Supernatural is a dangerous and difficult word in any of its senses, looser or stricter. But to fairies it can hardly be applied, unless super is taken merely as a superlative prefix. For it is man who is, in contrast to fairies, supernatural (and often of diminutive stature); whereas they are natural, far more natural than he. Such is their doom. The road to fairyland is not the road to Heaven; nor even to Hell, I believe, though some have held that it may lead thither indirectly by the Devil’s tithe.

  • J.R.R. Tolkien - On fairy Stories.

A certain category of creature (though perhaps to broad to be a category) the Fair-folk are one of my favorite in many respects, they stand as an interesting middle ground between Angels and Demons in much English folktale, not so malevolent as to be of Satan’s brood, nor so inscrutable and awe-striking as a Seraphim.

The goodly folk of fairy come in all shapes, sizes and forms, from maddening terror, to disarming beauty. they can swing either way as allies or enemies, though in either case the are never to be truly trusted or understood.

Of the Fairies I find most interesting, Gutter Fairies rank high for me, and feature in a very special way in my setting; The Howling Wilds. They serve a very fun ecological niche in my urban settings and campaigns as well.

Aesthetically D&D has always been very medieval, despite only having the visual trappings and none of that substance, despite the pretense of supposed feudal structures, the fact of the matter is the peasantry and common folk of our D&D worlds do not act like that, they are both massively better and worse off than any real feudal peasant, they don’t suffer from the same rampant kinds of illness and malnutrition, magic clearly is solving against most of the environmental factors that were killing people in the middle ages. Yet they are utter beseeched by nightmarish terror, Orcs, Beholders, Mindflayers, Fiends, Dragons and the like.

To Me, Gutter fairies solve this issue on both ends, they explain the improvement of sanitary conditions which are implied but never stated, and the acceptance of the odd and otherworldly beings into their daily lives.

Beyond merely that, Gutter fairies add an interesting flavor to urban environments, showing an ecological aspect to the city, and it’s infrastructure.

I guess I should explain What is a Gutter Fairy? For the purposes of my setting, Gutter Fairies are a slang term for city fey, a variant of household fey. like house fey, they do minor labor in exchange for specific little things, be that little tinkers of milk or ale, or minor ritual behaviors, like using none iron cutlery or honoring certain holidays.

So lets go over a few of them! While these examples are specific to my setting, much of it is inspired and based from Celtic and Welch folklore, so is pretty plug and play with anything OSR.

Brownies / Hobgoblins⌗

Of the city Fair Folk, Brownies are the most seen and noted, as unlike many of their peers, Brownies do not hide themselves from human sight.

They are rather diminutive, coming to at most 4 feet tall, though often smaller, wearing tunics, jester outfits and ragged clothing. often they have dark brown skin, and tend to be skinny looking, wizened and wrinkly, while some look jolly and rotund figure.

They tend to always be male, or all visual examples of Brownies and Hobgoblins have been male, and while many speak of “females” no such sighting or example has yet been seen.

They often take residence in the houses and homes of the city or villages, slowly introducing themselves through their acts, typically cleaning the house at night, like doing the dishes, dusting, sweeping, etc. Eventually unlike other Gutter Fairies, they make a formal-ish introduction, making their presence known. Usually they make a specific request(s) for their services.

Often their requests are rather odd, such as taking a left sock every Thursday, saying Grace at every meal, (at least thrice a day) witnessing the proper observances of holidays (sometimes fairy holidays) not using cast iron pots or bans, removing certain pets or annoyances from the household.

Here is a fun 1d12 list of Brownie requests.

  1. Saying Grace at every meal, even minor snacking or lunching.
  2. Tribute and offering of left (or right) sock on specific day.
  3. A tinker of milk, wine, or ale every Saturday night before midnight.
  4. The banning of any iron based cookware or cutlery. (fairies are deathly afraid of cold iron!)
  5. Proper observances of a holiday (often an obscure one)
  6. enforcement of a particular style of gardening (often with odd choices)
  7. Permission to “barrow” the dung or urine bucket (ewww)
  8. Never oiling or greasing any hinges or bolts under any circumstance!
  9. Taking off your shoes, and cleaning them thrice before entering the house.
  10. Saving all finger nail clippings and leaving them in a bowl. (which the Brownie takes at the end of the month)
  11. Never inviting over a member of clergy or priesthood into the house.
  12. having all furniture face a specific cardinal direction at all times.

Often failure to meet or properly do such requests eventually leaves Brownies seeking “new employment.”

Another quirk of these creatures is that they often (though not always) hide when quests visit, though if they are caught in the middle of a chore they will try and finish it up first.

Though typically they work mostly at night when the house is hushed and asleep, though with time they do grow more comfortable in the day.

Stats time!

I’ll be doing these up in the format of Basic Fantasy.

Armor Class: 15. Hit Dice: 1d6. No. of attacks: 1. Damage: 1 damage. Movement: 20' No. Appearing: 1. Saves as: Fighter 5. Morale: 8 Treasure Type: None / dirty socks. XP: 50.

Brownies typically do not engage in combat at all, even during home invasions, they often distract and attempt to scare off intruders more than directly get involved.

Like most Gutter Fairies they have access to Fairy Obfuscation they don’t so much turn invisible, as they hide at angles you can’t see, often they run behind a corner, or around a tree or lamp post, and poof their gone.

Fairies using fairy obfuscation are as hard to detect as dungeon secret doors, and that is when actively looking.

Dung Fairies⌗

Much less complicated, they are minor functionaries in the ecology of a city, compared to some of their peers. they serve a simple purpose, to clean the streets of dung!

