts, if not more - for it is the elves who know the wilds, and who will fight with an undying fervor to defend it against incursions.

Tradition holds that elves and humans were made in the same vein, but while humans were created by the gods, elves were created by the whim of the fair folk. They still regard the fairies as their forebearers and their masters - and they have abided by the same traditions their ancestors had for untold generations. While humans settled, tilled the land, and built great cities and empires, under the provenance of the gods, the elves stayed in the woods, hunting and gathering. To this day, most still subsist in scattered woodland villages, living off the land. This is not to say they are primitive - they have strong literary traditions, told in poetry and song, with their elders chronicling the tales of bygone ancestors in meticulously memorized verse, and as they grow bored with daily toil over the course of their long lives, they often turn to contemplation of the universe; it is not uncommon for clans to meet to discuss philosophy, often in heated debates.

Art by Terese Nielsen

Elves do not view themselves as something greater than the natural world, but as a part of it. They feel that humans, dwarves, orcs, and other races have abandoned their calling in seeking to defy nature. In the elvish perspective, not only are they nothing more than particularly clever animals, this is not an insult, but a compliment. Humans, the elves hold, are pretentious and cowardly, refusing to accept their destiny as a part of the natural world - their short lifespans have made them short-sighted, and they have no appreciation for the big picture. It is the elves who are more honest and true to themselves. They subsist largely off of hunting, dress in furs, use arrows of bone and antler, and spurn the higher learning of men.

Still, elves are not without spiritual traditions. In fact, they are attuned to the mystic energies of the land - so much so that they are shaped by their environs, taking on the qualities of their homes. Their hair, for instance, may take on the color of leaves, changing with the seasons, and their personalities change with the weather - those in stormy climes are mercurial, while those in more mild regions are placid. They know the languages of beasts and of the earth itself, and their druids hold communion with trees and rivers to determine what the earth wants and to guide themselves in accordance with its whims. So too, they may call upon wild animals to aid them in hunts or in battle as freely as they might call a friend or cousin. Their belief system is most similar to the Old Faith, and indeed, they hold that the druidic ways are a corruption of their own, though obfuscated by the interpretations of meddlesome gods and foolish mortals who do not grasp the truth.

Art by iromonik

In particular, many elven tribes worship the earth as the communal body of their ancestors. As the body decays, they claim, its life force is absorbed into the greater ecosystem, and thus, every tree and beast and blade of grass contains the spirits of all the bygone elders of the elven race. When the druids consult with the spirits of the land, they are also communicating with their forefathers, who watch over the clans. One peculiar way this belief shapes customs is that elves view plants with great reverence, seeing them as living flesh, and it is a great taboo to harm them. Most do not consume vegetable matter or chop down trees unless it is necessary, instead subsisting off of meat. Fruits and berries, however, are okay, as being eaten is a part of their life cycle, as is harvesting materials from dead trees. To an elf, uprooting an herb from the ground and eating it is akin to tearing off a creature's limb and devouring it in front of them as they sputter and die. They do not place as much of a taboo on the consumption of animals, as the animal is killed before it is harvested - and "animals," in this case, includes humanoids, which plays into their burial rituals. Many elves will devour a share of the flesh of slain kinsmen to help sustain themselves, using the rest to fertilize the trees, and hanging their bones from their branches.

The elves are a reclusive people, and fiercely protective of their forest homes. They especially detest settled folk, who they view as threatening the natural order by their presence. Many an unfortunate logger has unknowingly chopped down the trees of an elven grove, and their mutilated corpses have been found hung from the trees as a warning to their people afterward. Humans often regard elves with wonder and fear - they are the creatures lurking in the dark that they warn their children of. And elves, in turn, spurn humans as clumsy, oafish, greedy, and blind to their own nature.

However, occasionally, an elf will be grasped by wanderlust and leave the confines of their tribal lands, perhaps driven by the sense of boredom that comes with immortality. If everyday life becomes too mundane and routine, they may seek out new experiences elsewhere. In human lands, elves are often treated with fear and suspicion. People suspect they will eat them, or steal their children, or place curses upon them - and this is not entirely untrue, but most elves that grow old enough to wish to seek out new lands are wise enough to know that their traditions will not always be welcomed.

In fact, most large cities have an elven quarter of some size, where elves have settled and established communities of their own. Often, these elves strictly do business with one another - humans want little to do with them, and they want little to do with the humans either. Their districts exist as self-sufficient enclaves; a city within a city. But as much as they are cut off from humans, they also share little kinship with their cousins in the woods, who usually view them as having strayed away from their true nature and been blinded by the foolish ways of mankind.

Background: Elven Tribesman

Prerequisites: Must be an elf or half-elf. Optionally, a DM may allow PCs of other races to take this background if they have, for whatever reason, been raised among elves, but this is rare.

Suggested Names: Finnish or Welsh surnames or place names. Some elven societies have a custom of renaming someone after their most shameful deed, in order to remind them to remain humble.

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: One type of musical instrument of your choice.

Languages: Elvish, one other language of your choice, plus see below.

Equipment: A hunting trap, a set of fur clothes, a musical instrument of your choice, and a beast of no greater than Small size.

Feature: Attuned to the Wild. Choose one class of animals or plants. This should be fairly broad, but not so broad as to be overly permissive - "songbirds," "conifers," and "even-toed ungulates" are acceptable; "mammals" and "yellow-bellied sapsuckers" are not. You know the language of these beings and can communicate with them. Whenever you have the option of taking a feat on leveling up, you may instead choose to learn the language of one other category of animal or plant. Additionally, if another member of your party has the option of taking a feat, they may instead learn one language that you know if you spend the time to teach them.