The Deer Folk

[Sumath]

I’m working on taking my players back to the Smoking Ruin to find the tomb of Korol Kandoros. In order to find its whereabouts, I’m going to have them discover that the Deer Folk, the people of Korol’s great-grandson, Parntor the Swift, were rumoured to know of it, as they became the messengers of the Vingkotling kings and may have retained ancient knowledge of Korolstead through their oral tradition.

There is a little (and sometimes contradictory) detail on the Deer Folk/Clan in the Book of Heortling Mythology, but they begin from the union of the Doe Woman and Parntor.

There is also the story of Armandor of the Deer Folk who was transformed into a deer by his lover, Arina, along with their son, Sorenthalosta, a fawn child, who as an adult lived as a man only for short times. There is also the story of Darndrev the Antlered, who was Heort’s father. It’s also stated that the Vingkotling kings took to shapeshifting to survive the Great Darkness.

This got me thinking that a shapeshifted offshoot of the Deer Folk might still exist in Beast Valley, having long since gone their own way from Heort’s descendants. Since they started from the Doe Woman and there are generational instances of transformation, I decided their runes would be Earth, Beast, Fertility and Movement, and that their whereabouts might be known by denizens of Beast Valley – perhaps the Scholar Wyrm or Keronorl the Shaman.

I have this idea of the party finally discovering a pair of them in a misty clearing or on a cloudy hill top in the Lost Valley. The female would appear as a normal doe, with the ability to change into a human woman, in a similar manner to Elurae. The male would be more like a Satyr, but with the legs and head of a stag, and impressive antlers.