The Changeling Hunt from The Summer Court, Part One: The Town of Troubles

A huge crowd has gathered on the muddy main street, shouting and shrieking like sick cattle. The mob seems to be circled around something, held back by a number of strapping young farmers wearing mismatched plates of rusty armor. Clawing at the makeshift guards, apron-wearing civilians scream bloody murder. The shouts distill into words: “Kill them!” “That’s not my child!” “Witch-baby!” “Why are we forsaken!?”

Approaching the crowd even more, you can see something behind the wall of guards: strewn about the ground, thirteen crying infants! Standing atop them, a middle-aged man in a bright blue jerkin holds his calloused hands in the air. Through the cacophony, you can hear his screams no louder than a whisper; “These are your children! Forsake them not! Disperse, disperse now!”

Interaction with the hysterical townsfolk will first require a DC 12 Strength save to avoid being knocked prone in the mosh. If the peasants are asked about what’s going on, they will shriek “Changelings! Stole my child, came from the woods- changelings!” With a DC 16 Persuasion check, or via magical means, a PC can calm a peasant enough to prompt, “They’re holding our young, deep in the Yind! Working them to death, servants of the Solstice Kin! What did we do to offend? Why do our godmothers discipline us so!?” If it is till unknown to the PCs, a DC 13 Religion check will reveal that “Solstice Kin” refers to the Fey, whom the townsfolk worship. Any violence (beyond shoving) against the peasants should be strictly forbidden or inflict a loss of -2 Renown. These people are not in their right minds, surely…