Almost never seen or heard, the dung fairies come out in the dead of night, cleaning the horse and human dung left in the city streets, sweeping and making it go away. Nobody ever knows where all the collected dung goes, or how they collect it so fast without ever make so much as a peep over the wee hours of the night.

Nor do the humble Dung Fairies ask much in return, often a simple saucer of milk or left over stale bread left overnight will suffice as payment for these simple creatures.

However, failure of payment of their services can lead to Dung Fairies going of their way to make your life hard, by slinging dung all over your home, or leaving a massive pile of all the collected horse dung right on your door mat, Dung Fairies are very quick to anger.

Compared to other Fairies, they are considered masters of fairy obfuscation, detecting when they are attempting to be unseen is a 1 in 10 chance, and that is with active searching measures, and you will only ever get the impression they are present.

Rare witnesses, and the wizardly scrying have revealed the creatures look something akin to a pixie or whisps.

I’m not gong to even bother stating these creatures as they are more akin to a force on a street or city block, then as a singular creature, that said they are at least extremely fast, magic resistant, and fragile. clipping them with any sort of attack would spell their ruin.

City Boggart⌗

Boggart on paper are a rather disturbing creature to consider, squat, hairy, gray skinned, freakishly long armed monsters with the strength of an adult horse!

Certainly something you’d never want to grapple with, much less fight. However, they are at worst dangerous pranksters, typically non violent, Boggards live off of the annoying of others.

Unlike contemporaries Gutter Fairies, City Boggards do not have the subtle ability of obfuscation, instead they rely on mid shapeshifting, and traditional invisibility to mask their presence.

They they will scale large buildings, moving rooftop to rooftop, then come back then, drop their invisibility and then shapeshift, often into some malformed ugly looking child, and proceed to engage in thieving and general annoyance.

Interestingly, Boggards have a natural and strong aversion to salt, basic table salt. Rings or thresholds of salt will typically keep them out, and if they happen to cross such thresholds, they lose access to their invisibility or shapeshifting.

Armor Class: 18. Hit Dice: 2. No. of attacks: 3. Damage: 2d6. Movement: 60' No. Appearing: 1. Saves as: Fighter 7. Morale: 5 Treasure Type: 1d8 GP XP: 150.

Special Abilities

Can cast Invisibility at will, turns odd if struck by cold iron, or interacts with salt.

Can shapeshift at will, generally always turns into a malformed or gross looking person, 2-6 chance to tell something is off.

Again City Boggards on paper seem like a nasty fight, and most certainly when cornered they are, but their lack of morale, and general desire or simple mischief leaves them from engaging into anything more deadly than a scrap.

Chimney Lares⌗

Despite the name, Chimney Lares are not in fact Lares.

Lares are generally a lesser form of genius loci, Lares being the domestic household spirits version of a mighty genius loci.

Chimney Lares are in fact intangible fairies which do one simple thing, sweep chimneys. They appear to subsist on the soot and ash proceeded by fire places, none surprisingly they tend to only been in dense urban areas where plenty of chimneys and firewood has been burning.

appearing manly as wavy heat, or as clouds of smoke, these creatures roam the city going down into chimney’s and feeding in them.

An interesting adaption this species has produced is that they have a 50% chance to snuff out any magical source of light. This was a survival trait they gained as the only form of substance they have during the warmer months is from simple candles and torches, certain court wizards attempting to bring down the city costs attempted to replace such candles and torches with magical glow globes.

Sometimes mass swarms of these creatures form every so often during the winter months, forming a large soot and ash cloud right above a city!

City Knockers⌗

Knockers, or Cornish Knockers, in the traditional sense are mining spirits, often depicted as gnomish sort of creatures standing at about 2ft tall, they’d knock on the walls of a mine or cave if there was impending threat or cave in about to happen. As well they often lead miners towards rich veins of tin or copper as they tried to lead humanity away from iron and more towards bronze.

The City Knockers take a similar though different role in the city. They act more or less as night watchmen, going from street to street, house to house and keeping their eyes peeled for impending threat or robbery.

They typically do not get involved, but will violently knock on the victims door, alerting them to the impending threat!

In return for their service, little pastries are typically left on the corner of streets at night for such Knockers, often cities which pay heavy tribute to the Knockers tend to be safer as a result.

Stats wise they are pretty much like Brownies and tend to lean heavily in use of their fairy obfuscation to get around the city.

Hoblobs⌗

Technically not a fairy, Hoblobs are a type are a relative of the Etheral Spiders, like the Etheral Spiders they have the ability to phase into the Etheral plane and peer into the Prime Material where they stalk their prey.

What separates them from their more common cousins is that they clock in at only the size of a medium dog unlike the much larger horse sized Etheral Spider, they have an entirely exclusive diet of fair folk!

They have hyper focused fairy hunting adaptations, such as cold iron fangs, and eyes that can see past illusion, glamour and obfuscation effects produced by fairies. Likewise their etheral webbing vibrates when fairy magic intersects with it as it passes briefly in the etheral.

A good sign of Hoblobs being in the area is when there are no Knockers or Dung Fairies operating on your street. Sometimes particularly mean spirited wizards were purposefully attract and feed Hoblobs to keep out fairy disturbances in their labs.

Armor Class: 15. Hit Dice: 2. No. of attacks: 2. Damage: 1d8. Movement: 80' No. Appearing: 1d6. Saves as: Magic-User 8. Morale: 8 Treasure Type: Iron tipped fangs. XP: 250.

Special Abilities Can lane shift at will to the Etheral in 1d4 rounds.

Can see through any fairy produced illusion or effect.

Has fangs of cold iron, very deadly to fairies.