The Queen of Elfland’s Son

This is a relatively big dungeon (for a session-length module) with a bit of a preamble and a big hook for future adventures.

You're newly minted heroes, looking for a village that needs saving and this village has seen various creatures skulking about, killing livestock and people. This is not the highest paying job I've seen, but hopefully the 50gp and the promise of a good adventure lures your party to this town. If it does, you'll meet with the “Parliament of Eng” and be told about the killings which turn out to be a combination of impalements and a traveler torn apart.

Marrow's Farm

A bit of poking around leads to Oggo Marrow's farm, someone who lived here in the time when the fae realm was friendly to the humans. He has his superstitions (salt and iron filings across his doorstep) and will help the party if they take care of the thing killing his livestock. He describes the creature:

Big it is, with eyes that burn red in the dark. It leaves cloven hoof prints in the mud around me pen, but they vanish when the sun rises. It kills with a single blow, stabbing me animals to death. In the morning, thee's not much blood around as there should be, leaving I's to think it sups on gore.

If the party decides to help Marrow, they can hang around at night and await the beast who turns out to be an Unseelie unicorn, a normally placid beast turned vicious by its Unseelie nature. Once killed, Marrow will tell the party about how Eng used to be and about the mound near the Ivy Wood, where the fae creatures would appear after coming to our world.

The Faerie Mound

This is the dungeon proper, though the dressing may not feel like it. You're certainly in the mound, but when looking up, you see a dark night sky and stars glittering. Moss covers the floor and there's a lot of natural vegetation in here.

Players have potential to go full murder hobo, sneak around, or role play why they're there. They can put on disguises, split the party and have the elves go ahead, or find disguises within the mound. The sheer number of routes the players can take makes this one of the more interesting dungeons I've read so far (which admittedly is not many, so take this all with a grain of salt).

I think my favorite interaction in the entirety of the mound is the dwarf slave you find: Fimbulfambi. He was captured by a group of fae and brought before Prince Ashheart (the faerie who started this whole mess). The prince then condemned him to toil in his smithy making weapons for the Unseelie fae. That's fine, but what makes this NPC interesting is his burning rage. If you save him and let him come with you, there's a very good chance (DC 18) that his rage will get the better of him and he'll rush the prince and attempt to kill him.

One more thing worth mentioning (though there's a lot of other good parts here) is during the fight with the prince there's a chance the PCs will become cursed by him. The prince will then stop the fight and negotiate his release in exchange for lifting the curse. If captured and threatened, he will lift the curse, but if the party believes him and takes him where he wants to go (the exit from the mound to the fae realm), he'll have his lackey Herne the Hunter attack with his Faerie Mastiffs.

Final Thoughts

There's more here worth mentioning: a lot of the loot disintegrates outside of the fae realm, time may or may not have passed while they heroes were in the mound, there's a bwca (a smaller faerie creature similar to a brownie) who will likely help the party who talks in rhyme.

When I read this one, I was a little miffed by how short the preface was to the mound. It seemed a bit like a railroad, and maybe it is, but once inside the mound, your players have a bunch of options. They can go full tilt or they can play it cool, use their wits, and come out of the bargain with few scars and more riches.