Adventure Advice?

[Alastor]

I've recently started running an in-person campaign once every two weeks, beginning with the adventure "Child of the House" from the Fraternity's library page.

Now the (still first-level) PCs are attempting to locate the missing children of the first adventure's antagonist, which (it was strongly implied) were kidnapped by the Shadow Fey fifteen years earlier. So far, the only clue they've discovered (aside from what's in the original adventure) is a spiral of poisonous mushrooms, which they suspected may represent a magical gateway to some other place.

Aside from not knowing where to go with this next, there is the problem that the characters are probably not capable of dealing with even a single Shadow Fey in combat at this point. Any recommendations?

[The Lesser Evil]

Aside from not knowing where to go with this next, there is the problem that the characters are probably not capable of dealing with even a single Shadow Fey in combat at this point. Any recommendations?

When you say they don't know where to go next, what do you mean? do you mean they don't know about the shadow fey or do you mean that they don't know where to find shadow fey?

If they know the shadow fey are involved, they might seek out the Clockmaker in Martira Bay (see Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey for information on her.) If they don't know about the shadow fey but know it was probably fey of some kind, they could consult a fey hunter like the inquisitors of Tepest. That might be a good way of introducing methods of fighting the fey, though they could just get creative in dealing with the shadow fey through nonconventional means (beyond magic, they could use drowning, strangulation, extortion kidnapping of favored changelings, manipulation/subterfuge/deception, diplomacy, etc.)

[Alastor]

Thank you for the suggestions, The Lesser Evil.

By "not knowing where to go next", I meant that I was unsure where to take the adventure. The PCs currently have something of a plan: they are searching the nearby forest for any signs of fey activity, which seems like as good an approach as any given what they know so far.

[The Lesser Evil]

Thank you for the suggestions, The Lesser Evil.

By "not knowing where to go next", I meant that I was unsure where to take the adventure. The PCs currently have something of a plan: they are searching the nearby forest for any signs of fey activity, which seems like as good an approach as any given what they know so far.

That sounds like a logical start. They could investigate rumored local lairs/sightings and then find some clues of past fey habitation and where they might have been/will be. For example, they could find some old, unused dolls at a fey lair along with a stolen (possibly desecrated) symbol of Belenus or another Tepestani god claimed as a trophy, if you were so inclined to lead them directly into Tepest. You can also stick in various side quests or encounters as red herrings if so inclined (though perhaps not too many.)

[Alastor]

The group had its third session this Friday. Over the course of the game, the PCs discovered (via Gather Information) a pattern of fey activity which seemed to recur every five years.

They hired a local tracker to examine the area around the mushrooms; next time the tracks they've discovered will lead them into the next adventure, which involves an attack by goblins. Hopefully, the fact that the goblins will be fluent in Tepestani will lead them south, since they seem reluctant to wait just over four years for the mistway to re-open.

Thank you again for the assistance.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

If your adventurers are not ready to deal with a real Shadow Fey, maybe you could place the missing children under the care of a changeling (or several) with extensive experience in either child-rearing or animal-handling. (Yes, there's a distinct difference to us, but maybe not to a Shadow Fey?)

You'd still have the eerie elements of a Shadow Fey encounter, but at a level much easier to handle -- and one that sets up possibilities for an ongoing, escalating vendetta between the party and the Fey.